chapter 4._

"The earliest grant made to the lords proprietors did not include the whole of the present State of North Carolina. Its northern line fell short of the southern boundary of Virginia by half a degree of latitude. Notwithstanding this, an unwarranted exhibition of authority established virtually the proprietary dominion over this unappropriated territory. … Colonel Byrd of Virginia, who was born not long after the charter of 1665 was made, and who lived during the administration of Berkeley, states, and no doubt truly, that 'Sir William Berkeley, who was one of the grantees, and at that time governor of Virginia, finding a territory of 31 miles in breadth between the inhabited part of Virginia and the above-mentioned boundary of Carolina [36°], advised the Lord Clarendon of it. And his lordship had interest enough with the king to obtain a second patent to include it, dated June 30th, 1665.' By this patent very large powers were granted; so large that, as Chalmers has remarked, 'no one prerogative of the crown was preserved, except only the sovereign dominion. … The existence of the colony from Barbadoes, under Sir John Yeamans, that settled in the old county of Clarendon, from its inception in 1665 to its abandonment in 1690, forms but an episode in the proprietary history of North Carolina. The colony, like all others similarly situated, sought at first to make provision for the supply of bodily wants, in securing food and shelter only; but having done this it next proceeded to make profitable the gifts of Heaven that were around it. Yeamans had brought with him negro slaves from Barbadoes, and so inviting was the new settlement deemed, that in the second year of its existence it contained 800 inhabitants. … But with all this prosperity, the colony on the Cape Fear was not destined to be permanent. The action of the lords proprietors themselves caused its abandonment. … In 1670, the lords proprietors, who seem to have been anxious to proceed more and more to the southward, sent out a considerable number of emigrants to form a colony at Port Royal, now Beaufort, in the present State of South Carolina. The individual who led the expedition was William Sayle, 'a man of experience,' says Chalmers, 'who had been appointed governor of that part of the coast lying southwestward of Cape Carteret.' … Scarcely however, had Sayle carried out his instructions and made his colonists somewhat comfortable, before his constitution yielded to a new and insalubrious climate, and he died. … It was not easy for the proprietors immediately to find a fit successor; and, even had such been at hand, some time must necessarily have elapsed before he could safely reach the scene of his labors. But Sir John Yeamans was near the spot: his long residence had acclimated him, and, as the historian states, he 'had hitherto ruled the plantation around Cape Fear with a prudence which precluded complaint.' He therefore was directed to extend his command from old Clarendon, on the Cape Fear, to the territory which was southwest of Cape Carteret. This was in August, 1671. The shores with the adjacent land, and the streams making into the sea, were by this time very well known to all the dwellers in Carolina, for the proprietors had caused them to be surveyed with accuracy. {2373} On the banks of Ashley River there was good pasturage, and land fit for tillage. The planters of Clarendon, therefore, turned their faces southward, while those from Port Royal travelled northward; and so the colonists from both settlements met on the banks of the Ashley, as on a middle ground, and here in the same year (1671) they laid, 'on the first high land,' the foundations of 'old Charlestown.' In 1679, it was found that 'Oyster Point,' formed by the confluence of Ashley and Cooper rivers, was more convenient for a town than the spot previously selected, and the people, with the encouragement of the lords proprietors, began to remove thither. In the next year (1680) were laid the foundations of the present city of Charleston; thirty houses were built, and it was declared to be the capital of the southern part of the province, and also the port for all commercial traffic. This gradually depopulated old Clarendon. … We now return to trace the fortunes of the settlement on Albemarle, under Stephens. As before stated he entered upon his duties as governor in October, 1667. … His instructions were very full and explicit. The Assembly was to be composed of the governor, a council of twelve, and twelve delegates chosen by the freeholders. Of the twelve councillors, whose advice, by the way, the governor was required always to take and follow, one half was to be appointed by the Assembly, the other half by himself. To this Assembly belonged not only the power to make laws, but a large share of the executive authority also. … In 1669, the first legislature under this constitution assembled. And it is worthy of remark, that at this period, when the province may be said to have had, for the first time, a system of regular government, there was in it a recognition of two great principles which are now part of the political creed of our whole country, without distinction of party. These are, first, that the people are entitled to a voice in the selection of their law-makers; and secondly, that they cannot rightfully be taxed but by their own representatives. … The people, we have reason to believe, were contented and happy during the early part of Stephens' administration. … But this quiet condition of affairs was not to last. We have now reached a period in our history which illustrates the fact, that whatever wisdom may be apparent in the constitution given to the Albemarle colony by the proprietors, on the accession of Stephens, was less the result of deliberation than of a happy accident. … But the time had now come for the proprietors to carry out their magnificent project of founding an empire; and disregarding alike the nature of man, the lessons of experience, and the physical obstacles of an unsubdued wilderness (even not yet entirely reclaimed), they resolved that all should yield to their theories of government, and invoked the aid of philosophy to accomplish an impossibility. Locke was employed to prepare 'the fundamental constitutions.'"

