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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
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 SAMUEL JOHNSTON 
 
 GOVERNOR OF 
 NORTH CAROLINA 
 
 1787-1789 
 
 R. D. W. CONNOR 
 
 Socrotary of the North Carolina 
 Tlistorical Commisaion 
 
SAMUEL JOHNSTON 
 
 Governor of North Carolina 
 1787-1789 
 
 '^PYJO^ 
 
 . y 
 
 R. D. W.^'CONNOR 
 
 M 
 
 Secretary of the North Carolina 
 Historical Commission 
 
 Raleigh 
 Edwardb & Brocohton Pristino Company 
 
 1912 
 
 D 
 
F"2 5 8 
 
 In Ffxchanga 
 SEP 2 7 1933 
 
I SAMUEL JOHNSTON 
 
 5^ 
 
 Governor of North Carolina 
 
 Bt R. D. W. CONNOR. 
 Secretary of the North Carolina Historical Commission. 
 
 On tbo east coast of Scotland, twelve miles from the con- 
 fluence of the Firth of Tay with the German Ocean, lies the 
 ancient town of Dundee, in population third, in commercial 
 importance second among the cities of Scotland. The gen- 
 eral appearance of Dundee, we are told, is picturesque and 
 pleasing, and its surrounding scenery beautiful and inspiring. 
 Thrift, intelligence, and independence are characteristics of 
 its inhabitants. It is noted for its varied industrial enter- 
 prises, and from time immemorial has been famous among the 
 cities of Britain for its extensive linen manufactures. A long 
 line of men eminent in war, in statecraft, in law, and in let- 
 ters adorns its annals. Its history carries us back to the time 
 of the Crusades. In the twelfth century it received a charter 
 from the hand of William the Lion. Within its walls Wil- 
 liam Wallace was educated, and there he struck his first blow 
 against the domination of England. In the great Reforma- 
 tion of the sixteenth century its inhabitants took such an 
 active and leading part as to earn for their town the appella- 
 tion of "the Scottish Geneva." During the civil wars of the 
 following century they twice gave over their property to pil- 
 lage and themselves to massacre rather than submit to the 
 tyranny of the House of Stuart. But in every crisis the in- 
 domitable spirit of Dundee rose superior to disaster and her 
 people adhered to their convictions with a loyalty that never 
 faltered and a faith that never failed.^ 
 
 'An address delivered before the Grand Lo<l(!c of Masons, in the Masonic Temple, 
 RaleiKh, January 10, 1912, upon the presentation to the .State by the Orand LodRC of a 
 marble buat of Governor Samuel Johnston, first Grand Master of Masons of North Carolina. 
 
 'Encyclopedia Britannica, 9th cd., VII, 534-36. 
 
4 Samuel Johnstox. 
 
 In this fine old city, among its true and loyal people, the 
 ancestors of Samnel Johnston lived, and here, in 1733, be 
 himself was born.^ The spirit of Dundee, its loyalty to prin- 
 ciple, its unconquerable courage, and its inflexible adherence 
 to duty, entered into his soul at his very birth, and developed 
 and strengthened as he grew in years and in powers of body 
 and mind. Throughout his life he displayed in public and 
 in private affairs many of those qualities of mind and char- 
 acter which have given the Scotch, though small in number, 
 such a large place in the world's history. Says Mr. Henry 
 Cabot Lodge, "six centuries of bitter struggle for life and in- 
 dependence, waged continuously against nature and man, not 
 only made the Scotch formidable in battle, renowned in every 
 camp in Europe, but developed qualities of mind and charac- 
 ter which became inseparable from the race. * * * 
 Under the stress of all these centuries of trial they learned 
 to be patient and persistent, with a fixity of purpose which 
 never weakened, a tenacity which never slackened, and a de- 
 termination which never wavered. The Scotch intellect, 
 jiassing through the same severe ordeals, as it was quickened, 
 tempered, and sharpened, so it acquired a certain relentless- 
 ness in reasoning which it never lost. It emerged at last com- 
 plete, vigorous, acute, and penetrating. With all these strong 
 qualities of mind and character was joined an intensity of 
 conviction which burned beneath the cool and calculating 
 manner of which the stern and unmoved exterior gave no 
 sign, like the fire of a furnace, rarely flaming, but giving 
 forth a fierce and lasting heat." * Had the author of these 
 fine lines had the character of Samuel Johnston in his mind's 
 
 'McRee says December 15, 1733. — Life and Correspondence of James Iredell, I, 37. John- 
 ston himself writing to his sister, Mrs. Iredell, January 24, 1794, says: "Yesterday 
 finished my sixty-first birthday."— Ms. letter in C. E. Johnson Mss. Collections of the North 
 Carolina Historical Commis.sion. But Samuel Johnston, Sr., writing to Samuel Johnston, 
 Jr., in a letter dated ' ' Newborn, 17th, 17.54," month omitted, says: ' ' I give you joy of your 
 being of age last Sunday."— Copy of letter in Collections of the N. C. Hist. Com. Original 
 in the library at ' ' Hayes." 
 
 ^Address in the United States Senate, March 12, 1910, at the presentation to the United 
 States bv the Stat« of South Carolina of a statue of John C. Calhoun. 
 
Sa.mukl Juii.n>t()N. 5 
 
 eye, as he did have that of another eminent Scotch-descended 
 Carolinian, his description could not have been more accu- 
 rate. 
 
 In the great crises of our history in which he figured so 
 largely, immediately preceding and immediately following 
 the American Revolution, Samuel Johnston, with keen pene- 
 trating vision, saw more clearly than any of his colleagues 
 the true nature of the problem confronting them. This prob- 
 lem was, on the one hand, to preserve in America the funda- 
 mental principles of English liberty against the encroach- 
 ments of the British Parliament, and on the other, to secure 
 the guarantees of law and order against the well-meant but 
 ill-considered schemes of honest but ignorant refonners. For 
 a full quarter of a century he pursued both of these ends, pa- 
 tiently and persistently, "with a fixity of purpose which never 
 weakened, a tenacity which never slackened, and a determina- 
 tion which never wavered." IN^either the wrath of a royal 
 governor, threatening withdrawal of royal favor and depriva- 
 tion of office, nor the fierce and unjust denunciations of party 
 leaders, menacing him with loss of popular support and de- 
 feat at the polls, could swerve him one inch from the path of 
 the public good as he understood it. Beneath his cool and 
 calculating manner burned "an intensity of conviction" which 
 gave him in the fullest degree that rarest of all virtues in men 
 who serve the public — I mean courage, courage to fight the 
 battles of the people, if need be, against the people themselves. 
 Of course Johnston never questioned the right of the people 
 to decide public affairs as they chose, but he frequently 
 doubted the wisdom of their decisions ; and when such a 
 doubt arose in his mind he spoke his sentiments without fear 
 or favor and no appeal or threat could move him. He was 
 ready on all such occasions to maintain his p(x<itions with a 
 "relentlessness in reasoning" that carried conviction and out 
 of defeat invariably wrung ultimate victory. More than 
 
6 Samuel Johnston. 
 
 once in his ])nblic career the people, when confronted by his 
 immovable will, in fits of party passion discarded his leader- 
 ship for that of more compliant leaders ; but only in their 
 calmer moments to tnrn to him again to point the way out 
 of the mazes into which their folly had entangled them. 
 
