JOSEPH  HEWES
WHEN young James Iredell was, in 1768, leaving England to make his home in North Carolina, his relative, Henry E. McCulloch, who had lived some years earlier in North Carolina, advised him to ''particularly cultivate the notice of Mr. Hewes." Some years later, Mr. Iredell, writing to his father, said:

"There is a gentleman in this town who is a very particular favorite of mine, as indeed he is of everybody, for he is one of the best and most agreeable men in the world. His name is Hewes. He is a merchant here, and our member for the town; the patron and greatest honor of it. About six or seven years ago he was within a very few days of being married to one of Mr. Johnston's sisters, who died rather suddenly, and this unhappy circumstance for a long time embittered every satisfaction in life to him. He has continued ever since unmarried. His connection with Mr. Johnston's family is just such as if he had been really a brother-in-law."

This public-spirited citizen of Edenton, Joseph Hewes, was then about forty years of age. His father, Adam Hewes, was a Quaker living in Connecticut, where he married about 1728, and because of religious persecution, about that time proposed to remove to New Jersey; on their journey they were attacked by Indians, and Mrs. Hewes was wounded by them. Mr. Hewes located on a small farm at Kingston, near Princeton, and there Joseph Hewes was born in the year 1730. He was educated at the school in Princeton, and at the close of his studies he was apprenticed to a merchant in Philadelphia to qualify him for commercial life. On the termination of his apprenticeship his father furnished him with a little money, and he entered into mercantile business on his own account, which he pursued with such skill and success that in a few years he amassed an ample fortune. At the age of twenty-six, in 1756, Mr. Hewes moved to Edenton, where he soon won for himself the esteem and respect of that elegant coterie of ladies and gentlemen who adorned that part of the province. He became engaged to be married to Miss Isabelle Johnston, and on her death continued the most intimate relations with Governor Johnston's family.

Governor Johnston had for many years represented Edenton in the Assembly, but at the election of 1766 he stood aside and became one of the representatives of Chowan County, yielding his place as representative of the town to Mr. Hewes, doubtless with the view of assuaging his sorrows by introducing him into public life. From that time onward Mr. Hewes became one of the principal men in managing the public affairs of the colony. He had entered into partnership with Robert Smith, and the firm had extensive connections in the mercantile world; they owned many ships and were prosperous merchants. Well educated, trained to a business which required a large amount of varied information, Mr. Hewes had a practical knowledge of affairs that easily placed him in the front rank of the important men of his day, while his social habits made him an interesting companion and drew to him the intimacy of Iredell, the Joneses and of all the first men of the Albemarle and Roanoke region. It may be mentioned in passing that his nephew, Nathan Allen, accompanied him to Edenton, and from him was descended Senator Allen of Ohio and Allen G. Thurman, also of Ohio. Mr. Hewes continued a member of the Assembly from 1766 until that body ceased to meet in 1775. At the Assembly of 1773, when a Committee of Correspondence was created, he was appointed one of its members. He was also a member of the First Provincial Congress, and made the report of the Committee of Correspondence to that body. This committee had virtually the direction of all matters relating to the united efforts and purposes of the people of the different colonies, and by the Congress he was elected a delegate to the Continental Congress, and was constantly re-elected a delegate to the Continental Congress until 1777. In the meantime, however, he also served as a member of the Provincial Congresses, and from Philadelphia he communicated unremittingly to the leaders at home all news of importance, and was indeed the agent to supply North Carolina with everything needed to prepare her for the Revolution, and to equip her troops in the field.

Independence was not the design of the people at first, but only to secure and maintain their rights and liberties as British subjects.

Mr. Hewes attended the Continental Congress that met in September, 1774, and which in October adopted an association to be submitted and approved by the people of the different colonies.
On March 6, 1775, an association was formed at Wilmington and recommended to the committees of the adjacent counties, solemnly engaging by the most sacred ties of honor, virtue and love of our country to observe the association recommended by Congress; and at once troops were embodied in New Hanover and Brunswick counties. The same spirit was manifested elsewhere, especially after the people were inflamed by the battle of Lexington.

On May 31st the committee of Mecklenburg County adopted resolutions setting up an independent local government and also providing for the organization of troops. These resolutions were printed on the 16th of June in the Charleston paper and on the same day in the North Carolina Gazette, published at New-Bern. On the 18th of June Mr. Cogdell, the chairman of the committee at New-Bern, transmitted that paper to Samuel Johnston, writing him as follows:

"You will observe the Mecklenburg resolves exceed all other committees or the Congress itself.   I send you the paper wherein thy are inserted."

On the 27th of June Mr. Johnston wrote to Mr. Hewes, who was then in attendance on the Continental Congress:

"Tom Polk, too, is raising a very pretty spirit in the back country (see the newspapers). He has gone a little farther than I would choose to have gone, but perhaps no further than was necessary."

