1790.

11. Two important matters were also settled at this period. The Convention at Hillsboro limited the seat of the State government to some point in Wake county. The capital had been migrating from town to town for nearly the whole period of North Carolina's existence. The Legislature also passed a bill creating the University of North Carolina, and the terms of the Halifax Constitution, as to popular education, were thus first put into some shape of accomplishment. Both of these measures were highly needed.

[NOTE—The State Convention of 1788 was commissioned to select a place for the seat of government, which had been migratory since the earliest days of the Carolina colony. The place selected for the capital was the farm of Isaac Hunter, at Wake Court House, or some other place within ten miles of that locality, to be determined by the General Assembly.]

QUESTIONS.

1. What question was exciting the people of North Carolina at this period? What was thought of the Confederation?

2. How were the people of the State divided upon this great question?

3. What other party was formed? What were they called, and what powers did they propose to give to the general government?

4. What convention was to meet in 1787?

5. Who were chosen to represent North Carolina in that body?

6. Who was chosen President of the Convention? How was the new Constitution to be submitted to the people?

7. What convention met in Hillsboro in 1788? How did some of the prominent members view the question?

8. What different opinion was held by other leading men? What did the Convention do with the Constitution?

9. What was the effect on the State? What other States also failed to ratify?

10. When did the new government go into operation? Who was chosen first President of the United States? When and where did North Carolina ratify the Constitution and become a member of the united government?

11. What two important matters were settled at this period?



CHAPTER XXXIX.

FRANCE AND AMERICA.

A. D. 1790 TO 1794.

1. When North Carolina had thus taken her place in the Federal Union, and the whole system of State and National polity became perfected in America, many hearts beat with gratitude to God for the promises of a glorious future. The magnificent realm won by the blood of heroes was at last guarded by a system of laws so wise and effective that peace and prosperity were soon to make it one of the greatest of civilized lands.

2. This example of freedom achieved in the wilds of America was speedily felt in Europe. General Washington had been in the discharge of his duties as President about a month, when the States-General of France met in the famous convention which was to pull down the ancient French monarchy and engulf all Europe in seas of blood. The overtaxed and excitable Frenchmen were maddened by the contrast afforded in their sufferings and the blessings achieved by their late allies on the other side of the Atlantic.

3. Governor Caswell, while in the discharge of his duties as a member of the State Senate, died at Fayetteville, in the month of December, 1789. He was shortly followed in death by William Hooper and Archibald Maclaine. Willie Jones had retired from public life; and thus, four most conspicuous leaders almost simultaneously disappeared from public life.

4. Colonel William R. Davie, of Halifax, John Haywood, of the same county, and Alfred Moore, of Brunswick, were greatly influential, and were worthy successors of the older servants of the public who had been thus removed from the arena of their former usefulness. Governor Johnston having been elected United States Senator, was succeeded as Governor by Alexander Martin.

1792.

5. It was during this second term of Governor Martin's rule that Raleigh was selected for the State capital. A large tract of land at Wake Court House had been bought of Colonel Joel Lane, and upon it a city was laid off and the public buildings erected. Before that time, since Governor Tryon's palace at New Bern had been burned, the main question to be determined by every General Assembly was what town should be selected for the holding of the next session.

6. Fayetteville, Hillsboro, New Bern and Tarboro were sure to get up an excitement and contest as to which of them should be next favored with the presence of the State officers and the General Assembly. The Governor and his assistants had been dwelling wherever it best suited them, and the public records had thus been continually migrating over the State.

7. There was little church organization in America until after the Revolution. There was not a single Bishop of the Episcopal Church in all America before the Revolution, and not until 1789 was an effort made to supply such a prelate for the Church in North Carolina. The Rev. Charles Pettigrew was then elected Bishop of the Diocese by a Convention at Tarboro, but he died before consecration.

8. The Baptists had united their churches in this State and southern Virginia, in 1765, in a body which was called the "Kehukee Association." In 1770 the Presbyterians had formed the Presbytery of Orange; and in 1788 they set off the Synode of the Carolinas. The Quakers and Moravians were flourishing in certain sections, but as yet the Methodist missionaries had effected but little in the way of planting churches in North Carolina.