_F. L. Hawks, History of North Carolina, volume 2, pages 441-462._

ALSO IN: _W. C. Bryant and S. H. Gay, Popular History of thee United States, volume 2, chapter 12._

NORTH CAROLINA: A. D. 1669-1693. The Fundamental Constitutions of John Locke, and their failure.

The royal grant of the Carolinas to Monk, Shaftesbury, Clarendon, and their associates invested them with "all the rights, jurisdiction, royalties, privileges, and liberties within the bounds of their province, to hold, use, and enjoy the same, in as ample a manner as the bishop of Durham did in that county-palatine in England: … Agreeably to these powers, the proprietors proceeded to frame a system of laws for the colony which they projected. Locke, the well-known philosopher, was summoned to this work, and the largest expectations were entertained in consequence of his co-operation. Locke, though subsequently one of the proprietors, was, at the beginning, simply the secretary of the earl of Shaftesbury. The probability is that, in preparing the constitution for the Carolinas, he rather carried out the notions of that versatile nobleman than his own. … The code of laws called the 'Fundamental Constitutions,' which was devised, and which subsequently became unpopular in the colony, is not certainly the work of his hands. It is ascribed by Oldmixon, a contemporary, to the earl of Shaftesbury, one of the proprietors. The most striking feature in this code provided for the creation of a nobility, consisting of land graves, cassiques, and barons. These were to be graduated by the landed estates which were granted with the dignity; the eldest of the proprietary lords was to be the superior, with the title of Palatine, and the people were to be serfs." The tenants, and the issue of the tenants, "were to be transferred with the soil, and not at liberty to leave it, but with the lord's permission, under hand and seal. The whole system was rejected after a few years' experiment. It has been harshly judged as … the crude conception of a mind conversant rather with books than men—with the abstract rather than the practical in government and society. And this judgment is certainly true of the constitutions in the case in which they were employed. They did not suit the absolute conditions of the country, or the class of people which subsequently made their way to it. But contemplating the institution of domestic slavery, as the proprietors had done from the beginning—a large villanage and a wealthy aristocracy, dominating almost without restraint or responsibility over the whole—the scheme was not without its plausibilities. But the feudal tenures were everywhere dying out. The time had passed, even in Europe, for such a system. … The great destitution of the first settlers left them generally without the means of procuring slaves; and the equal necessities, to which all are subject who peril life and fortune in a savage forest and on a foreign shore, soon made the titular distinctions of the few a miserable mockery, or something worse."

_W. G. Simms, History of South Carolina, book 2, chapter 1._

"The constitutions were signed on the 21st of July, 1669;" but subsequently revised by the interpolation of a clause, against the wishes of Locke, establishing the Church of England. "This revised copy of 'the model' was not signed till March, 1670. To a colony of which the majority were likely to be dissenters, the change was vital; it was scarcely noticed in England, where the model became the theme of extravagant applause. … As far as depended upon the proprietaries, the government was immediately organized with Monk, duke of Albemarle, as palatine." But, meantime, the colonists in the northern part of the Carolina province had instituted a simple form of government for themselves, with a council of twelve, and an assembly composed of the governor, the council, and twelve delegates from the freeholders of the incipient settlements. {2374} The assembly had already met and had framed some important laws, which remained "valid in North Carolina for more than half a century. Hardly had these laws been established when the new constitution was forwarded to Albemarle. Its promulgation did but favor anarchy by invalidating the existing system, which it could not replace. The proprietaries, contrary to stipulations with the colonists, superseded the existing government, and the colonists resolutely rejected the substitute." Much the same state of things appeared in the South Carolina settlements (not yet separately named), and successive disorders and revolutionary changes made up the history of the pseudo palatinate for many years.

_G. Bancroft, History of the United States (Author's last revision), part 2, chapter 7 (volume 1)._

In 1693, "to conciliate the colonists, and to get rid of the dispute which had arisen as to the binding force of the 'Grand Model,' the proprietors voted that, 'as the people have declared they would rather be governed by the powers granted by the charter, without regard to the fundamental constitutions, it will be for their quiet, and the protection of the well-disposed, to grant their request.' This abrogation of the labors of Locke removed one bone of contention; but as the 'Grand Model' had never been actually carried into effect, the government went on much as before. Each of the proprietaries continued to have his special delegate in the colony, or rather two delegates, one for South Carolina, the other for Albemarle, the eight together constituting the council in either province, over which the governor presided as delegate of the palatine, to whom his appointment belonged."

_R. Hildreth, History of the United States,