The proceedings at Mecklenburg were transmitted at once to the Continental Congress by the hand of Captain Jack, but at that time the action taken at Mecklenburg was thought premature. There was much diversity of sentiment in the Continental Congress, as there was among the people, and even the most resolute leaders deemed it inexpedient to take any step until the time was ripe for it.

Concerning this action at Mecklenburg, there are in the archives of the Moravian Church at Bethania, North Carolina, contemporaneous records of events written in German, one item of which, for the year 1775, being translated, is said to read as follows:

"I can't but remark, at the end of the 1775th year, during the summer of this year, that in the month of May or June the county of Mecklenburg in North Carolina, declared itself free and independent of England, and made such arrangements for the administration of justice, which proceeding the Continental Congress at this time considered premature; afterward, however, the Continental Congress later extended same over the whole country."

Although Congress considered the action of Mecklenburg premature, yet the North Carolina delegates were anxious for the province to make preparations for war. The British ministry had sought to detach North Carolina from the common cause by exempting her from certain trade restrictions, and otherwise showing her special favors. Hooper, Hewes and Caswell therefore, on the 19th of June, addressed a strong letter to the committees of the towns and counties warning the people against the British designs, and particularly urging them to form themselves into military companies. Although of Quaker extraction, and being wealthy, having much to lose in case of unsuccessful rebellion, on July 8, 1775, Hewes wrote: "I consider myself now over head and ears in what the ministry call rebellion. I feel no compunction for the part I have taken, nor for the number of our enemies lately slain at the battle of Bunker Hill. I wish to be in camp before Boston, though I fear I shall not be able to get there till next campaign." A few days later, writing to his correspondent in Great Britain, he said: "We do not want to be independent; we want no revolution. But every American to a man is determined to die or be free." He urged that the English people should petition the government to restore the rights of America, and declared: "This country, without some such step is taken, and that soon, will be lost to the mother country." In the Continental Congress his large experience and fine business capacity placed him in the front rank of important members. Others were more brilliant and more forward in agitation, but few, if any, were more useful or exerted a stronger influence on the action of that body and upon the course of events than Mr. Hewes. He was one of the committee that reported the rights of the American colonies, the manner they had been violated and the proposed means of obtaining redress, this report being a lucid and elaborate document and a State paper of the first importance. Upon it all the subsequent proceedings of Congress and of the colonies were based. It constituted the association into which the people of America entered, its language being, "We do, for ourselves and the inhabitants of the several colonies whom we represent, firmly agree and associate under sacred ties of virtue, honor and love of country," to do the matters and things therein set forth. That was the first step toward separation and the establishment of the Union by the colonists. At the Hillsboro convention of 1775 Mr. Hewes went one step further, and submitted a draft of the proposed confederacy of the colonies, which virtually looked to perpetual union and to separation and independence unless, indeed, Great Britain should comply with conditions that could not have been expected of her. The Provincial Congress discussed those articles of confederation at great length, but finally resolved that "it was not expedient to form that confederacy; but that the present association should be relied op to bring about a reconciliation, and a further confederacy ought only to be adopted in case of the last necessity." A month later Hewes, writing from Philadelphia, says: "We have scarcely a dawn of hope that a reconciliation can take place." Up to that time Congress, indeed, had hopes of an amicable adjustment, and although they had put armies in the field for defense, they had not created a naval force to make war on the sea. But as hope of reconciliation vanished, Congress appointed a committee of three members, called the Committee of Marine, of which Mr. Hewes was the chairman, with a view of establishing a naval service. A little later that committee was increased so as to embrace one member from each colony, but Mr. Hewes remained at its head, and entered at once on the work of establishing a naval force. Virtually he was what has since been known as the secretary of the navy, a post for which he was admirably fitted by his capacity, his experience, his cool judgment and discriminating intelligence. The construction of new ships, their equipment, securing armaments for them and ammunition, and selecting and appointing the officers were all committed to him.

He was also a member of the 'secret committee," which had information and matured plans which it was not expedient at once to make public even among the other members of the Congress. Not often participating in debate, he was always engaged in the details of the business committed to him, and in the absence of public funds he drew liberally on the resources of himself and of his firm. Indeed, his firm was the agent of Congress in North Carolina, through which he transacted a vast amount of important commercial business, and his vessels made large importations. In making a selection of officers for the naval service, it apparently fell to his lot to appoint John Paul Jones and to give him a command. In Jones's letters to Mr. Hewes at that time he mentions the favors that Mr. Hewes had done him and his reliance on Mr. Hewes's interest to advance his purposes and his fortunes, and there seems to have been an intimacy and friendship between these two distinguished characters that well illustrates the discernment and discriminating judgment of Mr. Hewes; and it also appears that Jones was appointed from North Carolina.

Knowing that Great Britain was going to make a great effort at the South in the spring of 1776, in February of that year Mr. Hewes wrote to North Carolina urging every preparation to meet it. "We must not shrink from it; we ought not to show any symptoms of fear; the nearer it approaches and the greater the sound, the more fortitude and calm, steady firmness we ought to possess. Although the storm thickens, I feel myself quite composed. I have furnished myself with a good musket and bayonet, and when I can no longer be useful in council, I hope I shall be willing to take the field. I think I had rather fall there than be carried off by a lingering illness."

