Duncan Stewart and North Carolina Politics
Although Duncan Stewart may have served as a soldier during the Revolution, the rest of his life suggests he was more interested in politics.
The new State of North Carolina after the adoption of the Halifax Resolves (for independence) on 12 April 1776 selected a committee to draft a temporary Civil Constitution. Five days later they voted not to adopt a constitution. The Council of Safety would have the power and authority. The Council of Safety became the supreme power in the state. Cornelius Harnett of the Cape Fear was its president---for all practical purposes the governor.
The Continental Congress authorized the states to draw up constitutions. The Whigs were divided in their idea of government. The conservatives wanted a strong executive; the radicals advocated a simple democracy with a strong legislature. 169 delegates were elected, representing thirty-two counties and nine towns. Duncan Stewart’s Bladen County did not send delegates. The congress met at Halifax on November 12, 1776. The Declaration of Rights was adopted on December 17 and the constitution the next day. The bill of rights had twenty-five articles. The legislative authority was vested in a General Assembly consisting of a senate and house of commons. The executive department was to consist of the governor, Council of State, secretary, treasurer, and attorney general. The judiciary consisted of Judges of the Supreme courts of Law and Equity, Judges of Admiralty, and Attorney General. The salient feature of the constitution was a shift to legislative predominance and away from the executive supremacy of the colonial government.
The fifth Provincial Congress ended on December 23, 1776 appointing Richard Caswell as governor. The executive branch took the oaths of office in January 1777. The first General Assembly met in New Bern on April 7.
The defects of the 1776 North Carolina Constitution soon became apparent. Its undemocratic features, especially its property and religious qualifications for office disappointed the masses, especially in the west. The cause of most complaint for the next half century was the inequitable distribution of seats in the General Assembly caused by the county representation giving the east control. Another defect was the weakness of the state executive.
The surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown was in October 1781 and this ended major hostilities but the importance of this event was not immediately apparent. The evacuation of the British from Wilmington was in November 1781, but the military phase did not end until May 1782 when the notorious Tory, David Fanning departed. The British did not leave Charleston until late 1782 and it was 1783 before the British left New York. The Peace treaty was signed in Paris September 3, 1783. His Britannic Majesty acknowledged the United States to be free, sovereign and independent States.
North Carolina found itself with a weak and inefficient state government, unsatisfactory local government, political strife and bitterness, economic depression, and general social demoralization. Problems that demanded immediate action were the demobilization and treatment of veterans, release of prisoners of war, state policy in relation to loyalists and their property and the location of a permanent capital.
Perhaps the most urgent postwar problem confronting North Carolina was the state’s relation to the federal Union. The Articles of Confederation was adopted by the Continental Congress on November 15, 1777. The Confederation government, 1781-1789, had many accomplishments: successful conclusion of the war, negotiation of a peace treaty, formulation for the sale of public lands, a policy for admission of new states. But there were many problems and weaknesses. The most conspicuous defects were the lack of independent executive and judicial departments; a dependence on the states for making the resolutions of Congress effective; the principle of state equality and sovereignty; the requirement of the approval of delegations from nine states for any proposals; the ratification of all thirteen states was necessary to amend. Dissatisfaction with the Articles was expressed even before they went into effect. Hundreds of amendments were proposed but it was virtually impossible to amend the document.
The Virginia legislature invited all the states to send delegates to a conference at Annapolis in 1786 to discuss uniform trade regulations. Only five states were represented---North Carolina was not one of them. The Annapolis Convention passed a resolution that another meeting be held in Philadelphia in 1787 to “take into consideration the situation of the United States, to devise such further provisions as shall appear to them necessary to render the constitution of the federal government adequate to the exigencies of the Union.”
North Carolina sent William R. Davie and Richard Dobbs Spaight, Conservative party leaders, Alexander Martin, a Moderate not hostile to reform, Hugh Williamson, and William Blount. They were from the upper social and economic class, educated, conservative. Their average age being forty with Davie only thirty. Duncan is not much younger at age 24 but is not yet involved in politics.
North Carolina was the third most populous state (behind Virginia and Pennsylvania)[1] and its delegates voted with the large states to base representation on population but voted with the small states on the Great compromise which gave equal state representation in the Senate. They also supported the compromises that Negroes were to be counted as three-fifths of a person in apportioning representation and direct taxes and also the foreign slave-trade and commerce compromise, which prohibited the cessation of the foreign slave trade for twenty years and prohibited the taxation of exports. North Carolina was opposed to the plan adopted to have a single executive independent of the legislature. They also apposed the compulsory admission of new states on the basis of equality with the old. On September 15, 1787 the completed Constitution was unanimously adopted. Blount, Williamson and Spaight were the North Carolina signers.
