Francis L Hawks's "Battle of the Alamance and War of the Regulation'"

[Following is the verbatim transcript of Francis L Hawks's essay 'Battle of the Alamance and War of the Regulation' in Revolutionary History of North Carolina in Three Lectures by Francis L Hawks, David L. Swain, and Wm A. Graham, published by Putnam in New York and by William D. Cooke in Raleigh. This essay appears on pages 13 through 41.]

It was in the year 1764, that William Tryon, who had been trained to arms, became the Governor of the province of North Carolina. It was in the same year that the British parliament asserted their right to tax the American colonies, without their consent; and early in 1765, was passed the memorable Stamp Act. From one end of the province to the other, meetings of the people were held, and with an unanimity never equaled before or since, they declared that they would not submit to the law. In 1766, a British sloop-of-war brought over the stamped paper, when Tryon found out the character of the people with whom he had to deal. They took up arms: would not permit a sheet of the paper to be landed, and compelled the stamp distributor to take an oath that he would not execute his odious office. The amazed Governor sought to conciliate the colonists by an ostentatious parade of hospitality. He caused an ox to be roasted whole, and several barrels of beer to be provided as a feast for the common people: they attended on his invitation, but it was to throw the untasted meal into the river, and empty the beer on the ground. He writhed under the insult, and from this hour sought to annoy and distress the colony. Fond of military display, and possibly with the view of impressing with salutary awe the hardy men of the West, he marched from the seacoast with a military company, in a time of profound peace, to run, in person, the dividing line between the Western settlements, and the hunting grounds of the Cherokee Indians. Hundreds of men near the spot could have performed the work, at little cost, quite as well as he could; but his love of military display would not thereby have found gratification; so the colony was saddled with the needless expense, and His Excellency returned with a new title; for the Cherokees called him " The Great Wolf of North Carolina ": The name seems to have been prophetic of the future, for a "wolf" he proved. His next exploit was to erect and furnish in one of the towns on the seaboard at a cost of nearly $100,000, (an immense sum for the colony at that day,) a palace which in splendor had no equal either in North or South America. There was an iniquity, which Tryon found' existing when he came to the government, (for it had been established by his predecessor,) and he not only continued, but increased it. It was the extortion of illegal fees and taxes by the officials of the government. The law had named the fees to be paid to clerks of courts, recorders of deeds, entry takers, and surveyors of land, and lawyers for certain specified services. The taxes also were fixed by law. But these several officers had been for years in the habit of demanding two or three times as much as they were entitled to; and many of the sheriffs, wherever it could be done, exacted about double the amount of lawful taxes. To this state of things, add the fact that all offices were conferred by the Governor on his personal favorites, and the additional circumstance that the limited use of the press at that day rendered it very difficult for the people to read the laws for themselves, and the reader will have before him the causes which led to the "Regulation War" of North Carolina.

When the oppressions arising from this state of things became no longer endurable, redress was sought at first in a quiet way, by a resort to the courts of law. The officers were indicted, and found guilty, but the punishment was the nominal one of a penny fine. In short, all resorts to the tribunals of the country ended in a mockery of justice. The people met and remonstrated in vain. In a moment of apprehension, Tryon would lull them, by promises which he never meant to fulfil, into a hope of redress.— Scarcely would they disperse before some gross act of official imposition, or the seizure and imprisonment of some of the most conspicuous among them would rouse the people, who to the number of thousands, and with arms in their hands, marched to the rescue of their companions. Their approach would create a panic, and the prisoners would be set at liberty. The people would again disperse, for there never lived a set of men who would more quietly or cheerfully have submitted to the existing laws if righteously administered. The histories of the day have done them great injustice: eagerly catching at acts of lawless violence, perpetrated by a few, who were not of the Regulators, but who gladly sheltered themselves in their irregularities by assuming the name; those who have written of that time, have denounced this whole body of men as composed of a factious and turbulent mob who causelessly disturbed the public tranquillity. Nothing could be more untrue. Their assemblages were orderly, and some evidence of the temper and characters of the men may be gathered from the fact, that from these meetings, by a law of their own, they vigorously excluded all intoxicating drinks. We shall see presently that many among them were deeply conscientious and christian men. I have already mentioned that the public press of that day had an influence but limited in extent. As far as it went, however, they sought peaceably to use it in setting forth their grievances. And here, we digress for a moment to say a word of their publications; for they furnish strong and true touches, in the picture of those times. The productions, sometimes circulated in MSS., sometimes in print, betray no proofs of high scholarship, and none of the elegance of polished writing; for they were literally what they professed to be, the work of the people, and there is a truthful earnestness in some of them, more effective than the skill of the mere rhetorician. Sometimes they are grave, sometimes satirical; sometimes a ballad and sometimes a narrative. The rough poet of the period was Rednap Howell, who taught the very children to sing in doggerell, the infamy of" the proud officials who were trampling on them. He singled out especially two, by name Fanning and Frohawk, and a single specimen from many similar ones will suffice:

"Says Frohawk to Fanning, to tell the plain truth; When I came to this country, I was but a youth, My father sent for me: I wa'nt worth a cross, And then my first study was stealing a horse. I quickly got credit; and then ran away, And hav'nt paid for him to this very day.

