Cruelty of the Governor

The victor exercised savage cruelty toward his prisoners, showing a petty spite which was disgraceful to a soldier and a man. He condemned a young carpenter named Few, who had suffered much from the bad conduct of Fanning (even the loss of a maiden to whom he was affianced), to be hung on the night after the battle, and caused the property of his mother, at Hillsborough, to be destroyed. Other prisoners were marched through the country, as in a triumphal procession, and the conqueror marked his path by conflagrations and destruction of growing crops. At Hillsborough six more of the prisoners were hanged, as a terror to the inhabitants. Among them was Captain Messer, who had been sentenced to be hung with Few. His wife hurried to Tryon, with their little son ten years of age, and pleaded for her husband's life. The governor spurned her rudely, and Messer was led out to be executed. The boy broke away from his mother, who lay weeping on the ground, and going to the governor said: "Sir, hang me, and let my father live." "Who told you to say that?" asked Tryon. "Nobody," replied the lad. "Why do you ask that?" said the governor. "Because if you hang my father," said the boy, "my mother will die and the little children will perish." Tryon's heart was touched. Messer was offered his liberty if he would bring Husbands back. He consented, and his wife and children were kept as hostages. Messer returned in the course of a few days, and reported that he overtook Husbands in Virginia, but could not bring him back. The exasperated governor hung Messer at Hillsborough, with the other prisoners.

The movements of the Regulators was a powerful beginning of that system of resistance which marked the people of North Carolina in the impending struggle. It lacked the lofty moral aspect of the movements in New England. The North Carolinians were resisting actual oppression, in the form of heavy taxation and extortion; the New Englanders were moved by an abstract principle of justice and right. The three per cent. at pound duty on tea had no effect on the material prosperity of Massachusetts; but it represented oppression and injustice, and they resisted its collection.

In 1772, Parliament, by a special act for strengthening the powers of the royal governors in America, excited the indignation of the colonists. It provided for the payment of the salaries of the governors and judges independent of the colonial assemblies. Hutchins, who had been appointed governor of Massachusetts in 1771, was delighted, and in a triumphant tone he assured the Assembly that henceforth not they, but the crown, would pay his salary. They knew the significance of the act, and denounced it as a violation of their charter. Other assemblies took umbrage likewise, for it was regarded as a bribe for the faithfulness of the royal governors to the crown in a warfare upon colonial rights. The subject was taken into consideration at a town-meeting in Boston. A large committee was appointed to draw up and publish a statement of all the rights and grievances of the colonies. This was done in an address prepared by Samuel Adams and Joseph Warren, in which the scheme for establishing Episcopacy in America was also condemned. It was the boldest and most complete exposition of the rights and grievances of the colonies yet put forth, and it was followed by the organization of committees of correspondence in every town. Dr. Franklin, who had been appointed agent for Massachusetts in England, in 1771,, published it there, with a preface written by himself. It produced a deep impression on both sides of the Atlantic.