It is worthy of note that
they included in their demands articles which are now
constitutional. They desired that "suffrage be given by ticket
and ballot"; that the mode of taxation be altered, and each
person be taxed in proportion to the profits arising from his
estate; that judges and clerks be given salaries instead of
perquisites and fees. They likewise petitioned for repeal of the
act prohibiting dissenting ministers from celebrating the rites
of matrimony. The establishment of these reforms, the petitioners
of the Regulation concluded, would "conciliate" their minds to
"every just measure of government, and would make the laws what
the Constitution ever designed they should be, their protection
and not their bane." Herein clearly enough we can discern the
thought and the phraseology of the Ulster Presbyterians.
But a change took place in both leaders and methods. During the
Regulators' career of violence they were under the sway of an
agitator named Hermon Husband. This demagogue was reported to
have been expelled from the Quaker Society for cause; it is on
record that he was expelled from the North Carolina Assembly
because a vicious anonymous letter was traced to him. He deserted
his dupes just before the shots cracked at Alamance Creek and
fled from the colony.
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