9. Richard Dobbs Spaight, in 1792, became Governor, and was the first native North Carolinian to fill that distinguished office. He possessed much ability and was familiar with the conduct of public affairs. He found that great excitement and division existed among the people as to the French Revolution. Because aid had been sent from that country to the struggling American colonists, many men insisted that it was the duty of America to take sides with France in the war then raging in Europe.

1794.

10. General Washington and other wise men resisted this dangerous opinion, and held that America should take no part in the affairs of foreign nations. The great struggle went on, with Napoleon Bonaparte rapidly growing more formidable to the allied kings.

11. The French had acquired a thirst for freedom from America, but they in turn exerted an influence upon the religious creeds of our people. French books and modes of thought and French fashions became popular, and the country debating clubs were heard repeating the doubts and sneers of Voltaire, Diderot and other French infidels.

12. The world's creeds were on trial. Kings and priests were as keenly criticised as in the sixteenth century, but out of all the turmoil and bloodshed a larger measure of liberty was to be won. Constitutional kings and purified churches were the outgrowth and result of the most prodigious uproar yet witnessed among civilized nations.

QUESTIONS.

1. What was the feeling in North Carolina after the State had joined the Union?

2. How were the effects of American freedom felt in Europe?

3. What great leaders disappeared from North Carolina's councils at this time?

4. What then were fast rising to influence? Who became Governor?

5. When was Raleigh selected as the capital? Why was locating the capital of great good to the State? Go to the map and point out the city of Raleigh.

6. What contest would generally arise at meetings of the Assembly?

7. What mention is made of religious matters?

8. How were the Baptists, Presbyterians and other Christian bodies extending their fields of usefulness?

9. Who became Governor in 1792? What is said of him? What questions did Governor Spaight find agitating the people when he came into office?

10. How was this matter considered by General Washington and others?

11. How were the works of celebrated French writers affecting the people of America?

12. What was to be the conclusion of all these troubles?



CHAPTER XL.

THE FEDERALISTS AND THE REPUBLICANS.

A. D. 1794 TO 1800.

1. In the last days of the eighteenth century men became more and more plainly divided into two political parties. Thomas Jefferson, of Virginia, a man of decided genius and consummate ability, was the leader of those who maintained that the government of the United States should be strictly limited to the powers expressly granted in the Federal Constitution and prohibited from the use of any of those reserved to the individual States.

2. Alexander Hamilton, of New York, another very able and patriotic statesman, took an entirely different view. He did not consider the people capable of ruling the country, and wished to subordinate the State governments to Federal authority. The "Federalists" were those who followed his views, while the "Republicans" were no less strenuous in upholding Mr. Jefferson and his policy.

3. The Superior Courts of this State, after the resignation of Judge Iredell, were held, as in old provincial times, at the six favored villages, by Judges Samuel Ashe, Samuel Spencer and John Taylor. In the year 1794, Judge Spencer came to his death in a singular manner. He was in extreme old age, and had suffered with a long and wasting illness. One warm evening he was carried out and laid upon the grass, beneath a tree in his yard. While lying there the red flannel of his shirt infuriated a large turkey-gobbler, which attacked him with great violence. When Judge Spencer's feeble cries attracted attention, he had been so injured that he soon after died of nervous exhaustion.

4. In accordance with the law of 1790, the provisions of the Constitution of 1776 were first seen in process of fulfillment when the trustees, after mature deliberation, selected Chapel Hill, in Orange county, as the site of the State University. Here, upon one of a long range of great hills traversing that region, they secured several hundred acres on the crest of a noble elevation that overlooks the surrounding country.

5. In 1793 the cornerstone of the East Building was laid for the University at Chapel Hill. Colonel Davie, as Grand Master of the Masons in the State, officiated; as did also Rev. Dr. McCorkle, who delivered an eloquent address to the citizens who had assembled from all parts of the State to do honor to the occasion.

1795.

6. In 1795, the buildings and faculty having been made ready, the institution was regularly opened for the reception of students. The Rev. David Kerr and Samuel A. Holmes constituted the faculty, and Hinton James, of Wilmington, was the first student to arrive. Thus began an institution of learning in which distinguished men were to be prepared for usefulness in almost every honorable employment among civilized men.

