At this time (1738) commissioners were empowered to run the boundary between North and South Carolina, and completed the work from the Atlantic as far westward as the Pee Dee. The original division of the coast section into three counties—Albemarle with six precincts, Bath with four precincts, and Clarendon with one (New Hanover)—was altered, and the precincts were denominated counties. The very names of the original counties disappeared. Soon other counties westward or inland were formed as the population increased, chiefly by overland immigration. To each county the governor appointed a sheriff, selected from three persons recommended by the county court. The judiciary system was modified to suit the new administration and augmentation of population. The governor had before (1736) deplored the fact that no provision had been made “or care taken to inspire the youth with generous sentiments, worthy principles, or the least tincture of literature;” but not until 1754 was an act passed to establish a public seminary. It did not receive the royal assent. That there were not many schools is doubtless due to the sparseness of settlements, and not to any general indifference to education.[734] During the period of the royal government there were two schools that we read of,—those at Newbern and Edenton. In the building of the former, a wooden structure, the lower house of assembly occasionally held its sessions. In 1749, printing was introduced at Newbern, from Virginia; and a weekly paper styled the North Carolina Gazette, issued “on a sheet of post-sized folio,”—“with freshest advices, foreign and domestic.” In 1752 appeared the first edition of the Provincial Laws.
At the town of Wilmington, so named in honor of the Governor’s patron, and sometimes at Newbern, the assembly now met instead of at Edenton, near the Virginia boundary. A new assembly was convened at Wilmington, and an attempt was made to establish an equalization of representation, with a consequent diminution of the number of representatives from the old and more northern counties,—from five members each to two members.[735] Dissatisfaction was the result; and the six northern counties would neither recognize the assembly at Wilmington nor pay taxes, nor would the jurors attend the courts. The colony, however, was more thriving than it had been at any previous period. It was favored by the mother country with bounties on its exports; and the general prosperity was augmented by the coming in of the banished Highlanders and of emigrants from Ireland, and especially by the beginning of the great flow of overland immigration into the central and more western section of the province. Under the prudent management of Johnston, harmony at last prevailed, and such laws were enacted as were necessary. On the declaration of war between England and France, the defences of the coast received legislative attention, and a fort mounting twenty-four cannon was erected on the south bank of the Cape Fear, and called Fort Johnston, in honor of the governor.[736]
Governor Johnston died in August, 1752. What he had written to the Duke of Newcastle, in 1739, was now even more applicable, that after years of effort he had brought the colony “to system, where disorder had before reigned, and placed it on a firmer foundation.” The administration again devolved on Nathaniel Rice; and on his decease in January, Matthew Rowan, the next councillor, acted as governor till the arrival of Arthur Dobbs, in 1754. Rowan’s short term of service was distinguished by liberal contributions for building churches and purchasing glebe lands for the support of ministers of the gospel; and by the convening of the assembly to provide for aiding Governor Dinwiddie, of Virginia, by whose order George Washington had gone to examine the alarming movements of the French on the Ohio. The militia of North Carolina amounted at that time, as stated by Rowan, to 15,400 men.
Besides the early coast-line settlements, and those along the bottom lands of the northeastern streams, there came, mainly after Braddock’s defeat, a remarkable tide of immigration from the western frontiers of Virginia and Pennsylvania into central and western North Carolina. Between 1750 and 1790 the accession to the population is computed[737] to be as much as 300,000. Many seeking fertile lands moved over into the “Up Country” of South Carolina, and westward into Tennessee. These hardy and liberty-loving German and Scotch-Irish settlers formed a section of North Carolina which for a long time was “distinct in population, religion, and material interests.” Their final fraternization and blending in political union with the people of the eastern section is a subject for the later history of the province and State.
Governor Dobbs, a native of Ireland, and who had been a member of its Parliament, brought to the colony cannon and firelocks, as a present from the king; and, as a present from himself, “a number of his relations, who had hopes of offices and preferments.”[738] While, on the one hand, he sought to conciliate the Indian tribes, on the other he continuously embroiled himself in contests with the assembly and on trivial matters. It was, however, the irrepressible conflict of that day,—the conflict we have been expecting all along in this history,—the outgrowth of antagonism between the royal prerogatives and the rights and privileges of the representatives of the people. Contributions of men and money were called for by the governor for the general defence of the provinces, and for fortifications within the limits of North Carolina. The assembly were ever ready to defend their frontiers and render aid to the neighboring colonies. But in the acts for founding new counties, they disallowed “the royal prerogative of granting letters of incorporation, ordering and regulating elections, and establishing fairs and markets.” In enactments for a new court system, the further emission of paper money, and the appointment of an agent in England to solicit the affairs of the province, disputes ensued between the assembly and the executive. A new assembly being convened was equally jealous of its rights and privileges, and ably maintained them in lengthy communications to the governor, but without moving him from his convictions of duty under the royal instructions. The assembly was prorogued after appointing, by resolution, the agent to England, whom the governor had rejected. Upon reassembling, and again in a new assembly, on various bills the struggle for legislative rights was continued with the Upper House or council.
