School History of North Carolina : from 1584 to the present time

by John W. Moore

12. What was Governor Tryon's conduct after the battle?

13. When did Governor Tryon leave North Carolina, and for what purpose?

CHAPTER XXII.

GOVERNOR MARTIN AND THE REVOLUTION.

A. D. 1771 TO 1774.

James Hasell, as President of the Council, assumed the conduct of affairs until the arrival of the new Governor. This new Governor, Josiah Martin, was born 22d April, 1737, and had been a Lieutenant-Colonel in the British Army, which position he was obliged to resign on account of his health. He then sought civil employment and was appointed Governor of North Carolina. He was a far more honorable man than Tryon. He had no unworthy favorites, as Tryon had, and concocted no selfish schemes for his own benefit or that of his family, but was exceedingly obstinate and strict in the observance of royal prerogatives. Unattractive in his manners, and very positive in his opinions, he sometimes failed to withhold the manifestations of his displeasure towards those who might happen to differ with him, no matter how honestly. Perhaps, however, in the fierce antagonisms of the times in which he ruled in North Carolina, his real virtues were not appreciated as they deserved.

1771.

2. Governor Martin met the Assembly, for the first time, in New Bern, on the 19th of November, 1771. At his suggestion, the Legislature passed an act of amnesty toward all persons engaged in the war of the Regulation except Husbands and a few other leaders. Such wise and merciful action, however, was not to be the rule of his life.

3. It had long been felt that the taxes were exceedingly burdensome, and, from a statement made to the Legislature at this time, by one of the public treasurers, of the real condition of the public funds, it was seen that these taxes had been, for a time at least, unnecessarily imposed. The treasurer showed that a full collection of the amounts in arrear, for which security had been given, would discharge the entire public debt and leave in the public treasury the sum of twenty thousand dollars. A bill was at once passed in both houses of the Legislature, and without opposition in either, discontinuing the special taxes that had been devoted to the extinguishment of the public debt. Governor Martin, however, vetoed the bill, and thus began a series of conflicts with the Legislature that lasted until his expulsion from the province.

4. The repeal of the Stamp Act had been gratefully received; but Parliament still excited great apprehension by an express and formal assertion of its powers to tax America. It had cost immense sums to the Crown to drive out the French, and much money was still needed to pay British expenses in America. It was insisted that the colonies ought to pay their fair share in these burdens. The great question was, how this was to be done. If Parliament could levy what it pleased, then Americans were no longer free, in that they were not masters of their own purses. Many propositions were made to arrange the difficulty, but none were satisfactory to both sides.