The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1907-08-06

wish 10 show farther his sue
and the consideration in which
.a- held. on goth September.
an Act was passed by the Cen
.e-embly directing that five per-
..eII constitute a Board Of War
they shall be elected by joint
~ both Houses Of the General
.r-Hlv." and that said Board Of
shall have h direction Of the
s. provide ammunition stores, ap-
r.. Ulcers and reprove such as they
.+ deem roper, establish posts,
GARRY on military operations"
EgH+-.a- v. ., p. 1862. This was, in
very extraordinary, a most i'm
-t.ut tribunal, and clothed with pro-
ra.- powers and responsibilities.
i re we're five persons invested with
..sr imperial military powers Men
f.z.-st character, OF known patriot
zaaa ability. fidelity and practical
-ueut must be chosen John Penn
.iected as one of these five en-
.ed with SO much confidence and
4 y.r by the appointing body, and 50
Tae.r-.ug 1t was believed. Whilst it
4 tr.a that the Board did not answer
T. the purpose intended, for it was
$ere=sarIly an experiment, and there
pr. PAINFUL collisions between it n
Governor. which caused it 20 be
continued after a short trial. 1t is
f. certain hat both Houses of the
e-pmbly would not and did not select
Efa~i0r men to constitute it.. They
bTgHt not measure up so well as was
IIoectcI. and were not equal in eff
ency to the great demands placed
thCm, for they were not soldiers,
Ira lacked the military discipline and
needed under pressure in
HrH trying times, but they We're at
distinguished for ability as civil
~ Tho ahnirn- wa mad nv hnfh
Houses, and it vas surely a recognition
N John PENIS standing and ability
l hen he was selected as one of the
Terv important five members Of the
board Of War
T mentioned that some few men re-
,ardcd Mr.. Penn as of quite mediocre
.Ieuts. as altogether a rather COM
citizen. But the records L
lave submitted, showing the response
bic places he filled, a comparative
tranger from another Colony, and ex-
ending through several years, are
.uough to set aside individual esti-
mates, whether originating in insult
General William r. Davie. who was
lnquesrIOnably very prominent, a man
Il ability and an officer of distinction,
nd later in life was highly regarded as
lawyer and perhaps statesman,
to have had much contempt Tor
Board of War, composed, as it
vas. of civilians. In his great disgust
the collision between Governor Nash
the Board, he signed his place
II the army, and re ed to his home.
&c was very cOntemptuOuS and bitter,
{ appears, in his free opinions OF the
several members of the Board. ridicul-
Alexander Martin, who was after
wards Governor, and declaring that
was only fit to amuse children
such ~utteranCes, evidently made
IN a passion. do not mount to much
n the face of the career of Mr.. Penn
rom the time he was chosen as II
Df the SignerS Of the National Declara-
hon of independence in 1875, to the
time he was elected by boil Houses
BIZ the General Assembly of North
carolina as one of the five members
the Board of Wa in 1880, over four
Fears later. such hasty opinions II
AenunciatOns do not discredit Mr..
Penn's character for either ability,
1sefulness or fidelity. | am fully per-
1laded that there must have been a
FOOD deal Of true merit in John Penn,
Oh Sjguer. If his contemporaries and
associates did not understand and
properly appraise him what are others
10 do about it? Between 1875 and
17S0. there was not a little of real
hbility in North Carolina, and patriot
'SLIt VI IliG iISHl GIL hl6ii. any
Dne who will take the trouble to ex-
anime into the array of men of SUI
Dcrior intellectual cleVerness and
eagerness to serve the people in eX-
Lremity-the eminent. we'll endowed
ROrthies of the Revolutionary Times,
Will be entertained and perhaps sur
prised. Some of these were undoubt-
IDLY of high capacity. The number
brillianCy of the array will arouse
dmiratiOn if not surprise. | give but
a few. There were Samuel Johnston,
Abner Nash, Richard Caswell, Thomas
Burke, Alexander Martin, Richard
Speight, Samuel Ashe. William
Of the state; William Hooper,
Thomas Jones. James Iredell. Cor
neIius Harnett, Harvey, Samuel
Spencer, John Williams, Joseph
IIewes, Willie Jones, John Ashe,
Mitchell Hull. Edward Buncombe,
Griffith Rutherford, John Williams,
Ephriarn Brevard, Thomas Person,
Joseph Hewes, Richard Henderson,
Allen Jones, Robert Howe and others.
And still, John Penn, a young man
Ind a stranger from Virginia, removes
10 Granville county, is elected only q
Year afterWard to the Provincial Con
gress: is soon after chosen as a mem
Der Of the Continental Congress al
Philadelphia, then only but ~thirty-fOuI
years of age. is reelected in 1877, III
us, and again in 1873; is reelected
also to the Provincial Congress Gam
bOdy) in 1875; is appointed or
Committee to prepare "a Temporal
~ form Of government for the State"
s one of the three delegates chosen
by North Carolina to sign for the State
National Declaration of I~ndepend-
ance: is appointed on a Committee by
Provincial Congress to cOdify the
and Statutes and ropos new
for the State: is elected by both
Houses of the General Assembly one
# the FIVE Members of the Board of
War that was clothed with such eX-
..raordinary powers, and in 1884,
vas appointed also to the office OF
Receiver of the Taxes of the State OF
North Carolina. Really, a it have
possible that an ignorant, inca
Fable stranger, comparatively young
md inexperienced, could have risen so
-asily, so rapidly to high places OF
honor, responsibility and Importance,
Ind yet be an intellectual nobody, a
mere sort of humdrum, ordinary, com
ta1uplace dullard, without force or
talents or cultivation or good n
p. Information? If Mr.. Penn was not
truly a man. did not lave real and
~stngular merit, how came it to pass
he was chosen over the a OF
i' many We'll qualified men-some or
'mluence-many of them native here
.00 to the manner born? What real
gave him position, influence, fame?
How did he secure the confidence anC
favor of nearly all men,? h else