The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1903-07-21
HERMAN HUSBANDS AND
WAR OF THE REGULATORS
Thomas f. Watson Devotes a Whole Chapter 70 That
Early Struggle for Liberty in His Life and
Times of Thomas Jefferson.

-" crops We're destroyed, their |
homes burned, and they themselves de-
clared outlaws. Their property was CON
fiscated and seized. The bolder shirts
finally mustered at Great Alamance creek
to await the Governors little army. They |
had no artillery, not much ammunition.
and many of them had no guns. It was 4
Struggling, ~unorganized crowd, not an
army. Again they prayed for the redress
OF their grievances. the righting Of their
wrongs. The Governors reply was that
he had done all he intended TO do: and
that they must submit, pay taxes, and
return to their homes.
Ifyon was a man of energy of charac-
ter, and his subsequent career in New
York demonstrated it, and he felt that
with his artillery and superiority Of ma
terl&l and equipment, his success was
certain. He gave the patiots one hour
10 consider! There We're two thousand of
these regulators, and they had passed be
yOnd the stage Of wisdom. For four or
five years the people had endured wrongs,
had protested. had been promised reforms,
and had been deceived. Those who OPP
pressed them could neither be checked nor
punished. II convicted, the evildoers were
let go, unWhipped Of justice. Leaders Of
tle people VINO rose against aW-D1GdkerS
had languished in prison, while the law
breakers, duly convicted in open court,
escaped justice by reason Of Tryon's pro
lection. And now after all these years of
misrule came the Governor with arms in
his hand. and a one hour limit on his
tongue, saying to the freemen of North
Carolina, dispense, submit, pay taxes. or
he would fire upon them. No wonder the
hot hlDoH Of tbaca A nu1p @ -, loilol
within them: no wonder that their rash
reply was, FIRE n BE DAMNED!'
Not at once did the royal troops obey
Governor Tryon's order to begin battle.
They were North Carolinians also, and
they shrank from this brother-killing
strife. But no promptings of humanity
can resist military discipline, and when
Tryon, inflamed with anger, rose in his
stirrups and shouted again:
"FIRE! FIRE! on them or on met" hi
troops opened fire upon the regulators.
The result could hardly be in seriou.
doubt. The regulators We're broken, anC
they fled the field, leaving t%wenty'Of thei1
number dead. besides the wounded anC
those captured. The ropTf forces lost min,
killed and sixty-one wounded. Cd Cap
tain Few, one of the leaders of the regu
%lators. was strung up to the limb of
/ tree the next day. without trial, an
strangled with a rope. Others were trieC
for high treason. convicted and put t
: death.
t Upon the head of Herman Husbands,
l price was set-$5Q0 and a thousand acre
| of land. A royal proclamation authorize
any citizen to shoot him on sight. But h
7 escaped, and made his way to Pennsy
5 vania. Tryon and his henchman. Tanning
t soon went back to the north, their pock
cts full; leaving one of the flares
t portions of North Carolina a picture c
desolation, and leaving the taxpayers t
groan under a heavy load OF illegally mad
public debt.
Fugitives fleeing from the misgover1
e ment and the merciless persecution {
q this royal Governor Tryon passed owe
y the mountains, and rested their tired fee
$ in the pleasant valleys beyond-In the fu
5 ture Tennessee.
" OF all the colonial Governors, Tryon
; said to have been the most popular wit
the authorities IN England; and yet NJ
> sydney George Fisher marvels at the lac
5" of love shown by the colonists for the
mother country.
\ Is it true that the royal government W;
Is toIIupIs oBp1tHoiNN - IL L tA"t L &"
20 ming was naughty, cruel, cxhorbitant?
it true that he and the Governor we
but accomplices in ~plundering the Peep
over whom they had been put?
Long after the butchery at Alaman
and the burnings in Orange, this offici
"a report was made to Lord
London by Tryon's successor, Martini:
can assure your lordship that these Peep
. were e~rieVOuSlv oppressed"
- Tryon and Tanning were tories. despi
ing the North Carolina Wings. They hi
g gone down there to make money and the
nc made it.
When the Revolutionary War broke on
they fought the Americans, as they hi
=, done in North Carolina.
i Tanning, the ~arch-oppressor, raised
!, Tory regiment IN New York; and, att
g the war, became a general IN the Brltr
army, and Governor of Prince Edwal
Island.
re Tryon was the author of the New You
er plot to kidnap Washington, and, If nece
" sary. assassinate him. He was the SO
III of Tory resistance in the North.
,d To what extent We're these lnsurgen
es of III the f~Orerunners Of the men
Nv Lexington and Concord? Remember tn
North Carolina had taken up arms
Mt oppose the landing of the stamps; remel
Der that this Instruction had been 81
It. cessful.
I'd That was in 1865. Who can doubt tn
as the example sunk deep into the hearts
lis the people?
Therefore, when Tryon taxed them
e. build his eXtrvagant palace, when
ficers of the law practiced extortlon a
of fraud. when money raised for one purpo
was used for another, IS 1T any wond
that the people should agitate the gu
rs ton. should assemble for dlscusslo
should pass resolutions, and should {
70 deavor to bring popular pressure to be
is upon the Governor?
Ia Listen to the declaration drawn up
Herman Husbands, and read to the cot
IN of Orange county at its August sesslt
Je 1766-the year following the stamp {
Gle tumults: ).
zoo "While the sons of liberty had wi
4oa1 tho lords Of parliament IN Deh