 A Scotchman by birth, Samuel Johnston was fortunate in 
 his ancestral inheritance ; an American by adoption, he was 
 equally fortunate in his rearing and education. In early in- 
 fancy^ his lot was cast in ISForth Carolina, the most demo- 
 cratic of the American colonies, and whatever tendency this 
 fact may have given him toward democratic ideals was later 
 strengthened by a Xew England education and by his legal 
 studies.^ At the age of twenty-one he became a resident of 
 Edenton, then a small village of four or five hundred inhabi- 
 tants, but the industrial, political, and social center for a 
 large and fertile section of the province. Its leading inhabi- 
 tants were men and women of wealth, education, and culture. 
 Their social intercourse was easy, simple, and cordial. Cards, 
 billiards, backgammon, dancing, tea drinking, hunting, fish- 
 ing, and other outdoor sports, were their chief amusements. 
 They read with appreciative insight the best literature of the 
 day, made themselves familiar with the philosophy of 
 
 ^In his third year. His parents, Samuel and Helen (Scrymoure) Johnston came to 
 North Carolina some time prior to May 25, 1735. — Colonial Records of North Carolina, 
 IV, 9. They probably accompanied Samuel's brother, Gabriel, who become governor of 
 the colony,' November 2, 1734. McRee incorrectly gives the name of CJovernor Samuel 
 Johnston's father as John.— Iredell, I, 36. Letters of his at ' ' Hayes" show that his name 
 was Samuel. See also Cirimes: Abstracts of North Carolina Wills, 187, 188; and Col. Rec. 
 IV, lOSO, 1110. He resided in Onslow county, but owned large tracts of land not only in 
 Onslow, but also in Craven, Bladen, New Hanover, and Chowan.— Col. Rec, IV, 72, 219, 
 222, 329, 594, 601, 628, 650, 800, 805, 1249. He was a justice of the peace in New Hanover, 
 Bladen, Craven, and Onslow.— Col. Rec, IV, 218, 275, 346, 347, 814, 1239. He served also as 
 collector of the customs at the port of Brunswick.- Col. Rec, IV, 395, 725, 998, 1287; and aa 
 road commissioner for Onslow county. State Records, XXIII, 221. His will, dated No- 
 vember 13, 1756, was probated in January, 1757.— Abstracts, 188. His wife having died of 
 child-birth in 1751 (letter to his son), his family at the time of his death consisted of two sons, 
 Samuel and John, and five daughters, Jane, Penelope, Isabelle, Ann, and Hannah. To 
 his sons he devised 6,500 acres of land, and to his daughters land and slaves.— Abstracts, 
 188. 
 
 sGovernor Josiah Martin, writing of Johnston, to Lord George Germain, May 17, 1777, 
 says; "This Gentleman, my Lord, was educated in New England, where * * * it 
 may be supposed he received that bent to Democracy which he has manifested upon all 
 occasions."— Col. Rec, X, 401. Letters from his father, addressed to him while he was at 
 school in New Haven, Conn., bear dates from 1750 to 1753. I have not been able to ascer- 
 tain what school he attended. In 1754 he went to Edenton to study law under Thomas 
 Barker. 
 
Sam IK J, .l(iii.N>i<».\. 7 
 
 the Spectator and the Tatler, and followed with synipa- 
 thetic interest the fortunes of Sir Charles Grandison and 
 Clarisj^a Ilarlowe. They kept in close touch with political 
 events in England, studied critically the Parliamentary de- 
 bates, and among themselves discussed great constitutional 
 questions with an ai3ility that would have done honor to the 
 most learned lawyers of the Inner Temj)le/ Within the 
 town and its immediate vicinity dwelt John llarvey, Joseph 
 Hewes, Edward Buncombe, Stephen CabaiTus, and, after 
 1768, James Iredell. Preceding Iredell by a little more than 
 a decade came Samuel Johnston, possessed of an ample for- 
 tune, a vigorous and penetrating intellect, and a sound and 
 varied learning, which soon won for him a place of preemi- 
 nence in the province. "He bore," says McRee, "the greatest 
 weight of care and labor as the mountain its crown of granite. 
 His powerful frame was a fit engine for the vigorous intellect 
 that gave it animation. Strength was his characteristic. In 
 his relations to the public, an inflexible sense of duty and 
 justice dominated. There was a remarkable degree of self- 
 reliance and majesty about the man. His erect carriage and 
 his intolerance of indolence, meanness, vice, and wrong, gave 
 to him an air of sternness. He commanded the respect and 
 admiration, but not the love of the people." * At Edenton, 
 surrounded by a group of loyal friends, Johnston entered 
 upon the practice of his profession and in 1759 began a pub- 
 lic career which, for length of service, extremes of political 
 fortime, and lasting contributions to the welfare of the State, 
 still stands unsurpassed in our history." 
 
 'Sec the picture of Edenton society drawn by James Iredell in his diary, printed in Mc- 
 Ree's Iredell. 
 
 •Iredell, I, ^7-ZS. 
 
 •He was twelve times elected to the Cieneral Assembly, serving from 17.59 to 1775, inclusive. 
 On April 2.5, 176S, he was appointed Clerk of the Coiirt for the IMonton District. In 1770 
 he was appointed Deputy N'aval Officer of the province, but w.ia removed by CIov. Martin, 
 Nov. 16, 1775, on account of his activity in the revolutionary niovenicnt. Dec. S, 1773, ho 
 wa« selected as one of the Committee of Continental Correspondence appointed by the (ien- 
 eral Assembly. He served in the first four Provincial ConcTes.>«?9. which met Aur. 25, 1774, 
 April 3, 1775. AuR. 20, 1775, and April 4. 1776. Of the third and fourth he was elected Presi- 
 dent. The Congress, Sept. 8, 1775, elected him Treasurer for the Northern District. .Sept. 
 
8 Samuel Johnston. 
 
 Johuston's public career covered a period of forty-four 
 years and embraced every branch of the public service. As 
 legislator, as delegate to four provincial congresses, as presi- 
 dent of two constitutional conventions, as member ot the 
 Continental Congress, as judge, as governor, as United States 
 Senator, he rendered services to the State and I^ation which 
 rank him second to none among the statesmen of North Caro- 
 lina. Time does not permit me today to dwell on all these 
 points of his career, and I must content myself with inviting 
 your attention to his services in just three of the great crises 
 of our history : First, in organizing the Ec volution in North 
 Carolina ; second, in framing the first state constitution ; 
 third, in the ratification by North Carolina of the Constitu- 
 tion of the United States. 
 