Two very different events here arrest our attention: the grant of the king, through Parliament, of £50,000 to indemnify Virginia, North and South Carolina, for their war expenses, and the proposal to the colonies to form a union for common defence against general attacks of the French and Indians; the one fostering attachment to the Crown, the other teaching the method of effectual resistance.
Governor Dobbs was now infirm and over eighty years of age, and, having obtained leave of absence, there was sent over, as Lieutenant-Governor, the able and energetic William Tryon, a colonel in the Queen’s Guards, who became, on the decease of Dobbs, in 1765, governor of North Carolina. He was succeeded by Martin, the last royal governor. We close this brief narrative, pondering upon the province’s progress in wealth, population, and political stability; on the intercolonial influences developing union and constitutional self-government; and on the portentous shadow of the approaching Revolution.[739]
SOUTH CAROLINA.
Proprietary Government.—In 1665 the Lords Proprietors placed in charge of Sir John Yeamans—whom they had, in January, commissioned governor of Clarendon county at Cape Fear—the further discovery of the Carolina coast southward of the portion embraced in the report of Hilton, Long, and Fabian in 1663. Yeamans and his party left Barbadoes in three vessels in October. After separation by a storm, they all reached the Cape Fear or Charles River. But there a violent gale wrecked the vessel containing the greater part of their provisions, arms, and ammunition. Being in distress for supplies, their sloop was despatched to Virginia for aid, and Yeamans himself returned to Barbadoes, leaving Robert Sandford in commission to obtain a vessel and complete the exploration of the southern coast. Sandford appears to have first entered the North Edisto River, where he met the Cassique of Kiawah, who had traded with the settlers in Clarendon county, and who now invited Sandford to his country. But the explorers sailed on to Port Royal, arriving there early in July. Their reception was apparently very friendly, and Dr. Henry Woodward remained among the Indians to learn their language, while a nephew of the chief accompanied Sandford. They designed, on their return, to visit Kiawah; but by a mistake of the Indian who acted as guide, they passed beyond the entrance (now Charleston harbor) which led to that country, and the wind not being favorable for putting back, the voyagers proceeded northward and returned to Cape Fear.[740]
In 1667, the Proprietors took measures to found, in the region reported on by Sandford, a colony worthy of themselves and of the munificence of the king in granting them almost royal authority in the extensive territory lavishly bestowed by the charter. The elaborate plan of government which Locke assisted in maturing was devised for this new enterprise, and was solemnly agreed upon as a contract among the Proprietors. Twelve thousand pounds sterling, a large sum at that day, were expended in preparation for founding, in what is now South Carolina, a colonial government calculated to bring both glory and emolument to their lordships. In August, 1669, three vessels were ready to sail from England: the “Carolina” frigate, the “Port Royall,” and the sloop “Albemarle.” On board the first-named were ninety-three passengers. How many were in the other vessels is not at present known; but the intention appears to have been to begin the settlement with at least two hundred. They stopped at Kinsale in Ireland to take in other emigrants, receiving, however, only seven; and according to instructions sailed thence to Barbadoes, which they reached in October. They were to obtain there such plants as the vine, olive, ginger, cotton, and indigo, and some swine for the new colony; and, no doubt, as many emigrants as could be induced to join the expedition. The fleet was consigned to Thomas Colleton, brother of the Proprietor, Sir Peter Colleton. It seems that the Proprietors were not pleased with the management of Sir John Yeamans in the previous expedition and his leaving the perils of exploration to Secretary Sandford; yet his experience and ability rendered his coöperation desirable, and power was given him to fill a blank commission sent to him for the governorship of the new colony. Living in Barbadoes, and familiar with projects of colonization, he acted on this occasion on behalf of their lordships, with authority as their lieutenant-general, and assisted and encouraged the adventurers. But many disasters occurred: at Barbadoes the “Albemarle” was driven ashore in a gale and lost, in November; and in January the “Port Royall” suffered the same fate at the Bahama Islands. A sloop obtained at Barbadoes in place of the “Albemarle” became separated in a storm, and the “Carolina,” in a damaged condition, put in at Bermuda for repairs. A part of the equipments was lost by the wrecks; and Yeamans, to the discontent and indignation of the colonists, withdrew from further participation in their fortunes, saying he was obliged to return to Barbadoes as one of the commissioners appointed to negotiate “with French commissioners the affair at St. Christopher’s.” He persuaded the colonists to take Colonel William Sayle, and inserted his name as governor in the blank commission sent to him by the Proprietors. He describes Sayle as “a man of no great sufficiency, yet the ablest I could then meet with.”[741]