"Says Fanning to Frohawk, 'tis folly to lie, I rode an old mare that was blind of one eye; Five shillings in money I had in my purse, My coat it was patched, but not much the worse; But now we're got rich, and it's very well known, That we'll do very well; if they'll let ws alone."

Sometimes a grave irony was made the medium of instruction; and with this is connected a little anecdote in our literary history. I have in my possession a small volume put forth by Harmon Husband, a quaker of that day, and one of those who used his pen most freely; among its contents are two sermons on the nature of asses; the one founded on the text, "Issachar is a strong ass, couching down between two burdens—And he saw that rest was good, and the land that it was pleasant; and bowed his shoulder to bear, and .became a servant to tribute':" the other founded on the scripture narrative of Balaam and his ass. They have in them many hard hits both against tyrannical rulers and those who submit to them; and what adds to their interest is, that Benjamin Franklin has been supposed to have borne some part in their production, as he unquestionably did in other articles which Husband published. The communication between Dr. Franklin and Husband arose, according to the tradition of the country, as related by Carruthers, from the fact of some distant relationship or family connection between them; for Husband was by birth a Pennsylvanian, or of Pennsylvania parents who had removed to North Carolina. At any rate a communication was kept up between them". At the time of which we speak, the sagacious mind of Franklin probably saw that the coming collision with the mother country, was a mere question of time, the result was inevitable. The western part of North Carolina, at that day, derived its supply of necessary commodities for the few shops established in it, from Philadelphia; and twice in each year the traders resorted to that city to purchase their goods. Among these individuals was one, a prudent and discreet man, who always carried verbal messages, to and fro, between Franklin and Husband, but from the danger of detection, no letters were ever sent. Franklin was accustomed however, to send printed pamphlets to Husband, which the latter caused to be either copied or printed and distributed among the people. From one of these entitled "State Affairs," from Franklin's own pen, it has been believed Husband concocted these sermons on asses. This however is a mistake; there is a volume entitled "Sermons to Asses," the production of an English clergyman of republican tendencies, whose name was Murray. This was reprinted in Boston, but neither the English nor American edition bore the author's name on the title page. In New England many attributed the work to Franklin. On a comparison of this work with the publication of Husband, it will be seen that the "Sermons to Asses" at the end of his book, are, with slight alterations to adapt them to the latitude of North Carolina, copied from Murray. Will the reader allow us to detain him with some extracts from these productions. They indicate great shrewdness and good sense, and I fear are not without applicability in some respects to our own times f at any rate they will furnish him with materials from which his own mind will form a better picture of the times than I can delineate:

[I have put these extensive quotes from Husband in italics.-MHC]

"Jacob is the first that is mentioned in scripture who preached to asses; but many have been thus employed since his time. This is a, most shameful monosyllable, when applyed to reasonable creatures;—men endowed with reason and understanding to degenerate so basely; what a falling off is here! 

****** 

What does these burdens mean, which Issachar couched down so decently under? Civil and religious slavery no doubt. Strange, that such a number of Rational creatures should bear two such insupportable burdens !—Ah, I bad forgot that they were asses ;—for, to be sure, no people of any rational spirit could endure such grievous bondage. 

****** 

A strong ass, in the original word, denotes strength, but implies leanness.—And truly all those who submit to slavery are poor. We have not a word of his motion;— he was strong, but not active to assert his rights and privileges. Rest was pleasant to him ;—and thus it happens now, we sit still at ease, trusting to the good of the land, and concluding, every one, I can live out my time in peace and quiet;— forgetting our posterity, and mourning not for the afflictions of Joseph. 

When men thus degenerate, they will always find some ready to fix burdens on them; for slavery don't come in a day, it is a work of time to make men perfect Slaves. 

****** 

Issachar stooped down ; he well deserved a heavy burden for his meanness ;<—it. is a just reward ;—for such as do not value freedom and liberty, before a little present ease, deserve to be slaves.—They are blessings too valuable to be Enjoyed without care and industry to maintain them. 