7. Tennessee had been conveyed to the general government soon after the ratification of the United States Constitution, North Carolina reserving to herself the right to locate land warrants in a certain portion. During the administration of Governor Ashe, who had succeeded Alexander Martin, many and extensive frauds in land warrants were concocted by James Glasgow, Secretary of State, Martin Armstrong, John Armstrong and Stokeley Donnelson.

1797.

8. Immense tracts of land were located under fictitious boundaries, and not only the Continental soldiers, but also the States and the United States were thus swindled by these officers, who had been long honored and trusted in North Carolina.

9. Courts were ordered to be held by the General Assembly for the trial of these distinguished culprits; and in 1799 they were convicted and punished by heavy fines and the loss of their offices. Judge John Haywood resigned his place on the bench, and instead of trying, defended the malefactors, one of whom paid him one thousand dollars as a fee for his services. * A few years before a similar scene had occurred when Benjamin McCulloh was convicted at Warrenton and punished for like offences.

*North Carolina had honored James Glasgow by giving his name to one of the counties of the State, but in consequence of his disgrace the name of Glasgow county was stricken from the list, and the county named in honor of General Nathaniel Greene.

10. The excitement between Republicans and Federalists grew in intensity. John Adams had succeeded General Washington as President, and he was one of the most violent of the Federal party. French agents and apologists became more offensive in their demands for American aid. President Adams procured the passage of laws by Congress that startled and confounded many good citizens.

11. These "Alien and Sedition Acts" armed Federal authorities with the power to seize and send out of the country, without trial, any foreigner who might, become offensive to them; also to indict in the District or Circuit Courts of the United States any writer or publisher whom the grand juries might charge with libel.

1798-99.

12. Virginia and Kentucky thereupon hastened to pass the famous resolutions of 1798-99, according to which the Federal Constitution is simply a covenant between the States as States, and "each party has an equal right to judge for itself, as well of infraction as of the mode and measure of redress," and to put the battle in array for another great struggle as to the respective powers of the States and the Union. President Adams and the Federalists were overwhelmingly beaten in the contest of 1800, and the Republican party went into possession of all the offices by which State and Federal powers were to be defined.

13. A much greater portion of the wisest and most experienced statesmen had been ranked, until this time, with the Federalists, but that creed soon grew into such disfavor that few politicians could be found to do it reverence. And this, it may be safely asserted, has been the experience of the American people whenever the majority of them has differed from the learned few. The masses have been, in almost every instance, wiser than those who thus sought to control their views.

QUESTIONS.

1. What was observed towards the latter days of the eighteenth century? Who was one of the political leaders? What views did Mr. Jefferson hold?

2. Who was the leader of the other great political party? What was Mr. Hamilton's policy?

3. What is said of the Superior Courts and the Judges? Describe the singular manner of Judge Spencer's death.

4. What is said of the University? When was its seat selected, and where?

5. When was the cornerstone of the East Building laid? Who officiated? Who delivered the address?

6. When was the University regularly opened? Who constituted the faculty? Who was the first student to enter? What have been the labors of this institution?

7. What land frauds were perpetrated in 1795? Who were the guilty persons?

8. What was the nature of these frauds?

9. Give some account of the trial of these offenders.

10. What was the condition of affairs throughout the United States at this period?

11. What was the effect of the "Alien and Sedition Laws"?

12. What was done by Virginia and Kentucky? What were the resolutions of 1798-99? What party came into power in 1800?

13. What is said of the "Federalists"?



CHAPTER XLI.

CLOSING OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.

A. D. 1800 TO 1802.

General Davie ceased to be Governor to become one of three Commissioners to Paris. He had been appointed Major-General to command North Carolina's contingent, when it seemed that war with France was inevitable; but that danger had happily passed, and he was sent over to arrange the vexed questions growing out of the Berlin and Milan decrees. *

*These decrees were Napoleon's efforts to retaliate for British blockade measures against France. The great conqueror forbade all Europe from commercial intercourse with his English enemies.

