No More Learning

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? 372
THE COLONIAL MERCHANTS: 1763-1776
When Governor Martin got wind of these proceedings,
he issued a proclamation on August 13, forbidding such
"illegal Meetings" and particularly the provincial meet-
ing, which was soon to occur. 1 The pronunciamento had
the same effect as the executive interdicts, in other prov-
inces, of the right of the people to organize and act. The
provincial convention of August 25 assembled at Newbern
with a representation from thirty-two of the thirty-eight
counties and two of the six towns, while the governor and
his council sat futilely by. Governor Martin noted the
readiness with which the " int1^ppratp resolutions " of the
Virginia convention were "re-echoed. ;" J but it is possible
that a complete collection of county resolutions would show
that the Newbern meeting merely reflected the views of the
county gatherings. 8 The convention chose delegates to the
Continental Congress and adopted a modified form of the
Virginia Association. 4 In one respect the association ex-
ceeded the Virginia plan, for a threat of boycott was held
up over any province, or any town or individual within the
15. C. Gaz. , Sept. 12, 1774; also M C. Col. Rea. , vol. ix, pp. 1029-
1030.
14 Am. Arch. , vol. i, pp. 761-762.
* However, it is impossible to know what weight to give, at this time,
to the old Regulator antipathy to the personnel of the tidewater radi-
cals. Vide Bassett, J. S. , "The Regulators of North Carolina," Am.
Hist. Ann. Kep. ,1894), pp. 209-210.
4 No " East India tea" was to be used after September 10. 1774. Be-
ginning with January 1, 1775, there should be a total stoppage of all
East Indian and all British importations, by way of Great Britain or the
West Indies, except medicines; after November I, 1774, no slaves should
be imported from any part of the world. Unless American grievances
were redressed before October I, 1775, a non-exportation to Great
Britain was to become effective. Merchants were warned to continue
their customary prices. Committees were to be chosen to supervise
the execution of the association and to correspond with the provincial
committee of correspondence. Pa. Gas. , Sept. 16, 1774; also N. C.
Col. Sees. , vol. ix, pp. 1041-1049.
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? CONTEST IN PLANTATION PROVINCES
373
province, which failed to adopt the plan formulated by the
Continental Congress.
The first news of the Boston Port Act reached Charleston
on May 31 in a letter from the Philadelphia committee
transmitting the Boston circular letter. 1 Peter Timothy's
newspaper took the lead in declaring that America had
never faced a more critical time, that South Carolina, like
Boston, had obstructed the tea act, and that the time had
come to sacrifice private interest, to abolish all parties and
distinctions and combine in a general non-importation and,
if necessary, non-exportation. 2 But in spite of the best
efforts of Timothy and Chris Gadsden,3 private interest
continued to assert itself and economic groups and distinc-
tions became more clearly defined than on any earlier occa-
sion.
The opposition tg_a_Jp. taJja. 1,<tp<'r1sifm r>f frade centered
very largely in the rnejghiUltS find fact01"*^ ftO tbp nnp hand,
and the rice planters, on the Othgr The Norfolk story of
the Boston fox that had lost his tail gained currency with
1 5. C. Gas. , June 6, 1774; also 4 Am. Arch. , vol. i, p. 370.
'S. C. Gas. , June 13, 1774; also 4 Am. Arch. , vol. i, pp. 382-384.
1As has already been pointed out, Gadsden himself, though possessing
important mercantile interests as well as planting connections, acted
politically with an entire disregard of self-interest. This is shown
strikingly in a letter he wrote to Samuel Adams on June 5, 1774: "I
have been above Seven Years at hard Labour and the Utmost Risk of
my Constitution about One of the most extensive Quays in America
. . . at which thirty of the Largest Ships that can come over our Barr
can be Loading at the Same time . . . and have exceeding good and
Convenient Stores already Erected thereon Sufficient to Contain 16000
Teirces of Rice; in Short in this Affair, all my Fortune is embarked
. . no motives whatever will make me neglect or Slacken in the
Common Cause, as I hope I would sooner see every inch of my Quay
(my whole Fortune) totally destroyed Rather than be even Silent . . .
let the ministry change our Ports of Entrey to what distance from
Charleston and as Often as the Devil shall put it in their heads. " Bos.