****** 

But Italy and Spain are not the only places where people believe absurdities;—in a land where freedom has been the privilege and boast of every subject, we may, perhaps, find plenty of asses.—You will say, not m America, a.land renowned for all sorts of liberty ;—A nation to which there is none equal upon the face of the earth, as we know of. In some provinces in America this may have been the case;—but we, in North-Carolina, are not free;—yet to the king, or to the plan of our constitution, nothing can be laid that tends to effect our Liberties.—But we have sold that liberty which our ancestors left us by this constitution to such men as have not the least pretensions to rule over us. 

Are we free while our laws are disapproved of by nine-tenths of us ?—Are we free while it is out of our power to obtain one law that is our choice ?—Take out our oppressors themselves, and many of our laws are disagreeable to the inhabitants to a mac: And worse than all this, for bad as our laws are, the practice of them is worse, and our oppressors have got out of reach of them. 

****** 

Ye who, like Issachar, for the love of ease, or the gratification of some sordid passion, have sold your liberties, and submit to burdens, as unnatural as they are unreasonable,—your character is drawn, in the text, to that of asses.—And worse than asses you are, who thus give up the cause of your country either to civil or religious dominators. 

****** 

Issachar, I wish thy children had all died in the first generation;—for thy offspring is too numerous; they are in church and state; whoever will attend any place of concourse will find many of thy descendants so stupid, that they every day bring themselves under burdens they might easily prevent. 

****** 

I shall now consider some grievous oppressions that we labor under. 

First, The Publick taxes is an unequal burden on the poor of this province, by reason the poorest man is taxed as high as the richest. Allowing the taxes to be all necessary, yet there ought to be some regard had to the strength of the beast; for all asses are not equally strong. We ought to be taxed according to the profits of each man's estate. And as we have no trade to circulate money, this tax ought to be paid in country produce. There would be men enough to be found to fill all posts of office for a salary paid in produce, as any man can afford to officiate in an office for country produce as well as to farm or follow any other calling, the chief of which bring in nothing else. 

This is a grievous burden on the poor, as matters have been carried on, for money is not to be had: And when a poor man's goods is distrained, the practice has been to take double, treble, yea ten times the value has sometimes been taken away.—And if they complain, they are not heard; if they resist, they are belabored like asses. 

Merciful Lord, would any people rise in mobs to disturb a peaceable nation if they could help it! "Who is more ready than the poor to venture their lives in time of war for the safety of the nation? nay it is pinching hunger and cold, brought on them by abuse of officers, that is the cause. 

A few men may rise in a riot without a Cause; and disaffected lords and great men may have such ambitious vie s, encouraged by some enemy prince ;—but for the generality of the poor of a Province to rise, there must be some cause; I dare say there always is a grievous cause. 

Neither is it any reflection on the king, to say, the poor are oppressed; for he don't make our laws:—'Tis the subjects themselves, like the fish, devouring one another, with this difference, we are devoured by law. 

The narrow limits of our inferior court's jurisdiction, and likewise of a single magistrate, is a grievous burden on both poor and rich; and more so as we are obliged to fee lawyers; and in their demands they have got above the law, and have monopolized the whole power of the courts into their own hands. Our burdens exceeds Issachar's; for truly we may be said to labour under three,—the lawyers use us as we do our stocks, they kill one here and there, or pluck us well, and then let us run a while to feather again. 

We must make these men subject to the laws, or they will enslave the whole community.—General and private musters are also an unnecessary burden, especially in our large counties, the out sides of which have to ride from thirty to fifty miles; and the out sides of a county contain more than the heart. Going to one of these musters generally costs a whole week's labour.—And on the whole, costs the counties at least a Thousand Pounds each. A general muster is one week's loss in a year, which is one-fiftieth part of the year.—Four private musters one week more, which is one twenty-fifth part.—Working on the roads and attending courts, will soon reduce it to one-twelfth part of our time.—And of what service is all this cost attending the militia law? It serves to bring custom to a few Ord inary-Keepers, and for a day of gaiety and feasting to a few individuals, who have been vain enough sometimes to publish such a day's diversion in distant Gazettes. 

With what indignation must a poor ass read such a paragraph of such vain boasting of such a crowd of poor asses, faint with hunger, cold and thirst, laying out two or three nights by a fire in the woods, to perform this journey; destitute even of a great coat or a blanket; and of no use under the sun but to make a show o'f grandeur to a few who, perhaps, are the most unworthy in the county. 

