Chap. XXXV.} 1768. Sept. |
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that ‘he was left alone;’ and how could an unlet-
tered farmer contend against so many?
In his despair he thought to leave his home and every thing he loved most dearly, and exile himself into some new land.
With this purpose he ‘took the woods;’1 but hearing that the Governor had promised that the extortioners might be brought to trial, he resolved to impeach Fanning, and to show before the world whether he was a principal in riots, or whether he had done no more than prosecute every lawful method for justice and redress.2
The Regulators, on their part, prepared their Petition, which was signed by about five hundred men; fortified it with a precise specification of acts of extortion, confirmed in each instance by oath; and presented3 it to the Governor with their plain and simple Narrative, in the hope that ‘naked truth,’ though offered by the ignorant, might weigh as much as the artful representations of their ‘powerful adversary.’
Their language was that of loyalty to the King, and, with a rankling sense of their wrongs, breathed affection to the British Government, ‘as the wholesomest Constitution in being.’4 It is Tryon himself who relates that ‘in their commotions no mischief had been done,’ and that ‘the disturbances in Anson and Orange had subsided.’5 The Regulators awaited the result of the suits at law. But Tryon would not wait.6 He repaired to Hillsborough,
1 Husbands' Impartial Relation, &c, &c.
2 Compare Letter from North Carolina in Boston Gazette, of 12 August, 1771; 853, 2, 1.
3 Copy of the Petition and Signatures in my possession.
4 Meeting of the Committee at Thomas Coxe's Mill, in a movement from Herman Coxe's.
5 Tryon to Hillsborough, 16 June, 1768.
6 Martin's North Carolina, II. 237, 238.
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