 You are of course familiar with the principal events which 
 led up to the outbreak of the Revolution. Johnston watched 
 the course of these events with the keenest interest and the 
 most profound insight. By inheritance, by training, and by 
 conviction he was a conservative in politics. He clung tena- 
 ciously to the things that were and viewed with apprehen- 
 sion, if not with distrust, any tendency of those in power to 
 depart from the beaten path marked out by time and experi- 
 ence. It was not to be expected, therefore, that he, holding 
 the principles of the British Constitution in great reverence, 
 would look with favor upon departures from those principles 
 so radical as those proposed by the British Ministry. It has 
 frequently been pointed out that in the American Revolution 
 
 9, 1775, he was selected as the member-at-large of the Provincial Council, the executive body 
 of the revolutionary government. The Provincial Council, Oct. 20, 1775, elected him Pay- 
 master of Troops for the Edenton District. Dec. 21, 1776, he was appointed by the Provin- 
 cial Congress a commissioner to codify the laws of the State. In 1779, 1783, 1784 he repre- 
 sented Chowan county in the State Senate. The General Assembly, July 12, 1781, elected 
 him a delegate to the Continental Congress. In 1785 the States of New York and Massa- 
 chusetts selected him as one of the commissioners to settle a boundary line dispute between 
 them. He was three times elected Governor of North Carolina, Dec. 12, 1787, Nov. 11, 1788, 
 and Nov. 14, 1789. He resigned tiie governorship in Dec, 1789 to accept election to the 
 United States Senate, being the first Senator from North Carolina. In 1788 and 1789 he was 
 President of the two Constitutional Conventions, at Hillsboro and Fayetteville, called to 
 consider the ratification of the Federal Constitution. Dec. 11, 1789 he was elected a trustee 
 of the University of North Carolina. From 1800 to 1803 he served as Superior Court Judge. 
 He died in 1816. 
 
SaMTKI, .1 oil NS ton. 9 
 
 England and not America represented the radical position. 
 The Americans lield to the British Constitution as they had 
 received it from their fathers, they protested against the inno- 
 vations of the Ministry, and they went to war to consen-e the 
 ])riiiciples of English liberty as they had been handed down 
 from time immemorial. They were the true conservatives. 
 This, too, was the point of view of such British statesmen as 
 Fox, and Pitt, iiiid Bnrko, and Rockingham. In this contest, 
 accordingly, there could be but one place for Samuel John- 
 ston, — inheritance, education, conviction, all carried him at 
 once into the camp of the Whig party. 
 
 From the passage of the Stamp Act in 1765 Johnston 
 maintained a firm and decided stand against every step taken 
 by the British ^linistry to subject the colonies in their local 
 affairs to the jurisdiction of Parliament. A special signifi- 
 cance attaches to his services. His birth in Scotland, his 
 residence in Xorth Carolina, his education in Connecticut, 
 his intimate correspondence with friends in England, all 
 served to lift him above any narrow, contracted, provincial 
 view of the contest and fitted him to be what he certainly 
 was, the leader in North Carolina in the great continental 
 movement which finally resulted in the American Union. 
 Union was the great bugbear of the King and Ministry, and 
 for some years before the actual outbreak of the Revolution 
 an important object of their policy was to prevent the union 
 of the colonies. They sought, therefore, as far as possible, to 
 avoid all measures which, by giving them a common griev- 
 ance, would also afford a basis upon which they could unite. 
 In order to accomplish this purpose more effectively acts of 
 Parliament to a large extent gave way in the government of 
 the colonies to instructions from the King issued to the royal 
 governors. These instructions the governors were reqnired 
 to consider as of higher authority than acts of the assemblies 
 and as binding on both the governors and the assemblies. A 
 
10 Samuel Joiixston. 
 
 set was not framed to apply to all the colonies alike, but 
 special instructions were sent to each colony as local circum- 
 stances dictated. Since these local circumstances differed so 
 widely in the several colonies, the King and his ministers 
 thought the patriots would not be able to find in these instruc- 
 tions any common grievance to serv^e as a basis for union. 
 
 In North Carolina the battle was fought out on three very 
 important local measures which involved the financial policy 
 of the province, the running of its southern boundary line, 
 and the jurisdiction of the colonial courts. On all three the 
 King issued positive instructions directing the course which 
 the Assembly should pursue. Thus a momentous issue w^as 
 presented for the consideration of its members : Should they 
 permit the Assembly to degenerate into a mere machine whose 
 highest function was to register the will of the Sovereign ; 
 or should they maintain it as the Constitution and their char- 
 ters intended it to be, a free, deliberative, law-making body, 
 responsible for its acts only to the people ? Upon their answer 
 to this question it is not too much to say hung the fate of the 
 remotest posterity in this State. I record it as one of the 
 proudest events in our history, beside which the glories of 
 Moore's Creek, Kings Mountain, Guilford Court House, and 
 even of Gettysburg itself pale into insignificance, that the 
 Assembly of North Carolina had the insight to perceive their 
 problem clearly, the courage to meet it boldly, and the states- 
 manship to solve it wisely. 
 
 "Appointed by the people [they declared] to watch over their 
 rights and privileges, and to guard them from every encroachment 
 of a private and public nature, it becomes our duty and will be our 
 constant endeavor to preserve them secure and inviolate to the 
 present age, and to transmit them unimpaired to posterity. * * * 
 The rules of right and wrong, the limits of the prerogative of the 
 Crown and of the privileges of the people are, in the present re- 
 fined age, well known and ascertained; to exceed either of them 
 is highly unjustifiable." lo 
 
 '"For a more extended account of thia great contest, see my Cornelius Harnett: An Es- 
 say in North Carolina History, 68-78. 
 
Samuel Jcjhnston. 11 
 
 Hurling this declaration into the face of the royal governor 
 the Assembly peremptorily refused obedience to the royal in- 
 structions. In this momentous affair Samuel Johnston st<x>d 
 fully abreast of the foremost in maintaining the dignity of 
 the Assembly, the independence of the judiciary, and the 
 right of the people to self-government. With unclouded 
 vision he sav^^ straight through the policy of the King and 
 stood forth a more earnest advocate of union than ever. He 
 urged the appointment of the committees of correspondence 
 throughout the continent, served on the Xorth Carolina com- 
 mittee, and favored the calling of a Continental Congress. 
 When John Harvey, in the spring of 1774, suggested a pro- 
 vincial congress, Johnston gave the plan his powerful sup- 
 port, ^^ and when the Congress met at Xew Bern, August 25, 
 1774, he was there as one of the members from Chowan. 
 Upon the completion of its business this Congress authorized 
 Johnston, in the event of Harvey's death, to summon another 
 congress whenever he should deem it necessary. No more fit 
 successor to Harvey could have been found. Johnston's un- 
 impeachable personal character commanded the respect of the 
 Loyalists,^" his known conservatism w^as a guarantee that the 
 revolutionary program under his leadership would be con- 
 ducted with proper regard for the rights of all and in an 
 orderly manner, and his thorough sympathy with the spirit 
 and purposes of the movement assured the loyal support of 
 the entire Whig party. How thoroughly he sympathized with 
 the whole program is set forth in the following letter written 
 to an English friend who once resided in North Carolina : 
 
 "You will not wonder [he writes] at my being more warmly af- 
 fected with affairs of America than you seem to be. I came over so 
 early and am now so riveted to it by my connections that I can not 
 
 "Col. Rec. X. 968. 
 
