George Bancroft, History of the United States from the Discovery of the American Continent, Vol. 8

[97] regular force of one thousand men; an organization

Chap. XLVI.} 1775. July to Oct.

of the militia of the colony; an annual provincial congress to be elected by all freeholders; a committee of safety for each of the six districts into which the to province was divided; a provincial council, consisting of the president of the convention and two members from each of the six divisions, as the great executive power. Richard Caswell, who, for the combined powers of wisdom and action, stands out as the foremost patriot of North Carolina, efficient in building up society on its new foundation, a financier of skill and integrity, a courageous statesman and a man of capacity for war, was detained by the people in their immediate service; and John Penn, a Virginian by birth, became his successor in the general congress.

The most remarkable subject brought before the convention was Franklin's plan of a confederacy, which, on the twenty fourth of August, was introduced by William Hooper; like Franklin, a native of Boston; trained under James Otis to the profession of the law; now a resident in Wilmington, ‘the region of politeness and hospitality,’ of commerce, wealth, and culture. North Carolina was always prompt to respond to the call of her sister Colonies; her convention listened with ready sympathy to the proposition, though it included a system of independence and government, and it was about to be adopted. But in the committee of the whole house, the moderating prudence of Johnston interposed; and, by his persuasion, North Carolina consented to forego the honor of being the first to declare for a permanent federal union. On Monday, the fourth of September, it was voted, but not unanimously, that a general confederation