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THE Scotch, never, in the
land of their fathers, or in the United States of America, have been
inclined to radicalism, or the prostration of all law. In their warmest
aspirations for the liberty of choosing their own rulers, or framing, or
consenting to the laws, by which they should be governed, they always
acknowledged the necessity of law and order; in fact, they never asked
for anything else. The general run of Scottish history shows the nation
to have been in favor of a government of sufficient strength to control
its subjects in the exercise of their passions, and defend them from
aggression and violence.
They have ever been
strenuous that their rulers should govern according to some established
law, well known and understood, to which reference should be had in
cases of dispute among themselves, or with their rulers; and to the
decision of this law, fairly interpreted, there should be no opposition
while the law was unrepealed.
They contended that there
is of necessity an agreement between the rulers and the people, the one,
to govern by these fixed laws, and the other, to obey the directions
given by the constituted authorities.
They ever contended that
there is a conscience towards God, paramount to all human control; and
for the government of their conscience in all matters of morality and
religion, the Bible is the storehouse of information,—acknowledging no
Lord of the conscience, but the Son of God, the head of the Church,
Jesus Christ; and the Bible as his divine communication for the welfare
and guide of mankind.
They have held that
tyranny and usurpation may be set aside by force; that, in extreme
cases, revolution by force is the natural right of man; not a revolution
to throw down authority, and give license to passion, but a revolution
to first principles, and to the unalienable rights of man.
On these principles, they
formed their various Covenants. The first made in 1557, Dec. 3d, and the
second on 31st of May, 1559; in both of which the leading men, and many
others, bind themselves to maintain their religion against all
opposition from any and every quarter. The first National Covenant of
Scotland was drawn up by John Craig, and sometimes has been called
Craig's Confession was publicly owned and signed by the king himself,
his household, and the greater part of the nobility and gentry,
throughout the kingdom, in 1581; the signing of it being greatly
promoted through the country by the ministers of religion. The same
covenant, with many additions, was publicly signed, with great
solemnity, by the people in Edinburgh, Feb. 28th, 1638. By this, they
all bound themselves to preserve, at all hazards, their religious rights
and liberties against opposers. And finally, the SOLEMN LEAGUE AND
COVENANT, drawn up by Alexander Henderson, and read by him in the
General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, on the 17th of August, 1643,
and was received and approved, with emotions of the deepest solemnity
and awe, with whispered thanksgivings and prayers. It was then carried
to the Convention of States, and by them unanimously ratified;
subsequently, it was sent to London, where, on the 25th Sept. of the
same year, it was accepted and subscribed by the English Parliament and
the Assembly of Westminster Divines; and afterwards carried over to
Ireland, and taken generally, by the congregations of Presbyterians, in
Ulster province. The services attending the signing of this important
instrument were solemn and protracted, not only in Scotland, but in
England and in Ireland.
This Solemn League and
Covenant, so generally taken, bound the United Kingdoms to endeavor the
preservation of the Reformed Religion in the Church of Scotland, in
doctrine, discipline, and government,--and the Reformation of Religion
in England and Ireland according to the Word of God, and the example of
the best reformed Churches,—the extirpation of Popery and Prelacy,—the
defence of the King's person, authority, and honor,—and the preservation
and defence of the true Religion and Liberties of the kingdom, in peace
and quietness. Hetherington, a writer of note, in his History of the
Church of Scotland, thus writes : "Perhaps no great international
transaction has ever been so much misrepresented and maligned, as the
Solemn League and Covenant. Even its defenders have often exposed it,
and its authors, to severe censures, by their unwise mode of defence.
There can be no doubt in the mind of any intelligent and thoughtful man,
that on it mainly rests, under Providence, the noble structure of the
British constitution. But for it, so far as man may judge, these
kingdoms would have been placed beneath the deadening bondage of
absolute despotism; and in the fate of Britain, the liberty and
civilisation of the world would have sustained a fatal paralyzing shock.