Com. Cor. Papers, vol. ii, pp. 500-511.
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? 374
THE COLONIAL MERCHANTS: 1763. 1776
the trading body. 1 The merchants faced losses in case
either importation or exportation should be stopped; they
preferred the former measure to the latter, if necessity
pressed, but were determined to delay a decision on either
as long as possible. As for the rice planters, they were
opposed to a stoppage of exports, at least until November 1
when the rice from the present crop had been shipped off
and the time for a new planting had arrived. 2 The mer-
cantile and planting interests found it easy to develop a
public opinion in favor of a postponement of all positive
measures until a general congress, because the people in
general were inclined to look askance at a northern invita-
tion to enter a non-intercourse regulation when they re-
membered " the Overhastv breaking through and forsaking
the first Resolution f four years earlier] without previously
Consulting or so mqch JLS ^Acquainting
and when they observed that no commercial province had
entered the measure which the South Carolinians were
asked to adopt by Boston. *
On June 13 the General Committee at Charleston sum-
moned a "General Meeting of the inhabitants of this
Colony" for Wednesday, July 6, at Charleston, and dis-
patched circular letters to leading men throughout the prov-
ince urging them to send representatives. 4 Timothy's
1 " Non Quis sed Quid" in 5. C. Gas. , July 4, 1774.
1 Letter of Gadsden to Hancock and others, Bos. Com, Cor. Paflets,
vol. 11, pp, 517-518. The planters had another motive for temporizing
in that Parliament had under advisement a renewal of the act authoriz-
ing the shipment of rice from South Carolina to the West Indies and
the southern parts of Europe. The renewal was granted for seven years
on June 2 (14 George III, c. 67), but the fact was certainly not known
in South Carolina until some weeks later.
'Letters of Gadsden and Timothy to S. Adams, Bos. Com. Cor.
Papers, vol. ii, pp. 500-511, 529-532.
*4 Am. Arch. , vol. i, p. 408; also S. C. Gas. , June 13, 1774.
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? CONTEST IN PLANTATION PROVINCES
375
Gasette contained articles arguing for decisive measures at
the coming meeting. "A Carolinian" insisted on specific
instructions to the delegates to the Continental Congress
for a very general suspension of trade with Great Britain,
the West Indies and Africa, and exhorted that " one com-
mon Soul animate the Merchant, the Planter and the Trades-
man. " 1 "Non Quis sed Quid " gave his pen to the advo-
cacy of a modified non-importation, and told the planters
and merchants that this expedient would give them a chance
to extricate themselves from debt. 2 Meantime, the newly-
formed Chamber of Commerce had become the center of
discussion as to what should be the proper course for the
body of merchants to take. On July 6, before the meeting
assembled in the Exchange, the Chamber of Commerce de-
to anv ttle8tifnrp ? f non-importation or
non-exportation, and, in order to contribute to the defeat
of the same proposition in the Continental Congress, they
drew up a slate of candidates who held the same view and
pledged their support to them. 8
The Charleston meeting, comprising one hundred and
four members, was the largest public assemblage that had
ever been held in that town. From the standpoint of the
representative principle, it was defective in many respects,
for some counties elected ten delegates, others less, two
counties and one parish sent no representation, and the Gen-
eral Committee of forty-five represented Charleston. But
the leaders of all factions were well pleased with the mis-
15. C. Gas. , June 20, 27, 1774.
tlbid. , July 4, 1774; also 4 Am. Arch. , vol. i, pp. 508-512.
8This account of the general meeting is based chiefly on: Drayton,
Memoirs, vol. I, pp. 112-132: official record in S. C. Gas. , July 11,
1774, also 4 Am. Arch. vol. i, pp, 525-527; three epistolary accounts,
ibid. , pp. 525. 531-534; Edward Rutledge's account, Izard, R. , Corres-
pondence, vol. i, pp. 2-j.
