THE LIBRARY OF THE 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF 
 
 NORTH CAROLINA 
 
 THE COLLECTION OF 
 NORTH CAROLINIANA 
 
 C378 
 
 UK3 
 
UNIVERSITY OF N.C. AT CHAPEL HILL 
 
 00036721100 
 
 This book musf not 
 be f-aken from the 
 Library building. 
 
 Form No. 471 
 
Digitized by the Internet Arciiive 
 
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 University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill 
 
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ADDRESS 
 
 DELIVERED BBFOEE THE 
 
 €m litniirt} liuietie 
 
 UNIVERSITY OP NORTH-CAROLINA. 
 
 June 6, 1855, 
 
 BY 
 
 GEORGE DAVIS, ESa., 
 
 OF WILMINGTON. 
 
 RALEIGH: 
 
 HOLDEN & WILSON, "STANDARD" OFFICE. 
 1855. 
 
Dialectic Hall, Jnm 8, 1855. 
 ''6m.. 
 
 We beg leave, in behalf of the Dialectic Society, to tender the sincere thanks ol 
 that body foi* your very able and interesting Address before the two Literary Soci 
 eties ; and we hereby respectfully request a copy of the same for publication. 
 
 Permit us, Sir, to add our personal solicitations to those of the Society we re- 
 present, with the hope that you will not deny our State so patriotic a sketch of some 
 of Iier noblest sons. 
 
 Very respectfully, 
 
 WM. BIXCxHAM, 
 
 A. H. MEKRITT, > CamrnitUs. 
 
 J. C. WADDILL, 
 
 I, 
 
 Cho. Davis, Esq. 
 
 Wilmington, June 16, 1855, 
 Ohstlemen : 
 
 I cheerfully comply with your request in furnishing for publication a copy of tho 
 Address delivered by me before the two Literary Societies of the University. Be 
 pleased to ^press to the Dialectic Society my cordial thanks for their kind apprecia- 
 tion of my humble attempt to illuminate a dark page of our history, and to accept for 
 yourselves the expression of mj' high respect and esteem. 
 
 Very respectfully yours, 
 
 GEO. DAVIS 
 
 Messrs. Wsr. Bingham, 
 
 - A. H. Mereitt, )■ CwaniitUe, 
 J. C. Wasdill, 
 
 
; 
 
ADDRESS. 
 
 ■:.i 
 
 Gentlemen of the Pldlanthvopic and DialectiG Societies 
 
 To stand liere as a teacher, while so profoundly feeling how 
 much I need to be taught — to offer light from my own dark- 
 ness — and to attempt the paths which have already been im- 
 pressed and adorned by the footprints of Mur])hy, Gaston, 
 Badger, and so many other distinguished men — this is the 
 difficult task which your partiality has assigned to me. And 
 if I had accepted it in a vainglorious spirit of self-esteem, or 
 from any motive but an honest desire towards the perform- 
 ance of a duty, I could not easily have pardoned my own 
 rashness. But, born a son of North-Carolina, reared a child 
 of this noble old college, and cherishing the fondest aflection 
 for them both, and the deepest interest in all which concerns 
 their w^elfare and advancement, I have not felt at liberty to 
 consult my own inclination. And I have returned, at your 
 bidding, to this shrine of learning, as a child to its mother, 
 bringing my simple tribute with a loving heart ; and trusting 
 to disarm your criticism by the ready candor with which its 
 worthlessness is acknowledged. 
 
 The historian of the United States* has complained of the 
 carelessness with which the history of l^orth-Carolina has been 
 written. The reproach is but too just. As Colony and State 
 not yet two centuries old, the story of her infancy and early 
 progress is a sealed book to the many, and to the curious few 
 is more imperfectly known than that of nations which flour- 
 ished and decayed thousands of years ago. And if this is 
 true of the State at large, it is eminently so of that section of 
 it in which I live. The Cape Fear country has never had a 
 historian. Its public records were always meagre and barren. 
 Its private records, once rich and fruitful sources of history, 
 have become much mutilated and impaired in the lapse of 
 time by accident, and by the division and emigration of fami- 
 lies. Its traditions are perishing, and are buried daily with 
 
 * Bancroft 2—135. Note. 
 
% 
 
 our dead, as the old are passing away. And tlie little wliicli 
 iias been preserved hj tlie pen of tlie historian is scattered 
 through volumes, most of which are rare, and some of them 
 entirely out of print. I have thought, therefore, that, instead 
 of sermonizing upon themes which were long ago threadbare, 
 I could not better employ my allotted hour, than in giving 
 you a sketch, imperfect as it may be, of the early Times and 
 Men of the lower Cape Fear. I shall not aspire to the dig- 
 nity of history. My time and opportunities for research have 
 been too limited, and the subject is too full for the compass 
 of an ordinary addi-ess. I assume the humbler, but still pious, 
 duty of connecting recorded facts, of perpetuating traditions, 
 and of plucking away the mosses which have gatliered on 
 the tombs of some of our illustrious dead. In so doing. I 
 may be accused of sectional pride. But I can afford to brave 
 such a charge ; for I feel that the motive is higher and purer ; 
 that it springs from a loyal devotion to the honor of my whole 
 State, and a sincere admiration for the character of her whole 
 people, and especially of her good and great that are now no 
 more. My single desire is to awaken a new interest in her 
 history, by assuring you that you will find there her amplest 
 vindication from the taunts and aspersions which are so freely 
 'flung against her. And I would fain hope that I need ftffer 
 no apology for my subject, since I come to speak to Kofth- 
 Carolinians of things that touch nearly the fame of the good 
 old State, and the memory of her noble dead. 
 
 I begin, now, ray sketcli with some passages from English 
 history, extracting first from Hume's account of the Irish 
 Rebellion of 1641.* " There was a gentleman called Roger 
 More, who, though of a narrow fortune, was descended from 
 an ancient Irish family, and was much celebrated among his 
 countrymen for valor and capacity. This man firs#*formed 
 the project of expelling the English, and asserting the inde- 
 pendency of his native country. Ho secretly went from 
 chieftain to dhieftain, and roused up every latent principle of 
 discontent. He maintained a close correspondence with Lord 
 Maguire and Sir Phelim O'jSTeale, the most powerful of the 
 old Irish. * By conversation, by letters, by his emissaries, he 
 represented to his countrymen the motives of a revolt," &c, 
 
 * Hist. Eng„ ch. 55, 
 
"By these considerations, More engaged all the heads of tiie 
 native Irish in the conspiracy." 
 
 It is not ni}'' pm-pose to pnrsne tlic liistory of this rcLelhon. 
 ^ It was disastrous to the Irish ; and deservedly so, for they 
 disgraced themselves hy barharities which shock hnmanity. 
 With these, however, it is certain that More and Magnire 
 had nothing to do. For Maguire was taken in the outset 
 of the revolt at the nnsuccessful attack upon tlie Castle of 
 Dublin, and was condemned and executed.""' And of More, 
 Hume himself says : — " The generous nature of More was 
 shocked at the recital of such enormous cruelties. He flew 
 to O'xieale's camp ; but found that his authority, which was 
 sufficient to excite the L-isli to insurrection, was too feeble to 
 restrain their inhumanity. Soon after he abandoned a cause 
 polluted by so many crimes ; and he retired into Flanders." 
 
 He must have been a man of no ordinary character, and 
 justly entitled to the admiration of all lovers of freedom, who, 
 though driven into exile, and branded as a rebel and a traitor, 
 could yet draw forth language like the foregoing from the 
 apologist and defender of the Stuarts ! Fortunately, the 
 world will not now take its definition of treason from those 
 who bow to the divine right of kings. 
 
 Two years later another event occurred, of minor impor- 
 tance in English history, but worthy of notice here. In 1643, 
 the city of Bristol was captured by the forces of the Parlia- 
 ment. At that time Eobert Yeoman, or Yeamans, was 
 sheriff, or as some say, an alderman of the city, and active 
 and zealous in the service of the king; and after its sur- 
 render, he was condemned and executed for his loyalty.f It 
 may not be amiss to add here, as a historical curiosity, the 
 following extract from the 7th volume of the Edinburg An- 
 nual Register : — " March 16th, 1814. On opening a vault at 
 St. Maryport Church, Bristol, the workmen discovered, very 
 deeply concealed, a coffin of great antiquity. It is generally 
 supposed that the corpse it contained was that of Yeo- 
 man, sheriff of Bristol in 1643, when the city was surren- 
 dered to the parliamentary army by Prince Rupert. Mr. 
 Yeoman was hanged in Wine-street, opposite his own house, 
 by order of Fairfax, for his attachment to the royal cause, 
 
 * Hist. Eng., ch. 55. Note K. 3. t Hewit, in Carr. Coll, 1—52. 
 
8 
 
 The body was in the highest state of preservation, hand- 
 somely accoutred in the costume of the day, with gloves simi- 
 lar to those which the sheriffs at present wear. And there 
 were considerable timiors visible in the neck, which inclined 
 several medical gentlemen who inspected the body, to be of 
 opinion that they were occasioned by strangulation." 
 
 It will appear hereafter how these two events — the rebel- 
 lion and exile of More, and the execution of Yefimans — so 
 entirely disconnected in history, have a very important bear- 
 ing upon the subject of this sketch. 
 