This consideration alone might be sufficient to induce the statesman to
pause, before he ventures to condemn the Solemn League and Covenant. But
to the Christian, we may suggest still loftier thoughts. The great
principles of that sacred bond are those of the Bible itself. It may be
that Britain was not then, and is not yet, in a fit state to receive
them, and to make them her principles and rules of national government
and law; but they are not, on that account, untrue, nor even
impracticable: and the glorious predictions of the inspired Scriptures
foretell a time when they will be more than realized, and when all the
kingdoms of this earth shall become the kingdoms of Jehovah, and of his
anointed, and all shall be united in one solemn league and covenant
under the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. And who may presume to say
that the seemingly premature and ineffectual attempt to realize it by
the heavenly-minded patriarchs of Scotland's second Reformation, was not
the first faint struggling play-beam piercing the world's thick
darkness, and revealing to the eye of faith an earnest of the rising of
the Sun of Righteousness? A sacred principle was then infused into the
heart of nations which cannot perish; a light then shone into the
world's darkness which cannot be extinguished; and generations not
remote may see that principle quickening and evolving in all its
irresistible might, and that light bursting forth in its all-brightening
glory."
"It has often been said
the Covenanters were circumvented by-the English Parliament, and were
drawn into a league with men who meant only to employ them for their own
purposes, and then either cast them off; or subdue them beneath a
sterner sway than that of Charles. Were it even so, it might prove the
treachery of the English, but would expose the Covenanters to no heavier
accusations than that of unsuspecting simplicity of mind. They ought to
have first ascertained, men say, what form of church government England
intended to adopt, before they had consented to the League. And yet the
same accusers fiercely condemn the Scottish Covenanters for attempting
to force their own Presbyterian forms upon the people of England. The
former accusation manifestly destroys the latter. That the Covenanters
did not attempt to force Presbyterianism upon England, is proved by the
fact, that they entered into the league without any such specific
stipulation, because it was contrary to their principles either to
submit to force in matters of religion, or to attempt using force
against other free Christian men. It argues, therefore, ignorance both
of their principles and of their conduct, to bring against them an
accusation so groundless and so base. They consented to lend their aid
to England in her day of peril, in which peril they were themselves
involved; but they left to England's assembled divines the grave and
responsible task of reforming their own church; lending, merely, as they
were requested, the assistance of some of their own most learned, pious,
and experienced ministers, to promote the great and holy enterprise. For
that they have been and will be blamed by witlings, Sciolists and
Infidel philosophers; but what England's best and greatest men sought
with earnest desire, and received with respect and gratitude, Scotland
need never be ashamed that her venerable covenanted fathers (lid not
decline to grant."
"And let it be carefully
observed, that the difference between The conduct of the English
Parliament in the great civil war, and of the Covenanters in their time
of struggle, consisted in and was caused by this—that in England it was
essentially a contest in defence, or for the assertion of civil
liberty,--in Scotland for religious purity and freedom. England's fierce
wars for civil liberty laid her and her unfortunate assistant prostrate
beneath the feet of an iron-hearted usurper and despot. Scotland's calm
and bloodless defence of religious purity and freedom secured to her
those all-inestimable blessings, broke the chains of her powerful
neighbor, revealed to mankind a principle of universal truth and might,
and poured into her own crushed heart a stream of life, sacred,
immortal, and divine."
The famous book Lex Rex,
by Rev. Samuel Rutherford, was full of principles that lead to
republican action, as the Scotch generally have understood
republicanism,—to be governed by rulers chosen, and by laws framed
according to the will of the people,—and religious liberty untouched.
These great principles
the Scotch brought with them to America; they are still held by their
descendants, who differ from their parent stock in insisting on and
enjoying the form of government, which, while it protects the citizens,
is elective, and is executed by the same persons but a short time in
continuance. On the other side of the water, the Scotch enjoy but an
implied choice in their hereditary monarch, and but in part that freedom
of conscience, and that liberty from legislative interference in matters
of religion, they aimed at in their National Covenant.
James I. had signed the
first National Covenant, and Charles II., on his being crowned at Scone,
by the Scotch, January 1st, 1651, heard the National Covenant and the
solemn League and Covenant read, and solemnly swore to keep them both;
and when the oath to defend the Church of Scotland w is administered to
him, kneeling and holding up his right hand, he uttered the following
awful vow: "By the Eternal and Almighty God, who liveth and reigneth for
ever, I shall observe and keep all that is contained in this oath."