 ".Vrchibnld Neilson, a prominent Loyalist whom Gov. Martin appointed Johnston's 
 successor as Deputy Naval Officer, wrote to James Iredell, July 8, 1775: ' "For Mr. Johnston, 
 I have the truc.it e.s teem and reeard. In these times, in spite of my opinion of his Judgment, 
 in spite of mystelf — I tremble for him. He is in an arduous .-(ituation: the eyes of all — more 
 especially of the friends of order — are anxiously fixed on him." — McRcc's Iredell, I, 260. 
 
1:^ Samuel JoHNSTOisr. 
 
 help feeling for it as if it were my nataJe solum. The ministry from 
 the time of passing the Declaratory Act, on the repeal of the Stamp 
 Act, seemed to have used every opportunity of teasing and fretting 
 the people here as if on purpose to draw them into rebellion or some 
 violent opposition to Government. At a time when the inhabitants 
 of Boston were every man quietly employed about their own private 
 affairs, the wise members of your House of Commons on the au- 
 thority of ministerial scribbles declare they are in a state of open 
 rebellion. On the strength of this they pass a set of laws which 
 from their severity and injustice can not be carried into execution 
 but by a military force, which they have very wisely provided, being 
 conscious that no people who had once tasted the sweets of freedom 
 would ever submit to them except in the last extremity. They have 
 now brought things to a crisis and God only knows where it will 
 end. It is useless, in disputes between different countries, to talk 
 about the right which one has to give laws to the other, as that 
 generally attends the power, though where that power is wantonly or 
 cruelly exercised, there are instances where the weaker State has 
 resisted with success; for when once the sword is drawn all nice 
 distinctions fall to the ground; the difference between internal and 
 external taxation will be little attended to, and it will hereafter be 
 considered of no consequence whether the act be to regulate trade 
 or raise a fund to support a majority in the House of Commons. By 
 this desperate push the ministry will either confirm their power of 
 making laws to bind the colonies in all cases whatsoever, or give up 
 the right of making laws to bind them in any case." is 
 
 This is a very remarkable letter. Consider first of all its 
 date. It was written at Edenton, September 23, 1774. At 
 that time the boldest radicals in America, even such men as 
 Samnel Adams, of Massachusetts; Patrick Henry, of Vir- 
 ginia ; Cornelius Harnett, of North Carolina, scarcely dared 
 breathe the word independence. But here is Samuel John- 
 ston, most couserA^ative of revolutionists, boldly declaring that 
 the contest between England and her colonies was a dispute 
 ''between different countries," and threatening an appeal to 
 arms to decide whether the British Parliament should make 
 laws ''to bind the colonies in all cases whatsoever," or be 
 compelled to surrender "the right of making laws to bind 
 
 »To Alexander Elmsley, of London. — Col. Rec, IX, 1071. 
 
Sa.mlkl 'Ioiixstox. 13 
 
 tliom ill any case." The man who ventured this hold declara- 
 tion was no unknown individual, safe from ministerial wrath 
 by reason of his obscurity, but was the foremost statesman 
 of an important colony, and his name was not unfamiliar to 
 those who gathered in the council chamber of the King. 
 
 The death of John Harvey in ]May, 1775, left Samuel 
 Johnston the undisputed leader of the revolutionary party in 
 North Carolina. In July he issued a call for a congress to 
 meet in Hillsboro, August 20, and of this Congress he was 
 nnanimonsly chosen president. Until now Josiah Martin, 
 the royal governor, had cherished the hope that Johnston 
 would not go to the extreme of rebellion but that he would 
 ultimately break wath the Whig party and throw the great 
 weight of his influence on the side of the royal government. 
 Consequently early in the struggle, in very flattering terms, 
 ^Inrtin had offered to recommend Johnston to the King for 
 appointment to the next vacancy in the Council; and had re- 
 frained from removing him from his position as the deputy 
 naval officer of the colony, "notwithstanding," he wrote, "I 
 had found him uniformly in opposition to every measure of 
 Government during my administration." ^* But now any 
 further forbearance toward Johnston would be disloyalty to 
 the King, and accordingly on October 7, 1775, the Governor 
 addressed a letter to him notifying him of his removal. ''The 
 respect I have entertained for your private character," he 
 said, had restrained him from taking this step heretofore; 
 but now duty to his Royal Master would not permit his taking 
 upon himself "the guilt of conniving at the undutiful be- 
 havior of one of the King's servants" in appearing "in the 
 conspicuous character of ^Moderator of a popular Assembly 
 unknown to the laws and constitution of this province. 
 
 '•Gov. Martin to Johnaton, Oct. 4, 1772: "In caae of a vacanry at the Council Roard 
 I wish to know whether you will permit me to name you to the Kins; if it be aitrceable to 
 you. I shall be much flattered by an opportunity of makine so honorable an acquisition to 
 the Council of this Province."— Col. Rec, IX, 342. See also Martin to Lord Dartmouth, 
 Col. Rec. IX, 1053; and to Lord Germain, X, 401. 
 
14 Samuel Johnston. 
 
 * * * And [be coutiiuied] I have seen with greater sur- 
 prise, if possible, yonr acceptance of the appointment of 
 treasurer of the northern district of this colony, nnconstitii- 
 tionally and contrary to all law and usage conferred upon 
 you by this body of your own creation," ^^ To this communi- 
 cation Johnston replied in a letter of biting sarcasm but a 
 model of courtesy and good taste. "It gives me pleasure," 
 he said, referring to the Governor's reasons for his removal, 
 "that I do not find neglect of duties of my office in the cata- 
 logue of my crimes," and then continued : 
 
 "At the same time that I hold myself obliged to your Excellency 
 for the polite manner in which you are pleased to express yourself 
 of my private character, you will pardon me for saying that I think 
 I have reason to complain of the invidious point of view in which 
 you are pleased to place my public transactions when you consider 
 the late meeting of the delegates or deputies of the inhabitants of 
 this province at Hillsborough, a body of my own creation. Your 
 Excellency cannot be ignorant that I was a mere instrument in this 
 business under the direction of the people; a people among whom I 
 have long resided, and who have on all occasions placed the great- 
 est confidence in me, to whose favorable opinion I owe everything I 
 possess and to whom I am bound by gratitude (that most powerful 
 and inviolable tie on every honest mind) to render every service 
 they can demand of me, in defense of what they esteem their just 
 rights, at the risk of my life and property. 
 
 You will further. Sir, be pleased to understand, that I never con- 
 sidered myself in the honorable light in which you place me, one 
 of the king's servants; being entirely unknown to those who have 
 the disposal of the king's favors, I never enjoyed nor had I a right 
 to expect, any office under his Majesty. The oflfice which I have for 
 some years past executed under the deputation of Mr. Turner was 
 an honest purchase for which I have punctually paid an annual sum, 
 which I shall continue to pay till the expiration of the term for 
 which I should have held it agreeably to our contract. 
 
 Permit me. Sir, to add that had all the king's servants in this 
 province been as well informed of the disposition of the inhabitants 
 as they might have been and taken the same pains to promote and 
 preserve peace, good order, and obedience to the laws among them, 
 that I flatter myself I have done, the source of your Excellency's 
 
 liiCol. Rec, X, 262. 
 