This excess has not been practised perhaps in many counties ;—But it is not amiss to check it, lest it should grow, and you be tied neck and heels for the least affront, and made to ride the wooden mare.—It is enough to make a freeman's flesh creep to road this law ;—which might be more tolerable, were the people allowed to choose their own officers.—It would be needless to mention every circumstance of oppression in this which is yet but the civil burden. 

****** 

I shall now proceed to the 3d head, to consider ot a method to remove these burdens. 

When the time of an election comes on, and those men of the world, who rule by wealth, and whose business it is to corrupt their fellow subjects, and cheat them by flattery and corruption; out of their liberty come to ask your votes,—do you despise their offers, and say to them, Your money perish with you. 

Can it be supposed that such men will take care of your interest who begin with debauching your morals, and ruining your souls by drunkenness?—Will that man have the least regard for your civil interest and property who first attempts to ruin your virtue 2—What opinion must they have of such people, who, for a few days riot and gluttony will sell their liberties, but that they are asses, that want to be watered? 

While men are thus slaves to their lusts, they will never be free. Men that do so easily sell their souls will not value their country.—Where there is no virtue, there can be no liberty;— it is all licentiousness. What Issachars are such People who gives their votes for a man who neither fears God nor loves mankind! who, by the very method that he pursues to obtain his election, deserves to forfeit the favour and esteem of all lovers of virtue and honesty. Whom can they blame for their oppression but themselves; their own hands do make the fetters by which they are bound. Those who lay out so much money upon an election, has it in their view to make you pay for it in the round. 

Secondly, Forever despise that man who has betray'd the liberty of his constituants; this will lay a restraint upon the venal disposition of such as Incline to sell their country for Preferment. It would be a check to hinder them from going into the schemes of a Governor.—Never send those who depend on favour for a living, or on the perplexity of the laws, nor any who have ever discovered a want of good principles. 

North-Carolinians, if you remain under these burdens, it must be your own faults ;—you will stand recorded for asses to all generations if you do not assert your privileges before it is too late to recover them.

It is not disloyalty, nor injurious, to give Instructions to the candidates you choose, and take their solemn promise and obligation, that they will follow those instructions. This is far more noble than rioting a few day3 in drunkenness. Assembly men are your servants, and it is but reasonable they be made accountable to you for their conduct. 

Mark any clerk, lawyer or Scotch merchant, or any sett of men, who are connected with certain companies, callings and combinations, whose interests jar with the interest of the publick good.—And when they come to solicit you with invi'ations to entertainments, ifcc. shun them as you would the pestilence. Send a man who is the choice of the country, and not one who sets up himself, and is the choice of a party; whose interest clashes with the good of the publick. Send a christian, or a man whom you think in your consciences is a real honest good man ;—for this is the christian, let his belief, as to creeds and opinions be what it will. 

Beware of being corrupted by flattery, for such men study the art of managing those springs of action within us, and will easily make us slaves by our own consent,—There is move passions than one that these men work upon; there is drunkenness, love of honour, flattery of great men, love of interest, preferment, or some worldly advantage.—They, by taking hold of these springs within us, insensibly lead us into bondage. 

When any man, who has much of this world, so that his interest weighs down a great number of his poor neighbors, and employs that interest contrary to the principles of virtue and honesty, any person of the least discernment may see he is a curse to the nation. 

When men's votes is solicited, or over-awed by some superiors, the election is not free.—Men in power and of large fortunes threaten us out of our liberty, by the weight of their interest. 

North-Carolinians, Are you sensible what you are doing, when, for some small favour, or sordid gratification, you sell your votes to such as want to inslave your country ?—you are publishing to all the world, that you are asses.—You are des. pised already by the sister colonies.—You are hurting your | trade; for men of publick generous spirits, who have fortunes . to promote trade, are discouraged from coming among you. 

You are also encouraging your own assembly-men to inslave you; for when they, who are elected, see that those who i had a right to elect them had no concern for their true interest, but that they were elected by chance, or power of their own, or some great man's interest, such men will be the more ready to vote in the assembly with as much indifference about the interest of their constituents as they had in voting them in. 

You may always suspect every one who overawes or wants to corrupt you; the same person will load you with burdens. You may easily find out who was tools to the governor, and who concurred in past assemblies to lay burdens on us, the edifice, paying the troops, the associates salaries, &c. Send not one of them ever any more; let them stand as beacons; set a mark on them, that ages to come may hold their memories in abhorrence. 

May not Carolina cry and utter her voice, and say, That she will have her publick accounts settled; that she will have her lawyers and officers subject to the laws.—That she will pay no taxes but what are agreeable to law.—That she will pay no officer nor lawyer any more fees than the law allows. That she will hold conferences to consult her representatives, and give them instructions; and make it a condition of their election, that they assert their privileges in the assembly, and cry aloud for appeal of all oppressive laws. 

