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Colonial and State Records of North Carolina
Letter from Henry Eustace McCulloh to the Committee of Correspondence of the North Carolina General Assembly
McCulloh, Henry Eustace, d. ca. 1810
July 10, 1771
Volume 09, Pages 10-12

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[From MS. Records in Office of Secretary of State.]
Letter from Henry Eustace McCulloh, Provincial Agent, to Committee of Correspondence.

London, 10th July 1771.

Honble Gentlemen,

I Beg leave to refer you to my Letters dated 30 March, & 25 July 1770. To which I have not receiv'd the honour of any Answer; Daily expecting Letters from you I deferr'd writing to you on that Account. I much fear some Miscarriage must have happen'd to them,—as soon as I may be so fortunate as to hear from you—I will write you fully in answer. Not having received any thing in command from you,—I have little material to lay before you; and the more so, as hardly anything of consequence relative to America took place in the course of the last Winter.—The first part of the last Sessions was entirely taken up with the Dispute with Spain, and the vast Exertions of Dispatch and Strength which the Brittish Empire manifested on the Occasion, and which doubtless were the means by which the General Tranquility was preserved: the latter Part of the Sessions was less happily engrossed by domestic Disputes which took up that Time which I am assured was better Intended to be applied to measures of public and General Utility, In which the Affairs of America were to have been fully considered.—With much trouble and Application I however procured the Act for the Bounty on Staves from America Imported into this Kingdom; It met with many Objections from Sundry Persons Interrested to oppose it—I inclos'd it to you and hope if due Attention is paid to it, it may prove the means of adding a Considerable and Advantageous Branch to your Exportation;—The Bounty is thought to be considerable.—The Act of Parliament granting a Bounty on Timber is near expiring, and was left over to the next Session, when I shall exert myself to have it renewed with greater Encouragemts and on a Plan much more suitable to the American Timber.—The Acts relative to Naval Stores are also to be revised with a View to ease and benefit the Trade.—The Scheme of reducing the Bounty will not I believe be again revived. Many other Things advantageous to the Trade of America I am well assured are to be taken into consideration next Winter, to every of which, in which the Interest of the Province may be any Ways advanced, permit me to assure you of my best Attention.

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His Majesty has been pleased to issue an Instruction to his Governors of North and South Carolina relative to the dividing Line between the two Provinces. I insisted as far as in my Power, on the Propriety and justness of continuing the Line in a due West direction, and Desired on Behalf of the Province, that Time might be given to offer their Objections against any Alteration;—His Majesty however has been advised to order the Line to be run so as to include the Catawbaw Indians, and to also direct, that it shall run up the main Stream of the Catawbaw River—from where it enters the Catawbaw Tract, to where the River forks, and from thence a due West Line to the Cherokee Line—by Which means many Settlements on Broad-river are thrown into South Carolina. Declaring always that I had no Authority or Instructions from the Province on this Subject, and protesting against the present Arrangement—I refused, when applied to, to take out the Instructions from the Offices—and the more so, as there is a Charge on the same for Fees to the Amount of £35:16 Sterlg which I shall pay, if I receive directions, but not without. I am extreemly concerned to hear that the Internal Disturbances of the Province continue. The Expence which will necessarily be incurr'd will probably compell another Emission of Treasurers Notes or some such Expedient. The Danger of Counterfeits, to which the Provincial Notes and Bills of Currency have hitherto been exposed prevails upon me to submit to you, whether, in such an Event as before mentioned, the Assembly would not do well to direct the plates to be prepared here; Should they give me their Orders on this Occasion, I cannot help thinking every possibility of Fraud might be guarded against,—Paper such as the Bank uses, with the name of the Province in the Grain might be procured, The Plates might be engraved under the Eye of the Person intructed to procure them, without being ever out of his Custody, and the necessary Number struck off, and the Plate destroy'd, sent over to you; the Agent certifying on Oath that the Plate and all the Paper not used was destroyed, and no part remains in his hands, or any other's to his knowledge. The large Bills might have the Sums prickt in. Such Bills properly signed, could scarcely be ever imitated with the least Hopes of Success. I submit these Things with all due Deference, and from no other motive than my Zeal for the Honour and Safety of the Province in so great and so general an Object as the credit and Certainty of their public Circulating Medium.

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The Expence which the Province will have incurred in restoring General Peace and Order appears to me to have many and good Pretensions to the Favour and Contribution of Government here; nor can I prevail upon myself to think that a regular Application of the Generl Assembly of the Province for a Grant or Sum of Money to reimburse and satisfy them part of such Expence would be unsuccessful: If the General Assembly think this Hint worth their Notice, and will prepare and transmit to me such an Application, I will exert myself to the Utmost to carry it thro'.

Permit me through you to observe, that the Act for my Appointment as Agent expires next December, and that I shall think myself honoured in the continuation of the Appointment. The same Zeal animates me, and I hope the same favourable Opinion thereof continues in the Gentlemen of the Assembly.

I am with perfect Respect &c
HENRY E. McCULLOH.
To the Honble the Committee of Correspondence in North Carolina.