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Sketches of North Carolina, Historical and Biographical,
Illustrative of the Principles of a Portion of Her Early Settlers:
Electronic Edition.

Foote, William Henry, 1794-1869

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University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill,
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(title page) Sketches of North Carolina, Historical and Biographical, Illustrative of the Principles of a Portion of Her Early Settlers
Rev. William Henry Foote
xxxii, 33-557, 8 p.
New York
Robert Carter, 58 Canal Street
1846
Call number C285 F68 c. 4 (North Carolina Collection, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill)

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Library of Congress Subject Headings, 21st edition, 1998

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SKETCHES
OF
NORTH CAROLINA,
HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL,
ILLUSTRATIVE
OF THE PRINCIPLES
OF A PORTION OF HER EARLY SETTLERS.

BY

REV. WILLIAM HENRY FOOTE.

NEW YORK:
ROBERT CARTER, 58 CANAL STREET.
1846.

Page verso

ENTERED according to Act of Congress, in the year 1846, by
ROBERT CARTER,
in the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Southern District of New York.

R. CRAIGHEAD'S Power Press,
112 Fulton Street

Page iii

DEDICATION.

        To the Ministers of the Synod of North Carolina, with whom I have been associated in arduous labors for about seven years, and whose counsel and assistance and cheerful welcome it has been my happiness to enjoy,--

        MOST RESPECTFULLY:

        And to the Elders and Churches with whom I have labored in the cause of benevolence; whose attachment to sound doctrine and the church of their fathers has been so often and so agreeably displayed; whose hospitality has spread around me, times almost innumerable, the comforts and luxuries of life,--

        MOST KINDLY:

        And to the Children, who by their affectionate cheerfulness have been my solace in hours of weariness and exhaustion; the hope of the Church and of the State,--

        MOST TENDERLY:

        And to the Citizens of the sedate and sober State of North Carolina generally, inheriting so much that is estimable from past generations,--

        WITH SENTIMENTS OF STRONG REGARD AND WELL-WISHING;

        Is this Volume dedicated by

THE AUTHOR,
WILLIAM HENRY FOOTE.

Romney, Hampshire County, Virginia,
October, 1846.

Page ix

INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER

        NORTH CAROLINA, in the days of colonial dependence, was the refuge of the poor and the oppressed. In her borders the emigrant, the fugitive, and the exile found a home. Whatever may have been the cause of leaving the land of their nativity--political servitude,--tyranny over conscience,--or poverty of means, with the hope of bettering their condition,--the descendants of these enterprising, suffering, afflicted, yet prospered people, have cause to bless the kind Providence that led their fathers, in their wanderings, to such a place of rest.

        Her sandy plains, and threatening breakers jutting out into the ocean, met the voyagers sent out by Sir Walter Raleigh in 1584, and the island of Wocoken afforded the landing-place, "as some delicate garden abounding with all kinds of odoriferous flowers," and witnessed the ceremonial of taking possession of the country for the Queen of England, who soon after gave it the name of Virginia. The island of Roanoke, between Pamtico and Albemarle Sounds, in the domains of Granganimeo, afforded the first colony of English a home so quiet, with a climate so mild, and with fruits so abundant, that the tempest-tossed mariners extolled it in their letters to their countrymen as an earthly paradise. So no doubt it seemed to them the first summer of their residence, in 1585; and notwithstanding the disastrous conclusion of that and succeeding colonies, so the adjoining country has seemed to many generations that have risen, and flourished, and passed away, in the long succession of years, since the wife of Granganimeo, in savage state, feasted the first adventures.

        Her extended champaign around the head streams of the numerous rivers that flow through her own borders, and those of South Carolina, to the ocean, cherished into numbers, and wealth, and civil and religious independence, the emigrants from a rougher climate and more unfriendly soil, of the north of Ireland and the Highlands of Scotland. The quiet of the vast solitudes and forests of North Carolina lured these hard-working men, who, in their poverty and transatlantic subjection, cherished the principles of religion, wealth and independence, to seek in them the abode of domestic blessedness, and the repose of liberty. Far from the ocean, in a province without seaports, and unfrequented by wealthy emigrants, the clustered settlements had space and time to follow out their principles of religion, morality and politics to their legitimate ends; and the first declaration of Entire Independence of the British crown was heard in the province that afforded a resting-place to the first colony.

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        Carolina was settled by emigrants from different parts of the kingdom of Great Britain and her American provinces, in such numbers, and in such remote situations, that it is comparatively easy to follow the line of their descendants, and trace out the workings of their principles and habits upon themselves, the commonwealth, and the country at large. Every state of society owes much of its character for excellence or demerit, to the generations that preceded; the present is a reflected image of the past; and men must search among their ancestors for the principles, and causes, and springs of action, and moulding influences, that have made society and themselves what they are. The present generation of Carolinians look back to the men that drove the wild beasts from the forests, and displaced the savages, as the fathers of a republic more blessed than the most favored of antiquity; and may well ask what principles of religion and morals,--what habits made us what we are. In answer to these questions there is no good civil history of the State; and with the honorable exception of the life of Caldwell, by Mr. Caruthers, there is no church history; and the traditions that reached back to the settlement of the country, are, for the most part, passing away, or becoming dimmed in the horizon of uncertainty. The prospect, then, is, that the coming generations will be ignorant of their ancestors and their deeds, and like the Greeks and Romans, be compelled to go back to a fabulous antiquity to search in dreams and conjectures for the first link in a chain of causes, the progression of which is so full of blessedness.

        It may be well for some people, that the mist of antiquity hides in uncertainty, the lowness of their origin; and that aspersion has sometimes been cast on Carolina. But if any people may glory in their forefathers, the Carolinians, at least a part of them, may glory in theirs, and cherish their principles with the firm confidence that they will make their descendants better, and the progress of excellence shall never end. No human mind can tell with certainty, or even conjecture plausibly, where the principles of the men, that did so much for their posterity, will lead; though they may be certain the pathway shall be resplendent, and the goal glorious.

        The history of principles is the history of States. And the youth of Carolina might study both on one interesting page, were there a fair record of past events presented to their perusal. They might learn at home something better than the histories of Greece and Rome, or the Assyrian and Babylonian, or all the eastern and western empires of the world, have ever taught. They would find examples worthy of all praise, and actions deserving a generous emulation. They would be impressed most deeply with the conviction that people and actions worthy of such examples must be the citizens and the acts of the happiest nation on earth.

        The following pages are an effort to open the way for some future historian to do full justice to the past, by recording the events that are so honorable, and to the future by presenting a page full of interest and instruction, all true, and all encouraging. They contain the history of the Presbyterian population of

Page xi

North Carolina as far as it has been yet collected from traditions, records of the churches and ecclesiastical bodies and printed volumes that refer incidentally to this people and their principles and their doings. Though the history of a denomination, it is not sectarian, because it must of necessity be the history of a large part of the State; and because it is also a fair record of events. Every denomination has the liberty of producing a series of events in their past history of equal or greater interest, and it will be neither bigoted, sectarian, or ambitious.

        The author has had some peculiar advantages in gathering the facts related in the following pages. For about seven years he was constantly engaged in the active duties of Secretary of Foreign Missions; and in their fulfilment was called to visit most of the Presbyterian congregations in North Carolina and Virginia repeatedly. In conversation with the aged ministers and members of the church, he heard many things to which he listened with emotion, and asked to hear them again; and then repeated them to others; and then wrote them down; and then corrected and enlarged the notes; and then occasionally published a chapter in the Watchman of the South, the reading of which often induced persons in possession of interesting facts to communicate them either to the writer personally, or to the public through the Watchman; and then to consulting manuscripts and records as far as they were known to have any relation to the matters in hand, or as they fell in his way, and commonly he stumbled, as it were, upon them most unexpectedly, as he passed around in his arduous undertakings; and then as the agency in which he was engaged was drawing to a close, in looking over the memoranda of interesting events that had accumulated upon his hands, the purpose was formed of making a volume of sketches relating to past events in the Presbyterian settlements of Virginia and Carolina, few of which had ever been in print except in the columns of a weekly periodical, and most were fast passing away from the knowledge of the living, as that generation whose fathers were actors in the most interesting scenes of the early settlement, and from whom many of these traditions were received by the writer, were fast entering the unseen world, when he commenced committing their communications to paper, and have now but here and there a solitary representative in the land of the living. In this state of the case the Synod of North Carolina, during the annual session held in Fayetteville, November, 1844, by a committee, invited the writer to use his materials, and others that might be put into his hands, in preparing a history of the Presbyterian Church in North Carolina; such a history as might show the influence of Presbyterian doctrines, habits, and population, upon the past and present generations of citizens of the North State, and in some degree also upon the population of those States which owe much to the emigration from Carolina. The only hesitation the writer felt in acceding to this honorable proposal, arose from the circumstance, that as the population of a part of Virginia and North Carolina were homogeneous, and were for a long time connected in the same

Page xii

Presbytery, and have always since been more or less connected in their religious and benevolent actions, there might arise a difficulty in giving a fair history of the church and people, disconnected from the church in Virginia, which was senior in point of time and always intimately connected in action. But upon farther reflection and conversation with judicious friends, it appeared there were ample materials, purely Carolinian, to form a volume of the size desired by the generality of readers, and equally as ample materials, purely Virginian, for another; and the gratification of the readers, and the public advantage, would be consulted by giving the volumes separate. The invitation of Synod was then, after a few explanations, accepted, and the brethren generally most cheerfully made offer of their collections of facts and materials for the history, which they had for some time been gathering respecting their own particular charges.

        The writer is under particular obligations to many individuals for the materials for the succeeding volume. To Rev. John Robinson, D.D., now no more, from whom he received the first impulse to make the collection of traditions, by hearing from him, at his own fireside, the recital of some of the events that must immortalize Mecklenburg; and whom he visited for the purpose of correcting and enlarging his traditions, in December, 1843, and found preparations making for his funeral;--a noble, urbane; powerful preacher of the gospel: to Rev. E. B. Currie, in whose retired cottage the writer gathered the principal facts relating to Rev. James McGready and the revivals that accompanied and followed his preaching; and many of the facts respecting the churches in Granville and Caswell counties; the infirmities of whose age but enrich his experience: to the Rev. Robert Tate, from whom I received much that is recorded respecting the churches in the eastern part of the State, himself the patriarch of the present churches in New Hanover: to the Rev. Dr. Morrison, for materials for the interesting Memoir of his father-in-law, J. Graham; and also for much concerning Dr. Hunter and Dr. Wilson: to Dr. T. C. Caldwell, for many traditions relating to Sugaw Creek, received from his father, and for an interesting visit to the old grave-yard: to Dr. Hunter, of Goshen, for many facts and incidents concerning his father, Rev. Humphrey Hunter, D.D.: to Rev. Eli W. Caruthers, for the valuable selections from his Life of Rev. David Caldwell, D.D.: to ex-Governor Swain, President of the University of North Carolina, for materials for the sketch of the University, and Rev. Joseph Caldwell, D.D., and for other interesting facts: to Rev. Colin McIvor, stated clerk of the Synod, for a copy of the minutes of the Synod of the Carolinas, and for the translation of a Gaelic pamphlet: to Mr. Charles W. Harris, for some curious manuscripts relating to Poplar Tent, from the pen of Mrs. Alexander: to Rev. Alexander Wilson, D.D., for facts concerning the county of Granville, and the church in Ireland previous to the emigration: and to Rev. Messrs. Cyrus Johnson, J. M. M. Caldwell, John M. Wilson, James M. H. Adams, E. F. Rockwell, A. Gilchrist, C. Shaw, and Archibald Smith, for manuscripts, pamphlets and volumes relating to the history of Presbyterianism in their congregations:

Page xiii

to Governors Morehead and Graham, and the public officers in Raleigh, for access to the records of the State and the public library: to Dr. Ramsey, of Tennessee, for much valuable information: and to J. S. Jones, the author of the Defence of North Carolina, from which many interesting facts have been borrowed: and to Dr. Pattillo, of Charlotte, for many papers relating to his grandfather. Other sources of information are acknowledged in the body of the work.

        It is more than possible that upon the perusal of these pages other documents will be brought to light that shall confirm the principal facts here produced, add others, and perhaps modify some.

        The strict order of chronology could not be followed in the succession of chapters, but it is, as far as possible, in the events themselves, and also in the narration.

        The volume takes the name of "Sketches," rather than that of "History," for reasons that will be apparent on perusal; and the author has but one cause of dissatisfaction in reviewing the work, and that is, that the Sketches are not more worthy of the scenes and the actors.

Page xv

TABLE OF CONTENTS.

Page 33

SKETCHES
OF
NORTH CAROLINA.

CHAPTER I.
THE FIRST DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, MAY 20TH, 1775.

        THE little village of CHARLOTTE, the seat of justice for Mecklenburg county, North Carolina, was the theatre of one of the most memorable events in the political annals of the United States. Situated in the fertile champaign, between the Yadkin and Catawba rivers, far above tide-water, some two hundred miles from the ocean, and in advance of the mountains that run almost parallel to the Atlantic coast, on the route of that emigration which, before the Revolution, passed on southwardly, from Pennsylvania, through Virginia, to the unoccupied regions east of the Mountains, on what is now the upper stage route from Georgia, through South Carolina and North Carolina, to meet the railroad at Raleigh,--it was, and is, the centre of an enterprising population. It received its name from Princess Charlotte of Mecklenburg, whose native province also gave name to the county, the House of Hanover having been invited to the throne of England.

        Here was located the first academy, or high school, in the upper part of the State; and here was made the first effort for a college in North Carolina, in the institution called QUEEN'S MUSEUM.

        The traveller, in passing through this fertile, retired, and populous country, would now see nothing calculated to suggest the

Page 34

fact, that he was on the ground of the boldest Declaration ever made in America; and that all around him were localities rich in associations of valor and suffering in the cause of National Independence, the sober recital of which borders on romance. Everything looks peaceful, secluded, and prosperous, as though the track of hostile armies had never defaced the soil. Were he told, this is the spot where lovers of personal and national liberty will come, in pilgrimage or imagination, to ponder events of the deepest interest to all mankind, he must feel, in the beauty and fertility of the surrounding region, that here was a chosen habitation for good men to live, and act, and leave to their posterity the inestimable privileges of political and religious freedom, with abundance of all that may be desired to make life one continued thanksgiving.

        Seventy years ago, on the 19th day of May, 1775, might have been seen assembled, in this frontier settlement, an immense concourse of people under great excitement; some few, well dressed, moving about with the dignity of Colonial Magistrates; a small number of officers of the militia; the great mass of the assembly clad in the homespun of their wives and sisters,--not a few shod with the moccasins of their own manufacture,--all completely wrapt in the exciting subjects of a revolutionary nature, then agitating the whole land. Continental Congress was then in session in Philadelphia, consulting for the welfare of the Colonies; provincial Legislatures had been dissolved, and the whole population of the United Provinces were in commotion, discussing the rights and privileges of persons, and States, and Kings. Every man had become a politician, and from being a hunter was prepared to become a soldier.

        There was no printing press in the upper country of Carolina, and many a weary mile must be traversed to find one. Newspapers were few, and, no regular post traversing the country, were seldom seen. The people, anxious for news, were accustomed to assemble to hear printed handbills from abroad, or written ones drawn up by persons appointed for the purpose, particularly the Rev. Thomas Reese, of Mecklenburg, North Carolina, whose bones lie in the grave yard of the Stone Church, Pendleton, South Carolina. There had been frequent assemblies in Charlotte, to hear the news and join in the discussions of the exciting subjects of the day; and finally, to give more efficiency to their discussions, it was agreed upon, generally, that Thomas Polk, Colonel of the Militia, long a surveyor in the province, frequently a member of the Colonial Assembly, well known and well acquainted

Page 35

in the surrounding counties, a man of great excellence and merited popularity, should be empowered to call a convention of the representatives of the people, whenever it should appear advisable. It was also agreed that these representatives should be chosen from the Militia districts, by the people themselves; and that when assembled for council and debate, their decisions should be binding on the inhabitants of Mecklenburg.

        Having heard of the attempt of Governor Martin to prevent the assembling of a Provincial Congress, or Convention, in Newbern, in April; and of his arbitrary proceedings in dissolving the last provincial Legislature after a session of four days, before any important business had been transacted; and being afflicted with the news from distant colonies, and from across the ocean, the people were clamorous for action and for redress. The Provincial Congress of North Carolina had assembled in direct opposition to the proclamation of the Governor, and had approved of the acts and doings of their representatives in the Continental Congress, expressing their confidence in their wisdom and abilities, by re-appointing them to the arduous duties of Representatives in the Legislature of the United Colonies; and the people generally were more and more restless under the exercise of royal authority, and daily more irritated by the exactions of men who glutted their avarice under the color of law.

        In this state of the public mind, Colonel Polk issued his notice for the committee men to assemble in Charlotte, on the 19th of May, 1775. On the appointed day between twenty and thirty representatives of the people met in the Court House, in the centre of the town, at the crossing of the great streets, and surrounded by an immense concourse, few of whom could enter the house, proceeded to organize for business, by choosing ABRAHAM ALEXANDER, a former member of the Legislature, a magistrate, and ruling elder in the Sugar Creek Congregation, in whose bounds they were assembled, as their chairman; and John McKnitt Alexander, and Dr. Ephraim Brevard, men of business habits and great popularity, their clerks. Papers were read before the Convention and the people; the handbill, brought by express, containing the news of the battle of Lexington, Massachusetts, on that day one month, the 19th of April, came to hand that day, and was read to the assembly. The Rev. Hezekiah James Balch, Pastor of Poplar Tent, Dr. Ephraim Brevard, and William Kennon, Esq., addressed the Convention and the people at large. Under the excitement produced by the wanton bloodshed at Lexington,

Page 36

and the addresses of these gentlemen, the assembly cried out as with one voice, "Let us be independent! Let us declare our independence, and defend it with our lives and fortunes!" The speakers said, his Majesty's proclamation had declared them out of the protection of the British Crown, and they ought, therefore, to declare themselves out of his protection, and independent of all his control.

        A committee, consisting of Dr. Ephraim Brevard, Mr. Kennon, and Rev. Mr. Balch, were appointed to prepare resolutions suitable to the occasion. Some drawn up by Dr. Brevard, and read to his friends at a political meeting in Queen's Museum some days before, were read to the Convention, and then committed to these gentlemen for revision.

        While the committee were out discussing these resolutions, the Convention continued in session and were addressed by several gentlemen. General Joseph Graham, then but a youth, and present at the deliberations, relates an interesting incident. A member of the committee, who had said but little before, addressed the chairman as follows: "If you resolve on Independence, how shall we all be absolved from the obligations of the oath we took to be true to King George the Third, about four years ago, after the Regulation battle, when we were sworn, whole militia companies together? I should be glad to know how gentlemen can clear their consciences after taking that oath?" The Speaker referred to the blood shed by Governor Tryon, on the 16th of May, 1771, on Alamance Creek, when he dispersed the Regulators, men driven to open resistance of His Majesty's officers, by their tyranny and exactions;--and to the numerous executions that followed in Hillsborough and the neighboring country;--and to the oath of allegiance forced on the people by the Governor, to save their lives and property, after that bloodshed. The question produced great confusion, and many attempted to reply; the chairman could with difficulty preserve order. This question did not imply fear, or want of patriotism; it simply revealed the spirit and tone of the man's conscience, that he was one of those men blessed of the Lord, "who sweareth to his own hurt, and changeth not." The excitement that followed evinced the fact that the Speaker had struck a chord that vibrated through the assembly. An answer must be given, or the event of that day's discussion would not be for independence. The haste to answer the question revealed the fact that the community felt the awful and binding sanction of a solemn oath; and unless some answer was

Page 37

given, and given speedily, the minds of the auditory would be turned back from the proposed declaration, for very many were held by the oath exacted by Tryon. Some cried out that--"allegiance and protection were reciprocal; when protection was withdrawn, allegiance ceased; that the oath was binding only while the King protected us in our rights and liberties as they existed at the time it was taken." Others, of more passion than conscience, cried out that such questions and difficulties were all "nonsense." One man at last carried the assembly with him by a short illustration, pointing to a green tree near the Court House,--"If I am sworn to do a thing as long as the leaves continue on that tree, I am bound by that oath as long as the leaves continue. But when the leaves fall, I am released from that obligation." The people determined that when protection ceased, allegiance ceased also. The Convention proceeded to enact by-laws and regulations by which it should be governed as a standing committee, and about midnight adjourned till noon the next day.

        The excitement continued to increase through the night and the succeeding morning. At noon, May 20th, the Convention re-assembled with an undiminished concourse of citizens, amongst whom might be seen many wives and mothers, anxiously awaiting the event. The resolutions previously drawn up by Dr. Brevard, and now amended by the committee, together with the by-laws and regulations, were taken up; John McKnitt Alexander read the by-laws, and Dr. Brevard the resolutions. All was stillness. The chairman of the Convention put the question:--"Are you all agreed?" The response was an universal "aye."

        After the business of the Convention was all arranged, it was moved and seconded that the proceedings should be read at the Court House door in hearing of the multitude. Proclamation was made, and from the Court House steps Colonel Thomas Polk read, to a listening and approving auditory, the following resolutions, viz.:--

THE MECKLENBURG DECLARATION.

        "Resolved, 1st. That whosoever directly or indirectly abetted, or in any way, form, or manner, countenanced the unchartered and dangerous invasion of our rights, as claimed by Great Britain, is an enemy to this country, to America, and to the inherent and unalienable rights of man.

        "Resolved, 2d. That we, the citizens of Mecklenburg county, do hereby dissolve the political bonds which have connected us

Page 38

with the mother country, and hereby absolve ourselves from all allegiance to the British crown, and abjure all political connection, contract, or association with that nation, who have wantonly trampled on our rights and liberties, and inhumanly shed the blood of American Patriots at Lexington.

        "Resolved, 3d. That we do hereby declare ourselves a free and independent people; are, and of right ought to be, a sovereign and self-governing association, under the control of no power, other than that of our God, and the General Government of the Congress:--to the maintenance of which independence, we solemnly pledge to each other, our mutual co-operation, our lives, our fortunes, and our most sacred honor.

        "Resolved, 4th. That as we acknowledge the existence and control of no law, nor legal office, civil or military, within this county; we do hereby ordain and adopt, as a rule of life, all, each, and every of our former laws; wherein, nevertheless, the crown of Great Britain never can be considered as holding rights, privileges, immunities, or authority therein.

        "Resolved, 5th. That it is further decreed, that all, each, and every military officer in this county is hereby retained in his former command and authority, he acting conformably to these regulations. And that every member present of this delegation shall henceforth be a civil officer, viz.: a Justice of the Peace, in the character of a committee man, to issue process, hear and determine all matters of controversy, according to said adopted laws; and to preserve peace, union, and harmony in said county; and to use every exertion to spread the love of country and fire of freedom throughout America, until a general organized government be established in this province."

        A voice from the crowed called out for "three cheers," and the whole company shouted three times, and threw their hats in the air. The Resolutions were read again and again during the day to different companies desirous of retaining in their memories sentiments so congenial to their feelings. There are still living some whose parents were in that assembly, and heard and read the resolutions; and from whose lips they heard the circumstances and sentiments of this remarkable declaration.

THE SECOND MECKLENBURG DECLARATION.

        The Convention had frequent meetings, and on the 30th of May, 1775, issued the following paper, viz.:--

Page 39

"CHARLOTTE, MECKLENBURG COUNTY,
May 30th, 1775.

        "This day the committee of the county met and passed the following Resolves:--Whereas, by an Address presented to his Majesty by both houses of parliament, in February last, the American Colonies are declared to be in a state of actual rebellion, we conceive that all laws and commissions confirmed by, or derived from the authority of the king or parliament, are annulled and vacated, and the former civil constitution of these Colonies for the present wholly suspended. To provide, in some degree, for the exigencies of this county, in the present alarming period, we deem it necessary and proper to pass the following resolves, viz.:--

        "1st. That all commissions, civil and military, heretofore granted by the crown, to be exercised in these Colonies, are null and void, and the constitution of each particular Colony wholly suspended.

        "2d. That the Provincial Congress of each province, under the direction of the great Continental Congress, is invested with all legislative and executive powers, within their respective provinces, and that no other legislative power does, or can exist, at this time, in any of these Colonies.

        "3d. As all former laws are now suspended in this province, and the Congress have not provided others, we judge it necessary for the better preservation of good order, to form certain rules and regulations for the internal government of this county, until laws shall be provided for us by the Congress.

        "4th. That the inhabitants of this county do meet on a certain day appointed by this committee, and having formed themselves into nine companies, viz., eight in the county, and one in the town of Charlotte, do choose a Colonel and other military officers, who shall hold and exercise their several powers by virtue of this choice, and independent of the crown of Great Britain and the former constitution of this province."

        Then follow eleven articles for the preservation of the peace, and the choice of officers to perform the duties of a regular government.]

        "16th. That whatever person shall hereafter receive a commission from the crown, or attempt to exercise any such commission heretofore received, shall be deemed an enemy to his country; and upon information to the captain of the company in which he resides, the company shall cause him to be apprehended, and,

Page 40

upon proof of the fact, committed to safe custody, till the next sitting of the committee, who shall deal with him as prudence shall direct."


        A copy of the acts and doings of this convention was sent by express to the members of Congress from North Carolina, then in session in Philadelphia. Capt. James Jack, of Charlotte, was chosen as the bearer, and set out immediately on his mission. Passing through Salisbury, on the regular court day, he was persuaded by Mr. Kennon, a lawyer in attendance at court, also a member of the committee that reported the first declaration, to permit a reading of the papers publicly. The citizens of Rowan, generally, approved of the course taken by their fellow-citizens of Mecklenburg. Two individuals, John Dunn and Benjamin Booth Boote, opposed the sentiments of the resolution, pronounced them treasonable, and proposed the detention of Captain Jack. Bidding them defiance, and favored by the great majority of the people, he passed on unmolested, and delivered the declarations to the delegates from North Carolina, then in Philadelphia--Messrs. Caswell, Hooper, and Hewes. Approving of the spirit of their fellow citizens, and the tone of the resolutions, these gentlemen nevertheless thought them premature, as the General Congress had not then abandoned all hopes of a reconciliation with the mother country, on honorable terms; and did not present them to Congress. By this perhaps prudent smothering of the expressions of sentiment by an intelligent people, the citizens of Mecklenburg were disappointed, but not discouraged; they lost the foreground their patriotism merited, but lost not their spirit. They declared themselves independent May, 1775, and have never ceased to be so.

        A copy of the proceedings of the Convention was addressed to the Moderator of the first Provincial Congress of North Carolina, which met in Hillsborough, August 20th, 1775; and was laid before the committee of business, but not particularly acted upon, as the majority of the body were still hoping for reconciliation on honorable terms.

        A copy of the proceedings appeared in the Cape Fear Mercury, published in Wilmington, and meeting the eye of Governor Josiah Martin, is thus noticed by him in the Proclamation issued from on board his Majesty's ship Cruiser, August 8th, 1775, and sent to the Provincial Congress:--"And whereas, I have also seen a most infamous publication in the Cape Fear Mercury, importing to be

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'Resolves' of a set of people styling themselves 'a Committee of the County of Mecklenburg,' most traitorously declaring the entire dissolution of the laws, government, and constitution of the country, and setting up a system of rule and regulation repugnant to the laws, and subversive of his Majesty's government," &c. The Governor knew the people better than his predecessor, Tryon, and had he known them better still, he would have spoken of them more respectfully.

        A copy of the second declaration (that of May 30th, 1775) appeared in the public papers in New York and Massachusetts; files of which are still preserved; and from them was copied by Mr. Force into his State Papers.

        The history of the preservation of the first declaration (that of May 20th, 1775), in the absence of printed documents, will be given, in full, in the sketch of Hopewell Congregation, and the Secretary of the Convention.

        The energy of the committee was equal to the decision of their declarations. The laws were vigorously enforced; and the venerable chairman, and his coadjutor Col. Polk, with the committee at large, demonstrated that, in seeking freedom from tyranny, they designed no overthrow of law, or perversion of justice. Opposers of independence were reckoned offenders; and open offenders found no refuge in Mecklenburg. As soon as the news of the insult offered their express, Capt. Jack, in Salisbury, reached Charlotte, the committee ordered a party of some ten or twelve armed men, on horseback, to proceed to Salisbury, the seat of jnstice in Rowan, and bring these men prisoners to Charlotte. The party lost no time in fulfilling their mission, and met with no resistance in Rowan. The offenders, Dunn and Boote, were, after examination by the committee, sent to South Carolina as suspicious persons, to be kept in confinement. Gen. Graham says--"My brother, George Graham, and the late Col. John Carruth, were of the party that went to Salisbury; and it is distinctly remembered that when in Charlotte, they came home at night in order to provide for their trip to Camden; and they and two others of the party took Boote to that place. This was the first military expedition from Mecklenburg in the revolutionary war, and believed to be the first anywhere to the South."--But it was far from being the last, retired and frontier as the county was. It characterized, in its spirit, energy and success, the various expeditions in and from Mecklenburg during the seven years' war--more particularly in the distressing campaigns of Cornwallis, which Graham

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himself acted so conspicuous a part. Dunn and Boote were both transferred to Charleston, for safekeeping, as persons particularly inimical to the country. Their wives made a strong appeal in their favor to the Provincial Congress, which met in Hillsborough, August 20th, 1775: on the 29th of that month it was decided by a vote of that body that they remain in confinement.

        Associations were formed, very generally, throughout the different counties in the state during the summer of 1775. Articles drawn up for the purpose were signed individually as a test of patriotism. The first association of which there is a copy, was drawn up in Cumberland county, July 10th, 1775; the second in Tryon, now Lincoln, in August of the same year.

        The first Provincial Congress of North Carolina were not prepared for independence of the mother country; and on the 4th of September, 1775, after discussion and the action of a committee, it was resolved--"The present association ought to be further relied on for bringing about a reconciliation with the parent state." But on the 9th of the same month, the appointment of a Provincial Council, of thirteen persons, with executive powers, was resolved upon; also County Committees of Safety, with executive powers, in connection with the Provincial Council, to consist of not less than twenty-one persons, to be chosen annually by the electors on the day they made choice of Congressmen. It was also determined that, after the 10th day of December, no suit for debt should be entertained except by permission of this committee. These committees of safety appear to have been the same as that already in existence in Mecklenburg; and Abraham Alexander continued to act as the chairman, as appears from the following certificate, which may be also a specimen of the spirit of the times, and the vigilance with which the committee acted:

"NORTH CAROLINA, MECKLENBURG COUNTY,
"Nov. 28th, 1775.

        "These may certify to all whom they may concern, that the bearer hereof, William Henderson, is allowed here to be a true friend of liberty, and has signed the association.

        "Certified by Abraham Alexander, chairman of the committee of safety."


        Though the Declaration of Independence, made and repeated in Charlotte, in May, 1775, had no immediate effect upon the Continental Congress, it is not unfair to conjecture that it had an influence

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on the Provincial Congress of North Carolina, that met in Hillsborough in August of that year, in the appointment of the Provincial Committee and the County Committees of Safety, as four of the members of the convention were members of the Congress, viz.:--Thomas Polk, Waightstill Avery, John Pfifer, and John McKnitt Alexander. Neither is it unfair to conclude that it had some influence on the Provincial Congress that assembled in Halifax, April 4th, 1776: as, on the 8th of that month a committee was appointed, consisting of Messrs. Harnett, Burke, A. Jones, T. Jones, Nash, Henekin, and Person, to take into consideration the usurpations and violence committed by the king and parliament of Great Britain; and, on the 12th, Mr. Harnett submitted an able report, which was concluded with the following resolution, viz.:

        "Resolved, That the delegates from this colony, in Continental Congress, be empowered to concur with the delegates of the other colonies in declaring independence, and in 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 delegates of the other colonies for such purposes as shall be hereafter pointed out."


        This resolution was, on the same day it was proposed, unanimously adopted; and IS THE FIRST PUBLIC DECLARATION FOR INDEPENDENCE BY THE CONSTITUTED AUTHORITIES OF A STATE. It was presented to the Continental Congress, May 27th, 1776, nearly six weeks before the national Declaration.

        The question now arises, who were these people of Mecklenburg, and whence did they come? What were the habits and manners by which they were characterized? What were their religious principles? and what their daily practice? The county was comparatively new; and it was not yet forty years since the first of those composing the convention had settled in the wilderness. Agriculturists, at a distance from market, and in a fertile country affording in its pea-patches, and cane-brakes, and prairies, plentiful sustenance for their herds, they had abundance of provisions, and little of the sinews of war, money. Skilful marksmen, hunters, and horsemen, capable of enduring great fatigue, in making the Declaration of Independence, they offered a heart and a hand, to give and act according to their abilities, and the emergencies in which they might be placed. The riches of the gold mines were then unknown: the wealth of the country was in her sons,

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and she was rich. Protestants, trained in religious things in the strict doctrines of the Reformation, their settlements were made in congregations; and their places of worship so arranged as to accommodate all the families. Their descendants now assemble where their fathers worshipped before the Revolution. Their forms and creed were the forms and creed of their ancestors, who were eminently a religious people; and their Confession of Faith has descended as a legacy from the emigrants, to go down to the latest posterity.

        Whence did these people come? and what was their ancestry? Of the members of the Convention that proclaimed Independence, May, 1775, one was a minister of the Gospel, and nine were Elders in the Church; and all in some way connected with the seven churches and congregations that embraced the whole county of Mecklenburg. In tracing their history, the true and legitimate workings of religious principles are as happily displayed as in the annals of any State or section in the United States. When the history of these people and their descendants shall be the history of two centuries, it may, and probably will appear, that in the advance of true religious and genuine liberty and sound literature, the South and West are not a whit behind the most favored sections of our Confederacy. It cannot well be otherwise, for the principles, the creed of Puritanism, under whose influence human society has so happily been developed in the New England States, are the principles of Presbytery, the principles of civil and religious liberty, that struck deep in the soil of Carolina, and sent out their vigorous shoots in the great valley of the Mississippi.

        But the question arises with increased force, who were these people, and whence did they come? In what school of politics and religion had they been disciplined? At what fountains had they been drinking such inspirations, that here in the wilderness, common people, in their thoughts of freedom and equality, far outstripped the most ardent leaders in the Continental Congress? Whence came these men, that spoke out their thoughts, and thought as they spoke; and both thought and spoke unextinguishable principles of freedom of conscience and civil liberty? That they were poor and obscure but adds to their interest, when it is known that their deeds in the Revolution were equal to their principles. Many a "life" was given in Mecklenburg in consequence of that declaration, and much of "fortune" was sacrificed; but their "honor" came out safe, even

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their great enemy Tarleton being witness. They did not get their ideas of liberty and law from Vattel, or Puffendorf, or the tomes of English law. From what book then did they get their knowledge, their principles of life? Ahead of their own State in their political notions, as a body, they never wavered through the whole Revolutionary struggle; and their descendants possess now just what these people asserted then, both in religion and politics, in conscience and in the state.

        To North Carolina belongs the unperishable honor of being the first in declaring that Independence, which is the pride and glory of every American. Honor to whom honor is due!

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CHAPTER II.
BLOOD SHED ON THE ALAMANCE--THE FIRST BLOOD SHED IN THE REVOLUTION, MAY 16TH, 1771.

        IN the year 1759 a town was established by the legislature of the province of North Carolina, on the Eno, a branch of the Neuse, near its head waters, in the county of Orange, which might have received its name, Hillsborough, from the beautiful eminences by which it is surrounded, as well as from the Earl of Hillsborough, Secretary of State for American affairs, from whom it is called. Its first name was Childsborough, in honor of the Attorney-General; but the change speedily took place on account of the odium attached to the attorney for his exorbitant fees.

        This little village, the county seat of Orange, has claims upon our attention, for events enacted within its precincts and its neighborhood, in times gone by. It was the seat of the first provincial congress in North Carolina, 1775;--the head-quarters of Gates after his sad defeat at Camden;--and of his adversary, Lord Cornwallis, on his invasion of Carolina in his pursuit of Greene (the residence of his Lordship, then one of the most sightly buildings in the village, is now kept as a tavern of no splendid appearance);--but more particularly noted as the place of the first outbreaking of those discontents, which had shown themselves in complaints and remonstrances, but here assumed form and consistence, first heard of in Orange and Granville, and ultimately spreading over all that section of the State west of a line drawn from the point of entrance of the Roanoke, from Virginia, to the point of egress of the Yadkin to South Carolina;--discontents, and complaints, and outbreakings, that eventuated in the first blood shed in Carolina, in the contest of freedom of opinion and property with the tyranny and misrule of the British government: and the first contest that had any appearance of a regular predetermined battle, in the provinces in North America.

        This spirit of discontent was at first confined to that part of the province granted and set off to Lord Granville, which was bounded by the Virginia line on the north, by the line of latitude

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of 35° 34'' on the south, and extending from the Atlantic Ocean indefinitely west; but more particularly, that part of his Lordship's domain lying west of the line from the Roanoke to the Catawba, at the points specified above. It might have been quieted, had the governor been as ready to require the agents of Granville and his own officers to do justice, as he was to issue his proclamations, filled with promises, and vain orders, to a people irritated by oppression, but not desirous of rebellion.

        On the 24th of April, 1771, Governor Tryon marched from Newbern with a small force, on his way, according to the recommendation of the council, to check a rebellion in the upper country, which had received the name of the Regulators, or the Regulation; the militia of the several counties, in answer to the governor's demand upon the constituted authorities, joined him on his march; and on the 4th of May he encamped at Hunter's lodge in Wake county. Here being joined by a detachment of militia under Col. John Hinton, he found himself at the head of an armed force sufficient to alarm, if not subdue, the undisciplined country in which the dissatisfaction prevailed. He left the palace in Newbern accompanied by about three hundred men, a small train of artillery, and a number of baggage wagons; on the way he had been joined by the detachment of militia from New Hanover county, under Col. John Ashe; of the county of Craven, under Col. Joseph Leech; of the county of Dobbs (now called Lenoir), under Col. Richard Caswell; of the county of Onslow, under Col. Craig; of the county of Cartaret, under Col. William Thompson; of the county of Johnson, under Col. Needham Bryan; of the county of Beaufort, a company of artillery, under Capt. Moore, and a company of Rangers under Capt. Neale; and a company of light horsemen from Duplin, under Capt. Bullock.

        From this place he sent out some detachments to assist the sheriffs in collecting their taxes and various fees due to the government and its officers, with the hope of overawing the community by his military parade; and on the 9th instant marched to the Eno, and encamped within a few miles of Hillsborough, the centre of the infected district, and the residence of the most hated and oppressive officer of the crown, Col. Edmund Fanning, who joined his camp at this place with a detachment of the militia of Orange, whom by various means he had prevailed upon to unite with the governor in putting down their distressed and rebellious neighbors.

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        This was the second visit paid by the governor to the county of Orange on account of the agitation of the public mind, and the disturbances in the community, and the difficulty attending the collection of taxes and the fees of the public officers. In the early part of July, 1768, he came as governor, unattended with any armed force, and used the authority of the chief magistrate, and the address of a practised politician, to restore order, under promises of redress. The apparent quiet gave place to redoubled confusion after his departure, as the promises of protection from illegal exactions all proved vain. He now came with an armed detachment of the colonial militia, to quell by power what he would not control by justice.

        The whole inhabited region of Carolina, west of the line mentioned above, inhabited, as Martin says,--"by several thousand families, removed from the mother country, settled in the frontier counties of the province, exposed to the dangers of savage Indians, and subject to all the hardships and difficulties of cultivating a desolate wilderness, under the expectation of enjoying to their fullest extent the exercise of their religious privileges as a people,"--and with their religious were joined inseparably the civil and domestic rights of an enterprising race accustomed to endure hardship and resist oppression;--all this region of country was agitated, and in some parts in open rebellion; without a single military leader of experience; with few men of much wealth or political eminence, or polished education; with a population of scattered neighborhoods, and not a single fortified place, or any preparations of the munitions of war beyond the rifle and powder and ball of the hunter.

        Mr. Wirt, in his Life of Patrick Henry, says, "the spirit of revolution in Virginia began in the highest circles in the community, and worked its way down to the lower, the bone and sinew of the country." Wherever it may have begun in the eastern part of Carolina, it is certain that in the western division, the people, feeling that their interests were neglected by the governor, and misunderstood or overlooked by the seaboard counties, and not protected, or even consulted, by the parliament or court of England, or any of their executive officers, were moved as one great, excited, undisciplined mass of shrewd, hardy, enterprising men, that acknowledged the dominion of law, and held "opposition to tyrants" to be "obedience to God."

        The men on the seaboard of Carolina, with Colonels Ashe and Waddel at their head, had nobly opposed the Stamp Act, and prevented

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its execution in North Carolina; and in their patriotic movements the people of Orange sustained them; and called them "The Sons of Liberty." Col. Ashe, in Wilmington, had ventured to lead the excited populace against the wishes and even the hospitality of the governor, and in 1766 his party had thrown the governor's roasted ox, provided for a barbecue feast, into the river. Now they were marching with his very governor, to subdue the disciples of Liberty in the west; perhaps, through a misunderstanding of the true nature of the case, they were willing to convince the governor that they were all supporters of the laws and of the authority of the British crown, by uniting with him and subduing those who were reported to the council and provincial legislature as an ignorant and restless multitude, to be reclaimed, by severity, to the government of the laws. The eastern men looked for evils from across the waters; and were prepared to resist oppression on their shores before it should step upon the soil of their State. The western men were seeking redress from evils that pressed them at home, under the misrule of the officers of the province, evils unknown by experience in the eastern counties, and misunderstood when reported there. Had Ashe, and Waddel, and Caswell, understood their case, they would have acted like Thomas Person, of Granville, and favored the distressed even though they might have felt under obligations to maintain the peace of the province, and the due subordination to the laws. While the rest of this province, and the other provinces, were resisting by resolutions and remonstrances, and making preparations for distant and coming evils; these western men, in defence of their rights, boldly made resistance to the constituted authorities, unto blood. While the eastern men stopped the stamped paper on the shore, these contended with an enemy in their own bosom, and sought deliverance at home in the wilderness.

        The disturbances Governor Tryon came to quell were no sudden outbreaks of a discontented and excitable people. As early as the year 1759, the attention of the legislature of the province was called to the illegal fees exacted by the officers of government, producing great and alarming discontents; and a law proposed for redress failed in meeting the approbation of the legislature, though the discontent of persons living on Lord Granville's land had been manifested by the seizure of his lordship's agent, in Edenton, Francis Corbin, and his purchase of liberty by his bond, for future better behavior, in £8,000, with eight securities. This exhibition

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of popular frenzy was not noticed by the governor, because one of his favorite counsellors, M'Culloch, was engaged in it. In 1760, the people of Orange, finding themselves "defrauded by the clerks of the several courts, by the recorders of deeds, by entry takers, by surveyors, and by the lawyers, every man demanding twice or three times his legal fees," violently prevented the sheriff from holding an election according to proclamation of the governor, in expectation of some new oppression by the office-holders, in the form of taxes and fees. In June, 1765, a paper entitled, "A serious address to the people of Granville county, containing a brief narrative of our situation, and the wrongs we suffer, with some necessary hints with respect to a reformation," was circulated in that county, with great effect, being written with much clearness and force. The wrongs complained of in Orange, and Granville, and Anson, and the other counties, were essentially, and for the most part, individually the same.

        The people complained that illegal and exorbitant fees were extorted by officers of government; that oppressive taxes were exacted by the sheriffs, where they had a right to exact some; and that the manner of their collection at all times was oppressive, especially when the right to exact any was denied. As early as the years 1752 or 1753, Childs and Corbin, the agents for Lord Granville, and successors of Mosely and Holton, began to oppress the people who had been induced, by fair promises, to settle on his lordship's reservation, by declaring the patents issued by their predecessors null and void, because the words, "Right Honorable Earl," had been left out from the signature, which had been simply, "Granville, by his Attorneys." They next demanded a larger fee for the patents they issued, than had been given to their predecessors;--next, a fee for a device which they had invented to be affixed to the papers;--also, by granting over and over again, knowingly, the same lands to different persons, and in no case returning the illegal fees;--and in various ways rendering titles to land uncertain and insecure in a large part of Orange. In all these extortions the people complained that the high officers of the province were so interested, there was little prospect of justice but by some strong appeals and exhibitions of powerful dislike, that could not be frowned down.

        The governor's proclamation, issued from time to time, requiring that copies of the legal fees should be exhibited to the people, and no others demanded, were disregarded by his officers; and it was more than hinted that the judges were, indirectly at least, in many

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cases, partakers of the crime, by sharing the fees of office with the inferior officers. This gave weight and impunity to the oppressive exactions. The people were poor; living on productive land as most of them did, they were far from market, and had scarcely surmounted the labors and exposures of a new settlement. One of them, who was engaged in the opposition, declared that when he had gone with his father to Fayetteville to market, with a load of wheat, he could get a bushel of salt for a bushel of wheat; or if money was demanded, they could get five shillings a bushel for wheat, of which one only was in money, and the rest in trade. And if they could go home with forty shillings, or five dollars, from a load of forty bushels, they thought they had done well. In these circumstances double fees and double taxes were exceedingly oppressive,--and to men of their principles these exactions were sufficient cause of open and persevering resistance.

        In 1766, the Stamp Act was repealed, and the governor issued two proclamations on the 25th of June, one making known that desirable fact, the other requiring of the officers of government strict adherence to the graduated table of fees; expecting of consequence that both the east and the west would be gratified, and make no further resistance to the collection of the lawful taxes, and range themselves on the side of the government. The relief and tranquillity were far greater in the eastern counties than in the western. During the session of the county court of Orange, a number of persons entered the court-house in Hillsborough, and presented to the magistrates a written complaint, drawn up by Harmon Husbands, which they requested the clerk to read, setting forth the views of the people respecting their wrongs,--"that there were many evils complained of in the county of Orange that ought to be redressed,"--and proposing that there should be a meeting in each company of militia, for the purpose of appointing delegates for a general meeting to be held at some suitable place "where there was no liquor,"--"judiciously to inquire whether the freemen of this county labor under any abuse of power,"--"that the opinions of the deputies be committed to writing, freely conversed upon,--and measures taken for amendment." The proposition was considered reasonable, and a meeting was appointed to be held at Maddock's Mill, two or three miles west of Hillsborough, on the 10th of October, to inquire into the acts of government,--"for while men were men, if even the Sons of Liberty were put in office they would become corrupt and oppressive, unless they were called upon to give an account of their stewardship."

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        The company meetings were held, and the delegates were appointed; in some cases, with written commissions, viz:--"At a meeting in the neighborhood of Deep River, 20th of August, 1766, it was unanimously agreed to appoint W. C. and W. M. to attend a general meeting on the 10th of October, at Maddock's Mill, where they are judiciously to examine whether the freemen in this county labor under any abuses of power; and in particular to examine into the public tax, and inform themselves of every particular thereof, by what laws, and for what use it is laid, in order to remove some jealousies out of our minds." "And the representatives, vestrymen, and other officers, are requested to give the members what information and satisfaction they can, so far as they value the good will of every honest freeholder, and the executing public offices pleasant and delightsome."

        On the appointed day, the 10th of October, 1766, the delegates assembled; after some time, James Watson, a friend of Col. Fanning, the most odious officer in the county, came, and as a reason for his not appearing to give account as their representative, read a message from Fanning, that, "It had been his intention of attending them till a few days ago, when he observed in the notice from Deep River, the word judiciously, which signified the authority of a court; and that he considered the meeting an insurrection." The meeting had full and free discussion on a variety of topics; and finally resolved that such meetings as the present were necessary, annually, or oftener, to hear from their representatives and officers, in order to have the benefits of their constitution and the choice of their rulers; and that as their representatives, sheriffs, vestry and other officers had not met them here, with but one exception, they should have another opportunity of conferring with their constituents. It is impossible to conceive what fairer mode of ascertaining the truth could be devised by men situated as they were, without a printing press and without newspapers. Such proceedings might, in the colonial days, be rebellion to be put down; in these days of liberty, a man would lose his hold on the community were he to refuse compliance with such commands from his constituents, or the community at large.

        In April, 1767, another meeting was held at the same place, Maddock's Mills, and the following preamble and resolutions were discussed and adopted, by which these men passed the Rubicon; and from being called a mob, or insurgents, were known by the name of REGULATORS, or THE REGULATION, and were considered as having some continued existence:

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        "We, the subscribers, do voluntarily agree to form ourselves into an association, to assemble ourselves for conference for regulating public grievances and abuses of power, in the following particulars, with others of the like nature that may occur, viz.:

        "1st. That we will pay no more taxes until we are satisfied they are agreeable to law, and applied to the purposes therein mentioned, unless we cannot help it, or are forced.

        "2d. That we will pay no officer any more fees than the law allows, and unless we are obliged to it; and then to show our dislike, and bear an open testimony against it.

        "3d. That we will attend our meetings of conference as often as we conveniently can, and is necessary in order to consult our representatives on the amendment of such laws as may be found grievous or unnecessary; and to choose more suitable men than we have done heretofore for burgesses and vestrymen; and to petition the houses of assembly, governor, council, king, and parliament, &c., for redress in such grievances as in the course of the undertaking may occur; and to inform one another, learn, know, and enjoy all the privileges and liberties that are allowed, and were settled on us by our worthy ancestors, the founders of our present constitution, in order to preserve it on its ancient foundation, that it may stand firm and unshaken.

        "4th. That we will contribute to collections for defraying necessary expenses attending the work, according to our abilities.

        "5th. That in case of difference in judgment, we will submit to the judgment of the majority of our body.

        "To all which we solemnly swear, or being a Quaker, or otherwise scrupulous in conscience of the common oath, do solemnly affirm, that we will stand true and faithful to this cause, till we bring things to a true regulation, according to the true intent and meaning hereof, in the judgment of a majority of us."


        These resolutions were drawn up by Harmon Husbands.

        A subscription was set on foot, and fifty pounds were collected for the purpose of defraying the expenses of such suits as might arise in seeking redress of their grievances.

        During this year, 1767, the governor commenced his palace at Newbern, for which, with great difficulty, he had obtained an appropriation of £5,000 by the last legislature; and proceeded in a tasteful and expensive style of building, to expend the whole sum upon the foundation and a small part of the superstructure. At the meeting of the two houses in December of this year, the governor laid before them the condition of the building. The legislature

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with reluctance gave, as the only alternative, £10,000 more to complete the palace. When finished it was pronounced the most superb building in the United Provinces. The governor was gratified, and the people incensed. The taxes had been burdensome--the palace rendered them intolerable.

        On the 21st of May, 1768, the Regulators had another meeting, and determined to petition the governor direct, and prepared their address; which, with a copy of their proceedings at this and the previous meetings, was sent to His Excellency, by James Hunter and Rednap Howell. In the month of June, these gentlemen waited upon the governor at Brunswick; and in reply to their petition, received a written document from which the following extracts are made:

        "The grievances complained of by no means warrant the extraordinary steps you have taken: in consideration of a determination to abide by my decision in council, it is my direction, by the unanimous advice of that board, that you do, from henceforward, desist from any further meetings, either by verbal appointments or advertisement. That all titles of Regulators or Associators cease among you. As you want to be satisfied what is the amount of the tax for the public service for 1767, I am to inform you, it is seven shillings a taxable, besides the county and parish taxes, the particulars of which I will give to Mr. Hunter. I have only to add, I shall be up at Hillsborough the beginning of next month."


        In all these public and documentary proceedings of the Regulators, we see nothing to blame, and much to admire. On these principles, and to this extent of opposition, the whole western counties were agreed. The most sober and sedate in the community were united in resisting the tyranny of unjust and exorbitant taxes; and had been aroused to a degree of violence and opposition difficult to manage and hard to quell. And the more restless and turbulent and unprincipled parts of society, equally aggrieved, and more ungovernable, cast themselves in as a part of the resisting mass of population, with little to gain, but greater license for their unprincipled passions, and little to lose, could they escape confinement and personal punishment. These persons were guilty of lynching the sheriffs, that is, seizing those they found in the exercise of their office, tying them to a black-jack, or other small trees, beating them severely with rods, laughing and shouting to see their contortions; they would rescue property which had been seized for taxes, often with great violence; and on one occasion, in April, 1768, proceeded to fire a few shots upon the house of Edmund Fanning in Hillsborough. These

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unjustifiable acts were charged upon the party; and the Regulators were made accountable for all the ill that wicked men chose to perpetrate under the name of struggling for liberty; while it is well known that the leaders of this oppressed party never expressed a desire to be free from law or equitable taxation. The governor's palace, double and treble fees and taxes without reason, drove the sober to resistance, and the passionate and unprincipled to outrage. But there were cases of injustice most foul and crying that might palliate, where they could not justify, the violence that followed; such as taking advantage of the quietness of the Regulators to seize a man's horse with the bridle and saddle, and selling them for four or five dollars to an officer, to pay taxes resisted as illegal.

        The sheriff had taken advantage of a peculiar conjuncture of events to seize two of the leading men. A meeting had been agreed upon to be held on the 20th of May, 1768, when the sheriff and vestrymen would meet a deputation from the Regulators, and give them satisfaction. Previous to that day a messenger came from the governor with a proclamation against the Regulation as an insurrection; the sheriff immediately, with a party of thirty horsemen, rode some fifty miles, and seizing Harmon Husbands and William Hunter, confined them in Hillsborough jail. The whole country arose, and making an old Scotchman of some seventy years of age, Ninian Bell Hamilton, their leader, marched towards Hillsborough to the rescue. When they reached the Eno, they found the prisoners set free, with this condition laid upon them among others--"nor show any jealousies of the officers taking extraordinary fees." When the Regulators reached the Eno, Fanning went down to meet them with a bottle of rum in one hand and of wine in the other, and called for a horse to take him over--"ye're nane too gude to wade," replied the old Scotchman. Fanning waded the river, but no one would partake of his refreshments, or listen to his statements. The governor's messenger, who had just then returned, rode up to them, read the governor's message, and assured them that, on application to the governor, he would redress their grievances and protect them from extortion and oppression of any officer, provided they would disperse and go home. The whole company cried out, "agreed! agreed!" and immediately dispersed. This event preceded the visit made by Hunter and Howell to the governor.

        Early in July, 1768, the governor arrived in Hillsborough, and issuing a proclamation, as he had promised Hunter and Howell.

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excited the expectations of the country that some redress would be granted. But sending the sheriff to collect the taxes, and with him a letter addressed to the people of a similar import with his proclamations and previous letters, these fond expectations were all broken, and the excited people drove off the sheriff with threats of his life if he persisted in his efforts, and sent a reply to the governor. On a false alarm, a large body of the Regulators assembled in arms, on the night of the 11th of August, near Hillsborough. The nearest companies of militia were called upon; and a large body assembled to defend the governor from injury or insult. The better part of the community were averse to the irregularities of those lawless spirits who, attaching themselves to the cause of liberty, greatly impeded its progress; and desired to govern themselves and persuade their neighbors, by reason, to gain the justice they demanded. Frequent communications passed between the governor and the leaders of the Regulators before the session of the superior court, Sept. 22d, at which Husband and Butler were to be tried; and the demands of His Excellency always implied absolute submission; while the Regulators insisted on protection. On the day of trial, between three and four thousand people assembled near the town, but no violence was committed; the court proceeded; Husbands was acquitted; Hunter and two others were found guilty of riot, fined heavily and committed to jail, from which two soon found the means of escape, and all soon received the pardon of the governor. A number of indictments were found against Fanning; he was pronounced guilty on all, and fined one penny each.

        After this display of justice, the governor issued a proclamation of a general pardon to all who had been engaged in the late riotous movements, except thirteen individuals designated by name. These were probably esteemed by the governor as principal men among the Regulators in Orange county, and their names are preserved, James Hunter, Ninian Hamilton, Peter Craven, Isaac Jackson, Harmon Husbands, Matthew Hamilton, William Payne, Ninian Bell Hamilton, Malachy Tyke, William Moffat, Christopher Nation, Solomon Goff, and John O'Neil. Supposing the country sufficiently pacified, the governor returned to his palace, soon to find that the people were neither deceived nor dispirited.

        The course of events in the upper country flowed on in a disturbed channel, during the remaining part of the year 1768, the whole of 1769 and 1770. The Regulators held their meetings, often in an excited, but never in a dissipated manner, and continued

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to throw more and more difficulties in the way of the sheriffs and other officers, whose exactions increased by impunity. All classes felt the evil, and a greater number than formerly determined on resistance. In March, 1770, Maurice Moore reported to the governor from Salisbury, where he had gone to hold the superior court,--"that the sheriffs of the several counties of that district, complained heavily of the opposition made to them in the exercise of their duties, by the Regulators; that it was impossible to collect a tax or levy an execution; plain proofs, among others, that their designs have even extended farther than to promote a public inquiry into the conduct of public officers:" and he prayed that it might not be found necessary to redress the evil "by means equal to the obstinacy of the people."

        On the records of the superior court in Hillsborough, under date of Sept. 24th, 1770, is the following entry, which requires no comment. "Several persons styling themselves Regulators, assembled together in the court-yard under the conduct of Husbands, James Hunter, Rednap Howell, William Butler, Samuel Divinny, and many others, insulted some of the gentlemen of the bar, and in a riotous manner went into the court-house, and forcibly carried out some of the attorneys, and in a cruel manner, beat them. They then insisted that the judge (Richard Henderson being the only one on the bench) should proceed to trial of their leaders, who had been indicted at a former court, and that the jury should be taken out of their party. Therefore, the judge finding it impossible to proceed with honor to himself and justice to his country, adjourned the court until to-morrow at 10 o'clock; and took advantage of the night and made his escape, and the court adjourned to meet in course."

        The next entry is as follows, viz.:

        "March term, 1771. The persons styling themselves Regulators, under the conduct of Harmon Husbands, James Hunter, Rednap Howell, William Butler, and Samuel Divinny, still continuing their riotous meetings, and severely threatening the judges, lawyers, and other officers of the court, prevented any of the judges or lawyers attending. Therefore, the court adjourned till the next September term." So it appears there was no superior court in Orange for a year; and in Rowan the course of justice was greatly impeded.

        To these acts of rebellion, unfortunately, were added acts of personal violence that called the governor from his palace, with his armed force to revenge. Immediately after the adjournment of the

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court, a lawyer, Mr. John Williams, on his way to the court-house, was met by a number of individuals, who seized and beat him severely in the streets. Edmund Fanning, the person most obnoxious to the community, was seized in the court-house, dragged out by his heels, severely beaten, and kept in confinement during the night. In the morning, when it was discovered there would be no court, he was beaten again; his fine house, which occupied the site of the present Masonic Hall, was torn down, and his elegant furniture destroyed. While the buildings on the premises were falling under the hands of the Regulators, a bell, which had been procured for the Episcopal church, and deposited with Fanning for safe keeping, was discovered. The cry was raised, "it's a spice mortar;" and in a twinkling, Fanning's spice mortar was scattered in fragments.

        The excited multitude then proceeded to the court-house; appointed a man by the name of Yorke as clerk; set up a mock judge; called over the cases; directed Fanning to plead law; and pronounced judgment in mock gravity and ridicule of the court, and law, and officers, by whom they felt themselves aggrieved. Henderson informed the governor, and urged his special attendance, and proposed the calling of the Assembly. Soon after, the house, barn, and out-buildings of the judge, were burned to the ground.

        The governor postponed the calling of the legislature till the usual time; and received them in the palace, which had just been completed, amidst the confusion of the upper country, so greatly aggravated by its erection. Vigorous measures were proposed to restore peace to the upper country; four new counties were set off--Guilford, Chatham, Surry, and Wake. With the hopes of dividing the attention of the people, a proclamation was issued forbidding merchants, traders, or others, to supply any person with powder and shot, or lead, till further notice; and finally it was determined to proceed to extremities, and on the 19th March, 1771, the governor issued his circular to the colonels and commanding officers of the regiments, stating the grievances the government was suffering; he adds--"You are to take fifty volunteers from your regiment, to form one company," &c., offering, at the same time, liberal rations, bounty and pay. No little difficulty was found in collecting the necessary forces, from the great unwillingness of the militia to march against men, in whose doings there was so much to justify, and so little to condemn and punish.

        On the 9th of May, after many delays, he was encamped, as

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we have said, on the banks of the Eno, near Hillsborough. General Hugh Waddel had been directed to march with the forces of Bladen and Cumberland, and to rendezvous in Salisbury, and collect the forces from the western counties, and join the governor in Orange, now Guilford. While he was encamped at Salisbury, waiting for the arrival of ammunition from Charleston, the exploit known in tradition as the Black Boys was performed by a company of men in Cabarrus county, who, lying in wait in disguise, with blackened faces, intercepted the convoy of ammunition between Charlotte and Salisbury, routed the guard, blew up the powder, and escaped unhurt.

        Having crossed the Yadkin, Waddel found a large company of Regulators assembled to prevent his advance; his own men were many of them averse to violence, and others strongly in favor of the insurgents, and were falling away from his ranks. Upon receiving threats of violence if he continued to advance, in a council of officers, he determined to retreat across the Yadkin.

"GENERAL WADDEL'S CAMP,
"Potts' Creek, 10th May, 1771.

        "By a Council of Officers of the Western Detachment:--

        "Considering the great superiority of the insurgents in number, and the resolution of a great part of their own men not to fight, it was resolved that they should retreat across the Yadkin.

"William Lindsay,
Ad' Alexander,
Thos. Neel,
Fr. Ross,
Robt. Schaw,
Griffith Rutherford,
Saml. Spencer,
Robert Harris,
Saml. Snead,
Wm. Luckie.

        "May 11th, Captain Alexander made oath before Griffith Rutherford, that he had passed along the lines of the Regulators in arms, drawn up on ground he was acquainted with. The foot appeared to him to extend a quarter of a mile, seven or eight deep, and the horse to extend one hundred and twenty yards, twelve or fourteen deep."


        On Waddel's retreat the Regulators pressed on him, and many of his men deserting, he reached Salisbury with a greatly diminished force, and immediately despatched a messenger to Tryon to warn him of the common danger. The governor, already alarmed at the reports that came in, of forces gathering on the Alamance, on the route to Salisbury, raised his camp immediately,

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and on the 13th of May crossed Haw River; and on the evening of the 14th, encamped within six miles of the Regulators, on the Alamance. On the 15th, the Regulators sent a message to the governor making propositions of accommodation, and asking an answer in four hours. He promised them one by noon the next day. In the evening, Captain Ashe and Captain John Walker being caught out of camp, by the Regulators, were tied to trees, severely whipped, and made prisoners. On this, as on the preceding night, one-third of the forces was under arms all night. On the 16th, Tryon began his march at daybreak, and moved on silently within half a mile of the insurgents, and there proceeded to form his line, the discharge of two cannon being the signal. Here Rev. David Caldwell, who, at the solicitations of his parishioners and acquaintances, some of whom were with the Regulators, had visited Tryon's camp on the 15th, in company with Alexander Martin, afterwards governor of the State, to persuade the governor to mild measures, again visited the camp, and it is said obtained a promise from the governor that he would not fire until he had tried negotiation. Tryon sent in his reply to the Regulators, demanding unconditional submission, and gave an hour for consideration: they heard with great impatience a first and second reading. Both parties advanced to within about three hundred yards of each other; Tryon sent a magistrate to the insurgents with a proclamation to disperse within an hour, and also commenced a negotiation for an exchange of Captains Ashe and Walker. Robert Thompson, who had with some others come into the camp to negotiate with the governor, was detained as a prisoner, and attempting to leave camp without liberty the governor seized a gun and shot him dead with his own hand. A flag of truce sent out by him was immediately fired on by the excited people, many of whom were near enough to witness the circumstances of Thompson's death. The parties had gradually been drawing nearer and nearer to each other, the insurgents somewhat irregularly, till their lines in places almost met. The governor gave the word "fire," his men hesitated, and the Regulators, many of them with rude antics, dared them to "fire." "Fire!" cried the governor, rising in his stirrups; "fire! on them or on me!" and the action began. The cannon were discharged, and the military commenced firing by platoons; the Regulators in an irregular manner from behind trees. Some stout young men of the Regulators rushed forward and seized the cannon of the governor, but not knowing how to use them, speedily gave them up and retreated. A flag of truce

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was sent out by the governor to stop the battle; an old Scotchman cried out to the Regulators, "it's a flag, don't fire;" but almost immediately three or four rifles were discharged, and the flag fell. The firing was renewed with fresh vigor by the military, and the Regulators in the general fled, leaving a few posted behind trees, who continued their fatal aim till their ammunition was exhausted, or they were in danger of being surrounded.

        Some of the Regulators had wished and expected to fight; but the greater part that had assembled expected that the governor, seeing their numbers, would parley with them, and ultimately grant their demands. Rev. Mr. Caldwell, just from Tryon's camp, was riding along the lines urging the men to go home without violence, when the command to fire was given, and with difficulty escaped from the conflict.

        They had no commander to regulate their motions, they had none with them used to camps and wars to give them advice; there had of late been no expeditions against the savages, and the military life, further than to shoot a rifle and live on short rations, was all new. "O," said an old man, who was in the battle, to Mr. Caruthers, "O, if John and Daniel Gillespie had only known as much about military discipline then as they knew a few years after that, the bloody Tryon would never have slept in his palace again!" Many that were defeated in that bloodshed, in a few years showed Cornwallis they had learned to fight better than in the day of Tryon's victory on the Alamance. It is the unvarying tradition among the people of the country, that the Regulators had but little ammunition, and did not flee till it was all expended.

        Nine of the Regulators, and twenty-seven of the militia were left dead on the field; a great number were wounded on both sides in this skirmish, or battle--in this first blood shed for the enjoyment of liberty. We cannot but admire the principles that led to the result, how much soever we may deplore the excesses that preceded, and the bloodshed itself.

        The excesses of the Regulators had been great, as has been recorded, but the barbarities of the governor upon his prisoners, after his victory, make these lamented deeds dwindle into harmless sport. On the evening of the battle, he proceeded to hang, without trial or form, James Few (whom he had taken prisoner), a young man, a carpenter, that owned a little spot of land near Hillsborough, where Mr. Kirkham's house now stands, of quiet and industrious habits, goaded on to rebellion by the exactions of Fanning; and at last, driven to madness by the dishonor done by that man to his

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intended bride, he joined the Regulators, and proclaimed himself "sent by heaven to release the world of oppression, and to begin in Carolina." And not content with this, the governor's vengeance followed his aged parents, and having executed their son, Tryon proceeded to destroy the little provision made for their helplessness and age.

        Captain Messer was condemned to be hung the next day. His wife, hearing of his captivity and intended fate, came with her oldest child, a lad of about ten years, to visit and intercede for her husband. Her kindness comforted but could not redeem her husband, the father of her children; the governor was inflexible. While the preparations were making for the execution, she lay upon the ground weeping, her face covered with her hands, and the weeping boy by her side. When the fatal moment, as he supposed, had arrived, the boy, stepping up to Tryon, says: "Sir, hang me and let my father live!" "Who told you to say that?" said the governor. "Nobody!" replied the lad. "And why," said the governor, "do you ask that?" "Because," said the boy, "if you hang my father my mother will die, and the children will perish." "Well!" said the governor, deeply moved by the earnestness and affecting simplicity of the lad, "your father shall not be hung to-day." On suggestion of Fanning, Messer was offered his liberty on condition that he would bring in Harmon Husbands, his wife and child being kept as hostages. After an absence of some days he returned, saying he had overtaken him in Virginia, but could not bring him back; he was put in chains and taken along as prisoner.

        After resting a few days on Sandy River, the governor passed on as far as the Yadkin, and having issued a proclamation, that all those who had been engaged in these disturbances, excepting the prisoners in camp, the company called the Black Boys, and sixteen others, that should come into camp, lay down their arms, and take the oath of allegiance before the 10th of July, should receive a free pardon: and having sent General Waddel with a company of twenty-five light horse, one field-piece, and a respectable corps of militia to visit the counties to the west and south, and return home, himself took a circuit round through Stokes, Rockingham, Guilford to Hillsborough. In all his circuit, after the bloodshed, he exhibited his prisoners in chains, particularly in the villages he passed. He exacted the oath of allegiance from all the inhabitants that could be found; levied contributions of provisions with a lavish hand upon the suspected and the absent; he seized one Johnson, who was reported to have spoken disrespectfully of Lady

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Wake, from whom one of the counties lately forcibly set off had been called, a beautiful and accomplished lady; and for his want of gallantry to this sister of the governor's wife, condemned him to five hundred lashes on his bare back, two hundred and fifty of which were inflicted; and offered a reward of a thousand acres of land, and one hundred pounds in money, for Harmon Husbands, James Butler, Rednap Howell, and others of the Regulators; and filled his measure of tyrannical glory by burning houses, destroying crops, and holding courts-martial for civil crimes. On reaching Hillsborough, he held a special court for the trial of his prisoners, twelve of whom were condemned to death on his urgent statements, and six were actually executed. The real leaders had all escaped, but a sacrifice must be made; the court hesitated and delayed; he sent his aide-de-camp to chide and threaten their delay; the soldier and governor were lost in the tyrant and the savage.

        On the 19th of June, six prisoners were publicly executed near Hillsborough, of whom the unfortunate Messer was one, reprieved a few days by the spirit of his child, only to be carried about in chains, and hung ignominiously at last. The governor, in person, gave orders for the parade at the execution, and, as Maurice Moore said, "left a ridiculous idea of his character behind, bearing a strong resemblance to that of an undertaker at a funeral."

        Robert Mateer, one of the victims, was a quiet, inoffensive, upright man, who had never joined the Regulators. On the morning of the bloodshed he visited Tryon's camp with Robert Thompson, and was detained with him a prisoner; being recognized as the person who had, some time before, grievously offended the governor in the matter of a letter entrusted to his care, he was condemned, and made one of the six that were executed; beloved while living, and lamented when dead.

        Captain Merrill, from the Jersey Settlement, or, as others say, from Mecklenburg county, was on his way to join the Regulators--probably had been engaged in intercepting Waddel--with three hundred men under his command. Hearing of the defeat and dispersion of the Regulators on the Alamance, when within a day's march, his men dispersed, and he returned home, but was afterwards taken prisoner, and was made one of the six that were executed. A pious man, he professed his faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and declared himself ready to die, and died like a soldier and a Christian, singing very devoutly, with his dying breath, a

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Psalm of David, like the Covenanters in the Grass Market in Edinburgh.

        James Pugh, an ingenious gunsmith, had, during the firing at Alamance, killed with his rifle some fifteen of those who served the cannon, and delaying his escape too long was taken prisoner, and made one for this day's sacrifice. When placed under the gallows he asked and obtained leave from the governor to address the people for half an hour. He justified his course, professed his readiness to meet God, inveighed against the oppression of the public officers, and particularly against Fanning. This dastardly man, unable to bear the reproaches of his victim, made the suggestion, and the barrel, on which the prisoner stood, was overturned, and the young man launched into eternity, his speech unfinished and his half hour unexpired.

        These men may have been rash, but they were not cowards: they may have been imprudent, but they were suffering under wrong and outrage, and the withholding justice, and the proper exercise of law. "And if oppression will make a wise man mad," the ten years of such oppression as these suffered, would have proved them fit for subjection had they been submissive.

        Tryon returned to his costly palace in Newbern, only to bid it farewell, and make room for Josiah Martin, who knew better how to appreciate these people and their complaints. Edmund Fanning, the cause of so much trouble, gathered a company and met the governor on his first approach to Orange; went with him to Alamance, and as the firing commenced, found it indispensable to take his post many miles in the rear, whether through fear of his life, or of shedding the Regulators' blood. Harmon Husbands, also, on the other side, rode faster and farther on that day. He had been active for years in exciting the people to resistance, making speeches, circulating information, drawing up memorials and papers of a political cast, and taking the lead in measurers that brought on the bloodshed in Alamance. He had been once put in prison while a member of the legislature, for his principles and connection with the disturbances in Orange; but when the cannon began to roar at Tryon's command, on the 16th of May, on the Alamance, he mounted his horse and rode rapidly away to the more quiet State of Pennsylvania, and was not seen again in Carolina till after the Revolution--professing that his principles as a Quaker forbade him to fight, though they impelled him to resistance. When the time of trial came, that men must submit or flee, or bleed, he escaped, while others poured out their blood. He and all like him

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are passed over in the inquiries we make about the people who bore the burthen of the Revolution and its previous struggles.

        The question now arises, who were these people?--and whence did they come? They could discuss the rights and privileges of men; they could write in a manner that has been pronounced "the style of the Revolution;" and they were men that feared an oath. The oath of allegiance exacted by Tryon, from multitudes, as the condition of their lives and property, hung on their consciences through life, and no reasoning could convince them they were free from its awful sanctions, though the king could afford them no protection. One of these, who was in the bloodshed of Alamance, and afterwards had borne arms for the king, as he considered himself bound to do, said sorrowfully at the close of the Revolution--"I have fought for my country, and fought for my king; and have been whipped both times." Still his oath bound his conscience, while he rejoiced it did not reach his children.

        The descendants of these people, who were at the time treated as rebels, and stigmatized in government papers as ignorant and headstrong and unprincipled, hold the first rank in their own country for probity and intelligence; have held the first offices in their own and the two younger and neighboring States; and have not been debarred the highest offices in the Union.

        In less than four years from this period, those who were not crushed by the solemnities of the oath Tryon forced on them, united with their brethren of Mecklenburg of the same stock, and kindred faith, in maintaining the first declaration of independence made in North America--a declaration scaled with blood in North Carolina, but never, like the Regulation, put down. The principles of the Regulators never were put down; and in the contest with the governor, there is little doubt on which side the victory would have declared itself had there been a military man at the head of the undisciplined people, or had they been fully convinced the governor would fire upon them. Repeatedly had these men gathered at Hillsborough, and dispersed without violence, on promise of redress; and Waddel had been met and turned back without bloodshed a few days before. The greater part expected some terms of reconciliation, while some wished for the contest, and many were ready to fight.

        The address sent in to Tryon the day before the bloodshed, in which they promised to disperse and go home if he would redress their grievances, shows they were not expecting the governor

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would proceed to violence. The feelings of a great part of the western counties were united in the object of their efforts; and many of the inhabitants of the seaboard were on their side. The militia of Duplin refused to march against them, with the exception of a company of light horse under Capt. Bullock, and also refused the oath of allegiance the governor offered them on his return. In Halifax there were many supporters of their principles; in Newbern itself many, in fact, the majority of the militia assembled, declared in their favor. Not a few men of eminence favored them more or less openly, advocating the principles, but greatly disapproving the excesses of the violent. Of these were such men as Maurice Moore, judge of the Superior Court; Thomas Person, the founder of Person Hall, at Chapel Hill; and Alexander Martin, afterwards governor of the State.

        Martin, the historian, who appears to know so little about the principles and habits of the persons engaged, says that there were "several thousand families" scattered through the upper counties: and so there were--and these gathered into congregations of religious worshippers all along from the Virginia to the South Carolina line. It is the origin of these that is now inquired after; and the nature of their religion, so favorable to mental exercise and improvement, to civil freedom and the rights of man, that is to be delineated,--a religion the same now as in the days of the American Revolution,--and the great English Revolution of 1688,--and the same in spirit and substantial forms as when the great Apostle plead his cause, in chains, at Rome.

        There has been as yet no monument erected to the memory of those who fell on the Alamance, in this first bloodshed in the cause of oppressed freemen seeking their rights: they sleep in unhonored graves, as also do those who were publicly executed in the same glorious cause near Hillsborough, June 19th, 1771. But you can find the battle ground and graves of the slain, on the old road from Hillsborough to Salisbury by Martinville, or Guilford old courthouse. It is a locality to be remembered, for the event must always fill an honorable page in any full and fair history of North Carolina, or of the United States, as the first resistance to blood, in which resistance was determined upon, even should resistance end in wounds and death.

        The Regulators may have been rude, they certainly were unpolished; but they were not ignorant, neither did they lack intelligence, nor exhibit as a people any lack of religious or moral principle. On the contrary, their estimation of an oath far transcended

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the expectation of the governor, who anticipated much from a people taught by McAden, Caldwell, Pattillo, and Craighead, all eminent in their vocation as gospel ministers.

        Differing from the governor in their religious principles as much as in their political creed, they were condemned by the king's officers to fines and plunder and confiscation and death, and by the ministers of the State religion to endless perdition. There is extant a sermon preached before the governor at Hillsborough, on Sunday, the 25th of September, 1768, by George Micklejohn, from Romans, chapter xiii., 1st and 2d verses--in which the preacher avows that the governor ought to have executed at least twenty on that his first visit; and that the rebels could not escape the damnation of hell on account of their resistance to the existing government. But these outraged men sought deliverance from the oppression of man, and hoped in the mercy of Almighty God. And they found from heaven what was denied by earth.

        The succeeding pages will give a collection of facts that shall present the history of principles that cannot die, and are always effective. The scene of action and the actors but reflect additional tints of beauty on what, in themselves, are immortal,--the principles of true government and undefiled religion.

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CHAPTER III.
A PAPER ON CIVIL AND RELIGIOUS LIBERTY, DRAWN UP IN 1775.

        "SHE has seven sons in the rebel army," was the reason given by the British officer for plundering the farm and burning the house of Widow Brevard, in Centre Congregation, while Cornwallis was in pursuit of Morgan and Greene, after the victory of the Cowpens. What a mother! seven sons in the army at one time! all fighting for the independence of their country! And for this glorious fact, the house of the widow plundered and burned, and her farm pillaged!

        One son, Captain Alexander Brevard, a tall, dignified gentleman, independent in his feelings and his manners, rendered signal services in the Continental army. He took part in nine important battles--Brandywine, Germantown, Princeton, Stony Point, Eutaw, Guilford, Camden, Ninety-Six, and Stono. Of all these, he used to say, the battle of the Eutaw was the sorest conflict; in that he lost twenty-one of his men. When the time of hard service was over, he returned to private life, and never sought political promotion; enjoying that liberty for which he had fought, and serving his generation as a good citizen, and the church as a elder, respected and beloved. He laid his bones at last in Lincoln county, the place of his residence for many years, in a spot selected by himself and General Graham. They served as soldiers in the Revolution, and lived as most intimate friends: having married sisters, the daughters of Major John Davidson, one of the members of the Mecklenburg Convention, they were brothers indeed; and dying in the hope of a blessed resurrection, they sleep, with their wives and many of their children, in their chosen place of sepulture. You may find the graves of these honorable dead in a secluded place, walled in with rock, about a hundred paces from the great road leading from Beatte's Ford by Brevard's Furnace to Lincolnton, a spot where piety and affection and patriotism may meet and mingle their tears; and youth may gather lessons of wisdom.

        The youngest son of this widow, afterwards Judge Brevard of Camden, South Carolina, was first lieutenant of a company of horse, at the age of seventeen, and held, through life, a corresponding station in the opinions and affections of his fellow men.

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        Ephraim Brevard, another son of this widow, having pursued a course of classical studies in his native congregation, was graduated at Princeton College; and having pursued a course of medical studies, was settled in Charlotte. His talents, patriotism and education, united with his prudence and practical sense, marked him as a leader in the councils, that preceded the convention, held in Queen's Museum; and on the day of meeting designated him as secretary and draughtsman of that singular and unrivalled declaration, which alone is a passport to the memory of posterity through all time.

        Dr. Brevard took an active part in the establishment and management of the literary institution in Charlotte, which was, to all useful purposes, a college, though refused that name by the king and council. His name appears upon the degree given John Graham in 1778, which is carefully preserved at Vesuvius Furnace, the only degree of the institution now known to be in existence. For a time the institution was under his instruction.

        When the British forces invaded the southern States, Dr. Brevard entered the army as surgeon, and was taken prisoner at the surrender of Charleston, May 12th, 1780. The sufferings of the captives taken in that surrendered city, moved the hearts of the brave inhabitants of Western Carolina, and in the tenderness of the female bosom found alleviation. News was circulated among the settlements in the upper country, that their friends and relations were dying of want and disease, in their captivity. The men could not visit them; it would be leaping into the lion's den. The wives, the mothers, the sisters, the daughters, gathering clothing and provisions and medicine, sought through long journeys, the places of confinement, trusting to their sex, under the Providence of God, for their protection. These visits of mercy saved the lives of multitudes; and in some cases were purchased by the lives of the noble females that dared to undertake them. The mother of President Andrew Jackson, returning to the Waxhaw, from a visit made to the prisoners, having been the bearer of medicine, and clothing, and sympathy, was seized with a fever in that wide, sandy wilderness of pines that intervened, and died in a tent, and was buried by the roadside, and lies in an unknown grave. Multitudes perished and found a captive's grave; and multitudes more contracted disease whose wasting influence more slowly, yet as surely, laid them low among their native hills. Of these was Dr. Brevard. On being set at liberty, he sought the residence of John McKnitt Alexander, his friend and co-secretary, for rest and recovery. The air of that mild climate, and the aid of medicine, and the watchful care of

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friends, all failed to restore him. Struggling for a time against the diseases, with hopes of recovery, he breathed his last, about the time the hostile forces trod his native soil. He gave "life, fortune, and most sacred honor," in his country's service. The first was sacrificed; the last is imperishable. You may search Hopewell graveyard in vain for a trace of his grave. His bones have mouldered beneath the turf that covers Davidson and the Alexanders, but no stone tells where they are laid. No man living can lead the inquirer to the spot.

        There is a paper in his handwriting, preserved for a long time in the family of his friend John McKnit Alexander, and now in the possession of the Governor of North Carolina, William A. Graham, which is as remarkable as the proceeding of the Convention on which it is based. It bears date September 1st, 1775. The first Provincial Congress of North Carolina was then in session in Hillsborough. The delegates from Mecklenburg were his compeers and personal friends,--Polk, Avery, Pfifer and McKnitt Alexander.

"INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE DELEGATES OF MECKLENBURG COUNTY, PROPOSED TO THE CONSIDERATION OF THE COUNTY.

        "1st. You are instructed to vote that the late Province of North Carolina is, and of right ought to be, a free and independent State; is vested with the powers of Legislation, capable of making laws to regulate all the internal police, subject only in its internal connections and foreign commerce, to a negative of a continental Senate.

        "2d. You are instructed to vote for the execution of a civil government under the authority of the people, for the future security of all the rights, privileges, and prerogatives of the State, and the private, natural and unalienable rights of the constituting members thereof, either as men or Christians. If this should not be confirmed in Congress, or Convention,--protest.

        "3d. You are instructed to vote that an equal representation be established, and that the qualifications required to enable any person or persons to have a voice in legislation may not be screwed too high, but that every freeman, who shall be called upon to support government, either in person or property, may be admitted thereto. If this should not be confirmed,--protest and remonstrate.

        "4th. You are instructed to vote that legislation be not a divided right, and that no man, or body of men, be invested with a

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negative on the voice of the people duly collected; and that no honors or dignities be confirmed for life, or made hereditary on any person or persons, either legislative or executive. If this should not be confirmed,--protest and remonstrate.

        "5th. You are instructed to vote that all and every person or persons, seized or possessed of any estate, real or personal, agreeable to the late establishment, be confirmed in their seizure and possession, to all intents and purposes in law, who have not forfeited their right to the protection of the State, by their inimical practices towards the same. If this should not be confirmed,--protest.

        "6th. You are instructed to vote that deputies, to represent this State in a Continental Congress, be appointed in and by the supreme legislative body of the State; the form of the nomination to be submitted to, if free. And also, that all officers, the influence of whose office is equally to extend to every part of the State, be appointed in the same manner and form. Likewise, give your consent to the establishing the old political divisions, if it should be voted in Convention, or to new ones if similar. On such establishment taking place, you are instructed to vote, in general, that all officers, who are to exercise this authority in any of the said districts, be recommended to the trust only by the freemen of said division--to be subject, however, to the general laws and regulations of the State. If this should not be substantially confirmed,--protest.

        "7th. You are instructed to move and insist that the people you immediately represent, be acknowledged to be a distinct county of this State, as formerly of the late province, with the additional privilege of electing in their own officers, both civil and military, together with election of clerks and sheriffs, by the freemen of the same: the choice to be confirmed by the sovereign authority of the State, and the officers so invested to be under the jurisdiction of the State, and liable to its cognizance and inflictions in case of malpractice. If this should not be confirmed,--protest and remonstrate.

        "8th. You are instructed to vote that no chief justice, no secretary of State, no auditor-general, no surveyor-general, no practising lawyer, no clerk of any court of record, no sheriff, and no person holding a military office in this State, shall be a representative of the people in Congress or Convention. If this should not be confirmed,--contend for it.

        "9th. You are instructed to vote that all claims against the public,

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except such as accrue upon attendance on Congress or Convention, be first submitted to the inspection of a committee of nine or more men, inhabitants of the county where said claimant is resident, and without the approbation of said committee it shall not be accepted by the public; for which purpose you are to move and insist that a law be enacted to empower the freemen of each county to choose a committee of not less than nine men, of whom none are to be military officers. If this should not be confirmed,--protest and remonstrate.

        "10th. You are instructed to refuse to enter into any combination of secresy, as members of Congress and Convention, and also to refuse to subscribe to any ensnaring tests binding you to unlimited subjection to the determination of Congress or Convention.

        "11th. You are instructed to move and insist that the public accounts, fairly stated, shall be regularly kept in proper books, open to the inspection of all whom it may concern. If this should not be confirmed,--contend for it.

        "12th. You are instructed to move and insist that the power of county courts be much more extensive than under the former constitution, both with respect to matters of property and breaches of the peace. If not confirmed,--contend for it.

        "13th. You are instructed to assent and consent to the establishment of the Christian religion, as contained in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament, and more briefly comprised in the thirty-nine Articles of the Church of England, excluding the thirty-seventh article, together with all the articles excepted and not to be imposed on dissenters by the Act of Toleration; and clearly held forth in the Confession of Faith, compiled by the Assembly of Divines at Westminster; to be the religion of the State, to the utter exclusion, for ever, of all and every other (falsely so called) religion, whether pagan or papal;--and that full, and free, and peaceable enjoyment thereof be secured to all and every constituent member of the State, as their unalienable right as freemen, without the imposition of rites and ceremonies, whether claiming civil or ecclesiastical power for their source;--and that a confession and profession of the religion so established shall be necessary in qualifying any person for public trust in the State. If this should not be confirmed,--protest and remonstrate.

        "14th. You are instructed to oppose to the utmost, any particular church or set of clergymen being invested with power to decree rites and ceremonies, and to decide in controversies of faith, to be submitted to under the influence of penal laws. You are also to oppose the

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establishment of any mode of worship to be supported to the oppression of the rights of conscience, together with the destruction of private property. You are to understand that under the modes of worship are comprehended the different forms of swearing by law required. You are, moreover, to oppose the establishing an ecclesiastical supremacy in the sovereign authority of the State. You are to oppose the toleration of popish idolatrous worship. If this should not be confirmed,--protest and remonstrate.

        "15th. You are instructed to move and insist that not less than four-fifths of the body of which you are members, shall, in voting, be deemed a majority. If this should not be confirmed,--contend for it.

        "16th. You are instructed to give your voices to and for every motion, or bill, made or brought into Congress or Convention, when they appear to be for public utility, and in no ways repugnant to the above instructions.

        "17th. Gentlemen, the foregoing instructions you are not only to look upon as instructions, but as charges, to which you are desired to take special heed, as the ground of your conduct as our Representatives; and we expect you will exert yourselves to the utmost of your ability to obtain the purposes given you in charge; and wherein you fail, either in obtaining or opposing, you are hereby ordered to enter your protest against the vote of Congress or Convention, as is pointed out to you in the above instructions."


        This paper will not suffer in comparison with any political paper of the age. In some respects it surpassed all with which Mr. Brevard and his compeers had any acquaintance. In the first and seventh resolutions there is a reference made to preceding events in North Carolina, to which nothing corresponds but the doings of the Mecklenburg convention. The Congress of North Carolina in session at the time this paper was drawn up, was not prepared for such a step as is referred to--the entire independence of the State.

        In the second and third resolutions, the democratic republican principles are announced in their full extent,--complete protection, and extended suffrage. In the fourth and fifth, aristocratic honors are done away; and the right of property confirmed. In the seventh, the election of all officers, civil and military, is confirmed to the people at large. In the eighth, the jealous watchfulness of an abused community is seen in shutting out all public officers, from whom any oppression had been suffered under His Majesty, from the office of law-maker for the community. In the ninth,

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tenth, and eleventh, the expenditure of the public money is guarded from all such impositions as had been complained of in times past. The object and amount of all expenditures to be fairly stated, that no impositions like those suffered in Orange, and from which the Regulators sprung, might be repeated. By the twelfth, the execution of the laws is brought more within the power of the people, or at least more carefully within their view.

        But the thirteenth and fourteenth resolutions are especially worthy of notice, as asserting religious liberty. He does not take the false ground that all religions are to be contemplated, in the constitution of a free people, as alike open for the adoption of the community at large; and that any religion, or no religion, may become the public sentiment without detriment to liberty:--but having secured to all persons undisturbed enjoyment of life, land, and estate, he takes the broad ground that there is one true religion, and that religion is acknowledged as true by the State. He believed the Bible, and from it had drawn his principles of morals, and religion, and politics:--from it, the people of Mecklenburg had drawn theirs,--and multitudes in Carolina had drawn theirs. To abjure religion would be to abjure freedom and the hope of immortality. The phrases confession and profession in the thirteenth resolution, are not taken in a restricted sense or made denominational, but used in their enlarged meaning, embracing all Protestants, asserting the Bible to be true, and as a revelation containing the complete system of the only true religion.

        To put beyond all doubt, however, what he understood by the Christian religion, he marks out the two well known and accredited systems of Articles with which he and his constituents had been familiar, and under which he arraigned all Protestants, both asserting the main principles of the Reformation, and one conjoining a system of efficient government on which he had modelled his political creed,--a creed the inhabitants of a large part of North Carolina were prepared to defend. He would have the community disown Infidelity and all Paganism, and avow the religion of the Bible.

        Having asserted the paramount authority of the Christian Religion as the sole acknowledged religion of the community,--he then puts all denominations on a level, in political matters. North Carolina had suffered as little as any community had, or perhaps could, from a religious establishment, that is, certain forms and doctrines supported at public expense, and defended

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by law;--but the evils resulting had been so many and so great, that these resolutions require that no denomination, not even that of a majority of the citizens, should have any peculiar privileges guaranteed by law. The people of Mecklenburg were almost universally of the same faith as himself; but he asked no favor by the power of law. But one other State in the Union had, at that time, acknowledged this grand principle, and with this State the author of this paper had no communication. The idea was to him, and his constituents, a peculiar idea,--like the idea of independence under the supremacy of law, it was consistent and complete.

        Of all the forms in which religion, professedly drawn from the Bible, is presented in any part of the world, one only is excepted in the resolution,--that is the Popish. The ancestors of these people in Mecklenburg had brought with them, from the mother country, no kind remembrance of the spirit of the Popish clergy and their adherents. Turn to what period of the history of their fathers they might, and the Romish priests appeared the enemies of that religious liberty and civil freedom for which they panted. Every page of the history was stained with blood. They fully believed the spirit of popery unchanged; and to tolerate it, was to cherish in their bosom an enemy to the very privileges and enjoyments for which they had labored, and for which they were prepared to lay down their lives. The principles of religious liberty, asserted by their ancestors the other side of the ocean, took deep root in the wilderness of Carolina, and grew as indigenous plants. The people felt they were born to be free--were free; and having made declaration of their freedom, would maintain it against all enemies unto death.

        Now that the subject of religious liberty has been discussed about three-quarters of a century, in the freest country on earth, the only exception that can be taken against these resolutions on religious liberty, is on this single point--the exclusion of popish rites and ceremonies. In other colonies the contention had been against foreign interference with the established religion of the province; here, as in Rhode Island, the ground is taken against all State establishments whatever. It is instructive to observe how this principle, avowed by Roger Williams in exile and suffering, and proclaimed by the emigrants in North Carolina, has at length become the received opinion of the whole United States. And while, on principle, the free exercise of religious rites is guaranteed to all that claim to be Christians, of whatever sect or

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denomination, there is a growing fear, manifesting itself in every section of country, lest the extension of popish rites and ceremonies shall be found at last injurious to civil liberty.

        The resolutions of the Mecklenburg Convention establish a government, and at the same time they set aside the authority of the king of Great Britain. In this paper the great principles on which to frame a constitution of the most entire freedom, fullest protection, and most complete dominion of law, are laid down. The one is a beautiful expression of enthusiastic devotion to liberty and law; and the other is a calm expression of the idea of that liberty for which these patriots panted. Neither were mere theories or paper declarations; both were realities. The people felt themselves independent,--and that they had a natural right to the freedom they enjoyed in their log cabins in the wilderness, and on the plains of the Catawba, far removed from the wealth and refinement of the seaboard. Their flocks and their plains, with the skilful hands of their wives and daughters, and the brawny arms of their sons, and the mines beneath their feet, supplied the wants, and even the luxuries of men who could sleep upon straw, be contented in home-spun coats, and find domestic peace in a log cabin. The liberty for which their fathers had sighed, these men had found. they knew the value of the pearl, and rejoiced in that liberty in which God, in his grace and wonderful providence, had made them free.

        This paper is the expression of the feelings of thousands in Carolina in 1775, and the feelings of multitudes at this day. The merit of Ephraim Brevard is, not that he alone originated these principles, or was singular in adhering to them, but that he embodied them in so condensed a form, and expressed them so well. He thought clearly,--felt deeply,--wrote well,--resisted bravely,--and died a martyr to that liberty none loved better, and few understood so well.

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CHAPTER IV.
COMMENCEMENT OF PRESBYTERIAN SETTLEMENTS IN NORTH CAROLINA.

        ABOUT the year 1735, a race of people diverse in habits, manners, forms of religious worship and doctrinal creed from those who had previously taken their abode in Virginia and the Carolinas, and destined to exert a grand and controlling influence on the enterprise, wealth, and prosperity of those States, began to erect their habitations along the western frontiers, and form a line of defence against the savages of the mountains and the great west, by their strong neighborhoods of hardy, enterprising men, in that region of country extending from the Potomac river to the Savannah, which now forms the heart of these States, and is most abundant in resources of men and things.

        Previously to that date, the emigrants to Virginia, whose descendants had spread out over the lower counties, and were progressing towards the mountains, were chiefly from England, with a few Scotch and Irish families intermingled, with one colony of Germans in Madison county, and one of Huguenots a few miles above Richmond, each having its own peculiar forms of religious worship, and ministers proclaiming the gospel in their native tongue.

        In North Carolina the first permanent settlements had been formed by fugitives from Virginia, who sought refuge in the mild climate and extended forests of this unoccupied region,--some from the rigid, intolerant laws of that colony, which bore so heavily on all that could not conform to the ceremonies of the established church,--and some from a desire to escape from the jurisdiction of all law, delighted with the license enjoyed in the plains and swamps of a country which, previous to the 18th century, scarce knew the exercise of civil authority. When the Puritans were driven from Virginia, some eminently pious people settled along the seaboard, safe from foreign invasion, and free from the domestic oppression of intolerant laws and bigoted magistrates. Next to these were the emigrants from the West Indies and from England, who preferred the advantages offered by this uninhabited country to those of a more populous state. About the year 1707, a colony of Huguenots was located on the Trent river; and one of Palatines at Newbern,

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in 1709; each maintaining the peculiar habits, customs, and religious services of the fatherland. The Quakers, at an early date, cast in their lot with the colony of Virginia; and many were compelled to fly from the execution of the severe laws passed against their sect, and found refuge in Carolina. They were of English descent, and at that time, too few, in either State, to exert a preponderating influence on the community at large.

        The Presbyterian race, from the north of Ireland, is not found in Virginia and North Carolina, till after the year 1730, except in scattered families, or some small neighborhoods on the Chesapeake. Soon after this period it is found at the base of the Blue Ridge in Albemarle, Nelson, and Amherst, in Virginia; and then in the great valley. About the year 1736 a colony of Presbyterians, from the province of Ulster, Ireland, commenced their residence on the head springs of the Opecquon in Frederick county, near the present town of Winchester; and their descendants are found in the congregation that bears the name of the creek in that county, and also in Kentucky, Tennessee, and Indiana. About the same time, or perhaps a little earlier, John Caldwell, from the north of Ireland, commenced a settlement on Cub-creek, in Charlotte county, Virginia, then a province; and persuaded a colony of his countrymen to unite with him. Their descendants are found in the Cub-creek congregation, and those congregations that have grown out of it: and also in Kentucky and South Carolina--the eminent political character, John Caldwell Calhoun, being one of them. About the year 1736, Henry McCulloch persuaded a colony from Ulster, Ireland, to occupy his expected grant in Duplin county, North Carolina. Their descendants are widely scattered over the lower part of the State, and the southwestern States, with an influence that cannot be easily estimated.

        About the same period, the Presbyterian settlements were commenced in Augusta and Rockbridge counties, Virginia; and speedily increasing, they formed numerous large congregations, which are still flourishing, having given rise to many other congregations in the counties further west, and also in the western States. From all these have arisen hosts of men that have acted conspicuous parts east and west of the Alleghanies, during the century that has passed since the emigrants built their cabins on the frontiers of Virginia and Carolina.

        The loss of the early records of Orange presbytery has left us without the means of ascertaining the precise year the Presbyterian colonies in Granville, Orange, Rowan, Mecklenburg, and, in fact,

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in all that beautiful section extending from the Dan to the Catawba, began to occupy the wild and fertile prairies. But it is well known, that, previously to the year 1750, settlements of some strength were scattered along from the Virginia line to Georgia. On account of the inviting nature of the climate and soil, and the comparative quietness of the Catawba Indians, and the severity of the Virginia laws in comparison with those of Carolina, on the subject of religion, many colonies were induced to pass through the vacant lands in Virginia, in the neighborhood of their countrymen, and seek a home in the Carolinas. As early as 1740, there were scattered families on the Hico, and Eno, and Haw--and cabins were built along the Catawba.

        The time of setting off the frontier counties is known, but is no guide to the precise time of the first settlements. Granville county was set off from Edgecomb in 1743, and extended west to the charter limits; Bladen was taken from New Hanover in 1733, its western boundary being the charter limits; and in 1749 Anson was set off from Bladen with the same western boundary. The two counties, Anson and Granville, embraced all the western part of the State in 1749. Orange was set off from Bladen in 1751, and Rowan from Anson in 1753, and Mecklenburg from Anson in 1762. These dates show the progress of emigration and increase of population, but do not fix the time when the cabins of the whites began to supplant the wigwams of the Indians. The dates of the land patents do not mark the time of emigration, as in some cases the lands were occupied a long period before grants were made, and the lands surveyed; and in others, patents were granted before emigration. Some of the early settlements of Presbyterians were made before the lands were surveyed, particularly in the upper country.

        Emigration was encouraged and directed very much in its earliest periods, by the vast prairies, with pea-vine grass and canebrakes, which stretched across the States of Virginia and Carolina. There are large forests now in these two States, where, a hundred years ago, not a tree, and scarce a shrub could be seen. These prairies abounded with game, and supplied abundant pasturage, both winter and summer, for the various kinds of stock that accompanied the emigrants, and formed for years no small part of their wealth. In 1744, Lord Granville's share of North Carolina was set off by metes and bounds, having Virginia on the north; a line drawn from the sea-shore westward on the parallel of 38° 34′ north latitude, on the south; the Atlantic Ocean on the east; and the unexplored ocean on the west. The great inducements

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offered by his lordship and his agents, the beauty and healthiness of the country, the fertility of the soil, and the low rate at which tracts of land were set to sale, attracted attention, and brought purchasers for residence and for speculation. Every additional colony increased the value of the remaining possessions of his lordship.

        The remaining part of the upper country was held by grants made from the crown, from time to time, and by the grantees sold out in smaller sections. There is nothing, however, in the peculiar circumstances of making the land purchases, or in the country itself, or the time in which the settlements were made, that can account for the spirit, principles, and habits of the people. These they brought with them, and left as a legacy to their children; they had wrought wonders in the fatherland, turning the scale of revolution in 1688, putting the crown on the head of William, Prince of Orange, and working out purity of morals, inspiring a deep sense of religious liberty and personal independence, under all the withering influences of prelacy, aristocracy, and royalty.

        While the tide of emigration was setting fast and strong into the fertile regions between the Yadkin and Catawba, from the north of Ireland, through Pennsylvania and Virginia, another tide was flowing from the Highlands of Scotland, and landing colonies of Presbyterian people along the Cape Fear River. Authentic records declare that the Scotch had found the sandy plains of Carolina, many years previous to the exile and emigration that succeeded the crushing of the hopes of the house of Stuart, in the fatal battle of Culloden, in 1746. But in the year following that event, large companies of Highlanders seated themselves in Cumberland county; and in a few years the Gaelic language was heard familiarly in Moore, Anson, Richmond, Robeson, Bladen, and Sampson. Among these people and their children, the warm-hearted preacher and patriot, James Campbell, labored more than a quarter of a century; and with them, that romantic character, Flora McDonald, passed a portion of her days. As many congregations were formed among these Highlanders, who were all Presbyterians, as that devoted, but solitary man of God, Mr. Campbell, could visit in the performance of the duties of his sacred offices.

        In the upper part of the State, between the Virginia and Carolina line, along the track traversed by the army of Cornwallis in the war of the Revolution, there were above twenty organized churches, with large congregations, and a great many preaching-places.

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In Caswell county, McAden, the first minister that became permanently settled in North Carolina, had his dwelling and his congregations; in Granville, and in Orange, along the Eno, the eloquent Pattillo taught impressively the wonder-working truths of the gospel of Christ; in Guilford, was the school and seminary of Caldwell, the nursery of so many eminent men; in Rowan, the elegant scholar, McCorkle, preached and taught; in Iredell, Hall led his flock both to the sanctuary and the tents of war; in Mecklenburg, Craighead cherished the spirit of independence which broke out in the declaration in Charlotte, May, 1775; and Balch, McCaule, and Alexander, fanned the flame of patriotism in their respective charges; and Richardson, the foster uncle of Davie, ministered in holy things. All of these, with the exception of Craighead, who was removed by death, were at ONE TIME teaching the principles of the gospel independence, and inculcating those truths that made their hearers choose liberty, at the hazard of life, rather than oppression with abundance; all were eminent men, whose influence would have been felt in any generation; all saw the war commence, and most of them saw its end, and not a man of them left his congregation, not a man of them faltered in his patriotism, and two of them actually bore arms. Their congregations were famous during the struggle of the Revolution, for skirmishes, battles, loss of libraries, personal prowess, individual courage, and heroic women.

        Governor Tryon complained of the resistance the crown officers struggled with in the upper country of Carolina, as the unprincipled turbulence of an ill-informed and unreasonable people; he marched his army, and dispersed the Regulators, on the Alamance; and then trusted to the solemn oath of the sufferers, swearing allegiance to the king for their spared lives, for the peace of the country, without noticing, and perhaps without perceiving the fact, that there was a strong moral feeling pervading this excited community, that gave sanctity to an oath in the most unfavorable circumstances. But the principles, that gave power to the oath, gave strength to the opposition. The governor left the State without understanding either the grievances of the people, or the deep workings of those principles that would outlive all oppression, sure of a triumph at last, though arrayed on the side of the few, and the poor, against the many, and the rich and the powerful.

        To trace out these principles and truths, destined by the wisdom and goodness of Almighty God to get the mastery of the misrule of princes and men in authority, legitimate or elective, and

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ultimately to prevail throughout the world, triumphing over human depravity itself, we must go back to the ancestry of these people, which, like the origin of the proudest house and longest line of crowned heads in Continental Europe--is from the dust--the poorest of a shrewd and enterprising people. The farthest limit, however, to which the research will be carried, is about the commencement of the seventeenth century; and as we trace the progress of events, and the developments of truth through the seventeenth century, and more than half of the eighteenth, we shall look with less surprise than did Governor Tryon, on the resistance to oppression he experienced in Orange; or than Governor Josiah Martin, on the declaration of independence, made at Charlotte;--these events will seem to flow as streams from the enduring fountains of Truth and Liberty.

        All advancement in society has been the fruit of the religious principle; and of all religious principles that have influenced society, those have been most effective that have most exalted God, and put the lowest estimate on the moral purity of human nature, and the means of human devising for the purification of our race. Those have done most for mankind that have first taught the creature to despair of himself, and next to trust in God; think less of property than life, and less of life than principles; and to value the hopes and expectations of eternity immeasurably more than the things of time. With such principles men may be poor and unpolished, but can never be mean or undone; they may be crushed, but never degraded. When Tryon returned to his palace in Newbern, after the bloodshed on the Alamance, he feasted. The people of Orange mourned under the oath of allegiance exacted with terrible sanctions, and at the sight of the gallows-tree where their neighbors had died ignominiously. He was the minion of arbitrary power; they were temporarily crushed. He was finally driven from the provinces of America, and they bequeathed to their children the inheritance of a beautiful land, with all that civil and religious freedom they ever desired.

        Looking back from the time of the bloodshed on the Alamance, or the Declaration of Independence in Charlotte, over a period of half a century, and then forward on the things that next succeeded in the space of another half century--the events of both which periods have passed away to the province of history,--and we have an exhibition of principles and men worthy of being written and read by all mankind, and through all time. The wonderful prosperity of the last quarter of a century but adds to the interest of

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the previous thrilling events. Could the leaders of the people that formed the population of which we speak, for one generation in Ireland, and for two in America that immediately succeeded the first large emigration--and in both lands, for that time, the real leaders were godly men--could these now rise from the graves to which they went down, some in peace, some in the sorrow of hope, and could they speak the language of earth, they would sing a Psalm of David louder than Merrill at the gallows--louder than they ever sang at a communion season, or revival, in Ireland or in Carolina--the beautiful sixty-sixth: "O bless our God, ye people, and make the voice of his praise to be heard; which holdeth our soul in life, and suffereth not our feet to be moved. For thou, O God, hast proved us; and thou hast tried us as silver is tried. Thou broughtest us into the net, thou layedst affliction upon our loins. Thou hast caused men to ride over our heads; we went through fire, and through water; but thou broughtest us out into a wealthy place. I will go into thy house with burnt offerings; I will pay thee my vows; which my lips have uttered and my mouth hath spoken when I was in trouble." And would not their posterity in and around the grand Alleghanies shout with a voice of thunder and a heart of love,--"The Lord God omnipotent reigneth! Alleluia! Amen!"

        For about two centuries and a half this race of people have had one set of moral, religious, and political principles, working out the noblest frame-work of society; obedience to the just exercise of law; independence of spirit; a sense of moral obligations; strict attendance on the worship of Almighty God; the choice of their own religious teachers; with the inextinguishable desire to exercise the same privilege with regard to their civil rulers, believing that magistrates govern by the consent of the people, and by their choice. These principles, brought from Ireland, bore the same legitimate fruit in Carolina as in Ulster Province, whose boundaries travellers say can be recognized by the peace and plenty that reign within. Men will not be able fully to understand Carolina till they have opened the treasures of history, and drawn forth some few particulars respecting the origin and religious habits of the Scotch-Irish, and become familiar with their doings previous to the Revolution--during that painful struggle--and the succeeding years of prosperity; and Carolina will be respected as she is known.

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CHAPTER V.
THE ORIGIN OF THE SCOTCH-IRISH.

        To find the origin of the Scotch-Irish Presbyterian settlements in Virginia and North Carolina, we must go back to Scotland and Ireland in the times of Elizabeth and her successor, James. Elizabeth found Ireland a source of perpetual trouble. The complaints from the ill-fated island were numerous, and met little sympathy at the court of England; right or wrong, Ireland must submit to English laws, and English governors, and English ministers of religion; and last, though not least in the estimation of the Irish, the English language was, under sanction of law, about to supplant the native tongue, and the last work of subjugation inflicted on that devoted people.

        The Reformation in England had been accomplished partly by the piety and knowledge of the people at large under the guidance of the ministers of religion, and partly by the authority of the despotic Henry and his no less despotic daughter. The tyranny of the crown for once harmonized with the desires of that great body of the people so commonly overlooked, and even in this case entirely unconsulted; it pleased Henry to will what the people desired. In Ireland the Reformation was commenced by royal authority, and carried on as a state concern; the majority of the nobility and common people, as well as the ministers of religion, being entirely opposed to the designs of the sovereign, their wishes were as little consulted as the desires of the people of England. The chief agent employed in this work was George Brown, consecrated Archbishop of Dublin, March 19th, 1535. Immediately after his consecration he proceeded to Ireland, and in conference with the principal nobility and clergy, required them to acknowledge the king's supremacy. They stoutly refused, withdrew from the metropolis, and sent messengers to Rome to apprise the Pope of the proceedings. In May, 1536, a parliament was assembled for the purpose of taking measures for acknowledging the king's supremacy in religion, he being considered head of the church in England and Ireland

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instead of the Pope of Rome. The principal argument of the archbishop was, "He that will not pass this act as I do, is no true subject to his majesty:" this prevailed, and the king was proclaimed head of the church, and all appeals to Rome forbidden. Commotions and bloodshed followed the order for the removal of the images, which was made in 1538; and as the people and clergy were strongly in their favor, the order was evaded.

        The first book printed in Ireland was the Liturgy, in 1551, by Humphrey Powell. In 1556 John Dale imported the Bible from England, and in less than two years sold seven thousand, being excited to make trial of the sale of Bibles by the avidity of the people to read the present sent over by the Archbishop of York, a Bible to each of the two cathedrals, to be kept in the centre of the choirs, open for public perusal.

        Henry found the Irish a source of vexation, and delivered to his children the inheritance of a restless, dissatisfied people. Elizabeth pursued the policy of her father, with his vigor, and subdued Ireland to the laws, and ostensibly to the religious rites of England, and delivered it to James I., in 1603, pacified as she hoped, and as James fondly yet vainly imagined. The few privileges that were left to the Catholics were used by the priests and nobility to promote rebellion, and aggravate James, who had opposed the Catholic forms more from political interest than religious scruples. A conspiracy formed by the Earls of Tyrconnell and Tyrone, of the province of Ulster, against the government of James, in the second year of his reign, in expectation of aid from the courts of France and Spain, was discovered in time to prevent its execution. The earls fled, and left their estates to the mercy of the king. Soon after, another rebellion or insurrection raised by O'Dogherty was crushed, its leader slain, and another large portion of the province reverted to the crown. In consequence of these and other forfeitures, nearly the whole of six counties in the province of Ulster, embracing about half a million of acres, were placed at the disposal of James. This province had been the chief seat of disturbances during the time of Elizabeth, and was fast becoming desolate or barbarous. With the hopes of securing the peace of this hitherto the most turbulent part of his kingdom, James determined to introduce colonies from England and Scotland, that by disseminating the Reformed faith he might promote the loyalty of Ireland. In the fulfilment of this design he planted those colonies from which, more than century afterwards, those emigrations sprung, by which western

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Virginia and the Carolinas were in a great measure peopled. The frequent attempts made, in the reign of Elizabeth, to plant colonies of English and Scotch in Ireland, in the hope that those doctrines of the Reformation, as odious to the crown as the people that professed them, might mould the Irish mind and heart to greater attachment to the English crown, had been conducted on a small scale, and attended with little success. The project of James was grand and attractive, and in its progress to complete success formed a race of men, law-loving, law-abiding, loyal, enterprising freemen, whose thoughts and principles have had no less influence in moulding the American mind, than their children in making the wilderness to blossom as the rose.

        Sir Arthur Chichester, on whom the king had conferred a considerable estate in Antrim, was appointed Lord deputy of the kingdom, in February, 1605; and by his sound judgment, sense of religion, and experience in the affairs of men, contributed not a little to the success of the royal enterprise. He had six counties in Ulster carefully surveyed, and the lands divided into sections of different magnitudes, some of two thousand acres, some of fifteen hundred, and some of a thousand. These he allotted to different kinds of persons: first, British undertakers, who voluntarily engaged in the enterprise; second, Servitors of the crown, consisting of civil and military officers; third, Natives whom he hoped to render loyal subjects. The occupants of the largest portions of land were bound, within four years, to build a castle and bawn, that is, a walled enclosure, with towers at the angles, within which was placed the cattle,--and to plant on their estates forty-eight able-bodied men, eighteen years old or upwards, of English or Scottish descent. Those who occupied the second class were obliged, within two years, to build a strong stone or brick house, and bawn; and both were required to plant a proportionable number of English or Scottish families on their possessions, and to have their houses furnished with a sufficiency of arms.

        Under these and various other regulations, the escheated lands were disposed of to one hundred and four English and Scottish Undertakers, fifty-six servitors, and two hundred and eighty-six natives; these gave bonds to the State for the fulfilment of their covenants, and were required to render an annual account of their progress. Nearly the whole of the county of Coleraine was allotted to the corporation of the city of London, on condition of their building and fortifying the cities of Londonderry and Coleraine,

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and otherwise expending twenty thousand pounds on the plantations; and the county is now called Londonderry, in allusion to that circumstance. In 1610, the lands began to be generally occupied. The northeastern parts of the province were occupied principally by emigrants from Scotland, on account of the proximity of the places, and the hardy enterprise of the people; the southern and western parts were settled by the English. Great difficulties attended the settlement, arising principally from the plundering incursions of the irreclaimable natives. A contemporary writer says: "Sir Toby Canfield's people are driven every night to lay up all his cattle, as it were, in ward; and do he and his what they can, the wolfe and wood-kerne, within culiver shot of his fort, have often times a share. Sir John King and Sir Henry Harrington, within half a mile of Dublin, do the like, for those forenamed enemies do every night survey the fields to the very walls of Dublin." The country had grown wild during the troubles of the past reign, and was covered with woods and marshes that affected the healthiness of the climate; this, together with the difficulties arising from the opposition of the native Irish, and the wild beasts that abounded in the desolations, greatly retarded the emigrations, and gave a peculiar cast to the emigrants.

        The Reverend Andrew Stewart, minister of Donaghadee from 1645 to 1671, son of Rev. Andrew Stewart, who was settled minister of Donegore in the year 1627, wrote "A short account of the Church of Christ as it was amongst the Irish at first:--among and after the English entered:--and after the entry of the Scots." He says, "of the English not many came over, for it is to be observed that; being a great deal more tenderly bred at home in England, and entertained in better quarters than they could find in Ireland, they were unwilling to flock thither, except to good land, such as they had before at home, or to good cities where they might trade; both of which, in those days, were scarce enough here. Besides that the marshiness and fogginess of this island were still found unwholesome to English bodies." He also adds: "the king had a natural love to have Ireland planted with Scots, as being, besides their loyalty, of a middle temper, between the English tender and the Irish rude breeding, and a great deal more likely to adventure to plant Ulster."

        He thus describes the progress of the plantation:--"The Londoners have in the Lagan a great interest, and built a city called Londonderry, planted with English. Coleraine also is builded by them; both of them seaports, though Derry be both the more

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commodious and famous. Sir Hugh Clotworthy obtains the lands of Antrim, both fruitful and good, and invites thither several of the English, very good men, the Ellises, Leslies, Langfords, and others. Chichester, a worthy man, has an estate given him in the county of Antrim, where he improves his interest, builds the prospering mart of Belfast, and confirms his interest in Carrickfergus, and builds a stately palace there. Conway has an estate given him in the county of Antrim, and builds a town afterwards called Lisnegarvay, and this was planted with a colony of the English also. Moses Hill had woodlands given him, which being thereafter demolished, left a fair and beautiful country, when a late heir of the Hills built Hillsborough. All these lands and more were given to the English gentlemen, worthy persons, who afterwards increased, and made noble and loyal families in places where had been nothing but robbing, treason and rebellion."

        "Of the Scots nation there was a family of the Balfours, of the Forbesses, of the Grahames, two of the Stewarts, and not a few of the Hamiltons. The Macdonnells founded the earldom of Antrim by King James's gift,--the Hamiltons the earldom of Strabane and Clanbrassil, and there were besides several knights of that name, Sir Frederick, Sir George, Sir Francis, Sir Charles his son, and Sir Hans, all Hamiltons; for they prospered above all others in this country, after the first admittance of the Scots into it."

        Con O'Neill, who possessed great extent of lands in Down and Antrim, being engaged in a rebellion, was apprehended and laid in the king's castle; the Deputy intending to have him suffer capitally, expecting to gain a large portion of his lands, which fell to the king. His wife, indignant that her husband should be confined and appointed to an ignominious death, goes over to Scotland and lays her claim before Hugh Montgomery of Broadstone, promising him, if he would get her husband's pardon from the king, to be content with a third part of their estate, and cheerfully to yield two-thirds to him under the king's grant. Montgomery entered into the scheme, and having a boat in readiness, and his wife carrying to him, in his prison, ropes in two cheeses, O'Neill effected his escape to Scotland. Montgomery then applied to Mr. James Hamilton, who had relinquished his fellowship in Dublin College, and was in high favor at the English court, to assist him in obtaining a pardon for O'Neill from the king, promising him half of his two parts of the estates. The pardon was obtained; and grants were issued from the king to each of these gentlemen

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for a third part of O'Neill's estates. Both were made knights: but as Montgomery was an inheritor under the king in Scotland, and his vassal, he obtained the precedency. Hamilton, however, so managed the matter as to obtain the better share in the possessions.

        Mr. Stewart says,--"These two knights, having received then lands, were shortly after made lords--Montgomery of Ards, and Hamilton of Claneboy. But land without inhabitants is a burden without relief. The Irish were gone, the ground was desolate rent must be paid to the king, tenants were none to pay them. Therefore the lords, having a good bargain themselves, make some of their friends sharers, as freeholders under them. Thus came several farmers under Mr. Montgomery, gentlemen from Scotland, and of the names of the Shaws, Calderwoods, Boyds, and of the Keiths from the north. And some foundations are laid for towns and incorporations, as Newton, Donaghedee, Comber, Old and New Grey Abbey. Many Hamiltons also followed Sir James, especially his own brethren, all of them worthy men; and other farmers, as the Maxwells, Rosses, Barclays, Moores, Bayleys, and others, whose posterity hold good to this day. He also founded towns and incorporations, viz., Bangor, Holywood, and Killileagh, where he built a strong castle, and Ballywalter. These foundations being laid, the Scots came hither apace, and became tenants willingly, and sub-tenants to their countrymen (whose manner and way they knew), so that in a short time the country began again to be inhabited."

        The progress of the plantation was slow; and by order of the Crown, frequent inquiries were made into its advancement. The last was made in 1618; by that it appeared that one hundred castles, with bawns, had been built; nineteen castles without bawns; forty-two bawns without castles or houses; and one thousand eight hundred and ninety-seven dwelling houses of stone and timber; and about eight thousand men of English and Scottish birth, able to bear arms, were settled in the country. The appointment of Sir Arthur Chichester, as Deputy, was made in 1605; the survey was speedily commenced: the lands began to be generally occupied, in 1610, by the emigrants from Scotland and England; and by 1618, against all the opposition of the native Irish, and the unfavorable circumstances of the country, a population, with some eight thousand fighting men, were gathered upon the escheated lands.

        The race of Scotchmen that emigrated to Ireland, retaining the characteristic traits of their native stock, borrowed some things

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from their neighbors, and were fashioned, in some measure, by the moulding influences of the climate and country. In contra-distinction from the native Irish, they called themselves Scotch; and to distinguish them from natives of Scotland, their descendants have received the name of Scotch-Irish. This name is provincial, and more used in America than elsewhere, and is applied to the Protestant emigrants from the north of Ireland, and their descendants. The history of this people from this period, 1618, till the emigration to America, which commenced with a discernible current about a century after the immigration from Scotland, is found in the "History of Religious Principles and Events in Ulster Province." Their religious principles swayed their political opinions; and in maintaining their forms of worship, and their creed, they learned the rudiments of republicanism before they emigrated to America. They demanded, and exercised, the privilege of choosing their ministers and spiritual directors, in opposition to all efforts to make the choice and support of the clergy a state, or governmental concern. In defence of this they suffered fines and imprisonment and banishment, and took up arms at last, and, victorious in the contest, they established the Prince of Nassau upon the throne, and gave the Protestant succession to England.

        Emigrating to America, they maintained, in all the provinces where they settled, the right of all men to choose their own religious teachers, and to support them in the way each society of Christians might choose, irrespective of the laws of England or the provinces,--and also to use what forms of worship they might judge expedient and proper. From maintaining the rights of conscience in both hemispheres, and claiming to be governed by the laws under legitimate sovereigns in Europe they came in America to demand the same extended rights in politics as in conscience; that rulers should be chosen by the people to be governed, and should exercise their authority according to the laws the people approved. In Europe they contended for a limited monarchy through all the troubles of the seventeenth century; in America, their descendants defining what a limited monarchy meant, found it to signify rulers chosen by the people for a limited time, and with limited powers; and declared themselves independent of the British crown.

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CHAPTER VI.
STATE OF RELIGION IN IRELAND FROM THE TIME OF THE EMIGRATION FROM SCOTLAND, TO THE FIRST EFFORT TO EMIGRATE TO AMERICA IN 1631.

        THE state of Religion among the emigrants was peculiar, though not strange or unexpected, in the circumstances. Many of the large landholders, and also the proprietors of smaller sections, were gentlemen in the Scotch acceptation of the word, men of good birth, of good manners, of some education and property. Some of them appear to have been truly religious. Among the tenantry and sub-tenantry, were also many of sound principles and correct lives,--and some were truly pious. But the circumstances of the emigration were such as to hold out greater inducements to the restless than to the sedate, to those who were more anxious about temporal, than to those who were most engaged about spiritual concerns; and consequently the province was occupied by settlers, who were willing enough to receive and respect ministers, who were sent to them, but were not characterized by any great desire to obtain either faithful ministers, who would warn them of their sins, or careless ones who would be content with their tithes. Of the latter class they had enough in Ireland, as the whole country had been divided into parishes, which were expected to support a minister of the Established Church of England. The former class were a terror unto them, as they always are to those not fully intent upon their own salvation. Stewart draws a dark picture of the people soon after their emigration; it is probably over colored, as the author was not conversant with the settling of colonies; the only other one of which he had much knowledge, the Puritans that removed first to Holland, and then to New England, being a solitary example of excellence. "Most of the people were all void of godliness, who seemed rather to flee from God in their enterprise, than to follow their own mercy. Yet God followed them when they fled from him. Albeit, at first, it must be remembered, that, as they cared little for any church, so God seemed to care as little for them. For these strangers were no better entertained (i.e., by the clergy they found in Ireland, or that part of it where they were)

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than by the relics of popery, served up in a ceremonial service of God under a sort of antichristian hierarchy, and committed to the care of careless men, who were only zealous to call for their gain from their quarter. Thus, on all hands, atheism increased, and disregard of God, iniquity abounded with contention, fighting, murder, adultery, &c., as among a people who, as they had nothing within them to overawe them, so their ministers' example (i. e., those they found in Ireland) was worse than nothing. And verily, at this time the whole body of this people seemed ripe for the manifestation either of God's judgment, or God's mercy."

        The situation of the emigrants, in matters pertaining to religion, was so different from the condition of the congregations in Scotland, that with the more grave and religious in the mother country, it became a matter of abhorrence;--so much so, that "going to Ireland" was looked upon as a thing to be deplored, as going away from the privileges and enjoyments of religion. It became a proverb expressive of disdain, "Ireland will be your latter end." Mr. Blair said of their condition in religious things--"Although amongst those whom divine providence did send to Ireland, there were several persons eminent for birth, education and parts, yet the most part was such as either poverty, scandalous lives, or at the best, adventurous seeking of better accommodation had forced thither; so that the security and thriving of religion was little seen to by these adventurers, and the preachers were generally of the same complexion with the people." This condition of the emigrants became at length a matter of deep sympathy and Christian benevolence--and faithful ministers of the gospel were encouraged to take their abode in Ireland, and expend their strength in labors which received a rich blessing from on high. Between the years 1613 and 1626, seven preachers went over to Ireland, whose exertions for the advancement of religion were blessed to such an eminent degree, that others were excited to follow them; and in a few years the church in Ireland became as famous for a spirit of revival, as the emigration had been for indifference to all religious concerns.

        The first, in point of time, was EDWARD BRICE, M.A., who, on account of his strenuous opposition to all efforts to introduce Episcopacy into Scotland, was compelled to leave his parish, Drymen in Stirlingshire; turning his attention to Ireland, he directed his steps to Broad Island in County Antrim, where an old acquaintance had settled in 1609. He began to exercise his ministry there in 1613. "In all his preaching," says Livingston, "he insi

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most on the life of Christ in the heart, and the light of His spirit and word on the mind; that being his own continual exercise." The wrath of man, in his troubles at home in Scotland, was overruled of God to bring him to preach Christ to the desolate; his being driven from his parish, was the leading of others to the Kingdom of God. He died in 1636, aged 67 years.