Now with men who had felt
that it was right to bind a hereditary monarch by a solemn covenant, to
which they bound themselves, and who, in emigrating to North Carolina,
had come, some of them of their own free will, with the expectation of
enjoying more liberty and acquiring more property, and some on
compulsion, to save their lives after the rebellion of 1748, and loaded
with a solemn oath of allegiance as part of the conditions of pardon;
and in Carolina kept a part of them in ignorance of the real state of
the country, and imposed upon by the representations of the Governor, in
whom they trusted,—it is not at all strange there should be difference
of opinion and action as the revolutionary struggle carne on. Some were
ready to carry out their principles at once,-and were republicans, doing
away at once all hereditary claims to the throne or chair of state.
Others had not felt the evils complained of in Carolina to any great
degree, and were not hasty to enter into a contest. Others felt
themselves bound to obey the king, to whose Government and person they
had taken the solemn oath of allegiance, as a condition of their spared
lives. And some were so convinced that the king's forces could not be
successfully resisted, and from what they knew or heard from their
nation's experience, they had some cause to fear,—that it was better to
bear the evils they endured, than to suffer greater after a crushed
rebellion. One man, William Bourk, was heard to say in the winter of
1776, that "we should all be subdued by the month of May, by the king's
troops; that General Gage ought to have let the Guards out to Bunker
Hill, and it would have settled the dispute at that time;" and for this
he was brought before the provincial council, March 2d, 1776, and
acknowledged his words, and added,—"he wished the time would happen this
instant, but was sure the Americans would be subdued by the month of
August;" whereupon he was sent to Halifax and committed to close gaol
till further orders.
Those that had come to
the province of their own accord, previous to the great emigration, by
authority, in 1746 and 1747; and many of those who emigrated afterwards,
followed out their inclinations anal their principles in taking part in
the revolution —and many, perhaps most of those who came in that
emigration, took part for the king,— feeling themselves bound by their
oath of allegiance, and their present position, to defend the rights and
dominions of the crown. For a time, at least, the majority of the
inhabitants of what was Cumberland were in favor of the crown, and even
disposed to assist Governor Martin, who kept them informed of the
preparations made by the crown for the subjugation of the colonies; and
appealed to their sense of honor and religion and loyalty to rally
around his standard, which, after his flight from Newbern on the night
of April 24th, 1775, was raised at Fort Johnson, on the Cape Fear; and
from that removed to an armed vessel until the arrival of forces enabled
him to take again his position in safety on land.
The following; paper
shows that those in Cumberland who felt free to act for the revolution
were no less spirited than those in Mecklenburg or any other part of the
State. After the Declaration made by the inhabitants of Mecklenburg, the
different counties formed what were called associations; a paper being
drawn up expressing their sentiments on the great questions agitating
the public mind, they subscribed their names, pledging themselves to the
defence of American Liberty. Within a month a paper was circulated in
Cumberland county, of which the following is a copy.
"THE ASSOCIATION, JUNE
20TH, 1775.
The actual commencement
of Hostilities against the Continent, by the British troops, in the
bloody scene of the 19th of April last, near Boston, in the increase of
arbitrary impositions from a wicked and despotic Ministry, and the dread
of instigated insurrections in the colonies, are causes sufficient to
drive an oppressed people to the use of arms. We, therefore, the
subscribers, of Cumberland county, holding ourselves bound by the most
sacred of all obligations, the duty of citizens towards an injured
country, and thoroughly convinced that, under our distressed
circumstances, we shall be justified in resisting force by force, do
unite ourselves under every tie of religion and honor, and associate as
a band in her defence against every foe, hereby solemnly engaging, that,
whenever our continental or provincial councils shall decree it
necessary, we will go forth and be ready to sacrifice our lives and
fortunes to secure her freedom and safety. This obligation to continue
in full force until a reconciliation shall take place between Great
Britain and America, upon constitutional principles, an event we most
ardently desire, and we will hold all those persons inimical to the
liberty of the colonies, who shall refuse to subscribe to this
association; and we will in all things follow the advice of our general
committee respecting the purpose aforesaid, the preservation of peace
and good order, and the safely of individual and private properly."
This paper was the
composition of Robert Rowan, whose name stands first on a long list of
subscribers; it is still in existence in Robeson County. The phrase,
"instigated insurrections," in the above paper refers probably to charge
made against Governor Martin, that he favored the effort that was made
for an insurrection of the Slaves, planned by the captain of a coasting
vessel.
