Tarheel Founding Fathers: Cornelius Harnett

This year's entry is really about two Cornelius Harnetts, father and son, who both left their mark on our State. This intro will explain why I was drawn to both:

Born to an Irish immigrant family in Chowan County in 1723, young Harnett and family moved to Brunswick in 1725 to escape repercussions of his father’s participation in an Edenton riot.

The term "riot" might be a little misleading; but when the players are introduced, the story becomes very interesting:

George Burrington was indicted, for that about the
second of December 1725, with Cornelius Harnet of
Chowan and others, in the night he assaulted the house
of sir Richard Everard and also the house of Joseph
Young, constable; broke open the doors and beat him,
affrighted his wife (so as to endanger her life), and as-
saulted James Porter who came to the relief of Joseph
Young; also assaulted and broke into the house of
Thomas Parrish and abused him.

Okay, so that sounds like something you might see on any given Saturday Night COPS episode, but (believe it or not) that was actually a former and future Governor (Burrington) beating the crap out of a sitting Governor (Everard). Granted, they were both Crown Appointees, but still. Makes for a great dinner party story.

On to the son. Cornelius Harnett Jr. was the quintessential North Carolina politician, starting at the town commissioner level and ending as a delegate to the Constitutional Convention:

After making a name for himself in business, Harnett ventured into politics when elected to the Wilmington town commission in 1750. As in his business pursuits, Harnett built a solid reputation as a steadfast politician through a series of public offices, which culminated in his election in 1754 to represent Wilmington in the General Assembly. The turning point in Harnett’s career was in 1765, when the provincial government introduced the Stamp Act. In leading opposition against the act, Harnett became an advocate for states’ rights and an activist for independence from Britain.

Already a respected North Carolina statesman, Harnett became active in the struggle for North Carolina’s independence. Soon after the introduction of the Stamp Act, he and fellow patriot John Ashe led a protest against British tyranny through the streets of Brunswick. Not long after, Harnett was elected chairman of the Sons of Liberty’s Wilmington chapter. At the Fourth Provincial Congress in Halifax, Harnett chaired the committee that, in April of 1776, produced the Halifax Resolves, a formal declaration of North Carolina’s support for independence from Britain. He, along with Ashe, was instrumental in drafting North Carolina’s first state constitution in autumn of that same year.

I could continue in that vein, of listing laudable accomplishments only, but that wouldn't be the real man, only a whitewashed version. Like many NC politicians of today, Harnett was a businessman, and he wasn't shy about using his position to further those (business) interests. A letter to William Wilkinson in late 1777:

It gives me pleasure to hear you have disposed of half the Concern to Gentlemen high, very high in my esteem, but you sold too Cheap, such a Still as the large one, Could not have been purchased in Philadelphia when I left it under £1500 this Currency. I am glad you have some Mallosses to make a beginning with, your 5,000 gallons distilled mild rum would fetch 60/ per Gallon in this State & several others, it is amazing to see the Advanced Prices on every thing in this Country.
I shall enquire as to a Distiller, but you may be Assured you may purchase Negroes or any other Article of Commerce 150 per Cent Cheaper in No. Carolina than you could in Philadelphia before Congress left it. 500 Dollars for a small Mulatto boy has been lately given. As to Labourers, you may surely get them either on purchase or hire 100 per Cent Cheaper than I can possibly procure them here. The Distiller I shall attend to & procure one if possible.

But he was also a patriot, and probably saved our collective asses by pushing his fellow delegates to find provisions and replacement troops for General Washington at Valley Forge:

The Army remains still at Valey Forge, & we have been for some time alarmed with the great Scarcity of flesh to feed them. My friend Burke thinks this an Artificial Scarcity; in this we differ much in Opinion, as I am Convinced the want is real, as we have not been Able as yet to lay up any Magazines of Provisions, & have had only sufficient to Supply the immediate wants of the Army; I am firmly of Opinion if we fail at all in the Vigour of our Opperations, it will be owing to this Circumstance; & by that means, I fear the war may be prolonged, and our Army reduced to the Necessity of carrying on a defensive war only.