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? 376 THE COLONIAL MERCHANTS: 1763-1776
cellaneous gathering, for it afforded an excellent opportun-
ity for political manipulation. Indeed, one of the very first
resolutions adopted provided that votes should be given by
each person present and not by parishes, and that " whoever
came there might give his vote. " After the adoption of
resolutions for asserting American rights, the debates of
the first two days turned upon a consideration of a prac-
tical application of the declaration of the meeting: "to
leave no justifiable means untried to procure a repeal" of
the oppressive acts of Parliament. The one party favored
the sending of delegates to Congress with unconditional in-
structions, and the adoption in the meantime of the Boston
proposal of a non-importation and non-exportation. The
other party favored restricted instructions and the post-
ponement of all measures until the Congress.
In favor of the Boston circular letter, the radical speakers
resorted to sensational delineations of the fate awaiting
South Carolina from British tyranny, and repeated the
telling arguments which had become hackneyed in similar
controversies in other provinces. By the opposing party, it
was maintained that non-intercourse would ruin thousands
in the province; that if South Carolina entered into it, there
was no assurance that other provinces would follow, and
indeed much evidence to the contrary. It was further
argued that the formulation of a uniform plan was the
proper function of a general congress, and that even that
body ought not adopt the measure until after petitions and
remonstrances had failed of effect.
When the vote was
taken on the second day, it was found that the proposal for
an immediate non. -iqterco'"-'ir
The fight was warmly renewed, in altered form, over the
question of what instructions the delegates to the Congress
should be given, the radicals contending that the powers of
the delegates should be unrestricted. By a close vote it was
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? CONTEST IN PLANTATION PROVINCES
377
decided that the jefegates should be granted "full power
and authority^" tojagree to "legal measures " for obtaining
a redress of grievances, and the moderates found solace in
the clause declaring that the South Carolina delegates must
concur in any measure of the Congress before it became
binding on the province. ^^irtrrQ^nj-iv Iny flmrly lyjthjj1r
party that could control the personnel of th? _djdfigation.
It was provided that a vote for this purpose should be
taken that very day from two o'clock to six, and that every
free white in the whole province should be entitled to vote--
an arrangement that was a thin covering for a strategem
concocted in the Chamber of Commerce. The merchants
had in mind to elect Henry Middleton, John Rutledge,
Charles Pinckney, Miles Brewton and Rawlins Lowndes,
men who stood for moderate measures and opposed non-
intercourse except as an ultimate resort. 1 The radicals con-
centrated their strength on Gadsden, Thomas Lynch and
Edward Rutledge, and concurred, it would appear, in the
nominations of Middleton and John Rutledge. Just what
the object of the radicals was it is difficult to comprehend
now, as Edward Rutledge, one of their nominees, had
clearly identified himself with the moderate element in the
debates of the meeting. However, he was Gadsden's son-
in-law. The merchants went to the poll in a body, and also
sent for their clerks to come and vote. But they had over-
reached themselves; the radicals took alarm at such mobil-
J7ing- nf_ voters, "ran to all parts of the town to collect
people and bring them to the poll. " In consequence. _the
slate of the Chamber of Commerce suffered defeat, save the
1 For the opinions held by John and Edward Rutledge, vide Izard,
Correspondence, vol. i, pp. 2-5; by Miles Brewton, 4 Am. Arch. , vol.
i> P- 534- The South Carolina delegates shifted their position some-
what when they reached the Continental Congress, but their new posi-
t1on, as we shall see, served the purposes of their friends at home as
well as their original one.
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? 378 THE COLONIAL MERCHANTS: 1763-1776
two candidates upon whom both factions had joined; and
Gadsden, Lynch and Edward Rutledge were chosen in ad-
dition, by a majority of almost four hundred. Notwith-
standing, Edward Rutledge's presence on the delegation
assured the moderates a safe majority.
On the third and last day, the meeting resolved to ap-
point a general committe? _fnr tbe prr>v1Tl? fl _fo plar<<>>
existing committee of forty-five. The new committee was
authorized to correspond with the other provinces and to
"do all matters and things necessary" to carry the resolu-
tions into execution, a phraseology which virtually vested
the committee with unlimited power during its existence.