The difference of opinion
in Cumberland county led to much distress and trouble, not from the
foreign foe, for the British forces never visited the county, except in
the hasty retreat of Cornwallis to Wilmington, after the battle of
Guilford; but from the inhabitants themselves. Some of the most ardent
Whigs in the State were citizens of Cumberland county, who hesitated not
to rive the Royalists much trouble. We shall not stop to dwell upon or
recount the plunderings, the skirmishes, and battles, the personal
rencounters between the two parties in Cumberland and the surrounding
counties, though they afforded many thrilling scenes of courage and of
suffering; and shall relate the circumstances of only one engagement
between the Whigs and Tories in the lower part of the State, as the
consequences were of importance to the country through the whole war.
Governor Martin had
issued a Commission of Brigadier General to Donald M'Donald, a leading
man among the Scotch, and perhaps the most influential among the
Highlanders; and had sent him a proclamation without date, which the
General might send forth at any time he should think it advisable,
commanding all the king's subjects to rally around the General. On the
1st day of February, 1776, M'Donald erected the Royal Standard at Cross
Creek, and issued his proclamation. In a short time fifteen hundred men
were assembled under his command, well armed and provided with proper
military stores for a march to join the Governor at the mouth of the
river. The celebrated Flora M'Donald, whose history will fill another
chapter, is said to have used her influence over her clansmen and
neighbors to join the standard of the old veteran, who had held a
commission in the army of the Pretender, Charles Edward, and taken part
in the battle of CuIloden, in 1745, and had saved his life by the oath
of allegiance and emigration to Carolina, and was now prepared to fight
for his king as his only proper sovereign ruler. Her husband took a
Captain's commission; and others of the name held commissions, and were
in the camp, which was well supplied by contributions, and the king's
money, a large amount of which was secured by the Whigs after the
battle.
Colonel James Moore of
New Hanover, who had been commissioned by the Provincial Congress of
North Carolina, in 1775, and had a regiment under his command of five
hundred men, four hundred of whom had been :stationed at Wilmington,
marched, with his regiment, and a detachment of the New Hanover militia,
towards Cross Creek, and fortified a camp on Rockfish River, about
twelve miles south of M'Donald head-quarters; and by his scouts and
spies broke up the regular communication between the General and the
Governor. The first move of M'Donald was towards Moore. Halting a few
miles from his camp, he sent a decided but friendly letter to the
Colonel, urging him to prevent all bloodshed by joining the royal
standard; and offering, in the name of the king, a free pardon and
indemnification for past rebellion, "otherwise he should consider them
as traitors to the constitution, and take the necessary steps to conquer
and subdue them." Moore, after the delay of some clays, returned his
answer—that he and his men were engaged in the most glorious cause in
the world, the defence of the rights of mankind, and needed no
pardon;—and urged the General to sign the test proposed by the
Provincial Congress, —otherwise he might expect that treatment which he
had threatened him and his followers.
McDonald having in the
meantime received information that Sir Henry Clinton and Lord William
Campbell had arrived at the headquarters of the Governor, determined, if
possible, to avoid an engagement with Moore, and decamped at midnight,
and commenced his march to join the Governor. By rapid marches and
crossing the Cape Fear, he eluded the pursuit of Moore, and was bending
his course to the sea shore, intending to leave Wilmington to the left,
when, on the third (lay's march, crossing the South River from Bladen
into Hanover, he comes to Moore's Creek, which runs from north to south,
and empties into the South River about twenty miles above Wilmington,
and finds the encampment of Cols. Alexander Lillington with the minute
men of the Wilmington district, and Richard Caswell, with the minute men
of New Berne district, who assembled their forces on hearing of
McDonald's proclamation, and had united their regiments, and were in
search of the army of the Tories.