2. Among the members sent from North Carolina to Congress, Nathaniel Macon, of Warren, soon became conspicuous for his virtue and weight of character. Perhaps no other member of Congress ever wielded so lasting and powerful an influence. His unquestioned sagacity, integrity and inflexible adhesion to what he believed to be right, and his unselfish devotion to the public good, made his opposition to any measure almost necessarily fatal to its passage in the House to which he belonged.

3. There was grief in the last hours of the century, when it became known that General Washington had died in his retirement at Mt. Vernon. Judge James Iredell had also died about the same time. He had been one of the Associate Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States by the appointment of General Washington, and fell a victim to the enormous labors incurred in riding the great distances involved in attending his different Circuit Courts.

1800.

4. This was, perhaps, the golden age of social enjoyments in North Carolina. The Quakers were Abolitionists, as were also many other good people; but the question had not been agitated, and there was nothing to give uneasiness to masters or false hopes to the slaves. These latter, shared largely in the festivities of the white people, and were free for many years to come to conduct their religious services in any way that seemed best to their wild and fantastic notions.

5. The President had appointed Alfred Moore as the successor of Judge Iredell on the Supreme Court Bench. He was also a great lawyer. Judge Haywood had left North Carolina and was a citizen of Tennessee, but from William Gaston, Archibald Henderson and Archibald D. Murphy the Bar received fresh honors; while John Stanly, David Stone, Joshua G. Wright and Peter Browne had begun attendance upon the courts, in which they were to win great reputations.

6. There had been considerable change effected in the courts. By the statute of 1779 four ridings were established. The Judges, after riding these circuits, were required to meet in Raleigh to try appeals. The sheriffs were no longer obliged to march with drawn swords before the Judges as they went to and from the court- houses, nor were the lawyers compelled to appear arrayed in gowns in the trial of cases.

1802.

7. Governor Benjamin Williams had succeeded General Davie. Among Williams's last official acts was the pardoning of John Stanly for killing ex-Governor Spaight in a duel. This had occurred on Sunday, September 5th, 1802, and was the outgrowth of a bitter political controversy. Spaight was a Republican, and had warmly opposed the election of the able and impulsive young leader of the Federalists.

8. In the same year occurred the exodus of the remnant of the Tuscaroras from Bertie county. The reservation on Roanoke River, which had been granted them for good conduct in the Indian war of 1711, was sold by them to private parties, and they emigrated to New York where the other parts of the tribe had long been located.

9. Among the laws of the Legislature of 1802 was a statute providing for the payment, to the patentees of the cotton-gin, of a given sum for every saw used in each machine. This implement had been recently invented by Eli Whitney, who was a young man from New England, engaged in teaching school in Georgia

10. Before this time only small patches of cotton had been seen in the Southern States. The lint was picked from the seed only by hand, and so slow was the process that a shoe full of the seed cotton was a task usually given to be done between supper and bedtime. Whitney's invention was soon to affect the agriculture and commerce of the world. The cotton gin has greatly aided the development of all civilized nations. It has built cities, freighted mighty fleets, and given employment to many millions of the human race.

11. Attention has already been called to the effects of French atheism upon the United States. The tide of unbelief rolled on until many religious people trembled for the creed and morals of American people. Its terrible influence was seen and felt in almost every department and employment of life.

12. In 1802 a mighty religious movement began in Kentucky, and spread over a large portion of the Republic. Vast assemblages of the people were seen at the camp meetings. For weeks together the ordinary avocations of life were abandoned by multitudes in order to engage in religious worship; and, in the end, the churches were reinforced by many thousands of new members.

QUESTIONS.

1. What honors were conferred upon Governor Davie?

2. Who was North Carolinas most able representative in Congress? Tell something of the character of Nathaniel Macon.

3. What great grief came upon the nation at this period? What prominent man died in North Carolina at this time? Can you state something of his life?

4. What is this period called in the history of North Carolina? What was the condition of the slaves?

5. What is said of prominent lawyers?

6. Mention some changes which were made in the court system.

7. Who had succeeded Governor Davie as Chief-Magistrate? What was one of his last official acts? Give an account of the duel?

