The North Carolina Historical Review
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I > ) * > > > > * > > ' > i . j > > , , , . > ' > 3 3 „ 3 .VsS THE i ;K5>: NORTH CAROLINA HISTORICAL REVIEW APRIL 1956 Volume XXXIII Number 2 Published Quarterly By State Department of Archives and History Corner of Edenton and Salisbury Streets Raleigh, N. C. c '.•.':.'•.. ..' ! : I c S« ; : c c c r C c o o c e THE NORTH CAROLINA HISTORICAL REVIEW Published by the State Department of Archives and History Raleigh, N. C. Christopher Crittenden, Editor David Leroy Corbitt, Managing Editor ADVISORY EDITORIAL BOARD Walter Clinton Jackson Hugh Talmage Lefler Frontis Withers Johnston Douglas LeTell Rights George Myers Stephens STATE DEPARTMENT OF ARCHIVES AND HISTORY EXECUTIVE BOARD McDaniel Lewis, Chairman Gertrude Sprague Carraway Josh L. Horne Fletcher M. Green William Thomas Laprade Clarence W. Griffin Mrs. Sadie Smathers Patton Christopher Crittenden, Director This review was established in January, 1924, as a medium of publication and discussion of history in North Carolina. It is issued to other institutions by exchange, but to the general public by subscription only. The regular price is $3.00 per year. Members of the State Literary and Historical As- sociation, for which the annual dues are $5.00, receive this publication without further payment. Back numbers may be procured at the regular price of $3.00 per volume, or $.75 per number. COVER—The cover is from a Currier and Ives print (1876), The Brave Boy of the Waxhaws," showing Andrew Jackson as a lad of 13 resisting a British officer. Jackson had enlisted in the cause of his country. Later he became the seventh president of the United States. For an article on the fall of Jacksonian Democracy see pages 166-180. The North Carolina Historical Review Volume XXXIII April, 1956 Number 2 CONTENTS THE MIND OF THE NORTH CAROLINA ADVOCATES OF MERCANTILISM 139 C. Robert Haywood THE DOWNFALL OF THE DEMOCRATS: THE REACTION OF NORTH CAROLINIANS TO JACKSONIAN LAND POLICY 166 William S. Hoffmann PAPERS FROM THE FIFTY-FIFTH ANNUAL SESSION OF THE STATE LITERARY AND HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION, RALEIGH, DECEMBER, 1955 INTRODUCTION 181 Christopher Crittenden THE VALLEY OF HUMILITY 183 Manly Wade Wellman NORTH CAROLINA NON-FICTION BOOKS, 1954-1955 189 David Stick HISTORY AND PROGRESS OF THE WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION 202 Clarence W. Griffin NORTH CAROLINA FICTION, 1954-1955 ...213 Walter Spearman Entered as second-class matter September 29, 1928, at the Post Office at Raleigh, North Carolina, under the Act of March 3, 1879. [i] RESURGENT SOUTHERN SECTIONALISM, 1933-1955 222 Fletcher M. Green NORTH CAROLINA BIBLIOGRAPHY, 1954-1955 241 Mary Lindsay Thornton BOOK REVIEWS 253 Lefler's A Guide to the Study and Reading of North — ; Carolina History By Henry— S. Stroupe Dill's Gov- ernor Tryon and His Palace By William S. Tarlton ; Whitener's Local History: How to Find and Write It— By Eleanor Bizzell Powell ; Fowler's They Passed This Way: A Personal Narrative of Harnett County History—By Paul Murray; Peace's "Zeb's Black Baby," Vance County, North Carolina—By Norman C. Larson; Patton's Buncombe to Mecklenburg—Specu- lation Lands—By M. L. Skaggs; McDowell's The Colonial Records of South Carolina: Journals of the Commissioners of the Indian Trade, September 20, 1710-August 29, 1718—By Robert H. Woody; Wates's Stub Entries to Indents Issued in Payment of Claims Against South Carolina Growing Out of the Revolution. Books G-H—By Lawrence F. Brewster; Jordan's George Washington Campbell of Tennessee: Western Statesman—By James W. Patton; Peck's Berea's First Century, 1855-1955—By David A. Lockmiller; Bay's The Journal of Major George Washington of His Journey to the French Forces on Ohio—By D. L. Corbitt; Stephenson's The South Lives in History— By Charles G. Summersell; Henry's As They Saiv Forrest: Some Recollections and Comments of Con- temporaries— By James W. Patton ; McGee's Famous Signers of the Declaration—By Beth G. Crabtree. HISTORICAL NEWS 270 [ii] The North Carolina Historical Review Volume XXXIII April, 1956 Number 2 THE MIND OF THE NORTH CAROLINA ADVOCATES OF MERCANTILISM By C. Robert Haywood Among the better definitions of a "liberal" was that pre- sented recently by Mayor Joseph S. Clark of Philadelphia. Mayor Clark suggested that a liberal was a person who ad- vocated "utilizing the full force of government for the ad- vancement of social, political and economic justice . [through] a liberal program of orderly policing of our society by government." 