Finally, My brethren, whenever it is in your power, take care to have the house of assembly filled with good honest and faithful men; and encourage and instruct them on al» occasions: And be sure to let your elections be no expence to them. 

****** 

Balaam, I confess, loved the wages of unrighteousness too much; his conduct with the Almighty seems to have been similar to some men who have too strong a desire after drink, or to gratify some other lustful passion, who will plead with conscience, and contrive a hundred ways to gain its consent.— I have heard a drunken man say, he has made excuses in himself to go out with his gun, and kept working all day in his mind, till he had got the tippling house between him and home, when he has instantly got in a great hurry to get home by the dram-shop, and arguing, that now he really needed one dram;—has got so blinded by this time as, like Balaam, no more to see the angel that stood in his way. 

We generally get in a hurry of business before we can lose sight or get shut of our guide.—Lo, Balaam gets in great haste, was up early, and saddled his ass. 

And no doubt but his heart was full of the hopes of the rewards, full of great expectations, and perhaps was telling over in his mind what large sums of money he should bring home and how he should be honoured by the princes of Moab; and meditating, may be, what a pious work he would put the money to.—The lord had given him leave to go, but no doubt ho ought to have kept cool and resigned, and not have got in such a hurry, and filled his mind with such proclamations, that he could not see his guide that was to direct his steps.— Well, he is so blind, however, that conscience was invisible to him—when on a sudden, the ass started aside, and crushed his foot against the wall. 

This ass seems to resemble the people over whom the prophets are wont to rule, who never are apt to start aside any mora than asses, until the madness of the prophets become so visible, that forces one now and then to reprove them, who, perhaps, never opened their mouths before. 

When the Lord opened the mouth of the ass to speak in human stile, one would have thought it would have frightened any man almost out of his senses.—But Balaam was not easily frightened, but he was for caining and killing her. 

So when any poor ass now-a-days opens her mouth in human stile, or by way of teaching and reproving the rulers, they use him as Balaam did his ass, cane him with discipline, and threaten him with excommunication as the pharisees did the man who was born blind. 

And Balaam's ass spoke much like the complaints of an enslaved people.—Am not I thine ass?

Balaam had his ass saddled and prepared for mounting before he got on to ride;—so likewise it requires some pains and furniture to prepare a people to bear the yoke of slavery.—In civil administration, their general cry is to maintain courts of justice.—In matters of religious concern, it is necessary to have the people well persuaded of the rights and importance of the clergy, and the divinity of creeds and canons of churches, before they will submit to be mounted and ridden like asses. 

We will now resume our narrative. The lawless gang, who though they called themselves Regulators, were really disowned by the body, having committed some acts of personal violence on the government officers with a wanton destruction of property, Tryon resolved to consider the western part of the colony as in rebellion and to suppress it by military force. It was in vain that the more moderate and just intreated him to pause before he shed the blood of these honest men, with whom many of the eastern inhabitants so deeply sympathised, that the militia in some instances peremptorily refused to march against their countrymen. The Governor was obstinate, however, and took up his line of march from the sea-coast toward the west, collecting troops by the way, until on the evening of the 9th of May, 1771, he found himself encamped on the banks of the little stream, near the town of Hillsboro', with some ten or eleven hundred men; a portion of this force was cavalry; beside which he had two six pounders, and four small swivels. Here he obtained certain information which showed him that his situation was becoming critical and forced him to quicken his movements. He had ordered a certain portion of troops from the coast, to march westward by a route different from his own, and to make a junction with him at a point westward of Hillsboro', where he then was. This detachment had reached the town of Salisbury on their march to effect the contemplated juncture, and there halted to receive a supply of powder from Charleston. The Regulators, however, intercepted the convoy and destroyed the powder. The commanding officer of the detachment then determined to make the purposed junction with Tryon's troops at the appointed rendezvous; but the Regulators opposed his progress, entangled him in a skirmish, surrounded his small detachment, and took many of them prisoners. The commander with some few escaped to Salisbury. It may seem singular that in taking the powder and in this skirmish, no lives were lost. The reason was that the men from the east were really more favorable to the Regulators, than to the government, and offered but a seeming resistance.