8. To what place did the Tuscaroras emigrate in 1802?

9. What law was passed by the Legislature in favor of the inventor of the cotton gin? Who was the inventor?

10. Give an account of the preparation of the cotton for use both before and after this great invention.

11. What was the religious condition of the country?

12. Give an account of the great religious revival of 1802.



CHAPTER XLII.

GROWTH AND EXPANSION.

A. D 1802 TO 1812.

The Republic of America was wisely ruled during the eight years of Mr. Jefferson's administration as President. He was not only the greatest of political philosophers, but a consummate party leader. Under his management the Federalists were so completely won over that even ex-President John Adams was found among the electors who voted for Jefferson's re-election.

2. Vermont, Ohio, Kentucky and Tennessee were added to the list of States, and the vast territory known as "Louisiana" was purchased from France and made a portion of the American Union. For this magnificent territory the United States paid fifteen million dollars. But with all this evidence of internal advancement, there was unnecessary and ever-growing trouble with foreign powers.

1804.

3. Great Britain had not only failed to carry out the conditions of the treaty of Paris, but continual trouble and war with the western Indians were traced to the plotting of British agents. In Europe, on the high seas, American ships were frequently subjected to wrong and indignity by British cruisers, which seized their cargoes or crews on various pretexts. These maddening interferences, were fast bringing the people of the United States to a determination to vindicate, by arms, their claims as a free and independent people. Europe was still convulsed by war. Napoleon Bonaparte had been crowned Emperor, and in the mighty struggle the claims of the aggrieved public were overlooked or despised.

4. The people of North Carolina were still in great want of general education. The University, at Chapel Hill, was sending out graduates who had already conferred honor upon that seat of learning, but the preparatory schools, so necessary as feeders to such an establishment, were few and far between.

5. Rev. William Bingham had begun a school in the eastern part of the State. He removed temporarily to Pittsboro, but finally settled at Hillsboro and established the academy which is even at this day continued near by, at Mebaneville, under the management of one of his descendants. This school, dating from 1793, was, even in its infancy, of marked excellence, and has won more reputation than any similar institution in the Southern States. Rev. Dr. David Caldwell's school in Guilford, Rev. J. O. Freeman's in Murfreesboro, and a few academies in the villages, however meritorious, produced but slight effect upon the great mass of the people.

6. There had not been opened a single free school in all the State. Occasionally there could be found neighborhoods where a few citizens joined in employing a man to teach the elementary branches of English education, but these were generally attended for only a few months, and were not very admirable either for discipline or in the matters taught.

1805.

7. The people of the interior and west were becoming anxious for some means of conveyance and travel to the outer world. The crops raised were generally too bulky to pay for expensive transportation over long distances, and for this reason were available to feed only the community in which they were grown. Tobacco from all the counties in the northern portion of the State was conveyed to market by rolling the hogsheads containing it along the roads, to markets at Petersburg, in Virginia, and Fayetteville.

8. In the regions of the long-leaf pine much attention was given to the preparation of turpentine and tar. Indeed, so large a trade grew up in these articles, that some people abroad came to think that North Carolina produced little else. There were no turpentine distilleries to be found, at this time, in North Carolina; and the crude product of the tree was shipped from our ports to be manufactured in other States.

9. In 1805, during the sessions of the Legislature, General James Wellborn, of Wilkes, introduced a proposition to build, at the State's expense, a turnpike from Beaufort Harbor to the mountains; but this and all other such improvements were neglected for some time to come.

1810.

10. The canal through the Dismal Swamp was to prove very beneficial to eastern counties; but this work, though authorized long before, was yet unfinished. Vessels to New York or Baltimore still passed out to sea by the dangers of Cape Hatteras, and not unfrequently both cargo and crew were engulfed amid its cruel sands.

11. There was, at this period of our history, a brisk trade between the West Indies and several of the eastern towns. Wilmington, New Bern, Washington and Edenton were all largely engaged in the shipment of staves and provisions; importing salt and tropical stores in return. This, and all other foreign trade, was ruthlessly stopped by the embargo laid by Congress.

