The generosity of Joseph Hewes, Declaration signer

McKenna Snow
MSMU Class of 2023

(7/2023) Born in 1730, Joseph Hewes was a man with a heart for the United States and a passion for people’s rights. Hailing from New Jersey, one might expect his involvement in signing the Declaration to have some ties to his home state. However, Joseph actually eventually became a representative for North Carolina, where he had significant popularity due to his likeable demeanor.

Joseph spent his early years in New Jersey, where he received a classical education. Interested in business and entrepreneurship, Joseph became an apprentice to Joseph Ogden, who was a merchant from Philadelphia. After some years in Philadelphia as a merchant himself, around 1760 Hewes moved to Edenton, North Carolina, to pursue business on his own.

Joseph was raised by his parents, who were Quakers, and this religious background likely impacted Joseph through his cultivation of a strong work ethic, and eventually his perspective on a peaceful split from Great Britain, while conversations about independence were first taking place. In the workplace, Joseph grew in popularity with his business because of his friendliness, his determination to work hard, and what Constituting America described as his "natural head for business." From researching, it seems that Joseph originally was not terribly interested in politics; how did he, a modest businessman, become involved in the signing of the Declaration? It began in Edenton, when, while he was working there, he became close friends with Samuel Johnston, who was, according to Constituting America, "one of the colony’s most influential lawyers and political leaders." Joseph eventually became a representative for Edenton "to the colonial assembly and served on committees on appropriations and finance, appropriate assignments considering his commercial background" (Constituting America). Johnston likely made an impact on him to become involved in local politics, but this did not take Joseph away from where he really flourished in the business world; rather, Joseph found a way to use his extensive talents and knowledge in business to combine these two interests through his choice of committees.

As tension grew between the colonies and Great Britain, Hewes tried to retain a moderate, peaceful, and more diplomatic perspective on the situation. He wasn’t in favor of remaining under the rule of the British monarch, but thought that violent action was unnecessary. He was a part of the North Carolina Committee of Correspondence, which, in 1774, "endorsed a Massachusetts’s proposal for a continental congress, and in August of that year, assembly members meeting in New Bern approved the committee report and elected Hewes, along with William Hooper and Richard Caswell, to represent North Carolina in a meeting in Philadelphia of all the colonies." This election was crucial in sending Hewes towards the meeting that would change everything.

But his views on how the colonies should split were not yet in favor of open war. It wasn’t until fighting began in Lexington and Concord, as well as "King George III’s subsequent refusal to negotiate with the colonies [which] undermined the position of moderates like Hewes and led him to act more aggressively" (Constituting America). Following these events, Hewes began to work in his state of North Carolina to bring more and more people to the cause of the Whigs, and he eventually helped promulgate Thomas Paine’s Common Sense around the state as well.

Throughout these efforts to grow support in North Carolina, Hewes suffered from malaria, which he contracted in 1774. He never fully healed from the effects of this sickness, and fought through this ailment throughout the rest of his involvement in the war. From the amount that he accomplished for the Whigs, he was determined to not let this sickness slow him down. He continued to attend meetings for the committee, and helped grow the military and naval strength of the Whigs. Wealthy from his business success before the war, Hewes saw to it that his wealth generously supported the colonies’ efforts for independence. Hewes had a shipping business before the war, and during the war he offered his ships to be a part of the Continental Armed Forces (US History.org). He also began, a few years earlier as unjust taxation was rising, cutting his trade with Great Britain and supporting non-importation policies in response to the injustices taking place. Hewes used his success in the business world to the dismay of Great Britain, and to the aid of the revolutionaries.

Because much of his policies and approach during the discussions about war had largely, thus far before the signing, been conservative and pacifist in nature, rather than radical, Hewes’ decision to support the Declaration of Independence and war had a tremendous impact on the outcome on the number of people who actually signed. John Adams believed that Hewes was "critical in persuading moderate members of Congress to support the break with Great Britain," since even Hewes, who had such a reputation for friendliness and conservativism, decided that it was time to fight back against the tyranny (Constituting America). Who knows how many might not have signed because they thought that negotiations were still possible and that the unjust monarch might have eventually changed his ways? Hewes’ efforts before, during, and after the signing of the Declaration of Independence impacted both his local state of North Carolina, and the Congress that changed it all.

Sadly, Hewes did not live to see the end of the war efforts, though he would have been proud to see the victory. Hewes died from illness at the age of 49 in 1779, in Philadelphia.

Hewes was a generous man who desired peace and justice. He sacrificed much of his potential success doing business with Great Britain for the cause of independence. Hewes might have been merely a successful businessman who washed his hands of working for or against the American cause for independence, but he saw something more important than a country in which he might succeed monetarily. He saw a country that needed just laws, fair taxation, and a government which listened to the people. Hewes made his mark on the cause for freedom through his signature in 1776, and through his efforts before and after, gave generously and bravely to help the cause for freedom.