Sam II. I. .I<>ii.\.~ ION. 1.") 
 
 unnecessary lamentations had not at this day existed, or had it 
 existed it would have been in so small a depiree that ere this it 
 would have been nearly exhausted; but, Sir, a recapitulation of 
 errors which it is now too late to correct would be painful to me 
 and might appear Impertinent to your Excellency. I shall decline 
 the ungrateful task, and beg leave, with all due respect, to subscribe 
 myself. Sir, your Excellency's most obedient, humble servant." i'> 
 
 At the beginning of the Revolutit.ri Johnston, In c-oninion 
 with the other Whig leaders throughout the continent, dis- 
 claimed any purpose of declaring independence. But once 
 caught in the full sweep of the revolutionary movement they 
 were carried along from one position to another until, by the 
 opening of the year 1776, they had reached a situation which 
 admitted of no other alternative. As North Carolina was the 
 first colony to take the lead in demanding independence, so 
 Samuel Johnston was among the first advocates of it in North 
 Carolina. Writing !March 3, 1776, he expressed the opinion 
 that the future might ''offer a more favorable opportunity for 
 throwing off our connection with Great Britain," but imme- 
 diately added : 
 
 "It is, however, highly improbable from anything that I have yet 
 been able to learn of the disposition of the people at home, from the 
 public papers, for I have not lately received any letters, that the 
 colonies will be under the necessity of throwing off their allegiance 
 to the king and Parliament of Great Britain this summer. If France 
 and Spain are hearty and sincere in our cause, or sufficiently ap- 
 prised of the importance of the connection with us to risk war with 
 Great Britain, we shall undoubtedly succeed; if they are irresolute 
 and play a doubtful game I shall not think our success so certain." 
 
 March 20, Joseph Ilewes writing from Philadelphia, 
 
 where he was in attendance on the Continental Congress, 
 
 asked Johnston for his views on the subject of independence. 
 
 In reply Johnston said : 
 
 "I am inclined to think with you that there is little prospect of 
 an accommodation. You wish to know my sentiments on the sub- 
 jects of treating with foreign powers and the independence of the 
 
 >«Col. Rec., X. 332. 
 
10 Samuel Johnston. 
 
 colonies. I have apprehensions that no foreign power will treat 
 with us till we disclaim our dependence on Great Britain and I 
 would wish to have assurances that they would afford us effectual 
 service before we take that step. I have, I assure you, no other 
 scruples on this head; the repeated insults and injuries w^e have 
 received from the people of my native island has (sic) done away 
 all my partiality for a connection with them and I have no appre- 
 hensions of our being able to establish and support an independence 
 if France and Spain would join us cordially and risk a war with 
 Great Britain in exchange for our trade." it 
 
 Wlieii the fourth Provincial Congress, at Johnston's sum- 
 mons, met at Halifax, April 4, 1776, the entire patriot party 
 was fully abreast of his position on the subject of independ- 
 ence. "All our people here," he wrote, April 5, "are up for 
 independence"; and a few days later he added: "We are 
 going to the devil -' * ''"^ wdthout knowing how to help 
 ourselves, and though many are sensible of this, yet they 
 would rather go that way than to submit to the British Min- 
 istry. " * * Our people are full of the idea of inde- 
 pendence." In compliance with this popular sentiment, the 
 Congress, April 12, adopted its famous resolution empower- 
 ing the North Carolina delegates in the Continental Congress 
 "to concur with the delegates of the other colonies in declar- 
 ing independency and forming foreign alliances." ^^ 
 
 Samuel Johnston had now reached the climax of his in- 
 
 / fluence and popularity, for by his election to the presidency 
 
 of the Provincial Congress he had attained the highest posi- 
 
 ; tion in public life to which a citizen of Korth Carolina in 
 
 I 177 G could aspire. The next few years were for him a period 
 
 I of eclipse. Deceived by the specious insinuations of his po- 
 
 I litical opponents his constituents were led to discard his 
 
 \ leadership and to accept that of men of fairer promises but 
 
 of smaller achievements. 
 
 Immediately after declaring for independence the Con- 
 
 "Ms. letter in the library at "Hayes." 
 
 "For a full discussion of the movement toward independence, see my Cornelius Harnett, 
 Chap. X. 
 
Sa.nu kl Joiinstox. 17 
 
 ^ess at Halifax ajjpointed a committee ''to prepare a tempo 
 rary civil constitution." Among its members were Johnston, 
 Harnett, Abner Xasli, Thomas Burke, Thnnuis Person, and 
 William Hooper. They were (as I have said in another 
 place)"* men of political sagacity and ability, but their ideas 
 of the kind of constitution that ought to be adopted were woe- 
 fully inharmonious. Heretofore in the measures of resist- 
 ance to the British Ministry remarkable unanimity had pre- 
 vailed in the councils of the Whigs. But when they under- 
 took to frame a constitution faction at once raised its head. 
 Historians have designated these factions as "Conservatives" 
 and ''Radicals," terms which carry their own meaning and 
 need no further explanation. However it may not be out of 
 place to observe here that while both were equally devoted to 
 constitutional liberty, the Radicals seem to have placed the 
 greater emphasis on the noun, liberty, the Conservatives on its 
 modifier, constitutional. The leader of the fonner was un- 
 doubtedly Willie Jones, while no one could have been found 
 to question the supremacy of Samuel Johnston among the 
 latter. Congress soon found that no agreement between the 
 two could be reached while continued debate on the constitu- 
 tion would only consume time which ought to be given to 
 more pressing matters. Consequently the committee was dis- 
 charged and the adoption of a constitution was postponed till 
 the next meeting of Congress in November. Thus the contest 
 was removed from Congress to the people and Ijecame the 
 leading issue of the election in October. 
 
 Willie Jones and his faction detennined that Samuel John- 
 ston should not have a seat in the November Congress, and 
 at once began against him a campaign famous in our history 
 for its violence. Democracy exulting in a freedom too newly 
 acquired for it to have learned the virtue of self-restraint, 
 struck blindly to right and left and laid low some of the 
 
 "•Cornelius Harnett, 152. 
 
18 Samuel Johnston. 
 
 sturdiest champions of constitutional liberty in the province. 
 The contest raged fiercest in Chowan. "No means," says 
 McRee, "were spared to poison the minds of the people ; to 
 inflame their prejudices ; excite alarm ; and sow in them, by 
 indefinite charges and whispers, the seeds of distrust. * * * 
 It were bootless now to inquire what base arts prevailed, or 
 what calumnies were propagated. Mr. Johnston was defeated. 
 The triumph was celebrated with riot and debauchery; and 
 the orgies were concluded by burning Mr. Johnston in 
 effigy." '' 
 
 From that day to this much nonsense has been written and 
 spoken about Johnston's hostility to democracy and his hank- 
 ering after the fleshpots of monarchy, and the admirers of 
 Willie Jones from then till now have expected us to believe 
 that the man who for ten years had been willing to sacrifice 
 his fortune, his ease, his peace of mind, his friends and fam- 
 ily, and life itself, to overthrow the rule of monarchy was 
 ready, immediately upon the achievement of that end, to con- 
 spire with his fellow-workers against that liberty which they 
 had suffered so much to preserve. That Johnston did not 
 believe in the "infallibility of the popular voice" ; that he 
 thought it right in a democracy for minorities to have suffi- 
 cient safeguards against the tyranny of majorities ; that he 
 considered intelligence and experience more likely to conduct 
 a government successfully than ignorance and inexperience, 
 is all true enough. But that he also ascribed fully to the 
 sentiment that all governments "derive their just powers 
 from the consent of the governed" ; that he believed frequency 
 of elections to be the surest safeguard of liberty; that he 
 thought representatives should be held directly responsible to 
 their constituents and to nobody else, we have not only his 
 whole public career but his most solemn declarations to prove. 
 He advocated, it is true, a government of energy and power, 
 
 2»Iredel!, I, 334. 
 
