From Cobbler To Senator
lie uas Timothy Hlooriworlh. of Revolu¬
tionary days, and he held just about every
publie offiee in North Carolina from United
States Senator on down.
Til
К
only memorial to Blood-
worth in North Carolina is the
street of that name in the city
of Raleigh, an honor bestowed upon
him for the least significant of his
public acts — voting in favor of Ra-
leigh and against Fayetteville as the
capital of the newly established State.
The character of his patriotic service
should have commanded more con¬
sideration at the hands of the people
of his native State.
He was born in New Hanover in
1730; and in early life was a cobbler
by trade. He educated himself, and
later in life became a schoolmaster,
and such an influential figure in the
public life of New Hanover that he
was a member of the second House of
Commons which met after the estab¬
lishment of our State.
Co-workcr with Ashe
.Vs early as 1765, when the agita¬
tion against British oppression first
began in the Cape Fear section, he
became a co-worker with John Ashe
in the formation of the Wilmington
Committee of Safety. When a tempo¬
rary State government was formed
with Wilie Jones as ex officio Governor
in his capacity as President of the
State Committee of Public Safety,
Blood worth was one of his right hand
men and staunchest supporters. He
was frequently in the legislature, and
upon the retirement of John Asho as
treasurer of the Wilmington district
he was elected to that position which
ho held until 1783.
When the Revolution was nearing
its close, party lines began to be drawn
very close. John Ashe. Thomas
Person, Nathaniel Macon and Griffith
Rutherford believed in the form of
government which had been adopted
for the State when the Constitution
was adopted by the Halifax Conven¬
tion. On the other hand such public
leaders as Governor Samuel Johnston,
William Hooper, Allen Jones, Joseph
llewcs and others in public life did
not believe that the several states
were sufficiently strong to stand alone,
and that therefore some degn-c of their
|>olitical powers should Ik- surrendered
to the national government.
An acute question of the day was
By R. C. LAWRENCE
what to do about those who had been
Tories during the Revolution. Much
of their property had boon confiscated,
and Wilie Jones and his adherents
were unwilling to restore it. The
Jones policy prevailed, and in addi¬
tion, new and even more strict meas¬
ures were enacted against them,
forbidding them from returning to
their former homes. Bloodworth was
such a fierce patriot that he strongly
supported this measure, and was elect¬
ed by the Convention at Hillsboro as
one of the Commissioners for Con¬
fiscated Property. At a somewhat
later day the North Carolina eourt
in the case of Bayard v. Singleton
was to declare these very nets uncon¬
stitutional — the first reported Ameri¬
can case where a court had held that
it possessed the |wwer to declare a
legislative act void as in conflict
with the Constitution.
Rejection of Treaty
Another issue which divided the
people was concerning the position oc¬
cupied by the State in the Confedera¬
tion. This question took on an acute
form when the treaty of peace between
this country and Groat Britain was
submitted to the State for ratification.
Although the advocate- of ratification
had the powerful support of President
Washington, yet the treaty was re¬
jected by the House of Commons 37
to 32. Both Bloodworth and his
brother were in the Commons from
New Hanover and both voted against
ratification. If they had voted the
other way, the treaty would have been
ratified.
In 17S5 Bloodworth was elected as
a member of the Congress of the Con¬
federation of which he continued as a
member until August 17.S7, when he
sent in his resignation to Governor
Martin, so that he might return to
North Carolina and lend his influence
toward defeating the new Federal
Constitution. It was during his term
of membership in the Congress that
the question which perplexed that
body and vexed the statesmen of the
day was presented — how to strengthen
the national government without
weakening the power of the several
states. The states were unwilling to
surrender any of their |»ditical rights
and were jealous of the powers of the
central government. For his part
Bloodworth wn- also jealous of the
rising power of the Northern states,
and he seemed to look seventy-live
years into the future and to hear
the roar of the guns firing on Fort
Sumter. Had he lived to see that
day he could hove truly said: “I told
you so
Iй
Against the Constitution
He was elected as a member of the
Hillsboro Convention called to con¬
sider the ratification of the now
Federal Constitution, and there he
joined the faction led by Wilie Jones
who was determined to defeat it.
Among other portions taken by
Bloodworth was that the treaty¬
making power should have been vested
in both branch.- of tl»- Congress in¬
stead of being lodged in the hands
of the President and Senate. Hen-
lie found Iiim-olf in accord with both
Jefferson and Madison. Again Blood-
worth contended that unity of interest
alone lay at the bottom of all govern¬
ment, and that there was too nitieli di¬
versity of interest between the North
and South to make the two sections
harmoniou-, and therefore the South
should not surrender its political
rights nor put them l«yond the control
of the Stale.
Bloodworth was also a member of
the Fayetteville Convention which
finally ratified ihc new Constitution,
but he continued bis fight against it
to the bitter end, and the opposition
in which he joined bad much to do
with the adoption of the first ten
amendment', the
яо
"Bill of
Rights" which, among other things,
guaranteed the right of trial by jury.
The year 1789 found him a member
of the State Senate, and bis promi¬
nence in the publie life of the State
was such that he became a candidate
for a seat in the I’uited States Senate.
(Continued on
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