General Ja
es I. McKay
lip was a pioneer in liberalism: an outstand¬
ing lawyer. Chairman of the Ways and
.Means Coniniittee and distinguished in
other serviee to the state and nation.
WE are very proud of die fad
i liat Congressman Robert L.
Poughton is Cliairnian of die
Ways and Means Committee of our
National House of Representatives,
and we should be, for this is by far
the most important of the many com¬
mittees of that body. But our state has
had this high honor before the days
of Dougbton. Claude Kitehin served
in that capacity during the World
War, and my subject served as chair¬
man as far back as 1843, and in this
capacity he became the author of one
of the earliest tariff bills over enacted
by our Congress.
The General was one of the most
brilliant men our state has prod tired,
and he passed a distinguished career.
Born in 1 71*2, a native of Bladen
County, he was educated at the Ra¬
leigh Academy and at the University,
graduating in the class of 1809. and
was admitted to the bar. entering
immediately upon a public career
which was to win for him national
recognition. When hut twenty-three
years old he was elected a member of
the State Senate from the Bladen Dis-
triet, and was repeatedly re-elected,
rendering a distinctive service in that
capacity.
At an early date, ho won wide
recognition as a lawyer of outstand¬
ing ability, and he was yet young in
years when he was appointed bv the
President to the important post of
United States District Attorney, in
which capacity lie served with high
distinction.
In 1831 he was elected as a mem¬
ber of the Congress from the Cape
Fear District, anti was re-elected for
nine terms, thus being n member of
that body for twenty years. He be¬
came Chairman of the Ways and
Means Committee in 1843,
While the General was in Congress
he won a national reputation, being
known throughout the country as the
“Watchdog of the Treasury.” <>r “Old
Money-bags." This was due l«> the fact
that he became the foremost ex po¬
llen t of the same school of political
thought to which Carolina’s Nathan¬
iel Macon belonged; a school of polit¬
ical opinion then in such favor that
it made Macon Speaker of the House.
By It. C. LAWRENCE
With Macon. General McKay believed
in the policy of strict and rigid econ¬
omy in federal expenditures; and he
did not favor federal aid for any pur¬
pose other than absolutely necessary
for strictly governmental purjioses.
How his very soul would have shud¬
dered had ho lived in these days of
the WPA. and a public indebtedness
of more than sixty billion dollars!
Carolina's historian. Major John
II. Wheeler, writes in very flattering
terms of the General’s ability and of
bis patriotism, saying, inter alia: “As
a statesman he was of unquestioned
ability, of stern integrity, capable of
great labor and patient investiga¬
tion. He was in public, ns well as in
private life, a radical economist and
belonged to that school of which Mr.
Macon was the father.”
Presented for Vice Presidency
So highly was the General regarded,
that in the Democratic National Con¬
vention of 1848, bis name was pre¬
sented for the vice presidency by the
delegates from North Carolina.
He was also an excellent man of
business. A tireless worker, he ap¬
peared in important litigation, and
he inherited and accumulated a large
estate. He was said to Ik* a man of
peculiar and eccentric character, hut
of generous and charitable impulses
and benevolent disposition, as will be
noted later on when we come to con¬
sider the provisions of his will.
The General was further notable
for the fact that ho married a woman
of distinguished ancestry, his wife
being Ann Eliza Harvey, n grand¬
daughter of Colonel Thomas Rolie-
son. Those who know Carolina history
will recall to mind that Colonel Robe¬
son was the commander of the patriot
forces at the battle of Elizabethtown
during tin’ Revolutionary War, where
his soldiers forced the Tories t" take
refuge in the famous “Tory Hole,”
known as such to this day. and being
the show place of our Bladen capital.
Our county <*f Robeson was named in
Imnor of Colonel Robeson, whose body
lies upon the ancestral acres in Bladen
County, acres which are to this day
occupied by the Robeson family.
General McKay's only child died in
infancy, but a number of his collateral
descendants still reside in Bladen and
Cumberland counties, including the
Kemps, the Suttons, the Roliesons.
hast year the site <*f the General's
hoincplncc near Elizabethtown was
patriotically marked by the Daugh¬
ters of the American Revolution.
Leaving no issue, the General made
other disposition of bis large estate,
and si» peculiar are the provisions of
his will that they require special men¬
tion. He devised a large acreage of
land to Bladen County for the sup¬
port of what was substantially a
county orphanage, this being by far
the first effort in this direction to be
made in North Carolina, as the Gen¬
eral's will long antedated the estab¬
lishment of an orphanage by any
religious denomination or other body.
It was not the fault of the General
that his generous act was not taken
advantage of by tin- county, and the
orphanage established as he desired.
His will contained another and
most peculiar provision. It is well
known that our national government
rendered substantial financial assist¬
ance in the establishment of the black
Republic of Liberia, in Africa, the
capital whereof is named Monrovia
in honor <>f our President James
Monroe. Historians have devoted
much space to the fact that the .South’s
hero. General Robert E. Lee. was not a
devotee of slavery, but set bis own
slaves free, But General McKay’s
will went very much further. It con¬
tained provisions whereby all bis
slaves, several hundred in number,
should Ih- sent hack to Liberia! It is
l-dioved this is the only instance of
such a provision in the will of any
Carolinian.
So. now that you have read hi*
record, will you not agree- that General
McKay should I-- included in your
list of those who have «lone the state
some service? In my judgment lie
stands second among the public sons
of Bladen, being ranked only by
John Owen. Governor of North
Carolina.
The General died in 18.ri3.
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