        The second was JOHN RIDGE, a native of England. He had been admitted to the order of Deacon by the Bishop of Oxford; but feeling no freedom to exercise his ministry in England, on account of the requisitions made of the clergy, he removed to Ireland, and on presentation of Lord Chichester, was admitted to the vicarage of Antrim in July, 1619. Blair styles him--"the judicious and gracious Minister of Antrim." Livingston says of him: "he used not to have many points in his sermon; but he so enlarged those he had, that it was scarcely possible for any hearer to forget his preaching. He was a great urger of charitable works, and a very humble man." After having witnessed the power of religion in an uncommon degree in Antrim, as will be noticed more particularly in another place, when the great revival comes up for narration, he died about the year 1637.

        The third was MR. HUBBARD, a Puritan minister from England. He was Episcopally ordained; but having forsaken the communion of the Established Church, and taken charge of a non-conforming congregation, at Southwark, London, he was greatly oppressed by the intolerant measures of the times, and with his people resolved on removing to Ireland, in hopes of greater freedom in religion. Lord Chichester being informed of their intention, invited them to Carrickfergus; they were peaceably settled there about the year 1621. Blair speaks of him as "an able and gracious man." He soon died; but his congregation shared largely in the divine blessing that so unexpectedly was poured upon Ulster county.

        The fourth was JAMES GLENDENNING, whose labors were peculiarly blessed, a native of Scotland, educated at St. Andrews, and early in life removing to Scotland, he succeeded Mr. Hubbard at Carrickfergus. The theatre of his greatest usefulness was Oldstone, near Antrim, where commenced, under his preaching, THE REVIVAL that spread over the province, and laid the foundation of the Irish Presbyterian Church. Mr. Glendenning was not esteemed as a man of much ability or learning; but his preaching being full of life and earnestness was much admired, and greatly blessed of God. He left Ireland in a few years.

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        The fifth was ROBERT CUNNINGHAM. Having been chaplain to the Earl of Buccleugh, in Holland, on the return of the troops to Scotland he went to Ireland, and became curate of Holywood and Craigavad in County Down. His name does not appear upon the roll as curate till 1622, though he was in Ireland some years previous to that time. Livingston says of him: "To my discerning he was the one man who most resembled the meekness of Jesus Christ, in all his carriage, that ever I saw, and was so far reverenced, even by the wicked, that he was often troubled with that scripture--'woe to you when all men speak well of you.' " He died in Scotland, March 29th, 1637, having witnessed, in an extraordinary manner, the power of the gospel.

        The sixth was ROBERT BLAIR. He had been professor in the College of Glasgow, but was induced to leave the situation on account of the measures used by Dr. Cameron to introduce Prelacy; being invited by Lord Claneboy (James Hamilton), he went to Ireland in May, 1623, and was settled in Bangor, in County Down. On his first landing in Ireland, his prejudices against the country were greatly increased by what he saw. Lord Claneboy interested himself very much in removing his difficulties, and Mr. Gibson, the first Protestant Dean of Down, then sick, invited him to preach in Bangor, and afterwards united with the congregation in urging him to make that his abode. Mr. Blair, in his narrative, says: Mr. Gibson "condemned Episcopacy more strongly than I durst to; he charged me in the name of Christ, as I expected a blessing on my ministry, not to leave that good way wherein I had begun to walk; and then drawing my head towards his bosom, with both arms, he laid his hands on my head, and blessed me."

        On his first interview he frankly told Bishop Echlin his objections to Prelacy. Echlin promised to impose no conditions on him, but said he must ordain him, or they could not answer the laws of the land. Blair objected to the performance of the ordination by him alone. The bishop finally agreed to associate Mr. Cunningham and the neighboring ministers with him in the ordination: and the service was performed July 10th, 1623. "Whatever you account of Episcopacy, yet I know you account a presbytery to have a divine warrant," said the bishop to him. "Will you not receive ordination from Mr. Cunningham and the adjacent brethren, and let me come in among them in no other relation than a presbyter?"

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        Livingston says of Blair,--"he was a man of a notable constitution both of body and mind; of a majestic, awful, yet affable and amiable countenance and carriage, learned, of strong parts, deep inventions, and solid judgment. He seldom ever wanted assurance of his salvation. He spent many days and nights in prayer alone, and with others, and was vouchsafed great intimacy with God."

        The seventh was JAMES HAMILTON, nephew to Lord Claneboy (James Hamilton, who obtained a part of O'Neill's estate), whom Mr. Blair found in the employ of his uncle, as steward, or agent. Perceiving his piety, and knowing his education, he invited him to enter the ministry. "I invited him," says Mr. Blair, "to preach in my pulpit, in his uncle's hearing, who till then knew nothing of this matter. We were afraid the viscount would not part with so faithful a servant. But he, having once heard his nephew, did put more respect on him than before." Mr. Hamilton was ordained by Bishop Echlin in the year 1625.

        These seven brethren labored with the spirit of missionaries of the cross, and triumphing over all difficulties, were favored with an extraordinary measure of success. Their influence was first seen in a reformation of manners and a devout attention to religion; and led, under the blessing of God, to a revival of religion, which spread over a large part of the counties of Down and Antrim, and is one of the most signal on record in the Protestant Church. This revival first appeared under the preaching of the weakest of the brethren, Mr. Glendenning. Mr. Stewart, in his narrative, thus relates the matter: "Mr. Blair, coming over from Bangor to Carrickfergus on some business, and occasionally hearing Mr. Glendenning preach, perceived some sparkles of good inclination in him, yet found him not solid but weak, and not fitted for a public place, and among the English. On which Mr. Blair did call him, and using freedom with him, advised him to go to some place in the country among his countrymen; whereupon he went to Oldstone (near the town of Antrim), and was there placed. He was a man who could never have been chosen by a wise assembly of ministers, nor sent to begin a reformation in this land. For he was little better than distracted,--yea afterwards did actually become so."

        "At Oldstone God made use of him to awaken the consciences of a lewd people thereabouts. For seeing the great lewdness and ungodly sinfulness of the people, he preached nothing to them but law, wrath, and the terrors of God for sin. And indeed for nothing else was he fitted, for hardly could he preach any other thing."

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But behold the success! For the hearers finding themselves condemned by the mouth of God speaking in his work, fell into such anxiety and terror of conscience, that they looked on themselves as altogether lost and damned; and this work appeared not in one single person or two, but multitudes were brought to understand their way, and to cry out, 'Men and brethren, what shall we do to be saved?' I have seen them myself stricken into a swoon with a word; yea, a dozen in one day carried out of doors as dead,--so marvellous was the power of God, smiting their hearts for sin, condemning and killing. And these were none of the weaker sex or spirit, but indeed some of the boldest spirits, who formerly feared not, with their swords, to put a whole market town in a fray;--yea, in defence of their stubbornness cared not to lie in prison and in the stocks,--and being incorrigible, were as ready to do the like next day. I have head one of them, then a mighty strong man, now a mighty Christian, say, that his end in coming to church was to consult with his companions how to work some mischief. And yet at one of those sermons was he so catched, that he was fully subdued. But why do I speak of him? we knew, and yet know multitudes of such men, who sinned, and still gloried in it, because they feared no man, yet are now patterns of sobriety, fearing to sin, because they fear God."

        "And this spread through the country to admiration, especially about that river, commonly called the Six Mile Water, for there this work began at first. At this time of the people's gathering to Christ, it pleased the Lord to visit mercifully the honorable family in Antrim, so as Sir John Clotworthy, and my Lady his mother, and his own precious Lady, did shine in an eminent manner in receiving the gospel and offering themselves to the Lord, whose example instantly other gentlemen followed, such as Captain Norton and others, of whom the gospel made a clear and cleanly conquest."

        This religious excitement spreading wide, continued for a considerable length of time; the demand for the pure word of the gospel was unceasing; and the labors of the ministers unremitting. The mercy of the gospel was welcomed by the hearts wounded for sin and by sin; and great numbers were hopefully awakened and converted to God. Among other things that followed this revival was the Monthly Meeting at Antrim, the effects of which were great and happy. Its origin is thus described by Stewart and Blair:--

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        "There was a man in the parish of Oldstone, called Hugh Campbell, who had fled from Scotland; God caught him in Ireland, and made him an eminent and exemplary Christian until this day. He was a gentleman of the house of Duckethall. After this man was healed of the wound given to his soul by the Almighty, he became very refreshful to others who had less learning and judgment than himself. He therefore invited some of his honest neighbors, who fought the same fight of faith, to meet him at his house on the last Friday of every month; where and when, beginning with a few, they spent their time in prayer, mutual edification, and conference, on what they found within them: nothing like the superficial superfluous meetings of some cold-hearted professors, who afterwards made this work a snare to many. But these new beginners were more filled with heart exercises than head notions, and with fervent prayer rather than conceity notions to fill the head. As these truly increased, so did this meeting for private edification increase too; and still at Hugh Campbell's house, on the last Friday of the month. At last they grew so numerous that the ministers who had begotten them again to Christ, thought fit that some of them should be still with them, to prevent what hurt might follow." This took place in the year 1626. Here Mr. Stewart's narrative ends abruptly. Mr. Blair says:--"Mr. John Ridge, the judicious and gracious minister of Antrim, perceiving many people, both sides of the Six Mile Water, awakened out of their security, made an overture that a monthly meeting might be set up at Antrim, which was within a mile of Oldstone, and lay centrical for the awakened persons to resort to, and he invited Mr. Cunningham, Mr. Hamilton, and myself, to take part in that work, who were all glad of the motion, and heartily embraced it."


        As the revival progressed, the news of it reached Scotland, and called the attention of the whole Christian community to Ireland; and in consequence, some very able ministers went over to take part in the work, and were blessed of God in being extensively useful in laying the foundation of the Irish Presbyterian Church. In addition to the seven who went previous to the revival, the following six, who entered the field during the great excitement, are worthy of particular notice.

        The first, JOSIAS WELCH, son of John Welch, of Ayr, and grandson of JOHN KNOX, the Reformer, by his third daughter, Elizabeth. Having finished his education at Geneva, he filled a Professor's chair in Glasgow, till the movements of Dr. Cameron

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for prelacy, which drove Mr. Blair from college, induced him also to surrender his office. At Mr. Blair's earnest instigation he went to Ireland in 1626, and like that good man, found that persecution, as in the days of the death of Stephen, sometimes drives men into that part of the Lord's vineyard where they reap the richest harvest for eternal life. He preached for a time at Oldstone, where the excitement began; and having been ordained by his kinsman Knox, Bishop of Raphoe, in Donegal, was soon after settled at Temple Patrick, and, Livingston says, had many seals to his ministry. He died on Monday, June 23d, 1634.

        The second that came was ANDREW STEWART, who was settled as minister of Donegore, adjoining Temple Patrick and Antrim. Blair styles him "a learned gentleman, and fervent in spirit, and a very successful minister of the word of God." He died in July, 1634.

        The third was GEORGE DUNBAR. He had been minister of Ayr, and was twice ejected on account of his nonconformity, and for a time confined in Blackness, and then banished. On the arrival of the news of his second ejectment, he turned to his wife and said: "Wife, get the creels ready again;" that is, the osier baskets in which he had carried his children in his first remove. He was driven to Ireland to be blessed in the Lord's vineyard. Being settled at Larna, county Antrim, his congregation participated in the great revival; and among the subjects was the singular case of a deaf and dumb person, Andrew Brown, who, by his reformed life and expressions of piety, prevailed on the ministers, who met at Antrim, in their monthly meetings, to admit him to the Lord's table. A singular, and almost solitary, case of a mute professing spiritual religion, previous to the recent successful efforts at giving them instruction.

        The fourth was HENRY COLWORT, a native of England, ordained by Knox, Bishop of Raphoe, on the 4th of May, 1629, and settled at Oldstone, June, 1630. Blair says, "this able minister was a blessing to that people;" and Livingston speaks of him as one "who very pertinently cited much Scripture in his sermons, and frequently urged fasting and prayer."

        The fifth was JOHN LIVINGSTON. Being silenced by Spotiswood, Archbishop of St. Andrews, in the year 1627, and being prevented by the bishops from obtaining a settlement, though invitations came to him from various quarters, he at length yielded to the storm, and following the hand of the Lord, went to Ireland,

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August, 1630, and was settled in Killinchy, in county Down. He received ordination from Knox, in the same manner Blair had done, some years previously. In the month of June preceding his removal to Ireland, he had, in company with Mr. Robert Blair, assisted at the famous meeting in the Kirk of Shotts, which resulted in the hopeful conversion of so large a company. Under his sermon on Monday, which he delivered after hours of meditation and private prayer, the whole audience seemed under the convicting power of the word, and as many as five hundred, of those that day impressed, afterwards professed faith in Christ. Some say that, reckoning up all that from that day's preaching became hopefully religious, the number would be swelled to seven hundred; as the audience was collected from a great distance, as usual on Scotch communion days, many of the hopeful converts were from distant congregations, and some who dated their religious impressions from that day, did not profess religion for a length of time.

        The great excitement produced at this meeting rendered Mr. Blair and Mr. Livingston more obnoxious than ever to the Prelates, who, under pretence of their having transgressed the order of the Church and the government, prevailed on Bishop Echlin, in Ireland, in September, 1631, to suspend both these men from their ministerial functions. No service done to God, in the conversion of men, could satisfy these Prelates for nonconformity to their established rules of Church government.

        Two others were extensively useful, though not settled in congregations. One was JOHN McCLELLAND, of whom Livingston says,--"he was first school-master at Newton-Ards in Ireland, where he bred several hopeful youths for the college. Being first tried and approved by the honest ministers in the county of Down, he often preached in their churches. He was a most straight and zealous man; he knew not what it was to be afraid of man in the cause of God; and was early acquainted with God and his ways."

        The other was JOHN SEMPLE. According to the mode of commencing public worship, he, as clerk or precentor, was, as customary, singing a psalm before the minister came in that was to preach. Thinking the minister tarried long, he felt an impulse to speak something to the psalm he was singing; and, as he said,--"he was carried out with great liberty." The ministers, looking upon his case as peculiar, made private trials of his capability to teach, and gave him license "to exercise his gifts in private houses

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and families." With this liberty he went through the country with great acceptance; the people flocked to hear him, filling dwelling-houses and barns; and to very many he was the happy instrument of God in their conversion.

        These ministers were powerful auxiliaries in extending the revival in Ulster. The churches gathered by them multiplied and extended, and became a large body; and from them were the emigrants whose descendants are found in Pennsylvania, western Virginia, North and South Carolina, in large bodies, and also in smaller companies scattered over the southern and western portions of the United States.

        The monthly meeting set up at Oldstone by Mr. Campbell, being altogether in the hands of the inexperienced, was likely to lead to the evils that result from zeal without knowledge. By the prudent exertions of Mr. Ridge of Antrim, a monthly meeting of ministers was formed, which took the place of the other, prevented the dreaded evils, and became instrumental of great good to the community. The exercises of those meetings were very similar to the services performed at the communion seasons in Scotland, and to the communion seasons and four day meetings held by the Presbyterians in Virginia and the Carolinas, and indeed in the whole South and West. People flocked to them in crowds, and embraced the opportunity of conversation with their minister, and each other, on the great subjects of Religion; and the minister took the opportunity of communicating instructions on important subjects, and for the exercise of necessary discipline, in which unity of purpose and action was required.

        Mr. Brice of Broad Island, and Mr. Dunbar, who was for a time his assistant, and afterwards settled at Oldstone, were called to the exercise of prudence and judgment in another way. In Broad Island and the adjacent parish of Oldstone, there were several persons violently affected during public worship with hard breathings and convulsions of the body. These new and strange exercises they considered as evidences of the work of the Spirit. Messrs. Brice and Dunbar examined them carefully on this matter, and on conferring with them about their state of mind and heart, could not find that these bodily exercises either produced or accompanied any discovery of their sinfulness before God, nor any clear views of Christ, or desires after him. They therefore considered the exercises to be either an imposition or a delusion. The ministerial brethren were called together upon the matter; and after a patient examination they decided against the opinion

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that the exercises were either a work of the Spirit or any evidence of its presence. Mr. Blair says--"When we came and conferred with them, we perceived it to be a mere delusion and cheat of the destroyer, to slander and disgrace the work of God." The putting down these irregularities did not hinder the progress of the good work, but rather gave confidence both to preachers and people. Instead of permitting the passions and feelings of their hearers to lead the pastors, or the heat of excitement to blind their eyes, they submitted all things in religion to the test of Scripture, and by its authority they chose to abide. This was their rule in church government, ordination and doctrine: and more than two centuries in Europe, and more than a century in America, has tested and proved the prudence and propriety of their decisions.

        The monthly meeting at Antrim, besides being a source of rich encouragement and high enjoyment to the people, became to the ministers a source of great consolation. In them they took counsel and gave advice, and comforted and exhorted each other; and, until presbyteries were formed, it was their grand council. It must be borne in mind, that the whole country was under the Established Church of England; and in the space occupied by these laborers were some twenty ministers of the Established Church, who took no interest in the revival, but rather set themselves against it, and were opposed to these ministers preaching in their parish bounds. Bishop Echlin, at first favorable to these ministers, soon became their bitter enemy: while Knox of Raphoe continued their friend to the last. Mr. Livingston says that the brethren that formed this meeting lived in the greatest harmony, each preferring the other in love.

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CHAPTER VII.
THE EAGLE WING--OR FIRST ATTEMPT AT EMIGRATION FROM IRELAND TO AMERICA, 1636.

        IN the spring of the year 1631, the presbyterians of Ulster, wearied out by the intolerance of Charles I., and Archbishop Laud, and the consequent exactions of the ministers of the crown, particularly the Lord Deputy Wentworth, afterwards Earl of Stafford, by which their cup of bitterness was made to overflow, turned their eyes to the new settlements in the wilds of America. The Puritans of England, who were contending and suffering for the same rights of conscience, had planted colonies in Massachusetts, which cheered them with the expectation of a refuge from the ills they could neither be freed from, nor endure, in their native land. The flourishing colony had been planted at Salem, in the year 1628, and had been even more successful than Plymouth. These prosperous efforts to secure the enjoyment of liberty of conscience, turned the attention of the distressed congregations of Ireland to seek, in the deeper solitudes of distant America, what had been promised, and sought for in vain, in depopulated Ireland; or enjoyed only while they reclaimed the desolations of the previous rebellion.

        The ministers that had come over from Scotland, whose names have been enumerated, had not attempted to form a Presbytery. The whole country had been laid off into parishes and bishoprics of the Church of England; and as the emigrants from England or Scotland found their residences, they were consequently included in some parish, and the ministers that came over to preach to them were admitted to occupy parish churches, and enjoy their own forms and ceremonies. Archbishop Usher was most mild and tolerant in his views of church order and government; and so, for a time at least, were some of his bishops; and in the different Dioceses of Ulster might be seen priests and deacons of the Established Church, and here and there intermingled a Presbyterian or Puritan minister, with a flock of their own peculiar creed and forms, under the bishop's supervision. The great revival had broken up some of this quietness and order that had

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prevailed, by exciting jealousies between the favorers and opposers of that blessed work: the bishops mostly withdrew their favor and protection, and were ready to carry into effect the rigid orders from Laud and the Deputy, and proceeded to silence those that would not conform strictly to the rites and ceremonies of the establishment, and began with Blair and Livingston: but by the good offices of Archbishop Usher these men were restored to their ministry. Their enemies, however, made representations at Court which resulted in shutting out from the exercise of the ministry, Blair, Welch, Livingston, and Dunbar.

        These oppressed ministers, with many of their respective charges, began to make preparation for removal to America. Two persons were appointed delegates to visit New England, the Rev. John Livingston and Mr. William Wallace, and, if circumstances were favorable, to choose a place for their future residence. They proceeded to England to find a passage to America; but some unexpected difficulties caused their return to Ireland, and prospects in Ireland appearing more favorable, the project was for a time abandoned. In 1634, these ministers, who had been restored to their office, were three of them again suspended, and the next year the fourth, Livingston, shared the same fate; their only crime charged was their opposition to Episcopal forms. During the same year four other ministers were forbidden the exercise of their ministry on account of their adherence to Presbyterial forms; Brice, who was amongst the earliest that visited Ireland, and after a laborious ministry of twenty years, died the next year after his suspension, aged sixty-seven years,--Ridge, who went to Antrim in 1619, and had been most laborious and successful, and after his suspension returned to Scotland, and died 1637,--Cunningham, who had gone over in 1622, and returning to Scotland, after his suspension, died in 1637,--and Colwort, minister at Oldstone, where the great Revival began.

        Once more preparations for emigration were commenced, and a correspondence opened with the colonies in New England. Cotton Mather, in his Magnolia, tells us, Book 1st--"That there were divers gentlemen in Scotland, who, being uneasy under the ecclesiastical burdens of the times, wrote on to New England the inquiries:--Whether they might be there suffered freely to exercise their Presbyterial church government? And it was freely answered--that they might. Thereupon they sent over an agent, who pitched upon a tract of land near the mouth of the Merrimac River, whither they intended to transplant themselves. But

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although they had so far proceeded in their voyage as to be half-seas through, the manifold crosses they met withal, made them give over their intentions; and the providence of God so ordered it that some of these very gentlemen were afterwards the revivers of that well-known Solemn League and Covenant, which had so great an influence upon the nation." There is one error in this extract. The conclusion would naturally be, that the expedition was from Scotland; and very probably Mather understood it to be from that country,--whereas, the company sailed from the North of Ireland. The error arose undoubtedly from the fact, that the correspondence was carried on from Scotland, and the agent was a Scotchman, the ministers were from Scotland, and of no small eminence, and the colonists themselves were either Scotchmen by birth, or the children of Scotchmen reared in Ireland.

        The deposition of their ministers, which took place August 12th, 1636, hastened the preparations for emigration, and on the 9th of the following September, the EAGLE WING, a vessel of one hundred and fifty tons, set sail from Lockfergus with one hundred and forty emigrants prepared for the voyage, and a settlement in a new country. The colonists took with them the necessary implements for carrying on fisheries, and also a considerable amount of merchandise to assist them by traffic to meet the expenses of the voyage and necessities of the new settlement. Among the emigrants were four noted preachers, ROBERT BLAIR, JOHN LIVINGSTON, JAMES HAMILTON, and JOHN McCLELLAND: all afterwards promoters of the cause of truth in Scotland and Ireland. Among the families that composed the company were the names Stuart, Agnew, Campbell, Summervil, and Brown. Many single persons united in the expedition, and with them sailed Andrew Brown, a deaf mute, from the parish of Larne, who during the revival had been deeply affected, and had given satisfactory evidence, by signs connected with a godly life, of having been truly converted. Like the voyagers in the MAY FLOWER, this devoted people met with difficulties. The New England Memorial traces them in the former case to the knavery of the shipmaster, first in springing the leak, then in landing them far north of the intended harbor; in the present case the parties concerned referred them to the providence of God.

        "We had," says the Rev. John Livingston in his account of the voyage, "much toil in our preparation, many hindrances in our outsetting, and both sad and glad hearts in taking leave of our friends. At last, about the month of September, 1636, we loosed

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from Lockfergus, but were detained some time with contrary winds in Lock Regan in Scotland, and grounded the ship to search for some leaks in the keel of the boat. Yet thereafter, we set to sea, and for some space had fair winds, till we were between three and four hundred leagues from Ireland, and no nearer the banks of Newfoundland than any place in Europe. But if ever the Lord spoke by his winds and other dispensations, it was made evident to us, that it was not his will that we should go to New England. For we met with a mighty heavy rain from the northwest, which did break our rudder, which we got mended by the skill and courage of Captain Andrew Agnew, a godly passenger; and tore our foresail, five or six of our champlets, and a great beam under the gunner's room door broke. Seas came in over the round house, and broke a plank or two on the deck, and wet all that were between the decks. We sprung a leak, that gave us seven hundred, in the two pumps, in the half hour glass. Yet we lay at hull a long time to beat out the storm, till the master and company came one morning and told us that it was impossible to hold out any longer, and although we beat out that storm, we might be sure in that season of the year, we would foregather with one or two more of that sort before we could reach New England.

        "During all this time, amidst such fears and dangers, the most part of the passengers were very cheerful and confident; yea, some in prayer had expressed such hopes, that rather than the Lord would suffer such a company in such sort to perish, if the ship should break, he would put wings to our shoulders, and carry us safe ashore. I never in my life found the day so short, as at all that time, although I slept some nights not above two hours, and some not at all, but stood most part in the gallery astern the great cabin, where Mr. Blair and I and our families lay. For in the morning, by the time every one had been some time alone, and then at prayer in their several societies, and then at public prayer in the ship, it was time to go to dinner; after that we would visit our friends or any that were sick, and then public prayer would come, and after that, supper and family exercises. Mr. Blair was much of the time sickly, and lay in the time of storms. I was sometimes sick, and then brother McClelland only performed duty in the ship. Several of those between deck, being thronged, were sickly; an aged person and one child died, and were buried in the sea. One woman, the wife of Michael Calver, of Killinchy parish, brought forth a child in the

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ship. I baptized it on Sabbath following, and called him SEABORN."

        The report of the master and company filled them with distress,--the storm was upon them and before them;--oppression had driven them from Ireland, and waited their return. After prayer, and long and anxious consultation, they agreed to return; trusting in the good providence of God for their future welfare. The next morning as soon as the day dawned, the ship was turned, and they made for Ireland. On the third of November, after a prosperous sail, they came to anchor in Lockfergus, the place of their departure, after an absence of about eight weeks, cast down under this providence of God, and anticipating hostility, ridicule and suffering. Having sold their effects in preparation for the voyage, and having vested their property in provision and stock of merchandize, suitable for their expected residence, they experienced great loss in disposing of their cargo, and reinvesting the proceeds in things suitable to their emergency. The persons, they had hired to go with them to assist in fishing and building houses, demanded their wages, and were dismissed at great disadvantage to their employers.

        Their reception by their friends, like their departure, was mingled with "gladness and sorrow;"--by their enemies with anxiety and disdain. Their friends commiserated their calamity, and rejoiced in their safety. Their enemies disliked their return, fearing the consequences, and were for a time divided in their opinion how they should be treated. Some were for exercising greater lenity; others poured out their ridicule in no measured terms, and in ballads, and notes to printed sermons, compared these oppressed and disheartened people to asses, which the same vessel had a little before brought from France,--and their religious ministrations to brayings so sad, that Neptune had stopped their voyage, and sent them back to Ireland to be improved.

        The next year, 1637, the ministers finding no peace in Ireland, went over to Scotland, and met a most cordial reception from ministers and people. Mr. Blair was settled at Ayr; Mr. Livingston at Stranrear; Mr. Hamilton at Dumfries; Mr. Dunbar at Caldir in Lothian; Mr. McClelland in Kirkcudbright; Mr. Temple in Carsphain; Mr. Row at Dunfermline; and Mr. Robert Hamilton at Ballantises. These nine were zealous promoters of the National Covenant, which was renewed for the third time in Edinburgh, 1st March, 1638. Four of them were members of the famous assembly that met in Glasgow, in November of the

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same year, and took an active part in the doings of that body, by which Prelacy in Scotland was abolished,--the bishops deposed,--and Presbytery re-established. Those, who were settled on the western coast of Scotland, kept up their intercourse with Ulster, and many of their former hearers removed to Scotland to enjoy their ministrations. On the stated communions, great numbers would go over from Ireland to enjoy the privileges they could not have at home; on one occasion five hundred persons went over from Down to Stranrear, to receive the sacrament at the hands of Mr. Livingston. At another time, he baptized twenty children brought over to him, for that purpose, by their parents, who were unwilling to receive the ordinance from the Prelatical clergy.

        The influence which this company of emigrants exercised on Ireland, and ultimately on America, is incalculable. It is scarcely possible to conceive, that any situation in New England could have afforded them such a theatre of action as the province of Ulster; perhaps none they might have occupied anywhere in America, even in founding a new State, could have afforded such ample exhibition of the power of their principles and godly lives. There had been a revival, a great revival in Ireland, among the emigrants from Scotland and their children; but as yet, no Presbytery had been formed; and the influence of the Presbyterian Protestants was circumscribed, and their principles not yet deep-rooted for permanency. Had this colony succeeded in finding an agreeable situation in America, in all probability so many of their friends and countrymen would have followed, that the North of Ireland would have been deserted to the native Irish, or the wild beasts, as in the times just preceding the emigration from Scotland. This company of men, as will be seen in the subsequent history, were the efficient instruments in the hands of God, of embodying the Presbyterians of Ireland, of spreading their principles far and wide, and marshalling congregation after congregation, whose industry made Ulster blossom as the rose. The Presbyterians became the balancing power of Ireland. "You need not"--said an intelligent physician of Petersburg, Va., who is familiar with Ireland, and does not claim to be a Presbyterian,--"You need not ask when you are to pass from the Catholic counties to those of the Protestants. You will see and feel the change in everything around you."

        Had the principles of Usher prevailed, and these men been permitted to labor in peace in their parishes, it would in all probability have been long before a Presbytery had been formed in Ireland;

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and when formed its influence and number of churches would have been really less than they were in 1642, the year the first Presbytery met. The intolerance of the Court and their obedient bishops drove these men out of the churches of the establishment. When the four set sail in 1636, for America, no faithful Presbyterian was left; the others were dead, or had retired to Scotland; all bonds were broken that might have held them in connection with the Episcopal church. The tempest brought them back to do a work in Scotland; and the rebellion and consequent massacre, by the native Irish, opened the way for their successful labors in Ireland, and for founding the Irish Presbyterian church. The wrath of man, and the tempests of the ocean, together work the wonderful counsels of Almighty God.

        After the lapse of some two-thirds of a century, Ulster began to send out swarms to America; shipload after shipload of men trained to labor and habits of independence, sought the American shores; year after year the tide rolled on without once ebbing; and many thousands of these descendants of the emigrants from Scotland, disdaining to be called Irish, filled the upper country of Pennsylvania, Virginia, and the Carolinas. Ulster, in Ireland, has been an exhaustless hive, a perennial spring; and the form and fashion of its emigrants were moulded by these men, whom the storms baffled and sent back to do a work for Ireland and America. LIVINGSTON and BLAIR lived for Posterity.

        In 1608, Jamestown, in Virginia, was founded by a small company from England; in 1620, the May Flower landed her little band of Puritans on Plymouth rock; in 1636, the Eaglewing relanded her company at Lochfergus; and some few years afterwards King Charles forbade the sailing of the vessel that should have carried away from England the Spirits of the Revolution. Napoleon, with all his immense hosts of savans and soldiers, did not, could not so change the condition of the world, as those four bands that, collectively, would scarce have formed a regiment in his immense army. Principles, not men, must govern the world under the Providence of God.

        It was well that the distressed people of Ireland turned their thoughts to America for a resting place; it was better that they embarked for the wilderness, as it manifested an enterprise equal to the emergency; but it was better still that God's wise providence sent them back to labor for Ireland, and shut them up to the work; and last, it was best of all, that they laid the foundation of that church which may claim to be the mother of the American Presbyterian Church, the worthy child of a worthy mother.

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CHAPTER VIII.
FORMATION OF PRESBYTERIES IN IRELAND.

        THE first meeting of a regular Presbytery in Ireland took place at Carrickfergus on Friday, June 10th, 1642. Previously to that time the ministers in Ireland, who promoted the Revival, acted on Presbyterial principles, though by law of England under the jurisdiction of Bishops of the Church of England. At the Reformation almost the entire Irish nation were Roman Catholics or Papists; and the majority of the nation are to this day. Henry VIII. of England commenced establishing a Protestant national church, and Elizabeth followed up the design; and James perfected the plan as far as he was able. Bishops were sent over, and the clergy were appointed to parishes and supported by the authority of the state; yet the mass of the people remained Papists, and maintained their own bishops and priests, and received the ordinances at their hands. The Scotch emigrants were divided, in their settlements, into parishes; or rather, the boundaries of the old parishes remained, and clergy were supplied by the state to the inhabitants, of whatever country or religious principles they might chance to be. The parishes occupied the same territory embraced by the Papists in their ecclesiastical divisions; and neither the Scotch emigrants nor the native Irish Papists were permitted by law to enjoy their own clergy, or their own religious ceremonies; and both were sufferers under the severities of Charles I. and Archbishop Laud. The ministers who went over to Ireland to preach to the Scotch, a short account of whom has been given, were presented to parishes and admitted regularly; some were ordained by the Bishop, in conjunction with other clergy as a Presbytery, objecting more or less strenuously to his prelatical character.

        A convocation of the Irish clergy was summoned in 1615, before any number of ministers from Scotland had visited the island. As the Irish Church had always been independent of that of England, it was thought necessary to declare its faith, and settle its form of government. The only statutes in force in the kingdom respected solely the celebration of public worship, which was made

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conformable to that of the English churches. The English ritual was followed; but the Irish Church had not adopted a Confession of Faith. Dr. James Usher, Professor of Divinity in the College of Dublin, and afterwards Archbishop, was appointed to draw up a Confession; this task he performed to the approbation of the Convocation and the Parliament, and also to the satisfaction of the King and Council. The Confession was digested into no less than nineteen sections, and one hundred and four propositions; and was as decidedly Calvinistic as that afterwards drawn up by the Westminster Divines. The Pope was pronounced Antichrist; the doctrine of Absolution condemned; the morality of the Sabbath strongly asserted, in opposition to the King's well known sentiments. The reason for this was,--that the intolerance practised in England induced many of the Puritans to emigrate to Ireland; and there, the King, glad to have them out of England, gave them preferments. Heylin says:--"They brought with them hither such a stock of Puritanism, such a contempt of bishops, such a neglect of the public Liturgy, and other offices of the Church, that there was nothing less to be found among them than the government and forms of worship established in the Church of England! He was understood also as implying the validity of ordinations out of the English Church as truly as those performed by Diocesan Bishops. His words are:--"And those we ought to judge lawfully called and sent, which be chosen and called to this work, by men, who have public authority given them, in the Church, to call and send ministers into the Lord's vineyard."

        ROBERT BLAIR, one of the most eminent of those who went to Ireland, from Scotland, refused to be ordained by the Diocesan Bishop alone, or by him in conjunction with Presbyters, in any other light than as a Presbyter. With that express understanding, as he asserts, he was ordained by the Bishop and other clergy.

        JOHN LIVINGSTON, another laborer of great eminence, objected to ordination by the Bishop of the established church, and, as the Bishop of Down, in which his parish was, had resolved, in obedience to the court of England, to require submission to the rules of the Established Church, he applied to Knox, Bishop of Raphoe, taking with him letters of introduction from Lord Claneboy, and others. He says Knox received him kindly, and said he knew his errand, and that he was aware he had scruples against Episcopacy, as Welch and others had, and then proceeded to say, "that if I scrupled to call him my Lord, he cared not much for it; all that he would desire of me was, that I should preach at Ramelton the

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first Sabbath, because they got there but few sermons, and that he would send for Mr. William Cunningham, and two or three other neighboring ministers to be present, who, after sermon, should give me imposition of hands; but, although they performed the work, he behoved to be present; and although he durst not answer it to the State, he gave me the book of ordination, and desired that anything I scrupled at, I should draw a line over it on the margin, and that Mr. Cunningham should not read it. But I found that it had been so marked by others before, that I need not mark anything." Thus it appears Presbyterian ordination was introduced before the revival, and was acted on during that great excitement out of which grew the Irish Presbyterian Church.

        But the rigor of James, towards the latter part of his life, and the severity of Charles I., and Archbishop Laud, in their endeavors to enforce conformity to the Established Church, had become more and more oppressive, till, after the failure of the attempt at emigration in the EAGLE WING, the Presbyterian clergy left the country in 1637, and retired to Scotland. The congregations to which they had ministered were left without instruction, except what they received from their more eminent laymen, who conducted public worship for the people that would come together; and many were inclined to do this, notwithstanding all the efforts of Lord Stafford, the Deputy in Ireland, to make them conform to the Established Church. By the petition sent by these Presbyterians to the Long Parliament, we learn that after all efforts for their destruction, they continued a numerous people. The revival had subsided, but religion had not died away; and although King Charles had forgotten the obligations of his father to them, they had not forgotten their obligation to the great head of the church, or lost their love for his truth.

        The introduction of the Scottish army into Ulster, to quell the rebellion that broke out October 13th, 1641, changed the face of affairs in these congregations, and was the means of forming a presbytery, and restoring pastors to these suffering flocks. The Papists had made insurrection and furious rebellion, with design of cutting off the Protestants, and restoring the ceremonies and worship of the Church of Rome. Their plans were laid for concerted action, and the energy with which they were carried out may be judged from the fact that in a few months, at the lowest calculation 40,000, and as some Catholic writers, and some Protestants also, assert, 150,000 persons were brought to an untimely end. These sufferers were Protestants; but a small part only were Presbyterians,

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for the nobles and clergy of that denomination had fled to Scotland some time before, to escape the persecutions and impositions of the Established Church. This rebellion was at first encouraged by King Charles, as an event that would operate favorably upon his interests; and both he and the Papists agreed in sparing the Scotch Presbyterians,--probably because they had not declared for the parliament against the king. The flight of the Scotch in 1637, and onwards, was pre-eminently their safety; they escaped from the unreasonable Prelates first, and then from the massacre of the Papists. God knows how to deliver his people. The company of emigrants in the Eagle Wing must not reach America, neither must it be cut off in this massacre; it had a great and glorious work to accomplish, and that work was to be done in Ireland, and the bright day of its accomplishment should break after a most tempestuous night.

        After many horrible massacres perpetrated during the winter of 1641-2, Major General Monro was sent over from Scotland in the spring, with a force of 2,500 men; with these, in conjunction with the Scotch and other Protestants in Ulster, after many battles and sieges, he succeeded in crushing the rebellion. The Lagan forces (or those from the northern part of Donegal) had signalized themselves before the arrival of the Scotch army, and continued their brave and enterprising efforts after that event, stimulating them by an honorable rivalry, to a speedy accomplishment of their mission, the suppression of the rebellion. The Scotch forces were from seven different regiments, each of which had its chaplain. The Rev. Hugh Cunningham was attached to Glencairn's regiment; Rev. Thomas Peebles, to Eglenton's; Rev. John Baird, to Argyle's; Rev. James Simpson, to Sinclair's; Rev. John Scott, to Home's; Rev. John Aird, to Lindsay's, or Monro's; and the Rev. John Livingston, who was so much beloved in Ireland, was sent along with the army by the Council. These ministers were active and fervent in their preaching to the army; and in the parishes near the encampment, where their labors were highly appreciated, "as cold waters to a thirsty soul," "and the shadow of a great rock in a weary land." The country was entirely without a Protestant clergy; the Scotch had been driven off before the rebellion, and the Prelates and their clergy fled from the murderous hands of the Papists. After the rebellion was crushed, public attention was turned to procuring pastors and spiritual guides for the vacant parishes; and the inclination of the people was speedily manifested in the efforts to obtain ministers. Those who had been Presbyterians previously, remained

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so still; and many others were now inclined to unite with them, very few of the laity being attached to the Prelates or the Established Church. Those who had fled to Scotland during the rebellion returned, and all declared for Presbytery; and many that had been inclined to Episcopacy, were disgusted with the transactions in England, and united with the Presbyterians in settling their church in a formal manner as a distinct church. The plan of Archbishop Usher would probably have been acted out in Ireland, but for the intolerant disposition and principles of Laud and his master, King Charles. Whether under any circumstances it could prosper, can never be satisfactorily determined till a more complete trial be made than the few years of imperfect action during the revival in Ireland.

        The chaplains first formed regular churches in four of the regiments,--Argyle's, Eglenton's, Glencairn's and Home's--choosing the most grave and pious men for elders, and setting them apart to their office in due form, according to the Scotch Confession. On the 10th of June, 1642, five ministers, Messrs. Cunningham, Peebles, Baird, Scott and Aird, Messrs. Livingston and Simpson being necessarily absent, with an elder from each of the four sessions, met and constituted a Presbytery in the army. Mr. Baird preached from the latter part of the 51st Psalm--"Do good in thy good pleasure unto Zion; build thou the walls of Jerusalem." Mr. Peebles was chosen stated clerk, and held the office till his death, a period of about thirty years. The ministers produced their acts of admission to their regiments, and the elders their commissions from the Sessions; and the Presbytery was constituted in due form. As the formation of the Presbytery was speedily known in the country, applications poured in from all sides to be received into their connexion, and to obtain the regular ordinances of the gospel; and the ministers proceeding to visit the congregations, in a short time there were sixteen regular sessions formed in important parishes.

        By the prudent and zealous efforts of these seven ministers the foundations of the Presbyterian church were relaid in Ulster province, in conformity with the model of the Church of Scotland. From this period the complete organization of the Presbyterian church in Ireland takes its date, and the history of her ministers, her congregations, and her ecclesiastical councils, can be traced in uninterrupted succession; the principles then adopted, and the form of worship then introduced, continue to this day; and the government and discipline then adopted continue in all essential

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points unaltered, and all are to be found in the Presbyterian church in the United States, to which they have descended as from parent to child.

        The people agreed to petition the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, which was to meet in July, for supplies, and various papers were drawn up and signed by the inhabitants of different parishes, requesting that those ministers who had formerly labored among them might be sent back to them, and others along with them, to fill the numerous vacancies in that spiritually desolate province. The Assembly listened kindly to these petitions, and appointed a commission of six ministers to visit Ireland and instruct and regulate congregations, and ordain to the ministry such as might be found properly qualified. The ministers were to go two and two on a tour of four months. Mr. Robert Blair and James Hamilton for the first four months, Robert Ramsay and John McClellan for the next four, and Robert Baillie and John Livingston for the last four. These brethren were everywhere received with joy; congregations were organized on Presbyterian principles, members received into the church, and the sacraments of baptism and the Lord's supper administered. Their preachings were incessant, and the congregations large; people renounced prelacy, and those who had taken the Black oath, as it was termed, by which they solemnly engaged not to resist the king, were called to public renunciation and repentance. No person was admitted to the privileges of the church who did not possess a competent degree of knowledge, or who did not fully approve of her constitution and discipline, or was unable to state the grounds of that approbation. The congregations took possession of the parish churches that were standing vacant, and likely to remain so, and many who had been episcopally ordained, came and joined the Presbytery, but were not recognized as members until they had been regularly called and inducted to the charge of some congregation. Thus those ministers who had first been led to go to Ireland because they could not exercise their ministry in Scotland, and after being successful in Ireland were driven back to Scotland, now came again to Ireland, having been driven back from America by a tempest, and set up the Presbyterian church which has flourished so gloriously, and been the parent church of so many in America, particularly in Pennsylvania, Virginia, North and South Carolina.

        During the year 1643, the SOLEMN LEAGUE AND COVENANT was adopted by the Westminster Assembly and the British Parliament

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on the one side, and the Scottish nation on the other. This League and Covenant was presented to the Presbyterians in Ulster, and during the year 1644 was adopted by great numbers in Down, Derry, Antrim, Donegal, and parts of Tyrone and Fermanagh. The English parliament on the 16th of October, 1643, requested the Scotch commissioners to take steps that the Covenant "be taken by all the officers, soldiers, and Protestants of their nation in Ireland." After some correspondence and various plans, this important business was committed to those ministers who had been appointed by the assembly to visit Ireland, the Rev. Messrs. James Hamilton, John Weir, William Adair, and Hugh Henderson. The civil and ecclesiastical authorities of Edinburgh made choice of the first of these, Mr. Hamilton, minister of Dumfries, to be the bearer of the Covenant; the others were associated for the work of presenting it to the churches. In sending word to the forces in Ireland of their appointment, these ministers say, "As our cause is one, and has common friends and enemies, so we must resolve, with God's assistance, to stand or fall together." They reached Carrickfergus the last of March, and were all present at the Presbytery held there on the 1st of April, 1644. "The Covenant was taken on the 4th of that month, with great solemnity, in the church at Carrickfergus, by Monro and his officers, and in ten days afterwards, by all his soldiers. Major Dalzel (afterwards so well known in the distresses in Scotland) was the only person who refused." It produced the same effects in Ulster it had in other parts of the kingdom, ascertaining and uniting the friends of liberty, and inspiring them with fresh confidence in the arduous struggle in which they were engaged, and diffused through the country a strong attachment to the Presbyterian cause; and what is of higher moment, it revived the cause of true religion, so that from this period is reckoned the second Reformation.

        Notwithstanding the difficulties and trials to which the Presbyterians in Ireland were exposed, on one side by the authorities of King Charles, and on the other by the parliament, which ultimately brought the king to the block, the church continued to prosper. In the year 1647, there were about thirty ordained Presbyterian ministers in Ulster, besides some chaplains of regiments, on account of some severe laws which drove many to Scotland, there were, in the year 1653, but about twenty-four; and again in the year 1657, by the relaxation of the laws, there were about eighty in the different counties of the province of Ulster.

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        In the year 1655, it was agreed there should be what is called MEETINGS, in Down, Antrim, and Route with Lagan, consisting of the contiguous brethren who met for consultation, putting over the more important matters that required action, to the regular meeting of the whole Presbytery. Two years after, these meetings were increased to five, Route being separated from Lagan, and Tyrone being added; and in a little time there became five Presbyteries, by dividing the original Presbytery; which number continued till 1702, when four more were added, making the whole number nine. At this present time there are twenty-four in the Synod of Ulster. From the close connection between Synod and Presbytery in Ireland, it probably happened that the first Presbyterian Synod in the United States, made by the division of a large Presbytery, frequently performed acts which are now, by common consent, performed only by the Presbytery or at their order. At the time of the Restoration, in 1660, there were in the province of Ulster not less than seventy regularly settled Presbyterian ministers;--about eighty congregations, comprising not less than one hundred thousand souls. If the statement of one of their enemies be true, the population connected with the Presbyterian ministers must have much exceeded that number; he says--"in the north (of Ireland) the Scotch keep up an interest distinct in garb and all formalities, and are able to raise 40,000 fighting men at any time." This number of fighting men would require a greater population than 100,000. That they would raise an army and fight for their lives, their enemies knew from fatal experience.

        From six ministers, in about forty years of constant resistance to oppression, under the two Charleses, and of their predecessor, James I., the congregations had increased to about eighty; and the preachers to nearly the same number, though repeatedly driven off and kept in banishment for years, on every return increasing in numbers and influence. This perseverance of a harassed people impresses the mind with the strong conviction, that they felt in their consciences, that their principles of civil and religious liberty were the truth of God, and imperishable. In 1689, the time the Toleration Act came in force, there were in the five Presbyteries about one hundred congregations, eighty ministers and eleven licentiates. The vine of the Lord's planting grew, though "the boar out of the wood did pluck at her," and they that passed by did trample her down.

        The Presbytery of Lagan, embracing the northern part of the county of Donegal, principally that between the Foyle and the Swilly,

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and containing in the year 1660 thirteen members, all of whom were ejected by Charles II. 1661, is peculiarly full of interest to the American Church, as that body which licensed the Rev. FRANCIS MAKEMIE, and afterwards ordained him, for the purpose of sending him to America, the FIRST PRESBYTERIAN PREACHER that ever visited the western continent. This honor belongs undisputedly to the Church in Ireland, and the Presbytery of Lagan, Those in New England who have been called Presbyterians were not formed into regular Presbyteries as in Scotland and Ireland; but had lay elders and held Presbyterian sentiments. The first preachers and the first regular congregations were from Ireland, which poured forth emigrants in swarms all the early part of the eighteenth century. It may be gratifying to many to know the names of those thirteen ejected ministers of the Lagan, worthy of everlasting remembrance. King Charles began the work of ejectment in Ireland under Jeremy Taylor in 1661, giving the front rank in this ecclesiastical martyrdom to the Presbyterians of Ulster. The Puritans of England were called to the same trial in August, 1662, when about 2,000 ministers were deprived of their parishes; and the same scene of trial and heroic suffering was enacted the following October in Scotland. The ministers of the Presbytery of Lagan were, Robert Wilson, Robert Craighead, Adam White, William Moorcraft, John Wool, William Sample, John Hart, John Adamson, John Crookshanks, Thomas Drummond, Hugh Cunningham, Hugh Peebles, and William Jack. The first three survived the happy revolution of 1688, when William, Prince of Orange, ascended the throne of England; and enjoyed the toleration proclaimed in 1689.

        The Rev. Thomas Drummond, of Ramelton in Donegal, introduced Mr. Makemie to the Presbytery as a member of his charge, and worthy of their notice. In the year 1681,--the same year that four of the members of the Presbytery were put in confinement, for keeping a fast, after having been fined £20 each, to be kept in confinement till they should give bonds not to offend again, and after eight months' confinement were released,--he was licensed to preach the gospel. These four ministers were William Trail, James Alexander, Robert Campbell, and John Hart; three of them were members introduced after the ejectment by Jeremy Taylor in 1661. The Church in Ireland was like the Israelites in bondage,--the more it was oppressed, the more it grew. From the minutes of this Presbytery it appears that Capt. Archibald Johnson had, as early as August, 1678, applied for a minister for Barbadoes;

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and in 1680 Col. Stevens of Maryland applied for a minister to settle in that colony; and Mr. Makemie was designated as the man. As the clerk of the Presbytery and three others were imprisoned in 1681, there is a deficiency in the minutes, and the meetings of Presbytery being for some time irregular, no record is preserved of the time or place of his ordination, though in all probability it took place in 1681 or 1682. This fixes the time of his removal to America, whether to Barbadoes first, or to Virginia and Maryland, for he labored in all these places, as is now satisfactorily ascertained. He led the way for Presbyterian ministers to America, and was prominent in forming the first Presbytery, that of Philadelphia, in 1706, a Presbytery which has since spread out into the General Assembly of the United States of America.

        No little anxiety has been felt and expressed about the original component parts of this first Presbytery, and what interpretation of the Confession of Faith they may have given. The discussion has been animated, and from the circumstantial evidence collected, the inference general that they did put a strict construction on the Articles of our Faith. The facts just related about Francis Makemie and the Presbytery that ordained him, are sufficient to justify our belief that the man that took the Solemn League and Covenant, as the candidates of the Presbyteries in Ireland then did, put a strict construction on the Articles of the Confession; and the following facts, that the year before the Presbytery was formed, he brought over, from a visit to his native land, two ministers from the province of Ulster, John Hampton and George M'Nish, who formed part of the first Presbytery,--men educated as he had been, in trouble, and made to choose Presbytery in the face of great opposition and suffering,--will set the matter at rest. Three other ministers soon followed. It is not likely that such a man as Makemie, with two others of like spirit, would have agreed to form a doubtful Presbytery, to please Mr. Andrews and the Church in Philadelphia provided they wished such a Presbytery, of which there is no evidence; as there were ministers enough to form a decided and strict one, without going to Philadelphia, the church of which city was weaker than the church at Snow Hill in Maryland.

        The solemn League and Covenant first framed by John Craig, and called Craig's Confession, or the first National Covenant of Scotland, and subscribed by the leaders of the people, December 3d, 1557; and subscribed by King James and household, and the nation generally in 1581: enlarged and signed again in 1588: and

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again in 1638 enlarged, and made to consist of three parts--the first, the old Covenant by Craig,--the second, condemning Popery, by Johnston of Warriston,--third, the application of the whole to the present time, by Alexander Henderson; and signed by the people at large in 1638: and again remodelled by Henderson and adopted in August, 1643: and also by the Westminster Divines and the Parliament of England, September 25th of the same year; and in the spring of 1644 by the Churches of Ireland; and continuing to this day a binding instrument in Scotland, and making a part of their printed Confession and Discipline, and also acknowledged as binding to this day by a large number of the descendants of the Scotch and Irish emigrants to America,--leaves no rational doubt what views of the Confession of Faith those that lived so near the times of the grand national subscription of 1643 and 1644 must have had. In matters of conscience they had been accustomed to resist the king; they bound themselves by this solemn oath to do it; and this solemn League was inseparably connected with their doctrinal creed and form of church government, which were strictly Presbyterian.

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CHAPTER IX.
THE POLITICAL SENTIMENTS OF THE SCOTCH-IRISH EMIGRANTS.

        THE religious sentiments of the emigrants having been given, as Calvinistic and Presbyterian, for the holding of which they had suffered, and were ready to suffer again, we will glance at their political principles, which had no small influence in their emigration and location, and after life,--forming one of the three grand motives to cross the waters,--Religion, Politics, and Property.

        I. In the truest sense of the word they were loyal. They, and their ancestors, were well convinced of the importance of a regular and firm government; and were true to their promises and their allegiance. James I. chose the Scotch for the colonizing Ireland, for two reasons: first, from their habits they were more likely to overcome the difficulties of a settlement; and second, from their principles of allegiance, most likely to make Ireland what he wished it--pacific and prosperous. In the first he was not disappointed; and his hopes of the second were crossed only as he and his successors failed to extend to the emigrants that protection he had promised, and was well able to give. They always maintained the conceded authority of the king, as supreme ruler according to the Solemn League and Covenant, by which they held themselves bound from the time it was taken in 1644, till they left Ireland about a century afterward; and some of their posterity in America profess to feel its binding power in some respects to this day. They opposed those violent measures, in parliament and out, which led to, or hastened, the king's death. They desired a reform of abuses, and a fulfilment of the Solemn League, on the part of the king, and designed a fulfilment of their own promises, and had not been found deficient in any emergency. They expected the king to be honest while they were loyal.

        Their views of the parliamentary authority, after the king's death, are well expressed by one of their ministers, on examination before the military authority of the Parliament, at Carrickfergus, in 1650. Being required to take the Oath, or Engagement of submission to Parliament, which was to be in place of the Solemn

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League of obedience to the king; the parliament having, by enactment, made it high treason to acknowledge a government by King, Lords, and Commons:--"We must be convinced," said this minister in the name of the rest, "that the power which now rules England is the lawful parliamentary authority of that kingdom." Col. Venable replied: "They call themselves so!" The minister replied: "It seems to us a strange assertion that they are a parliament because they say so; or are a power because they place power in themselves. Kings and other magistrates are called by the ordinance of man, because they are put in their office by men. Men are called to the magistracy by the suffrage of the people, whom they govern; and for men to assume unto themselves power, is mere tyranny and unjust usurpation."

        They would rather be governed by a lawful king than an usurping or doubtful parliament; by one they chose, even though he might be a tyrant in disposition, than by a company they had not elected, though they might do some things well. They fully believed that the liberties of the subject might consist with the regal authority; that the privileges they asked were no infringement of the necessary rights of the crown, and that their enjoyment would render the government more stable, entrenching it in the hearts of the people, in whose affections all governments rest at last.

        II. They claimed, and persisted in claiming, the privilege of choosing their own ministers, or religious instructors, as an inherent right that could not be given up, and any civil or religious liberty be preserved. Here was the ground of all the difficulty of the Presbyterians in Ireland; they would choose their own ministers,--and with the choice of ministers was of course connected the forms of religious worship, and the articles of their religious creed; a difficulty that was removed only by first emigrating to America, and then toiling through the Revolution. They desired in Ireland what the Scotch are now asking in Scotland, the liberty of choosing their own ministry. The Irish conceded what the Scotch concede now, that the king might prescribe the way the minister should be supported; they were willing to be taxed in large or small parishes, but insisted on the liberty of choosing their own teachers, and deciding on the forms with which they would worship God. They yielded to the civil authority all honor and service and money, and demanded protection for their persons in the enjoyment of their property and religion. Their folly, if folly it might be called, in their circumstances, was, to expect that freedom in religion, under a monarchy, which never had been

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found; and which never has existed under any government except in these United States. These people had advanced far in the know-ledge of human rights; were in the high road to republicanism, without, perhaps, being aware of the lengths they had already advanced; that, judging from their answer to the parliamentary committee--that men are called to the magistracy by the suffrage of the people--they were already republicans. Perhaps they did not fully understand liberty of conscience; or if they did, as there is some reason to believe, they had not room or opportunity for its exercise; hemmed in to choose one form of religion as the paramount one, they of course chose their own for the religion of the whole. How they would have acted had the power of the State been at their command, it is in vain perhaps to conjecture.

        They also demanded that their ministers should be ordained by Presbyteries, and not by prelatic bishops; the apparent yielding of some things under the influence of Archbishop Usher, soon being turned to uncompromising sternness, by the exercise of arbitrary power to compel them to conform. The principle of the house of Stuart was, "no Prelate, no King;" that of the Presbyterian Irish was, "the king without Prelates; all sufferings at home rather than Prelates; exile rather than Prelates."

        III. Strict discipline in morals, and full instruction of youth and children. These were connected with the Presbyterian body in Scotland; were transplanted to Ireland, there cherished, and were the foundation principles on which their society was built; were taken to America by the emigrants, and have been characteristic of the Scotch-Irish settlements throughout the land. Children were early taught to read, and exercised in reading the Bible every day; and became familiar with the word of God in the family, in the school and in the house devoted to the worship of the Almighty God. Their moral principles were derived from the words of him who lives and abides for ever; and the commands of God, and the awful retributions of eternity, gave force to these principles, which became a living power, and a controlling influence. The time has but just passed, when the schoolmaster from Ireland taught the children of the Valley of Virginia, and the upper part of the Carolinas, as they taught in the mother country,--when the children and youth at school recited the Assembly's shorter Catechism once a week, and read parts of the Bible every day. The circle of their instruction was circumscribed; but the children were taught to speak the truth, and defend it,--to keep a

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conscience and fear God,--the foundation of good citizens, and truly great men.

        Wherever they settled in America, besides the common schools, they turned their attention to high schools or academies, and to colleges, to educate men for all the departments of life, carrying in their emigration, the deep conviction, that without sound and extensive education, there could be no permanence in religious or civil institutions, or any pure and undebased enjoyments of domestic life. The religious creed of the emigrants made part of their politics, so far as to decide that no law of human government ought to be tolerated in opposition to the expressed will of God. It was on this ground, their fathers in Ireland resisted the arbitrary exactions of the Charleses and the Jameses, whom they considered lawful rulers, whom they had recognized in the solemn League, and whom they were bound, and willing to obey in all things that did not involve violation of conscience by sinning against God.

        Whether they were aware how far their principles actually led them, before they came to America, is doubtful; they had acknowledged that the authority of human government was from the same divine hand that made the world, fashioning the fabric of human society to require the exercise of good and wholesome laws for the promotion of the greatest good;--and had also claimed the right of choosing those who should frame and execute these laws;--contending that rulers, as well as the meanest subject, were bound by law. These principles, modified by experience, and digested into extended form, are the republican principles of the Scotch-Irish in America. On matters of national policy, and the smaller concerns of political organizations, they have differed in opinion and differ still, and will probably differ for ever, from the nature of the human mind in the independent exercise of thought. But on the great principles of freedom of conscience in matters of religion--on the supremacy of the laws--on the choice of rulers by the expressed will of a free people--and the undisturbed enjoyment of life, limb and property, in submission to constituted government--there never has been, and probably never will be, any division of sentiment or feeling. In the blood shed on the Alamance, and in the declaration of independence in Mecklenburg, a casual observer must see, it was opposition to tyranny, and not the execution of the laws of a just government, that urged the people on. A people educated as they had been for generations, and placed in circumstances

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calculated to provoke independence of action, could not have acted differently, and retain their identity of character.

        The siege of Derry was undertaken and sustained with its innumerable and unmeasured sufferings, in opposition to a king they had repudiated, and a hierarchy they abhorred; and to defend the government from which they hoped for freedom and quietness, and the exercise of their religious principles and forms without tyrannical interference. It is not probable that these men,--and some of the men of Derry emigrated to America, and laid their bones south of the Potomac,--or their immediate descendants, who lived in the days of the American Revolution (and there were many such), would hold back their hearts and hands, and belie the great principles that had done so much for Protestant England, and ultimately so much for America. Tyrannical government of colonies of such people must produce a revolution; and had Governor Martin studied the character and circumstances of the people he marched to subdue, with any feelings of justice and humanity, he would first have redressed their grievances, and then bound to his government a willing, grateful people, and at least for a time stayed the progress of revolution in North Carolina, and by the wholesome example, delayed, if not prevented it, throughout the United Provinces.

        The Presbyterians in Carolina have ever been a law-loving, law-abiding people; differing sometimes about the extent of powers to be granted to magistrates, all unite in reverence for the laws enacted by the regular authorities under the adopted Constitution. They have always felt it was better to endure some evils than encounter the horrors of a revolutionary war; but they have always felt it better to endure all the protracted miseries of a revolutionary struggle than fail to enjoy liberty of person, property, and conscience. Their ideas of religious liberty have given a coloring to their political notions on all subjects; perhaps it is more just to say, have been the foundation of their political creed. The Bible has been their text-book on all subjects of importance; and the principles of the Bible carried out will produce a course of action like the emigration of the Scotch-Irish to America,--and their resistance to tyranny, in the blood shed on the Alamance, and their Declaration of Independence at Charlotte.

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CHAPTER X.
THE SETTLEMENT OF THE SCOTCH ON THE RIVER CAPE FEAR; AND THE REVEREND JAMES CAMPBELL.

        THE time of the settlement of the first Scotch families upon the river Cape Fear, is not known with exactness. There were some at the time of the separation of the province into North and South Carolina, in the year 1729. In consequence of disabilities in their native land, the enterprising Scotch followed the example of their relations in Ireland, and sought refuge and abundance in America; and some time previous to the emigration from the province of Ulster to the Yadkin, numerous families occupied the extended plains along the Cape Fear, in that part of Bladen county, now Cumberland. From records in possession of the descendants of Alexander Clark, it appears that he came over and took his residence on the river in the year 1736, and that a "ship load" of emigrants came over with him. It also appears that he found "a good many" Scotch settled in Cumberland at the time of his arrival, amongst whom was Hector McNeill, called Bluff Hector, from his residence near the bluffs above Cross Creeks, or Fayetteville, and John Smith, with his two children, Malcolm and Janet, his wife, Margaret Gilchrist, having died on the passage up the river.

        Alexander Clark came from Jura, one of the Hebrides. His ancestors, particularly his grandfather, had suffered much in the wars that had desolated Scotland, and fell heaviest on the Presbyterians. Being constrained to flee for his life, his grandfather took two of his sons and went to Ireland, and saw many trials and sufferings, which were brought to a close by the battle of the Boyne, that decided the fate of the British dominions. Returning to Scotland after the peace, he sought his family; leaving the vessel, he ascended a hill that overlooked his residence, and gazed in sadness over the desolation that met his eye; to use his own words, "but three smokes in all Jura could be seen." Not a member of his family could be found to tell the fate of the rest. They had all perished in the persecutions. He returned to Ireland to find his cup of bitterness, overflowing as it was, made still more bitter

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by the death of one of his two sons. After some time he returned, and spent the remainder of his days in Jura, having for his second wife one whose sufferings had been equal to his own. Her infant had been taken from her arms, its head severed from its body in her presence, and used by a ruffian, twisting his hand in its hair, to beat the mother on the breast till she was left for dead. Gilbert, the only surviving child of his first wife, returned with his father to Jura, and there lived and reared a family. One of his (Gilbert's) sons, Alexander, married Flora McLean, and reared four sons and four daughters, and when his eldest son Gilbert was sixteen years of age, removed to America, and settled in Cumberland county, on the Cape Fear. Some of the descendants of Keneth Clark, half brother of Gilbert, came to America. From this stock arose numerous families in the south and west.

        When Alexander Clark emigrated to America, he paid the passage of many poor emigrants, and gave them employment till the price was repaid. Many companies of Scotchmen came to America in a similar way, some person of property paying their passage, and giving them employ upon their lands until they were able to set up for themselves.

        Could the history of families be traced out with certainty, there is little doubt that vague traditions of sufferings and trials from the hands of the Catholics, would prove to have been derived from as sad realities as are found in the family of the Clarks. Almost without exception these Scotchmen were Presbyterians, who held the Confession of Faith, the Solemn League and Covenant, and the Form of Government and Discipline now in use in Scotland. And for their creed they were willing to suffer; for, as little as liberty of conscience was understood at that time, the Scotch had found that yielding their religious creed to authority was giving up themselves to hopeless tyranny; and through many political mistakes they held the palladium, their Confession of Faith and Form of Government, with an unwavering spirit.

        More than sixty years had passed from the decisive battle of the Boyne, July 1st, 1690, in which the forces of James II. were entirely routed by William III., Prince of Orange, and the royal fugitive James took refuge in Paris, abandoning his throne to his rival, when his grandson CHARLES EDWARD began to make preparations for a descent upon England. From his very cradle he was inspired with an unquenchable desire to regain the throne of his ancestors; of this he talked by day and dreamed by night, and in his delusive plan was encouraged by the thoughtless and

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the imaginative, till he came to believe that the principal men in the kingdom were discontented with the reigning house of Hanover, and desirous of seeing a male descendant of the house of Stuart on the throne. After much solicitation he obtained some encouragement from the King of France, but no public acknowledgment either of the present enterprise or the validity of his claim. On the 16th of July, a day remarked by some as fatal to his family, in 1745, he landed on the coast of Lochaber, in Scotland, with some money, a few stands of arms, and scarce an attendant, relying on the national feelings of the Scotch, whom he expected to rally around his standard. Of the rising in his favor, or rebellion against the constituted authorities of the kingdom, which followed, an account may be found in any extended history of England or of Europe, sufficient to satisfy a general reader. The Pretender to the crown of England, Prince Charles Edward, soon discovered that while the Scotch loved his family from their hearts, as their own royal house, the Lowlanders had become so attached to the reigning house, or satisfied with their government, that no solicitations could engage them in a hasty rebellion against George II.; and that among the Highlanders, the most powerful chiefs were either so connected with the government as to be altogether averse to any attempt to shake its peace and security, or were so convinced of its stability as to consider any efforts to regain the crown to their own royal house but a feeble rebellion. The head of the Makenzies, and also the head of the McLeods, were members of parliament; the head of the McDonalds, the strongest and most numerous of the clans that had favored the father and grandfather of Prince Charles Edward, was entirely opposed to a rising, or insurrection, or rebellion, having no hope of final success. In their view neither time nor circumstance was propitious; nor were they prepared to say that any government they might hope for, under the house of Stuart, would be more favorable to Scotland and the united kingdom than the dominion of the reigning family.

        Lord Lovat declared for him, and with him were united some of the feebler noblemen; some of the smaller clans in the Highlands unanimously raised the standard for the Pretender; and many of the young men of the clans of the McDonalds, the McLeods, the Makenzies, and others whose leaders would not favor the enterprise, gave way to the impulse of national enthusiasm and chivalric enterprise, and joined his ranks. For a time it is well known that he was successful, and on his march towards

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the capital of the kingdom, spread terror through the country, and struck alarm in the cabinet of King George. Whether his success had reached its boundary and necessarily subsided into misfortune and calamity, or whether his delays and revelries wasted the golden hours of enterprise, and suffered the rising enthusiasm of the nation, warmed for a young prince claiming his ancestors' throne, to grow cool, his tide of success soon changed, and he retired, whether wisely or unwisely, first to the borders of Scotland, and then to the northern part, and took possession of Inverness. The disposition to declare for their royal house was spreading in Scotland, and could he have maintained his post in England, or have delayed a battle for a time, the mass of the nation would have taken arms in his cause. On the 16th of April, 1746, he fought, a few miles north of Inverness, against the Duke of Cumberland, the disastrous battle of Culloden; and with his defeat his hopes of empire vanished. Dismissing his followers, whose hopes and courage were better than his own, he wandered a fugitive among the mountains and crags, and, never again rallying his forces, sought his safety in secresy and flight.

        His followers were taken captive in great numbers; three noblemen, after summary trial, perished on the scaffold; one of them, Lord Lovat, in his eightieth year, exclaiming with his latest breath, "Dulce et decorum est pro patriâ mori." The English army ravaged with fire and sword all that part of Scotland that had favored the prince. The men were hunted down like wild beasts, and shot on the smallest resistance; the huts were burned over the heads of the women and children, and the cattle and provisions were carried away or destroyed. The very appearance of rebellion, and in many places even of population itself, was extinguished in the Highlands before the Duke of Cumberland returned to London. Yet in all this misery of the people, and the keen scrutiny of the soldiers, the prince finally escaped. In his wanderings he experienced all the variety of dangers and hair-breadth escapes that can be imagined from the efforts of a chivalrous young man whose greatest errors and misfortunes had sprung from the success of his gallantry among the ladies of his court and country,--and a people rough and untutored, but loyal to a proverb, and though poor, too staunch to be bribed by the offer of £30,000 to deliver up the fugitive whose hiding-places were known to many and could easily be guessed at by multitudes. During the five months of his wanderings, no less than fifty individuals were in possession of his person, many of whom had been opposed to the rising in his favor,

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from the conviction of its uselessness, and had suffered themselves to be drawn into the rebellion by the enthusiasm of their nation for their own royal house.

        Many pleasing instances of heroic devotion to the prince in his misfortunes are related to the everlasting honor of the Highlands. Immediately after the battle of Culloden, he took refuge in Ross-shire; and to save him from the hot pursuit of the soldiers, his adherents and friends not only fought, but suffered themselves to be slain that he might escape. One gentleman, always known as opposed to the rebellion, being apprehended for aiding him in his necessity, pleaded before his judges--"I only gave him what nature seemed to require, a night's lodging and an humble repast. And who among my judges, though poor as I am, would have sought to acquire riches by violating the rights of hospitality in order to earn the price of blood?" This generous plea gained him his dismission with applause. Another by the name of Kennedy, who often exposed his life for his prince, and though poor, despised the large reward offered for betraying the royal fugitive, was some time after seized at Inverness and executed on the charge of stealing a cow. At the place of his execution he pulled off his bonnet, and looking round upon the assembly, exclaimed, "I give most hearty thanks to Almighty God that I never proved false to an engagement of any kind; that I never injured a poor man; and never refused to share whatever I had with the stranger and those in want."

        On the return of the army under the Duke of Cumberland, a large number of prisoners were taken along, and after a hasty trial by a military court, publicly executed. Seventeen suffered death at Kennington Common, near London; thirty-two were put to death in Cumberland; and twenty-two in Yorkshire. This was probably done by way of vengeance and alarm. But kinder thoughts prevailed with his Majesty George II.; and a large number were pardoned, on condition of their emigrating to the plantations, after having taken the solemn oath of allegiance. This is the origin of the large settlements of Highlanders on Cape Fear River. For a large number who had taken arms for the Pretender, preferred exile to death, or subjugation in their native land; and during the years 1746 and 1747, with their families and the families of many of their friends, removed to North Carolina and settled along the Cape Fear River, occupying a large space of country of which Crosscreek, afterwards Campbelton, now Fayetteville, was the centre. Probably the report from those who had settled along

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this river, of the mild winters, the open forests, the abundant cane-brakes and wild grass, turned the attention of these emigrants to this part of America, where lands were abundant and cheap. Perhaps, too, the royal authority was exerted in fixing a location for the pardoned exiles, that Carolina might have a hardy race of industrious people to occupy her waste lands, increase her population and her revenue to the royal coffers. This wilderness become a refuge to the harassed Highlanders; and shipload after shipload landed at Wilmington in 1746 and 1747. The emigration once fairly begun by royal authority and clemency, was carried on by those who wished to improve their condition, and become owners of the soil upon which they lived and labored; and in the course of a few years large companies of industrious Highlanders joined their countrymen in Bladen county, North Carolina. Their descendants are found in the counties of Cumberland, Bladen, Sampson, Moore, Robeson, Richmond and Anson, all of which were included in Bladen at the time of the first emigration; and are a moral, religious people, noted for their industry and economy, perseverance and prosperity; forming a most interesting and important part of the State. Their present descendants are to be found everywhere in the South and West.

        The religious principles of these emigrants have been better known and more generally understood, and better expressed, by writers of American history, whether sectional or general, than those of the people who took possession of the upper country, and acted so nobly in the Revolution; and better, perhaps, than those of any other section of the State in its earlier years. The religion of the Scotch Church is known to the world; it is the religion of the nation. The religion of Ireland is part Protestant and part Papist; the predominant being of the Church of Rome, and the Protestant being divided between the Presbyterian and the Church of England. To say a company of emigrants are from Ireland does not decide either the political or religious creed; to say they are from Scotland, in general, decides both. In the former case we inquire for their birth-place and their creed; in the latter, we take it for granted we know what their creed is, unless we are warned to the contrary.

        From the time of the introduction of the Christian religion into Scotland the bias of the national mind has been to the creed and forms of Presbytery. The Culdees were to all intents and purposes Presbyterians; they held strenuously to the parity of the clergy; had but one ordination; and governed the Church by a

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Council of Presbyters. Popery for a time did obtain the ascendency in Scotland, all the time struggling against the spirit of the nation that demanded independence in religion. But from the time of John Knox, there has been no doubt respecting the religious forms or the creed desired by the great body of the people. The National Covenant adopted and signed publicly in 1638, and repeated afterwards, and the Confession of Faith, which has been used now more than two hundred years by the Presbyterians in Scotland, England, and Ireland, and about a century and a half in America, leave no doubt what their views of church government, church order, and belief, were. The fact that many of them had borne arms for the Pretender, a Papist sent over by the instigation of the Pope and his adherents, for the purpose of introducing Popery once more into England, is easily and very truly accounted for on other feelings and principles than any sympathy in religious belief, of which it is known there was none.

        No minister of religion accompanied the first emigrants in 1746 and 1747; nor is it known that any came with any succeeding company till the year 1770, when the Rev. John McLeod came direct from Scotland and ministered to them for some time, though he was not the first preacher. This fact, that no minister of religion came with these people, many of whom were pious, and all of whom were accustomed to attend on public worship, cannot easily be accounted for; and it had an unhappy effect upon the emigrants and upon their children. Without public ministrations of the ordinances of the gospel a sense of religion will soon begin to pass away from the public mind; and the fire will be kept burning only on here and there a private altar. The wonder is that in the circumstances of these colonists the sense of religion was so well maintained under the ministrations and labors of one solitary preacher, James Campbell, who pursued his laborious course alone among the outspreading neighborhoods in what is now Cumberland and Robeson, from 1757 to 1770.

        This worthy evangelist, the Rev. James Campbell, was born in Campbelton, on the peninsula of Kintyre, in Argyleshire, Scotland. Of his early history little is known; and too little has been preserved of his pioneer labors in later life. About the year 1730 he emigrated to America, a licensed preacher in the Presbyterian Church, and landed at Philadelphia. He soon became connected with a congregation of Scotch emigrants somewhere in Pennsylvania, and labored in the ministry with them for a time. His mind became clouded, and his heart full of fears, on the subject of his

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call to the ministry, and even of his own personal piety; and he ceased to perform the duties of a minister, believing that it was wrong for him to preach. In this state of mind he heard the famous Whitefield preach, as he was traversing the country, and sought an interview with him. This eminent servant of God heard him state his case, removed most of his difficulties, and encouraged him to resume his ministry. He labored for a time in Lancaster county, on the Coneweheog, where the Rev. Hugh McAden visited him, as is recorded in his journal. His attention being turned to his countrymen on the Cape Fear, Mr. Campbell emigrated to North Carolina in the year 1757, and took his residence on the left bank of the Cape Fear, a few miles above Fayetteville, nearly opposite to the Bluff church.

        For a long time he held his Presbyterial connection with a Presbytery in South Carolina, which was never united with the Synod of Philadelphia. About the year 1773 his connection with Orange Presbytery was formed, and in that connection he continued till his death in the year 1781. Mr. Campbell left behind him no papers or memoranda from which anything can be gleaned respecting his religious exercises, or ministerial labors; but he has left traditions which sprung from the experience of the people of his charge, that he was a zealous laborious man, who never wearied in his work, from the time he came to Carolina, but spent his days in affectionate and unremitting efforts to bring men home to God through Christ. His labors had no bounds but his strength. It is probable that, for a time, he supplied the Scotch population at the rate of a Sabbath once in three or four to a neighborhood, the people going in many instances a long distance to attend the ministrations of the sanctuary, and glad to hear, even at distant intervals, the gospel of Christ.

        It would be greatly gratifying to the church and the public generally could some pages of history, formed from the accredited doings of this laborious minister, be presented to the world. But for want of documents less place is given than his memory deserves. God has been pleased to leave much of his doings covered up from posterity, to be revealed when the veil is taken off from all things.

        His preaching places appear to have been three, for regular congregations, on the Sabbath, besides occasional and irregular preaching, as the necessities of the country required. For ten or twelve years he preached on the southwest side of the river below the Bluff, in a meeting-house near Roger McNeill's, and called

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"Roger's meeting-house." Here Hector McNeill (commonly called Bluff Hector) and Alexander McAlister, acted as Elders. After the death of Mr. Campbell, and about the year 1787, the "Bluff Church" was built, and Duncan McNeill (of the Bluff, Hector being dead) and Alexander McAlister, and perhaps others, officiated as Elders.

        Soon after his removal to Carolina, Mr. Campbell commenced preaching at Alexander Clark's, and continued his appointments for a number of years. About the year 1746, John Dobbin, who had married the widow of David Alexander in Pennsylvania, and had resided in Virginia, near Winchester, about a year, removed to Carolina; and, while the Alexander families that came with him took their abode on the Hico or the Yadkin, he fixed his residence on the Cape Fear, somewhat against the inclinations of his wife and step-daughter. The situations on the river being esteemed less healthy than those more remote, Mr. Dobbin and others took their abode on Barbacue; and about the year 1758 Mr. Campbell began to preach at his house, and continued so to do till the "Barbacue Church" was built, about the year 1765 or 1766. The first Elders of this church were--Gilbert Clark, eldest son of Alexander Clark, and step-son of John Dobbin (having married Ann Alexander), one of the first magistrates of Cumberland county, under the Colonial Government,--Duncan Buie, who early in the Revolutionary war removed to the Cape Fear River, nearly opposite the Bluff Church,--Archibald Buie of Green Swamp,--and Daniel Cameron of the Hill. These men were pious, and devoted to the cause of religion and their duties as Elders; and for their strict attention to their duties got the name of "the little ministers of Barbacue." The congregation, like the others under the care of Mr. Campbell, were trained in the old Scotch fashion of reading the Bible, attending church when practicable, and repeating the Catechism; and were accustomed to follow the minister in his proof texts. It was of this congregation the Rev. John McLeod said, "he would rather preach to the most polished and fashionable congregation in Edinburgh than to the little critical carls of Barbacue." Not that they were so particularly captious about his manner and delivery, for he was esteemed an eloquent man, but they were so well-informed on the doctrines and usages of the church, that it required great particularity in his sermons to avoid their criticism. The kind of sermons demanded by that people might now seem novel or antiquated, but would be found full of instruction; and even their length would be no objection in

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congregations that can hear the gospel but once in a month or six weeks.

        Barbacue church was the place of worship of Flora McDonald, while she lived at Cameron's Hill, and though the congregation is less extended and flourishing than in former years, it is still in existence. May it revive and flourish!

        Mr. Campbell also began to preach soon after his coming to Carolina, at McKay's, now known as Long Street, one of the places visited by Mr. McAden in his first journey through Carolina. A church was built about the year 1765 or '66, the time at which Barbacue was built. The first elders were Malcom Smith, Archibald McKay, and Archibald Ray. This congregation is still in existence, and though much curtailed in extent and numbers, flourishes.

        These three congregations were the principal places of Mr. Campbell's preaching, and for a time accommodated the greater part of the Scotch settled in Cumberland. As the emigration continued new neighborhoods were formed, and the limits of these congregations contracted: and one after another the numerous churches in Cumberland, Robeson, Moore and Richmond, and Bladen, were gathered, some of which now surpass in numbers these ancient mothers.

        At the time Mr. Campbell labored in Cumberland, the larger number of the people used the Gaelic language; some could use both that and the English; and there were some Lowland Scotch, and a few Scotch-Irish families, and some Dutch that could not use the Gaelic: divine service was therefore performed in both languages. Mr. Campbell, to accommodate his hearers, preached two sermons each Sabbath, one in English and one in Gaelic; this he did in all three of his churches. In a few congregations, in the Presbytery of Fayetteville, this practice of preaching in the two languages is still continued. The influence of this language has been great upon the Scotch settlements in Carolina. There have been some disadvantages attending it, and the language is fast passing away. But for a long time it was a bond of union, and a preservation of those feelings and principles peculiar to the Scotch emigrants, many of which ought to be preserved for ever. The change has been so gradual in putting off the Gaelic, and adopting the English, that the people of Cumberland have suffered as little, from a change of their language, as any people that have ever undergone that unwelcome process. They have retained the

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faith and habits of their ancestors, things most commonly thrown away or changed by a change of the common dialect.

        Mr. Campbell, for a few years, had an assistant in the ministry. The Rev. John McLeod came from Scotland some time in the year 1770, accompanied by a large number of families from the Highlands, who took their residence upon the upper and lower Little Rivers, in Cumberland county. Barbacue and Long Street were part of the places in which he preached during the three years he remained in Carolina. In the year 1773, he left America with the view of returning to his native land; being never heard of afterwards, it is supposed that he found a watery grave. He was a man of eminent piety, great worth, and popular eloquence.

        With this exception it is not known that he had any ministerial brother residing in Cumberland, or the adjoining counties, that could assist him in preaching to the Gaels. McAden, who preached in Duplin, could give him no assistance where the language of the Highlanders was the vernacular tongue.

        How the congregations of the Scotch maintained so much of a spirit of piety and true religion, can be accounted for on no other principles, than the pious, devoted labors of Mr. Campbell and his elders, accompanied by the blessing of the Holy Spirit. The children were taught the catechism, and called to frequent examinations by the church officers; and the Bible was much read; and family religion very generally maintained. These forms were kept up even after the spirit of godliness had much decayed, in the old age of Mr. Campbell, and by the confusion and strifes and bloodshed of the Revolution, which were felt in all their terrors on the Cape Fear.

        Since the Revolution the congregations of the Scotch have been much better supplied with ministers than previously; but it is doubtful whether family government and religion are as carefully attended to now as in former days. One reason of the small supply of ministers, before the Revolution, may have been in the fact, that the emigrants, while in Scotland, had been accustomed to the division of the country into parishes by the civil authority, and the collection of the ministers' support by law, in some parishes having a qualified voice in the choice of their pastor, and in others possessing no right of choice worth naming. In Carolina, all interference of law was to divide the county into parishes for the establishment of the English National Church, to which these emigrants were greatly averse. After the revolutionary war,

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necessity led the Scotch to voluntary efforts for the support of their ministers, and these efforts were attended with success; and their descendants enjoy gospel privileges in as high a degree as any section of the southern and western States. The Scotch-Irish had been more accustomed to these efforts in Ireland, being left to provide for their own ministers by voluntary gifts, after they had paid what the law required for the national clergy. They were more active in Carolina, before the Revolution, than the Scotch; after that event, the efforts of both are worthy of high commendation.

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CHAPTER XI.
THE POLITICAL OPINIONS OF THE SCOTCH EMIGRANTS.

        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 directiona 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

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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;

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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 day-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 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

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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 did 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 ironhearted 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

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read, and solemnly swore to keep them both; and when the oath to defend the Church of Scotland was 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 came 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 and 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

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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

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purpose aforesaid, the preservation of peace and good order, and the safety of individual and private property."

        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 a 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 give 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 Culloden, 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

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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 days, 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 head-quarters 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 day'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

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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 came 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 day 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

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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 of 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

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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.

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CHAPTER XII.
FLORA M'DONALD.

        AMONG the emigrants to the Scotch settlements on the Cape Fear, was Flora McDonald, a name held in the highest reverence in the traditions of North Carolina and the Highlands of Scotland, though English history has given her neither a name nor a place in her pages, crowded with the events and personages of that day, that no human art can save from the oblivion they deserve. With or without history, the descendants of the Highlanders in North Carolina will love the name of Flora McDonald, while female excellence can be found among their sisters and daughters.

        In those heart-stirring events that succeeded the rising in favor of the Pretender, and led to the emigration of the Scotch settlement on the Cape Fear river, Flora McDonald first makes her appearance, a young and blooming girl; in the troubles and distresses that affected the honest yet divided Scotch in Carolina, at the commencement of the American Revolution, she is the dignified matron; before the disasters and radical principles of the French Revolution troubled her country and employed her chilren, she was carried to the cemetery of Kilmuir.

        The most romantic escape of the Pretender, Prince Charles Edward, in his five months' wanderings in the Highlands of Scotland, hunted from mountain to dell, from crag to cavern, by day and by night, by the soldiers of the Duke of Cumberland, and a price set upon his head as a fugitive felon, was planned and executed by the McDonalds, the most powerful of whom had opposed the attempt to place the Prince upon the throne, as a hopeless rebellion, and many of whom were bearing arms for the house of Hanover; and some even then leading forces in search of the Royal fugitive, into the wilds and fastnesses of the Highlands and the Western Isles.

        Roderick Mackenzie aided the flight of the Prince by his chivalrous death; Flora McDonald by her romantic spirit and womanly contrivance. "This young man," says one, "sought concealment in the mountains of Ross-shire after the battle of Culloden, and was surprised by a party of soldiers sent in pursuit of Charles Edward. His age, his figure, his air, deceiving the military

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completely, they were going to secure him, believing they had got hold of the true prince. Mackenzie perceiving their mistake, with great fortitude and presence of mind instantly resolves to render it useful to his master. He drew his sword, and the courage with which he defended himself, satisfied these soldiers that he could be no other than the Pretender. One of them fired at him; Mackenzie fell, and with his last breath exclaimed--'You have killed your Prince.' This generous sacrifice suspended for the time all pursuit, and afforded an opportunity for the unfortunate Charles to escape from the hands of his enemies."

        The escape by the aid of Flora was less bloody and more romantic. With great difficulty he had made his way across the Highlands to the western shore, and setting sail in an eight-oared boat from the farm of Arasag, after encountering a most furious storm, such as are frequent on that northern sea, when, in the language of Ossian, "The thunder of the skies, as a rock, penetrated the heavens, and a fiery pillar issued from the black cloud," he landed on one of the western islands, South Uist, and found a shelter for a time at Ormaclet, with Laird McDonald, of Clan Ronald. The keen scent of his pursuers at length traced him to this place, and three thousand soldiers, red coats as they were called, were sent to search the island, through every dell, and rock, and crag, and cottage; and armed vessels were stationed all around to intercept every ship or boat that might attempt to leave the shore and convey away the royal fugitive. Many projects for his escape were proposed by his anxious friends, and laid aside in rapid succession. At length Lady McDonald suggested a romantic plan,--that, arrayed in female clothes, he should accompany a lady as her waiting woman, or servant maid. Two difficulties were to be encountered; what lady would engage in the dangerous, though romantic enterprise? and how should they obtain a passport from the hostile officers for such a company to leave the island? Two young ladies in the house of McDonald were appealed to, but their courage was less than their tenderness.

        At this critical time, who should come to the house of Laird McDonald but the kind and beautiful Flora, from Millburg, in the same island, to visit her relations, on her return from Edinburgh, having just completed her education in that metropolis. The father of this accomplished young lady had been some time dead, and her mother was united in marriage with Captain Hugh McDonald, the one eyed; the son of Samuel, the son of great James, the son of young Blue Donald, of Armadale, in the Isle of Skye. Her

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step-father, Capt. Hugh McDonald, was then in Uist, in command of a company of the clan McDonald, in the service of King George, searching for the Prince.

        The peculiar feelings of the Scotch towards the Royal family of their nation is beautifully exhibited in the occurrences connected with that young lady's visit. While these McDonalds could not take arms to place the prince upon the throne, esteeming the effort madness, and were defending the reigning house of Hanover, and even then in arms in search of Charles, hemmed in among the crags of Uist, they could not find it in their heart to seize him, now in their power, though some of them were so pressed with debt that the large reward offered might have been a temptation, and the fines and confiscations that would follow suspicion of their favor for the Pretender, might have been a sufficient reason to hold them back from any effort for his escape. "Will you," says the lady of Laird McDonald to Flora, after making her acquainted with the presence and hiding-place of the Prince on the island, and the plan she was meditating for his escape, "will you expose yourself to this danger to aid the escape of the Prince from his enemies that have him here enclosed?" The maiden answered, "Since I am to die, and can die but once, I am perfectly willing to put my life in jeopardy to save his Royal Highness from the danger which now besets him." Delighted with this response, the lady opened the matter to an officer named O'Neill, who expressed the same romantic desire to aid the escape of the very man for the apprehension of whom he was then in arms. He accompanied Flora to Carradale, a rocky, craggy, wild, sequestered place, where the Prince lay concealed, in a cave, that they might concert with him the details of the plan of his escape. On entering the cave they found the Prince alone, broiling a small fresh fish upon the coals for his lonely repast. Startled at their approach, and supposing his retreat had been discovered by the soldiers, and escape to be hopeless, he put himself on the defence to sell his life as dearly as his dignity required. The gallant young officer and the beautiful lady do him reverence as a prince. At their kind salutations his alarm gives place to astonishment; and the unfolding of the plan for his escape from his desperate condition, filled his heart with unmeasured delight. After a short interview, Plora left him, and calling on her brother at Millburg, finds a youth, Neill McDonald, the son of Hector, as noble, generous, and romantic as herself, who entered with devotion into the plan for the escape of the Prince, in whose company she returns

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to Ormaclet, to complete the preparations for the departure from the island.

        The most important step was to procure a passport from the island, that might protect them from the search of officers, and detention by the vessels on the coast. Flora at length obtained one from her step-father, Captain Hugh McDonald, for herself, her youthful companion Neill McDonald, and three others, to constitute a boat's crew, and also for her serving maid, BETSEY BURKE, a stout Irishwoman, whom Flora pretended she had engaged for the special purpose of becoming her mother's spinster, at Armadale, in Skye. As the Captain gave the passport, and wrote by Flora a letter recommendatory of Betsey Burke as a spinster, it is conjectured, not without reason, that he was not altogether unaware of the designs of his fair step-daughter, though he wisely kept himself in ignorance.

        While the arrangements were in progress for this visit of Flora to her mother, in Skye, Allan McDonald, of the hill, arrived at Ormaclet with a company of soldiers in search for the Prince, without any particular suspicions that the fugitive was near, or any thought that his fair kinswoman was concerting a plan of escape which his presence might particularly discommode. There was now no time to be lost. Flora, hastening to his hiding-place, clothes the Prince in the attire of an Irish serving woman, and on the afternoon of Saturday, the 28th of June, 1746, the party embark from Uist for the isle of Skye. Soon after they launch forth, there comes upon them a furious storm of wind. Tossed to and fro, and driven about all night, the courage of the maiden never forsakes her; anxious for her charge, rather than for herself, she encourages the men not to turn back. Inspirited by the exhortations of the maiden, the oarsmen exert their utmost strength, and surmounting all the dangers of the tempest, at dawn of day they approach Point Vatermish in the Isle of Skye. As they draw near, however, the sight of a band of soldiers drawn up upon the shore to receive the boat, turns them back to the ocean; and the volleys discharged at them by the soldiers hasten their flight, while the balls are whistling by and rebounding from the waves. Turning eastwardly they pursue their course, and about noon, on Sabbath, land at Kilbride, in the parish of Kilmuir, near the Magustat-house, the residence of Sir Alexander McDonald, the Laird of Sleite, to repose like the dove after her flight over the waters, for a little space, in the ark.

        Concealing the Prince in a hollow rock on the beach, Flora repaired

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to the chieftain's mansion, and met a most cordial reception from Lady McDonald, in the absence of the Laird. The hall was full of officers, whose sole business was to search for the royal fugitive; and the Laird himself was known to be hostile to his pretensions. The maiden, more self-possessed from the danger, with confiding enthusiasm makes known to the lady the hiding-place of the Prince, and the circumstances of his escape from Uist. The lady's heart answers to the maiden's confidence, and she espouses her cause, and sends by Alexander McDonald, the Laird of Kingsburg, Baillie to Sir Alexander, her husband, who happened to be in the house, refreshments of wine and other comforts suited to the necessities of the fatigued and distressed wanderer. By advice of Lady McDonald, who feared discovery from the numerous officers and soldiers then on the estate, Flora and Betsey Burke set out immediately for Kingsburg, about twelve miles distant, accompanied by the Baillie as their guide. On their way they met many of the country people returning from church, whose curiosity was much excited by the coarse, negligent, clumsy-looking, long-legged female figure that accompanied the Laird and the maiden. Without any indignity or suspicion they reached the place of their destination about sunset, wearied from the storm and perils of the preceding night, and the escapes and journeys of the day. The next morning Flora accompanied the Prince to Portaree, and there bid him adieu. On parting he kissed her, and said, "Gentle, faithful maiden, I entertain the hope that we shall yet meet in the Palace Royal." They never met again; the hopes of the Prince were as unsubstantial and evanescent as the shadows of the clouds, and the fogs that rest upon the hills. His escape was the work not of his chivalry or courage, but of woman's tenderness, and the loyal feelings of Scottish hearts.

        From Portaree, the Prince took passage to Raarsay; and from that island he went to Straith McKinnon, having for his guide a poor man, Malcolm McLeod, whose pack he carried as a paid servant, to escape observation. From thence, he took passage by water to Arasag, and then wandered through Arasag and Moodart and the roughest of the Highlands, enduring incredible hardships, till about the middle of autumn he found vessels to convey him and a few friends to France, leaving Scotland as unattended as he entered, hopeless of his crown, multitudes of his friends butchered, and others beggared or in exile, his resources all exhausted, himself the scorn of France and pity of the world. With him

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sailed to France Neill McDonald, who assisted in his flight from Uist, and had shared his fortunes during his wanderings. The enthusiasm of his fair kinswoman dwelt in his bosom, and spread itself through the youth of the Highlands, and rendered the capture of the Prince more hopeless; after the exploit of the maiden and the two ladies McDonald, who would hesitate to give him succor and conceal his retreat? Neill McDonald remained in France; and his son became famous in the wars of the French Revolution, being made marshal by Buonaparte, and for his success created Duke of Tarentum. Had the unfortunate Charles Edward possessed a spirit to command, equal to the courage and daring of his friends, the house of Stuart might now occupy the throne of England.

        After the escape of the Prince to France, the troubles of Flora McDonald commenced. Incensed at the loss of their victim, and not satisfied with the possession of the kingdom, and the executions that the plea of necessity may have justified, the officers of the crown seized on those who were known to have aided the Prince in his flight, and conveyed them to London as state prisoners, for sending from the island the cause of the late disturbance, routed, broken down and discouraged, and at once delivering the crown from farther cause of uneasiness, and the country from agitation. Flora was arrested, and together with Malcohn McLeod, whose pack the prince had carried, McKinnon of the Straith, who received him from McLeod, and McDonald of Kingsburg, who aided Flora on the 29th of June, were taken to London and confined in the Tower as prisoners of state, to be tried for their life, as aiding and abetting attempts against the life and crown of King George. The example of the young lady in rousing up her countrymen, however friendly to the house of Hanover, to promote the escape of one whom they could not, and perhaps on account of his religion, would not make king, turned the indignation of those who had lost the splendid reward offered for the Pretender dead or alive, upon herself and her friends. During their confinement, the nobility of England became deeply interested in the beautiful and high spirited Flora, especially as she was not a partisan of the Pretender, nor of his religious faith. Her devotion to royalty, so romantically expressed, won the favor of Prince Frederick the heir apparent, great grandfather of Victoria, the present queen of England; visiting her in prison, he became enlisted in her favor most strongly; she awakened in his bosom the chivalric gallantry she had called forth in her country-men;

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and by his strenuous exertions he procured her release, greatly to his own honor and the prosperity of the kingdom, and the popularity of the king.

        After being set at liberty, her residence, while she remained in London, was surrounded by the carriages of the nobility and gentry, who paid their respects personally, congratulating her on her enterprise, her courage, her loyalty, and her release. Lady Primrose, a favorer of the Pretender, a lady of wealth and distinction, introduced her to the court society, and by her example and influence, obtained large presents to make her forget her captivity, and to meet the expenses of her detention and her return to her own country. The tradition in Carolina, where she afterwards lived, is, that "she received golden ornaments and coin enough to fill a half bushel." She was introduced to the king, George II.; and to his somewhat ungallant inquiry--"How could you dare to succor the enemy of my crown and kingdom?" she replied with great simplicity--"It was no more than I would have done for your majesty, had you been in like situation." A chaise and four were fitted up for her return to Scotland; for her escort she chose a fellow prisoner, Malcolm McLeod, who used afterwards to boast, "that he went to London to be hanged--but rode back in a chaise and four with Flora McDonald."

        Four years after her return to Scotland she was married to Allan McDonald, son of the Laird of Kingsburg, who, at the death of his father, succeeded to the estate and title; and thus she became mistress of the very mansion in which the Prince passed his first night in the Isle of Skye, June 29th, 1746, after the romantic escape from Uist. Dr. Johnson and Mr. Boswell, in their tour to the Hebrides in 1773, were hospitably entertained by Allan and Flora McDonald, and were greatly gratified by being put to sleep in the same bed in which the unfortunate Charles Edward had slept the night he passed upon the island. Flora, though then more than twenty years a wife, and the mother of numerous children, still retained her blooming countenance and genteel form, and was full of the enthusiasm of her youth. On account of the pecuniary embarrassments of her husband, they were then, the doctor tells us, in his journal, contemplating a removal to North Carolina, to join their countrymen and friends on the Cape Fear river, sent thither immediately after the rebellion of 1745. From that period the sandy country of the Carolinas had been the refuge of the High-landers, whether they fled from poverty or oppression, or were drawn by the desire of being independent landholders and wealthy

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men. In the year 1775, just as the troubles in the American colonies were turning into rebellion against the tyranny of England, and the assertion of independence of all foreign control, Allan and Flora, with their family and some friends, landed in North Carolina and took their abode for a short time at Cross Creek, now Fayetteville. The place of her residence was destroyed by the great fire that swept off a large part of the town one Sabbath in the summer of 182-. The ruins of this dwelling are still to be seen as you pass from the market-house to the court-house, on your right hand, just before you cross the creek, not far from the office built out over the stream. After a short stay in this place, they removed to Cameron's Hill, in the Barbacue congregation, about twenty miles above Fayetteville, in Cumberland county. While residing at this place, Mrs. Smith, now living in Robeson county, from whom much of the information respecting Flora was derived, remembers seeing her, at the Barbacue church, a dignified and handsome woman, to whom all paid great respect. They afterwards removed farther up the country into Anson county. While residing there, Donald McDonald, a relation of Flora's, who had been an officer in the Pretender's army in 1745, and had taken the oath of allegiance and emigrated to save his life, was commissioned by Governor Martin as general in the service of his Majesty George III. On the 1st of February, 1776, he issued his proclamation calling on all loyal and true Highlanders to join his standard at Cross Creek. Some fifteen hundred men soon assembled in arms; some of whom were sincerely attached to the house of Hanover, and others were under oaths of allegiance to which they owed their life, and, as some believed, their property. With these were assembled Kingsburg McDonald, the husband of Flora, with their kindred and neighbors, animated by the spirit of this matron, who now, on her former principles, defended George III. as readily as she had aided the unfortunate Charles Edward about thirty years before. Tradition says she accompanied her husband and neighbors to Cross-wicks, and communicated her own enthusiasm to the assembled Scotch. From this fact it has been supposed by some, that she followed the army in its march to join Governor Martin at the mouth of Cape Fear. Mrs. Smith, however, expressly asserts that she did not follow the army; but returned to her residence in Anson, when the army first moved up Rockfish, as it did in a short time, in preparation to march down the river.

        On their march down the river the forces of General McDonald were met by Colonels Lillington and Caswell, near the mouth of

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Moore's Creek, in New Hanover, and after a severe engagement, on the 27th, were entirely routed and dispersed, taken prisoners or killed. Among the prisoners was the husband of Flora, who served as captain.

        After the release of her husband from Halifax jail, the place of confinement for the officers taken in the battle, having suffered much in their estate from the plunderings and confiscations to which the Royalists were exposed, they with their family embarked in a sloop of war for their native land. On the voyage home, the sloop was attacked by a French vessel of war; and as the engagement grew warm the courage of the sailors deserted them, and capture seemed inevitable. Ascending the quarter deck, she animated the men to renew the conflict with activity and courage, nothing daunted by a wound she received in her hand. The sight of the courageous and wounded woman aroused the spirit of the crew to the highest pitch. Having beaten off the enemy, they landed Flora and the family safe on their native soil, from which she never again departed. She used sometimes to remark pleasantly on the peculiarity of her condition, "I have hazarded my life both for the house of Stuart and the house of Hanover; and I do not see that I am a great gainer by it."

        To the close of her life she was of a gentle, affable demeanor, and greatly beloved; her modesty and self-respect were blended with kindness and benevolence. There were none of those masculine passions and habits, or tempers, so commonly connected in our thoughts with acts of bravery performed by females. She was always womanly in her course, and always lovely. The mother of a numerous family, five sons and two daughters, she inspired them all with her spirit of loyalty and adventure; the sons all became military officers, and were faithful to their king and country; the daughters were married to military men, and maintained their loyalty and their honor, as true descendants of such a mother. Loyalty in these ladies had no servility in it; it was a sense of the necessity of a firm and established government to execute laws for the peace of the community, and a conviction that a restricted monarchy was the best form of government, and that a hereditary was better than an elective crown. The most desolating wars in the history of their country had been waged by disputants for the crown.

        The eventful life of this amiable lady was closed March 5th, 1790. We have no record of the mental and religious exercises of her last moments. She was educated, lived, and died in the

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Presbyterian faith, the faith of the Church of Scotland; and never sympathized in the religious creed of the Pretender, whose life she saved. It was not so much admiration of the Prince, as a character or a man, as the workings of her own kind heart and noble soul in looking upon her hereditary Prince in distress, that moved her to the romantic and hazardous enterprise of his escape from Uist. An immense concourse of people were assembled at her funeral; not less than three thousand persons followed the corpse to the grave in the cemetery of Kilmuir, in the Isle of Skye. According to a request long previously expressed, her shroud was made of the identical sheets in which the Prince reposed the night he slept at Kingsburg,--thus carrying to her grave the romantic spirit of her youth.

        A writer who visited the cemetery in September, 1841, says: "There is not so much as one of that family in the land of the living. At the end of two years the body of her husband was deposited in a grave by her side,--where, alas, all her offspring now silently slumber. Thus is Flora McDonald, she who once was beautiful as the flower of the morning, now reposing beneath a green hillock; and no monument, as yet, has been erected to perpetuate the memory of her faithfulness or her achievements! Thus the beauty of the world shall pass away!"

        Though no monument be erected in England or in Scotland to her memory; though no page of English history shall inscribe her worth, because displayed in an unpopular cause; though from the time of that ill-planned and ill-fated rebellion, the whole policy of England towards her native country has been to annihilate the habits, and the very language and dress of the Highlands, and of her youth, her memory will live in North Carolina while nobleness has admirers, and romantic self-devotion to the welfare of the distressed can charm the heart. And will not that be for ever? Will not posterity admire her more than Prince Charles who led his followers to slaughter? or George II., who envied the popularity of his own son? and draw more instruction from her romance, and affection, and boldness, and devotion, and womanly graces, and feminine loveliness, than from all the court of England that fill the histories of that by-gone period?

        Massachusetts has her Lady Arabella; Virginia her Pocahontas; and North Carolina her Flora McDonald.

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CHAPTER XIII.
HUGH M'ADEN AND THE CHURCHES IN DUPLIN, NEW HANOVER, AND CASWELL.

        THE first ordained minister that took his abode among the Presbyterian settlements in North Carolina, was the Rev. James Campbell, on the Cape Fear river. The first missionary whose journal, or parts of journal, has been preserved, is Hugh McAden (or as sometimes spelled McCadden), who was also the first missionary that settled in the State.

        The first Presbyterian minister that preached in North Carolina of whom we have any knowledge, was William Robinson, famous in the annals of the Virginia churches, of whom the Rev. Samuel Davies says,--"that favored man, Mr. Robinson, whose success, whenever I reflect upon it, astonishes me." This eminent missionary passed through Virginia to North Carolina, and spent a part of the winter of 1742 and 1743, among Presbyterian settlements. It was on his return from Carolina, and while preaching at Cub Creek, in Charlotte county, that the messenger from Hanover county waited upon him and persuaded him to visit that county, in which were no settlements of Presbyterian emigrants, and which of course had not been included either in his original mission, or his intended route homeward.

        We are not able to ascertain the places with precision, which he visited, but as the Presbyterian settlements in the county of Duplin and New Hanover were the oldest in the State, and there were none others at that time of much strength, the probability is that Duplin and New Hanover were the places he visited, and the scattered settlements then commenced in the upper part of the State also received some attention. Mr. Davies tells us that the success attending the ministry of this eminent man, so abundant in Virginia, was very small in Carolina. It is probably owing to that fact that the whole history of his mission is circumscribed in the single statement, that he visited the country through much exposure, and many hardships, owing to the unsettled wilderness through which he had to pass.

        Supplications were sent from Carolina to the Synod of Philadelphia

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as early as the year 1744. The records speak of them as having come "from many people," but do not tell us from what section of the State they were sent. In the year 1753, two missionaries were sent by the direction of the Synod to visit Virginia and North Carolina, Mr. McMordie and Mr. Donaldson; but there is no mention made of the settlements they were to visit, further than they were "to show special regard" to the vacancies of North Carolina, especially betwixt Atkin (Yadkin) and Catawba rivers. In the year 1754 the Synod of New York directed four ministers, Messrs. Beatty, Bostwick, Lewis, and Thane, to visit the States of Virginia and North Carolina, each three months, but no particular places are specified. In 1755, the same Synod appointed two other missionaries, and named some places in the upper part of the State; but owing to the disturbances in the country from the depredations of the Indians, this mission was not fulfilled.

        The settlement of Presbyterians in Duplin county is probably the oldest large settlement of that denomination in the State. About the year 1736, or perhaps 1737, one Henry McCulloch induced a colony of Presbyterians from the province of Ulster, in Ireland, to settle in Duplin county, North Carolina, on lands he had obtained from his majesty, George II. The stipulated condition of the grant, or promised grant, was, that he should procure a certain number of settlers to occupy the wide forests, as an inducement to other emigrants to seek a residence in the unoccupied regions of Carolina. His son reported between three and four hundred emigrants, for whose introduction he retained about sixty-four thousand acres of land. The descendants of these emigrants are found in Duplin, New Hanover, and Sampson counties--the family names indicating their origin. The Grove congregation, whose place of worship is about three miles southeast of Duplin court-house, traces its origin to the church formed from this, the oldest Presbyterian settlement in the State, whose principal place of worship was at first called Goshen.

        Nearer Wilmington was a settlement on what was called the Welch Tract, on the northeast Cape Fear.

        This was composed at first of Welch emigrants, but after a short period other families were located on the tract, and then were associated families enough to form a congregation sufficiently large to invite the services of a minister.

        These two settlements, one in Duplin and the other in Hanover, formed the field of labor in which McAden passed the first part of

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his settled ministry. As you pass rapidly on the cars from Richmond, Virginia, to Wilmington, North Carolina, after crossing the Tar River, and entering upon the extended sandy level that stretches, without an elevation of an ordinary hill, through the State, abounding in the species of pine that pours forth the turpentine of commerce, you enter upon the country roamed over by McAden, in his ministry in Duplin. Passing on, with scarce an elevation or a turn, through that country, and the unchanging groves of pines in New Hanover, till you cross the Cape Fear, you have measured the space allotted to him for the exercise of his ministry. A singular country; the wealth of the inhabitants is in the endless forest of pines, and their principal employment is gathering the product of these forests in the shape of turpentine, tar, and lumber, for foreign markets. The grain and grass crops are a secondary consideration, and scarcely supply the home demand. The supply from the forest has hitherto been unfailing, abundant, and often very profitable. To one accustomed to the cultivated fields of western Carolina, or the more northern States, this country, in passing hastily through it in the steam cars, appears one vast solitude. The turpentine groves present little of romance or beauty in their constantly recurring sameness, while they are pouring out streams of wealth to an industrious people.

        Hugh McAden was born in Pennsylvania; his parentage is traced to the North of Ireland. His Alma Mater was Nassau Hall; his instructor in Theology, John Blair, of New Castle Presbytery. He was graduated in 1753, and was licensed in 1755, by the Presbytery to which his instructor belonged, and ordained by the same Presbytery in 1757; and dismissed in 1759 to join Hanover Presbytery, whose limits extended indefinitely south. Comparatively little is known of his early life, as his papers were almost entirely destroyed by the British soldiers, in January, 1781, while the army of Cornwallis, in the pursuit of Green, was encamped at the Red House, in Caswell county. Of the few papers that escaped was the Journal of his first trip through Carolina, and is the only document of the kind known to be in existence. As it contains many facts, incidentally stated, that will now be useful, all the important and interesting parts of this brief document will be presented, either verbatim, or in a condensed form, leaving out repetitions, and things that are likely to be in a journal not intended for the public, and which are not of lasting importance.

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M'ADEN'S JOURNAL.

        "Tuesday, June 3d, 1755.--Took my journey for Carolina from Mr. Kirkpatrick's in the evening; came to Mr. Hall's, where I tarried all night. Next day crossed the river in company with Mr. Bay and his wife. Spent the day in visiting her friends on both sides,"--that is, the old and new sides into which the church was then divided. "Thursday we set off and came to York, forty miles, with some difficulty, the weather being extremely hot, and no food for our horses. A very bad prospect of crops appears everywhere, the ground being quite burned up with drought, and the corn much hurt by the frost; the green wheat and meadows, in some places, entirely withered up from the roots as if they had been scorched by fire. Here I left Mr. Bay and his wife, rode out in the afternoon and lodged in the congregation. Next day set off in the morning and came to his house, where I stayed for breakfast." This Mr. Bay was a Presbyterian minister, of New Castle Presbytery, of the new side, and he speaks as if it were remarkable that he visited both sides with Mrs. Bay. York is the first town mentioned; and the bearing of his journey, and crossing "the river," would seem to fix the location of Mr. Kirkpatrick in Lancaster county. The mention he here makes of the great drought is repeated through all the summer and fall; from which it appears a severe drought prevailed extensively the same summer that Braddock's war raged so disastrously.

        The second Sabbath of June he was at Rock Spring and continued till the Friday after; the people making preparations to attend the administration of the Lord's Supper in the two congregations, that lay on each side, of one of which the Rev. JAMES CAMPBELL, who was the next year in Carolina, was the pastor. In this he passed the third Sabbath of June, in company with the pastor and the Rev. Andrew Bay, whom he says he "heard preach with great satisfaction." This Mr. Campbell he had for his neighbor, in Carolina, on the Cape Fear, in about a year from this; the patriarch of the Scotch churches.

        "Monday, June the 16th, set out from Connegocheg, upon my journey for Carolina, crossed the Potomac, and lodged at Mr. Caten's, where I was very kindly entertained, and civilly used. Next day (Tuesday) set off about 12 o'clock, and came to Winchester, forty miles, and tarried all night. In the morning rode out to Robert Wilson's, where I was kindly entertained. Spent the day with Mr. Hogg" (or Hoge) This Mr. Wilson lived a

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short distance from the present Opecquon meeting-house, and was proverbial for his hospitality. His house, which is still standing, on the cast side of the great turnpike, part of stone and part of wood, was the resort of preachers in his day; and during the time that Washington was encamped in Winchester, the resort of his Excellency. The Mr. Hogg, or Hogge, or Hoge, for the name has been spelled all these ways, had been ordained by New Castle Presbytery about the time that Mr. McAden was licensed. He was graduated at Nassau Hall, in 1748; how long he had been at Opecquon is not known. He was the first settled minister in that congregation, the oldest in the valley.

        On Thursday, the 19th, he set off up the valley of the Shenandoah, of which he says: "Alone in the wilderness. Sometimes a house in ten miles, and sometimes not that." On Friday night he lodged at a Mr. Shankland's, eighty miles from Opecquon, and twenty from Augusta court-house. On Saturday he stopped at a Mr. Poage's--"stayed for dinner, the first I had eaten since I left Pennsylvania."

        From Staunton he went with Hugh Celsey to Samuel Downey's, at the North Mountain, where he preached on the fourth Sabbath of June, according to appointment, and being detained by his horse, preached there the fifth Sabbath also. The same cause detaining him another week, he consented to preach in the new court-house on the first Sabbath of July. "Rode to widow Preston's Saturday evening, where I was very kindly entertained, and had a commodious lodging." This is probably the widow of John Preston, whose family have since been so famous in Virginia. The North Mountain congregation has long since given place to Bethel and Hebron. On Monday he rode out to John Trimble's, more encouraged by the appearances at North Mountain than in Staunton. On Tuesday he passed on to the Rev. John Brown's, who was the first settled minister of Providence and Timber Ridge. "Here I was vehemently desired by Mr. Brown to preach in one of his places, having set apart a day of fasting and prayer, on the account of the wars and many murders committed by the savage Indians on the back inhabitants. To this I agreed, having appointed the Forks of James River for the next Lord's day, where I could easily reach on Saturday. So I tarried, and preached at Timber Ridge on Friday, which was the day appointed, to a pretty large congregation; felt some life and earnestness in alarming the people of their dangers on account of sin, the procuring cause of all evils that befal us in this life, or that which is to come; encouraging

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them to turn to the Lord with all their hearts, to wait upon him for deliverance from all their enemies, the only sure refuge in every time of difficulty; and exciting them to put themselves in the best posture of defence they could, and endeavor, by all possible means in their power, to defend themselves from such barbarous and inhuman enemies. Great attention and solemnity appeared throughout the whole assembly; nay, so engaged were they that, though there came up a pretty smart gust, they seemed to mind it no more than if the sun had been shining on them. But in a little time the Lord turned it so about that we were little more disturbed than if we had been in a house.

        "Came to Mr. Boyer's, where I tarried till Sabbath morning, a very kind and discreet gentleman, who used me exceedingly kindly, and accompanied me to the Forks, twelve miles, where I preached the second Sabbath of July, to a considerable large congregation, who seemed pretty much engaged, and very earnest that I should stay longer with them; which I could by no means consent to, being determined to get along in [my] journey as fast as possible; and proposed to preach at Round Oak next Sabbath. Rode home with Joseph Lapsley, two miles, from meeting, where I tarried till Wednesday morning.

        "Here it was I received the most melancholy news of the entire defeat of our army by the French at Ohio, the General killed, numbers of the inferior officers, and the whole artillery taken. This, together with the frequent account of fresh murders being daily committed upon the frontiers, struck terror to every heart. A cold shuddering possessed every breast, and paleness covered almost every face. In short, the whole inhabitants were put into an universal confusion. Scarcely any man durst sleep in his own house--but all met in companies with their wives and children, and set about building little fortifications, to defend themselves from such barbarians and inhuman enemies, whom they concluded would be let loose upon them at pleasure. I was so shocked upon my first reading Col. Innes's letter, that I knew not well what to do."

        This was the defeat of Gen. Braddock. The consternation that followed through all the frontiers of Virginia, which were then all in the valley, is well described in the few lines given above. The difficulties and dangers increased till many of the inhabitants of Augusta fled to the more quiet frontiers of North Carolina, as will be seen in the progress of this journal. Among others who fled, and in a few years took his residence on Sugar Creek, was the

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Rev. Mr. Craighead, who had been some years in Virginia, residing on the cow pasture. His congregation was not in the track of Mr. McAden's journey, which left Mr. Craighead's residence to the right, and Mr. Craig's to the left.

        After much consideration whether he should remain where he was, or return to Pennsylvania, or go on to his destined field of labor in Carolina, he determined, in the fear of God, to go on. "I resolved to prosecute my journey, come what will, with some degree of dependence on the Lord for his divine protection and support, that I might be enabled to glorify him in all things, whether in life or in death, though not so sensible as I could wish for and earnestly desired."

        On Wednesday, the 16th of July, he left Mr. Lapsley's, in company with a young man from Mr. Henry's congregation, in Charlotte, who had been at the Warm Springs, and was fleeing from the expected inroads of the savages. Giving up the appointment at Round Oak, he took the route by Luny's Ferry, which was distant about twenty-six miles--"because it was now too late to cross the mountain, nor did I think it quite safe to venture it alone: but here I thought we might lodge with some degree of safety, as there were a number of men and arms engaged in building a fort, round the house, where they were fled with their wives and children."

        The next day Major Smith sent a guard with them across the mountains; and after riding thirty-two miles they reached Mr. I. Sable's, about three miles from Bedford court-house. Here he was out of danger from the Indians, but found the same oppressive drought he left in Pennsylvania. The next day he reached "Mr. Thomas Dickson's, at Falling River, twenty-three miles, a place where Mr. Henry preached once a month. The people insisted very much upon my staying here till Sabbath day: as it was now Friday evening, it was impossible to get over to Dan River (which was the first vacancy I could preach at) in time to warn a congregation before Sabbath day, therefore I tarried and preached at Falling River."

        On Monday, the 21st, he rode thirty miles to the Rev. Mr. Henry's--"where I was much refreshed by a relation of Mr. Henry's success among his people, who told me of several hopefully brought in by his ministry, and frequent appearance of new awakenings amongst them, scarcely a Sabbath passing without some life and appearance of the power of God. So likewise in

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Mr. Wright's congregation, I hear, there is a considerable appearance of the power of God."

        On Wednesday, 23d of July, he left Mr. Henry's, rode ten miles, and preached at a Mr. Cardwall's, in Halifax county, and passed on that night to Ephraim Hill's, five miles. The country was then thinly settled, and the people appeared to Mr. McAden as sheep without a shepherd. On the next day rode twenty miles to Capt. Moore's, on Dan River, where he remained and preached the Sabbath, July 27th. On Tuesday he left Capt. Moore's, proceeded five miles up the Dan, crossed over, and preached at Mr. Brandon's; and on the same evening, riding twelve miles, came to Solomon Debow's on Hico, an emigrant from Bucks county, Pennsylvania. Here he remained, and preached the first Sabbath of August. "Having now got within the limits prescribed me by the Presbytery, I was resolved not to be so anxious about getting along in my journey, but take some more time to labor among the people, if so be the Lord might bless it to the advantage of any. May the Lord, of his infinite mercy, grant his blessing upon my poor attempts, and make me in some way instrumental in turning some of these precious souls from darkness unto light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that the power may be known to be of God, and all the glory redound to His own name."

        Mr. McAden was now out of the sphere of alarm occasioned by Braddock's defeat; and he was also now beyond the southern bounds of any settled minister of the Presbyterian denomination in connection with the Synods of New York and Philadelphia. There were some Presbyterian churches built in North Carolina, and many worshipping assemblies, but few, if any, organized churches at this time, and no settled minister. Mr. McAden was of the New Side, as they were termed. This is discoverable from a very few sentences in his journal which occasionally appear, when he meets with some opposing circumstance from the other side; for through Virginia and in the settlements in Carolina the difference of opinion had spread, and the fierceness of the dispute had yet scarcely passed away.

        We shall follow him with interest from this first Sabbath in Carolina, August 3, 1755, at Solomon Debow's, on Hico, through the settled part of the State. Some of his preaching-places can be identified, and others with difficulty conjectured; as they were at private houses generally, or in the open air. As might be expected, some became permanent preaching-places, and others gave way to more convenient locations.

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        On Tuesday, 5th, he preached at Mr. Debow's; on Wednesday, rode ten miles to the chapel on South Hico, where--"I preached to a number of church people and some Presbyterians. After sermon they seemed exceedingly pleased, and returned abundance of thanks for my sermon, and earnestly entreated me by all means to call upon them as I came back, and showed a very great desire that all our ministers should call upon them as they travel back and forward." He went home with Mr. Vanhook, five miles, and preached at his house on Thursday; and on Friday was conducted by Mr. Vanhook "to Eino" (Eno), about twenty miles, to a Mr. Anderson's. The second Sabbath of August, the 10th day, he preached at Eno--"to a set of pretty regular Presbyterians," who appeared to him to be in a cold state of religious feeling. "In the evening returned to Mr. Anderson's; here I tarried till Tuesday, the 12th of August; preached again to the same company." From these expressions it would seem there was a house for public worship on the Eno.

        "Being sent for, and very earnestly entreated to go to Tar River, I took my journey the same evening, with my guide, and rode to Bogan's, on Flat River, twenty miles. Next morning, set off again, and rode to old Sherman's, on Tar River, and preached that afternoon to a small company, who seemed generally attentive, and some affected." Next day he went to Grassy Creek, sixteen miles, where was a Baptist meeting-house, and preached to a people "who seemed very inquisitive about the way to Zion." The next day he accompanied his host, old Mr. Lawrence, to Fishing Creek, to the Baptist Yearly Meeting; and on Saturday and Sabbath preached to large and deeply interested audiences. "Here I think the power of God appeared something conspicuous, and the word seemed to fall with power." Being earnestly pressed, he preached again on Sabbath afternoon, with some hope of success. On Monday he preached again with greater appearance of usefulness. The inhabitants, he was informed, were principally from Virginia, and some from Pennsylvania and Jersey. "I was obliged to leave them after I had preached to and exhorted them with many words, that they should carefully guard against taking shelter under the shadow of their own righteousness, committing them to God, who, I know, is able to make them wise unto salvation." On Monday, P. M., the 18th, he rode to Granville court-house, twenty-five miles. On Tuesday he rode to Mr. Sherman's, on Tar River, at about 11 o'clock, twenty miles; and preached in the afternoon "to a middling congregation, who appeared very devout, and some of

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them much affected." On Wednesday, returned to Mr. Anderson's, on Eno. On Friday evening he rode "to the Hawfields, where I preached the fourth Sabbath in August, to a considerable large congregation, chiefly Presbyterians, who seemed highly pleased, and very desirous to hear the word. Preached again on Tuesday; the people came out to hear quite beyond expectation. Wednesday, set out upon my journey, and came to the Buffalo Settlement, about thirty-five miles; lodged at William Mebane's till Sabbath day; then rode to Adam Michel's, where I preached; the people seemed solemn and very attentive, but no appearance of the life of religion. Returned in the evening, about a mile, to Robert Rankin's, where I was kindly received and well entertained till Tuesday; then returned to the former place, and preached; no stir appeared, but some tears." On Wednesday, September 3d, he set out for the Yadkin, having Robert Rankin as his guide, and having ridden forty-five miles, lodged at John Vannoy's. "Next morning, came to Henry Sloan's, at the Yadkin Ford, where I was kindly entertained till Sabbath day; rode to the meeting-house and preached to a small congregation." Here there appears to have been a congregation of some strength that had a meeting-house, but had become divided,--"Many adhere to the Baptists that were before wavering, and several that professed themselves to be Presbyterians; so that very few at present join heartily for our ministers, and will in a little time, if God prevent not, be too weak either to call or supplicate for a faithful minister. O may the good Lord, who can bring order out of confusion, and call things that are not as though they were, visit this people!" One cause of the divisions in this congregation arose from the labors of a Baptist minister among them by the name of Miller.

        After preaching, he visited some sick people, and went home with James Smith, about four miles. On Tuesday, he preached again at the meeting-house, and went home with Cornelius Anderson, about six miles--"a judicious, honest man, I hope, who seems to be much concerned for the state of the church and perishing souls." On Wednesday, 10th, he visited Captain Hunt, who was sick with an intermitting fever, and found his visit welcome; and returned to Mr. Sloan's. On Friday, 12th, he crossed the Yadkin, and rode about ten miles to James Alison's. On Saturday, he went three or four miles to Mr. Brandon's--"one of my own countrymen." On Sabbath, 14th, he preached at "the meeting-house to a considerable congregation of professing people;" and on Monday, rode to John Luckey's, about five or six miles.

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"Preached again on Wednesday, being appointed as a day of fasting and prayer, to entreat the Lord for deliverance from these sad calamities, with which the land seems in general to be threatened, being in very great danger both of sword and famine." In the evening, he paid a faithful visit to a man, about to die, from a fall from his horse, in a very unprepared state of mind. "Went home with John Andrew, a serious, good man, I hope, with whom my soul was much refreshed, by his warm conversation about the things of God. How sweet to meet one in the wilderness who can speak the language of Canaan! The next day, he rode to Justice Carruth's, about eight miles, and remained till Sabbath, 21st, and then preached at the meeting-house about two miles off, "to a pretty large congregation of people, who seemed generally pretty regular and discreet." The next day, he set out for Mr. David Templeton's, about five miles from Mr. Carruth's; on his way--"came up with a large company of men, women and children, who had fled for their lives from the Cow or Calf pasture in Virginia; from whom I received the melancholy account, that the Indians were still doing a great deal of mischief in those parts, by murdering and destroying several of the inhabitants, and banishing the rest from their houses and livings, whereby they are forced to fly into desert places." Rode on that evening to William Denny's, four miles further; who presented him with what he considered a great present, "a pair of shoes, made of his own leather, which was no small favor." On Tuesday, he returned to David Templeton's, and on Wednesday, a day appointed for fasting and prayer, rode to "the meeting-house and preached." After sermon, he went home with Captain Osborne, about six miles; here, he remained till Sabbath, the 28th, when he preached "at the new meeting-house, about three miles off;"--and "again on Wednesday, being appointed for fasting and humiliation." In the evening, he rode home with William Reese, about seven miles, and remained till Sabbath, the 5th of October, when he preached at Captain Lewis's, about three miles distant--"to as large a congregation as any I have had since I came to these parts." The whole of the succeeding week he lodged at Captain Lewis's. On Wednesday, he preached again, it being the day appointed by the governor and council, for humiliation, fasting and prayer, on account of the distress upon the land.

