The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1903-07-26


/ adherents. Not one new authority or
reason has been advanced IN support of
the charge since the day Spotswood wrote.
! Its strength has been gained ~ iteration.
! 1t is the old story the calf path:
| "One day, through the prlmevaI wood.
A calf walked home, as good calves should;
! But made a trail all bent askew,
| A crooked trail as all calves do.
! Since then two hundred years have fed.
| And, l infer, the calf is dead
And from that day DER hill and glade
| Through those old woods a path was
! made;
| And many men wound in and out,
and lodged and turned, and bent about
| And uttered words of righteous wrath
! Because twas such a crooked path.
This forest path became lane,
That bent, and turned, and turned again;
This crooked lane became a road
| Where many a poor horse with his load
| Toiled on beneath the burning sun,
| And travelled some three mics in one
And thus, century and half
| They trod in the footsteps of that calf
The years passed on in swiftness fleet,
Tine road became a village street;
| And this, before men We're aware,
A city's crowded thoroughfare,
And soon the central street was this
OF a renowned metropolis.
| And men two centuries and half
! Trod IN the footsteps of that calf.
Each day a hundred thousand rout
Followed the zigzag calf about;
49,
The traffic OF a continent.
A hundred thousand men were led
BY one calf near three centuries dead.
They followed still mis- crooked way,
And lost one hundred years day;
For such reverence is lent
To well established precedent.
Men are prone to go it blind
Along the calf paths of the mind,
And work away from sun to sun
To do what other men have done.
They follow in the beaten track.
And out. and in, and forth, and back,
And still their devious course pursue,
To keep the path that others do.
But how the wise old wood gods laugh
Who saw the first primeval calf;
Let us examine those charges: And first,
of those against whom they are made
those people VINO call themselves Friends
have a consistent record for. peace Never
before the period of our inquiry have
they shown a martial spirit, nor ever since
that time. During these disturbances one
man of that section was found to have
taken arms. He was cited before the
meeting and dealt with for violating their
principles. Such is their record. 1t has
been open to the world.
John Porter is not so well known. The
mans character and position have not
been considered in making up the verdict.
He has been damned and then ignored.
We know him as the third John Por-
ter. He may be the fourth. In 1868 John
Porter was member of the House OF
Burgesses of Virginia, from Lower Nor
folk county John Hill, the sheriff of Nor
folk county, reported to the House that
he was loving to the Quakers" and stood
well affected to them and was so far an
Anabaptist rs to be against the baptizing
OF children. He was tried on September
H. 1868, and refusing to take the oath of
supremacy was expelled from the House.
The second John. close kinsman of the
first, was justice of the country court and
high-sheriff of Virginia. In November.
1863, he attended a Quaker meeting for
which he was fined 200 pounds of tobacco.
Ten days later he attended another meet
ing, for which he was fined 500 pounds
of tobacco. 1t being the second offence
On December Is, he attended a third
meeting. For this. on February IA. 1864.
he was ordered to be sent out of the
colony. 1t is likely that he first went
to Maryland and thence to North Caro-
l. TOI,,a d..
ST. He died soon after the Cary trou-
bles.
The third John, son of the last named.
and leader in the Cary movements was
forty-one years old when sent TO Eng
land with the complaints of the popular
party.
He was a lawyer in good practice and
had been Attorney General of the pro.
vince some years earlier. Like his life
long friend. Edward Moseley he was pro-
badly a churchman of moderate views,
and certainly an intense Democrat. He
was a man of eminent abilities and after
the Cary troubles ives member of the
Assembly and a vestryman.
His social position was unsurpassed.
He married the daughter of Governor
Alexander Ellington, and by that mar
riage became connected with Governor
Henderson Walker, Samuel Swami and
Edward Moseley, who married sisters of
his wife.
His sister, Sarah, married John Lii
hngton and was the mother of General
Alexander Ellington, of the Revolution.
His daughter married Maurice Moore.
son of Governor James Moore, of South
Carolina, and grandson of Sir John
Yeamans, who came to North Carolina to
assist in the Indian war which we have
just discussed Their children were Judge
Maurice Moore, General James Moore and
daughter, Rebecca, who became the
wife of General John Ashe. The Hon.
George Davis makes this marriage of
Maurice Moore the occasion of fine bit
of sarcasm at the expense of some his
torians: land so the proud and sensi-
tive soldier and gentleman who first came
to North Carolina to avenge the blood of
her people so pitilessly shed, supple
mented his work by marrying the daugh-
ter of this tdicp12ca RI b.1Y,apitxy x,,l,o