 Tlie earliest settlement upon the Cape Fear was made by a 
 band of emigrants from New England, principally from Mas- 
 sachusetts, about the period of the Kestoration. The precise 
 date is not known, but it was in 1660 or 1661.* They settled 
 on the western side of the river, on the borders of Old Town 
 Creek, or, as it is now commonly called. Town Creek, about 
 nine miles below Wilmington, and attempted to establish 
 grazing farms. But the country was unsuited to that pur- 
 'pose, the low lands upon the river being fitted only for the 
 cultivation of rice, which had not then been introduced into 
 America ; and the high lands being principally pine barrens. 
 The settlers, too, neglected to secure the good will of the 
 Indians ; and they soon fell into the greatest distress. Mas- 
 sachusetts, " the young mother of colonies," heard the cry of 
 her children in the wilderness, " Kstened to their prayer for 
 some relief in their distress, and ministered to their wants by 
 a general contribution through her settlements."! One hun- 
 dred and ten years afterwards, when the Boston Port Bill had 
 spread a pall of gloom and distress over New England, the 
 people of the Cape Fear remembered the generous succor of 
 Massachusetts. With one voice they declared that "the 
 cause of Boston was the cause of all." Their Committees 
 determined that all goods imported contrary to the resolve of 
 the Continental Congress, should be seized and sold ; and the 
 proceeds, after deducting the first cost, should be sent to the 
 poor of Boston.:}: They did more. They chartered a vessel, 
 loaded her with provisions at a cost of eight hundred pounds, 
 and sent her to the relief of the sufferers by the Boston Port 
 Bili.§ It were well if the people of New England would 
 
 * Banc, tJ. S., 2—181 ; Martin, 1—137 ; Williamson, 1—95. + Banc, 2—132. 
 ; Letter of Wm. Hill, Un. Mag. May, 1853. § Jones Def. No. Ca. 12G. 
 
9 
 
 pause in their career of fanatleism, to ponder and remember 
 things hke these ! 
 
 The timel}^ aid tlms received from Massachusetts was not 
 snthcient, however, for the rehef of the colonists ; and unable 
 to endure their many dithculties and privations, they aban- 
 doned their settlement in a short time, and returned to Is ew 
 England."'^' 
 
 By the Great Charter of 1GG3, King Charles II, granted to 
 • the Lords Proprietors all the country from the Atlantic to the 
 Pacific Ocean, between the parallels of thirty-one and thirty- 
 six degrees of north latitude. Truly a most magnificent do- 
 main ! And for what was it given? We know well his obli- 
 gations to Monk. "We might even suppose, in an excess of 
 charity, that he was not ungrateful to Clarendon for his fidel- 
 ity to his house. But was such the considei'ation ? The grant 
 expresses that they had manifested "a pious and laudable 
 zeal for the propagation of the gospel;" — the careless, disso- 
 lute, profligate Charles, moved by a pious zeal, and that zeal 
 emanating from the covetous and king-worshipping Claren- 
 don — the artful dissimulator. Monk — '' the passionate, ignor- 
 ant, and not too honest Sir George Carteret,"t and the facile 
 Shaftesbury, who, according to Pepys, " would not scruple to • 
 rob the devil or the altar !":j: AVe are tempted to believe it 
 a solemn jest of the witty monarch. 
 
 But whatever we may think of the Proprietors' zeal for tlie 
 gospel, we cannot doubt the extent of their zeal for their pri- 
 vate fortunes. They immediately began to devise measures 
 for encouraging emigration. The civil wars in England and 
 Ireland had broken down many ancient families, and ruined 
 their estates. Il^umbers of these had already gone to the new 
 w^orld in the hope of bettering their fortunes, and many others 
 were ready to foUow. They spread everywhere the most 
 glowing accounts of the splendors of their new domain. They 
 ofiered large bounties of land at trifling quit rents. They 
 procured the celebrated John Locke to devise a scheme of 
 government which they deemed the perfection of human wis- 
 dom, and proudly decreed to be " sacred and unalterable." 
 With its high-sounding titles of honor, and its far more jyre- 
 cious guaranty of religious freedom, it captivated the imagi- 
 
 *Martml— 117; Banc. 2— 132. t Banc. 2— 129. t Pepys 1—219. 
 
 ■ ■ ■ ■ r\.^ . ■ , 
 
10 
 
 nations of men ; and they did not stop to question its adapta- 
 tion to the condition of tlie people and the country it was to 
 govern. In 16GG there Avas publislied by Robert Home, in 
 London, with the approval, if not at the instigation of the 
 Proprietors, "A brief description of the Province of Caroli- 
 na," " wherein is set forth the healthfulness of the air, the fer- 
 tility of the earth and waters, and the great pleasure and profit 
 will accrue to those that shall go thither to enjoy the same." 
 xVfter displaying in the most attractive colors the riches of 
 this new Canaan, it apjDeals thus to the youth of both sexes — 
 " Is there therefore any younger Brother who is born of Gen- 
 tile blood, and whose spirit is elevated above the common sort, 
 and 3^et the hard usage of our Country hath not allowed suit- 
 able fortune ; he will not surely be afraid to leave his ISTative 
 Soil to advance his Fortune equal to his Blood and Spirit." 
 *' If any Maid or Single Woman have a desire to go over, they 
 will think themselves in the Golden Age, when Men paid a 
 Dowry for their AVives; for if they be but Civil, and under 
 50 years of Age, some honest Man or other will purchase them 
 for wives."" ., 
 
 Thus praised and painted, the Province of Carolina showed 
 golden visions to all sorts of men. Pious Puritans, weary of 
 persecution, and yearning for freedom of conscience — sons of 
 Cavaliers who had squandered their estates for the smiles o"^ 
 worthless king — adventurous merchants, and humble arti- 
 sans — quiet Quakers, who loved the law of peace, and turbu- 
 lent spirits who loved no law — all looked to it alike as a land 
 which was to bless them, each with their peculiar desires, and 
 all with a common wealth. The already settled portions of 
 the new world first caught the infection ; as men who haA^e 
 once abandoned the homes of their youth are ever ready for 
 further change. Soon after the proposals of the Proprietors 
 were first published, some gentlemen of Barbadoes, <dissatis- 
 fied with their condition, and tempted by the libei-al offers 
 which tliose proposals held out, in September 1663, dispatched 
 a vessel under command of Capt. Hilton to reconnoitre the 
 country along the Cape Fear river.f They explored both 
 branches of the river for many miles ; and it is remarkable 
 that two noted places, named by them Stag Park, and Rocky 
 
 * Printed in Carr. Coll. t Martin 1—130; Williamson 1—96. 
 
11 
 
 Point, are so called and Itiiown at this day. Returning to 
 Barbadoos in February, 166-1, tliey publislied an agreeable ac- 
 count of their vo3'age and of the country which they had been 
 sent to examine. Among the planters who had fitted out this 
 expedition was John Yeamans, eldest son of Robert Yeanians. 
 the sheritf of Bristol, who had been hanged at the taking of 
 that city in IGio.'"'' lie had emigrated to Barbadoes with the: 
 view of mending his fortunes ; and being pleased with the re- 
 port of the expedition, he determined to remove to Carolina. 
 He went to England to negotiate with the Proprietors, and 
 receiv^ed from them a grant of large tracts of land ; and at the 
 same time he was knighted by the king in reward for the 
 loyalty and misfortunes of his family.f Returning from Eng- 
 land, in the autumn of 1665, he led a band of colonists from 
 Barbadoes to the Cape Fear, and, induced by the traces of 
 civilization which were left by the Xew England colon}", he 
 pitched upon the spot they had inhabited; and purchasing 
 from the Indians a tract of land, thirty two miles scpiare, he 
 laid the foundations of a town which he called Charleston, in 
 honor of the reigning monarch. Martin;]; and Bancroft§ de- 
 clare that the site of this town is still a matter of uncertainty ; 
 but the douljt is only with the historians. Tradition has fixed 
 the spot beyond dispute. It is on the north side of Old Town 
 Creek, at its junction with the river, nine miles below Wil- 
 mington, on the plantation uoav owned by Thomas Cowan, 
 Esq. There have not been any visible traces of the town 
 within the memory of living men. But in the oldest deed for 
 this plantation extant, and which was a conveyance from the 
 great grandson of Yeamans in 1761, it is cahed the Old Town 
 Plantation. The colony was erected into a County, and called 
 Clarendon ; and Sir John Yeamans was appointed Governor, 
 and managed its affairs with prudence and discretion. It 
 prospered for a time, and the emigration from Barbadoes was 
 so great, that the legislature there found it necessary to pass 
 an act to forljid the sjAriting of jyeople of the island.] In 1666 
 the settlement is said to have numbered eight hundred in- 
 habitants.^ But the same restless spirit of adventure which 
 had l)rought the colonists over, soon induced many of them to 
 wander farther southward, and settle on the lands along the 
 
 * Hewit, in Carr. Coll. 1—52. t Martin 2— 142. J 1—1^2. §2—137. |i Martin 1— 
 143. 1 Williamspn 1—100. 
 ■9 
 
12 
 
 Cooper and Ashley rivers. Upon the deatli of Gov. Sayle in 
 1671, Sir John Yeamans was appointed Governor of Carteret 
 County, afterwards Soiith-Carohna ; and in the same year he 
 removed thither from the Cape Fear, and many of the princi- 
 pal inhahitants went v/ith him. From that time the settle- 
 ment at Old Town languished, until at length, before the year 
 1690, it was completely abandoned, and the Indians were 
 again sole masters of the soil.* Thus failed the second well 
 organized effort to settle the County of Clarendon. And here 
 the Cape Fear country is dismissed from history. 
 
 It is very remarkable that while these two early and inef- 
 fectual eftbrts to fix civilisation there are related by historians 
 with some minuteness of detail, not one records when, how, 
 or by whom, its permanent settlement was effected so many 
 years afterwards. And so vague has even tradition become 
 in the lapse of years, that, though we know the manner and 
 the men, we cannot now fix the time with any precision. 
 