The committee was then carefully constituted to exercise
this power in an approved manner. The membership was
fixed at ninety-nine; fifteen merchants and fifteen
represented Charleston, and sixty-nine planters, chosen
forthwith by the meeting and not by the ruraFdistricts, were
designated to represent the rest of the province. 1
The moderates had cause for rejoicing; but the radicals
were not dismayed. They could claim excellent salvage
from the wreckage: the " Sarn Adams of South Carolina"
was one of the delegates to the Continental Congress; the
delegates had powers to agree to the measures supported by
the great and magnetic personages of the sister provinces;
and, finally, the merchants by their active participation in
the meeting were pledged to support such action as Con-
gress might take. Indeed, some of the people were so
"uneasy" over the obstructive tactics of the merchants
that several of the latter felt it was expedient to declare
that the merchants in general would countermand their
orders until the results of the Congress were known.
1 Charles Pinckney and Miles Brewton were given places on the com-
mittee, and Peter Timothy was chosen as one of the mechanic mem-
bers. Pinckney was chosen chairman, and Timothy secretary. For
list of the Charleston members, vide 4 Am. Arch. , vol. i, pp. 526-527.
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? CONTEST IN PLANTATION PROVINCES
379
Greater semblance of legality was given to the election of
delegates when the Commons House of Assembly met on
August 2. All but five of the members had participated in
the Charleston meeting; and by assembling privately at the
unusual hour of eight in the morning, while the governor
still reclined in the arms of Morpheus, they succeeded in
ratifying the election and voting money for the delegates'
expenses. 1 In the succeeding weeks, the General Committee
found little else to do than to guard against tea importa-
tions. Two incidents occurring in late July and early
August showed that the committee believed in only the most
moderate methods of resistance. Two vessels arrived with
private consignments of tea for Charleston merchants. In
each instance, the committee assured themselves that the
tea would not be received in Charleston, and then quietly
waited for its seizure by the customs officials at the termina-
tion of the twenty-day period. 2
If the radicals of South Carolina had a difficult time in
maneuvering their province into line, the small group of
radicals in Georgia_mav he said to have had a practically
insurmountable task. The sparse population of that infant
province had every reason to be pleased with the home gov-
ernment and none to be displeased. Not yet self-supporting
as a colony, Georgia received an annual subsidy from Par-
liament, besides money and presents intended for the In-
dians. * This condition served to give Georgia "as many
1 4 Am. Arch. , vol. i, pp. 532, 671-672; Drayton, Memoirs, vol. i, pp.
137-141. Governor Bull wrote to Dartmouth the next day: "Your
Lordship will see by this instance with what perseverance, secrecy and
unan1mity, they form and conduct their designs; how obedient the body
is to the heads, and how faithful in their secrets. " 4 Am. Arch. , vol.
i, p. 672.
'The Magna Charta and the Briton. S. C. Gaz. , June 27, July 4
25, Sept. 19, 1774.
'Letter from a Georgian, 4 Am. Arch. , vol. i, p. 733.
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? 380 THE COLONIAL MERCHANTS: 1763-1776
place-men and publick officers with their connections, as the
largest and most populous Government on the Continent,
and those with independent salaries from Government. " *
Furthermore, the inhabitants were in constant peril of an
attack from the Creeks, who threatened to wipe out the
back-country settlements. "We have an enemy at our backs,
who but very lately put us into the utmost consternation,"
wrote a Georgian. "We fled at their approach; we left
our property at their mercy; and we have implored the
assistance of Great-Britain to humble these haughty Creeks.
. . . Our entering into resolutions against the Government,
in the present case, can answer no end but to injure our in-
fant province, by provoking the Mother Country to desert
us. " 2 It is not surprising that the frontier parishes were
unsympathetic to the propaganda against Parliament.
In view of these facts, the radicals were unsuccessful in
arousing indignation by references to past injustices, especi-
ally as they had failed signally in the earlier years in ob-
taining effective action from Georgia. There was only a
handful of radicals in the province--a few active ones in
Christ Church Parish, wherein lay the coast town of Savan-
nah, and a compact group, of New England nativity, in St.
John's Parish, immediately to the south. 8 Late in July, at
the instance of the South Carolina radicals,* appeals began
1Letter from Savannah correspondent in fa. Gas. . Dec. 28, 1774;
also 4 Am. Arch. , vol. i, pp. 1033-1034.
