conduce to their safety. In accordance with this resolution--
I. New Hampshire formed a State Constitution 28th December, 1775.
II. South Carolina, on 26th March, 1776.
III. Virginia, June 29, 1776.
IV. New Jersey, July 3, 1776.
V. Delaware, September 12, 1776.
VI. Pennsylvania, September 21, 1776.
VII. North Carolina, 12th November, 1776.
VIII. Georgia, 5th February, 1777.
IX. New York, April 20, 1777.
(See Ben: Perley Poore on Charters and Constitutions.)
I. The Convention which formed the first Constitution for North Carolina met at Halifax, 12th November, 1776, as above alluded to.
II. The Convention which revised and amended the Constitution, met at Raleigh on 4th June, 1835, (Nath'l Macon, President.)
III. The Convention (secession) met at Raleigh 20th May, 1861, (Weldon N Edwards, President.)
IV. The Convention, under orders of the President of the United States, (Johnson,) met at Raleigh 2d October, 1865, formed a Constitution which was not ratified by the people, (Edwin G. Reade, President.)
V. The Convention, under orders of General Canby, of the United States Army, met at Raleigh 11th January, 1868, formed a Constitution, (Calvin J. Cowles, President.)
VI. The Convention to amend the Constitution, met at Raleigh on 6th September, 1875, which was ratified by the people by a majority in November, 1876, (Dr. Ew'd Ransom, President.)
Lists of the persons who were members of the Conventions of 1776, 1835, 1861, 1865, 1868 and 1875, are to be found in the admirable hand-book of L. L. Polk, Commissioner of Agriculture, published at Raleigh, 1879.
Brunswick County presented many patriotic sons to the cause of Independence, but none more worthy of our memories than Robert Howe, (born 1732; died 1785.) So little has been preserved and presented to the county of this distinguished man that the indefatigable and accurate historian*
* Lossing II.,
729.
has been compelled to state that history bears no record of
his private life.
The reproach has been removed, in some measure, by an abridgement of the memories of General Howe, compiled by Archibald Maclaine Hooper.*
* University Magazine, vol.
II., June, 1853. No. 5.
Had his services and sacrifices been rendered in any other State than North Carolina, he would have been lauded among the statesmen and patriots of the nation. Let us try to supply this omission, and endeavor to present the character and services of General Howe as they deserve.
His name and fame belong to Brunswick; for it was in this county he was born, lived and died.
He was born in 1732. His father's family was a branch of the noble house of Howe, in England. He had the misfortune to lose both of his parents at any early age; and the guidance of his boyhood was entrusted to a kind grandmother, who, like all grandmothers, so completely indulged him that his education and training was much neglected. He was, however, of an active, inquisitive mind, and by even desultory reading, and conversation of literary men, he acquired much and varied information. He married at an early age a young lady of the Grange family, much against the will of her parents. With his bride be visited his relatives in England, where he remained about two years, enjoying the noble and munificeat hospitality of his friends and family.
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