“I wish I didn’t have to come this time. The fact is that our legislation was making good progress in the assembly, and many citizens even in the coastal counties were speaking out in favor of it. But when the assembly finally began a serious debate on our grievances and the wide support became clear, the son of a bitch of a governor just dissolved the body altogether. He then announced that he and his council would make all governmental decisions until new elections could be held and a legal body constituted.”

“I can’t believe this. Now what can be done?”

“One answer is that our strength has grown too much, not only in the west but throughout the colony. There’s a limit to what Tryon can do from New Bern when the great majority of the people don’t support his policies.”

For several months there was little political activity in the capital, and the Regulators proceeded to consolidate their strength. At the same time, Tryon and his supporters decided to go all out to elect a more favorable assembly in 1770. They adopted some of the more popular proposals of the Regulators as their own and cast their political appeal toward farmers. Also, there seemed to be a lot of money changing hands. The Regulators, on the other hand, were overconfident, deriding these new tactics of their opponents and predicating their expectations on their successes of the previous year.

When the votes were counted, political power shifted strongly toward the governor. Even in Orange County, two of the four new assemblymen elected were either merchants or county officeholders. Tryon announced that the new assembly would initiate reforms, but the Regulators denounced this statement as a dishonest attempt to weaken their cause.

•  •  •

In the summer of 1770, Henry received one of his rare letters from Mr. Knox in Norfolk, and after discussing it with his friends in Hillsborough, he brought it out to Ethan’s home. Even before he could be invited into the cabin, he broke into a tirade.

“Ethan, I can see why our petitions to London have been wasted. The Parliament is as bad as Tryon’s council. As you’ve probably heard already, they’ve suspended both the New York and Massachusetts assemblies and are making all of us pay for quartering British troops, and the Townshend Act has put a tax on almost everything we have to buy that comes from England.”

“Henry, you know we’ve discussed this before, and the taxes are just on a few things that we can mostly do without.”