Sami i:l .Iojinstun. 10 
 
 but a government deriving its energy' and power wholly from 
 the people. This is the very essence of true, genuine democ- 
 racy. 
 
 Although not a nu inbcr of the Congress which framed our 
 first State Constitution, Johnston's duties as treasurer made 
 it necessary for him to attend its session, and his })resence 
 there exerted a most wholesome influence on the final draft 
 of that instrnnifiit. In mere matters of policy he manifested 
 but little interest; but there were three points of prime im- 
 portance to be settled which would ultimately determine the 
 character of the government about to be formed. These were, 
 first, the degree of responsibility to the people to which rep- 
 resentatives should be held ; second, the basis of the suffrage ; 
 and third, the degree of independence to be accorded to the 
 judiciary. On these three points Johnston felt and thought 
 deeply, and exerted himself to have his views incorporated in 
 the Constitution, 
 
 In regard to the first he expressed himself as follows in a 
 letter written from Halifax in April while the constitution 
 was under consideration : 
 
 "The great difficulty in our way is, how to establish a check on 
 the representatives of the people, to prevent their assuming more 
 power than would be consistent with the liberties of the people. 
 ♦ * • Many projects have been proposed too tedious for a letter to 
 communicate. ♦ * * After all, it appears to me that there can be no 
 check on the representatives of the people in a democracy but the 
 people themselves; and in order that the check may be more efficient 
 I would have annual elections." 21 
 
 But by "the people," Johnston did not mean all the citizens 
 of the State any more than we today, by the same term, mean 
 to include all the citizens of the Commonwealth. Like us 
 Johnston referred only to those citizens who were endowed 
 with the franchise. lie did not believe in unrestricted man- 
 hood suffrage. Such a basis he thought might be 'Svell 
 
 «Iredell. I, 277. 
 
20 Sa.mukl Johnston. 
 
 adapted to the government of a numerous, cultivated people," 
 l)ut lie did not think North Carolina in 1776 was ready for 
 any such untried experiment, and he advocated, therefore, a 
 property qualification. On this point he was "in great pain 
 for the honor of the province" and viewed with alarm the 
 tendency to turn the government over to "a set of men without 
 reading, experience, or principle to govern them." "'" 
 
 But it was to the judiciary that he looked to safeguard the 
 rights of the individual citizen, and in order that this safe- 
 guard might be the more effective he wished it to be inde- 
 pendent of the transitory passions of majorities. On this 
 subject he spoke with more than his usual vigor. 
 
 "God knows [he exclaimed] when there will be an end of this 
 trifling here. A draft of the Constitution was presented to the 
 House yesterday. * * * There is one thing in it which I cannot bear, 
 and yet I am inclined to think it will stand. The inhabitants are 
 impowered to elect the justices in their respective counties, who are 
 to be the judges of the county courts. Numberless inconveniences 
 must arise from so absurd an institution. -s They talk [he wrote 
 later] of having all the officers, even the judges and clerks, elected 
 annually, with a number of other absurdities." -* 
 
 Johnston's alarm was needless. Under his guidance con- 
 servative influences prevailed and a method of choosing judges 
 in line with his views w^as adopted. In its final form the Con- 
 stitution embodied to a large extent Johnston's views on all 
 three of these cardinal points. It provided for a legislature 
 of two chambers chosen annually, for a property qualification 
 for electors for state senators, and for judges chosen by the 
 General Assembly to serve during good behavior. 
 
 I know of no more striking personal triumph in the history 
 of ISTorth Carolina than this achievement of Johnston. Po- 
 litically discredited by his own people, without the support 
 of a ])owerful political party, and totally devoid of that glam- 
 
 22To Thomas Burke.— State Rec, XI, 504. 
 
 "To James Iredell.— Col. Rec., X, 1040. 
 
 z<To Mrs. James Iredell.— McRee's Iredell, I, 339. 
 
Samuel Johnston. 21 
 
 our and subtle influence which accompanies high official 
 position, he had, through the convincing logic of his argu- 
 ments, the trust inspired by his acknowledged wisdom, and 
 the confidence imposed in his integi'ity, forced a hostile Con- 
 vention to accept his views and lay the cornerstones of the 
 Commonwealth on firm and solid grounds. How firmly he 
 builded is shown by the fact that fifty-eight years passed be- 
 fore annual sessions of the Assembly gave way to biennial 
 sessions; seventy-nine years before the property (jnalification 
 for electors for state senators was abolished; and ninety-one 
 years before the election of judges was given to the people 
 and their terms changed from good behavior to a term of 
 years. Had Johnston been alive when those changes were 
 proposed there can be no doubt that he would have advocated 
 them. In 1776 he stood for a political system suitable to the 
 physical, mental and moral conditions of the State at that 
 period: in 1835 he would have done the same thing. As a 
 practical statesman, more deeply conceinied in securing a 
 good working system than in promulgating vague and uncer- 
 tain theories, he would have been among the first to recognize 
 the changed conditions wrought by fifty years of marvelous 
 development, and to have advocated changes in the Constitu- 
 tion in conformity with the changed spirit and needs of the 
 time. 
 
 Johnston's eclipse was temporary. Accepting his defeat 
 philosophically, he withdrew after the framing of the Consti- 
 tution from all participation in politics, and watched the 
 course of events in silence. For assuming this attitude he 
 has been severely censured, both by his contemporaries and 
 by posterity, who have charged him with yielding to pique, 
 and with being supine and indifferent to the welfare of the 
 State because he could not conduct its affairs according to his 
 own wishes.^' But is it not pertinent to ask what other 
 
 ••See letters of Archibald Maclaite to George Hooper.— State Rec., XVI. 957, 963. 
 
22 Samuel Johnston. 
 
 course be could have pursued ? He was not an ordinary poli- 
 tician. He bad no inordinate itcbing for public office. He 
 was, indeed, ambitious to serve bis country, but bis country 
 bad pointedly and empbatically repudiated bis leadership. 
 Was it not, tben, tbe part of wisdom to bow to tbe decree ? 
 Did not patriotism require bini to refrain from futile opposi- 
 tion ? Tbe event clearly demonstrated tbat bis course was 
 botb wise and patriotic, for tbe people soon came to tbeir 
 sober second tbougbt and tbe reaction in Johnston's favor 
 set in earlier than be could possibly bave anticipated. Tbey 
 sent bim to tbe State Senate, tbe General Assembly elected 
 bim treasurer, tbe Governor appointed bim to tbe bench, tbe 
 General Assembly chose him a delegate to tbe Continental 
 Congress, and the Continental Congress elected him its pre- 
 siding officer."^ The reaction finally culminated in bis elec- 
 tion as Governor in 1787, and bis relection in 1788 and again 
 in 1789. Among the many interesting problems of bis ad- 
 ministration were tbe settlement of Indian affairs, tbe ad- 
 justment of the war debt, the treatment of tbe Loyalists, the 
 cession of tbe western territory to the Federal Government, 
 and the "State of Franklin" ; but today time does not permit 
 tbat we consider his policy toward them. The chief issue of 
 bis administration was the ratification of tbe Federal Consti- 
 tution to tbe consideration of which we must devote a few 
 moments. 
 