The fight for ratification began. We now have the Federalist backing the strong central government of the constitution and the Anti-federalists opposed. The North Carolina legislature convened at Tarboro on November 19, 1787. They had some heated debates, and on December 6 called upon the voters to elect delegates in March, 1788 to meet in convention at Hillsborough on July 21. The voters chose the Anti-federalist, 184 delegates to Federalist, 83, to vote on the Constitution. The convention assembled at Hillsborough on July 21, 1788. By now the Constitution had already been adopted by the ratification of one more than the requisite number of nine states, and five days later the eleventh state ratified. North Carolina was left outside—a sovereign and independent state, in company with Rhode Island. The Anti-federalist did not opposed union or to a central government stronger that the one existing under the Articles, but they did fear the new Constitution would make possible a central government so strong and consolidated as to impair local self-government, endanger the rights of North Carolina, and threaten the civil liberties of individual citizens. Until individual liberties and state rights were dully safeguarded by the adoption of amendments to the Constitution, they were determined not to ratify. Eleven days later by a vote of 184 to 83 they carried a resolution, neither to reject or ratify, but that a bill of rights ought to be laid before Congress and a second Federal Convention before North Carolina would ratify.
A close vote of the new legislature in November 1788 called for the election in August 1789 of a second convention to meet in Fayetteville on November 16 to consider ratification.
Fayetteville, originally Campbellton by the river and Cross Creek slightly to the west, was a merger of the two into upper and lower Campbellton in 1778 and named 5 years later after the Marquis de Lafayette. It is located at the head of navigation of the Cape Fear River in Cumberland County. In 1789 the 1500 inhabitants were housed in about 250 dwellings. In 1787 the town built by private subscription to promote Fayetteville “as worthy of being the Capital of an extensive state,”[2] a brick state house. The two story building with cupola dominated the market square. There were open arcades on four sides with narrow arches with two chambers on the second floor. The general assembly had already decided in 1788 to establish a permanent capital in obscure Wake County but the general assembly would use Fayetteville’s state house in 1788, 1789, 1790 and 1793.
The 60 counties of the state and several towns elected delegates in August to the constitutional ratification convention and to the general assembly and senate of the state which would meet at the same time. Many members were involved in both. A review of the election results suggested that the Federalists who were in favor of ratification were in the majority. The Federalists included Samuel Johnston, the governor, from Edenton, Archibald MacLaine of Wilmington, William Blount of Pitt County who represented the Tennessee Territory county of Tennessee and his home county in the senate, and Richard Caswell of Dobbs County, the hero of Moore’s Creek and popular wartime governor. Willie Jones of Halifax was the leading Anti-federalist. Only Rhode Island and North Carolina were outside the political and economic domain of the American nation; the constitution having already been ratified by three-fourths of the states. And in May 1789, James Madison, the chief architect of the constitution, informed the Congress he would submit a federal bill of rights which effectively neutralized the major objection of the Anti-federalists.[3]
Enter Duncan Stewart, the politician. Duncan Stewart was elected along with Thomas Brown and John Cowan to replace Samuel Cain and Goodwin Elleston of the 1787 convention to join Joseph Gaitier and Thomas Owen to represent Bladen County.[4] The opening session was Monday, November 2, 1789, although 30 of the 294 elected delegates were not yet present. Duncan was sworn in November 2. On November 21 by a vote of 195 to 77 the Federalists secured ratification. No detailed record of the convention debates was transcribed. Late morning on Saturday, November 21, the vote for ratification was held: the final count, 194 for, 77 against.[5] Duncan voted ‘No.’[6] Duncan was an Anti-federalist[7] despite being a landed, educated planter from the eastern part of the state and presumably he opposed waiting for the bill of rights to be attached even though the amendments had been already adopted by Congress and had been sent to the states for ratification in September.
“The convention did not stop with its vote to ratify. On its final day—Monday, November 23—it asked the state’s representatives in Congress to ‘endeavor to obtain’ another eight amendments to the Constitution.” The convention decisively defeated a motion to conditional ratification. “ The minority appeared ‘perfectly Satisfied’ after the decision to ratify, William Dawson reported to James Iredell, not because their ‘doubts and fears’ were entirely removed, but because they, like so many other Americans, had “determined cheerfully to acquiesce in every measure which meets the approbation of the Majority of their Country men.”[8] We might suppose Duncan Stewart felt similarly.
The North Carolina House of Commons met in Fayetteville November 2 until December 22, 1789. The representatives from Bladen County were John Cowan and Duncan Stewart.[9] This general assembly needed to find solutions to the state’s problems: the large state debt, an inadequate judicial and legal system and the lack of a state university. They did their work: the cession act ceded the state’s western lands to the United States creating the Territory of the United States South of the River Ohio; created a new land and poll tax to retire the state’s public debt; passed an act to encourage the manufacture of potash (a reliable fertilizer); an act to prevent transport of valuable animal hides out of state; an act to order a lighthouse on Ocracoke; established the towns of Statesville, Newport and Rogersville; transferred upper Bladen County to Cumberland County; and on December 11 chartered the University of North Carolina. William R. Davie of Halifax steered the university charter through both houses along with another act to provide a special building fund. The trustees were to choose a site at a “healthy and convenient location.”[10] They elected two US senators, both Federalists. On Tuesday, December 22, the end of the session was celebrated at an elegant Ball in the state house.
