without giving
good and sufficient reasons to the Provincial Congress. Military duty
was performed day and night, as in a state of actual warfare, by the
militia companies in rotation; and thus, having placed the province in a
state of preparation, with arms in the hands of the people, and given
to the newly arrived Governor, Lord William Campbell, a reception which
boded small repose to his authority, the Provincial Congress adjourned
itself on the 22d day of June, leaving their authority, in great part,
to the Council of Safety and General Committee.

It has been seen that the only share which Marion had in the proceedings
of this body, was that of an assenting member. He was not endowed
with those talents which could have rendered him conspicuous in a
deliberative assembly. But he is not the less entitled to his share
in the merit of those proceedings, which so admirably declared and
illustrated the patriotism and the spirit of the province; and one of
the last, decisive measures of the Provincial Congress, happily enabled
him to appear in the character upon which he was more likely to confer
distinction, than that of the orator. He was elected a captain in the
Second Regiment, of which William Moultrie, formerly his captain in the
Cherokee campaign, was made Colonel. The duties of this appointment were
immediately begun, with a promptness at once due to the necessities of
the case, and his own character. As a proof of the zeal by which the
newly made officers were distinguished, we find them seeking recruits
so early as the 20th of June, and while the body to which they belonged
were still engaged in the most laborious duties of the session.*

* Drayton's Memoirs, vol. 1, p. 265. NOTE.--

Marion's commission was made out on the 21st June. Weems, in his life
of our subject, gives us some pictures, equally lively and ludicrous,
of his progress in the business of recruiting, upon which, in connection
with his friend, Captain Horry, he at once begun. This gentleman
received his appointment as captain at the same time, and in the same
regiment, with Marion. The Provincial Congress had voted a million of
money, by which to carry out their measures, but this was yet to be
procured, and, as it appears, rather more upon the credit of individuals
than that of the colony. But money, in times of danger, seems to have
an instinct of its own, by which it hides itself readily from sight and
touch. It was no easy matter for