        On the Sabbath, the 12th of October, he rode seven miles to Justice Alexander's, "when I preached in the afternoon, a considerable solemnity appeared." Though it was now near the middle

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of October, the drought was still so great that he says--"I have not seen so much as one patch of wheat or rye in the ground." On Wednesday, he went over to Major Harris's, about three miles, and preached; on Friday, he preached at David Caldwell's, about five or six miles, to a small congregation, and went on to William Alexander's, and tarried till Sabbath, the 19th, and then rode about twelve miles to James Alexander's, on Sugar Creek, and preached--"where there are some pretty serious, judicious people--may the Lord grant his blessing!" That evening, he rode home with Henry Knealy (or Neely, as he spells the name both ways), six miles; and on Monday, the 20th, took his journey for Broad River--"sixty miles to the southward, in company with two young men, who came thus far to conduct me thither--a place where never any of our missionaries have been."

        On this journey, he passed through the lands of the Catawba Indians. On the first night, they prepared to encamp in the woods, about three miles south of the Catawba--"there being no white man's house on all the road." This was his first night "out of doors." On the next day, they passed one of their hunting camps unmolested; but when they stopped to get their breakfast, they were surrounded by a large number of Indians, shouting and hallooing, and frightening their horses and rifling their baggage. Accordingly, they moved off as fast as possible, without staying to parley; and to their great annoyance, in a little time they passed a second camp of hunters, who prepared to give them a similar reception, calling them to stop, from each side the path. Passing on rapidly, they escaped without harm; and after a ride of twenty-five miles, were permitted to get their breakfasts in peace.

        Here some leaves of the journal are missing.]


        On Sabbath, the 2d of November, he preached "to a number of those poor baptized infidels, many of whom I was told had never heard a sermon in all their lives before, and yet several of them had families." This seems hardly credible. But he relates an anecdote told him here of an old gentleman, who said to the governor of South Carolina, when he was in those parts, in treaty with the Cherokee Indians, that he "had never seen a shirt, been in a fair, heard a sermon or seen a minister, in all his life." Upon which the governor promised to send him up a minister, that he might hear one sermon before he died. The minister came and preached; and this was all the preaching that

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had been heard in the upper part of South Carolina before Mr. McAden's visit.

        How far he penetrated the State is not known, on account of the loss of a few leaves of the journal. "On Monday, the 10th of November, returned about twenty miles, to James Atterson's, on Tyger river; preached on Tuesday, which was the first they had ever heard in these parts, but I hope it will not be the last, for there are men in all these places (blessed be God), some at least, that have a great desire of hearing the gospel preached. Next day rode to James Love's, on Broad River: Thursday, preached." On Broad River his congregation was effected under his preaching. It is not unlikely that some latitude of expression was used by those who gave him the statements he records. It is very likely that he was the first minister the people heard in those neighborhoods; but those who had never heard a sermon were comparatively few, as the mass of the early settlers were of a parentage that taught their children the way to church. There were, however, some settlers from the older parts of the State that had not been much accustomed to any religious forms.

        "Friday, the 14th, took my leave of these parts, and set out for the Waxhaws, forty-five miles, good; that night reached Thomas Farrel's, where I lodged till Sabbath day; then rode to James Patton's, about two miles, and preached to a pretty large congregation of Presbyterian people. Wednesday, preached again in the same place, and crossed the Catawba river and came to Henry White's." Here he remained till Sabbath; part of the time sick of the flux, but was able to preach on Sabbath, the 23d, at "the meeting-house" five miles off; and went home with Justice Dickens. On the Monday following he set out for the Yadkin, retracing his steps; lodging that night at Henry Neely's, where his disorder returned upon him, and kept him till Sabbath, when he rode six miles, to James Alexander's, and preached. From thence he proceeded to Justice Alexander's, on Rocky River, twelve miles; thence on to Captain Lewis's, in the Welch settlement, and there tarried some days as before, and preached the first Sabbath of December (the 7th); thence to William Reece's; and on the next Sabbath (the 14th) he preached in the "new meeting-house," near Mr. Osborne's; the next, at Coddle Creek; and passing on he called on David Templeton, William Denny, Justice Carruth, and John Andrew, and preached on Sabbath, the 28th, at Cathey's meeting-house, now called Thyatira, to a large audience. Here he was urged to remain and

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divide his time with that congregation and Rocky River. The congregation, however, was divided in their preference, some for the old side, and some for the new; and the movements to settle a minister unfortunately became a party question. Being urgently solicited, he preached the next Sabbath at the same church, and his friends made out their subscription. On the whole, he thought it unadvisable to prosecute the matter. After visiting Second Creek, and preaching at Captain Hampton's, he passed on to the Yadkin, and having crossed it with difficulty, he lodged with his former host, Mr. Sloan, and preached in "the meeting-house" on the second Sabbath of January, the 11th day, in company with Mr. Miller, the Baptist minister, from Jersey, of whom as a Christian man he speaks favorably.

        On Tuesday, January 13th, 1756, he set out on a journey down the Cape Fear river, to Wilmington, in company with a Mr. Van Clave, and reached Huary, thirty miles, and preached the next day, Wednesday. The next day he reached Smith's, at the Sand Hills, and remained till Sabbath; in public worship he could find no one to join in singing a part of a psalm. On Monday, the 19th, set off in company with Mr. Smith, who was going to court, and rode fifty miles to McKay's. Next day rode thirty miles to Anson court-house. Here he met with an old acquaintance, James Stewart, and went home with him and remained till Saturday, and preached at the court-house, and rode to the New Store. On Sabbath, the 25th, he rode to Hector McNeill's, "and preached to a number of Highlanders,--some of them scarcely knew one word that I said,--the poorest singers I ever heard in all my life. Next day rode to David Smith's, on the other side of Little River, fourteen miles; on Tuesday, preached to a considerable number of people who came to hear me at Smith's. Wednesday, rode up to Alexander McKay's, upon the Yadkin road, thirty miles; Thursday, preached to a small congregation, mostly of Highlanders, who were very much obliged to me for coming, and highly pleased with my discourse. Though, alas, I am afraid it was all but feigned and hypocritical." His reason for this fear was, some stayed around the house all night and indulged in drinking and profane language, in spite of his remonstrances, and almost entirely prevented his rest.

        On Friday he "set off down the river, thirty miles, to Neill Beard's;" then he preached on Sabbath, 1st of February, to a "mixed multitude, some Presbyterians, some church people, some Baptists, and don't know but some Quakers." However, they expressed

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themselves highly pleased with his visit. On Monday, the 2d, he rode to a Mr. James Semes's, about five miles, a sick family whom he visited, and preached in their house to the neighbors assembled; and in the evening rode on to Mr. Robinson's, "a very affable gentleman," with whom he tarried till Wednesday, and then accompanied to the court-house in Bladen county, where he preached to a considerable congregation; and "in the evening went home with old Justice Randle, about two miles." On Thursday he preached at George Brown's, three miles off, and went on three miles further to Neal Shaw's, and the next day to Duncan McCoulsky's; and on Sabbath, the 8th, rode to Esquire McNeill's, where he preached to a small congregation, the day being wet. "After the sermon a proposal was made to get me to come and settle among them; and I think I never saw people more engaged, or subscribe with greater freedom and cheerfulness in my life. May the Lord, in much mercy, prepare me for some usefulness in the world, and direct me to what will be most for his own glory, and the good of precious souls!"

        "On Monday, 9th, crossed the swamp and came to Baldwin's, on the Whitemarsh, about five miles, where I tarried all night, and preached the next day to a very few irregular sort of people, who, I believe, know but little about the principles of any religion." In the evening he rode home with Mr. Kerr, four miles. On Wednesday he set out for Wilmington, and rode thirty miles to young Mr. Granger's, "a very discreet gentleman, who entertained me with a great deal of courtesy;" on Thursday he rode fifteen miles to President Roan's; and on the next day fifteen miles further to the ferry, and then crossed by water, four miles, to Wilmington.

        Here he preached, Sabbath, the 15th, "in the A.M., to a large and splendid audience, but was surprised when I came again in the P.M., to see about a dozen met to hear me." This small number greatly depressed his spirits, and probably hastened his departure from the place on the Tuesday following. On that day he rode twenty-five miles, to Cowen's, up the Northeast Cape Fear, and on the next day to old Mr. Evans's, in the Welch Tract.

        There he preached on Sabbath, 22d, designing to move on homeward, "but I was detained by the affection and entreaties of this people, who earnestly pressed upon me to tarry with them another Sabbath; their design herein was that they might have time to get a subscription drawn up, that they might put in a call for me." On Sabbath, the 29th, he preached again to the same

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people, who expressed great desire for his return, and made out a call for him as their pastor.

        On Tuesday, March 2d, he rode to Mr. Bowen's, about ten miles, on Black River; and on the next day six miles further, and preached, then crossed the river and rode about five miles to South River, where he lodged with Mr. Anderson. On Thursday crossed Collie's Swamp, then in a bad condition--"lodged at old Mr. Grife Jones's;" on the next day crossed the Northwest, and lodged at George Brown's, where he preached on Sabbath, March 7th. While in this neighborhood, he was grieved to find some, who had been brought up under the influence of the gospel in other parts, become dissolute and indulging infidel notions, since their abode in this region where the gospel was not regularly preached, and in fact scarcely heard.

        On Monday, the 8th, crossed the Northwest, and being detained by the rain, and some other business, he rode but about ten miles, to Mr. Isaac Jones's, "a good honest Quaker, and an assemblyman." The next day, crossed Collie's Swamp again, which was now overflowed, and caused much trouble by swimming the horses--"and got to Mr. Anderson's again about 12 o'clock;" that same day, he rode on to Mr. Lewis's, on Black River, about twenty-five miles. On Wednesday, he went fifteen miles, to John James's, and preached. By the high waters he was detained in the Welch Tract till after the second Sabbath of March. On Thursday, 18th, he rode to Jeremiah Holden's, about twenty miles; and on the next morning, about three miles, to Mr. Dickson's, the clerk of Duplin county, where he preached on Sabbath, the 21st, to a considerable congregation, most of whom were Irish.

        "The people here being very desirous to join with the Welch Tract, in putting in a call for me, and many of their best friends being abroad upon business, they insisted so strongly upon me, that I was forced to consent to stay with them another day. Tuesday, rode up to Goshen in company with Mr. Dickson, and several more. Came to Mr. Gaven's, twelve miles, where we tarried all night; next day preached, and returned to Mr. Dickson's." On Sabbath, 28th, he preached at John Miller's, about two miles distant. The people seemed all very hearty in giving him a call, and making a proper support for him.

        On Monday, the 29th, he set out from Mr. Dickson's homeward; tarried that night at Mr. Gaven's, twelve miles; next day crossed Neuse, and tarried with Joshua Herring, about thirty

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miles. This man was out early in the morning, and assembled his neighbors, and detained him to preach to them at noon. In the evening, rode to Mr. Herring's, senior, about twelve miles. "The next morning, set out upon my journey for Pamlico, and rode about ten miles, to Major McWain's, where I had opportunity of seeing and conversing with Governor Dobbs, who is a very sociable gentleman." That night he lodged at Peter's Ferry, on Cuttentony, about twenty miles, it being too late to go father. The next day, he rode about forty miles, to Salter's Ferry, on Pamlico. The next day, being Saturday, he came to Thomas Little's, where he remained over Sabbath, April 4th. This man had not heard a Presbyterian minister in the twenty-eight years he had lived in Carolina, and took the opportunity of sending round for his neighbors, and collected a congregation; and kept Mr. McAden till Wednesday, to preach again. "I found some few amongst them, that I trust are God's dear children, who seemed much refreshed by my coming."

        On the 7th day of April, Wednesday, after sermon, he rode to Mr. Barrow's, about five miles; and the next day, about five or six miles, to the Red Banks, "where I preached to a pretty large company of various sorts of people, but fewer Presbyterians. In the evening, rode up the river, ten miles, to Mr. Mace's, who is a man of considerable note, and a Presbyterian." Here he remained till Sabbath, the 11th, and preached in the neighborhood.

        On Tuesday, April 13th, he set out homeward, and rode twenty miles, to Mr. Toole's, on Tar River; this man he describes as unhappy in his notions of unbelief. On Wednesday, he rode thirty miles, to Edgecomb court-house; the next day he reached Fishing Creek, about twenty-five miles; and on Friday, he rode about ten miles up the creek, and was kindly received by the Baptist friends he made on his journey through the country the last fall. On Sabbath, 18th, he preached at their meeting-house. Here many came to converse with him about their experience. On the next day, he went home with Joseph Linsey, who had heard him preach.

        "He insisted very hard upon me to stay at Nut Bush, and give them a sermon, as they were very destitute and out of the way. I went home with him, about twenty-two miles, it being pretty much in my way, and preached." He found them a cheerful people, without the regular preaching of the gospel, and in a situation as might be expected, with abundance of wealth, and full leisure for enjoyment.

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        On Wednesday he reached Captain Hampton's, about 35 miles; and on Thursday got to John Anderson's,--"who seemed very joyful to see me returned so far back again;" tarried till Sabbath, and preached. On Tuesday, 27th, he preached at Hawfields; on Wednesday at Eno: on Thursday rode down to Aaron Vanhook's; and next day to John McFarland's, on Hico; and there preached, Sabbath, the 2d of May.

        "Got ready to take my journey from Carolina, Thursday, the 6th of May, 1756; that day rode in company with Solomon Debow, who came to conduct me as far as John Baird's, on Dan River, twenty miles from Hico." From thence he set off alone. Passing through Amelia, we find him, on Sabbath, the 9th of May, at the house of Mr. Messaux, on James' River. Here the journal abruptly closes.

        It is interesting to follow the track of this early missionary. Many of the neighborhoods he mentions have at this day regular preaching; in some there are large congregations and flourishing churches; and some few have passed from the list of Presbyterian congregations.

        The time, and distances from place to place, have been given for the purpose of enabling those in the region of his route to trace his track. A comparison of the state of things as they appeared ninety years ago, with the present, may lead to profitable reflections. These data are left with those who may feel interested in searching out the "beginning of things."

M'ADEN'S LABORS AS A PASTOR IN NORTH CAROLINA.

        Mr. McAden returned to Carolina, and became the settled minister of the congregations in Duplin and New Hanover. He was ordained by the Presbytery of New Castle, in 1757; and in 1759 was dismissed to join Hanover Presbytery, which then included a greater part of Virginia, and extended indefinitely south. He presented his credentials at a meeting of the Presbytery on Rockfish, July 18th, 1759, having previously sat as a corresponding member.

        With these people he remained about ten years; when, believing that the influence of the climate upon his health was too unfavorable to justify his remaining longer in the lower part of the State, he removed to Caswell county, and there finished his days. At a meeting of Hanover Presbytery, at Buffalo, March 2d, 1768, for the purpose of ordaining Messrs. David Caldwell and Joseph Alexander, "a call from the churches of Hico, Dan River, and

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County Line Creek," was put in for his pastoral services. At the same meeting he presided at the installation of the Rev. David Caldwell over the congregations of Buffalo and Alamance. This year, if not earlier, he became a resident of Caswell. An intimacy had existed between him and this people for years, and he had laid their destitute condition before the Presbytery in 1759, "giving a moving representation of their difficulties." The names of these churches were changed; and also the place of his labors in part. At the time of his death he was preaching at Red House (Middle Hyco), Greer's (Upper Hyco), and to a church in Pittsylvania, "about half a day's ride" from his dwelling, near the Red House.

        Mr. McAden was united in marriage with a Miss Scott, of Lunenburg county, Virginia, whose family name was given to the neighborhood, formed by a company of emigrants from the North of Ireland, and called Scott's Settlement. A number of children were born to him in Duplin, the eldest of whom died in Caswell, in the year 1845.

        The following extract from a letter dictated by Dr. John McAden, the eldest son of the preacher, in his 82d year, contains all we know of the habits of this pioneer of Carolina. The letter bears date--"Hyco Hills, Caswell county, Jan. 5th, 1845. My father was a very systematic man,--and he always spent one or two days every week in private study,--and if he walked into the fields he always carried his Bible with him. He visited with his elders once a year, all the families within the bounds of his congregations,--and he would exhort and pray with them during his stay. He would collect all of his congregations once a year at his churches, and hold an examination of those present. He administered the sacrament at each of his churches twice every year. He spent his life in attempting to convince all of their sins, and in rendering happy those who were members of his congregations,--respected and beloved by all who knew him. During the Revolution, the Lord God Almighty thought proper to remove this venerable man, whose influence will always be acknowledged with pleasure; and he departed this life January 20th, 1781, leaving a wife and seven children. Two weeks after his death, the British encamped in the yard of the Red House church. They remained there some time, going about over the country, committing many depredations upon all the neighbors. And my father's long ministerial services did not free him from their ravages, but they came to his house and searched it throughout, destroying many things, and also many of his most valuable papers, on account of which,

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the knowledge of my father is so limited, having been absent a greater part of my life at school in Guilford, N. C., under the late Dr. Caldwell, and having arrived at home a few days before the death of my father. During the encampment of the British in the yard of the Red House, they committed many depredations upon the church which were not repaired for many years."

        The visit of the British referred to in this letter, took place, after Green had crossed the Dan, in the memorable retreat before Cornwallis, by which the march of Morgan into Virginia, with the prisoners taken at the Cowpens, was covered, and the American forces placed beyond the reach of the enemy, till reinforcements from Virginia came in, and Greene could venture to face the enemy and provoke the famous battle of Guilford. It is a well-known fact that Cornwallis's army ever showed a dislike to Presbyterian ministers, as the immediate cause of much of the stubborn resistance which met them at every step in Carolina. McAden had rested from his labors before his house was plundered, like Caldwell's; and he was spread the trial of being witness of the miseries of his congregation, and flying, like a criminal, to the forests and the dens of the earth, like his brother, of Guilford.

        Mr. McAden lies buried in the grave-yard, near the Red House, in Caswell county, about five miles from the flourishing town of Milton, the Pioneer in Duplin, New Hanover, Caswell, and Pittsylvania.

THE CHURCHES IN DUPLIN AND NEW HANOVER AFTER HIS DEPARTURE.

        For a long period there was no successor to Mr. McAden in Duplin and New Hanover. The congregations were served only by the precarious and desultory labors of occasional missionaries, and were dwindling away. In 1793, John Robinson was licensed by Orange Presbytery, and directed to labor in Duplin. The mutual interest resulting from his first visit, led to his settlement; and till the close of the century, his successful labors were devoted to the remains of the congregations served by McAden for about ten years. They revived under his ministry. In the year 1800 he removed to Fayetteville.

        The Rev. Samuel Stanford became a member of Orange Presbytery in 1795, and visited the low country before Mr. Robinson left, and became his successor. He extended his labors over the greater part of Duplin as a minister, and conducted a classical chool with success. The Academy at the Grove has been kept

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in operation, with some intermissions, for a long series of years. The pastors that have succeeded Mr. Stanford have been patrons or teachers of a classical school either at the Grove, or near their own residence, and have kept alive the spirit of classical education, without which there is no permanent attention to polite literature, and sound philosophy, and true science. Mr. Stanford wore out his strength and days in the service of the people of Duplin, and finished his course in the year 1828.

        For a few years the Rev. S. D. Hatch labored with great success in Duplin; and left the county for a more southern residence much against the desires of an affectionate people.

        Rev. Alexander McIver ran a short race in Duplin, being arrested by sudden death, in the midst of his days and his usefulness.

        Wilmington had no organized Presbyterian church till long after the Revolution, engaging occasionally the services of well-educated men, who acted in the capacity of classical teachers and ministers of the gospel. Rev. James Tate, a Presbyterian minister, came from Ireland to Wilmington, about the year 1760; and for his support opened a classical school, the first ever taught in the place. He educated many of the young men of New Hanover, who took an active part in the Revolution. While residing in Wilmington, he was accustomed to take excursions for preaching through New Hanover and the adjoining counties, particularly up the Black and South Rivers. In the course of his visits he baptized the children of the Scotch and Irish families, that chose to present them, without any particular inquiry into the Christian experience of the parents, which would perhaps have been unavailing of any good in the destitute condition of the country. It is supposed, however, that he practised upon the principle of admitting to the ordinance the children of all those who had been themselves baptized, if not guilty of scandalous lives. He received a small fee for each baptism, either in money or in cotton yarn; and this appears to have been all his salary and all the remuneration for his journeyings and services.

        During the Revolutionary war, being a staunch whig in his principles, he found it prudent to leave Wilmington and seek a residence in the upper country. He declined all offers to be connected with a congregation; engaged in frequent preachings in destitute neighborhoods desirous of hearing the gospel. He made his home in the Hawfields, in Orange. Courteous in his manners, especially to females, he was never married. Particularly neat in

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his dress, and winning in his conversation, his company was prized by young people; and his influence over them was highly improving to their manners, morals, and mental culture.

        About the year 1770, the first church building was put up on Black River, near where the Black River Chapel now stands.

        About the year 1785, Rev. William Bingham, from Ireland, commenced preaching in Wilmington and the surrounding country. He sustained himself by a classical school, in the management of which he attained great excellence and éclat. He removed to the upper country, and taught with great success in Chatham and in Orange. His mantle, as teacher, fell upon his sons.

        About the year 1790, the Rev. Colin Lindsey, a man of extensive education, fine appearance, and superior talents as a speaker, came over from Scotland on invitation, and settled on Black River, on the place now owned by Mr. Sellars. His stay was short. Difficulties of a moral nature arose; and in about two years he removed to Robeson. Having bought a yoke of oxen on a Saturday, at a sale, he permitted them to be driven home on the Sabbath, alleging as a reason, want of food at the place of sale; a member of his church remonstrating, he expressed strong dissatisfaction at the liberty taken by a private member to reprove the minister. Hard words and hard feelings succeeded; the congregation enlisted, and divided. To this grievance was added a charge of too free use of spirituous liquors, the distinction of a moderate use being admitted; in consequence he removed first to Raft Marsh congregation, and from thence to Bethel. About the year 1802 he was deprived by Presbytery of his authority to preach, and was excommunicated. He continued, however, to preach and baptize whenever opportunity occurred; and further rendered himself obnoxious to the Presbytery of Orange, and the Synod of the Carolinas, by opposing the great revival of 1802. Seizing upon the irregularities that accompanied that extensive work, he denounced the whole as a delusion, and charged his former brethren with fanaticism, and unkind and unrighteous discipline. By his talents and address he obtained many adherents, and greatly resisted the spread of religion, as taught by zealous ministers of the day. A notice of this man appears in the extracts from the records of the Synod of North Carolina for the year 1810. His latter days were unhappy, and in 1832 he died unreconciled to the Presbytery. Little is known of his religious exercises in his last days.

        His wife was of the Hamilton family, so famous in Scotland and

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Ireland. After the difficulties with her husband commenced, she was urged to return to Scotland, but refused. She survived her husband some years; her last days were cheered by the family with whom she resided, by the name of McGlaughlin, whose partiality for the name and race of the Hamiltons was expressed in unremitting attentions to her in her infirmities.

        Early in the year 1798, the Rev. Robert Tate, a licentiate of Orange Presbytery, reared in the Hawfields, about two miles cast of the place of worship, visited New Hanover and Duplin, and became a resident minister. He was ordained in 1799. His preaching-places have been mostly in New Hanover. His first communion was on Rockfish, near where the church now stands. Four persons united with him and his wife, viz.: Timothy Bloodworth and his wife, and Timothy Wilson and his wife. Mr. Bloodworth was much in public life,--collector of the port of Wilmington, and member of Congress from that district. In his old age, he prepared for the ministry, but some pecuniary misfortunes prevented his entrance upon the duties of the office.

        Under Mr. Tate, Rockfish, Keith, and Hopewell sprang up and opened the doors of the sanctuary to a large region of country. The scene of McAden's labors had become a desolation; but the church still lives in New Hanover, and has hope of continuance. Black River congregation was for a long time a sharer of Mr. Tate's ministerial labors. Besides the refreshing influence enjoyed in common with his brethren, in 1802, and for some succeeding years, and various more limited manifestations of divine presence, the congregations generally in New Hanover, were visited, in 1832, with a refreshing influence, which added many to the visible church of Christ, and promoted piety and the life of godliness.

        The laborers in that part of the Lord's vineyard embraced by New Hanover, and Duplin, and Sampson, have great reason to be encouraged, while they labor in the field trod by the first Presbyterian missionaries to Carolina, and hallowed by the sepulchres of the ancient dead. When another century shall have passed, may there be found worthy successors in the ministry, and flourishing churches in the vast Turpentine Region; and may the blessings of grace be as ceaseless to the inhabitants as the flow of their annual temporal wealth.

M'ADEN'S PLACES OF PREACHING WHILE RESIDING IN CASWELL COUNTY.

        Colonel James Smith, of Tennessee, an emigrant from North

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Carolina, and son of Colonel Samuel Smith, one of the founders of Grassy Creek church, in Granville county, in a letter to Dr. Alexander Wilson, of Caldwell Institute, says, "some time between 1755 and 1760, Samuel Bell, with his brothers and son-in-law, Donnell, removed from Pennsylvania, and settled in the forks of Hico. They were strict Presbyterians, and were soon supplied with preaching by a Mr. Black, afterwards by Mr. McAden, from the lower part of the State." It appears that this gentleman was not aware that McAden had previously visited Hico, and found a few families of Presbyterians already there, and that Mr. Pattillo had been invited there in 1758. The emigrants he mentions formed the congregation of Upper Hico (now Greers); from other families Mr. McAden organized Middle Hico (Red House); and from the emigration of the Barnet family and their friends, he gathered Barnet's, or Lower Hico.

        Mr. Smith states that about the time the Bells settled in the forks, Hugh Barnet, his brother, and their friends, seated themselves some fifteen or twenty miles southeast of that settlement, and planted a church, which was frequently called Barnet's, sometimes Criswell's, from their first minister, James Criswell, who was licensed by Hanover Presbytery. This church was sometimes also called Lower Hico, and though it has ceased to have a place in the records of the church, it at one time contained more members than any of the sister churches in the State.

        There was another church in Caswell of long standing, called Bethany, or Rattlesnake, situated on the road from Milton to Yanceyville, near the residence of Mr. George Williamson. It was never under the care of Mr. McAden. For a long time it was a flourishing church, and for a series of years enjoyed the labors of Rev. Ebenezer B. Currie, now (1846) the oldest minister in Orange Presbytery. This church has been divided, and the old place of preaching abandoned; one part of the church and congregation worshipping in Yanceyville, and the other forming the church of Gilead, some five miles southwest of Milton.

        Mr. McAden had another place of preaching, and a church organized near Pittsylvania court-house, in Virginia, on which he regularly attended during his life. May the church now rising in Pittsylvania come up like a phoenix from the ashes of the more ancient and almost forgotten, though once flourishing, congregations.

        The Bell family, says Mr. Smith, early removed from this to Guilford, carrying their attachment to religion and to Presbyterianism

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along with them, and their descendants are to be found there to this day. Two of the sons of Samuel Bell, and the daughter, Donnell, removed to the west, still carrying their attachment to religion and Presbyterianism along with them. The two sons lived to an advanced age. One of them, while on his knees at family prayer, faltered in his voice, and said, "What is this?"--and ceased to breathe. But of this family, says Mr. Smith (many years since), sprung four preachers of strong common sense, full of zeal, and eminent for piety. By this family much has been done for propagating the gospel in Tennessee, Kentucky, Alabama, Mississippi, and the Cherokee nation.

        The Covenant of God stands sure. "I will be a God to thee and thy children after thee."

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CHAPTER XIV.
CHURCH OF SUGAR CREEK--ITS FIRST MINISTER, ALEXANDER CRAIGHEAD.

        THE first Presbyterian minister that took his residence in Western Carolina, and the third in the State, was Alexander Craighead. In what part of Ireland he was born, or in what year he emigrated to America, is not a matter of record. The name of Craighead is of frequent occurrence in the history of the Church of Scotland and of Ireland, and holds an honorable place among the ministry. The tradition in the family of Mr. Craighead, as related by Mr. Caruthers, was, that his father and grandfather, and perhaps his ancestors further back, were ministers of the gospel, strongly attached to the church, and reputed as truly pious. A Mr. Thomas Craighead was among the first ministers of Donegal Presbytery,--a native of Scotland, ordained in Ireland,--emigrating to New England, and there remaining from 1715 to 1721,--uniting with the Presbytery of New Castle in 1724,--he finished his course in 1738.

        The first notice we have of Mr. Alexander Craighead, as member of the Synod of Philadelphia, appears in the record of the Synod for the year 1736, September 16th: "the Presbytery of Donegal report that Mr. Alexander Craighead was last winter ordained to the work of the ministry, and at that time did adopt the Westminster Confession of Faith, &c.; and also, both he and Mr. John Paul, lately from Ireland, having now heard the several resolutions and acts of the Synod in relation to the adopting said Confession, &c., did before the Synod declare their agreement thereunto." In this minute, reference is made to the proceedings of the Synod the previous year respecting the employing of ministers from abroad, requiring of them an express acknowledgment of the Westminster Confession of Faith and Catechisms, before the Presbytery, as condition of admission.

        Being an exceedingly zealous man, of an ardent temperament, devoted to the work of the ministry, he was noted for preaching sermons peculiarly calculated to awaken careless sinners. Anxious for the salvation of men, and dreading the awful consequences of that stupidity on the subject of religion, so apparent around him, he favored those measures for bringing men to Christ which were

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not so acceptable to his brethren in the Presbytery. He was accused of irregularities before his Presbytery in 1740. No immoralities were alleged against him, or false doctrines charged on him; the complaint was against various proceedings of his thought to be irregular. This was about the time of the great revival of religion, which in the course of a few years was felt all over the Protestant world, began to be seen in Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, and the neighboring counties--an account of which from the pen of Samuel Blair is read with unabating interest; and the commencement of those discussions which led to the dismemberment of the Synod of Philadelphia in 1745.

        The Presbytery were unable to make any conclusion of the matter; for while the majority were against him, his vehement appeals to the public turned the sympathies of the community in his favor. The charge of irregularity he rebutted by the recriminating charge of Pharisaism, coldness and formality; and in the ardor of his defence he was not very measured in his epithets and comparisons.

        In the year 1741 the case was carried up to the Synod, and was debated with much earnestness. The great revival in Mr. Blair's congregation in Fagg's Manor had spread to many of the congregations that had previously been unmoved, and the whole community, both religious and irreligious, were agitated, not so much on the subject of doctrines, as of measures, not of orthodoxy in the creed, but of prudence and propriety in the conduct of church matters generally, and the peculiar manner of administering the Word of God, from which error in belief and practice might arise. The case of Mr. Craighead was lost sight of by the action consequent upon the protest brought in by Rev. Robert Cross, signed by himself and eleven ministers and eight elders. The members of New Brunswick Presbytery withdrew, and Mr. Craighead withdrew with them. His name does not appear on the list of either Synod of New York or Philadelphia until the year 1753, when he appears upon the roll of the Synod of New York as an absentee. From the records for 1755, he appears as member of New Castle Presbytery. During the interval from 1745 to 1753, he was for a time an associate with the Cameronians. He was a great admirer of Whitefield's spirit and action; and like the first minister among the Presbyterians in the lower part of the State, James Campbell, drank deeply of the same fountain of truth and love. Like the man they admired, both these ministers possessed the power of moving men; and both left an impress upon the community in which they lived in Carolina, and stamped an image on the churches they gathered, which are

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visible to this day. To all human appearance there has been a great amount of fervent piety among the churches gathered and watered by these men, which has been bequeathed to their descendants from generation to generation, as a precious inheritance of the covenant of faith.

        Previous to the time that Mr. Craighead's name appears upon the roll of the Synod of New York, 1753, he removed to Virginia, probably about the year 1749, and took his residence in the county of Augusta, on the Cow Pasture river, in the bounds of the present Windy Cove congregation. There is upon the minutes of the Philadelphia Synod, in the year 1752, a mention of a Mr. Craighead, the Christian name not given, and the Presbytery with which he held his connection not mentioned.

        Mr. Alexander Craighead's name was enrolled among the members set off for the formation of the Presbytery of Hanover, as appears from the following extract from minutes of the Synod of New York for 1755: "A petition was brought into the Synod setting forth the necessity of erecting a new Presbytery in Virginia, the Synod therefore appoint the Rev. Samuel Davies, John Todd, Alexander Craighead, Robert Henry, John Wright, and John Brown, to be a Presbytery under the name of the Presbytery of Hanover, and that their first meeting shall be in Hanover, on the first Wednesday of December next, and that Mr. Davies open said meeting by a sermon; and that any of their members settling to the southward and westward of Mr. Hogge's congregation, shall have liberty to join said Presbytery of Hanover."

        Owing probably to the troubles in the country, Mr. Craighead did not meet with the Presbytery for some two years after its formation.

        The defeat of Braddock on the 9th of July, 1755, had thrown the frontiers of Virginia at the mercy of the Indians. The inroads of the savages were frequent and murderous. Terror reigned throughout the valley. Mr. Craighead occupying a most exposed situation, his preaching-place being a short distance from the present Windy Cove church, and his dwelling on the farm now occupied by Mr. Andrew Settlington--in a settlement on the Virginia frontier, and open to the incursions of the savages, fled with those of his people who were disposed and able to fly, and sought safety in less exposed situations, after having lived in Virginia about six years. Crossing the Blue Ridge, he passed on to the more quiet regions in Carolina, and found a location among the settlements along the Catawba and its smaller tributaries, in the bounds

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of what is now Mecklenburg county. Mr. Craighead first met with Hanover Presbytery at Cub Creek, Sept. 2d, 1757. At a meeting of the Presbytery in Cumberland, at Capt. Anderson's, January, 1758, Mr. Craighead was directed to preach at Rocky River, on the second Sabbath of February, and visit the other vacancies till the spring meeting. At the meeting of the Presbytery in April, a call from Rocky River was presented for the services of Mr. Craighead. He accepted the call, and requested installation. "Presbytery hereby consent that Mr. Craighead should accept the call of the people on Rocky River, in North Carolina, and settle with them as their minister, and they appoint Mr. Martin to preside at his installation at such time as best suits them both." This appointment Mr. Martin failed to fulfil, and in September, Mr. William Richardson, on his way to the Cherokees, was appointed to perform the duty. This appointment was fulfilled, though the day of the services is not given. From this record it appears that the name of the oldest church in the upper country was Rocky River; and it included Sugar Creek in its bounds. In 1765 the bounds of all the congregations were adjusted by order of the Synod.

        In this beautiful, fertile and peaceful country, Mr. Craighead passed the remainder of his days, in the active duties of a frontier minister of the gospel, and ended his successful labors in his Master's vineyard in the month of March, 1766; the solitary minister between the Yadkin and Catawba.

        In this retired country, too, he found full and undisturbed exercise for that ardent love of personal liberty and freedom of opinion which had rendered him obnoxious in Pennsylvania, and was in some measure restrained in Virginia. He was ahead of his ministerial brethren in Pennsylvania in his views of civil government and religious liberty, and became particularly offensive to the Governor for a pamphlet of a political nature, the authorship of which was attributed to him. This pamphlet attracted so much attention, that in 1743 Thomas Cookson, one of his Majesty's justices, for the county of Lancaster, in the name of the Governor, laid it before the Synod of Philadelphia. The Synod disavowed both the pamphlet and Mr. Craighead; and agreed with the Justice that it was calculated to foment disloyal and rebellious practices, and disseminate principles of disaffection.

        In the State of Virginia to which he removed, the disabilities upon those who dissented from the established government, were ill-suited to the spirit of such a man as Mr. Craighead. To fight with savages, to defend the frontiers, and shield the plantations of

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Eastern Virginia; for men that could not yield to his congregation the privilege of being married according to the ceremonies of the church to which they belonged, and who required of them to support a ministry on whose ordinances, public and private, they would not attend, could not be agreeable to a spirit that longed for all the freedom that belongs to man, and in his aspirations for what he had not seen, and scarcely knew how to comprehend, indulged in latitude of thought and expression alarming even to emigrants from Ireland, whose minds had not been restrained in their speculations about religious and civil liberty.

        In Carolina, he found a people remote from the seat of authority, among whom the intolerant laws were a dead letter, so far divided from other congregations, even of his own faith, that there could be no collision with him, on account of faith or practice; so united in their general principles of religion and church government, that he was the teacher of the whole population, and here his spirit rested. Here he passed his days; here he poured forth his principles of religious and civil government, undisturbed by the jealousy of the government, too distant to be aware of his doings, or too careless to be interested in the poor and distant emigrants on the Catawba.

        Mr. Craighead had the privilege of forming the principles, both civil and religious, in no measured degree, of a race of men that feared God, and feared not labor and hardship, or the face of man; a race that sought for freedom and property in the wilderness, and having found them, rejoiced,--a race capable of great excellence, mental and physical, whose minds could conceive the glorious idea of Independence, and whose convention announced it to the world, in May, 1775, and whose hands sustained it in the trying scenes of the Revolution.

        About the time the emigration from Ireland, through Pennsylvania, began to occupy the beautiful valley of Virginia, and the waters of the Roanoke, some scattered families were found following the Indian traders' path to the wide prairies on the east of the Catawba, and west of the Yadkin. From the similarity of names, in the absence of other proof, it is very probable that these settlements, in the beautiful Mesopotamia of Carolina, were formed from emigrants from the same parts of Ireland that nurtured the youth of the ancestors of the congregation on Opecquon, in Frederick county, in Virginia, and the congregation of the Triple-forks of Shenandoah, in Augusta. These in Virginia were commenced about the year 1737; those in Carolina must have been soon after. By means of the memoranda preserved by the Clark family, that have

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lived more than a century along the Cape Fear river, it is ascertained that a family, if not a company, of emigrants went to the west of Yadkin, as all the upper country was then called, as early as the year 1746, to join some families that were living sequestered in that fertile region. This, the oldest positive date that is now known, indicates a previous settlement, the time of whose arrival cannot be found out, as the records of courts are all silent, and the offices of the foreign landowners were not then opened for the sale of these remote fields and forests.

        The emigrants from Ireland, holding the Protestant faith, the first to leave the place of their birth, for the enjoyment of freedom, in companies sufficient to form settlements, sought the wilds of America by two avenues, the one, by the Delaware River, whose chief port was Philadelphia, and the other, by a more southern landing, the port of Charleston, South Carolina. Those landing at the southern port, immediately sought the fertile forests of the upper country, approaching North Carolina on one side, and Georgia on the other; and not being very particular about boundaries, extended southward at pleasure, while, on the north, they were checked by a counter tide of emigration. Those who landed on the Delaware, after the desirable lands east of the Alleghanies, in Pennsylvania, were occupied, turned their course southward, and were speedily on the Catawba: passing on, they met the southern tide, and the stream turned westward, to the wilderness long known as "Beyond the Mountains;" now, as Tennessee. These two streams, from the same original fountain, Ireland, meeting and intermingling in this new soil, preserve the characteristic difference, the one, possessing some of the air and manner of Pennsylvania, and the other, of Charleston. These are the Puritans, the Roundheads of the South, the Blue-stockings of all countries; men that settled the wilderness on principle, and for principle's sake; that built churches from principle, and fought for liberty of person and conscience as their acquisition, and the birthright of their children.

        Passing along the upper stage route from South Carolina, through the "Old North State," to the "Old Dominion," the traveller is conducted through the pleasant villages of Charlotte, Concord, Salisbury, Lexington, Greensborough, and then either through Hillsborough to the capital of North Carolina, Raleigh, or through Danville or Milton, on to the River of Powhatan. This is the line of settlements of the emigrants from Ireland, as they sought a residence in this beautiful upper country. After passing Charlotte, the first object of importance that meets the eye of one searching for localities, is the plain brick meeting-house, of the Sugar Creek congregation,

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about three miles north of the village. This is the present place of worship of part of the oldest Presbyterian congregation in the upper country, in some measure THE PARENT OF THE SEVEN CONGREGATIONS that formed the Convention in Charlotte, in 1775. The Indian name of the creek, which gave name to the congregation, was pronounced Sugaw or Soogaw, and in the early records of the Church, was written Sugaw; but for many years it has been written according to the common pronunciation, ending the word with the letter r, instead of w. This brick church is the third house of worship used by the congregation; the first stood about half a mile west from this, and the second, a few steps south, the pulpit being over the place now occupied by the pastor's grave.

        Previous to the year 1750, the emigration to this beautiful but distant frontier was slow, and the solitary cabins were found upon the borders of prairies, and in the vicinity of canebrakes, the immense ranges abounding with wild game, and affording sustenance the whole year, for herds of tame cattle. Extensive tracts of country between the Yadkin and the Catawba, now waving with thrifty forests, then were covered with tall grass, with scarce a bush or shrub, looking at first view as if immense grazing farms had been at once abandoned, the houses disappearing, and the abundant grass luxuriating in its native wildness and beauty, the wild herds wandering at pleasure, and nature rejoicing in undisturbed quietness.

        From about the year 1750, family after family, group after group, succeeded in rapid progression, led on by reports sent back by the adventurous pioneers of the fertility and beauty of those solitudes, where conscience was free, and labor all voluntary. By the time that Mr. McAden visited the settlements in 1755 and 1756, they were in sufficient numbers to form a congregation in the centre spot. Many of the early settlers were truly pious, many others had been accustomed to attend upon and support the ordinances of God's house. Intermingled were some that delighted, in these solitudes, to throw off all restraint, and live in open disregard of the ordinances of God, and as far as was safe, in defiance of the laws of man. The pious and the moral united in the worship of God, and formed the congregation of Sugaw Creek, which knew no other bounds than the distance men and women could walk or ride to church, which was often as much as fifteen miles, as a regular thing, and twenty for an occasional meeting.

        At the time of the settlement of Mr. Craighead, the county of Anson extended from Bladen indefinitely west, having been set off

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in 1749, as a separate county. In the year 1762, the county of Mecklenburg was set off from Anson, and took its name in honor of the reigning house of Hanover; and the county seat, in the bounds of Sugaw Creek congregation, and about three miles from the church, was called Charlotte, in honor of the Princess Charlotte of Mecklenburg.

        About the year 1765, by order of the Synod of New York and Philadelphia, the congregations that surround Sugar Creek were organized by the Rev. Messrs. Spencer and M'Whorter, as appears from the Records of Synod as follows:--viz., Elizabethtown, May 23d, 1764,--"Synod more particularly considering the state of many congregations to the southward, and particularly North Carolina, and the great importance of having those congregations properly organized, appoint the Rev. Messrs. Elihu Spencer and Alexander M'Whorter, to go as our missionaries for that purpose; that they form societies, help them in adjusting their bounds, to ordain elders, administer sealing ordinances, instruct the people in discipline, and finally direct them in their after conduct," &c. On the 16th of May, 1765, this committee reported to the Synod that they had performed their mission; this report, however, has not been preserved. But we are not left at a loss for the names of part of the congregations whose bounds they adjusted, as, in that and the succeeding year, calls were sent in for pastors from Steel Creek, Providence, Hopewell, Centre, Rocky River, and Poplar Tent, which entirely surrounded Sugar Creek, besides those in Rowan and Iredell.

        These seven congregations were in Mecklenburg, except a part of Centre which lay in Rowan (now Iredell),--and in their extensive bounds comprehended almost the entire county. From these came the delegates that formed the celebrated convention in Charlotte.

        A visit to the localities of this congregation will reward the traveller.

        Turning westward from this brick church, about half a mile through the woods, you find on a gentle ascent, the first burying ground of this congregation, and probably the oldest in Mecklenburg county. A few rods to the east of the stone wall that surrounds it, stood a log church where Craighead preached, and where were congregated from Sabbath to Sabbath many choice spirits, that having worshipped the God of their fathers, in this wilderness, far from their native land, now sleep in this yard. The house, to its very foundation, has passed away, and with it the generation that

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gathered in it, upon the first settlement of the land. Their deeds remain. The children of that race are passing away too; scarce a man or woman lingers in the flesh; and with them is passing, fast passing to oblivion, the knowledge of things, and men, and deeds, which posterity will fain dig from the rubbish of antiquity, and shall dig for in vain. The generation has passed, without a history, and almost without an epitaph.

        These little breaches you see in the time defying wall, reared by the emigrants around the burial place of their dead, were made by gold diggers, when the excitement first spread over the land upon the discovery, that these adventurous people had lived, and died, and were buried here, ignorant that there was, or could be, in their place of worship and sepulture, any deposit more dear to posterity than the ashes of their ancestors. Entering by the gateway at the north-western corner through which the emigrants carried their dead, a multitude of graves closely congregated, with a few scattered monuments, meet the eye. You cannot avoid the impression, as you move on, that you are walking upon the ashes of the dead; and as you read some of the scanty memorials, reared by affection to mark the burial-places of friends, that you are among the tombs of the first settlers who lie in crowds beneath your feet, without a stone to tell whose body is resting there in expectation of the resurrection.

        The first head-stone, a little distance from the gate, on the right, is inscribed,--"MRS. JEMIMA ALEXANDER SHARPE; born Jan. 9th, 1727: died Sept. 1st, 1797: a widdow 38 years." An elder sister of the secretary of the convention, one of the earliest emigrants to this country, she used to say, that in the early days of her residence here, her nearest neighbor northward was eight miles, and southward and eastward, fifteen; that the coming of a neighbor was a matter of rejoicing; and that her heart was sustained in her solitude by the Doctrines of the Gospel and the Creed of her Church.

        In the southwest corner is an inscription to--JANE WALLIS, who died July 31st, 1792, in the eightieth year of her age,--the honored mother of the Rev. Mr. Wallis, minister of Providence, some fifteen miles south of this place,--the able defender of Christianity against infidelity spreading over the country at the close of the Revolution, like a flood. His grave is with his people.

        Near the middle of the yard is the stone inscribed to the memory of DAVID ROBINSON, who died October 12th, 1808, aged eighty-two,--an emigrant, and the father of the late Dr. Robinson, who served the congregation of Poplar Tent about forty years, and ended his course in December, 1843. It was at a spring on this man's land,

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and near his house, that the congregation of Sugar Creek and Hopewell used to meet and spend days of fasting and prayer together, during the troublesome times of the early stages of the French Revolution. From the peculiar formation of the ravine around the spring, the pious people were willing to believe that it was a place designed of God for his people to meet and seek his face.

        The oldest monument, but not the monument of the oldest grave, is a small stone thus inscribed.

Here Lys the
Body of ROBERT
McKEE, who deceased
October the 19th, 1775,
Aged 73 years.


        Around lie many that were distinguished in the Revolution, without a stone to their graves, and not one with an epitaph that should tell the fact of that honorable distinction. Perhaps the omission may have arisen from the circumstance honorable to the country, that, with few exceptions, the whole neighborhood were noted for privations and suffering, and brave exploits in a cause sacred in their eyes.

        The most interesting grave is at the southeast corner, without an inscription or even a stone or mound to signify that the bones of any mortal are there. It is the grave of the REVEREND ALEXANDER CRAIGHEAD, the first minister of the congregation, and of the six succeeding ones whose members composed the entire convention in Charlotte, in May, 1775. Tradition says that these two sassafras trees, standing, the one at the head, and the other at the foot of the grave, sprung from the two sticks on which, as a bier, the coffin of this memorable man was borne to the grave in March, 1766. Being thrust into the ground to mark the spot temporarily, the green sticks, fresh from the mother stock, took root and grew. Was it an emblem? Were we as superstitious as the people of Europe a hundred years ago, we might read in this and the surrounding congregations, the fulfilment of this mute prophecy. The aspirations for liberty, which were too warm for the province of Pennsylvania or even Virginia, were congenial to the spirits here. When the hearts around him beat with his, Craighead ceased to be "tinged with an uncharitable and party spirit" charged on him in Pennsylvania; and the community which assumed its form under his guiding hand, had the image of democratic republican liberty more fair than any sister settlement in all the south,

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perhaps in all the United States. And his religious creed as to doctrines, and also as to experience, has been the creed of the Presbyterians of Mecklenburg. Soundness of doctrine, according to the Confession of Faith, has been maintained by his congregation at all hazards--and a standard of warm-hearted piety and ardent devotion has been handed down as a legacy from their fathers to succeeding generations to which the church has always looked with kindling desire. Mr. Caruthers tells us, Mr. Craighead was subject, in the latter part of his life, to dejection of spirits. This of course lessened his capability to labor; and may account for the application from Rocky River for supplies in 1761, as he was the only minister in the country.

        Besides this double influence of the man, living and speaking after him, much of his spirit has been inherited by his descendants, and with it the affections of the people. He left two sons, and several daughters. One son, Thomas, licensed in 1778, supplied the congregation of his father for some time; but declining a settlement in North Carolina, he ultimately removed to Tennessee;--an eloquent preacher and warm-hearted man. He died a few years since near Nashville; the latter part of his life rendered less useful by his difference with his brethren on the subject of the agency of the Word in the conversion of men. His third daughter, Rachel, was married to the Reverend David Caldwell of Guilford, whose life has been given to the public by his successor, the Reverend Eli W. Caruthers, and became the mother of Samuel C. Caldwell, whose whole ministerial life, with small exception, was devoted to this, his grandfather's charge. His memorial, testifying to his service for thirty-five years, is near the new brick meeting-house.

        After the removal of Dr. Morrison to Davidson College, a great grandson of Craighead succeeded to his pulpit, John Madison McKnitt Caldwell, the son of S. C. Caldwell, and served them till the year 1845.

        "Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his. Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord, from henceforth, yea, saith the spirit, that they may rest from their labors, and their works do follow them."

        The immediate successor of Mr. Craighead was Joseph Alexander, a connexion of the McKnitt branch of Alexanders, a man of education and talents, of small stature, and exceedingly animated in his pulpit exercises. Licensed by New Castle Presbytery in 1767, in October of that year he presented his credentials to Hanover Presbytery at the Bird church, in Goochland, and accepted a call from

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Sugar Creek. His ordination took place with that of Mr. David Caldwell on March 4th, 1768, at Buffalo. He read his lecture on John, 3d Chapter, 3d to 5th verse, on the third of March, and also his trial sermon on the words--"There is one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus." Mr. Pattello presided at the installation. On the third Friday in May, Mr. Caldwell performed the services of his installation as pastor of Sugar Creek.

        A fine scholar, he, in connection with Mr. Benedict, taught a classical school of high excellence and usefulness. From Sugar Creek he removed to Bullock's Creek, South Carolina, and was long known in the church as a minister and teacher of youth for professional life. A volume of his sermons was given to the public after his death.

        While the Presbyterians were laboring in vain to get a charter for a college, in Charlotte, confirmed by the king, the notorious Fanning offered to get a university of which he himself should be chancellor, and Mr. Joseph Alexander, who was noted as a teacher, should be first professor. But much as the people desired a college and loved Alexander, they could not take one with such a chancellor.

        Returning to the Brick church, we enter the grave-yard by the roadside on the south. The first white stone that meets the eye, marks the grave of S. C. Caldwell, directly beneat the communion table of the log church he long occupied as minister, the spot where he stood when he took his ordination vows, and where he chose to be buried when he should have finished his course. Around the preacher sleeps the congregation who worshipped in the house that stood here during the Revolution. The pastor and people and building are passed away. The children that assembled here, in Revolutionary times, have grown old, and scarcely here and there one remains to tell the history of the exploits and sufferings of the war, and the traditions of the settlement. The man that sleeps in that grave led the flock of his grandfather through the troublesome times that succeeded the Revolution, when the infidelity of France rolled its burning waves with fury across the whole continent.

        Samuel C. Caldwell, the son of David Caldwell of Guilford, and grandson of Alexander Craighead, was licensed to preach the gospel, when but nineteen years of age, by the Presbytery of Orange. Dr. Hall, of Iredell, used his influence, and none knew how to exercise it better with young men, in persuading him to accept the call made by his grandfather's congregation; and preached the ordination sermon on February 21st, 1792, at which time Mr. Caldwell

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became Pastor of Sugar Creek and Hopewell churches. The five years that elapsed between his licensure and ordination had much of it been spent in these congregations; and the success attending his ministry led the people earnestly to desire his settlement. Dr. Hall, in a note to the sermon delivered on the occasion of his ordination, says,--"Under Mr. Caldwell's first ministrations in those congregations, it pleased God to send a reviving time, in consequence of which, there were upwards of seventy young communicants admitted to the Lord's table in one day."

        He resided for a time with David Robinson by the famous Spring; and John Robinson, the son, afterwards pastor of Poplar Tent, pursued his studies for the ministry in the same room with him.

        Being united in marriage with Abigail Bane, the daughter of John M'Knitt Alexander, he took his residence in Hopewell. After her death, which occurred in 1802, leaving him with two motherless children, circumstances occurred which led to his giving up the charge of Hopewell in 1805, and he removed to Sugar Creek, giving three-fourths of his time to Sugar Creek; the other fourth of his labors he expended at Charlottetown for a time; then at Paw Creek till a church was organized, which he relinquished to Mr. Williamson; and then at Mallard Creek till a church was organized there. In 1805 he opened a classical school, which he carried on for years with the approbation of Presbytery, as expressed on their minutes.

        His second wife was a daughter of Robert Lindsay, of Guilford, who bore him nine children.

        Of great self-command, clear in his conception of truth, and plain in his enunciation both in style and manner, amiable in his disposition and manners, kind from his natural feelings, and from the benevolence of the gospel he loved and preached, a lover of the truth, he passed his whole ministerial life, after his ordination, in connection with the prominent congreation that had called him to be pastor. His modesty and mildness might have led an inexperienced or hasty enemy to suppose that he might be easily turned from his purpose, or driven to silence by vehement, clamorous opponents. But the manner in which he met opposition, so kind and yet so entirely unflinching, so willing to do justice to his opponents, and so devoted to the cause of truth and righteousness, made all friends feel that any cause was safe in his hands; and his enemies, that it was easier to attack him than to drive him from his position, or come off honorably from the contest.

        In the infidel controversy which came upon him soon after his settlement, men learned to love him, even if unconvinced by his arguments.

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And when he was harshly charged, because he would not yield his own pulpit and his long accustomed hour of preaching to his people, for the purpose of permitting efforts to be made to divide his congregation, the perfect coolness and unwavering resolution with which he met the assault, tempered the storm to a harmless breeze. He had enough of the cool and calm resolution of his father, David Caldwell, of Guilford, the sixth minister in Carolina, to make him immoveable, when he felt convinced; and enough of the warm heart and ardent piety of his mother, the daughter of Craighead, to make him both lovely and beloved.

        Hall of Iredell came down like a torrent, a storm, a tempest; his friend Wilson, of Rocky River, poured out his common sense views of gospel truth like a steady day's rain; his neighbor and intimate Robinson, of Poplar Tent, was like a summer day with a storm of lightning and thunder rending the oaks; Wallis, of Providence, like a hot sun that melted by its direct rays; while Caldwell, of Sugar Creek, was like the sunshine and showers of April. His people loved him; and felt they could do nothing else. The memory of the righteous is blessed.

        His epitaph was drawn up by his friend Wilson, of Rocky River.

SACRED
to the memory of the late
REV. SAMUEL C. CALDWELL,
who departed this life
Oct. 3d, 1826,
in the 59th year of his age,
and the 35th of his pastoral
office of Sugar Creek Congregation.

His long and harmonious continuance
in that relation
is his best Eulogium.


        The Rev. Hall Morrison, his successor, became the pastor of the church in 1827, and continued for ten years, preaching a fourth part of his time in Charlotte-town. In 1837, he was removed to the Presidential chair of Davidson College.

        His successor was John M. M. Caldwell, the son of S. C. Caldwell and Abigail Bane Alexander, who resigned his office in 1845, and removed to Georgia. A younger son is a minister of the gospel in South Carolina. Who shall say that the covenant of God is not visited from the fathers to the children, in the infinite mercy of God?

        Step a little further into the middle of the yard, under the shade of these old oaks, and you may read on an humble stone, the name of one that will never be forgotten in Carolina, the Chairman of

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the Convention of 1775, and of the Committee of Public Safety that succeeded, and an elder of the church.

ABRAHAM ALEXANDER,
died April 23d, 1786,
Aged 68 years.

"Let me die the death of the
Righteous, and let my last
end be like his."


        That he was a leading magistrate of the county, will be seen, by inspecting the records of the court of Mecklenburg, now in the clerk's office in Charlotte, the county seat.

        As you look round upon the numerous headstones, you perceive that the Alexander family must have been very numerous in the time of the Revolution, and since, in Mecklenburg. Of the same original stock, they were of different degrees of consanguinity. The tradition of their emigration from Ireland to America is singular. Among the emigrations from Scotland to Ireland, and from Ireland to Scotland, during the period intervening 1610 and 1688, to which the Presbyterians were driven as the means of escape from persecution for conscience sake, there was one to Ireland, in which seven brothers of the name of Alexander formed part. Unable to endure the harassing interference which became more and more grievous the few years preceding the Revolution in 1688, many of the ministers being put in prison for holding a fast, and the private members of the church suffering oppressions equally intolerable, they turned their eyes to America. A plan was formed for their transportation to the New World. On the eve of their departure, they sent to Scotland for their old preacher, to baptize their children, and administer the consolations of the gospel. The minister, a faithful and fearless man, came; the families and their effects were embarked, the ordinances of the gospel were administered in quietness, on board the vessel, and with a solemnity becoming the occasion. An armed company, that had been prowling about, came on board, broke up the company, and lodged the minister in gaol. Towards night, the old matron, who had been piously covenanting for her grand-children, addressed the alarmed company, "Men, gang ye awa', tak our minister out o' the jail, and tak him, good soule, with us to Ameriky." Her voice had never been disobeyed. Before morning, the minister was on board, and the vessel out of the harbor. Having no family, the minister cheerfully proceeded on the voyage, and with many prayers and

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thanksgivings, they were landed on the island of Manhattan, where the city of New York now stands. Part of the company remained on Manhattan, and one of their descendants, William Alexander, was known in the war of the Revolution, a Major-General in the American service, and commonly called Lord Sterling, having succeeded to an estate and the title. The others took up their abode for a time in Jersey, and then removed to Pennsylvania. There they intermarried, and mingled with their countrymen, and their descendants, in great numbers, emigrated to the Catawba.

        Families by the name of Alexander were the most numerous in Mecklenburg at the time of the Revolution; next to them was the Harris connexion; these two, with their kindred, embraced at that time about one-third of the county.

        The log meeting-house that stood here, whose foundations you may in part see, the second occupied by the congregation that now worship in that brick house, was the place of worship while Mrs. Jackson, and her son, Andrew, made Sugar Creek their refuge. The widow, an emigrant from Ireland, had buried her husband on the Waxhaw, then claimed by North Carolina, but now within the settled bounds of South Carolina, and, compelled by the sufferings of war, had fled for refuge to Mecklenburg.

        After the fall of Charleston, the British army spread out over the country. Col. Buford, from Bedford, Virginia, moving along the Waxhaw, as he supposed, out of danger, was suddenly set upon by Tarleton, who had been upon his trial. The soldiers were preparing their breakfast, and as the British came in sight, there was much discussion whether they should fight a superior force, or abandon the field to the enemy. It was finally resolved to fight it out to the last, by the determined course of Capt. Wallace, from Rockbridge, Virginia. Tarleton, in his account of the battle, says, that he sent a flag, and proposed a surrender; that, finally, the negotiation was broken off by the two following communications:

1st. From Tarleton to Buford. May 29th, 1780.

        (After making preparations for Buford's surrender in five articles, which, he said, could not be repeated.) "If you are rash enough to reject them, the blood be upon your head."

        2d. The laconic reply of Buford. Waxhaw, May 29th, 1780.

        "Sir,--I reject your proposals, and shall defend myself to the last extremity.

"I have the honor to be,

"ALEX. BUFORD, Col."


        The event of the battle is well known. Before night, the Waxhaw

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haw meeting-house was a hospital, and Buford's regiment killed, wounded, or dispersed. The females and children fled to escape the ravaging track of the relentless enemy. Mrs. Jackson took up her abode with her two children, in Sugar Creek congregation, with widow Wilson, and remained a part of the summer.

        This brave woman, and two of her sons, perished in the war, and left her youngest son a solitary member of the family. Her death was occasioned by a fever, brought on by a visit to Charleston, to carry necessaries to some friends and relations on board the prisonship, whose deplorable sufferings, she, with four or five other ladies, was permitted to relieve. On her way home, she was seized with the prison fever, and soon ended her days. Somewhere between what was then called "Quarter-house" and the city of Charleston is her unknown grave.

        Men have often wondered how her son Andrew, in his most thoughtless days, always treated a faithful minister of the gospel so respectfully; and why, after encouraging his wife in a religious life, he himself should, in his age, become a member of the Presbyterian church. The cause is found laid deep in his childhood. His mother was a member of the Waxhaw congregation, and he had seen and felt the influence of faithful ministers when a child.

        Turning towards the middle of the yard, you may read the simple memorial of Mrs. Flinn, the widowed mother of the Rev. Andrew Flinn, D.D., who held an eminent place among the clergy of North and South Carolina, whose childhood was passed in Sugar Creek.

        Along this great road that passes this yard and house, the British forces pursued the armed band that had been collected for the temporary defence of Charlotte; and a little beyond that hill, fell Major Locke, and a little further on, Graham was wounded. Near by, lives Aunt Susy, who, with her mother, watched and trembled over him the night he lay exhausted after that sad day's encounter, when, as the British historian says, "that company of horsemen behind the Court-house, kept in check the whole British army."

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CHAPTER XV.
HOPEWELL, AND THE RECORDS OF THE CONVENTION.

        TEN miles west from Davidson College, and two east from the Catawba River, in Mecklenburg county, stands Hopewell church. Entering near the northwest corner, on the north side of the burying ground which lies a little south of the church, and going diagonally to the middle of the yard, you will find a low gravestone, on the top of which are sculptured two drawn swords, and beneath them the motto, Arma Libertatis. The inscription is--

In
Memory
of
FRANCIS BRADLEY,
A friend of his country,
and privately slain
by the enemies of his
country, Nov. 14th,
1780, aged 37 years.


        Tradition says that this man was the largest and stoutest man in the country--hated by the few tories--and much desired as a prisoner by the British officers, for the activity and energy with which he harassed their scouts and foraging parties, and the fatal aim of his gun in taking off their sentries, particularly while the army lay at Charlotte.

        On the day of his death, seeing four tories lurking near his house, he took his gun and went to capture them, or drive them from his neighborhood. A scuffle ensued, in which one of the tories succeeded in wresting his gun from his hand, and with it gave him a fatal wound.

        Near by this stone you may observe a brick wall about six feet long, and two feet high, without any inscription: that is upon the grave of GENERAL DAVIDSON, who fell by the rifle-shot of a tory, at Cowan's Ferry, a few miles distant from this place, as he was resisting the crossing of the British army, in 1781, when Morgan and Green were conveying the prisoners, taken at the Cowpens, to Virginia, for safe keeping. After the army of the enemy had

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passed on, his friend Captain Wilson, whose grave is near by, found him plundered and stripped of every garment; laying him across his horse, he brought him hastily by night to this place of sepulture.

        Congress voted a monument to this man--most beloved in his county--a sacrifice to the public welfare. But the resolution has slept on the records of the Congress,--and the grave of the general is without an inscription.

        The college, patronized by his children and friends, bears his name, and is rising in usefulness and reputation.

        By the cast wall is a row of marble slabs, all bearing the name of Alexander. On one is this short inscription:--

John McKnitt Alexander,
who departed this life July 10th, 1817.
Aged 84.


        This is upon the grave of the Secretary of the Convention in Charlotte, in 1775. By his side rests his wife, JANE BANE.

        At a little distance southwardly is the grave of the late pastor of this congregation, JOHN WILLIAMSON.

        Ephraim Brevard, the penman of the Declaration, and Hezekiah Alexander, the clearest-headed magistrate of the county, sleep in this yard in unknown graves.

        Hopewell and Sugar Creek are contemporaries in point of settlement, though, in church organization, Sugar Creek has the preeminence. The families were from the same original stock in the North of Ireland; some were born in Pennsylvania, and some only sojourned there for a time; they were connected by affinity and consanguinity; and more closely united by mutual exposures in the wilderness, and the ordinances of the gospel, which were highly prized.

        Scattered settlements were made along the Catawba, from Beattie's to Mason's Ford, some time before the country became the object of emigration to any considerable extent, probably about the year 1740. As the extent and fertility of the beautiful prairies became known, the Scotch-Irish, seeking for settlements, began to follow the traders' path, and join the adventurers in this southern and western frontier. By 1745, the settlements, in what is now Mecklenburg and Cabarrus counties, were numerous; and about 1750, and onward for a few years, the settlements grew dense for a frontier, and were uniting themselves into congregations,

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for the purpose of enjoying the ministrations of the gospel in the Presbyterial form. The foundations for Sugar Creek, Hopewell, Steel Creek, New Providence, Poplar Tent, Rocky River Centre, and Thyatira, were laid almost simultaneously: Rocky River was most successful in obtaining a settled pastor. The others received the church organization and bounds during the visit of Rev. Messrs. McWhorter and Spencer, sent by the Synod of Philadelphia for that purpose, in the year 1764. Missionaries began to traverse the country very early, sent out by the Synod of Philadelphia, and the different Presbyteries of New Brunswick, New Castle, and Donegal.

        The enterprising settlers, inured to toil, were hardy and long lived. The constitutions that grew up in Irelard and Pennsylvania seemed to gather strength and suppleness from the warm climate and fertile soil of their new abodes. Most of the settlers lived long enough to witness the dawning of that prosperity that awaited their children. They sought the union of liberty, and property, and religious privilege for their posterity. Year after year were "supplications" sent to Pennsylvania and Jersey for ministers, or missionaries, and effort after effort was made to retain these visitors as settled pastors, but all in vain, previously to 1756; when the troubles from the Indian war, called Braddock's war, united with the wishes of the people, and three Presbyterian ministers were settled in Carolina in that year, or preparations were made for their settlement--Craighead, and M'Aden, and Campbell. Those were days of log cabins and plain fare, when carriages were unknown, and the sight of wheels was an era in the settlements. "That man was the first that crossed the Yadkin with wheels," designated the man in whose house the first court in Mecklenburg was held.

        "Times are greatly altered," said old Mr. Alexander some thirty years ago, on a summer evening, to the Rev. Alexander Flinn, D.D., of Charleston, South Carolina, who came to visit his venerated benefactor, in his carriage, with his wife and servants, "times are greatly altered, Andy, since you went to college in your tow cloth pantaloons," said the old man, with a welcome of gladness mingled with fear, lest the simplicity of his youth had been perverted in that flourishing city.

        And times were greatly altered with both, since their youth, when the one came to Mecklenburg just "out of his time," and the other left his widowed mother under the patronage of his friend, to enter upon a college life. Both commenced life in honorable

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poverty,--both were enterprising in a young country,--and both were eminently successful in that course of life in which choice, and providential circumstances, had led them to put forth their strength.

        John McKnitt Alexander, descended from Scotch-Irish ancestors, was born in Pennsylvania, near the Maryland line, in 1733. Having served his apprenticeship to the tailor's trade, he followed the tide of his kinsmen and countrymen, who were then seeking an abode beyond the Yadkin, in the pastures of the deer and buffalo. The emigrants, a church-going and church-loving people in the "green isle," carried to their new home all the habits and manners of their mother, the wild and strange residence in Carolina permitted. A church-going people are a dress-loving people. The sanctity and decorum of the house of God are inseparably associated with a decent exterior; and the spiritual, heavenly exercises of the inner man are incompatible with a defiled and tattered, or slovenly mein. All regular Christian assemblies cultivate a taste for dress, and none more so than the hardy pioneer settlers of Upper Carolina, and the valley and mountains of Virginia. In their approach to the King of Kings, in company with their neighbors, the men, resting from their labors, washed their hands and shaved their faces, and put on their best and carefully preserved dress. Their wives and daughters, attired in their best, as they assembled at the place of worship, were the more lovely in the sight of their friends. The privations of the new settlement were for a time forgotten; and the greetings at the place of assemblage, from Sabbath to Sabbath, or whenever they could assemble to hear the gospel, spoke the commingled feelings of friendship and religion.

        The young tailor knew the spirit of his countrymen, and came to seek his fortune with the poor, but spirited and enterprising people. Few of them had much money, and many of them had none. In paying for their lands, the skins of the deer and buffalo that had fed them, were taken on pack-horses to Charleston and Philadelphia, as the most ready means of obtaining the necessary funds. Years necessarily passed before the cattle and horses they took with them to the wild pastures were multiplied sufficiently for home consumption or for traffic; about the time of the Revolutionary war, they constituted the available means, the wealth of the country, as cotton has been in years past.

        The young man brought his ready made clothes, and cloths to be made to order, and trafficked with his countrymen, transporting

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his peltry on horseback to the city, and returning with a fresh supply of goods, till the droves of cattle and horses taken to the markets, supplied the inhabitants with silver and gold for their necessary uses. In about five years, in the year 1759, he married JANE BANE, from Pennsylvania, of the same race with himself, and settled in Hopewell congregation. His permanent abode has been known by the name of Alexandriana. Prospered in his business, he soon became wealthy, and an extensive landholder, and rising in the estimation of his fellow citizens, was promoted to the magistracy, and the eldership of the Presbyterian church, the only church between the two rivers. Shrewd, enterprising, and successful, a man of principle and inspiring respect,--in less than twenty years from his first crossing the Yadkin, he was agitating with his fellow citizens of Mecklenburg, the rights of persons, of property, and conscience,--and resisting the encroachments of the king, through his unprincipled and tyrannical officers, that oppressed, without fear and without restraint, the inhabitants of Upper North Carolina.

        In less than one quarter of a century after the first permanent settlement was formed in Mecklenburg, men talked of defending their rights, not against the Indians, but the officers of the crown; and took those measures that eventuated in the CONVENTION of May 20th, 1775, to deliberate on the crisis of their affairs. Of the persons chosen to meet in that assembly, one was a Presbyterian minister, Hezekiah James Balch, of Poplar Tent; seven were known to be Elders of the Church--Abraham Alexander, of Sugar Creek, John McKnitt Alexander and Hezekiah Alexander, of Hopewell, David Reese, of Poplar Tent, Adam Alexander and Robert Queary, of Rocky River (now in the bounds of Philadelphia), and Robert Irwin, of Steel Creek; two others were elders, but in the deficiency of church records, their names not known with certainty, but the report of tradition is, without variation, that nine of the members were elders, and the other two are supposed to have been Ephraim Brevard and John Pfifer. Thus ten out of the twenty-seven were office-bearers in the church; and all were connected with the congregations of the Presbyteries in Mecklenburg.

        The Declaration issued by this Convention is the admiration of the present generation, and will be of generations to the end of time,--THE FIRST DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE IN NORTH AMERICA. At a hasty view, this declaration made by a colony on the western frontier of an American province, may seem rash and

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unreasonable; but when the race and the creed of the people, and their habits, are taken into consideration, we wonder at their forbearance; this classic declaration expressed a deep settled purpose, which the ravages of the British army, in succeeding years, could not shake.

        Neither the Congress of the United Provinces, then in session, nor the Congress of the Province of North Carolina, which assembled in August of the same year, were prepared to second the declaration of Mecklenburg; though the latter appointed committees of safety in all the counties, similar to the committee in Mecklenburg. The papers of the Convention were preserved by the secretary, John McKnitt Alexander, till the year 1800, when they were destroyed, with his dwelling, by fire. But the Rev. Humphrey Hunter and General Graham, who both had heard the Declaration read on the 20th of May, 1775, had obtained copies, which have been preserved, and Mr. Alexander gave one himself to General Davie some time previously to the fire.

        Judge Cameron, of Raleigh, President of the State Bank, who was for many years a practising lawyer in the Salisbury District, and afterwards a judge, says that he was well acquainted with Mr. Alexander, who was frequently brought to court as a witness in land cases, having been for many years a crown surveyor in Mecklenburg. There was little regularity in taking up lands; and claims were found to clash, and frequent lawsuits were the conseqence, and Mr. Alexander was appealed to for bounds and lines. Being a sensible and social, dignified man, an acquaintance commenced which was ended only by the death of Mr. Alexander. The Judge says that the matters of a revolutionary nature were frequently the subject of conversation; and among others, the circumstances of the Declaration. Some time after the fire that consumed Mr. Alexander's dwelling and many of his valuable papers, he met the old man in Salisbury. Referring to the fire, Mr. Alexander lamented the loss of the original copy of that document, but consoled himself by saying, that he had himself given a copy to General Davie some time before, which he knew to be correct; so, says he, "the document is safe." That copy is in the hands of the present governor of North Carolina; and is in part the authority for the copy given in the first chapter of this work. The copies of Hunter and Graham rest upon the honor of those two unimpeachable men. Happily, they entirely agree with the copy given to General Davie, as far as that has been preserved.

        The last interview the Judge had with Mr. Alexander was in

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Salisbury. Nearly blind with age and infirm, he was brought down to the court as an evidence in a land case. The venerable old man sat in the bar-room, listening to the voices of the company, as they came in. "Is that you, Cameron?" said he, as the sound of his voice fell upon his ear, "I know that voice, though I cannot well see the man." Infirm, he was dignified: with white hair and almost sightless eyes, his mental powers remained. The past and the future were to him more than the present; in the one he had acted his part well, in the other he had hope; but the present had lost its beauty. He recounted, in the course of the interviews he had with the Judge, during the intervals of court, the events of the Revolution, particularly those in which Mecklenburg took the lead, and referred to the copy of the Declaration he had given to Davie as being certainly correct.

        Mr. Alexander, as an elder in the Presbyterian church, was frequently appointed by the Synod of the Carolinas, during the twenty-four years the two States were associated ecclesiastically, on important business for the Synod, and for a number of years was its treasurer. Of undoubted honesty, and unquestioned religion, he finished his earthly existence at the advanced age of fourscore and one years.

        The reason for the obscurity in which the proceedings of the Convention in Charlotte were for a time buried may be found in the facts,--first, the county in which they took place was far removed from any large seaport, or trading city; was a frontier, rich in soil, and productions, and men, but poor in money,--with no person that had attracted public notice, like the Lees and Henry, of Virginia, for eloquence,--or like Ashe, of their own distant seaboard, for bravery,--or like Hancock, of Massachusetts, for dignity in a public assembly,--or Jefferson, for political acumen: and, second, the National Declaration in 1776, with the war that followed, so completely absorbed the minds of the whole nation, that efforts of the few, however patriotic, were cast into the shade. In the joy of National Independence, the particular part any man, or body of men, may have acted, was overlooked; and in the bright scenes spread out before a young Republic, the Colonial politics shared the fate of the soldiers and officers that bore the fatigues and endured the miseries of the seven years' war. Men were too eager to enjoy Liberty, and push their speculations to become rich, to estimate the worth of those patriots, whose history will be better known by the next generation, and whose honors will be duly appreciated.

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        Some publications were made on this subject in the Raleigh Register in 1819, and for a time public attention was drawn to the subject in different parts of the country. About the year 1830, some publications were made, calling in question the authenticity of the document, as being neither a true paper, nor a paper of a true convention. Dr. Joseph McKnitt Alexander, inheriting the residence, and much of the spirit of his father, the secretary, felt himself moved to defend the honor of his parent, and the noble men that were associated in the county of Mecklenburg. Letters were addressed to different individuals who either had taken a part in the spirited transactions of 1775, or had been spectators of those scenes that far outstripped in patriotic daring the State at large, or even the Congress assembled in Philadelphia. The attention of all the survivors of Revolutionary times was awaked; their feelings were aroused; and they came on all sides to the rescue of those men who had pledged "their lives, their fortunes, and their most sacred honor."

        The Rev. Humphrey Hunter, who had preached in Steel Creek many years, within a few miles of Charlotte, and for a number of years in Unity and Goshen, in Lincoln, a short distance from the residence of Mr. Alexander, sent to the son a copy of the Declaration, together with a history of the Convention, of which he was an eye-witness. General Graham, who had grown up near Charlotte, had been high-sheriff of the county, and was an actor in the Revolution, and an eye-witness of the Convention, did the same. From their accounts, the historical relation in the first chapter of this volume was taken. Captain Jack, who carried the declaration to Philadelphia, gave his solemn asservation of the facts, as an eye-witness of the Convention, and as its messenger to Congress. John Davidson, a member of the Convention, gave his solemn testimony, writing from memory, and not presenting any copy of the doings, but asserting the facts and general principles of the Convention. The Rev. Dr. Cummins, who had been educated at Queen's Museum, in Charlotte, and was a student at the time of the Convention, affirmed, that repeated meetings were held in the hall of Queen's Museum, by the leading men in Mecklenburg, discussing the business to be brought before the convention when assembled. Colonel Polk, of Raleigh, who was a youth at the time, and who repeatedly read over the paper to different circles on that interesting occasion, affirmed and defended the doings of his father, at whose call, by unanimous consent, the delegates assembled. Many, less known to the public, sent their

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recollections of the events of 19th and 20th of May. A file of New York papers, published during the Revolution, gives the declaration and doings of May 30th, in which independence is asserted in language as strong as in the paper of the 20th, and the civil government of Mecklenburg was arraigned, a government that was paramount till after the meeting of the first North Carolina Provincial Congress. A file of Massachusetts papers, printed at the same time, gives the same documents. Relying on these affirmations and documents, the son rested securely for his father's honor, and the honest fame of his compeers. By the order of the legislature of North Carolina, these facts and assertions were made a public document. There remains not a man at this day, who saw the assembly of delegates in Mecklenburg. Happily, the son collected the evidences of his father's political honor, before the witnesses had all passed to the land where the truth needs no such evidence, and had joined the band of immortal patriots.

        The names of the persons composing the convention, as given in the State documents collected by Dr. J. McKnitt Alexander, are as follows:

  • Abraham Alexander--Chairman.
  • John McKnitt Alexander--Secretary.
  • Ephraim Brevard--Secretary.
  • Rev. Hezekiah J. Balch,
  • John Pfifer,
  • James Harris,
  • William Kennon,
  • John Ford,
  • Richard Barry,
  • Henry Downe,
  • Ezra Alexander,
  • William Graham,
  • John Queary,
  • Hezekiah Alexander,
  • Adam Alexander,
  • Charles Alexander,
  • Zaccheus Wilson, jun.,
  • Waightstill Avery,
  • Benjamin Patton,
  • Matthew McClure,
  • Neill Morrison,
  • Robert Irwin,
  • John Flenniken,
  • David Reese,
  • John Davidson,
  • Richard Harris, jun.,
  • Thomas Polk.

        In searching his father's papers that escaped the fire, he came across another document of exceeding value, in the handwriting of Ephraim Brevard, the draughtsman of the Declaration, giving, under the name of Instructions to the Members of the Provincial Congress in 1775, the ideas of civil and religious liberty held by these patriotic men. This paper is given in full in the third chapter, and gives an opportunity of judging whether the views of

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liberty held by these have or have not had the sanction of the people of the United States.

        A friend that knew the son, gives the following obituary notice: "Died, on the 17th ultimo (Nov., 1841), at Alexandria, the time-honored seat of his ancestors, in Mecklenburg county, N. C., Dr. J. McKNITT ALEXANDER, in the 67th year of his age.

        "Dr. Alexander was an alumnus of Princeton College in its palmiest days. He had early developed indications of not only genius and talents, but the highest attributes of intellect, sound judgment and profound thinking. One of the usages of the enlightened, estimable, and Christian community in which he was reared, was, that each family should educate one son and devote him to the service of the Church. In accordance with this excellent usage, it was determined by his parents that the natural endowments of Joseph should receive the culture and finish of a thorough collegiate education, and the school at Princeton was selected for the purpose. Here erudition and science matured the germs of usefulness and distinction, which had in his boyhood given such high promise of a fruitful harvest. He graduated with éclat, and returned to his native home--not, as had been fondly hoped by his pious parents to engage in the study of divinity, and to consecrate himself to the holy ministry. This, their cherished expectation, to their bitter disappointment, was never realized. He studied medicine under a distinguished preceptor, and after becoming thoroughly indoctrinated in the "æsculapian mysteries," engaged in the practice of physic, from which he acquired not only professional reputation but wealth and even affluence. The pure duties of humanity imposed upon him by his profession, were ever performed with punctuality and cheerfulness, and throughout his long life, no citizen had a more enviable character for integrity, public spirit, and private virtue. He was distinguished for his practical judgment and plain common sense--a trait the more remarkable as it was accompanied in him with the scintillations of genius and the sprightliness of a vigorous imagination. He thought quick, yet deep and accurately. What others found by pains-taking, search and tedious investigation, he obtained intuitively. To look at a subject at all, was to penetrate it with an eagle's glance, to touch was to dissect, to handle was to unravel. He wrote well, yet his productions possessed few of the embellishments of art and none of the ornaments of style, though always enlivened and brilliant from the flashes of a true and innate eloquence."

        "Doctor Alexander, though a child of the church, and the son of

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the most exemplary and pious parents, had passed the meridian of life before he became a professor of religion. Does the pride of intellect or the glitter of human learning lead us to doubt the truth of divine revelation? The avalanche of infidelity, put in motion about the period of the Doctor's maturity by Montesquieu, Voltaire, Diderot, D'Alembert, Buffon, and Rousseau, threatened to extinguish the best hopes of man, and deluge our sin ruined world with a cold and cheerless scepticism. The infection of this poison may have temporarily obliterated the lessons of his youth, or weakened their influence upon his principles; it was never able, however, to seduce him from the paths of virtue. His purity, his probity, his honor remained unscathed by the lightning of the French philosophy. It may for a time have diverted his attention from spiritual things, but when ambition became chastened by age, in the maturity of his intellect, and at a period of life most favorable for a calm and deliberate examination of the great truths of the Christian's Bible, and the Christian's faith, and the Christian's hope, he believed that Bible, he exercised that faith, he was animated by that hope. He became a worshipper of the God of his fathers, connected himself with the Presbyterian church, and continued through life, until the infirmities of old age prevented, to be active in the promotion of its interests, in alleviating and ameliorating the condition of men."


                         "Beyond the flight of time,
                         Beyond the vale of death,
                         There surely is some blessed clime
                         Where life is not a breath."

        After its organization, in 1765, Hopewell was for a time associated with Centre in maintaining the ordinances of the gospel. But at the time that Rev. S. C. Caldwell was called to the church and congregation of Sugar Creek, this church united in the call, and afterwards engaged the pastoral services of that faithful man, till 1805, when he removed from their bounds, and gave up the care of the church.

        During the time of Mr. Caldwell's ministry, the two sessions of the churches under his care, feeling the pressure that was upon them, formed a union for mutual help. The following paper reveals the spirit.

        "May 15th, 1793. The Sessions of Sugar Creek and Hopewell had a full meeting on the central ground, at Mr. Mons. Robinson's, and entered into a number of resolutions, as laws for the government of both churches."

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        "NORTH CAROLINA, MECKLENBURG COUNTY,
May 5th, 1793.

        "We, the Sessions of Sugar Creek and Hopewell congregations, having two separate and distinct churches, sessions and other officers for the peace, convenience, and well-ordering of each society, and all happily united under their present pastor, Samuel C. Caldwell, yet need much mutual help from each other in regard of our own weakness and mutual dependence, and also in regard to our enemies from without. Therefore, in order to make our union the more permanent, and to strengthen each other's hands in the bonds of unity and Christian friendship, have, this 15th day of May, 1793, met in a social manner, at the house of Mons. Robinson. Present, Robert Robinson, Sen., Hezekiah Alexander, Wm. Alexander, James Robinson, Isaac Alexander, Thomas Alexander, and Elijah Alexander, elders in Sugar Creek. John M'Knitt Alexander, Robert Crocket, James Meek, James Henry, Wm. Henderson, and Ezekiel Alexander, elders in Hopewell, who, after discussing generally several topics, proceeded to choose Hezekiah Alexander chairman, and J. M.'Knitt Alexander, clerk, and do agree to the following resolves and rules, which we, each for himself, promise to observe." (Then follow five resolutions respecting the management of the congregations, as it regards the support of their ministers, inculcating punctuality and precision; and also respecting a division of the Presbytery of Orange into two Presbyteries.)

        Then follow eight permanent laws and general rules for each Session. The 1st concerns the manner of bringing charges against a member of the church, that it "shall be written and signed by the complainant," and that previous to trial, all mild means shall be used to settle the matter.

        "2d. As a church judicature we will not intermeddle with what belongs to the civil magistrate, either as an officer of State, or a minister of justice among the citizens. The line between the church and state being so fine, we know not how to draw it, therefore we leave it to Christian prudence and longer experience to determine."

        The other resolutions are all found in the Confession of Faith, in their spirit, in the rules given for the management of a single session, with this exception, that it was determined that in this joint session, "A quorum to do business shall not be less than a Moderator and three Elders;" and that in matters of discipline there shall be "no non liquet votes permitted."

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        This union of the sessions was productive of most happy consequences to the two congregations, particularly during the struggle with French infidelity, and had the effect to preserve the spirit of Presbyterianism, and of sound principles, and free religion.

        The elders were jealous of any intermingling of Church and State, even in the proceedings of sessions, and endeavored to keep both civil and religious freedom, entirely separating political and ecclesiastical proceedings as completely as possible. All the difficulty probably arose from the fact that some of the elders were magistrates, and they feared lest, in the public estimation, or their own actions, the two offices might be blended in their exercise.

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CHAPTER XVI.
HENRY PATTILLO, AND THE CHURCHES IN ORANGE AND GRANVILLE COUNTIES.

        IN the year 1751, the Rev. Samuel Davies, then residing in Hanover, Virginia, made an excursion for preaching, to the Roanoke. In the course of his journeyings, he became acquainted with Henry Pattillo, then a young man desirous of commencing his studies in preparation for the gospel ministry, and invited him to come and commence his course with him in Hanover. This invitation Mr. Pattillo at first declined, as he had engaged to go to Pennsylvania with another young man, and commence his studies under the care and tuition of the Rev. Mr. John Thomson, who was at this time in Carolina on a mission to the new settlements.

        In the year 1744, in compliance with a "representation from many people in North Carolina--showing their desolate condition, and requesting the Synod to take their condition into consideration, and petitioning that we would appoint one of our number to correspond with them,--Mr. Thomson, of Donegal Presbytery, was appointed by the Synod to correspond with them. He was at this time on a visit to these petitioners, and others in Carolina. Mr. Pattillo had once set out for Pennsylvania in the year 1750, but was seized by a pleurisy before he had proceeded half a day's journey, under the influence of which he labored the greater part of the winter following. Of course his journey to Pennsylvania was given up. While waiting in the summer of 1751 for Mr. Thomson's return from Carolina, the young man who had engaged to go on with him to Pennsylvania, abandoned the design of preparing for the ministry. Mr. Pattillo then determined to accept the invitation of Mr. Davies, and on the first of August, 1751, arrived at his house in Hanover, and "had a kind welcome."

        On the 10th of August, 1754, while residing with Mr. Davies, he commenced a journal, a part of which remains, the last date being June 13th, 1757. He gives the following reasons for commencing the journal: 1st (the beginning of the sentence is wanting)--"My growth or decay in the divine life, and thus the blessing of God be actuated accordingly. 2dly, I shall thereby more accurately observe

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the workings of my own heart, and the methods the Lord may take for my reclamation in my strayings from him. 3dly, This may, through the divine blessing, have a tendency to promote my watchfulness and diligence, seeing I shall have a daily sentence against myself constantly before me, which I hope may tend to promote my humiliation. 4thly, By observing the dealings of God with myself, I may be the better enabled to deal with others, especially if the Lord shall carry me through learning, and call me to the work of the ministry. 5thly, To mention no more, it may be of service to me in giving an account of my state godward, if ever I should come on trial for the ministry." He then proceeds to give some account of himself from his birth up to that time. From the fragments which remain, the following facts are gathered.

        Born in Scotland, of pious parents, who were well situated in point of religious privileges, he was early placed with a merchant to learn the duties of the counting-house. Providentially removed from the situation in which he was placed, he was induced to seek for better things in the Province of Virginia, a region to which many young Scotchmen turned their eyes with empty pockets, and hearts full of hope. Here he engaged with a merchant for a time, and felt in his absence from religious instructions and restraints the overcoming power of temptation, which for a time prevailed over his early instructions and pious resolutions. Leaving the counting-house, he commenced the employment of a teacher of children; and while thus engaged his own reflections led him to painful and alarming convictions of sin. He describes his state of mind thus: "On the commission of sin, after I conceived the Almighty had partly forgot it, or his anger somewhat abated, I would go and confess it with many tears, and thus got ease--encompassing myself with sparks of my own kindling. But I was taught by a book I got about this time, that I must go farther yet, and enter into special covenant with God. Well, after this I felt pretty secure, till, by the kind province of God, I was brought to a congregation of Presbyterians, where I had good books and preaching pretty frequently." The effect of preaching, however, was not to human appearance of much effect, except to make him see the inconsistency of his course. After remaining a year in this congregation, he removed to another and opened his school. Of his exercises of mind and heart he thus writes: "Here, by what means I cannot tell, it being so gradual, I got such astonishing views of the method of salvation, and of the glorious Mediator; such sweetness in the duties of religion; such a love to the ways of God; such an entire

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resignation to and acquiescence in the divine will; such a sincere desire to see men religious, and endeavor to make those so with whom I conversed, that after all my base ingratitude, dreadful backslidings, broken vows, frequent commission of sin, loss of fervor, and frequently lifeless duties since that time, I must, to the eternal praise of boundless free grace, esteem it a work of the Holy Spirit, and the finger of God."

        Prayer became "his very breath," and he engaged in it as often as three or four times a day; meditations on divine things filled his heart with joy. "I used, when alone, to speak out in meditation, and do esteem it an excellent medium to fix the heart on the work." He goes on to say about the continuance of his exercises: "Thus I went on my way rejoicing and serving God for the space of a year and a half; I was generally full of warmth, nor could I take the Bible or any religious book into my hand but I would find something suited to the present state of my soul, and in my prosperity I thought I should never be moved."

        He notices an error he fell into about this time,--judging others' experience too much by its agreement or disagreement with his own--his intercourse with men led him to judge more favorably of his fellow professors, "having learned not to make my own experience a standard for others, nor confine the Almighty to one particular way of bringing his children to himself."

        His desire to bring men to Christ led him to frequent efforts in private to convince and persuade; and from being thus engaged in private, he desired to be able to preach the everlasting gospel to all men. "I can boast of but little success in these endeavors, yet my feeble attempts produced in me an indescribable desire of declaring the same to all mankind to whom I had access; and as I could not do this in a private station, I was powerfully influenced to apply to learning in order to be qualified to do it publicly."

        In consequence of this desire he prepared to go to Pennsylvania to commence his studies, but was prevented by sickness; and, eventually, in the year 1751, went to reside with the Rev. Samuel Davies in Hanover. With that eminent man he pursued his studies till his voyage to England in the service of Princeton College; and after his return, till the time of his licensure, which took place at Cub Creek, then in Lunenburg county, Sept. 29th, 1758. The certificate signed by Samuel Davies, Moderator, and John Todd, Clerk, is preserved, though in a mutilated condition; its wording is some-what different from the form now used, as for instance--"he having declared his assent to, and approbation of, the Westminster Confession

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of Faith and Directory, as they have been adopted by the Synod of New York, agreeably to the practice of the Church of Scotland," &c.

        During his residence in Hanover, he was sustained in part by the kindness of friends, and in part by spending some hours each day in teaching, till the time of his marriage to a Miss Anderson, which event took place in 1755. From that time till his course of studies was completed he was sustained by teaching children, and by the resources of his wife, living, as he says in the last entry in the journal, June 13th, 1757, in a "house 16 by 12 and an outside chimney, with an 8 feet shed--a little chimney to it." On the day of this last date the chimney of the shed was shattered by lightning, the rest of the house and the other chimney, which was much higher, together with the eleven person in the house, himself, wife, and infant child, his wife's sister, six scholars and a negro boy,--all escaped unhurt.

        In the absence of data from his own hand, the following extracts from the Records of Hanover Presbytery will afford information respecting this interesting man,--

        "Hanover, 28th April, 1757. The Presbytery appointed Mr. Pattillo as piece of trial, to be delivered next June, a sermon on Acts xvi., 43, first part.--"To him give all the prophets witness:" and an Exegesis--"Num Poena Inferorum sit æterna." On the appointed day these were considered and approved.

        Cub Creek, Sept. 28th, 1757. Mr. Pattillo opened Presbytery with a Lecture on Daniel, 7th chapter, 19th to 27th verses: and a Sermon on the 27th verse of the same chapter. He was then examined on Divinity, on his religious experience, "and on review of sundry trials he has passed through, they judge him qualified to preach the gospel; and having declared his asset to, and approbation of, the Westminster Confession of Faith and Catechism, and Directory, as they have been adopted by the Synod of New York, the Presbytery doth authorize him to preach as a candidate for the Ministry of the Gospel, and recommend him to the acceptance of the Churches; and they order Messrs. Davies and Todd to draw up a certificate according to the purport of this minute; and appoint (Alexander Craighead) the Moderator to give him solemn instruction and admonition with respect to the discharge of his office, which was done accordingly."

        Providence, 26th April, 1758. Petitions for supplies were considered. One from Hico--"formerly under the care of the Philadelphia Synod--particularly for Mr. Pattillo." Calls came in for

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him also from Albemarle, Orange and Cumberland. The Presbytery agreed to give him till the next meeting to consider them.

        Cumberland, 12th July, 1758. "Rev. Henry Pattillo and Wm. Richardson have been set apart to the work of the holy ministry, by fasting, prayer, and imposition of hands,"--a certificate ordered. At the same meeting he was appointed Stated Clerk.

        Hanover, Sept. 27th, 1758. Mr. Pattillo accepted a call from Willis, Bird and Buck Island. With these congregations he remained about four years. At a meeting of Presbytery, Providence, Oct. 7, 1762, he was dismissed from this charge, the people "being unable to give him a sufficient support." In 1763, May 4th, at Tinkling Spring, he agreed to supply Cumberland, Harris Creek and Deep Creek. With these congregations he continued about two years. At a meeting of Presbytery, Hico, 2d October, 1765, a call for his services was presented from Hawfields, Eno and Little River. This call he accepted, and removed to the State of North Carolina, and there served the church about thirty-five years in Orange and Granville counties.

        At a meeting of Presbytery, Buffalo, Rowan county, N. C., March 8th, 1770, Messrs. David Caldwell, Hugh M'Aden, Joseph Alexander and Henry Pattillo, and Hezekiah Balch and James Criswell, united in a petition to Synod to be set off as a Presbytery by the name of Orange,--"where two of our ministers reside," is given as the reason for the name. This year the counties of Guilford, Wake, Chatham and Surrey, were set off to counteract the influence of the regulators.

        Mr. Pattillo continued with the congregation of Hawfields, Eno and Little River, till the year 1774, when he removed.

        In the year 1775 he was selected for one of the delegates for the county of Bute (now Warren and Franklin) to attend the first Provincial Congress of North Carolina. Its sessions commenced August 20th, in Hillsborough. There were two other ministers in the Congress, Green Hill, a Methodist, from Bute, and William Hill, the father of the present Secretary of State of North Carolina, a Baptist from Surrey.

        The last resolution on the first day was, "that the Rev. Henry Pattillo be requested to read prayers to the Congress every morning; and the Rev. Charles Edward Taylor every evening during his stay."

        On the 29th of that month Rev. Mr. Boyd presented to the congress 200 copies of the Pastoral letter of the Synod of Philadelphia on the subject of the war. They were distributed among the members,

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and a sum of money appropriated to the use of Mr. Boyd, by an order on the treasurers, from the public funds. Dr. Witherspoon of New Jersey was Chairman of the Committee that prepared the letter, which was unexceptionable in its principles, except in one point, in which it is behind the movements in Mecklenburg,--it speaks of reconciliation with the mother country as possible, but as a consequent of a vehement struggle. It however exactly suited the prevailing feeling in the Provincial Congress of Carolina, the majority of whose members were not prepared to declare Independence at that time, as appears from their proceedings on Monday, September 4th, on the subject of the Confederation of the United Colonies.

        "The Congress, resolved into a committee of the whole, have accordingly and unanimously chosen the Rev. Mr. Pattillo, chairman; and after some time spent therein came a resolution thereon."

        "On motion, Mr. President resumed the chair, and Mr. Chairman reported as follows, to wit:"

        "That the Committee have taken into consideration the plan of General Confederation between the United Colonies, and are of opinion that the same is not at present eligible. And it is also the opinion of the Committee that the Delegates for this province ought to be instructed not to consent to any plan of Confederation which may be offered in an ensuing Congress, until the same shall be laid before, and approved by, the Provincial Congress.

        "That the present association ought to be further relied on for bringing about a reconciliation with the parent state, and a further confederacy ought only to be adopted in case of the last necessity.

        "Then on motion resolved,--The Congress do approve of the above resolutions."

        At their meeting next spring in Halifax, 1776, the Congress took the ground of Independence some two months before the action of the Continental Congress, as related in the chapter on the Declaration of Independence.

        It will be borne in mind that Mr. Pattillo lived in the midst of the Regulators; that some of their largest assemblages were in the bounds of his large field of labor. And while there was more ignorance, than he wished to see, among his charge, could they be an ignorant uniformed people?

        In the year 1780, Mr. Pattillo became the pastor of Nutbush and Grassy Creek, in Granville county, and gave to them his last labors, ripened by age and experience. These two congregations were composed at first of emigrants from Hanover, New Kent, and King

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and Queen, in Virginia, converts under the preaching of Rev. Samuel Davies and his coadjutors. Howel Lewis, Daniel Grant, and Samuel Smith, were the leading persons in Grassy Creek. Mr. Lindsey, Mr. Simms and Mrs. Gilliam, the leading ones in Nutbush.

        It is the tradition that the first sacramental occasion held by Presbyterians in Granville was in 1763, by William Tennant, Jun. By order of the Synod of New York and Philadelphia the Presbytery of New Brunswick ordained him for a southern mission in 1762. His reasons for not going that year were sustained. He made a visit the next year, 1763, in obedience to the direction of Synod--"to go and supply in the bounds, and under the direction of Hanover Presbytery six months at least." The place in which the ordinance was administered was an unoccupied house belonging to Howel Lewis, about one mile and a half from where Grassy Creek Church now stands. The congregations were, it is said, regularly organized by Mr. James Criswell, who was licensed by Hanover Presbytery in 1765, and supplied these congregations for some years. Mr. Pattillo was his successor.

        Mr. Tennant is represented as being of a cheerful disposition. Finding Mr. Lewis in a state of mental depression to which he was subject, and desponding on the subject of religion, he made no direct effort to dispel the gloom, but entered into cheerful conversation on the subject of salvation. Hearing Mr. Lewis order the servant to take Mr. Tennant's horse and give him some sorry fodder (that is corn blades)--"you give my horse sorry fodder," exclaimed Mr. Tennant, as if he took the word sorry in its usual signification, "a pretty fellow indeed!" The suddenness of the retort changed the whole course of feeling in Mr. Lewis: he burst into a hearty laugh, and his depression was gone; and in his attendance on the ministrations of the gospel from Mr. Tennant, received great comfort and advantage.

        Like Mr. Tennant, Mr. Pattillo was a cheerful man, but far removed from all levity. He says he had a touch of melancholy in his constitution. His circumstances were always narrow, and his generous feelings and numerous family prevented much increase of his worldly possessions. His numerous calls as a faithful and popular preacher, added to his vocation as a classical teacher, hindered his pursuit of knowledge, of which he had an unquenchable thirst. His health frequently became very delicate under his continued and exhausting services; and in 1782 under the influence of ill health, he made a will which is yet preserved, from which we extract the

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following: "I adore the blessed Providence that more especially watched over me and wonderfully governed my steps; that at the commencement of my manhood rescued me from the ways of sin and the paths of the destroyer; that made it good for me to bear the yoke in my youth; that after many discouraging disappointments which I afterwards found were merciful interpositions of divine goodness, my way was opened to an education, and I was carried through it, though poverty and a melancholy constitution darkened my prospects, and threatened to stop me at every turn. The same divine goodness and free mercy that had thus far indulged my ardent wish and daily prayer, that I might be qualified both by heaven's grace and human learning to preach the everlasting gospel, was graciously pleased to call me thereto, and set me apart by the laying on of the hands of the Presbytery. Having, therefore, obtained help of God, I continue to this day, having nothing to complain of my adorable Master, for goodness and mercy have followed me all my life long; but have to accuse myself that in ten thousand instances I have come short of the glory of God, and have been a very unprofitable servant, in not promoting to the utmost my own salvation and that of others. And a great aggravation of this guilt is, that wherever I have preached the gospel God has honored me with such a share of popularity and the favor of mankind, as have opened a door for much more usefulness than I have had zeal and diligence to improve. Look, gracious God, on a creature all over guilt and imperfection, through the all-perfect righteousness, wonderous sufferings and glorious resurrection of my Lord Jesus Christ, on whom I cast myself for time and eternity.

        "As to my mortal part, let it return, when He that built it pleaseth, to the dust from whence it was taken, and in the next burying-place to which I may die. I commit it to him who perfumed the grave for his people's calm repose; who acknowledges his relation to them even in the dust, and I am sure will new create it by his power divine."

        By a short will which he made Dec. 19th, 1800, not long before his death, it appears that in 1784, the "united Presbyterian congregations of Grassy Creek and Nutbush, by their ruling elders, purchased of Mr. Thomas Williamson and others, a tract of three hundred acres of land, on Spicemarrow Creek, whereon I now live; and as the said elders commissioned and empowered the late Colonel Samuel Smith as their agent to make a deed in fee simple for the said land, to the said Henry Pattillo, which deed was proved and admitted to record by the court of Granville county, at their May

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term, 1784, on the express condition of my continuing till death or disability, the minister of said congregation." This condition was fulfilled, and a small patrimony was thus secured to the family of a laborious and successful minister of the gospel, who had neither disposition nor opportunity to accumulate wealth.

        Mr. Pattillo pursued and finished his classical and theological course with Mr. Davies in Hanover. Mr. Davies contemplated his spending some time in college. From the short journal of Mr. Pattillo, we learn the cause why he never followed out the design of his much loved instructor. At the time he drew up his short account of his experience, August 10th, 1754, while Mr. Davies was absent on a voyage to England, he says--"I have thus been supported by the mere bounty of others, which, to the praise of God be it spoken, has always been sufficient, though on the receipt of one supply, my faith has been frequently baffled to see where the next should come from. My discouragements are chiefly these. The difficulties of learning; the loss of at least one-third of my time, and Mr. Davies's voyage to Europe, which has left me without a teacher this year past; together with the weakness of my faith in God's providence respecting my support." Mr. John Blair was then on a visit to Mr. Davies's congregation, as a temporary supply in his absence. Of him Mr. Pattillo makes this short remark--"what a burning light he is!" In the few leaves of the journal left, which gives here and there a notice up to June 18th, 1757, which day the remarkable thunder shower took place, as mentioned above; he dwells mostly on his own Christian experience. He makes no particular mention of Mr. Davies's presence, or family, or preaching; mentions Mr. Todd's meeting, but says nothing of him--neither names the persons with whom he was pursuing his studies in company.

        On Monday, May 30th, 1755, he makes the following entry: "Agreeable to a plan agreed on among us who are studying with a view to the ministry, this day is set apart for fasting and prayer. Though my wants be so numerous that I could not name them in a whole day--the principal blessings I am this day in pursuit of are--1st, Quickening and vivacity in religion; 2d, That I may pursue my studies assiduously, and that the great end of them may be the glory of God, and the salvation of men; 3d, That religion may revive where it is professed, and spread where not yet known."

        Some time in the summer of 1755, he entered the married state. He had written to Mr. Davies on the subject, and received an answer stating objections to the prudence of the step at that time.

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The leaves of the journal on which the date of these events, and the principal objections of Davies were recorded, are lost. The opinion of his instructor overcame him, and he determined to abandon the project, till he came to consider the situation of the young lady he had addressed, and whose affection he had won; upon reflection he determined to proceed in the business, and consummate the marriage; believing it would not involve him in pecuniary difficulty; that it would not hinder his further study; and lastly, "That Mr. Davies was so well known in the learned world that a person finished by his hand, would not come under contempt any more than many shining lights now in the Church, who were educated before the college was erected."

        That he pursued his studies with success after he was ordained to the full work of the gospel ministry and held a high rank as a classical teacher, is inferred from the fact that the college of Hampden Sydney, Prince Edward county, Virginia, in the year 1787, April 25th, while under the presidency of John B. Smith, conferred upon him the Degree of Master of Arts. The parchment is still preserved, and bears, in their own handwriting, the signatures of the President,--and John Nash, Arch'd McRoberts, James Allen, F. Watkins, Thomas Scott, Richard Foster, Richard Sankey, and Charles Allen, Curators.

        In the year 1787, Mr. Pattillo issued from the press in Wilmington, a volume containing three sermons, viz., on Divisions among Christians, on the Necessity of Regeneration, and the Scripture Doctrine of Election. To these, were added an Address to the Deists, and an extract of a letter from Mr. Whitefield to Mr. Wesley. He appears to have been fond of the use of his pen, as far as his few hours of leisure would permit. A few manuscripts remain: some Essays on Baptism; on Universalism; a Catechism of Doctrine for Youth; and a Catechism or Compend in Question and Answer, for the use of Adults. He also prepared a Geography for Youth, by way of Question and Answer, which must have been superior to any printed volume then in use. He also published a sermon on the death of General Washington. For about twelve years he taught a classical school in Granville; part of the time on the place now occupied by M. J. Hunt, and part of the time at Williamsburgh.

        He continued to serve the congregation of Nutbush and Grassy Creek, till his death in 1801, having nearly completed his seventy-fifth year. He finished his course at a distance from home, in Dinwiddie county, Virginia, whither he had gone as a minister of

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the gospel. The Rev. Drury Lacy, in the sermon he preached on the occasion of his death, says--"I was assured by the gentleman, at whose house he finished his course, that he exhibited the greatest example of resignation and tranquillity of mind he had ever seen."

        The text chosen by Mr. Lacy was Romans xiv., 7 and 8; "For none of us liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself. For whether we live, we live unto the Lord; or whether we die, we die unto the Lord; whether we live, therefore, or die, we are the Lord's." In giving the character of Mr. Pattillo, he says--"Possessed of an originality of genius, and endowed by nature with powers of mind superior to the common lot of men, he cheerfully determined to consecrate them all to the service of the Saviour in the gospel ministry. That the Scriptures were his delight, and that he meditated on them day and night, so as to become well-versed in their doctrines and precepts, all who had the pleasure of his acquaintance, all who ever heard him preach, and all who have read his printed works, cannot be ignorant. That he devoted his time and talents to the service of God, his works of faith and labors of love among you, and, as far as he had an opportunity, of travelling to preach, abundantly testify. His zeal was so far from being diminished by age, that it evidently appeared to increase; as if the near prospect of obtaining the crown animated him to greater exertions to be found worthy of it. My hearers! can you have forgotten the ardor and pertinacity of his prayers, the weight of his arguments, the fervor of his exhortations, and the persuasiveness of his counsels? Did he not visit your bedside when you were sick, and there communicate heavenly instructions to revive your fainting spirits, and pour forth the fervent prayer to God that your affliction might be sanctified? And in the social intercourse of friendship, you must remember how readily he improved every occurrence to communicate useful and religious knowledge. That his life was a pattern of resignation and thankfulness, has been remarked even by those who had but a slight acquaintance with him. Always cheerful, he seemed more disposed to bless the hand of providence for the favors he enjoyed, than to think hardly of any afflictive dispensation he suffered. When was the tenor of his soul so lost and discomposed as to unfit him for the discharge of the sacred duties of his office?"

        The following extract from a letter respecting his last hours, shows the spirit of the man:--"He had lain for several hours with his eyes closed, speechless, and apparently insensible. One

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of his friends requested to ask a question. Although it would have seemed hopeless to expect any remaining intelligence, he had a curiosity and desire to make a last effort to arouse him. Placing his mouth near his ear, he asked, in a loud tone of voice--'Where is your hope now?' The dying man opened his eyes, and raising both hands, extended his arms upwards, as if pointing toward that heaven which had been the object of his fervent prayers, and to which he had constantly looked forward as the place of his everlasting rest." In a short time he entered into that rest.

        Rev. John Matthews, a member of the Hawfields church, who, like Pattillo, commenced preparations for the ministry later in life than is usual, became the Pastor of Nutbush and Grassy Creek, having received a call April, 1803. His preparatory studies had all been under the direction of Dr. Caldwell, of Guilford, and his license given him by the Presbytery of Orange, at Barbacue, in the month of March, 1801, in company with Duncan Brown, Hugh Shaw, Murdoch Murphy, Murdoch McMillan, Malcolm McNair, and E. B. Currie, all like himself pupils of Dr. Caldwell. The two first are still living in Tennessee.

        Mr. Matthews left these congregations in 1806, and removed to Berkeley county, Virginia. From thence to Jefferson county; and is now Professor in the Theological Seminary at New Albany.

        Leonard Prather supplied them for a short time: but was soon deposed for intemperance.

        His successor was the Rev. E. B. Currie, who left Bethesda and Greers in 1809. He was also a pupil of Dr. Caldwell. He served them till about the year 1819, when he removed to Hawfields, and served that congregation and Crossroads till about the year 1843, when his infirmities induced him to give up his charge.

        In 1822, Rev. S. M. Graham entered upon the duties of pastor to these congregations, and served them a number of years; he now holds the chair of a Professor in the Union Theological Seminary.

THE CONGREGATIONS OF HAWFIELDS, ENO, AND LITTLE RIVER.

        Settlements of the Scotch-Irish Presbyterians began along the Eno and the Haw rivers, about the time that the colonies settled in that part of Lunenburg county, Virginia, now called Charlotte, on Cub Creek and the adjacent streams, which was about the years 1738 and 1739. It is supposed that these settlements, and those in Duplin and New Hanover, were the places visited by Robinson, who is supposed to be the first Presbyterian missionary

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sent from Pennsylvania and New Jersey, that visited North Carolina. No other notice remains of his visit, but the fact that he did visit these parts, and underwent great hardships, from which his constitution scarcely recovered. In all probability the "supplications" for ministerial visits that were laid before the Synod of Philadelphia, then the only Synod of Presbyterian clergy in the United States, came, in part, from the bounds of Orange county, North Carolina. The troubles and distractions that attended the divisions of the Synod soon after, prevented, or interrupted for a time, missionary operations to any extent, and then increased their number and their energy.

        Mr. John Thomson, who was appointed to correspond with the supplicants, a member of Donegal Presbytery, visited them in person in 1751. On his journey to Carolina, the arrangement was made with Mr. Pattillo and another young man, to return with him to Pennsylvania, and commence their studies in preparation for the ministry. Mr. Thomson made a long stay, and in the meantime the young man relinquishing his design of study, and Mr Davies giving Mr. Pattillo an invitation to his house, the design of going to Pennsylvania was abandoned. There remain no memoranda either of the correspondence of Mr. Thomson with those desirous of ministerial labor, or of his visit to them. Neither is there any document that may give any particular account of the visits that were made by the various missionaries sent out by the two Synods of New York and Philadelphia, till the years 1755 and 1756, when Hugh M'Aden, a licentiate of New Brunswick Presbytery, made a tour of a year, a concise journal of whose journeyings and preaching is still preserved, and makes part of another chapter. He visited the settlements on the Eno, and preached for them the second Sabbath of August, 1755, lodging at the house of Mr. John Anderson, whose grandchildren, some of them, still live on the Eno. After a visit to Tar River, he returned to Mr. Anderson's, and on the fourth Sabbath of August preached at the Hawfields. Of the Eno settlement he says, they were "a set of pretty regular Presbyterians," who appeared at that time in a cold state of religious feeling. Of the Hawfields settlement, he says, "the congregation was chiefly made up of Presbyterians, who seemed highly pleased, and very desirous to hear the word." The next year they applied to Hanover Presbytery for supplies.

        These congregations on the Eno and the Haw appear to have been not altogether regular in their ecclesiastical matters, for,

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according to the statement of an old elder of the Eno church, Mr. James Clark, who died a few years since, Mr. Spencer and McWharter, in their mission to Carolina to organize and regulate the congregations, attended to the organization of Eno. However, this might refer only to their boundaries and separate action. The first elders were Thomas Clark, John Tinnier, and Carus Tinnier. The names of the first elders in Hawfields have not been preserved. Mr. Pattillo was the first settled minister of these two congregations, which have been the mothers of those now surrounding them, Little River, New Hope, Fairfield, and Cross Roads. He came in 1765, and left them in 1774.

        The second pastor, the Rev. John Debow, from the Presbytery of New Brunswick, began to preach in these two congregations, as a licentiate, about the year 1775, and was ordained about the year 1776. His remains were interred in the grave-yard that surrounds the Hawfields meeting-house. Under his ministry there was a revival of religion, and a goodly number were added to the churches. His death took place in the month of September, 1783.

        The next regular minister that remained with these congregations for a time, was Jacob Lake, the brother-in-law of Mr. Debow. During his ministry the congregation of Cross Roads was organized, being made up of parts of Hawfields, Eno, and Stony Creek. He left the congregation about the year 1790.

        His successor was the Rev. William Hodges, who is said to have been a native of Hawfields. Becoming hopefully religious under the ministry of Mr. Debow, he commenced preparations for the ministry. After the death of his spiritual father, he became discouraged, turned his attention to other things, and married and settled in the congregation of Hawfields. During the excitement which prevailed under the preaching of James M'Gready, on Stony Creek, and along the Haw River, in 1789, 1790, and 1791, Mr. Hodges felt his desire to preach the gospel revive and spring up with greater force than ever. Being licensed by the Presbytery of Orange, he went heart and hand with M'Gready in the work; differing, however, so much in his manner of preaching, that the people styled him the "Son of Consolation," and M'Gready, Boanerges. In 1792 he was ordained pastor of Hawfields and Cross Roads, by Orange Presbytery. During his ministry many were gathered to the church. About the year 1800 he removed to Tennessee, and was there an active agent in the "Great Revival" that spread over the South and West.

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        His successor was William Paisley, under whose ministry the great revival of 1802 commenced, at the Cross Roads, an account of which is given under the head of James M'Gready, and the Great Revival. The first camp-meeting in the South was held at Hawfields, in October, 1802, and grew out of the necessity of the case. The community was greatly excited on the subject of religion, and multitudes, some from a great distance, assembled at Hawfields for the fall communion services. The neighborhood could not accommodate the numbers assembled, and their anxiety to hear the gospel was too great to permit them to return to their homes; they therefore remained on the ground, camping with their wagons for three or four days, getting their necessary supplies as they could. So great was the interest excited, and so great the enjoyment, and the profit supposed to be derived from the meeting, that the example was followed extensively throughout the whole upper country of North Carolina. The custom of spending three or four days encamped at the place of worship, during communion occasions, extensively prevails to this day. Near most of the churches, that follow this habit, cabins are built for the accommodation of the worshippers, and for the season the whole neighborhood give themselves up to the exercises of the meeting. In Hawfields, the interest and attendance are yet unabated.

        After serving the congregations about twenty years, Mr. Paisley removed to Greensborough; and is still able to preach occasionally, though, through infirmities of age, he has declined being pastor of a congregation.

        His successor, the Rev. Ezekiel B. Currie, passed his early life in several different congregations in Orange and Guilford counties, but chiefly on the Haw River. His father lived for a time in Alamance congregation, in Guilford; from thence removed to Sandy River, in the upper part of Orange, near Randolph. During the war of the Revolution, on account of the hostility of the tories in that neighborhood, he was compelled to leave his home, and hide himself. Making a visit to his family he was discovered and seized by the tories, wounded, and left for dead, and his property carried away. The scars of these wounds, received in this attack, he carried upon his head to his grave. After being broken up on Sandy River, he removed to Haw River congregation, whose place of worship was about three miles north of Gum Grove, the old burying-ground being still visible.

        A remark made by an old gentleman who had sat silently by the fire-side, while young Currie and others were making merry one

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evening, was blest to awaken him to the danger he was in as a sinner. When the company were about to break up, the old gentleman turned to him and said--"Young man, when will you turn to serious things?" This troubled his mind greatly. His conversion he attributes, under God, to the ministry of Mr. M'Gready, for whom he entertained the highest regard through his whole life. His education he obtained from two sources, Dr. Caldwell of Guilford, and Mr. M'Gready. The latter taught school at his residence, between three and four miles below High Rock, about mid-way between his two places of preaching, Haw River and Stony Creek. The principal part of his instruction, however, was from Dr. Caldwell.

        In the month of March, 1801, at Barbacue church, Cumberland county, Messrs. Ezekiel B. Currie, John Matthews, Duncan Brown, Murdock, McMillan, Malcolm McNair, Hugh Shaw, and Murdock Murphy, were licensed to preach the gospel by Orange Presbytery. These had all received their education principally under Dr. Caldwell, and were influenced more or less by M'Gready, to seek the ministry. All were actors in the great revival of 1802, and onwards. Four of them are still living; two of whom are honored with the title of D.D., Brown and Matthews. Two of them were particularly useful in building up the churches that now constitute Fayetteville Presbytery, McMillan and McNair.

        Soon after his licensure, Mr. Currie went to Bethany church, in Caswell; to which Greers was soon united. After spending about seven years in these congregations, he was removed to Nutbush and Grassy Creek, in Granville; and from thence, in the year 1819, to Hawfields and Cross Roads. About the year 1843 he withdrew from the pastoral charge of these congregations, on account of the infirmities of age, but still lives to preach occasionally, and to witness the successful labors of his successor in these two congregations, constituting one of the largest and most interesting charges in North Carolina, which has been blessed with revivals from its origin.

        After Cross Roads was united with Hawfields in the service of a pastor, Eno, which had at first been its partner, was united with Little River, which became a distinct congregation about this time, under the charge of Rev. James H. Bowman, in the year 1794. In the great revival in 1802, and onwards, he gathered a goodly number into his two churches. His ministry closed in 1815.

        His successor was Samuel Paisley, half-brother of Wm. Paisley,

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and son of an Indian captive, who commenced his labors here in 1816. In 1821 the congregations were blessed with a revival of religion that brought numbers into the church. After some years of service, Mr. Paisley left them, and is now ministering in Moore county, a member of Fayetteville Presbytery.

        The Rev. Messrs. Professor Philips, of the University, Elijah Graves, afterwards a missionary, Daniel G. Dock, Thomas Lynch, and finally, John Paisley, each served the congregation of Eno for a short time. The last finished his earthly course in the congregation. Of him a member of the congregation thus writes: "His labors, no doubt, were blessed, during his short stay with us. The good seed he has sown seems to be springing up; and even some sheaves ready to be gathered in; for in a few days we expect a goodly number to come forward in that old church, and declare themselves to be on the Lord's side." After expressing a desire that his name may be remembered, he goes on to say, "he was not only a preacher in the pulpit, but his daily walk and private conversation savored of the spirit of his Master. His Bible classes were large, and his examinations extremely interesting. But O, sir, we can't tell why it was that he so soon finished his work. His Master called, and he, with his lamp trimmed and burning, was ready to go. His disease, perhaps a complicated one, baffled the skill of some three or four eminent physicians. The anxiety manifested by his congregations, and all who knew him, was great indeed. But it was the Lord's doing, and we must submissively say, 'Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in thy sight.' " The aged minister goes down like a shock of corn fully ripe; the youthful servant leaves us in amazement, and wonder, and tears.

        The Eno and Hawfields congregations, extending from Hillsborough to the Haw River, were the scene of many of the doings of the Regulators. Not a few of the people were engaged in the proceedings of these slandered, yet brave men. Understanding their rights of person and property, they could not restrain their indignation under the complicated and long-continued impositions of those who, acting under the protection of the crown, exacted unheard of taxes from honest, unsuspecting men; selling the same piece of land to different individuals, and receiving the pay from all, without redress; exacting pay over and over again from the same individuals for the same tract, under various pretexts; and setting at defiance all law and order. If these people had not resisted, they would have been unworthy of their ancestors and the religion they professed. That many base and unprincipled men took advantage

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of the disturbance and distress, to commit heinous offences against the peace of society, and in defiance of all law, is a thing to be lamented, but not to be charged too severely upon men who were willing to live peaceably, and would have been loyal had not "oppression driven them mad."

        Tryon's march the day before the Regulation battle, was through these congregations; and the heavy oath of allegiance was exacted as the price of their property and lives, after the governor's victory. Upon the conscientious part of the community, that oath sat with a galling weight; although many felt themselves relieved by the fact that the king could neither enforce his laws nor defend his subjects; yet some suffered under its influence during the whole war--not daring to take up arms for their country, and not disposed to enlist among her enemies. Such people often suffered the ill-deserved odium of being tories, and felt the ill-effects of a bad name. Few real tories were found in the Presbyterian population of Orange. The most vehement enemies that Cornwallis met, had been under the instruction of Presbyterian ministers. The first settled minister of Hawfields and Hico sat in the first Provincial Congress of Carolina, and on alarms, met with his people, to encourage them by precept and example, to defend their country and their religion. Cornwallis found Hillsborough and its neighborhood little less inviting than Charlotte, which he named "the Hornets' Nest;" and very few grown men from Hillsborough to the Haw, were unacquainted with service in the camp, and marches, and plunderings, while his lordship remained in Orange. And in the future history of Carolina, the war of the Regulation will stand prominent as the struggle of liberty and justice against oppression, not less glorious than Lexington and Bunker Hill, for the principles displayed, though less honored for the immediate effects.

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CHAPTER XVII.
REV. DAVID CALDWELL, D.D., AND THE CHURCHES IN GUILFORD COUNTY.

        THE congregations of Buffalo and Alamance, the two eldest and largest of the Presbyterian denomination, and probably of any other, in the county of Guilford, have had the singular privilege of enjoying the regular ministrations of the gospel, with little intermission, for more than eighty years in conjunction with each other, dividing the Sabbaths--and from two men. The time of the ministerial relation of the Rev. Messrs. David Caldwell and Eli W. Caruthers with these congregations, extends from about the time of the organization of Alamance, in the year 1764, to the present day; an incontestible evidence of their stability, and the irreproachable lives of their pastors.

        "A Sketch of the Life and Character of the Rev. David Caldwell, D.D.," by Mr. Caruthers, his successor in the ministry, replete with various information, gives all of importance that can be collected, concerning the early life of that venerable man, who finished his course in the one hundredth year of his age, and the sixty-first of his ministry.

        David Caldwell, born March 22d, 1725, in Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, was the son of a respectable farmer, in good worldly circumstances, and of unblemished Christian character. After receiving the rudiments of an English education, he was bound apprentice to a house carpenter, and served till the legal period, the age of twenty-one. After working at his trade, as a journeyman, for about four years, at the age of twenty-five he was admitted to the communion of the church, on a profession of his faith. As soon as the hope in Christ was formed in his heart, he began most earnestly to desire an education for the purpose of becoming a minister of the gospel. His thirst for information became a passion, and his desire to be useful in the ministry increased to intense earnestness, and he resolved to sacrifice time, and labor, and his portion that might fall to him from his father's estate, to satisfy these strong desires of his heart. With unwearied perseverance, he pursued the object of his desire, and received

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his degree of Bachelor of Arts, from Princeton College, in the year 1761, the year that President Davies died. He was then thirty-six years of age.

        Some part of his preparatory course was under the tuition of Rev. Robert Smith, of Pequa, the father of John B. Smith, so favorably known in Virginia as President of Hampden Sydney College, and of Samuel Stanhope Smith, known both at Hampden Sydney and Princeton. After receiving his degree he resorted to school-teaching, as he had often done before, and passed a year in that employ at Cape May. Returning to Princeton, he was engaged in the duties of a tutor in College, and in the study of theology in preparation for licensure. He was taken under the care of New Brunswick Presbytery at its meeting in Princeton, Sept. 28th, 1762, having given the brethren "good satisfaction as to his motives in wishing to enter the ministry." After repeated trial of his proficiency and aptness to teach, he was licensed by that Presbytery on the 8th of June, 1763.

        He left no account of his Christian experience, or of the trials and labors undergone in the course of study, preparatory to his entrance upon the work of the ministry. Some anecdotes which have been treasured up as having fallen from his lips, illustrate his spirit. In order to obtain some necessary funds, he sold his undivided patrimony to his brothers; and in order to encourage them to make greater efforts to raise the money, and prevent all objection, he rated his share much below its real value. The agreement was verbal, but at the settlement of the estate he confirmed it in writing, making a journey from Carolina expressly for that purpose. While in college he pursued his studies in a manner that must have been ruinous to most men, often passing the night in the summer season, without either undressing or lying down, sleeping with his head upon his crossed arms, under the open window; an evidence of a strong constitution and untiring perseverance, rather than of genius or prudence.

        After supplying various vacancies in the bounds of the Presbytery, from the time of his licensure till the following summer, Mr. Caldwell visited North Carolina. The records of the Synod of New York and New Jersey have the following minute at their meeting in Elizabethtown, May 23d, 1764: "Several supplications from North Carolina were presented, earnestly praying for supplies, which were read and urged with several verbal relations representing the state of the country." After speaking of the appointment of Mr. Charles Jef. Smith and Mr. Amos Thompson as

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missionaries, the minute proceeds--"Mr. David Caldwell, a candidate, of New Brunswick, is appointed to go as soon as possible, but not to defer it longer than next fall, and supply under the direction of the Hanover Presbytery." This Presbytery at that time was the only one south of the Potomac in connection with the Synod, and its boundaries on the south were indefinite. There was an independent Presbytery in South Carolina.

