Lenoir County, NC - Richard Caswell Newspaper Articles ~~~~~~~~~~ Contributed by Sloan Mason and typed for posting by Christine Grimes Thacker. Carolina Federal Republican 9-4-1813 Ten Dollars Reward. Whereas the late William HERITAGE, obtained a grant for six hundred and forty acres of land in Jones County, (formerly Craven) lying on Beverdam branch, bearing date 22nd December 1759, and by the last will and testament of the said William HERITAGE, the above mentioned Tract of Land was sold to Samuel HILL, by deed bearing date 9th June 1769, by his Ececutors to wit, Richard CASWELL, H___ HERITAGE and John HERITAGE. And whereas the above mention land has since been conveyed to the subscriber, and he presumes that the said Pattent is among the antiquated papers of the said William HERITAGE deceased, or his Executors, the latest information that I have of it was in the hands of Richard CASWELL, Esquire. Whomsoever will deliver the said Pattent with the plot thereon annexed to the subscriber, or to Edward GRAHAM esq. of the town of Newbern, shall receive the above reward. Wm. SIMMONS. Jones County, Aug. 25th, 1813 –244—3__ *************** Charlotte Observer - 2-9-1914 Marker For The Grave Of Richard Caswell Colonial Dames Are Interested In Movement (Special to The Observer.) Kinston, Feb. 8- The North Carolina Society of Colonial Dames will erect a marker at the grave of Richard CASWELL, first Governor of North Carolina as a State, Representative in the Continental Congress, general and Master Mason, whose dust lies in a little burying place just off the Central Highway about three miles West of this city. The marker is to be erected before April 1, it was announced today, and will be unveiled with appropriate exercises Mrs. J.? T. BAILEY of Wilmington, president of the State Society, will be present. The Palatine Memorial Association, which has a number of members here who are aiding in raising a fund for a monument to the early German settlers in Craven County, has been notified that the Society of Colonial Dames will make a contribution to the fund. ************** Charlotte Daily Observer - 2-3-1907 Life Of John Harvey By R.D.W. Connor. The assembly and the Governor separated in December, 1768, on good terms. The session _as prorogued to meet in June, but owing to the death of some of the members and the absence of others, Tryon thought it advisable to dissolve it and call a new election. When the new assembly met in October John HARVEY was again unanimously elected Speaker. The new members and the Governor met in harmony, and at first the business of the session proceeded as smoothly as a ship on the bosom of a quiet lake. But as beneath the surface of the water often dangerous reefs lie hid, upon which the vessel goes to wreck, so beneath the surface of smooth words with which the Governor greeted the House lay the rocks of disaster. In the preceding May the Virginia Assembly had passed a series of strong resolutions upon the disputed question of the extent of the authority of Parliament over America. These resolutions were sent to the speakers of the several Assemblies just as the circular letters had been sent. Mr. Speaker HARVEY laid them before the North Carolina Assembly November2. This time the members spoke out in no undecided terms. As soon as the resolutions were read the House went into the committee of the whole "to consider the present state of the colony." Our old friend John CAMPBELL was in the chair. "After some time spent the committee came to the following resolutions, to wit " Resolved, nem con, That the sole right of imposing taxes on the inhabitants of this, his Majesty's colony in North Carolina, is now and ever hath been legally and constitutionally vested in the House of Assembly, lawfully convened according to the ancient and established practice with the consent of the council and his majesty, the ing(sic) of Great Britain, or his Governor for the time being. " Resolved, nem con, That it is the undoubted privilege of the inhabitants of this country to petition their sovereign for redress of grievances; and that it is lawful and expedient to procure the concurrence of his Majesty's other colonies in dutiful addresses, praying the royal interposition in favor of the violated rights of America. " Resolved, nem con, That all trials for treason, misprision treason, or for any felony or crime whatsoever committed or done in this, His Majesty's said colony, by any person or persons residing therein, ought of right to be had and conducted in and before His Majesty's courts held within the said colony, according of the fixed and known course of proceeding, and that the seizing any person or persons in this colony suspected of any crime whatsoever committed therein and sending such person or persons to places beyond the sea to be tried is highly derogatory to the rights of British subjects, as thereby the inestimable privilege of being tried by a jury from the vicinage, as well as the liberty of summoning and producing witnesses on such trial, will be taken away from the party accused. "Resolved, nem con, That an humble, dutiful and loyal address be presented to His Majesty to assure him of our inviolable attachment to his sacred person and government, and to beseech his royal interposition as the father of all his people, however remote from the seat of his empire, to quiet the minds of his royal subjects of this colony and to avert from them those dangers and miseries which