 After this second abandonment of the settlements on the 
 Cape Fear, the country along that river fell for a time into 
 great disrepute. The Indians behaved with savage barbarity 
 to all who, by shipwreck, or other accident, were thrown with- 
 in their reach. And the mouth of the river becamepythe har- 
 bor of the noted pirates. Steed Bonnet and Eichard Worley, 
 from whence they watched and preyed upon the commerce 
 of Charleston and the West Indies, until they were routed 
 and destroyed by the ships under the command of Gov. Rob- 
 ert Johnson and the brave William Rhett.f 
 
 In the last decade of the seventeenth century a name ap- 
 pears in the history of South-Carolina, destined soon to be 
 distinguished there, and near a century latep to become still 
 more illustrious in the annals of the Cape Fear. The head of 
 this family was James Moore, the descendant, and it is be- 
 lieved the grandson;]: of Roger More, who led the Irish Re- 
 bellion in 1611. In the wreck of his family and fortunes he, 
 too, like so many others, had looked towards the setting sun, 
 and fixed his eyes upon the " summer land " of Carolina. 
 Ho had inherited all the rebellious blood of his grandsire ; his 
 love of freedom, his generous ambition, and his bold and tur- 
 bulent spirit. He soon acquired great influence in the pro- 
 
 * Williamson 1—118. t In 1717.— Carr. Coll. 1—209. J Johnson's Trad, and 
 Rem. of the Revolution, 230. 
 
18 
 
 vince, and upon the death of Gov. Blake in 1700, lie was elec- 
 ted Governor b}^ the deputies ol the Proprietors. His char- 
 acter is not free from reproach ; but his faults were those of 
 the times, and of the country in which he lived. Heisi'cpre- 
 sented to have been rapacious ; but in the universal spii-it of 
 self-aggrandizement which then prevailed, it would have been 
 wonderful if he alone had been modest and self-denjing. 
 And although his short administration has been severely cen- 
 sured, it is well to remember that those who speak of him in 
 the harshest terms professedly found their accounts upon the 
 representations of his enemies. If he was ambitious and ar- 
 bitrary, he was also active, intelligent, brave, true to his 
 friends, and of great influence with the people. 
 
 This Governor James Moore married the daughter of Sir 
 John Yeamans ; and thus, by a singular fortune, these fami- 
 lies, which had suliered from such opposite causes in the old 
 world, became united in the new; and the blood of Robert 
 Yeamans and of Roger More — of the loyalist victim and the 
 exiled rebel — mingled in Carolina to breed some of the no- 
 blest champions of her freedom, and the pioneers of perma- 
 nent civihzatibn upon the Cape Fear. 
 
 Of this union there were born ten children. The oldest, 
 James, was a genuine scion of the stock from which he sprung. 
 His character, perhaps, does not appropriately belong to Xoi-tli 
 Carolina history. But it is worthy the contemplation of all; 
 and the jjeople of the Cape Fear, especially, hold it in rever- 
 ence. He was not of them ; but he was of the blood of th.ose 
 who subsequently became their shining exemplars of honor 
 and self-sacrificing patriotism. He acquired military renown 
 in the campaigns against the Indians ; but he is chiefly known 
 and loved as the champion of the people, and the zealous de- 
 fender of their rights against the encroachments of arbitrary 
 power. In 1719, when the quarrel of the people with the 
 government had proceeded to an open rupture, true to the 
 instincts of his race, he was with the people, and against the 
 government. And when they met in convention and resolved 
 to have a governor of their own choosing, "' they elected the 
 brave James Moore, whom all the country allowed to be the 
 fittest person for undertaking its defence."* " He was a man 
 
 * Banc. 3—329. 
 
 -z- 
 
14 
 
 of tLirbulent disposition, find excellcntlj qualified for being a ""^ 
 ]Mjpular leader in perilous adventures. To Governor Jolmston 
 he Avas no friend, having been by liim removed from the com- 
 mand of the militia, for Avarmlj espousing the cause of the 
 people; to the Proprietors he "was an inveterate enemy. In 
 every enterprise he had been a volunteer, and in whatever 
 lie engaged he continued to his purpose, steady and mflexi- 
 ])le."* They proclaimed him Governor; and, with the pro- 
 clamation went up the expiring sigh of the Proprietary gov- 
 ernment, and peacefully, and without bloodshed, palatines, 
 landgraves, and caciques vanished from Carolina.f 
 
 In 1711, 1712 and 1713, occurred the celebrated Indian 
 wars, which you will find fufiy detailed in history ; in the be- 
 ginning of which the first historian of North-Carolina:]: fell 
 the earliest victim of savage cruelty. In 1713, the second 
 James Moore commanded the forces which wei*e sent by 
 ( iov. Graven to the succor of the I^orth-Garolinians ; and af- 
 ter -a severe engagement near the site of the present village 
 of Snow Hill, in Greene county,§ he succeeded in entirely 
 Ijreaking the power, and subduing the spirit of the warlike 
 Tuscaroras. He remained in North-Carolina seven months. 
 History makes no mention of any of his family but himself 
 in this expedition ; but tradition relates that he was accompa- 
 nied by his yomiger brother, Maurice. And two years later, 
 in 1715, this brother commanded a troop of horse in the ser- 
 vice of Gov. Eden, and marched to the O^pe Fear to subdue ' 
 the Indians tliQre,|| "which were reckoned tkfe most barbar- 
 ous of any in the Colony."^ To this gentleman. Col. Mau- 
 rice Moore, the permanent settlement and civilization of the 
 Cape Fear are principally due. He had been favorably im- 
 pressed with the aspect of the country in his expedition 
 against the Indians ; and perhaps he cherished some pious 
 regard for it as the first American home of his grandfather, 
 ^Sir John Yeamans. And soon after his return to South-Caro- 
 lina he determined to remove to the northern Province. I 
 infer that he went first to the Chowan, from the fact that in 
 1718, three years after his expedition against the Cape Fear 
 Indians, he was concerned with Edward Mosely and four or 
 five other gentlemen of that precinct, the old adherents of 
 
 * Hcwit in Carr. Coll. 1—288. + Banc S— D50. t Lawson. § Martin, 1—261. 
 I Mariin, 1—274. "i Old mixon in Carr. Coll., 2— MO. 
 
15 
 
 President Ciiiy, in forcibly taking possession of the pnbiic 
 records in the otHce of John Lovick, the Depnty Secretary,'-'' 
 and from the additional feet, that when he removed to tlu; 
 C-dpe Fear, his second danghter was then married to Joim 
 Porter, who liac] long been a resident of Chowan. He is 
 supposed to have settled upon the Cape Fear about the year 
 1723. f His are the earliest grants for land npon that river 
 noAV extant ; and the first of them are dated in 17^5. Ho 
 came not alone, but l)rought with him the germ of a nobki 
 colony. His brothers, Eoger and Xathaniel, and the family 
 of his brother John, then dead — his son-in-law, John Porter, 
 and his mother, Mrs. Sarah Porter, the daughter of Maj. Al- 
 exander Lillington^his sister, Mrs. Cliiford, who had for- 
 merly been the wife of his father's staunch friend and sup- 
 porter, Job Howe,:{: and wlio was the grandmother of the 
 afterwards celebrated Gen. Ilobert Howe — his nephews Jol) 
 and Joseph Howe, and tlie family of the brave Col. Kobt. 
 Daniel, his lather's old comrade in arms — these, and others of 
 a like stamp, came with him. They were no needy adven- 
 turers, driven by necessity — no unlettered boors, ill at ease 
 in the haunts of civilization, and seeking their proper sphere 
 amidst the barbarism of the savages. They were gentlemen 
 of birth and education, bred in the refinements of polished 
 societ}', and bringing with them ample fortunes, gentle man- 
 ners, and cultivated luinds. Most of them united by the ties 
 of blood, and all by those of friendship, they came as one 
 household, sufiicient to themselves, and reared their family 
 altars in love and peace. To the brothel's Maurice and Roger 
 Moore, especially, I would here render an humble tribute of 
 respect and veneration. Their characters are unknown to 
 history. Eoger is not named in the annals of llSTorth-Carolina ; 
 and Col. Maurice Moore is mentioned, and only mentioned, 
 as the father of his illustrious sons, Judge Maurice, and Gen- 
 eral James Moore. If history immortalizes those who, wuth 
 the cannon and the bayonet, through blood and carnage, es- 
 tablish a dynasty or found a state, surely something more 
 than mere oblivion is due to those, who, forsaking all that is 
 attractive to the civilized mind, lead a colony, and plant it 
 successfully in harmony and peace, amid the dangers of the 
 
 * Williamson, 2—10 ; Martin, 1—285. + Martin, 1—284. X Carr. Co!!,, 2—421. 
 
16 
 
 ■«'ildernes9, and nnder the war-whoop of the savage. Every 
 schoolboy has read of Cadmus, who, thousands of years ago, 
 brought letters into Greece, Few, very few, even of the in- 
 telligent men of the Cape Fear, have ever heard the names 
 of those, to whom, but little more than a century since, they 
 owe the civilization of their country. These brothers were 
 not cast in the common mould of men. They were of " the 
 breed of noble bloods." Of kingly descent,"" and proud of 
 their name which brave deeds had made illustrious, they 
 dwelt upon their magnificent estates of Rocky Point, and 
 Orton, with much of the dignity, and something of the state 
 of the ancient feudal barons, surrounded by their sons and 
 kinsmen, who looked up to them for counsel, and were de- 
 voted to tlieir will. Proud and stately, somewhat haughty 
 and overbearing perhaps, but honorable, brave, highminded 
 and generous ; they lived for many years the fathers of the 
 Cape Fear, dispensing a noble hospitality to all the worthy, 
 and a terror to the mean and lawless. Tliis picture may seem 
 overdrawn, perhaps ; but it is truly painted from family tra- 
 ditions. And Roger Moore is, to this day, always called on 
 the Cape Fear by his soubriquet of " Old King Roger." 
 They possessed the entire respect and confidence of all ; and 
 the early books of the Register's OflSce of New Hanover 
 county are full of letters of attorney from all sorts of men, 
 giving them an absolute discretion in managing the varied 
 affairs of their many constituents. 
 
