Harnett, Cornelius, 1723-1781

HARNETT, Cornelius, a Delegate from North Carolina; born near Edenton, Chowan County, N.C., April 20, 1723; moved with his parents to Brunswick in 1726 and later to Wilmington, N. C.; engaged in mercantile pursuits; appointed by Governor Johnston as justice of the peace for New Hanover County in April 1750; elected town commissioner in August 1750 and served at different times for eleven years; member of the colonial assembly 1754-1775; chairman of the Sons of Liberty of North Carolina and leader in the resistance to the Stamp Act in 1765 and 1766; member of the committee of correspondence in 1773 and 1774; chairman of the Wilmington Committee of Safety in 1774 and 1775; member of the Second, Third, Fourth and Fifth Provincial Congresses in 1775 and 1776, serving as president in the Fifth; delegate to the provincial council in 1775 and 1776, and served as president of the council, thus becoming chief executive of the new government; excepted by Sir Henry Clinton from his proclamation of general amnesty in 1776; councilor of state in 1777; Member of the Continental Congress 1777-1779; captured by the British upon their occupation of Wilmington, N.C., in January 1781, and died as a prisoner in Wilmington on April 28, 1781; interment in St. James' Churchyard.

One of the chief master spirits of the Revolution, in North Carolina, was Cornelius Harnett, of Wilmington. He was born in England in 1723, and came to America in early life. He was a man of wealth and distinction before the disputes, which led to the Revolution, commenced; and he was among the earliest of the Southern patriots to denounce the Stamp Act and kindred measures. In 1770 and 1171, he represented the borough of Wilmington in the colonial legislature, and was chairman of the most important committees of that body. In conjunction with Robert Howe (afterward a general in the Revolution) and Judge Maurice Moore, Mr. Harnett was appointed by the Assembly to draw up a remonstrance against the appointment of commissioners, by the royal governor, to run the southern boundary of the province, and he was then known as one of the firmest Whigs1 in all the South. Josiah Quincy, the young and ardent patriot of Boston, visited Mr. Harnett in 1773, and after describing the pleasures of a visit spent with him and Robert Howe, he spoke of Harnett's unflinching integrity, and called him "the Samuel Adams of North Carolina." Toward the close of that year, Mr. Harnett was made chairman of the committee of correspondence, of Wilmington District, and, throughout the Cape Fear region, he was the master spirit of the storm of the revolution, as it gathered and burst over the country. When a provincial congress was called, in 1775, he was then the representative of his old constituents; and in that Congress at Halifax, on the Roanoke, in 1776, from which issued the first official voice in favor of the independence of the colonies, Cornelius Harnett was a bold leader, and with his own hand drew up those noble instructions to the North Carolina delegates in the Continental Congress. When, in the Spring of 1776, Sir Henry Clinton appeared al, Cape Fear, with a British fleet, Harnett and Howe were honored with an exemption from the terms of a general pardon, because, like John Hancock and Samuel Adams, they were considered arch-rebels. When, on the 26th of July, 4, 1776, the Declaration of Independence arrived at Halifax, Harnett read it to the people, who, when be had finished it, took him upon their shoulders, and bore him in triumph through the town. In the Autumn, he drafted a State Constitution and Bill of Rights. When, under that constitution, Richard Caswell was made governor of the new State, Harnett was one of his council. He was afterward a member of the Continental Congress, and his name is attached to the Articles of Confederation.2 When, in 1780 and 1781, the British took possession of the country around the Cape Fear, Harnett was made a prisoner, and died while a captive. Upon a slab of brown stone, at the head of his grave in St. James' church-yard, Wilmington, is the simple inscription-" CORNELIUS HARNETT. Died 1781, aged fifty-eight years."

<ul><b>RACES</b>
<li>12/31/1778 NC Continental Congress Won 100.00% (+100.00%)</li>
<li>12/31/1777 NC Continental Congress Won 100.00% (+100.00%)</li>
<li>01/15/1777 NC Council of State Chair Won 100.00% (+100.00%)</li>
<li>12/31/1776 NC Continental Congress Won 100.00% (+100.00%)</li>
</ul>

<p>Cornelius Harnett (April 10, 1723 – April 28, 1781) was a Founding Father of the United States and an American merchant and statesman from Wilmington, North Carolina. He was a leading American Revolutionary statesman in the Cape Fear region, and a delegate for North Carolina in the Continental Congress from 1777 to 1779 where he signed the Articles of Confederation. Cornelius Harnett is the namesake of Harnett County, North Carolina.</p>

<p>Harnett was born on April 10, 1723, to Cornelius and Elizabeth Harnett in Chowan County, North Carolina. Soon after he was born, his parents moved to Wilmington. As an adult, he obtained a plantation in Wilmington. He became a leading merchant there and was interested in farming, milling, and mercantile ventures. Harnett was an Episcopalian but has also been identified as a deist. Though he was an intelligent man, there is little known about his educational background. His intelligence served him well in his passion for politics.</p>

<p>Harnett married Mary Holt where they lived on his second plantation, Poplar Grove, located in Scotts Hill, which is north of Wilmington. During Harnett's political career, he maintained his relationship with his wife through letters.</p>

<p>Cornelius Harnett, Jr., Revolutionary War statesman, was born in Chowan County, the son of Cornelius and Elizabeth Harnett. The family moved to Brunswick Town when young Cornelius was only three, and he spent the remainder of his life in the Cape Fear area. Harnett became a leading Wilmington merchant with interests in farming, milling, and mercantile ventures. Along with other business activities, he was a partner in distillery operations which included a still house, wharf, warehouse, and schooner. He became involved in public affairs in 1750, when he was elected to the Wilmington town commission; during the same year, he was appointed by Governor Gabriel Johnston as a justice of the peace for New Hanover County. In 1754, he was elected to represent Wilmington in the General Assembly, a position he held for every legislative session until the end of the colonial period. Harnett's reputation and influence developed rapidly throughout the province. During his career in the legislature, there were few committees of importance on which he did not serve and few debates in which he did not participate.</p>

<p>When the British Parliament in 1765 passed the Stamp Act in an effort to gain revenue from the colonies, Harnett moved to the forefront of the resistance to the act in North Carolina. Along with Hugh Waddell and John Ashe, he was a leader of the citizens' march on Brunswick Town in February 1766, and he served as spokesman for the "inhabitants in arms" in their confrontation with Governor William Tryon. From the Stamp Act resistance was born the Sons of Liberty, and Harnett was chairman for that group in Wilmington. In June 1770, he was elected chairman of a committee to enforce the nonimportation association in an effort to thwart the British Townshend duties.</p>

<p>Throughout the Tryon and Josiah Martin gubernatorial administrations, Harnett was vocal on the major issues facing the province. He advocated government reforms that would curtail abuses complained of by the Regulators in the Piedmont, but at the same time he opposed the riots and excesses of the Regulators. In the Assembly debates over the civil court law, Harnett, along with Robert Howe, William Hooper, Samuel Johnston, and others, led the fight to retain the controversial attachment clause, much to the chagrin of royal Governor Martin.</p>