1"Mercurius" in Ga. Gas. , Aug. 10, 1774.
1 St. John's Parish was appropriately named " Liberty County " at a
later time. Medway, the chief settlement, was founded by people from
Dorchester, Mass. , after they had failed in a similar enterprise in South
Carolina. These folks " still retain a strong tincture of Republican or
Oliverian principles," wrote Governor Wright to Dartmouth. White,
Ga. Hist. Colls. , p. 523.
'Letter of Wright to Dartmouth, 4 Am. Arch. , vol. i, pp. 633-634.
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? CONTEST IN PLANTATION PROVINCES
381
to appear in the Georgia Gasette exhorting the inhabitants
to make common cause with Boston. 1 In "The Case
stated," it was declared that the single question was: had
Parliament a right to levy what sums of money on the
Americans they pleased and in what manner they pleased;
for " they that have a right or power to put a duty on my
tea have an equal right to put a duty on my bread, and why
not on my breath, why not on my daylight and smoak, why
not on everything? " The answer of the moderates rang
clear and true: the real issue was not one of taxation but
"whether Americans have a right to destroy private prop-
erty with impunity. " "That the India Company did send
tea to Boston on their own account is undeniable," declared
the writer. "That they had a right so to do and to under-
sell the Merchants there (or rather the Smugglers) is
equally undeniable," and the destructive act of the Boston-
ians "must, in the judgment of sober reason, be highly
criminal and worthy of exemplary punishment. " 2
On July 20 the Gasette contained an unsigned call for a
provincial meeting of delegates at Savannah. A meeting
was accordingly held at the Watch-House on Wednesday,
July 27. ' It is impossible to ascertain how many persons
were present, but a radical account claimed that " upwards
of an hundred from one Parish [St. John's] came resolved
on an agreement not to import or use British manufactures
till America shall be restored to her constitutional rights. "
It is clear that the great body of the province was unrepre-
sented. After several had declined the doubtful honor,
1" The Case stated" and " A Georgian" in issue of July 27, 1774.
1"Mercurius" in ibid. , Aug. 10, 1774.
1This narrative is based chiefly on the radical accounts in 4 Am.
Arch. , vol. i, pp. 638-6. 19; the moderate version in a protest of Savan-
nah inhabitants, Ga. Gas. , Sept. 7, 1774; and the radical rejoinder in
ibid. , Sept. 21.
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? 382 THE COLONIAL MERCHANTS: 1763-1776
John Glenn was chosen chairman. A motion was made to
appoint a committee to draft resolutions "nearly similar
to those of the Northern Provinces," but it was lost by " a
large majority of the respectable inhabitants. " Letters
were then read from the General Committee of South Caro-
lina and other northern committees; and while the reading
was going on, many moderates, believing that the main issue
had been settled, withdrew from the meeting. The radicals
quietly swelled their own numbers by gathering; in " several
transients and other inconsiderable people;" and a motion
for a committee was put a second time and announced as
carried, in face of the protest of several gentlemen that, if
the names of the persons on both sides were put down, it
would appear that a majority of the freeholders present
opposed the motion. A committee of thirty-one was forth-
with chosen; but it was deemed wiser, in view of the irreg-
ular composition of the convention and the high indigna-
tion of the moderate party, to postpone the adoption of
resolutions until a convention of regularly-appointed dele-
gates should meet at Savannah on August 10. It was voted,
however, that the resolutions agreed upon at the forthcom-
ing meeting by a majority of those present "should be
deemed the sense of the inhabitants of this Province. "
When Governor Wright learned that the committee was
summoning the several parishes and districts to a provincial
convention, he adopted the usual course of royal executives,
and on August 5 interposed a proclamation denouncing the
action as "unconstitutional, illegal and punishable by law. " l
More indicative of public opinion was a protest against the
coming meeting, signed by forty-six inhabitants of St. Paul,
one of the most populous parishes of the province. The
paper declared that since the Georgians were not involved
1S. C. Gaz. , Sept. 12, 1774; also 4 Am. Arch. , vol. i, pp. 699-700.