will ensue from the seizing and carrying beyond the sea any person residing in America suspected of any crime whatsoever to be tried in any other manner than by the ancient and long-established course of proceeding." Following these resolutions in the Journal is a copy of the address which was to be presented to His Majesty. It bears marks of John HARVEY's workmanship. The following paragraph is worth our attention. After expressing their "just regard for the British constitution (dearer to them than life)" the petitioners continue: "When we consider that by the established laws and constitution of this colony the most ample provision is made apprehending and punishing all who shall dare to engage in any ircasonable practices against your Majesty or disturb the tranquility of government, we cannot without horror think of the new, unusual, and permit us withal humbly to add, unconstitutional and illegal mode recommended to your Majesty of seizing and carrying beyond sea the inhabitants of America suspected of any crime, of trying such persons in any other way than by the ancient and long established course of proceeding, for how truly deplorable must be the case of a wretched American who, having incurred the displeasure of any one in power, is dragged from his native home, and his dearest domestic connections, thrown into a prison, not to await his trial before a court, jury or judges, from a knowledge of whom he is encouraged to hope for speedy justice, but to exchange his imprisonment in his own country, for fetiers ?sic amony strangers, conveyed to a distant land, where no friend, no relation will alleviato his distress or minister to his necessities, and where no witnesses can be found to testify his innocence, shunned by the respectable and honest and conveyed to the society and converse of the wretched and abandoned, he can only pray that he may soon end his misery with his life. "Truly alarmed at the fatal tendency of these pernicious councils, and with hearts filled with anguish by such dangerous invasions of our dearest privileges, we presume to prostrate ourselves at the foot of your royal throne, beseeching your Majesty, as our King and father, to avert from your faithful and loyal subjects in America, these miseries which must necessarily be the consequence of such measures." Think of the stupidity which could turn a deaf ear to such a petition; which could not read between the lines of these expressions of loyalty a determination to die rather than to surrender; which could not understand that his loyalty, sincere as it was, by injustice could be turned to bitter enmity. The agent of the colony was ordered to present this address to the King, and afterward to have it printed in the English papers. The Americans, convicted by repeated failures that the ears of the King were deaf to their appeals, had begun their appeals to their British brethren. These resolutions caused considerable stir in the North Carolina world. When Tryon saw the journal he wrote to the House in white heat that they "have sapped the foundations of confidence and gratitude, have torn up by the roots every sanguine hope I entertained to render this province further service, if in truth I have rendered it any, and made it my indispensable duty to put an end to this session." To Lord HILLSBOROUGH he wrote: I must confess the proceedings of the last Assembly have wounded my sensibility and, being dangerously ill at this time, their conduct took advantage of the then weak state of my mind, and for that reason perhaps has made the deeper impression upon it. I wish I could say with Lord BOTETOURT that my prospect brightens. Confidence, my Lord, that delicate polish in public transactions, has received an ugly scratch, and I fear we have no artists here who can restore it to its original perfection." Lord HILLSBOROUGH replied that the conduct of the Assembly in adopting and concurring "measures and resolves so unbecoming and unwarrantable" gave "great concern" to his Majesty. But the friends of America were just as much pleased at the resolutions as her enemies were displeased. To John (sic) HARVEY Heury(sic) Eustace McCULLOH, the agent, wrote: "A letter from Mr. PRYOR acquaints me of the dissolution of the late Assembly and of my appointment as agent. I am pleased to think the Assembly had virtue to deserve the first event: and I am sensible I am greatly to thank you for the second." Later he referred again to the subject in the following words " The public papers inform me of the proceedings your late Assembly…In my opinion the proceedings of your late Assembly have vindicated the honor of the province, and I pray God future assemblies may ever have the wisdom to see, virtue to assert, and courage to vindicate the just rights of themselves and their constituents." Ten days later he wrote; "Your Governor (in my opinion) would have done wiser to have been less passionate; and had he been so I do not believe he would have been blamed here. Lord HILLSBOROUGH has found out at last that dissolutions do no good." A sentence in McCULLOH's letter of March 30, reveals to us the commanding position which John HARVEY had now won in the province. Acknowledged leader of the people, there remained no place in the administration of colonial North Carolina which he could now accept that could have been considered a political promotion for him. Says McCULLOH' "For reasons you approve, I shall endeavor hard to get some of the