12. This embargo was the result of an act of Congress which forbade the exportation of all goods from the United States to Great Britain or her dependencies. It was very similar to the expedient resorted to by the Second Continental Congress for a like purpose, but was not enforced by any voluntary associations of the people, as it was in 1775.

1812.

13. This extreme measure failed to bring Great Britain to a surrender of her claim to search American ships; and on the 19th of June, for this and other just causes, war was declared against her. Mr. Madison would have temporized and still deferred the dreadful expedient, but the American people were resolved upon indemnity for the past and security for the future; and thus two kindred nations were to waste blood and treasure in an unnecessary quarrel.

QUESTIONS.

1. Who was President of the United States at this period? What is said of Jefferson's rule?

2. What States were added to the Union? What great territory was purchased?

3. How had Great Britain kept the treaty of Paris? What indignities were offered to the American people? How were these things affecting the people?

4. What is said of educational matters?

5. What mention is made of the Bingham school? What other schools are mentioned?

6. What was the condition of free education?

7. In what things were the people of the interior and west becoming specially interested?

8. What is said of the production of turpentine and tar?

9. What was proposed by General James Wellborn to the Legislature of 1805?

10. Give a general description of coast navigation at this time.

11. Give some particulars concerning trade.

12. Explain the embargo act.

13. What war was declared in 1812?



CHAPTER XLIII.

SECOND WAR WITH GREAT BRITAIN.

A. D. 1812 TO 1815.

James Turner, of Warren; Nathaniel Alexander, of Mecklenburg; David Stone, of Bertie, and Benjamin Smith, of Brunswick, had served in turn as Governors of North Carolina during the years of growth and expansion described in the last chapters. William Hawkins, of Granville, was chosen to the same high office in 1812, and, as Commander-in-Chief of all the State's forces, felt unusual responsibility in prospect of war even then begun between Great Britain and the United States.

1813.

2. It was the purpose of the American government to seize Canada and carry on hostilities, as much as possible, in that portion of America. As no great army was assembled at any one point, no call was made upon North Carolina for troops to be sent outside of her borders, except to Norfolk, in Virginia. At that place Major-General Thomas Brown, of Bladen, was in command of a division sent from North Carolina.

3. General Brown was a veteran of the Revolution, and had rendered heroic service at Elizabethtown and elsewhere during that long and arduous struggle. His brigade commanders were General Thomas Davis, of Fayetteville, and General James F. Dickinson, of Murfreesboro.

4. Camps were also established and troops held for action at other points. The western levies were collected at Wadesboro, under General Alexander Gray, and were drilled and kept in readiness to be marched to the relief of either Wilmington or Charleston. Colonel Maurice Moore, at Wilmington, and Lieutenant- Colonel John Roberts, at Beaufort, commanded garrisons for the defence of these seaports.

1814.

5. In the American army on the northern frontier, where Winfield Scott, of Virginia, was winning laurels, were two North Carolina officers who were also rising to distinction. These were William Gibbs McNeill, of Bladen, and William McRee, of Wilmington. Both became Colonels in the corps of engineers. Amid the frequent disasters and exhibitions of incompetency on the part of other officers in that department, these gallant men were of great credit to America and to North Carolina.

6. On the sea, where the mighty fleets of Great Britain had at such fearful disadvantage the few cruisers of their opponents, were also to be found brilliant representatives of this Commonwealth. Captain Johnston Blakeley, of Wilmington, had been reared by Colonel Edward Jones, the Solicitor-General of North Carolina. He had already made reputation in the Mediterranean Sea under Commodore Preble.

7. Early in 1614 he went to sea in the United State's sloop-of- war Wasp, and captured, with great eclat, the British sloop- of-war Reindeer. Having burned this prize for fear of its recapture, he refitted in a French port, and in August encountered another British ship, the Avon. The British vessel had struck her colors, when a fleet of the enemy came upon the scene and the victorious Wasp was forced to fly. In a few days Blakeley, thus cruising over the crowded seas surrounding England, captured fifteen merchant vessels. On one of these, the brig Atlanta, he put a prize crew and sent her to the United States.

8. This is the last that is known of this gallant and ill fated officer. He perished in some unknown manner at sea, but has left an imperishable name to our keeping.

