Note 789 — Chapter XIII · ECCLESIASTICAL RITES AND THE RISE OF CIVIL MARRIAGE IN THE SOUTHERN COLONIES

"It is interesting to note with what satanic disregard of the rights of man the leaders in the Establishment can write. Says Reed [minister in Craven County]: 'The bill was pushed by the dissenting interest, and [because of] the dangerous situation of the province from such formidable number of malcontents [Regulators], the governor acted with the greatest prudence in passing the bill with a suspending clause.... Should this act receive the royal assent it would be a fatal stroke to the Church of England, but as the insurrection is entirely quelled, I flatter myself with hopes that the act will meet with a repulse.'"—Weeks, op. cit., 247; N. C. Col. Rec., IX, 6. Later the Board of Trade wrote that the law was in effect a "bounty to the tolerated religion at the expense of the established," and petitioned for its disallowance: N. C. Col. Rec., IX, 7, 245, 251, 284, 366.