Marlboro County ScArchives History - Books .....Chapter IX Revolution Drawing Nigh 1897
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Book Title: A History Of Marlboro County

CHAPTER IX.
REVOLUTION DRAWING NIGH.
  So much has been written of the causes which led to a rupture and separation
of the colonies from the mother country, the story so well told, that but little
space need be given it here. It is proper, however, that the part our fathers
took in the quarrel and fight should be remembered by their posterity. The
concessions which had been made to the people in the back country of South
Carolina, as it was then called, in allowing representation in the provincial
assembly, and allowing district courts, had allayed excitement, produced a good
degree of satisfaction, promoted prosperity and induced the hope that yet other
wrongs in the course of time would be redresed [sic] and larger liberties
secured. But some of the other colonies were not so fortunate in their local
governments. Hence, as one encroachment after another was made upon what all
considered their just rights as citizens of Great Britain, these local
oppressions intensified the opposition to anything like oppression from the
parent government, and the common sympathy existing among the various colonies
bound them together, so that the sufferings of Massachusetts or Virginia were
felt in Carolina or Georgia. An insult offered these they were ready to resent,
and long before the first blood shed upon the heights of Lexington fired the
American heart and summoned the whole Atlantic slope to arms, there was a
general feeling of unrest, grevious complaints and remonstrances throughout the
country. As early as 1765 the passage of the memorable Stamp Act aroused the
colonies and when it was proposed to hold a "congress of deputies from the
several colonies" to protest against usurpation, South Carolina was among the
first outside of New England to respond to the proposition, and was behind no
province in manifesting an intelligent spirit of resistance to every other
measure of oppression which followed in portentous succession. And when the
taxed tea was thrown over board in Boston Harbor the whole country felt the
alarm. A public meeting in Boston appealed to the other colonies to stop
importing from Britain. Charleston heard the summons and appealed to the people
to assemble in that city, the seat of British authority in the province, on the
6th day of July, 1774. This call met a hearty response. The district of Cheraw
was ably represented by Col. Powell, who, for several years, had been its
honored member in the Provincial Assembly. A large committee was appointed to
provide for the public safety, which in the fall issued a call for a "Provincial
Congress," which convened January 11, 1775. The proceedings of the Continental
Congress were reviewed, delegates appointed to meet those from the other
colonies, a new committee of general safety appointed, and all such regulations
made as the exigencies of the times demanded. In this revolutionary congress
Cheraw district was largely represented, and among the names are several
prominent men of Marlboro. These made up the Cheraw delegation: Gabriel Powell,
Claudius Pegues, Henry Wm. Harrington, Alex McIntosh, Samuel Wise and George
Pawley.

  But perhaps the most intelligent expression of sentiment which can be had at
this day of the patriotic sentiments of the people of this region is found in
the presentments of the grand juries of the day. The population was sparse, and
scattered over a wide territory—few public meetings could be held, none largely
attended, but these juries, composed of representative men from various
sections, put upon oath, might be reasonably expected to voice the general
sentiment and feeling of the people.

  The liberty is taken, therefore, to quote largely from the charge of his
honor, Judge Wm. Henry Drayton, at Long Bluff, at the November term of court,
1774. Judge Drayton had but lately received his appointment. He was born in
South Carolina in 1742, was but little past thirty-two, but gifted and learned,
was destined to fill a distinguished place in the annals of his struggling
country; now upon the Bench and later in the councils of the Continental
Congress, he adorned every position which he was called to fill, and when his
brief life ended in Philadelphia, while attending the Congress of 1779, South
Carolina grieved as a mother for her son. Let us imagine this splendid son of
Carolina in the glow of his young manhood, appearing for the first time upon the
bench at Long Bluff, addressing his countrymen upon the interests of the hour.
After a concise statement of their general duties, he said: "By as much as you
prefer freedom to slavery, by so much ought you to prefer a glorious death to
servitude, and to hazard everything to endeavor to maintain that rank which is
so gloriously pre-eminent above all other nations, you ought to endeavor to
preserve it, not only for its inestimable value, and from a reverence to our
ancestry from whom we received it, but from a love to our children to whom we
are bound by every consideration to deliver down this legacy, the most valuable
that ever was or ever can be delivered to posterity—and such are the
distinguishing characteristics of this legacy, which may God, of His infinite
goodness and mercy long preserve to us, and graciously continue to our
posterity. But without our pious and unwearied endeavors to preserve these
blessings it is folly and presumption to hope for a continuance of them. Hence,
in order to stimulate your exertions in favor of your civil liberties, which
protect your religious rights, instead of discoursing- to you of the laws of
other States, and comparing them to our own, allow me to tell you what your
civil liberties are, and to charge you, which I do in the most solemn manner, to
hold them dearer than your lives; a lesson and charge at all times proper from a
Judge, but particularly so at this crisis, when America is in one general and
genous [sic] commotion touching this truly important point. It is unnecessary
for me to draw any other character of their liberties than that great line by
which they are distinguished; and happy is it for the subject that those
liberties can be marked in so easy and in so distinguishing a manner. And this
is the distinguishing character: English people can not be taxed, nay, they can
not be bound by any law, unless by their consent, expressed by themselves, or by
their representatives of their own election. This colony was settled by English
subjects; by a people from England herself; a people who brought over with them,
who planted in this colony, and who transmitted to their posterity the
invaluable rights of Englishmen—rights which no time, no contract, no climate
can diminish. Thus possessed of such rights, it is of the most serious concern
that you strictly execute those regulations which have arisen from such a
parentage, and to which you have given the authority of laws, by having given
your constitutional consent that they should operate as laws; for by your not
executing what those laws require, you would weaken the force, and would show, I
may almost say, a treasonable contempt for those constitutional rights out of
which your laws arise, and which you ought to defend and support at the hazard
of your lives. Hence, by all the ties which mankind hold most dear arid sacred;
your tenderness to your posterity; your reverence to your ancestors; your love
to your own interests; by the lawful obligations of your oath, I charge you to
do your duty; to maintain the laws, the rights, the constitution of your
country, even at the hazard of your lives and fortunes. Some courtly Judges
style themselves the King's servants —a style which sounds harshly in my ears,
inasmuch as the being a servant implies obedience to the orders of the master,
and such Judges might possibly think that in the present situation of American
affairs this charge is inconsistent with my duty to the King and a trusty
officer under the constitution, when I boldly declare the law to the people and
instruct them in their civil rights. Indeed, you gentlemen of the grand jury can
not properly comprehend your duty and your great obligation to perform it unless
you know those civil rights from which those duties spring and. by knowing the
value of these rights, thence learn your obligation to perform these duties."

