Tarheel Founding Fathers, Part Two

When I sat down to compile a complement to last year's post, I debated (with myself) whether to take these one year at a time or just jump forward to the finalization and subsequent signing of the Constitution. Well, I don't have the patience of the Founding Fathers, plus you never know if you'll get thrown from your horse or be consumed by consumption, so: I give you William Blount, Richard Dobbs Spaight and Hugh Williamson, North Carolina's signatories of our beloved Constitution.

William Blount was an ambitious man, the product of a long line of ambitious men, the line possibly going all the way back to William the Conquerer. Both he and his father served in the Colonial Militia for Governor Tryon, and William was also on the field at the Battle of Alamance, and helped defeat Herman Husband and his fellow Regulators. When war broke out between Colony and King, father and son switched sides and became paymasters for the Continental Army.

One possible reason for this decision was the fact that William had purchased some one million acres of Appalachian land in Western North Carolina and (what is now) Tennessee, and was keen on keeping said property. He eventually moved to Tennessee and is given much of the credit for bringing the state from wilderness to productiveness in a relatively short period of time.

note: for those who have studied Aaron Burr, he and Blount share a very interesting characteristic. As the new Republic settled in and started to grow, they were both drawn into schemes of military intrigue which never actually took place, yet they were both ruined for it. Burr was enticed to believe he could become the Emperor of Mexico, and Blount was drawn into a conspiracy to recruit frontiersmen and indians to help the British seize New Orleans from the French, a war in which our newly-formed government had decided we would remain neutral.

Here's a letter from William Blount to Richard Caswell:

Sir, New York November 16th 1786
As yet there have not appeared a sufficient Number of Members to form a Congress.
I arrived here on the 5th Instant and did myself the honor to address a letter to You on the 6th. I sent it by a Water Conveyance and hope it will be to hand before this. Ever since the above- mentioned Time my Colleague Mr. Nash has been so much indisposed as to be confined to his bed at some Times better and again worse, today he appears to be as ill as at any other Time and talks much of returning to Carolina with Capt. Tinker who will probably leave this in eight or ten days. I have been thus particular respecting Mr. Nash to show the Necessity there is for some other Gentleman of the Delegation to come on and if the State mean to be represented by three, two ought to come on. The Insurgents in Massachusetts seem inflexably determined not to give up their arms only to a superior force and a Gentleman lately from that State high in Office and of the best Information has given it as his decided Opinion that much blood will be shed before they will submit to Government.
I have the Honor to be, Your Excellency's Most Obedient Servant,
Wm. Blount

I chose that letter because of its reference to Shay's Rebellion in Massachusetts:

Knox dismissed the theory entertained by some observers from outside the state that heavy, aggressive taxation had caused the crisis. This notion, Knox informed Washington, was "a deception equal to any that has been hitherto entertained. That taxes may be the ostensible cause is true… but that they are the real cause is as far remote from truth as light from darkness." According to Knox, "[t]he people who are the insurgents have never paid any, or but very little taxes- But they see the weakness of government; They feel at once their own poverty, compared with the opulent, and their own force, and they are determined to make up the latter, in order to remedy the former." Like Rufus King, a Massachusetts representative to the United States Congress, Knox believed the true aim of the insurgents was to forcibly redistribute property from the wealthy to the less fortunate:

"Their creed is, "That the property of the United States has been protected from confiscation of Britain by the joint exertions of all, and therefore ought to be the common property of all, and he that attempts opposition to this creed is an enemy to equity and justice, and ought to be swept from off the face of the earth."

Sorry about that little side-step. I just wanted to give our Libertarian readers something to scratch their heads about. ;)

Richard Dobbs Spaight was born in New Bern and educated in Ireland and Scotland before returning home to fight against the British. As a delegate to the Federal Constitutional Convention of 1787, Spaight seemed to have an endless supply of energy pushing his fellow delegates to accept and sign the Constitution. We can also thank him for demanding each state have two Senators, as there was a strong push for a population-based allotting such as the House employs.