        While Mr. Caldwell was in the course of his preparatory studies for college, a company of his friends emigrated to North Carolina, and took their residence on Buffalo Creek and Reedy Fork; and before their departure from Pennsylvania, made overtures to him, that, upon his being licensed, he should visit them in their new abode for the purpose of becoming their preacher. In about a year after he commenced preaching, he was sent as a missionary by the Synod to the south, and passed through the congregations and settlements in the upper part of Carolina, and, among others, the settlements of his old friends. The emigration had been continued, and many pious people having come to the wilderness, the congregation of Buffalo, whose place of worship is about three miles from Greensborough, had been organized according to the rules of the Church. Settlements had been formed on the Alamance, and in 1764, the year of his visit, the Rev. Henry Pattillo, who was afterwards the minister of Hawfields and Little River, organized a church called Alamance, whose preaching-place is about seven miles from Greensborough, and about the same distance from Buffalo.

        These two congregations united in desiring Mr. Caldwell for their minister; though of different sentiments about the late divisions in the Presbyterian church, both were orthodox in their creed, and firmly attached to the Presbyterian forms; but the Buffalo church was composed of members that were of the Old Side, as they were termed, and the Alamance of those who sided with New Light or New Side, or as they sometimes distinguished themselves, followed Whitefield. This division into Old Side and New Side is by no means to be considered as similar to the divisions made some years since in the Presbyterian church under the names of Old and New School. The latter division was, in a great measure, brought about by different sentiments on important theological subjects; the former principally by a difference about the nature of revivals and proper measures to be used, and also the proper qualifications for the ministerial office. The full and

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satisfactory history may be found in Hodge's Constitutional History of the Presbyterian church.

        Mr. Caldwell's appointment as a missionary was renewed next year by the Synod. Philadelphia, May 20th, 1765. "In consequence of sundry applications from North Carolina for supplies, the Synod appoint Messrs. Nathan Kerr, George Duffield, William Ramsay, David Caldwell, James Latta, and Robert McMordie, to go there as soon as they can conveniently, and each of them to tarry half a year in those vacant congregations, as prudence may direct." The Presbytery of New Brunswick held a meeting in Philadelphia, and took the necessary steps preparatory to the ordination of Mr. Caldwell; and received a call from the churches of Buffalo and Alamance for his ministerial labors. July 5th, 1765, at Trenton, New Jersey, he was ordained to the full work of the gospel ministry, and dismissed to join the Presbytery of Hanover; and as the congregations making the call were under the care of that Presbytery, he was directed to make known to it his determination respecting the acceptance. He proceeded forthwith to Carolina, and entered upon his labors as minister of the two congregations; was a corresponding member of Hanover Presbytery at its meeting at the Red House, Caswell county, June 4th, 1766. He neither joined the Presbytery at that time, nor accepted the call of the two churches; and it was not till the 11th of October, 1767, he was received as a member, and not till the 3d of March, 1768, that the installation services were performed, in compliance with a request made the preceding fall. The Rev. Hugh McAden of the Red House, preached the installation service, and performed the services prescribed by the form of government. In the latter part of the year 1766 he was married to Rachel, the third daughter of Rev. Alexander Craighead, the minister at Sugar Creek, and became a housekeeper in that part of his congregation then within the bounds of Rowan county, previous to the formation of Guilford from Rowan and Orange, the place of his residence till his death, in 1824.

        As the congregations had promised him but two hundred dollars salary, he felt the necessity, from the first, of making provision for his family, and accordingly purchased a small farm, on which through life he depended in part for the comforts of his household. He commenced, too, at his house a classical school, which, with some few short interruptions, he continued till the infirmities of age disqualified him for the duties of teacher. This was the second classical school of permanence, and perhaps the first in usefulness,

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in the upper part of Carolina; that in Sugar Creek being probably the first; and that of Mr. Pattillo, in Granville, being the third. Delighting in the employment of teacher, having a peculiar tact for the management of boys, and being thorough in his course of instruction, his school flourished, and was the means, during the long period of its continuance, of bringing more men into the learned professions than any other taught by a single individual or by a succession of teachers during the same period of time. Five of his scholars became Governors of States; a number were promoted to the bench, of whom were Murphy and McCoy; a larger number, supposed about fifty, became ministers of the gospel, of whom were Dr. McCorkle, of Thyatria, Dr. Matthews, of New Albany, Indiana, Dr. Brown, of Tennessee, and many others that were shining lights; a large number were physicians and lawyers. Of those whose names have been mentioned as eminent, most, if not all, received their entire classical education from him, and the ministers of the gospel, in addition to that, their theological education; so that, for a time, his school was academy, college, and theological seminary. The number of students attending was generally from fifty to sixty; and, assembled from different parts of the State, put his powers of government to the test. These must have been extraordinary; as it is not recollected by any of his family, or any of his pupils living, that any student was ever expelled, or sent away for improper conduct. His students loved, reverenced, and obeyed him. And such was the impression made upon the minds of those under his discipline, that an instance was known of a student, with whom the Dr. was compelled to be very severe, in after life riding more than two hundred miles, for the sole purpose of revisiting the scenes of his school days, and once more taking the Dr. by the hand.

        There were frequent times of revival in his school. An aged minister told Mr. Caruthers that himself and nine of his schoolmates became pious while under his tuition, and all entered the ministry. The influence of Mrs. Caldwell over the students was great, and all in favor of religion; on that subject she was their confidant and adviser. Intelligent, prudent, kind, and conciliating, she won their hearts and directed their judgments, and the current saying through the country was, "Dr. Caldwell makes the scholars, and Mrs. Caldwell makes the ministers." Multitudes will rise and call her blessed. The Rev. E. B. Currie, still living, speaks of her as a wonderful woman to counsel and encourage, having felt in his own case her extraordinary power, while a member of the

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school. A precious revival took place under the ministrations of Rev. James M'Gready, who visited the school, and was the happy means of leading many to Christ.

        In addition to the numerous labors belonging to his multiplied callings, the condition of his people turned his attention to the practice of medicine. There being no physician in the neighborhood, or within many miles, the sick turned their attention to their minister, in the double capacity of physician for the soul and for the body. He procured some books and read carefully; a physician by the name of Woodsides came and resided a year in his family, and practised in the congregations; at his death Mr. Caldwell came in possession of his books; Dr. Rush, who was a college mate, was his correspondent through life; with these advantages, his patience and perseverance triumphed, and in all the common diseases of the country he became celebrated, and also in some of much greater difficulty. He continued the practice of medicine till his fourth son was prepared to take his place; and then, except in very special cases, he declined further service.

        The Rev. E. B. Currie, one of his pupils, says, "Dr. Caldwell's life was rather a life of labor than of study; and when we consider that he had a large school, which he attended five days in the week; two large congregations which he catechised at least twice in the year four communions, which always lasted four days each, besides his visiting the sick, frequently preaching in vacant congregations, etc., etc., we can see there was not much time left for study; but he was a close student when opportunity offered." During the first sixteen or eighteen years of his ministry he studied closely. Retiring to rest at ten, and rising at four, he redeemed time for regular and protracted study. His library being destroyed during the war, and his public duties increasing, as his strength decayed, he was of necessity, rather than inclination, less studious in the latter part of his life. That he might preserve his health, he was strictly temperate in eating and drinking, and always kept some work of manual labor of importance ready, to exercise himself every day, when not called from home.

        At a meeting of Hanover Presbytery, held at Buffalo meeting-house, March, 1770, a petition was prepared for Synod, asking for a Presbytery for Carolina and the South. This petition was granted in May, and the Rev. Messrs. Hugh McAden, Henry Pattillo, James Criswell, David Caldwell, Joseph Alexander, Hezekiah Balch, and Hezekiah James Balch, were constituted a Presbytery by the name of Orange, to meet at the Hawfields; and the Rev.

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Henry Pattillo, the pastor, to open the Presbytery with a sermon. This Presbytery has flourished greatly, its congregations are numerous, and at the present time there are three Presbyteries in the State of North Carolina, in the bounds occupied by this, besides those in South Carolina which, for a time, were reckoned as belonging to its bounds.

        Dr. Caldwell and Mr. Pattillo were near neighbors for a few years. Whether Mr. Pattillo taught school during the five or six years he preached at the Hawfields, is not distinctly known; that he did after his removal, and for a long time, is well known; and, also, that his circumstances required him to have a greater income than his salary. The probability is that he pursued a course similar to that pursued by Dr. Caldwell. The famous Regulation battle, May 16th, 1771, took place in the region lying between their respective fields of labor. Both congregations were deeply and generally involved in the troubles that brought the contest, and partook fully of the spirit that prompted the resistance, and were sharers in the battle. Of the part that Mr. Pattillo took we have no account left, either in manuscript or tradition; but from his after history, which is well known, we feel at no loss to conjecture. Dr. Caldwell sympathized with his congregations in their troubles, and in their resistance. That such men as Pattillo and Caldwell were the ministers of four large congregations, which embraced the space of country in which the principal localities of the Regulation difficulties are found, entirely forbids the idea that the Regulators, as a body, were untaught and savage, or unprincipled men. The congregations of these men read their Bibles, heard no indifferent preaching on the Sabbath, and had committed the admirable formulary--the Shorter Catechism of the Westminster Assembly, which they were taught to believe, and to reduce to practice; and if they read few other books, and seldom saw a newspaper, it is evident they understood the laws of Nature and the laws of God, and were ready to defend the privileges and rights which the king's officers trampled on then, but all the world concedes now.

        When the governor was marching against the encampment or gathering of the Regulators, with the evident intention of giving them battle, the cool calculating mind of Caldwell clearly saw that the probability of success was entirely with the governor. With him were officers that had seen service, and some field ordnance, and men that had been disciplined; on the other side, the side of his friends, was courage, a sense of oppression, confidence in the

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right of their cause, and a belief that the governor would not attack them, and could not beat them if he did,--but no discipline, no field ordance, no experienced military officer, not even a commander-in-chief, or a council of commanders,--every man obeyed whom he chose, and few chose to command.

        Dr. Caldwell visited both parties, for the purpose of proposing terms of accommodation, and was treated with respect by Tryon. On the morning of the battle he had an interview with both, still hoping to prevent the effusion of blood; and warned by an old Scotchman, who understood the movements in the governor's line, he had left the ranks of the Regulators but a few moments before the firing began. There were many brave spirits from the congregations of Buffalo and Alamance, in that battle, whom no remonstrance could drive from the ranks and fortunes of their fellow Regulators. That the loss of that battle was not owing to want of courage, may be argued from the spirit displayed by the people of these congregations during the war which, in a few years, succeeded.

        The battle was lost to the Regulators, and in the murderous executions that followed, there was evidence that some, at least, of the Regulators, knew how to die like men and Christians. It is by no means improbable that the proportion of such in the camp, was equally as great as in the prison. That there were unprincipled men among the Regulators is well known, and was regretted then as much as criticised now; but that the mass were men of principle and morals, true friends of their country, and lovers of liberty and law, there is less doubt now than there was then. If living in log cabins, with none of the luxuries of life, makes men vulgar, and lawless, and ignorant, then these men were all their enemies charged upon them, and merited neither success nor sympathy. But if devotion to principles and country makes men patriots, then the graves of the Regulators are the bed of the "Sons of Liberty."

        The executions being finished, and the oath of allegiance being administered, the governor left the country in triumph, trusting to the binding force of an oath to preserve the peace and quiet he vainly supposed were established in the State. His trust in the binding influence of the oath was not misplaced, for these men had knowledge, and they had a conscience; they dreaded the judgment of Him who has said that liars shall not have a portion in the heavenly inheritance. When the national Declaration of Independence was made, and the war of the Revolution

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was begun, then commenced, in the counties of Orange and Rowan, and those formed from them to break up the influence of the Regulators, the contest in many a brave man's mind between his love of liberty and his sense of obligation. By his oath he had saved his property, and perhaps his life; by his condition his heart was with his countrymen. Must he serve his king or join with his countrymen? Here the patriotism and cool calculation of Dr. Caldwell manifested itself. He argued with his people that allegiance and protection were inseparable; that as the king had not protected them from the rapacity which had driven them to rebellion on a former occasion, and was not able to assert his authority over the country now, their oath of allegiance, which had been exacted by force, was no longer binding. The independent State of North Carolina demanded their services, and the Congress of the United Colonies called for their aid; to fight for the king would be to resist the established government. With some the argument was satisfactory; they took up arms and served through the war; others remained neutral; and some few took arms for the king. The active tories were from another race of people in Orange.

        By the erection of the county of Guilford, in 1770, from the counties of Orange and Rowan, the congregation of Buffalo embraced the centre, and had the county-seat within its bounds, a few miles from the residence of Dr. Caldwell. Guilford Court-house will be known as long as the history of the American Revolution is read; and the sufferings and bravery of the four large congregations of Eno, Hawfields, Buffalo, and Alamance, can never be unknown while constancy and bravery are admired. These congregations were the scene of the plunderings of the hungry, needy, irritated army of Cornwallis, after he had burned his baggage and lost the object of his pursuit, and found himself far from his stores, and in an enemy's country. The detail of plundered houses, insulted women, and murdered men, is too sickening to be dwelt upon. The catalogue of sufferings would fill a volume. And of these Dr. Caldwell had his full share. His house was plundered, his library and valuable papers destroyed, his property stolen, and he himself, watched for as a felon, passed nights in the woods in a secret place. He heard the roar of the battle of Guilford Court-house, and rejoiced in the consequent retreat of Cornwallis. But his joy was mingled with sorrow, for the victory was purchased with the blood of some of his people. But with the retreat of Cornwallis, the savage warfare between whigs and tories raged more violently for a time, and then came to an end; and the distressed

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congregation of Dr. Caldwell had a respite from the horrors of war.

        It is a fact worthy of observation, that the track of the armies through North Carolina, previous to the battle of Guilford, embraced the residence of the Scotch-Irish, and Scotch families, and put to the test the solemn asseveration in the two declarations that the cause of independence should be defended at the cost of "life, fortune, and most sacred honor." How far Dr. Caldwell was prepared to vindicate that pledge, can be seen in the extended account of his trials and sufferings, given by Mr. Caruthers. Slow to engage in warfare, timorous in provoking bloodshed, when the warfare and the battle came he stood his ground prepared to suffer, with his flock, the last extremity, and escaped captivity and death only by the special providence of God. Many and many a time did the British and tories lie in wait for him, and watch his house, and make sudden visits, and use false pretences to draw him from his hiding-place; and once so well was the story feigned, that the prudence and foresight of his wife was overreached, and the hiding-place discovered. But God preserved him in all emergencies, that God in whom he put his trust, and when the enemy were rejoicing that now, at last, he was discovered, they found his rude shelter deserted.

        After the peace, Dr. Caldwell's labors as teacher and preacher returned upon him with increased weight. Though by his own vote in the convention of 1776, which formed the constitution of the State of North Carolina, and drew up the Bill of Rights, he could not be a member of the legislature without laying down his ministerial office, his influence with political men was rather increased, and his unobtrusive opinions carried great weight with all that knew him. Pattillo was member of the first Provincial Congress, in 1775, and Caldwell of the State Convention, in 1776. It is a matter of tradition that he drew up the 32d article: "That no person who shall deny the being of God, or the truth of the Protestant religion, or the divine authority either of the Old or New Testament, or who shall hold religious principles incompatible with freedom and safety of the State, shall be capable of holding any office or place of trust or profit, in the civil department within the State." The preceding section disqualifies preachers of the gospel for the legislative functions, in virtue of their office. The convention of 1835, to amend the constitution, changed the word "Protestant" in the 32d section to "Christian."

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        Dr. Caldwell harmonized with the paper drawn up by Dr. Ephraim Brevard, in the fall of 1775, which probably he never saw; both felt that anti-protestant belief in religion was anti-republican, and therefore not to be encouraged; both desired freedom of conscience for all Protestant denominations; neither asked any reprisals on the denomination that had been the favorite of the crown, and the State religion of the colony; neither desired any privileges for their own; both desired that the Protestant religion should be the religion of the State, and that all denominations should be equally free from all disabilities and all patronage, fully believing that religion would support itself.

        While Dr. Caldwell sought public favor neither for himself nor his family, public favor sought them. When the present system of district courts went into operation, there were many applications to the judge, for the office of clerk of Guilford county. On the day of opening the court, public expectation was high, from the number of candidates, and the uncommitted silence of the judge. Calling to Lawyer Cameron, then at the bar, now Judge Cameron of Raleigh, he requested him to act as clerk that day, and also to see if Dr. Caldwell was on the ground. To both of these requests, Mr. Cameron assented; and finding the old gentleman in the midst of a circle of his friends, he introduced him to the judge's room. After a kind salutation from his former pupil, the Dr. was surprised by the inquiry, "Have you a son qualified for the office of clerk of this county?" After some reflection, he replied that he thought not, as none of them had been educated in prospect of such employment. After some persuasion from the judge, he agreed "to go home and look them over, and give him word the next day." As not a word of this was public, expectation was higher than ever, as the applicants saw Mr. Cameron act as clerk, and not a single intimation from the judge who should fill the office. The next morning, the Dr. appeared at the judge's room, and entered with one of his sons; saluting the judge, and turning to his son, "Here, judge, I have done the best I could." McCoy conferred on him the office; and neither the judge nor the county have had cause to regret the appointment.

        During the last war, when a draught was called for from Guilford, and the attempt to meet the demand by volunteers was likely to fail from the great reluctance of the citizens to go to the seashore of a neighboring State, whose fame for healthiness ranked no higher than Norfolk did at the time, Dr. Caldwell, by request, addressed the people in the court-house. Through infirmity, he

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was carried to the magistrate's bench; and having preached from the words, "He that hath no sword, let him sell his garment and buy one;" with all the infirmities of age upon him, he produced such a feeling among the young men, that the required list was immediately filled out. This was patriotic in him, who, knowing the horrible evils attending armies, was opposed to the war in the commencement; but in its advancement, remembered that he was a citizen of the United States, and that he must stand or fall with his country.

        Dr. Caldwell knew what affliction was from experience, for God saw it not best that his laborious servant should fulfil his ministry without sharp trials. And in choosing his afflictions, the Lord his Saviour proportioned their measure to his usefulness and influence, sending upon him as bitter a cup as could probably have come to him, without the ingredients of sinfulness or death. First, a daughter of superior endowments and liberal education, gave evidence that reason had lost its dominion; and all the skill of his friend Rush could not bring it back to its throne. Then a son, and then another son, was added to the list by a mysterious providence. The venerable parents bowed in submission; and in meekness and parental fondness watched over these erratic, yet not harmful children. They never recovered the right use of their reason. The son that preached for a time at Rocky River, was splendid in his ruins.

        When the University of North Carolina went into operation, he declined being considered a candidate for the Presidency. As a mark of their respect for his character and usefulness, the trustees conferred upon him the degree of D.D., at an early stage of their proceedings, when a spirit, not the most friendly to religion, was exercising a temporary influence in their councils.

        Dr. Caldwell continued his pastoral services till about the year 1820; often, from weariness, on his return home, requiring assistance to dismount, and being carried into his house. On the 25th of August, 1824, he literally fell asleep, to wake no more till the Resurrection, his earthly pilgrimage having continued a period lacking only about seven months of a hundred years. He went to his grave like a shock of corn fully ripe.

        One of his sons was for many years pastor of Sugar Creek, the congregation of his grandfather Craighead; and one of his grandsons for a term of years ministered to the same congregation. "The seed of the righteous is blessed."

        Mrs. Caldwell survived her husband less than a year; and departed

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in the exercise of a good hope, through grace, of everlasting life. Her remains were laid beside those of Dr. Caldwell. A marble slab marks the place of sepulture of this venerable pair, near Buffalo church, the place in which they had so often worshipped God.

        There is an interesting tradition connected with the family of William Paisley, of Alamance. The well-attested facts and dates respecting Mrs. Paisley, mother of the Rev. Samuel Paisley, as received from the son, are--That she used to say that she had no recollection of ever seeing father, mother, brother, or sister; that it was understood that the Indians killed her father, and that her mother died soon after him; that Mr. Smith and Mr. Clack used to say, the Indians had the child; that she never spoke of her captivity; that she was reared and educated by the Rev. James Davenport, of Pennington; that she went to school to a Mr. Chesnut, an Englishman, about twenty miles from Philadelphia; that William Paisley became acquainted with her there, and gaining her affections, he took her to Philadelphia, where they were married by Rev. William Tennant, in the year 1763, in her 20th year; that they went to Princeton, and lived there till after the birth of their eldest son, and then removed to North Carolina. The tradition in Jersey about this lady is--That the Rev. James Davenport, whose wife's maiden name was Paine, was from New England, and settled first on Long Island, in New York, and from thence removed to Pennington, New Jersey, and was pastor of the church there for many years; that he obtained the child from the Indians, gave it the name of Deliverance Paine, and reared it carefully as his own.

        Miss Sally Martin and Miss Phoebe Davis lived together a long time in Princeton, New Jersey, taught school, and had the first instruction of almost all the children of the place. Miss Davis is still living (1846). These ladies used to tell the children about little Dilly Paine, as is well recollected by some that went to school to them, and re-affirmed by Miss Davis, upon inquiry, in 1844; that the Indians brought her along and claimed her as theirs, and said she had no parents; but would not tell where nor how they got her; nor give her up to the white people; that getting out of provisions, and having nothing to buy with, and becoming wearied of carrying the child with them, they sold her to Mr. Davenport, for a loaf of bread and a bottle of rum. With him the little orphan grew up and lived till her removal to Carolina.

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CHAPTER XVIII.
NEW PROVIDENCE AND ITS MINISTERS.

        ABOUT twelve miles south of Charlotte, on one of the routes to Camden, you will find in a beautiful oak grove, through which the great road passes, the place of assemblage for the worship of God, of the church and congregation of New Providence, or Providence, as it is now more commonly called. Here, as in revolutionary times, are gathered from Sabbath to Sabbath, the inhabitants of a large section of country, which was the scene of many thrilling incidents, when Lord Cornwallis, with his royal army, tested the principles of the North Carolina Presbyterians. The name of the congregation was adopted from one in Pennsylvania, and as an acknowledgment of a kind providence in the circumstances of the settlement of the congregation, particularly in their being unmolested by the Indians.

        Owing to the distance of this country from a printing press, before and for some time after the revolution, few books or pamphlets are to be found under the name of any of the Presbyterian ministers that labored so unremittingly among the churches of this interesting population. The law of custom had decided that the destruction of manuscripts was a part of preparation for death, as solemn and indispensable as the making the last will and testament. Very little of the records of the thoughts of these men have been preserved from this destruction. And the unfortunate burning of some houses, together with the carelessness of those who might have rescued some things from oblivion, leaves the present generation in wondering ignorance of the trials, and energy, and principles of those brave and excellent men.

        The grave of but one minister is found in the burial-place at Providence. Step into the yard a few paces from the church, and among the chiselled names of Stitt, Potts, McKee, Rea, Patterson, McCullock, and Matthews, the oldest of which bears date of 1764, you will find the plain monument of Wallis, who served the congregation from 1792 till 1819. His mother's monument you will find in the old grave-yard of Sugar Creek, in the corner opposite to Craighead's sassafras trees. Of the previous ministers the accounts

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are scanty, especially as the congregation was not so fortunate as some of its neighbors in retaining its ministers for a protracted period. Of Mr. Wallis, we shall say more in the close of this chapter.

        Settlements in the bounds of this congregation were made about the same time as those in Sugar Creek, and Steel Creek, and Rocky River, and by the same kind of emigrants. The first ministerial labors the settlement enjoyed, beside what they could receive from Mr. Craighead, were from the Rev. William Richardson, who was licensed by Hanover Presbytery, at a meeting at Capt. Anderson's, in Cumberland, Virginia, Jan. 25th 1758. On the 18th of July following, at the first meeting of the Presbytery after the union of the Synods of New York and Philadelphia, held in Cumberland, Mr. Richardson and Mr. Pattillo were ordained. He was appointed to attend at Rocky River on the 27th of the September following, to perform the installation services for Mr. Craighead, being on his way to the Cherokees. How long he remained with the Cherokees is not known. In 1761, he is reported as having left Hanover Presbytery, and joined the Presbytery in South Carolina, not in connection with the Synod. In 1762, the Presbytery sustained his reasons for joining that Presbytery without dismission from his own, with which he was in regular connection.

        Mr. Richardson was the maternal uncle of the famous Wm. Richardson Davie, so noted in the southern war, adopted him as his son, superintended his education, and made him heir of an estate, every shilling of which Davie expended in equipping the corps of which he was made Major in 1780.

        How long he preached in Providence is not known. His residence was in South Carolina.

        The first elders in the church were Andrew Rea, Archibald Crocket, Joshua Ramsey, and Aaron Howie. For some time previous to the organization of the church in 1765, there had been but one place acknowledged as the place of worship by the people of this congregation, and that is the grove where the meeting-house now stands, in the shade of whose trees the first public worship was celebrated until a house was built.

        In 1766, there is a notice on the records of the Synod of "a call for settlement among them, from Steel Creek and New Providence." About this time Mr. Robert Henry, who gathered the church on Cub Creek, Virginia, resolved, after ministering to that charge for a number of years, to leave them; and an engagement was made for his services in these two congregations. By the records of the

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Hanover Presbytery, it appears he was dismissed from Cub Creek in 1766; and his death is reported to the Presbytery as having taken place May 8th, 1767.

        The following articles of agreement between Providence and Clear Creek (now called Philadelphia) have been preserved by Wm. Queary. "Whereas, the representation of both congregations doth unanimously agree among themselves, in the names of both the aforesaid congregations, to stand and abide by each other from time to time through all difficulties, in order to obtain the labors of a gospel minister, that is to say, the one-half of his labors to one congregation, and the other to the other. And for a true and sincere union for the truth of the aforesaid articles, the representation of both congregations hath hereunto subscribed their names, Jan. 27th, 1770. New Providence--John Ramsey, James Linn, John Hagens, James Houston, Andrew Reah, James Draffen, James Johnston, James Teate, Thomas Black, Robert Stewart: Clear Creek--Adam Alexander, Matthew Stewart, John Queary, Michael Ligget, John Ford."

        Two of the above names appear in the list of the Mecklenburg Declaration, viz:--Adam Alexander and John Queary, which shows that the men were public-spirited men, that formed this representation. But we have no memoranda now to inform us of the effects of this union upon the religious concerns of the congregation. Neither have we any detailed account of the ecclesiastical concerns of the congregation during the arduous struggle of the Revolution. It is known that Thomas Reese preached in Mecklenburg for some time when the other congregations were generally supplied with at least some part of the services of a minister; and that from his pen emanated some of the effective papers that moved the inhabitants of Mecklenburg; he is supposed to have given some part of his time to Providence. Mr. McRee came from Steel Creek to supply the pulpit, for some time, as he says he often rode from home to preach for them on the Sabbath. Mr. Archibald came over from Rocky River and Poplar Tent, and supplied them for a season. The Rev. David Barr labored in the bounds for some time, but did not make it his permanent residence.

        The congregation lying on the route of the armies moving north or south, suffered its full share in the plunderings which, by the account of the British historians, were severe, at the time Cornwallis moved on to Charlotte. The night before he approached that village, he encamped in Providence, on the ground occupied by Colonel Davie, with the few American forces that behaved so nobly when

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united to the few militia and volunteers that joined them in Charlotte, "keeping in check the whole British army." The greatest trial in the war was upon those neighborhoods and sections of country subjected to the plunderings of the army of the king. It was not a sudden and great danger, or even bloodshed, in a good cause, by assault or regular battle, in which the excitement of the occasion carries the spirit triumphant through. But an annoyance in the smaller matters of property, and the private concerns; a taking away of the comfort of domestic life, a harassing of defenceless females and helpless age and children; and this continued from day to day, when all the enthusiasm of excitement had spent its force; and principle itself could scarce sustain the accumulated weight of numberless petty privations and aggravations, crowned as they sometimes were with conflagration and butchery, that entailed exile or poverty. It is a matter of admiration that under the pressure of all these evils so few of the inhabitants in Mecklenburg ever thought of deserting the cause of liberty, or of "taking protection," though many families saw their wealth swept with a merciless hand. And the few that yielded in the trial were subjects of commiseration rather than of severe censure and harsh denunciation.

        JAMES WALLIS, who was the first minister that gave protracted service to Providence, spent his ministerial life in the congregation. He was born in 1762, in Sugar Creek, son of Ezekiel Wallis. His early education was at Liberty Hall in Charlotte; and his college course was completed at Winnsborough, South Carolina, under Dr. Barr. He was ordained pastor in 1792, by the Presbytery of Orange, and never changed his congregation till death.

        Soon after entering upon his office in this congregation, commenced a new and till then unknown conflict about the Bible. That the Presbyterian ministers south of Yadkin had been true patriots, no man in the country, or in the British army, pretended to deny. Their names were not unknown in the camp; and the pulpits of the seven churches poured forth the highest intellectual efforts in discussing the rights of man, and sustaining the sinking spirits of the distressed country, by the abounding consolations of the word of God. The minister and his congregation prayed,--the father in his family prayed,--the soldier in his tent, and in the woods, prayed,--and the commander at the head of the forces often commenced the march with prayer. And it was no idle form of prayer, but a pouring out of the heart to God Almighty for his protection in the struggle for liberty and truth.

        Dr. Robinson, of Poplar Tent, used to tell an anecdote of an old

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gentleman, by the name of Alexander, in one of the neighboring congregations, that did not think of neglecting his religious duties though called into camp as a soldier. Being sent out to intercept some tories, very early one morning, when his post was assigned him, with the general orders to wait their near approach and take sure aim, he took the opportunity for a few moments of devotion. Taking off his hat he knelt down in the attitude of a worshipper; upon the near approach of the enemy he resumed his post and waited the signal. The unhappy tory that encountered the shot of his rifle fell dead. The whole party of tories were soon dispersed or taken. As in the time of Cromwell the praying soldiers did not run or play the coward.

        When the war was over, then came the other contest of fearful import, whose influence was felt everywhere, but nowhere in Carolina with more violence than in Mecklenburg county. The authority of the king had been discussed and set aside; the battle between the crown and the people had been fought, and won by the people. Then came the discussion about the dominion of conscience--what should govern conscience, philosophy or the Bible? Should philosophy dictate to the Bible, or the Bible to all the world? The authority of the Bible underwent a sifting discussion, such as Carolina had never seen, and may never see again. From the nature of the case that discussion was vehement in Mecklenburg, and from accidental circumstances embittered in Providence. A debating society,--and debating societies for political purposes were common in those days,--was formed in the region of country embracing a part of Sugar Creek, and Steel Creek and Providence, and furnished with a circulating library, replete with infidel philosophy and infidel sentiments on religion and morality. Everything of a religious nature was called in question and discussed; and the standard of opposition was raised with a boldness becoming a better cause. Caldwell of Sugar Creek, and Wallis of Providence, brothers in the ministry, and sons-in-law of John M'Knitt Alexander, were in the hottest of the battle, as infidelity is never so outrageous as when it takes its seat, or strives to take it, in a Christian community.

        With different natural temperament, they met the strife like courageous men: Caldwell, cool, clear and amiable, and loved where he could not convince; Wallis, clear, strong, ardent, and more dreaded though less loved; both unfaltering, and unwearied and honored. Caldwell left politics to other hands, and preached the gospel; Wallis proclaimed the great principles of democracy as part of his creed; and asserted, with them, the unlimited control

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of the word of God in all matters pertaining to conscience, whether public or private. He prepared a pamphlet in which were condensed the arguments of Watson, Paley and Leslie, and circulated it among his people and through the country. A pamphlet as well calculated to produce the effect designed--the exhibition of the evidences of revelation in contradiction to all infidel notions--has seldom been issued from the press. A reprint would be advantageous where discussion on the subject of revelation is called for.

        The debating society embraced wealth and talent, and for a time maintained the contest with spirit. Emigration to Tennessee, in which the library was carried across the mountains, and the great revival of 1802 broke it up.

        While this discussion was going on, and men were arguing for and against the Bible with excited and sometimes angry feelings, another cause of unhappiness arose. Mr. Wallis had occasion to be absent a few Sabbaths, and obtained the favor of Rev. Wm. C. Davis, to supply his pulpit one Sabbath. Mr. Davis, on the day of his supply, made use of the version of Psalms by Watts. As the congregation had never agreed to introduce this version, and as many families were opposed to their use in public worship, offence was taken; and the blame was thrown on Mr. Wallis as having been privy to the matter. The discontented withdrew, and for a time worshipped in a building about three hundred yards from the old stand; this, however, was soon abandoned, and the seceding families now worship at Sardis, about seven miles distant; the subject of Psalmody being the principal matter of division.

        The great revival of 1802 and onward, a particular account of which is given in the chapter on James M'Gready and the great revival, had a happy influence on this congregation. A camp-meeting was held within their bounds, commencing Friday, March 23d, 1802, at which it was supposed from five to six thousand persons were present. To accommodate this great assemblage, after a sermon at the public stand in the centre, about 9 o'clock, worship was continued at five different places. For the first three days little impression was made, and the opinion that "all was the work of man, and the effects of the power of oratory," which had been circulated by those inclined to believe in the infidel notions, was gaining ground. But on Sabbath night a great impression was visible, and before the close of the meeting a large number were hopeful converts; and among these were some that had been prominent in their unbelief. There are some living to this day who were converts

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at that meeting, whose lives have been those of consistent Christians.

        Mr. Wallis taught a classical school many years. The deep conviction, that purity of religion and morals could not long survive the introduction of an ignorant ministry into the pulpit, urged on the ministers of the Presbyterian church to unremitting efforts to establish and keep alive high schools. In these efforts they received the aid of intelligent laymen, who were impelled by the full belief, that the welfare of the body politic is for ever indissolubly united with mental cultivation and the correct training of the moral principles. Long has the academy stood near Providence church, and there may it long stand. The church and the school-house were inseparable in the early Presbyterian settlements. Mr. Wallis taught school successfully, and his successors have kept the doors of the academy open for the youth of Mecklenburg; and when the actors of the present generation have passed from the stage, their record will say of many of them, that their education was commenced, and of others, that it was finished there. It does not appear that Mr. Wallis was driven to school-keeping by poverty of his means; but from the necessity of the country at large, and his congregation in particular.

        Mr. Wallis was for some time before his death a member of the board of trustees of the University. This shows the estimation in which he was held by his political friends, when there were so many Presbyterian ministers of eminence as teachers, from whom to choose.

        Mr. Wallis was of stature rather below the middling height, small in person, quick in his motions, and elastic in his movements; excitable in his temper, warm in his attachments, ardent in his delivery of sermons, and not subject to fear. His congregation flourished under his ministry. He finished his course in the year 1819, in the 57th year of his age, and the 27th of his ministry.

        In the year 1823, the Rev. Samuel Williamson was called and settled as pastor; in this office he continued till his removal to the presidency of Davidson college in the year 1840. During his ministry, about the year 1831, those members of Providence living on the north side of McAlpin's Creek, from four to ten miles from Providence church, with a few other families, were organized as a separate church and congregation by the name of SHARON, to which a part of the labors of the pastor, Mr. Williamson, was given.

        Providence abounds in localities of revolutionary interest. A complete history of the southern war will bring to notice many places now fast passing even from traditionary remembrance.

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CHAPTER XIX.
JOSEPH GRAHAM.

        A BRIEF memoir of the several members of the Mecklenburg Convention would present the interesting spectacle of noble spirits, capable of the highest efforts of patriotism, self-denial and manly daring, acting out in a secluded frontier and a narrow boundary all the imperishable principles on which our Republic is based. The great truths which their minds embraced and their hearts loved, will remain unchanged and unchangeable. They may be modified, but when they cease to be the principles of the American Republic, a new government will have arisen, a new battle will be fought in the renovated plains of Asia or Africa, or Liberty must depart from the earth for ever.

        The distance from a flourishing printing-press--so great an evil during the Revolution--has been unfavorable to the notoriety of these retired but eminent men. Short memoirs, funeral orations, and collections of anecdotes, prepared by friends, which would have given all the desired information, were left to perish in manuscript, or die with those who had been witnesses, or live in the dim and twilight existence of tradition. All the prominent actors in the events of May 20th and 30th, 1775, have passed away; very few of those who were witnesses, and in the early days of youth, are living at this distant period; only here and there is one who can tell the deeds and recount the sufferings, and relate the anecdotes of the men of the Revolution. Brief notices will be given, interspersed in the body of the narratives and intermingled in the chapters, concerning these men whose memory must be dear to posterity.

        The man whose name stands at the head of this chapter, may be taken as an example of the enterprise, and labors, and sufferings of the young men of Carolina, who in defence of liberty spent their strength, gave their property, and shed their blood. There were multitudes whose names are worthy of a record, not so fortunate as this man, that found in a son-in-law a recorder of his deeds and a memorialist of his life, who has favored the public with a specimen of Mecklenburg youth in the Revolution.

        As you go from Beattie's Ford towards Lincolnton, about eight

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miles from the Catawba, and about ten from the village, you pass VESUVIUS FURNACE, the product of the skill and enterprise of that citizen-soldier, and soldier-citizen, Joseph Graham. Here he lived some forty years of his life, advancing the internal improvements of his country with persevering invention; planning, building and perfecting his iron-works, increasing his own resources as he added to the conveniences of his neighborhood. Here he reared a family of children; seven of whom survived him, though his life was prolonged to seventy-seven years. Here, as a neighbor and head of a family, like Mr. Hunter, the minister of Unity and Goshen, on whose ministry he attended, Mr. Graham exercised that frank hospitality and cheerful intercourse, that precision in principle and decision in action characteristic of those soldiers and officers of the Revolution, who went into the camp patriots, and came out unpolluted by its vices, and unhardened by its sufferings and bloody scenes.

        Graham and Hunter were both spectators of the convention in Charlotte,--Hunter, six days past his twentieth birthday,--Graham yet sixteen. Both saw much service in the war that followed; after the peace Hunter served his country as a faithful minister of the gospel, and Graham, as a high-minded, noble-spirited citizen, a sheriff, a military officer, a magistrate, and in the latter part of his life, an elder in the Presbyterian church. Both were of that race from the north of Ireland, familiarly called Scotch-Irish, whose emigrant families filled the country tracked by the bloodshed and ravages of the invading army under Cornwallis; and poured forth soldiers for the contest for freedom of opinion and personal liberty as brave as their descendants have been fortunate in winning the honors of their fellow citizens. Hunter was brought from Ireland when a boy; Graham was born in Pennsylvania; both grew to years of manhood in Mecklenburg county, North Carolina; both were deprived of their father in early life, and both were trained by a widowed mother. What widows there were in Carolina! Widow Graham, Widow Hunter, Widow Brevard, Widow Flinn, and Widow Sharpe. Joseph Graham was born in Pennsylvania, October 3d, 1759, and at about the age of seven years was settled in Carolina with his widowed mother, who brought her five children to the neighborhood of Charlotte. His coming to Mecklenburg was not far from the time of the birth of ANDREW JACKSON, since General and President of the United States, which took place March 15th, 1757, on the Waxhaw in South Carolina, about thirty miles from Charlotte. Jackson, like

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Hunter and Graham, was early bereaved of his father; and to this was soon added the irreparable loss of his mother, who, emigrating from the north of Ireland, with the characteristic attachment to liberty, was made a sacrifice to the independence of the United States, dying a victim to the hardships of the war.

        Mr. Graham was accustomed to labor from his childhood. As his frame was inured to hardships, his mind was not left uncultivated. He had for a time the benefit of the instruction given in the flourishing academy in Charlotte, afterwards known as Queen's Museum, and subsequently as Liberty Hall, the nursery of independent youth in noble sentiments.

        In the month of May, 1778, in his nineteenth year, we find him an officer in the company of Captain Gooden, of the 4th regiment of North Carolina regular troops, under the command of Colonel Archibald Lytle, marching to the rendezvous at Bladensburg, in Maryland. In Caswell county the regiment met the news of the battle of Monmouth, and the consequent retreat of the British forces to New York; and proceeded no farther. Mr. Graham returned home on furlough, and spent the summer on his mother's farm.

        In November, of the same year, he was in active service on the Savannah, under General Rutherford. In the spring following, we find him as quarter-master with the troops under the command of General Lincoln, in his campaign against General Prevost, and taking part in the hard-fought battle of the Stono, June 20th, 1779, which lasted an hour and a half. Many soldiers perished from the excessive heat of the day, among whom was the eldest brother of General Jackson. In the July following he was taken with a severe illness of two months, received his discharge near Dorchester, and returned home.

        Having passed the winter with his mother, he was ploughing in her fields in May, 1780, when he received the news that Charleston had been surrendered to the British arms; that Cornwallis had moved rapidly on to Camden; that Buford's Virginia regiment retreating, and as was supposed out of reach of the enemy, was surprised by Tarleton on the Waxhaw, and miserably butchered, few escaping unwounded, and many cut down crying for quarter; and that the British forces were within forty miles of Charlotte. The inhabitants of the Waxhaw fled for shelter from Lord Rawdon's oppression to Mecklenburg, Rowan, and Guilford, in North Carolina; young Jackson's mother residing for a time in the family of the Wilsons. A regiment was raised it Mecklenburg, which spent

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the summer in assailing the troops, and opposing the motions of Rawdon; of this regiment Graham was adjutant.

        On the 16th of August, 1780, Gates was defeated near Camden, and fled to Hillsborough. The whole country was in alarm; distressed, but not broken. The extreme of danger overbalanced in the minds of some the love of liberty; and some made submission to the king's authority, while the others took up arms more vigorously than ever in the defence of all that is dear. Cornwallis marched towards Charlotte, that "hot-bed of rebellion," "that hornets' nest," as his lordship afterwards named it, to take a position in the midst of the most disaffected region in the South. Graham was ordered by General Davidson to repair to Charlotte, take command of the forces assembled there, and join Colonel William Richardson Davie, who was severely annoying the advance of the British army.

        The night Cornwallis took possession of Davie's encampment on the Waxhaw, Davie encamped at Providence, about twenty-five miles from his lordship, on his way to Charlotte. On the morning of the 25th of September the British army was on the advance towards the same place; about midnight Davie entered the town. On the morning of the 26th the royal forces approached the place. Tarleton's dragoons rushed forward, and were repulsed;--again rushed forward, and were again repulsed. A regiment being ordered to sustain the charge, they rushed on the third time,--and were the third time repulsed by the small force assembled in the town. A regiment of infantry deploying on their flanks, the forces under Davie and Graham retired along the Salisbury road, keeping up a well-directed fire from the court-house to the Gum Tree. At the farm occupied by Mr.--, just out of town, where they halted and checked the advance of the pursuing forces, Graham narrowly escaped a double danger from the balls of the enemy and the bursting of a gun in the hands of a soldier who stood near. The forces again formed on the hill near Sugar Creek meetinghouse. The delay at this place, protracted by the zeal of Major White, rendered their further retreat dangerous, a body of dragoons having gone round their right to intercept them at the Cross Roads, a little beyond. This movement of the enemy was discovered just in time for the greater part of the retreating forces to escape. After a hot pursuit, Colonel Locke, of Rowan, was overtaken and shot down on the margin of the pond near Alexander Kennedy's lane; and Graham was overtaken in the skirt of the woods some distance to the right of the road, between Mr. Kennedy's

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and J. A. Houston's, cut down, severely mangled, and left for dead. He had received nine wounds--six from sabre cuts, and three from bullets. His stock-buckle intercepted one of the cuts upon his neck, and bore marks of the severity of the blow aimed at his life. Four deep sabre gashes scarred his head.

        After the enemy left him, he crawled with difficulty to some water near, and slaking his intolerable thirst, washed as well as he was able his numerous and painful wounds. For a time he despaired of life, and expected to die unnoticed in that secluded spot. Towards night he was discovered by the neighbors, who were looking around the battle-field to find their wounded countrymen, and conveyed to the house of a widow lady, the mother of Mrs. Susannah Alexander, now living. Here he was concealed in an upper room, or loft, and attended upon through the night by the widow and her daughter, who were expecting that he would die from the number and severity of his wounds. Once he fell asleep and breathed so quietly, and looked so pale, as they came to inquire his wants, they thought he was dead.

        The next day, the 27th, the lady of one of the British officers, with a small company of horsemen, visited the house, in search of fresh provisions. By some means she discovered there was a wounded man in the loft. On pressing the inquiry she found he was an officer, and his wounds severe; and offered to send a surgeon from the army to dress his wounds, as soon as she should reach the camp at Charlotte. Alarmed at this discovery, Graham, summoning all his powers to the highest exertion, caused himself to be put on horseback, the succeeding night, and was carried to his mother's, and from thence speedily to the hospital. Three balls were taken from his body. The severity of the wounds and the loss of blood confined for about two months this active soldier.

        After the rencontre on the hill, near Sugar Creek meetinghouse, and the consequent pursuit, the American forces retreated without further opposition. There had been no hope of successful defence of the town, or effectual resistance of the advancing enemy. But from the time of Buford's Massacre, in May,--when the Presbyterian church on the Waxhaw became a hospital, where young Jackson first saw wounds and the carnage of war,--and more particularly after the defeat of Gates in August, the patriots were exasperated, driven to madness, by the cruelties of the tories and the marauding parties of the British army. Armed bands of the patriots, whigs, as they were called, were constantly hovering

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round the enemy in their camp and on their march, intercepting their supplies, cutting off their foraging parties, and retaliating distress. These annoyances caused Cornwallis and his officers to move cautiously, and keep their army in a compact body; and the country not immediately in their track was in a measure free from devastation, it being entirely unsafe for any small party to venture far from the main body. The report of a foraging party would spread with wonderful rapidity, and the irritated inhabitants collect and harass the plunderers back to the camp, or force them to take shelter under the cannon of his lordship.

        Having recovered from his wounds, Graham, at the request of Gen. Wm. L. Davidson, the commander in chief of the militia of the western counties of Carolina, undertook, in December, 1780, to raise a body of men to be under his own command. In two weeks he embodied fifty-five mounted riflemen, armed and accoutred at their own expense; some, beside their rifles, carrying swords, and some, pistols; all prepared for hard service, and entering the field without a quarter-master, and in expectation of little pay for the three months of their engagement, which proved months of hard service.

        The celebrated victory of the Cowpens was gained by Morgan, over Tarleton, on the 17th of January, 1781. To secure his six hundred prisoners, Morgan commenced his march towards Virginia, through Lincoln county, aiming to cross the Catawba at Beattie's ford. Cornwallis and Greene commenced their march to the same ford, the royal army on the western side of the river, to intercept Morgan, and the American forces on the eastern side, to meet him at the ford and secure his prisoners. Then commenced the trial of generalship between the two commanders, to be determined by force and skill, the reward of victory to be the prisoners of Morgan and the possession of the Southern States. Much, perhaps we might say everything, depended on the reaching the ford first. Each of the three parties had about the same distance to march. Morgan had the start, but was encumbered with the prisoners. The two rival Generals moved on with all possible celerity; the royal army destroying their heavy baggage, by the example of their General; the American forces having but little to carry or destroy. Greene left his army and rode across the country and had an interview with Morgan, who pressed on with wonderful spirit, ambitious to secure his prisoners, and reached the ford unmolested. On the morning after he crossed, Cornwallis appeared upon the Western bank, hot in the pursuit, and disappointed of his prey.

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        The river had risen the night after Morgan crossed, and was impassable. The two days thus gained saw Morgan far on his way to Virginia, and Greene moving slowly towards the Yadkin, between him and Cornwallis. General Davidson, with the North Carolina militia, was left to delay the crossing of the enemy as long as possible. Captain Graham was posted with his rifle company at Cowan's Ford, some distance below Beattie's, and at that ford, after many feints, his Lordship commenced his passage of the river. The riflemen kept up a constant and galling fire upon the advancing ranks, and many an officer and soldier were sent floating down the stream, victims of their deadly aim. General Davidson, hearing the firing, came down to the river bank, accompanied by Col. Wm. Polk, and the Rev. Thomas H. McCaule, pastor of Centre congregation, in whose bounds this action took place, and while taking observations, received a fatal wound and fell dead from his horse. The deadly shot was supposed to be from the hand of a tory, the British soldiers using only muskets, and the wound of Davidson being made by a rifle ball. No one claimed the honor of piloting the enemy to the ford, or of aiming the fatal shot. Such a preeminence would have been fatal to the claimant in North Carolina for years.

        The North Carolina militia, under the command of General Pickens, hung upon the rear of the enemy, as Cornwallis pursued Greene across the State into Virginia, and continued to molest them in their encampment at Hillsborough. Capt. Graham, with his company and some troops from Rowan, surprised and captured the guard at Hart's Mill, only a mile and a half from headquarters, and then united with the forces of Col. Lee, of Virginia, and the next day assisted in the surprise of Col. Pyles, with his regiment of three hundred tories, advancing to join the army of his Lordship, and within two miles of the forces under Tarleton.

        Mistaking the American forces for Tarleton's troop, which was known to be near, the tories raised the shout of "God save the king," and never discovered their mistake till trampled down by the cavalry, sword in hand. The discomfiture was complete, and the forces under Lee escaped without loss, passing within a mile of Tarleton's corps. Lee used to speak of the surprise of these tories with great enthusiasm, and describe graphically their consternation upon discovering their mistake. He led his troops along the front of their line, which were shouting him a welcome; he traversed the whole front unsuspected, he and his men waving their swords. His command, "wheel into line," gave no alarm.

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At the word "charge," his company leaped their horses upon the ranks of the tories, and in a moment their swords were bathed in blood. It was the most complete surprise of the whole war.

        In the course of a short time after this, Captain Graham was in the engagement under Lee at Clapp's Mill, on the Alamance; and in a few days after, at Whitsell's Mill, under Colonel Washington. With these officers, Graham was employed in harassing all foraging parties, and beating up the quarters of the tories, till the 14th March, when the term of enlistment for which he had engaged his men expired.

        As was usual with the partizan corps, Graham's company insisted on returning home for refreshment after their term of enlistment was expired, the 14th of March, their resources being exhausted and their engagements having been fulfilled. By order of General Greene they were marched in a compact body till the Yadkin was crossed, and there disbanded. By this movement, Graham and his men were deprived of the honor of assisting in the important battle at Guilford Court-house, after having taken so active a part in the preparatory steps. The very next day after crossing the river, far in the rear, Cornwallis having accepted the challenge of Greene, gave battle; and in two days was on his way to Wilmington, flying from his defeated adversary.

        The western part of North Carolina had rest during the summer of 1781. In the early part of September, General Rutherford was released from the captivity he had endured from the time of the defeat of Gates. Immediately upon his release he took the necessary steps to raise three companies of dragoons and two hundred mounted infantry; of these, Robert Smith was appointed colonel, and Graham, who had been engaged in their organization, was appointed major. On their march to Wilmington, near the Raft Swamp, Graham, with ninety dragoons and forty infantry, dispersed a large body of tories who had assembled at the command of Cornwallis; and soon after, with one troop of dragoons and two of infantry, he surprised and defeated another near Wilmington. On the next day, Major Graham led, in person, the attack made on the British garrison, near the same place. The last engagement in which he participated during the war, resulted in the defeat of the celebrated Colonel Gagney, near Lake Waccamaw. After a long series of depredations, practised on the patriots without relenting, he was surprised and entirely defeated. In this engagement Major Graham commanded three companies, and acted a brave part in this last action in which he participated

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during the Revolutionary war, which was speedily closed in the South, by the surrender of Cornwallis, at Yorktown.

        After the close of the war he was elected the first sheriff of Mecklenburg county, and gave as great satisfaction to his fellow-citizens in civil, as he had done in military life. For many years he was a prominent member of the General Assembly of the State, from the same county. In the year 1787, he was married to the second daughter of Major John Davidson, one of the members of the Mecklenburg Convention, and by her became the father of twelve children, seven of whom survived him. Soon after his marriage he removed to Lincoln county, and proceeded to erect the iron works which gave him employment and affluence, and were a source of convenience and wealth to his neighborhood and fellow-citizens of the county.

        In the year 1814, by the strong solicitations of the governor of the State, he accepted the commission of general of a force to be sent to the aid of the volunteers of Tennessee and Georgia, acting under Generals Jackson, Coffee and Carroll, in repelling the murderous aggressions of the Creek Indians. His private affairs required his attention at home; his public spirit prompted him to march with a fine body of men to the seat of war. He arrived in time to assist in bringing it to a close, and received the submission of several hundred of the Indians, after the battle fought by General Jackson, at the Horse Shoe. After more than thirty years of unparalleled prosperity had crowned the labors of the Revolution, and each had been prospered in their private concerns, and shared fully in the honors of their constituents, Graham and Jackson, whose boyhood and youth had been spent in the same troublous scenes, met to congratulate each other and their countrymen, at the successful termination of a vexatious Indian war.

        For many years he was Major General of the fifth Division of North Carolina militia, and throughout his life manifested the same generosity and bravery that enabled him during the Revolutionary war to be the most successful man in Mecklenburg county, in raising a company or a legion. Those that served under him testified to his worth as a man, and as an officer.

        As a magistrate and civil officer he was dignified, firm, a defender of the rights of his fellow-citizens, and a supporter of the laws. Freedom of person and property under the government of law, formed the basis of his political creed. What Judge Murphy says of Archibald Henderson, with the slight change of a few circumstances, may be said of Joseph Graham, in his public

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course. Speaking of Henderson, the Judge says,--"No man better understood the theory of our government, no man more admired it, no man gave more practical proofs of his admiration. The sublime idea that he lived under the government of laws was for ever uppermost in his mind, and seemed to give a coloring to all his actions. As he acknowledged no dominion but that of the laws, he bowed with reverence to their authority, and taught obedience no less by his example than his precept. In the county courts, when the justice of the peace administered the laws, he was no less respectful in his deportment than in the highest tribunal of the State. He considered obedience to the law to be the first duty of a citizen, and it seemed to be the great object of his professional life to inculcate a sense of duty, and give the administration of the laws an impressive character. He said the laws were made for the common people, and they should be interpreted and administered by rules which they understood, whenever it was practicable. He said the rules of pedantry did not suit this country, nor this age, that common sense had acquired the dominion in politics and religion, and was gaining it in law." In these sentiments all sound republicans must unite, however they may differ on smaller matters. From the first, the inhabitants of Mecklenburg had declared that it was not against law, but against oppression, they raised their arms. The fourth resolution of this Convention says, "That as we now acknowledge the existence and control of no law or legal officer, civil or military, within this county, we do hereby ordain and adopt as a rule of life, all, each, and every of our former laws, wherein, nevertheless, the crown of Great Britain never can be considered as holding rights, privileges, immunities, or authority therein."

        His religious principles were those of his ancestors, and must be those of his descendants. Freedom of conscience in the exercise of devotional feelings, in public and in private, was prized beyond all price. Freedom in religion was the great object for which his ancestors had contended in Ireland; for it they had emigrated to Carolina; and for it, in conjunction with freedom of property and person, under the government of law, he had taken up arms and fought. For it he had shed his blood in youth, and for it, in his old age, he would have died.

        One who knew General Graham well, from long acquaintance, says: "His intercourse with others was marked by great dignity of deportment, delicacy of feeling, cheerfulness of spirit, and equality of temper. Men of learning and high standing have often

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expressed much gratification by his company, and surprise at the extent and accuracy of his knowledge. He was far, very far removed from all those feelings of selfishness, vanity, deception, or envy, which unfit men for the duties and joys of social life. His eye was always open to the virtues of his friends; his heart was always ready to reciprocate their kindness, to sympathize with their sorrows, and overlook their infirmities. His hand, his time, his counsel and his influence, were all at the command of those who shared his confidence, and deserved his affection.

        "But there was another circle nearer to his heart, in which he was still better prepared to shine; and in which true excellency displayed, is a brighter and surer evidence of worth. Justice could not be done to his character without being known in the family circle. As a husband, a father, and a master, those alone who were the objects of his attachment, forbearance, and tenderness, could duly appreciate his conduct and demeanor.

        "He possessed a lofty and delicate sense of personal honor and virtuous feeling. His presence was always a rebuke to the arts and abominations of evil speaking, profanity, and defamation. If he could not speak well of his fellow-men, he was wise and firm enough to say nothing. He regarded the reputation of others as a sacred treasure, and would never stoop to meddle with the private history, or detract from the good name of those around him. He felt that the sources of his enjoyment, and the causes of his elevation, were not to be found in the calamities or vices of his fellow-men, and hence his lips were closed to the tales of slander, and his bosom a stranger to the wiles of calumny.

        "But General Graham did not believe, when he had served his country, his family, and his friends, that his work on earth was finished. With an unwavering conviction of the truth and importance of religion, he professed to serve God, and to seek for salvation by faith in Christ. For a long period of time, he was a member of the Presbyterian church, under the ministry of Dr. Hunter; and for ten or twelve years previous to his death, was a ruling elder of Unity, under the pastoral care of Rev. Mr. Adams. He cherished the most profound respect for the ordinances and duties of Christianity, attended with deep interest and uniform punctuality upon the means of grace. He delighted much in reading the Word of God, and in hearkening to the instructions of the ministers of the gospel, for whom he always manifested the greatest regard. In selecting his library, he proved how high an estimate he placed upon Christian instruction, and in his most unreserved intercourse

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with pious friends, his deep and pervading concern for true and undefiled religion was apparent. No circumstance would deter him from manifesting the most decided contempt for the grovelling spirit of infidelity and irreligion."

        Accustomed in his youth to expose himself to instant death in a good cause, and in his age, girding his loins and trimming his lamp according to the gospel, his final departure by apoplexy coming suddenly, could be neither distressing nor alarming. He rode from Lincolnton, on the 10th of November, 1836, and on the 12th, closed his eyes for ever. He was buried in a spot chosen by himself and Captain Alexander Brevard, as a place of sepulture for their families. Captain Brevard was brother of Dr. Ephraim Brevard, the draughtsman of the Declaration; served as an officer in the Continental army; was connected in marriage with the sister of Mrs. Graham, both ladies being daughters of Major John Davidson; was a firm friend and neighbor of General Graham; with him, served as elder of the Presbyterian church; and with him, lies buried in the spot of their choice, a secluded place walled in with rock, on the Great Road from Beattie's Ford, by Brevard's Furnace, to Lincolnton. On the stone that marks Graham's grave, you may read,

SACRED TO THE MEMORY OF
MAJOR GENERAL JOSEPH GRAHAM,
who died, Nov. 12th, 1836, aged 77 years.


        "He was a brave, intelligent, and distinguished officer in the Revolutionary war, and in various campaigns from May, 1778, to Nov., 1781, commanded in fifteen engagements, with signal courage, wisdom, and success.

        "On the 26th of Sept., 1780, after a gallant defence of the ground first consecrated by the Declaration of American Independence, he was wounded near to Charlotte.

        "In 1814, he commanded the troops of North Carolina, in their expedition against the Creek Indians.

        "His life was a bright and illustrious pattern of domestic, social, and public virtues.

        "Modest, amiable, upright, and pious, he lived a noble ornament to his country, a faithful friend to the church, and a rich blessing to his family; and died with the hope of a glorious immortality."

        A good portrait of General Graham may be seen at Cottage

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Home, the residence of the Rev. R. H. Morrison, D.D., in Unity congregation, Lincoln county. The picture represents a fine bold forehead, blue eye, thin lip, with the shoulders and chest of a robust man of middling stature. The features of the face indicate calmness, kindness, and decision. You would not expect the original easily to be made angry, or alarmed, or driven from his purpose. And the unvarying testimony of all that knew him, is that his face was an index of his heart.

        The more the character and principles of the men of the Revolution are known, the more profound the veneration for their memory. Their persons have passed away--scarce a vestige remains. May their principles flourish for ever!

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CHAPTER XX.
BATTLE OF KING'S MOUNTAIN.

        THE following paper was drawn up by General Graham, who was familiar with the country around the Mountain, knew some of the officers engaged in the battle, and previous to writing this description visited the battle-ground with a son of one of the officers. From his known habits of observation and correctness, and his familiarity with military detail, there is no doubt that this is the most graphic account that has ever been given of that celebrated and important action. He drew a beautiful plot of the battle-ground and the position of the forces at different times during the day of the action.

        "After the defeat of General Gates and the army under his command, on the 16th day of August, 1780, and the defeat of General Sumpter, two days after, near Rocky Mount, by Colonel Tarleton, the South was almost entirely abandoned to the enemy. Most of the troops, both officers and men, who had escaped from Gates's defeat, passed through Charlotte, N. C., where most of the militia of Mecklenburg county were assembled in consequence of the alarm; the regular troops chiefly passed on to Hillsborough, where General Gates finally established his head-quarters.

        "Wm. L. Davidson, who had served as lieutenant-colonel of the regulars in the Northern Army, was appointed brigadier-general of the militia in the Salisbury district, in the place of General Rutherford, who was taken prisoner at Gates's defeat. He formed a brigade, and encamped on McAlpin's Creek, about eight miles below Charlotte, and in the course of two or three weeks was reinforced by General Sumner, a continental officer, but having no regulars to command, took command of the militia from the counties of Guilford, Caswell, Orange, and others.

        "After Gates's defeat, the attention of Lord Cornwallis was chiefly occupied with burying the dead, taking care of the wounded, and forwarding, under a suitable guard, the great number of prisoners he had taken, to the city of Charleston, and regulating the civil government he was establishing in South Carolina, and examining the state of the posts occupied by his troops on the Congaree, Ninety-Six, and Augusta. By the 1st of September he

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had his arrangements made, and detached Colonel Ferguson over the Wateree, with only one hundred and ten regulars, under the command of Captain Dupeister, and about the same number of tories; but with an ample supply of arms and other military stores. His movements were at first rapid, endeavoring to intercept the retreat of a party of Mountain-men, who were harassing the upper settlement of tories in South Carolina. Failing in this he afterwards moved slowly, and frequently halted to collect all the tories he could persuade to join him. He passed Broad River, and before the last of September encamped at a place called Gilbertstown, within a short distance of where the thriving village of Rutherfordton now stands. His force had increased to upwards of 1,000 men. On his march to this place, he had furnished arms to such of his new recruits as were without them. The greater part of them had rifles; but to a part of them, he had them to fix a large knife they usually carried, made small enough at the butt end, for two inches or more of the handle, to slip into the muzzle of the rifle, so that it might be occasionally used as a bayonet.

        "Although Colonel Ferguson failed to overtake the detachment of Mountain-men alluded to, he took two of them prisoners, who had become separated from their commands. In a day or two he paroled them, and enjoined them to inform the officers on the western waters, that if they did not desist from their opposition to the British arms, and take protection under his standard, he would march his army over the mountains, hang their leaders, and lay waste the country with fire and sword.

        "Colonel Charles McDowell, of Burke county, on the approach of Ferguson with so large a force, had gone over the mountains to obtain assistance, and was in consultation with Colonel John Sevier and Colonel Isaac Shelby what plan should be pursued, when the two paroled men spoken of arrived and delivered their message from Colonel Ferguson. It was decided that each of them should use his best efforts to raise all the men that could be enlisted, and that this force, when collected, should meet on the Wataga, on the 25th of September. It was also agreed that Colonel Shelby should give intelligence of their movements to Colonel William Campbell, of the adjoining county of Washington, in Virginia, with the hope that he would raise what force he could and co-operate with them. They met on the Wataga the day appointed, and passed the mountains on the 30th of September, where they were joined by Colonel Benjamin Cleaveland, and

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Major Joseph Winston, from Wilks and Surry counties, North Carolina. On examining their force, it was found to number as follows, viz:

        
"From Washington county, Virginia, under Col. Wm. Campbell 400
"From Sullivan county, North Carolina, under Col. Isaac Shelby 240
"From Washington county, North Carolina, under Col. John Sevier 240
"From Burke and Rutherford counties, North Carolina, under Col. Charles McDowell 160
"From Wilks and Surry counties, North Carolina, under Col. Cleaveland and Major James Winston 350
Total 1390

        "Col. Ferguson having accurate intelligence of the force collecting against him, early on the 4th of October, ordered his men to march, and remained half an hour after they had started writing a despatch to Lord Cornwallis, no doubt informing him of his situation and soliciting aid. The letter was committed to the care of the noted Abraham Collins (him of counterfeit memory) and another person by the name of Quinn, with injunctions to deliver it as soon as possible. They set out and attempted to pass the direct road to Charlotte, but having to pass through some whig settlements, they were surprised and pursued, and being compelled to secrete themselves by day and travel by night, they did not reach Charlotte until the morning of the 7th of October, the day of the battle. Colonel Ferguson encamped the first night at the noted place called the Cowpens, about twenty miles from Gilbertstown. On the 5th of October he crossed the Broad River, at what is now called Dear's Ferry, sixteen miles. On the 6th, he marched up the Ridge Road, between the waters of King's and Buffalo creeks, until he came to the fork, turning to the right across King's Creek, and through a gap in the mountain towards Yorkville, about fourteen miles. There he encamped on the summit of that part of the mountain to the right of the road, where he remained till he was attacked on the 7th.

        "When the troops from the different counties met at the head of the Catawba river, the commanding officers met, and finding that they were all of equal grade, and no general officer to command,

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it was decided that Col. Charles McDowell should go to headquarters, supposed to be between Charlotte and Salisbury, to obtain General Sumner or General Davidson to take the command. In the meantime, it was agreed that Col. William Campbell, who had the largest regiment, should take the command until the arrival of a general officer, who was to act according to the advice of the colonels commanding, and that Major McDowell should take the command of the Burke and Rutherford regiment until the return of Col. McDowell.

        "Shortly after these measures were adopted, intelligence was received that Colonel Ferguson had left Gilbertstown, and it was decided that they would march after him, by that place; and on their way they received evidence that it was his design to evade an engagement with them. On the evening of the 6th of October, the colonels in council unanimously resolved, that they would select all the men and horses fit for service, and immediately pursue Ferguson until they should overtake him, leaving such as were not able to go to come after them as fast as they could. The next morning the selection was made, and 910 men, including officers, were marched before, leaving the others to follow. They came to the Cowpens, where Ferguson had camped on the night of the 4th, and there met Colonel Williams, of South Carolina, with near 400 men, and about 60 from Lincoln county, who had joined them on their march under Colonel Hambrite and Major Chronicle. After drawing rations of beef, the whole proceeded on a little before sunset, taking Ferguson's trail towards Dear's Ferry, on Broad River. Night coming on, and being very dark, their pilot got out of the right way, and for some time they were lost; but before daylight they reached near to the ferry, and by directions of the officers, the pilot led them to the Cherokee ford, about a mile and a half below, as it was not known but the enemy might be in possession of the eastern bank of the river. It was on the morning of the 7th, before sunrise, when they crossed the river, and marched about two miles to the place where Ferguson had encamped on the night of the 5th. There they halted a short time, and took such breakfast as their wallets and saddlebags would afford. The day was showery, and they were obliged to use their blankets and great coats to protect their arms from wet. They passed on a dozen of miles without seeing any person; although they met a lad in an old field, by the name of Fonderin, about twelve or fourteen years of age, who had a brother and other relations in Ferguson's camp, and who was directly from it, within less than

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three miles. A halt was ordered, and the colonels met in consultation. Several persons knew the ground well on which the enemy was encamped, agreeably to the information given by the boy, of their position. The plan of battle was immediately settled; that the forces should be nearly equally divided, and one half would take to the right, cross over and occupy the southeast side of the mountain, and that the other should advance to the northwest side, and that each division should move forward until they formed a junction, when all should face to the front, and press upon the enemy up the sides of the mountain. Orders were given to prepare for battle by laying aside every incumbrance, examining into their arms, and guarding against alarms. The orders were speedily obeyed, and they moved forward over King's Creek and up a branch and ravine, and between two rocky knobs; which when they had passed, the top of the mountain and the enemy's camp upon it were in full view, about one hundred poles in front."

        "The enemy's camp was to the right of the road, seventy or eighty poles in length, and on the summit of the mountain, which at this place runs nearly northeast and southwest (the shadow of the timber at half past one P. M. ranges with it). The troops were led on in the following order: to the right, Major Winston, Colonel Sevier, Colonel Campbell, Colonel Shelby, and Major McDowell; to the left, Colonel Hambrite, Colonel Cleaveland, and Colonel Williams, of South Carolina. Each division moved off steadily to the place assigned them, in the order of battle. Some of the regiments suffered much under the galling fire of the enemy, before they were in a position to engage in the action. Some complaints began to be uttered, that "it would never do to be shot down without returning the fire;' Colonel Shelby replied, 'press on to your places, and then your fire will not be lost.' The men, led by Shelby and M'Dowell, were soon closely engaged, and the contest from the first was very severe. Williams and Cleaveland were soon in their places, and with the utmost energy engaged the foe. Ferguson, finding that end of his line giving way, ordered forward his regulars and riflemen, with bayonets, and made a furious charge upon Shelby and M'Dowell, charging down the mountain some two hundred yards. A united and destructive fire soon compelled him to order his party back to the top of the mountain. To ward off the deadly attack from Colonel Williams, Ferguson again charged with fury down the mountain. When Shelby's men saw this, they raised the cry, 'Come on, men, the enemy is retreating!' They rallied, and by

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the time Ferguson returned from the charge against the South Carolinians, renewed their fire with great resolution. Ferguson again charged upon Shelby, but not so far as before; Colonel Williams's men in turn called out, 'the enemy is retreating, come on, men!'

        "At this stage of the action, Hambrite and Winston had met, and a brisk fire was poured upon Ferguson's men, all round the mountain. As he would advance towards Campbell, Sevier, Winston, and Hambrite, he was pursued by Shelby, M'Dowell, Williams, and Cleaveland. When he would turn his face against the latter, the former would press on in pursuit. Thus he struggled on, making charges and retreats, but his left was rapidly losing ground. His men were rapidly falling before the skilful aim and unbending courage of the whigs. Even after being wounded, he fought on with courage. He made every effort that could be done by a brave and skilful officer, according to his position. At length he was shot dead, and his whole command driven up into a group of sixty yards in length, and not forty in width.

        "The British officer, Capt. Dupeister, who took the command, ordered a white flag to be raised in token of surrender, but the bearer was instantly shot down. He soon had another raised, and called out for quarter. Col. Shelby demanded, if they surrendered, why they did not throw down their arms. It was instantly done. But still the firing was continued, until Shelby and Sevier went inside the lines and ordered the men to cease. Some who kept at it would call out, 'Give them Buford's play,' alluding to Colonel Buford's defeat by Tarleton, where no quarter was given. A guard was placed over the prisoners, and all remained on the mountain during that night."

        "The party which led the left wing, under Colonel Hambrite, suffered very much, having to pass very difficult ground to reach their place of destination, and within eighty rods of the enemy's marksmen. Colonel Hambrite was wounded, and Major Chronicle was killed. Colonel Williams, of South Carolina, a brave and efficient officer, was also killed. The loss of the whigs was not exactly ascertained, but believed to be about thirty killed and fifty wounded. The enemy had about one hundred and fifty killed, and all the rest taken prisoners."

        "On the morning of the 8th a court-martial was held, and several of the prisoners, who were found guilty of murder and

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other high crimes, were sentenced to be hanged. About twenty were executed."

        From this paper of Gen. Graham it appears that the first moving of the expedition was in North Carolina. Virginia came to her aid, and the gallant South Carolina took her share. The gallant Williams has no monument. The friends of Major Chronicle and a few others erected a monument where they were buried, near the battle-ground. On the east side is this inscription, viz.:

Sacred to the memory of Major WILLIAM CHRONICLE
and Captain MATTOCKS, WILLIAM ROBB, and JOHN BOYD:--
who were killed at this place on the 7th of October, 1780,
fighting in defence of America.


        On the west side--

Col. FERGUSON, an officer of
his Britannic Majesty, was
defeated and killed at this place,
on the 7th of October, 1780.


        Colonel Williams was an elder in the Presbyterian church, much beloved as a man and an officer. His fellow-citizens preferred marching under him, when the time for marching came. The last meeting, it is said, with his friends, was at the church, in which he used to meet them in solemn worship, and at a communion season. Shelby became noted in Kentucky, was made Governor, and was, in the latter part of his life, religious, and an elder of the church. The McDowells held through life the highest stand with their fellow-citizens. Winston, Hambrite, Sevier, and Cleaveland, were true patriots. Campbell was, after this, in the battle of Guilford, and afterwards the commander of the militia in the eastern section of Virginia; and while engaged with his duties was seized with a fever, which proved mortal. He was buried at Rocky Mills, in Hanover county. A native of Augusta county, he removed early to Washington county,--a bold, active man, and extremely popular with the militia, as is seen in the fact that on a short notice he rallied 400 men of his county to march with him in this expedition,--an untiring enemy of the tories, who hated him as much as he loved his country. After an interval of forty years, his remains, in a surprising state of preservation, were removed to Washington county, to repose with his family.

        It is said that Colonel Ferguson, when he encamped on King's Mountain, after so many days of retreat before the gathering militia, exclaimed to his men, "Here is a place God Almighty cannot

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drive us from." He never left the mountain; the next day he fell in battle.

        By courtesy, Colonel Campbell, as having the largest force, was considered the leading officer; during the action he rode down two horses. Early in the action, his black, called Bald Face, proving unruly, he exchanged him for a horse belonging to a Mr. Campbell, of his corps. In the heat of the battle he was seen on foot at the head of his men, with his coat off, and his shirt-collar open. Some two hundred yards down the mountain was Bald Face, mounted by the Colonel's servant, a tall, well-proportioned mulatto, who said, "he had come up to see what his master and the rest were doing."

        Ex-Senator Preston, of South Carolina, a grandson of Colonel Campbell, in his youth, stopped at a tavern in South Carolina, near the North Carolina line, and in sight of King's Mountain; and while breakfast was preparing, observed that the landlady frequently turned to look at him. While eating, she asked him his name, and observed, by way of apology, that he was very like the man she most dreaded on earth. "And who is that?" said Preston. "Colonel Campbell," said the woman, "that hung my husband at King's Mountain."

        Besides Shelby, who became religious before his death, and Williams, who was so much beloved as elder, it is the tradition that two of the other officers were elders in the Presbyterian church; but which of them is not handed down distinctly. They were republicans on principle, and fought and bled for their principles. The whole military force that were engaged in this expedition were from Presbyterian settlements, and were in all probability all of them of Scotch and Scotch-Irish origin.

        Though the scene of this battle is in South Carolina, the chief honor belongs to North Carolina, shared most nobly with South Carolina and Virginia. The officers and men concerned in the planning and executing the enterprise were all of the same race, and were gathered from what now forms four States. "Mountainmen," and "beyond the mountains," mean Tennessee and Kentucky, then forming western counties of North Carolina and Virginia.

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CHAPTER XXI.
THE BATTLE AT GUILFORD COURT-HOUSE.

        It is a remarkable circumstance that the battle of Guilford Courthouse, March 15th, 1781, which drove the invading army of Cornwallis from North Carolina, was fought within about a day's march of the scene of the first bloodshed for American Independence, made on the Alamance, some ten years before, May 1771, the one in the bounds of Buffalo congregation, and the other on the skirts of Alamance, the two congregations forming the pastoral charge of Dr. David Caldwell.

        The pursuit of Greene by Cornwallis across the State, from the time the Catawba was crossed in January, 1781, and Davidson slain, was as rapid as the well disciplined army of English, having destroyed their baggage, could make it, under the direction of brave and skilful officers, through a country for the most part hostile to his majesty's forces, with no magazines, or provisions collected for their supply, and the sources of refreshment along the track of pursuit mostly consumed by the retreating American army. Perhaps in the whole course of the war, generalship and bravery, in pursuit and retreat, were never better exhibited, than in the efforts of his lordship to bring Greene to battle before he could cross the Dan, and the success of Greene to elude all his lordship's efforts. It is said that the advance guards of one and the rear guard of the other were often within musket-shot without discharging a gun. The great object, a general battle, could not be gained by the death or wounds of a few of Greene's rear, and the officers of Cornwallis refrained from firing on those whom they could not intercept.

        At nine o'clock at night, on the 14th of February, the main army having crossed the day before, Lee's legion took the boats that had carried over the forces under Colonel Otho Williams, at Boyd's Ferry; Lieutenant Colonel Carrington, the quartermaster-general, entering the last boat. Had it been daylight, the British forces might have seen the departure, so close was the advance guard. Here the pursuit ended.

        Cornwallis chose Hillsborough for his head-quarters. While a detachment of his army lay at the Red House, they occupied the church of Hugh McAden, the first located missionary in North

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Carolina, and remembering that those who sang "David's Psalms in Metre," in South Carolina, were rebels against the king, and their ministers fomenters of rebellion, they complimented McAden, a short time in his grave, and his congregation also, by burning his library and papers. Fortunately his early journal escaped the flames.

        His lordship tarried about ten days in Hillsborough. In that time Greene, reinforced by militia and volunteers from Virginia, had recrossed the Dan, and commenced that harassing warfare that drew Cornwallis from his head-quarters, and brought on the decisive battle. Between the 18th and 23d those marches and counter-marches took place by forces under command of Greene's officers, that led to the destruction of the regiment of tories under Colonel Pyles, marching to join the invaders, about midway between Hillsborough and Greensborough, and to the entanglement of Tarleton, from which he was rescued only by the watchfulness of his general, who sent three messengers in haste after him, in one night, to speed his return, and just saved him from the forces that were preparing to cut him off before daylight.

        On the 26th of February Cornwallis left Hillsborough, and moving south encamped on the fertile Alamance, and moved on, quartering upon the "rebels." On the 6th of March he made a move to entrap that remarkable officer, Colonel Otho Williams of Maryland; and in the manoeuvres that followed, a circumstance occurred that gave a British officer great éclat in the American camp. Above thirty rifle shots, deliberately aimed, were made by King's mountain riflemen, at Wetzell's Mills on Reedy Fork, upon a British officer that was seen slowly approaching the bank of the stream, and carefully fording the current on a beautiful black horse, at the time apparently busied with the movements of a detachment of soldiers, all within view, and in fair rifle shot. To the amazement of all, without harm, or discovering the least sensation of alarm, he crossed the stream and disappeared. Upon inquiring of some prisoners what officer in the manoeuvres and skirmishes rode a black horse, the name of the gallant, gentlemanly and skilful Colonel Webster was given in reply.

        Cornwallis removed his army into the bounds of Buffalo congregation, and encamped on the plantation of William Rankin. Remaining there till all the provisions on the plantation and in the neighborhood were consumed, and the plunder secured, the army was marched into the Alamance congregation, and encamped on the plantation of Ralph Gorrel, Esq., who, like Mr. Rankin, was a man of

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influence and wealth, and a true whig. Turning the family out of doors, consuming, plundering, and destroying, with the thoughtless recklessness of invading soldiers, leaving the neighborhood a scene of desolation, after an abode of two days, the army was marched on Sabbath, March 11th, to the premises of Dr. Caldwell. Mrs. Caldwell and the children retired to the smoke-house, and there passed a day without provision and without a bed. The officers that occupied the house insulted her distress with profane language and cruel treatment, until the principal physician, understanding her condition, interposed, and procured for her a bed and a few cooking utensils, and some provisions. The head-quarters of his lordship was at Mr. McCuistin's on the great road from the court-house to Fayetteville; but the army was encamped mainly on Dr. Caldwell's plantation, the line extending entirely across it, and the wings occupying part of two of his neighbor's, one on each side; "and the marks of it are still visible." Mr. Caruthers says--"every panel of fence on the premises was burned; every particle of provisions consumed or carried away; every living thing was destroyed except one old goose; and nearly every square rod of ground was penetrated with their iron ramrods, in search of hidden treasure."

        Before leaving the place, the library and papers of Dr. Caldwell were destroyed by fire. This was done by the command of the officers. The large over in the yard was used for the purpose. A fire being kindled, armful after armful of the books and papers was, by the servants, committed to the flames, till the destruction was complete. The Dr. was at this time in the camp of Greene, which, on Monday, the 12th, was about five miles from High Rock; on Tuesday, eight miles farther, on Ready Fort, and on Wednesday at the Court House. A price had been set by his lordship on the Dr.'s head: £200 to any one who should bring him in prisoner. As if to revenge his absence from home on his library and papers, the order was given for their destruction. Not even the family Bible was spared. The fatal Psalms in metre probably ensured its destruction. The loss of the manuscripts was irreparable; the library in the course of time was partially replaced.

        After remaining two days, the army left the neighborhood a scene of desolation and distress, and removed to the Quaker settlement on Deep River. About this time occurred the massacre of the bugler of Lee's legion, while crying for quarter, but a little more atrocious than the daughters and plunderings which were enacted throughout Dr Caldwell's congregations.

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        By Greene's near approach on Wednesday, the 14th of March, it was understood throughout the country, and in the British camp, that the American general, who had so long shunned an engagement, would no longer decline a battle. Lee's legion led on the attack. The king's forces approached the chosen battle-ground in beautiful military order and in high spirits. By the court-house lay Greene with his regulars; in front, to the south, were open fields of a rolling surface with some ravines, through which passed the great Salisbury road, on the right and left of which were woods; about a rifle shot in front, beyond these fields, were woods of about the same depth; in these, on the right and left of the road, were stationed the Virginia volunteers and militia, some of them excellent marksmen with the rifle, in a hollow that ran nearly at right angles to the road, so low that the militia would be unseen by the enemy's line till within gun-shot; in front of the woods on the south, behind a rail-fence enclosing extended open fields, lay the North Carolina forces, militia and volunteers, some excellent riflemen. Across these open fields, the army of Cornwallis, in battle array, advanced on each side of the road in front of the Carolina forces concealed by the fence and flanked on their left by Campbell's riflemen and Lee's legion, and their right by Lynch's rifle corps and Washington's cavalry.

        The orders to the first line were, to fire twice, from behind the fence, upon the enemy on their near approach, and then to retire; to the second line, to give the advancing enemy such reception as circumstances required; and in case of a retreat, all were to rally in the rear of the regulars.

        The British forces could be seen for a mile or more, as they defiled into the open fields. The field-pieces of Greene stationed in the road under Captain Singleton, just in front of the front line, played upon the advancing enemy, and were briskly answered by that of the enemy under Lieut. McLeod. As the British forces advanced, Singleton retreated according to orders to the court-house. The first fire, from the first line, behind the fence, was unexpected and very destructive. The following extract of a letter from Dugald Stewart, a captain in the army of Cornwallis, to his relative Donald Stewart of Guilford county, North Carolina, dated Ballachelish, Argyleshire, Scotland, Oct. 25, 1825, is taken from Mr. Caruthers.

        "The regiment to which I belonged, the 71st or Frazier's Highlanders, was drawn up on the left of the British line along with the 23d, or Welsh Fusileers, with some other regiments. In the

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advance we received a very deadly fire from the Irish line of the American army, composed of their marksmen lying on the ground behind a rail-fence. One half of the Highlanders dropt on that spot. There ought to be a pretty large tumulus where our men were buried." This "Irish line" and these "marksmen" in the front line were probably the company of volunteers under Captain John Forbes from the Alamance, made up of his friends and neighbors, the Allisons, the Kerrs, the Wileys, the Paisleys and others, who had come to take part in the battle. Captain Forbes fired the first gun; his men saw a British officer fall; they gave their "deadly fire," and repeated it, and then retreated. Forbes in the retreat received a mortal wound. William Paisley, the father of the Rev. Samuel Paisley, was also wounded, but not mortally. Had the whole front line behaved as gallantly, the fortune of the day would have been still more disastrous to the invaders. But there were some who thought "discretion the better part of valor"--"that he that fights and runs away, may live to fight another day." The British line resumed its march, inclining to the left in front of the regulars under Greene, with whom the sharpest contest was anticipated. Encountering the second line of militia and volunteers, the enemy met another unexpected reception from the Virginia marksmen. The right of that line under General Lawson wheeled round upon their left, and then retreated in confusion. Col. Webster, who led the British left, then advanced upon the regulars under Col. Gunby. The left of the second line of militia and volunteers was encountered by the British right under General Leslie, and maintained their ground, alternately advancing upon the enemy and then retreating to their original position, till the retreat of the regulars under Greene. In a short diary kept by a Virginia rifleman who stood on the left of the second line, who said he discharged his rifle fourteen times that afternoon, Samuel Houston, afterwards so long the pastor of the Highbridge congregation, Rockbridge county, Virginia,--he says that, before the battle, he retired and committed himself to the merciful providence of God; and then,--"standing in readiness, we heard the pickets fire. Shortly, the English fired a cannon, which was answered, and so on alternately till the small-armed troops came nigh, and then close firing began near the centre but rather towards the right, and soon spread along the line. Our Brigade-Major, Mr. Williams, fled. Presently came two men to us and informed us the British fled. Soon the enemy appeared to us. We fired on their flank, and shot down many of them. At which time Captain Telford was killed. We pursued them about forty

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poles, to the top of a hill, when they stood, and we retreated from them back to where we formed;--then we repulsed them again; and they a second time made us retreat back to our first ground, when we were deceived by a regiment of Hessians, whom we took for our own, and cried out to them to see if they were our friends, and shouted aloud Liberty, Liberty, and advanced up, till they let off some guns; then we fired sharply on them and made them retreat a little, but presently their light-horse came on us, and not being defended by our light-horse, nor reinforced, though firing had long ceased in all other parts, we were obliged to run, and many were sore chased and some cut down. We lost our Major and Captain then. We all scattered; and some of our party, and Campbell's, and Moffitt's, collected together, and with Campbell and Moffitt and Major Pooge, we marched to head-quarters."

        It is stated by Johnson, that General Stevens placed in the rear of the left of this second line some good marksmen, with orders to shoot down any of his men that deserted the ranks. It is also well known that this part of the line kept its position till Greene ordered a general retreat.

        Let us go to the fiercest part of the battle. The court-house is gone; the village is wasted to a house; the actors in that eventful strife are all passed away;--but the face of the country is unchanged; the open fields and the woods retain the relative position of sixty years since. Taking your stand on this highest ground, where the court-house stood, you may look over the whole battlefield of the sharpest contest. Directly in front, to the south, is the open rolling field across which the gallant Webster led his regiment, as boldly as if his life was charmed against powder and lead, on to attack the first Maryland regiment, renowned for their conduct at the Cowpens. The gallant colonel's regiment recoiled at the first deadly fire, and gave way before the advance of the Marylanders. Grievously wounded, Webster rallied his men on the skirts of the wood in front of you, and in a little time was ready to re-enter the battle. From the Salisbury road, Leslie sends down two regiments to advance upon the second Maryland regiment, which behaved in an unsoldierlike manner, and did nothing worthy of their name. O'Harra hastened on with two regiments to the flank of Howard regaining his line, and made an attack on the second Maryland regiment, which gave way and fled. Just then, Colonel Washington rapidly passed by the head of Leslie's regiment, leaped a ravine with his corps unseen, and made a terrible onset upon the Queen's Guards, exulting in their victory over the second regiment.

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The carnage was dreadful. At this time it was, as Lieutenant Holcomb related to Dr. Jones of Nottaway, that the noted Francisco performed a deed of blood without a parallel. In that short rencounter, he cut down eleven men with his brawny arm and terrible broadsword. One of the guards thrust his bayonet, and in spite of the parrying of Francisco's sword, pinned his leg to the horse. Francisco forbore to strike, but assisted him to extricate his bayonet. As the soldier turned and fled, he made a furious blow with his sword, and cleft the poor fellow's head down to his shoulders. The force of the blow, added to the soldier's speed, sent him on a number of steps, with his cleft head hanging upon each shoulder, before he fell. The astonished beholders shouted, "Did you ever see the like?" Howard, with the 1st, came rushing on them, and the contest was renewed in a most desperate manner about midway between the court-house and the woods in front. This was the crisis of the battle. Cornwallis came down from his post, where the Salisbury road enters the wood, to the hollow, to see the condition of the battle, and under the cover of the smoke, rode up to that old oak just in the skirts of the fiery contest. Washington, who had drawn off his troops, was hovering round to watch his opportunity for another onset, and approached that same oak unperceived by his lordship; stopping to beckon on his men to move and intercept the officer, then unknown to him, he happened to strike his unlaced helmet from his head. On recovering it, he perceived the white horse that carried the officer on the full gallop towards the artillery posted on the rising ground, where the road emerges from the woods. His lordship gave orders to Lieutenant McLeod to charge with grape-shot, and fire in upon the contending mass of men. O'Harra, who had been carried wounded to that position, heard the fatal orders, and begged the commander to spare his fine troops. His lordship repeated the order sternly, and stood by the devouring cannon till the regiments who were yielding ground to the Maryland forces rallied, and bravely, or rather desperately, renewed the contest. This rally decided the fate of the day. Greene drew off his forces.

        At the time Cornwallis was in danger of being taken by Washington, Greene, also, going down to survey the battle and learn the condition of his forces, under cover of the smoke, approached within a few steps of a large force of the enemy; discovering his perilous condition, he slowly retreated and escaped without observation. In a letter to his lady, the day after the battle, he says--"I had not the honor of being wounded, but was very near being taken, having

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rode in the heat of the action, full tilt, directly into the midst of the enemy; but by Col. Harris calling to me and advertising me of my situation I had just time to escape."

        The consequences of this battle are well known--the retreat of Cornwallis, and the delivery of Carolina.

        During this eventful Thursday, all the active men in Dr. Caldwell's congregation were in some way engaged with the army; and we are told by Mr. Caruthers that there were two collections of females, one in Buffalo, and the other in Alamance, engaged in most earnest prayer for their families and their country; many others sought the divine aid in solitary places. One pious lady sent her son, often, during the afternoon, to the summit of a little hill near which she spent much time in prayer, to listen and bring her word which way the firing came, from the southward or the northward. When he returned and said it was going northward--"Then," exclaimed she, "all is lost, Greene is defeated." But all was not lost; the God that hears prayer remembered his people.

        The invaders left the ground the next day, and all the country around were busy in burying the dead and carrying off their wounded, many of whom lay the cold wet night after the battle exposed upon the ground. Capt. Forbis lay about thirty hours before he was discovered by his friends. He was then found by an old lady, who was searching the woods for a relative He survived a short time after being carried to his house. He declared before his death, that on the day after the battle a tory of his acquaintance passed by him and recognized him, and instead of giving him a little water, for which he craved, to quench his raging thurst, kicked him and cursed him as a rebel. After the death of Forbis, that man was found suspended on a tree before his own door.

        The strength of the tories had been greatly increased by the presence of the British forces, and the policy of Cornwallis. The feuds and bloodshed in the neighborhood were indescribable for their vexations, and often for their atrocities. For a short time after the battle these were more bitter. The entire departure of the invaders permitted the country to resume its quiet, and pursue their occupations in comparative peacefulness.

        The battle at the court-house abounded in acts of heroism and also of cowardice. In that contest, when the grape shot poured upon the contending forces, it is said some of the British officers fell as if dead, and were plundered, but after the battle were not reported either among the wounded or missing.

        The gallant Webster, that escaped so remarkably at Wetzell's

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Mills, and rallied his broken forces so nobly and came back into the action, died of the wounds received in his charge upon the Maryland regiment. He accompanied the retreating army as far as Bladen county, and with the sympathy of his enemies, as well as the king's forces, was consigned to his grave, near Elizabeth, the county seat. There was no fear his grave would be profaned. When General Philips died at Petersbury, Virginia, some time after, his grave was secreted through fear of the irritated country, lest his cruelties should be visited on his ashes.

        The Virginia militia and volunteers, that maintained their ground so bravely and received so much applause for their soldierlike conduct, were from Augusta and Rockbridge counties, and almost to a man the descendants of Scotch-Irish. Some of the congregation of the noted Graham were there; and a company from the congregation of the silver-tongued Waddel, the Blind Preacher of Mr. Wirt, heard a farewell address from him, while under arms ready to march. Many that marched returned no more; and others bore the marks of deep gashes from the light-horse broadswords the remainder of their days. The last of these men were lately carried to their graves.

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CHAPTER XXII.
MINUTES OF THE SYNOD OF THE CAROLINAS, FROM 1788 TO 1801 INCLUSIVE.

        WHEN it was finally determined, in May, 1788, by the Synod of New York and Philadelphia, to constitute a General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church, in the United States of America, as a preliminary step some new Synods were first set off, of which the Synod of the Carolinas was one; by the following resolutions the way was open for its meeting:--"Resolved, that the Synod of the Carolinas meet on the first Wednesday of November next, at eleven o'clock, A.M., at Centre church, in Rowan county, and that Mr. Pattillo, or, in his absence, the senior minister present, open the Synod with a sermon, and preside till a moderator be chosen." The Presbyteries that, united, formed the Synod, were Orange, in North Carolina, South Carolina, in the State of the same name, and Abingdon, principally in Tennessee.

        The members of Orange Presbytery were Rev. Messrs. Henry Pattillo, David Caldwell, Samuel E. McCorkle, James Hall, Robert Archibald, James McRee, Jacob Lake, Daniel Thatcher, David Barr, John Beck, in all ten. Those of South Carolina, James Edmonds, John Harris, Joseph Alexander, John Simpson, Thomas Reese, Thomas H. McCaule, James Templeton, Francis Cummins, Robert Finley, Robert Hall, Robert Mecklin; in all eleven. Of Abingdon Presbytery, Charles Cummins, Hezekiah Balch, John Cossan, Samuel Houston, Samuel Carrick, James Balch, in all seven. Total in the Synod, twenty-eight.

        From the records of the twenty-five sessions which this Synod held, previously to its division in 1813, such extracts will be made as are of abiding interest, or necessary to give a succinct account of the doings of a pious and active body of men, whose names and doings should not be forgotten. In some cases a brief statement will be made, embracing the spirit of the records for the sake of brevity; in others the very words will be given, which will be indicated by the common quotation marks. The exact words will be given whenever they appear to be of importance.

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"SESSION I.

"Centre Church, State of North Carolina,
November 5th, 1788.

        "The Synod of the Carolinas met according to the appointment of the late Synod of New York and Philadelphia, convened in May, 1788. Members present were, of the Presbytery of Orange, the Rev. David Caldwell, Samuel E. McCorkle, James Hall, Robert Archibald, James McRee, and Jacob Lake, ministers; with elders, Messrs. Wm. Anderson, McNeely, Harris, King, Robert Irwin, and John Dickey.

        "Of the Presbytery of South Carolina, the Rev. James Templeton, Francis Cummins, Robert Hall, ministers; with elders, Messrs. Martin and Hamilton.

        "Of the Presbytery of Abingdon, the Rev. Samuel Houston. One new member, it appears, had been added to the Presbytery of South Carolina, John Newton, and one had died, Robert Mecklin. The Synod was opened by the Rev. David Caldwell being the senior member present, after which Synod was constituted with prayer. The Rev. David Caldwell was chosen moderator, and Rev. James McRee and Robert Hall clerks."

        The Committee of Overtures read the following:--"That the committee think it highly necessary that Synod should inquire respecting a certain report injurious to the credit of the late Synod of New York and Philadelphia, namely, that said Synod had cast off the larger catechism, and that with difficulty the shorter was retained." The Synod, in consequence of examining into the above report, and having received what they considered as authentic testimony to the contrary, concluded the report to be totally false. "Resolved, that it be enjoined on the several members of Synod, to take an account, when it may appear that the above false and scandalous report is injurious to the credit of religion, and call those who propagated it before their respective jurisdiction, and if found guilty without being able to give their author, that they be treated according to the demerit of their crime.

        "Synod adjourned to meet at Poplar Tent, on the first Wednesday in September next. Concluded with prayer."

"SESSION II.

"Poplar Tent, State of North Carolina,
September 2d, 1789.

        "The Synod met according to adjournment, and was opened by

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the Rev. David Caldwell, with a sermon from Psalms ii., 6." Two members were reported as added to the Presbytery of South Carolina, Robert McCullock and William C. Davis, and one dismissed, Robert Finley. It appeared that the Presbytery of Orange had received the Rev. David Kerr, from the Presbytery of Temple Patrick, in Ireland, as a member in good standing; the Synod proceeded to consider his credentials and collateral testimony, approved of the proceeding and invited him to a seat.

        The report about the larger catechism being cast off was further considered, and it appearing the Rev. Robert Finley, lately dismissed from the Presbytery of South Carolina, was implicated in that report, Synod ordered a letter to be written to him, and another to the Presbytery of which he is a member.

        "Overtures,--Whether persons who practise dancing, revelling, horse-racing, and card-playing, are to be admitted to sealing ordinances? Synod, taking into consideration these and other things of a similar tendency, Resolved, that they are wrong; and the practisers of them ought not to be admitted to sealing ordinances, until they be dealt with by their spiritual rulers in such manner as to them may appear most for the glory of God, their own good, and the good of the church."

        "Overture,--Are persons who habitually neglect to attend public worship, on fast or thanksgiving days, admissible to sealing ordinances? Synod unanimously agree that such conduct is inconsistent with the Christian character; a disrespect paid to the call of God in his providences, and the authority of the church; offensive to the sober-minded, and in point of example injurious to others."

        The Synod then proceeded to order all its members to read the proceedings of Synod on the overtures in all their churches, and in the vacancies.

        On a reference from the Synod of South Carolina, after deliberation, Synod "Judged, that the marriage of John Latham, of Waxhaw, with his deceased wife's sister's daughter, is criminal and highly offensive; and that all such marriages are truly detestable, and ought to be strenuously discountenanced; and that said Latham, in his present standing, is by no means admissible to the sealing ordinances of the church." This is referred to in the thirteenth session.

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"SESSION III.

"Bethany, Oct. 6 (Wednesday), 1790.

        "Synod met agreeably to adjournment, and was opened with a sermon preached by the Rev. Henry Pattillo (the moderator being absent), from Acts xxvi., 18."

        Mr. Pattillo was chosen moderator, Mr. John Springer was reported as having been added to the Presbytery of South Carolina, and Mr. Houston as having been dismissed from Abingdon. The Synod examined and approved the proceedings of Orange Presbytery, in receiving the Rev. Wm. Moore from the Presbytery of Hanover. (The proceedings had been regular, but Synod took the oversight of receiving members from other bodies.)

        "Overtured, That Dr. Doddridge's Rise and Progress of Religion, and his ten sermons on Regeneration, be printed by contributions raised by the members of Synod.

        "Ordered, that the Rev. James M'Ree request the printers in Fayetteville to publish in their Gazette the terms on which they will print, bind, and letter the above books.

        "Ordered, that each Presbytery make provisions that they be represented in the General Assembly.

        "The Synod recommended that the last Wednesday in next month be observed as a day of public thanksgiving to God, as an acknowledgment of his goodness in the plentiful crops of the present year."

SESSION IV.

Thyatira, Oct. 5th (Wednesday), 1791.

        In the absence of the moderator, the Rev. Joseph Alexander opened the Synod, with a sermon from John ix., 35, and was chosen moderator. South Carolina Presbytery reported one added, James Stephenson.

        The Synod took action on the subject of reprinting Doddridge's Rise and Progress, and his ten sermons on Regeneration, and appointed a member of each Presbytery to see to it that proposals were circulated to obtain subscriptions in all the congregations; and if the numbers, as returned from the Spring meetings of Presbyteries, amounted to fifteen hundred, the committee of Synod was to forward a list to the printer, that the work be commenced.

        The elders and congregation at Stony Creek having sent up for

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advice respecting the use of Dr. Watts's Hymns, in public worship, it was resolved, "that the petitioners be referred to the General Assembly, as the Synod do not conceive that it lies with them to sanction any system of psalmody, other than such systems as may be sanctioned by the General Assembly."

        The Committee of Overtures presented the following questions, "Are they who publicly profess a belief in the doctrine of the universal and actual salvation of the whole human race, or of the fallen angels, or both, through the mediation of Christ, to be admitted to the sealing ordinances of the gospel? Wherefore, resolved, that although the Synod set themselves unanimously against the doctrine of universal salvation, as an article of belief, yet as the question involves some difficulty respecting admission to sealing ordinances, the said question be sent up to the General Assembly for their decision. (See next session.)

        "The Committee of Overtures laid the following questions before Synod for consideration: "Should church sessions require an assent to, and approbation of the Confession of Faith, and larger or shorter catechisms, previously to their admitting persons to sealing ordinances?" On this subject, "Resolved, that the proceedings of the Synod of New York and Philadelphia General Assembly are sufficient to direct our members in that matter.

        "Resolved, that the following ministers and elders be a Standing Commission of Synod, and particularly to take up and issue the affair of Mr. Cossan, if not issued by the Presbytery of Abingdon, viz: the Rev. Samuel E. M'Corkle, moderator, James Hall, James Templeton, James M'Ree, Robert Hall, Wm. C. Davies, and Charles Cummins; with elders, John Dickey, John M'Knitt Alexander, Adam Beard, William Cathey, William Anderson, Joseph Feemster, and John Nelson. The moderator's council to consist of one minister, besides himself, and one elder. Two ministers besides the moderator, and as many of the above elders as may be present, to constitute a quorum."

        (From this time, Commission of Synod was a regular appointment, with few intermissions. Much important business was done by them, and their decision was final.)

        "On motion, Resolved, that it be enjoined on the several Presbyteries to take as effectual measures as possible for collecting materials for the history of the Presbyterian churches in America, and that returns of the said materials be made to the General Assembly as early as possible."

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        At this meeting the Synod took up the subject of domestic missions, and resolved to send out four missionaries to act in the destitute regions each side of the Alleghanies. The direction of missionaries to be in the commission of Synod during recess of Synod; their support fixed at two hundred dollars annually. It was made the duty of the missionaries to ascertain who of the families they visited wished to receive the gospel from the Presbyterians, and make report; they were also to make collections where they preached. The persons appointed were James Templeton and Robert Hall, of South Carolina Presbytery; and Robert Archibald, with the Licentiate John Bowman, of the Presbytery of Orange. Each was to labor for six months.

        The Presbytery of Orange reported at this meeting, that seven of their ministers had stated charges; three temporary charges; and one no charge; two probationers, who have calls under consideration; three who have accepted calls; and six who have not calls; and five candidates; thirteen vacancies able to support seven pastors; and eighteen not able to support one. The Presbytery of South Carolina reported as follows: ten ministers with stated charges; three without any charge; two licentiates; and nine candidates; thirteen vacancies able to support nine pastors; twenty-nine not able to support one. The names of pastors are not given annexed to their churches.

"SESSION V.

"Bethesda, October 4th (Wednesday), 1792.

        "Synod met pursuant to adjournment, and was opened with a sermon from Matt. xi. 6, preached by the Rev. Joseph Alexander, the Moderator." "The Rev. Samuel E. McCorkle, D.D., was chosen Moderator." The Presbytery of Orange reported three members added by ordination, William Hodges, James Wallis, and Samuel C. Caldwell; the two last mentioned were invited to seats. The question sent up to the last Assembly was taken up, and the following minute made:--"This Synod at their last sessions having sent on a question to the General Assembly respecting the admission or non-admission of those who profess their belief in the doctrine of Universal Redemption, have it in their power to refer the public in general, and the members of our church in particular, to the decision of the General Assembly on that subject, which is as follows:--In General Assembly, May, 1792, a question from the Synod of the Carolinas was introduced through the

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Committee of Bills and Overtures, which was as follows: 'Are those who publicly profess a belief in the doctrine of universal and actual salvation of the whole human race, or of the fallen angels, or both, through the mediation of Christ, to be admitted to the sealing ordinances of the gospel?' The Assembly determined that such persons should not be admitted."

        It being ascertained that 800 subscribers could be obtained for Doddridge's Rise and Progress, &c., Dr. McCorkle and Rev. Jas. McRee were appointed agents to transact with the printer in behalf of Synod. (This scheme of benevolent improvement occupied the Synod for some years, as will be seen; and finally failed, after a large amount of money had been expended.)

        By report made to Synod, it appears the commission of Synod had held two meetings to transact the missionary business which had been committed to them. The first, in October, 1791, at Thyatira church, in which they drew up rules and instructions for the missionaries, and gave commissions to Rev. James Templeton, and Robert Hall, to act for four months each in the lower parts of South Carolina and Georgia, before the middle of the succeeding April; and Rev. Robert Archibald for four months, and Mr. John Bowman, for three months, as above, in the lower parts of North Carolina. The only part of the very judicious rules and instructions they prepared for their missionaries, which requires attention, as differing from those now given, is that contained in the third regulation: "You are not to tarry longer than three weeks at the same time, in the bounds of twenty miles, except peculiar circumstances may appear to make it necessary." The next meeting was at Steele Creek church, in April, 1792, to receive the reports of missionaries, and give commissions for the summer succeeding.

        They held a third meeting for judicial business at Salem church, on the Nolachuckee, in September, to attend to a case of discipline between the Presbytery of Abingdon and the Rev. Mr. Cossan.

        The Synod approved of the doings of the commission after hearing their minutes read:--and Synod, on a review of the whole of the minutes of said commissioners, concurred in their approbation of all their proceedings since appointed to that office. There is one act of the commissioners to be noticed; it was determined by them, while at Salem, that if either party felt aggrieved by this decision, they should have a re-hearing before Synod; but no advantage was taken of it.

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        Orange Presbytery reported their admission of the Rev. Colin Lindsey, from Europe, as a member of their body; of their proceedings the Synod approved.

SESSION VI.

"Sugaw Creek, Oct. 2d, 1793."

        The Synod met in regular sessions, and was opened with a sermon by the Rev. Dr. McCorkle, from 1st Cor. xii. 13. Rev. James Templeton was chosen moderator. Rev. Humphrey Hunter and Robert Cunningham were reported from Peerly, of South Carolina, as new members; and Lewis Fuileteau Wilson, James M'Gready, Joseph Kilpatrick, Alexander Caldwell, and Angus McDiarmid (a licentiate from Europe, ordained by the Presbytery), were reported from the Presbytery of Orange; and Samuel Doake, from Abingdon Presbytery.

        In consequence of an overture, Synod passed the following recommendations, viz.: "That members of the church transgressing the rules thereof, be called on as soon as convenient to account for their conduct, and not wait till they may ask the privileges of the church." Notice of this recommendation was sent to all the absent members of Synod.

        The following letter was received from the Rev. Henry Pattillo, viz.:

"TO THE MODERATOR.

"Granville, 3d September, 1793.

        "Rev. and dear Brother--From the pleasure you enjoy in attending church judications, you can conjecture my mortification in being denied them. But my advanced age, and the great distance refuse me the privilege. I bless the great LORD of the harvest that he is sending so many qualified laborers to work for him. What a number of excellent youth did I see in Prince Edward at a Presbytery and Sacrament last spring! of approved piety, warm zeal and indefatigable diligence, great popular talents, unstained reputation, and genteel behavior. There is scarcely a corner in Virginia where their voice has not been heard with pleasure and profit by multitudes. Presbyterianism, if that is worth regarding, was never half so extensively known and sought after in that State as now. I hope these characteristics of persons and successes agree to those worthy youths who have been sent out by us south of the Virginia line. On both sides they are all young, thriving

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American scions who flourish in their native soil: we have never found the exotic plants of Europe's cold regions to thrive among us. Frazer and Patton were the blots of human nature; and others might be named, who have been, or are like to be, a grief to our hearts, rather than useful ministers of JESUS CHRIST, and a blessing to the churches. Their divinity, if they have one, is not Jesus Christ and the power of his grace in experimental religion,--their politics are monarchical, and suit not the liberal spirit of American Republicans. They will neither pray, preach, nor live like pious youth bred among ourselves. I bear my testimony against the admission of such dry sticks among lively trees in our American vineyard. And I assure myself, my worthy and beloved brethren will have nothing to do with such, but call on them to know Jesus Christ before they preach him. Their admission must be only a speedy prelude to their expulsion, while we hold the keys, and discipline is observed amongst us. The churches will be much better as vacancies than committed to stewards who would feed them with poison, or dry husks at best. If my reverend brethren will admit this letter to record, it will speak for me when I am numbered with the dead.

        "I intended to send you the history of the Presbyterian church in these parts; but must omit that for the present, and be ready by your spring meeting. Bear one word more on the great subject. As to Europe, though perhaps, as Sallust says of ancient Rome, she may be too old and feeble to produce many great men, yet she knows how to hold them, if they make their appearance; so let it never be said, that such as she rejects should be licked up by America, in all the vigor of her youth in Church and State. One word more,--if there is such a scarcity of ministers, and there be so great a famine of the word of the Lord, we had infinitely better send forth pious laymen, who have trod the way, and would endeavor to lead others into it, than men who have nothing to recommend them but a smattering of languages and sciences, while they are the enemies of the cross of Christ, and strangers to vital piety. My prayers, my wishes, and, if you will forgive the expression, my fatherly cares are anxiously employed for you. May the pleasure of the LORD prosper in your hands.

"Your own affectionate brother and obedient servant,

"HENRY PATTILLO."


        Synod received information that the edition of Doddridge's Rise

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and Progress, &c., would be ready for delivery in the month of December.

        The commission of Synod reported repeated meetings, to commission the missionaries, mark out their routes, and to receive their reports. They reported, as having been in their employ, the following ministers:--James Hall, Samuel C. Caldwell, in North Carolina; John Bowman in North Carolina and Tennessee; Robert McCulloch in South Carolina; and Robert Cunningham in Georgia. These labored faithfully. On making their reports and exhibiting to the commission their receipts from contributions by the people to whom they had preached, they declined receiving from the Synod or the commission the small balance of their wages. The missionaries read their reports to Synod; one of which is recorded: the other being lost before the records of Synod were transcribed into the present folio volume for preservation.

SESSION VII.

Steele Creek, Friday, October 3d, 1794.

        Synod was opened, in the absence of the moderator, by Rev. Samuel C. Caldwell, with a sermon from Ezekiel xxiii., 36 and 37.

        The Rev. James Hall was chosen moderator.

        New members reported: From South Carolina Presbytery,--Moses Waddel, John Brown, William Williamson, and Robert Wilson: Abingdon Presbytery,--Robert Henderson and Gideon Blackburn.

        An inquiry took place in Synod respecting an absent member of the Presbytery of Orange, the Rev. Robert Archibald, who was charged by common fame with preaching the doctrine of universal restoration of mankind: and the Orange Presbytery having given to Synod a relation of their proceedings in regard to Mr. Archibald--"Synod advised that the members of Orange resolve themselves into a Presbyterial capacity and immediately decide on the affairs of Mr. Archibald. Accordingly, the members of the Presbytery of Orange constituted and came to the following decision--That the Rev. Robert Archibald be suspended, and he is hereby suspended from the exercise of his ministerial office, and from the communion of our church. And Synod ordered that each member of their respective Presbyteries publish in his own and in vacant congregations the decision of Orange Presbytery relative to Mr. Archibald, and warn them against the reception of

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the above doctrine: and warn them also against countenancing or receiving Mr. Archibald as a minister of the gospel in his present standing."

        The Synod received report from South Carolina Presbytery, that proper steps had been taken to fully answer the requisition of Synod respecting the history of the churches. The members of Orange Presbytery were enjoined to send the proper materials for the history of their churches to Rev. Messrs. Dr. McCorkle and James Hall; and the members of Abingdon, to Rev. Messrs. Hezekiah Balch and Robert Henderson, before the 1st of December; that they might prepare a narrative for the inspection of their Presbyteries at the spring meeting; and from thence to be sent on to the next sessions of the General Assembly.

        The commission of Synod reported their various meetings and appointments. The following missionaries read their reports of travel and labor to the Synod:--Rev. James Hall, a tour in the lower part of North Carolina; Mr. John M. Wilson, to the lower part of North Carolina; Mr. Robert Wilson, to the lower part of South Carolina; Mr. John Robinson, to the lower part of South Carolina; Mr. John Bowman, to the lower part of North Carolina; and Mr. James H. Bowman to the same region. The reports of the missionaries were spread on the minutes of Synod, and cover sixteen folio pages, and show great diligence in missionary work, and the alarming want of ministers.

        In consequence of an overture, Synod ordered their several Presbyteries to call on their respective members and church sessions, and their several licentiates and vacancies to render an account, once a year, how they discharge their respective duties to each other; "yet the Presbyteries are to conduct, as to vacancies, as prudence may direct."

SESSION VIII.

New Providence, Thursday, Oct. 1st, 1795.

        The Synod was opened with a sermon by the Rev. James Templeton, from Isaiah lxii., 6 and 7. The Rev. James White Stephenson was chosen moderator. The Presbytery of Orange reported new members by ordination,--John Robinson, James Bowman, John M. Wilson, and John Carrigan; also Samuel Stanford and Humphrey Hunter, from other Presbyteries. The Presbytery of South Carolina reported Robert B. Walker, William Montgomery, and David Dunlap.

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        It appearing to Synod that an ordained missionary was required in the Western Territory, and it being stated that Mr. Wm. McGee, of Orange Presbytery, was willing to take an appointment for that purpose--"Ordered that the Presbytery be directed, and they are hereby directed to ordain Mr. McGee, as soon as may be convenient, agreeably to the permission granted to this Synod, in such cases, by the General Assembly, at their sessions of last May."

        The Presbytery of Orange was divided by a line running along the Yadkin River. The Rev. Henry Pattillo, David Caldwell, Colin Lindsey, David Kerr, William Moore, William Hodge, James M'Gready, Samuel Stanford, Angus McDermaid, John Robinson, and James H. Bowman, retain the names of the Presbytery of Orange, to meet at New Hope, on the third Wednesday of November. The Rev. Henry Pattillo, to preach the opening sermon and preside; in case of his absence, the senior minister present to perform these duties.

        The Rev. Samuel E. McCorkle, D.D., James Hall, James McRee, David Barr, Samuel C. Caldwell, James Wallis, Joseph D. Kilpatrick, Lewis F. Wilson, Humphrey Hunter, Alexander Caldwell, John M. Wilson, and Joseph Carragan, to be known by the name of the Presbytery of CONCORD, to meet at Centre Church, on the last Tuesday of March, 1796, Mr. Wallis to preach and preside till a moderator be chosen.

        Dr. McCorkle produced to Synod receipts for £80 12s. 9d.; paid towards the printing of Doddridge's Rise and Progress, &c.

        "The Synod taking into consideration the unusually adverse dispensation of Providence towards our Southern States, respecting the fruits of the earth; the critical situation of our nation with respect to Great Britain; and the languishing state of religion in the church, do earnestly recommend to all the societies under their care to observe the second Wednesday of December next, as a day of humiliation, fasting and prayer, to Almighty God, that he may avert the calamities of famine, continue with us the blessings of peace, and favor his church with a revival of religion."

SESSION IX.

Morganton, Thursday, Nov. 3d, 1796.

        The Synod was opened with a sermon by the Rev. Samuel Carrick, from Psalm lviii., 5. Mr. Carrick was chosen moderator. The Presbytery of South Carolina reported new members--John

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Foster, George E. Macwhorter, John B. Kennedy, James Gilleland, and Samuel W. Yongue; and also the Rev. Thomas Reese and Thomas H. McCaule, deceased since the last meeting.

        Upon inquiry, it appeared that Dr. Sibley had not executed the promised edition of Doddridge; and fears were expressed of a total failure of the contemplated edition.

        The members of South Carolina Presbytery, living west of Savannah River, viz., Rev. John Newton, John Springer, Robert M. Cunningham, Moses Waddel, and William Montgomery, were, by request, set off to form a Presbytery by the name of HOPEWELL, to meet on the third Thursday of March, 1797, to be constituted by the Rev. John Springer, or in his absence, the senior member.

        The following question was overtured, viz.: "Is it expedient to admit baptized slaves as witnesses in ecclesiastical judicatories where others cannot be had?" Answered in the negative. An order was passed enjoining upon heads of families the religious instruction of their slaves; and the teaching the children of slaves to read the Bible.

        By documents from Abingdon Presbytery and others, it appeared there had been great excitement in that Presbytery; and that in consequence, Rev. Charles Cummins, Edward Crawford, Samuel Doake, Joseph Lake, and James Balch, had separated themselves from their brethren, and formed the Independent Presbytery of Abingdon. The cause assigned was, that Rev. Hezekiah Balch had published in the Knoxville Gazette, a number of Articles of Faith, which gave great offence to many brethren, and also to many of the people; the matter had been laid before the Presbytery, and Mr. Balch apologizing for some personal abuse and imprudent doings, and explaining his doctrines as not contrary to the Confession of Faith, the majority were satisfied to dismiss the matter. The brethren mentioned above, were so dissatisfied with this conclusion of the matter, that they withdrew and formed their Presbytery. In their letter to the Presbytery, they say--"There is no manner of doubt but they, who have declared themselves Independent, will immediately return to the union, in form, as soon as they shall," &c. The conditions of their return were, dealing with Balch, and those who held his sentiments, and an assurance of protection "in preaching and exercising church discipline, according to the Confession of Faith." What Mr. Balch's creed was, which they considered erroneous, does not appear. The Synod directed letters to be sent to the churches in Abingdon

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Presbytery, and to the Independent Presbytery; but what were their contents does not appear on the records.

        "A memorial was brought forward and laid before Synod, by the Rev. James Gilleland, stating his conscientious difficulties in receiving the advice of the Presbytery of South Carolina, which has enjoined upon him to be silent in the pulpit on the subject of the emancipation of the Africans, which injunction Mr. Gilleland declares to be, in his apprehension, contrary to the counsel of God. Whereupon Synod, after deliberation upon the matter, do concur with the Presbytery in advising Mr. Gilleland to content himself with using his utmost endeavors in private to open the way for emancipation, so as to secure our happiness as a people, preserve the peace of the church, and render them capable of enjoying the blessings of liberty. Synod is of the opinion, to preach publicly against slavery, in present circumstances, and to lay down as the duty of every one, to liberate those who are under their care, is that which would lead to disorder, and open the way to great confusion."

        Synod adjourned, to meet at Mount Bethel, on the second Thursday in August, 1797.

SESSION X.

        The minutes of the session held at Mount Bethel, near Greenville, Tennessee, never passed into the hands of the stated clerk. It appears, however, from reference in succeeding minutes, that the formation of the Independent Presbytery was condemned, and the members suspended; and the discontent in the bounds of Abingdon Presbytery being very great, a commission of Synod was appointed to meet at Mount Bethel, in November, to hear and adjudicate the complaints and charges made against members of the Presbytery.

COMMISSION OF SYNOD.

        A commission of Synod, consisting of fourteen ministers and twelve elders, met at Mount Bethel, near Greenville, Tennessee, Tuesday, November 21st, 1797. Rev. Francis Cummins preached from Romans viii., 1st, and was chosen moderator. The first step was to set apart the next day as a day of public fasting and humiliation before God. The people were requested to join with them in the services. The Rev. Samuel Doake, Jacob Lake,

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and James Balch, appeared, and having declared their submission to Synod, and disavowing their independence, and confessing their irregularity, and declaring their return to order, the commission removed their suspension, and restored them to the full exercise of the ministerial office.

        Various charges were exhibited against Rev. Hezekiah Balch, and the witnesses brought forward, and their testimony given. 1st. He was charged with contradicting himself in a certain statement about Drs. Hopkins and Edwards being members of the association of Connecticut, and in communion with the General Assembly; first affirming and then denying his having said so. On this charge he was acquitted, and the persons who brought it were reproved. He was also charged with saying "the saints appeared in heaven in their own righteousness," and afterwards of denying. He admitted the declaration, and disclaimed the denial. It was proved that he explained it as "the fruit of Christ's righteousness," &c. This part of the charge was not sustained, and the reporters of it were reproved.

        2d. He was charged with preaching false doctrine. No manuscript or printed paper of his preparation was produced. The witnesses stated what they recollected of his sermons and conversation, that they thought culpably erroneous. He was accused of charging the church of Scotland and some of our Calvinistic divines of holding the doctrine "that there were infants in hell not a span long;" of saying "that original sin is not conveyed by natural generation;" that if it were, the procreation of children would be sinful, a damning sin; that he justified a man in saying he was not afraid to take upon himself the original sin of the whole human family, Adam excepted (the person explaining that by original sin he meant Adam's particular act in eating the forbidden fruit); of saying "there was no sin but in self-love; that Adam's sin was his only, by approbation and imitation" (but that he also affirmed that the corruption of our nature, and the propensity to make a wrong choice, was from Adam); of saying that "we were not liable to condemnation till we became moral agents, or capable of a wrong choice, then the dire consequences of Adam's sin were imputed, but not his personal act;" of saying "that answer in our catechism was wrong, which says 'no mere man can keep the commands of God perfect,' for they were able, if they were willing; that through Adam's sin our nature was corrupted, but none were chargeable till they acted; and that the first act was original sin in our posterity."

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        On this charge with the specifications, the commission of Synod "view it as involving in it doctrines already referred to the General Assembly, and therefore unanimously agree to refer the charge, with the testimony, to the General Assembly for consideration and judgment."

        During this part of the trial, one witness made a statement, which, although it bears not on the merits of the case, and was incidentally given in, is nevertheless interesting, viz: "Mr. Balch said he had no new doctrine, though Mr. Doake and Mr. James Balch had labored to establish that he had. In his late tour (to New England) he had gathered no new doctrines, only explanations, for he considered mankind as guilty as ever he did, only the old way was a lie, and the new one was true." From the frequent reference to Dr. Hopkins, it would seem that he intended to hold and preach the peculiar doctrines of that celebrated man.

        The third charge was "for marrying Joseph Posey and Jane Reeves together, knowing that he, Joseph Posey, had a lawful wife living within three miles of him." The first part of the charge, the marrying, he admitted; the latter part, involving criminality, he denied. Though he admitted he knew she had been his lawful wife. The judgment of the commission was, that "Posey had not been legally freed from his former wife" at the time Mr. Balch performed the marriage ceremony, and that "Rev. Hezekiah Balch had conducted in a precipitate and irregular manner, in marrying Joseph Posey to Jane Reeves, and that this action, if received as a precedent, would introduce great and manifold evils, both in church and state."

        The fourth charge was for creating a new session in Mount Bethel, contrary to the constitution. The fact of creating a new session was admitted; and the principal circumstances were agreed upon by the witnesses. The new session had suspended the old, and those who went with them; and great confusion had arisen in the congregations and the Presbytery. The cause of division which led to the appointment of the new session, was the novelty of the doctrines Mr. Balch preached, which, notwithstanding all his explanations, appeared to many of his people, and part of the Presbytery, to be erroneous; they have been stated under the 2d charge. The new session was made up of friends to Mr. Balch,--the old session greatly opposed him.

        The judgment of the commission was, "that the new session was unconstitutionally created, and all their judicial acts null and void." Mount Bethel was released from the pastoral care of

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Mr. Balch, and pronounced a vacancy. The petition of Abingdon Presbytery for division, was granted: and the Rev. Charles Cummins, Samuel Doake, Jacob Lake and James Balch, were set off to compose ABINGDON Presbytery, to meet at Salem on the 14th instant, Mr. Lake to preach and preside;--and Rev. Hezekiah Balch, John Cossan, Samuel Carrick, Robert Henderson and Gideon Blackburn, to compose the Presbytery of UNION, to meet at Hopewell on the 2d Tuesday of February, 1798, Mr. Carrick to preach and preside; in case of absence of either person appointed to preside, the oldest member present to supply his place.

        The subject of promiscuous communion was taken up by the commissioners on an overture; and the decision was, that as it was not necessary, and as it gave offence to some of the people as implying a coalescence with other denominations in doctrines not held by him, from "prudential motives," a minister ought to abstain. No decision was given respecting the occasional communion of private members.

SESSION XI.

Bethel Church, South Carolina, Oct. 18th, 1798.

        The session was opened by Rev. S. C. Caldwell, the last moderator, with a sermon from Philippians ii., 12th and 13th, and the Rev. Francis Cummins was chosen moderator. The Presbytery of Concord reported new members, Wm. C. Davies, from South Carolina Presbytery; and by ordination, George Newton and Samuel Davies: the Presbytery of Union reported Samuel G. Ramsey by ordination; the Presbytery of Hopewell reported the death of John Springer.

        Inquiries were made about the edition of Doddridge's Rise and Progress; no satisfactory information was obtained. Rev. Edward Crawford, who was suspended in 1797, as being member of the Independent Presbytery, appeared; and having made suitable concessions and received an admonition from the chair, was ceived as a member of Synod and a member of Abingdon Presbytery.

        Charges which had been brought against Rev. Hezekiah Balch, by the old session of Mount Bethel, before Union Presbytery, and by them referred to Synod, were read: The 1st charge accused Mr. Balch of having held an election for elders in Mount Bethel Church, soon after the first meeting of the Presbytery of Union, while the congregation was vacant, against the will and desire of

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the old session: and refusing the privilege of voting to any who had not signed a call for himself. The 2d charge accused him of intruding on the congregation the first Sabbath after his return from Philadelphia, and preaching without leave of session, while they had two young men engaged and there, on that day: and also ordaining elders against the express order of the existing session; and also for persisting to preach in the congregation. 3d charge--"We charge Mr. Balch for deviating from the truth, by denying in the Assembly, that he ever said in Presbytery, August, 1796, that he meant the same by the word transfer as impute. Also for denying in the Assembly that he ever held that there was not a covenant made with Adam; for proof of which, see the Assembly's judgment on his creed. And that he did hold there was not a covenant made with Adam."