  The quotation is lengthy, but it is not all the eloquence and patriotism which
rang out in the courtroom. It is enough to show how the love for liberty
consumed the judge and kindled a flame in the bosoms of the people. And the
final presentment of the jury was a fitting response to the stirring words
uttered by the judge. After a brief report of local matters the paper said: "We
present as a grievance of the first magnitude the right claimed by the British
Parliament to tax us, and by their acts bind us in all cases whatsoever. When we
reflect on our other grievances they all appear trifling in comparison with
this; for if we may be taxed, imprisoned and deprived of life by the force of
edicts to which neither we nor our constitutional representatives have ever
assented, no slavery can be more abject than ours. We are, however, sensible
that we have a better security for our lives, our liberties and fortunes than
the mere will of the Parliament of Great Britain; and are fully convinced that
we can not be constitutionally taxed but by representatives of our own election
or bound by any laws than those to which they have assented. This right of being
exempted from all laws but those enacted with the consent of representatives of
our own election we deem so essential to our freedom and so engrafted in our
constitution that we are determined to defend it at the hazard of our lives and
fortunes; and we earnestly request that this presentment may be laid before our
constitutional representatives, the common House of Assembly of this colony,
that it may be known how much we prize our freedom and how resolved we are to
preserve it. We recommend that these presentments be published in the gazettes
of the Province." The above was signed and sealed by "Alexander McIntosh, the
foreman; Henry W. Harrington, Thomas Ayers," and seventeen others. These were
bold, manly sentiments, coming from plain honest men, and although largely
inspired by the stirring address of the judge, fast coming to be an idol in the
hearts of his people, yet these fearless words but voiced the sentiment of a
large part of the population, as the proceedings of the next term of court
manifested. Instead of a Drayton to fire their hearts, with his eloquent
appeals, "to all they held dearest," at this term the ermine was worn by Justice
Gregory. He was fresh from England and loyal in the highest degree, and possibly
one of the "style," who, as Drayton tersely put it, regarded themselves
"servants of the king." The grand jury made the usual presentments. They added
these words: "We present as an enormous grievance the power exercised by the
British parliament of taxing and making laws binding upon the American Colonies
in all cases whatsoever; such power being subversive of the most inestimable
rights of British subjects, that of being taxed by their own consent, given by
their representatives in General Assembly, and that of trial by jury, both which
are evidently inherent in every British-American, and of which no power on earth
can legally deprive them. We, well knowing the importance of these rights, in
securing to us our liberties, lives and estates, and conceiving it to be every
man's indispensable duty to transmit them to his posterity, are fully determined
to defend them at the hazard of our lives and fortunes." But this outspoken,
resolute declaration, along with more of the same spirit and tenor, which
reflected to some extent, by implication at least, upon the integrity of the
judge, was ordered to be "quashed"; yet it all came out in the public gazettes
of the day, with the signatures of sixteen good men, such as Thomas Lide,
foreman; Sam'l Wise, Claudius Pegues, William Pouncey, Benjamin Rogers, Thomas
Bingham and others. Few, if any, of the early declarations of rights were bolder
than these set forth under the solemnities of law and under oath, by the
patriotic fathers who lived upon the Pee Dee. May the sons and daughters in all
time be worthy of their relationship to these "Old Cheraws."


Additional Comments:
Extracted from:

A HISTORY OF MARLBORO COUNTY,
WITH
TRADITIONS AND SKETCHES OF NUMEROUS FAMILIES.

REV. J. A. W. THOMAS, AUTHOR.

A wonderful stream is the river Time
  As it runs through the realms of tears 
With a faultless rhythm and a musical rhyme,
And a broader sweep and a surge sublime
  As it blends with the ocean of years.
                        —TENNYSON.

ATLANTA, GA.:
THE FOOTE & DAVIES COMPANY,
Printers and Binders.
1897.


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