 Such were the pioneers of the Cape Fear. And it is need- 
 less to say how great is the reproach of the people who have 
 left their names to die. In a grove of noble oaks upon the 
 slope of the hill at Orton, facing the river, and nearly opJJo- 
 site the Sugar Loaf Hill which is pointed out by the old as 
 the scene of one of his fearless exploits with the Indians, 
 "King Roger" sleeps, surrounded by his family, without a 
 stone to record his virtues, or even to tell his name ! 
 
 The earliest grant of land upon the Cape Fear was one, (of 
 which I have seen a recital in a later deed) from the Proprie- 
 tors to Landgrave Thomas Smith, in 1691, for forty-eight 
 thousand acres. If this grant was ever surveyed and located, 
 (of which there is now no evidence,) it is certain that it was 
 
 * Leland, Hist. Ireland says their ancestor, Roger, was descended from the ancieat 
 Kings of Leix. 
 
17 
 
 never occupied prior to tlie year 1723. The next oldest, as 
 far as I have been able to ascertain, was one from the Pro- 
 prietors to Col. Maurice Moore, the 3d of June, 1725, for fif- 
 teen Imndred acres, on the west bank of the river. Of this 
 tract, in the same year,* he laid oif three hundred and sixty 
 acres upon the river, sixteen miles* below Wilmington, into • 
 haU-acre lots for a town, which he named in honor of the 
 reigning family. This was the old borough of Brunswick, 
 subsequently so distinguished under the administrations of 
 Tryon and Martin for its enlightened patriotism, and its bold 
 and active zeal in the cause of liberty — the home of Howe, 
 of Hill, of Harnett and of Dry — the cynosure of the refine- 
 ment of the day — where generous wealth built stately man- 
 sions, and delighted in elegant hospitality — where hightoned 
 honor and chivalrous courage, and gentle courtesy and social 
 harmony, wit, education and refinement, met to make them- 
 selves a home. The voyager upon the Cape Fear now looks 
 in vain for the traces of its ancient state. Ichabod was writ- 
 ten on its walls, and desolation reigns. Its lordly mansions 
 are in the dust, and its glad voices gone. The bat and the 
 owl are its only dwellers ; and nothing remains to mark its 
 site but the solid walls of the old Anglican church, and the 
 silent monuments of the dead. 
 
 Begun under auspices such as I have mentioned, the suc- 
 cess of this colony " followed as the night the day ;" and men 
 of note from all quarters soon came to swell its numbers. 
 Here, from the Chowan, came the distinguished lawyer, Sam- 
 uel Swann and his brother John, Edward Moseley, President 
 of the Council, and his kinsman young Alexander Lillington, 
 John Baptista Ashe, and Cornelius Harnett the elder. Here, 
 from Boston, came the elegant gentlemen, Wm. Hill, Wm, 
 Hooper, and Gen. Thomas Clark — from South Carolina, 
 Chief Justice Allen, and William Dry the elder — from Ire- 
 land, Archibald Maclaine— from Liverpool, the Eagles— from 
 London, the Quinces — and here came James Hasell and 
 Kobert Halton, and Armand DeRosset, and Benj. Heron, 
 Capt. Edward Hyrne, CqI. James Innes, Col. Tlios. Merrick, 
 the Claytons, the Rutherfords, the Eices, the Eowans, the 
 Watters, the Strudwicks, and a host of others. Here, in 
 1736, came the Eev. Eichard Marsden, bringing with him 
 
 * Deed from M. Moore to C. Harnett, Reg. Of. N. H. Co. Book A. 71. 
 
 2 
 
y 
 
 the sacred offices of religion. Here, in 1Y24, tlie Governor, 
 George Burrington, came on a visit to the young colony ;* 
 and soon afterwards lie pnrcliased and settled a plantation 
 five miles below Brunswick, on a creek wliicli is called after 
 him to this day Governor's Creek, and resided there for many 
 years. As everything pertaining to our early histoiy is im- 
 portant, it may not be amiss to correct an error into which 
 history has fallen in relation to Gov. Burrington's death. 
 Williamson saysf that soon after his abdication of the govern- 
 ment, in 1734, he was rioting one night, and was found mur- 
 dered the next morning in the Bird Cage Walk, in St. James' 
 Park, in London. The manner of his death may be true ; 
 but there is certainly an error of at least twenty years in the 
 date. I have in my possession an original letter of his, dated 
 in 1739. And in 1754 he mortgaged to Samuel Strudwick, 
 of London, his Stag Park plantation upon the river — the 
 same which had been so named by the explorers from Barba- 
 does, under Capt. Hilton, ninety years before. The deed is 
 recorded in JSTew Hanover county. I cannot but think, too, 
 that history has done him injustice in the delineation of his 
 character. Wheeler attacks him with the sweeping denun- 
 ciation that " his character is unadorned by a single virtue.;}; 
 Certainly the crimes with which he is charged are not of a 
 lieinous magnitude ; nor are the proofs veiy conclusive. 
 They consist mainly of certain indictments against him in the 
 General Court at Edenton, in two of ■vV'hich the gravamen was 
 his having said that Sir Richard Everard was " a noodle and 
 an ape," " a calf-head," " and no more fit to be Governor than 
 Sancho Panza ;" (an opinion by the by, fully entertained by 
 better men than George Burrington ;) in another, for an as- 
 sault, he was a co-defendant with Cornelius Harnett the eider, 
 and some others of the first gentlemen in the colony; and 
 there were two others against him for rather riotous assaults. 
 In none of these was he proved guilty. It is true he did not 
 appear to stand his trial. But that may very well have been, 
 because his enemy. Sir Richard Everard, was Governor, 
 and he did not wish to be tried by his creatures and friends. 
 Moreover, he lived in a lawless age, and in a country, where, 
 according to Col. Byrd, of Westover, " every one did what 
 was best in his own eyes ; and none paid any tribute to God 
 
 * Martin, 1—296. t 2—35. % Address at Davidson College, Un. Mag., Dec. 1852. 
 
or to Ca?sar."" And it is not fair to judge him by tlie purer 
 morality of later times. That he was a wise, or a prudent 
 Governor, is not pretended by any. But, "he was not 
 chargeable with fraud or corruption; for he despised rogues, 
 whether they were small or great. ISTor could he be sus- 
 pected of cunning; a vice which is more dangerous, because 
 it personates a virtue."t I believe that he was open, frank, 
 bold, spirited, and generous ; but he was also weak, impru- 
 dent, dissipated, and reckless. A social and agreeable com- 
 panion, and a staunch friend ; but careless of his personal 
 dignity, and regardless of law or authority. His virtues were 
 his own ; and his vices were but too common in the times in 
 which he lived. 
 
 Among the emigrants to the Cape Fear there was one about 
 whose history hangs a melancholy shade of romance. Some 
 time about the year 1760 there came thither from Virginia a 
 gentleman of L-ish fiimily named Thomas McGuire. Young, 
 gay, and frank, of finished education and winning address, he 
 was warmly welcomed and entertained by the hospitable 
 gentlemen of Brunswick ; and, among others, by Col. Wm. 
 Dry, whose mansion was afterwards celebrated in the Journal 
 of Josiah Quincy as " the house of universal hospitality.":}; 
 Rebecca, the daughter of Col. Dry, and great niece of Cob 
 Maurice Moore, a gentle and lovely young girl, was won by 
 the attractions of the handsome stranger, and bestowed on 
 him her hand. She lived but a little while, and died in 1766 
 at the early age of seventeen, universally loved and regretted. 
 Her tombstone stands in the churchj^ard of Old Brunswick, 
 bearing a finished tribute to her memory from the hand of her 
 husband, which concludes with this genuine Irish sentiment : 
 
 " Quisquis hoe marmor sustulerit, 
 Ultimus suoriim moriatur." 
 
 Tradition says that this Thomas McGuire was the lineal de- 
 scendant of the Lord McGuire, who was the friend and asso- 
 ciate of his wife's ancestor in the Irish Rebellion of 1641, and 
 who was con^'emned and executed after the attack upon the 
 Castle of Dubhn. I know not how this may be. But it is 
 certainly true, and strange as true, that the names of Roger 
 Moore and McGuire, which nowhere appear together but in 
 the histoiy of that rebellion, and which disappear together 
 
 * Journal ef the Boundary CommissioT:, Westoyer, M.SS. + Williamson, 2 — li. 
 1 1773. 
 
20- 
 
 wlieii that wa& quelled, should be found, more than a centuiy 
 later, united by friendsliip and marriage, on the banks of the 
 Cape Fear. And sadly McGuire's curse returned upon hinu 
 For the marble still stands above the dust of his wife ;. and he 
 himself " died the last of his race," and left no memorial of 
 his life or death. 
 