News of these matters reached Tryon at Hillsboro'; beside he was informed that the Regulators were gathering in large numbers, and his own men, who had no wish to kill their fellow-citizens in battle, were rapidly deserting his camp. Nothing but a bold and expeditious movement could save him. Certain defeat awaited him if he remained where he was. He immediately, therefore, took up his line of march westward, toward the enemy, and on the evening of the 14th of May, pitched his camp on the banks of the Alamance. Thus far the ordinary histories agree; but the residue of the story is told differently by various writers, and is derived generally from the statements of the Governor and his adherents. But one or two, whose lot it was, to know and talk with men of integrity who were in the battle of Alamance have done justice to the Regulators. I shall tell the story according to my belief of the truth, after having made personally a survey of the ground, and duly weighing the testimony on both sides.

As to the Regulators, they were men accustomed to the use of the rifle, and by no means deficient in courage; but except in the two particulars of bravery and skill as sharp-shooters, they had none of the qualifications of soldiers. They knew nothing of discipline, had no commander-in-chief, were not even organized and officered in divisions for battle, had no cavalry, and many of them had never seen a piece of artillery. Two old Scotchmen, who had been privates in the British army, were probably the only men among them who had ever seen powder burned in a battle field. They knew that Tryon was coming: some among them thought there would be fighting, and moulded their bullets; and then placing in their hunting pouches as much powder and lead as they usually took on a hunting expedition, with rifle in hand, went out to join their countrymen. Others again, with no other ammunition than that within their guns, went out believing that, on conference, matters would be amicably adjusted without bloodshed; while yet a third class actually left their weapons at home, because they supposed, that being unarmed, the Governor would more readily enter into negotiations. But alas! they little knew the temper and disposition of William Tryon.

The number of those present was large, probably two thousand; but of these not more than half were armed, and a majority certainly did not expect blood would be shed. The general supposition was that the display of numbers merely would induce the Governor to pause, and enter into negotiations. 'As a proof that these men were not seditious, and had no desire beyond that of peaceably obtaining relief from oppression, we may refer to the fact that though Tryon readied the Alamance and encamped on it on the evening of the 14th, yet on the 15th, the Regulators, instead of an immediate attack on him, sent a messenger to the Governor, with a petition that he would redress their grievances, and desiring his answer within four hours. He sent back the messenger with a promise to return an answer by noon of the 16th. They believed him, and waited patiently for that answer. By break of day on the morning of the 16th, Tryon marched in perfect silence toward the Regulators, leaving his tents standing, and his baggage wagons with the horses ready harnessed for use, in his camp, under the protection of a guard. When he came within half a mile of the Regulators, who were in one extended line, some with arms and some without, and so unsuspicious of an attack that the young men in some parts of the line were actually wrestling and otherwise amusing themselves; the Governor formed his line of battle in two ranks, with the cannon in the centre of the front line. There were wise and good men who, though they sympathised with the Regulators, were not of their number, and these too were on the ground, in the hope of making peace and preventing bloodshed. Among these was the Rev. Dr. Caldwell: many of the Regulators, young and old, belonged to his spiritual charge. On the evening of the 15th, he had an interview with Tryon in his camp; and on the next day he passed, to and fro, three several times between the parties, and obtained from the Governor a solemn promise that he would not fire upon the Regulators, until he had fairly exhausted negotiation in the effort to terminate matters by an amicable adjustment. His statement of this promise to the Regulators undoubtedly lulled the greater part of them, for a time, into a false security. They were not liars themselves, and they naturally supposed a royal Governor would tell the truth. On the last visit of the worthy clergyman, Tryon, without the slightest attempt at the promised negotiation, sent back an answer to the petition of the day before: that answer was that he would grant them no terms but those of unconditional submission. With this message Dr. Caldwell was permitted to return, and while he was communicating it an event occurred in Tryon's camp which brands him with undying infamy, and brought on the battle. Among other peaceful men who passed to and fro in the good work of conciliation, was Robert Thompson, a man deservedly beloved and respected for his irreproachable character. He was without arms, and was not one of the Regulators. At all events, he was then and there a peace-maker. Soon after Dr. Caldwell had left, this man attempted to go back to his countrymen, and upon being prevented, merely remarked, that "as he had come in peaceably he had a right peaceably to return," when Tryon, without other provocation, snatched a gun from the hands of a soldier near him, and himself deliberately shot him, before any battle had commenced. Conscious that he had violated good faith in this murder, and apprehensive of consequences, he immediately sent out a white flag: many of the Regulators did not know what it meant, and though told by one of the two old Scotch soldiers not to fire on it, were so roused by the wanton butchery of Thompson, and the gross violation of his promise by Tryon, that they levelled their rifles and the flag of truce fell. The Governor immediately commanded his men to fire. They seemed indisposed to obey; the truth was that they did not wish to shed the blood of their fellow citizens. It was a critical moment for the Governor; yielding to a temper which he never had under much control, he rose in his stirrups, and in a voice of mingled rage and desperation he called on them to fire upon the Regulators or upon him. Some few ventured to obey his order to fire, and then the volley came from the line, Dr. Caldwell having barely time to escape from between the parties, before the discharge. The blood of the Regulators was now roused, and men who had come there with peaceful intentions, would not stand by, indifferent spectators of such a scene. Immediately after the volley, the Regulators who had neither discipline nor recognised leaders, adopted the Indian mode of warfare, and betaking themselves behind the trees, their rifles began to tell with deadly effect: they had their enemies on the road in the open plain, where they presented a fair mark, and so rapid were their discharges, that Tryon's troops had enough to do in returning their fire without making the hazardous attempt to change their position. The cannon opened immediately after the first fire, but except on the first and second discharges, probably with but little effect, as the Regulators were protected by the trees, and evidently had the best of the battle. In this state of things, Tryon sent out another flag of truce which was shot down in utter ignorance of what it meant. It probably was the precursor to negotiation, for the Governor found that he was likely to lose the field. When the flag fell, the firing commenced again, and the government troops unable to withstand the sure rifles of the Regulators, fell back from their position, about a hundred yards, leaving their cannon unprotected. Immediately some of the young men rushed forward and seized the pieces; but when possessed of them, they had no ammunition suited to them, nor did they know how either to work them or spike them; for the latter, probably they had no implements prepared: but they had driven the enemy from them and they were not further used in the battle. No less than sixteen men had been killed by one rifleman around these cannon. He with three others had taken a position near the artillery; here they were protected by a large tree and ledge of rocks. Half the artillery was directed against them to dislodge them, but without effect. Pugh, for such was the rifleman's name, fired every gun while the other three loaded for him. At length they were surrounded, and Pugh was made prisoner while the rest escaped. But at last the ammunition of the Regulators began to fail, and as this happened, they retired until only a small body was left. The government troops then advanced to surround them, but familiar as they were with the country, the greater part of them made their escape. Some fifteen or sixteen, however, were made prisoners, and so ended the battle of the Alamance, in which the government troops sustained far more loss of men than the Regulators.