        The 4th charge accused Mr. Balch of falsehood in denying what he had said in a sermon about original sin, and of charging his accusers with drunkenness, &c.

        5th Charge.--"We charge Mr. Balch for saying since his return from the General Assembly, that he was fifty thousand times stronger in belief of that definition of holiness (alluding to the creed) than he was before he went away. For those expressions we give Josiah Temple and Alexander Galbraith as evidence; and that that definition of holiness was pointed out as erroneous by the General Assembly, we refer you to the judgment on his creed."

        Charges were brought against Mr. Balch by two other individuals, of minor importance.

        Mr. Balch brought charges against the old session, for using violence towards him, by driving him from the meeting-house; and for not keeping their word, &c.

        Synod judged on the first and second charges, that the election of the elders after the rising of the commission (held at Mount Bethel) was irregular; and that Mr. Balch is highly censurable for ordaining them so disorderly and schismatically; and that he was imprudent in preaching in the house to but a part of the congregation. Respecting Mr. Balch's charges against the elders, the Synod decided,--That the elders "had blameably violated" their promise in not withdrawing certain civil suits; and were highly censurable for interrupting Mr. Balch in time of worship, and driving him out of the house; and that one of the elders had improperly used the name of God, for which he is highly censurable.

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        As the other matters were not ready for trial, Synod postponed final sentence on these matters until the Extraordinary Synod, appointed to be held at Little Britain, on the second Tuesday of February, 1799, for the purpose of attending to all the charges and all matters of difficulty.

EXTRAORDINARY SESSION.

Little Britain, Rutherford Co., N. C., 13th Feb., 1799.

        Synod was opened by the moderator, Francis Cummins, with a sermon from Titus iii., 10, 11. Present thirteen ministers and seven elders.

        About thirty folio pages of evidence on the three remaining charges against Mr. Balch, for and against them, had been taken by a committee, and were read in Synod. Mr. Balch was heard in his defence; and Mr. Galbraith was heard for those who had accused him: and both professed they had nothing more to say in the case.

        The Synod decided on the 3d and 4th charges brought by the session, that they were not sustained by the evidence. On the 5th charge Mr. Balch acknowledged that he had expressed himself as charged, and that his only objection was, it was not strong enough; "instead of fifty thousand times, he would say five hundred thousand times." Whereupon "the Synod, after mature deliberation, judge, that Mr. Balch has acted with duplicity in expressing himself as laid down in the charge, considering the judgment of the Assembly, and his submission to that judgment."

        The two other charges were pronounced unsustained.

        The Synod proceeded to pronounce sentence on Mr. Balch: "Do hereby suspend him from the exercise of his office as a minister of the gospel, and refer him to the Presbytery of Union, to which he belongs, who will be adequate to the removal of the suspension, when reformation on the part of Mr. Balch shall open the way." They also pronounced the sentence of suspension from the office of elder and the communion of the church upon four of the elders who had appeared against Mr. Balch, for the impropriety and irregularity of their course; also the sentence of a public reprimand on two others who appeared; and that of a private reprimand on two others, as not having exhibited a proper spirit. A committee was appointed to repair to Mount Bethel, and communicate the sentence and administer the admonitions.

        On the sentence being read, Mr. Galbraith, who appeared in the

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name of the session, expressed his submission Mr. Balch asked till the next day for consideration. The next day Mr. Balch asked a re-hearing, which was refused, as, in the judgment of Synod, there did not appear to be sufficient cause.

        After a session of six days, the record of which, with the evidence, covers about forty-one folio pages, the session closed with the following minutes:

        "The Rev. Hezekiah Balch read the following paper, which he requested to be entered on the minutes, viz: To the Rev. Synod of the Carolinas: As I do not wish to do anything that may have the least appearance of obstinacy, I do cheerfully submit to your judgment; at the same time solemnly declaring that I am not conscious of anything, in the matter referred to, more than imprudence, which I hope I shall always be ready to acknowledge, as far as I can without injury to my conscience or the truth. I humbly request that this, my answer, may be entered on your minutes.

"I am yours,

("Signed,) "HEZEKIAH BALCH."


        "The parties having both submitted to the judgment of Synod, received a suitable admonition from the moderator." "At the request of Mr. Balch, Mr. Galbraith and he shook hands in the presence of Synod in testimony of their personal affection to and cordial wishes for the welfare of each other, and hopes of a permanent friendship hereafter." And the Extraordinary Session closed.

SESSION XII.

Hopewell Church, October 31st, 1799.

        Rev. Francis Cummins opened the sessions with a sermon from Luke xiii., 22; and James McRee was chosen moderator.

        Four new names appear on the list of Orange Presbytery as ordained either in the year '97 or '98; the list of '97 was lost with records; and in '98 the list is not given. The four were William T. Thomson, William Paisley, John Gillespie, Samuel McAdo, and Robert Tate. The Presbytery reported also Mr. John Anderson, from another Presbytery.

        Several cases came before Synod, by overture or request, concerning marriages within the forbidden degree of relationship: one respecting a man marrying his former wife's half-brother's widow;

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--dismissed, as not within the prohibited degrees: one of a man who had married his deceased wife's sister's daughter,--laid over till the matter could come before the Assembly, for a general rule on such subjects: and one of a man who had married his former wife's sister, and had with her been under suspension for some time,--laid over.

        The case of Mr. Bowman, who had been suspended by the Abingdon Presbytery, for unsound doctrine, was taken up; and, after hearing Mr. Bowman's explanations, the Synod reversed the sentence, and addressed an affectionate letter to the Presbytery. The subject of dispute was the extent and manner of the offer of the Gospel--Mr. Bowman using the phrases of Dr. Hopkins, and his views of Election, which were disagreeable to his brethren, and, though not altogether agreeable, yet not condemned by Synod.

        This year four of the Presbyteries presented a report of their preachers, with their places of preacing, which may interest the reader.

    PRESBYTERY OF ORANGE--14 members.

  • Henry Pattillo, Grassy Creek and Nutbush.
  • David Caldwell, Buffalo and Alamance.
  • Colin Lindsay, without charge.
  • William Moore, Upper and Lower Hico.
  • William Hodge, without charge.
  • Samuel Stanford, Black River, and Brown Marsh.
  • Angus McDiarmid, Barbacue, Bluff, McCoy's.
  • James H. Bowman, Eno, and Little River.
  • William F. Thompson, New Hope.
  • John Gillespie, Centre, Laurel Hill, and Raft Swamp.
  • William D. Paisley, Union, and Lower Buffalo.
  • Samuel McAdo, Speedwell and Haw River.
  • John Anderson, without charge.
  • Robert Tate, South Washington and Rockfish.

        Licentiates--John Rankin, Robert Foster, Andrew Caldwell, and Edward Pharr. Candidates--Daniel Brown, Ezekiel B. Currie, John Matthews, Duncan Brown, Murdock McKillan, Malcolm McNair, Hugh Shaw, and Murdock Murphy. They have ordained William McGee;--have licensed Barton Stone,--and dismissed them both to connect themselves with the Presbytery of Transylvania.

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    PRESBYTERY OF SOUTH CAROLINA--18 ministers.

  • Joseph Alexander, Bullock's Creek.
  • John Simpson, Good Hope, and Roberts.
  • James Templeton, Nazareth.
  • Francis Cummins, Rocky River.
  • Robert McCullock, Catholic and Purity.
  • James W. Stephenson, Indianstown and Williamsburgh.
  • John Brown, Waxhaws.
  • Robert Wilson, Long Cane.
  • William Williamson, Fairforest.
  • Robert B. Walker, Bethesda.
  • David E. Dunlap, Columbia.
  • Samuel W. Yongue, Lebanon and Mount Olivet.
  • John Foster, Salem.
  • James Gilleland, Bradoway.
  • John B. Kennedy, Duncan's Creek and Little River.
  • George E. Macwhorter, Bethel and Beersheba.
  • Andrew Brown, Bethlehem and Cane Creek.
  • John B. Davies, Fishing Creek and Richardson.

        They have three licentiates,--George Reid, William G. Rosborough, and John Couser: and two candidates,--High Dickson and Thomas Neely.

    PRESBYTERY OF CONCORD--15 ministers.

  • Samuel E. McCorkle, D.D., Thyatira.
  • James Hall, Bethany.
  • James McRee, Centre.
  • David Barr, Philadelphia.
  • Wm. C. Davies, Olney.
  • Samuel C. Caldwell, Sugaw Creek and Hopewell.
  • James Wallis, Providence.
  • Joseph D. Kilpatrick, Third Creek and Unity.
  • Lewis F. Wilson, Concord and Fourth Creek.
  • Humphrey Hunter, Goshen and Unity.
  • John M. Wilson, Quaker Meadow and Morgantown.
  • John Carrigan, Ramah, and Bethpage.
  • John Andrews, Little Britain.
  • Samuel Davies, Mamre.
  • George Newton, Swannanoe and Rim's Creek. They have one candidate, Thomas Hall.
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    UNION PRESBYTERY--4 members.

  • Samuel Carrick, the Fork and Knoxville.
  • Robert Henderson, Westminster and Hopewell.
  • Gideon Blackburn, Eusebia and New Providence.
  • Samuel G. Ramsey, Ebenezer and Pleasant Forest.

        It would have been gratifying, if the other Presbyteries had made a return, that we might know the places in which the ministers of the Synod labored at the close of the last century; with all the candidates, vacancies, and licentiates; a reference and comparison would be advantageous to the present generation.

        On petition, the Presbytery of South Carolina was divided, and Broad River made the dividing line. The members on the northeast side of the river, viz., Joseph Alexander, Robert McCullock, James W. Stephenson, John Brown, Robert B. Walker, David E. Dunlap, Samuel W. Yongue, John Foster, George E. Macwhorter, and John B. Davies, to constitute the first Presbytery of South Carolina, to meet at Bullock's Creek, on the first Friday of February, 1800, and Rev. Joseph Alexander to preside, or the senior member in his absence. And the members on the south-west side, viz., Joseph Simpson, James Templeton, Francis Cummins, Robert Wilson, Wm. Williamson, James Gilleland, John B. Kennedy, and Andrew Brown, to be known as the Second Presbytery of South Carolina, to hold its first meeting at Fair Forest, on the first Friday of February, 1800. The Rev. John Simpson to preside, or in his absence the senior member. The first named Presbytery to keep the records of the past, furnishing to the second such extracts as they may need.

        Synod resolved to hold its annual meetings, hereafter, in October, commencing the first Thursday.

SESSION XIII.

Sugaw Creek, Oct. 2d, 1800.

        Synod was opened by Rev. James McRee, with a sermon from 1st Tim. iv., 16. The Rev. John Brown was chosen moderator. The Rev. James S. Adams and Thomas Price, of the Independent church, being present, were invited to seats as corresponding members.

        It appearing, that the letter, on the subject of the difficulties attending marriages in affinity, which was prepared for the last Assembly, failed to reach the Assembly; a committee was appointed to draft another this meeting.

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        From the report of Orange Presbytery, it appeared, that the Presbytery had conditionally suspended Colin Lindsey, and had dismissed Wm. Hodge, Samuel McAdo, and Mr. John Rankin, to go to the West. An overture for the purpose of commencing a correspondence with other religious denominations in the State, about petitioning the legislature for the emancipation of the slaves, on the principle that all children of slaves born after a fixed time, shall be free, which was brought in last meeting of Synod was taken up and disposed of by the following report, which was adopted: "Your committee report, that though it is our ardent wish that the object contemplated in the overture should be obtained; yet, as it appears to us that matters are not yet matured for carrying it forward, especially in the southern parts of our States, your committee are of opinion that the overture should now be laid aside; and that it be enjoined upon every member of this Synod to use his influence to carry into effect the directions and recommendations of the Synod of New York and Philadelphia, and those additionally made by the General Assembly, for the instruction of those who are in a state of slavery, to prepare them the better for a state of freedom, when such shall be contemplated by the legislatures of our southern States."

        "The Synod considering the importance and necessity of carrying on the missionary business,--that the Rev. James Hall has been appointed by the General Assembly to the Natchez, and ought, if possible, to have company,--determined to send with him two members, viz., the Rev. Messrs. James H. Bowman and William Montgomery, who are directed to spend eight months, if convenient and they find it expedient, in that country and places adjacent; commencing their mission about the 15th instant: and for the support of these missionaries the Synod itself to give them thirty-three and one-third dollars per month from the time they engage in the work; they rendering a regular account of all moneys received by them during their mission." (The reason for passing the subject of missions for a few years is nowhere given.)

        Overture from the First Presbytery of South Carolina.--"In case of fornication, will an acknowledgment before the church session, and reported to the congregation, be sufficient?" Answered in the negative.

        A pastoral letter on the subject of domestic missions was prepared and sent to the Presbyteries to be laid before the congregations.

        Rev. Hezekiah Balch brought a complaint against the Presbytery

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of Abingdon for having ordained Mr. Witherspoon in Mount Bethel church before they had settled their money accounts with himself; and also because Mr. W. held the following sentiments, as expressed in a public sermon: "1st. That Jesus Christ is not the object of faith. 2d. That the justification of a sinner through the atonement of Christ is an act of justice. 3d. That the justification of a sinner through the righteousness of Christ, is not as wholly an act of God's free grace, as if there had been no atonement made. 4th. That there was no difference between saving faith and historical faith, only in degree of evidence."

        Trial of the complaint was ordered for next meeting of Synod.

        On petition from Hezekiah Balch and others, a new Presbytery was set off, to be known by the name of GREENVILLE, to consist of Rev. Messrs. George Newton, Samuel Davis, Hezekiah Balch, and John Cossan, to meet at Swannanoe church, on the third Tuesday of November next, and Mr. Newton to preside and preach; and that Messrs. John Bowman and Stephen Bovelle, with their congregations, be attached either to the Abingdon or Greenville Presbytery, as they may choose.

SESSION XIV.

Fishing Creek, October 1st, 1801.

        Synod was opened by Rev. John Brown, with a sermon from Rom. xi., 13; and William Montgomery was chosen moderator.

        The Presbytery of Orange reported they had removed the conditional suspension of Colin Lindsey, dismissed the Rev. John Anderson to the first Presbytery of South Carolina: that they had deposed Robert M'Culloch, and ordained William Rosborough; the Presbytery of Concord, that they had suspended Rev. David Barr; the Presbytery of Greenville, that they had ordained John Bowman and dismissed him, and had ordained Stephen Bovelle.

        "The reports of our missionaries to the Natchez were called for and read, together with some other papers relating to that business. The Synod were happy to find, that by the blessing of Divine Providence, the good consequences of that mission appear to have far exceeded their most sanguine expectations. The missionaries received the cordial thanks of the house for their prudence, zeal, and diligence, in the execution of the important duties assigned them."

        The case of the man who had married his wife's sister's daughter, and was put under discipline by the Synod at its session in 1789, was taken up, and after much consideration the Synod

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adopted the following: "This Synod so far rescind their former judgment, as to leave it to the church session of the congregation to which Mr. Latham belongs, to do as they think prudence and duty may direct them; keeping carefully in view the glory of God, and the peace and happiness of the church in those parts."

        The complaint of Mr. Balch against the Presbytery of Abingdon was taken up. On the first complaint (see last session) the Synod judged that the Presbytery ought, at the time Mr. Balch presented his claim against the people, or at some other convenient season, to have endeavored to bring the matter to a proper adjustment; and also that it was neglect, if not unfriendly, in Mr. Balch, not to have presented his claims earlier, for a fair adjustment.

        On the complaint and charges against Mr. Witherspoon (see last session), the action was as follows: Having heard Mr. Witherspoon explain the first specification that, he meant "the immediate object of faith; the Scriptures, or the report of the Apostles about Christ was the immediate object, the Synod do judge--that the young man's mode of expression was unhappy and unguarded; yet it appears to this Synod, that the Presbytery may probably have had satisfactory testimony of his orthodoxy on that particular." On the second specification, Mr. Witherspoon said, he used the expression, "and well remembers that he added, it was also an act of mercy; that it was mercy as it respected the sinner, but justice as it respected God, who passed the act; that the atonement answered the demands of justice, and laid the ground for the act to pass in justice." Synod judged--"Mr. Witherspoon's phrase, that justification, as it respects the atonement, is an act of justice, may be explained in a good sense." On the third specification, Mr. Witherspoon said, he had read in a work of Mr. Edwards, borrowed of Mr. B.--"that the justification of a sinner is as wholly an act of God's free grace as if there had been no atonement," and that he had expressed a doubt on the matter, that the atonement might thereby be superseded. The Synod passed by what might have been said in private by Mr. Witherspoon, and judged, "inasmuch as Mr. Witherspoon appears to have held, and still to hold, that the justification of a sinner is not wholly an act of grace, or not as wholly as if there had been no atonement, the Presbytery ought not to have proceeded to ordain Mr. Witherspoon, without endeavoring to bring him to a right view of the doctrine." On the fourth specification, after hearing Mr. W.'s explanation, the Synod judged, "that Mr. Witherspoon's proposition is not true; yet he has explained himself consistently with truth; and that the Presbytery ought to have endeavored to bring him to

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a mode of expression more consistent with his own ideas, as his proposition and explanation appear to be very different."

        "Upon the whole, this Synod, sorry to find that the brethren over the mountains still retain so much of the spirit of warm opposition, DO SOLEMNLY RECOMMEND to Mr. Balch, and those who are opposed to him, to pray for and endeavor to exercise more of that spirit of meekness and brotherly kindness which the gospel so frequently recommends to us, and endeavor to cultivate friendship with each other. And further, the Synod recommend to the Presbytery of Abingdon a more strict regard to our standards of doctrine and discipline, especially in introducing young men to the ministry of the gospel." "The parties acceded to the judgment."

        The Synod passed orders, for the purpose of bringing the subject of missions before all the congregations; and for obtaining collections from them all for the support of missionaries.

        A petition from the congregations of Greenspring and Sinking Spring, with a remonstrance against the proceedings of Abingdon Presbytery, in ordaining Mr. Bovelle pastor of Sinking Spring, in the peculiar case of the congregation, particularly that there was so strong an opposition to him. After much time spent in hearing papers produced by the Presbytery and Mr. Bradley, the representative of the congregation, the Synod judged that the Presbytery "acted incautiously" in ordaining Mr. Bovelle in the circumstances; and after appointing a committee to take the sense of the congregation on the continuance or discontinuance of the connexion and to lay the result before the Presbytery, who are to act accordingly, they say--"And further, this Synod do seriously and solemnly, and with all the authority which they possess as a judicature of the church of Christ, recommend to the ministers and people beyond the mountains, and especially to the people of Sinking Spring and Greenspring congregations, to seek peace and pursue it. O brethren, live peaceably among yourselves! Let brotherly love continue. See that ye fall not out by the way." The Presbytery of Greenville was directed to hold a meeting on the second Tuesday of February, to receive the report of the committee and to determine the case.

        The Rev. William Montgomery, of Presbytery of Hopewell, and Mr. John Matthews, a licentiate of Orange Presbytery, were appointed missionaries to the Mississippi Territory, from the 15th of November, to act as long as they shall judge convenient. Thomas Hall, a licentiate of Concord Presbytery, was appointed to itinerate through the Carolinas and Georgia, for the space of eight months.

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CHAPTER XXIII.
EMIGRATION TO TENNESSEE.

        TENNESSEE is the daughter of North Carolina, having been in the chartered bounds of the colony, and also reckoned a part of the independent confederated State, until the year 1791, when she was reckoned one of the territories of the United States; and having received many of its earliest settlements and strongest reinforcements from the old North State, and from the original stock in Ireland and their descendants in the Middle States. The beautiful fields along the Holston and Clinch, and the charming valleys, allured the early emigrants by the same inducements as charmed and captivated the wanderers from Ireland and Pennsylvania, to fix their abodes between the Yadkin and the Catawba.

        The phrases--"western counties"--"mountains"--"mountain men"--"Washington County," as used during the invasion of the Carolinas, by the King's forces, had reference to sections of country now in, or bordering upon the State of Tennessee. Ferguson was in pursuit of the soldiers of these regions, when he visited Rutherford county, and sent his insulting message; and on the Wataga, the forces began to assemble that gave him the fatal answer at King's Mountain.

        The troubles and trials of the first settlement we can scarcely glance at, nor in the present connection is it necessary, they being in kind and circumstances altogether similar to those of the pioneers of the western part of the mother State, with this only exception, they were farther removed from market, and from the influence of royal authority either in church or state. The wide ranges for cattle and for game, were the first inducements to settle on the Holston; and the time of the first cabin and the name of the pioneer will probably never be known. Next to this influence, was the policy of giving bounty for military service, in wild lands; and Carolina gave a value to the forests of her western wilds by rewarding the labors and exposure of her sons, with titles to lands, that might become a home to them or their descendants. So rapid was the influx of enterprising men, particularly about the close of the Revolutionary war, that an effort was made in the years

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1784-5, to form a State by the name of Franklin. This movement was premature rather than uncalled for; and in 1791, a territory was set off, and ultimately a state was organized by the name of Tennessee, the Indian appellation of the principal river. Mecklenburg, Rowan, Orange and Granville Counties, North Carolina, sent forth crowds of emigrants, and numerous ministers in their train. The family of the Polks, so numerous and so noted in the time of the Revolution, all but one branch, emigrated, and cast their lot in with the bold spirits that sought a home in the great valley of the Mississippi. The old Carolina names are numerous in Tennessee.

        To the great crowds from Carolina were joined many families of the Scotch-Irish race from Virginia, and from Pennsylvania and New Jersey. These collected families of the same race, but different parts of the United States, gave a tone to the rising population of the State, which all the influx of other races from other regions has only modified. The Scotch-Irish and their descendants may not now be a majority in the State; they may perhaps be a minority; but the character impressed by their predecessors will remain for ages, perhaps for ever--enterprise, independence, and a desire for improvement. The church, the school-house, and the college, grew up with the log cabins; and the principles of religion were proclaimed, and the classics taught where glass windows were unknown, and books were carried in bags upon pack-horses.

        The first minister of religion, that is known to have preached in Tennessee, was a Presbyterian by the name of Cummins, from Virginia, who accompanied the expedition from Carolina against the Cherokees in 1776. As he passed through the Holston settlements, he preached in the forts and stations, those places of defence and of instruction, and, for a time, of public worship. Among the Scotch-Irish that settled West Pennsylvania, Carolina, Virginia, and entered the wilderness of Tennessee, and were gathered into forts and stations, so often made the opportunities of dissipation, it was no uncommon thing for those gatherings to be improved for instructing children, and for seasons of religious worship. Mr. Cummins did not remain long in Tennessee, neither did he organize any churches at that time.

        The first minister that took his abode in Tennessee, was the Rev. Samuel Doak; and as he is identified with the history and progress of sound learning and religion in North Carolina, west of the Blue Ridge, a few particulars concerning his early training and the labors of his maturer years cannot be improper. His parents, Samuel Doak and Jane Mitchell, emigrated very young from the North

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of Ireland, and took their abode in Chester county, Pennsylvania. At the time of their marriage, they were both members of the church; and soon after that event they emigrated to Virginia, and settled in Augusta county, in the bounds of New Providence congregation. They were both of that party called the Old Side in distinction from that called the New Side, which two then divided the Presbyterian church. Their son, Samuel, was born August, 1749. He remained with his parents, and worked on the farm till he was sixteen years old. At that time he was admitted member of the church in full communion; and soon after commenced a course of classical study with Mr. Robert Alexander, who resided about two miles from his father's house. This grammar-school was soon after removed two or three miles further, to about the place where the Seceder meeting-house, called Old Providence, now stands. The school was taught by a Mr. Edmondson, who afterwards studied medicine. About this time the school came more immediately under the charge of the pastor, the Rev. John Brown, who having served the church of New Providence some forty-four years, removed to Kentucky, and lies buried near Pisgah church. By Mr. Brown the school was removed to Pleasant Hill, within about a mile of his dwelling, and about the same distance north of the village of Fairfield. While here, Mr. Ebenezer Smith, the brother of John B. and Samuel Stanhope Smith, was employed as teacher. A Mr. Archibald succeeded Mr. Smith, and William Graham succeeded Mr. Archibald. At this time the Presbytery of Hanover adopted the school. From near Fairfield it was removed to Timber Ridge; and from thence to near Lexington; and is now Washington College, in Lexington, Virginia.

        In Oct., 1773, Samuel Doak entered Princeton College and remained two years. Returning to Virginia he was married to Esther Montgomery, sister of the Rev. John Montgomery, whose family belonged to New Providence; and shortly after became tutor in Hampden Sydney College in Prince Edward county. Here, for about two years, he pursued the study of divinity under the direction of the Rev. John B. Smith, the President of the College. Being licensed by the Hanover Presbytery, after preaching in Virginia for a short time, he removed to the Holston settlement, in what is now Sullivan county, Tennessee. Not finding this a suitable field for the designs of education he had in view, he removed in the course of a year or two to the settlement on Little Limestone, in Washington county, purchased a farm, and on his own land built a small church, and log college, and founded Salem congregation.

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His institution was incorporated by the Legislature of North Carolina, in 1788, under the name of "Martin Academy;" and is the first literary institution that was established in the great valley of the Mississippi. In 1795 it was changed into a college, and received the name of "Washington." From the incorporation of Martin Academy till 1818, Mr. Doak continued the President of the Institution; and his elders of Salem congregation formed a part of the Board of Trustees. He procured for his institution a small library in Philadelphia, caused it to be transported in sacks on pack-horses, across the mountains, and thus formed the nucleus of the library at Washington College. The brick buildings overlook the site of the log college; but long must it be before the enlarged institution can equally overshadow the usefulness of the log academy and college that for a time supplied the opportunities for education for ministers, lawyers and doctors, in the early days of Tennessee, and still is sending out its stream.

        Having organized a number of churches in the county in which he lived, also Bethel and Timber Ridge in Greene county, about the year 1818 he resigned the Presidency of Washington College in favor of his son, Rev. John M. Doak, M.D., and removed to Bethel. Here he opened an academy to prepare youth for college, and named it Tusculum; and passed the remainder of his days in usefulness and honor. Under his son, Samuel W. Doak, the academy has grown into a flourishing college. Says a gentleman who knew him well--"His praise is in all our churches. During the Revolutionary war he was a warm, decided and uniform friend to civil and religious liberty, took part in the defence of his country, was a member of the convention that in 1784-5 gave rise to the insurrectionary state of Franklin; was upon the committee that reported an article of its constitution, making provision for the support of learning; and to the close of life was still its devoted servant, advocate, and patron. A rigid opposer of innovation in religious tenets; very old school in all his notions and actions; uncompromising in his love of the truth, and his hostility to error or heresy; a John Knox in his character, fearless, firm, nearly dogmatical and intolerant; but no one has been more useful to church or state, except it be Hall or Caldwell in N. C., or Waddell in South Carolina and Georgia. A volume would not exhaust the incidents of his life."

        About the same time that M. Doak settled in Tennessee, Rev. Samuel Houston, reared in the same congregation, and at the same school, took his residence in Washington county. After a few

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years he returned to Virginia, and lived to a good old age in Rockbridge county. Having been a soldier in the battle at Guilford Court-house, and ranking among the bravest of the brave, there can be no doubt of his love of American liberty. While living in Tennessee he took an active part in public matters, and was a conspicuous member of the Franklin convention. A brother and other connexions settled near Houston's station in Blount county; and his co-emigrants formed Providence church at Maryville. The name of Houston is familiar in Texas.

        The Rev. Hezekiah Balch and Rev. Samuel Carrick came to Tennessee about the same time; both were members of Hanover Presbytery. Mr. Balch from Pennsylvania, Donegal Presbytery, formed one of the original members of Orange, and Mr. Carrick had been ordained by Hanover Presbytery, in whose bounds he labored for a time. These gentlemen met undesignedly in 1789, in the settlement where Lebanon church now is. Mr. Carrick had sent an appointment to preach, and on a short notice a great crowd assembled to hear the strange minister. Mr. Balch came that day. The place chosen for preaching was a large Indian mound at the junction of Holston and French Broad. Mr. Carrick courteously yielded the precedency to Mr. Balch as being the older man. After listening to the sermon, he observed "that he had selected the same subject, and as it was not yet, and could not be exhausted, he would still preach upon it." After preaching, the ordinance of Baptism was administered. Mr. Balch assisted in the organization of churches; under his patronage Greenville College was founded and rose to usefulness. Mr. Carrick organized Lebanon church, and also the church in Knoxville. He was the first President of Blount College in that place, and finished a life of usefulness in 1808, very suddenly. For want of memoranda little can here be said of these men, whose lives afforded matter of great interest to the Christian public, and must hold a prominent place in a correct history of Tennessee. Says a gentleman who knew him--"Rev. Samuel Carrick, equally orthodox, and not less learned or devoted to the service of his master,"--he is running a parallel with Mr. Doak,--"was yet more liberal, tolerant, and refined. He had a great deal of urbanity, much of the suaviter in modo, less of the fortiter in re, dressed neatly, behaved courteously, grave, polite, genteel, in short he was a model of an old-fashioned Southern gentleman, and had been evidently (as all Presbyterian clergymen of that day were, and ought still to be) well raised."

        About the same time a son of the first minister of Sugar Creek,

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after preaching for a time in the church of his father, removed to West Tennessee, and settled near where Nashville now is, on the Cumberland river. A man of fine talents and capable of close thought, he did the cause of religion much service. In the latter part of his life he had some difficulties that hindered, for a time, his usefulness, but which served to draw forth the friendly influence and unqualified approbation of General Jackson, who was not unacquainted with Sugar Creek and its recollections. Mr. Craighead lies buried near the Hermitage.

        The above short notices are given merely to show the connection of the churches in Tennessee with those in Carolina and Virginia, to the first for the most emigrants, and to the second for most ministers; and also to say, that there are a variety of incidents connected with the first settlements, that must be, if preserved, of exceeding interest to succeeding generations.

        Abingdon Presbytery was formed August, 1785, its first meeting being held at Salem. A well written history of that Presbytery, and those formed from it, would comprise a history of the struggles and tempests of the Presbyterian church, which were felt in all their force in Tennessee, before the surface of the ocean was agitated around Philadelphia, as will be seen by a reference to the minutes of the Synod of North Carolina, in the preceding chapter.

        We shall close this short chapter, by giving the names of the first trustees of three of the Colleges:--

        1st. Washington College:--Rev. Messrs. Samuel Doak, Charles Cummins, Edward Crawford, Robert Henderson and Gideon Blackburn:--Messrs. Jonathan Cottom, Alexander Matthews, John Nelson, Henry Nelson (father of two preachers, Kelso Nelson and David Nelson), John McAllister and John Blois, who were elders of Salem church; and Messrs. Joseph Anderson, John Sevier, Landon Carter, Daniel Kennedy, Leroy Taylor, John Tipton, Wm. Cooke, Archibald Roane, James Hamilton, John Rhea, Samuel Mitchell, Jesse Payne, James Aiken, Wm. Hott, Wm. Chester, David Deaderick and John Waddell.

        2d. Of Blount College:--Rev. Samuel Carrick, President, Messrs. James White, Francis Alexander Ramsey, George McNutt and John Adair, elders in Mr. Carrick's churches; and Messrs. William Blount, Daniel Smith, David Campbell, Joseph Anderson, John Sevier, Alexander Kelly, Wm. Cooke, Willie Blount, Joseph Hamilton, Archibald Roane, Charles McClung, George Ruolstone and Robert Houston.

        3d. Greenville College:--Rev. Messrs. Hezekiah Balch, Samuel

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Doak, James Balch, Samuel Carrick, Robert Henderson and Gideon Blackburn; and Messrs. A. Roan, Joseph Hamilton, Wm. Cooke, Daniel Kennedy, Landon Carter, Joseph Harden, John Rhea and John Sevier.

        The efforts for literature and morals in Tennessee, are not surpassed in any of the western or southwestern States, and they compare advantageously with any of her older sisters. There is much pure religion and vital goodness in Tennessee.

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CHAPTER XXIV.
REV. JAMES HALL, D.D., AND THE CHURCHES IN IREDELL.

        MELCHIZEDEK was a king, and a priest of the Most High God. Abraham, the Father of the Faithful, led, for once at least, a military expedition, and on his return from a complete victory received the blessing of the king of Salem, whom the Apostle set forth as a type of Christ the Lord, the author and finisher of Faith. In the war of the American Revolution there were many young men to be found in the ranks of our armies, and in the prisons of the enemy, who, after hazarding their lives for their country, entered the ministry and spent their days in preaching the everlasting gospel of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ,--such as Hunter of Carolina, and Marshall, and Houston, and Lyle of Virginia. There were also many clergymen that went with the armies to act as chaplains, and displayed in the various dangers and exposures of the camp and a soldier's life, the cool collected bravery of men at peace with themselves and with their God, and engaged in a good cause,--such as McCaule of Centre, afterwards of South Carolina, who was beside General Davidson when he fell at Cowan's Ford; some of whom were made a sacrifice to their country's safety--as Rosborough of New Jersey. But there is not perhaps another instance of a man, a licensed preacher of the gospel, that took part in military expeditions, and commanded companies, and still retained the character and maintained the dignity and office of a minister of the gospel, beside that of James Hall of Iredell, the preacher and the soldier. There were some ministers that laid aside their office for a military command, and never resumed it, as Muhlenburg of Pennsylvania, and Thruston of Virginia.

        But James Hall performed both offices, a military commander and a preacher of righteousness; was acceptable in both as a young man, and died at an advanced age a minister of the gospel. Said Dr. Robinson of Poplar Tent, "when a boy at school at Charlotte, I saw James Hall pass through the town, with his three-cornered hat and long sword, the captain at the head of a company, and chaplain of the regiment." An amalgamation of characters and offices justified only by special emergencies, and to be successfully attempted only by few. Born, of Scotch-Irish parentage, at Carlisle, Pennsylvania,

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August 22d, 1744, and removed by them to North Carolina, when about eight years old, he grew up in the upper part of Rowan, now Iredell, in the bounds of the congregation to which he afterwards was pastor during his whole ministerial life of thirty-eight years.

        The first grants of land, in that part of the country, bear date about the time that the family of Dr. Hall emigrated to Carolina, as may be seen from a grant in the possession of Col. Allison, whose tract was perhaps the second that was located. The name of Granville, by his deputy, is affixed. The settlements along Fourth Creek and South Yadkin, from which the congregations of Bethany, Tabor, Fourth Creek or Statesville, and Concord, were ultimately formed, all being called Fourth Creek for a length of time, were of the names of Harris, Alexander, Hill, Luckey, Bone, King, Patterson, Shnipe, Henry, Morrison, Johnson, McKnight, Stevenson, Watts, Hall, Boyd, Milligan, Adams, Scroggs, McLean, Allison, Purviance, Warson, Ireland, Sloan, McLelland, Potts, Snoddy, Murdock, Bell, and Archibald. Coming from Pennsylvania here, these people naturally looked to the Synod of Philadelphia, and the Presbyteries of which it was composed, for their ministers; and being many of them pious people, their "supplications" for ministerial labor appear very early on the records of the Synod. In the year 1753, the following minute was made, viz.:--"The supplications from Virginia and North Carolina were considered, and the Synod orders Mr. McMordie to supply the vacancies in those parts for ten weeks, or longer if he find it needful, and that he pay a greater regard to the larger societies that have supplicated this Synod from time to time, and at the same time do what he can to promote the benefit of younger settlements, and that he set out the 1st of July next, and that Mr. Donaldson, in like manner, supply the same back parts, and continue there for ten weeks or as much longer as he thinks fit, and that he shall set out the 1st of October. The Synod recommends it to Messrs. McMordie and Donaldson to show a special regard to the vacancies of North Carolina, especially betwixt the Atkin (Yadkin) and Catawba Rivers, in giving them a considerable part of the time they spend in those parts." This commission covered not only Fourth Creek, but the neighborhoods that formed the old churches of Concord Presbytery, all of which had been commenced previous to this date. In 1755, there is the following order--"That Mr. Donaldson supply the back inhabitants of Virginia and North Carolina, at least three months next fall; and that he in particular pay a regard to the supplications that were laid before this Synod by some of these back inhabitants. That Mr. Wilson

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supply them in like manner for three months next winter; and Mr. McKennan for three months next spring." Considering the small number of preachers in the Synod, and the great number of vacancies requiring aid in Pennsylvania, as well as south of the Potomac, this supply of nine months was liberal. In 1757 it was ordered, "That Mr. Millar supply the following settlements in order in the fall, each one Sabbath day, viz., Cather's (Thyatira), Osborn's (Centre), Morison's (Rocky River), Jersey's on Atkin, Buffler's, Hawfield's and Baker's settlements. And that Mr. Craig supply the same one Sabbath day in the spring." These Sabbaths, one in the fall and the other in the spring, were great days in the settlements, and people gathered from their dispersed homes and followed the preachers, eager to catch something that should be their scriptural food for the long abstinence to come.

        In the year 1755, we find in the minutes of the Synod of New York, that the brethren composing that energetic body, were not unmindful of the southern vacancies. Beside constituting the Presbytery of Hanover, they passed the following order, viz.: "Upon sundry petitions from various parts of North Carolina, setting forth their distressing circumstances for want of a preached gospel among them, and requesting help from this synod, Messrs. John Brainerd and Elihu Spencer are appointed to take a journey thither before winter, and supply the vacant congregations there, and in parts adjacent, for six months, or as long as they shall think necessary; and the appointment for supplies for Mr. Spencer's congregation is referred till to-morrow."

        After the Synods of New York and Philadelphia were united, in the year 1758, the supply of the southern vacancies claimed their attention; missionaries were sent that were so acceptable, that numerous calls came up to Synod for them, to be located as settled pastors. In the year 1765 is the following minute,--"a call for the Reverend Mr. Spencer from Cathy's settlement (Thyatira) and Fourth Creek, which was presented to him; also a supplication for supplies from the inhabitants of North Carolina, living between the waters of Yadkin and Catawba rivers, and particularly for the removal of Mr. Spencer and Mr. McWhorter to settle among them." Then follow the applications from Bethel and Poplar Tent, New Providence and the Six Mile Spring, Hawfields, and Little River, and from Long Canes in South Carolina. "In consequence of sundry applications from North Carolina for supplies, the Synod appointed Messrs. Nathan Kerr, George Duffield, William Ramsay, David Caldwell, James Lattar, and Robert McMordie, to go there

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as soon as they can conveniently, and each of them to tarry half a year in these vacant congregations, as prudence may direct."

        Fourth Creek church was organized by the Mr. Elihu Spencer mentioned in the two preceding minutes, and embraced the inhabitants between the South Yadkin and the Catawba rivers. This took place some time in the year 1764, or early in the year 1765, when the bounds of all the congregations were settled. From all the efforts made for settled pastors, there was but one congregation, that of Rocky River, that could obtain any preaching except from missionaries, for many years; and Fourth Creek had no regular pastor till James Hall, who grew up in the bounds, became their minister in 1778. From the records of Hanover Presbytery, it appears that Mr. Craighead was directed by his Presbytery to supply Fourth Creek two Sabbaths, and Mr. James Hunt the same number of days in the year 1762.

        That these vacancies, some of them at least, expected to contribute to the support of their ministers, appears from the minutes of the Synod in the year 1767. Besides mentioning the reception of petitions for supplies from Cathey's settlement (Thyatira), Long Canes, Indian Creek, and Duncan's Creek; and motions for supplies for Edenton, Newbern, Fourth Creek, Upper Hico, Haw River, Goshen in the forks of Catawba, the south fork of Catawba, the forks of Yadkin and Salisbury; the following record is made, viz.: "The following congregations in North Carolina, viz.: Sugar Creek, Fishing Creek, Bethel, the Jersey settlement, Centre congregation, Poplar Tent, and Rocky River, united in a petition for one or more of the Rev. Messrs. Spencer, Lewis, McWhorter, and James Caldwell, to be sent there, promising for their encouragement that the sum of eighty pounds be paid by any of these congregations in which he shall choose to spend half of his time, and another eighty pounds by the vacant congregations he shall supply." Neither of the ministers referred to was willing to accept the call, and as Mr. Craighead of Sugar Creek was dead, there was no settled minister south of the Yadkin for a few years.

        Secluded in the forests of Rowan, alike ignorant of the knowledge and the follies of the great world, James Hall grew up under the watchful care of pious parents, and the instructions he could receive from these faithful and laborious missionaries, whose visits to the congregation were, less often than welcome, about once a quarter. He was made familiar with the Bible and the Westminster catechism in his early days, and his mind stored with the best of truth before he could appreciate the excellence of the truth itself, or

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the motives of the pious parents who so assiduously taught him. The coming of a missionary was an event of magnitude, an epoch in the current of time, in these Carolina settlements of Protestant-Irish. He brought news from a far country, for Philadelphia, in those days, was at the distance of a horseback journey of two or three weeks, and no current of passengers in stages or rail cars, no daily or weekly mail, brought the latest information; he was messenger from friends and acquaintances left behind, or coming on; he proclaimed the truth many were desirous of hearing, pouring in the oil of grace to the wounded spirit, comforting the bowed down; he administered the ordinances, called the children to catechual instruction, and visited the sick. The impressions made by these visitations were of the most happy and religious kind, and were followed by hopeful conversions. The more important matters of discipline and church order were particularly attended to during the excursions of the missionaries; for instance,--in the records of the Synod of New York and Philadelphia, in 1756--"The Synod more particularly considering the state of many congregations to the southward, and particularly North Carolina, and particularly the great importance of having those congregations properly organized, appoint the Rev. Messrs. Elihu Spencer and Alexander McWhorter, to go as our missionaries for that purpose; that they form societies, help them in adjusting the bounds, ordain elders, administer sealing ordinances, instruct the people in discipline, and finally, direct them in their after conduct, particularly in what manner they shall proceed to obtain the stated ministry, and whatever else may appear useful or necessary for those churches, and the future settlement of the gospel among them." This mission was fulfilled to such entire satisfaction that these gentlemen were importuned to settle in Carolina; and Mr. McWhorter was ultimately chosen president of the college erected at Charlotte. From the term of this visit, we may consider the bounds of the old churches in Orange and Concord Presbyteries as settled, and the sessions as generally duly organized. Previous to this the settlements acted independently in their religious matters. At this time numbers were united into one congregation. It was probably during this visit that Mr. Hall made profession of religion, as it is stated that he united with the church when he was about twenty years old. Of the exercises of his mind previously to that event little more is known than that he had been a subject of religious impressions, from term to term, commencing in his eighth year. In a paper drawn up by him in the year 1787, it appears that from his first entrance on a religious life, he was diligent and faithful

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in self-examination; that his conduct, and motives, and feelings, were all often tested by the word of God. His enjoyments in religion were often sweet, and his hope of salvation strong. "Not long," says he, "after my first comforts, I felt a strong desire towards the ministry of the Gospel. Of this I considered it in vain to think, when I took a view of my family circumstances. My father, at that time aged, and in a declining state of health, my two elder brothers married, and my two younger brothers were in a measure children--so that as a means, I was almost the only support of the family, which was in comfortable, but not affluent circumstances. It was, however, my constant prayer to God, that he might, in some way, open a door in the course of his providence, that so I might obtain my wished-for object, even when I saw no prospect of an answer. After about four years I communicated my sentiments to my parents, whom, contrary to my expectations, I found willing to support me in a course of study."

        About the time he communicated his wishes to his parents, he entered into a solemn covenant with God to devote his whole life to the preaching of the gospel, if he could be suitably qualified by a proper preparatory education.

        After it was determined in the family that he should commence a course of education for the ministry, a dangerous sickness, with other causes, delayed his actually entering upon his studies for about a year. During this interval an event, or train of events, occurred, which caused him bitterness of soul, and which led him ultimately to determine to spend his life an unmarried man, in direct opposition to that tenderness of heart, and affectionate disposition, he was known to possess from his earliest boyhood, to his latest breath. Attending the wedding of a young friend, he enjoyed to a high degree the company of an amiable, pious lady, in all the loveliness of youth, rendered more lovely by the excitement of the occasion. On his return home, his thoughts were so busied about this absent fair one, that he visits her, and frankly declares his attachment, and is made very happy in the anticipation of that union she permitted him to hope for. He seemed to have forgotten his devotion to the work of the ministry, and his projected education, in the ardor of his first love. As he said afterwards, "he thought of nothing but the object of his affections, he saw in her piety and amiableness, every quality to make him happy, and he revelled in his anticipated felicity." But when he began to reflect how he was to dispose of himself for life, he called to mind his former purposes, and felt the difficulties in his path. His perplexities

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increased upon reflection. One sabbath, after attending preaching, he walked out by himself to indulge in meditation. He thought of his having devoted himself to God in the ministry, and the obligations of that covenant he had voluntarily made and solemnly imposed upon himself, to preach the gospel during his whole life, if he could be prepared by a suitable education; that God, on his part, had ratified the covenant by opening the way, unexpectedly, for his attaining the desired education; and that he had now rashly and voluntarily declined from the object of his prayers and desires, and had involved himself in difficulties from which he saw no escape. As he was meditating on these things, his former backslidings came up to his recollection one after another, and rushing upon him like a mighty torrent overwhelmed him with a sense of guilt. His conscience goaded him with agonies inexpressible. He stood in amazement, and trembled under the stings of remorse. He was afterwards heard to say--that the experience of that day had given him some conceptions of the sufferings that could be inflicted on a lost soul by the remembrance of its former guilt, and that it might be intolerable. He sought an interview with the lady and stated the case to her, and by mutual consent, the matrimonial engagement was dissolved, and he returned to his former purpose to prepare for preaching the gospel, with an humbled and chastened spirit, less inclined to self-dependence, and more fearful of sinning against God. This was his first and last effort towards the matrimonial life. The scheme of action he proposed to himself, and which was carried out by him through life, was not compatible with the duties of the head of a family. He saw the wants of his countrymen; he knew little of preachers but as travelling missionaries; and his devotion to God to preach the gospel his whole life, appeared to him to stand directly in the way of his performing the duties of a husband and a father. Had he been a married man he might have been more happy, and probably would have been; he might have been as useful, and even more so; but it would have been usefulness of a different kind, and probably very many that heard the gospel from his lips in his various long journeys, would never have seen his face. In his determination that no matrimonial engagements should be a barrier to his preconceived purpose of preparation for the ministry he is worthy of all praise; and in his determination to hold himself in readiness for a missionary life in the state in which he had grown to manhood, he is not lightly to be blamed when the vacancies and desolations are surveyed by

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the eye of faith and benevolence, and the little band of laborers are numbered up.

        In his twenty-sixth year he commenced the study of the classics, and made rapid progress, as his mind was matured, and his application unremitting. He had been accustomed to study by himself, and had acquired habits of mental application, while unaided by an instructor. When about seventeen years of age, a treatise on geometry fell in his way and excited his attention. He applied himself to study during his leisure from his daily avocations on the farm, till he became possessed of the principles, and master of the contents. By the help of the plates he constructed a quadrant with which he amused himself and his friends by measuring the height of trees, and the distance of objects. The taste for the exact sciences acquired by him at this time, in the midst of the labors and toils of a farmer's life, remained with him through life. The mathematics were his favorite study, and such was his estimation of them, he could not be persuaded to think favorably of the intellectual powers of any man who lightly esteemed this branch of education, or consider his course of study liberal whose progress in mathematics was small.

        He pursued his collegiate studies at Nassau Hall, Princeton, then under the direction of President Witherspoon; and his proficiency, particularly in the exact sciences, attracted the attention of that clear-sighted man. He took the bachelor's degree in the year 1774, in his thirty-first year. Soon after, Dr. Witherspoon expressed his desire to have him employed in the college as teacher of mathematics. Such a proposition from such a man was the highest encomium. But however gratifying the offer of employment by such a man as Dr. Witherspoon might have been to him, the recollection of his early dedication to God for the ministry--of the mental agony he had endured, when, by his imprudent matrimonial engagement, he had, to all appearances, thrown himself out of the way of preparation for the sacred office, and the already advanced period of his life, together with the great necessity for ministers of the gospel in North Carolina, forbade his connection with the college as a teacher.

        The theological reading of Mr. Hall was pursued under the direction of Dr. Witherspoon, that eminent minister and patriot, whose views in religion, morality and politics, were thoroughly imbibed by his scholar. The Presbytery of Orange licensed him to preach the gospel as a probationer some time between the meeting of the general assembly in 1775, and the meeting in 1776; tradition

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says in the spring of 1776. In the entire loss of the records of the Presbytery of this date, we take the following minute from the records of the Synod of New York and Philadelphia, May 28th, 1776. "A letter from the Presbytery of Orange was brought in and read, informing that they have, since the last Synod, licensed Messrs. Robert Archibald, Thomas Harris McCaule, and James Hall, to preach the gospel, and requested the Synod to send as many supplies as they can to the relief of the numerous vacancies in those parts."

        There were at this time the following ministers in North Carolina, viz.: JAMES CAMPBELL, who commenced his labors among the Scotch on Cape Fear, 1756; his name appears on the roll of Synod in 1746, as member of Newcastle Presbytery: HUGH MCADEN, who visited Duplin County, 1755, as a licentiate of Newcastle Presbytery; his name first appears on the roll of Synod as member of Newcastle Presbytery, 1757; he was received into Hanover Presbytery, 1759, October 4th. HENRY PATTILLO, licensed by Hanover Presbytery, in 1755, ordained 1758, and accepted a call from Hawfield, 1765: JAMES CRISWELL, licensed by Hanover Presbytery, 1764, and was ordained pastor of Nutbush, Grassy Creek, and Lower Hico, 1765; DAVID CALDWELL, ordained by New Brunswick Presbytery, 1765, received into Hanover 1767, pastor of Buffalo and Alamance, 1768: JOSEPH ALEXANDER, ordained by Hanover Presbytery, March, 1768, as pastor of Sugar Creek, having been received as licentiate from Newcastle Presbytery. HEZEKIAH JAMES BALCH, ordained by the Donegal, and reported to Synod 1770, pastor of Poplar Tent. These were in connection with Orange Presbytery, which then extended over North and South Carolina, and had in all twelve members, eight in North Carolina, and four in South Carolina. To these may be added MR. JAMES TATE, who was living in Wilmington, but not connected with the Presbytery. The congregations and neighborhoods that required the labors of a Presbyterian minister, were more than five times that number. It is not wonderful, therefore, that numerous invitations to become pastor should be given to Mr. Hall; and that his intention to pursue the study of divinity still longer before becoming a pastor, should be overruled by the pressing calls for the word of life.

        The neighborhoods composing Fourth Creek church, in the bounds of which he had passed his youth, persuaded him to take his residence with them, to become their pastor. Some time previously the church had been divided, and into three distinct organizations; one of which retained the name, the preaching place being at Statesville the county seat,--one was called Concord, the place of preaching

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about six miles west of Statesville,--the other Bethany, the preaching place about six miles east of Statesville. On the 8th of April, 1778, Mr. Hall was installed pastor of the united congregations of Fourth Creek, Concord and Bethany. There is no record of the time of his ordination; it is probable the ordination took place at the time of installation. In the records of the Synod of New York and Philadelphia, there is no list of the ministers in Orange Presbytery, after 1774, till 1780; and for the years 1777, 1778, 1779, there is no report of any kind. Mr. Hall's name appears on the list given for 1780.

        The names of the elders at Fourth Creek were James Barr, William Stevenson, John Stevenson, Andrew McEnzie, John Murdock, Mussentine Mathews and John McLelland.

        During the exciting scenes of the Revolution, in which he had been licensed and ordained, Mr. Hall held the office of pastor of these three congregations, which extended from South Yadkin to the Catawba, and some members of the congregation coming from beyond these rivers; and after the Revolution he served them till the year 1790, when wishing to devote more time to the cause of domestic missions than could be consistent with so large a charge, he was released from his connection with Fourth Creek and Concord. His connection with Bethany continued till his death, July 25th, 1826, a period of twenty-six years.

        A full account of his actions during the Revolution would fill a volume; his active, enterprising spirit would not let him be neuter; his principles drawn from the Word of God and the doctrines of his church, and cultivated by Dr. Witherspoon, carried him with all his heart to defend the ground taken by the convention in Mecklenburg, May, 1775, and by the Continental Congress in 1776. He gave his powers of mind, body and estate in the cause of his country. As the citizens would assemble to hear news and discuss the politics of those trying times, and were making choice of the side they would espouse, Mr. Hall was accustomed to meet with them, and addressing them, infused his own spirit and inflamed their love of liberty, and strengthened their purpose of maintaining their rights at all hazards. The tradition about him, in these cases, is that he was eminently successful; and the fact that there was great unanimity in that section of country, in a measure the effect of his exertions, would of itself show that he was both influential and eloquent.

        When the adjacent State, South Carolina, was overrun by the British forces, under Cornwallis, Mr. Hall's spirit was stirred within him as he heard of the massacres, and plunderings, and battles, and

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varied distress and sufferings of the inhabitants of the upper part of the State, from the same stock as himself, of the same religious creed, and holding the same general principles of government, and civil and religious liberty. He assembled his flock, and addressed them on the occasion. He painted to their view in a most thrilling manner the wrongs of his country, and the sufferings of their friends and countrymen in the neighboring state, and called upon them to take arms in their defence, the defence of all that was dear. A company of cavalry, composed of choice men, was immediately organized. By general consent he was demanded for their leader; all his objections were overruled, and to encourage his countrymen to act rather than to talk, he accepted the command. In the year 1779, he led them on an expedition into South Carolina, of several months' continuance, performing the double office of Commander and Chaplain, and marched over a large part of the western section of the State.

        During this expedition two of his men were taken prisoners. As he could not recover them by force of arms, he made their case a subject of prayer, both in private, and in public, with his men. In a few days they rejoined the company, having made their escape. As their captors lay encamped one night on the banks of Broad River, in South Carolina, their sentinel at the door of the guard-house, their place of confinement, was observed to be drowsy; they remaining quiet, he fell asleep. Stepping noiselessly over the soldier, as he lay with his gun folded in his arms, they run for the river. The noise of their plunge called the attention of the other sentries; the alarm is given; boats are manned for pursuit, but the active swimmers reach the opposite bank first, and escape their pursuers, to the great joy of the praying Captain and the company.

        Going one day on a reconnoitring expedition, accompanied by an officer of the company, his friend Mathews, as they emerged from a dense forest into an open field, near to and in full view of a house, they observed some fifteen or twenty British dragoons around the house, some walking about, and some ready mounted. In a moment they observed the peril of their situation, from the number of the enemy, and the position of the house and open fields; that it was as impossible to escape by flight, as reckless to make an attack on ten times their number, fully aware of their approach. They halted; Mathews drew his sword, and turning in his saddle towards the wood, waves it as if summoning a company to advance. The dragoons take the alarm, and dashing off

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at full speed, were soon out of sight, leaving our two officers to make good their retreat.

        On another occasion there was a call for a volunteer company, to break up a nest of tories on the rich lands of the Uwharree River, in Montgomery county, who were infesting the country greatly. Mr. Hall attended the meeting of the citizens assembled upon the occasion, and delivered them an address full of patriotism and feeling. At the close of his speech a greater number offered their services than were called for the expedition.

        When it was necessary for the American forces to march into the Cherokee country, in Georgia, to quell the Indians, a company was raised in Iredell for that expedition, and Mr. Hall went with his friends as chaplain to the army. During the expedition, which lasted about two months, the chaplain offered public prayers very regularly morning and evening; but had but one opportunity of preaching. On that occasion he took his stand under a large shady tree; the army, consisting of about four thousand men, was drawn up around him; the soldiers brought from the neighboring woods, each a young sapling, or long branch of a tree, with all the foliage, and as they were drawn up around in close ranks, seating themselves on the ground, and resting their shady branches upon the earth, they formed a dense shade, and under this novel shelter from the sun listened to the sermon. In honor of that first gospel sermon in the Indian territories, the adjacent country was named after the chaplain, Hall county, of which Gainsville is the seat of justice.

        Mr. Hall possessed all the attributes necessary for a military commander. His fine person, his stature above six feet, his great muscular strength and action, rendered his appearance commanding. His courage, both moral and physical, undaunted, he was cool in council, intrepid in danger, and decided in action. His acquaintance with the mathematics, both scientifically and practically, his great capability for mechanical pursuits and his acquaintance with the details, and his skill in the operations, enabled him to form his plans with readiness and execute them with precision. His kind and tender feeling, and enthusiastic love of liberty, having the control of a fine voice and pleasing manner, together with his great attention to personal appearance, fitted him to gain and to hold the affections of men. His stern morality, undoubted piety and practical religion, carried everywhere with him, combined with an amiable disposition, called forth the reverence of the good and the respect of all. But he delighted not in the warlike camp

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His mission was one of peace in the name of the Prince of peace. To encourage his congregations and his countrymen to the defence of their rights of conscience and of person, he went with them into the midst of wars and fightings; but he went always as the Christian man and minister; and when that object was gained, he declined military service when offered to him in high places.

        After the skirmish at Cowansford on the Catawba, between the forces of Cornwallis and the North Carolina militia, in which his fellow licentiate, Thomas H. McCaule, was at the side of General Davidson when he fell, Mr. Hall was singled out by General Greene to be commissioned as Brigadier General, to fill the place of Davidson. But the proffered honor was declined, not through disaffection or timidity. A nobler feeling possessed the heart of Mr. Hall--the thought that there were others that could fill that post as well as himself, or better, while there were few indeed to act in the cause of the gospel to which he had devoted his "whole life."

        When the war of the Revolution was ended in the independence of the United States, Mr. Hall devoted himself, with undivided energies and unwavering purpose, to his beloved work, the gospel ministry. The effects of the long and harassing war upon the churches in the Carolinas were deplorable; the regular ordinances of the gospel had been broken up--discipline neglected,--the preached word had become less valued; some congregations mostly broken up, and the vices that ordinarily attend a camp, and are left by war, such as drinking, card playing, profanity and the like, extensively prevailed. Though Mr. Hall's congregations were not in the track of either of the armies nor the seat of war; and though he had exerted himself during the war to sustain religion and morality in the congregation and in the camp, the general tone of public feeling had evidently declined, and the necessity of great efforts in the cause of the gospel to prevent the most melancholy effects, was stirring up his spirits to activity, and his heart to zeal for God. His efforts met the Divine approbation, and were attended with his blessing, and resulted in a revival of religion.

        Soon after the war, his charge was greatly blessed; the attention of the people was very generally turned to the subject of religion. The meetings were characterized by great solemnity and stillness; and the preaching, for simplicity, earnestness and tenderness, in setting forth the great truths of the gospel. At one communion season, about eighty persons were received into the church on the profession of their faith; at a succeeding communion

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about sixty more made profession and united with the church. This revival was confined mostly to the churches in Iredell, there being no account of much unusual interest in other parts of the Presbytery till after some years. In consequence of the numerous calls upon him for ministerial labor, and his own great anxiety for the welfare of his fellow men, Mr. Hall's labors were incessant; and under his continued preaching his health failed, and symptoms of a pulmonary consumption became alarming. By the advice of physicians he was induced to cease from his ministerial labors, and seek for renewed health in a sea voyage. Owing to head winds, his voyage from Charleston, South Carolina, to Philadelphia, was long and boisterous, and proved, on that account, more advantageous. After attending upon the meeting of the Synod of New York and Philadelphia, he returned home with renewed health and spirits, to engage in his ministry. The records of Synod make this his first attendance to be in 1786; the traditions would place it somewhat earlier. He was on the Committee of Synod, appointed to prepare a plan for the division of the Synod in preparation for the formation of the general assembly of the Presbyterian Church. But as there is evidently an omission in the minutes of the preceding years, his first attendance might have been earlier.

        The Synod of the Carolinas held its first meeting in 1788, at Centre Church; during the next year measures were taken to release Mr. Hall from the charge of Bethany and Concord churches, which took effect in 1790. In the year 1793, the year that his amiable successor, Lewis Wilson, was ordained and placed over these beloved churches, he commenced his missionary excursions, under the direction of a commission of Synod. Besides a great many short excursions which he was in the habit of making in the counties nearer home, he performed fourteen long and toilsome missions, either under the direction of the commission of Synod, or by order and arrangement of the General Assembly. His reports were often made in writing, and some of them recorded on the minutes of Synod. His mission to the Natches, the pioneer of Protestant efforts in the lower part of the valley of the Mississippi, was commenced in the Fall of 1800, under a commission of the General Assembly. The Synod appointed two companions for this mission, which was expected to continue for eight months, James H. Bowman and William Montgomery. The report of these missionaries, made to the Synod of 1801, was received with a high degree of satisfaction.

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An account of this mission was published by Mr. Hall in the newspapers of the day, and was read with great interest, as being the best description ever given of that part of the southern country, in which he had spent about nine months.

        The extracts from the records of the Synod of the Carolinas, which form part of this volume, contain some of the more interesting parts of Mr. Hall's reports, especially those that are of abiding interest; particularly his method of preparing questions on the Confession of Faith, and instructing the congregations he visited on his mission; his account of his visit to Lincoln county in 1809; and his report of a mission on the Cape Fear; and his visit to Colin Lindsay and Angus McDermaid. These will be read with great interest by multitudes now living; and will assist the general. reader to a better understanding of the revival that spread over the country from 1802 to 1806, and onward, the effects of which are distinctly visible throughout the State.

        His exertions in the cause of Domestic missions are worthy of all praise, and have conferred upon the State and the southern country lasting obligations.

        He attended the sessions of the General Assembly in Philadelphia sixteen times, as delegate of the Presbytery of Orange, and was once the moderator of that venerable body. Travelling by private conveyance, in his chair (or sulky), he embraced the opportunity afforded for preaching on his journey, and made his trips to Philadelphia domestic missions: and by taking different routes much enlarged his acquaintance and the sphere of his usefulness. In one of these excursions, being driven into a house by a storm of rain, and detained all night, he kindly and courteously introduced the subject of religion. The family had hitherto been utterly careless on the subject of their salvation; but that night they were deeply convicted of their sinfulness. The servant of God passed on, unaware, perhaps, of having accomplished anything for his Lord. A Methodist minister who became acquainted with the circumstance related to a friend of Dr. Hall that the impressions made that night were never effaced; that shortly three of the members professed faith in Christ; and one after another the whole family entered the visible church.

        In a sermon, while urging his congregation to religious conversation, he mentioned the circumstance, that a private conversation he had with two young men before he became a preacher, resulted in their hopeful conversion; and they both became ministers of the gospel. These instances are mentioned as showing the effect

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produced by his kind and affectionate manner in introducing a faithful conversation on the subject of religion.

        One sphere of usefulness in which Mr. Hall excelled, was the education of young men. He must have commenced the work of superintendence, for he did not confine himself to the teaching of a classical school, very soon after his licensure, as the certificate given to Humphrey Hunter, afterwards a minister of the gospel, says he had been a student at Clio's Nursery from August, 1778, to October, 1779. The institution was located on Snow Creek, in a pious neighborhood, that formed an important part of Bethany church and congregation. This he superintended with care, and through its agency brought out many useful men, that might not otherwise have obtained an education,--as the Rev. Richard King, of Tennessee, esteemed the man of the finest powers of mind ever trained in Western Carolina,--Dr. Waddel, of South Carolina, and Judges Laurie, Harris, and Smith.

        To remedy the inconvenience felt by those unable to meet the expense of attending a northern college, and yet wishing to acquire a knowledge of the sciences, he purchased a philosophical apparatus, and opened an "Academy of the Sciences," at his own house, himself being the sole professor. This institution was continued for many years; and, previously to the establishment of the University, was considered the best scientific school in the State. A large number of eminent men received their scientific education there; besides a number of ministers, who studied theology under his direction, whose names will be hereafter given, there were Andrew Pickens, Israel Pickens, late Governor of Alabama, Hon. Joseph Pearson, and Judge Williams, of Tennessee.

        To promote useful knowledge in his congregation, he formed a class of young people to meet him every Saturday, to take lessons in grammar. To remedy the want of books, which threatened the ruin of his plans, he wrote out a system of grammar, and had manuscript copies circulated among the members of the class. He afterwards published through the press, and circulated it extensively.

        He founded a circulating library in his congregation, which became eminently useful; and encouraged debating societies among the young people, sometimes attending, and often availing himself of the opportunity of laying before them some written communication on important subjects.

        His efforts in leading young men into the ministry, were eminently successful. His character for talents and piety, and public

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spirit; his soundness as a Theologian; his great facility in imparting instruction; and the pleasure he took in the employment; and his well selected library, caused his house to become a school of the prophets, from which came out some of the best ministers in our southern Zion. The following catalogue will show the importance of this school of divinity: Rev. Messrs. Robert Hall (his brother), James McEwin (his brother-in-law), Daniel Thatcher, Ga.; Francis Cummins, D.D., Ga.; John Brown, D.D., Ga.; James Blythe, D.D., Ken.; J. M. Wilson, D.D., Rocky River; George McWhorter, S.C.; John Robinson, D.D., Poplar Tent; J. Andrews, Ohio; James Adams, S.C.; Thomas Price, S.C.; James McIlheney, S.C.; Wm. Barr, D.D.; Andrew Flinn, D.D., Charleston; John Bowman, Tenn.; James Bowman, Tenn.; Thomas J. Hall, Tenn.; Joseph D. Kilpatrick, N.C.; and Thomas Neely, S.C. These have now, with scarce an exception, passed away from the earthly vineyard; but their memorial is with us; they have rested from their labors, and their works do follow them. Their history will show that Iredell county has been the nursery of good men, and the birth-place of the most laborious ministers of the last generations.

        The view Mr. Hall had of the proper preparation for the labors of the gospel ministry, and his own experience, so eminently successful, of the advantage of training the young for the work, led him to desire a seminary for the purpose. The motion in the Assembly of the Presbyterian church to found a Theological school, met his hearty approbation and co-operation. He greatly desired a more southern location than Princeton, with the hope that one would unite all the South; but when it was determined that Princeton should be the place, he united in giving it existence and stability, by giving to its funds, by donations to the library, by riding extensively as an agent in its favor, and by remembering it in his will with a bequest of two hundred and fifty acres of valuable land in Tennessee.

        He was zealous and active in the circulation of the Bible. As a delegate, he was present at the formation of the American Bible Society, and became a life member by the contribution of thirty dollars. On the formation of the North Carolina State Bible Society, he was elected the first president, and in his attendance on its meetings gave an example of his punctuality in attending upon appointments, and in meeting with those ecclesiastical bodies with which he was connected. His residence was about one hundred and fifty-six miles from Raleigh. On a certain occasion,

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setting off to attend an annual meeting, a violent storm of rain and snow came on, the first day of his journey, and continued all the way through. A legal friend meeting him on the way, in surprise he accosted the venerable minister: "Where are you going, in this storm?" "To attend the Bible Society in Raleigh." "Where were you yesterday?" "I travelled about thirty miles; where were you?" "O, I was lying by; it was too bad to travel." On his arrival in Raleigh, he found himself the only delegate present. The inclemency of the weather rendered it "too bad to travel."

        He attended all the meetings of the Synod of the Carolinas from 1788 to 1812, but one, and was the last moderator; the Synod of North Carolina was then constituted, and on its sessions he attended with punctuality, till age and infirmity took away his ability to travel. His attendance on Presbyterial meetings was equally exact; his various missions being so assigned, as, with the exception of his trip to the Natches, to permit his meeting with his brethren in the judicatories.

        In his reproofs he was generally very kind and tender, and spake as one entreating or instructing; sometimes his boldness and decision were felt in the tone of authority, and severity of manner, in which he addressed bold transgressors. To them he seemed rough and unreasonable, and sometimes angry, especially when his indignation was roused. During one of his missions to the eastern part of the State, he accepted a very polite invitation to tea, after divine service on the Sabbath. The residence of his host was on an eminence, commanding a beautiful view of the low grounds, and of the river that wound its way towards the ocean. After a little time he observed a boat sailing along the stream, and soon after, that the men were hauling a seine. Turning to the gentleman, he inquires, "Whose seine is that?" "It is mine, sir." "Is this the way you keep the Sabbath?" "Oh, it is the fishing season; I will give God Almighty another day in a slacker time of the year." Mr. Hall, rising and taking his hat, "I cannot consent to remain under the roof of a man that treats his God in that way," with a bow, left the house, and returned to his former lodgings.

        Ardor, tenderness of affection, and strong sympathy, characterized the preaching of this successful minister of God. His manner was, in part, his natural temperament speaking out, and in part the fruit of his own distressing experience. An occasional depression of spirits was the vice of his constitution; and a deep

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conviction of the sinfulness of sin and his own worthlessness, the characteristic of his religious experience. The influence of both these was occasionally felt at the same time, and produced a state of distress and degree of unhappiness not to be described. About the time of his licensure, a season of mental depression and heart-sickness so overwhelmed him, that for the space of about a year, he considered it to be little short of blasphemy, and a direct insult to God, for such a polluted, undone, hopeless wretch as himself to offer to preach the gospel. These seasons occasionally returned upon him throughout his whole life, so full of activity and usefulness. Once at least, he was oppressed when on a mission; his friend Mathews, that served with him in the war, found him in Kentucky, so overwhelmed with melancholy and a sense of his sinfulness, that in compassion he took him under his charge and conducted him to his home. Even in his old age he felt the gathering of the cold clouds that shut out his Maker's face and hid the Saviour's beauty. At one time he intermitted his pastoral labors about a year and a half. Spiritual darkness overhung his mind; he was always complaining that "God had hid his face from him;" his own sinfulness was ever present with him, and he could not get a view of Christ as the Lord his righteousness; and he refused to lead the devotions of his people. He attended the house of God and joined in the worship carried on by the elders, and could occasionally be induced to take a part by leading in prayer or giving a short exhortation from the clerk's stand in front and below the pulpit, esteeming himself too great a wretch to preach from the sacred desk, or even to enter it.

        "Won't you preach for us to-day?" said the eldership, one Sabbath, when, in this state of mind, he appeared at Bethany among a large assembly of people. "Oh no--no--no--it is impossible!" One of the elders of Fourth Creek, William Stevenson, was later than usual that morning. Advanced in life, a convert under the preaching of Whitefield, grown to full manhood in piety, the congregation loved the elder, and from his small stature, and fervency in prayer, called him "little Gabriel,"--they thought he approached nearer the throne than anybody else in the congregation. The other elders waited for him. When Mr. Stevenson understood that Mr. Hall was still in darkness and distress, and could not preach, he was deeply affected. Entering the seat appropriated to the elders, before the pulpit, after a psalm was sung, he commenced a strain of humble petition and adoration that touched all hearts. His first petition was--"O Lord, cast the deaf and dumb

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devil out of our pastor; this deaf devil, that will not allow him to hear the promises of the gospel; and this dumb devil, that will not suffer him to preach as he has heretofore done." At the close of the prayer, the venerable form of the beloved pastor was seen rising and making its way to the long unvisited pulpit. "I will try to preach to-day," said Mr. Hall to Mr. Stevenson. The sermon that followed gave evidence that the prayer of little Gabriel had been heard and answered,--for the deaf and dumb devil was cast out.

        The abiding recollection of the wormwood and the gall, which he had so often drunk to the very dregs of bitterness, made him sympathize with the afflicted, particularly those walking in darkness. He would go far to see them: and the interviews were the pouring out the sympathies of a wounded heart that had been healed by the balm of Gilead. He was tender to his fellow men seeking salvation: but his heart melted for those bowed down under a sense of the hiding of the Saviour's face. He scarce ever preached without exhibiting deep emotion, and was often in tears. One of the most eloquent and impressive sermons his people recollect to have heard from him, was drawn from him under the following circumstances. Mr. Charles Story, a gentleman of irreproachable character and piety, came up from Black River, S. C., with his family, to spend the summer in Iredell county, on account of his low state of health. His spirits were greatly depressed, and his mind became clouded with doubts about his spiritual state. At length his hope in Christ forsook him;--his sins appeared always before him, and the light of God's countenance was hidden. Mr. Hall became deeply interested at once,--he had gone down into the dark vale, and had himself sunk in the mire. His kind and tender conversation, full of Christian sympathy, failing to relieve the sufferer's mind, he prepared a sermon for the occasion, from the words of Isaiah l., 10: "Who is among you that feareth the Lord, that obeyeth the voice of his servant, that walketh in darkness and hath no light? Let him trust in the name of the Lord, and stay upon his God." From these words he described, with great clearness, the child of God walking in darkness; then pointed out the foundation of his hope, Jesus Christ, the Chief Corner-Stone; and brought forth the glorious promises and consolations of the gospel. His own heart was deeply affected: he preached in tears; the people were moved and melted; the place became a Bochin. The gentleman listened,--was enlightened,--was relieved, and went away from the sermon with a glad heart, as his minister had done from the prayers

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of "little Gabriel,"--his feet were placed upon a rock, and a new song was put into his mouth, even praise to his God. The hearers of that sermon could never forget the impression. The solemnity, the tenderness, the deep emotion of their pastor, from the first naming his text, the wonderful description of the saint in darkness, were all treasured in their memories and in their hearts.

        Nassau Hall, his Alma Mater, honored him with the degree of Doctor of Divinity; and the University of North Carolina repeated the compliment. And if activity as a pastor, enterprise as a missionary, success as a guide of youth in their literary course, and ability in training young men for the ministry, are qualifications for that honorary degree, the honors were in this case well conferred.

        His reply to the degree from the University of North Carolina is characteristic of the honesty of the man, and the tone of public feeling, at that time, in regard to that institution. He made a donation of sixty volumes to the Library, out of his own collection, which, though not large, was valuable. The copy of Turretine that stood upon the Doctor's shelf is now in the library of a pastor in the mountains of Virginia. How he ever found time to read enough to be able to lead young men in the study of Theology can be accounted for only on the ground of his having no family, and resolutely devoting all his time to build the church of the Living God.

        In July, 1819, Dr. Hall returned from the Anniversary of the American Bible Society, and the sessions of the General Assembly, for the last time; and soon after his return delivered his last sermon. The last seven years of his life were years of weakness, languor and depression; and not unfrequently spiritual sorrows gathered around his soul as he reflected upon his own sinfulness and helplessness. Confident that God had used him as the instrument for the conversion of others, he often feared about his own, lest having preached to others, he himself should be a castaway.

        His body was entombed in Bethany church graveyard, by the side of his co-laborer and friend, Lewis Feuilleteau Wilson. On a white marble head-stone near the gate is the following inscription:--

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Beneath this stone are deposited
the remains of
The Rev. JAMES HALL, D.D.,
who departed this life
July 25th, 1826,
in the 82d year of his age.

For 12 years he sustained the office of Pastor
to the united congregation of Fourth
Creek, Concord, and Bethany; and for 26 years
to that of Bethany alone. He was a man of
science as well as piety; and for his ex-
tensive labors in the cause of his Divine
Master, as well as for his great usefulness
as a preceptor of youth, his memory is
embalmed in the hearts of his people.


                         The pains of death are passed,
                         Labor and sorrow cease,
                         And life's long warfare closed at last,
                         His soul is found in peace.


                         Soldier of Christ, well done,
                         Praise be thy new employ,
                         And while eternal ages run,
                         Rest in thy Saviour's joy.


        Thus rest, in this retired spot, the remains of the man whose charge was visited with the first revival of religion, in Concord Presbytery, after the American Revolution.

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CHAPTER XXV.
REV. LEWIS FEUILLETEAU WILSON.

        THE Rev. Mr. James Hall, upon giving up his pastoral charge of Concord and Fourth Creek in Iredell county, in the year 1790, was, in the course of two or three years, succeeded by the man whom on account of his private friendship, and his estimation of his talents for usefulness, he would have chosen of all others, recently entered upon the office of the ministry of the gospel, Lewis Feuilleteau Wilson. A foreigner by birth, Mr. Wilson both loved and served the country of his adoption; and was beloved and honored by all that were favored by his acquaintance, in his office as a physician, in which capacity he served in the Revolutionary war, and the more serious one of a minister of the gospel, in which he closed his days.

        On his mother's side of French extract, on his father's of English, he was born on St. Christopher's, one of the West India Islands, June, 1753. His father, a wealthy planter, preferring an education in England for his son, to the indulgence and desultory life of planters' children in the islands, embarked his two sons, Lewis, then about four years of age, and a brother two years older, for London, to be put to school under the care of his connexions. The brother died on the voyage; and Lewis, an entire stranger, commenced his education in his tender years. Some time after his father removed to London; and the son was continued at the grammar school until he completed his seventeenth year. At that time an uncle of his emigrated to America and settled in New Jersey; young Wilson accompanied him, and soon after his arrival entered upon the course of studies at Nassau Hall, in Princeton.

        In his literary course Mr. Wilson was successful, and received the Bachelor's degree with honor. In his religious course he was kindly crossed by the Providence and Spirit of God, and from being an opposer was changed to an humble, yet firm believer in Jesus. In the year 1772 a very general revival of religion took place in the college; and so great was its influence, that he and thirteen of his class, after they had completed their college course, turned their attention to the study of theology in preparation for the gospel

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ministry, professing that their first impressions of grace were during that refreshing with which the institution was favored.

        At the commencement of the revival and for a time during its progress, young Wilson was violently opposed to all religious things. So embittered were his feelings that he would not permit any one to converse with him on the subject of religion at all, either as a general subject or matter of personal experience. He had been educated in the Episcopal forms of worship; was a regular attendant on divine service, and correct in his external conduct; and did not wish to be troubled about his experience by Presbyterian ministers and teachers. Probably at that time he would not have listened to any person. One of the tutors made an effort to call his attention to the concerns of his soul; entering his room, he began to converse on the subject of religion. Mr. Wilson interrupted him, "Mr. ----, I am engaged in my studies,--this is my room,--there is the door."

        Buoyed up by a spirit of pharisaic righteousness he went on, for a time, pouring contempt on the work of God, till that same spirit, that arrested a persecuting Saul, arrested him. One evening while Dr. Spencer was preaching in the College Hall he was seized with deep convictions, and felt that these things which he had hitherto received as enthusiasm, and little better than madness, were realities of amazing importance. His distress of mind continued for some time before he could see his way of being saved through the Lord Christ. When Jesus was manifested as "the way, and the truth, and the life," he embraced him with full purpose of heart; and from having been an opposer, like Saul, he became a full and hearty friend that said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do; and when he found his Lord's will he went and did it. The memory of his decided opposition to the gospel and a revival of religion led him often to confession and deep humiliation, throughout his whole ministerial life.

        The Rev. John Makemie Wilson, of Rocky River, tells us in the sermon he preached on occasion of the death of Rev. L. F. Wilson, that during the revival of religion that spread over Carolina, in the south and west, in the year 1802 and the following years, the subject of this short sketch was often heard to address opposers to that work in the following words:--"My dear friends, I pity you, because I once stood on the ground on which you now stand, and know something of your disposition towards the present work. I have felt the disposition of a very devil towards a work similar to

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the present. Therefore I feel for you, and pity you with all my heart."

        During the remainder of his college life, his zeal to promote the cause he once opposed, was tempered with great humility, that essential grace of a Christian. Having been brought up in high life, and with the expectations of a son of a wealthy citizen of London, he bowed to the deserving, however lowly in their sphere. His companions and friends were chosen without respect to wealth or poverty, but according to his estimation of their moral and spiritual excellence. His desire for excellence was totally dissevered from that thirst for applause, which so often stimulates to great efforts. He was content with having merited approbation. This trait in his character was manifested in the course he pursued respecting a college honor, so coveted by students, particularly when about to be graduated. At the last examination of his class, when the members stood for their diplomas, five honorary orations were voted by the trustees, to be delivered from the public stage on the day of commencement, by that number of the best scholars, as orators. Mr. Wilson obtained the second honor by vote of the trustees. Whether he knew of some one of his class who would be mortified in being left out of the list of honors, or whether he acted solely from the humility and modesty in his own breast, we cannot now say; but when information was given him by the president, in the presence of the board and of the class, he arose and said: "Sir, I feel myself under obligation to the trustees for their compliment to me; it is well enough to deserve such an oration, but I do not choose to accept it, and desire that it may be given to another." He did not appear on the stage at commencement, according to his request the honor had been conferred upon another, more desirous of the eminence. This trait of character was manifested by him through life; always deserving a high rank in the estimation of his brethren, he never thrust himself forward to public notice. His bravery was equal to his modesty; and his worth was compounded of both. He sought no honors; he shunned no dangers in the path of duty.

        After receiving his Bachelor's degree, in September, 1773, he visited London, designing to take orders in the Episcopal church, if, upon examination and inquiry, he could see a reasonable prospect of usefulness and satisfaction. His father was a man of sufficient wealth and influence to obtain for him what is called "a good living" in the city, or some pleasant place in the country, and

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finding that his son wished to engage in the ministry of the gospel, pressed him earnestly to take orders in the national church. The son, upon consideration and observation, became convinced that he could not be satisfied in such a connection as his father wished, and he himself had at first designed; and frankly communicated the result of his deliberations. The father upbraided him with becoming a Presbyterian in America, and threatened to disinherit him unless he complied with his expressed wishes. The son continued firm in his determination not to enter the national church. The father was resolute in withholding from him all assistance in making preparations to enter the ministry in any other church. The son was resolved to enter another church, and was left by his father penniless. Having obtained possession of a bequest of 300 guineas, made to him by an aunt, whose death occurred a little before this event, and furnishing himself with a wardrobe and a small library, he set sail for America, after a residence in England of about five months.

        Landing at Philadelphia, he returned to Princeton, and commenced the study of Divinity under the care of Dr. Witherspoon, in the spring of 1774. Soon after this he was chosen tutor in the college, and performed the duties of that station about a year. New Jersey being overrun by the British army, the college was broken up. A class-mate of Mr. Wilson, who had been a fellow-tutor, having determined to enter upon the study of medicine with an uncle in Philadelphia, prevailed upon him to commence the study in his company. It is said that the principal reason for this change of professional studies was the perplexity of mind that came upon him in consequence of a careful perusal of church history. What this perplexity was, or whether it was anything more than discouragement in view of his own native sinfulness, and the errors into which frail men had precipitated themselves, is not now known.

        After pursuing his medical studies about two years he embarked in the cause of American Independence, and entered the continental service as surgeon. In this capacity he continued a number of years; part of the time in the land service and part of the time on board of vessels of war. In the year 1781 he was informed by letter of the death of his father, and of a legacy in his will of £500 sterling. This communication caused him another voyage to England. Having obtained his legacy, he returned to America and settled in Princeton in his profession, as practising physician; the superior religious advantages of the place in connection with its

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seclusion, presenting powerful inducements to him to make it his permanent residence.

        As soon as he became permanently located, he secluded himself very much from intercourse with the world till he had carefully perused the whole both of the Old and New Testaments. He was heard to say that when he looked through the last six or seven years of his life, he seemed to himself like one who had been in a dream. During the whole of his connexion with the army, and indeed throughout the whole course of his trials and changes from the time of his first landing in America to his settlement as a physician in Princeton, it was observed by the pious and discerning, who had been acquainted with him in all his tossings and trials, that his deportment as a Christian was more than blameless,--it was exemplary. His attachment to the pious was seen in his undisguised selection of his companions,--treating all with the respect becoming their station in life, he accounted the righteous the excellent of the earth, and was peculiarly attached to those who exhibited a pious temper and a consistent Christian life. He might have said to such people as Ruth did to Naomi, "Intreat me not to leave thee, for whither thou goest I will go; and where thou lodgest I will lodge; thy people shall be my people; and thy God my God."

        The Rev. James Hall, who had contracted a strong friendship for Mr. Wilson while a member of college, being well acquainted with his acquirements and the estimation in which he was held by the students and faculty of college, visited Princeton in the year 1786, and succeeded in pursuading his friend to remove to Iredell county, North Carolina. Both had been diligent students at Nassau Hall; both professing Christians; both had served in the armies of the Revolution and come out honorably; both held to their faith in Christ through all the besetments of the camp and the temptations incident to war, and each exercised an influence over the other, particularly in the latter years of Mr. Wilson's life.

        After the revival in Mr. Hall's congregation, and the consequent feeble health of that laborious and self-denied man, he made a sea voyage, and attended the meeting of the Synod of New York and Philadelphia in the spring of 1786. In the August following, his friend Dr. Wilson made a journey to Iredell, North Carolina, and finally made his residence in the sphere of that good man's labors, and there continued until his death, a period of some eighteen years.

        Soon after his settlement in Iredell, Mr. Wilson became connected

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in marriage with Miss Margaret Hall, the daughter of Mr. Hugh Hall, and a near connexion of the friend by whose persuasion he had emigrated to North Carolina. This marriage was a happy one to both parties, till death made the separation; and in the desolation of widowhood was reflected upon by the bereaved wife as matter of thanksgiving and consolation. As a physician and as a preacher, he was the good husband, and kind father, and faithful friend.

        Although his practice of medicine was very acceptable to the people, evincing great ability and skill, he continued in that profession but about four years after his removal to North Carolina. He had never been fully satisfied with himself from the time he had laid aside the study of theology; a secret uneasiness preyed upon his mind, lest he should be found to have run from his duty, and he often wished himself in another sphere of life,--that to which he had once devoted himself, but which afterwards he had declined. But every year seemed to remove him farther and farther from the object of his convictions; and the cares of a family and the calls of his profession were heaping up difficulties and impediments, and rendering an entrance on the ministry a difficult, if not an impossible thing.

        In this state of his mind, some of the pious people began to express a desire that so well qualified a person as Dr. Wilson should be taken from the practice of medicine and put into the pulpit; and from healing the maladies of the people and curing their bodily infirmities, should preach the unsearchable riches of Christ for the salvation of their souls.

        Some of the leading ministers in Orange Presbytery also added their voice, amongst which the most feeble was not that of Mr. Hall, that he should come and take part of the ministry with them. Induced by this external call and his internal convictions, he offered himself to the Orange Presbytery a candidate for the gospel ministry; and having passed his various trials with much approbation, he was licensed to preach in the year 1791.

        It soon appeared that his friends had not been mistaken in their anticipations of his usefulness as a minister. His preaching was so acceptable, that various respectable vacancies made exertions to obtain his services as their pastor. His inclinations were in favor of Fourth Creek and Concord, which were united in a call presented to Presbytery, and in June, 1793, he was ordained and installed their pastor, and became the successor and near neighbor of his friend Mr. Hall, whose desires were accomplished in seeing Mr.

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Wilson in the ministry, and the churches of his former charge supplied with an able and devoted preacher.

        His connexion with these two churches continued about ten years with uninterrupted harmony.

        The revival which began, in the year 1802, to be felt in Iredell county, was hailed with joy by Mr. Wilson. He, with some of his flock, had been engaged in social prayer to God for an outpouring of his spirit, for some time before the meeting in Randolph, on which the ministers of Concord Presbytery attended with so much interest. Mr. Wilson believed that a work of grace was going on by the agency of the Holy Spirit using weak means, and he rejoiced in it, notwithstanding those bodily exercises which then accompanied it, and afterwards became so obnoxious to all the judicious. He encouraged the protracted meetings that followed in such quick succession in the upper country of Carolina, in which the people encamped upon the ground near the place of preaching; and remained for some days altogether absorbed in the subject of religion. There is no evidence that he encouraged any disorder, or pursued any improper course, or used any hurtful measures; he desired the salvation of his people, and preferred the excitement, with all the objectionable exercises, to that sleep of death which brooded over the multitude.

        The exercises were so objectionable to many of the people of Fourth Creek, that they became opposed to the camp meetings, and doubted the genuineness of the whole work. With this was connected a discussion on the qualifications for admission to the sealing ordinances. Mr. Wilson, of Rocky River, says, "it was not unlike that which took place between President Edwards and the people of Northampton." That, it is well known, was on the following grounds: On the side of Mr. Edwards it was contended that a credible profession of experimental religion was the only proper qualification for admission to Baptism and the Lord's Supper. On the other side, that baptism in infancy and a blameless life were all that could be required by the church or its officers. In the case of Mr. Wilson and Fourth Creek congregation, the discussion probably was, for we have no detailed account, whether that kind of experience given by the converts at these protracted meetings, was the proper experience for admission to the privileges of the church; and if the proper, was it the only proper experience, in kind for such admission? The termination of the discussion in Fourth Creek, like that in Northampton, was the dissolution of the pastoral connection. There is no evidence, however, of the existence

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of any bitterness of feeling towards Mr. Wilson, by the party in Fourth Creek that was opposed to his views, while it is known that many of the church agreed with him in opinion, and were his firm friends till death. It is more than probable that Mr. Wilson might have retained the charge of the congregation, notwithstanding the disagreement, if his own feelings would have permitted him to preside over a divided session. He chose to withdraw from Fourth Creek, and confine his labors for the remainder of his life to the church of Concord.

        This disagreement and consequent dissolution of the pastoral connection, had an unhappy influence upon the church and congregation of Fourth Creek. For many years they were without a regular pastor. Neither of the two parties was able to prevail in the congregation, and neither was willing to make a decisive movement; consequently no call was made out for a pastor for twenty years. Mr. William Stevenson, a warm-hearted, pious man, led one party, and maintained the opinions of Mr. Wilson, preferring the revival with all the objectionable exercises; and John McLelland, cool and determined in his course, would rather give up the excitement on religion than countenance in any way the attending objectionable circumstances, and led the other party. The tradition in the congregation has been, that the great body of the people would have been easily satisfied could these elders have agreed to drop the discussion. After having had temporary supplies for nearly twenty years, the Rev. Daniel Gould, from Nottingham, New Hampshire, visited them, and in 1823 was installed pastor. An active man, he was of great advantage to the congregation; was one of the first movers of the general supply of the Bible throughout the United States, and did much for the dissemination of religious knowledge in Iredell county. His useful life was ended in 1834, April 29th, in his forty-fifth year; and his body interred in the Fourth Creek burying-ground. After some years of temporary supply, the Rev. E. F. Rockwell was installed in 1844. During the vacancy that occurred from the time Mr. Gould ceased to preach in Fourth Creek in 1828, six years before his death, the Rev. Robert Caldwell, a grandson of Dr. Caldwell, of Guilford, after preaching as a licentiate, was ordained and installed in 1831; and dying in 1832, was buried in the same yard with Mr. Gould.

        The separation of Mr. Wilson from Fourth Creek took place in 1803, and in 1804 he was removed from all earthly scenes and labors to the spiritual Mount Zion. The Rev. John M. Wilson, of

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Rocky River, preached his funeral sermon from Revelations xiv., 13: "And I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, write, blessed are the dead that die in the Lord from henceforth; yea, saith the spirit, that they may rest from their labors, and their works do follow them." In the appendix to the printed sermon, which is the authority for much that has been already stated, he says: "Mr. Wilson was a most extraordinary and useful companion. His natural temper lively and cheerful, his education finished, his judgment penetrating, his acquaintance with the world large, qualified him at once to entertain and edify those that were conversant with him."

        "Freed from a useless round of ceremony and unshackled by modes and forms, it was impossible not to be easy in his company. Our deceased friend, as a divine, certainly stood in a point of view highly respectable. He was not a wandering star, running off into eternal eccentricities. With respect to his system of faith, it was that which you might have expected from his profession. It was not like Nebuchadnezzar's image, composed of heterogeneous materials which cannot coalesce. He was firmly Calvinistic. In this respect he believed, and many will believe with him, 'that he went his way by the footsteps of the flock, and fed his kids beside the shepherd's tent.'

        "In the arrangement of his public discourses he was clear and judicious; his gesture natural, indicating deep engagement of heart; his style elevated and nervous; his eloquence flowing and persuasive. The language of Mr. Wilson's precepts and practice was one. By a life and conversation conformed to the gospel, he silently exhorted those to whom he ministered, as the great Apostle of the Gentiles did the churches--'My little children, be ye followers of me, even as I am a follower of Christ.' "

        "From a life and conversation thus upright, holy writ advises us to expect a peaceful latter end. This expectation, in the present case, was not disappointed. He had been under declining circumstances of health for several months before he took his last illness, but had recovered considerably, which gave hopes that he was about to be restored to his usefulness in the church. But the will of heaven was to remove him. His last illness, if the writer mistakes not, was a fever of the inflammatory kind. Shortly after he was taken ill, he mentioned to a friend who called to see him, that he knew he never would survive it, and added that he had two reasons for saying so: '1st. Because I have felt myself more dead to the world for about two months past,

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than I ever did before. 2d. I feel symptoms now that I never felt before in any sickness.'

        "On the Friday and Saturday week before he died, he frequently spoke of that uninterrupted peace and joy that he found in believing. About this time the hiccough became so violent that he could scarcely utter a single sentence. On Sabbath morning he called his little sons to him, and said: 'Retire into the other room and read your books, and may the Lord God of your father bless you.' On Monday morning, being asked whether he enjoyed the comforts of religion, he answered, yes. Being told that it was probable he would never rise from that bed, he replied, 'I am willing to die, if God is willing. Death has been no terror to me for five years past.'

        "On Sabbath morning, December 9th, immediately preceding his death, the hiccough materially subsided, so that he was able to connect sentences, and give regular addresses. Early in the morning he called to his bedside a number of his friends, who were waiting with him, and gave an address to every one, according to the opinion he had formed of their religious standing. To a young man who asked him how he did, he replied, 'I am almost in heaven.' To a young woman, 'Beware of this world, or it will ruin you; it has ruined thousands.' After this, sitting up in bed, supported with one behind him, he called for a drink, after which he collected into his countenance a cheerful air, and proceeded as follows: 'My friends, thirty years have elapsed since I first discovered the vanity of this world, and ever since it has been growing less and less in my esteem; and now every worldly attachment is broken up, and I am ready to take my flight at a moment's warning. The reason why I left the country where I then resided was, lest I should be carried away with the worldly spirit so prevalent in that part (London), and you, my friends, are my witnesses, that since I came among you, I have uniformly acted on the same principles, and been influenced by the same views.'

        "Early on this day the Rev. Dr. Hall made him a visit, and upon asking him how he was, he replied,--'I am going to heaven.' About 11 o'clock a member of the session came to him and said, 'Farewell, I am going to the session-house.' To whom he replied, 'Carry this my last message to the people of Concord,--tell them that I am on the borders of the eternal world, and my wish is that God may enable them to improve every dispensation of his providence that has any tendency to promote their eternal salvation.'

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        "About 12 o'clock he requested those who were present to join in singing, himself naming the hymn that he wished to sing. At an interval of this exercise he broke out into thanksgiving and praise as follows: 'O God, I thank thee for the supports thou hast granted me under my present affliction, and through all the stages of my past life. I praise thee for another Sabbath; and for the present communication of thy spirit and grace which thou hast granted me this day above all the Sabbaths I have ever enjoyed. O Lord, thou hast supported me; and thou promised to support me; and thou wilt support me; and poor as I am, and sinful as I am, and worthless as I am, I shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of my heavenly Father.'

        "He was much engaged in exhortation through the whole of this day. In the evening he desired all to leave the room except his wife and children. This being done, he gave to each of them his dying charge. The same evening he said to the physician who attended him, 'Doctor, you can do me no good; I am just going into the eternal world; and were it not for the comforts of religion, I believe I should be completely on the rack. The most painful hours are the most happy hours; I never read or heard of anything that will support a man in a dying hour but the gospel of Christ.'

        "On Monday, the 10th, he was very weak, not able to utter more than two or three words at a time; but still manifested his good will to every person who came in, by reaching out his hand. A very aged man coming to the bedside, he took him by the hand and said, 'You are come to see a dying man.'

        "Tuesday, 11th. This day ended the life of Mr. Wilson. Through the former part of it he was very uneasy. About 3 o'clock in the evening he appeared to be dying; but recovering a little, he cast an affectionate look at his two little sons, who stood by the bedside, and reached out his hand, and took each of them by their hands, but said nothing. Shortly after, Mrs. Wilson sitting by the bedside, he took her by the hand, and with a pleasant countenance said, 'You and I will yet rejoice together in this great salvation.' A few minutes after he whispered to her to turn him; which being done, he lay easy a little while. As he lay, his lips were observed to be constantly moving. Some who stood near him say that he whispered, Holy, holy. He then appeared to compose himself for his last sleep by laying his left hand under his cheek, and bringing his right hand down by his side. This

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being done, he breathed out his last, December 11th, 1804, in the 52d year of his age, without a struggle or a groan."

        He was buried near Bethany Church, a few paces from the gate of the grave-yard, in a place chosen by his wife's relations. His friend Hall was, many years after, buried a few paces from his side. On a white marble head-stone is the following inscription:

SACRED
To the memory of the late
REV. LEWIS F. WILSON, who departed this life Dec'r 11th, 1804, in the 52d year of his age.

Through almost the whole
of his ministerial course with
ability and faithfulness, he sus-
tained the pastoral relation
over the united congregations
of Fourth Creek and Concord.


                         Preserve, O venerable pile,
                         Inviolate thy precious trust;
                         To thy cold arms the Christian Church,
                         Weeping, commits her precious dust.

        He left a widow and seven children, three sons, and four daughters. All his children grew up to mature years, and all, by the time they reached their twenty-first year, were united to the church on a credible profession of religion. Two of the sons became ministers of the gospel, one of whom was the pioneer of settled ministers in Texas, and is now laboring there (1845), and the other resides in Virginia. "I doubt not," says one of the children, "that the instruction which we received on Sabbath after returning from church, was the means of bringing us thus early to devote our lives to the service of God."

        Hall had the longest race, and produced the greatest immediate effect on his fellow-men; Wilson had the most triumphant end, and being dead, yet speaks in his descendants. Both undoubtedly fought the good fight, and won the prize, and in the last great day will wear the conqueror's crown.

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CHAPTER XXVI.
THYATIRA AND HER MINISTERS.

        THE settlements which composed the congregation of Thyatira in Rowan county, were made about the time those on the Catawba began to cluster together. But of the various missionaries that visited the Presbyterian families between the Yadkin and Catawba, sent from Pennsylvania and New Jersey, the memoranda or journal of but one has yet been found, that of Hugh McAden.

        He crossed the Yadkin on Tuesday, Sept. 12th, 1755, after having spent some days in the congregation at the Ford, making his home part of the time at the house of a Mr. Henry Sloan; and passing on about ten miles, tarried with a Mr. James Aleson; and the next day, passing on three or four miles, he tarried with a Mr. Brandon, a countryman of his. On Sabbath, the 14th, he says he rode to the meeting-house and preached, but does not tell the name of the house or its location. On Monday, he went to John Luckey's, five or six miles. Wednesday was a day appointed for a fast, on account of the great drought, and the Indian War. After visiting and praying with a man, who had been dangerously injured by a fall from his horse, he went home with a Mr. John Andrew, of whose engagedness in religion he speaks warmly. On Thursday, he rode with Mr. Andrew to Justice Carruth's, about eight miles. On the Sabbath (the 21st), he preached in a meeting-house about a mile off, and returned to Mr. Carruth's. The next day, went to David Templeton's, about five miles, and on his way came up with a company of people that had left the Cow Pasture in Virginia on account of the depredations of the Indians, supposed to be a part of Mr. Craighead's congregation, while he preached in that State. He rode home, four miles further, with William Denney, who gave him a pair of shoes made of his own manufactured leather, by William Woodsides. On Tuesday, he rode to Mr. Templeton's again, and remained with him, and preached on Wednesday in the meeting-house. He went to Captain Osborn's, about six miles, with whom he tarried till Sabbath, and then preached in the new meeting-house, about

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three miles off. After preaching again on Wednesday, he rode home with William Reese, about seven miles. On Sabbath, he preached at Captain Lewis's, going from Mr. Reese's; and on the Wednesday following, preached there again on a fast day, according to the appointment of the governor. From this neighborhood, he proceeded to Rocky River.

        On his return, in November, he called again at Capt. Lewis's, and says, it was in the Welsh settlement; thence he returned to William Reese's, made a visit to Coddle Creck, and passing, called on David Templeton, Justice Carruth, and John Andrew. With the last he tarried some days, and went with him to "Cathey's meeting-house," the last Sabbath of December. "Here," he says, "a number of the people were exceeding urgent upon me, and very desirous to join with Rocky River in a call for me to come and settle among them."

        This matter finally fell through, on account of the division of sentiment in the congregation respecting the kind of minister they should have, whether of what was called the Old Side, or the New Side, in the division of the Synod of Philadelphia.

        From these memoranda, from the short journal of Mr. M'Aden, it appears that he went through neighborhoods that were accustomed to hear preaching from missionaries, which have since been parts of Thyatira and Centre, and more lately of Prospect, Back Creek, and Unity, and perhaps Franklin. Some of these had meeting-houses, and some were dependent on private dwellings for their worship of Almighty God. Each settlement was, very properly, anxious to have preaching convenient; and being on different sides in the division of the Synod, there was at the time of M'Aden's visit some difficulty from the numbers and clashing interests of these smaller societies.

        The visit of Messrs. Spencer and M'Whorter in 1764 and 1765, was successful in composing these differences in a great measure, and Cathey's meeting-house, under the name of Thyatira, and a new place called from its position, Centre, superseded all other places in a strip of country extending from the Catawba to the Yadkin, in which are now some ten regular organized churches.

        Whether Thyatira had a settled pastor before the Rev. Samuel E. M'Corkle, cannot probably be now ascertained to a certainty, though the probability is he was the first pastor. This eminent man became the minister of that church in early life, and continued with it till his death, a space of more than thirty years.

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        Samuel Eusebius McCorkle was born August 23d, 1746, near Harris's Ferry, Lancaster county, Pennsylvania. His mother was sister of the Rev. Joseph Montgomery. At the age of four years, Samuel was put to an English school, and continued at it, making rapid progress, till he was ten years of age. At that time, his parents removed to North Carolina, and settled in the western part of Rowan county, in the bounds of the congregation now known as Back Creek, which was set off from Thyatira in the year 1805. His parents were pious people, and constant attendants at Cathey's meeting-house, and Thyatira, when there was preaching. After their son became the minister, a gentleman, now living in Salisbury, says he often saw the old gentleman, who was a ruling elder in the church, sitting on the pulpit stairs, on account of his deafness, that he might get as near as possible to his son while preaching. The remains of Mr. McCorkle's parents were laid side by side, in Thyatira yard. Having enjoyed the rare pleasure of sitting under the sound of the gospel from the lips of their own son, in whom they had unbounded confidence, these worthy people closed their earthly career at an advanced age.

        Young McCorkle's proficiency was such, that for some time after his removal to Carolina, he was the instructor of the younger children of the family; and in a few years was employed in a public English school. His tastes and desires being for literature and science about his 20th year he commenced a classical course, which was completed by his receiving his degree, Sept. 20th, 1772. A part, if not all, of his previous preparation, was under the tuition of the Rev. David Caldwell, in Guilford county.

        From a fragment of a diary, commenced in Princeton, the spring before his taking the degree of A.B., it appears that the revival of religion in that College, in the year 1772, was blessed to his soul in some measure, as it was to Lewis Feuilleteau Wilson, and also to James Hall, the means of conversion to one, and of growth in grace to the other, both of whom were afterwards his brethren in the ministry and co-presbyters in adjoining congregations.

        The diary commences thus:--

"Saturday, April 11th, '72, Nassau.

        "1st. Resolved, This day to begin a religious diary, having been a long time convinced of its necessity and importance, and having oftentimes made faint resolutions to begin it.

        "Resolved, To begin with a short record of my whole life,

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offering up a prayer to Almighty God for his assistance and direction, intending to devote the whole day to religious purposes.

        "Very early in life I was impressed with a sense of divine things, and lived convinced of the necessity of religion, and convinced that I was without it, sometimes careless, sometimes awakened, till about the age of 20, when, at the approach of a sacrament, I was more than usually concerned, and resolved to defer it no longer. Here I fell into a self-righteous scheme, and mistook a certain flow of natural affection for real delight in religion, while I never saw the enmity of my own heart, the odiousness of sin in its own nature, nor the glory and excellence of God in his own nature; only hated sin because it exposed me to misery, and loved God because I hoped he would make me happy. Upon this I fear thousands are apt to rest, as in all probability I should have done, had it not pleased God to send me to college, where, the last year of my residence, was a considerable revival, in which it pleased God to open my eyes to see my awful deception."

        "In the beginning of this work, I found my heart not properly engaged, but indifferent and unaffected. I read the following remark in Borton's Fourfold State:--'When winter has stripped the trees of their verdure, it is hard to distinguish those that have life from those that have not; but when the spring approaches, then they are easily known by their spreading leaves, while those that are dead still continue the same; thus when religion is in decay, the saint can scarcely be distinguished from the sinner; but when a time of refreshing comes, then will they blossom and bring forth fruit abundantly,' partly condemned by this remark, I cast back my thoughts upon past life, and began to examine my religion and the motives of my actions. I found they were all selfish, and that since the time when I thought I had got religion, I had fallen away even to the neglect of secret prayer, which is quite inconsistent with the Christian character."

        "Here I was further condemned, but still appeared very unwilling to give up all my religion, till I came to read Hopkins's State of the Unregenerate, which presented such a picture of wickedness and enmity of the human heart, and of the misery they are in by nature, as fully convinced me that I had never seen my own heart, never had had any proper views of God; and, in short, that I had never known anything about religion. Here I felt myself in great distress, and had very violent exercises, till my passions subsided, and seemed to end in a calm rational conviction. Here my views were all confirmed on searching the enmity of my own

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heart, which seemed to increase and almost amaze me, that I had never seen it before, having read Mr. Edwards's sermons on that subject. Also in viewing the dreadfulness and misery of man's estate, and the horrid nature of sin, which Mr. Hopkins's sermon on the law seemed to present in an aggravated light, I could never raise my thoughts to contemplate the feelings and glory of God in Christ, though I sometimes attempted it; my sins seemed to be so aggravated, that they made me sometimes almost despond of God's mercy; and what seemed most of all terrible to me, was, that I had in that state been admitted to the table of the Lord."

        "Here I ran into frequent cavils against the dispositions of Providence in the creation of man, and His justice in condemning him. I found a secret disposition to clear myself by the doctrine of man's inability, till I read Mr. Smalley's Sermons on that subject, which seemed to give me considerable light in vindicating the justice of God. Another cavil seemed to be against the mercy of God. I thought I desired salvation, and found fault that it was not given me; upon this neglect I received considerable light by Mr. Green's Sermon, which showed me that sinners only desire a partial Saviour--a Saviour from misery, but not a Saviour from sin. Here I thought I gave up all my cavils, thought I discovered the justice of God, the mercy of a Saviour, and the expediency of the Gospel; and thought I was willing to renounce all other Saviours, and accept Him in all His offices and relations. Hereupon I felt considerable comfort."

        Afterwards, in speaking about that comfortable feeling, the origin of which he could not determine, he says: "Being sensible that I did not then, nor have I yet, undergone that change which is from death unto life." When he did experience that change is not on any record that can be obtained. The short diary that is extent goes over but a short space of time. That he did come to experience a change which he thought was unto life, is evident from his commencing the course of theological reading for the ministry soon after he was graduated.

        In his later life he drew up for his children a memoir of his life; this manuscript was mislaid or lost by a gentleman, a hearer of Mr. McCorkle in his younger days, and a friend of the family, who was conveying it from Tennessee to North Carolina, for the purpose of affording materials for a printed memoir. Probably in this MS there is a fuller account of his religious exercises in accepting the Lord Christ as his portion.

        A part, at least, of his theological reading was under the direction

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of his maternal uncle, the Rev. Joseph Montgomery, of New Castle Presbytery. His license to preach was received from the Presbytery of New York, in the spring of 1774, as appears by report of Presbytery to Synod.

        After his licensure he was employed about two years in Virginia; then spending some time in the congregation of Thyatira, and accepting their call to become their pastor, he was ordained by Hanover Presbytery, August 2d, 1777; and never left his charge till he was removed by death.

        Some time previous to his ordination, July 2d, 1776, he was united in marriage to Miss Steele, of Salisbury, sister of the Hon. John Steele, conspicuous in the councils of the State and nation. She bore him ten children, six of whom survived him; and fifteen years after his death, closed her pious and useful life.

        Of the mother of his wife Dr. McCorkle entertained the highest estimation; and in this he was joined by the public at large. A very pretty anecdote is told of her, the event occurring in the Revolutionary War. She was then landlady of the principal hotel in Salisbury, and lived between the post-office and the corner now occupied by Shaffer's tavern, a few steps north of the court-house.

        While the American army, under General Greene, was retreating before Cornwallis, in the memorable and successful effort to convey to Virginia the prisoners taken by Morgan in the battle of the Cowpens, the line of march embraced Salisbury. While Cornwallis was crossing the Catawba, Greene was approaching this village. Dr. Reed, who had charge of the sick and wounded prisoners, was sitting in an apartment of Mrs. Steele's tavern, over-looking the main street, writing paroles for such British officers as were unable from sickness and debility to proceed farther, when he saw the general, unaccompanied by his aides or a single individual, ride up to the door. "How do you find yourself, my good general?" eagerly inquired the doctor. "Wretched beyond measure," replied Greene, as, exhausted, he slowly dismounted from his jaded horse--"without a friend--without money--and destitute even of a companion,"--his aides having been dispatched to different parts of the retreating army. "That I deny," said Mrs. Steele, stepping forward with great alacrity--"that I most particularly deny. In me, general, you have a devoted friend. Money you shall have; and this young gentleman will not, I am certain, suffer you to be without a companion, as soon as the humane business about which he is employed, is finished." When she had prepared refreshments for the exhausted general, she proceeded to fulfil her promise about

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the money; taking him to an adjoining apartment, she laid before him her store of gold and silver pieces, and generously filled his pockets, giving him at the same time many kind and encouraging words.

        Greene's stay was short; but before leaving the house he took from the walls of one of the apartments a picture of George III., which had come from England as a present from one of the members of the court to a member of an embassy, a connexion of Mrs. Steele,--and with a piece of chalk wrote upon the back--"O George, hide thy face and mourn," and replaced it with the face to the wall. The picture, with the writing, both unharmed, is still preserved by a grand-daughter of Mrs. Steele, a daughter of Dr. McCorkle, and may be found in the town of Charlotte, at the post-office.

        The following obituary notice of this excellent woman appeared in the Fayetteville Gazette of January 3d, 1791: "Died, on Monday, the 22d of November, in Salisbury, of a lingering and painful illness, Mrs. ELIZABETH STEELE, relict of Mr. William Steele, and mother of Margaret McCorkle, wife of Rev. Samuel McCorkle.

        "Her name and character are well known, but best by her most intimate friends. She was a devout worshipper of God; she was distinguished during the war as a friend to her country; she twice supported with dignity the characters of wife and widow; she was a most tender and affectionate parent; kind, obliging neighbor; frugal, industrious, and charitable to the poor.

        "Her character will be better understood by the following letter, found among her choice papers, since her death, than by anything that can be said of her. The letter is believed to be, and appears to be, her own diction; and is published exactly as it was found. It may be a useful lesson to all parents, and to all children as well as her own. It bears date February 5th, 1783, when her other son Robert Gillespie was living, and begins thus:

        " 'My dear children--If I die before any of you, I wish that this letter may fall into your hands after I am dead and gone, that you may see how much affection I have for you, and that what I have often said while alive may be remembered by you when I am in eternity.

        " 'If the Almighty would suffer me to return to talk with you, I think now I should take a pleasure to do it every day: if this cannot be allowed me, I think it would be some satisfaction to see you, especially when you are reading this letter, which I leave you

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as a legacy, to see what effect it will have on you, and whether it will make you think of what I have often told you.

        " 'I have many a time told you to remember your Maker, and ask him to guide you; it is a good old saying--they are well guarded whom He guides, and he leaves them that don't ask him, in their own ways. I want you to keep out of bad company,--it has ruined many young people. I want you to keep company with sober, good people, and learn their ways,--to keep the Sabbath, to be charitable to the poor, to be industrious and frugal, just to all men, and above all, to love one another.

        " 'Believe me, my children, if anything could disturb me in the grave, it would be to know that you did not live as brother and sister ought to live: nothing could be worse, except to know that you would not follow me to heaven. Oh, my dear children, I have had a great deal of trouble and sorrow in raising you! If I should feel as I do now, I could never endure to see any of you without an interest in Jesus, at the great day, and forced away, never to meet again. Parting here with your parents you know had almost taken my life, when I had hope to see them again; but I am now sure I could not live to see any of you cursed by your Maker, and driven away to dwell with the Devil and his angels."

        " 'While I lived, you know that it was my great desire to have you all around me and near me here; but my great desire has been to have you with me in the world to come. Believe me, nothing could make me so happy as to have my three poor dear children there; yes, and your children, and all your connexions. I would wish to take you all to heaven. Then, think of the vanity of this world,--think of Jesus the Saviour,--death,--judgment, and eternity; and don't forget the living and dying desire of your most affectionate mother till death, and after death.

" 'ELIZABETH STEELE.'


        "Folded in the foregoing letter was also found, in her own handwriting, the following prayer, which must please every pious mind:

        " 'Oh Lord, my God, thou great Three-One! I give myself to thee this day, to be thine, to be guided by thee, and not by another: and I desire to take God for my God,--Jesus Christ to be my Saviour,--the Holy Ghost to be my sanctifier and leader. Lord, thou hast promised that all that will come unto thee thou wilt in nowise cast out. All I beg, is in the name and for the sake of Jesus Christ, my Lord.

        " 'To this I set my hand,

" 'ELIZABETH STEELE.'


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        "The date of the above was either not affixed, or was torn from the paper. It cannot be disagreeable to the serious mind to add, that she was remarkably fond of the following hymn, and left it in her Bible, where it was found since her death, in the handwriting of her grand-daughter, who had transcribed it for her


                         " 'The hour of my departure's come,
                         I hear a voice that calls me home;
                         At last, O Lord, let trouble cease,
                         And let thy servant die in peace,
                         The race appointed I have run,
                         The combat o'er, the prize is won,
                         And now my witness is on high,
                         And now my record's in the sky.
                         Not in mine innocence I trust,
                         I bow before thee in the dust,
                         And through my Saviour's blood alone
                         I hope for mercy at thy throne.
                         I come! I come! at thy command,
                         I yield my spirit to thy hand;
                         Stretch forth thy everlasting arms,
                         And shield me in these last alarms.'

        "It would be a severe and ill-natured reflection on the religious taste of the present ago to be making apologies for publishing the above memoirs; and, therefore, no apology shall be made. It is a debt due to an amiable character, and may not be without its use to the public.

        "The above is published at the request of the Rev. Samuel E. M'Corkle."]

        About the year 1785, Dr. M'Corkle commenced a classical school at his house, which stood on the great road from Salisbury to Statesville, in an eligible situation, with the avenue leading to it, so common in the western part of North Carolina, at a moderate distance from the meeting-house, which is about nine miles west of Salisbury. In connection with his classical school was a department for preparing school teachers. Poor and pious young men were taught free of expense for tuition, and were also assisted by him to books necessary for their instruction. If young men of good talents were wild or not studious, his rule was to talk with them in private, and if the desired reformation did not take place, to avoid any exposure, he would write to their parents or guardians to withdraw them. And if he, upon mature deliberation, judged the children committed to his charge, to be below mediocrity, in point of talents, he invariably discouraged their being trained to a classical course. On account of these principles

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which he carried into action, he sent out a less number of classical students, but a greater amount of piety and talents.

        The first class, that was graduated at the State University at Chapel Hill, consisted of seven scholars; six of these had been pupils of Mr. McCorkle. His students were, in after life, found on the Bench, in the chair of State, and forty-five of them in the pulpit. The number of ministers is given on the authority of Mrs. McCorkle, who survived her husband about fifteen years.

        It appears from the North Carolina Journal that at a meeting of the board of trustees of the North Carolina University, Dec. 8th, 1795, the board, after resolving that the state of the funds did not permit the choice of a president, and that his duties must be fulfilled by the first professor, made choice of the Rev. Samuel E. McCorkle, Professor of Moral and Political Philosophy, and History, and the Rev. David Kerr, Professor of Languages, and Charles W. Harris, Professor of Mathematics; Mr. Delvaux, and Mr. Holmes, tutors in the preparatory school. On account of some objections made by General Davie, one of the board, which led to a correspondence between him and the Hon. John Steele, brother-in-law of Mr. McCorkle, and which were followed by an apology, the appointment was not accepted. Mr. McCorkle's desire for the advancement of the University, in opposition to every selfish feeling, led him to desire harmony in the board, in preference to the honor of being the first and presiding Professor. His attachment to the University was undoubted and unwavering; he made excursions to raise funds for its use; he attended the laying the corner stone of the first building erected on the University grounds, and delivered an address; his pupils composed the first class of graduates, almost entire, and he was on the list of the first named board of trustees. His declining the office of first Professor made way for the exercise of talent by that successful man, under whom, by the blessing of God, the university arose to its influence and respectability, of late so widely spread by his successor.

        The bounds of Thyatira were, like all the other congregations whose limits were settled by Messrs. Spencer and McWhorter, very extensive, embracing many settlements that had desired preaching, and had engaged the labors of missionaries. This congregation bordering on the Yadkin northward, and southwestward on Centre, which reached the Catawba, westwardly on Fourth Creek and Bethany, in Iredell, and southwardly on Poplar Tent, and eastwardly without limits, presented an abundance of labor

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for a pastor. Third Creek was soon formed from the middle ground between the churches in Iredell and Thyatira, and has been from the first a flourishing congregation. Under the pastoral labors of Rev. Joseph D. Kilpatrick, whose name appears on the roll of Synod as ordained by Orange Presbytery, 1793, it enjoyed numerous times of refreshing from on high. While McCorkle stood in doubt about the great excitement which began in 1801 in Orange, Kilpatrick's heart grew warm, and with many of his people went to take part in the great meeting in Randolph, the effect of which was great upon the churches "beyond the Yadkin." He found no difficulty in welcoming the revival on account of the irregularities accompanying. In fact, it is not now easy to determine whether in his later life he considered "the exercises" a necessary part, or only an accidental appendage of the work. But it is evident they never gave him any trouble. If he could but see his people cultivating what he esteemed a proper religious feeling, it mattered little to him what external motions came with it. Some little time before his death, at a communion service in his congregation, a great excitement prevailed; and as cries for mercy and prayers arose on all sides of the house during an interval of preaching, the old gentleman witnessing the excitement for a time, turned to a young gentleman from Virginia, "it does my heart good to hear these young people pray so."

        Two of his sons entered the ministry. One, Josiah, a preacher of acceptable talent, came to an early grave in Fayetteville, being cut off after about one year's service. The other, Abner W., died in Tennessee in the year 1844.

        Back Creek was set off in 1805 as a separate congregation. The revival of 1802 had great effect upon the neighborhoods forming this congregation, and made them desire a separate church capacity; and times of refreshing have been granted them since in the kind providence of God. Activity in religion has been one of the characteristics of this church, which at its organization possessed an eldership of peculiar excellence. It has sent out some ministers of the gospel who have been blessed from on high. One of McAden's resting-places was with a family in this congregation.

        Mr. McCorkle preached frequently in Salisbury, but had no separate congregation there. About the years 1803 and 1804 Dr. McRee preached in that place statedly once a month. From the year 1807 to 1809 the Rev. John Brown preached here statedly, and was principal of the Academy. He removed first to South

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Carolina and then to Georgia, and there closed his useful life. A memorial of him belongs properly to the South Carolina and Georgia synod. Till the year 1821 the people of Salisbury had no stated Presbyterian preacher, having only the occasional services of missionaries; in that year a church was gathered under the labors of Rev. Jonathan Freeman, D.D., consisting of thirteen members, three of whom were appointed elders. In the year 1826 the Rev. Dr. Freeman laid the corner stone of the present Presbyterian house of worship. In 1831 the Rev. Thomas Espy became stated supply of this church; his health failing, he gave up the charge, and soon rested from all his labors.

        The memory of such a man as Thomas Espy demands a more extended notice than the limits of the present article will admit; a brief notice, however, will bring it to a close. Being engaged but a comparatively short time in the ministry, he was blessed of God both to do good, and to stir up others to do good, in an unusual degree.

        Mr. McCorkle was indefatigable in his efforts to improve his flock in the knowledge of divine things. Besides his usual services of preaching, he conducted a Bible class on a somewhat peculiar plan. In a note to a sermon printed in 1792, he says--"Here I beg leave briefly to suggest to my brethren, the plan of catechising from the Scriptures, as the platform or ground of a Catechism. I have proceeded from Genesis to Job, and through part of the four Evangelists; and I design, if God permit, to proceed on to the end, asking questions that lead to reading and reflection. I have found it profitable to myself and my people, and can venture to say that as far as I have proceeded, there is not a congregation on the continent better acquainted with the Scriptures."

        "The congregation I have divided into a number of divisions of fifteen or sixteen families each, assigning to each division a set of written questions, from one part of one or two books, as they may be long or short, in each Testament; catechising in the morning from the Old, in the afternoon from the New Testament, and closing by calling on the youth to repeat the shorter Catechism."

        "This set of Scriptural questions, thus examined, we pass to the next division of the congregation, who often attend as spectators, knowing that they are next to be examined on the same questions. Thus in rotation every individual will be examined on every part of the Bible."

        His daughter says, the divisions were eight in number; and that

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an elder was attached to each division; to this elder, he gave the copy of questions, and the elder supplied the division. In the examination he never publicly questioned the elders, they met him at his own house. The children were early brought to say their catechism; and the parents were reproved or commended according to the proficiency manifested in the examination.

        In his preparation for the pulpit, he made free use of his pen; but did not confine himself to his manuscript, or notes; and sometimes did not even use notes. In a note to a printed sermon, he says, "He would never be seen in the pulpit without full notes, when he was to treat on a disputed or argumentative subject; on other occasions, he would use his discretion, whether to preach from notes or without." In this, he is to be imitated.

        He published a number of sermons; four on the subject of Infidelity, as it was brought out in the United States, during the French Revolution; feeling with his brethren, that all that was dear to man was at stake;--one on the principle and practice of giving to charitable and benevolent objects;--one on the terms of Christian communion;--and one on the death of General Washington. The latter is one of peculiar excellence, abounding with sound morality, pure philosophy, and true religion.

        In person, he was tall, about six feet one inch; finely formed; light hair and pale blue eyes; mild, grave, and dignified in his appearance; cheerful in his disposition; and of fine conversational powers. Firm in his opinions, and devotedly attached to the doctrines of the Presbyterian church, he never attacked, unnecessarily, the opinions or forms of others. In appearance and gait, he is said to have very much resembled Mr. Jefferson. During a visit to Philadelphia, while Mr. Jefferson was there, this resemblance, noticed by many, led to an introduction; and both parties retired from the interview, with expressions of satisfaction.

        The pulpit instructions of Mr. McCorkle abounded with argument and observation founded upon common sense, and were enriched by his historical and literary reading; and the people that grew up under his care, were well instructed in religion and morals. His care in attending the judicatories of the church, is worthy of imitation; and his respect for the decisions of his brethren, when pronounced judicially, was such as to make him especially careful in selecting delegates to the Assembly. If but one delegate were to be sent, he preferred a brother of age and experience; if two were to be sent, he desired that there should be one of the older and one of the younger members of Presbytery,

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that experience might be gained by the one, and might grow under the influence of the other.

        At the commencement of the great revival in 1802, in Orange, Mr. McCorkle was disinclined to believe in its purity, on account of the "exercises" that accompanied. Being persuaded to attend the meeting in Randolph, his mind underwent a change, as appears from the letter published in the pamphlet prepared by Dr. Hall, which makes a part of the twenty-seventh chapter, of this volume.

        Although brought to believe in the revival, as a work of God, he ever looked upon these "exercises," and some accompanying extravagances, as profane mixtures, against which he bore open testimony. He rather tolerated than approved camp-meetings; and sometimes was opposed to them, especially as standing, regular means of instruction or excitement. It is probable that the ministers of the Presbyterian church, in Carolina generally, now look upon them, much in the light that he did, as being matters of prudence and discretion, and possessing no peculiar sanctity in themselves, or special efficiency for growth in grace and divine knowledge; that their use or disadvantage must be judged of by circumstances.

        The pastor of Thyatira received his death-warrant in the pulpit, being struck with palsy while conducting the services of the sanctuary. His labors as a minister ceased, but his services as a suffering man were continued for some years. For a time, his disorder affected his mental powers; and though his mind became clear, his body never regained its tone and vigor. In 1807, the Presbytery required the congregations of Thyatira and Back Creek to pay a proper attention to the circumstances and condition of the man, who had given the strength of his manhood to their service. Whether this was altogether as a mark of respect, and for a good example, is not now easily ascertained, nor of any practical importance. The example of Presbytery, in the case of aged and infirm ministers, is truly commendable; should the aged servant die unhonored by his brethren or his people?

        On the 21st June, 1811, he ceased from his trials. His funeral was conducted according to directions left by himself in writing. The text for the funeral sermon was Job xix., 25, 26: "For I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth; and though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God." The nineteenth Psalm--"Through every age Eternal God"--and the sixty-first Hymn of

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Watts's second book--"My soul, come meditate the day," were sung in the church. The elders, attired in black, sat together by the corpse before the pulpit, which, out of respect, was also attired in mourning. As the body was borne to the grave, the congregation sang, "Hark! from the tombs a doleful sound."