 About the year 1730 'or 1731, some haMtatious began to be 
 built on the sandhill bluff opposite the junction of the north- 
 east and northwest branches of the Cape Fear river. Soon 
 they increased to a little village without order or regularity, 
 which received the name of Xew Liverpool. In 1733 it was 
 regularly surveyed into lots for a town ; but the inhabitants 
 had still no title to the land but by occupation. In 1735 a 
 grant issued to John Watson for 640 acres, including the vil- 
 lage, and styling it Newton ; and for several years afterwards 
 it was indiscriminately called ISTewton and !New Liverpool. 
 In 1739 its name was changed by legislative enactment to 
 "Wilmington, in honor of Spence Compton^ Baron of Wilming- 
 ton, the friend and patron of Gov. Gabriel Johnston, Almost 
 side by side, Wilmington and Brunswick advanced with near- 
 ly equal steps until the Bevolution, when they were of about 
 the same size -and importance. After the Revolution, when 
 peace and good order returned and commerce revived, 
 Brunswick began to decay. The causes w^hich produced its 
 decadence I have iiot time now to examine,.. Its principal in- 
 habitants one by one removed to the sister town, which flou- 
 rished over its decay, and gradually absorbed it altogether ;, 
 until the one has become a flourishing city, and the .other a 
 desolate wilderness. 
 
 In all the disputes with the royal government the people of 
 the Cape Fear were from the beginning among the foremost 
 friends of freedom. A distinguished statesman has said that 
 the war of the Revolution "was fought uppn a preamble." 
 With them it w^as as nearly as could be a war upon an ab- 
 stract principle. They were not a commerical people. Tliey 
 were principally planters, many of them wealthy, and all pos- 
 sessing a comfortable independenee, residing upon their es- 
 tates, an^ living almost entii-ely within themselves. Secluded 
 from the world, aaid delighting chiefly in rural sports and so- 
 cial enjoyment at home, what need they care for a trifling 
 duty on govermn.ent paper I Wliy should they hazard their 
 
% 21 
 
 fortunes, tlieir families, and their lives, for two-pence a ponnd 
 on tea? But it was not only a war npon an abstract princi- 
 ple, but a w^ar against substantial benetits. They had re- 
 ceived extraordinary favors from the government. A fort 
 had been built at the mouth of the river for their protection 
 from enemies and pirates. Their religion had been cared 
 for by legislative aid in the erection of their churches of St. 
 Philip and St. James. In 1745 an act was passed for the de- 
 clared purpose of building up the town of Brunswick.* And 
 they had long enjoyed a substantial bounty upon their pecu- 
 liar production of naval stores, in vhich their capital was prin- 
 •cipally invested, and from w^hich their chief revenue was de- 
 rived. Moreover, with most of them the sentiment of loyalty 
 was hereditary. They had never yielded a willing obedience 
 to the government of the Proprietors ; but in common with 
 all their compatriots, they had struggled long and arduously 
 against it, until they succeeded in bringing themselves under 
 the autliority and protection of the crow^n. They revered 
 their king ; and to rebel against him was to them like raising 
 one's hand against the gray hairs of a father. But all this 
 was nothing when weighed against a single principle. Gov. 
 Dobbs lived there for many years in the constant intercourse 
 of Iriendship and hospitality with their leading men. But yet, 
 in all his measures for increasing the power and patronage of 
 the government, he could never win from among their rep- 
 resentatives a single advocate. Gov. Tiyon by turns cajoled 
 and threatened, courted and denounced them. But they des- 
 pised his blandishments, as they defied his power. 
 
 When the Stamp Act was introduced into Parliament, they 
 watched "its progress as men watch the storm which they 
 Iknow is to burst in fury on their heads ; but they watched 
 without fear and with manly hearts. When the ■ cews of 
 its passage came across the water, their Chevalier Bayard, 
 John Ashe, was Speaker of the House. He boldly proclaimed 
 to the Governor that he w^ould resist it unto death ; and that 
 his people would stand by him in the sacred cause.f Did he 
 miscalculate the spirit of his people ? Had he read them 
 aright ? Let us see. 
 
 In the first of the year 1766 the sloop of war Diligence ar- 
 rived in the Cape Fear, bringing the stamps. The procla- 
 
 * Davis' Kevisal, OS. t Jones' Def. No. Ca. 21. 
 
22 ^ 
 
 mation of Gov. Tryon announcing lier arrival, and directing 
 all persons authorized to distribute tliem to apply to lier com- 
 mander, is dated tlie Ctli of January in that year. Now look 
 •what shall happen. She floats as gaily up the river as though 
 she came upon an errand of grace, with sails all set, and the 
 cross of St. George flaunting apeak, and her cannon frown up- 
 on the rebellious little town of Brunswick, as she yaws to her 
 anchor. People of the Cape Fear, the issue is before you I 
 The paw of the lion is on your heads — the terrible lion of 
 England! Will ye crouch submissively? — or redeem the 
 honor that was pledged for you ? Ye have spoken brave 
 words about the rights of the people. Have ye acts as brave ? 
 
 Ah, gentlemen, there were men in I^orth-Carolina in those 
 days ! 
 
 Scarcely had the Stamp ship crossed the bar, when Colonel 
 Waddell was watching her from the land. He sent a mes- 
 sage to Wilmington to his friend Colonel Ashe. And as she 
 rounded to her anchor opposite the custom house at Bruns- 
 wick, they stood upon the shore with two companies of friends 
 and gallant yeomen at their backs. Beware John Ashe I 
 Hugh Waddell, take heed ! Consider well, brave gentlemen, 
 the perilous issue that you dare. Kemember that armed re- 
 sistance to the King's authority is Treason. In his palace, at 
 Wilmington, but a few miles off, the "Wolf of Carolina"* is 
 already chafing against you. And know you not that yonder, 
 across the water, England still keeps the Tower, the Traitor's 
 Gate, the Scaffold and the Axe ? Full well they know. But 
 
 " They have set their lives upon the cast. 
 And now must stand the hazard of the die." 
 
 By threats of violence they mtimidate the commander of 
 the sloop, and he promises not to land the stamps. They seize 
 the vessel's boat, and hoisting a mast and flag, mount it upon 
 a cart, and march in triumph to Wilmington. Upon their 
 arrival the town is illuminated. 'Next day, with Colonel Ashe 
 at their head, the people go in crowds to the Governor's 
 house, and demand of him James Houston, the Stamp-master. 
 Upon his refusal to deliver him up, forthwith they set about 
 to burn the house above his head. Terrified, the Governor 
 at length complies, and Houston is conducted to the' market 
 house, where, in the presence of the assembled people he is 
 
 * Name given to Tryon by the Indians. 
 
23 
 
 mfide to take a solemn oath never to execute the duties of 
 liis otfice. Three ghad liurrahs ring- tlirough the old market 
 house, and the Stamp Act falls still-horn in Xorth-Carolina.* 
 And this was more than ten years I)efore the Declaration of 
 Independence, and more than nine hefore the battle of Lex- 
 ington, and nearly eight years hefore the Boston Tea Party. 
 The destruction of the tea was done in the night, by men in 
 disguise. And history blazons it, and ISTew England boasts 
 of it, and the fame of it is ^vorld-^vide. But this other act^ 
 more gallant and daring, done in open day, by well known 
 men, with arms in their hands, and under the king's flag — 
 who remembers, or who tells of it ? "When will history do 
 justice to JSTorth-Carolina ? I^ever, until some faithful and 
 loyiug son of her own shall gird his loins to the task, with 
 unwearied industry and unflinching devotion to the honor of 
 his dear old mother. 
 
 Alarmed by the daring opposition of the people. Governor 
 Try on, who had bullied before, determined to change his policy. 
 
 "High reaching Buckingham grows circumspect." 
 
 He began to court the people, and to flatter them with shows 
 and sports. In February of the same year there was a mus- 
 ter of the militia of the county in Wilmington. The Gov- 
 ernor, in his amiable condescension, caused a fine repast to 
 be prepared for them at a considerable expense. But when 
 the feast was ready, the people rushed to the spot, poured the 
 liquor into the streets, and threw the viands, untasted, into 
 the river. f He forgot that he was in the home of John Ashe, 
 and that the people whom he led could neither be bought nor 
 intimidated. 
 
 The repeal of the Stamp Act, which happened soon after, 
 though joyfully received, was not viewed as an act of grace, 
 but as one of tardy repentance for an unjustifiable wrong. 
 It was far from allaying the jealousies of the people ; but it 
 produced a spirit of greater forbearance towards the Gover- 
 nor. And the rest of his administration was principally con- 
 cerned with the erection of his splendid palace at ISTew Bern, 
 and, his difficulties with the Regulators; both of which are 
 foreign to my subject. 
 
 Upon the accession of Gov, Martin, he had not the pru- 
 dence to avoid the errors and follies of his predecessor. He 
 
 * Jones, 24—25; Wheeler, 1—51. t Jones, 29; Wheeler, 1—52. 
 
24: 
 
 attempted, by frequent prorogations of tlie Assembly, and by 
 leaving the people without the protection of the courts of 
 justice, to weary out their representatives, and reduce them 
 to submission. But they grew bolder and bolder. They re- 
 fused to pass his relief bills. They bearded him upon the 
 Southern Boundary Question, Time and again they bullied* 
 him upon the Attachment Law. Until at length, on the 24th 
 of April, 1775, when the daring "Whigs of New Bern seized 
 his artillery in his very palace yard, he fled to the Cape Fear. 
 But he found no comfort there. If Mecklenburg was the 
 " Hornet's ISTest," of,the Revolution, truly the Cape Fear was 
 a nest of Yellow Jackets to Tryon and Martin. He took re- 
 fuge in Fort Johnston, at the mouth of the river. On the 
 15th June he issued thence a proclamation, in which he de- 
 nounced the Committees of the Province, and attempted to de- 
 stroy their influence with the people. On the 20th of the same 
 month the Committee of t^e "Wilmington District fired back 
 a bulletin, in which they declared him " an enemy to the col- 
 ony," more than hinted that he had endeavored " to gloss 
 over the most palpable violations of truth with plausibility," 
 and denounced his proclamation as "a poor artifice to seduce, 
 mislead and betray the ignorant and incautious into ruin and 
 destruction, by inducing them to forfeit the inestimable bles- 
 sings of freedom."* " A certain John Ashe," too, as he af- 
 terwards called him in his proclamation of 8th August, was 
 then at home ; and he had not forgotten his old style of hos- 
 pitality to the royal governors. Throwing ujd the commission 
 which he held from the government, and accepting a colo- 
 nelcy, by election from the people, he collected a body of five 
 hundred troops, marched to Fort Johnston, and on the 18th 
 July drove the Governor on board the ship of war, Cruiser, 
 and burnt and destroyed the fort under her very guns. 
 