1 Such a definition would seem to be con- sistent with the liberal political theories of the New Deal and the liberal economic ideas of John Maynard Keynes. This is a definition, however, apropos to the given moment in American history. Such is the nature of this changing world that Mayor Clark's definition would have been completely unacceptable in the eighteenth century. In fact, his definition would have described the basic tenets of the then, accepted or conservative point of view. It was the liberal, if not to say radical, thought that called for withdrawal of governmental control and an easement of the regulative activities of the government. The orthodox philosophy of the eighteenth cen- tury English conservative called for extensive governmental regulation in every aspect of society that might conceivably add to the general wealth and prosperity of the nation, in- cluding any outlying colonies. This orthodox theory was so widely accepted in Great Britain that its advocates did not even trouble to label it as there was no need to distinguish it Joseph S. Clark, Jr., "Can the Liberals Rally?" The Atlantic, July, 1953, 27-32. [139] 140 The North Carolina Historical Review from any other. It was not until the eve of the American Revolution that Adam Smith fixed the label of mercantilism to the prevailing eighteenth century economic theory. North Carolina in 1700 should have been more willing than most of the colonies to accept the prevailing British doc- trine, including the accepted subservient role of the colonies. Plagued as she was by adverse political, geographical and economic conditions North Carolina's growth had been slow. The double coast line with its shallow sounds and dangerous reefs prevented ocean going vessels with deep draft from coming into the undeveloped harbors. Her political life had its own dangerous reefs as expressed in the discontent of the people which had led to the Culpeper rebellion. Economi- cally, the inhabitants of "Lubberland" existed on the bare self-sufficiency of a frontier economy, with some cattle, Indian corn and tobacco for export. Thus, any economic theory that promised improvement was likely to be welcomed by the North Carolinians; and mercantilism did promise this through an orderly and well regulated economy. Mercantilism could be implemented only through rigid and direct governmental supervision. Under Proprietary rule there was little opportunity for perfecting mercantile prin- ciples. Even before 1729, and royal assumption, there was some evidence of mercantile thought and action in the colony. As in all the Southern colonies, one of the most serious problems facing North Carolina was her lack of settlers "which are the real and true strength of a nation," as John Rutherfurd was to write. 2 The Proprietors were especially eager to settle Carolina, largely because their interest lay in collecting quit rents on the lands that were occupied. As early as 1669 a series of acts had been passed by the Assembly setting up a program to encourage settlement, including grants of land. Additional acts were passed in 1715 which included provisions for civil marriage contracts, restriction of Indian trade to residents of the colony, exemption from paying duties for one year, collection of local debts before 2 John Rutherfurd, "The Importance of the Colonies to Great Britain," William K. Boyd, Some Eighteenth Century Tracts Concerning North Carolina (Raleigh, 1927), 113. Hereinafter cited as Rutherfurd, "The Im- portance of the Colonies to Great Britain." North Carolina Advocates of Mercantilism 141 outside claims were honored and an "Act for Liberty of Conscience" directed toward relieving the Quakers from taking the usual oaths. 3 In spite of the lenient laws of North Carolina, population growth remained slow. The Proprietors were not able to give the positive encouragement necessary to attract settlers, so it was only natural that they would turn to the English government for assistance. It was also only natural that they would use the prevailing mercantile argu- ments in seeking this assistance. The possibility of developing Carolina as a market and source of raw materials was one of the major themes of the Lord Proprietors. John Archdale under the heading, "Some weighty considerations for Parlia- ment," illustrated how two thousand white settlers in Caro- lina were worth one hundred thousand at home because of the English goods which would be exchanged. 4 The first real fruits of the Proprietors' efforts to obtain royal assistance in bringing colonists to America, came with the Neuse River settlement of Palatines. The Rev. Joshua Kocher- thal's promotional pamphlet, that had been sponsored by the 5 Proprietors, was to have considerable influence in Germany. But as far as the Swiss contingent was concerned the writings of some of their own members were of more importance. The Canton of Bern had been contemplating the establish- ment of a colony in the New World and a number of Swiss had gone out under the sponsorship of the Canton to view prospective cities. Among those who came early to Carolina was Franz Ludwig Michel. Michel wrote to his brother in Bern in glowing terms of the possibilities of silk, rice, tobacco 3 Erna Risch, "Encouragement of Immigration as Revealed in Colonial Legislation," The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, XLV (January, 1937), 10; Walter Allen Knittle, Early Eighteenth Century Palatine Emigration (Philadelphia, 1937), 10.