Cornelius Harnett was an American merchant, farmer and statesman. He was a leading figure in the Cape Fear region during the American Revolutionary, and served as a delegate for North Carolina in the Continental Congress.
Background
Cornelius Harnett was born on April 20, 1723 probably in Chowan County, North Carolina.
He was the son of Cornelius and Elizabeth Harnett. Soon after he was born, his parents moved to Wilmington. As an adult, he obtained a plantation here.
Education
Harnett seems to have had some educational advantages, for he is reported to have had "a fine taste for letters and a genius for music. "
Career
From 1754 to 1775 Harnett represented the borough of Wilmington in the General Assembly and rose rapidly to a place of leadership in the popular party. He was conspicuous in the revolutionary movement. As chairman of the Cape Fear Sons of Liberty in 1765-1766, he led the successful resistance to the Stamp Act in North Carolina. Later he was a leader in the Assembly which, upon dissolution by the governor, met November 7, 1769, as a convention and adopted a "Non-Importation Association, " and was chairman of a committee of thirty appointed at Wilmington to enforce it.
Hailed in 1773 as "the Samuel Adams of North Carolina, " he led the movement in the Assembly to create a committee of correspondence and was himself appointed one of its nine members. Though his absence from the colony prevented his election to the First Provincial Congress, August 25, 1774, he served in each of the other four provincial congresses and succeeded Richard Caswell as president of the Congress of November 1776. As chairman of the committees of safety of Wilmington and New Hanover County, 1774-1775, he made them the most effective revolutionary agencies in the colony, and from October 18, 1775, to August 21, 1776, he was president of the Provincial Council which put the colony on a war basis.
Sir Henry Clinton, during his invasion of North Carolina, offered amnesty to all rebels who would return to their allegiance, "excepting only from the benefits of such pardon Cornelius Harnett and Robert Howes. " The Provincial Congress which met at Halifax, April 4, 1776, appointed Harnett chairman of a committee to consider the question of independence, and on April 12 he submitted a report recommending "That the delegates for this colony in the Continental Congress be empowered to concur with the delegates of the other Colonies in declaring Independency and forming foreign alliances. "
Unanimously adopted by the Provincial Congress, this resolution was forwarded to the Continental Congress where it was hailed with joy by the advocates of independence in that body. In the Fifth Provincial Congress, which met at Halifax, November 12, 1776, Harnett was a member of the committee which drafted the first state constitution. To him a well-founded tradition ascribes the authorship of the clause forbidding an established church and guaranteeing religious freedom.
The new government went into operation January 16, 1777, with Harnett as president of the Council of State, but on May 1 he was elected a delegate to the Continental Congress and took his seat in that body on July 22.
Harnett served three terms in the Continental Congress and there displayed a clear grasp of the country's situation and needs. Accordingly he urged his state to keep its military establishment up to full strength, to fortify the seacoast, and to levy taxes for maintaining the state and Continental currency. He took particular interest in the Articles of Confederation, to which his name is signed, and urged their ratification upon the General Assembly. He found service in Congress extremely disagreeable. His health was poor, his expenses great.
He missed the comforts of home, suffered from gout, and wearied of the quarrels and sectional jealousies of his colleagues. To a friend he wrote that his expenses had exceeded his salary by £6, 000, but added: "Do not mention this complaint to anybody. I am content to sit down with this loss and much more if my country requires it. " He accepted reëlection as a patriotic duty and retired from Congress only when he was no longer eligible, returning to his home near Wilmington, on February 20, 1780.
Upon the occupation of Wilmington by a British force, in January 1781, Harnett, who still rested under Clinton's proscription, attempted to escape but was overtaken about thirty miles from home, "thrown across a horse like a sack of meal, " according to an eyewitness, and brought back to Wilmington "in an unconscious state. " There, on April 28, 1781, he died a prisoner on parole. A visitor in 1775 described "Hilton, " Harnett's home, as a very handsome house, fronting on "one of the finest pieces of water in the world. "
Achievements
Religion
Harnett was an Episcopalian, but has also been identified as a deist.
Membership
Harnett held high rank as a Mason.
Personality
Harnett's appearance, manner and interests were described by his good friend George Hooper. He said that "his stature was about five feet nine inches. In person he was rather slender than stout. His hair was a light brown, and his eyes hazel. The contour of his face was not striking: nor were his features, which were small, remarkable for symmetry; but his countenance was pleasing, and his figure, though not commanding, was neither inelegant nor ungracefull. "
Hooper added that Harnett was "easy in manner, affable, courteous, with a fine taste for letters and a genius for music, he was always an interesting, sometimes a fascinating companion. He had read extensively for one engaged so much in the bustle of the world, and he read with a critical eye and inquisitive mind. "
Quotes from others about the person
His gravestone epitaph states: "Slave to no sect, he took no private road. But looked through nature up to nature's God. "
Connections
Harnett was married to Mary Holt. They had no children and lived on his second plantation, Poplar Grove, located in Maynard (currently Hilton) which is north of Wilmington.
His wife enjoyed a reputation as a pattern of industry and an agreeable woman of good sense.