 Tbe Convention to consider the new Constitution met at 
 Hillsboro, July 21, 1788. "Conservatives" and "Eadicals," 
 now rapidly crystallizing into political parties as Federalists 
 and Anti-Federalists, arrayed themselves for tbe contest 
 under their former leaders, Samuel Johnston and Willie 
 Jones. The Anti-Federalists controlled the Convention by a 
 large majority, nevertheless out of respect for his office they 
 unanimously elected Governor Johnston president. All tbe 
 
 "He declined to serve. 
 
Samukl Johnston. 23 
 
 debates, however, were held in committee of the whole, and 
 this plan, by calling Governor Johnston out of the chair, 
 placed him in the arena in the very midst of the contest. 
 Though he was the accepted leader of the Federalists, the 
 burden of the debate fell upon the younger men, among whom 
 James Iredell stood preeminent. Contesting preeminence 
 with Iredell, but never endangering his position, were Wil- 
 liam R. Davie, Archibald Maclaine, and Richard Dobbs 
 Spaight. Governor Johnston but rarely indulged his great 
 talent for debate, but when he did enter the lists he mani- 
 fested such a candor and courtesy toward his opponents that 
 he won their respect and confidence, and he spoke with such 
 a "relentlcssness in reasoning" that but few cared to engage 
 him in discussion. Johnston could not have been anything 
 else than a Federalist. Since the signing of the treaty of 
 peace with England the country had been drifting toward 
 disunion and anarchy with a rapidity that alarmed conserva- 
 tive and thoughtful men. The issue presented in 1787 and 
 1788, therefore, was not the preservation of liberty but the 
 prevention of anarchy, and on this issue there could be but 
 one decision for Samuel Johnston. The day for the specu- 
 lative theories and well-turned epigrams of the Declaration 
 of Independence had passed ; the time for the practical pro- 
 visions of the Federal Constitution had come. Consequently 
 the debates at Hillsboro dealt less with theories of govern- 
 ment than with the practical operations of the particular plan 
 under consideration. 
 
 In this plan Willie Jones and his followers saw all sorts 
 of political hobgoblins, and professed to discover therein a 
 purpose to destroy the autonomy of the States and to estab- 
 lish a consolidated nation. They attacked the impeachment 
 clause on the ground that it placed not only Federal Senators 
 and Representatives, but also State officials and members of 
 the State Legislatures completely at the mercy of the National 
 
24 Samuel Johnston. 
 
 Congress. Johnston very effectively disposed of this ridicu- 
 lous contention by pointing ont that "only officers of the 
 United States were impeachable," and contended that Sen- 
 ators and Representatives were not Federal officers but offi- 
 cers of the States. Continuing he said : 
 
 "I never knew any instance of a man being impeached for a legis- 
 lative act; nay, I never heard it suggested before. A representative 
 is answerable to no power but his constituents. He is accountable 
 to no being under heaven but the people who appoint him. * * * Re- 
 moval from office is the punishment, to which is added future dis- 
 qualification. How can a man be removed from oflSce who has no 
 office? An officer of this State is not liable to the United States. 
 Congress cannot disqualify an officer of this State. No body can 
 disqualify but the body which creates. * * * i should laugh at 
 any judgment they should give against any officer of our own." 27 
 
 But, said the opponents of the Constitution, "Congress is 
 given power to control the time, place, and manner of electing 
 senators and representatives. This clause does away with 
 the right of the people to choose representatives every year" ; 
 under it CongTess may j)ass an act ''to continue the members 
 for twenty years, or even for their natural lives" ; and it 
 plainly points "forward to the time when there will be no 
 state legislatures, to the consolidation of all the states." To 
 these arguments Johnston replied: 
 
 "I conceive that Congress can have no other power than the 
 States had. * * * -pj^e powers of Congress are all circumscribed, 
 defined, and clearly laid down. So far they may go, but no farther. 
 * * * They are bound to act by the Constitution. They dare 
 not recede from it." 
 
 All these arguments sound very learned and very eloquent, 
 retorted the opponents of the Constitution, but the propose'd 
 Constitution does not contain a bill of rights to "keep the 
 States from being swallowed up by a consolidated govern- 
 
 "Elliott's Debates. The following extracts from Johnston's speeches on the Consti- 
 tution are all from the same source. 
 
Samuel Jounstox. 25 
 
 mcnt.'' But Governor Johnston, in an exceedingly clear-cut 
 argument, j)ointed out not only the absurdity but even the 
 danger of including a bill of rights in the Constitution. 
 Said he: 
 
 "It appears to me. sir, that it would have been tlie hlgliost ab- 
 surdity to undertake to define what rights the people of the United 
 States are entitlefl to; for that would be as much as to say thoy are 
 entitled to nothing else. A bill of rights may be necessary in a 
 monarchial government whose powers are undefined. Were we in 
 the situation of a monarchial country? No, sir. Every right could 
 not be enumerated, and the omitted rights would be sacrificed if 
 security arose from an enumeration. The Congress cannot assume 
 any other powers than those expressly given them without a palpable 
 violation of the Constitution. * * * in a monarchy all power may 
 be supposed to be vested in the monarch, except what may be re- 
 served by a bill of rights. In England, in every instance where the 
 rights of the people are not declared, the prerogative of the king 
 is supposed to extend. But in this country we say that what rights 
 we do not give away remain with us." 
 
 Though Johnston desired to throw all necessary safeguards 
 around the rights of the people, he did not desire a Union 
 that would be a mere rope of sand. The Union must have 
 authority to enforce its decrees and maintain its integrity, 
 and if he foresaw the rise of the doctrines of nullification and 
 secession, he foresaw them only to expose what he thought 
 was their fallacy. 
 
 "The Constitution [he declared] must be the supreme law of the 
 land, otherwise it will be in the power of any State to counteract the 
 other States, and withdraw itself from the Union. The laws made 
 in pursuance thereof by Congress, ought to be the supreme law of 
 the land, otherwise any one state might repeal the laws of the 
 Union at large. * * * Every treaty should be the supreme law 
 of the land; without this, any one state might involve the whole 
 union in war." 
 
 Acts of Congress, however, must be in ''pursuance" of the 
 powers granted by the Constitution, for Johnston had no 
 sympathy with the notion that the courts must enforce acta 
 
20 Samuel Johnston. 
 
 of legislative bodies regardless of their coiistitutionalitj. As 
 he said : 
 
 "When Congress makes a law in virtue of their [sic] constitu- 
 tional authority, it will be actual law. * * * Every law consistent 
 with the Constitution will have been made in pursuance of the 
 powers granted by it. Every usurpation, or law repugnant to it, 
 cannot have been made in pursuance of its powers. The latter will 
 be nugatory and void." 
 