McDonald's situation
admitted of no delay; Moore was in rapid pursuit, and these Colonels in
front; he determines upon an attack upon the forces in front. A certain
individual, who claimed to be neutral, visited the camp of Lillington
that night, and informed him that an attack would be made the next
morning. The Colonel drawing up his men in a very advantageous position,
to command both the road and the bridge, and removing the planks from
the bridge, keeps his men under arms all night. About day, the 27th of
February, the Scotch forces advance for battle, under the command of
Colonel McLeod, the General himself being confined to his tent, too
unwell to lead his forces. McLeod is speedily killed, and also Colonel
Campbell; and the forces of Lillington and Caswell rushing on with great
spirit, the forces of McDonald, deprived of their leaders, are thrown
into confusion, and routed, and either taken prisoners or entirely
dispersed. McDonald was found sitting on a stump near his tent,
alone;—and as the victorious officers advanced towards him, waving the
parchment scroll of his commission in the air, he delivers it into their
hands. Colonel Moore arrived in camp a few hours after the battle was
over, and his forces all carne up during the day.
By this battle the
spirits of the loyalists were broken, and they never again were embodied
in large companies till the fate of the war became doubtful by the
movements of the army of Cornwallis.
The Provincial Congress
determined to show kindness to the prisoners and their families,
respecting their principles, though opposing their course; and on the
29th of April published a manifesto from which the following are
extracts. "We have their security in contemplation, not to make them
miserable. In our power, their errors claim our pity, their situation
disarms our resentment. We shall hail their reformation with increasing
pleasure, and receive them among us with open arms. Sincere contrition
and repentance shall atone for their past conduct. Members of the same
political body with ourselves, we feel the convulsion which such a
severance occasions; and shall bless the (lay which shall restore them
to us, friends of liberty, to the cause of America, the cause of God and
mankind."
"We war not with helpless
females, whom they have left behind them; we sympathize in their
sorrow, and wish to pour the balm of pity into the wounds which a
separation from husbands, fathers, and the dearest relations has made.
They are the rightful pensioners upon the charity and bounty of those
who have aught to spare from their own necessities, for the relief of
their indigent fellow creatures; to such we recommend them."
May the humanity and
compassion which mark the cause we are engaged in, influence them to
such a conduct as may call forth our utmost tenderness to their friends,
whom we have in our power. Much depends upon the future demeanor of the
friends of the insurgents who are left among us, as to the treatment our
prisoners may experience. Let them consider these as hostages for their
own good behavior, and by their own merits make kind offices to their
friends a tribute of duty as well as humanity from us, who have them in
their power."
The Congress granted to
General McDonald and his son, who held a colonel's commission, a liberal
parole of honor; and complimented both these officers on their candor.
Some time in the summer, the general and twenty-five of the officers
taken prisoners in the battle at Widow Moore's Creek Bridge, were taken
to Philadelphia, and held in confinement for the purpose of promoting an
exchange of prisoners between the two armies.
We cannot but admire the
integrity of these men, though we lament their course; we reverence
their moral principles, while we deplore their mistake. We pass by their
error, and glory in receiving and instructing others in the principles
of religion and morality which governed these men. Their descendants are
among the best citizens of the States. The great principles of their
ancestors still reign among the descendants along the Cape Fear; and
though divided on the party questions of the day, as might be expected
in a nation of freemen, they are united on the great principles of
republicanism.
The descendants of these
men are altogether in favor of an enlightened ministry; and are patrons
of efforts for the instruction of the rising generation. They are firm
friends to the grand principles of the supremacy or law, and yield a
cheerful obedience to the laws of the land enacted by the legislators,
chosen by freemen from their own body. Not given to change either in
their politics or their friendships, they support the government of
their choice; and are divided only on the question respecting the powers
of a republican government.
When once it was settled,
by the surrender of Yorktown, that monarchical government was at an end
in the colonies, those along the Cape Fear that had felt themselves
bound to support the royal authority while that authority could be
supported, joined heartily with their countrymen, who had all along been
struggling for the independence of the colonies, in preparing and
adopting and defending the constitution that guards our liberties. But
it is to be remembered that the most earnest defenders of the rights of
the crown, along Cape Fear, contemplated monarchy as hedged in and
centralled by the principles of their Solemn League and Covenant, which
in due time lead all men that adopt them, to struggle as for life, for
the liberty of conscience and freedom of property and person. The free
church of Scotland have struggled nobly for the first; one more step,
and they are republicans of the American stamp. Martin, who knew the
power of an oath over the Scotch on Cape Fear, used it skilfully to keep
them to their allegiance. He saw its power in Orange and Mecklenburg,
but knew not how to ingratiate himself with that peculiar race of
people, in whose politics, as among the Scotch, a strong religious
principle prevailed. |