vacant seats in he council filled by gentlemen from the northward. I may be wrong, but I at present conceive it would be a lessening of your dignity and weight to take one of them. Pray write me unreservedly on this subject." A great many of the leaders of North Carolina had stepped up from the Assembly into the council: for HARVEY alone it was suggested that the transfer, if it should come, would be a step down. When the new Assembly met in December, 1770, Richard CASWELL was elected Speaker. It has been frequently stated that the Assembly took this action because they were anxious to placate TRYON and that HARVEY, on account of his bold stand for the privileges of the colony, was not acceptable to the Governor. Such a statement is not only erroneous, but does a great injustice to all the persons concerned. It is an insinuation that the Assembly could stoop to the sacrifice of their leader to please the royal Governor: it is an insinuation that TRYON had no better sense than to bite at ?he bribe: it is an insinuation that Richard CASWELL was not true to the colony and was ready to lend himself as a peace offering at, the expense of his leader; it is an insinuation that John HARVEY was willing to show the white feather after having so arrogantly waved the red flag. There is no need to seek such a complicated explanation of the event, the simple truth is that John HARVEY was at home sick when the Assembly convened and so a substitute had to be found. What better substitute for bold John HARVEY could be found than the versatile CASWELL? It may as well be said here that the relations between John HARVEY and William TRYON were of a friendly and even a confidential nature and nothing is more absurd than to suppose that he was sacrificed in order to placate his friends. The session convened at a critical time in the history of the province. The Regulators were disturbing the peace of the province and were soon to reach their climax at Alamance. Whatever may be the sympathies of North Carolinians to-day, one thing is very certain, the Regulators received scant sympathy from the people of eastern Carolina in 1770, John HARVEY heartily disapproved of their course. In a letter from Edenton December 21, 1770, James IREDELL says: "It gives me very great pleasure to hear that you are so much better and I most heartily wish you may soon have a perfect recovery. I only left Newbern last Saturday…Before I left Newbern the Assembly had done nothing, but since there have been appearances very alarming. The day I left town (Newbern) Mr. JOHNSTON presented a spirited bill to the House upon the subject of punishing the Regulators. The substance (as nearly as I can recollect from what he told me of it) was this – to enforce in effect, though not in express words, the riot act as it is in England—to empower the King's attorney' or any of his deputies to prosecute in any part of the province, and if any person so prosecuted did not surrender in a limited time, that they, (sic) should stand convicted and outlawed: empowering, likewise, the Governor to take such draughts from the militia as he should think necessary to enforce the execution of the civil power. This bill, I believe, Sir, you would have thought expedient, though severe, but desperate diseases must have desperate remedies,…Your absence, sir, at so critical a period is much to be lamented, but yourself is (sic) equally to be pitted for the unhappy occasion, as your country for the unhappy effects of it." Another indication of HARVEY's attitude is found in a letter from his friend, McCULLOH, to the famous Colonel Edmund FANNING, so severely abused by the Regulators, in which he refers to HARVEY and two others as "our common friends." TRYON, too, confidently relied on, and seems to have received, HARVEY's support in his course toward the Regulators. To him, as colonel of the Perquimans militia, he wrote, just before setting out for Newbern on his Alamance campaign: "Though I am apprehensive your situation lays too remote from the seat of the disturbances in this country to give government in time and aid to suppress the insurgents, I, nevertheless, out of respect to you, take the liberty to inform you that I propose the last week in next month to begin my march from Newbern to Orange county so as to be if possible the first week of May in the settlements of the insurgents." He then adds that if HARVEY can send a company of fifty men from Perquimans and Pasquotank counties he will be pleased to take them under his command, continuing: I take this opportunity to thank you for your kind present to me last winter. Wishing you a perfect re-establishment of your health, I am." Etc. Then in a postscript he adds the following sentence: "I wish your son could command the company." The battle of Alamance followed, after which William TRYON went to New York and Josiah MARTIN came to North Carolina. By this exchange New York lost and North Carolina won, for the strongest of our colonial Governors was followed by the weakest, and over this weakling John HARVEY and his colleagues had little difficulty in winning a series of important victories for civil and political liberty. ______________________________________________________________________ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm This file was contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Sloan Mason - slomas7@comcast.net ______________________________________________________________________