 Thus nobly, upon the Cape Fear, closed the first act of the 
 drama. And when the curtain rose again, George, by the 
 grace of God, king, was king no longer; but the Constitu- 
 tion reigned, and the free people of North-Carolina governed 
 themselves. 
 
 I said there were men in North-Carolitia in those days. 1 
 would that I had the time and the ability to portray, in fitting 
 colors, their claims upon the gratitude and remembrance of 
 
 * Proceedings of the Wil. Committee, 32—33—34. 
 
25 
 
 their countrymen. But a brief allusion to some of the most 
 distinguished of those'who adorned the Cape Fear, is all that 
 I dare now attempt. 
 
 And I mention tirst the noble family of Ashe, which, gave 
 every grown male of the name, nine fighting men, to the ser- 
 vice of their country, in the darkest hour of her cause. And 
 yet, so modestly have their claims upon the State been 
 pressed, or rather, so little have they been asserted at all, 
 that the commonly received account of the origin of the 
 family is entirely erroneous. It is generally said,* that the 
 founder of the family in North-Carolina emigrated from Eng- 
 land in 1727, under the patronage of the Earl of Craven. 
 Tills is incorrect. The name of Ashe was distinguished in 
 Carolina at least as early as the year 1700. f Under the ad- 
 ministration of Sir ISTathaniel Johnson, in South-Carolina, an 
 effort was made to make the religion of the Chm-ch of Eng- 
 land the established religion of the colony ; and an act of 
 conformity was passed, the effect of which was, to exclude 
 dissenters altogether from the Assembly. The inhabitants of 
 Colleton county, who were mostly dissenters, were justl}^ in- 
 censed at this injustice ; and they sent John Ashe, who was 
 one of their leading men, to England, as their agent, to lay 
 their case before the Proprietors, and seek redress.:]; This 
 was in 1703. John Ashe died while in England on this mis- 
 sion ; and soon afterwards his family emigrated to the Albe- 
 marle settlement in North-Carolina. From thence his son,§ 
 John Baptista Ashe, about the year 1727, removed to the Cape 
 Fear. He had two sons, the John Ashe of whom I have made 
 frequent mention — " the most chivalrous hero of our Revolu- 
 tion"! — and who is usually distinguished by his subsequent 
 title as General Ashe, and Samuel, afterwards Governor of 
 tlie State. "The Ashe family," says Jones,! "contributed 
 more than any other to the success of the revolution in the 
 State. Gen. Ashe's son, Capt. Sam'l Ashe, served two cam- 
 paigns in the Northern States, with the rank of captain in 
 the light-horse, and although he resigned his commission, yet 
 he continued to serve in the militia expeditions of the State. 
 So that there were five officers of that family all actively en- 
 gaged in the war : Gen. John Ashe, and his son Capt. Sam'l 
 
 * Wheeler, 2—279 ; Caruthers, 126. t Oldmixon in Carr, Coll., 2—421. X Carr. Coll., 
 1—148 ; Id., 2—431 ; Martin, 1—219. § Martin, 1—219. 1 Jones' Def. of No. Ca., 509. 
 8 Def. of No. Ca., 211. 
 
26 
 
 Ashe ; Gov, Samuel Ashe, and liis sons, Colonels John Bap- 
 tista, and Samuel Ashe." True so far. And he might have 
 added, that Gen. Ashe's son John — " Mad Jack Ashe," as he 
 was called — served nearly throughout the Avar with tlie rank 
 of captain ; and that the hoys, William, Acourt, and Cincin- 
 natus Ashe, though too young to hold command, were old 
 enough to follow the example of their sires, and march 
 against the enemies of their country. 
 
 It was not my good fortune to know but one of these disr 
 tinguished men. In my early youth I remember an old man, 
 bowed by age and infirmities, but of a noble front, and most 
 commanding presence. Old and young gathered around him 
 in love and veneration, to listen to his stories of the olden 
 time. And as he spake of his country's trials, and of the 
 deeds and sufferings of her sons, his eye flashed with the ar- 
 dor of youth, and his voice rang like the battle charge of a 
 bugle. He was the soul of truth and honor, with the ripe 
 wisdom of a man, and the guileless simplicity of a child. 
 He won strangers to him with a look, and those who knew 
 him loved him with a most filial affection. None ever lived 
 more honored and revered ; none ever died leaving a purer 
 or more cherished memory. This was Colonel Samuel Ashe, 
 " the last of all the Romans." 
 
 I must speak also, briefly, of the family of the Moores — 
 Judge Maurice Moore, and his brother Gen, James Moore, 
 sons of Col. Maurice Moore, the pioneer of the Cape Fear ; 
 and Judge Alfred Moore, son of Judge Maurice Moore. 
 They, too, had inherited the rebellious blood of their race, 
 and were genuine scions of the old stock. It was not in their 
 name or blood to be other than patriots, or to shrink from any 
 sacrifice at the call of their country. Judge Maurice Moore 
 was the elder brother, and had been bred to the profession of 
 the law. He, with Martin Howard and Richard Henderson, 
 composed the judiciary of the State when the Revolution 
 silenced the laws. He sympathized with the Regulators, 
 though called by his office to sit in judgment upon them. 
 And when, in the great riot at Hillsboro' in 1770, Howard 
 was driven from the bench, and Edmund Fanning severely 
 chastised, the character of Judge Moore was respected by 
 the rioters. He was a member of the popular house in 1771, 
 and introduced the bill extending a general pardon to all who 
 
27 
 
 liad been concerned in the Eegulation. lie was an active 
 and influential member of the Convention of 177G, Avliich 
 formed the constitution of the State. In 1766 he had pub- 
 lished an able argument against the constitutionality of the 
 Stamp Act^.tlie motto on the title page of which was the true 
 index to his own character. 
 
 " Nou sibi, sed patriae." 
 
 He was also the author of the celebrated letter to Gov. Tryon, 
 signed " Atticus." " A learned jurist, an astute advocate, a 
 keen-sighted statesman, Judge Moore also possessed the high- 
 est moral qualities. Among these was a devotion to the cause 
 of rational liberty. Amid the conflagration and tumult which 
 precede civil war, he calculated the impending perils, and 
 the distant and precarious blessings which lay hid in the clouds 
 that overhung his country. He meditated on the approach- 
 ing storm, and determined to stake his life, his fortune, and 
 the destinies of his family, on the side of civil liberty in the 
 dubious issue."^' He did not live to witness the determina- 
 tion of the issue which he so nobly dared. 
 
 His brother James was bred a soldier from his youth ; and 
 from the first espoused the cause of his country. He was 
 considered the first military genius of the province, f and there 
 can be no better testimonial of his merit, and of the high es- 
 teem in which he was held by his countrymen, than the fact 
 that when the Provincial Congress of 17Y5 undertook the 
 military organization of the State, he was elected colonel of 
 the first regiment, although his competitor was his brother-in- 
 law, the brave John Ashe.ij: For some months after his ap- 
 pointment, he was stationed with his regiment on the Cape 
 Fear to watch the ships of war then in the river, and keep a 
 check on Gov. Martin. In the early part of 1776, when the 
 " clans of Culloden " were gathering at Cross Creek under 
 McDonald and McLeod for the purpose of eftecting a junc- 
 tion on the Cape Fear with Sir Henry Cinton, and executing 
 thence a well planned scheme for the subjugation of the State, 
 Gen, Moore marched with his regiment to Cumberland to 
 meet and give them battle. They deemed it prudent, how- 
 ever, to avoid him. And. it was while flying from his hot 
 pursuit that they encountered Caswell and Lillington at 
 Moore's Creek, and lost the battle there, which saved the 
 
 * A. M. Hooper, in Un. Mag., Dec. 18o.3. t Mem. of Gen. Howe by A. M. Hooper, 
 Uu. Mag. Dec. 1853. X U"- Mag. May 1853. 
 
28 
 
 State. In the summer of 1776, upon tlie departure of Gen. 
 Lee, Gen. Moore was appointed hy Congress Commander-in- 
 Chief of the Southern Department. And after executing the 
 duties of his office for several months, he was called home on 
 private business, where he was soon after taken ilL The 15th 
 of January, 1777, was a sad day for the Cape Fear, and for the 
 State. For on that day, in the same house in Wilmington, 
 and within an hour of each other, died the brothers Maurice 
 and James Moore, in the j)rime of life, and in the meridian of 
 their usefulness and fame. 
 