        Thomas Espy was born August 1st, 1800, in Cumberland County, Pennsylvania. Ere he saw the light, his pious parents had besought the blessing of God for the child; and it was especially the wish and prayer of the mother that the child might be a son, and he a minister of the gospel of Christ. Sprightliness of mind and activity of body characterized him from his early infancy till his death. But with it, also, from his very early years, a thoughtfulness and a disposition to inquire and ponder on religious things, which was ripened into deep seriousness in his 10th year, during a revival of religion in the congregation in Beaver County, to which his parents belonged, under the care of the Rev. Thomas E. Hughes. His convictions at this time were deep and sorely distressing, and accompanied with some strong temptations, but were not followed by those exercises of faith and hope that satisfied his mind in more mature years, though the sense of religious things did not leave him, nor was he guilty of outbreaking sins.

        When about ten years of age, he commenced the study of the languages with Mr. Hughes, his pastor, and, after pursuing these to some length with him, he was sent to the academy in the neighborhood, and then went through the usual academical classic course, together with some branches of the mathematics. Here his education was, for a time, suspended by adverse circumstances in his father's situation; and for some two or three years he labored on the farm, and ultimately engaged in teaching a small school, at the same time reading medical books under the direction of a physician in the neighborhood.

        While thus engaged, he was led by the grace of God to a good hope in Christ; and as soon as he obtained a comfortable assurance of acceptance in Christ, he longed to preach the gospel to others. He united with the church by a public profession, about the year 1820, desiring to preach the gospel, but not seeing any way by which he might come into that desirable labor.

        After pursuing the study of medicine about two years, he received from an uncle whom he had gone to visit, a proposition of assistance to complete his college course. Delighted with the prospect, he immediately entered Washington College, then having

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for its president the Rev. Matthew Brown, D.D., and pursued his studies with vigor, looking forward to the ministry.

        He was graduated in the year 1824, taking the second honor from a competitor who had been taught in the Westminster school. In the month of February, 1825, he went to Romney, Hampshire County, Virginia, and taught school, and commenced reading theology in preparation for the ministry. In the fall of that year, he removed to Jefferson County, in the same State, and lived in the family of Mrs. Dandridge as tutor: with this lady he continued about two years, teaching her children and pursuing his theological studies. On the 11th of April, 1827, he received license to preach the gospel, from the Presbytery of Winchester, which held its sessions in Middleburg, Fauquier County. In the November following, he became a member of the Theological Seminary, Princeton.

        During his residence in Romney and at Mrs. Dandridge's, his conscientious walk and Christian conversation made a deep impression in favor of his simple-hearted piety. Without ostentation, without knowing the fact himself, he produced a deep conviction on the young people of his acquaintance of two things, viz.: that there is a reality in experimental piety, and that he possessed the reality. He exhibited a happy mixture of modesty and independence, that won the favor of the community, never thrusting himself forward as for praise or ostentation, and never shrinking from duty through alarm, or withholding a frank avowal of the truth and his opinion what was truth, through any sinister motive.

        While at Princeton, his letters to his friends in Virginia breathed a spirit of exalted piety and unaffected devotion to the cause of his Lord and Master, which endeared him still more to their hearts. Like as his prayers had been in the prayer meetings, his letters touched the heart and drew it out in earnest desires for more grace, and knowledge of God. Were there space for the admission of a few of his letters, his friends in Carolina would recognize the future preacher, in the sentiments which fell from his pen, unstudied and in rich abundance; no scintillations of genius, but sparks of true celestial fire; no aspirations of a lofty mind, but the feelings of a lively faith.

        In the spring of 1828, he received a commission from the "Young Men's Missionary Society of Concord Presbytery," and served as their missionary in Burke county for about a year. His labors are not yet forgotten. After his term of engagement expired, he was invited to preach in different congregations, and

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commenced his labors in Centre, in Iredell, and Bethel, formerly a part of Centre, in Mecklenburg county. On the 10th of May, 1830, he was ordained evangelist at Centre, having declined being set apart for the services of a particular congregation. For a time his services here were much blessed; but unhappily a collision of opinions and practice on the subject of baptism broke up his prospects of usefulness to that degree, his friends judged a removal prudent. The congregation had been accustomed, under their former pastor, to see the ordinance of baptism administered to children of parents who had been baptized, whether they had made public profession or not. To this custom Mr. Espy felt strongly opposed, and expressed his opposition with his usual frankness and decision, believing that the ordinance ought to be administered to children of professors only. There were some unhappy circumstances attending this collision which distressed him greatly both in body and mind, which need not be repeated; their interest was local.

        In the spring of 1831 he removed to Salisbury, and about the same time was united in marriage to Miss Sarah Louisa Tate, of Burke county, a lady altogether worthy of him. In Salisbury his labors were greatly blessed, to the building up of the church in faith and in numbers. He excelled in the pastoral office; his counsels were so plain, his reproofs so kind and direct, his exhortations so earnest, and his example so impressive, he gained his people's love, as he built them up in the most holy faith.

        In February, 1832, he was seized with a hemorrhage of the lungs, which put an end, in a great measure, to all his pulpit exercises. Of middling stature, a slender frame, and somewhat delicate constitution, he had permitted his ardent desire to build up the cause of Christ to lead him to efforts in public speaking beyond his strength. In many places the cause of religion was exciting unusual attention about this time. His ardent heart made him forgetful of himself,--and, in consequence of a cold caught during a series of appointments in the fall of 1831, his lungs gave way, and he was able to preach no more.

        His sickness and death preached eloquently. Blessed of God to win souls to Christ in his ministry, his success was continued to his last breath, some being hopefully converted by witnessing his Christian spirit in his last hours. A brother in the ministry, who knew him well, in whose house Mr. Espy endured a part of his last illness, said of him, in a letter some time after his decease,--"I knew him well, perhaps no one on earth knew him better,

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and I feel no hesitation in saying that, in many important respects, I have never known his equal. Mr. Espy was an eminently holy man. I was intimate with him when in health, and a great deal in his company during his protracted illness, and my impression is, that I have never known any one who lived so near Christ. His religion was not enthusiasm, but a tender and unwavering confidence in the Saviour. He repeatedly told me, that, during all his sickness, he never entertained a doubt in regard to his situation. Once, when we thought him dying, and were all weeping around his bed, he said to me, 'these friends are all mistaken--this is the happiest hour I ever saw.' "

        The last few weeks of his life were passed at the house of R. H. Burton, Esq., near Beattie's Ford, in the bounds of Unity congregation, by whom he was held in the highest esteem. On the 16th of April, 1833, he breathed his last, in full hope of a joyful resurrection. His body was carried to Salisbury, and interred near the west corner of the frame church, on the skirts of the town, a spot occupied for a long time by the Presbyterians and Lutherans for public worship, and still as the place for the burial of their dead. His wife survived him a few years, and passed away, leaving an orphan daughter. "Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord."

        "Mr. Espy," says a brother in the ministry who knew him well, "possessed a quickness of apprehension and a patience of investigation rarely found in combination. He was not what is generally called a popular preacher; but he was something a great deal better. His voice was too effeminate to permit him to have great and immediate power over a large promiscuous congregation, such as we southern preachers have often to grapple with. I do not mean to leave the impression that he was not an interesting preacher. To those who wished to listen to the truth he was eminently interesting.

        "The most distinguishing features of his preaching were great point, and a prominent exhibition of the Saviour. Emphatically he preached Christ to the people. You will be prepared to be told that he was a successful minister. He was useful wherever he preached any length of time, but more so in Salisbury than anywhere else. There is a people here that will never forget him.

        "It is the impression of others, as well as myself, that Mr. Espy did much to raise the tone of ministerial piety in this Presbytery."

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CHAPTER XXVII.
REV. JAMES M'GREADY, AND THE REVIVAL OF 1800.

        THE name of McGready is connected with revivals. He was blessed in being an instrument of a revival of religion in North Carolina, in his early ministry, the salutary effects of which are felt at this day in churches in different States, enjoying the labors of faithful men, that then came in to the visible church of Christ, on profession of faith. Subsequently, he was honored of God to be the first agent, that moved successfully in breaking up the deep sleep that weighed down the Christian public, and was personally active in the commencement of that revival that began in 1800, in Kentucky, and soon was felt in Tennessee and Ohio; in 1802, on to 1804, was enjoyed in parts of North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia. The fruits of this revival remain to this day, and will be felt in their remote consequences for ever, in these United States, and wherever else the Gospel has been preached, by those who may be considered the fruits, more or less direct, of this great display of the Divine Spirit upon the hearts of men.

        There has been no memoir of this man given to the world; but it is not right for the church community to let his memory perish. To have looked at him, in his early days, as he was laboring in the fields in Carolina; or to have seen him when he was become angry that an honest man doubted his religion; or to have listened to him when he passed through Virginia, at the close of the revival, under Smith and Graham, we probably should not have said this is the man whom God has chosen to put in motion the whole community, on the greatest of all subjects, and the one to which the human heart is most averse. But God sees not as man sees, and he chooses whom he will for his divine purposes of mercy, both as agent and recipient. Let man honor whom God honors; and let us rejoice in him whom God first made a vessel of mercy, and then a jewel of honor.

        In the preface to a volume of sermons, which a few years ago were published from his papers, in Louisville, there is a brief account of the commencement of the revival in Kentucky, drawn up by his hand. In the preface to the second volume, which appeared some time after, is the apology of the Editor, for not fulfilling expectations

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he had excited in the first, of having a memoir of the able and blessed servant of God, whose sermons he was sending out to the world, and informs the public that he had entirely failed in obtaining any information about his early life and labors. McGready left no son, and no memoranda of himself, among his papers, except the short account of the commencement of the revival; modestly estimating himself, and his labors, and usefulness, he was willing to wait the developments of the Great day, and abide the providence of God.

        At several different times, in the year 1843, the Rev. Ebenezer B. Currie, of Orange Presbytery, who was a pupil of McGready in his youth, gave the writer an extended account of the labors and successes of that eminent servant of God, and is the authority for the principal facts in his early history, and very many respecting his maturer years. He, the Rev. James Hall, D.D., and S. E. McCorkle, D.D., are the authority for the statements about the revival in North Carolina. They all speak of things they saw and heard and knew.

        The parents of McGready were of the Scotch-Irish race, but whether they emigrated from Ireland, or were born in Pennsylvania, is not now known. When he was quite young, they removed to Carolina, and settled in Buffalo congregation, in Guilford county, near where Greensboro, now stands, about the time that Dr. Caldwell became the pastor of the congregation, which is now occupied by Mr. Caruthers. Here James passed part of his boyish days, and part of his youth, in such labor, as persons of no very extensive property were, in those years, accustomed to in Carolina.

        The sedateness of the youth and his punctuality in religious duties, united to a desire for mental improvement, so pleased an uncle of his, who was on a visit at his father's, that he conceived the idea of having James educated for the ministry, and prevailed on the parents to consent to his taking his son with him to Pennsylvania to secure an education in preparation to his preaching the gospel. His uncle believed him to be religious; he thought so himself. In speaking of these, his early days and impressions, Mr. McGready used to say that he never omitted private prayer from the time he was seven years old, and having been preserved from outbreaking sins, from profane swearing, from intoxication, and sabbath breaking, and other excesses, he had begun to think that he was sanctified from his birth. When about seventeen years of age he united in the communion of the church, professing a full belief in the doctrines of the Bible, in which he had been carefully instructed, and in the formulary, the catechism

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of the Westminster Assembly, in which, at that time, all children of Presbyterian congregations were reverently taught.

        While he was studying for the ministry, fully satisfied of his own interest in the redemption of Christ, an incident occurred that destroyed all his peace. He overheard a conversation between the gentleman with whom he boarded and a neighbor who had stepped in one day. "Do you think," said the neighbor, "that this young man you have studying here has got any religion?" "No," said the gentleman, "not a spark." The meaning was, that he did not think him a converted man, and that he, of course, had not felt in his heart the doctrines of grace. McGready felt himself much aggrieved at this opinion, and peculiarly at this expression of it; and resolved to change his abode, not willing to live any longer with one that thought so little of his piety or his knowledge of religion. After the first rush of his indignation had somewhat subsided, the thought arose in his mind, that perhaps there might be some ground for the gentleman's unfavorable opinion. He, therefore, commenced a thorough examination of his principles of belief, his practice, and his feelings. Of his principles of belief, after examination, he was satisfied that they were correct. Of his practice, it appeared to him that he loved what the Scripture required, and turned away from those things the word of God forbade. Thus far he felt safe. But when he came to examine his feelings, to try them by such passages as, being "filled with the spirit; filled with joy; filled with the Holy Ghost; joy of the Holy Ghost; the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace," it seemed to him that he did not understand these things experimentally. Like Paul, "When the commandment came, sin revived and he died." The conflict in his soul was severe and protracted. He said that the first actual sin of which he felt convicted was his having communed improperly; and then the sin of his whole life stood up before him in awful array. He had no rest in his soul till he believed Christ gave him peace in believing, and his heart tasted some of the joys of the Holy Ghost.

        This part of his experience gave a peculiar cast to his preaching through life, and made it peculiarly pungent in Carolina, where he commenced his labors. Through life he was famous for pointing out the hiding-places of the hypocrite and self-deceived, and bringing out the thoughts of men's hearts and revealing to them their secret purposes, and setting them at war in their own souls, lead them to Christ Jesus for peace. Formal professors had generally a very great dislike to him, accusing him of personality and undue severity.

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        Redstone Presbytery gave him license to preach when he was about thirty years of age. His education was finished under Dr. McMillan, the founder of the Literary and Theological school, that ultimately grew into Cannonsburg College, the first institution of the kind west of the Alleghanies. Three institutions were commenced by the Scotch-Irish before the Revolution; one in Western Pennsylvania, one in the valley of Virginia, and one in Charlotte, North Carolina. The latter was broken up during the Revolution; the two former are now flourishing institutions. Dr. McMillan was the means of rearing many useful preachers, by whom the wants of the rising West were for a time supplied.

        After his licensure, McGready returned to Carolina to visit his connexions. On his way he passed through the places in Virginia visited by the Revival, which spread so far and wide under the ministrations of J. B. Smith and William Graham, in 1788 and 1789. He made some stay in Prince Edward, at Hampden Sydney College, then under the care of Mr. Smith, that eminently successful minister of Christ. With his heart warmed by what he heard and saw, and cheered in his soul with the expectations of good to come from the Great Head of the church to Zion, through the instrumentality of the excellent young men he saw in preparation for the ministry, and of whom Pattillo speaks encouragingly in his letter to Synod in 1793, he reached Guilford, prepared to bear a testimony to men in favor of divine truth in its spiritual application.

        The form of religious instruction and worship had been continued by the churches in Carolina, with commendable exactness, during the trying scenes of the Revolutionary war. The attention to catechetical instruction in families had not much abated. But the life and spirit of religion had suffered much from the necessary irregularity in attending on the public ordinances, and from the harassing cares and indescribable vexations and suffering from the protracted campaigns of Cornwallis, preceding the battle of Guilford Court-house. There was much true piety nourished in the congregations, and much of the heavenly temper cherished in the closet and family circle; but much formality had also come in, and close upon its footsteps outbreaking sin. The march of armies is marked by plunder and vice; and dissipation and immorality follow in their train. The most moral and retired neighborhood suddenly found themselves in the track of hostile forces, and felt the moral shock in their families with painful sensibility.

        As the subjects naturally presented for discussion, during the contest between the colonies and the mother country, by the patriotic

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Presbyterian ministers, were of a general nature--more often referring to the wise providence of God; the necessity of contending for liberty of conscience, of person, and of property; the propriety of resistance to blood in a good cause, than to the more spiritual and devotional duties of the gospel; it came to pass that the subjects of experimental religion were less insisted upon or heeded than they might have been, or than they had been in former and more quiet times. It is not to be understood that the standard of piety or morality was either intentionally abrogated or changed, but the subjects pertaining to the war in which all were involved, assumed a paramount controlling influence, and the sacred fire burned less purely in the congregation and the family; and the scenes of bloodshed and plunder witnessed so frequently, hardened the heart against the commands of God.

        After the settlement of peace, many things were found to have crept into at least some of the congregations in Carolina, which could not be justified or tolerated; more easily introduced than eradicated; more clamorously defended than adroitly extenuated. Parties for dancing were considered by many as harmless as they were fascinating; the use of spirituous liquors had become more free and dangerous; and in some neighborhoods horse-racing was tolerated as an innocent amusement, from which improvement of the breed of useful animals might be looked for as a natural consequence. All had sought for freedom of opinion and of conscience through the mortal strife of the Revolution; and many considered freedom from moral obligation as part of civil liberty. It is scarcely to be wondered at, though much to be mourned over, that in breaking down the opposition to religious freedom, and the unjustifiable hindrances to the exercise of religious liberty, the necessary barriers to vice and transgression should receive a severe shock, and even some of the outworks be broken down.

        Among other things of a very objectionable nature which had become prevalent, was the habit of distributing spirituous liquors at funerals. Provisions of some kind were set out, commonly before the door, or carried round in baskets, and spirits offered freely to those who desired. The solemnity of the occasion was sometimes lost in the excitement, and scenes of drinking invaded the house of mourning. To preserve the appearance of religion, some one, an officer of the church, if present, was called upon to open the scene of eating and drinking by asking a blessing on the refreshments prepared.

        Mr. McGready attended a funeral soon after his return to Guilford,

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and in compliment to the young minister just returned, he was called upon to ask a blessing that they might commence their drinking. "No," he replied, "I will not be guilty of insulting God by asking a blessing upon what I know to be wrong." A great sensation was produced, and McGready stood up for his defence, a champion not to be despised, large in form, some six feet high, of prominent features, grave in demeanor, solemn in speech, plain and neat in his style of dress, unaffected in his manners, with a powerful voice, and somewhat ungainly in his address, with the appearance of great weight and bodily strength.

        The attention of the neighborhood being turned to him, he commenced preaching along Haw River, and in various other places in Guilford. His first sermons were to alarm church members. Under his ministrations very many gave up their hopes of salvation which they had been cherishing, and confessed themselves deceived hypocrites. Under his searching addresses they felt themselves to be, as he had been, unworthy to be acknowledged members of Christ's visible church, and abhorred themselves in dust and ashes. He would often say to them, "An unworthy communicant in such circumstances as yours, is more offensive to Almighty God than a loathsome carcase crawling with vermin set before a dainty prince."

        His pulpit preparations, while he lived in Carolina, were made with much study; what were his habits after removing to the West is not known. In Carolina he used to devote some two days of each week in writing out his sermons for Sabbath with great care. He considered the word of God as truth to be taken for granted, and of course not to be reasoned about as if to be proved, but to be explained and enforced by the various considerations presented by revelation itself, by man's condition, and by providence. His written discourses were carefully perused and re-perused before he appeared in public, but were never seen in the pulpit. By his care in preparation the subject was sufficiently impressed upon his mind for him to speak with fluency and correctness without reference to notes. His spoken sermons were much longer than his preparations, the different heads being more fully explained, and the application very much enlarged. The volumes of sermons printed at Louisville a few years since, were composed of preparations of this sort. The Rev. Mr. Currie, who was for a time his pupil, recollects to have heard some of those sermons delivered in Carolina. From these circumstances the printed sermons, exhibiting much good thought and power of language, will be less impressive than the discourses that fell from his lips, possessing all the excellences of

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the written ones, and enriched by the tide of feeling from a burning heart.

        He excelled in public prayer, and the prayer before sermon was usually long, free from repetitions, and filled with earnest wrestlings with God for the assembled people. Often the congregation was in tears, under the influence of his devotions.

        In his delivery he was always solemn, and sometimes very animated from the commencement. Generally he began very calm and waxed warmer as he progressed, and in the application was always fervent. Avoiding metaphysical discussions, he preached the plain word of God with much point and great plainness and effect. To his hearers he often seemed a "Son of Thunder," and always a warm experimental Calvinistic preacher.

        The congregations in which his labors were more particularly expended, were Haw River and Stony Creek. Haw River has declined from being a congregation; the place of preaching is removed and is now called Gum Grove. Stony Creek is still a congregation and enjoys the labors of a pastor. In these congregations, and wherever else he preached in the neighboring charges, the excitement on the subject of religion was great, and the inquiry about experimental godliness became very general. After he had been in Carolina about a year, he was married to a Miss Nancy Thompson, from the bounds of Redstone Presbytery, in Pennsylvania, and took his residence some three or four miles below High Rock, about midway between his two congregations. A school was opened at his house, under his direction, but taught principally by his brother, who was himself pursuing a course of study. This location being near his parents' residence, Mr. Currie attended upon its instruction for a length of time, and under the preaching of Mr. McGready became permanently impressed with a sense of religion, which was ultimately ripened into a desire to preach the gospel.

        Buffalo and Alamance, the congregations of Dr. Caldwell, received many profitable visits from Mr. McGready, who frequently called upon the school under the Dr.'s care, and became a favorite of the students. His intercourse with these young men had an abiding influence over their hearts and lives. Many became hopefully pious in consequence of his exhortations and instructions. At one time he lay confined by great debility of body, brought on by excessive labors, and a consequent fit of sickness, and was very kindly and assiduously attended upon by the more serious of the young men. He used occasionally to send for the more thoughtless

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and hold a short conversation with them on the subject of their salvation; and seldom did any one, says Mr. Currie, leave him without tears. One young man made himself merry at the tenderness of the others, till one day McGready sent for him for an interview, from which he in a short time returned, more deeply affected than the others by the kindness and solemnity of the manner, and the importance of the subjects presented to his mind.

        The excitement that spread over the congregation of Hawfields, Cross Roads, Alamance, Buffalo, Stony Creek, Bethlehem, Haw River, Eno, and the churches in Granville, and those on the Hico and the waters of the Dan, was great, and ultimately exceedingly beneficial. Dr. Caldwell, a very sound but dispassioned preacher, stood by him and improved the influences in his own congregations. Cross Roads and Hawfields were vacant at the commencement of the revival. Mr. John Debow, the successor of Henry Pattillo the first pastor, who is spoken of by tradition as an excellent preacher, had died in September, 1783, and lies buried in the church-yard at Hawfields. His brother-in-law, a Mr. Lake, preached to the congregation for a time; and under his ministrations the congregation of Cross Roads was set off, composed of portions of Hawfields, Eno, and Stony Creek. The next preacher was contemporary with McGready, a Mr. Hodge. He had been hopefully converted under the preaching of Mr. Debow, and had commenced preparation for the ministry; but had become discouraged after the death of his pastor and abandoned his design. Mr. McGready's preaching kindled his desire anew, and finishing his preparatory studies with Dr. Caldwell he commenced his labors as a minister at Hawfields and Cross Roads. He went heart and hand in the work of the gospel with McGready; and often made excursions with him. Agreeing in principles and designs, these men were different in their temperament and their manner of dispensing the gospel. From his tender and affectionate manner Hodge was styled "the Son of Consolation."

        While the work of revival was going on in the counties of Orange and Guilford, and in parts of the neighboring ones, the congregations in Granville, where Pattillo lived and preached, and along the Hico, were visited by Nash Legrand and Carey Allen, young men from Virginia, the fruits of the revival which had prevailed under the preaching of John B. Smith, particularly at Hampden Sydney College, of which they were members. Great effects followed their preaching. When their mission was ended, multitudes followed them into Virginia to attend the sacramental seasons in Prince Edward and Charlotte. A friendly intercourse was then commenced

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between the congregations of the two Synods, which has continued more or less to the present day.

        This revival, which commenced about the year 1791, continued for some years in the upper part of what is now Orange Presbytery. Many professors of religion renounced their hopes and became, as they thought, truly converted to God; others were greatly enlivened and strengthened in their faith, and rejoiced in renewed graces; and many hopeful converts were added to the church. This was the SECOND REVIVAL OF RELIGION in North Carolina, after the Revolutionary war, of any extent, of which any account or tradition has been preserved; the FIRST having been in Iredell.

        Mr. Currie relates the interesting fact, that in the year 1801, in the month of March, at Barbacue church in Cumberland county, five young men, Messrs. Brown, Murphy, McMillan, McNair, Shaw, Matthews, together with himself, were licensed to preach the gospel by Orange Presbytery. All had received part of their education at Caldwell's school, in Guilford; and some, the whole. Part of them had grown up there, and been more or less under the influence of McGready. Of these, Matthews and Brown have received the degree of D.D. from respectable colleges.

        This revival was attended with no unusual appearances or exercises. The opposition to the close and practical preaching and renewed discipline never broke out into violence but in one case. At Stony Creek there were some families of wealth and influence, that had become loose in their religious habits and morals during this disturbance of the war and the presence of the armies; these opposed Mr. McGready's course and preaching, and proceeded from one step of opposition to another, till their dislike exceeded all bounds. Some of these, during one of their nights of revelry, made a bonfire of the pulpit near the church, and left in the clerk's seat a letter written with blood, warning him that unless he desisted from his way of preaching, their vengeance would not be satisfied with the destruction of the pulpit; and his person would not be inviolate. McGready, as might have been expected, not in the least intimidated by the burning of the pulpit, or the letter, continued to preach as usual; and the opposition, confined to a few, died away. In a few years the dissipation of these families became the ruin of their character and property; and after the lapse of a short period not a descendant of theirs could be found in the congregation.

        Throughout the country, the pious, and the sedate who were not pious, favored the labors of the ministers that were engaged in this work of grace, whose effects have been a blessing to the church and

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community to this day. Some of the ministers that were brought in to the church, during those years the revival continued, yet live, crowned with years and usefulness, soon to follow to the judgment of God the generations that were actors in these scenes.

        In the year 1796 Mr. McGready, who had been ordained in 1793, removed to Kentucky; in the year 1799 the Presbytery of Orange dismissed Rev. Wm. McGee, and Barton Stone, a licentiate, to Pennsylvania Presbytery, and in 1800 the Rev. Messrs. Wm. Hodge, Samuel McAdo and John Rankin, to remove to the West; and the part these men acted in the succeeding events in the West forms an interesting page in the history of the valley of the Mississippi.

        The following is an extract from McGready's own statement, and shows the state of things in Kentucky.

Logan county, Kentucky, Oct. 28th, 1801.

        "In the month of May, 1797, which was the spring after I came to this country, the Lord graciously visited Gasper River congregation (an infant church under my charge). The doctrines of Regeneration, Faith, and Repentance, which I uniformly preached, seemed to call the attention of the people to a serious inquiry. During the winter the question was often proposed to me, Is religion a sensible thing? If I were converted would I feel it and know it? In May, as I said before, the work began. A woman who had been a professor in full communion in the church found her old hope false and delusive. She was struck with deep conviction, and in a few days was filled with joy and peace in believing. She immediately visited her friends and relations from house to house, warned them of their danger in a most solemn and faithful manner, and pleaded with them to repent and seek religion. This as a mean was accompanied with the divine blessing to the awakening of many. About this time the ears of all in that congregation seemed to be open to receive the word preached, almost every sermon was accompanied with the power of God to the awakening of sinners."

        "In the summer of 1798, at the administration of the sacrament of the supper in July, on Monday the Lord graciously poured out his spirit, a very general awakening took place. Perhaps but few families in the congregation could be found who less or more were not struck with an awful sense of their lost estate."


        A blessing appeared to follow the labors of this man and the other preachers of the gospel in the new settlements, from time to time in different places, till the year 1800, when an excitement commenced, which, for influence, duration, and extent, has been

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unequalled in the southern and western States; and as pervading and resistless, and as fertile in novelties as that which spread over the middle and eastern States between the years 1740 and 1750, in which Edwards, Tennent, Davenport, Blair, Wheelock, Davies, and others, took a prominent part.

        The first laborers in this work were McGready, Hodge and McGee. At first it was but a powerful excitement, soon it was accompanied with bodily exercises of a strange and unaccountable nature, which for a time bewildered the judgments of the most clear-sighted ministers, and are with difficulty accounted for at this day. Previous to the June sacrament, in his Red River congregation, McGready was greatly depressed on account of the state of religion in his own charge and in the congregation around him. In conversation with an elder he told him his distress, and his mournful anticipations. His elder began to tell him his own exercises, which were full of hope and expectation, and among other things told him of a dream he had lately had, about seeing him and Hodge and McGee catching abundance of fish on the side of a dry ragged mountain, out of a little clear stream that brake from the summit. The effect of the elder's conversation on McGready was cheering, awaking anticipations of success, like the dream heard by Gideon in the enemy's camp. These brethren just mentioned assisted at the June meeting, in 1800, and before the close a most wonderful excitement commenced. Of this McGready says, "But the year 1800 exceeds all that eyes ever beheld on earth. In June the sacrament was administered at Red River. On Monday multitudes were struck under awful conviction. The cries of the distressed filled the whole house." From this place it spread that summer wherever meetings for continued preaching were held, in Kentucky, Tennessee and Ohio; and ultimately over the whole South and West.

        Soon after the commencement of this excitement, persons began to be struck down during religious exercises, lying like persons in a swoon for a length of time; and then rise with songs of praise for the deliverance they had experienced of a spiritual nature. This falling was at first preceded by great anxiety of mind on the subject of salvation, and succeeded by joyful exercises. The subjects, unable to move or speak, were entirely sensible, and were often deeply exercised, and could tell many things that passed around them in that apparently lifeless state. After a time, persons who had not expressed or felt any peculiar anxiety were stricken down at the meetings, and rose rejoicing. The account which these persons gave of their mental exercises and their religious experience, was

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such as to satisfy the most rigid inquiries. And this exercise became connected in the minds of people generally, with conversion; by what invisible link no one pretended to declare, or what was the peculiar influence upon the mind. The pious and thoughtful, at first, were amazed, and afraid to oppose what appeared to be connected indissolubly with the work of God; and finally, for a time, gave in to the opinion that it was a necessary part of the revival, and, being according to the will of God, must not be opposed.

        People came in crowds to the meetings that were held, to satisfy the demand for preaching, on horseback, in wagons, and on foot, and remained on the ground for days; and continued engaged day and night, in religious services, with little intermission, listening to sermons and exhortations, and uniting in prayer and praise.

        The report of this extensive and most unusual excitement soon reached North Carolina; and the old friends and hearers of McGready and Hodge were moved with great anxiety to witness the revival of God's work as they had experienced in days past themselves, or as they now heard it was manifested in the West.

        In August, 1801, a communion season was held at Cross Roads, in Orange county. The stated minister, Wm. Paisley, was assisted by Rev. Messrs. Dr. Caldwell and Leonard Prather, and two young licentiates, Hugh Shaw and Ebenezer B. Currie. Nothing of especial interest appeared in the congregation during the days preceding the Sabbath, or during the administration of the ordinance. Great solemnity prevailed, mingled with evident anxiety as well as prayer, among Christians, that God would bless the congregation and revive his work. On Monday, the 28th, the public services were conducted by Messrs. Prather and Shaw, without any expression or appearance of emotion among the people. The pastor arose to dismiss the people, intending first to say a few words expressive of his sorrow that apparently no advance had been made in bringing sinners to God. Overwhelmed with his sensations of distress that God had imparted no blessings to his people, he stood silent a few moments and then sat down. A solemn stillness pervaded the congregation. In a few moments he rose again; before he uttered a word, a young man from Tennessee, who had been interested in the revival there, and had been telling the people of Cross Roads, during the meeting, much about the state of things in the West, raised up his hands and cried out, "Stand still and see the salvation of God!" In a few moments the silence was broken by sobs, groans and cries, rising commingled from all parts of the house. All thoughts of dismissing the congregation at once vanished.

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The remainder of the day was spent in the exercises of prayer, exhortation, singing, personal conversation, and midnight came before the congregation could be persuaded to go to their respective homes. The excitement continued for a length of time, and many were hopefully converted to God. No irregularities appeared in this commencement of the great excitement in North Carolina; the sobs and groans and cries for mercy were unusual, but seemed justified by the deep feeling of individuals on account of the great interests concerned.

        In October following, the usual fall communion was held in Hawfields, the other part of Mr. Paisley's charge. The expression of feeling was great from the first; the people from Cross Roads were there in their fervency of excitement and hope; and multitudes whom the report of what had been done at the August meeting drew together, were full of expectation, some wondering, and some seeking their salvation. People from a distance came in their wagons, and remained on the ground all night. The meeting was continued for five days without intermission; the various religious services of prayer, singing, sermons, exhortations and personal conversations succeeding each other, with short intervals for refreshment during the day, and a few hours for sleep during the night. Impressions of a religious nature were very general and very deep, and in a great multitude of cases abiding. THIS WAS THE FIRST CAMP-MEETING IN NORTH CAROLINA. They soon became common all over the South and West. Log-cabins were built at the accustomed or designed place of meeting in sufficient numbers to accommodate a large assembly; and from an occasional meeting, they became regular appointments, which are not yet entirely discontinued. Once or twice a year the congregations assemble at their usual place of worship, and continue on the ground some three or four days, or more if desired. This custom has its conveniences in accommodating those who live at a distance from regular preaching, and also its inconvenience; and is differently estimated in different neighborhoods, and is passing away from some, but is retained in Cross Roads and Hawfields in its original spirit.

        The excitement spread rapidly over the congregations in the upper part of Orange Presbytery, which then included all the State east of the Yadkin river, and in the early part of the year 1802, the Presbytery of Concord, embracing the section of the State west of the Yadkin, felt its influence; and the eastern part

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of the State, now embraced by Fayetteville Presbytery, also began to be visited.

        The bodily exercises were intermingled in the meetings in Carolina as they were in the West, but in neither place had they, at this period, assumed the remarkable extravagance to which they afterwards arose in some parts of the country. Among the thoughtful these exercises caused great anxiety; "were they the work of God? were they the necessary accompaniments of the work? or were they accidental things? or were they delusions?" were questions that led to many discussions. The opinion that finally prevailed most generally was, that they were inseparable accompaniments of the true work of God. This opinion prevailed for some years, and slowly gave way to the more correct conclusion, that in all cases they were accidental circumstances and not necessary, and in many cases were entirely delusive.

        The ministers west of the Yadkin were much exercised on the subject of the revival in the West, and in Orange Presbytery, and also about the accompanying exercises. Until 1802, however, no appearance of revival was seen in their congregations. Some years previous, as has been noticed in the proper place, there had been some precious works of grace in Iredell and Cabarrus counties, but the congregations of the Presbytery were not generally visited; and now there was a feeling of anxiety manifested everywhere.

        Rev. David Caldwell, of Guilford, appointed a meeting to be held at Bell's meeting-house, near Bell's Mills, on Deep River, in Randolph county, on the last week of January, 1802, and invited the brethren west of the Yadkin to attend, and bring some of their people with them, and witness and share in the work then in progress. Four of the ministers, and about one hundred of their people, attended. The pastor of the extensive congregation of Thyatira, in Rowan county, Samuel E. McCorkle, a man of sound and extensive theological attainments, of scientific and literary acquirements above most of his cotemporaries, anxious about the revival, but strongly prejudiced against considering the exercises as a part of the work of the spirit, and through his prejudices against them very much inclined to doubt the genuineness of the whole work, yet desirous of a revival amongst his people, went and took some of his people to witness the effects of that meeting. Lewis F. Wilson, pastor of Concord and Fourth Creek in Iredell, less prejudiced against the work than Mr. McCorkle,

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but not prepared to vindicate altogether the exercises, though he greatly desired a revival in his change, a man of ardent temperament, great self-possession, sound mind, and much acquaintance with the world, went accompanied by some of his charge. Joseph D. Kilpatrick, of Third Creek, of warm heart, and ardent spirit, anxious for a revival in his charge, and not anxious about the attending circumstances of swoons or exercises, might his people be revived, went and took some of his people with him. The venerable James Hall, of Bethany, who had served his country and the church in the Revolution, and had been blessed with a revival soon after its close, tremblingly alive to the interests of religion and the welfare of his people, believing in the work as of God, and not much troubled about the accompanying exercises, went with a larger company of his people than either of the others.

        The preachers reached the ground on Friday evening, and took some part in the services. The people came up on Saturday morning, with their wagons. The meeting proved to be one of great excitement, and the people that came from a distance shared largely in it. Dr. Hall's people began to be exercised on Friday night before they reached the place of meeting, while they were encamped about five miles off. During the meeting, all the companies, one after another, were more or less affected. The brethren returned to their charges satisfied that the excitement was a revival of true religion, and these bodily exercises were connected in a manner inexplicable, and not to be questioned.

        Dr. McCorkle held out a long time, at first rather confirmed in his opinions that the work could not be of God, there was so much disorder. Conversations with the new converts, and those under conviction while struck down, had gone far towards changing his mind, when a messenger came to him, as he was walking round in deep thought, bearing a request from his son, who had been struck down, to come and pray for him. He went and kneeled by him and began to pray, and as he prayed his whole heart and soul became so interested in the work that was going on, and so filled with desires for the conversion of all the world, that when he arose his doubts had given place to deep conviction that the work of God was going on notwithstanding the bodily exercises.

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"An Interesting Narrative of the Revival of Religion in that part of North Carolina which lies southwest of the Yadkin River. In a Letter from the REV. JAMES HALL.

"Iredell county, North Carolina, May 4, 1802.

        "SIR:--Please to accept of my grateful acknowledgments for the copy of your proposals for publishing extracts from the Evangelical Magazine, &c.; you may expect my interest in promoting your laudable design. As the revival of religion has, through the goodness and mercy of God, reached this part of his vineyard, a few sketches as to its rise and progress in that part of our State which lies between Yadkin and Catawba Rivers, may not be unacceptable to you; and if they should contribute to the promotion of your design, will tend to our mutual satisfaction.

        "Last August the revival began in Orange and Guilford counties, which lie northeast of the Yadkin. To those the work was chiefly confined until the last week of January, at which time a general meeting was appointed in Randolph county, to the southward of Guilford, where some of my fellow-presbyters and myself were invited to attend. Accordingly, Dr. McCorkle, Messrs. Lewis F. Wilson, Joseph D. Kilpatrick, and myself, set out with about 100 of our people, having to go from fifty to eighty miles. We who were ministers went on horseback, and the rest in wagons. My people, about forty in number, were alone, except two families who travelled with them. The clergy passed on before the wagons, and arrived at the place of meeting on Friday. That night my people lodged within five miles of the place, where a remarkable circumstance happened among them. At evening prayer in the house where they lodged, a man about thirty years old became deeply affected, who I believe was pious from an early period of youth. Impressions immediately ran through the assembly like fire along a train of powder; so that in a very short time almost all the young people, who composed about three-fourths of the company, became religiously exercised. The fathers were filled with astonishment, as none present had ever beheld such a scene. Nothing but cries could be heard for a considerable time. When those had in a measure subsided, the fathers spent the greater part of the night in prayer and exhortations.

        Public worship was begun next day before they arrived at the place of meeting. They took their seats, and attended with composure until the assembly separated, which was in the evening twilight. They then retired to their tent. I did not follow for

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about half an hour, allowing them some time of relaxation, as I expected our meeting would be a tender scene. When I went to them they exhibited to me a spectacle truly affecting. Not less than twenty of the young people were lying in sore distress, and uttering ardent cries for mercy. A multitude had collected round them before I came. My brethren and I could do nothing but pray for them, as they were in no situation for conversation.

        "Some of them, who, I believe, were pious before, obtained comfort that night; the others remained in distress. Dr. McCorkle had previously mentioned to me his desire that his young people and mine should spend the evening together. After some time spent with us in prayer, he returned to his young people, and found the greater part of them religiously exercised. Next morning, which was the Sabbath, Mr. Kilpatrick came to me in much distress, and told me he feared God had forsaken his little flock, as not one of them was affected. About that time his young people, and some of Dr. McCorkle's, retired to the woods, and spent some time in social prayer. When the hour of public worship approached, and they were about to return, some of them were struck down; and in a short time the greater part of them were so affected that others were obliged to supply them with fire and camp-furniture; and they lay there until nine o'clock the next day, before they could return to camp. In fine, before our return home more than nine-tenths of our young people were deeply impressed with a sense of the great importance of salvation.

        "Only two families of Mr. Wilson's people went with him, as they lay most remote from the place of meeting; but of those who went, as great a proportion were affected as of others. I would not have entered into such a minute detail of so many local circumstances, which, singly viewed, might not appear very interesting to the public, only for this consideration: In all our charges, those who followed us to that place were of those families who had been principally engaged in promoting and holding religious societies, and were engaged in fervent prayer for a time of refreshing from the presence of the Lord; some of them for more than eighteen months before that time. And should this little narrative be thought worthy of the public eye, my design in it is to encourage God's children to be fervent at the throne of grace, not only in secret, but social prayer. From what I have known of the fervency and persevering importunity of those families upon whom that remarkable effusion of divine grace fell, I think I never saw a geometrical proposition demonstrated with more clear evidence, than I have

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seen an answer given to the prayers of those pious parents who sent or conducted their children on that happy tour. As the greater part of our young people received comfort before they returned home, it is easier to conceive of than describe the joy of the parents and children at their meeting. On my return I preached at four different places before I came home; consequently my people were at home a Sabbath before my arrival. Societies were holden in three different parts of my charge, in all of which the work broke out like fire, and was making rapid progress before I had an opportunity of attending even at one society.

        "Our meeting in Randolph was on the first week of January. Since that time religion has made rapid progress among my people; and so happy are we in unanimity of sentiments respecting that glorious work, there is not one among us who will suffer himself to be accounted an opposer, and very few seem to view it with disgust. But in many of our neighboring societies it is far otherwise. Many of our people are opposed to the work; but of those some of the most obstinate have already submitted to it as a display of the mighty power of God.

        "There are two denominations scattered among us, who bear the Christian name, who are almost to one individual opposed to the work. But this need not be thought strange, as it has been a uniform case with them to oppose themselves to what other denominations call the effects of the effusion of the Holy Spirit on the church of Christ.

        "As to the progress of the work in the counties of Orange, Guilford and Randolph, you will probably have an account from the members of the Presbytery of Orange, whose bounds include those counties.

        "From a view of the advantages apparently arising from general meetings, the members of the Presbytery of Concord, of which I am a member, appointed one on the last week of January, near the centre of this county. The number of wagons which came to the ground, besides riding carriages, was about 108. The number of persons who attended on Sabbath, about four thousand. Divine service began on Friday at 2 o'clock. At that juncture a rain began to fall, which continued until near night. A considerable number were exercised that evening. Next morning a considerable heavy sleet began to fall about 9 o'clock, then snow, which terminated in a heavy rain. This continued until four in the afternoon; and the day was without exception the most inclement of any during the whole winter. Notwithstanding this,

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the people collected at ten, in two assemblies, and all ages and sexes stood there exposed until sunsetting. Exercises went on rapidly, and large numbers were deeply affected. The work went on gradually increasing, until Tuesday morning, except a few hours before day on Monday morning, when the camp was chiefly silent. At 9 on Tuesday morning the people were assembled in the centre of the square, and after some time spent in prayer and exhortation, were dismissed. Many who went away unaffected were struck with convictions on their return, and others after they went home. No attempt was made to ascertain the number of those who were affected with religious exercises, but there must have been during the meeting, several hundreds. There were present eight Presbyterian, one Baptist, and two Methodist ministers.

        "Two weeks after the above meeting we held another, near Morganton, 60 miles to the westward. The country there is thinly inhabited, and the professors of religion few in number; yet a considerable number were deeply affected, and circumstances were as promising as could be expected from the state of the country.

        "On the second week of March we held another general meeting, ten miles to the southward of the first, at the Cross Roads, near the lower end of this county. The number of wagons, besides riding carriages, was 262. Divine service began on Friday afternoon, and we continued together until Tuesday at noon. Religious impressions began to appear in an early period of the business, aad had a remarkable growth until the close of the meeting. Many hundreds were constrained to cry aloud for mercy, of whom many went home rejoicing, as well as others who came to the place under deep distress. The number of those who were present on Sabbath was estimated from 8000 to 10,000. They were divided into four worshipping assemblies. Those were all numerous. Of ministers present as far as recollection serves, there were fourteen Presbyterians, three Methodists, two Baptists, one Episcopalian, one Dutch Calvinist, and two German Lutherans. It was pleasing to those who were friends of vital piety to see such a gradual and increasing work going on, day after day, until Monday, on which day and that night, I suppose that the number of exercised persons was equal to all who were affected on the preceding days. Many left the place with comfortable sensations of mind, both of those who had been formerly and latterly convicted; and many others went away under deep and heavy convictions.

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        "Two weeks after this meeting we held another in Mecklenburg county, near the southern boundary of this State. The number present was about a third less than that last mentioned.

        "Twelve Presbyterian ministers, one Baptist and one Methodist, attended. Worship began, as usual, on Friday, and continued until near noon on Tuesday. Never did I see a set of men labor with more assiduity than the ministers labored from Friday noon until Sabbath night at 9 o'clock, during which time, among the vast multitude which attended, not more than ten persons were visibly affected with religious exercises. When night came on, the people had assembled at five different places in the encampment, at which the ministers attended. Near the above hour, religious exercises began in all the assemblies; and, from what could be ascertained, there were not more than fifteen, perhaps not more than five minutes of time, when the work began in those several places. Exercises, prayers and exhortations continued during the whole night. That dispensation, in the eye of the impartial inquirer, is sufficient to obviate the objection against the work, "That it is the work of man--from the power of oratory," &c., as I am certain there were, before that time, many instances of more powerful oratory than we are capable of exhibiting at that late period, in such an exhausted state. Nor could such effects be produced by communications from one assembly to another, either by intelligence or noise; for no two of the several assemblies knew how each other was affected until a considerable later period of the night. At break of day public instructions ceased until nine in the morning. At that time a sermon was preached at the public stand in the centre of the encampment. Few, if any, were exercised until after sermon, when six ministers continued worship by prayer in rotation. This exhibited a scene to which I never saw anything similar. I am well assured that many more than a hundred sunk down in less than half an hour; and what was remarkable in such a scene, there was scarcely a cry to be heard. This I perfectly recollect, that the speakers were distinctly heard during the concert of prayer. But fervent supplications and cries for mercy soon began. Shortly afterwards, one of the ministers rose to read, and make a few observations on the vision of the dry bones (Ezek., 37 chap.), but such were the cries, and the astonished state of the audience, that I suppose he could not call the attention of twenty persons: he read a few verses and sat down. Those in distress were generally taken to their respective tents, where many followed. Some of the ministers continued

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at the public stand, others went to the tents, where crowds attended. The work went on all that day, and a great part of the following night; so that, I believe, could the aggregate have been ascertained, although the work began at so late a period, as great a proportion was affected as had been at any former meeting.

        "At our first meeting in this county, we had prepared to administer the sacrament of the Lord's Supper; but so numerous were the persons in distress, and so loud were the cries, that we declined the administration of the ordinance. At the two latter, we removed the communion table to a considerable distance from the places of preaching, where we administered the ordinance without embarrassment. At the first, we had about six hundred, and at the second, near five hundred communicants.

        "At all our meetings, a considerable number professed to obtain the comforts of religion, and of those, I have not heard of one whose conduct has dishonored their profession. Praying societies are formed in all our congregations, both supplied and vacant. In those the work seems to be promoted as much, and often more, than in our congregational assemblies. The face of the public, in point of morals, is evidently changed for the better, even in those places where the good work has not reached. It is to me no inconsiderable proof that the work is carried on by the same divine, omnipresent Spirit, when I behold such a sameness of exercises in the different subjects.

        "It is granted, that those exercises, or affections, which are merely bodily, are very different, which no doubt arises from the different temperament or habit of body. The same difference is obvious in different constitutions or habits of body, as to swooning, outcries, &c., when the matter of grief or terror is the same, and the distress equally pungent. But those exercises which are mental, appear generally to run in the same channel. This can either be from sympathy nor imitation; for I have observed the same in the State of Tennessee more than eighteen months ago, as well as in various places in this State, where the subjects had never seen any other person in a similar situation. The first cry is usually for mercy, although I have attended upon sundry persons, who, when first struck, have been so overwhelmed with a sense of guilt, that they have told me, they were afraid to ask for mercy. But this state is usually of short continuance. And among the hundreds to whose exercises I have attended, have been pleasingly surprised to find so few cases of despondency, and not one instance of what may be called despair. This has been

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the more remarkable, when such sluices of conviction have been opened upon the consciences of sinners, as to extort such bitter outcries, and produce such terrible effects upon the body. After fervent cries for mercy, there are usually complaints of unbelief, obstinacy and hardness of heart, together with importunate pleading that those may be renewed. Then there will appear glimmering hopes of salvation through a Redeemer, who seems to appear afar off. Here are pleadings indeed! Sometimes one person of the adorable Trinity, and sometimes another is addressed, according to his respective province in the economy of man's salvation. This is more especially the case with those who have been previously well instructed in the doctrines of the gospel. In the supplications of those who are ignorant, there is not such a variety; but even their addresses, especially those of children, are really astonishing. When hopes of pardon appear, the importunity, if possible, becomes more incessant. Never did an humble and dutiful child, pleading for a favor from a compassionate father, offer more humble, fervent and affectionate petitions, than are here used for acceptance with God through a mediator. O for faith, for more faith, is the usual cry. When the patient receives comfort, he generally lies silent; wrapt in deep contemplation. Then some rise in raptures of joy and praise; others in silence, with a placid serenity spread over the countenance. In both it is almost incredible what change it makes on the countenance, which in many will be visible, not only for days, but weeks.

        "In attending on some of those cases, I have often thought, that were I to set down and commit to writing the manner in which I believe, from the scriptures of truth, the spirit of God deals with a sinner, in bringing him from a state of nature to a state of grace--from the time he is first convicted of the evil of sin until he has a saving discovery of the mercy of God through the mediation of Christ, I know not how I could succeed better than by recording the exercises of some on whom I have waited; although as to others, who are the subjects of severe exercises, it is evident to those tolerably well read in the anatomy of the human heart, that though they rise comfortable, they may be still in the bond of iniquity. This is not saying, but the most scrutinizing Christian may be mistaken as to the experiences or exercises of another; but we must form our opinion according to our best evidence drawn from the word of God. And if among the subjects of the present work some should persevere, and others draw back, this is no more than can be expected; as the production will be

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according to the nature of the soil on which the seed of the word is sown in the human heart. When comfort is not obtained in those exercises, the subjects are generally left under deep convictions of sin, and are usually exercised again, some five or six times before they obtain comfort. Of those who have received comfort the first time they have been exercised, I have not known any whose religious hopes have not been afterwards shaken, and have fallen under exercises again. Frequently such will rise under clouds, which will not be removed until they have undergone another, perhaps frequent exercises, before their comforts be restored. Those exercises do not appear to be confined to those who never had experienced the power of religion before. I believe many are the subjects of them who have long been acquainted with vital piety. This answers many valuable purposes, as it quickens their graces, brightens their evidences, attaches them more warmly to the revival, and makes them more assistant to the ministers of the gospel.

        "Nor is this happy revival confined to those who are under visible bodily exercises. I believe that many more are effected in what may be called God's usual way. With many such I have conversed, who appear to be under deep and rational conviction, and who think they have no valid impressions, because they are not the subjects of those violent exercises. Some of this class, with whom I have conversed, who, I have every reason to believe, have availed themselves of the benefits of Christ's mediation, dare not appropriate the comforts of religion, because they have not those ecstatic joys which they perceive in others. It is a matter of gratitude to every pious mind to see how a propitious Providence has smiled on our general meetings. These have instrumentally spread the work two hundred miles, in a greater or less degree, from east to west, and near one hundred from north to south; though in those bounds a very small minority have felt its happy effects. But the work is evidently spreading, and we hope will diffuse itself until the whole be leavened. We are extremely happy in the coalescence of our Methodist and Baptist brethren with us in this great and good work. Party doctrines are laid aside, and nothing heard from the pulpit but the practical and experimental doctrines of the gospel. To-morrow I expect to set out to a general meeting, appointed near the boundary of Guilford and Rowan counties, on middle ground between the Presbyteries of Orange and Concord. Another commences on Friday, the 21st instant, on middle ground between the first Presbytery of South

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Carolina and Concord. Our members are to divide between those meetings.

        "May 13th. This day I returned home from the meeting near the Guilford and Rowan boundary. Five Baptist, four Methodist, and four Presbyterian ministers attended. The place of meeting was at a house of worship, supplied with a stated pastor of the Baptist church. The happy fruits of our meeting at Randolph now appear there. So great is the work there, arising from that meeting, that the pastor of that church baptized twenty-eight persons on the first Sabbath of this month. Appearances at our general meeting were much as above described at other places. Many were awakened, and a considerable number professed to obtain the comforts of religion. A letter I received to-day, soliciting my attendance at another general meeting, in Rutherford county, eighty miles to the westward, to commence on the first Friday of next month, at which I expect to attend. The letter gives pleasing accounts of the happy effects of our little meeting near Morgantown. The contemplated meeting is to be about thirty miles to the southwest, where it appears that the happy influence of the other meeting has reached them.

        "What shall we render to the gracious King of Zion for his goodness and for his wonderful works to the unworthy children of men! What I have written are mere introductory sketches to what might be said on what I have seen during the last three months. Volumes might be written on the subject. Many of the scenes to which I have been witness baffle description. At a communion in my own church on the first Sabbath of this month we had a solemnity from Friday noon until Tuesday morning, during which time there was scarcely any recess of exercises day or night, and a far greater proportion of the assembly were religiously affected than I had ever seen at our public meetings. May God carry on his work until righteousness cover the earth as the waters cover the seas, and the nations of the world become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ!

        "I am, Sir, your affectionate friend, &c.,

"JAMES HALL."


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"Important Letters communicated by the Rev. SAMUEL M'CORKLE, North Carolina, through the hands of Mr. John Langdon, of Salisbury, Rowan county.

"LETTER I.

Dated Westfield, December 16, 1801.

        "SIR,--I had before received some imperfect accounts of the revival in Guilford, Caswell, and Orange counties; but have now received a more perfect account by the Rev. Mr. Flinn. A remarkable libertine, says he, has been lately struck down, and the stroke has silenced and confounded his companions. The preacher and people frequently remain all night on the ground in prayer, exhortation or praise. At a late meeting three young men were struck down in the act of cutting whips to correct some poor negroes who were crying for mercy. Our brethren from Orange have invited us to meet them at a sacrament in Randolph on the first day of the New Year. I design to attend. May the work come this way."

"LETTER II.

"January 8, 1802.

        "SIR,--I now sit down to give you a narrative of the transactions at Randolph, commencing on Friday, January 1, 1802, and continuing until the ensuing Tuesday.

        "On Thursday, the last day of the last year, I set out from home for Randolph, and lodged in Lexington with some preachers, and a number of people, mostly from Iredell, going on to the same place. The evening was spent in prayer and exhortation, without any visible effect. Next day the preachers arrived at the Randolph meeting-house; but the Iredell company lodged five miles behind.

        "On Saturday, in the interval of two sermons, the congregation (near 2,000) were informed that the Iredell company were religiously exercised, in a sudden and surprising matter, at evening prayer, in the family or house where they lodged. This struck with seriousness every reflecting mind, because the effect did not appear to arise from oratory or sympathy, the causes commonly assigned for this work. The second sermon was delivered and the benediction pronounced as usual; but the people paused, as if they wished not to part, nor go either to their homes or encampments.

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        "Just then rose a speaker to give a short parting exhortation: but wonderful to tell, as if by an electric shock, a large number in every direction, men, women, children, white and black, fell and cried for mercy; while others appeared, in every quarter, either praying for the fallen, or exhorting bystanders to repent and believe. This, to me perfectly new and sudden sight, I viewed with horror; and, in spite of all my previous reasoning on Revivals, with some degree of disgust. Is it possible, said I, that this scene of seeming confusion can come from the Spirit of God? or can be who called light from darkness, and order from confusion, educe light and order from such a dark mental, or moral chaos as this! Lord God, thou knowest. The first particular object that arrested my attention was a poor black man with his hands raised over the heads of the crowd, and shouting, 'Glory, glory to God on high,' I hasted towards him from the preaching-tent; but was stopt to see another black man prostrate on the ground, and his aged mother on her knees at his feet in all the agony of prayer for her son. Near him was a black woman, grasping her mistress' hand, and crying, 'O mistress, you prayed for me when I wanted a heart to pray for myself. Now thank God, he has given me a heart to pray for you and everybody else.' I then passed to a little white girl, about seven years old. She was reclining with her eyes closed on the arms of a female friend. But oh! what a serene angelic smile was in her face! If ever heaven was enjoyed in any little creature's heart it was enjoyed in her's. Were I to form some notion of an angel, it would aid my conception to think of her. I took her by the hand, and asked how she felt, she raised her head, opened her eyes, closed them, and gently sunk into her former state. I met her next day with two or three of her little companions, I asked her how she felt yesterday. 'O how happy,' said the dear little creature, with an ineffable smile, 'and I feel so happy now, I wish everybody was as happy as I am.' I asked her several questions relative to her views of sin, a Saviour, happiness and heaven; and she answered with propriety, and as I thought rather from proper present feelings than from past doctrinal or educational information: for when I was afterwards called to examine her in order to communion, I found her defective in this kind of knowledge, and dissuaded her from communicating at that time, though she much desired it. This I have since regretted, for I do believe, on cool reflection, that she possessed that experimental knowledge of salvation, which is infinitely preferable to all the doctrinal or systematic knowledge in the world without it.

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        "But to return. I pressed through the congregation in a circuitous direction, to the preaching tent, viewing one in the agony of prayer; another motionless, speechless, and apparently breathless; another rising in triumph, in prayer and exhortation. Among these was a woman five hours motionless, and a little boy under twelve years of age who arose, prayed and exhorted in a wonderful manner. After themselves I observed that their next concern was their nearest relations. After this, I went to the nearest encampment, where seven or eight were prostrate on the earth; while viewing this scene, a stout young man fell on his knees behind me, and cried for mercy. I turned about. He asked me to pray for him. I attempted it. He arose with some assistance, called for a brother, and gave him and the bystanders a most pressing dissuasive against delaying repentance; 'this,' said he, 'has been my own case until I saw the Iredell company passing by. They left me restless and wretched. I was forced to follow. I have just come; and have been running from camp to camp, until I was able to go no farther. I now cry for mercy, and feel determined to cry until I find it.'

        "After I had gone round the encampments I went into the wood to see a large number, some of them my own charge, at a distance from the camps. Two or three had retired for prayer and conversation, and were struck; others were led to them by their cries, some of whom were also struck, until there was a large company of spectators, and persons exercised. I had now viewed the whole as a spectator. My mind seemed to be made up of a strange mass of sensations, and I retired for a moment to make some serious reflections. Still did the notion of disorder perplex me. What is disorder, said I, and wherein consists its criminality? There is an external disorder, which disturbs formal organized worship. This disorder may arise from the fainting of the speaker, or of any of the hearers, or from any sudden alarm, as Hervey has stated in the story of a press-gang in a seaport in England. Has organized worship been disturbed in Randolph? No. Would the disturbance be criminal if it were involuntary? Certainly not. If so, Peter might have been disturbed with the cry of his hearers, and Paul with the fall of Eutychus from the third loft. Yet there was no crime. Where then is that disorder which involves guilt? It is in a multitude of improper, incoherent, and wandering thoughts. Do such thoughts pass through the minds of the exercised, or of serious spectators? No. An awful sense of the majesty of God--a painful sense of sin--an

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earnest desire to be delivered from it, &c., &c., surely there is no disorder here. I see criminal disorder through roving eyes, and vacant features. I see it in the conversation of an intoxicated youth. I see it in the giddy crowd running from camp to camp, without a fixed object, and I see it in the conduct of those profane persons who have overturned the sacramental tables, and trampled them under their unhallowed feet. This is disorder voluntary, and awfully criminal. But who will dare to say this of the poor sinners constrained to cry, even in the great assembly, 'Men and brethren, what must we do to be saved?' But who constrains? I answer, the impression is God's, the expression ours, and will ever be as the suddenness of conviction, the weakness or energy of the mind, and the sense or aggravation of its guilt. I had often viewed the unity and variety of God's works, and thought I began to see these traits here. What a sameness in the exercises of all, and yet what a wonderful variety in time, place, means, and degrees of exercises! What a sameness and variety in the persons, faces, and voices of men; and also in the natural powers and dispositions of the mind. Surely the God of nature is the God of grace. Natural affections begin with self, and then spread around; so do the affections that show themselves in this work. First, what shall I do to be saved? Then, O my child, my brother, or sister, 'Repent and believe.' Surely this must be the work of God, and marvellous in our eyes! After all, it seems an astonishing way to reform mankind. It is not the way I would take to do it. But what is conducted as I would conduct it?--peace or war, plenty or famine, pestilence or health, life or death? No. I can but say, O God, as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are thy thoughts above our thoughts, and thy ways above our ways.

        "On the last evening of the solemnities were my difficulties completely removed by the ardent exercise of a man near three score, a man far, very far from enthusiasm, and its constituents, melancholy and irrational devotion; a man whose mind was enlightened, long enlightened with the rays of science and religion. This man felt no pain nor anxiety for himself. The ardency of his desire, or prayer, was first excited for a particular person who was impressed; but his ardency seemed to rise as high as the heavens, and to extend wide as the earth. It seemed as if God then vouchsafed to answer his prayer, to rend the heavens, and come down; to shine into his heart, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus, and the joy unspeakable,

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even raptures, that arise from such a view. Never was prayer offered with more ardor for the extending of this work, nor with more firm and unbounded confidence that it would be extended. He seemed to see the glory of all the divine attributes at one view, and to see them all displayed in the progress of this glorious work. He has never since suspected that it was delusion, but has mostly since enjoyed.


                         'The soul's calm sunshine, and the heart-felt joy,
                         Which earth can't give, and which earth can't destroy.'

        And he has ever since expressed an ardent zeal to promote this work."

"LETTER III.

"February 4, 1802.

        "The subject of this letter is the first meeting in Iredell, called the Third Creek meeting; on this I have nothing different from Mr. Hall's statement, except these remarks: 'That persons who had obtained a religious education, and were moral in their general deportment, continued longer under convictive impressions than others who were ignorant and immoral; but the former had greatly the advantage in the regularity of their exercises, and in the facility and perspicuity with which they communicated them. And that, though very young and bashful persons might pray and exhort well under the first exercises or impressions, yet they seldom or never succeed so well in future. And that, though very young people have gone as far as education or genius could go, yet I have never seen them go beyond. It is indeed saying a great deal to assert that they have gone so far.' "

"LETTER IV.

"March 17, 1802.

        "The subject of this is the meeting at Cross-roads, in Iredell. The extract not noticed by Mr. Hall, is that a system of rules was agreed to by the ministers for the more uniform conducting of the work. These rules are:--

        "1. That persons exercised and crying for mercy, should neither be disturbed with prayer nor exhortation, unless when they requested

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it, or were verging to despair, or becoming careless without gaining consolation.

        "2. That when consolation came, thanks should be given; yet not in such terms as if conversion and salvation were entirely certain; but only in a judgment of charity hopefully begun, and to be manifested by a future humble active course of obedience to all the divine commandments. These rules were suggested by viewing the conduct of some, who seemed to push impressed persons too hastily along, and hazard the mistaking of convictions for conversion. Here too much caution cannot be taken; for, on the one hand, is danger of kindling sparks, and on the other, of establishing a righteousness of our own, or of getting confidence or consolation that comes not from the comforter. To these two rules might have been added two more. 1. Never to make it an object in prayer, preaching or exhortation, to excite bodily affections; for, in this sense, bodily exercise profiteth little. It is not essential to true religion, and is even now but an incidental circumstance which the wisdom of God is directing to purposes most important indeed. 2. That young people, and especially children, who had spoken feelingly and sensibly under their first impressions, should not be pushed forward by their friends to speak again, after these impressions were abated or gone.

        "Opposers here had time to combine, and show themselves. They were rather sentimentally than really united. One class were infidels, curiosity brought them, they laughed at the disputes of Christians, and cared little about them. Another class were the Associates--they were in angry earnest, and wished for disputation. Another class were of the baser sort, low, vulgar drunkards, buffoons and debauchees. These several classes were seldom opposed otherwise than by prayer."

"LETTER V.

"April 2d, 1802.

        "The subject of this is the meeting at New Providence.

        "Extract, not in Mr. Hall's Narrative. At this meeting has been demolished an infidel objection that only weak nerves and minds are affected in this work. Here I saw prostrate, a young man, remarkable for the robustness of his body, and energy of his mind, and for opposition resolute and determined. 'O God,' were his very words, 'and must I shrink now? Must I lie here an

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humble spectacle to the gazing crowd?' After a pause, 'O God, have mercy:'--but after another--'Did I ever ask it before? No! but often for curses.' Another young man, the largest in the Assembly, was stricken down. But the most remarkable of all was a gentleman of a strong constitution, and a mind enlightened, and enlarged by science, and knowledge of the world--and in the school of infidelity, a master. This gentleman I saw soon after he was struck. He passed a night in horrors indescribable. I heard him declare the next morning that he believed this to be a supernatural work; and urged in proof the first of the above young men, 'whom I know,' said he, 'to have both strength of nerves, and energy of mind; and yet he fell.'

        "His own Narrative first obtained from another, April 27, 1802, and afterwards directly from himself, May 22, is in my letter-book, and is exactly as follows."

"LETTER VI.

        "I was," said he, "nearly a confirmed deist; and though religiously educated, despised religion until about four weeks ago.

        "About that time a large meeting was held at Providence. I had the curiosity to attend. For nearly four days I continued on the ground, though often determined to leave it without any unusual impressions, except what were occasioned by the cries of the distressed. Although at some times I prayed to be religiously impressed, I never was more careless and hardened in my life until Monday evening, when sitting in Mr.--'s tent, reflecting on the strength of my body, and happy state of mind, notwithstanding my fatigue and want of rest, I was at once struck with an unusual sensation in my heart, which in a little time pervaded my chest in general. I felt no pain, but apprehended immediate death. I endeavored to remove it by walking, but in vain. Having returned to the tent, the sensation pervaded my whole body, and convulsions and involuntary gnashing of teeth ensued. Instantaneously these ceased, and I became as one dead, unable to move. While this continued, which was said to be about two hours, I experienced a dreadful gloom, and confused horrors of mind, but had no particular view of my sins. This resemblance of death was succeeded by other convulsions, and again I felt quiet; and until morning experienced more dreadful horrors, which increased as

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my bodily strength returned. When the exercise of my bodily organs was tolerably recovered, my horrors ceased without my being able to assign the particular cause of their removal. My first reflections were how I could possibly make a public profession of religion, and exhort as others were doing. A plan was immediately suggested how I might avoid it, which was to attribute all I had felt to fits; and say I had been subject to them before. This, however, I immediately detected as a suggestion of the devil, and discarded, resolving to love God and profess the religion of Jesus Christ, let the consequence be what it would. I then began to inquire what could be the cause of these new and sudden resolutions; for, thought I, it is scarcely possible, that I, who have been one of the most abandoned sinners, could experience a change of heart, without being more dreadfully humbled for my sins. I then indeed saw that they were great and of a most aggravated kind, being committed against so much light and goodness. And although I could not feel humbled for them as I wished, and as I know I ought, yet the glory, wisdom, justice, grace, and condescension of God, as displayed in the device of salvation through a mediator, broke in upon my mind. My soul was filled with admiration and love, at the fulness and freeness of his grace in Christ. My heart acquiesced in this glorious way of salvation, and my soul was drawn out in love to the holy and blessed Jesus. Never before did I know anything of true joy, and blessed be God, for this week past, he has permitted me to enjoy his smiles almost without interruption. But I am not satisfied, and at some times am led to fear the whole is a delusion but glory to God if it should be so; it is an incomparable sweet one. O! how sweet to contemplate the glorious character of Almighty God, and his infinite love to sinners through his dear Son. I am indeed often jealous of my own heart, and this often leads me to examine, with great care, my exercises, and compare them with the word of God; and the gracious experience mentioned in other good books. And if I am not greatly deceived, I can freely renounce all that is most dear to me in the world, for Christ and his religion. I pray the Lord may enable me to persevere. I desire to thank him I have been enabled to day, at court, to silence near a dozen of my old deistical companions, by stating to them my own experience. My case evaded all their objections, and they appeared to be struck with solemnity and alarm."

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"Connected with the foregoing, which I had from the gentleman's own hand, is the following, which I had from the hand of my friend and neighbor, the Rev. John Carrigan, and also from the lips of three other clergymen, who were eye and ear-witnesses. To render the account more authentic, I have made no alterations in it, and indeed I saw no need to make any.

"SAMUEL E. M'CORKLE."

LETTER VII.

"North Carolina, Cabarrus County, May 29, 1802.

        "REV. SIR,--I here transmit you a short, but I think important, statement of facts, to which I had the pleasure of being an eye and ear-witness.

        "On a late sacramental occasion, in a neighboring society, where I had the happiness of attending, my attention was frequently excited afresh by new and extraordinary instances of awakening. None, however, appeared so pointedly to arrest the public mind as that of a certain gentleman, who experienced his first impressions on Sabbath evening. His own declaration was, that he was sensibly struck in the forehead, as if by the end of a person's finger. He, supposing the stroke to be of the apoplectic kind, became alarmed with the view of instant death--he earnestly desired to have blood drawn, crying out, 'I cannot live.' His alarm of death gradually abating, he spent the night almost in silence; but still disbelieved it to be the work of God's spirit.

        "On Monday morning I was awaked by his bitter and piercing cries at a distance. When I went to him, the crowd (many of whom were in tears) was listening to his lamentation, which was to the following purport:--'O God, what a night I have spent in struggling against thy spirit; I have been an opposer and a despiser of this work; I came here with no better design yesterday morning, leaving my wife and children without calling them together for prayer, or even a wholesome advice; I would not let them come; I thought I was strong; I so despised the work and its friends as to begrudge it my presence; I had philosophized upon it, and could account for it all to my satisfaction, and that of my deistical friends with whom I had the greatest happiness for ten years past. But where did that philosophy come from, that struck me in the forehead yesterday; O God, what a creature have I been; and yet in thy unbounded

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goodness thou hast taken hold of me; O the unbounded goodness of God; O the unbounded goodness of God; O the unbounded goodness of God; when I came here yesterday morning I could not have prayed before four persons, or sung a piece of a hymn: no, the fact was I would not have done it; but now I could wish the world to hear me; O my friends, it is the work of God, it is the work of God; O yes it is; I have heard of Christians loving one another, and of one person feeling interested for the salvation of their fellow-sinners, but I never knew what it meant, or even believed that there could be such a thing till now;' pausing awhile he added: 'what a change has taken place in my mind since yesterday morning; my wife will be glad to see it, and all the friends of Jesus will rejoice with us; O God, may these impressions continue; I am afraid of high professions, but am constrained to acknowledge, from my present feelings, that if this world with all its glory was in my offer, I would not receive it as an inducement to exchange my present state for that in which I was yesterday; I came here and I knew not what brought me, for I confess I had not the approbation of my own will; I came not to hear sermon, and when I was here I tried to hear as little as I could; but God has laid on me his hand in mercy, when I was not seeking him.' His importunate exercises in prayer and exhortation, should they be all noted, would fill many pages; but I have noted his soliloquy in the above lines, as that through which we may take the most immediate view of the soul's exercises, when under the convictive operations of God's spirit. The gentleman has the advantages of a liberal education, and has always, so far as I have been acquainted, supported a good moral character; but till that period, by his own confession, had never suspected that there was any reality in religion, but scoffed at such pretensions. I suppose he is a little above forty years of age."

"LETTER VIII.

"May 28, 1802.

        "I have just returned from a general meeting at Waxhaws in South Carolina, which commenced on Friday 21st instant, and closed on the ensuing Tuesday.

        "About twenty ministers of various denominations attended, one hundred and twenty wagons, twenty carts, and eight carriages, and by a rough computation about three thousand five hundred

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persons, of whom more than one hundred were exercised on the occasion, few of whom received the sensible comfort of religion. I am happy that I attended, because I have returned with answers to two or three objections which were made here, against the least degree of divine agency in this work. These objections originated from facts that had taken place at two common sacramental occasions, which I had just before attended--one in the vicinity--the other at home. At the first of these the opposers were numerous, wretched, restless and daring. They cursed, and scoffed, and threatened, and fortified themselves with ardent spirits to prevent the stroke, or animate for opposition. And yet not one of them was struck down. At the other sacrament a number of females were afflicted, but not one man. These circumstances could not escape observation, united with another, viz., that it is at the close of all our meetings, when the body is debilitated and the mind impressed with a long series of dreadful sights and sounds, that by far the greater number fall.

        "At Waxhaws I saw these objections vanish away. About twenty persons fell the first day, the far greater number throughout the whole occasion were men, and few opposers escaped; not less than twelve of the most notorious fell. The second person that I saw struck was a man who had boasted that he would not fall. However, struck he was, fled, fell, was found, and brought to a tent where I saw him, and heard him cry for mercy. Curiosity had compelled another to attend, and the fear of falling had induced him to drink freely: so that it was doubtful when he was struck down, what was the true cause. Time determined. I saw him twelve hours after, and he was trying, in ardent language, to express his repentance, love, joy, gratitude, resolution, and hope. I saw another soon after he had fallen. His companion was gazing on. A respectable bystander told me that they were racing horses into the encampment that morning, that they were swearing and talking profanely, that the fallen had boasted that nothing but his bottle should ever bring him down, and that he would not for the value of the whole camp be degraded by falling for anything else. Another was struck down, and by one of the ministers (who told me) he was urged to pray. This he peremptorily refused. He was urged again, and then declared that he would rather be damned than pray. Such a comment on the enmity and pride of the human heart I never heard before. After lying all night on the ground, he crept away the next morning, and I heard of him no more.

        "A remarkable occurrence took place on my return, not far from

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the encampment. A young man was exercised in a thick wood, he was found, and then called for his relatives and neighbors, to whom he gave a very ardent exhortation. His exercises were joyful, as they respected himself; but became painful when his thoughts turned on his thoughtless or opposing relatives and neighbors. But the most singular circumstance was his own solemn declaration, that he had experienced this painful work in that very wood long before he had ever seen it in others; and therefore he cried out with unusual animation, 'O my friends, this work is the work of God, and not sympathy, as some of you suppose.'

"LETTER IX.

"Narrative of Proceedings at Jersey Settlement, Rowan County,
North Carolina.
"June, 4-8, 1802.

        "A sermon was delivered on Friday to a large, thoughtless, disorderly crowd, which became gradually composed and serious, until Monday, which was the most solemn day that my eyes ever beheld. Near three thousand persons attended, and of these near three hundred were exercised throughout the occasion, and perhaps not fewer than the half of them on Monday.

        "Nothing very unusual at such meetings appeared, until Sunday evening, when a stout negro-woman, who had been all day mocking the mourners, fell; and fell in a state of horror and despair that baffles description. In this state, she continued with intervals, for three hours. I viewed her all the time, and it was impossible for my imagination to conceive of her being more tormented had she actually been in hell. She often roared out, 'O hell! hell! hell! Thy pangs have seized me! O torment! torment! What torments me! Hell can't be worse. Let me go there at once. It is my dreadful doom.' She said she saw hell-flames below, herself hung over by a thread, and a sharp, bright sword drawn to cut it through. Her exertions, at this moment, nor angel nor devil could describe. Two stout negro-men were no match for her struggles. I thought of the man among the tombs with his legion. Such an exercise I never beheld, and I have seen not less than a thousand. No one that saw it, ever beheld anything that would stand in comparison. At intervals she cried, 'O for mercy! but what have I to do with mercy? No mercy for poor miserable me. Hope, however,

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began to prevail, and at last she shouted, 'Glory, glory,' as loud, and as long as she had roared out, 'Hell-torment' before. 'Astonishing,' said she, 'I have mocked the mourners, boasted that I could stand, been in hell, and, O praise God, praise Him, praise Him, He has brought me out. Never, never, let me forget to love, and praise, and serve my God, my Redeemer.'

        "Very different, but less noticeable was another exercise on Monday. After a sermon and two exhortations, arose, with trembling and wild consternation, a man who adjured the preachers before God, to say on their conscience, whether they did believe the necessity of these convictions which they had been urging. The whole assembly was struck with solemn astonishment. The preachers, after a pause, said with one voice, 'We do, we do believe it.' He then turned to the assembly, and begged of those who had felt conviction, to pray for him, and others who had not. He sat down. An awful silence ensued, and then a prayer was performed for them. When this scene ended, he rose, and called on all who had not felt conviction, to join with him in prayer for themselves. After a short, pathetic prayer, he retired. I afterwards conversed with him. He said that he had never suspected our sincerity, but wished to have the assembly impressed with our public declaration; that his first feeling was a bodily sensation rising from his bowels toward his breast, and that with this sensation arose his resolution to speak, and an impulse irresistible to execute it. And certain am I that, had he studied for a year, he could have devised no plan that would have produced such a solemn effect on the assembly. In the evening he was severely exercised, and obtained as much consolation as, in his own words, 'such a sinner could expect.' 'This,' said he, 'is the chief ground of my consolation, that I feel resolutions made with a temper which I never experienced before. I think I feel that I am acting from principles, and that I feel the principles from which I act.' This man possessed a large portion of natural understanding, and a liberal education, but regrets that he has been too long wandering through the wilds of infidelity and intemperance. He has firmly resolved to abandon his old companions, and choose new ones, and be another man. May God enable him so to do.

        "What wonders are doing around us! What think you of a wedding, a gay giddy bride, and a severe exercise on her bridal day? All this has happened in the vicinity of this meeting, and but a few days before it, I conversed with the bride. She said she had thought seriously of this work before; but was not, when struck,

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thinking seriously about anything. She was struck soon after the ceremony was performed, and struck in such an awful manner, that for some time she knew not what was the matter. Her friends were prodigiously alarmed, and their mirth turned into sober sadness. She at last obtained a little consolation, and told me she was earnestly seeking for more. In the vicinity of this place is a man of mid-age, who was struck in his bed; and a young woman, who experienced all this work in secret five or six years before ever she saw it in others. I know her, and believe that she abhors a lie.

        "Westfield, August 9, 1802. To Mr. Langdon in Salisbury, Rowan County, N. Carolina.

        "Your's, &c.,

"SAMUEL M'CORKLE."


A True Account of a Great Meeting held in the District of Spartanburgh, South Carolina.

"Abbeville (S. C.), July 7th, 1802.

        "MY FRIEND:--I have just returned from Nazareth, where I have seen and heard things which no tongue can tell, no pen can paint, no language can describe, or of which no man can have a just conception, until he has seen, heard, and felt. I am willing that you should have a perfect detail of all the circumstances attending this meeting; and of all occurrences which there took place. But you must accept the acknowledgments of my inadequacy to draw a just representation; yet, as far as I may be able, I will now give you an account of some things.

        "The meeting was appointed some months since by the Presbytery, and commenced on Friday, the 2d inst. The grove wherein the camp was pitched was near the water of Tyger River; and being in a vale which lay between two hills gently inclining towards each other, was very suitably adapted to the purpose. The first day was taken up in encampment until two o'clock, when divine service commenced with a sermon by the Rev. John B. Kennedy. He was succeeded by the Rev. William Williamson, in an address explanatory of the nature and consequences of such meetings. The assembly was then dismissed. After some short time, service commenced again with a sermon by the Rev. James Gilleland; who was followed by the Rev. Robert Wilson, in a very serious and solemn exhortation. Afterwards the evening was spent in singing and prayer alternately. About sundown the people

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were dismissed to their respective tents. By this time the countenances of all began to be shaded by the clouds of solemnity, and to assume a very serious aspect. At ten o'clock two young men were lying speechless, motionless, and sometimes to all appearance, except in the mere act of breathing, dead. Before day, five others were down; these I did not see. The whole night was employed in reading and commenting upon the word of God; and also in singing, praying and exhorting; scarcely had the light of the morning sun dawned on the people, ere they were engaged in what may be called family worship. The adjacent tents collecting in groups, here and there, all round the whole line. The place of worship was early repaired to by a numerous throng. Divine service commenced at eight by one of the Methodist brethren, whom I do not recollect. He was followed by the Rev. Mr. Shackleford, of the Baptist profession. Singing, praying and exhorting by the Presbyterian clergymen continued until two o'clock, when an intermission of some minutes was granted, that the people might refresh themselves with water, &c. By this time, the audience became so numerous, that it was impossible for all to crowd near enough to hear one speaker; although the ground rising above the stage theatrically, afforded aid to the voice. Hence, the assembly divided, and afterwards preaching was performed at two stages. An astonishing and solemn attention in the hearers, and an animating and energetic zeal in the speakers, were now everywhere prevailing. Service commenced half after two by the Rev. John Simpson at one stage, and at the other, by the Rev. James M'Elhenney, who were succeeded by the Rev. Francis Cummings. After these sermons, fervent praying, &c., were continued until, and through the night, in which time many were stricken, and numbers brought to the ground.

        "The next morning (Sabbath morning), a still higher, if possible, more engaged and interesting spirit pervaded the whole grove; singing and praying echoed from every quarter until eight o'clock, when divine service commenced again at both stages, before two great and crowded assemblies. The action sermons were delivered by the Rev. Robert Wilson, at one stage, and the Rev. William Cummings Davis at the other. I did not hear Mr. Wilson. But Mr. Davis's was one of the most popular orthodox gospel sermons that I ever heard. No sketch, exhibited in words, would be adequate to portray the appearance of the audience under this discourse. Imagine to yourself thousands under a sense of the greatest possible danger, anxious to be informed in all that related to their

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dearest interests, in the presence of a counsellor, who, laboring with all his efforts, should be endeavoring to point out the only way to security; and you will have some faint conception of this spectacle.

        "Thence ensued the administration of the Lord's Supper. To the communion sat down about four hundred persons. It was a matter of infinite satisfaction, to see on this occasion the members of the Methodist and Presbyterian churches united; all owning and acknowledging the same God, the same Saviour, the same Sanctifier, and the same Heaven. We are sorry to add that the Baptists refused to join; whether their objections were reasonably justifiable, I shall not presume to say.

        "The evening exercises, although greatly interrupted by the intemperance of the weather, progressed as usual, until about dark; when there commenced one of the most sublime, awfully interesting and glorious scenes which could possibly be exhibited on this side of eternity. The penetrating sighs, and excruciating struggles of those under exercise; the grateful exultations of those brought to a sense of their guilty condition, and to a knowledge of the way to salvation; mingled with the impressions which are naturally excited by the charms of music and the solemnity of prayer on such occasions; and to all this added the nature of the scenery, the darkness of night and the countenances of the spectators, speaking in terms more expressive than language, the sympathy, the hope and the fear of their hearts, were sufficient to bow the stubborn neck of infidelity, silence the tongue of profanity, and melt the heart of cold neglect, though hard as adamant. This scene continued through the night. Monday morning dawned big with the fate of its importance. The morning exercises were conducted as usual. About half past seven the assembly met the ministers at the stage, and service commenced by the Rev. Mr. Waddel. After which ensued singing, exhorting and a concert of prayer. At length the business closed with an address, energetic and appropriate, by the Rev. Francis Cummins. In the course of this day many were stricken, numbers of whom fell.

        "I cannot but say that the parting was one of the most moving and affecting scenes which presented itself throughout the whole. Families, who had never seen each other until they met on the ground, would pour forth the tears of sympathy, like streams of waters; many friendships were formed, and many attachments contracted, which, although the persons may never meet again, shall never be dissolved. Not one quarter of an hour before I mounted

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my horse to come away, I saw one of the most beautiful sights which ever mortal beheld. It would not only have afforded pleasure to the plainest observer, but the profoundest philosopher would have found it food for his imagination. The case to which I allude was the exercise of Miss Dean, one of the three sisters who fell near the close of the work. Her reflections presented mostly objects of pleasure to her view. But sometimes, for the space of a minute, she would lose them; the consequence of which was painful distress. By the very features of her face I could see when her afflictive sensations approached, as plain as ever I saw the sun's light obscured by the over-passing of clouds. In her happy moments she awakened in my recollection Milton's lively picture of Eve when in a state of innocence.

        "Another extraordinary case occurred at the very moment of departure. Two men disputing, one for, the other against the work, referred their contest to a clergyman of respectability, who happened to be passing that way. He immediately took hold of the hand of the unbeliever, and thus addressed him: 'If you were in your heart's desire to wait on the means of grace, God would show you the truth. You may expect mercy to visit you; but remember, my hand for it, it will cost you something; a stroke would not now come at a successless hour.' Scarcely had the words dropped from his lips, when the man was on the ground, pleading for an interest in the kingdom of heaven, and begging pardon of God for his dishonoring him and the cause of religion, through unbelief. I understood the man to be a pious man, and his hesitations of a religious and conscientious kind. The other men who had been in the crowd, where many were lying under the operations of the work, attempted to run off. One, leaving his hat in his haste, ran about twenty or thirty paces and fell on his face. His shrieks declared the terrors and anguish under which he labored. The other ran a different course about fifty yards, and fell.

        "The number of those who were stricken could not be ascertained, but I believe it to be much greater than any one would conceive. On Sabbath night, about twelve or one o'clock, I stood alone on a spot whence I could hear and see all over the camp; and found that the work was not confined to one, two or three places, but overspread the whole field; and in some large crowds the ground appeared almost covered. In the course of one single prayer, of duration about ten minutes, twelve persons fell to the ground: the majority of whom declared, in terms audible and explicit, that they never prayed before.

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        "There attended on this occasion thirteen Presbyterian preachers, viz.: Messrs. Simpson, Cummins, Davis, Cunningham, Wilson, Waddel, Williamson, Brown, Kennedy, Gilleland, sen'r., M'Elhenney, Dixon and Gilleland, junior; and, an unknown number of Methodists and Baptists.

        "The multitude on this occasion far exceeded anything which had come under my observation. There were various conjectures of the numbers present; some allowed three, some four, some five, some six, some seven, and some eight thousand. I had not been in the habit of seeing such multitudes together, and therefore do not look upon myself capable of reckoning anyways accurately on the subject. But I do candidly believe five thousand would not be a vague conjecture. The district of Spartanburgh, where the meeting was held, contains no less than twelve thousand souls. Men of information who reside therein, said, to one who might be travelling, the country would appear almost depopulated, and hesitated not in the least to say two thirds of the inhabitants were present. Now supposing only one third to have attended, from that district itself, there would have been four thousand. Besides, there were multitudes from the districts of Union, York, Laurens and Greenville; Numbers from Pendleton, Abbeville, Chester and Newbury, and some from Green, Jackson, Elbert and Franklin counties, of the State of Georgia. Of carriages, the number was about two hundred, including wagons and all other carriages.

        "In a thinking mind, an approach to the spot engendered awful and yet pleasing reflection. The ideas which necessarily struck the mind were, thousands in motion to a point, where to meet, tell, hear, see and feel the mighty power of God. Believe me, sir, no composition can exaggerate the spirit of one of these occasions, although facts may be misrepresented. For a lively miniature, I refer you to an extract of a letter, contained in a book lately published and entitled, 'Surprising Accounts;' where this expression is used, 'The slain of the Lord were scattered over the fields.'

        "I cannot omit mentioning an idea expressed by Mr. Williamson. After taking a view of the general prevalency of dissipation and slothful neglect in religious affairs, he concluded, saying, 'These works appear like the last efforts of the Deity to preserve his church, and promote the cause of religion on this earth.' To see the brilliancy and sublimity of this idea, we need only recur to the state of society for a few years back; especially in the southern States of United America, when and where, Satan with all his influence appeared to be let loose and was going about like a roaring lion

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seeking whom he might devour. This extraordinary work carries in itself, demonstratively, the truth of the Christian religion. Men who fall, and many there are who have paid no attention to the holy scriptures, yea, even infidels of the deepest dye, cry out 'their sinful state by nature,' 'their alienation from God,' 'and man's incapacity to satisfy the justice of the law under which he stands condemned,' 'and of course the absolute necessity of a Redeemer.' When receiving comfort from this last consideration, I heard none crying for Mahomed, Bramma, Grand Lama or Hamed; none but Christ was their healing balm, in him alone was all reliance fixed, on him alone was all dependence placed.

        "It would be exceedingly difficult to draw an intelligible representation of the effects of this work upon the human body. Some are more easily and gently wrought than others; some appear wholly wrapped in solitude; while others cannot refrain from pouring out their whole souls in exhortations to those standing round; different stages, from mild swoons to convulsive spasms, may be seen; the nerves are not unfrequently severely cramped; the subjects generally exhibit appearances as though their very hearts would burst out of their mouths: the lungs are violently agitated, and all accompanied with an exhalation; they universally declare that they feel no bodily pain at the moment of exercise, although some complain of a sore breast and the effects of a cramping, after the work is over; the pulse of all whom I observed beat quick and regular, the extremities of the body are sometimes perceptibly cold. In short, no art or desire would imitate the exercise. No mimic would be able to do justice to the exhibition. This demonstrates the error of the foolish supposition of its being feigned. I will conclude, my dear Sir, acknowledging that all I have here written is incompetent to give you any complete idea of the work. Therefore to you and all who wish to be informed, I say, come, hear, see, and feel.

        I am your's, respectfully,

"EBENEZER H. CUMMINS."


        As the attention to religion spread wider, and became more general, the variety and degree of the bodily exercises greatly increased in the Carolinas, and renewedly called the attention of the considerate and judicious. The extravagances of some parts of the West never found their way east of the Alleghanies, such as running back and forth, barking like a dog, and uttering

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inhuman sounds, like nothing imaginable. Some individuals, that had been affected with these extravagances, visited their friends east of the great mountains, and, during the meetings they attended, gave some specimens, apparently involuntary, of the manner of these peculiarities: happily the example was not contagious. Loss of strength, swoons, outcries, sobs, and groans, and violent spasmodic jerkings of the body, became in a degree common through the Carolinas.

        A venerable clergyman now living (1846) was affected by the jerks a few times, and the account he gives will probably help to a right understanding of those singular affections. He was licensed in the spring of 1801, and went soon after to preach statedly at Bethany, in Caswell county, or Rattlesnake, as it was often called--(the congregation is not now known by either name, having been divided into Gilead and Yanceyville)--and with it associated Greers or Upper Hico. The interest on the subject of religion had been felt through Granville and Caswell. The bodily exercises were common, but had not gone to great excess or extravagance. He had attended a communion season at Bethany on a certain occasion with much enjoyment, and, on his way home to his residence, tarried a night at the house of Mr. James Greer. As the hour of evening worship approached, he felt deeply impressed with a sense of the presence of Almighty God in his holiness and majesty. God's purity and grace appeared wonderful. This sense increased upon him during worship. After worship, the sense of the presence of a pure and holy God overawed him: it seemed to him he should sink under it. He felt astonished that God, such a God, should be so good to such an unworthy creature. He walked out to get by himself, and started to go across a little piece of corn to a small retired valley. Before he could reach the retirement he was seized in a most surprising manner. Suddenly he began leaping about, first forward, then sideways, and sometimes, standing still, would swing backward and forward "see-saw fashion." This motion of his body was both involuntary and irresistible at the commencement; afterwards, there was scarcely a disposition to resist, and in itself the motion was neither painful nor unpleasant. The people in the house heard the noise, and came running to his relief, and carried him in their arms back to the dwelling. The fit lasted about an hour, during which time, if the attendants let go their hold, he would jerk about the room as he had done in the field. Gradually it passed away and he retired to rest, humbled at the exhibition he had made.

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        On the next day he felt more ashamed of the matter, as he had fully believed that, at the first outset at least, the jerks could be resisted. As he rode away, he felt mortified, and wished he had charged the people where he lodged to make no mention of the matter, believing that it would make against him, and that he could and would resist them for the future. But, on that very day, while visiting a neighbor, without any special excitement, talking about the meeting, he was suddenly seized again, and jerked across the room, and continued under the influence of the exercise for about fifteen minutes. He went home very much confounded.

        He once afterwards had a return of the exercise in the pulpit at Hawfields. Mr. Hodge, who had once been the preacher there, and had been so prominent in the revival in the West, was visiting the congregation. After the services of public worship were concluded, sitting with him in the pulpit, he began to inquire of his old friend about the revival in the West. Suddenly the exercises came on, but soon passed away. He did not then believe them, nor has he since considered them, as being of the nature of true religion, or as having any necessary connection with it; but, judging from his own experience, and what he saw in others, he concluded there was no capability of resisting them, as they came on, nor any disposition to do so, after they had begun.

        By degrees the bodily exercises lost their hold upon the public mind as being a part of religious experience; persons who had no sense of religion were seized by them both at places of public worship and while about their ordinary business, and sometimes were left as unconcerned as ever, and at other times appeared to be greatly irritated by them; and the preachers generally not only discountenanced them, but openly opposed; and long before the attention to religion ceased, these exercises were confined to a few neighborhoods in North Carolina, and became connected with irregularities that required the censure of the church, which in a few cases was inflicted, as appears from the records of the Synod of the Carolinas for the years 1809 and 1810.

        As a specimen of the extent to which the exercises were carried in the West about the time the Presbyterian ministers set themselves in opposition, the following narrative or extract from a diary is presented, taken from the Virginia Religious Magazine for 1807, published in Lexington, Virginia. The narrative was drawn up by Rev. John Lyle, then living in Kentucky.

        "Saturday, Nov. 6th, 1805.--I went to the Beach meeting-house, where a meeting was appointed by the Presbyterians and

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Methodists, called in the country, the Union Meeting. There I heard a sermon delivered by a Mr. N--, who has lately been licensed by the Cumberland Presbytery, and is said to be a man of learning. There was nothing remarkable in his sermon except his pressing exhortations to the people to pray out, shout, dance, &c., in time of divine worship. He told them to shout, to pray aloud, or do whatever duty they felt an impression to do. Said he, 'I believe it will not offend God, and I am sure it will not offend me.' The people, though prior to this seemingly careless and inattentive, were roused to action,--shouted, prayed aloud, exhorted, and jerked till near the setting of the sun.

        "I am well aware that it is impossible to describe an assembly thus agitated, so as to give those who have never seen the like, a just and adequate idea of it; I would just observe that though I had been accustomed to seeing strong and indescribable bodily agitations in the upper counties of Kentucky, and had frequently seen the jerks, yet all this observation and experience did not prepare my mind to behold without trepidation and horror the awful scenes now exhibited before me. The jerks were by far the most violent and shocking I had ever seen. The heads of the jerking patients flew with wonderous quickness from side to side in various directions, and their necks doubled like a flail in the hands of a thresher. Their faces were distorted and black, as if they were strangling, and their eyes seemed to flash horror and distraction. Numbers of them roared out in sounds the most terrific. The people camped in wagons and tents round the stand. I returned to the Rev. William McGee's."

        The like scenes were expected the next day. Mr. Stone, the leader of the New Lights, was there, but was not permitted to preach. Such scenes as these brought the bodily exercise into entire disrepute with the sober and sedate, and the Presbyterian Church generally; and the work of revival went on without these where they were vigorously opposed.

        Such scenes never prevailed in North Carolina; the nearest approach was in one neighborhood in Lincoln County, to which sufficient reference is made in the minutes of the Synod. These things are recorded, both as matters of historical fact, and as warning against yielding to irregularities, however specious their appearance.

        The revival in North Carolina, separated from all these objectionable things, was extensive and most salutary in its effects in reforming the life and elevating religious and moral principle, and promoting the domestic and civil welfare.

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        We have no written account of the progress of the revival in the lower part of the State, drawn up by the hand of one of the actors. In default of this account, which would have been highly prized, we are guided by the accounts from other sources, and particularly by the statements of Dr. Hall, the author of the pamphlet, which makes a part of this chapter. He visited the bounds of Fayetteville Presbytery, and made report to Synod in the year 1810. From these sources it appears that the revival spread rapidly and most extensively through the Scotch settlements; that the bodily exercises prevailed to some degree for a time, but never reached the objectionable height they did in some places in the West, and were probably more circumscribed than in the upper country. The ministers that were living in that section of the State at that time, were Samuel Stanford, who is reported in the records of Synod for 1799, as preaching on Black River, and Brown, Marsh, Angus, M'Diarmid, at Barbacue Bluff and McCoy's; John Gillespie, at Centre, Laurel Hill and Raft Swamp; Robert Tate, South Washington and Rockfish. Murdoch McMillan and Malcolm M'Nair were licensed in 1801, and reported as ordained in 1803. Nearly all of these were young men; and Mr. Hall testifies that they were active, laborious and successful in their Master's work. The existing churches were greatly enlarged, and new ones formed, so that previous to 1812, the ministers and churches of the Scotch settlements, and those between them and the Ocean, were sufficiently numerous to form a Presbytery. Some eminently useful ministers in this work had but comparatively a short race, as M'Nair; others are living to this day, as the venerable Robert Tate.

        As the fruits of the revival, many ministers of the gospel were raised up; two men in the middle age left their occupations and prepared for the ministry, and became eminently useful. One of them, Mr. Peacock, died in the year 1830; the other, Mr. McIntyre, who commenced his preparations for the ministry in his forty-fifth year, still lives, and is able occasionally to preach, having continued his most active ministerial life till within a few years. This is noticed by Mr. Hall in an honorable manner.

        Throughout Carolina, wherever the revival prevailed, the community received unspeakable blessings, and the church, in succeeding ages, can but remember with thankfulness, the mercy of God, and bear in her heart and preserve in her records the names of men whom God honored as the instruments of so many blessings to their fellow-men.

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CHAPTER XXVIII.
REV. HUMPHREY HUNTER AND THE CHURCHES OF STEELE CREEK, GOSHEN, AND UNITY.

        HUMPHREY HUNTER was one of those men, who, having suffered and fought bravely in the war of American Independence, gave the strength of their manhood and the ripened experience of their age, to proclaiming the gospel of everlasting deliverance from sin and misery by the Lord Jesus Christ. Drawn by the excitement of the occasion, he mingled with the crowd that in May, 1775, listened to the Declaration of Independence in Charlotte, and carefully preserved a copy of that memorable document, the pioneer of Declarations of Independence, for the benefit of his children and of posterity. He joined in the shout of approval when Col. Polk read the paper from the court-house steps, and was among the foremost to redeem the pledge so solemnly given, "of life, and fortune, and most sacred honor," by taking arms in the defence of liberty, and suffering captivity and wounds in the sacred cause. All his matured years were given to preaching the gospel of our Lord. His first services were rendered in South Carolina. From thence he removed to Lincoln county, in North Carolina, and took charge of the congregations of Goshen and Unity, and some time after extended his services to Steele Creek, one of the oldest congregations in the State, bordering on Sugar Creek (which embraced Charlotte) on the southwest. Goshen became a preaching-place anterior to Unity, and Steele Creek long before either.

        From the fact that in 1776 a call was brought into the Synod of New York and Philadelphia from Steele Greek and Providence, it is probable that the church on Steele Creek was organized by Messrs. Elihu Spencer and Alexander McWhorter, who were sent by the Synod in 1764 to the back part of North Carolina, to aid the people in organizing churches, settling their boundaries, and taking proper steps to obtain regular pastoral services. In 1765, the Synod appointed Rev. Messrs. Kerr, Duffield, Ramsay, David Caldwell, Latta, and McWhorter, to spend each half a

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year in the vacant congregations of Carolina. In the next year the call for the services of Mr. Kerr is sent to Synod.

        Long previous to that time there was occasional preaching on Steele Creek, by missionaries and travelling preachers, as McAden, while those who were willing to ride the distance of from six to sixteen miles, could attend on the preaching at Sugar Creek. In the early settlements, fifteen and sixteen miles were often passed over to attend the sanctuary on a Sabbath morning; and as many more in the evening, to return to the secluded forest homes of the scattered inhabitants that ultimately formed Steele Creek and Providence churches, whose nearest regular preaching was at Sugar Creek. The settlement of all these congregations commenced about the same time, Sugar Creek and Rocky River taking the precedence somewhat in point of time, and very particularly in obtaining the services of a settled pastor.

        In 1767, the Rev. Robert Henry, the first settled pastor on Cub Creek, Charlotte county, Virginia, having left his charge in Virginia, accepted a call from Steele Creek and Providence; in the mysterious Providence of God, he closed his life that year.

        The Rev. Dr. McRee, so long pastor of Centre, spent some twenty years of his life in Steele Creek, taking his residence there in 1778 and leaving it in 1797. A more particular account of him will be given under the head of Centre congregation. Between his service and the time of Mr. Henry, the congregation does not appear to have had a settled minister, unless Mr. Reese was occupied a few years with Steele Creek and Providence. He was preaching in Mecklenburg about the commencement of the Revolution, and used his pen for his country.

        You may find Steele Creek church on the road from Camden, South Carolina, through Lincoln to Tennessee, some ten miles southwest from Charlotte, and some five or six south of Tuckasege ford. As you go up from Camden, you will pass the spacious church on the left hand; but whichever way you may be passing you will not mistake the low wooden house, the second upon the same site, with the old grave-yard, a few steps to the east, filled with monuments, and the new yard on the west across the great road, with a few graves, the chosen resting-place of a large congregation.

        Would you see the records of Steele Creek? She has no history. None of her females conversant with events of thrilling interest, when Steele Creek was the track of armies in the Revolutionary struggle, has, like the old lady of Poplar Tent, committed

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to writing the circumstances peculiar to the congregation, whose recital shall warm the heart of every one who traces his line of descent from the actors in these stirring and often bloody scenes. Had some one called their attention, like the Pastor of Poplar Tent, to the difference between traditionary story growing more and more faint and uncertain with passing years, and the written record that may remain to all time, in all probability some of the ladies of the past generation would have prevented our saying Steele Creek has no history.

        But she has records. Not written with pen and ink, but graven in the enduring rock, records brief, concise, numerous, and characteristic. With the ever to be commended practice of gathering the remains of the dead to the sepulchres of their fathers, in the enclosure near the place of worship, securely walled in, sacred as the place of graves, unexposed to the plough of the stranger or the cold-hearted descendant, this congregation has gone farther and excelled their neighbors, in erecting those monumental stones, that shall tell what people and families have once been active in the business of life on the surrounding plantations, have mingled in social intercourse, and in the worship of God, in that decaying house, have tasted of the sweets and bitterness of life, then given place to others, soon to vanish away before the infants of today. Wave after wave passes on, and those brief records and enduring stones tell where they brake on the shore of eternity.

        Were these that worshipped here more reverential of the dead? or more affectionate in attachments unsevered by the grave? or more abundant in resources to procure what gentle-hearted poverty might sigh for in vain, a monument, or tablet, or grave-stone; a monument of the dead? or was it simply that their habitations were many miles of "weary hauling" nearer the market and the workshop?

        Will you walk among these tombs? Perhaps pride and vanity shall be humbled, worldliness may get a death-blow; and the heart go away chastened from the perusal of these monumental stones pointing faith to the skies, and cheerful under the providence of God that has not yet consigned us to the silent abodes. Let us enter by this gate, in the west wall, near the church, and advancing a few paces northeastwardly, read the brief and only record of one that shed his blood in the battle of Camden:--

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Sacred to the Memory of
JOHN MCDOWELL,
who departed this life July 30th, 1795.

Aged 52 years.

An unexceptionable character,
in whose death
his family, his neighborhood,
the State, and the Church,
sustained a loss.


        In that unfortunate battle in which Gates was defeated and De Kalb slain, this man received three wounds, the pains of which never left him, and went with the honorable scars to his grave. Two facts about this man are of enduring interest, that he was a Christian, and a soldier of the Revolution, that poured out blood and carried wounds for his country. One is recorded here,--the record was too brief to make mention of the other. Would that some hand that can guide the iron-pen would fill out this record; and go on through this yard, and throughout the whole community of Carolina, and tell to posterity the names, and where lies the dust of the men who suffered in the Revolution: how it would catch a stranger's eye! how it would throb the heart of a descendant, travelling from the far South or West to visit the sepulchre of his ancestor!

        "It is the fortune of war," said Captain McDowell, of the army of His Majesty George III., while plundering this man's house, in a foraging party, during the brief sojourn of Cornwallis in Charlotte in the year 1780. "Is it soldier-like to plunder a helpless family so, and leave us nothing?" said the wife and mother. "But, madam, we must have something to eat, and these rebels won't bring it in." "And have you no women and children at home?" "What is your name, madam?" "McDowell is our name." "McDowell! that is my name; where are you from?" "Our family came from Scotland, Sir." "Aye! and very likely then ye are kin of mine; I have some here in America." Calling in his men, saying they had got enough from that house, he added, "An' likely ye have some of your family amongst the rebels; but it is the fortune of war. Goodbye! it is the fortune of war."

        "Carried these scars from the battle-field to his grave!" How that deed chiselled in this stone would move the heart of every passenger. And if the actions of the dead were briefly hinted at upon their tomb-stones, how coming generations would read in the enclosure at Sugar Creek,--ABRAHAM ALEXANDER, Elder in the

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Church, and President of the Convention, May 20th, 1775; and in Hopewell, near the Arma Libertatis of Bradley, DAVIDSON fell at Cowan's Ford, resisting the Invasion of 1781; and in Bethany, HALL, Captain of a Company, and Chaplain to the Regiment in actual service in the Revolution; and as they read feel the unutterable emotions of a soul stirred up to deeds of excellence by the memory of these worthies, the like of whom the world cannot soon see again.

        Men begin to trace their origin to the emigration from Ireland with conscious exultation; and the actors, and the deeds, and the very places of Revolutionary events are invested with a constantly increasing interest. Where are they? is the inquiry of the patriotic and the young; and could this money-seeking age but anticipate the eagerness with which the coming generations will search for the tombs and the battle-fields, and the scenes of patriotic exploits on the line of march from Camden to Guilford, it would blush.

        But look around a little, see this peculiar fashion of these records of the dead, which mark the period immediately following the Revolution:--they are made with raised letters, and contrast with those less shapely older, and these smoother new ones, that are deeply chiselled. The very fashion of the monuments proclaims that we are in a changing world. You may count the generations, from the low and rudely sculptured head-stones of the old settlers, through the more erect and stately, and the embossed letters, to the polished marble of to-day. There is one class peculiar, and not unpleasing. On a single head-stone, in parallel columns, are the short record of man and wife; joined in life, joined in death, joined in the recollection of the living, and in the hopes of eternity, they are not separated in the grave or the monuments of the tomb. You may see one erected by a surviving partner, in which the column for the dead, filled up, stands waiting for the inscription that death shall put upon the other.

        None of these monuments have stood a century. Very many, whose shape and workmanship tell you they have a claim to be numbered among the oldest in this yard, are to the memory of little children. As in actual life, more have died in infancy than in old age; so here, in the early times of this congregation, more monuments were raised for the young than for the old, and most for infants. Did these people love their parents less? or was it the tender affection of faith, softening the hearts of emigrants and their children, and protecting from the intrusion of careless feet, and

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larger sepulchres, the little graves, where slept the sweet flowers, plucked so soon away, not to perish, but to bloom in heaven for ever? Religion is amiable, faith is lovely: and Christ has bound the Christian heart to heaven more strongly by the little ones he has gathered in his arms and blessed. And when did the departure of threescore years and ten so open the fountain of tears, as when the little one has gone away? What multitudes have said, in bitter tears, "I will go down into the grave to my child, mourning."

        Wherever you turn, you see the influence of the continually moulding power of poetry and music. How deep into the heart the sacred songs of a worshipping congregation, sung by fathers and children and great-grandchildren, shoot their influence, and mingle with the springs of thought, and carry along the rhythm of the poetry and the cadence of the song, sacred from immemorial time. Read this:--

In memory of
MARGARET GILMOR,
who died March 30th, 1805.
A good economist through life.
In all respects was she
A tender mother, virtuous wife.
Deceased 3 score & 3.


        And this on the tomb of a young person--


                         Stop, careless youth, and read,
                         And as you read consider
                         How soon the worm may feed
                         On you and I together.

        You feel at once the cadence and rhyme of David's Psalms in metre, as sung in times past by the churches in Scotland, and by many still in America.

        Mrs. Alexander, of Poplar Tent, in her Birthday Meditations, everywhere shows that the Bible gave her the truths for a foundation, her catechism, the framework of her thoughts, and Watts the peculiar fashion. Watts's Psalms and Hymns have been sung these sixty years or more in Poplar Tent; and the version of Rouse is still sung part of every Sabbath in public worship in Steele Creek.

        Of the four ministers laid in the yard, three were of the Seceding Church and congregation, as they are called, whose place of worship, called Little Steele Creek, is but a short distance to the south. The congregations are much intermingled, and both have retained a partiality for David's Psalms in metre.

        It is more than probable that all the congregations of the Scotch

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and Irish origin would, in the southern and southwestern States, have become one body after the Revolution, having few causes of division, and many to draw them into closer union, could they have agreed upon their Psalmody, or used with each other the kindness and discretion that has been, and now is, exercised in Steele Creek. In some places the ineradicable prejudices of the old, that had sung, as their fathers did, Psalms of sacred melody, till they had become sweet to their ears and sweeter to their hearts, were not dealt with as tenderly as they might have been, in what seemed their unreasonableness in opposing all improvement as innovation. In other cases the opposition to the use of Watts, or any more modern versification, was carried to a degree of bitterness unbecoming the cause. In consequence, many congregations were split, and some that had been, and still are, reckoned Presbyterians, were found arrayed under the name of Seceder or Associate, not in war, but in self-defence.

        The sacred songs of a congregation, and the tunes chosen for their public worship, are a type of the piety of the people. The Presbyterian church has happily retrograded for the last few years, and sought for old paths, and the good way, to find rest. Had not the Assembly afforded so excellent and grave a collection of Psalms and Hymns for public worship, the ebbing tide would not have stopped at Watts's Version, it would have retreated further, and old Rouse would have been sung again in many congregations. Many hymns had crept into use, as profane to the ears of multitudes of the pious, and as indissolubly connected with irreverent thoughts, as in the minds of many the organ is with high church notions "and all papistrie," and the flute and the violin with all revelry. Congregations have been rent by an attempted change of their psalmody, and many more that now seem firmly united might be rent asunder by a hymn book, or a flute, or an organ.

        Of the four ministers that lie in this yard, two were brothers; they lie side by side under one broad tablet, Francis and James Pringle. The latter was pastor of the Seceder church, on Steele Creek, and the former of a church in Ohio. Francis died on a visit to his brother, on the 15th of March, 1818, in the fourth year of his ministry, and the twenty-ninth year of his age; James on the 28th of the succeeding October, in the fifth year of his ministry, and the thirtieth year of his age. The two bereaved congregations united and erected one broad, white, marble slab, to cover the graves of the two pastors, united in their infancy and

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youth, united in their religion, undivided in death, and the hope of a glorious resurrection.

        On the numerous monuments around you may read the names of the old families that formed the band of emigrants to this now populous neighborhood;--Neely, Hart, Porter, Bigham, Sloan, M'Dowell, Grier, Herron, Vance, Davis, Tagart and Allen. Many of these names are found among the early settlements in the Valley of Virginia, which were formed a short time previously to this on Steele Creek.

        Let us now turn to the monument of the patriot Humphrey Hunter, near the Session-house on the southwestern corner; and on which headstone, read

SACRED
to the memory of the
Rev. HUMPHREY HUNTER,
who departed this life August 21st,
1827, in the 73d year of his age.

He was a native of Ireland, and
Emigrated to America at an early
period of his life. He was one of those
who early promoted the cause of
freedom in Mecklenburg county,
May 20th, 1775, and subsequently
bore an active part in securing
the Independence of his country.

For nearly 38 years he labored
as a faithful and assiduous
Ambassador of Christ, strenuously
enforcing the necessity of repentance,
and pointing out the terms of Salvation.

As a parent he was kind and affectionate;
as a friend warm and sincere; and as a
Minister persuasive and convincing.

Reared by the people of Steele Creek church.


        Mr. Hunter undoubtedly merited all that is said of him on the monument. Of that race of people of whom Gordon in his History of Ireland says--"so great and wide was the discontent, that many thousands of the Protestants emigrated from those parts of Ulster to the American settlements, where they soon appeared in arms against the British government and contributed powerfully by their zeal and valor, to the separation of the colonies from the empire of Great Britain." Of whom also, Col. Tarleton in the History of his campaigns in 1780 and 1781, speaking of the first irruption of the British troops under Lord Rawdon, into the Waxhaw settlement, on the borders of North Carolina--"the sentiments of

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the inhabitants did not correspond with his Lordship's expectations; he then learned, what experience confirmed, that the Irish were the most averse of all the settlers to the British government in America." He was born on the 14th of May, 1755, in the vicinity of Londonderry, in the North of Ireland, the native place of his father. His paternal grandmother was from Glasgow, Scotland; and his maternal from Brest, in France. The blood of the Scotch and the Huguenot was blended in Ireland, and the descendants emigrated to America and flourished in the soil of Carolina.

        Deprived by death of his father in his fourth year, young Hunter embarked at Londonderry with his widowed mother for Charleston, S. C., on the 3d of May, 1759, on board the ship Helena. Arriving on the 27th of August, the family in a few days proceeded to Mecklenburg county, North Carolina, where the mother purchased land in the Poplar Tent congregation, and remained for life. As the enjoyment of civil and religious liberty was one of the principal causes of his mother's emigration, it is not wonderful that young Hunter grew up with a spirit jealous of encroachment from the English crown.

        From the time of his reaching Mecklenburg till his twentieth year, little is known of him. We are left to the conjecture that he grew up familiar with all the labors and privations of a frontier life, by which he became fitted to endure the fatigues and sufferings of a military expedition.

        He attended the convention in Mecklenburg, May 20th, 1775, as one of the numerous crowd of spectators assembled on that exciting occasion. In his account of the meeting prefixed to his copy of the Declaration of Independence, he thus writes concerning the battle of Lexington, which took place on the 19th of April: "That was a wound of a deepening gangrenous nature, not to be healed without amputation. Intelligence of the affair speedily spread abroad, yea flew, as if on the wings of the wind collecting a storm. No sooner had it reached Mecklenburg than an ardent, patriotic fire glowed almost in every breast; it was not to be confined; it burst into a flame; it blazed through every corner of the country. Communications from one to another were made with great facility. Committees were held in various neighborhoods; every man was a politician. Death rather than slavery, was the voice comparatively of all."

        Soon after the Declaration of Independence, a regiment was raised in Mecklenburg, under Col. Thomas Polk, and Col. Adam

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Alexander, to march against some tories who were embodied in the lower part of the State. Mr. Hunter went as a private in the company of Capt. Charles Polk, nephew of Col. Thomas Polk. The tories dispersed at the approach of this force, and the regiment speedily returned without bloodshed or violence.

        Mr. Hunter then commenced his classical education at Clio's Nursery, in Rowan county (now Iredell), under the instruction of Rev. James Hall. The following certificates, preserved by Mr. Hunter, show the order of the congregation, and the care with which the morals of youth were watched over by church officers and instructors in schools. The first appears to have been required for his honorable standing at Clio's Nursery:

        "This is to certify, that the Bearer, Humphrey Hunter, has lived in the Bounds of this Congregation upwards of four years, and has Behaved himself Inoffensively, Not being Guilty of any Immoral Conduct known to us, Exposing him to Church Censure, and is free from public Scandal. Given under our hands at

"Poplar Tent, this 18th day of October, 1778.

"Ruling Elders.
"JAMES ALEXANDER,
J. ROSS,
ROBERT HARRIS."


        When General Rutherford collected a brigade from Mecklenburg, Rowan, and Guilford counties, to repel the aggressions of the Cherokee Indians, Mr. Hunter received the commission of lieutenant under Captain Rob't Mayben, in one of the three companies of cavalry that formed part of the corps. The campaign was successful; the Indian forces were scattered, and their chiefs taken.

        After this campaign Mr. Hunter resumed his classical studies at Queen's Museum, in Charlotte, under the care of Dr. McWhorter, who had removed from New Jersey to take charge of that institution, with flattering prospects. Of the moral and religious character of the young man, the following certificate in the handwriting of his instructor is testimony, viz.:

        "That the bearer, Humphrey Hunter, has continued a student in Clio's Nursery from August, 1778, till last October; that he applied to his studies with diligence; was admitted to the sacrament of the Lord's Supper in Bethany Congregation; has during the aforesaid Time conducted himself as a good member both of religious and civil Society, and is hereby well recommend[ed] to the Regard of any Christian Community where Divine Providence may order his Lot,--is certified by

"Bethany, Jan. 12, 1780.

"JAS. HALL, V.D.M."


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        In the summer of 1780, Liberty Hall Academy, or Queen's Museum, as it was originally named, was broken up by the approach of the British army under Lord Cornwallis, after the surrender of Charleston, and the massacre of Buford's regiment on the Waxhaw, and the course of study never resumed under the direction of Dr. McWhorter, who returned to New Jersey. Upon the breaking up of the College, the younger students were commended to their parents and guardians, and the older were urged to take the field in the cause of their country. It is not to be supposed that young Hunter required much urging to take up arms with his fellow-citizens of Mecklenburg, who five years before had pledged "their lives and their honor." Upon the orders of General Rutherford to the battalions of the western counties of the State, a brigade assembled at Salisbury. For the first three weeks, Mr. Hunter acted as commissary, and afterwards as lieutenant in the company of Captain Thomas Givens. Having scoured the tory settlement on the north-east side of the Yadkin, the forces under General Rutherford joined the army of General Gates at Cheraw.

        On the morning of the 16th of August, the unfortunate battle of Camden took place by the mutual surprise of the marching armies; and the forces under Gates were completely routed. General Rutherford was wounded and taken prisoner, with many of his men. Mr. Hunter, soon after his surrender as prisoner of war, witnessed the death of the Baron De Kalb. He tells us, he saw the Baron, without suite or aide, and apparently separated from his command, ride facing the enemy. The British soldiers clapping their hands on their shoulders, in reference to his epaulettes, shouted, "a General, a rebel General!" Immediately a man on horseback (not Tarleton) met him, and demanded his sword. The Baron, with apparent reluctance, presented the hilt; but drawing back, said in French, "Are you an officer, sir?" His antagonist, perhaps not understanding his question, with an oath, more sternly demanded his sword. The Baron dashed from him, disdaining, as is supposed, to surrender to any but an officer, and rode in front of the British line, with his hand extended. The cry along the line of, "A rebel General," was speedily followed by a volley, and after riding some twenty or thirty rods, the Baron fell. He was immediately raised to his feet, stripped of his hat, coat, and neckcloth, and placed with his hands resting on the end of a wagon. His body had been pierced with seven balls. While standing in this situation, the blood streaming through his shirt, Cornwallis,

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with his suite, rode up; and being told that the wounded man was De Kalb, he addressed him--"I am sorry, sir, to see you; not sorry that you are vanquished, but that you are so severely wounded." Having given orders to an officer to administer to the necessities of the wounded man as far as possible, the British General rode on to secure his victory; and in a little time the brave and generous De Kalb, who had seen service in the armies of France, and had embarked in the cause of the American States, breathed his last.

        After seven days' confinement in a prison-yard in Camden, Mr. Hunter was taken, with about fifty officers, to Orangeburg, S. C., where he remained without hat or coat until Friday, the 13th of November, about three months from the time of his captivity. On that day he went to visit a friendly lady, who had promised him a homespun coat. On his way he was met by a horseman of Col. Fisher's command, who accused him of being beyond the lines, and sternly ordered him back to the station; threatening him with confinement, and trial for breach of his parole. Hunter explained, and apologized, and promised, but all to no purpose. "To the station!" "take the road!" Up the road went the rebel whig, sour and reluctant, and made indignant by the frequent goading with the point of the tory royalist's sword. Passing a large fallen pine, from which the limbs had been burned, he suddenly leaped the trunk. The horseman fired one of his pistols,--missed his aim, and leaped his horse after him. Hunter adroitly leaped the other side the trunk, and began throwing at the horseman the pine knots that lay thick around. The second pistol was discharged, but without effect. By a blow of a well-aimed pine knot the horseman was brought to the ground, and disarmed by his prisoner. Hunter returned the tory his sword, on condition that he should never, on any condition, make known that any of the prisoners had crossed the forbidden line, or any way transgressed, promising himself to keep the whole matter of the late rencontre an inviolable secret.

        On the following Sabbath a citation was issued by Col. Fisher, directing all militia prisoners to appear at the Court-House by 12 o'clock on Monday. The affair had been discovered. During the contest, the horse galloped off to the station with the saddle and holsters empty, and when the dismounted rider appeared a little time after with the bruises of the pine knots too visible to be denied, the curious inquiries that followed, baffled all his efforts at concealment; it was soon noised abroad that one or more of the

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prisoners had broken parole and attacked an officer. The report reaching the Colonel's ears, the order was issued for their appearance at the Court-House. On Sabbath night, Hunter and a few others, expecting close confinement would follow their assembling on Monday noon, seized and disarmed the guard and escaped. He was nine nights in making his way back to Mecklenburg, lying by during the day to avoid the patroles of the British, and sustaining himself upon the greenest of the ears of corn he could gather from the unharvested fields.

        In a few days after his return home, he again joined the army, and became a lieutenant of cavalry under Col. Henry Hampton, and attached to the regiment under Col. Henry Lee, received a wound in the battle at the Eutaw Springs, where so much personal bravery was displayed. His military services closed with that campaign; and he returned home with a good name, his bravery unquestioned and his integrity unsullied.

        He resumed his classical studies at the school taught by the Rev. Robert Archibald, near Poplar Tent, as appears by the following certificate, in the irregular hand and crooked lines of his preceptor, which is the only evidence at hand of the classical school in that congregation immediately after the war.

"Mecklenburg, St. N. Carolina,

        "This is to certify, that the bearer, Humphrey Hunter, has been some years at this school in the capacity of a student; and during the term has conducted himself in a sober, genteel and Christian manner; and we recommend him as a youth of good character, to any public seminary where Divine Providence may cast his lot.

        "Certified and signed by order of the trustees, this 3d day of Nov., 1785.

"ROBERT ARCHIBALD, V.D.M."

        This certificate of character appears to have been given as a requisite for holding his standing at Mount Zion College, his Alma Mater. The following from the hand of Mr. Archibald was also given at the same time, and probably for the same purpose.

"Mecklenburg, State of North Carolina.

        "This is to certify that the bearer, Humphrey Hunter, has lived in the bounds, of this congregation from his Infancy, and behaved himself in a sober and Christian manner, is in full communion

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with the church, and clear of all public scandal known to us; and we recommend him to the care of any Christian society where God in his providence may cast his lot. Certified and signed by order of sessions, at Poplar Tent, this 3d of November, 1785.

"ROBT. ARCHIBALD, V.D.M."

        During the summer of 1785 he was entered as a student of Mount Zion College, at Winnsborough, in South Carolina, which after the war for a time supplied the place of Liberty Hall, or Queen's Museum, at Charlotte, in completing the classical education of young men desirous of entering upon professional life.

        The following is a copy of his degree, granted by the trustees of that institution, which has long since passed away, after having been for a time a shining light directing in the path of science and literature, Alumni that have honored their Alma Mater and the church, men in whom any institution may have gloried. The original is in beautiful German Text.

"PRÆFECTUS ET CURATORES

COLLEGII MONTIS SIONIS,

Omnibus et singulis ad quos hæc literæ pervenerint.

Salutem in Domini.

        Notum sit quod nobis placet Auctoritate publico Diplomate nobis commissa, Humfredum Hunter, candidatum primum in Artibus Graduum competentem examine sufficiente previo approbatum Titulo graduque Artium liberalium Baccalaurei adornare. In cujus Rei Testimonium Literis Sigillo Collegii munitis nomina subscripsimus.

        "THOMAS H. McCAULE, Prof.-l.

        "JOHN WINN, Trustees."

        "JAMES CRAIG, Trustees."

        "Datum in Aula Collegii, apud Winnsburgium, in Carolina Meridionali, quarto Nonas Julii, Anno Arce Christi millesimo septuagentesimo et octogesimo septimo."


        Having pursued the study of theology about two years, under the Presbytery of South Carolina, he received license to preach the gospel, in the following words, viz.:

"Bullock's Creek, Oct. 15th, 1789.

        "The Presbytery having examined Mr. Humphrey Hunter on

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the Latin and Greek languages, the sciences and divinity, and being well satisfied with his moral and religious character, and his knowledge of the languages, sciences, and divinity, do license him to preach the everlasting gospel of Jesus Christ,--and affectionately recommend him to our vacancies.

"JAMES EDMUNDS, Mod'r.

"ROBERT HALL, Presbyt. Clerk."

        A call, in the usual form of the Confession of Faith, was made out for Mr. Hunter, from the congregations of Hopewell, on Jeffrey's Creek, and Aimwell, on Pee Dee, in South Carolina, and signed the 1st day of October, 1791, by the following names:--Thomas Wickham, Gavin Witherspoon, John Ervin, L. Derkins, Hugh Ervin, Thos. Cann, Jerem. Gurley, Aaron Gasque, Wm. Stone, John Gregg, Joseph Burch, Hance Davis, Joseph Jelly, Hugh Muldrow, Jas. Greer, John Carson, W. Flagler, Wm. Gregg, James Thompson, James Hudson, Joseph Gregg, Thos. Hudson, John Cooper, David Bigem, John Orr, James Orr, J. Baxter, Wm. Wilson, Henry Futhey, G. Bigham, Alexr. Pettigrew, Wm. Muldrow, J. Muldrow, jr., James Cole, John McRee, John Witherspoon, Thomas Canady, Robert Gregg.

