The Charlotte Democrat., 1890-07-04
Virginia and North Carolina in the Eigh-
teaTth CentnrY.

ing on to a Centarian" living In Essex
county, Va, sends an Interesting COM
municatiou TO the Richmond Times. In
it he denies statement made as to the
action OF the people of the Cape Fear
being "the first meeting that ever took
place in the Colonies to resist the Stamp
Act" He writes:
81 have in my possession, and shall soon
pu bllsh the proceedings of the first meet
ing ever held for that purpose. 1t took
place at "Leedstown," 10 Westm oreland
county, Va, on-day of February 1865.
1t was headed by Richard Henry Lee.
and the add,ess and resolutions were
written by him, and were sigued by one
hundred and fifteen; among them seven
or eight westinghouse seven or eight
Lees and others, scarcely less distin.
guished, of the greatest and most distin-
guished men in this, and perhaps any
other country. | have the proofs to sus
tain the claim that it was the first meet
ing, and it antedstes the Mecklenburg
meeting"
1t is TO be said 6rst that 81. A. P"
misspprehends the signifcancy OF the
''claim" set up by North Carolina The
Mecklen burg Declaration occurred on
goth May l775-and it was the first act
OF the kind on the American continent,
antedating the National Declaration By
one year and a month and half.
The Stamp Act matter is altogether
another thing. So far as North Carolina
is concerned in con nection with the re
sistance to the tyranny of the Stamp Act
the following is a brief statement:
As eally as A. -. l7l6 the Colony OF
North Carolina made a formal declara-
tion that impressing property sander the
pretense of it being tor the public service
without the authority from the Assembly
was unwarrantable and great in-
fringement upon the liberty of the sub
iect." This was anticipating the tyranny
of the Stamp Act aud was firm protest
of freeman. In 1850, the Assembly de-
clared that it alone had the power "to
frame aud model' bills "whereby an aid
was granted to the King" and it farther
declared "that every attempt to deprive
them of the enjoy ment thereof was an
infringement of the rights aud privileges
of the Assembly" This constitutes pro-
test number two against all attempts to
impose taxation upon the people OF the
Colony OF North Carolina without their
consent
1
that no money should be paid to Governor
or Council without the consent of the
Assembly.
1865, marks "the first meeting" of the
people in protest of the Stamp Act. 1t
occurred in the then village of Whining
ton. 1t was to burn Earl Butte 10 effig gy
because he favored the Stamp duty.
Every man in the town was made to
drink 'liberty, property, and no Stamp
Duty" &c.
Then followed a series of events so
honorable TO North Carolina patriots, and
80 much in character with the previous
history OF the people of the Colony, OF
whom George Bancroft says in his ellis
tory of the United States" that they "are
| the freest of the free"
Col. William L. Saunders, Secretary of
State, has just published his "Prefatory
Notes" on Gov. Tryon aud His Admins
tration, filing some eigLty-two octave
pages. These Invaluable "Notes' are
predatory to the Seventh and Eighth
Volumes of the "Colonial Records" oi
North Carolina now in course of publica-
tion by the State, and under the most
judicious and able editorship of Secretary
Saunders We have used the "Notes" in
part in the above summary. If the
venerable VirgiDian should feel interested
In knowing more of what North Carolina
did be can write to Col. Saunders who
will perhaps oblige him with a copy OF
the "Notes."
Virginia seems to have had the start in
the "frst meeting" but North Carolina
was ripening for a racket long before, and
all through her interesting history she
was constantly in arms against tyranny
and oppression. Her people were beyond
all reasonable doubt much more advanced
than those of the other Colonies in the
matter of resistance to the British Crown
or to it's Roy Governors. The battle of
Alamahce, in I'LL, the Declaration of
Independence at Mecklenburg on goth
May, l775, the Stamp Act proceedings on
the Cape Fear, SO we'll told by Col: Wsd-
dell in mis- invaluable historical brochure
upon his distinguished great grandfather,
Gen. Hugh Waddell, and SO carefully
elaborated by Col Saunders in the ''Notes"
before US all go to show where North
Carolina stood in the threatening days.
To understand the real condition OF
matters in North Carolina prior to the
Stamp Act excitement, which was a most
natural outflow and resultant of that
condition, you must read the two hundred
pages of the earlier "Notes" by Col.
Saunders, that are of great value.
Whenever North Carolina has full JUS
tice at the hands of her jealous rivals who
have always iguored her rights and mis-
represented her history (see Judge
Schenck's excellent historical work), she
will stand first among the Colonies 10 her
steady resistance of tyranny, and long
before Virginia and the other Colonies
had awakened to a sense of wrong and
outrage.
When Josiah Quincy, of Massachusetts,
visited North Carolina before the war of
Independence, and had that memorable
sll-night talk with Cornelius Harnett at
his residence a. Hilton (which still stands
in bad repair just beyond the water works
of this city) he was sstonished at the ad-
vauced views concerning resistance in
which the leader in the Cape Fear in
dulged. Quincy wrote home that the
people in North Carolina were "ahead" of
the people of Massachusetts in the spirit
of rebellion. -.-,>--.e.
THE SILVER BILL.-Now comes the
struggle between the Republican Senate