It is of note that John Hamilton of Edenton was also a member of the November/December session of 1789. His son, William, would later marry Eliza, the daughter of Duncan Stewart in Mississippi.
Duncan Stewart was returned to the House of Commons in 1790 from Bladen County, this time with Joseph R. Gautier. The House met again in Fayetteville November 1 to December 15, 1790. The North Carolina Federalists were opposed to the Congress’ Judiciary Act of 1789 which made state courts and even the state legislature subordinate to the federal judiciary. So provoked were the members of the North Carolina House of Commons that by a vote of 26-55 the body refused to take an oath to support the US Constitution. They also voted thanks to the Edenton Superior Court for refusing to obey a writ of certiorari of the federal district court ordering a case to be transferred from the state to the federal court.
The proposal to assume state debts by the Federal Government met with opposition in many states. North Carolina had little specie and had already levied taxes to meet its Revolutionary debts. Now it would be taxed again to pay the debts of other states. The state’s delegation in both houses were directed to prevent this. The Federalist won this in the Congress by agreeing to locate the permanent capital on the Potomac in exchange for Southern votes. Another law the North Carolina General Assembly protested was Alexander Hamilton’s proposed excise tax on spirituous liquors.
One act of the General Assembly of 1790 was to build a courthouse in Wilmington for the Wilmington District, which apparently included New Hanover, Bladen, Onslow, Brunswick and Duplin Counties. The Commissioners were William Campbell, James Walker, Robert Nixon, Thomas Owens, Duncan Stewart, William Espy, Lord George Wease, James Gillespie, Shadrack Stallings, Robert W. Snead and John Spicer, Esquires. This authorized a brick building, covered with slate or tile in an oval elliptical form on arches of a height sufficient to admit of a convenient walk underneath and for no other purpose (a fine was set for people selling market items). The building would replace the previous courthouse pulled down by the commissioners of Wilmington to prevent the town from being destroyed by fire. These new Commissioners were also to call to account formerly appointed Commissioners for building a goal. A tax on town property, on each poll, on every hundred acres of land in the above counties was levied.[11]
One perplexing document is a 1790 census of New Hanover County listing Duncan Stewart, Esq. with 3 white males over 16, and 6 white females of all ages and 30 slaves.
Chuck Speed suggests this is Duncan as the oldest male with his brothers and mother and sisters.
In 1791 Duncan Stewart was again returned to the House of Commons from Bladen County, this time with Joseph Singletary. They met in New Bern 5 December 1791 to 20 January 1792.[12]
In 1792 Duncan Stewart of Bladen County was elected a state senator with John Hall and Josiah Lewis being elected to the house. They met in New Bern November 15, 1792 to January 1, 1793. The same representatives from Bladen County met in a regular session in Fayetteville from December 2, 1793 to January 11, 1794 and in special session in New Bern July 7-19, 1794. The Assembly met in the new permanent capital, Raleigh, from December 30, 1794 to February 7, 1795 with Duncan Stewart again Senator from Bladen but Josiah Lewis and James Bradley represented Bladen in the house. (Raleigh had been laid off in 1792 and lots sold. The General Assembly of that year ratified the work of the commissioners and named the city Raleigh. From the sale of lots a cheap structure was built in which the legislature met for the first time in 1794. The new capital building was not completed until 1796.) In 1795 Bladen had replaced Duncan as Senator with Josiah Lewis.[13] Duncan’s interests were now elsewhere.[14]
We might speculate that the politician, Duncan Stewart, met the politician, Tignal Jones of Wake County where the capital Raleigh was located. Duncan very well may have met his teenage daughter as well. Duncan would return from Tennessee in 1797 to marry Jones’ daughter Penelope.
[1] The 1790
census has NC the 4th largest in population—430,000. Ratification by
Pauline Maier. P. 404.
[2]
Wilmington Centinel and General Advertiser, July 23, 1788.
[3] Decision
at Fayetteville, The NC Ratification Convention and General Assembly of 1789,
John C. Cavanagh, 1976
[4] North
Carolina Government 1585-1979, a Narrative and Statistical History, issued by
Thad Eure, Sec. of State, ed. John L. Cheney, Jr., Dir of Publication. 1981. p.
765.
[5] Decision
at Fayeteville
[6] State
Records of NC, Vol. XXII, Misc. p49.
[7] North
Carolina Votes on the Constitution, 1788-89, A Roster of Delegates to the State
Ratification Convention, Stephen E. Massengill
[8]
Ratification by Pauline Maier, p. 457-458.
[9] NC
Government 1585-1979
[10]
Decision at Fayetteville
[11] The
State Records of North Carolina, collected and edited by Walter Clark, Chief
Justice of the Supreme Court of North Carolina. Vol. XXV. Laws 1789-90. Nash
Brothers, Goldsboro 1906, Broadfoot Publishing Company Wilmington 1994. pp 97-98.
[12] NC
Government, 1585-1979
[13] NC
Government, 1585-1979
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