State

General John Steele The present Comptroller of the United States Treasury is a North Carolinian. It is interesting to note that the first Comp¬ troller also was a native-horn Tar Heel. Rowan county has boon famous for its valiant fighters from the duya of the Revolution down to the stirring scenes of the War Retween the States. During the Revo¬ lution she furnished military heroes in the persons of General Griffith Rutherford and Colonel Francis Locke, hero of the battle of Ramseur’s Mill, who was killed in a skirmish with the British shortly thereafter. In 1801 when President Lincoln called upon North Carolina for troops to aid in subduing her sister Southern states which bad seceded, it was Gov¬ ernor John W. Ellis of Rowan who replied “You will get no troops from North Carolina!" It was Burton Craige from Rowan who was the author of the Ordinance of Secession which he introduced into the Conven¬ tion held in May 1861, where it was adopted. Colonel Charles Fisher of Rowan was the first officer of rank from North Carolina to be killed, as he fell while leading his regiment in a charge against the enemy at the bat¬ tle of Bull Run, the first great battle of the Civil War. General John Steele was born at Salisbury in 1764. He became a Gen¬ eral of Militia, but his services to his state were upon the fields of pence rather than in the theatre of war. He started life as a merchant, but his natural gift for public leadership, his power ns a debater, and his magnetic personality were such that he was soon called into the public service, ami as early as 1787 he was elected to membership in the House of Com¬ mons. He was also a delegate to the Convention which met at Hillsboro in 1788 to consider the ratification of the Federal Constitution, where be joined Governor Samuel Johnston, General William R. Davie, Judge James Iredell and other leaders in a valiant but ineffectual effort to secure its ratification. In 1790 when the first members of Congress were elected from this state following our ratification of the Fed¬ eral Constitution, General Steele was elected to membership in that body where he served in company with the sturdy patriot John B. Ashe of New Hanover; with Timothy Bloodworth. By R. C. LAWRENCE the Wilmington cobbler who finally became United States Senator; with John Sevier, who was later elected as the first Governor of Tennessee, after he had been indicted by a North Caro¬ lina court for high treason for under¬ taking to establish the independent State of Franklin; and the celebrated Dr. Hugh Williamson of Chowan, member of the Continental Congress, signer of the Federal Constitution, surgeon during the Revolution, and Carolina historian. Appointed by Washington Upon the completion of his Con¬ gressional service, when Alexander Hamilton organized the United States Treasury during the administration of President Washington, General Steele was appointed as the first Comptroller of the United States Treasury, an office which he resigned during the administration of Presi¬ dent Jefferson despite the insistence of the President that he continue in that office. General Steele served numerous terms a« a member from Rowan in the House of Commons, and lie was sev¬ eral times elected as the Speaker of that body. He had the reputation of being one of the ablest legislators of bis day, and one of the most skilful parliamentarians and debaters tlmt hi- generation afforded. He served as Commissioner to run the boundary Iietween this state and South Carolina. Tt is a singular fact that our State should have had bound¬ ary disputes with every State on which we abut with the exception of Georgia. The dispute with Virginia was long and aroused great bitterness, ns will appear from a perusal of Wil¬ liam Byrd’s “Secret History of Run¬ ning the Dividing Line." The bound¬ ary with South Carolina caused dis¬ putes which lasted for more than two centuries and which was not finally adjusted until our own day. I can well rememlier the suit brought by Ten¬ nessee against our state in the Su¬ preme Court of the United States for the purpose of determining conflicting boundary claims of the two jurisdic¬ tions, a suit which was finally amicably settled when Governor Thomas Walter Biekett was Attorney General of our state- ln the time of General Steele, the boundary dispute with South Caro¬ lina was in full swing. General Wil¬ liam R. Davie bail boon the boundary Commissioner on the part of North Carolina, but be bad removed to South Carolina and had therefore l»e- come disqualified. General Steele was then named ns his successor, and he conducted bis difficult task through all the tortious mazes of official nego¬ tiations which were long drawn-out and complicated by many difficulties; but when his task was finally com¬ pleted we can but suppose that the boundary commissioners flattered themselves that they bad successfully completed their difficult task, and that they did not dream that another century would elapse before the negotiations would be finally com¬ pleted. General Steele did not thereafter hold public office until ISIS when lie was again elected ns a member of the House of Commons, but be died on the very day he was elected. One of his daughters married General Jesse Pearson, who was himself one of the leading men of bi« generation, fre¬ quently a member of the House of Commons from Rowan. He also served as Colonel of a regiment under Gen¬ eral Rutherford in the war against the Creek Indians in 1814. and was later appointed as Major General of North Carolina militia. Dr. Samuel Johnson once humor¬ ously said that lapidary inscriptions are never to be taken as upon oath, but the eminent character of the serv¬ ice rendered by General Steele would seem to entirely justify the inscrip¬ tion upon the monument over his crave at bis Salisbury home: “An enlightened Statesman; a vigi¬ lant Patriot; an ace/miplislicd Gentle¬ man. The archives of the country testify the services of bis short but useful life. Long will that country deplore his loss."