Here's an intriguing letter from Spaight to Richard Caswell:

Sir, New York 5th June 1785.
On the 15th of May Mr. Cocke arrived here in the Character of Agent, for the inhabitants of the Counties of Washington, Greene, & Sullivan, whom it appears have declared themselves an independent State by the Title of "The State of Franklin." The day following he presented, to the President of Congress a memorial from the Assembly of that State, praying Congress to accept the cession of No Carolina, and to admit them into the Union. The memorial was laid before Congress, and read, but no Order either moved, or, taken on it. A copy of the memorial I enclose to your Excellency.(1)
A day or two after a motion was made by a delegate from Massachusetts, that the Acts of the Genl. Assembly of the State of No. Carolina, granting & repealing the cession, should be refered to a Committee, in order that they might report whether Congress had, or had not a right to Accept the cession, & whether it was not still binding upon the State, notwithstanding the repealing Act. They were accordingly committed, and a report made on the 20th May. Contrary to the established rule, the report was taken up, and Acted on, the same day, without allowing any time for consideration or giving any notice to the member from the State. As I had been indisposed for some time before & was at that time, far from being well, I was not in Congress, tho' had I known that, that subject would have been before the house I should certainly have been there. Notwithstanding I think that congress have in this instance, treated the State and myself with a great degree of indelicacy, I shall only Observe upon their proceedings, that in my Opinion too great an avidity, in a part of Congress, for Western Territory, have harried them into a Measure, the consequences of which they have not considered, and I am sure in their cooler Moments, & abstracted from interested motives, they wou'd condemn. A copy of the report and proceedings thereon I enclose to your Excellency. The Report does not do much credit to the Abilities of the gentlemen who drew it, (tho' it convinces me, that my opinion is right---;"that they are willing to have the land on any terms,") as the latter clause, which is the only one agreed to, is an Absolute contradiction to every other part of it.

The State of Franklin? This just goes to prove, all kinds of crazy stuff can happen when you call in sick for a few days. :)

Spaight later served as Governor, as a Representative in the U.S. House, and lastly, as a state Senator, when good old ugly North Carolina politics put him in his grave:

In 1801, John Stanly - a New Bern Federalist - took Spaight's House seat, while Spaight joined the North Carolina Senate. As senator, Spaight missed many votes and usually blamed his poor health for his absences. Stanly repeatedly accused Spaight of malingering. After months of antagonism between the two men, they agreed to a duel, which was held on September 5, 1802. On the fourth fire, Stanly hit Spaight, who died the following day.

Hugh Williamson was one of those rare breeds who can master the studies and subsequent career fields of whatever catches his fancy, and make a name for himself in each one. He entered the College of Philadelphia at age sixteen and by his mid-twenties, he had his Master's degree and was both a professor of mathematics and a licensed preacher. A few years later he studied medicine in Europe and earned his MD, returning home to Philadelphia and creating a successful medical practice. And then he got a hankering to study astronomy, which evolved into him being one of the earliest published climatologists.

It was while he was in Europe that news of the Declaration of Independence was brought to his notice, so he packed his bags and sailed to North Carolina. He served as a surgeon in the Continental Army for two years before embarking on a short political career that ended with him signing the Constitution.

If you want proof that some things never change, check out this letter from Williamson to Alexander Martin:

The Journals on the third of June were printed up to the 26th May, by this time I presume they are finished. From them you will learn that Congress have left some things undone which I presume the bulk of Mankind will think ought to have been done. You will find that some of the Eastern States would not admit that Congress are authorised in time of Peace to raise any troops for any purpose whatever while some of us would not on any account suffer this power to be called in question.(1) You will also find in such haste were the eastern Members to adjourn, that they have taken no measures for making peace with the southern Indians, though a plan for negotiating with those Indians was reported & ready to be passed upon.(2)

Sorry this post is so late. I had hoped to put it up Friday night so it would be in time for the Fourth, but I had so much going on and I didn't want to rush through it.