 Judge Alfred Moore came nearer to our own times, and is 
 better known than his distinguished father and uncle. He, 
 too, was a soldier, and while not yet of age commanded a 
 company at Charleston in the memorable attack upon Fort 
 Moultrie. But his family misfortunes soon called him from 
 the field. And although he was afterwards active in the mil- 
 itia service of the State, and so incurred the animosity of the 
 British commander, Maj. Craig, that he sent a troop to plun- 
 der and destroy his dwelling; yet his principal fame was sub- 
 sequently acquired in the walks of his profession. The heavy 
 sufferings of liimself and his family in the cause of liberty, 
 and tlie heroic fortitude with which he endured them, so won 
 upon the love and gratitude of the State, that in 1782 he was 
 elected its Attorney General while yet a perfect novice in his 
 profession. He soon rose to eminence, however, and was 
 called to the bench in 1798, and in the next year was appoint- 
 ed an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United 
 States. Of his merits as a lawyer we have the highest evi- 
 dence. Chief Justice Taylor, himself pre-eminent as a jurist, 
 on the solemn occasion of a capital judgment, declared of him 
 that " he discharged for a series of years the arduous duties 
 of his office," (of Attorney General,) " in a manner which 
 commanded the gratitude and admiration of his cotempora-' 
 ries. His profound knowledge of the criminal law was kept 
 in continual exercise by a most varied and extensive practice. 
 "No one ever doubted his learning and penetration ; or that 
 while he enforced the law with an enlightened vigilance and 
 untiring zeal, his energy was seasoned with humanity, leav- 
 ing the innocent nothing to fear, and the guilty but little to 
 hope."* These things history has preserved of him. But 
 
 * State i'S Jernagan, 3 Mur. Eep., 12. 
 
29 
 
 tradition alone spoalcs of tlie charming traits in private life — 
 his varied accomplishments and brilliant wit, his chivalrous 
 honor and gentle courtesy, his noble hospitality and most win- 
 ning manners — which won him the love and admiration of all, 
 and have handed down his memory as the finished model of 
 a Korth-Carolina gentleman. 
 
 Of General Eobert Howe, the wit, the scholar, and the sol- • 
 dier, it is hardly necessar}^ for me to speak. His fame has re- 
 ceived ample justice at the hands of his biographer." He 
 must have deserved well of his country ; for he was feared, and 
 bitterly hated by her enemies. It was at him and his friend 
 Gen. Ashe and Kichard Caswell, that the celebrated procla- - 
 mation of Gov. Martin of the Stli August, 1775, was specially 
 aimed. And upon the arrival of Sir Henry Clinton in the 
 Gape Fear, he called to mind the disgrace which Gen. Howe 
 had inflicted upon his friend Lord Dunmore at ISTorfolk ; and 
 he signalized at the same time his own ignoble character, and 
 the incorruptible patriotism of Gen. Howe, by excepting him 
 from the general pardon which he offered to the people, and 
 by ravaging, his plantation and burning his dwelling with 
 circumstances of v/ anton barbarity, ^ 
 
 Alexander Lillington is another name which the people of 
 Is"orth-Carolina ought never to forget ; for it is associated witl) 
 one of the brightest pages of their history. His grandfather, . 
 Major Alexander Lillington, emigrated from Barbadoes to the • 
 County of Albemarle, but at what precise time is not now 
 known. He was early distinguished, however, in the liistory of 
 the colony. The oldest public record in the State is the com- ^ 
 mission which issued the 3d of December, 1769, to George 't' 
 Durant, Alex. Lillington, Halpli Fletcher and Caleb Callo- 
 way, to hold the Precinct Courts of Berkeley Precinct. And 
 ujjon the departure of Gov. Ludwell, in 1693, the administra-- 
 tion of aftairs in Albemarle devolved upon him as Deputy 
 Governor.f His grandson, Alexander, was left an orphan at 
 an early age ; and when Edward Moseley, who had married 
 his father's sister, emigratecl' to the Cape Fear, about the year 
 1727, young Lillington went with him. He was early known 
 as an active and leading Whig, and was a prominent and in- 
 fluential member of the Wilmington Cou:smittee. Tliough he 
 served through the war with distinction and attained to the. 
 
 * A. M. Hooper, Mem. of Gen, Howe, Un. Mag. + Martin, 1 — 194, 
 
30 
 
 rank of Brigadier General, yet his fame principally rests upon 
 the Lattle of Moore's Creek. The importance of this battle 
 has never been properly appreciated, and, indeed, was never 
 fully demonstrated nntil the delivery of the interesting lec- 
 ture of President Swain bfciore the Historical Society of the 
 University, in 1853. It is not my purpose to discuss it here. 
 But;, without the remotest intention of detracting from the 
 well earned fame of Gov. Caswell, whose memory is very dear 
 to me as a JSTorth-Carolinian, I must say that if the traditions 
 of the people among whom the battle was fought are to be 
 beheved. Gen, Lillington has never yet received the due 
 meed of praise for his part in that day's work. Those tra- 
 ditions agree mainly with Jones' account of the battle ; and 
 they tell that he hate by far the hardest brunt of the fight, 
 while he has only Deen permitted to wear the smallest share 
 of the glory. Whether he commanded in chief or not, he 
 certainly had the post of danger and of honor, in the front of 
 the battle ; and leading the daring charge across the bridge, 
 he bore himself like a skilful and gallant officer, while fighting- 
 like a common soldier. There was honor enough for all, and 
 ail should have shared it alike. It was most unjust that his 
 name was altogether omitted in the vote of thanks which was 
 afterwards passed by the Provincial Congress at Halifax. 'It 
 has been said that he himself never complained of this."^^ It 
 is true. He never complained, because he was a patriot, and 
 not a soldier of fortune ; because he fought for the freedom 
 of his country, and not for his personal renown. His family, 
 who worship his memory, have still the silver crescent which 
 he wore upon his hat that day; and it bears inscribed the 
 words, which were his cry of battle, his prayer by night, and 
 his hope always — " Liberty or Death." 
 
 To all the men of whom I have spoken, history has done 
 some justice, more or less partial. But there was yet another 
 who shone like a star in the early troubles of the State, of 
 pure and exalted character, of unsurpassed influence with his 
 countrymen, and the value of whose services was only equal- 
 led by the extent of his sufferings and sacrifices in the cause 
 of liberty. And yet, so little is he known, that I doubt not, 
 gentlemen, mau}^ of you have not even so much as heard his 
 ^ name. I speak of Cornelius Harnett, the pride of the Cape 
 
 * A. M. Hooper, Un. Mag., Sept., 1853. 
 
31 
 
 Fear — "tlie Samuel Adams of Xortii-Carolma."* To the 
 sliame of tlie State, lus birtli-place has not heretofore been 
 even conjectured ; and meagre as are the accounts of his 
 early history, they are full of errors. He is always spoken of 
 as the first and only one of his family in ISTorth Carolina, and 
 is said to have emigrated from England to the Cape Fear ; 
 and one historianf makes him to have been one of Gov. Bur- 
 rington's Council in 1730. This is all -svrong. In 1730 he was 
 only seven years old. His father, of the same name, was 
 among tlie earliest emigrants to the Cape Fear, and was for 
 many years one of its leading inhabitants ; and he did not 
 go there from England, but from the county of Albemarle. 
 I think it nearly certain that he himself was born in the Pre- 
 cinct of Chowan, and most probably in the town of Edenton. 
 In the Register's Office of jSTew Hanover county:}: there is 
 the record of a bond from Col. Maurice Moore, of New Han- 
 over Precinct, to Cornelius Harnett, "of the same place," 
 dated 30th June, 1726, and conditioned to make him a title 
 to two lots in the new town of Brunswick, upon his building 
 good habitable houses thereon within eight months. This 
 fixes the period of the father's emigration to the Cape Fear. 
 But where had been his previous residence ? There is another 
 " public record which gives us the information. At the Gen- 
 eral Court sitting in Edenton, the 29th of March, 1726, 
 " George Burrington was indicted for that about the 2nd of 
 December, 1725, with Cornelius Harnett of Chowan, and 
 others, he assaulted the house of Sir Richard Everard, &;c."§ 
 Islow, from his abetting Burrington, even with force, in his 
 quarrel with Sir Richard Everard, and from his afterwards 
 being appointed one of his first councillors when he became 
 a second time Governor in 1730, we may fairly infer that 
 Cornelius Harnett the elder was the intimate friend and as- 
 sociate of Gov. Burrington, and a man of distinction in the 
 colony as early as 1725. And to have attained that position, he 
 must have been resident there previously several years at least. 
 If these inferences are correct, his sou, the subject of this 
 sketch, was a native born ]!^orth-Carolinian ; for we know that 
 lie was born in 1723. From 1765 to 1780, there was scarcely 
 a movement in the patriot cause in which Cornelius Harnett 
 did not bear a conspicuous part. And a bare enumeration of 
 
 * Journal of Josiah Quincv. t Wheeler, 2—282. % Book A., page 71. § William- 
 snti 2—229. 
 
32 
 
 tlie appointments whicli lie tilled, and of tlie men witli wliom 
 he was associated, Avould be sufficient to sliow tlie influence 
 he exercised, and the estimation in which he was held. lie 
 was one of the faithful representatives of the people, who, 
 uiiawed by power, so fearlesssly resisted the gevernment on 
 the Attachment Law. lie was the first chairman of the 
 "Wilmington Committee, over wdiich he long presided, its very 
 centre and soul, and the life-breathing spirit of liberty among 
 the people. When the Provincial Congress, in 1775, assumed 
 the government, and appointed a Council to administer the 
 affairs of the province at their most critical juncture, he was 
 chosen President of the Council, and virtual Governor of the 
 province ; a noble tril3ute to his worth and ^ abilities. Btit 
 there is yet a brighter jewel in his crown of glory. A mem- 
 ber of the convention w^h'ich met at Halifax the 4th of April, 
 1776, he was chairman of the Committee appointed to con- 
 sider of the nsiirpations of the king and parliament, and the 
 author of their celebrated report and resolution, " empower- 
 ing the Deleo-ates for this Colonv in the Continental Cono-ress 
 to concur with the Delegates of the other colonies in decldring 
 Independence." This resolution was unanimously adopted 
 by the Convention on the 12th of April, 1776 ; more than a 
 month before the celebrated resolution of Virginia on- the 
 same subject. But yet, it was done in i ISTorth-Carolina, and 
 the fame of it remains at home ; while the other has coursed 
 about the world upon the wings of the wind. 
 