 Johnston, of course, did not think the Constitution perfect 
 and he was as aiixions as Willie Jones to have certain amend- 
 ments made to it. Bnt he took the position that North Caro- 
 lina, then the fourth of the thirteen States in population, 
 would have more weight in securing amendments in the Union 
 than out of it. Indeed, he reasoned, as long as the State re- 
 mains out of the Union there is no constitutional way in 
 which she can propose amendments. Accordingly, as the 
 leader of the Federalists, on July 30. he offered a resolution : 
 
 "That though certain amendments to the said Constitution may 
 be wished for, yet that those amendments should be proposed sub- 
 sequent to the ratification on the part of this State, and not previous 
 to it." 
 
 Willie Jones promptly rallied his followers against this 
 action and defeated Johnston's resolution by a vote of 184 to 
 84. Then after proposing a series of amendments, including 
 a bill of rights, the Convention, by the same vote of 184 to 
 84, refused to ratify the Constitution and, August 2, ad- 
 journed sine die. 
 
 Thus a second time, in a second great political crisis, 
 Willie Jones triumphed over his rival ; but again, as in 
 177G, his triumph was short-lived. With wise forethought 
 Iredell and Davie had caused the debates of the Conven- 
 tion to be reported and published, and through them ap- 
 pealed from the Convention to the people. How far these 
 debates influenced public opinion it is of course impossible to 
 say, but certain it is that no intelligent, impartial reader can 
 
Sa.mlki, Johnston. 27 
 
 rise from their perusal without Ix'ing convinced that the 
 Federalists had much the better of the argument. I'uhlic 
 opinion so far shifted toward the Federalists' position that 
 when the second Convention met at Fayetteville, November 
 16, 1789, the Federalists had a larger majority than their 
 opponents had had the year before. Again Samuel Johnston 
 was unanimously elected president. The debates of this Con- 
 vention were not reported ; indeed, the debates of the former 
 Convention had rendered further discussion unnecessary. The 
 people of the State had read those debates and had recorded 
 their decision by sending to the Convention a Federalist ma- 
 jority of more than one hundred. Accordingly after a brief 
 session of only six days the Convention, November 21, 1789, 
 by a vote of 195 to 77, ratified the Constitution of the United 
 States and North Carolina reentered the Federal Union. It 
 has been so frequently affirmed that in North Carolina it is 
 today very generally believed that this action of the Conven- 
 tion of 1789 was due to the adoption of the first ten amend- 
 ments to the Federal Constitution ; and, further, that the 
 action of Willie Jones and his party in rejecting the Consti- 
 tution in 1788 forced Congress to submit these amendments. 
 In the interest of historical accuracy let us for just a mo- 
 ment examine this statement. A few dates quickly dispose 
 of the matter. The North Carolina Convention rejected the 
 Constitution August 2, 1788. On November 17, of the same 
 year, the General Assembly passed the resolution calling a 
 second Convention. It was not until September 25, 1789, 
 nearly a year later, that Congress submitted the first ten 
 amendments to the several States. When the North Carolina 
 Convention met at Fayetteville, November 16, 1789, not a 
 single State had acted on these amendments, and more than a 
 year passed after North Carolina had ratified the Constitu- 
 tion before the required number of States had accepted the 
 amendments, ^[oreover, when the Convention met at Fay- 
 
28 Samuel Joiixston. 
 
 etteville, in 1789, the oj^poiients of the Constitution still 
 urged its rejection because the amendments which had been 
 proposed did not meet the objections of the former Conven- 
 tion in "some of the great and most exceptional parts" of the 
 Constitution. The only result of the action of Jones and his 
 party in 1788, therefore, was to keep N^orth Carolina out of 
 the Union for a year and thus to prevent the State's casting 
 her vote for George Washington as the first President of the 
 United States. 
 
 The privilege of transmitting the resolution of ratification 
 to the President of the United States and of receiving from 
 him an acknowledgment of his sincere gratification at this 
 important event, fell to the lot of Samuel Johnston. It was 
 fitting, too, that he who, for more than twenty years, had 
 stood among the statesmen of North Carolina as the very 
 personification of the spirit of union and nationalism should 
 he the first to represent the State in the Federal Senate. Of 
 his services there I can not speak today more than to say that 
 he represented the interests of North Carolina with the same 
 fidelity to convictions and courage in the discharge of his 
 duties which had always characterized his course in public 
 life ; and that on the great national issues of the day he lifted 
 himself far above the narrow provincialism which character- 
 ized the politics of North Carolina at that time and stood 
 forth in the Federal Senate a truly national statesman. It 
 had been well for North Carolina and her future position in 
 the Union had she adhered to the leadership of Johnston, 
 Davie, Iredell and the men who stood with them, — men too 
 wise to trifle with their principles, too sincere to conceal their 
 convictions, and too brave and high-minded to mislead their 
 people even for so great a reward as popular favor. But in 
 the loud and somewhat blatant politics of that day these men 
 could play no part, and one by one they were gradually forced 
 from public life to make way for other leaders who possessed 
 
Samuei- Joi[nstox. 29 
 
 neither their wisdinn, their sincerity, nor their courage. In 
 1793, Samuel J(»hiiston retired from the Senate, and, except 
 for a brief term on the bench, spent the remaining twenty- 
 three years of his life in the full enjoyment of his hajjpy 
 family circle. 
 
 Thus, ^Ir. Grand blaster, I have endeavored to point out, 
 as briefly as possible, why it is that we deem Samuel John- 
 ston worthy of a niche under the stately dome of our Capitol 
 in company with Graham, and Ransom, and .Morehcad. On 
 the mere score of office-holding he surpassed any of them; 
 indeed, his career in this respect has not been surpassed by 
 any other in our history. But in the fierce light of History 
 what a paltry thing is the mere holding of pnblic office; and 
 how quickly posterity forgets those who present no other 
 claim to fame. Posterity remembers and honors him only 
 who to other claims adds those of high character, lofty ideals, 
 and unselfish service ; whose only aims in public life are the 
 maintenance of law, the establishment of justice, and the 
 presen-ation of lil^erty ; who pursues these ends with a fixity 
 of purpose which never weakens, a tenacity which never 
 slackens, and a deteraiination which never wavers. Measur- 
 ing Samuel Johnston by this standard, I am prepared to say 
 that among the statesmen of North Carolina he stands with- 
 out a superior. Indeed, taking him all in all, it seems to me 
 that he approaches nearer than any man in our history to 
 Tennyson's fine ideal of the ^'Patriot Statesman." 
 
 O Patriot Statesman, be thou wise to know 
 The limits of resistance, and the bounds 
 Determining concession; still be bold 
 Not only to slight praise but suffer scorn; 
 And be thy heart a fortress to maintain 
 The day against the moment, and the year 
 Against the day; thy voice, a music heard 
 Thro' all the yells and counter-yells of feud 
 And faction, and thy will, a power to make 
 This ever-changing world of circumstance, 
 In changing, chime to never-changing Law. 
 
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