Spirit of 1776

On January 10, 1776 Thomas Paine publishes Common Sense.

February 12, 1776, John Penn writes to his friend Thomas Person: ‘I learn that Governor Martin has at length obtained his wishes; administration having agreed to send seven regiments to North Carolina… I make no doubt but the Southern Provinces will soon be the scene of action … I hope we to the Southward shall act like men determined to be free” (Connor Essay 136).

He needn’t worry about North Carolina’s position!

To ensure proper and efficient handling of the growing national debt in the face of weak economic and political ties between the colonies, the Congress, on February 17, 1776, designated a committee of five to superintend the Treasury, settle the accounts, and report periodically to the Congress.

Moores Creek Feb. 27, 1776 Governor Martin devises a plan to enlist Highlanders and Regulators to march on Wilmington and from there be joined by Lord Cornwallis with seven regiments of British regulators. It was expected that North Carolina would fall an easy victim to such a force, and then could be used as a basis of operations against Virginia, South Carolina and Georgia (Connor Essay 116-117). Not lasting but a mere few minutes, with well over 1,000 militias from the seaboard counties of North Carolina scattered the Redcoats, Highlanders, and Regulators.

“Harnett and his council were unremitting in their labors … with such men as James Moore, Richard Caswell, Alexander Lillington, John Ashe and James Kenan as leaders of colonial troops, Harnett waited impatiently but confidently for news of the first victory to be won by American arms in a pitched battle of the Revolution. The official report of the battle was sent by Caswell to Cornelius Harnett, President. Sixteen hundred Tories had been defeated by one thousand patriots, the power of the Highlands had been forever broken” (Smith: Our Debt 389).

When Hooper and Penn arrived at Halifax, Cornelius Harnett had been tasked with drafting North Carolina’s position known as the Halifax Resolves: ‘… That British fleets and armies have been, and still are daily employed in destroying the people, and committing the most horrid devastations on the country. That governors in different colonies have declared protection to slaves who should imbrue their hands in the blood of the masters. That ships belonging to American are declared prizes of war, and many of them have been violently seized and confiscated … Resolved, That the delegates for this colony in the Continental Congress be empowered to concur with the delegates of the other colonies in declaring independency, and forming foreign alliances, reserving to this colony the sole and exclusive right of forming a constitution and laws for this colony, and of appointing delegates from time to time (under the direction of a general representation thereof) to meet the delegates of the other colonies for such purposes as shall be hereafter pointed out … A copy of the resolution was immediately hurried off to Joseph Hewes at Philadelphia. Its effect on the movement for independence in the other colonies was felt at once. And it was but a short time until Rhode Island and then Massachusetts followed the example of their Southern sister” (Connor Essay 143-146).

On April 1, a Treasury Office of Accounts, consisting of an Auditor General and clerks, was established to facilitate the settlement of claims and to keep the public accounts for the government of the United Colonies.

“The Congress having, on the 17th of February last, appointed a standing committee for superintending the treasury, with power, among other things, to employ and instruct proper persons for liquidating the public accounts; and the said resolution not being sufficiently explicit, with respect to the manner and place of settling those accounts, and nothing being of greater consequence, than that the public accounts should be regularly stated and kept, and justly liquidated and settled;

That all assemblies, conventions, councils, and committees of safety, commissaries, pay masters, and others, entrusted with public monies, shall, within a reasonable time, after being called upon for that purpose by the committee of the treasury, produce their accounts and vouchers at the treasury office, in order to their being settled and adjusted in the manner before directed.

The Halifax Resolves was a name later given to the resolution adopted by the North Carolina Provincial Congress on April 12, 1776. The adoption of the resolution was the first official action in the American Colonies calling for independence from Great Britain during the American Revolution. The Halifax Resolves helped pave the way for the presentation to Congress of the United States Declaration of Independence less than three months later.

The Thirteen Colonies were represented when in the following year it adopted a resolution for independence on July 2, 1776, and two days later approved the Declaration of Independence. Thomas Jefferson drafted the declaration, and John Adams was a leader in the debates in favor of its adoption. Afterward, the Congress functioned as the provisional government of the United States of America through March 1, 1781.[6]

On July 22nd, while the Council were in session at Halifax, came the welcome news that the Continental Congress had adopted a Declaration of Independence… and set apart Thursday, August 1, ‘for proclaiming the said Declaration at the court-house in the town of Halifax; the freeholders and inhabitants of the county of Halifax are requested to give their attendance at the time and place aforesaid’ (Connor 170) … hardly four months had passed since he had red his own immortal declaration … at noon the militia proudly paraded in such uniforms as they could boast, and with beating drums and flying flags escorted the Council to the  court-house. The crowd cheered heartily as President Harnett ascended the platform. When the cheers had died away he arose and midst a profound silence read to the people the “unanimous Declaration of the Thirteen United States of America … in the exuberance of their enthusiasm the soldiers seized President Harnett, and forgetful of his said dignity, bore him on their shoulders through the crowded street, applauding him as their champion and swearing allegiance to American Independence (Defense of North Carolina by Jones 268-269).

August 2: Delegates sign an engrossed copy of the Declaration of Independence

“To frame a Bill of Rights and form a Constitution for government of this state, Harnett played a large share in the shaping – opposing religious and intellectual bigotry, and advocating a broader political freedom…. Tradition ascribes to him the authorship and adoption of the thirty-ninth auricle which declared ‘that there shall be no establishment of any one religious church or denomination in this state in preference to any other, neither shall any person, on any pretence whatsoever, be compelled to attend any Place of worship contrary to his own faith and judgment, or be obligated to pay for the purchase of any Glebe, or the building of any House of Worship, or for the maintenance of any minister or Ministry, contrary to what he feel is right, or has voluntarily and personally engaged to perform, but all person shall be at Liberty to exercise their own mode of Worship” (Connor 174 ).

“For more than a year, from October 18, 1775 to December 18, 1776, the colony had been governed by the council of safety with Cornelius Harnett as President. During all this time no charge was ever brought against any member of the council, no protest was made against any of their decision, no rivalry or intrigue from within marred the force of their authority and no faction or insurrection from without stayed the arm of their power “(Smith: Our Debt  to C H 393).

“The convention at Halifax did its work so well that the constitution there formed continued in use without the slightest change until 1835” (Smith: Our Debt 394).