ties. The obsequious body, passing beyond their proper functions, applauded his purpose; and the council acquiesced. To obtain the necessary funds, which the legislature had refused to provide, Tryon created a paper currency by drafts on the treasury.

1771.

The northern treasurer declined to sanction the April. illegal drafts, and, in consequence, the eastern counties took no part in the scenes that followed; but the southern treasurer complied. From Wilmington, a body of militia, under the command of Waddel, was sent to

Salisbury, while Tryon himself, having written a May. harsh rebuke of the agreement in Rowan county for arbitration, marched into Orange county. His progress was marked by the destruction of wheat-fields and orchards, the burning of every house which was found empty; the seizure of cattle, poultry, and all the produce of the plantations. The terrified people ran together like sheep chased by a wolf. Tryon crossed the Eno and the Haw; and the men who had been indicted at Newbern for felonies were already advertised as outlaws, when, on the evening of the fourteenth, he reached the Great Alamance.

His army was composed of one thousand and eighteen foot soldiers and thirty light-horse, besides the officers. The regulators, who had been drawn together not as insurgents, but from alarm,-many, perhaps most of them, without guns, —may have numbered rather more, and were encamped about five miles to the west of the stream. They gathered round James Hunter as their "general; and his capacity and courage won from the unorganized host implicit obedience. They were almost in despair, lest the governor "would not lend a kind ear to the just complaints of the people." Still, on the evening of the fifteenth, they entreated that harmony might yet be restored, that “the presaged tragedy of warlike marching to meet each other might be prevented;" that the governor would give them leave to present "their petition," and treat for peace.

The next day, Tryon crossed Alamance River, and marched out to meet the regulators. As he approached, James Hunter, and Benjamin Merrill, a captain of militia,

..

a man in general esteem for his honesty, integrity, piety, and moral good life," received from him this answer: "I require you to lay down your arms, surrender up the outlawed ringleaders, submit yourselves to the laws, and rest on the lenity of the government. By accepting these terms in one hour, you will prevent an effusion of blood, as you are at this time in a state of war and rebellion."

The demands were unjustifiable. No one of the regulators had been legally outlawed, or even legally indicted. The governor acted against law as against right, and by every rule deserved to be resisted. Yet the regulators reluctantly accepted the appeal to arms; for they had nothing to hope from victory itself.

The action began before noon, by firing a field-piece into the midst of the people. Many of the regulators, perhaps the larger number, retired; but those who remained disputed the field for two hours, fighting first in the open ground and then from behind trees, till, having nearly expended their ammunition, Hunter and his men were compelled to retreat. Nine of the king's troops were killed, and sixty-one wounded. Of the regulators, above twenty fell in battle, besides the wounded. Some prisoners were taken in the pursuit. Before sunset, Tryon returned in triumph to his camp.

The next day, James Few, one of the prisoners, was, by the governor's order, hanged on a tree as an outlaw; and his parents were ruined by the destruction of their estate. Then followed one proclamation after another, excepting from mercy outlaws and prisoners, and promising it to none but those who should take an oath of allegiance, pay taxes, submit to the laws, and deliver up their arms.

June.

After this, Tryon proceeded to the Yadkin to join 1771. Waddel, who had incurred some danger of being cut off. Waddel then moved through the south-western counties, unmolested, except that in Mecklenburg his ammunition was blown up; while Tryon turned back, living at free quarters on the regulators, burning the houses, and laying waste the plantations of every outlaw.

On the ninth of June, he arrived at Hillsborough, where the court awaited him. His first work was a proclamation,

inviting "every person" to shoot Herman Husbands, or James Hunter, or Redknap Howell, or William Butler; and offering a hundred pounds and a thousand acres of land, as a reward for the delivery of either of them alive or dead. Then twelve men, taken in battle, were tried and brought in guilty of treason; and, on the nineteenth of June, six of them were hanged under the eye of the governor, who himself marked the spot for the execution, gave directions for clearing the field, and sketched in general orders the line of march of the army, with the station of each company round the gallows. The victims died bravely. It is yet kept in memory how heroically Benjamin Merrill met his fate, sustained by the affection of his children, and declaring that he died at peace with his Maker, in the cause of his country. The next day, Tryon taking care to make the most June. of the confiscated lands, which were among the best on the continent, left Hillsborough; and, on the thirtieth, sailed to New York, leaving the burden of an illegally contracted debt of more than forty thousand pounds. His successor dared not trust the people with the immediate election of a new assembly, though terror and despair had brought six thousand of the regulators to submission.

