Page:Revised Statutes of the State of North Carolina - Volume 1.djvu/14

x Davis was the first public printer, erected the first printing press, and this was the first book printed, in North Carolina. It is said by Martin in his history that this act confirming Swann's revisal was, through some jealousy of the General Assembly, disapproved by the king in council. Up to this period the acts of the assembly had been promulgated in manuscript copies which were transmitted to the judges and clerks of the several courts, and directed to be read annually openly in each court. Another edition of the public laws was published by James Davis at Newbern in 1765, dedicated to Governor Tryon; and still another in 1773, dedicated to Governor Martin. These were both on private account. Since the revolution the acts of assembly have been regularly printed and distributed at the end of each session. The last session of the General Assembly under the royal government, whose proceedings are on record, was held at Newbern on the second day of March, 1774, and its acts are signed by Josiah Martin, governor, James Hasell, president, and John Harvey, speaker, on the nineteenth of March, 1774.

The assembly met again in April, 1775; but was immediately dissolved by the governor. A meeting of deputies from the different counties had been held in August, 1774, and by adjournment reassembled in April, 1775. The deputies again met in convention in August, 1775, and appointed a provincial council consisting of Samuel Johnston, Cornelius Harnet, Samuel Ashe, Abner Nash, James Coor, Thomas Jones, Whitmill Hill, William Jones, Thomas Jones, Thomas Person, John Kinchen, Samuel Spencer and Waightstill Avery. The revolution was then in full progress. The Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence was signed on the twentieth day of May, 1775. Deputies had been sent to the continental congress in 1774 and 1775. The Declaration of Independence by the United States, on the fourth of July, 1776, was proclaimed at Halifax on the first of August of the same year, by direction of the council of safety. "A congress of the representatives of the freemen of the State of North Carolina, assembled at Halifax the seventeenth day of December, in the year 1776, for the purpose of establishing a constitution or form of government for the said State." Besides adopting the constitution, this congress performed the functions of an ordinary legislature, its legislative acts, however, being generally limited to the end of the next General Assembly. These acts were styled ordinances. Richard Caswell, a distinguished patriot and soldier, was the president. Among others, an ordinance was passed directing "That Thomas Jones, Samuel Johnston, Archibald