And now, I would that this were all the story. But there is that yet to tell, which has caused the name of Tryon to be loaded with execrations, and remembered with detestation in North Carolina. Left on the battle ground, and therefore claiming a victory, Tryon the next day issued a proclamation offering pardon to all, if within five days, they would come into his camp, and take the oath of allegiance. Many complied, for they never intended to disclaim their allegiance to the crown. But we must particularly call attention to a part of the oath he administered, because of its bearing on the future history of the State. They were sworn, "never to bear arms against the King; but to take up arms for him if called upon."

The reader will see presently the consequence of this in Mecklenburg. After he felt secure, this miserable and unprincipled tyrant, made an ostentatious parade of himself and his army in the upper towns, with the few wretched prisoners he had made, accompanying him in chains to grace his triumph. Presently he reached Hillsboro' on his return to the East, and here he paused long enough to glut his revenge; for here he tried his prisoners. Before, however, this solemn mockery of justice, he had proceeded on the very evening of the battle, without form of law or even trial, to add to the butchery of Thompson, the murder of another victim. This was an unfortunate being named Few. Oppression and cruel wrong had deprived the poor creature of his reason. He was a carpenter by trade, and owned a small property which, with his parents, brothers and sisters he occupied. He was not merely, like the rest of his countrymen, oppressed by the officials of the government, but one of Tryon's proud minions had injured him more deeply still, by ruining the woman to whom he was betrothed. A modern historian, indeed, in the charitable endeavor to palliate, gently insinuates that this is but a tradition, and may not be true, Aye, but it is one of those traditions which burn themselves in upon the recollections of a whole people. The writer has lived on the spot where James Few lived; he has talked with men who were the contemporaries of James Few; and the tradition of his wrongs is spread over a large area, and has been preserved by many hundreds. The man was crazed by the occurrence; he brooded over it until he fancied that God had made him an avenger of human wrongs, and wrote to one of the Regulators that "he was sent by heaven to relieve the world from oppression; and that he was to begin in North Carolina." This paper fell into Tryon's hands, and so did the unhappy writer of it; he was taken prisoner at the battle, and on the evening of the same day, without a trial, William Tryon hung this poor victim of insanity, whom even a North American savage would have left unharmed, as a being from whom the Great Spirit claimed protection from every man.