        Probably not a man that signed the call now lives; but the preceding list may direct some of their descendants to a parent's name, at the same time it shows to us the manner of signing a call some fifty years ago. The salary promised was £120 sterling per annum, about $533,33¼ cts.

        Mr. Hunter's name first appears upon the records of Synod as a member in 1793.

        In the year 1795, Mr. Hunter removed to Lincoln County, and became a member of Orange Presbytery on the first day of its first meeting, at Bethphage, Dec. 24th. The same year, by act of Synod, the Presbytery of Concord was set off, consisting of twelve members, of which he was to be one. Upon a call, made out in the usual form, for half his time, by the inhabitants of Goshen congregation, promising him sixty-two pounds ten shillings current money of North Carolina, or fifty pounds in gold or silver dollars at eight shillings, and gold in proportion, the following names appear, viz.: Robert Johnson, Robert Johnson, Jr., Andrew Johnson, Joseph Dickson, Wm. Rankin, Henry Davies, John McCaul, Robert Alexander, James Martin, James Rutledge, James Gullick, Benjamin Smith, James Dickson, William Moore, Jonathan Graves, David Baxter, John Moore, Samuel Caldwell, Robert Curry. This call he accepted, March 30th, 1796.

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        It would be interesting to the present inhabitants of Unity congregation, which was united with Goshen in the labors of a pastor and in his support, their call having been presented and accepted March 30th, 1796, could the signers of the call from that congregation be given; it, however, was not found among the papers of Mr. Hunter. These two congregations embraced the region of country lying along the west side of the Catawba, from some distance above Beattie's Ford, to the South Carolina line, and from the river to the large congregation of Olney, at that time flourishing and extending over a large section of the country southwest of the Court-House.

        Goshen was a place of occasional preaching at a very early period of the settlement of the region west of the Catawba. Its location was decided by a singular circumstance. A stranger passing through the country, probably in search of a proper place for emigration, took sick, and after a length of time, died. During his sickness and the previous short sojourn among the people along the west bank of the Catawba, his pleasing manners gained him the sympathies of the whole settlement. He was buried on the brow of a gentle declivity. One family after another chose to bury their dead on the declivity by the stranger; and that spot became the place of interment for the whole neighborhood. In choosing the place for their tent for public worship, and afterwards for the church, their reverence for the dead led the inhabitants to the same spot. The first church stood a few rods from the present, at one corner of the burying-ground.

        Before the erection of Goshen and Unity as churches and congregations, the nearest places of worship were Steele Creek, Centre, Hopewell, Charlotte, and Olney. To these places the most contiguous neighborhoods resorted, till the increasing numbers, as well as the distance, rendered the organization of the two congregations necessary. Owing to the small number of clergymen and the habits incident to a frontier settlement, the bounds of the congregations were large, and the border families rode far for the ordinances of the Gospel. In this unavoidable arrangement, there were, in the early settlement of the country, many advantages that went far to counterbalance all the difficulties that arose from the distance to the house of God.

        For many years before his death, Mr. Hunter became pastor of Steele Creek church, having received their call in 1805, and devoted to the people of that charge part of his unremitting labors; the remainder he gave to New Hope, having been released from Goshen

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in 1804. At his death the people of Steele Creek had the privilege of giving him a place of sepulture, and of erecting a marble headstone to his grave.

        His own taste, and the necessities of his neighbors and parishioners led him, in the almost total want of good physicians, to pay some attention to medicine, and to prescribe in cases of necessity. His success became burdensome, and threatened, for a time, to interfere with his ministerial duties and his proper attention to his own family concerns. This laborious attention to the physical maladies of his people was never a source of pecuniary profit; it was the exercise of his benevolence.

        As a minister he was always distinguished for his evangelical sentiments and orthodoxy according to the Confession of Faith of the Presbyterian Church. In his preaching he was earnest, unassuming, and often eloquent. Possessing a strong mind with powers of originality, and trained by the discipline of a classical education under men capable of producing scholars, he consecrated all his talents and acquirements to preaching the everlasting gospel, counting all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus. In his advanced years his infirmities very much contracted his active labors, without impairing the vigor and discrimination of his mental powers, or the fervency and faithfulness of his preaching.

        He possessed in a high degree a talent for refined sarcasm; and his answer to triflers with his office or the great truths of religion, and sticklers for unimportant things, was a shaft from this quiver that pierced to the marrow. His benevolence as a minister, and his tenderness as a neighbor, forbade its use in his social intercourse. Honest objections, and difficulties arising from want of knowledge or proper reflection, he would meet kindly with truth and argument; sophistry and cavils he considered as deserving nothing but the lash which he knew how to apply till it stung like a scorpion.

        His habits of preparation for the pulpit, like those of the laborious men of his own generation and the days preceding, were reading, prayerful meditation, and short notes. As he wrote no sermons in full, he of course never read his discourses from the pulpit. A close observer of men and things, a close reasoner, he was classic in his style and systematic in his preaching. His congregations were well instructed in divine truth according to the orthodoxy of the Confession of Faith; and were sufficiently tried to test their knowledge and their faith during the excitements and discussions that accompanied the great revival.

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        He met death in a manner becoming a Christian minister, resigned and unshaken, and expired on the 21st of August, 1827, in the 74th year of his age. The writer of a short memoir that appeared the year succeeding, the only one of Mr. Hunter that ever was given to the public, concludes thus,--"The stars of the Revolutionary contest are rapidly setting. They shine with additional lustre as they go down from our view. They leave behind them a generation blessed with the light of their example, and permitted to gather the fruit of their toils. Another mighty revolution must take place before such a cluster of worthies will live and labor together. When, therefore, they pass from the stage of action, let not their posterity cease to venerate their names and record their virtues."

        Mr. Hunter was above the ordinary stature, of a robust frame, and dark complexion. His eye indicated great intrepidity of character, and at times sternness, and sometimes the withering sarcasm that he knew how to wield with so much power. Of great simplicity of manners, his strong feelings and great candor made him above all affectation; sincere in his friendship, ingenuous in his dealings with men; while the evil feared him, good men loved him,--and as they knew him better they only loved him the more.

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CHAPTER XXIX.
CENTRE CONGREGATION.

        GENERAL DAVIDSON fell on the eastern bank of the Catawba, on the western borders of Centre Congregation, resisting the passage of the British forces under Lord Cornwallis. After the celebrated victory of the Cowpens, Morgan hastened with his numerous prisoners towards Virginia, taking his route through Lincoln county, North Carolina, in the direction of Beattie's Ford, that he might place the army of Greene between him and the British army. Cornwallis moved up the western side of the river to intercept him and recover the prisoners; Greene moved up the eastern side to meet and succor his friend.

        Here commenced the trial of generalship and skill between the two commanders, which was decided at the battle of Guilford, in the following March. The three bodies having about the same distance to march, to reach the ford, everything depended on the speed of Morgan's forces, encumbered as they were with their numerous restless captives. Greene left his army, and with a small guard rode across the country, and by his presence cheered the soldiers of Morgan to still greater speed; they gained the ford first. The morning after the crossing, Cornwallis was on the southern bank, hot in pursuit, but disappointed of his prey. The river, during the succeeding night, became swollen from the abundant rains; and the two days of delay to the British army, gave Morgan that advance towards Virginia, that his Lordship turned his whole attention to Greene, from whom he could not, with honor, retreat,--or cease to pursue.

        Leaving General Davidson with the North Carolina force, to delay the crossing of the enemy as long as possible, Greene hastened on, in the rear of Morgan, to throw the Yadkin between him and his advancing foe. Graham's rifle company was stationed at Cowan's Ferry, a few miles below Beattie's Ford, where, after some manoeuvres, the passage was at length attempted, and kept up a galling fire on the British line, as it waded the Catawba. Many officers and privates went down the stream or disappeared beneath the waters, pierced by their deadly balls. General Davidson, attracted by the firing, rode to the bank for observation, accompanied

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by Colonel Polk, of Charlotte, and the Rev. Thomas H. McCaule, the pastor of the congregation that now lay in the track of the hostile armies. In a few moments he fell from his horse, dead, by a rifle shot. As the British infantry used muskets only, it was supposed that a tory, who had acted as guide to the enemy, and knew Davidson, gave the fatal shot from the opposite bank. No one ever claimed the honor of the death of the most popular man in the region; and his rank did not protect his body from being plundered to nakedness. The militia and volunteers now gave way, and hastened after Greene, who was in Salisbury refreshing himself, with Mrs. Steele, in preparation for crossing the Yadkin.

        General William Davidson was born in Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, 1746, the youngest son of George Davidson. The family removed to Carolina in 1750. Young Davidson was educated at Queen's Museum. He was major of one of the first regiments raised in Carolina during the war. The monument voted by Congress has never been erected. His body, buried without a coffin, lies like that of his friends, Dr. Brevard and Hezekiah Alexander, without a stone to mark the place.

        The boundaries of Centre congregation were originally large, and, with the limits of Thyatira, filled a broad space from the Catawba to the Yadkin: they began at John Cathey's, south of Beattie's Ford, on the Catawba; from thence to Matthew M'Corkle's and Thomas Harris's; from thence to David Kerr's, on the old Salisbury Road; from thence to Galbraith Nails, northeast corner; from thence to John Oliphant's; from thence down the river to the first-named place.

        The first Presbytery that met between the two rivers held its sessions in Centre; the first meeting of Concord Presbytery was in Centre; and there too the "Synod of the Carolinas" was organized. The tradition is, that the first white child born between the two rivers was in Centre, in a tent pitched upon a broad flat rock; the name of the child is not certain, supposed however to be Mary Barnet, granddaughter of Thomas Spratt, that settled finally near Charlotte, and held the first court of Mecklenburg county at his house.

        The location of Centre Meeting-house was a matter of compromise in 1765. The various missionaries that had been sent to preach in the southern vacancies, had previously held meetings for public worship at Osborne's meeting-house, and various private houses in the different neighborhoods. By the persuasions of the delegates sent by the Synod of Philadelphia, the various preaching-places were given up, and a centre spot chosen for the permanent

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worship of the large congregation which lies partly in each of the two counties, Iredell and Mecklenburg. The names of many families embraced in this congregation were notorious in the Revolution, particularly those of Brevard, Osborne, and Davidson.

        The inhabitants were of the same race as those of Sugar Creek and Hopewell; of equal spirit in public matters, and as decided in religion; and were building their cabins at the same time with the congregation of Thyatira.

        During the Revolutionary war, the Rev. Thomas Harris McCaule was pastor of this large congregation, having been ordained in 1776, when the congregation covered about ten miles square-Little is known of his early life. Scarce of the medium height, of a stout frame, and full body, of dark, piercing eyes, a pleasant countenance, and winning manners, with a fine voice, he was popular both as a preacher and as a man. Public-spirited, he encouraged the Revolution; and in the time of the invasion, went with his flock to the camp, and was beside General William Davidson when he fell. Of so much repute was he, as a public-spirited man, that he was once run for the Governor's chair, and failed in the election by a very small vote. His classical attainments were such, that after the peace, when Mount Zion College was established at Winnsborough in South Carolina, he was made its principal Professor. Many eminent ministers were trained under his instruction.

        Who was Mr. McCaule's predecessor is not now known, and his successor is equally undetermined. Dr. McRee, in his manuscripts, tells us that there was a flourishing classical school in the bounds of Centre at a very early period, and after continuing about twenty years was broken up by the invasion. In this school he was himself educated; also, Professor Houston of Princeton College, Rev. Josiah Lewis, Colonel Adlai Osborne, Dr. Ephraim Brevard and others. But he does not tell us whether Mr. McCaule was connected with the school. A part of the time it was carried on by a Mr. McEwin.

        Dr. James McRee, who ministered for about thirty years to this congregation, was born May 10th, 1752, about a mile from the present place of worship, on the place now owned by Rufus Reed, Esq. His parents were from the County Down, Ireland, and emigrated soon after their marriage. "They belonged," he says, "to the Presbyterian denomination, talked often about the reformation from Popery, the bloody Queen Mary, the battle of the Boyne, the death of Duke Schomberg, the gunpowder plot, and the accession of William, Prince of Orange, to the British throne."

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        From his description of his father's library, we can have some idea of the man, and probably of the times and neighborhood, as it is not spoken of as extraordinary, except in its size. It consisted of the Holy Bible, the Confession of Faith, Vincent's Catechism, Boston's Fourfold State of Man, Allein's Alarm to Sinners, Baxter's Call to the Unconverted, and his Saint's Rest. As a specimen of the religious reading of Centre congregation, it is commendable, considering the difficulty of procuring books, and the fact that few possessed more. The religious sentiments formed from these volumes were not likely to be erroneous or inefficient. He further adds that it was the custom every Sabbath day, to ask the questions of the Shorter Catechism to each member of the family in rotation; and the young people that could not repeat them, were not considered as holding a respectable rank in society.

        At the age of twenty-one, he entered the junior class in Princeton College, in the year 1773, having received his common and his academic education while residing in Carolina. After receiving his degree of A.B., he spent a year as private tutor in the family of Colonel Burwell Bassett, in New Kent county, Virginia. The winter of 1776 and 1777 he passed reading theology, under the direction of "his highly esteemed former teacher and friend, the Rev. Joseph Alexander, of Bullock's Creek, in South Carolina." In April, 1778, he was licensed by Concord Presbytery to preach the gospel; and in the November following he was settled in his own house in Steele Creek congregation, as pastor of the church, having been united in marriage to Rachel Cruser of Mapleston, New Jersey. He continued with this congregation about twenty years.

        During the time of his being pastor of this congregation the subject of psalmody was extensively discussed, particularly in relation to the introduction of Watts's Psalms and Hymns. Mr. M'Ree delivered a course of sermons on the whole subject of Psalmody as part of Christian worship, and condensed the substance of his discourses into an essay of great clearness and force, which has not been surpassed for strength of argument or clearness of expression. Should an essay on that subject be demanded by the times, Mr. M'Ree might, though dead, still speak to posterity.

        The scenes of his early ministry were too deeply impressed upon his mind to be erased by an absence of forty years. In a letter to W. L. Davidson, dated Swannanoe, January 26th, 1838, he says,--"If my desires were fully gratified, I should yet see, with my feeble vision, the meeting-houses of Steele Creek and Centre, the grave-yards in which my relations, friends, acquaintance, contemporaries,

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lie. And not only these, but all the surrounding congregations, which were generally vacant when I settled in Steele Creek, and which I often visited as supply. Often have I ridden in the morning to Bethel, Providence, Sugar Creek and Hopewell, and returned home in the evening of that day. These scenes, these doings, now while I am writing, are as fresh on my mind as the events of yesterday."

        After giving up Steele Creek, various vacancies were presented to him for consideration; Pine-street Church, Philadelphia, Princeton, New Jersey, and Augusta, Georgia, and his native congregation Centre. "The shortness of life, the uncertainty of all things here, extensive acquaintance, relations, numerous friends, a pleasant, healthful country, native soil, all combined and said, stay where you are." He was settled in Centre in 1798, and continued pastor of the church about thirty years.

        On account of infirmities of age he gave up his pastoral charge, and removed into the mountains and resided with his children. In the year 1839, he said his children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren, amounted to eighty. He said he preached more than one thousand times in Steele Creek church; and at that time not one was living that used to meet him there as members of his church; that he laid in Steele Creek grave-yard his father and mother, five brothers and two sisters; that he preached in Centre about two thousand times; and that on leaving his congregations he was unable to preach a farewell on account of his own feelings.

        In writing to W. L. Davidson, of Centre, from Swannanoe, he says, "We often think of you. The faithful friend, who has lived with me almost sixty-one years, often says 'Betsey Lee Davidson.' Mr. Addison put it into the mouth of Cardinal Wolsey to say, 'the king shall have my service, but my prayers for ever and for ever shall be yours.' Here, among the mountains, I may terminate the few last days that may remain of a long life; but my warmest affections and best wishes will never be withdrawn from the place of my nativity. The present inhabitants, as to me, are nearly all new comers; I wish them well; and sincerely wish that they may do better in their day than their fathers have done, who have gone before them, and purchased for them, at the high price of their blood, a rich inheritance.

        "May the decline of your lives, which has already made its appearance, be attended with many and rich mercies! May your last days be your best days; and may your final departure, like the setting sun, be serene and full of glory!"

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        Of middling stature, handsomely proportioned, agreeable in manners, winning in conversation, neat in his dress, dignified in the pulpit, fluent in his delivery, he was a popular preacher, and retained his influence long after he ceased to be active in the vineyard. Always a friend of education; in the latter part of his life he became increasingly anxious for the prosperity of academies, colleges, and theological seminaries, to meet the wants of the rising generation; deeply convinced that the welfare of his beloved country depends upon intelligence, morality and religion. He closed his career March 28th, 1840.

        Bethel and Prospect are both within the old bounds of Centre. Davidson College, that took its name from General William Davidson, has its location also in Centre, which still continues a large congregation, and for many years has been but a short time unsupplied by a regular minister. Davidson College will be noticed in another place. Mr. Espy, that ministered here for a time, lies buried in Salisbury, and is noticed under the head of Thyatira. The graveyard of Centre has monuments for the following names of families settled in its bounds before the Revolution:--Davidson, Rees, Hughes, Ramsey, Brevard, Osborne, Winslow, Kerr, Rankin, Templeton, Dickey, Braley, Moore and Emerson.

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CHAPTER XXX.
POPLAR TENT AND ITS PASTORS.

        IT has ever been an acknowledged rule of propriety, that in political discussions and excitements which relate to persons and affairs rather than principles of constitutional right and natural justice, the ministers of the gospel should keep themselves uncommitted, and, in the exercise of unalienable rights as citizens, maintain the character of ministers of the King of kings, who bring the offers of mercy alike to all. There are, however, times when the excitements in society involve the greatest interests and the most valuable and dear privileges; when truth and justice, liberty and morality, are struggling against power and oppression; when the spirits that are thirsting for a better state of things, require all the support that can be brought to their aid from the seen and the unseen world, from the succors of things temporal, and the powerful influence of things eternal. Then the ministers of the gospel must mingle in the strife, bringing from the treasury of the Lord the all-sustaining truths of revelation; drinking deep of the fountains of life to keep their own spirits pure, and putting to the lips of the brave and the weak-hearted, in the fierce struggle, the pure water of the living stream. No strength is so abiding and resistless, no courage so daring and yet so cool, as that which rests for its help on the unchanged truth and government of the eternal God. Such a time and such a conjuncture was the American Revolution. And many ministers of the gospel went down into the struggle. Some sat in the councils of deliberation and resolve, and others bore the fatigues of the camp, partaking of the trials of their fellow-citizens in their bloody contests. In Carolina, Hall and McCaule encouraged their fellow-citizens, their flocks particularly, as soldiers; Balch, and Pattillo, and Caldwell, aided in the councils and high resolves of Convention and Provincial Congress, and others endured the miseries of an invaded people, plundered but not subdued.

        In the convention that met in Charlotte, May 19th, 1775, there was one minister of the gospel, Hezekiah James Balch, of Poplar Tent. That he was active in the preparatory steps for that convention

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is evident from the fact that he was one of the members that prepared resolutions to be submitted to the convention, which resolutions, after consultation, were amended and adopted by the committee, and by the convention, and published to the world. This gentleman was reported by the Presbytery of Donegall as a licentiate in the spring of 1768. In the year 1769 the minutes of the Synod of New York and Philadelphia have this record: "The Rev. Messrs. John Harris, John Clark, Jeremiah Halsey, James Latta, Jonathan Elmore, Thomas Lewis, and Josiah Lewis a licensed candidate, are appointed to supply the vacancies in Virginia, North Carolina, and those parts of South Carolina under our care, to set off as soon, and spend as much time among them, as they conveniently can on this important mission."

        "Mr. Hezekiah James Balch, a licensed candidate, under the care of Donegall Presbytery, is appointed on the same mission, and the Presbytery to which he belongs are authorized to ordain him, if upon trial he acquits himself according to their satisfaction, and accepts a call from Carolina."

        "Ordered, that our stated clerk give these missionaries proper testimonials."

        What time Mr. Balch first visited Carolina is not precisely known. But from the records of Synod it appears that he had been ordained by the Presbytery of Donegall previous to the meeting of the Synod in 1770. At the meeting of the Synod in that year the Presbytery of Orange was set-off, by taking from the Presbytery of Hanover Rev. Messrs. Hugh McAden, Henry Pattillo, James Criswell, Joseph Alexander, and Hezekiah Balch,--and from the Presbytery of Donegall, Hezekiah James Balch. This Presbytery embraced the ministers in the entire State of North Carolina; and until the year 1784, those ministers in connection with the Synod residing in the state of South Carolina. At that period the State lines became the boundary.

        Mr. Balch served the two congregations, Rocky River and Poplar Tent, during his life, which was brought to a close some time in the year 1776. He saw the commencement of that war which ended with all the honor and independence to his country he ever desired; but before the strife of blood and plunder that followed the Declaration of Independence, July 4th, 1776, reached Carolina, he slept with those whose sleep shall not be awakened till the resurrection. His time of service was about six years.

        Rocky River congregation is prior in point of time to Sugar Creek, and the first of all the churches of Concord Presbytery.

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Poplar Tent was organized about the year 1764 or 1765, when the resolution of Synod was carried into effect by Messrs. Spencer and McWhorter, and the boundaries of the congregations ascertained and agreed upon.

        Poplar Tent Meeting-house may be found about seven miles from Concord town, in Cabarrus, on the road leading to Beattie's Ford, and about fourteen miles eastwardly of Davidson's College. From the papers of a venerable old lady, who was born, lived all her days in the bounds of the congregation, and died at the age of 90, in the year 1843, the following is an extract: "I had a brother born April 25th, 1764, and I was ten years old the March before he was born; and I do not remember of hearing, at that time, of any other place of public worship but at Rocky River." (Rocky River Church is about 9 or 10 miles east from P. T.) "But I had another brother, born October 25th, 1766, and I remember very well of being at a meeting at Poplar Tent the summer before he was born; and at that time there was a more elegant Tent than I ever saw on that ground since, but no meeting-house. But between '66 and '70, there was a good meeting-house built and tolerably well seated. And the Rev. Hezekiah (J). Balch was a placed minister between Rocky River and Poplar Tent."

        Another tradition related by Dr. Robinson, adds to this account without contradicting it--and says a Tent was erected and an occasional service was obtained from the missionaries and other ministers, for some years before regular preaching was obtained.

        By tent, was meant a place for the preacher to occupy during public worship, very similar to the stands that are erected for the convenience of congregations in summer, in places where there are no church-buildings, or where the conveniences for seating a congregation in summer are not sufficient. All traditions agree, that this tent was the most showy in the country, and soon became a place for a large assemblage on the Sabbath. The Scotch and Scotch-Irish emigrants to the Carolinas used these tents in all seasons of the year, till they could build a house; and afterwards, during the warm season; and when the congregations were large, irrespective of the season; sometimes, as Dr. Hall tells us, standing in the rain and snow, in crowds, to hear the gospel preached. The first sermons by the famous Robinson, in Charlotte county, Virginia, 1742, were delivered from a stand near the site of Cub Creek church, and to a Scotch-Irish colony,

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led there by the maternal grandfather of John Caldwell Calhoun, of South Carolina.

        The name of the Ridge, the meeting-house, and the congregation, originated in the following manner, according to the manuscript of Mr. Alexander:--"That hill, on which the meeting-house now stands, was called Poplar Ridge, long before there was any tent there, from some very extraordinary large trees, that grew a small distance west from where the meeting-house now stands. But after the tent was built some time, there were some men collected, for some purpose, at that place, and, as I understood, there was some proposition made, 'what are we to call this place?' One said, call it Poplar Springs; another standing by, having a cup of water in his hand, threw the water against the tent, and cried out, 'Poplar Tent!' And I do not remember that I heard of any one making objection at that time, against the name; and it has been called Poplar Tent ever since, and was taken by that name on the missionary papers into the northern States. Now Poplar Tent went on regularly, friendly, and religiously; no dispute nor discontent between them and their minister, he taught them carefully, both in his preaching and examinations, and they appeared to hearken with attention."

        There is nowhere a monument or tradition to direct to the grave of Hezekiah James Balch; or anywhere a living mortal to claim him as ancestor. But his deeds live after him, and claim for him a name and place amongst those who have well done for their country and the church.

        Previous to the time of Mr. Balch there were three elders of Rocky River Church living in the bounds of Poplar Tent, who were continued as elders after the separate organization of Poplar Tent, of which they formed part, viz: Aaron Alexander, Nathaniel Alexander, and David Reese. The latter gentleman was a member of the Mecklenburg Convention.

        To these were added in the year 1771, by the choice of the church, James Barr, Robert Harris, James Alexander, George Alexander, and James Reese.

        After the death of Mr. Balch, Poplar Tent was for a time vacant, and received such supplies from missionaries as could be obtained until Mr. Robert Archibald became the regular preacher. Of the early life of Mr. Archibald little is known. He received his Degree of Bachelor of Arts at Princeton, in 1772; and after studying medicine was licensed by the Presbytery of Orange in the fall of the year 1775. In the year 1778, on the 7th of October

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he was ordained and installed pastor of Rocky River, and continued to hold this office till he was brought into difficulties for preaching erroneous doctrines, about the year 1792, for which, in 1794, he was suspended from the work of the ministry by the consent and with the advice of Synod, and in 1797 solemnly deposed.

        Mr. Caruthers states that he was ordained pastor of Poplar Tent at the same time that the connection was formed with Rocky River. Mrs. Alexander dates his connection somewhat later. All she says of him by way of dates, is comprised in these few words: "Until Mr. Archibald came and took the charge of Rocky River and Poplar Tent, which was somewhere about '87 or '88, and in a few years he left Poplar Tent."

        From two certificates given Mr. Humphrey Hunter in the year 1785, and signed by Mr. Archibald, it appears that Mr. Archibald was connected with the church of Poplar Tent at that time; and had been teaching school for some time previous within its bounds. It is probable that Mrs. Alexander mistook the date, not being anxious to recall the errors of one whose sins had been visited heavily upon him personally, and whose fall had grieved the congregation that loved the truth more than the minister.

        During the ministry of Mr. Archibald, the discussion respecting the Psalmody of the Church was carried on with vehemence in Poplar Tent. Mr. Archibald favored the introduction of Watts's Psalms and Hymns; with him many of the congregation concurred; but many were violently opposed, preferring the Psalms in which their ancestors had worshipped God, with all their deficiencies of rhyme, to the smoother versification of Watts. The majority of the congregation, after some acquaintance with the productions of Watts, preferred them for private worship and favored their use in the public service of the house of God, and proposed that they should be introduced into the worship of the congregation and used part of the day. This compromise was rejected, says Mrs. Alexander, and "when Mr. Archibald saw there was no hope of getting Watts's Psalms introduced into public worship peaceably, he went up into the pulpit and told them he was determined to have them made use of for time to come; and he did so. And at times when these psalms were sung, some would go out of hearing; and some others left the Tent and went and joined other churches that despised Watts's Psalms. Another time, at the Tent we met for public worship, the minister had just begun, and when he began to read the psalm one man was so presuming as to

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get up and say to him--'give us none of your new lilts--give us the Psalm the Saviour sung at the Supper.' The minister stopped and commanded him to sit down and not disturb the worship of God, and then went on. The man turned about and went out of the house, and never was in that house again at public worship." This person lived near the church in a house still standing. This may be considered as a specimen of the excited feeling that was manifested in some places about the introduction of Watts's Hymns to the displacing of the Psalms of David in Metre, which had been devoutly used by all the Presbyterian congregations in Carolina.

        Previous to this time the different classes of Presbyterians in their clustering settlements had united in congregations, and the various names known in the mother land were losing their distinctive influence, and the minority were inclined to fall in with the majority, and in their American feeling lose the difference they had once cherished. The discussion about psalmody brought about a new state of feeling, which after some heated discussions resulted in a separation, that remains unsettled to this day. Those that preferred Watts's Psalms held their connection with the Philadelphia Synod, from which has since been formed the General Assembly; and those that preferred the Psalms of David in Metre, separated in their church connection from their brethren, still retaining the same creed and Presbyterial forms, constituted a Presbytery, and are called Associates, and sometimes Seceders. The congregations are intermingled, and, with characteristic perseverance, maintain their peculiarities to this day. The asperity of the division having subsided, the congregations live in peace and mutual respect, and cherish in their bounds much devoted piety.

        The Revolutionary war was commenced in the lifetime of Mr. Balch, and had his life been spared we should in all probability have found him in the camp, like Hall and McCaule. Of his successor, Archibald, there are no traditions of a military cast. His congregations, particularly that of Poplar Tent, were comparatively free from the depredations and inroads of the enemy, and not disturbed by the collisions of divided neighborhoods, from which some of the greatest sufferings of the war had their origin. Says Mrs. Alexander, "They had peace in their neighborhood; there was no contention among them relative to the war; they were all of one mind as a band of brothers, and were faithful one to another, and could sleep peaceably in their houses, while other settlements not far off were greatly distressed by their cruel

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treatment of one another, killing some, banishing others, and even shooting some little boys, while they were pleading for mercy, because their fathers were of a different opinion from them in respect to the war."

        Mr. Archibald was a man of talent, of an amiable disposition, and considered a good classical scholar; but was careless in his manners, and extremely negligent in his dress and general appearance. Some domestic afflictions, fancied or real, preyed upon his spirits, and were the occasion of indulgence to an unwarrantable degree in intoxicating drinks. About the year 1792 he openly taught the doctrine of Universal Salvation; having first changed from Calvinism to Arminianism, and from thence wandered on to the universal restoration of all men. His connection with the congregations was at once dissolved, and his authority to preach soon taken from him by the advice and consent of Synod; deposition followed; and the remainder of his life was a tissue of unhappy events. He never returned to the communion of the church, or retracted the errors for which he suffered its discipline. Mr. Caruthers tells us, on the authority of Mr. McIver, that continuing to preach wherever he could obtain hearers, in one of his rambles through South Carolina he encountered a shrewd old lady who in her younger days had lived in the north of Ireland, and the following dialogue ensued: Lady.--"I'm tould, Sir, you preach that a' men will be saved. Is that your opinion?" Mr. A.--"Yes; I think that after enduring some punishment, all will at last be saved." Lady.--"D'ye think that some will gae to hell, and stay there a while, and then come out again?" Mr. A.--"Yes, that is my opinion." Lady.--"And do you expect to go there yoursel'?" Mr. A.--"Yes; I expect to go there for a time." Lady.--"Ah, man! ye talk strangely; ye're a guid man, and a minister. I wad think ye could na gae there. But what will ye gae there for?" Mr. A.--"I expect to go there for preaching against the truth." Lady.--"Ah, man! that's an unco' bad cause. And hoo long d'ye expect to stay there?" Mr. A.--"Just as long as I preached against the truth." Lady.--"And hoo long was that?" Mr. A.--"About fifteen years." Lady.--"Ye'd be a pretty singed deevil to come oot, after being in sae lang!"

        The successor of Mr. Archibald was Alexander Caldwell, the son of the venerable David Caldwell, who was ordained in 1773. The cause of his leaving the ministry of these churches is given in the sketch of Rocky River.

        Mr. McCorkle, of Thvatira, supplied Poplar Tent for a year

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after Mr. Caldwell's disease rendered him unable to preach, appropriating one Sabbath in four to the instructions of the sanctuary in this congregation.

        After a short period Poplar Tent secured the services of Mr. John Robinson, and, notwithstanding some intervals of absence, enjoyed his services for thirty-six years--which were ended by his death, December 15th, 1843.

        The parents of Mr. John Robinson lived in Sugar Creek congregation, and their graves are found near the centre of the old graveyard. They were reputed eminently pious by their neighbors, and were devoted members of the Church. Their careful training of their son in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, and their concern for his salvation, were often spoken of by him with gratitude and reverence; and the recollection made him more earnest for the salvation of his own household.

        Born January 8th, 1768, and reared in the neighborhood of Charlotte, Mecklenburg county, Mr. Robinson was old enough to be a witness of the scenes and a partaker in the troubles and alarms of the Revolutionary war. Too young to engage in the battles, his youthful memory received a vivid impression of the events of those trying days: and in his age he recounted with spirit the things he had seen and heard when a child. The correctness of his memory and the facility of his recollection, especially where dates were concerned, was remarkable. He trusted memory, and she was faithful to him to the last, bringing out her stores at his call with unabated celerity and precision.

        This, his remarkable quality, was of immense importance to him in his active, laborious, and varied avocations; but it wellnigh prevented posterity from being the wiser for his knowledge, as he committed little to paper in any period of his life, and left nothing behind of importance in the manuscript form. Having been requested, a little before his final departure,--when, in fact, the symptoms began to appear,--to commit his experience and recollections to paper, for the use of those that might live after him, he declined the attempt, on account of his infirmity, but cheerfully agreed to dictate to a ministerial friend on any subject concerning which he possessed information. To some extent this was done; and his dates and information were put to the trial of close examination. Not an important fact was changed, upon an extended inquiry; and very few minor statements required any modification or explanation. Preparations had been made to pursue the copying from his lips on some important subjects, and the time fixed. The

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amanuensis arrived at the appointed time,--but it was to sit by his corpse, and attend his funeral. It is but proper to state, that the traditions gathered from him led to the compilation of the facts given to the public in the present volume. And in no case have his statements been discredited by any official documents that have come to the possession or inspection of the writer.

        His academic education was received partly in Charlotte, under the tuition of Dr. Henderson, who taught in the College-buildings, and partly in an academy taught by Mr. Archibald, of Poplar Tent.

        In recounting the scenes of his youth, he renewed his age; and with vivacity and delight, described the times and circumstances when the boys gathered with enthusiasm around the soldiers, rendezvousing at Charlotte, where he saw that remarkable man, James Hall, march through the town with his three-cornered hat, and long sword, captain of a company, and chaplain to the regiment.

        His classical course was completed, and his degree of A.B. conferred at Winnsboro', South Carolina, the seat of Mount Zion College, the flourishing institution that succeeded the College, whose operations were suspended during the invasion of Charlotte. In the various institutions which he attended, he must have been well taught, as throughout his life his correct knowledge of the classics was remarked and appreciated.

        His title of D.D. was conferred by the University of his native State, as a just tribute of respect to one who had done much for the moral and religious education of the rising generation.

        The time of his making a profession of religion is not known; neither are the peculiar exercises of mind, which preceded that event. But his good hope in Christ never deserted him; and his determination to devote his life to the ministry of the gospel was unshaken; and he was licensed by the Presbytery of Orange, April 4th, 1793, to preach the everlasting gospel.

        Firm in his purpose, dignified in his deportment, courteous in his manners, commanding in his appearance, above the common stature, and perfectly erect, of a spare, muscular frame, of great activity and personal courage, he went to preach the gospel of our Lord, at the time when the flood of infidelity, that swept over our land, tried men's souls. In Carolina and in Virginia, God in mercy poured out his spirit on his church in precious revivals, just before that deluge of sin and wrath came, and raised up a goodly number of young men of undaunted spirit, who counted not

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their life dear unto them might they win Christ's approbation, and be found to praise and glory in the great day. Of that noble company, few now remain; few in Carolina, and but few in Virginia,--yet still some are moving on the horizon of life, waiting in feebleness of body, and the humility of faith, for their Lord's summons.

        The field assigned him by his Presbytery, for his first essay in the ministry, was the ground occupied first by McAden. Under his ministry, the churches, which had been without a settled pastor for a long time, receiving only the occasional services of missionaries, were greatly revived and much enlarged. The children of pious parents were confirmed in the faith they had been taught, and "the word of God grew." The climate proving unfavorable to his family, he determined upon removing higher up the country, and in the year 1800, accepted an invitation from the church in Fayetteville, to become their resident minister.

        The smallness of the salary, and the necessities of the youth, induced him to open a classical school. He continued with the congregation a little more than a year; when finding that the labors of the two offices were more than his constitution could bear, he left the congregation in Dec., 1801, and removed to Poplar Tent, the scene of part of the instructions of his early life under Mr. Archibald.

        After remaining with the congregation of Poplar Tent about four years, preaching and conducting a classical school, which was commended by the Presbytery in 1803, as appears by their records, he was induced by the earnest solicitation of the citizens of Fayetteville, to return to that place, then vacant by the removal of his successor, Rev. Andrew Flinn, to Charleston, South Carolina; and about the commencement of the year 1806, he removed to that place and re-commenced his pastoral labors and his classical school. In these two offices he continued about three years; and in the latter part of December, 1818, returned to Poplar Tent, and passed the remainder of his days. During the two periods of his sojourn in Fayetteville, he was eminently successful both as a teacher and as a preacher. The first administration of the sacrament of the Lord's supper, in Fayetteville, was performed by him on the 6th of September, 1801. At that time there were but seventeen members of the church in that place. He held four communion seasons during his first residence there, and at each time admitted persons to membership in the church. During his second residence, he was extensively useful and greatly beloved. During this period, his preaching is described as "instructive, edifying, and truly evangelical;

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his eloquence was of a gentle and persuasive cast; and in his public discourses, and in his private intercourse with his people, he was remarkable for the mildness of his address." Some even thought his mildness carried to excess in the matter of discipline; as his benevolent heart was finding excuses for mild dealing with offenders. Says the author of a sermon preached on occasion of his death, "the fruits of his labors are yet visible there, and acknowledged with gratitude, by many witnesses. We have never seen any man move through society, receiving more striking tokens of veneration and affection, than we have witnessed shown to Dr. Robinson in that town." The news of his death having reached that place, a public meeting was held in the town-house on the 23d of December, 1843, and the following preamble and resolutions passed.

        "Whereas, it is announced in some of the public prints, that it has pleased the Allwise Disposer of all events, to call away from this sinful and suffering world, our venerable friend, the Rev. John Robinson, D.D., the present meeting, consisting of persons to whom he has been long endeared by ties of a most interesting character, desire, with the utmost sincerity, to give expression to the sentiments which they entertain in the following resolutions, viz.:

        1st. Resolved, That in our estimation, the death of such a man as the late Rev. John Robinson, D.D., is an event justly to be deplored, as a serious loss to a community, who have, for many years, been permitted to enjoy the rich benefits of his wholesome instruction, and godly and edifying example.

        2d. Resolved, That his public services in this place, many years ago, as a minister of the gospel, and an instructor of the rising generation, shall long be remembered with emotions of gratitude and affection.

        3d. Resolved, That David Anderson, Dr. B. Robinson, J.W. Wright, C.P. Mallett, and E.L. Winslow, be a committee to devise suitable means for the erection of such memorial of his character and labors as may perpetuate the memory of his worth, and of his labors for the good of immortal souls.

        4th. Resolved, That these resolutions be published, and a copy of them forwarded to the family of the deceased.

"DAVID ANDERSON, Chairman,
"JOHN McRAE, Secretary."


        These resolutions, called out by his death some thirty-five years after his services in Fayetteville, show conclusively the stability of the population in that congregation, and the deep impression his

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labors made upon the public mind during the years he was pastor and teacher in that community.

        His labors in Poplar Tent were much blessed. The congregation enjoyed repeated refreshings from on high, under his ministry, beside that great and general awakening which pervaded the country at large from the years 1802 onward for five or six years, a part of which time he resided at Fayetteville, and part at Poplar Tent. A Revival, or refreshing from the Lord, was cause of joyfulness to him, wherever, and whenever it came; he would labor with his favored brethren, and receive most kindly their assistance when his part of the vineyard was blessed.

        Desirous of excellence himself, panting after it, he scorned the arts of detraction, and held sacred the reputation of good men, most particularly his brethren in the ministry, rejoicing in their prosperity and good name, and extended usefulness and popularity. He never seemed to feel that the advancement of others was any hindrance to his own progression in excellence or usefulness.

        A clear and faithful exhibition of the doctrines of grace characterized his pulpit ministrations. Generally persuasive, but when aroused by the importance of the subject, he became commanding and overpowering. His dignified person became majestic, and his warm heart kindled to a flame, that warmed and kindled the congregation. The character, love, sufferings and death of Jesus Christ were favorite subjects, and lost none of their exhaustless interest with him or his congregation.

        As he advanced in years, his manners, always courteous, became more dignified and bland; a stranger would have thought he had adorned the drawing-rooms of our cities in the beginning of the 19th century, a gentleman of the old school of Nathaniel Macon. His kind manners expressed a kinder heart, that grew more tender as he advanced in years. It was impossible that a young minister should be introduced to him without loving him; or love him long without reverencing him and catching from him a spirit to desire excellence for its own sake and for Christ.

        A guileless affectionate simplicity attracted all to him in his advancing infirmities; and his departure seemed less and less welcome to his people the nearer and more certain its approach. His habits of neatness in his person and dress continued through life. He had so fixed the habit of dressing himself becomingly that very seldom was he found unprepared to welcome a visitor; and yet the greatest simplicity always appeared in his garments and the manner in which he was attired. It is said of him in his more active days, as a pleasant

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example of his attention to his family, that returning from a judicatory of the church, he lodged about seventeen miles from home. Rising at the dawn of day to reach home for his breakfast, he was observed to be particular in adjusting his dress, and under some disadvantage to be shaving himself with care; one of his fellowlodgers observed, "you need not delay to be so particular, as you are only going home;" with a polite bow the Dr. replied, "for that very reason I am particular."

        For many years Dr. Robinson carried on a classical school in Poplar Tent, at which were trained many of the leading men of the present generation in and around Poplar Tent. It may be said to have been in its glory after Dr. Wilson, of Rocky River, found it necessary to decline teaching, and Dr. Robinson found it necessary to provide a place of instruction for the youth of the surrounding country. The dignity, precision and kindness with which he presided over his school are referred to with much affection by his pupils. A teacher himself, he favored every attempt to promote sacred learning; and when about the year 1820 an effort was made to establish a college in Western Carolina, he took an active part in the enterprise, and mourned over its failure. When Davidson College was instituted he took a prominent part; and was President of the Board for many years.

        A pleasant anecdote of the Dr.'s personal courage is told by Dr. Morrison, of his early life. While residing in Duplin he had occasion to travel to Presbytery alone. Stopping in a little village for refreshment, at what appeared the most respectable tavern, it was promised him. While waiting for it a company assembled around the bar, and began using profane language. Mr. Robinson remarked very politely that such language was very painful to him, as he thought it wrong. After a short pause the drinking and profanity were renewed with more indecency than before, the landlord taking a conspicuous part. Mr. Robinson appealed to him, as the keeper of the house at which he had called, expecting civil treatment, and to the honor of his house as the stranger's safeguard from insult. With increased profanity, and in a violent rage, the landlord rushed towards him with his clenched fist, swearing that "the house was his own, and his tongue was his own, and he would do as he pleased." Mr. Robinson arose and stretched himself to his full height, and fastening a stern look upon him, replied, "your house may be your own;--and your tongue is your own;--but take care how you use your fist." The landlord cowered and asked pardon for his insult; the crowd shrunk away; and after obtaining his refreshment

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the Dr. went on his way, earnestly entreated by the landlord not to expose his impropriety to the disgrace and injury of his tavern.

        Another, illustrating the Dr.'s manner in his intercourse with his fellow men. While residing in Duplin, a gentleman who had been educated in Scotland, but had his residence in that county, invited him to go home with him. The evening passed pleasantly; the gentleman was fluent in discussing the discipline of the church, the confession of doctrines, the Solemn League and Covenant. At supper, the gentleman politely requested Mr. Robinson to ask a blessing; and before retiring to rest assembled his family for worship. The next morning the family again met for worship; as they were standing around the breakfast table Mr. Robinson in his graceful manner referred to the gentleman to ask the blessing. He commenced, and after pronouncing a few words became discomposed, and turning to Mr. Robinson said, "Will you please finish, sir." After breakfast, he, deeply affected, addressed Mr. Robinson, "You now see what I have come to. I was born of pious parents; taught religion in my youth, and observed its forms in my native country; but here, sir, I have neglected its duties; and now cannot even ask God to bless the food of my own table." After suitable discourse Mr. Robinson left him; the impression remained upon his mind, giving him no rest till, as he hoped, he was led to Christ in true conversion. He became a member of the church, and as far as known, lived consistently with its obligations.

        His infirmities rendering it impossible for him to perform the duties of his office in his extensive charge, his congregation reluctantly received his resignation, in order to look out for a pastor, the Dr. declining any official connection with the church, or any management of its affairs. He continued to preach occasionally for his brethren, with whom his visits were always delightful, till his asthmatic cough confined him to his house.

        He never possessed any great fondness for the pen, and had no manuscripts to review in his old age. His infirmities prevented him from reading to any extent; and he was deprived of his excellent wife, Mary Baldwin, the mother of his children, in 1836, having lived in affection with her for more than forty years, having been united in marriage to her April 9th, 1795; and yet he never appeared lonesome or repining while he was waiting upon God for his departure.

        Having desired, for some years before his death, to enjoy a meeting of the North Carolina Synod at Poplar Tent, the brethren held

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their sessions in October, 1842, at that church, and near his dwelling. Under the influence of a more than usually severe attack of his cough, he was unable to attend a single session of the Synod, being confined to his room, and mostly to his bed. The Synod sent a committee with resolutions of condolence and respect, to express their sympathy with their venerable brother, who, through a long period of years, was never known to be absent from a judicatory of the church of which he was a member, in this respect rivalling the venerable Dr. Hall of Iredell, who attended all the sessions of the Synod of the Carolinas but one. The compliment was unexpected by the Dr., and deeply affected him. With unpretended humility and kindness he wept when the committee read to him the resolutions of Synod; overcome with varied emotions, his readiness at reply forsook him. The sighs that for a few moments shook his frame, touched the hearts of the committee as they stood around his bed; and they wept with him; and sighed as they beheld the wreck of human strength and excellence. A leader was departing, not in a chariot of fire, but in the exercise of an humble faith.

        His life was protracted in great feebleness till the fourteenth of December, 1843, when he fell asleep in Christ. His body was laid beside the remains of his wife, in the burying ground near Poplar Tent church, and amidst his hearers, with whom he will rise at the coming of Christ.

        In looking over the inscriptions upon the graves around their pastor, you find the names of many of the first settlers, such as Harris, Alexander, Black, Parks, Young, Weddington, Flinn, Ross, Means, Crawford, and Gilmer. One can but feel regret that the graves of the Rev. Hezekiah James Balch, and his spirited elder, David Reese, cannot be pointed out; men that represented this congregation in the convention. Their names will never pass from the records of history; but a visit to their tombs might be useful to coming generations, and the future worshippers in Poplar Tent might be excited to deeds worthy of their ancestors, by a visit to this yard. They ought to dwell upon the past to be prepared to act worthy of the present and the future.

        When Mr. Robinson taught in Fayetteville, he had an assistant, William B. Maroney. This man had been very thoughtless and wild, and opposed to religious things. His own excesses were made the cause of his alarm and awakening. After indulging a hope in Christ, he wished to preach the gospel. In his forty-third year, 1803, his case was laid before Synod. He ultimately was admitted

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to the ministry, and labored faithfully and successfully in Bethesda. His monument has this short epitaph:--

Rev. William B. Maroney,
late minister of the gospel
at this place,
was born A.D., 1760,
Died August 1st, 1816.


        He is reported as ordained in 1811; the time of his licensure is not known, the records of Orange having been lost by fire.

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CHAPTER XXXI.
EXTRACTS FROM RECORDS OF THE SYNOD OF THE CAROLINAS FROM 1802 TO 1812.

SESSION XV.

Bethany Church, Oct. 9th, 1802.

        SYNOD was opened by Rev. Leonard Prather, with a sermon from Amos iv., 12th, and Rev. William C. Davis was chosen moderator. The Presbytery of Orange reported they had received the Rev. Leonard Prather from the Methodist Church, and that they had suspended the Rev. M. Thompson: Presbytery of Concord, that they had dismissed Rev. John Andrews to the Presbytery of West Lexington. Mr. John Matthews, missionary to the Natches, and Mr. Thomas Hall, missionary in the Carolinas and Georgia, read reports of their missionary labors, and for their diligence received the thanks of Synod. The Synod (after an interval of some years) appointed a Commission of Synod to attend to the missionary business, and appointed Hugh Shaw, licentiate of Orange, a missionary to the Natches; and as Mr. Matthews expressed a desire to return, a commission was ordered for him. The Presbytery of Orange was directed also to ordain him for the mission, should he go.

        The case from Sinking Spring, Greenville Presbytery, came up again, and after long investigation, was put over till next session; it was an intricate but entirely local matter. "This Synod enjoin it on each Presbytery of which it is composed, to establish within its respective bounds, one or more grammar schools, except where such schools are already established; and that each member of the several Presbyteries make it their business to select and encourage youths of promising piety and talents, and such as may be expected to turn their attention to the ministry of the gospel."

        "Overtured: Whether it be proper for this Synod to confer on any one who may be well recommended, a written and formal permission to act in the character of an exhorter? Synod judged it would be improper, as our book of discipline does not authorize Synod to grant such permission."

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        The Presbytery of Abingdon petitioned Synod to give their consent to an application to the next General Assembly, to annex said Presbytery to the Synod of Virginia. "Resolved, that the prayer of said overture be granted;" in consideration of the difficulties in attending Synod. "As Dr. McCorkle, from a growing indisposition of body, is incapable of transcribing our records with conveniency, ordered that the Rev. John Brown be appointed, and he hereby is appointed, the stated clerk of this Synod."

SESSION XVI.

Buffalo Church, Oct. 6th, 1803.

        Synod was opened by Rev. James Hall with a sermon from John vi., 27, and Mr. John Robinson was chosen moderator. The Presbytery of Orange have added by ordination Daniel Brown, Andrew Flinn, Malcolm McNair, Ezekiel B. Currie, and John Matthews; and the Presbytery of Hopewell, Edward Pharr.

        The commission of Synod reported that they had commissioned eight missionaries within the bounds of Synod, one of whom, Wm. C. Davis, was to visit the Catawba Indians. Reports were heard from part of these missionaries. "Ordered that the Rev. Wm. C. Davis act as a stated missionary to the Catawba Indians until our next stated session of Synod; that he superintend the school in that nation, now taught by Mr. Foster, and that he obtain the assistance of Rev. James Wallis as far as may be convenient. Ordered, that the several Presbyteries under our care be directed to pay particular attention to the subscription business for the support of the missionaries, especially as we now have promising prospect of teaching the Catawba Indians to read and pay some attention to the gospel.

        "A petition from the Presbytery of Hopewell was handed in and read, praying the direction of Synod in the case of John Forbes, who made application to that Presbytery to be received as a candidate for the gospel ministry. The Synod advise the Presbytery of Hopewell to direct their conduct towards Mr. Forbes agreeably to the directions of the book of discipline; and recommend to the Presbytery of Orange to act in the same manner towards Mr. Bloodworth and Mr. Maroney, in behalf of whom they made similar applications."

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SESSION XVII.

Bullock's Creek church, Oct. 4th, 1804.

        Synod was opened by Rev. Samuel Caldwell by a sermon from Proverbs xiv., 12, and Rev. Humphrey Hunter was chosen moderator.

        The First Presbytery of South Carolina report Duncan Brown and John Couser, added by ordination; the Second Presbytery, James Gilleland, jr.; the First Presbytery of South Carolina reported the death of David E. Dunlap; and the Second Presbytery of South Carolina, the dismission of Francis Cummins to Hopewell Presbytery.

        By request of members the Presbytery of Greenville was dissolved; and the Rev. George Newton and Samuel Davies were directed to apply to the Presbytery of Concord for admission; Hezekiah Balch and John Cossan, to the Presbytery of Union; and Stephen Bovelle to the Presbytery of West Lexington, in Kentucky, or any other Presbytery in whose bounds his lot might fall.

        A commission of Synod was appointed for this year, to attend to whatever missionary business is left unfinished by Synod. Rev. Daniel Brown and Malcolm McNair were appointed missionaries to the Natches for six months or more; and Mr. Murphy, licentiate, was appointed for the lower part of South Carolina.

        "Overtured--Is it consistent with the government of the Presbyterian church to admit other denominations, as churches, to commune with us, and to receive their preachers without distinction as ministers of the Gospel?" "Answered in the negative; except through the General Assembly."

        "Overtured--Is a minister's regular acceptance of a call from a congregation absolutely necessary to constitute him the regular pastor of that congregation?" "Answered in the affirmative."

        "Overtured--How is a fellow Presbyter who preaches these disorganizing doctrines, viz.: that forms of religion ought for the most part to be dispensed with; that tokens are unnecessary; and that it makes no difference whether a man is regularly licensed by any judicatory, and invites such to preach in his pulpit--to be dealt with by his brethren in the ministry?" "Answer--Synod direct our members to our form of government and discipline of our church. The Synod also express their disapprobation of those things alluded to in the overture; and declare their strict adherence to the Confession of Faith and Discipline of our Church; and earnestly recommend to all their members, the propriety, and absolute

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necessity, of supporting, so far as their influence may extend, the Confession of Faith and Discipline of our Church."

SESSION XVIII.

Bethesda church, Oct. 3d, 1805.

        Synod was opened by Rev. John M. Wilson with a sermon from Deut. xxxii., 29, and Rev. James Wallis was chosen moderator. The first Presbytery of South Carolina reported Murdock Murphy as ordained; the second Presbytery of South Carolina reported Benjamin R. Montgomery, and that they had dismissed Robert Wilson, William Williamson, and James Gilleland, sen., to settle in the State of Ohio; the Presbytery of Concord reported the death of Lewis F. Wilson.

        The commission appointed last year laid before Synod the minutes and the reports of missionaries. From this it appeared that the school among the Catawbas had been continued at considerable expense; at first the Indians were much interested in the instructions and exhortations of the teacher, but after a while grew weary; that there had been but little preaching among them. The prospect not flattering. Mr. Smylie made a favorable report of his mission to the Mississippi territory, and presented a letter from a congregation addressed to Synod, asking for further aid.

        A commission of Synod was appointed to attend to the missionary concerns of the Synod, to hold their first meeting in New Providence, the first Tuesday of November next.

        Rev. Samuel C. Caldwell was directed to write to the Presbyteries of Orange and Union on the subject of their not being represented in Synod for some time; the Presbytery of Orange since 1802, and the Presbytery of Union since 1799.

        Synod being informed that certain persons within their bounds had petitioned the Assembly to receive them into connection by the name of the Presbytery of Charleston, without being in connection with the Synod of the Carolinas, proceeded to draw up a remonstrance to the Assembly against their being received in such circumstances, as unconstitutional, and reflecting on the Synod.

SESSION XIX.

Olney, October 2, 1806.

        Synod was opened by Rev. Humphrey Hunter, with a sermon

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from 2 Tim. iii., 16; and Rev. James Stephenson chosen moderator. The First Presbytery of South Carolina reported George Reid; Orange, James Smylie, as a missionary to the Natches.

        The Overture handed in last session respecting a stated clerk, was taken up, and after consideration, "the Synod determined to adopt the measure proposed; on which the Rev. John B. Davies was chosen to act as stated clerk for Synod. He was directed to transcribe the minutes of our preceding session in a proper book, for which service the Synod determined to allow him the sum of three dollars for each annual session, and the sum of ten dollars yearly from the present term for performing the services specified in the above mentioned overture." (In consequence of this order Mr. Davies transcribed the minutes of the preceding sessions in a large folio, and continued to be the clerk of Synod while it existed. The records, in his handwriting from 1788 to 1813, the time the Synod of the Carolinas existed, cover 422 folio pages, were correctly kept, and written in an uncommonly plain hand.)

        Overtured,--That Synod petition the Assembly for a division to form two Synods, one to be known by the name of North Carolina and the other South Carolina.

        The commission of Synod reported that they had done nothing; a part of them had received a report of a missionary that should have been presented to the preceding Synod.

        The Synod appointed three missionaries, Dr. James Hall, Wm. H. Barr, a licentiate of Orange, and Mr. Thomas J. Hall, to itinerate within their bounds.

        A letter was addressed to the Presbyteries urging a fuller attendance on Synod, accompanied by a resolution to call absentees to a strict account; and that a letter of citation be addressed to them. Instances were given of great punctuality, such as being present at twenty meetings of Synod out of twenty-one (Dr. James Hall is the person referred to, who commenced attending the Synod of New York and Philadelphia).

        "Overtured,--That this Synod give their opinion respecting the propriety of ministers of the gospel accepting and holding civil offices, which divert their attention from their ministerial duty, and bring reproach on the sacred ministry; and as this Synod do highly disapprove of such conduct, Resolved, That those Presbyteries where such instances are to be found, adopt the most effectual measures to induce such ministers to lay aside such offices, and devote themselves wholly to their ministerial duties. And if the Presbyteries should meet with any difficulties in dealing with such

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members, they are required to apply to the General Assembly for instructions in such case."

        "Resolved, That Synod publish 1000 copies of the following pamphlets, viz.: the Rev. John Andrews's pamphlet, entitled A Brief Essay on Natural and Moral Inability, and two pamphlets written by the Rev. John P. Campbell in reply to Mr. Stone."

SESSION XX.

Rocky River, Oct. 1st, 1807.

        Synod was opened by Rev. James W. Stephenson with a sermon from Micah ii., 3, last clause; and Moses Waddel was chosen moderator. Added to Presbytery of Concord, Thomas J. Hall and Andrew S. Morrison; second Presbytery of South Carolina, Daniel Gray; Presbytery of Union, Isaac Anderson, Charles Coffin, Matthew Donnell, and Joseph D. Lapsley.

        A memorial from the Second Presbytery of South Carolina was read, complaining that the First Presbytery of South Carolina does not discipline a member of theirs, Wm. C. Davis, for preaching erroneous doctrine, though known by Presbytery to hold and preach such doctrine. "To give a complete list of the doctrines we have in view, even as far as they are known to us, we think would be quite unnecessary in this communication. It may, however, be proper to mention, that Mr. Davis affirms and industriously propagates, that what has been termed the passive obedience of Christ is all that the law of God can, or does require, in order to the justification of the believer; and that his active obedience is not imputed. He also affirms and teaches that faith precedes regeneration, and is not a holy exercise, nor has anything holy in its nature. * * * * Now, although neither we nor the Presbytery to which he belongs can prevent Mr. Davis from believing whatever he may think proper, yet we deem it somewhat more than indecorous that any member in our communion should be allowed intentionally to teach doctrines manifestly contrary to that system we are supposed to believe and preach."

        Synod after consideration directed the First Presbytery of South Carolina to attend to this matter "as duty and discipline may direct."

        The Presbytery of Union applied for leave to apply to the General Assembly to be connected with the Synod of Virginia: Synod, satisfied that the Presbytery were unanimous in the application, granted the request.

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        Dr. Hall made report of his missionary services; also Mr. Thos. Hall, and Mr. William H. Barr. Their reports were entered on record, exhibiting great industry and much labor. A committee of missions was appointed for the ensuing year, of whom Dr. Hall was to be moderator, to hold their first meeting at Steele Creek church on the third Wednesday of November.

        "Ordered, that the Synod send up to the General Assembly the following question:--Whether elders from vacant congregations have the same constitutional right to a seat in Synod which they have in Presbytery?"

        The missionaries this year refer to a state of things in their route, which had called the attention of the missionaries in former years, and is perhaps best expressed in the report of Dr. Hall for this year:--"Approaching the low country (in South Carolina), the professors of religion became less, and the bigoted attachment to party doctrines appeared to be stronger. These doctrines, which they call their principles, are so frequently brought into the pulpit, that sometimes a private member of one of those denominations, when he goes to hear a preacher of the other, expecting what will come forward, has his scriptural notes prepared, and reads them against the doctrines delivered: on which issue is joined, and the doctrines are debated in the presence of the congregation. From these, and other circumstances, it appears that few attend on the preaching of the gospel except the bigoted adherents to their respective parties."

SESSION XXI.

Sugaw Creek church, Oct. 6th, 1808.

        Synod was opened by Rev. Benjamin R. Montgomery, with a sermon on Heb. ii., 3, first clause; and the Rev. John M. Wilson was chosen moderator. Presbytery of Orange report W. L. Turner from Virginia, and James K. Burch; and that they had suspended Leonard Prather from the office of minister of the gospel. The Second Presbytery of South Carolina reported, "lost by death, Rev. John Simpson, and Dr. Thomas Williamson, a licentiate."

        The commission of Synod reported, that they had met and appointed Dr. Hall, Rev. E. B. Currie, and Mr. Wm. H. Barr, missionaries in their bounds during part of the past year. The missionaries were called on; Mr. Currie had not received a commission. The others read long and interesting reports, of one of

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which the Synod made the following minute, viz.--"The Rev. Dr. Hall read a report, in which he gave a particular account of the state of that part of the country where he travelled, and stated that he thought it would be more advisable to cherish our own vacancies, than to attempt to establish new societies in these bounds; and particularly recommended vigorous exertions on the part of Synod, to encourage the education of young men for the gospel ministry. He further stated, that he travelled, during his mission, 1132 miles, and preached forty times, and received $64,68." Mr. Barr united with Dr. Hall, respecting the change of missionary action from the itinerant, to the supplying our vacancies with more regular preaching. The Synod passed a vote of thanks to both these laborious men. In urging the cause of education, Dr. Hall says--"Otherwise, our churches, if any should remain, must be supplied with ignorant and illiterate preachers, or they must receive foreigners, which past experience has for the most part shown not to be very eligible; as we may expect little besides the dregs of European churches. Should none of these be the case, our people must sink into ignorance and barbarism, and stand exposed to every erroneous wind of doctrine." Mr. Barr appears to have been a most devoted missionary.

        A commission of Synod was appointed, "to regulate the whole of the missionary business, to meet the first Wednesday of November, at Unity Church, Indian Lands, of which Dr. Hall was appointed moderator."

        The First Presbytery of South Carolina being called on to report their doings respecting Rev. W. C. Davis, on the complaint handed in to last Synod, reported that after hearing Mr. Davis's explanations they had not done anything; and put the following question, viz.: "Whether the holding and propagating any, and what doctrines, apparently repugnant to the letter of the confession of faith, will justify a Presbytery in calling a member to public trial?" The Synod, not satisfied with this report, appointed a committee consisting of Rev. James Hall and General Andrew Pickens, of Second Presbytery, South Carolina, to propose a minute to direct the Presbytery in its future proceedings. This committee brought in a minute which was amended and adopted, of which the following is all that is important, viz.: "Resolved, that the Second Presbytery of South Carolina be directed to meet immediately on this ground, and if they have any charges to state against Mr. Davis, that they be immediately exhibited according to the discipline of our church, before the First Presbytery of

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South Carolina, together with the names of the witnesses, should they deem it necessary to call witnesses in the case. And that the foregoing purposes may be answered, the First Presbytery of South Carolina is directed to constitute immediately to receive such charge as the Second Presbytery may think dutiful to lay before them: and to furnish Mr. Davis with a copy of the charge, together with the names of the witnesses. That the Synod direct the moderator of the First Presbytery of South Carolina to call an occasional meeting on the third Wednesday of November next, to confer with Mr. Davis on the doctrines specified in the memorial of the Second Presbytery of South Carolina, and such other doctrines as may be thought by them advisable. And that they take a record of all the questions put to Mr. Davis, particularly relative to these matters, together with his answers, that all concerned may have the fullest information and satisfaction that the nature of the case allows."

        Overture.--"Should the qualifications of parents offering their children for baptism be the same as would entitle them to the Lord's Supper? Answered in the affirmative."

        "The committee appointed to draught a minute on the subject of intercourse and communion with the Methodist church, introduced one which was amended and adopted, and is as follows, viz.: Whereas, the Methodist church embraces doctrines that we are far from considering orthodox, and as they are in the habit of insinuating that Presbyterian ministers are mercenary in their calling,--of speaking disrespectfully of our church, and endeavoring to withdraw members from our communion; therefore, to avoid all feuds, animosities and contentions with that people, the Synod recommend that all unnecessary intercourse with them be avoided,--that our brethren in the ministry be careful to teach all the doctrines of our holy religion as contained in our Confession of Faith and Catechism; and at particular times, when prudence and duty may direct, to explain and establish those doctrines, which we believe the church alluded to has misunderstood, if not perverted."

        "The Synod do highly disapprove of holding communion with the Methodist church, as a church; but in certain cases occasional communion may be permitted. And we recommend that in those cases in which communion may be requested, that our ministers deal with such applicants, as with those who may make application for the first time, within our church. We also recommend that members of our own church, who without the approbation of the

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session, invite Methodist preachers to preach in our congregations, and who assiduously endeavor to gain proselytes to the Methodist church, be dealt with by their respective sessions as disorderly."

        "And we finally recommend that the several Presbyteries under our care be particularly careful to furnish their vacancies with the means of information upon the peculiar doctrines of our holy religion, by disseminating amongst them catechisms, and other orthodox books, and by frequently granting them such supplies as may be in their power."

        "The following dissent was tabled, viz.: We, whose names are underwritten, beg leave to dissent from the decision of Synod on the above case, for the following reason; that the Methodist Church is alone implicated, when it is known that the ministers of other denominations have made impositions on congregations belonging to our church; and request that this our dissent be entered on the minutes of Synod."

JAMES HALL,
J. D. KILPATRICK.

SESSION XXII.

Poplar Tent, Oct. 5th, 1809.

        Synod was opened by Rev. John M. Wilson, with a sermon from Acts xx., 24; and the Rev. Robert B. Walker was chosen moderator. The Presbytery of Orange reported John McIntyre, and that the suspension had been removed from Leonard Prather; the first Presbytery, South Carolina, reported the death of Joseph Alexander, D.D.

        At the close of the last session, provision was made for the calling an extraordinary meeting; the moderator of the last session informed Synod that he had directed the moderators of the several Presbyteries to issue citations to their respective members, to attend at Steele Creek on the first Tuesday of March, 1809; but high waters prevented a meeting.

        The commission of Synod reported that they had commissioned Dr. Hall and Rev. Andrew Flinn, to act as missionaries in the vacancies in the bounds of Synod; Mr. Flinn did not act, but Dr. Hall had performed service. His report was read to Synod. He was absent four months and thirteen days, preached sixty-nine times, held three communions and several evening societies, and travelled 1545 miles. The following are extracts from his report: "Previously to his departure from home, he had extracted four

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hundred and twenty questions from our Confession of Faith, which embraced the most important doctrines contained in that system, and disseminated them through eight of our vacancies, for the perusal of the people until he should return to finish his mission, at which time they were to be called upon for public examination." The success attending this effort, he reports as having been very encouraging. The following extract refers to the exercises which had prevailed extensively beyond the Catawba among the congregations visited, viz.:

        "For the satisfaction of Synod and others to whom this report may come, your missionary begs indulgence in being somewhat particular in the case of Knobb Creek congregation. He visited them with much pleasure, and spent some considerable time among them, both in November and April. Some of the most intelligent and apparently pious of them, told him that since they have come to look back and reason on their past extravagant views, feelings, and exercises, they are filled with horror as to themselves, and gratitude to God, that they were not given over to the most wild and delusive fanaticism; that when they hear or read of the horrid and extravagant conduct of the Shakers in the Western States, they are filled with horror at their former situation, as it now appears to them that if those people had then come among them, they seemed prepared to run with them into all their extravagance and enthusiasm. The following account your missionary had from one of their members, who formerly did, and still does sustain an eminently pious character. 'When I fell into those extraordinary exercises I found such pleasure in them that I would not think of parting with them; yet when they were off, I found the power of religion so declining in my heart, that I was conscious that in that state I never need expect to enter the kingdom of heaven; and they have cost me many sleepless hours in prayer and wrestling with my own wretched heart, before I could give them up.' Let none, however, from this statement, take occasion to think unfavorably or even lightly, of those deep and heart-affecting exercises, both distressful and joyous, to which no doubt we have all been witnesses, and many of which, if we judge by their fruits, we have reason to believe, were produced by the powerful operations of the Holy Spirit, by which, from an overwhelming sense of divine things, those effects were produced on the body; as the exercises of the above society respected not only their spiritual but also their temporal affairs,

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managing their farms, assisting each other in daily labor, and especially the marriage of young people one with another.

        "An elder of that congregation whom your missionary and other members of Synod had for many years known to be a man of established religious character, had removed to Tennessee, being then under suspension with many others, by Presbytery, for adhering to those extravagances, and who returned on business when your missionary was in that neighborhood. He told him that he had steadfastly adhered to his former system; was filled with the deepest prejudices against Presbytery; was highly disgusted with his fellow members when he heard that they had submitted to the requisitions of Presbytery, as it appeared to him like giving up the cause of God, until the then last preceding August; without any human means, or anything but what he must ascribe to the sovereign mercy and grace of God, his eyes were opened to see the absurdity of his conduct, especially that of spurning at the government of the church, and of private members attempting to administer the sealing ordinances of the gospel.

        "And your missionary was a witness to his ample and solemn acknowledgment of his error, and to an admonition which he received before the session of Knobb Creek, in conformity to the judgment of Presbytery; which admonition he received not only with suitable humility, but expressions of gratitude and thankfulness in being fully restored to the communion of the church. The above example appeared to be the prevailing disposition of the society, except a few individuals, who seemed to retain a smack of their former principles; but without the least appearance in their conduct. Those were so inconsiderable, that they had no influence in the society."


        In conclusion, he pressed the subject of an educated ministry, pleading the necessities of the church as reasons for great activity in raising up a proper ministry.

        In order the better to understand this report, it may be observed that, in the year 1804, the Presbytery of Orange appointed Rev. Messrs. S. C. Caldwell, John M. Wilson, Humphrey Hunter, and elders, Messrs. John McKnitt Alexander, Thomas Harris, Jacob Alexander, Isaac Alexander, Hugh Parks, and Robert Stephenson, a committee to visit Long Creek, and take up the irregularities of Long Creek and Knobb Creek, on the subject of religion.

        They performed the duty assigned; and upon inquiry found that some of the laymen laid claim to special divine guidance, and

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had administered the ordinances of the Supper and of Baptism, being moved, as they said, by a divine impulse. For these and other irregularities many were suspended from the privileges of the church.

        The case of Rev. Wm. C. Davis before the First Presbytery of South Carolina came up. Upon inspecting the records of the Presbytery it appeared that the Second Presbytery had tabled charges against Mr. Davis, but did not appear to prosecute at the time fixed to meet Mr. Davis. That the First Presbytery heard Mr. Davis, and pronounced sentence. The charges were,--"1st, He affirms and industriously propagates that what has been termed the passive obedience of Christ is all that the law of God can, or does require in order to justification of the believer, and that his active obedience is not imputed."

        "2d. He also affirms and teaches that saving faith precedes regeneration, and has nothing holy in its nature, as to its first act.

        "3d. That the Divine Being is bound by his own law, or, in other words, by the moral law.

        "4th. That Adam was never bound to keep the moral law, as the Federal Head or Representative of his posterity; or, in other words, that the moral law made no part of the conditions of the covenant of works."

        Mr. Davis admitted the charges, and explained them: That Christ's active righteousness gave efficiency to the atonement, but was not imputed:--that the first act of faith was before regeneration, and of consequence not holy, though acts of faith afterwards might be holy:--that the moral law was the standard of perfection and holiness, and so applied to God without derogation:--that, though the moral law had an immediate consequential connection with the condition of the covenant, either as to the keeping or breaking said covenant, yet it is not the guilt of transgressing the moral law that is imputed to Adam's posterity, but only the guilt of eating the forbidden fruit."

        The Presbytery condemned the tenets as contrary to the Confession, and unsound; but, on the score of liberty of opinion and latitude of expression, did not condemn Mr. Davis for holding them as worthy of any church censure, though they considered him guilty and in some degree censurable, for his imprudence in expressing himself.

        The Synod was dissatisfied with this course, as by no means coming up to their directions of last year, or the exigencies of the case; took up the matter, and were proceeding to investigation

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and trial for decision, having by vote determined they had a right so to do, when Mr. Davis protested, and appealed to the Assembly. The Synod finally remitted the case to the Assembly; and also an overture respecting the book Mr. Davis had published, denominated the Gospel Plan, in which his sentiments were expressed at large.

        On request, the Synod constituted a Presbytery out of the territory of three others, to be known by the name of Harmony, to consist of the following members:--Rev. George McWhorter, Andrew Flinn, and John Couser, of the First Presbytery of South Carolina; John R. Thompson, of Hopewell Presbytery; to meet for the first time in the city of Charleston, on the first Wednesday of March, 1810, and that Rev. Andrew Flinn, or the senior member present, preside and open the Presbytery.

        Synod appointed a committee, consisting of Rev. James McRee, Samuel C. Caldwell, John Robinson, and John M. Wilson, to meet at Poplar Tent, the second Wednesday in November, to prepare a pastoral letter for the churches, warning them against the errors propagated by Mr. Davis; and that they commit the letter, when prepared, to Dr. Waddel, to superintend the printing and circulation, in proper proportion, among the Presbyteries.

SESSION XXIII.

Fair Forest, Oct. 4th, 1810.

        Synod was opened by Rev. Robert B. Walker, with a sermon from 2d Corinth. iv., 7; and Rev. Samuel Stanford was chosen moderator. Second Presbytery of South Carolina reported Wm. H. Barr; the Presbytery of Orange, that they had dismissed John Gillespie to the Presbytery of Transylvania, and James K. Burch to Presbytery of Philadelphia; and had received Wm. McPheeters from Presbytery of Lexington, Va., and had licensed Benjamin H. Rice.

        The resolutions and decision of the General Assembly, in the case of Wm. C. Davis, referred to them at the last Session of Synod, were read. After various propositions, and much consultation, it was resolved that the First Presbytery of South Carolina be dissolved, and the members be annexed as follows:--"Rev. W. C. Davis, pastor of Bullock's Creek; Robert B. Walker of Bethesda; John B. Davies of Fishing Creek and Richardson; Thomas

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Neeley of Purity and Edmonds; with George Reid without a charge; and the vacancies of Waxhaw, Unity, Bethel, Hopewell, Beersheba, Yorkville, Shiloh, and Salem, be, and hereby are, joined to the Presbytery of Concord; and that Rev. Robert McCullock and John Foster, without charges; Samuel H. Yongue of Lebanon and Mount Olivet, with the vacancies of Concord, Horeb, Sion, Aimwell, Catholic, Beaver Creek, and Hanging Creek, be, and hereby are, joined to the Presbytery of Harmony." The name of the Second Presbytery of South Carolina was changed to Presbytery of South Carolina.

        "Overtured, Are lotteries even for religious purposes, such as building churches, &c., consistent with the morality of the gospel?" referred to the Assembly.

        Dr. Hall read his report of missionary service at great length. His first tour commenced October 25, 1809, and ended December 14th. After his return from the General Assembly, to which he was a delegate, he commenced his tour again on the 16th of June, 1810. Of this tour, the following extracts are the most important, and of abiding interest. (He came in contact with two characters who must be noticed.) His tour was among the Scotch between the Cape Fear and Pedee Rivers.

Extracts from the Report.

        "Mr. Lindsay, whose name has been mentioned above, and Mr. McDiarmid, still continue to preach and administer sealing ordinances, although they have been both deposed, many years since, from the ministry of the gospel, by the Presbytery of Orange. They command influence over thousands of their countrymen from Scotland; although common fame says they persevere in habits of intemperance in the use of ardent spirits. Mr. Lindsay's adherents acknowledge as to him, and Mr. McDiarmid's say he only takes a refreshment. This is said to be the frequent practice of both; that they and their parishioners, after worship, even on Sabbath evenings, repair to a house where spirits are sold, and spend the evening in drinking, and sometimes deal out such hard blows to each other, that not long since some of them were adjudged by court to pay $40 each, on one of these occasions.

        "Your missionary visited both the above preachers at their own houses, and conversed largely with them in presence of some of their people. Mr. L. complained much to him of the conduct of the Presbytery in his case. He was asked why he did not appeal to Synod. He said there he was in an error. He was informed

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that, although the time limited for appealing was long since elapsed, yet, perhaps, he might still have a hearing. To this he replied, that he understood we were all of one sort. And being asked what sort was that, he replied, it was friends to the new religion; and that for not falling in with that, he had been deposed from the ministry. In short, he seemed to have no relish for conversation on any of those subjects, and endeavored, by every possible means, to turn the current of conversation into some different channel.

        "Mr. McD. was much more pliant, and professed a strong desire to be united to the Presbytery. This also appeared to be the desire of many of his people. Your missionary had three different conversations with him, the last of which was at his own house, in presence of two elders, and a respectable Scotch merchant from Fayetteville. He seemed all submission, and requested your missionary, as did also the above gentleman, to write to Presbytery on the subject, which he did, and delivered the letter to Mr. McD. The company were then called to dinner; but before we arose, Mr. McD. exhibited evident marks of intoxication. To proceed on fair ground, your missionary inquired privately at all the above gentlemen, who were all of the same opinion. The letter lay in an accessible place, from which your missionary took it up and asked Mr. McD.'s pardon for recalling it. He was asked the reason by Mr. McD., and he was pointedly told it was because he had meddled too freely with ardent spirits. He fell into a violent passion and ran out of the house. The gentleman from Fayetteville followed and pacified him so as to return. Your missionary and the elders then bade him good bye, and withdrew without further ceremony."

        (The next day, Sabbath, he read the letter to the people; explained the circumstances and exhorted them to examine their case; and appealed to the elders who were now there for the truth of his statements. On leaving the place some said, "we have heard the truth to-day;" others said--"few would have dared to say that.")

        "Mr. M'Intyre, whose people live in a blended state with those of Mr. L., is gaining considerable ground on the latter. This need not be thought strange, considering the striking contrast between the characters of the men. Many families have lately come over to Mr. M'Intyre; and frequently young people of families who adhere to Mr. L. are taken with convictions under Mr. M'I.'s preaching. In this case some are afraid to go home, for fear of

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the lash; and your missionary has seen young people in a state of banishment from their father's house on account of their attachment to religion. In short, the state of both the aged and young who are under the influence of those two men baffles description; nor would such particular history of their and their people's case have been given, were it not to attract the attention of Synod to that unhappy and deluded people. And their unhappiness does not arise only from the examples set before them; but their teachers are said to be industrious in propagating falsehoods among them, to prejudice them against our Clergy;--asserting that we have cast off the Westminster Confession of Faith, and have made one of our own; that we are all become Methodists, and have departed from the principles of Presbyterianism, and that there is not now a Presbyterian minister in the United States except themselves, &c. &c. In a particular manner they attempt to prepossess the minds of their adherents against the young Scotch ministers in those parts, representing them as ignorant, illiterate block-heads, &c., although the fruits of their labors manifest that they are able and successful ministers of the New Testament. And it appears to have been a wise and happy dispensation of Providence for that part of the State, that such a set of young men were raised up and qualified to preach the gospel immediately before the commencement of the revival; especially as they were able to preach in both the English and Gaelic languages. Wherever they have been placed the revival has predominated under their ministry. And notwithstanding the many thousands of miles your missionary has travelled during the last ten years, he has not been in any place where religion has flourished more, nor the power of it kept up with more energy than under their ministrations."

        "There have been what may be called miracles of grace among Mr. L.'s adherents. An elder of Mr. L.'s, about 50 years old, had been an early subject of the revival, and became a zealous professor of religion; but on that account was so persecuted by his neighbors, his wife, and especially Mr. L., his situation became so insupportable to him that he went about forty miles from where he lived and bought a plantation, on which he improved and raised two crops before his family, which he occasionally visited, would remove with him."

        "His wife was strongly attached to Mr. L., and consequently bitterly prejudiced against the young Scotch clergy, and all others who were friendly to the revival, until last summer, it pleased God, when your missionary was in these parts, to show her in what a lost

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state she was on account of sin. This was unknown to him until his last winter's tour to that place, at which time he visited her at her own house. She appeared then to be under deep and rational conviction of sin; and although she was an intelligent woman, and well instructed in the doctrines of the Christian religion, yet it appeared to him he never conversed with a person more anxious to obtain religious instruction than she was at that time. Not long afterwards she professed to obtain the comforts of religion; and your missionary can better conceive than express his sensations of mind in meeting with her and her husband in his visit to that place last July. She nearly in an ecstasy, and he bursting into tears of gratitude and joy on account of what God had done for his aged companion. During public worship, where your missionary frequently saw her, she was almost constantly under bodily agitation; lifting up her hands, and it is believed her heart, in devotional exercises. As that gave umbrage to some aged professors, and especially to Mr. L.'s people, your missionary spoke privately to her on the subject, and she declared to him that she could not prevent it, and at that instant became agitated through her whole frame, as soon as the subject was mentioned to her. And to whomsoever these lines may come, the writer begs leave to be indulged in making these remarks,--that however some may be thus affected by bodily agitations, by an undue indulgence, and perhaps some may be so presumptuous as to feign them, yet from the above, and many other similar examples, he is well assured that in many cases the subjects of them may as easily suppress their vital breath and support natural life, as under certain states of mind to suppress such bodily emotions; although at the same time, if it were the divine will that the same state of mind could be exercised, and their outward appearances prevented, it would be more agreeable to him, especially during public worship."

        "Resolved, That Dr. Hall be requested to publish in the 'Star' his missionary report, or such parts of it as he may deem suitable for publication."

        The Presbytery of Orange overtured Synod for an order to ordain Mr. Joseph Caldwell, of the University; and the Synod, in consideration of the prospect of increased usefulness, authorized the ordination.

SESSION XXIV.

Fourth Creek church, Oct. 8th, 1811.

        Synod was opened by Samuel Stanford with a sermon from

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2 Chron. xviii., 18; and Rev. James M'Elhenny was chosen moderator. The Presbytery of Orange report, Wm. B. Merony and Joseph Caldwell. "The Presbytery of Concord laid before the Synod their proceedings in the case of the Rev. William C. Davis, and requested their advice whether or not the way of Presbytery be fully open to proceed to deposition in said case. Whereupon, after fully attending to the proceedings of the Presbytery of Concord, Synod did, and hereby do, express the opinion that the way is entirely open to proceed to the last step of discipline in the case of the said Wm. C. Davis."

        The Committee of Missions reported that they had employed Dr. Hall for four months, two east of Yadkin, in North Carolina, and two west of Ocony River, Georgia. Mr. Hall read his report, which was highly acceptable.

        "Presbytery of Orange report that on the 3d day of April, 1811, they suspended Rev. Wm. C. Davis from the exercises of his functions as a minister of the gospel; and on the 4th day of October deposed him from the office of the ministry of the everlasting gospel; also that they have dismissed the Rev. Samuel Morrison to join the Presbytery of West Tennessee; and that they have on the 21st day of January, 1811, lost, by death, the Rev. Dr. Samuel E. M'Corkle, late pastor of the church of Thyatira."

        "Overtured, that this Synod do resign the missionary business to which they have hitherto attended into the hands of the General Assembly, to be conducted by them for time to come; and that it will be the duty of our Presbyteries, from time to time, to inform the assembly where missionary labors appear to be wanted, and what missionaries they may have in their power to furnish. But in the meantime that Synod conduct this business as they have hitherto done till our next session. Ordered, that this overture be sent up to the General Assembly."

        The Commission of Missions was appointed as usual.

        Upon examining the records of the Presbytery of Harmony it appeared that Rev. Ezra Fisk had been ordained sine titulo; to this the Synod objected; "and do therefore recommend that the several Presbyteries under our care be cautious not to violate the discipline of our church in this respect." Resolved also, "that inasmuch as the said Presbytery have declared, that it is altogether inexpedient to consult the Synod in this case, as has been usual in similar cases, and that the right of ordination, in all cases, is originally inherent in Presbytery, and has never been formally surrendered to the higher

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judications of the church.--Synod cannot but disclaim such a principle, as having never been granted by our discipline."

        "The Synod enjoined on the several members of this Synod to use every prudent and dutiful measure in their power to procure and disseminate Confessions of Faith and Catechisms amongst the congregations under our care, and to report their attention and success at our next meeting."

        An overture was sent to the Assembly calling attention to the fact, whether the book of discipline was sufficiently explicit about restoring penitent offenders, and also respecting the baptism of Adults.

SESSION XXV.

New Providence, Oct. 5th, 1812.

        Synod was opened by Rev. George Reid with a sermon from John v., 34; and Rev. James Hall, D.D., was chosen moderator.

        The Presbytery of Harmony reported that they had received Robert M'Culloch, Samuel Yongue, John Foster, and Murdock Murphy, had ordained and installed Colin M'Iver, and ordained Aaron W. Leland sine titulo. The names of Henry Kolluck, D.D., and John Boggs, also appear for the first time among the members of Harmony Presbytery.

        The Commission of Synod reported that Dr. Hall had been commissioned for three months to Georgia; and they could have employed three more missionaries had the funds been sufficient. Dr. Hall read his report, which was highly acceptable; during four months and sixteen days he had travelled 1485 miles, and preached 58 sermons.

        On inquiry, it appeared that very general attention had been paid to the order of Synod last year respecting the circulation of the Confession of Faith and Catechisms. The order was renewed.

        It appearing that the General Assembly had accepted the management of the missionary business in the bounds of Synod: ordered, "that it be enjoined on the members under the care of Synod to use every means in their power to aid the General Assembly in supporting the missionary and contingent funds.

        Resolved, that the following members of the Presbytery of Orange be set off to form a Presbytery to be known as the Presbytery of Fayetteville, viz.: Rev. Samuel Stanford, Robert Tate, William

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L. Turner, Malcolm McNair, Murdock McMillan, John McIntyre, William B. Merony, Allan McDougald, and William Peacock; to meet in Fayetteville on the first Tuesday of April next; and Rev. Samuel Stanford, or in his absence the senior minister, to preach and preside till a moderator be chosen.

        The Presbytery of Harmony having proceeded to ordain another person sine titulo, notwithstanding the order of last Synod, the matter was taken up, and a member, Mr. Couser, announcing that he had received a letter from the moderator of the last assembly, stating that the assembly were dissatisfied with the proceedings of this Synod, and forbore to announce their dissatisfaction, only in the hope that Synod and Presbytery would compromise the matter; the Rev. James Wallis, John M. Wilson, and Joseph Caldwell, were appointed a committee to bring in a report.

        The committee reported at great length; the substance of which is as follows, viz.: That ordination sine titulo was contrary to the usages of the church of Scotland, "without permission expressly granted by a superior judicatory;" that some twenty years ago the Presbytery of Orange refused so to ordain till they obtained leave of Synod; and in 1810 (when Mr. Wilson was member of assembly) the committee of overtures of the assembly, before whom Mr. Wilson appeared, expressed themselves in favor of the rule--"that ordination sine titulo ought not to take place without application to Synod, or to the General Assembly, and express authority obtained from them;" that when the subject had been sent down to the Presbyteries, after a long deliberation (several years), only eighteen Presbyters reported, of whom seven were for investing the assembly with original power, and eleven against it: and, that this Synod consulting--"the history of the church, the book of discipline and satisfactory impressions of our own minds," came to the conclusion "that Presbyteries were not entitled to the power which the Presbytery of Harmony had exercised."

        The committee referred to the minutes of the assembly for 1795, for the following record, viz.: "the following request was overtured, that the Synods of Virginia and the Carolinas have liberty to direct their Presbyteries to ordain such candidates as they may judge necessary to appoint, on missions to preach the gospel; whereupon, resolved, that the above request be granted, the Synods being careful to restrict the permission to the ordination of such candidates only as are engaged to be sent on missions."

        Without discussing the expediency or disadvantage of ordaining sine titulo, the committee said that on consulting the oldest and

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most experienced of Synod, they find that it has been the unvarying impression that the practice the Synod have been endeavoring to maintain, is the constitution which has been received by the church. The committee referred to the book of discipline for support of their construction, and concluded by recommending that the minute of last Synod be not repealed. In this the Synod "cordially" concurred.

        Overtured, that request be made to the next assembly for division of this Synod; the reasons offered were the number of members, and the distance they were compelled to travel to Synod. "That the Presbyteries of Orange, Concord, and Fayetteville, be constituted a Synod to be known by the name of Synod of NORTH CAROLINA; to meet at Alamance Church on the first Thursday of October next (1813); that the Rev. Dr. James Hall, the present moderator, or, in case of his absence, the senior member present, open Synod with a sermon, and preside until a new moderator be chosen."

        "That the Presbyteries of South Carolina, Hopewell, and Harmony, be constituted a Synod to be known by the name of the Synod of SOUTH CAROLINA AND GEORGIA: to meet on the first Thursday in November, in the year 1813, at Upper Long Cane Church, and afterwards, on their own adjournments. That the Rev. Dr. Henry Kolluck, or in case of his absence, the senior minister present, preach the opening sermon; and preside until a moderator be chosen."

        Synod adjourned sine die, concluded with prayer.

JAMES HALL, Moderator.

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CHAPTER XXXII.
REV. JOHN MAKEMIE WILSON, D.D., AND THE CHURCH OF ROCKY RIVER.

        NURTURED in the bloody scenes of the Revolution, Mr. Wilson was pre-eminently a man of peace. "No cases come to court from that part of Mecklenburg," was said significantly of Rocky River and Philadelphia, while he was pastor of these two large and flourishing congregations, numbering, at his death, more members than any other pastoral charge in the Synod, and composing originally but one congregation, by the name of Rocky River. His early years were spent at the place of his birth, about six miles east of Charlotte, in Mecklenburg county, North Carolina, within the bounds of Sugar Creek congregation. The event of his birth took place in the year 1769. His father was from England, and in early life was engaged in mercantile business in Philadelphia. From that city he removed to North Carolina, married, and settled in Mecklenburg county, and was actively engaged with the citizens of that section of country, that Tarleton, in his Campaigns, says was "more hostile to England than any other part of America" in carrying on the struggle for Independence. He died before the British army encamped at Charlotte in 1780, leaving three children. When the ravages of the enemy in South Carolina, particularly about the time of Buford's Massacre, drove the inhabitants from their houses to seek refuge in North Carolina, the families on the Waxhaw found refuge in Mecklenburg, and widow Jackson, with her son Andrew, resided for a time at the house of widow Wilson. The two boys, Andrew and John M., were of about the same age, and worked and played together, full of the spirit of independence, little conscious of the part they would afterwards act, one in the church, and the other in the state. The place in which Andrew Jackson passed his early years was claimed by North Carolina for a long time; but is within the bounds of South Carolina, as now settled by the mutual agreement of the States.

        The congregation of Sugar Creek had for its pastor Rev. Joseph Alexander, who was one of the five pastors that regularly served

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their congregations during the distressing scenes of the war, between the Yadkin and Catawba Rivers. His compeers in service, Hall, Balch, McCaule and McCorkle, were no common men. In their congregations the regular instructions in the sanctuary, and the religious education of children, were less neglected than in those congregations around that were served by missionaries, and supplies sent out by the Synod of New York and Philadelphia.

        An incident in the early life of Mr. Wilson was often referred to by his mother. When just beginning to walk, he strayed away to amuse himself, in a distant part of the yard enclosing the house. After a little time he was seen sitting on the ground apparently greatly pleased with some object lying by his side. His mother's approach but pleased him the more, in his dangerous sport. With breathless haste she seized him, quick as thought, and pressed him to her bosom, overcome with emotion; for he was drawing his hand over the folds of a large rattlesnake, apparently delighted with the smooth skin and bright colors of the reptile. His preservation was considered providential; and the thoughts and reflections connected with it had an influence on his future life. A pious mother could scarcely refrain from devoting such a boy to God's peculiar service, with an energy that must affect, not only her own, but also the mind and heart of her child. And we are not surprised to find that he was encouraged in early life to commence a literary course of study.

        The intended college at Charlotte had been denied a charter by the king, though no money or any peculiar privileges had been sought from the government, and the colonial legislature had twice granted the request of the people of Mecklenburg, who were anxious for the education of their sons: and the invasion of North Carolina by Cornwallis, in 1780, had broken up the institution which was in active operation under Dr. McWhorter, from New Jersey, without State patronage, under the name of Liberty Hall. After the departure of the invading army, the exercises of the institution to supply the place of a high school and measurably of a college, were resumed under the directions of Dr. Henderson, a physician of eminence. At this school, when twelve years old, Mr. Wilson commenced his classical education. For want of funds the number of teachers was small, and the public attention was so drawn by the efforts to establish Mount Zion College at Winnsborough, South Carolina, under the talented president, the Rev. T. H. McCaule, that little was done for the Charlotte school

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except what might be accomplished by the enterprise of a few individuals.

        His literary course was completed at Hampden Sydney College, in Prince Edward county, Va., then having for its President, that noted, and eminently successful preacher, John B. Smith, D.D., whose name is connected with that great revival of religion in 1788, and onward, the influence of which was felt in Virginia and Carolina, in bringing multitudes into the church, some few of whom still remain, just on the horizon of life--and in raising up a host of preachers, whose labors have done much to spread the influence of the gospel over the South and West. For a classmate, he had Moses Waddel, afterwards distinguished as a divine and teacher of youth, having trained some of the most eminent men in South Carolina both in Church and State; and contested with him the first distinction at the graduation of the class.

        Having heartily embraced the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, as containing the principles by which he would be governed, and the truths by which he hoped to be saved, he devoted himself to the work of the ministry of reconciliation; and chose as his preceptor in Theology, that pioneer of domestic missions in North Carolina, the Rev. James Hall, D.D., of Iredell county, whom he had known from his youth.

        The Presbytery of Orange, at that time embracing all North Carolina, in the summer of 1793, gave him license to preach the gospel as a probationer; and according to a good custom of sending candidates on missions, the revival of which would be advantageous to the church, the ministers, and the community at large, he was sent by the commission of Synod, on a missionary excursion of many months through the counties in the lower part of the State. He then made his residence for some years in Burke county, in the midst of a shrewd, intelligent population, of Scotch-Irish origin, from among whom but few churches had at that time been gathered; and was ordained pastor about the year 1795. With the people of Burke county, he remained till the year 1801, when he accepted a call from the congregation of Rocky River and Philadelphia. While resident in Burke county, his labors, as a minister, were eminently successful in raising the standard of piety, in planting new churches, and adding to the numbers of the old ones; and when he left the county, he carried with him the high respect of the community at large, and the reverence of Christians.

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        While resident in Burke he was united in marriage with Miss Mary Erwin, the daughter of Alexander Erwin, of that county, and found in her an amiable, pious, and intelligent companion, and pastor's wife, for more than thirty years. He survived her about five years.

        The congregation to which he removed in 1801, and in the service of which he spent his manhood and his age, originally formed but one, and that among the oldest in the Presbytery of Concord, or in the State. The precise date of the first settlements in that part of Mecklenburg included in the bounds of Rocky River congregation cannot now be known, but as early as 1755 a request for supplies from Rocky River appears upon the records of the Synod of New York. Mention is made of the destitute state of the neighborhoods of North Carolina, but the names of places are not given. But in 1755 "Synod appoint Mr. Clark to take a journey into Virginia and North Carolina, to supply the vacancies there for six months, betwixt this and next Synod, particularly at Rocky River and Sugar Creek, at the Hawfields, Eno, Hico, and Dan Rivers." The Rev. Alexander Craighead retreating from the incursions of the Indians that were laying waste the frontiers of Maryland, Virginia, and Pennsylvania, after Braddock's defeat, in 1755, visited this country, to which part of his flock had retreated from the Cowpasture. The time of his first visit cannot be precisely ascertained. In January, 1758, the Presbytery of Hanover holding its session at Capt. Anderson's, in Cumberland county, Virginia, directed Mr. Craighead to visit Rocky River on the second Sabbath of February. In the April following a regular call was presented from Rocky River for Mr. Craighead's services, which he accepted; an order was taken for his installation by Mr. Martin. This order not being carried into effect, the Rev. W. Richardson was directed, in September, to attend to the installation, while on his way to the Cherokee Indians. This it appears was attended to.

        In the year 1761, in the list of places supplicating supplies from the Synod of New York and New Jersey, Rocky River has a place, and the name of Daniel Caldwell, one of the first settlers, was on the list of members of Synod.

        The first regular supply after Mr. Craighead of whom there is any account, was the Rev. Hezekiah James Balch, of Revolutionary memory, who by order of Synod was ordained in 1769, to accept a call from Carolina by the Presbytery of Donegall, by which he had been licensed as probationer in 1768.

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        Rocky River was one of the seven congregations that covered the region of country represented in the convention at Charlotte, of Declaration memory, and was no disinterested spectator of the doings and catastrophe of the Regulation. The first settlers in the bounds of the congregation were all of the Scotch-Irish race, that landed in Pennsylvania, and after tarrying a short time there, or in Maryland, found their way to North Carolina. As was usual, they came in a company: Col. Robert Harris, on Reedy Creek; his brother, Samuel Harris, on Clear Creek; Andrew Davis, on Reedy Creek; Moses Shelby, on Clear Creek; Wm. White and his two brothers, James and Archibald, on or near Rocky River; David Caldwell, on Caldwell's Creek; and Adam Alexander on Clear Creek. Others probably came with these, but their names are not known. As the tide of emigration was turned by the Indian depredations to the peaceful streams of Carolina, the settlements rapidly increased and formed a vigorous, active and independent part of the county. The Morrison family came early to Rocky River from Scotland, making a short sojourn in Pennsylvania. There were three brothers, two of them lived to a great age. The descendants of the Harris, Alexander and Morrison families have been numerous; of the latter, nine have entered the ministry, and others are preparing.

        When the conflict was going on between the governor and those Regulators that lived in Granville, Orange and Guilford, the people composing this congregation, in the mass, favorable to their fellow-citizens and kinsmen in those counties, were not, nevertheless, united as to the course to be pursued. Not having felt all the provocations and impositions of the people of Orange and Guilford, they sympathized deeply, but were not prepared to resist the governor by force of arms. The orders of the governor for the militia of the western counties, to send their proportion of men to march under the command of General Waddel, called out Capt. Adam Alexander, one of the first settlers. How many of his militia company went with him is not known. That he was unwilling to shed the blood of the Regulators, is readily seen by reverting to the course he pursued in persuading Waddel to retreat across the Yadkin, instead of engaging in battle or continuing his march to meet the governor.

        But other citizens of Rocky River were more decided in their feelings and course, and openly espoused the cause of the Regulators, refusing to serve against them, and acting decisively for them. General Waddel, who was ordered to rendezvous at Salisbury, and

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wait for the militia to meet him on the 2d of May, was at his post with a considerable force, and delayed his march, to join the Governor, till he should receive the supply of ammunition expected at Charleston, South Carolina.

        A convoy of three wagons, loaded principally with powder, was on the way, with a small force for a guard; passing through Mecklenburg county unmolested and unsuspecting, they were encamped for the night, on the Salisbury road, about three miles west of where Concord town now stands, Cabarrus being then part of Mecklenburg county, when a plan was suddenly proposed for the destruction of the powder, and as suddenly executed. Nine persons from the Rocky River congregation,--James, William, and John White, three brothers, and sons of James White, one of the first settlers on Rocky River; William White, a cousin of theirs; Robert Caruthers, Benjamin Cockran, Robert Davis, son of Andrew Davis, one of the first settlers on Reedy Creek; James Ashmore, and Joshua Hedley, with William Alexander, of Sugar Creek congregation, and perhaps one or two others, bind themselves with a singular and awful oath, to assist each other in the enterprise on hand, and keep the secret of their participation while there might be danger in the acknowledgment; and then blacking their faces and hands, and otherwise disfiguring themselves as Indians, about the breaking of day they seized upon the convoy, and permitting the drivers and their teams to go on unharmed with the guard, pouring out the powder upon the ground in one large pile, and laying a train, they set fire. The explosion was felt for many miles. Some thought it thundered; others that the earth quaked.

        This event, with the unwillingness expressed by the militia to kill their countrymen, disheartened Gen. Waddel from forming a junction with the Governor. The secret for a time was well kept, notwithstanding the rewards offered for discovery, and the threats of condign punishment from the Governor and officers of the crown. At last one, under bodily fear, revealed the names of his fellow actors, and put them all to great trouble for a time, and inflicted lasting sufferings upon himself in his own reflections. The Declaration of Independence relieved them from further apprehension till the invasion by Cornwallis. The leader of the party was William Alexander, who, to distinguish him from others of the same sirname in the numerous class of Alexanders, was called Black Billy to the day of his death. His bones lie in Sugar Creek grave-yard.

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        Adam Alexander was one of the members of the convention that issued the famous declaration of independence, and served as colonel of the militia. During the war he was frequently in service. Moses Shelby lived upon the farm, and built the house occupied by Rev. Mr. Wilson, while pastor of the congregation. His family, part of them at least, were born in Maryland previous to the emigration to Carolina. John Query, one of the convention at Charlotte, belonged to the bounds of Rocky River. He, Adam Alexander and Moses Shelby, lived in the bounds of what is now Philadelphia, called for a time, Clear Creek. The two former were both elders in the church.

        These few facts are mentioned to show the patriotism of the charge to which Dr. Wilson ministered the greater part of his active life. He labored with and for the men who acted in the Revolution, and for their children. And if the men that pitched their tents in this part of Cabarrus were like their descendants that meet at Rocky River and Philadelphia, as members of the church, they were men that loved their Bibles and Catechisms, and feared God.

        Mr. Balch preached at Rocky River and Poplar Tent until removed by death, after a service of about six or seven years. About the year 1778, Robert Archibald was ordained as pastor, and continued for a number of years to preach at Rocky River and Poplar Tent, and teaching a classical school at Poplar Tent, in which some eminent men were educated.

        During a vacancy in the church, after Mr. Archibald ceased to preach, the Rev. James Hall, of Iredell, and Rev. Joseph D. Kilpatrick, were sent by the Presbytery to hold a communion with the church. Those seasons were then preceded and followed by days of preaching to the great congregations that would generally collect; and were often, as in this case, followed by special blessings. Although the church was without a pastor, a precious revival accompanied and followed this meeting, which resulted in great accessions to the church; and was one of the most blessed of the numerous revivals enjoyed by Rocky River church.

        Mr. Alexander Caldwell, son of the venerable David Caldwell, was ordained as the pastor of these churches, 1793, and served them with great acceptance, until the year 1797. To superior mental endowments, and great acquirements, he added a fine person, portly gait, engaging manners, and eminent Christian character. But in the inscrutable providence of God, he was afflicted with the greatest of human maladies, and his fine powers and

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superior acquirements all ran to waste under the influence of a disturbed intellect. Archibald, his predecessor, of whom an account will be given in another place, a man of talents, was wrecked on the shoals of false doctrine and ungoverned appetites. For him, the congregation mourned in abasement, as for a fallen star. But they wept for Caldwell, in compassion and amazement, as they beheld the ruins of a powerful intellect, unstained by crime, inoffensive from moral pollution, walking among them like the sun eclipsed, dimmed but unfallen.

        The first symptom of the disease was melancholy, and through the remainder of his life, which was protracted to the year 1841, an air of pensive sadness hung upon his features. Studious, philosophic, cheerful, and devotional, he spent his time in adding manuscript to manuscript; always harmless, and peculiarly attentive to the private duties of a Christian, he attracted the attention, and awakened the sympathies of his whole circle of acquaintances. His immense collection of manuscripts exhibited reading, investigation, logical discussion; but a vein of disorganizing madness ran through the whole. One cannot reflect without emotion, upon the happy change that, in all human probability, death must have wrought upon his diseased mind, when his mortality was put off, and his immortality put on in the presence of God.

        Mr. Wilson, the successor of Mr. Caldwell, after an interval occupied by supplies, received his dismission from Quaker Meadow, and his calls to Rocky River and Philadelphia, at the same Presbytery, Sept., 1801. His ministerial course was worthy of the age in which he was born, and the instructors by whose instrumentality he was fitted for the work of his Lord's vineyard. If there be truth in the proverb that "he is the best fisherman who catches most fish," Wilson was among the best of preachers and pastors. A brother minister, well acquainted with the circumstances, says--"It is believed that no such country congregation, as Rocky River, can be found south of Pennsylvania; and Philadelphia is among the largest in the Presbytery of Concord. Since his death, each church has its pastor, which might have been so long before that event, but for the attachment to him as a man and a minister."

        A successor to Mr. Wilson says of him--"I have formed a very high estimate of his learning, piety, and successful labors as a minister of Jesus Christ; and this estimate I have formed almost exclusively from intercourse with the people of his former charge,

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and the fruits still visible of his long-continued labors among them. To this day his opinions and example are often referred to, as, after the Bible, of paramount authority, and that by almost all classes in the community. It is no doubt owing, in a great measure, to Dr. Wilson's training, that Rocky River congregation is (perhaps I might say) noted for the following particulars, viz.:

        "1st. General, constant, and punctual, as well as respectful attendance upon the stated public means of grace. All the families attend church.

        "2d. Their system, union and harmony of action in managing congregational affairs, especially in financial concerns.

        "3d. The very manifest intelligence, especially of the older people, and particularly in religious knowledge.

        "4th. The attention which is universally paid to the Catechisms and other doctrinal instructions of the church."

        "It was his custom," says the author of a sketch of his life, "regularly to hold examinations in the various sections of his congregations, in which the adults were examined in the doctrines and precepts of the Bible, and the children were catechised in the most condescending and affectionate manner. Such examinations were instrumental in diffusing a spirit of improvement, removing prejudices against the truth, increasing the amount of scriptural knowledge, and securing steadfastness in the faith of Christians. Hence, perhaps, few congregations can be found where there is more knowledge respecting the doctrines of religion, compared with their attainments on other subjects, than those to which he ministered."


        His manner of preaching, free from all harshness, was strikingly characterized by a tenderness that reached the hearts of those for whom it was felt. He never pretended a fervency which he did not feel; and reverence for God appeared both in the matter and manner of his sermons. He valued men's souls, and feared his God. "He trusted in God to make him faithful and successful in his work. This dependence upon God for success, so far from relaxing his diligence, stimulated him to greater activity in preaching the gospel, and was the ground of his encouragement amid all his labors." "His zeal did not rise and sink, as the outward appearances of usefulness were bright or forbidding. But his life presented a uniformity of untiring effort, which seemed to flow from an unshaken confidence in the presence and blessing of God. This strong and humble reliance upon God proved how deep and abiding was the impression of the magnitude and responsibility of

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his ministry. Dr. Wilson earnestly desired and confidently expected success in his work,--and he was not forsaken to the curse of those who do the work of God deceitfully."

        "He regarded an unwillingness to submit to the decision of pious, judicious, and disinterested arbitrators, as evidence of a bad cause, or proof of malignity inconsistent with the spirit of true religion. He believed that the members of the church are competent to settle their differences by friendly reference to each other, and that they are bound to do so by the laws of the Lord Jesus Christ. So judicious and affectionate were his counsels on this subject, and such the weight of his influence, that it was comparatively rare for suits to be taken by the members of his churches to the civil courts.

        After laboring with his people some eleven years, he yielded to their solicitations to open an academy for the education of young men, particularly as some of the members of his charge wished to educate their sons for the ministry. He opened his academy about a mile from his house, in 1812, and had a flourishing school while he continued to teach, which was about twelve years. Most of his pupils entered public life, and twenty-five became ministers of the gospel. The following is a list:--Rev. Messrs. Jas. Morrison, N. R. Morgan, Thomas Alexander, John Silliman, John M. Erwin, Robert King, James B. Stafford, R. H. Morrison, Elam J. Morrison, Hugh Wilson, Samuel L. Watson, Thomas Davis, Cyrus Johnston, Henry N. Pharr, J. Le Roy Davies, Wm. B. Davies, C. Le Roy Boyd, James Stafford, Alexander E. Wilson, James E. Morrison, Robert Hall, John M. Wilson, Dion C. Pharr, Wm. N. Morrison, A. R. Pharr. In about fifteen years fifteen young men from Rocky River entered the ministry, many of whom could not have received a classical education but for Dr. Wilson's academy. His students loved him, venerated and obeyed him; and under the discipline of his school felt impelled to efforts after goodness and excellence.

        Punctual in his attendance on the judicatories of the church, in which he was an active and beloved member, his last visits from home were in attendance on the Presbytery in Morganton, in the fall of 1830, and on the Synod, whose sessions were held soon after in Hopewell. From peculiar excitement, he slept little during these meetings, and returned home laboring under a degree of exhaustion from which he never recovered. Dr. Morrison, the author of a short memoir of him that appeared in the Watchman of the South, who had been one of his pupils and had grown up under his ministry,

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says--"It was our privilege to visit him not long before his death. Apparently impressed with the belief that the interview might be the last, he voluntarily and tenderly spoke of his prospects. He stated distinctly, and perhaps repeated it, that in facing death, he had no transporting views or rapturous feelings, but a firm and sustaining hope of heaven, founded solely on the merits of Christ. He alluded to the labors of his life, only to praise God for the tokens of his grace; expressed entire submission to the divine will in reference to his dissolution, and a joyful expectation of spending eternity in the presence and work of the Redeemer. Nothing could be more animating than the confidence he expressed in our Lord Jesus Christ."

        His death, confidently expected by himself, came at last somewhat unexpectedly to his family, as he himself had intimated that it probably would. The last evening of his life, he sat up till his usual hour, conversing cheerfully with his family, showing no special symptoms of his immediate dissolution, and having walked about that day. About three o'clock in the morning, he called to his son Isaac, complaining of being cold, and uttering a few broken incoherent expressions, became speechless. About nine o'clock on the morning of Saturday, the 30th of July, 1831, his spirit passed away from earth to meet his Saviour in paradise.

        Dr. Robinson, of Poplar Tent, his long-tried and valued friend, his school-mate at Charlotte, his fellow student of theology, with Dr. Hall, of Iredell, and his near neighbor and co-laborer in the ministry for many years, reached his house on Saturday afternoon, according to a previous appointment, to spend the night and preach at Rocky River on the following Sabbath.

        A large part of the Philadelphia congregation assembled with the congregation of Rocky River on Sabbath, and paid the last attention to the remains of the beloved pastor. The immense church of Rocky River being too small for the assembly, the corpse was placed in front of the stand or tent, in the beautiful grove occupied by the congregation for sacramental meetings, and the people gathered around. In that grove, sacred from recollections of communion services from time immemorial, and now hallowed by the first funeral rites of a pastor, they listened, with emotions unutterable, to the funeral discourse of the venerable man, who had come to visit, not to bury his friend; and then followed to the grave the remains of the minister under whose instruction the greater part of them had grown up to years of discretion, and many had obtained hopes of acceptance with God.

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        Of his nine children, five were sons; of these, two became ministers of the gospel. One, John Wilson, the successor of Dr. Hall, is still living. The other, Alexander E. Wilson, died in Africa. On account of an impediment in his speech, supposing that he could not be useful as a preacher, he had pursued the study and commenced the practice of medicine; but feeling the desire to spend and be spent in the labors of the gospel ministry increasing upon him, he gave up the very fair prospects by which he was surrounded in the pursuit of his profession, and devoted himself to the cause of missions in Africa, to which country the successor of Dr. Wilson, the Rev. Daniel Lindley, had turned his attention as the field of labor for which he would exchange the flourishing congregation of Rocky River. In company with his pastor, Mr. Wilson sailed to Africa. After many difficulties, the mission was established among the Zulu tribes with fair prospects; but the unhappy war between the natives and the colonists broke up the mission. Mr. Wilson was called by the providence of God to bury with his own hands his beloved wife, who had accompanied him from Richmond, Virginia, afflicted yet not dispirited by her death. The devoted woman having cheerfully encountered hardships to which she was unaccustomed, and as it appears unequal, just entered the little cabin built for her residence as a missionary, and found that in the mysterious providence of God, her life must end just when she supposed her missionary usefulness had commenced. Committing all things to the hand of Him whom she served, she was joyful in death, and sent to her relations and friends in America the cheering message that she was glad she had come to Africa, though she was to find so early a grave. After a visit to his native State, Mr. Wilson returned to Africa, and commenced the work of a missionary, with unabated zeal, on the Western coast. His race was short, being called to his reward on the * * day of * * * *, he laid his bones in the soil of his intended field of labor, the offering from Rocky River, and the earnest of future blessings in that debased land.

        "To comprehend how great a work Dr. Wilson performed, we should be able to tell into how many families he bore, the words of instruction and consolation, to how many souls he was the instrument of salvation, to how many minds he was the means of unsealing the fountains of knowledge; and not only how many ambassadors of Christ he was blessed of God in raising up, but how great their influence shall be for good on earth. * * * * No doubt, generations will pass before the witnesses of his usefulness

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below shall cease to meet him on high, and when the register shall be completed on earth, it will be remembered in Heaven."

        "In the new grave-yard north of Rocky River church, to the left of the entrance stands the marble which marks the grave of this great and good man." The inscription upon the grave-stone of the only minister whose ashes repose with the congregation of Rocky River, is:

Sacred to the memory of the learned, pious,
and venerable minister of the gospel, Rev.
John M. Wilson, D.D., who departed this life, July
30th, 1831, aged 62 years, for about 30 years the
able, and faithful, and beloved pastor of Rocky River
and Philadelphia churches. They that be wise shall
shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they
that turn many to righteousness, as the stars for ever and ever.


        Dr. Wilson was about the ordinary height in person, of a remarkably pleasant, cheerful countenance; with a clear, blue, penetrating eye, and a fine forehead. Calmness, decision, and energy, were clearly indicated by his looks and movements. He was a rare combination of decision and force, with benignity and amiability.

        Says one who sat long under his ministry, "It was amazing how he would hold the attention of his audience from beginning to the end of his sermon, using so little gesture, often manifesting deep feeling, seldom any excitement."

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CHAPTER XXXIII.

FAYETTEVILLE AND HER MINISTERS.

        THE Scotch had a village called Cross Creek about a mile from the Cape Fear River, at head of boat navigation, soon after their settlements became numerous on the river. The name of the village took its origin from the curious fact that the two small streams, Cross Creek and Blunt's Creek, the one coming from the South and the other from the West, met and apparently separated, and forming an island of some size, again united and flowed on to the river. It was said that the streams, when swelled by rains, would actually cross each other in their rapid course to form a junction. This belief arose from the circumstance that floatwood coming down the stream, would sometimes shoot across the commingling waters in the direction of its previous course, and floating round the island, would fall into the united current. The action of a mill-dam prevents the recurrence of this phenomenon. There are persons still living who have witnessed the occurrence.

        In the year 1762, by an act of Assembly a town was laid out embracing Cross Creek, and named Campbelton, from a town of that name in Argyleshire, in Scotland, from which and its neighborhood many of the emigrants had come. The object of the Legislature was to form a trading town upon the Cape Fear, of which Wilmington should be the seaport, to take the produce from the upper part of the State, particularly the settlements upon the Yadkin, and prevent the traffic being diverted to the seaports of South Carolina.

        In 1771 a public road was opened to the Yadkin, and ultimately to Morganton, and various inducements held out to attract the course of trade from the fertile West to Fayetteville and Wilmington.

        In 1784, on the occasion of the visit of the Marquis Lafayette, as a token of respect for his character and admiration for his services, the inhabitants proposed a change of name from Campbellton to Fayetteville.

        While the town was called by the legislative name of Campbelton, and the country name of Cross Creek, the noted Flora

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McDonald made her abode here for a short time. The foundations of her residence are still seen near the bridge, on the right hand as you pass from the market to the court-house.

        During the war of the Revolution, Cross Creek was repeatedly the place of assemblage of the Scotch forces, on whichever side they were engaged. Here General M'Donald raised his standard for the king, and was joined by hundreds of his countrymen; and here, one tradition says, Flora M'Donald addressed her countrymen and clansmen and near kindred, in words of prophetic import; while another, and probably the correct tradition, says that she bid adieu to her husband and relations, in arms, near her residence in the lower part of Anson county, and was not seen in the camp at Cross Creek.

        The original settlers, and for a long time, all the inhabitants, were Scotchmen and Presbyterians; and without disparaging other denominations, a few pages will be devoted to the progress of the Presbyterian Church in Fayetteville, as a spiritual body, separate from political or party strife.

        There was occasional preaching at Campbellton, by Mr. Campbell, while settled near the Bluff; by Mr. McLeod, who lived a short time in the bounds of Barbacue congregation; by Mr. Crawford, who also labored a few years with great acceptance among the Highlanders, soon after the Revolution. The first regular ministrations by a stated minister, were from the Rev. David Kerr, from the Presbytery of Temple Patrick, in Ireland. He was acknowledged by the Synod of the Carolinas, as a minister in good standing, in connection with Orange Presbytery, in the year 1789. We have no information respecting the time of his arrival in North Carolina, or the place of his preaching for the first few years after his arrival. In the year 1791, he took his abode in Fayetteville, and commenced regular preaching in the Court-House on Sabbath, and during the week taught a classical school under the direction of a Board of Trustees. His salary from the school was about $400, and from his congregation about the same, making about $800 in all. The ordinance of the Supper was not administered in Fayetteville during his residence, and it is not known whether the ordinance of Baptism was or not. In the year 1794, he left the place for a situation in the University of North Carolina. In a short time he removed to Lumberton, in Robeson, and carried on the mercantile business while studying law. After commencing the practice of the law, he removed to Mississippi

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Territory, was made marshal, and soon after appointed judge. He closed his life in 1810.

        The second resident minister, John Robinson, entered upon the duties of teacher and preacher in the early part of the year 1800. Soon after his arrival he took the necessary steps for a church organization, and ordained as elders Robert Donaldson, Duncan McLeran, David Anderson, Duncan McAuslin, Archibald Campbell, and Colonel John Dickson.

        On the 6th of September, 1801, the ordinance of the Lord's Supper was for the first time administered in Fayetteville. Previously those who wished to enjoy that ordinance attended with some of the neighboring congregations. At this time a large congregation was assembled, and about one hundred and fifty persons sat down to the table, of whom seventeen belonged to Fayetteville, and the others to the surrounding congregations.

        A great change took place under the ministry of Mr. Robinson, in the moral and religious state of the community. He held four communions in the short time he performed the duties as pastor, and at each time some persons were added to the church. His salary was about $500 from the congregation, and as much from the school. Finding that the two offices were too burdensome for his strength, he proposed giving up the school and remaining as minister. The congregation considered themselves too weak to support him without the aid derived from the school; and with mutual reluctance the connection was dissolved on the 29th of December, 1801.

        After a vacancy of a year, about the 1st of January, 1803, Andrew Flinn, a licentiate of the Presbytery of Orange, who had been residing some time in Hillsborough, accepted an invitation to Fayetteville. His preaching proved universally acceptable. The regular steps having been taken, he was in the month of June of the same year regularly ordained to the full work of the gospel ministry, and installed pastor of the church. On this occasion the solemnity of ordination was for the first time witnessed in Fayetteville, and was attended by a vast concourse of people.

        Previously to the time of Mr. Flinn, baptism had been administered to children at home, or in some private house. The practice had grown out of apparent necessity. The ministers of the gospel were so few, their places of preaching so irregular and so distant, that parents called upon the ministers to baptize their children whenever they could find a convenient opportunity at a private house. This practice prevailed so far in some districts as to

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supersede the carrying the children to a house of public worship and devoting them before the whole congregation. Mr. Flinn set himself to remedy this evil. On Sabbath the 22d of April, 1804, the first public baptism of children in Fayetteville took place in the court-house, before a large assembly, where William, the infant son of Elisha and Mary Stedman, and George, the son of Paris J. and Eliza Tillinghast, were devoted to God in this ordinance. The numerous friends and relations assembled around these parents, and gave them the right hand of fellowship as expressive of their cordial approbation of their good example. The change that day accomplished has been sanctioned by the church and congregation to this day.

        Mr. Flinn was indefatigably active and remarkably zealous in his duties as pastor. His preaching was characterized by pathos and frequently great energy; and many were added to the church during the three years of his ministry. But about the latter end of the year 1805, finding himself unable to perform the duties of teacher and pastor, he resigned his pastoral charge, and preached his farewell sermon from the words--"And now, brethren, I commend you to God and the word of his grace, which is able to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified." His salary from the congregation had been about $700, and from his school about $500 per annum.

        From this place he went to Camden, in South Carolina, and after laboring usefully there for a time, removed to Williamsburg district. From this place he was soon invited by a number of pious individuals in Charleston, desirous of forming a church, to take charge of them; he accepted the invitation, and under his ministry a flourishing church was organized, known as the Second Presbyterian Church in Charleston.

        Mr. Flinn was a native of Sugar Creek, and in the course of his education for the ministry experienced the kindness of Mr. Alexander of Hopewell, the Secretary of the Mecklenburg Convention. He received his first degree at the University of North Carolina, in the year 1799, June 13th; and in the year 1811 was honored with the degree of D.D. by his Alma Mater.

        After the removal of Mr. Flinn, Mr. Robinson was induced to return to Fayetteville the second time. He remained three years, and was still more useful than during his first residence. The labor of the two offices becoming oppressive, he left the congregation the latter part of December, 1808, and returned to Poplar

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Tent, where he resided till his death in 1843, honored and beloved.

        The successor of Mr. Robinson was Wm. Leftwich Turner, from Bedford, Virginia, son of the Rev. James Turner. He was principal of the academy and pastor of the church in Raleigh for some time, and was removed to Fayetteville in 1809, preaching his first sermon Nov. 20th, from the words, "Woe is me if I preach not the gospel." He opened the academy January 1st, 1810. During that year the session commenced regular records and register of births, deaths, baptisms, and marriages, dating from Nov. 2d, 1809. This year he was blessed with a revival of religion, and was assisted by the venerable Dr. Hall. Thirty-one were added to the church as fruits of this refreshing season. From this time revivals, in which numbers have been brought into the church, have not been unfrequent in Fayetteville.

        On the 18th of Oct., 1813, Mr. Turner resigned his soul to the hands of his Maker, in the midst of the tears of an affectionate people, after pastoral services of nearly four years, and in the 30th year of his age. In every point of view there was much in Mr. Turner to admire. His knowledge of men was large; his discernment clear; his sketches graphic; his sense of the humorous or ridiculous great; his understanding strong; his imagination vivid; his piety unaffected, and his heart tender. As he approached the waves of Jordan he exclaimed, "O! death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?"

        Early the next year, Jesse H. Turner, the brother of the deceased pastor, was induced to remain at Fayetteville. The preparations which had been commenced during the life of his brother, for the erection of a church building, were during this first year of his ministry carried into more active operation. But after obtaining subscriptions to a considerable amount, the work was delayed; and the corner-stone was not laid till the 21st of April, 1816. Masonic honor celebrated the event; Dr. R. H. Chapman delivered an address, and Mr. Turner invoked the blessing of Almighty God.

        The house that was erected at that time, was consumed in the disastrous fire that swept away a large part of Fayetteville in the year 18--. The present house was speedily erected on the site of the former, contributions to some extent having been made by the churches in different parts of the United States, in the spirit of Christian sympathy and kindness.

        Mr. Turner left the church vacant March 1st, 1819. Rev.

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Wm. D. Snodgrass succeeded him in May, and was removed to the Independent Church in Savannah, in the month of March, 1822. The Rev. Messrs. R. H. Morrison, James E. Hamner, each ministered to the Church about three years and removed. The Rev. Josiah Kilpatrick, a licentiate of Orange Presbytery, who had grown up under his father's ministry in Third Creek Church, was settled in Fayetteville with fair prospects of success; but after a few years' labor he was called away to his reward, and the church mourned their second pastor, removed by death.

        After Rev. Henry A. Roland had served the congregation three years, and had been removed to New York city, the services of the Rev. James W. Douglass were secured to this people. Among them were expended his last, and perhaps most successful, efforts as a minister of the gospel; in the midst of zealous labors in every department of ministerial duty, death put his seal upon him till the great judgment shall reveal and try every man's work what sort it is.

        It is no disparagement to any that preceded or have succeeded him in the ministerial office in Fayetteville to say, that his diligence as a pastor is pre-eminently worthy of imitation; and the apparent result of his faithfulness greatly to be desired and longed after by every minister of the gospel. As a theologian he probably had many superiors in knowledge and acuteness; but in faithfulness as a pastor he kept a clear conscience. Of some things, peculiar to him, the imitation might not be either practicable or prudent; but of many others it may be said, though they appear peculiar, they would become all; particularly his devotion to his office, and his activity in every department of benevolent enterprise.

        His happy art of interesting men in the cause of benevolence and religion derived no small part of its influence from the ardent feeling he cultivated in his own heart. He loved the cause of Christ because he loved Christ; and he loved Christ because he is chief among ten thousand. When as a minister he called others to devote themselves to Christ, he called with the spirit that penned in his diary, March 14th, 1819,--"I will strive with all my powers to pull down the kingdom of Satan, and build up the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ;" And again,--"Over the cup I solemnly swore to wear out every energy in building up the kingdom of Christ, and never to rest while there is a stronghold of Satan within my reach."

        Born, November 5th, 1797, of a pious mother, member of the Presbyterian church, in Augusta county, Virginia, James Walter

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Douglass passed the early part of his life under the instruction of maternal piety and example. While still a boy he became a merchant's clerk in Christiana, Delaware. On a visit to his mother, when about seventeen years old, he heard the Rev. R. H. Anderson, minister of Bethel, urging from the pulpit "that eminence in piety is as attainable, and as much required now, as in the days of the apostles." The impressions made at this time influenced his whole succeeding Christian life. The next year, an aunt, Mrs. Thomson, made a solemn address to him on the subject of personal religion, which was blessed of God to his awakening. A communion season which he attended soon after deepened the impression made. On the 2d of May, 1816, he was admitted to the church in Christiana, of which the Rev. J. C. Latta was pastor. His own experience on the manner of admitting members influenced him to be particularly careful in his examination of candidates for church membership, in his after life.

