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THE FIRST OF PATRIOTS AND BEST OF MEN:
RICHARD CASWELL IN PUBLIC LIFE
by Clayton Brown Alexander and W. Keats Sparrow
Kinston, North Carolina: Lenoir County Colonial Commission, 2007.
BOOK REVIEW
By John Baxton Flowers III, North Carolina Historian
Vice President Emeritus Augusta State University
In the nearly 225 years
since his death, there has been no full-length biography of General Richard
Caswell (1729-1789), despite the fact that he is one of the most important
men in North Carolina’s long history. Why?
Thanks to the skill and diligence
of Dr. Keats Sparrow, Dean Emeritus of the Harriot College of Arts and
Sciences at East Carolina University, and with the support of the Lenoir
County Colonial Commission, this long-entombed dissertation by Clayton Brown
Alexander, written in l930 at the University of North Carolina at Chapel
Hill, examines the public life of one of North Carolina’s most distinguished
men. Dr. Sparrow’s resurrection of Alexander’s study offers us a sensitive
editing and revitalizing of the original text and adds important new
research findings on General Caswell, a chronology of Caswell’s life, almost
100 illustrations, an updated bibliography, and a helpful index. The
resulting volume is one that no student of North Carolina history will want
to miss, and it gives us the clearer and fuller picture we’ve long needed
and wanted of Caswell the extraordinary man and Caswell the superb public
servant and military commander.
Richard Caswell has to his credit
numerous accomplishments, but most historians agree that the greatest of his
achievements was his leadership for North Carolina during the Revolution and
his role as the first governor of the state. If he had had no more than
these outstanding accomplishments, he would be included in the Pantheon of
founding fathers of the Old North State, but he had many more: assistant
surveyor-general of North Carolina; an elected member of the colonial
assembly, serving from l754 to l776 when it was disbanded; serving as
speaker of the House from l770-71; a colonel of the Dobbs Militia and
commander of Governor Tryon’s right wing at the Battle of Alamance during
the War of the Regulation in l771; a leader in all five of North Carolina’s
provincial congresses, and a delegate to the First and Second Continental
Congresses in Philadelphia. On Caswell’s return from the Second Continental
Congress, Royal Governor Josiah Martin observed that he was “the most active
tool of sedition” inasmuch as he had come back to North Carolina a committed
revolutionary, and he proceeded energetically to apply his many talents and
political skills to help guide North Carolina away from Great Britain and
toward independence.
Colonel Caswell was the on-site
commander at the crucial Battle of Moores Creek Bridge on 27 February 1776
which abruptly halted the Loyalists among the Highland Scots in North
Carolina from effective participation in the Revolution. Had North Carolina
remained loyal to the Crown during the Revolution, the union of thirteen
colonies would have been split. Although Caswell’s brilliant command of the
militia at Moores Creek Bridge singled him out for higher responsibilities,
his victory there has never received the national recognition it deserves.
North Carolina’s deeds, more than words, helped lead the American colonies
into the Revolution and to ultimate victory and independence.
Caswell served as a general
commanding the state militia during the Revolution, but in December 1776 he
was elected the first governor of the state by the provincial congress, and
was reelected to annual terms under the constitution by the General
Assemblies of l777, l778 and l779. As governor he was constantly raising
and equipping troops. Besides providing for the defense of the state, he
sent more than 18,000 officers and men, both Continentals and militia, to
the aid of other states. Though in poor health when he left office in l780,
he was immediately appointed a major general and put in command of all North
Carolina troops until the end of the Revolution. From l782 to l785, he was
controller-general or treasurer of the state and did remarkable work in
bringing order to the public accounts. In l785 he was again elected
governor and in successive annual elections served until l788. He served
more years as governor than anyone in North Carolina’s history until the
administration of James B. Hunt Jr. In the late twentieth century but still
holds the record for having served the most terms.
Caswell was elected a delegate to
the Constitutional Convention in l787, but owing to declining health he
appointed William Blount to take his place. His strong support for
ratifying the United States Constitution alienated his Anti-Federalist Dobbs
County constituency, and as a result he was denied a seat in the state’s
1787 constitutional convention at Hillsborough. However, he was soon
reelected to the legislature. North Carolina finally voted for ratification
of the United States Constitution in 1789 at a convention held at
Fayetteville, though the delegates refused to support the new Constitution
until the Bill of Rights had been added to it.
Caswell suffered a stroke on 5
November 1789 while presiding over the senate in session at Fayetteville and
died on 10 November 1789. A state funeral was held at Fayetteville and his
body was transported to Kinston and buried at his Red House Plantation. In
little time memory of him and his considerable accomplishments faded, while
the memory of his contemporaries remained strong.
We might ask ourselves why? Why
did this most outstanding of men drift so quickly into obscurity, and why
did it take us so long to recall his remarkable service to our state and
union? This well-documented and nicely illustrated biography will help us
begin to understand North Carolina’s most Revolutionary-era leader. But
mark this: It is only the beginning.
THE FIRST OF PATRIOTS AND BEST OF
MEN illuminates the public life of Richard Caswell and does so admirably,
but it prompts us to want to know more of Caswell’s private life, of his
brilliant military career, of his leadership as a Mason, and of all other
aspects of his extraordinary life. We can anticipate that this much
welcomed volume will serve as a catalyst for further research on the most
important North Carolinian of the Revolutionary period, so let’s hope a
rebirth of Caswell studies will soon follow. When the day comes that
scholarly and public attention is once again refocused on Richard Caswell,
“the first of patriots and best of men,” let us not forget the vision of
Clayton Brown Alexander in l930 and of his faithful disciples Charles Robert
Holloman, who wrote Caswell’s excellent sketch for the DICTIONARY OF NORTH
CAROLINA BIOGRAPHY in l979, and Dr. Keats Sparrow, whose energy, research,
and editing talents have brought this important first full-length biography
of Caswell to life and made it accessible to scholars and the general
public.
Copies of THE FIRST OF PATRIOTS
AND BEST OF MEN: RICHARD CASWELL IN PUBLIC LIFE can be ordered from the
Lenoir County Colonial Commission, P. O. Box 1734, Kinston, NC 28503-1734
for $26 plus $6 for sales tax and shipping (total: $32).
John Baxton Flowers III
North Carolina Historian
Vice President Emeritus
Augusta State University
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