The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1910-06-07

Colony OF Virginia., in g. letter ad-
dressed to Queen Elizabeth. said. 1T
has SO long been the practice of the
people of the Colony of North Caro-
lima to resist and imprison their Gov
ernOrs that they now look upon II
as a lawful procedure (Spotswood Ms).
a Royal Governor became
haughf in conduct, or his admins
tratfon became obnoxious from op-
press1ve taxation, extOruon or tyran-
ny, he was seized and driven from
the Colony. In 1863 Governor Miller,
the Royal ruler Of the Province was
impeached and with six members of
bis Council, was imprisoned for two
years. The people elected a Cover
nor of their own choosing, called a
Legislature, appointed courts and ex-
ercised all of the rights and powers
Of government,
The First Resistance to British
Tyranny.
n ColOniStS declared hat lex
cessiye taxation, abridgement of poIiti-
cal liberty. with a denial Of free eiec-
ton OF an assembly. the unwise inter
ruptlons of the normal channels OF
commerce, were the three-fOld griev-
ances Of the colony. This was the
germ of the first principles Of free
government that ripened more than
one years after in the revo-
luton of the Regulators and the Bat
tie Of Alamance.
The hauter of the royal governors
Of the province and their heightened
temper for royal prerOgatives served
only to enrage the long-snothered
passions Of the colonists and to in
crease their desire to be freed from
the overbearing of their supercilious
rulers. The people said 1T was not
the laws nor the form of government
to which they objected. but to the
malpractice of all officers from the
Governor down At last a deep set
tied conviction took hold of the peo-
ple-that peace could never smile
upon the Province of North Carolina
while the supremacy CT Great Britain
endured; multiply all assumptions OF
superiority, all public tokens of con-
tempt, all endorsements of unpaiatable
law, all restraints upon provincial
commerce., and all espionage upon the
brain work which really wrought In
behalf of peace, seeking a fair recon-
citation, with guarantees Of represent
tatiOn of personal rights, and their
product represents that cub whose
dead weight rested upon the Colonists
Of North Carolina.
When British Parliament asserted
the right to tax the Colonists without
their consent and passed the stamp
Act the people of the colony forci-
bly, expressed their indignation with
a unanimity never before eQualled.
> From one end Of the province to
the other meetings were held, they
declared they would not submit to
the law and they never did. No
stamped paper was ever used in the
colony of North Carolina. On Nov.
Is, 1855, the British m~an-of-war Dill
llsence, carrying 81 guns,
MED by the sloop of war, Viper, with
a consignment Of stamped paper on
board. arrived at Brunswick in the
colony of North Carolina, but her ar
rival having been anticipated since
Oct. 10, On which date an armed
force of 500 people from the eastern
counties on learning that the crown
mad appointed a royal stamp distrib-
utor for the colony and tina he was
a guest of the royal governor. They
approached the governors mansion
n asked to speak with the stamp
&agent. This Governor Tryon refused,
W~hereupon, they made the Governor
a prisoner IN his own mansion, forci-
bly, arrested the stamp distributor.
whom they carried before the mayor
of Wilmington and compelled to take
oath that he would never offer for
sale within the borders Of the prov
ince Of North Carolina any of the
kings stamped paper.
On the arrival of the Diligence
Coils. addel and Ashe. with 500
men were ready to receive the COM
manding officer. The idea of resist
ance of any kind probab bly, never oc-
CURED to him.. and the suggestion OF
armed defiance on the part of the
people would have seemed the widest
absurdlty to q commander of His
Majesty's war ships. The captain,
pacing the deck. as the gallant sloop,
with colors flying and all her can
vas set, was doubtless anticipating
the ~sideboard and table refreshments
hat awaited him in the hospitable
mansions of the Cape Fear planters,
and eager to stand, gun in hand, by
one Of the tall pines OF Brunswick
and watch the coming of the antlered
of the forest before the in
spring music Of the hounds.
AS the Diligence bowls along with
a bone in her mouth eros the ruff
fed bosom Of the beautiful bay into
which the river expands opposite Fort
Johnston, a puff of white moke leaps