The Palatka news and advertiser., 1916-12-15

the eddying Catawba, then six hun
dred yards wide, he was stricken with
bilious fever. 1t seemed to him that
the very wilderness was arrayed
against him and that the cunning
woodsmen were in league with the
Carolina rivers to defeat him
enough, l should think, to make
man bilious.
AS the rivers, so the people of Car
olina were subject to turbulent up
risings. A population founded chief
ly on "bold Scot and gay Irish" i'm
migrants, with a sprinkling of Hug
uenot refugees, made character
combination of impulsive courage,
dogged determination, and chivalrous
ideality that could be counted on for
fierce resistance to tyrany in any
form.
Their "heady, high minded" dispo-
sition was manifested at the outset
when the Lords Proprietors of the COL
ony saddled them with the absurd
Fundamental Constitutions devised
for their governance by the visionary
philosopher, John Locke At once
Irish blood was up; Huguenot pride
was aroused, and determined Scotch
jaws were set. AS one man they
rose, broke up the government, sent
the governor packing about his busi-
ness, and took into their own hands
the management of public affairs un-
til, in 1929, royal authority was re-
established. At the same time the
country was divided into North and
South Carolina.
Meanwhile Cardinals boast had
been that she "paid no tribute to God
nor Caesar" meaning, no doubt, no
tithes to the established church, nor
taxes to King Charles II. In truth,
their demands were strictly within
their rights, since the people had been
induced to settle in the country, in the
first instance, by the promise of the
Lords Proprietors that they should
enjoy full religious liberty and all
constitutional privileges.
Firmly contending for the rights
OF the many against the eXactions of
the few, those sturdy "tar heels" did
not hesitate, when that principle was
at stake, "to behave impudently to
their governors" as an old chronicler
tells us. In revolt again in 1865, they
forcibly resisted the Stamp Act by
ref lsing to let the royal vessel bring
ing the obnoxious papers enter port.
1t was after the battle of the Ala
nance, it will be remembered, that a
portion of them, "like the mammoth,
shook the bolt from their brow and
crossed the mountain" Behind the
western wall of the Alleghanies they
wilderness, on the Watauga River, the
first free country on the continent, in
the land since called Tennessee, where
no royal governor ever reigned, over
which no kingly banner ever foated,
and into which no alien tax collector
ever set foot. There, to quote an old
chronocler, "they set the people of
America the dangerous example of
erecting themselves into a separate
state, distinct from and independent
cf the British king"
Here, too, the French Broad River,
picturesque replica of the Rhine,
winds about the famous health resort
of Asheville, whence grand views ex-
tend for fifty miles; then it cuts its
way through the farthest cliffs into
Tennessee, not changing its names on
the other side, as Carolina rivers are
went to change when they leave their
native state.
The people were not long quiet af-
ter the battle of the Alamance. Their
dissatisfaction came to head in
Charlotte, near the Catawba, in Meek
lenburg County, when, on the twen-
tieth day of May, 1775, they publish
ed to the world their resolve to serve