        In October, 1816, he visited New York on business for his employer; his temptation and escape, in that great city, are both in character of the man, exhibiting his warm imagination, his excitability, and his conscientious decision of character. "I had a severe conflict in regard to the theatre. I had read the bill, and had suffered my imagination to be inflamed, until I could not resist. I started and walked for about six squares, halting and anxious all the time. One moment, principle and conscience would triumph; and the next, the pleasure I might enjoy in a few moments blotted out my half-formed resolution; I walked on; I was getting near; I turned off into another street to make the way longer, and before I reached the theatre, the Lord enabled me to pursue the dictates of my better judgment. I turned suddenly and walked hastily back. At every step my resolution strengthened; and I became composed, and I returned to my lodgings thankful and exulting. It was an important triumph to me then; and it had in it the pleasure of self-conquest. A theatre never from that moment presented any allurements."

        What first turned his attention to the ministry is not known. On the 20th of October, 1817, his diary contains the following sentence--"I rejoice and praise God for the blessed privilege of looking towards the ministry of reconciliation, as the business of my life." His pastor spoke to him on the subject of thus spending his life; and his heart responded joyfully. He had no selfish motives that he was sensible of in these desires. And as the difficulties which lay in his path were providentially removed, he commenced

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a course of study in preparation for the ministry in Newark Academy, Delaware, December 10, 1817. In the following April he returned to Virginia and prosecuted his studies under the tuition of Dr. Chapman, then pastor of Bethel church, Augusta. Here he distinguished himself for his interest in Sabbath schools and his earnest desires for a Revival of Religion.

        In the fall of 1819 he became a member of the Theological Seminary at Princeton, and pursued his studies there for three years. During that time his heart became so interested in foreign missions, that a correspondence was opened with the secretary of A. B. C. F. M.; and while circumstances of a prudential nature determined him at that time to decline prosecuting to their fulfilment his desires of preaching the gospel to the heathen, he never fully abandoned the intention of going abroad; and, in the latter part of his life, he expressed himself to be waiting for Providence to open his way to that desired event.

        In the year 1822 he spent some time with the Rev. Asahel Nettleton, during a revival in Somers, Connecticut. The impressions made by this visit were lasting and influential on his whole future life; and in conjunction with his views respecting foreign missions, and the deep feeling for the wide-spread desolations of the southern country, determined him for a number of years to decline all offers for a permanent settlement in the ministry. The life of an evangelist presented to his heart untold pleasures and unmeasured usefulness; and for many years and in many places he was permitted to enjoy both these anticipations.

        During his stay at Princeton, the cultivation of pious affections appears never to have been forgotten. His resort to days of fasting was frequent; sometimes in conjunction with his brethren, sometimes in unison with his mother's family, and sometimes alone. At one time so great was his sense of his deficiencies in spiritual things, that he resolved to fall upon his knees once every hour when awake; and in this he persevered for some time. His journal has such sentiments as the following:--"I feel more determined to cultivate useful rather than shining talents, and to regard less the opinions of the world. 'My soul cleaveth to the dust.' I am languid, listless, almost torpid; I sleep when I should pray; I promise when I should perform. A procrastinating spirit cuts my nerves. I am holy in intention to-morrow, for it is no further off, but at present I am living like a fool. I should strive for more piety. Five times, five times during the year, at the Lord's table, I have engaged to follow holiness. I have lost a cousin

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of whose blood I may not be clear; I never warned him of his danger as a sinner. I have studied in a new school, witnessed new scenes, and heard sermons unusual and impressive. Thanks be to God for bringing me to the bedside of my brother Turner."

        Mr. Douglass was licensed to preach the gospel by the Presbytery of New Castle, at Octorara, August 14th, 1822. In the fall, he spent a month as a missionary on Kerr's Creek, Rockbridge county, Virginia; in consequence of which twelve persons professed conversion. The year 1823, he passed in the congregations of Oxford and Spring Grove, North Carolina, in a manner becoming one who loved to spend and be spent for his Saviour, and counted no labor too great in his cause.

        From Oxford, Mr. Douglass went to Murfreesborough. Soon after his settlement in the village, there was a revival of religion, and in due time a church was organized of twenty-one members. While a resident of that village, he was, on the 21st of October, 1824, ordained to the full work of the gospel ministry by the Presbytery of Orange--"I have never," he says in his diary, "stood in circumstances so intensely interesting and affecting before; and during the delivery of the charge, I found I had to restrain my feelings. I seemed to hear the voice of God himself, my final judge declaring to me--their blood will I require at your hands." About his call to the ministry, he says--"The many remarkable assistances which I received in prosecuting my preparatory studies, indicated the good hand of God upon me. Most clearly did it seem that he was helping me into the ministry. I have seen some fruit of my labors. My feelings incline to this more than to any other. I not only do not wish to be anything else than a minister, but I could not endure to be anything else."

        In March, 1826, he removed to Milton, on the request of the citizens. There was an interesting state of things, which resulted in the formation of a church, which in about a year and a half numbered thirty members. Many in the surrounding region will undoubtedly, at the last day, own him as their spiritual father. In his diary, Nov. 26th, 1826, he says--"Never, before, have I enjoyed such a season of near and certain communion with God. I felt afraid to cease praying, to rise from my knees, or even to open my eyes, lest I should interrupt the current of heavenly consolation. I felt that I had experimental evidence that there is a God; that religion is true; that communion with God is not a visionary thing; I rejoice, and would be thankful, that I can preach about it, from a more thorough experience than ever before.

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I had a foretaste of the happiness of heaven, and I could say with unfaltering confidence, 'thou art my God.' 'I know in whom I have believed.' 'Thou wilt guide me, and receive me to glory.' The sum of my prayer was, that God would make me holy and wise to win souls.

        In January, 1828, Mr. Douglass went to Briery congregation, which is partly in Prince Edward, and partly in Charlotte, Virginia; and there his labors were followed by a cheering revival of religion. For about nine months, with only one or two exceptions, hopeful conversions were reported every week, to cheer his heart. In the course of the year, one hundred and thirty-two were added to the communion. His name is dear in Briery, where his determination to leave them was received by the community with sorrow.

        Having performed an agency for the Union Theological Seminary, he took his abode in Richmond, Oct., 1829, to supply Shockoe Hill for a season; and in the midst of great exertions he took cold in the following February, from the effects of which a sea voyage became advisable. He set sail in Sept., 1830, and visited Europe, spending most of the time of his sojourn in Ireland. His communications from that mother-land of many of the American churches, were read with great interest for their simplicity and purity, by friends and strangers. One short extract from a letter to his mother, bearing date Cork, Nov. 5th, 1830, will show his spirit--"The review I have taken to-day, of the way by which the Lord hath led me, has been pleasant. Infinite wisdom, and goodness, and mercy, have regulated its whole history. My present chastening, I regard as specially merciful, and it is working out, I trust, the peaceable and permanent fruits of righteousness. I have no fear of death now, and I am also getting clear of the distressing anxiety to live a while longer, to accomplish different plans, on which I had set my heart. I no longer anxiously pray to be restored; yet I pray the Lord of the harvest to send forth laborers into his harvest, and if he will accept me for one, and it will be more for his glory to dispose of me thus, than any other way, then here am I. But I leave it with him. I would not choose health more than sickness--life more than death. How do I know what would be best? You, I fear, have more of painful feeling in thinking of my sickness and death. It is my frequent and earnest prayer, that the Lord's dealings with me may be blessed to your spiritual good, as well as my own. Sister's tears I am mindful of, and I trust that her tears on my

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account will work out for her, as this correction is working out for me, patience, experience, and joyful hope."

        After his return to America, in the year 1831, he visited the great valley of the Mississippi, as an agent for the American Home Missionary Society; and in carrying out his plans for energetic operations he was caught in a snow-storm, from which he suffered, more particularly, in the return of the bronchitis. While in the great valley he made a visit to St. Charles, Missouri; and under his preaching, many were led to inquire what they should do to be saved, and about seventy were added to the church.

        In October, 1832, being somewhat recovered of his severe affection, he went to Lexington, Virginia, to the church and congregation in which Dr. Baxter had ministered. Here, as in other places, his labors was followed by great visible effects; not only the congregation, but the college, was visited by a divine influence. After remaining here about a year, though earnestly desired to remain longer, he accepted a call from Fayetteville. Having been united in marriage to a lady in Richmond in the spring of that year, 1833, he removed in the fall to Fayetteville, and there, contrary to his usual habit of remaining but a short time in a congregation, he was persuaded to protract his labors, and ultimately to continue as the pastor of the church till his death, August, 1837.

        His activity and labors as a pastor in Fayetteville were beyond the strength of most men, probably were too great for his own, and may have hastened his premature dissolution. He entered into every department of labor with energy and effect. He urged on foreign missions; his example spoke all around his Presbytery, for domestic missions. He pressed the circulation of the Bible throughout Carolina, and throughout the world. He made Fayetteville the centre of tract operations for a large section of country; and engaged in plans for the promotion of education generally, and particularly for the gospel ministry. In preaching, exhortation, and prayer, he abounded; and in his multiplied labors he knew no rest. The increase of his congregation was in some degree commensurate with his labors. He illustrated in his life an anecdote of his own, which he relates under date of March, 1829. "Travelling from Richmond to Alexandria, I had, as a fellow stage passenger, a young man who was by profession a fool. He was connected with the stage, and his business was to make sport, to play the fool. He acted in the same capacity to the stage passengers, and, with other performances, gave a song with this chorus:--'Push along--Push along--Push along--Keep moving.' What an efficient ministry

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should we have if every man should adopt this chorus as his motto. In the pulpit, for example, when the hour arrives, begin, and don't drag. Don't spend five minutes in looking for a hymn or a chapter. Let the parts of the service succeed each other instantly. In the sermon, push along; be in earnest. Keep moving until you have done, then quit, go home: go into your study; visit; do something; keep moving until Saturday night, and you will see fruit. Let the minister keep moving, and the people will be moving." While he moved, the people moved. He was dying, and the church was flourishing. To a long life of quiet labors and gentle decay, he preferred the rapid race, and expiring in a flame of love. In his ardor to wear out for Christ, he may, like Espy of Salisbury, have worn out too soon. Panting, like Whitefield, to do much for his Lord, like him, he desired to die with his armor on. In the Providence of God his sun went down ere it was noon. The last the church saw of him, he was mounting to the meridian. There was no evening to his life.

        His spirit was evangelical; his manner of preaching his own. In the latter, he can have no followers; in the former, he both had examples, and will have followers till the end of time. In his public addresses, there was plainness, directness, point; always fervency, and often pathos. His sermons abounded less in argument than in facts, persuasives, and entreaties. His hearers felt that he believed what he said, and was in earnest in saying it; and were strongly influenced to believe it too, and be equally in earnest. It was not that they had heard any great thing, but they had heard true things said in earnest, and they wished to hear the man again. Many that objected to his manner of delivery, and were ready to complain of him as too severe, would, nevertheless, listen to his fervid addresses, and be moved by his pungent appeals.

        His brethren in the ministry were fond of his visits, and the neighboring congregations glad to see him in their midst. Free from envy and jealousy himself, he does not appear to have excited it in others. Sympathizing with his brethren, they rejoiced with him in his success, and partook of his spirit. Those that acted much with him, hardly knew how to criticise him; even when he laid himself open to it, they loved him so, and held his motives and his feelings in such tender regard. One who knew him well says of him, "He was a close student; a man of untiring industry. I have known him to spend the whole evening after a laborious day's journey, in preparing something for the pulpit or the press. His learning was not profound, nor his acquisitions astonishingly great,

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but everything he knew was made to subserve the cause of truth and righteousness. His style was very plain and simple, not destitute of polish. His pulpit performances were always carefully prepared, and short, seldom exceeding fifty minutes. In the early part of his ministry, he committed to memory nearly all his discourses; after his return from Europe, he used notes in the pulpit. His discourses were faithful, pungent, and affectionate. The true secret of it all was the depth of his piety, which, in him, was an all-pervading principle. If I were to mention any of his faults, I should say he was too confiding. They that turn many to righteousness shall shine as the stars, for ever and ever."

        His death was unexpected, though he had been some time unwell. He seemed to compose himself to sleep; and was roused to activity no more. Fayetteville was astonished and overwhelmed at his death; and in her grief, multitudes mingled their tears.

FAYETTEVILLE PRESBYTERY.

        In the fall of 1812, among the preliminary steps, to form, from the Synod of the Carolinas, two Synods; 1st, the Synod of North Carolina, and 2d, the Synod of South Carolina and Georgia; the Presbytery of Orange was divided, and the following members set off to form the Presbytery of Fayetteville, viz.: Samuel Stanford, Robert Tate, William L. Turner, Malcolm McNair, Murdock McMillan, John McIntyre, William B. Meroney, Allan McDougal, and William Peacock. Of these, Messrs. Tate and McIntyre only are living, both in advanced years of life and their ministry.

        The bounds of this Presbytery contain the fields of labor of the two earliest settled Presbyterian preachers in North Carolina; Hugh McAden, who preached for some years in Duplin and New Hanover, and James Campbell, who lived in Cumberland county, and was the minister for the Scotch.

        Something has been said of Stanford, Tate, Turner, and Meroney. Something ought to be said of the others. Malcolm McNair was born in Robeson county, the 24th of August, 1776; and was reared religiously by pious parents. After receiving what instruction could be imparted by Mr. Nelson, the teacher in the neighborhood, he was sent to Dr. McCorkle's school in Rowan, for a time; and finished his course of study, classical and theological, with Dr. Caldwell of Guilford, at whose school he became hopefully pious. On the 25th of October, 1799, he was taken under care of the

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Presbytery of Orange, at Buffalo church; and on the 27th of March, 1801, at Barbacue church, Cumberland county, he was licensed to preach the gospel. At the same time and place, six companions of his study were also licensed, viz.: Duncan Brown, Murdock Murphy, John Matthews, Murdock McMillan, Hugh Shaw, and Ezekiel B. Currie; three of whom are still living. In 1803, June 2d, he was ordained pastor of Centre and Ashpole churches in Robeson County, and Laurel Hill, in Richmond county, and in preaching to these congregations and others in the neighborhood he passed his life, which was brought to a close on the 4th of August, 1822.

        His labors were greatly blessed in the hopeful conversion of many souls. Dr. Hall makes a most favorable mention of him in his report to Synod, as appears in their records for 1810. In his funeral sermon, by Rev. Colin McIver, it is said, "There was something in his mode of address so sweetly captivating, so irresistibly alluring, that his preaching was always listened to with deep attention, even by those who, on various occasions, scrupled not to speak of the revival, either as the offspring of misguided zeal, or as the result of diabolical agency. In his preaching, he might truly be called an eloquent man; and his eloquence was not of the vehement, but of the persuasive kind. I can truly say, that for suavity of manners, generosity, and the kindly affections, for gentleness, meekness, and patience, I have seldom seen him equalled, and never excelled. He was a great lover of peace, and a punctual member of the judicatories of the church; in both of these things, he kept a good conscience. His end was peace.

        Mr. McIntyre still lives, an example of active and zealous old age. A Scotch shepherd, emigrating to South Carolina, bereft of his family, and a subject of the Revival that spread over the country from 1802 and onward, he devoted himself to the ministry, and at the age of forty-four years, and a second time a widower, commenced his Latin Grammar with Mr. McMillan, who preached in Richmond and Moore counties, and taught a classical school. With prayer and patience he persevered in his course till he passed, on examination, in his Horace and Greek Testament, to the satisfaction of Orange Presbytery, from whom he received license to preach. God crowned his patience and perseverance with abundant success. He was first settled in Cumberland. Dr. Hall mentions him in his report with warm approbation.

        Mr. McMillan, educated much as M'Nair had been, and licensed at the same time, settled in Moore County, in the neighborhood of his fellow student, and was blessed in his labors. M'Nair was suaviter in

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modo, M'Millan, fortiter in re. He is honorably mentioned by Dr. Hall in his report to Synod, in 1810. After laboring some years in Carolina, he removed to the West.

        William Peacock was born in Glasgow, North Britain, Aug. 25th, 1768. His father dying while he was very young, he was trained up by a pious mother, of whom he used to say that she often took him, with her, to the closet, and there he had often heard her pray. In his twenty-first year, he came to Fayetteville as a clerk in the employment of a merchant. Some time after, he opened a store on the Pedee, in Montgomery county, and prospered in his business. During the Great Revival that spread over Carolina from 1802 and onward, he became hopefully converted to God, and devoted himself to the work of the ministry. The usual course of education was dispensed with in his case, and he was received under the care of the Presbytery of Orange in April, 1810, and, in the fall, licensed to preach; and, in the course of the next year, ordained Pastor of Sharon church, near his dwelling. Here he labored successfully till the close of his life, Sept., 1830. A man of middling stature, well built, stout and muscular--of a good mind and ardent feelings, he dwelt with simplicity and force on the great truths of Christian doctrine and practice. Brought up in the strict order of Scotch Presbyterianism, he was, in his ministerial life, ex animo, a Presbyterian. His labors were blessed, and the bounds of his church greatly enlarged. He died a sa good man dies;--and his end was peace.

        Mr. M'Dougald passed his ministerial life serving the congregations along the Cape Fear and its waters--principally Bluff and Tirzah. His labors were very acceptable, till the infirmities of age disabled him for active service. He passed to his reward in a good old age.

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CHAPTER XXXIV.
CHARLOTTE AND HER RECOLLECTIONS.

        BESIDES the honor of being the seat of the Convention, in 1775, that issued the first Declaration of Independence, Charlotte, in Mecklenburg, North Carolina, has claims upon posterity both singular and meritorious. The centre of a fertile and populous county, she was doomed to see the blood of her sons shed, and the Declaration of Independence of all foreign dominion, maintained at the point of the British bayonet.

        After the battle of Camden, Charlotte, that had been a rallying place for the American forces, became designated as the head-quarters of the British army. The resistance made by the few troops that could be hastily assembled, was in the hope of delaying and intimidating, rather than in the expectation of successfully opposing the advance of the enemy.

        Tarleton in his "History of the Southern Campaign, 1780 and 1781," page 159, says, "Earl Cornwallis moved forward as soon as the legion under Major Hanger joined him. A party of militia fired at the advanced dragoons and light infantry as they entered the town, and a more considerable body appeared drawn up near the court-house. The conduct of the Americans created suspicion in the British; an ambuscade was apprehended by the light troops, who moved forward for some time with great circumspection; a charge of cavalry under Major Hanger dissipated this ill-grounded jealousy, and totally dispersed the militia. The pursuit lasted some time, and about thirty of the enemy were killed and taken.

        "The King's troops did not come out of this skirmish unhurt; Major Hanger, and Captains Campbell and McDonald were wounded, and twelve non-commissioned officers and men were killed and wounded."

        The position of Charlotte, however favorable to the Americans, was anything but agreeable to the Earl Cornwallis. He possessed in the adjacent country a few friends and timid dependents. The panic that had gone over South Carolina after the success of the British in that State, and had driven multitudes to

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"take protection," in despair of self-preservation, had in some degree extended itself to North Carolina; and on the approach of the enemy, some families "took protection" from the spoliations of the foraging parties.

        But notwithstanding the terror of his arms, his lordship found his situation in Charlotte, which became his head-quarters on the 26th of September, to be distressing and humiliating. The reasons given by Tarleton are both striking and sufficient. He says, "Charlotte town afforded some conveniences blended with great disadvantages. The mills in its neighborhood were supposed of sufficient consequence to render it for the present an eligible position, and in future a necessary post when the army advanced. But the aptness of its intermediate situation between Camden and Salisbury, and the quantity of its mills, did not counterbalance its defects."

        "It was evident, and had been frequently mentioned to the king's officers, that the counties of Mecklenburg and Rohan" (Rowan) "were more hostile to England than any others in America. The vigilance and animosity of these surrounding districts checked the exertions of the well-affected, and totally destroyed all communication between the king's troops and the loyalists in other parts of the province. No British commander could obtain any information in that position which would facilitate his designs, or guide his future conduct."

        A higher encomium of the principles and patriotism of the Irish, or rather Scotch-Irish, settlements in Carolina could not have been given. It is the testimony of an eye-witness, and he an inveterate enemy, with the best means of information. Of the town and its environs, he goes on to say--"the town and its environs abounded with inveterate enemies. The plantations in the neighborhood were small and uncultivated; the road narrow and crossed in every direction; and the whole face of the country covered with close and thick woods. In addition to these disadvantages, no estimation could be made of the sentiments of half the inhabitants of North Carolina, whilst the royal army remained at Charlotte."

        After speaking of the almost entire impossibility of obtaining correct information concerning the movements of the Governor and Assembly,--the preparations of the militia,--and the forces and designs of the Continentals, Tarleton dwells at large upon the difficulty of obtaining provisions while he remained in Charlotte. The same difficulty, though not always to the same degree, attended the British army during the whole campaign in North Carolina.

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He says--"the foraging parties were every day harassed by the inhabitants, who did not remain at home to receive payment for the product of their plantations, but generally fired from covert places, to annoy the British detachments. Ineffectual attempts were made upon convoys coming from Camden, and the intermediate post at Blair's Mill--but individuals with expresses were frequently murdered. An attack was directed against the piquet at Polk's Mill, two miles from the town. The Americans were gallantly received by Lieut. Guyon, of the 23d regiment: and the fire of his party, from a loopholed building adjoining the mill, repulsed the assailants."

        "Notwithstanding the different checks and losses sustained by the militia of the district, they continued their hostilities with unwearied perseverance; and the British troops were so effectually blockaded in their present position, that very few out of a great many messengers could reach Charlottetown, in the beginning of October, to give intelligence of Ferguson's situation."

        The repulse at McIntire's is a good illustration of what Tarlton says in these quotations. The commander in Charlotte having heard of the abundant supply of grain and fodder that might be obtained from the rebel neighborhood, some seven miles from Charlotte, on the road to Beattie's Ford, sends out a force sufficient, as was supposed, to overawe the neighborhood, accompanied with a sufficient train of baggage wagons to bring in the necessary supplies. A lad, who was ploughing a field by the road side, upon seeing the advance of the soldiers, leaves his plough, mounts his horse and gallops through bye-paths to give notice to the inhabitants that a foraging party was out. They, of course, fled and spread the alarm, riding away their horses, and hiding or removing their most valuable effects.

        The family at Mr. McIntire's had just time to escape; the men in the fields armed themselves and took to the woods; and the women and servants rode off towards the residences of neighbors, whose houses were supposed to be out of the track of this armed force; the house and all the property were left to the mercy of the foragers.

        The neighboring men, conjecturing the object of the party, rallied around McIntire's farm, according to the rules which had been voluntarily adopted, that neighbors would help each other; and about a dozen of them, armed with rifles and divided into companies of two, lay concealed in the woods in sight of the house, not far from each other.

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        While lying there, they witnessed the advance of the British,--saw them pause on the brow of the hill near the branch and reconnoitre, and then slowly advance to the house. The dragoons dismounted and fastened their horses, and the work of plunder began. Harnessing some of their horses to the farm wagons they began to load them with forage; and when the baggage wagons arrived they proceeded to load them with corn and oats. While this was doing the soldiers were running down and catching the poultry in the yard, and killing pigs and calves. By accident some of them overset the beehives ranged by the garden fence, and the enraged insects fell in fury upon the soldiery. The scene became one of uproar and boisterous merriment. The commander of the forces, a portly florid Englishman, stood in the door with one hand on each post, enjoying the scene of plunder, and laughing at the antics of the soldiers discomfitted by the bees.

        The owner and his neighbors had approached within rifle shot of the house, under cover of the woods, and were exasperated witnesses of the merry plunder of the foragers. At length one of them cried out--"Boys, I can't stand this--I take the captain. Every one choose his man and look to yourselves." Quick as his word, the sharp crack of his rifle was heard; and the captain fell from the doorway. The rifles of the other eleven answered in quick succession; and nine men and two horses lay upon the ground.

        The trumpet sounded a recall; and the dragoons hastened to form a line. The assailants shifted their position, and from another direction, from a skirt of woods, poured in another straggling fire, with fatal accuracy. The dragoons began a pursuit, and set on the dogs; but soon a fire from another direction alarmed them, lest they were surrounded. The dogs came on the trail of these retreating men, and the leading one sprung upon the heels of a man who had just discharged his rifle. A pistol-shot laid him dead; and the other dogs, coming up to him, paused, gave a howl, and returned. The alarm became general, and the troops hastened their retreat, attempting to carry off the loaded wagons. But the more distant neighbors had now rallied, and the woods echoed on all sides with the rifles and guns of concealed enemies. The leading horses of the wagons were some of them shot down before they ascended the hill by the branch, and the road was blocked up; and the retreat became a scene of confusion in spite of the discipline of the British soldiers, who drew up in battle array and offered fight to the invisible enemy that only changed their ground and renewed

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their fire. In full belief that they were assailed by a numerous foe, and disappointed of their forage, they returned to camp--swearing that every bush on the road concealed a rebel.

        The men that brought about this retreat were well known in Mecklenburg. One of them, whose residence was not far from the spot, now lies in the burying-ground in Charlotte, with the following inscription on the marble slab that covers his grave

SACRED
To the
MEMORY OF
MAJOR GENERAL GEORGE GRAHAM,
WHO DIED
On the 29th of March, 1826,
in the 68th year of his age.

He lived more than half a century in the vicinity of
This place, and was a zealous and active defender of his
COUNTRY'S RIGHTS,
in the
REVOLUTIONARY WAR,
and one of the GALLANT TWELVE who dared to attack,
and actually drove 400 British troops at McIntire's
7 miles North of Charlotte,
on the 3d of October, 1780.

GEORGE GRAHAM filled many high and responsible
PUBLIC TRUSTS,
the duties of which he discharged with fidelity.

He was the people's friend, not their fetterer,
and uniformly engaged the
UNLIMITED CONFIDENCE
and respect of his
FELLOW CITIZENS.


        This George Graham is the same person that is mentioned by General Joseph Graham, as his brother that was sent to Salisbury by the committee of Mecklenburg, to bring the two delinquents to justice. The concurrent voice of tradition is that he merited all that is said of him on his tomb stone.

        It has been thought by some that Tarleton, in his Memoirs of the Southern Campaigns, was more unfavorable to Lord Cornwallis than justice would require; and while he had no inducement to favor in any way the American cause, he magnified his lordship's blunders and misfortunes. Another English writer, who was a professed friend of Cornwallis, and was surgeon in his army through the whole southern war, and had the best means of information, giving an account of the taking of Charlotte, thus writes:--

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        "And Charlotte was taken possession of after a slight resistance by the militia, towards the end of September. At this period, Major Hanger commanded the legion, Colonel Tarleton being ill. In the centre of Charlotte, intersecting the two principal streets, stood a large brick building, the upper part being the Court-House, and the lower part the Market-House. Behind the shambles, a few Americans on horseback had placed themselves. The legion was ordered to drive them off; but upon receving a fire from behind the stalls, this corps fell back. Lord Cornwallis rode up in person and made use of these words: 'Legion, remember you have everything to lose but nothing to gain;' alluding, it is supposed, to the former reputation of this corps. Webster's brigade moved on, drove the Americans from behind the Court-House, the legion then pursued them; but the whole of the British army was actually kept at bay for some minutes, by a few mounted Americans, not exceeding twenty in number."--Steadman's History of the American War, vol. ii., p. 217.

        This writer then goes on to describe the difficulties of obtaining provisions, much in the same terms as Tarleton has done in the preceding quotations; and adds, in a copious note, remarks, of which the following are a part: "In Colonel Polk's mill were found 28,000, and a quantity of wheat. There were several large well cultivated farms in the neighborhood of Charlotte. An abundance of cattle, few sheep; the cattle mostly milch cows, or cows with calf, which, at that season of the year, was the best beef. When the army was at Charlotte, we killed, upon average, 100 head per day. The leanness of the cattle will account for the numbers killed each day. In one day no less than 37 cows in calf."

        "At this period the Royal army was supported by Lord Rawdon's moving with one half of the army one day, and Col. Webster with the other half the next day, as a covering party to protect the foraging parties and cattle drivers." It is not improbable the affair at McIntire's compelled them to move with greater forces when they wished to gather forage. The writer then proceeds to state, that the reason the southern sections of the country suffered so much in the campaign was, that so much of their wealth lay in cattle, and so much of their work in the lower sections was done by negroes.

        The British army lay encamped, the short time they passed at Charlotte, on a plain, south of the town, about midway to the place where the court was first held, then occupied by Mr. Thomas

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Spratt, now by Major Morrow, and on the right hand of the road from the village; and the general's head-quarters, a white house on the southeast corner from the old Court-House, now the second house from the corner.

        From all these circumstances combined, as mentioned by the English writers, and handed down by tradition, we cease to wonder that Cornwallis called Charlotte the "hornets' nest," and that, unwilling to pay for supplies with so much English "blood," after the fatal battle of King's Mountain became known to him, his lordship determined to leave this vexatious post. To prevent annoyance, he chose to depart suddenly, and in the night. Mr. McCafferty, a man of wealth and standing, a Scotchman, and resident in Charlotte, was chosen as their guide to lead them by the upper and nearest route to South Carolina. After so bewildering the army in the swamps, that much of their baggage was lost, he contrived to escape, and leave the army to find their way by the returning light of day.

        Colonel Thomas Polk, so favorably mentioned in the history of the declarations, owned property in and around Charlotte. His mill was between two and three miles south of the village, and is now called Bissell's. His body lies interred in the graveyard of the village. Over his grave and that of his wife Susanna, his son William Polk, late of Raleigh, erected a marble slab, a memorial of his resting-place.

        The Polk family came early to Mecklenburg, and in the time of the Revolution were numerous, and some of them very wealthy. They resided, part of them, in the bounds of Sugar Creek congregation; and part of them in Providence. Among them was Ezekiel Polk, the grandfather of James K. Polk, President of the United States. The descendants have all emigrated from the county, mostly to Tennessee, or States further south.

        Thomas Spratt, at whose house the court was first held, is said to have been the first man that moved his family, on wheels, across the Yadkin. He stopped first on the Rocky River; but being disturbed by the Indians he removed to the spot, near to Charlotte, where he died, and lies buried in the angle of the woods, near his dwelling. There appears to have been at this place a burying-ground as old as that of Sugar Creek, now entirely grown over with trees. The forests here, as elsewhere, seem to strive to eradicate the footsteps of man, and resume their dominion.

        Garden, in his anecdotes of the American Revolution, says:--"Nor were the ladies in Mecklenburg in any degree inferior in

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enthusiasm to the male population. I find in the South Carolina and American General Gazette, from the 2d to the 9th of February, the following paragraph:--'The young ladies of the best families of Mecklenburg county, North Carolina, have entered into a voluntary association that they will not receive the addresses of any young gentleman at that place, except the brave volunteers who served in the expedition to South Carolina, and assisted in subduing the Scovalite insurgents. The ladies being of opinion that such persons as stay loitering at home, when the important calls of the country demand their military services abroad, must certainly be destitute of that nobleness of sentiment, that brave, manly spirit which would qualify them to be the defenders and guardians of the fair sex.'

        "The ladies of the adjoining county of Rowan have desired the plan of a similar association to be drawn up and prepared for signature."

Page 512

CHAPTER XXXV.
EFFORTS TO PROMOTE EDUCATION.

        "MANY a day have I worked with these hands to help Charley C----through college," said old Mrs. Skillington exultingly, and somewhat mournfully, while her brother was running his career in Philadelphia, before his removal to Kentucky to commence his labors as pioneer of medical schools in the West, as his father had been in the settlement of Cabarrus county, North Carolina; "many a day have I worked for Charley when we lived there," pointing to a log framed house, the shell of which now stands defying the wind and storm, and wasting of desertion, about a rifle-shot west of Poplar Tent meeting-house; "and I don't mind the work, for we all liked Charley."

        The old lady unconsciously revealed the sentiments of hundreds of mothers and sisters of the Scotch-Irish and Scotch settlers in Virginia and the Carolinas. An education,--knowledge of things human and divine, they prized beyond all price in their leaders and teachers; and craved its possession for their husbands, and brothers, and sons. The Spartan mothers gloried in the bravery of their husbands and fathers, and demanded it in their sons. "Bring me this, or be brought back upon it," said one, as she gave her son a shield to go out to battle. These Presbyterian mothers gloried in the enterprise, and religion, and knowledge, and purity of their husbands and children, and would forego comforts and endure toil that their sons might be well instructed, enterprising men.

        When we look over the beautiful farms and plantations these early settlers bequeathed to their children, it might seem as if large possessions were the inviting cause and principal object of the emigrants to this wilderness. Undoubtedly the desire of possession of property had its influence with all; and why should not honest, energetic poor people desire a place to enjoy their labor, not as tenants at will, but as fee-simple owners of the soil by the best of rights? and it is probable it was the ruling feeling of some, who could not get above the craving desire of human nature, and knew nothing better than wealth. But with many, and they the influential men and women, the desire of knowledge was cherished

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before a competence was obtained, or the labors of a first settlement overcome. Almost invariably as soon as a neighborhood was settled, preparations were made for the preaching of the gospel by a regular stated pastor; and wherever a pastor was located, in that congregation there was a classical school,--as in Sugar Creek, Poplar Tent, Centre, Bethany, Buffalo, Thyatira, Grove, Wilmington, and the churches occupied by Pattillo in Orange and Granville.

        Of all these, the one in the bounds of Sugar Creek appears to have been the oldest. The time of its commencement is not certainly known; but it appears to have been in successful operation under Mr. Joseph Alexander, who for a time supplied the congregation after the death of Mr. Craighead in 1766, an eminent teacher and preacher, whose labors for a short time in North Carolina, and for a long period in South Carolina, entitled him to a kind remembrance by the churches. Vigorous efforts were made to elevate this school to the rank and usefulness of a college; and about the year 1770, a charter was obtained from the Colonial Legislature, conferring the title and privileges, without any endowment from the Province, under the name of Queen's Museum. This charter was set aside by the king and council, and amended, and a second time granted by the Colonial Legislature in 1771, and a second time repealed by the king, by proclamation. "And," says a writer in the Magazine of the University of North Carolina, "why was this? An easy answer is found in the third section of the act for incorporating the school at Newbern, and afterwards engrafted upon the act incorporating the Edenton Academy (which were the only two schools incorporated before Queen's College), compared with the character of the leading men of Mecklenburg, and the fact that several of the trustees of the New College were Presbyterian ministers. No compliments to his queen could render whigs in politics, and Presbyterians in religion, acceptable to George III. A college, under such auspices, was too well calculated to ensure the growth of the numerous democracy."

        The section referred to in the charter of the Newbern school, is in these words--"Provided always, that no person shall be permitted to be master of said school, but who is of the Established Church of England, and who, at the recommendation of the trustees or directors, or the majority of them, shall be duly licensed by the governor or commander-in-chief for the time being."

        Queen's Museum flourished without a charter. Its hall was

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the place of meeting of literary societies, and political clubs, in the times preceding the Revolution. The king's fears, that the college would be a fountain of republicanism, were realized in the institution, and probably his rejection of the charter much hastened, and increased, the dreaded evil. The debates, preceding the Mecklenburg Declaration, were held in the hall; and every reader can judge of the merits of that famous document.

        That the students were busily engaged in literary pursuits appears from the following document, the original of which is in the hands of the Rev. Mr. Adams of Third Creek.

"THE MODERATOR AND MEMBERS OF UNION SOCIETY
in Queen's Museum, Charlotte, to all whom these presents may come, with
Peace and Safety.

        BE IT HEREBY CERTIFIED THAT WE HAVE BESTOWED UPON JAMES MCEWEN THIS DIPLOMA in testimony of his having been a member of our society, and of his having through the whole time of our connection together deported himself in such manner as to merit our full approbation, both as a faithful assistant in school, and a regular, useful member of society.

        "Of the above let our names underwritten be a witness.

        "Given in Union Society, at the stated meeting in the Hall of Queen's Museum, Charlotte, on Friday, 27th of September, in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and seventy-six."

Jno. Kerr, Moderator.

Handy Harris, Clerk.

Wm. Humphrey, Memb's.

Thos. Henderson, Memb's.

Fr'cis. Cummins, Memb's.

        After the Revolution had commenced, the Legislature of North Carolina granted a charter to this institution under the name of Liberty Hall Academy. The preamble of an act for incorporating the president and trustees, which was passed April, 1777, is as follows: "Whereas the proper education of youth in this infant country is highly necessary, and would answer the most valuable and beneficial purposes to this State and the good people thereof; and whereas a very promising experiment hath been made at a seminary in the county of Mecklenburg, and a number of youths there taught have made great advancements in the knowledge of the learned languages, and in the rudiments of the arts and sciences, in the course of a regular and finished education, which they have since completed at various colleges in different parts of

Page 515

America; and whereas the seminary aforesaid, and the several teachers who have successfully taught and presided therein, have hitherto been almost wholly supported by private subscriptions; in order therefore that said subscriptions and other gratuities may be legally possessed and duly applied, and the said seminary by the name of Liberty Hall may become more extensively and generally useful for the encouragement of liberal knowledge in languages, arts, and sciences, and for diffusing the great advantages of education upon more liberal, easy, and general terms;" therefore, &c.

        The following persons were named trustees, viz.:--Isaac Alexander, M.D., president, Thomas Polk, Thomas Neal, Abraham Alexander, Waightstill Avery, Ephraim Brevard, M.D., John Simpson, Adlai Osborne, John McKnitt Alexander, and the Rev. Messrs. David Caldwell, James Edmonds, Thomas Reese, Samuel E. McCorkle, Thomas Harris McCaule, and James Hall.

        The academy received no funds from the State, and no further patronage than this charter. It was entirely under the direction of Presbyterians, and under the supervision of Orange Presbytery. At the time the charter was obtained the institution was under the care of Dr. Isaac V. Alexander, who continued to preside over it till some time in the year 1778.

        From a manuscript in the University of North Carolina, drawn up by Adlai Osborne, one of the trustees, it appears the first meeting of the trustees was held in Charlotte, January 3d, 1778. At this meeting, Isaac Alexander, M.D., Ephraim Brevard, M.D., and Rev. Thomas Harris McCaule were appointed a committee to frame a system of laws for the government of the academy; and also to purchase the lots and improvements belonging to Colonel Thomas Polk, for which they were to pay him £920; and preparations were made to build an additional frame-house. The salary of the president was fixed at £195, to be occasionally increased, according to the prices of provisions, which were then greatly fluctuating, owing to the war.

        In the month of April, 1778, the system of laws drawn up by the committee was adopted without any material alteration. The course of study marked out was similar to that prescribed for the University of North Carolina, though somewhat more limited. Overtures were made to Rev. Alexander McWhorter, of New Jersey, so favorably known to the churches, by his visit in 1764 and '5, with the Rev. Elihu Spencer, and also by a more recent visit made to the Southern country, to encourage the inhabitants

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in the cause of Independence, to succeed Dr. Alexander in the presidency.

        There is still extant a certificate of scholarship granted by the Board, as the right of granting degrees had not been given them, preserved by John H. Graham, at Vesuvius Furnace, in Lincoln county, the residence of General Graham.

STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA,
Mecklenburg county.

        "This is to certify that, Mr. JOHN GRAHAM hath been a student in the Academy of LIBERTY HALL in the State and county above mentioned, the space of four years preceding the date hereof, that his whole deportment during his residence there was perfectly regular; that he prosecuted his studies with diligence, and made such acquisitions both in the languages and scientific learning as gave entire satisfaction to his teacher--And he is hereby recommended to the friendly notice and regard of all lovers of Religion and Literature wherever he comes. IN TESTIMONY of which this is given at LIBERTY HALL, this 22d of November, 1778, and signed by

ISAAC V. ALEXANDER, President.

EPHRAIM BREVARD, Trustees.

ABRAHAM ALEXANDER, Trustees.


        Dr. M'Whorter having, on account of the deranged state of his affairs, declined accepting the Presidency, Mr. Robert Brownfield was appointed, and agreed to accept for one year. The next year the invitation to Dr. M'Whorter was renewed, and a committee consisting of Rev. Samuel E. M'Corkle and Dr. Brevard was sent to New Jersey to wait upon him; and in the event of his still declining, to consult Dr. Witherspoon and Professor Houston, of Princeton College, respecting some other fit person for the office, to whom the Presidency should be offered. In compliance with this second invitation Dr. M'Whorter removed to Charlotte. But, owing to the invasion of the Carolinas, 1780, the operations of the Academy were suspended and not resumed during the war. After a short stay in Carolina, Dr. M'Whorter returned to New Jersey.

        During the occupation of Charlotte by the forces of Cornwallis, Liberty Hall, which stood upon the ground now occupied by the dwelling house of Mr. Julius Alexander, was used as a hospital, and greatly defaced and injured. The numerous graves in the rear of the Academy, upon the departure of the British army, was one evidence of their great loss in this hostile county.

Page 517

        After the peace, Mr. Thomas Henderson, who had been educated at the Academy, set up a High School, which he carried on with great reputation for a number of years. And from that day to this Charlotte has been favored with academies and female seminaries. But the pre-eminence of Liberty Hall, as supplying the place of a college, for the South, was transferred to Mount Zion College, in Winnsborough, South Carolina, over which the Rev. Thomas H. McCaule, the pastor of Centre congregation for some years, and trustee of Liberty Hall, presided. This was owing to the liberality and activity of some pious persons by the name of Winn, who gave liberally in the cause of literature and religion, and exerted themselves for a college, while the friends of literature, and science, and religion, in North Carolina, relaxed their efforts for a college in their own State.

        Mount Zion college, in Winnsborough, over which the popular McCaule presided, being near, and the college in Princeton, New Jersey, with which Professor Houston from North Carolina was connected, under the Presidents Witherspoon and Smith, had so attracted public attention, the Presbyterians of North Carolina made no effort for a college under their own care and patronage, for many years. In this they miscalculated more than in any other matter of importance in which they were called to act. Whatever was the motive, the event shows the mistake.

        Classical schools of a high order were numerous after the Revolutionary war, under the direction of Presbyterian clergymen. The high school in Charlotte has been continued, in some form, till the present time. Dr. Caldwell continued his in Guilford, with an interruption during the war, till his death. Dr. McCorkle had a flourishing school in Rowan, which was continued in Salisbury. Poplar Tent has been favored with one from the time of the Revolution till near the close of Dr. Robinson's life, with some intermission. Rocky River had a famous one under Dr. Wilson; and Bethany under Dr. Hall. Sugar Creek enjoyed one for some time under Caldwell. There was a flourishing one in Chatham under the Rev. William Bingham, and one in Burke. Providence has been particularly favored, as also Fayetteville, and the Grove, in Duplin county, in all which there have been a succession of classical teachers. In these, classical instruction of a high order was imported, both before and since the establishment of the University.

        Common schools were numerous. Public opinion in the Presbyterian settlements demanded that all children should be taught

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to read; and, as Dr. McRee tells us, not to be able to repeat the Shorter Catechism of the Westminster Assembly was a mark of vulgarity among the people who claimed a natural equality. From the great efforts made by Presbyterian pastors and missionaries in establishing schools and promoting education among the people at large, and from the deep conviction of the importance of some degree of education impressed upon the hearts of Presbyterian families, it came to be the fact, that in the bounds of the original Presbyterian settlements in North Carolina, very few persons grew up unable to read intelligibly. By the change wrought in the population of some sections by emigration to the west and south, and the immigration of other families differently disposed on the subject of religion and education, a greater proportion are now unable to read than in the commencement of this century. This is believed to be the fact, though there are no certain statistics that will completely establish it, from want of returns duly made by authority the latter part of last century. Many a parent that felt the necessity of his child's being able to repeat the Catechism when young, would make efforts for his being taught to read he never would have thought of making but for that necessity. The religious feeling is the most friendly to education in all circumstances, and most diffusive of its benefits.

        Since the establishment of the university of the State, the preponderance of classical schools has not been so entirely in the Presbyterian church; though they are undoubtedly far ahead in the religious and patriotic work of training the youth of the country to a high degree of science and literature.

        Besides the numerous classical schools in different parts of the church, the Presbyterians took up the matter with renewed vigor a few years ago, and each of the three Presbyteries, into which the State is divided, made successful efforts to establish literary institutions of a high order. Each of these demands some particular notice.

        First, the CALDWELL INSTITUTE. In the spring of 1833, Orange Presbytery appointed the Rev. Messrs. A. Wilson, Harding, Russell, Goodrich, Graham; and elders, Messrs. D. Atkinson and Sneed, "a committee to inquire into the expediency of altering, and if expedient, what alterations are necessary in the mode of preparing young men for the gospel ministry, during their literary course of study." In the fall of the same year, Rev. Joseph Caldwell, D.D., President of the University of North Carolina, and Mr. Morrow, were added to the committee.

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        The report of this committee, as amended and adopted, was, "It is recommended to the Presbytery to proceed without delay to make such provision as shall be necessary, for imparting education agreeably to their own views of the subject, in its essential merits and great and important ends." The Presbytery then resolved, "1st. That it is expedient to establish a literary institution, within the bounds of Orange Presbytery, on principles such as to secure a strictly Christian Education.

        "2d. That the site of the institution shall be in or near Greensborough, in the county of Guilford, North Carolina."

        The institution went into operation on the 1st of January, 1836, under the instruction of the Rev. Alexander Wilson, a member of Orange Presbytery, from the north of Ireland, for some years pastor of Grassy Creek and Nutbush, and Mr. Silas C. Lindsay. The number of students so increased in a year or two, that a third professor, Mr. Gretter, was chosen. In less than six years from its commencement the number of students was about one hundred in regular attendance, and these from all parts of the State.

        Article 4th, section 1st, in the plan of the institution, provides, "The Principal of the Institution shall be considered as sustaining the pastoral relations to all the students, and shall be required to perform towards them the duties appertaining to the office. It shall be the duty of the professors to afford such religious instruction as they shall deem necessary, but it shall be considered indispensable that portions of the Bible or the Evidences of Christianity, together with the Westminster Catechism, be studied by all the classes on the Sabbath."

        Section 2d provides, "The Greek and Latin classics, upon an enlarged plan, shall be considered as forming a necessary part of the course of study." The Trustees, in their plan of education, say, "When studied in connection with the pure and mixed mathematics, the classics constitute, it is believed, not only the basis of solid learning and correct taste, but furnish also to young men emulous of distinction, the very best means of mental discipline." Again they say, "Indeed the grand design of the Presbytery in attempting the establishment of Caldwell Institute is, to furnish our denomination, and the friends of learning generally, with a truly Christian education, in which the Bible will occupy its proper place, and the paramount claims of Christian education be duly and fully recognized."

        A charter was obtained in 1837, by which the right of appointing Trustees is vested in Orange Presbytery. The number of Trustees

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is at present 18, one-third of which go out each year, but may be re-elected. The attention of the Faculty and Trustees is not so much turned to obtaining students, as to preventing the admission of incorrigible and dissolute boys. They utterly decline having the institution considered as a place to which rude boys may be sent "to be broke in." They decline in all cases receiving such. They design the institution for the education of youth of good habits, without exposing them to the contamination of dissipated youth, and immoral young men.

        In the year 1845, dissatisfaction having arisen with the location, the institute was removed to Hillsborough, the academy in that place, much enlarged, being appropriated to its use. In its new location its prospects are no less encouraging than at Greensborough.

        Every day the students attend prayers in the public hall. On Sabbath the students attend public worship in the appointed place; and in the afternoon are engaged in Bible Class and Catechetical Recitations. All, without exception, are required to recite parts of the Westminster Shorter Catechism each Sabbath. The greatest number required of the most advanced, at one time, is ten; of the younger students, and those who have not previously studied the catechism, a less number is expected. The number of chapters in the Bible, for recitation, varies according to their length, and subjects, and other circumstances.

        The Institute bears the name of the first president of the university of North Carolina--Caldwell, its firm friend, from its inception, during his life. He strongly urged upon his brethren a return to the old-fashioned discipline and studies of Presbyterian classical schools, the course somewhat enlarged. He declared that it was not sectarian for denominations to have denominational schools; that religion must be taught by somebody, and in classical academies, but one denomination could be engaged in a single school to advantage. In these sentiments of Dr. Caldwell the community now generally agree.

        The success of the Institute in making scholars, has been equal to the anticipations of its friends. The students take an honorable and becoming stand in the university; are in high repute as preceptors of academies, and teachers in primary schools. The thorough drilling they are called to undergo, fits them for a professional course, and a pleasant pursuit of literary studies in after life.

        Upon the removal of the institute from Greensborough, the friends of education in and around that village continued the classical

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school in the buildings vacated, under the tuition of the Rev. Eli W. Caruthers, the successor of Dr. David Caldwell, and author of his memoirs; and Mr. Lindsey, who had been an instructor in the Institute from the first. This school has flourished, and has fair prospects of success. Its discipline and course of studies are formed upon the model and experience of the school that preceded it; and Greensborough still holds out strong inducements for the patronage of the public, for the education of boys.

        THE DONALDSON ACADEMY was founded by Fayetteville Presbytery, about the same time with the Caldwell Institute, and located in Fayetteville. Its object was the same, and the discipline and course of studies very similar. It received its name from a liberal patron in New York. It was commenced on the manual labor plan; as was also the design of the Caldwell Institute at first. Its success under the tuition of the Rev. Simeon Colton, was flattering both as to the numbers and progress of the students. But the manual labor system was found unprofitable and inexpedient, and was abandoned in a few years. Some unpropitious circumstances led the trustees to dispose of the academy buildings, and the preceptor, Mr. Colton, has since carried on a flourishing classical school in Fayetteville on his own responsibility, until in the present year (1846), his acceptance of the presidency of a college brought his school to a close.

        DAVIDSON COLLEGE was founded by Concord and Bethel Presbyteries; the first embracing the upper part of North Carolina, and the other an adjoining section in South Carolina. In the year 1835, the Concord Presbytery, at their regular spring meeting held at Prospect Church, formerly a part of Centre, took steps for the endowment of a college, to be located somewhere in the beautiful region occupied by the Presbyterian population in the upper part of the State. In the fall of the same year, vigorous measures were taken for putting up suitable buildings. The site was chosen in the northern part of Mecklenburg county, near to Iredell, Rowan, and Cabarrus, about two miles from Centre Meeting-house.

        Its name was given in honor of General Davidson, who fell at Cowan's Ford, whose numerous relatives were generous patrons of the College. Operations were commenced the first Monday of March, 1837, under Rev. R. H. Morrison, D.D., pastor of Sugar Creek, president; and Rev. P. J. Sparrow of Salisbury, professor. By these gentlemen, with the assistance of a tutor, Mr. Johnson, the regular classes were formed, and carried through a regular college course.

        The college was opened as a manual labor institution; and all

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the students were required to labor some hours each study day upon the college farm, for which they received compensation. After about four years' trial, the system was modified from necessary to voluntary labor; those laboring receiving a suitable compensation.

        In the year 1838 an ample charter was obtained from the State, empowering the Board of Trustees chosen by Concord and Bethel Presbyteries, to manage all the affairs of the college, and hold property to the amount of two hundred thousand dollars. Vacancies in the board are to be supplied by the Presbyteries that founded the college; and such other Presbyteries as they may associate with themselves.

        By Art. 2d, Sec. 3d, of the Constitution, it is provided, that the teachers and professors shall, on their inauguration, enter into the following obligations, viz.--"I do sincerely believe the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments to be the word of God, the only infallible rule of faith and practice. I do sincerely adopt the Confession of Faith of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America, as faithfully exhibiting the doctrines taught in the Holy Scriptures. I do sincerely approve and adopt the Form of Government and Discipline of the Presbyterian Church in these United States of America. I do solemnly engage not to teach anything that is opposed to any doctrine contained in the Confession of Faith, nor to oppose any of the fundamental principles of the Presbyterian Church Government, while I continue a teacher or professor of this Institution." By Art. 1st, no one is eligible to the office of trustee but such as are "members in full communion of the Presbyterian Church." It is also provided, that "no person shall be inducted into the office of teacher or professor but a member of the Presbyterian Church in full communion." Great pains are taken to impart suitable religious and moral instruction to the students, and to enforce the necessary discipline. The charter provisions make it an offence cognizable by the common law courts, for any person to set up or open to the students any allurements to dissipation within two miles of the College.

        The College was deprived of the valuable services of its first President, Dr. Morrison, by protracted ill health, which for a time rendered any effort at teaching or preaching impracticable; and of Professor Sparrow, by resignation. Dr. Morrison, after retiring to his farm, recovered his health, and is now preaching; and Mr. Sparrow is President of Hampden Sydney College, in Virginia. Davidson College has been pretty regularly increasing in the number of its students and the extent of its influence; and the standard

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of its scholarship is rising as fast as that of any infant institution in our land. Its instruction is imparted by a President, Rev. Samuel Williamson, and two Professors, Rev. S. B. O. Wilson, and Mr. Mortimer Johnson, with the assistance of tutors.

        There are, or ought to be, students enough in the State to fill the University and this College also. There ought to be enough connected with the ten thousand communicants of the Presbyterian Church to sustain this College to the full, and spare some students to the University. And if the whole State is ever aroused to a just apprehension of the value of education, these two institutions will not contain the youths thirsting for knowledge; and, if ever the Presbyterian population become alive to the real value of classic instruction chastened by Christian morality and truth, this College will neither want funds nor students.

        In reviewing the efforts of the Scotch and Scotch-Irish, and their descendants, worthy of all praise and imitation, we can but lament that the citizens of Mecklenburg and the neighboring counties suffered themselves to be beguiled from the good work of establishing a College on a liberal foundation, and their attention to be turned to the neighboring excellent but short-lived Institution at Winnsborough, and to the more imposing and permanent one at Princeton. It is scarcely possible to conceive the amount of influence that long before this would have been put forth in the South and West, following the stream of emigration towards the Mississippi, had the Queen's Museum or Liberty Hall been sustained with the spirit and liberality with which they were founded.

        There is another feature in the efforts at education among these people, worthy of notice, and that is, the attention paid to the instruction of females. Before the Revolution, and for some years afterwards, females were not generally favored with an opportunity of an education beyond the rudiments taught in the common schools. How men who thought so wisely on religion and politics, and vindicated them so nobly, and prized the liberal instruction of their sons, should have so overlooked their daughters, can be solved only by a reference to their previous history and the circumstances in which they were placed. But the fact remains, that the men who built the College at Charlotte and those who founded the classical schools in different parts of the State, were contented for the most part with affording their daughters a very limited course of study. To reading the Bible and repeating the catechism, and writing a legible hand, few studies were added. Grammar, arithmetic and geography, were seldom numbered amongst the studies of females. There were

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some noble exceptions in daughters of clergymen and some others. Dr. Caldwell, of Guilford, gave his daughter the best education that could be obtained. Some sent their daughters to Philadelphia. But the mass were contented with a very low standard of acquirements. As a consequence, the females, who were, as females generally are, admirers of mental accomplishments, and who labored hard that their brothers and sons might obtain the advantages of knowledge, were themselves sometimes neglected and ready to cry out, "many a day have I worked with these hands," in sickness of heart.

        This evil has been of late passing away before the commendable efforts to establish schools of high reputation for young females. These have sprung up in different parts of the State--some few, public institutions, and many on private responsibility. And at this time, the daughters of Carolina are not compelled either to grow up with few acquirements besides what their own native talent could, unaided, accomplish, or seek in some other State the privileges denied in their own. In their native State, they can now enjoy advantages for a literary, scientific and ornamental education, not surpassed in any of the Southern States, and which may compare advantageously with the most favored sections of our country. These institutions are found both in Eastern and Western Carolina.

        The efforts now making by the State to ensure the instruction of all children of the community in the common branches of education, in conjunction with the exertions made by different denominations, for the proper training of the youth under their care, will, by a divine blessing, secure to all the privilege of reading, and to multitudes a liberal course of study.

        MARTIN ACADEMY, in its history and influence, is the property of Tennessee. It received its existence from the Rev. Samuel Doak, the earliest classical teacher west of "the Mountains;" and, in 1788, received a charter from the State of North Carolina. In 1795, it became a College, under the labors of that indefatigable, man, and by the charter granted by the Territorial Government. Its influence during the Revolution, and after, together with a full sketch of the early ministers that settled along the Holston, will be a part of the work of him that writes either the ecclesiastical or civil history of Tennessee.

        This article may be very properly brought to a close, by an extract from a report of a committee of Fayetteville Presbytery, "on the condition and prospects of Davidson College." The Presbytery had been invited to join in the support of the College; a committee, of which Rev. Simeon Calton was chairman, was appointed to visit

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the institution and make report. This committee submitted a long and able report to the Presbytery in November, 1844, which was, by order of Presbytery, printed and widely circulated. Towards the conclusion of the report, the committee say: "Here, it is natural to inquire, can Davidson College be sustained; and can it ever become such an institution as will hold a good rank among sister institutions, and be likely to attract any considerable attention to itself, as a place of education? It should be remembered that there are but few colleges that rank so high as to command general attention through the country, and exert a general influence on the cause of education. Of the sixty, which our country contains, comparatively few are known beyond the immediate region where they are located. They are all, however, useful in their place; and exert no little influence on the community that surrounds them. Davidson College is located in a section of country where the influence of such an institution will be appreciated; and be productive of much good. It is easy of access, and placed in the midst of a rich section of territory, it will always be surrounded by a dense population, out of which many young men will be desirous of obtaining an education. These will find this institution, on many accounts, an eligible place of resort. The districts of Spartanburg, York, Lancaster, and Chesterfield, in South Carolina; and the counties of Mecklenburg, Cabarrus, Anson, Lincoln, Rutherford, Burke, Iredell, Wilkes, Davy, Rowan, and Stanley, in North Carolina, will find this the most convenient place for them. Surry, together with the counties further to the west, with Richmond, Moore, Montgomery, Robeson, and other eastern counties, will, for various reasons, always contribute more or less to the patronage of this institution. The districts and counties which we have named contain a population of two hundred thousand souls; a population considerably exceeding that of the State of Connecticut, previous to the establishment of the two denominational colleges, in addition to Yale. Within the limits of the district of country which have been described, there are between eight and nine thousand members of the Presbyterian churches; how many of other denominations, we have no means of determining. Supposing the patronage of the institution is confined to the Presbyterian denomination, there is sufficient population of that order, within the limits named, not only to justify, but even to demand, that the institution should, by them, be sustained. But if conducted on liberal principles, the Presbyterian is not the only denomination that will patronize the institution. Other denominations, from contiguity of situation, or from motives of economy,

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and, as may be hoped, from intrinsic merits of the institution, will patronize it to some extent. Patronage, too, from other parts of the State may be expected, when the character of the institution shall have become established and known."

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CHAPTER XXXVI.
THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA AND THE REV. JOSEPH CALDWELL, D.D.

        THE following brief statement, which appeared in the public papers immediately after the exercises it describes, was admitted by the friends of the institution to be a correct view of the state of things at Chapel Hill, and will form our introduction to the University of the State.

        At half-past ten o'clock on Thursday morning, June 3d, 1842, the usual procession of students, faculty, trustees, and visitors, was formed in front of the South College, and moved through the beautiful grove of native forest trees, carefully preserved as an ornament of the University grounds, round the monument erected to the memory of the first President, the Rev. Joseph Caldwell, D.D., who cherished the infant university and presided over its destinies for some forty years, to the chapel, where the exercises of Commencement Day were opened with prayer by the Rev. Professor Mitchell, of the Presbyterian church, and closed with prayer by Professor Green, of the Episcopal church.

        During the exercises, His Excellency Governor Morehead on the right of the President of the University, Ex-Governor Swain, occupied the centre of the stage, and the orators of the day, nine in number, in their rear; and the Trustees and Professors on the right and left, occupied the wings of the stage, leaving a space in front of the two presiding officers for the speakers' stand; immediately in front of the platform were the students of the University in a company.

        The performances of the young gentlemen, candidates for the Baccalaureate, adorned each with the insignia of the literary society of which he was a member, were characterized by correctness of sentiment and chasteness of style and delivery; and an entire absence of the artificial action and pompous diction sometimes so prominent in academic exercises. Before the Bachelor's Degree was conferred, one of the Trustees read the report of the Faculty, giving individually, and by name, the rank of each of the candidates for the honor, from the time of entering the University

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till the close of his studies; and in a general manner the standing of the under-graduates. The senior class occupied a small area in front of the stage, while the statement was read from the college records. Their rank in scholarship, their behavior in recitations, public worship, and daily prayers, and the number of absentees from any college exercise, were each stated in order. The deep interest with which the whole assembly listened to this record, evinced the power of the appeal to the sense of honor and propriety in the bosoms of the young men. A strong sensation pervaded the assembly when it was announced that on account of inattention to college duties, after repeated admonitions, two under-graduates were in danger of being remitted to their parents; their names were not mentioned; and it would have been cruel to have scanned the anxious company for the discovery that might have been made. The report closed by announcing that twenty-nine young gentlemen were admitted to their first Degree; of these, one had not failed in an exercise or duty during the whole four years' course; six others had not failed during the senior year; and three others had not in their course voluntarily failed; their few absences being the consequence of unavoidable necessity.

        The degree of A.B. was then conferred by the President, calling the young gentlemen by name, upon the stage, pronouncing the form of admission in Latin, and presenting the parchment on which was written a certificate of the fact, signed by the trustees and faculty. After the parchment had been given to each Bachelor, a beautifully bound copy of the Bible, the pocket edition of the American Bible Society, was presented, by the President, to each of the graduates, with a Latin Form expressive of the desire of the Faculty and Trustees--that it might be their guide to eternal life. It is understood that besides public worship on the Sabbath, and daily prayers in the chapel, instruction in the Bible forms a part of the regular College course.

        An air of solemnity pervaded all the proceedings of this day, in the beautiful classic grove of Chapel Hill. Events had occurred, which touched all hearts, in this little community, composed of the Faculty of the University, their families, and the students, and a few families connected with the Institution. Death, perhaps, has not as many terrors in a retired village, as in a crowded city; but it is more solemn and affecting. The throng of business and heartless dissipation in the city, neglects the sick, the dying, and the dead, and makes it horrible and loathsome to die. In a secluded village, or retired community, the death of a single individual, for

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a time, stops the current of business, changes the tide of feeling, awakens the tenderest sympathies, and brings home the truth, that the narrow resting-place of the grave will soon be the home of us all.

        An amiable young lady, the daughter of the Rev. Alexander Wilson, D.D., of Caldwell Institute, Greensborough, returning in company with her father, from a visit to Raleigh, had been detained a few days at the house of Professor Philips of the University, by a fever, which yielded to no medicine, but went on slowly and steadily in its work, till, on the last day of May, it triumphed over its victim. What parent could check the feelings of sympathy with a parent for a sick child? What youth could shut the heart against that indescribable interest, that surrounds an amiable female, cheered in her struggles with disease and death, by the hope of immortal life through Jesus Christ, her Lord? Simply to say, however, that the inhabitants of Chapel Hill sympathized with the afflicted parent and his dying child would be saying little of that classic community.

        A sense of religion had grown up with that young lady, and the duty and privilege of prayer had been felt and enjoyed from her earliest days. Her religious principles maintained an unbroken ascendency through the various stages of her disease till about a day before her death, when the last struggle of unbelief preceded the last struggle of mortal life. Her disturbed appearance and restlessness of body exciting attention, she said--"it was not pain of body, but that her mind was dark, and fears had come over her, lest her hopes were vain, and would desert her in the last hour." The Professor, whose hospitality was privileged in ministering to the wants of the dying one, was immediately summoned from his college exercises,--prayer was offered around her couch, till her soul was quieted in the good hope through grace. From that time she enjoyed unbroken peace, till she fell asleep in Jesus. The solemn funeral services, conducted by Professor Philips, took place the evening preceding the commencement, and her remains were laid in the burying-ground of the University. You will see her monument as you pass, a little distance from the gate.

        The impression of the whole scene on commencement day was entirely favorable; creditable alike to the students, the Faculty and the University. Under the present admirable arrangements, a studious youth may acquire as complete an academic education as at any college in the Union; and parents and guardians may be assured that unceasing attention is paid to the morals, religious instruction,

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and studious habits of the young men committed to the fostering care of the University."--(Watchman of the South, June 16th, 1842.)

        The University of North Carolina, introduced to the kindness of criticism and the public sympathy by the preceding notice, is not a Presbyterian institution, neither does it belong to, nor is it under the peculiar management of any religious denomination. It is the child and property of the State at large, in which all have an interest, and over it the Legislature the ultimate control. As part of the community that loves the education of youth, the Presbyterian congregations and families have a great and increasing interest in the University, now rising in the public estimation, in actual merit and in the influence on the public mind; they must, in common with all the denominations in the State, feel the pulsations of this literary and scientific heart of the State; as patriots, they must, and do wish, well to this nursery of citizens and rulers, for its disease and pollution, or its health and moral action, must affect every section of the State, and sooner or later guide the fortunes of the whole. Who can estimate the influence of a well endowed popular literary institution, as it pours out its streams, year after year, into the bosoms of society, and like the Nile of Egypt, watering every garden on the plains!

        But there is another view in which Presbyterians have been, and are, deeply involved as a community that love their creed, and fully believe that, in the fair working of their principles, the best interests of society will advance with a rapid pace, even to the full enjoyment of the rights of man in freedom of conscience, and undisturbed possession of life and property; a view in which, as we look at the University, every Presbyterian may point at it, as an exhibition or development of one part of their principles, which convinces, not by argument, but by facts, that the Presbyterian Church is neither monarchical nor aristocratical, nor grasping, but is seeking honestly the welfare of the whole. This view will be set forth in this sketch of the history of the institution, and a short notice of him, justly styled the Father of the University, JOSEPH CALDWELL.

        On the 11th of December, 1789, the Legislature of North Carolina, in accordance with the provisions of her constitution, adopted December 6th, 1776, requiring all useful learning to be promoted in one or more universities, incorporated an university with the following preamble to the charter: "Whereas, in all well regulated governments it is the indispensable duty of every legislature

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to consult the happiness of a rising generation, and endeavor to fit them for an honorable discharge of the social duties of life, by paying the strictest attention to their education; and whereas an university supported by permanent funds, and well endowed, would have the most direct tendency to answer the above purpose, Be it therefore enacted," &c., &c. The following forty names were inserted as "the trustees of the University of North Carolina," viz.; Samuel Johnson, James Iredell, Charles Johnson, Hugh Williamson, Stephen Cabarrus, Richard Dobbs Speight, Wm. Blount, Benjamin Williams, John Sibpeanes, Frederick Harget, Robert W. Snead, Archibald Maclane, Hon. Samuel Ashe, Robert Dixon, Benjamin Smith, Hon. Samuel Spencer, John Hay, James Hogg, Henry Wm. Harrington, Wm. Barney Grove, Rev. Samuel E. McCorkle, Adlai Osborn, John Stokes, John Hamilton, Joseph Graham, Hon. John Williams, Thomas Person, Alfred Moore, Alexander Mebane, Joel Lane, Willie Jones, Benjamin Hawkins, John Haywood, sen., John Macon, Wm. Richardson Davie, Joseph Dixon, Wm. Lenoir, Joseph McDonald, James Holland, and Wm. Porter. Some moderate endowment was made by the State, which cost her nothing, by way of old debts due from receiving officers previous to 1st Jan., 1785, and all the property which had escheated to the State or should thereafter be escheated. The latter part of the endowment was repealed in a few years.

        The first meeting of the trustees was held in Fayetteville, the 15th of November, 1790, and the work of gathering funds to erect buildings and maintain teachers was commenced. In December, 1791, the State made a loan of $10,000, which was afterwards converted into a donation, and the trustees determined to select a site and erect buildings. According to the charter "a healthy and convenient situation, which shall not be situated within five miles of the seat of government, or any of the places of holding the courts of law or equity," was to be chosen by the trustees according to their discretion. On the 1st of November, 1792, a committee of six met at Pittsborough, to determine the precise location of the university, the trustees having decided in August in favor of the neighborhood of Cypress Bridge, on the road from Pittsborough to Raleigh. Liberal offers were made by various proprietors to secure the location on their tracts, or in their neighborhoods. On the 9th the committee unanimously chose Chapel Hill, and the same day the citizens of the neighborhood conveyed eleven hundred and eighty acres of land to the

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university, and made a subscription of about $1600 to assist in carrying the designs of the trustees into speedy execution. The North Carolina Journal, Halifax, for September 25th, 1793, says: "The seat of the university is on a high ridge. There is a gentle declivity of 300 yards to the village, which is situated in a handsome plain considerably lower than the site of the public buildings, but so greatly elevated above the neighboring country as to furnish an extensive landscape. The ridge appears to commence about half a mile directly east of the college buildings, where it rises abruptly several hundred feet; this peak is called Point Prospect. The Peak country spreads off below, like the ocean, giving an immense hemisphere, in which the eye seems to be lost in the extent of space.

        "The University is situated about twenty-eight miles from the city of Raleigh, and twelve from the town of Hillsborough. The great road from Chatham, and the country in the neighborhood of that county, to Petersburg, passes at present directly through the village, and it is a fortunate and important circumstance, both to the Institution and the town, that the road from all the Western country to the seat of Government will also pass through this place, being the nearest and best direction."

        On the 12th of October, 1793, the first lots in the village were sold, and the corner-stone of the first building was laid, with masonic procession and ceremonies, by William Richardson Davie. The Rev. Dr. McCorkle, of the Presbyterian church, the only clergyman then in the corporation, addressed the assembly at length. From his speech the following are extracts:--"It is our duty to acknowledge that sacred scriptural truth, Except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it; except the Lord keepeth the city, the watchman waketh but in vain. For my own part, I feel myself penetrated with a sense of these truths; and this I feel not only as a minister of religion, but also as a citizen of the State, as a member of civil as well as religious society. These unaffected feelings of my heart give me leave to express, with that plainness and honesty which becomes a preacher of the Gospel and a minister of Jesus Christ."

        "To diffuse the greatest possible degree of happiness in a given territory is the aim of good government and religion. Now the happiness of a nation depends upon national wealth and national glory, and cannot be gained without them. They in like manner depend upon liberty and laws. Liberty and laws call for general knowledge in the people, and extensive knowledge in matters of

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State; and these, in fine, demand public places of education. * * * * How can any nation be happy without national wealth? How can that nation, or man, be happy that is not procuring the necessary conveniences and accommodations of life? How can glory or wealth be procured or preserved without liberty and laws, as they must check luxury, encourage industry and protect wealth. They must secure me the glory of my actions, and save from a bowstring or a bastile; and how are these objects to be gained without general knowledge? Knowledge is wealth,--it is glory--whether among philosophers, ministers of state or of religion, or among the great mass of the people. Britons glory in the name of a Newton, and honor him with a place among the sepulchres of her kings. Americans glory in the name of a Franklin; and every nation which has them boasts her great men. Savages cannot have, rather cannot educate them, though many a Newton has been born and buried among them. Knowledge is liberty and law. When the clouds of ignorance are dispelled by the radiance of knowledge, power trembles, but the authority of the laws remains inviolable; and how this knowledge, productive of so many advantages to mankind, can be acquired without public places of instruction, I know not. * * * * "May this hill be for religion as the ancient hill of Zion; and for literature and the Muses, may it surpass the ancient Parnassus! We this day enjoy the pleasure of seeing the corner-stone of the University, its foundations, its materials, and the architects of the buildings, and we hope ere long to see its stately walls and spire ascending to their summit." The discourse was followed by a short but animated prayer, closed with the united Amen of an immense concourse of people.

        The buildings being in a state of sufficient forwardness to accommodate students, notice was given for the opening of the institution. Rev. David Kerr, a graduate of Trinity College, Dublin, a member of the Presbyterian church, who had emigrated to America in the year 1791, and had resided in Fayetteville as the preacher, and also as teacher of a classical school for about three years, having a reputation for talents and scholarship, was the first Professor selected by the trustees; and with him was associated Mr. Samuel A. Holmes, as tutor in the preparatory department. The first student on the ground was Mr. Hinton James, from Wilmington, who arrived on the 12th of February, 1795, and on the 13th the public institution commenced. Mr. Kerr remained but a short time in the employ of the trustees; went to Lumberton

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in Robeson county, commenced mercantile business and the study of law; and when prepared for legal business, removed to the Mississippi territory, was made United States Marshal, and soon after appointed Judge; and closed his career in the year 1810, having acquired both property and reputation.

        In the course of the year 1795, Mr. Charles W. Harris, of Cabarrus county, a graduate of Nassau Hall, New Jersey, who was pursuing the study of the law, was appointed professor of mathematics, and Mr. Holmes professor of languages. Mr. Harris accepted the office only for one year, and declined renewing his term of engagement, wishing to follow his profession, in which he became eminent, being considered one of the best lawyers in the State, when death suddenly closed his career. He directed the attention of the trustees to Mr. Joseph Caldwell, a tutor in Nassau Hall, with whose deportment and scholarship he had been acquainted while a member of college, though there had never been any intimacy with him. This recommendation led to a correspondence, of which Mr. Harris was the organ; and finally the removal of Mr. Caldwell to Chapel Hill, in the fall of 1796, as the Professor of mathematics in the University. The course of instruction in the University had been carried on about eighteen months, and the regular course of studies not yet settled, or the regular classes formed. Everything was new, and in an unformed state; the funds small, and the students few; the library and apparatus yet to be procured, and the faculty not more in number than is required for a high school. But the work was commenced, and an effort must be made for an University. The history of the institution as a place of education, properly commences with the labors of Joseph Caldwell. He was the presiding Professor, and then the President; and for some forty years directed the studies of the classes, performing the duty of a laborious professor and of the president, of a faithful teacher and the responsible governor, till the institution, which began so small, grew up to a standard of excellence, at his death, unsurpassed by any institution of a similar kind in the southern country, and second to few in the United States. As for forty years the history of the man is the history of the University, and the history of the University is the history of the man, a few notices of his early life, which may introduce us to the Rev. Joseph Caldwell as he appeared at the Hill in 1796, will facilitate our acquaintance with the rise and progress of the University itself. His matured years gave a finishing touch to the work of his youth.

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        Dr. Joseph Caldwell, a respectable physician in New Jersey, the descendant of an emigrant from the province of Ulster, Ireland, a country fertile in enterprising men, as Carolina can witness, came to an untimely end, from the rupture of a blood-vessel, on the 19th of April, 1773, at Lamington, a village on the little stream called Black River, that empties into the Raritan. On the 20th his body was committed to the dust; and on the 21st his widow gave birth to a son, which, in her desolation of widowhood, she called Joseph, in memory of the husband and the father. As the child grew he received religious instructions from his pious mother, Rachel Harker, the daughter of a Presbyterian clergyman, and granddaughter of a Huguenot. Mr. Lovel, the maternal grandfather of Joseph Caldwell, fled from France after that memorable epoch, 1684, when, by the revocation of the Edict of Nantz, the French Protestants became the prey of persecution without mercy. He took his residence first in England; and after a few years emigrated to America, and settled on the west end of Long Island, near Oyster Bay, and not far from Hempstead Plains. Here he lived an exemplary Christian life, and trained up his family in habits of religion, infusing much of his own decision, promptness, and determination, in matters of religion, and in the ordinary business of life. Of his maternal grandmother, Rachel Lovel, Mr. Caldwell used to speak in the highest terms, having lived with her when young, and gathered from her the traditions of the family; but of his mother, his admiration knew no bounds, as a kind parent and Christian woman. Of the discretion of his mother, he used to give a pleasing instance, exemplifying unintentionally his own natural tenderness of feeling, and his sense of propriety. While quite a young lad, during a short residence at Bristol, he ventured to transgress the rules of his mother, by going on a Sabbath to indulge in bathing: narrowly escaping being drowned, he was taken home sick and exhausted, requiring careful attention to recover his lost strength. His mother kindly attended upon her son, and, to his surprise, said nothing to him about his disobedience, or exposure to loss of life. Whatever was her motive, the effect was great; her silence distressed him more than any reproof she could have given: his conscience chastised him for his sin in grieving a mother he so much loved. The boy's heart was tender, and the mother knew her child. The religious impression soon passed away, but the moral remained. Through life he retained the impression of this dealing of his mother, and, as far as practicable, governed his students in the same principle, throwing them upon their sense

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of honor, with unabated kindness, always forbearing exposure, and public and even private reproof, as far as reclaiming the offender, and the interest of the institution, would permit. A lad was far gone in moral insensibility that could know Dr. Caldwell and rebel against him for any length of time.

        Mr. Lovel, the grandfather of Dr. Caldwell, was a firm believer in those doctrines of religion, and that consistent Christian practice, which, in England, was called Puritanism, and in France obtained for its followers the name of Huguenots. Fond of music, he brought with him from France a parlor organ, on which he played himself, accompanying with his voice, and taught his children to play upon it as they grew up, using it as an assistant to their music in the daily family worship. This instrument is probably in existence still, as it was carefully preserved, and in use by the descendants of Mr. Lovel in the days of Mr. Caldwell's youth.

        Mr. Lovel was peculiar for his conscientious abstinence from meat diet. Living on a most productive farm, which he managed well, he reared his family in total abstinence of all diet that required the slaughter of animals, believing that such a course was more consistent with the constitution of men and the state of innocency, than the indulgence of appetite at the expense of animal life. In his domestic economy, he accustomed his children to exercise their ingenuity and skill in overcoming difficulties; and mingling strict discipline with parental kindness, he possessed their veneration and love, and his family was esteemed the abode of cheerfulness and domestic happiness.

        Mr. Harker, a Presbyterian clergyman, married Mr. Lovel's daughter Rachel, and settled in a place in Morris county, New Jersey, called Black River. Remarkable for his size, strength and vigor of body, and also for his intellectual powers, his preparations for the ministry commenced after he had passed the days of his youth in manual labor. The habits of activity he had formed, were continued through life. A practical man and faithful pastor, he was a leading man in the community. A daughter of his, named Rachel after her mother, was Mrs. Caldwell. Another daughter married a man by the name of Symmes, and became the mother of a son noted for his theory of the earth's concavity at the poles.

        The war of the Revolution coming on when Dr. Caldwell was a child, and New Jersey being the track of the hostile armies, he was removed from place to place, as the ravages of war pressed

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upon his retreat. During all his early life, his mother's residence was unsettled, and his education conducted irregularly, as opportunities were presented. His mother having a temporary residence in Bristol, he commenced the study of the mathematics, in which he delighted through life. Her residence being for a time in Princeton, he was presented with a Latin grammar by a student from Charleston, South Carolina, and commenced his classical studies in the preparatory school under the direction of Dr. Witherspoon, President of the college. This school was famous for the thorough instruction and the consequent close application and correct method of the pupils. Young Caldwell was a close student, and laid the foundation for his future scholarship and excellence while in this school, and received impressions and imbibed principles which characterized him in his labors at Chapel Hill, and in his efforts to establish and sustain grammar schools of a high order. When his mother removed to Newark, his progress in his education was delayed by the change of system, and the different course of studies, and his being put in a class less advanced than himself. It is not improbable that his own experience of the inefficiency of some popular modes of instruction, and more general courses of study, fixed his judgment so firmly in favor of thorough drilling in the rudiments of science, and of a liberal course in the languages.

        From Newark his mother removed to Elizabethtown, and while there, on account of her narrow circumstances, abandoned the project of giving him a liberal education, and fixed upon the printing business as his future occupation. With some difficulty she obtained a place she thought eligible for her son, but when the time came for his being apprenticed, she expressed a strong disinclination to act, first delaying, then opposing, then abandoning an engagement she had sought, and for which her son had at length contracted a strong predilection. Some time after this, Dr. Witherspoon, as he passed through Elizabethtown in the stage, called to see her, and after consultation respecting her son, removed all her difficulties, and promised, on his being sent to college, to be his patron, if he stood in need at any time of more assistance than was convenient for her to give. With unbounded satisfaction young Caldwell became a member of the Freshman class at Nassau Hall, August, 1787, in his fifteenth year, with a passionate desire for improvement, without any definite ultimate result in view.

        His progress in study and his standing as a scholar while in

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college, is understood by his honorable appointment to the Latin Salutatory for the exercises of commencement day, August, 1791, when he received his Bachelor's degree, being then in his nineteenth year. His deportment and success during his college course attracted the attention of Mr. Harris, and led to his appointment as professor in the University of North Carolina.

        Being a young man of tender feelings, and that amiable disposition that desires to please others at a sacrifice of personal comfort, he was sometimes induced while in college to engage in sports which involved some breach of strict propriety in college discipline, yielding to the solicitations and persuasions of his fellow students, who had less of that tenderness of conscience, self-respect, and sense of propriety, that never failed to inflict on him, as with a whip of scorpions, a full measure of distress for his impropriety. Speaking of his course as a student, he says: "If there was any pleasure in the moments of clandestine acts of mischief, it was so mixed, in my bosom, with the agitation of apprehended discovery and dread of consequences, that I should be far from recommending it on the score of enjoyment. In all such cases, and I thank God they were not numerous, as soon as they were over, the gloomy cloud which they brought upon my feelings, and which kept hovering around me for days, was enough to decide most unequivocally, that much was to be set down on the page, not of profit but of loss. The miseries, more or less, which, in compliance with solicitation, I sometimes consented to inflict upon myself were only a portion of the consequent suffering." With this tenderness of feeling and of conscience, there was connected a degree of resolution when called imperiously to act, which all combined and governed by Christian principle forms a Christian hero; a man not rash, nor timidly afraid; sensible of danger, but more sensible of propriety; tender of others' feelings, but more tender of truth and right; for convenience and accommodation of others yielding all that can be yielded, but purchasing nothing by giving up or concealing principle; that would not hurt the hair of the head of ingenuous, helpless innocence, and yet would die for the truth and righteousness. This character went with Caldwell through life, and was often displayed while performing the duties of professor and president at Chapel Hill. For at times you might have found him all kindness while dealing with inexperienced youth, in whom he thought he saw an ingenuous noble spirit to confess and forsake an error, and then with those in whom he discovered a spirit of insubordination, you might

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see him rigorous, uncompromising, till the dignity of the law was vindicated. And in his intercourse and necessary connection with the board of trustees on circumstantial things, giving up his better judgment and greater experience with cheerfulness, in obedience to the expressed will of the majority, as if he had no fixed purpose or resolution of soul; and then on subjects on which he saw his own or the dignity of the institution depending, resolutely setting himself, with a calm firmness, against propositions and measures, as if he had never known what it was to yield his opinion to any body of men.

        After receiving his degree of A.B., he returned to the residence of his brother Samuel, who then occupied the farm given him by his grandfather Harker, at Black River, which was also the residence of his mother. Not being prepared to enter upon a course of professional studies, nor inclined to labor on the farm, he opened a small school in the neighborhood, and exercised himself in teaching little children, commencing, unintentionally, where the best teachers begin to learn the rare science of teaching well, with the unformed, or infant mind. There is a philosophy in the alphabet and in teaching it; and more skill may be required to teach a column of words of two letters to a lively or a dull boy, than to lead a class through an equation.

        From this place, after some months, he was removed to Elizabethtown, to occupy the post of an usher or assistant, in a classical school, and was made more intimately conversant with the rudiments of a classic course, by recalling his boyish exercises in study, and adding to his acquirements, while leading others to Parnassus hill; finding out his own deficiencies, and gathering new rays of light on abstruse subjects, in the preparation to unfold the mystery to the curious minds of studious boys, who catch, as by intuition, from the preceptor, the knowledge of his unfitness, or his capability to teach. Here he came under the preaching of that gifted, zealous, and erratic man, David Austin. A fervent and successful preacher, of tall stature and commanding appearance, fine voice and impressive delivery, he manifested the unhinging of his mind, and tendency to mono-madness, on the return of the Jews, which he first rejoiced in, then preached, then believed was just at hand; and then becoming too absorbed in the bewildering subject to be able to perform the duties of pastor, he left his people. His enthusiasm and eloquence carried many of his people with him to the verge of folly, if not insanity. But before, and after this temporary alienation of mind, he was a fascinating,

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impressive, and useful preacher of the gospel. With this gentleman, then in his zenith of usefulness, Mr. Caldwell began a course of study for the ministry, his mind having become settled both on the truth of the gospel of Christ, as a Revelation from God; and on his personal interest in that salvation revealed in the gospel. These being settled, the work of the ministry appeared to his mind and heart, in some manner, as it had to the pious mind of his affectionate mother, as the most desirable work for his strength and days. The kindness of his pastor, of whom he always spoke with feelings of the most affectionate reverence, his fervent exhortations in the pulpit and his private communications, together with the affectionate attentions of Mrs. Austin, who won his heart as a matron in the gospel, confirmed his faith, and stimulated his desires for spiritual excellence, and for accomplishing the greatest good for his fellow men. The cause of Christ appeared the cause of all the world. His companion in study was a Mr. Sherman, a nephew of Mr. Austin.

        The views and impressions of religious truth which he obtained at this time were of an abiding nature, and confirmed by his residence as tutor at Nassau Hall, where he pursued his theological studies under the direction of great and good men, particularly Dr. Witherspoon; they were the articles of his belief and principles of his preaching, till the end of his life, and the joy and crown of his last days. While Professor at Chapel Hill he received a letter from Mr. Sherman, his fellow student at Elizabethtown, for whom he felt a strong regard, who had been settled in the ministry of the orthodox faith, and had imbibed the spirit of rationalism that for a time pervaded a part of the church, and flattered by its show of wisdom and science, had been decoyed by its novelty from the orthodox faith of the Puritans, informing him of his change of views respecting the character and person of Christ, and consequently of his work for the salvation of men. To this Mr. Caldwell replied, that having examined and settled those matters, he did not expect ever to change his views, and did not feel a desire to think differently on that subject from what he then did, and had done for a long time. His practical mind and sound sense were for "going on to perfection, from the principles of the doctrine of Christ, not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God."

        In April, 1795, he received the appointment of tutor in his Alma Mater; and being released from his partial engagements to the trustees of the academy at Springfield, with the cordial approbation

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of his friends, he entered upon his new office with cheering prospects of usefulness and improvement. His duties as tutor called into almost constant exercise a quality of mind and heart of which he was capable, but to which he was not very strongly inclined; a quality indispensable to extensive and paramount usefulness,--firmness of purpose that could produce vigor of action. He was in no danger of exercising harshness or severity to the youth committed to his care; he knew as well as others that his failings leaned the other way. The innocent never dreaded his power of command; and the culprit sometimes hoped to escape by his tenderness. The confidence of the one was never disappointed; and the hopes and expectations of the other seldom realized. His sense of duty could nerve his heart to overcome all false compassion, and make him do firmly what he did tenderly.

        While tutor he was associated with Mr. Hobart, afterwards Bishop of the Episcopal church in New York.

        In the summer of 1795 the correspondence commenced between him and Professor Harris that led to his giving consent to be run as candidate for the Professorship of Mathematics in the University of North Carolina. On being informed of his election he immediately made preparations to repair to Chapel Hill. Being licensed to preach the gospel by the Presbytery of New Brunswick, he set out in a private conveyance for the new field of his labors in North Carolina, in September, 1796. Stopping in Philadelphia to pass the Sabbath, he preached for Dr. Green in Arch Street Church. On Monday morning he was visited by two gentlemen to procure his stay in the city, to visit and preach for a vacant congregation, in view of settlement. Happily, in this case of difficulty,--the choice between a congregation in the most pleasant circumstances in a flourishing city, and the laborious occupation of a teacher in a new institution, of doubtful issue, and small present promise, either in profit or fame,--he had an adviser in Dr. Ashbel Green, since so long and so extensively known in the church. The opinion of this judicious man, that, if he should be blessed of God to raise up an institution for the instruction of youth, that should be worthy of the name of The University of North Carolina, the amount of usefulness to society at large, and to the Church of Christ in particular, would far outweigh his usefulness as pastor in any charge, and amply compensate him for any labor or trial he might be called to endure for its accomplishment; that, though his success was doubtful, and there were many trials in his path, the object was worthy of his best effort, turned the scale suddenly.

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Without waiting for Mr. Caldwell to reply, the Dr. said, somewhat abruptly, "he is on his way to Carolina, and to Carolina he is certainly to go. To speak of other places will be in vain." How true it is that words fitly spoken are like apples of gold in baskets of silver, even though uttered, as Mr. Caldwell thought these were, with abruptness. It was good counsel to a worthy person, well followed, and crowned with great success, by God's blessing. And was it not of God that Joseph Caldwell went to Chapel Hill? The widow nursed the infant boy, on whom a father's face never smiled; a southern boy gives him his grammar to begin his literary course; the President of Nassau Hall, Dr. Witherspoon, takes him from an unemployed life, and puts him to the college desk; Austin leads him into the study of Theology; Harris, the Professor, turns his attention to Chapel Hill, and secures his election; and Green, wise in counsel, sends him on to his field of labor, where many trials awaited him before he should get his crown. And no one of these ever seemed to be influenced by an opinion that he possessed splendid talents, uncommon genius, or peculiar faculties for some wonderful work; but by a conviction that there was in him a certain something, made up of a well-balanced mind, probity of heart, sense of propriety, and desire of usefulness, all clothed with great modesty, that marked him out as the man to accomplish a work that called for piety, humility, patience, prudence, and untiring industry. Evidently God sent him to Chapel Hill.

        In November, 1796, he entered on his duties in the infant university. Rightly to understand his labors, it is absolutely necessary to take a survey of the advantages and disadvantages under which he labored in the performance of his duties, and in his efforts to rear the institution to vigor and usefulness. His advantages were, 1st: The State patronage; some permanent funds in hand, and much more in prospect from the increased price of lands, and the escheats and debts of the State, which had been appropriated by law. However small the patronage of the State may be, yet, if it be constant, it gives an advantage in gathering students and in keeping the public attention so as to increase the number he might have at any given time. And 2d: The influence of the forty members of the Board of Trustees, afterwards increased to sixty-five, all of them intelligent and influential men, and desirous of building a State institution, who might be expected to assist in gathering students, and also in collecting funds. Being chosen from all parts of the State, and not confined to politics or denomination,

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he had the privilege of looking, through them, to the whole State, for his help. And 3d: The institution being entirely in its infancy, he had the opportunity of forming its first shape and spirit; on the given spot and with the given advantages, he planted the acorn, which he watered and cherished and pruned to the vigorous oak, whose branches now overshadow the land.

        His difficulties were great, arising from the nature of the case and from human nature. 1st. There were in operation in the State, particularly in the upper part of it, some academies of high merit and established reputation. The embryo university, without apparatus and without a competent number of teachers to perform the labors of the university, could, after all the patronage of the State, offer little to draw students from these established, well known schools, to come to Chapel Hill. It was by no means evident that Mr. Caldwell was superior to those well tried teachers: he might not even be equal, and at the best there was little probability that he would immediately surpass any of these academies. There was the school of David Caldwell in Guilford, in active operation, sending out its pupils to be divines, physicians and lawyers, and ultimately professors in institutions and judges of the courts: the public were not sure that Joseph Caldwell could equal, much less excel him. And then there was the academy of Dr. McCorkle, one of the Board of Trustees, a man of literature and reading, kept in the bounds of Thyatira congregation, near to Salisbury. And a little further on was the school of Rev. Mr. Wallis, at Providence, twelve miles from Charlotte, a man of logical mind, connected with a vehement spirit, afterwards a member of the Board of Trustees. And next the school in Bethany, Iredell county, under the direction of the well known servant of God, the Rev. Capt. James Hall, D.D., the soldier of the Revolution, and the leading domestic missionary of the South. Next, the school at Rocky River, from which many excellent men came. And next, in the mountains, now a part of Tennessee, was Martin Academy, planted by Mr. Doak, and by him enlarged to a college, the nursery of many professional men. To these add the public academies of Charlotte, Mecklenburg, which occupied the place of Liberty Hall and Queen's Museum; the Academy in Duplin, which has been more or less flourishing; Science Hall, near Hillsboro'; Warrenton Academy, under Mr. George, who, with Bingham and Kerr, were graduates of Trinity College, Dublin; Granville Hall, and the academies in Edenton, Newbern and Onslow. In all these different places it had been customary for

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young men to complete their classic education, if, through want of funds or other circumstances, they did not seek for further instruction at Nassau Hall, or some New England or foreign college. And it could not immediately appear that Chapel Hill, with the name of University, could do more for the pupils, or as much as some of these institutions.

        2d. In the next place the Board of Trustees were almost entirely unacquainted with the system of management proper for an University. The only Literary and Scientific institution of any importance in the management of which any of them had been engaged was Liberty Hall, unfortunately of too short duration, on account of the invasion of Cornwallis. Many of them had never even been members of a well endowed college, having received their education at one of these Academies, or at some institution of a similar kind. Mr. Caldwell probably understood the proper management of a University better than the whole Board by whom he was to be guided, and to whose will he not unfrequently with reluctance yielded, till longer acquaintance convinced them of the propriety of listening to his counsels in things pertaining to the discipline of the students, and the course of studies. The plan of studies at first proposed partook of the spirit of the day, and is mentioned not as singular, for all public institutions felt the shock, but as a part of that peculiar influence on a new institution, moulding its form and directing its course, more decidedly than it could have done with an University or college of long standing. From a card published by a Committee of the Board in the North Carolina Journal of December 12th, 1792, is the following extract:-- "The objects to which it is contemplated to turn the attention of the students, on the first establishment, are the study of languages, particularly the English; History, ancient and modern; the Belles Lettres; Logic and Moral Philosophy; Agriculture and Botany, with the principles of Architecture." This list of studies is faulty, not in what it embraces, but in what it leaves out. There was a disposition then growing in the United States to put a lower estimate on the acquisition of what are called the "Dead Languages," than had been previously the habit of colleges consecrated by immemorial usage, or than is now put on them by universal consent. It was more difficult to displace them from their seat of preeminence in established colleges, than to introduce them to an institution from which they had been excluded. Had Joseph Caldwell attempted to build the University on the principle of giving the Dead or Classic languages a lower place than Logic or Belles Lettres,

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or the English language, the University would not now be that flourishing institution, the ornament of the State. He must gain the confidence of a Board who were prepared cheerfully to employ him as the teacher of youth, but not at all ready to receive from his hands the actual direction of the whole course of study and general discipline. One glance at the subject will show the difficulty involved in the situation of the young professor. How many trials must be made; how many years pass before he could gain that hold on the confidence of the trustees and the community at large, to enable him to put the University on a firm foundation of usefulness and success. It is interesting to look at the progress of the confidential feeling that commenced immediately on his entrance upon the duties of his office. After acting one year as Professor of Mathematics and the head of the institution, he resigned the superintendance, and held the office of Professor of Mathematics; his successor failing to gain the confidence of the Board, Mr. Caldwell was induced to become head professor again in 1799. In 1804 he was elected to the office of President, being the first to fill that chair in the University. In 1812 he resigned that office, and confined himself to the Mathematical department; but his successor, as in the former instance, failing to gain the confidence necessary to give efficiency to his discipline and instruction, Mr. Caldwell was again called to the chair, in 1816, and continued to hold the office till the day of his death, Tuesday, January 27th, 1835. It was under his management that the University grew from a high school to the flourishing condition in which his successor found it so favorable for his talents and energy to make it a blessing to his native State in the education of her sons.

        The third difficulty was perhaps the more perplexing, requiring prudence, forbearance, and yet great resolution, together with confidence, the child of experience and trial; this was the religious state of the university and of the public mind at the time Mr. Caldwell became Professor. It is now a matter of history in philosophy, politics, and religion, that the discussion that had been progressing in France, in which all religious things had undergone the same revolutionizing scrutiny as the errors in politics and the misrule of the government, reached America some time previous to Mr. Caldwell's connection with the University. The whole subject of religion was investigated anew. The arguments against the Bible were set forth in formidable array; Paine's Age of Reason passed from hand to hand, and the Infidel productions of France flooded the country; the strongest holds of religion were

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shaken; and in many places the arguments for reason, as paramount to revelation, gained a temporary victory. Where there were faithful and learned ministers of the gospel the battle was fierce; where there were none, the infidel argument for a time possessed undisputedly the public mind. In France there were hurtful, degrading superstitions, and wrongs, and outrages, justified openly in the view of the nation by antiquity and the claims of religion, on which the excited revolutionary multitude fed and fattened to madness; and in tearing down the gross deceptions that had been built up through the land as castles, and convents, and tithes, and orders of prelates, and of nobility, without number or mercy, they set fire to the whole edifice of religion in France, and in the dreadful conflagration of ignorance, and superstition, and misrule, and notorious falsehood, they verily believed the Everlasting Word had perished. The gospel had, in the opinion of the Infidel party, gone with the royal house and the nobility; and France expected liberty "when the neck of the last king was strangled by the bowels of the last priest."

        In America there were no such evils. The Revolution had swept off the political wrongs and the civil misrule, and whatever there was, in the different States, of oppression in religious things. There were no superstitious or hereditary wrongs in sacred things to search out; no time-honored observances to undo; no lost rights of conscience to recover. The question was, whether the Bible was true; and all the influence of France, fresh from her sympathies in our contest for liberty, and hot in her struggle for her own, and fervid in her pursuit of science, of fashion, and gaiety, was thrown against the Bible. In France they were already wicked; and the sweeping away of superstition gave relief from oppression, and the commission of some sins; and France appeared to the philosopher to be regenerated by the change. In America the war against the Bible proved, in the end, a war against morality and domestic enjoyments, and wherever infidelity got the mastery, there the community suffered. In France rivers of blood washed out the stains of Atheism; in America the voice of the Bible and the claims of society were at length heard, and without bloodshed or civil commotion, religion, the religion of the Bible, regained her ascendency. The evil was great, but the remedy has been sure. There was a time when the best men feared lest infidelity should first get the mastery as in France, and then rivers of American blood wash out the stains. It was while infidelity, of which Paine's Age of Reason was a text-book,

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was striding our land, the University went into operation. The first professor, Mr. Kerr, who had been a Presbyterian minister, and had preached in Fayetteville some two years after his arrival in this country, had abandoned the belief in inspiration, and while he was at Chapel Hill was an infidel. Holmes, his assistant teacher, and subsequently a professor of languages, had also given up the gospel, and its hopes, and was a believer in Paine, whose writings he so highly prized, that the only volume he gave the University library, contained the works of that arch-infidel. This unbelief was no silent exercise of his own opinion permitting the community to go on in the belief and practice of Christianity, each man acting as he might choose; in the communication drawn up by the Faculty requesting his dismission from the University, they say, "he teaches that there is no such thing as virtue; that the love of virtue is no more than superstition, degrading to the minds of men, and not sure to answer their purposes. That to shake off its obligations, and bend with ease to the character and circumstances of the times so as to advance our own interest or ambition, is the best morality. That therefore, for any person to profess to be governed by the fixed principles of justice or honor, of truth or generosity, is sufficient to stamp him as a hypocrite and a designing knave, "that is lying in wait under these characters for the happiness of others." Kerr left the University in 1795, and Holmes in 1799. While multitudes in Carolina were, as in other parts of the United States, prepared first to doubt and then to disbelieve the Bible, and consequently to set aside religion as a superstition, few were prepared to go the length of Paine and his disciple Holmes, and deny the existence of moral virtue. And when the matter was fairly presented by the amiable and clear minded Caldwell, the board of trustees felt that if rejecting the Bible was rejecting morality, the Bible with all the objections that had been urged, must be retained. Mr. Caldwell tells us that he looked to General Davie, one of the leaders of the Legislature, "the father of the house" as he was styled, that session of the Legislature he attended soon after his arrival in Carolina, and that he was a warm friend, supporter, and trustee of the University. He tells us that he had long and most interesting communications with him on the subject of the truth of the Scriptures, and that his mind was deeply impressed with the conversation. Davie had been taught in his youth to believe the Bible, had passed through the Revolution with honor, doing good service for his country in the camp, was high in the respect of his constituents, and had

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fallen from his belief in the Bible taught him by his maternal uncle, the Rev. William Richardson, whose name he bore, and whose estate he inherited, more probably by sympathy with the popular distrust, than by argument. Caldwell gained his confidence and possessed his friendship to the last, reviving the belief of his youth; and who can say but that, like the hero of the Cowpens, he at last looked to Jesus and found life. Harris, who directed the attention of the trustees to Mr. Caldwell as his successor, was at that time himself shaken in his belief, and thought the Bible was to be abandoned. But his young successor stood up for the gospel of Christ; all that he saw of the fruits and workings of infidelity only turned his heart more strongly to his God and Saviour. "Religion," he says, in 1797, soon after his arrival, "is so little in vogue and in such a state of depression, that it affords no prospect sufficient to tempt people here to undertake its cause. In New Jersey it has the public respect and support; but in North Carolina, particularly in that part that lies east of us, every one believes that the first step he ought to take to rise into respectability is to disavow, as often and as publicly as he can, all regard for the leading doctrines of the Scriptures. They are bugbears very well fitted to scare the mass of the ignorant, and the weak, into order and obedience to the laws; but for men of letters and cultivated reason, the laws of morality and honor should, and will be sufficient for the regulation of their conduct."

        "How unhappy is it for these men, and how instructive to the rest of mankind, that the whole tenor of their lives, and the wretched state of their society, combine to exhibit their doctrines in all their haggardness and shocking deformity." This strong disgust to infidelity from its effects was not confined to the Professor; there being no superstitions and erroneous observances to be thrown off, by a rejection of the religion of Protestant Carolina, the denial of the Bible could only weaken the sanctions of virtue and morality, and taking away the fears of future retribution, take away the fear of crime. This fact staring the community in the face, gave the amiable Professor the advantage in his argument; the thinking and intelligent were made to feel they needed something like the Bible, which men should believe to be true, to hold society together. Caldwell was not what is termed a genius, and probably it is well he was not; but with clearness and meekness, he could and did defend the religion of his Lord and Master, in a most difficult position, the number of trustees that were at that time firm

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supporters of the Bible being few, though there were some. Whether he could have raised the University, had he yielded to the wave that went over the land and swept off so many, we need not now inquire; but this is certain, he fought a great battle without noise, and gained a great victory without triumphing; and permitted the anxiety of the contest, and the blessedness of the victory, to pass along the current of events without exclamation, or demand from his coevals or posterity. We may say of him, as was said of a modest and noble Virginian, by the Speaker of the House--"Sit down, sir, sit down, your modesty is equalled only by your worth."

        The last difficulty was, the smallness of the funds and the inadequate support yielded by the patronage of the State. The funds appropriated by the State were, in part, soon withdrawn, and the rest, together with the donations of individuals, were, for a time, unproductive. It was not till 1811, that by an excursion through the State, and making application to individuals, a list of whose names he preserved, and the amount of their individual donations, he obtained funds to erect buildings sufficient to accommodate the students. In the excursion, he received $12,000. Notwithstanding all this, there was great difficulty in obtaining sufficient means to afford a proper support for the necessary teachers. The wonder is, in looking over the small salaries given for the great labor required, in a situation that offered little attractive in the forests of Carolina, that able men could be obtained to bring talents, and acquirements, and labor adequate to the demands of the rising institution. How could a President, whose doors must be open to a succession of visitors, sustain himself on a thousand dollars a year, and get his own library--and the professors and tutors on a proportionable salary--when a library itself costs some thousands of dollars? It is a matter of surprise that men could be found to attempt, and more so, that they should succeed in, such an enterprise.

        Happy in the choice of his assistant Faculty, and blessed with invincible perseverance, he rejoiced to see all these difficulties overcome. In 1824 he was sent to Europe "in order to direct in person the construction of a Philosophical Apparatus, and to select books for the library." At his death he left the University, still limited in its means, with buildings for the accommodation of a large number of students, with funds for the honorable support of the instructors, with a respectable library and apparatus, and an able Faculty. When he went to Chapel Hill, in 1796, it was doubtful whether anything was to be gained in literary advantages

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at the Hill over the private schools and public academies in the State; and certain that the morals and principles of the young men were in great danger from the infidel principles that prevailed among the teachers:--When he died, January 27th, 1835, it was the best institution in the State for a complete classical or scientific course, held a respectable stand abroad, and in point of morals as safe as any in the land, and increasing in its reputation. So it is now; and so may it be for ever.

        It was affirmed that the building of the University exemplified the genius of Presbyterianism. This it does in the following particulars: 1st, It shows the unconquerable attachment of its clergy to a sound and liberal education of youth: 2d, their ability to rear a proper institution in very unpropitious circumstances: 3d, their invincible attachment to sound principles of religion and morality: and 4th, their public spirit; that, while it was well known the University never could become a Presbyterian institution, or be under the direction of that denomination, but, on the contrary, would belong to the State, and very likely always be under a board, the large majority of whom should not be Presbyterians, and an equal proportion of the Faculty, or even all, might at any time be adverse to Presbyterian creed and order, the efforts to make the institutions of the State worthy of the State, and safe for her sons, were unremitted and unequalled. Let religion, and science, and morality, and literature prevail in the Alma Mater of the future children of Carolina, and Joseph Caldwell was satisfied: if his denomination, which he loved, might not have its control, let it be controlled by whom it may, only let the streams that flow from it be pure.

        The false notions of what constituted education for young men, that prevailed in the early part of his labors, might have been mentioned as a serious difficulty for our young professor to encounter. In the year 1797, one warm friend of the University, a member of the board, of high political standing, sent up to Chapel Hill, with letters of introduction to Mr. Caldwell, and high recommendation of excellence in his profession, a dancing-master, to teach the boys manners, with expressions of a hope that the students, with the youths in the neighborhood, would form a school of sufficient income to secure the services of this eminent gentleman, with his little son. This was not done in opposition to Mr. Caldwell; there is every evidence of frankness and candor and conviction of propriety in the gentleman. The difficulty was, that very many in the board who wished well to the institution, did not understand

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fully what a proper education was; how much attention should be given to the mental, and how much to the physical training; or even what this training should be. By his kindness and firmness, Mr. Caldwell kept the confidence of the board, and led them to the establishment of a sound and liberal course of education, that may advantageously compare with other institutions; and under the influence of strict, religious, and elevated morality. Such a man is an ornament of his church and generation.

        Previous to his removal to Chapel Hill, he had been licensed to preach by the Presbytery of New Brunswick; and while performing the office of professor and president, he did not forget the preaching of the Gospel. He judged it impolitic to take charge of any congregation in the neighborhood; and in that he doubtless judged rightly; but he also judged it proper to preach the gospel to his students, and occasionally, abroad, as he had opportunity. As there was no regularly organized Presbyterian church in the university, and Mr. Caldwell did not choose to be connected with a congregation in the neighborhood, and the Synod of the Carolinas being particularly opposed to ordaining without charge, no effectual steps were taken for his ordination, till the year 1810; when the Presbytery of Orange overtured Synod for leave to ordain Mr. Joseph Caldwell of the university; and the Synod, in consideration of his usefulness being, in all probability, greatly increased, authorized the ordination. The next year his name appears upon the records of Synod, reported from Orange Presbytery. This year (1811) he made his circuit through the State, to collect funds, and everywhere made a favorable impression, as a man, a Christian, a minister, and the head of the university. Having received the degree of A.M. at the university and also at his Alma Mater, the honorary title of D.D. was conferred by both institutions; that from Nassau Hall bears date in 1816, the year he was the second time chosen president. In 1812 he resigned his office as president, and aided in procuring Rev. Robert H. Chapman as his successor; but a vacancy occurring by the resignation of Dr. Chapman, he was recalled to the chair, and filled it to the day of his death.

        Dr. Caldwell might, from the specimens of preaching he gave from time to time, have excelled as a pastor, had his whole time been given to preaching and the pastor's office. Plainness, simplicity and kindness, characterized his discourses; often great strength and distinctness were mingled in an interesting manner. He wrote and published a variety of essays on the subject of the improvement

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of the mind, and the soil; the citizens, and their State. On the subject of common schools, he was read with interest; and his essays on improving the State by roads, had an acknowledged effect. But his great work by which he was, and is to be known, was the building the University; leaving to the State, at the conclusion of a laborious life, an institution worthy of his labors and their fostering care.

        If a man's talents are to be judged by the works he accomplishes, Dr. Caldwell will be adjudged a man of talents. If the excellency and permanency of the works accomplished are a standard of the degree of talents, then the father of the university will not hold a low place. He was not esteemed a genius by his contemporaries, or looked upon as a man of splendid performances; but when his plans and operations are compared with his contemporaries, posterity will judge that he had excellences the exertion of which could not be fully tested till years had tried the permanency of his works, and which will give him a place among the worthies of the Presbyterian church, and the benefactors of his race.

        But while he was acting on the most enlarged principles and views, he did not suffer himself to be led by generalities to forget particulars; laboring for the whole State, he did not forget that he was a Presbyterian, and a Presbyterian minister. He strongly advocated and encouraged the institute at Greensborough, which, in honor to him for his services to literature and religion, was named Caldwell's Institute, to be a high school, under the especial care and discipline of the Presbyterians, in which teaching the doctrines of the Presbyterian church, in connection with the Bible, should form part of the regular exercises on the Sabbath. He thought it due both to the church and to the community, that such an institution should be established; and the location of it should be in the county where some of the earliest Presbyterian congregations were formed, and where the trials of the Revolution had been known. He also schemed a plan for a theological institution to be located somewhere in the upper country of Carolina, in which his sound judgment and practical mind were eminently displayed. But as the theological department, in connection with Hampden Sydney, had been the nursery of many preachers in Carolina, and was, about that time, in progress of being enlarged to a full and complete seminary, after a full and free discussion, he laid by his plan, and united with the Synod of Carolina in giving support to Union Seminary. And no man acquainted with the usefulness of Caldwell Institute or

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Union Theological Seminary, in training and sending out laborious servants of the church and public, can for a moment doubt the soundness of his conclusions, or fault his anticipations from these seminaries.

        The active part he took in the internal improvement of the State, publishing frequently on the subject in the regular papers, was on the principle that the produce of the mountains and upper country of Carolina should seek the ocean through a port on the sea shore of the State; and for this purpose passways should be opened from the east and west, sufficient to encourage agriculture and population; the products of the west should be the riches of the east; and the enterprise of the east should reward the labors of the west. The soundness of these principles will one day be discussed again in Carolina.

        Of Dr. Caldwell's personal religious experience we have an account of much that is interesting, in his own handwriting, though less in quantity than could be desired. He commenced in the latter part of his life, an autobiography, which he carried on till the period of his journey to Chapel Hill, in 1796; then it closed abruptly. From that manuscript most of the facts respecting his early life have been derived. From that is derived the following information respecting the exercises of his mind and heart.

        The first religious exercises, which were esteemed by him worthy of notice, as religious exercises, were felt while he resided with his mother at Bristol. The escape from a watery death has been mentioned, and also his mother's kind treatment. He says the alarm at the thoughts of immediate death was inexpressible, and led him to pious resolutions: but, "the feelings gradually faded from my thoughts, and I lived as heedlessly as ever."--"But a circumstance which most impressively marks this period, is, that here I began, for what reasons I know not, to turn my thoughts, with greater earnestness than before, on the subject of religion. A part of the time while I was in this village, my mother went abroad, leaving me to board at a neighbor's table. This was so near, that one of the rooms in the house, which she occupied, was left open for my use, both day and night. There I slept; and whenever I chose, to this I retired. I got hold of a religious book, and finding it gave me pleasure in the reading, I would sit, or traverse the room alone, reading with an interest that grew so as utterly to preclude every disposition to stop. My feelings were excited by it, and they grew into ardor and intensity. I deserted all amusement. My reading,

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my reflections, and a gratifying sense that I might be engaged in the service of God and have his approbation, abstracted me from any of the diversions that occurred to my mind."

        "My experience at that time was probably one of the first fruits of the pious sentiments which my mother had instilled into me from the first dawnings of reason. She was not there; but the spirit of God was, doubtless, fostering these principles in my heart, and reducing them into action. I have since reverted to the few days which passed in these circumstances, and with these emotions alive in my bosom, as among the most grateful seasons of my life, and to be remembered with renovated satisfaction."

        "While living in Newark my religious impressions were often renewed. I do not know that I resisted them, or strove to repress or shake them off, but it is very certain that at various times when they had been felt with much force, alarm of conscience, and a dissolving tenderness of affection, they soon passed away, and I became as thoughtless and careless as ever. Dr. M'Whorter's preaching was generally animated, plain and practical. He sometimes became warm, pointed the guilty sinner to the coming wrath, showed the danger of growing hardened to all the considerations of God's mercy, his justice, his judgments, the means of grace, the opportunities of improvement, the uncertainty of life, dread consequences of failing to prepare in this time of discipline and probation for the eternity that is to follow. I would come home like the wounded hart, with the arrow in my side; but it dropped off, the wound closed, and it ceased to be remembered."

        Again the Dr. says of himself, in his review of his early life:--"I can remember many occasions in those early years, in the various places in which they were passed, when my reflections were directed on God, a future state, and the eternal world. The interest I took in them when they were impressed upon me by the scriptures, or by any other cause, was the same in its aspect and species as it has been through late years. The intervals sometimes are apparent as to their cause, and sometimes they seem to have become irrecoverably lost to my remembrance. Whether they had a connection with one another, and by what ties of circumstances, or thought, or emotion, as they were successively renewed, it would be impossible for me to determine, though to the spirit of God who produced them and witnessed all their effects, they are present now as at the moment when they agitated my bosom." Sometimes I would return from church with a heart deeply affected with the considerations

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presented there of my obligations to God for his goodness in the ordinary blessings of food and raiment, relations and friends, health and pleasures, connected with it. Conscience impressed upon me portentously the consequences of my thoughtless ingratitude. The prospects of heaven to the good, and the endless misery of the wicked, drove from me, for a time, every wish for the amusements on which I was commonly intent."

        "The love of God in sending his Son into the world to redeem me from death, and open the way to Heaven, combined with all its force in impressing my conscience with the responsibility imposed by this consummation of mercy. My mother was often engaged in giving me religious instruction, and deepening its impression upon my heart. Sometimes an accident would happen to set before me the utter uncertainty in which I lived. The death of a neighbor, by sickness, or by some sudden accident, the grave-yard, the darkness of night, when in solitude, naturally plunging my thoughts into the spiritual world; everything of this nature exerted in me a sense of religion, a reference to God, and to the danger I was in of being lost for ever if I should die without being made the subject of his saving grace. It was all the striving of his spirit to prevent me from being wholly engrossed with the earth, and to educate me in the school of his providence for better and more glorious purposes than the interests and pleasures of a mere earthly existence. An excellent practical writer on Keeping the Heart, remarks, that Providence is like a curious piece of tapestry, made of a thousand shreds which, single, appear useless, but put together they represent a regular and connected history to the eye."

        While residing with Mr. Austin in Elizabethtown, these impressions were ripened into the deep conviction, that it was his duty to devote himself to the services of God in the gospel of Christ. How far he fulfilled the covenant of his devotion and performed the duties of a Christian Minister to his fellow-man, his services in the University of North Carolina will abundantly testify.

        In one of the elegant society rooms in the University is a bust of Dr. Caldwell, taken after his death, and a portrait drawn in his earlier years. The bushy eyebrows, and overhanging forehead, and calm countenance of the bust, impress the beholder with the power of reflection, self-possession, and unshaken firmness, combined with an amiable disposition.

        There is a monument erected for him near the College buildings, in the beautiful grove, but at present it is without an epitaph. The

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omission was undesigned. But could the generation with whom he lived write his epitaph?

        He wrote his biography, or rather, began to write it, in his old age. In that, as we have seen, he refers with tenderness and emotion to the fervency of his early experience. From that single circumstance, we should be satisfied that the pure flame was burning with the brightness of youth and the intensity of experienced age. The testimony of others is, that "the nearer he approached his God, he but loved him the more." It is not improbable that, in his multiplied duties, his personal piety may for a time have suffered; his friends have thought it did! They may have been mistaken. But the same friends also thought that, in his advanced years, the flame burned more brightly on the altar of devotion, and that he became more lovely as he became more heavenly minded.

        As the University increased in numbers, and the students could be admitted to a much less degree of intimate acquaintance, it is very probable the President, looked at from the distance of pupils that saw him more in the executive duties of his office, and less in his domestic tenderness, appeared more stern than kind, more resolute than forbearing. That the government of the University was an unit, and the President was really that unit, after consultation, cannot, perhaps, be denied,--it was never concealed nor boasted of. "Were I to live," said one who had served under him in the University, "under one who governed with despotic sway, I would choose Dr. Caldwell before any other man I have known." Before the discipline of the University was settled upon its firm basis, which was a work of years, an outbreak among the students gave an exhibition of Dr. Caldwell. For some unusual delinquency, the Dr. had determined upon discipline unusually severe. This caused great excitement. The delinquents and their friends determined on resistance, and mistaking the Doctor's disposition, proposed to intimidate him as their remedy in the last resort. As he was returning from the chapel to his residence, they met him at the mouth of the ravine near his dwelling, now filled, and clamorously demanded some relaxation of his terms. He heard their demands, and calmly refused, and resumed his course; in their excitement, they swung their canes as if for an attack, and some of them were athletic young men, and appeared to be closing round him, that he should go no further till he relented. With an unruffled countenance he moved on, saying--"Strike, young gentlemen, but remember the consequences." Although, in physical strength, he was altogether in their power, the

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young men felt that he was unconquerable and irresistible, and gave up the contest. To many of the students it is probable that he appeared rather the unconquerable President than the amiable man. But others beside his family knew that kindness was his nature, and severity the conviction of his judgment.

        P. S.--Materials for additional chapters are in readiness, but the size of the present volume forbids their publication. These materials, together with a selection from sermons by Hall, Caldwell, M'Gready, M'Pheeters and others, would form an instructive volume

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Page 4

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        CONTENTS.--The Solemn Inquiry.--First Murder.--Deluge.--Servant Expelled.--Affectionate Father Sacrificing his Son.--Affecting Funeral.--Patriarchal Wedding.--Dutiful Son.--Affectionate Brother.--Faithful Steward.--Pious Prisoner.--Righteous Governor.--Mistaken Saint.--Dying Patriarch.--Foundling.--Wise Choice.--Blasphemer Stoned.--Serpents.--Hypocritical. Prophet.--Enemy Discovered.--Affectionate Daughter-in-Law.--Happy Gleaner.

        LIFE AND DEATH OF REV. JOSEPH ALLEINE, A.B., author of an "Alarm to the Unconverted," &c. Written by the Rev. Richard Baxter, his widow, Mrs. Theodosia Alleine, and other persons. To which are added his Christian Lectures, full of Spiritual Instruction, tending to the promoting of the Power of Godliness both in Persons and Families. With a recommendatory Preface by Alexander Duff, D.D., one of the Church of Scotland's Missionaries to India. 1 vol. 12mo.

        REMAINS OF THE REV. RICHARD CECIL, M.A. Late Rector of Bisley and Vicar of Chobbam, Surrey, and Minister of St. John's Chapel, Bedford Row, London. To which is prefixed a View of his character. By Joseph Pratt, B.D. F.A.S. From the eleventh London Edition, 1 vol. 12mo.

        "We often meet with men distinguished for certain characteristics or acquirements. One has an elegant, classical mind, but is destitute of original genius; another with imposing abilities, is rough and unpolished. Some uniting polish with native superiority are destitute of the grace of godliness, and others excelling in piety and good works, unavoidably offend a refined taste by some vulgarity of thought, expression, or action. But in Richard Cecil we see a man combining the rich soil of strong native talent with a refinement of cultivation not surpassed by classic example; while in him the elegant and profound scholar, and polished gentleman are only the subordinate characters of the humble minded, devoted, and enterprising follower of the lowly Jesus."--Baptist Advocate.

        CHRIST OUR LAW. By Miss Caroline Fry. Author of "The Listener," "Christ Our Example," &c. 1 vol. 12mo. Second edition.

        "The book before us consists of twelve chapters, comprised within about 270 pages. It exhibits Christ as our Law in His Sovereign Love, His Incarnation and Substitution, His Justifying Righteousness, Our Responsibility to Him, His Regenerating Spirit, In Saving Faith, The Obedience of Faith, Repentance unto Life, His Sanctifying Grace, His Holy Ordinances, and our Union and Communion with Him. We are speaking of no secondary class of publications when we distinguish this book as the best of all that Miss Fry has ever written. Her pen has unusual vigour. Her thoughts are strong, and by no means enfeebled in the expression. Her theology is evangelical and profound, entering into the marrow of the gospel, and strengthening the believing reader in the faith as once delivered to the saints."--Baptist Advocate.

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CHRISTIAN CABINET LIBRARY,
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Page 6

        THE FAMILY OF BETHANY. By L. Bonnet, with an Introductory Essay, by Rev. Hugh White.

        "This book leads us, as with an angel's hand, through some of the most interesting scenes in the life of the Saviour of the world. It is full of evangelical truth, of glowing imagery, of living, breathing devotion. In some of its characteristics, particularly in the fervour which every where pervades it, it bears the marks of its French origin; but it is so well translated, that it would require an attentive observer to perceive that it had been translated at all. We recommend it for its intellectual, as well as its moral and spiritual qualities."--Albany Argus.

        THE RETROSPECT, or Review of Providential Mercies, with Anecdotes of Various Characters. By Aliquis, formerly a Lieutenant in the Royal Navy, and now a Minister of the English Church. 3d American from the 18th London edition.

        "The great popularity of this volume appears from the large number of editions through which it has passed in Great Britain in a short number of years, having now reached the 17th edition, and proofs of its usefulness have not been wanting. We can assure our readers that there are few works of the kind so deeply interesting, or so well adapted to religious edification. We cordially recommend it."--Christ. Intelligencer.

        THE MARTYR LAMB; or Christ the Representative of his People in all ages. By F. W. Krummacher, D.D., author of "Elijah the Tishbite," &c. 4th edition.

        ELIJAH THE TISHBITE. By F. W. Krummacher.

        "Our author is characterized by a glowing and imaginative style, which seems to be the expression of a heart warmed by piety, and susceptible of the tenderest emotions. He displays a happy tact in developing, in the most pleasing manner, the circumstances of a scriptural incident or character, and of deriving from it practical lessons."--Presbyterian.

        LECTURES ON THE BOOK OF ESTHER. By the Rev. Thomas McCrie, D.D., author of "Life of John Knox," &c.

        A TREATISE ON PRAYER; designed to assist in the devout discharge of that duty. By the Rev. Edward Bickersteth.

        THE HISTORY OF MICHAEL KEMP, The Happy Farmer's Lad. A Tale of Rustic Life, illustrative of the Spiritual Blessings and Temporal Advantages of Early Piety. By Anne Woodrooffe. 2d edition.

        "Thoroughly and intensely have we read this book, 'because,' as Talbot said of Boswell's Life of Johnson, 'we couldn't help it.' We were struck with the ingenuous disposition and firm principles of Michael, and we wished to see how they would bear him through trying scenes. In other words, our feelings became so intently but agreeably absorbed, that we not only traced Michael through a book of 250 pages, but if there had been one or two more volumes we fear that we would have perused them. So much for the interest which the story excites; the other merits of the book are not inferior."--Baptist Advocate.

        COMFORT IN AFFLICTION: A Series of Meditations. By the Rev. James Buchanan, one of the Ministers of the High Church, Edinburgh. From the 9th Edinburgh edition.

        "The blessed results of affliction are treated with peculiar force of argument, and felicity of expression--strong in scriptural statements of divine truth, and rich in scriptural sources of divine consolation--in a most valuable work, entitled 'Comfort in Affliction,' by the Rev. James Buchanan,--which I would affectionately recommend to every Christian mourner who desires to drink freely of the refreshing streams which the Fountain of all Comfort--the Word of God, supplies; for it is from this sacred source the pious and talented author of this excellent work derives 'Comfort in Affliction,' which his pages so eloquently and attractively set forth.--Rev. Hugh White of Dublin

        PERSUASIVES TO EARLY PIETY. By the Rev. R. G. Pike.

        THE RISE AND PROGRESS OF RELIGION IN THE SOUL; illustrated in a Course of Serious and Practical Addresses, suited to persons of every character and circumstance, with a Devout Meditation or Prayer, subjoined to each chapter. By Philip Doddridge, D.D.

        THE COTTAGE FIRESIDE, or the Parish Schoolmaster. By the Rev. Henry Duncan, D.D.

        "This is a reprint of a Scotch work, by a clergyman of high standing, who does not now for the first time appear as an author. The narrative is constructed with great beauty, and is designed at once to illustrate and remedy some of the principal evils connected with domestic education. The work may very properly occupy the attention both of parents and children; and it will be read with pleasure by all who can relish the simple and beautiful in thought and expression."--Argus.

        THE LIGHTS AND SHADOWS OF SCOTTISH LIFE, by Professor Wilson.

Page 7

        LIVE WHILE YOU LIVE. By the Rev. Thomas Griffith, A.M., Minister of Ram's Episcopal Chapel, Homerton. 18mo.

        THE CROOK IN THE LOT; or a display of the Sovereignty and Wisdom of God in the Afflictions of Men, and the Christian's deportment under them. By the Rev. Thomas Boston. 18mo.

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        RELIGION AND ETERNAL LIFE; or Irreligion and Eternal Ruin, the only alternative for mankind. By J. G. Pike, author of "Persuasives to Early Piety," &c.

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Page 8

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