1771.

The governors of South Carolina and of Virginia were requested not to harbor the fugitives. But the wilderness offered shelter beyond the mountains. Without concert, instinctively impelled by discontent and the wearisomeness of life exposed to bondage, men crossed the Alleghanies, and, descending into the basin of the Tennessee, made their homes in the valley of the Watauga. There no lawyer followed them with writs; there no king's governor came to be their lord; there the flag of England never waved. By degrees, they extended their settlements to the broader Nolichucky, whose sparkling waters spring out of the tallest mountains in the range. The health-giving westerly wind prevailed at all seasons; in spring, the wild crab-apple filled the air with the sweetest of perfumes. A fertile soil gave to industry good crops of maize; the clear streams flowed pleasantly without tearing floods; where the closest thickets of spruce and rhododendron flung the cooling shade furthest

over the river, trout abounded. The elk and the red deer were not wanting in the natural parks of oak and hickory, of maple, elm, black ash, and buckeye. Of quails and turkeys and pigeons, there was no end. The golden eagle built its nest on the topmost ledge of the mountain, wheeling in wide circles high above the pines, or dropping like a meteor upon its prey. The black bear, whose flesh was held to be the most delicate of meats, grew so fat upon the abundant acorns and chestnuts that he could be run down in a race of three hundred yards; and sometimes the hunters gave chase to the coward panther, strong enough to beat off twenty dogs, yet flying from one. To acquire a peaceful title to their lands, the settlers despatched James Robertson to the council of the Cherokees, from whom he obtained promises of confidence and friendship, and a lease of territory. For government, its members, in 1772, came together as brothers in convention, and founded a republic by a written association; appointed their own magistrates, James Robertson among the first; framed laws for their present occasions; and "set to the people of America the example of erecting themselves into a state, independent of the authority" of the British king.

1772.

In the old counties of Orange and Mecklenburg, in the "overhill" glades of Carolina, and the breasts of the mountaineers who planted the commonwealth of Tennessee, a bloodthirsty governor, in his vengeful zeal for the crown, had treasured up wrath for the day of wrath.

CHAPTER XLVII.

GREAT BRITAIN CENTRES IN ITSELF POWER OVER ITS COL. ONIES. HILLSBOROUGH'S ADMINISTRATION OF THE COLONIES CONCLUDED.

1771. June.

66

JUNE, 1771-August, 1772.

"THE glorious spirit of liberty is vanquished, and left without hope but in a miracle," said desponding patriots in Boston. "I confess," said Samuel Adams, we have, as Wolfe expressed it, a choice of difficulties. Too many flatter themselves that their pusillanimity is true prudence; but, in perilous times like these, I cannot conceive of prudence without fortitude." John Adams retired from "the service of the people," and, devoting himself to his profession, for a time ceased even to employ his pen in their defence. Otis, now disordered in mind and jealous of his declining influence, did but impede the public cause. In Hancock, vanity so mingled with patriotism that the government hoped to win him over.

The assembly, which for the third year was convened at Cambridge, adopted a protest in which Samuel Adams drew the distinction between a prerogative and its abuse; and inquired what would follow in England, if a British king should call a parliament in Cornwall and keep it there seven years. Nor did he omit to expose the rapid consolidation of power in the hands of the executive, by the double process of making all civil officers dependent for support solely on the king, and giving to arbitrary instructions an authority paramount to the charter and the laws.

July.

The protest had hardly been adopted, when the application of its doctrines became necessary. The commissioners of the customs had, through Hutchinson, applied for an exemption of their salaries from the colonial