Events now rapidly progressed. Governor Martin's horrid plan of subjugation roused the patriots to fever heat. When the Provincial Congress met, April 4th, all were hot for independence, and on April 12, 1776, while Sir Peter Parker's fleet was in the Cape Fear River threatening to overrun North Carolina that bold action was taken by the Provincial Congress, the first declaration made by any Provincial Congress or legislature for independence. Shortly afterward, when a resolution in favor of independence was introduced in the Continental Congress, there was much diversity of judgment among the delegates. John Adams says that "Hewes determined the action of Congress." In his representative capacity, and acting under instructions, Hewes had not been an early advocate of declaring independence. In his letter to Thomas Jefferson of June 22, 1819, Adams says: "You know that the unanimity of the States finally depended on the vote of Joseph Hewes, and was finally determined by him; and yet history is to ascribe the American Revolution to Thomas Paine.   Sat verbum sapienti."

And elsewhere Adams says: "One day, while a member was producing documents to show that the general opinion of all the colonies was for independence, among them North Carolina, Hewes, who had hitherto constantly voted against it, started suddenly upright, and lifting both hands to heaven, cried out, "It is done, and I will abide by it!" Adams adds: "I would give more for a perfect painting of the terror and horror upon the face of the old majority at that critical moment than for the best piece of Raphael."

It was indeed a matter of great concern. Up to that time the Revolutionists, having for their object only the maintenance of their rights as British subjects, had largely the sympathies of most of the people in the several colonies; but with independence declared, and no longer claiming a redress of grievances as subjects of Great Britain, the Revolutionists could not expect the same popular support; and, as a matter of fact, they took up the work of securing the establishment of a new nation, as it were, with at least one-half of the population unfavorable to that design. The change was momentous in its consequences, and it appears that it was made by the vote of Mr. Hewes, and when the Declaration was prepared, he signed it.

He continued at his work in Congress, and in supplying a naval force for Congress, while also largely supplying the needs of North Carolina, and in a measure directing events in North Carolina by recommendations and solicitations until his health broke down, and in September, 1776, he returned home. At that time his colleagues wrote extolling his labors at Philadelphia, saying: "From the large share of naval and mercantile business which has been allotted to his attention by Congress, his health has been much impaired. From 6 in the morning till 5 and sometimes 6 in the afternoon, without drinking or eating, he would be at work."

In August, 1775, Penn succeeded Caswell, resigned, as a delegate to the Continental Congress, and the Assembly, on April 28, 1777, elected as delegates Dr. Burke, Hooper and Penn. Hooper at once declined, and it was then proposed to re-elect Hewes. But he rejected the proposition, and Harnett was elected. Mr. Hewes, however, was a member of the House of Commons in 1778 and 1779. At that time he was, as he had been before, largely engaged in bringing in supplies from abroad by his own ships for the use of the Continental troops. Indeed, very large importations were made through North Carolina waters. The established route of transportation to the army was by water to South Quay, on the Nansemond River, and thence by wagon northward; and it was thus that Washington's army at Valley Forge was relieved of their distress during the terrible winter of their encampment there.

In 1778 Dr. Burke resigned because of animadversions, the delegation elected being Penn, Harnett and John Williams, who was the speaker of the House. Mr. Williams, however, resigned in February, 1779, and the legislature having determined to increase the delegation, Joseph Hewes and William Sharpe were elected other delegates.

Mr. Hewes's health was still impaired, and disease had prostrated his physical powers. He continued to attend the House, however, when able to do so, until the 29th of October, when he left the hall for the last time. After an illness of some ten days, he expired on the 10th of November, 1779. His remains were buried in Christ Churchyard, Philadelphia, followed by the members and officers of Congress, the General Assembly and Council of Pennsylvania, the French Minister, the military and a large concourse of other persons who were anxious to pay their last respects to one whom they esteemed in life and whose memory they delighted to honor.   His grave was next to that of Mr. Drayton.

In closing a sketch of his life in the "Sages and Heroes of the American Revolution," the author said: "His name is recorded on the Magna Charta of our liberty—his fame will live until the last vestige of American history shall be blotted from the world."

In his will, executed August 12, 1778, Mr. Hewes directs that his partnership Hewes & Smith, and his partnership Hewes, Allen & Smith, shall be closed up; and he makes bequests to his mother, Providence; his brother, Josiah Hewes of Philadelphia; his brother, Aaron Hewes of New Jersey; his sister, Sarah Allen; and sister, Mary Middleton; and nephew, Nathaniel Allen.
E. W. Sikes.
S. A. Ashe.
(Source: Biographical History of North Carolina from Colonial Times to Present, By Samuel A. Ashe, Vol. III, published 1906)