THE STATE RECORDS OF NORTH CAROLINA. PUBLISHED UNDER THE SUPERVISION OF THE TRUS- OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY. COLLECTED AND EDITED BY WALTER CLARK, ONE OF THE JUSTICES OF THE SUPREME COURT OF N. C. VOL. XX-1785-'88. NASH BROTHERS, 1902. PREFATORY NOTES. In this volume will be found the Journals of the Senate for the session of November, 1785, and of both the House and Senate for the session of 1787, and of the Senate for the session of 1788: together with interesting correspondence for the year 1787. The movement to remedy the defects of the Articles of Confederation which took shape in 1786, led in 1787 to the Philadelphia Convention that framed our existing Federal Constitution. Some of the States appointed delegates to a convention that met in Annapolis in September, 1786, for the purpose of considering amendments to the Articles of Confederation in respect to trade and commerce. That convention convened, and not waiting for all the delegates appointed to reach Annapolis, passed a resolution suggesting a convention with more ample powers, to be held in May, 1787, at Philadelphia. Pursuant to that recommendation the General Assembly of North Carolina, which held an adjourned session at Fayetteville in January, 1787, appointed Governor Caswell, Alexander Martin, Davie, Spaight and Willie Jones as delegates from this State to attend such a convention, should it be held. Willie Jones, however, on being notified of his appointment, replied that it was doubtful whether he could attend at that time; and because it was a matter of so much importance that it must necessarily require the fullest representation, he begged that some one else should be appointed in his place; and Governor Caswell thereupon appointed Hugh Williamson. In February Congress, acting on the recommendation of the Annapolis Convention, passed a resolution convening the proposed convention; and that body accordingly met in May at Philadelphia, and George Washington, a delegate from Virginia, presided over its deliberations. The members were sworn to secrecy, so our delegates, in their correspondence with their friends in North Carolina, could not keep them advised as to the progress of the matters under consideration, or, indeed, as to the lines of action. On June 14th, however, our delegation united in a letter to Governor Caswell, in which they mentioned: "Though we sit from day to day, Saturdays included, it is not possible for us to determine when the business before us can be finished. A very large field presents to our view without a single straight or eligible road that has been trodden by the feet of nations. An Union of Sovereign States, preserving their civil liberties, and connected together by such ties as to preserve permanent and effective governments, is a system not described: it is a circumstance that has not occurred in the history of men. If we shall be so fortunate as to find this indescript, our time will have been well spent." On the 20th of August, Colonel Martin wrote that "the Convention, having agreed on some great principles in the government of the Union, adjourned for a few days, having appointed a committee of five to detail, or render more explicit, the chief subjects of their discussion. On the report of these gentlemen the Convention met again, and are now employed taking up the same, paragraph by paragraph; and so slow is the progress that I am doubtful the business will not be fully reduced to system before the middle of September next, if then." On the 17th of September the Convention, however, did finish their work, and reported it to Congress. Eleven days later Congress adopted a resolution submitting it to the several Statesto be considered and acted on by State conventions called for that purpose. Immediately after the removal of the seal of secrecy, our North Carolina delegates joined in a letter to Governor Caswell detailing the substantial features of the proposed constitution. That letter is of considerable historic interest. They refer to their severe and painful application and anxiety during the four months' session of the Convention, and assure the Legislature that no exertions have been wanting on their part to promote the particular interests of North Carolina. They say that the Northern States yielded to the wishes of the Southern States in some particulars in exchange for the power vested in the hands of the National Government to regulate comIn regard to the few representatives in Congress accorded to merce. our State, they throw some light on our small representation by adverting to the fact that our delegates in Congress have not been zealous to magnify our population because our quota of the national debt would have been increased; and they point to the advantages of uniform taxation secured by the proposed Constitution. As indicating the necessity of action early in December, our delegates in Congress being in attendance on the Legislature, made an address on the condition of the country. They declared that we are on the eve of bankruptcy and the total dissolution of government. Doubtless these views were largely shared by the thoughtful men of that day. Copies of the proposed Constitution being submitted to the States on December 5th, the two houses of our Legislature met in joint conference, Elisha Battle being chairman, and having taken into consideration the proposed Constitution, recommended to the people to elect delegates to a State Convention to pass on the same, and fixed the time for holding the Convention on the third Monday in July, 1788. Accordingly the Convention met at Hillsboro at that time, and, as is well known, merely declined to act, but suggested amendments. A sufficient number of other States, however, adopted the Constitution to give it effect among the States ratifying it, and the first Presidential election was held and the first Congress met while North Carolina was out of the Union. But eventually our Legislature called another convention, which sat at Fayetteville, and on the 21st day of November, 1789, ratified the Constitution, sundry important amendments having been recommended and substantially adopted. The Confederation went into effect in 1781. In seven years its inefficiency was demonstrated and the new Union supplanted it. Thus was instituted our present Federal government, the outgrowth of the old Confederation, but a new departure in an untried field. It was called the great experiment, but it has proved to be wonderfully perfect and admirably adapted to the needs of the American States. Under its influences our country has expanded to the Pacific Ocean, and independent States have risen in the remote wildernesses of the continent: and government has never sat more lightly than on the American citizen. It is to the credit of North Carolina that |