 Thus faithfully did Harnett serve the cause of liberty. 
 And the enemies of his country did not forget him for it. In 
 the spring of 1776, Sir Henry Clinton arrived in the Cape 
 Fear ; and his first public act was to issue to Cornelius Har- 
 nett and Eobert Howe a patent of nobility. Here it is, writ- 
 ten in British ink, and dated 5th of May, 1776 : 
 
 " I have it in command to proceed forthwith against all 
 such men, and bodies of men in arms, and against all Con- 
 gresses and Committees thus unlawfully established, as against 
 open enemies of the State. But considering it a duty insep- 
 arable from the principle of humanity first of all to warn the 
 deluded people of the miseries ever attendant upon civil war, 
 I do most earnestly entreat and exhort them, as they tender 
 their own happiness and that of their posterity, to appease 
 the vengeance of a jnstly incensed nation, by a return to 
 their duty to our common sovereign, and to the blessings of a 
 
3:3 
 
 free government established by law ; hereby uli'ei-ing, in his 
 Majesty's name, free pardon to all such as shall lay down 
 their arms and submit to the laws ; excepting only from the 
 henejit of such jpardon Cornelius Harnett and Robert IloioeP 
 
 He little knew how he was immortalizing the men whom 
 he souffht to render infamous ! Harnett continued active in 
 the service of the State until 1781. In that year a British 
 force occupied Wilmington ; and so dangerous to the cause of 
 the king was he esteemed, that the iii"Bt incursion planned 
 was for the purpose of taking him prisoner. In attempting 
 to escape from his enemies he was taken ill of the gout at the 
 house of his friend Col. Spicer, in Onslow, and was captured 
 there, and carried in triumph to AVilmingtou. Thus, wreck- 
 ed in health and fortune in the storms which assailed his 
 country, he died soon after in liis imprisonment, childless and 
 forlorn, having tirst penned, with his own hand, tlie epitaph 
 which stands above his grave. 
 
 " In the northeast corner of the grave yard of St. James' 
 church, in Wilmington, lies the body of one than whom a 
 nobler and purer patriot never lived. The rank grass grows 
 over his grave, and almost hides it from the view, as if it 
 would conceal from the stranger the forgetfulness ancf ingrati- 
 tude of the town. Two simple brown stones, discolored by 
 age, mark the spot. On the largest, which is an upright slab, 
 is inscribed, 
 
 ' Cornelius Harnktt, 
 
 Died April 20th, 1781, 
 
 Aged 58 years.' 
 
 ' Slave to no sect, he took no private road, 
 
 But looked through nature, up to nature's God.' "* 
 
 Tliese were not all, nor nearly all, the bright names of the 
 Cape Fear in its early times. There were many others ; but 
 I cannot now attempt to do them justice. Some of them I 
 will briefly mention. 
 
 There was Col. Hugh Waddell, early distinguished in the 
 military annals of the State ; a sterling patriot, and a brave 
 and chivalrous gentleman. He commanded a regiment of 
 provincial troops at the defeat of Braddock in 1755. And 
 after that disastrous day, the Indians upon the frontier having 
 become very troublesome to the settlers, he was selected as 
 " an officer of great firmness and integrity " to lead several 
 
 * Memoir of Harnett, bv G. J. McRee. 
 
34 
 
 expeditions against them, and finally succeeded in overawing- 
 tliem and bringing them to peace.* His conduct and bear- 
 ing upon the arrival of the Stamj) ship, if ISTorth-Carolina 
 ever did such things, would have won him a public monu- 
 ment. I regret that some of his descendants have not thought 
 it worth their while to vindicate liis claims upon the grati- 
 tude of the State. 
 
 There was Samuel Swann, " who had filled the Speaker's 
 chair for nearly twenty years, and had given to that station 
 a dignity but little inferior to that of the executive, and much 
 superior to that of a councillor. "f He Avas the reporter of 
 the first Revised Code of the' State, familiarly called "Yel- 
 low Jacket," from the color of its covering ; which was chiefly 
 the work of his hands. It was printed by James Davis, at 
 JSTew Bern, in 1752, and was the first book printed in Korth- 
 Carolina, 
 
 There was Archibald Maclaine, an accomplished lawyer 
 and able debater ; a man of talent, learning and probity, and 
 an active and zealous Whig. He was reputed the principal 
 author of the celebrated Court Law of 1777 ; an act which 
 had for its object the important work of building- up a judi- 
 ciary system for the State, and establishing the process and 
 practice of the Courts. And such was its merit, that it has, 
 perhaps, been less altered or amended than any act of any 
 importance in the Statute Book. He was also a distinguished 
 member of the Convention of 1776, which formed the Con- 
 stitution of the State, and was one of the eleven commis- 
 sioners appointed by that Convention to revise the Statutes ^ 
 " and to prepare such bills to be passed into laws as may be 
 consistent with the genius of a free people, the fomi of gov- 
 ernment we have adopted, and our local situation." The 
 result of the labors of this commission may be seen in the act 
 just mentioned, and many others which were passed in the 
 yeare immediately succeeding — acts which clearly evince the 
 ability, learning, and accuracy of the Commissioners, and 
 which have given shape and tone to our legislation for three 
 quarters of a century. 
 
 There was WilKam Hill, whom Josiah Quincy:}: found " a 
 most sensible, polite gentleman, and though a crown ofiicer, 
 replete with sentiments of general liberty, and warmly at- 
 
 ' Williamson, 2— 85— OS— 95. t Jones, ' 90. J Journal, 1773. 
 
35 
 
 tached to the cause of American Freedom." We need no 
 gnaranty for the patriotism of a man, who as early as the 24th 
 of November, 1774, could write to the Wihnington Commit- 
 tee as follows :^' 
 
 " * * * The safety of the people is, or ought to be the supreme law. 
 The gentlemen of the Committee will judge whether this law, or an act of 
 parliament, should at this particular time, operate in North-Carolina. I 
 believe that every tea importer will cheerfully submit to their determina- 
 tion. I can answfer for, gentlemen, 
 
 Your most obedient, 
 
 W. HILL." 
 
 There was John Walker — " Old Major Jack " — rough and 
 eccentric, but a sturdy patriot, honest, bold and brave. 
 
 " A fiery ettercap, a fractious chiel, 
 
 As hot as ginger, and as stieve as steel." 
 
 It was he who was taken while on a scouting party and se- 
 verely flogged by the Regulators ; the recollection of which 
 treatment made him swear bitter oaths to the day of his death. 
 And it may be as well, for the truth of history, to state, that 
 his brother officer who was taken w^ith him and flogged at 
 I the same time, was not Gen. Ashe, as Martinf and, after him, 
 all others relate ; but his nephew, Capt. John B. Ashe, son of 
 Gov. Samuel Aslie. 
 
 And there was William Hooper, aspersed by Jefferson and 
 defended by Jones, whom all now admit to have been as 
 |. good a patriot as his defamer, and incomparably a better man. 
 ! We can scarcely now regret the injustice which was done to 
 , Mr. Hooper ; since it resulted in the triumphant vindication 
 I of him, and of the State, from the pen of the brilliant, but 
 I eccentric Jo. Seawell Jones. He, too, has passed from earth ; 
 : and whatever may have been his errors, J^orth-Carolina owes 
 1 him a lasting gratitude. Let us bury his faults with the sod 
 ■ which rests upon his heart ; and remember only the generous 
 1 love he cherished, and the stalwart blows he struck, for the 
 J honor of his native State. 
 
 My task, gentlemen, is accomplished; how feebly and 
 i imperfectly, none know better tlian myself. My theme, 
 though local, has been purely ISTorth-Carolinian ; and its 
 purpose was, by some striking examples, not solitary in their 
 
 * Pro. Com. of Wil., 4. t 2—278. 
 
3<J 
 
 greatness, but only sinning pagos of a luminous history, to 
 show you liow rich we are in all that makes the Just and hon- 
 orable pride of a people. The moral strength of the true 
 and loyal gentleman, has no ingredient so powerful as an ever 
 present pride of personal character. The man who lacks it 
 may move without discredit on the plane of life's ordinary 
 level ; but he can never ascend to mountain tops, nor feast 
 his soul with the glorious contemplation of great temptations 
 nobly fought and conquered. The undefinable spirit of 23a- 
 triotism has no element so powerful as a high and justifiable 
 State pride. The citizen who cannot feel it, may punctually 
 pay his tithe of mint, annise and cummin ; but iu all the 
 higher duties of citizetisliip, he will neglect the weightier mat- 
 ters of the law. HI fares it with the State which can appeal 
 to its children by no nobler tie than a "" narrow affection for 
 the spot where they were born." 
 
 While rejoicing, as North-Carolinians, that the records of 
 the past entitle you to the most honorable pride, remember, 
 that in so doing they call upon you for the exercise of the 
 noblest patriotism. Keep ever green the memory ol your 
 illustrious dead. Let them live and shine in your hearts for- 
 ever ; not prompting you to empty boasting, but quickening 
 every generous impulse, and stirring in you the purest ambi- 
 tion. A rough field of battle awaits you. Arm for it now. 
 Make yourselves strong while yet the evil days come not. 
 And while you stand here upon the threshold of the world, 
 and looking abroad, see nothing but the glad sunshine and 
 the green leaves and the still waters, and hear the singing 
 birds, resolve to-day to, be up to the highest mark of the duty 
 which you owe to yourselves, to the State, to God, as men, as 
 citizens, and as enlightened Christian gentlemen.