But this was not all. Twelve other prisoners were tried at Hillsboro' on a charge of high treason, and six of them were condemned to death. The good clergyman whom I before mentioned, Dr. Caldwell, left his home to testify to their characters, and to intercede as a minister of mercy in their behalf. He failed in his benevolent effort, but he did not fail in standing by these poor victims, and in ministering spiritual comfort and aid to their souls, until, as to them, the scene closed in death. As to Tryon, in the whole proceeding, he showed that he had neither the generosity of a soldier, the dignity of a gentleman, the humanity of a man, nor the feelings of a christian. In the language of one of our writers, he "exerted the whole influence of his character against the lives of these people; for as soon as he was told that an indulgence of one day had been granted by the court to two of them to send for witnesses, who actually established their innocence and saved their lives, he sent one of his aids to the Judges and Attorney General to acquaint them that he was dissatisfied with their inactivity, and threatened to represent them unfavorably in England " if they did not proceed with more spirit and dispatch."

On the day of execution he had the whole army paraded and under arms. The arrangement of the troops, and all the details of the shocking and sad spectacle, were regulated and superintended by himself. He even selected the spot for the gallows.— Well might one of North Carolina's best patriots, commenting afterward on the transaction, say, that "the governors minute and personal attention to these particulars, left a ridiculous idea of his character behind, bearing a strong resemblance to that of an undertaker at a funeral."

But some of these poor victims, humble as they were in station, (for not one was a leader among the Regulators) were loyal, brave and pious. I once lived where the spot on which these men suffered met my eye every day; and many a pilgrimage have I made to the place, and there pondered on their fate. It was sad, very sad; but I thought that God who can overrule all man's wickedness, even to his own high purposes, had brought good out of this great wrong. He had made the flower of freedom grow out of the turf that covered these men's graves; and from every hillock, came a voice to their countrymen which, four years afterward they remembered: and the voice said "ye see here the tender mercies of an oppressive government to your murdered countrymen," and then the people said, it were better for them to die like men in overthrowing such a government, than to be hung like dogs for complaining of it: and so they swore, God being their helper, that they would be free:—and they are free.

But before we leave this part of the subject, we must tell a story or two connected with the execution of these men: it will then be seen how the seeds of the after revolution were sown in the hearts of their countrymen. It will be remembered that the rifleman Pugh, who in the battle dealt out death so surely to the artillerists, was a prisoner. He was one of the victims. "When placed under the gallows, he asked permission of the Governor to speak, he was told that he might have one half hour for that purpose. He was perfectly calm, and even dignified; not a muscle quivered, nor a nerve shook. He began by saying that he had long, as he hoped and believed, been prepared to meet his God in another world, that he was therefore not afraid to die: that he had no acknowledgments of wrong to make, no pardon to ask for what he had done; then turning to his countrymen, he told them that he was sure his blood would be as seed sown on good ground, and that ere long they would see it produce an hundred fold. He then recapitulated briefly the oppressions of the people and the causes which had led to the late conflict, asserted that the Regulators had taken the life of no man before the battle commenced, and that they sought nothing more than the lawful redress of their grievances. He then turned to the governor and charged him with having brought an army there to murder the people instead of taking sides with them, as he should have done, against a swarm of dishonest officers; he advised him to put away from him his corrupt favorites, and to be the friend of the people whom he was sent to govern; and here, said he, (pointing to Fanning,) here is one of those favorites, utterly unfit to be in authority:— At these words the denounced minion gave the signal, and the further fearless denunciation was hushed in death before the allotted half hour had expired.

Another case, that of Messer, was more melancholy still. He was active as a regulator, and having been taken prisoner was to have been hung the day after the battle. His wife having heard of his intended fate, early the next morning hastened to her husband to see the last of him on earth, and took with her, her son a child of ten years old. She threw herself on the ground before Tryon and implored him but in vain. The preparations were almost completed, and the fatal moment had well nigh come; the heart broken wife was lying on the ground, her face hidden in her hands, her boy weeping over her, when suddenly the child, leaving his mother, stepped up to Tryon and asked him to hang him, and let his father live. Tryon demanded of the child who had instructed him to act as he did. The answer of the boy was "no body." "What," said Tryon, "is the reason you make this request?" "Because," answered the child with tears, "if you hang my father, my mother will die, and all the children will perish." Even Tryon was touched with the earnestness and simplicity of the boy, and promised him that his father should not be hung on that day. But he hung him afterwards in Hillsborough.

And with the remark that it was this same Tryon who was transferred soon after to the colony of New York, and became Governor there, and who with circumstances of wanton cruelty burned Danbury and Fairfield; we leave the subject of the Regulation War and the field of Alamance.