9. Captain Otway Burns, of Beaufort, was the commander of a cruiser known as the Snap-Dragon. With this privateer he long roamed the seas, and was victorious in many well fought actions. He survived the war and was afterwards a member of the Legislature. The village of Burnsville was named in his honor.

10. In addition to the troops already mentioned, a regiment commanded by Colonel Joseph Graham, so highly distinguished in the Revolution, was sent against Billy Weathersford and his Creek warriors, who had massacred nearly three hundred white people in Fort Minims, on the Alabama River. Another North Carolinian by birth, General Andrew Jackson, of Tennessee, was in command of the force sent to avenge this outrage of the red men. *

*General Andrew Jackson was born in Mecklenburg county, on the 15th day of March, 1767,

11. So swiftly and completely had Jackson done his work, that when the North Carolina regiment arrived there was nothing left to do; for, as Weathersford declared, his braves were all dead, and the war ended. The Indians were required, as a preliminary to peace, to bring in their fugitive chief, Weathersford. That bold and able half-breed did not wait for arrest upon hearing these terms, but rode into General Jackson's camp, and in surrendering himself, boldly announced that he did so because he no longer had warriors to continue the struggle." I have nothing to ask for myself," said he, "but I want peace for my people."

1815.

12. Peace was soon made between the United States and Great Britain, and the two nations, after struggling for each other's injury for three years, agreed to stop without settling a single one of the causes of the war. England did not even agree to cease impressing men from the United States navy, but this was no more practiced. The treaty of peace was ratified by the United States Senate, February 7th, 1815.

QUESTIONS.

1. What Governors had served in North Carolina during the years just considered? Who was Governor at the beginning of the year 1812?

2. How had the United States proposed to conduct the campaign? What troops did North Carolina furnish? Who was in command?

3. What is said of General Brown's past record? Who were his brigade commanders?

4. What military preparations were made in North Carolina?

5. What two North Carolina officers were winning distinction under General Winfield Scott? In what branch of the army were they serving?

6. What is said of affairs on the seas? What North Carolina naval officer was distinguishing himself?

7. Give an account of some of his bold and heroic exploits. How many English vessels did he capture?

8. What is known of him after this?

9. What other seaman was distinguishing himself for his bravery? How is his name commemorated in the State?

10. Who was sent against the Indians? What great general was in command of all this force?

11. What was the success of General Jackson's expedition?

12. What is said of the end of the war of 1812?



CHAPTER XLIV.

AFTER THE STORM.

A. D. 1815 TO 1821.

When hostilities ceased it seemed a great thing to the people of North Carolina once more to enjoy the full benefits of trade and commerce. British cruisers had made all foreign commodities very scarce and costly. Salt had been made on the seacoast in limited quantities, but of inferior quality. It was, therefore, gratifying to the people to see the stores again filled with goods of every description.

2. When this period of its history had been reached, the State was divided into sixty-two counties. Each of these sent annually to the General Assembly one Senator and two members of the House of Commons. Edenton, New Bern, Wilmington, Fayetteville, Hillsboro, Halifax and Salisbury were called "borough towns"; and, by virtue of this superior dignity, each sent, in addition to the county members, a representative to the lower House of Assembly.

3. The Moravian settlement at Salem had prospered, and though no great numbers of that sect had come over from Europe, yet much wisdom and thrift were seen in the affairs of Wachovia. A female seminary of real excellence and great popularity had been founded in 1804, and young ladies from all the Southern States were receiving a good education in this retired and healthful region.

4. Raleigh then contained about eight hundred people: Fayetteville twice as many. Wilmington and New Bern were the largest and most important towns in the State, but were still limited in population and trade. Edenton and Halifax had each lost importance, and many villages were surpassing them both in number of inhabitants and in extent of trade.

1819.

5. Dr. Joseph Caldwell had been, for many years, President of the University. He came from New Jersey to make North Carolina his future home, and gave the State of his adoption so laborious and useful a devotion that his name will be cherished in its limits so long as learning and patriotism are valued He was not only making the college famous for the excellence of its appointments, but internal improvement was advocated by him so intelligently and zealously that the general apathy on the two great subjects of education and intercommunication was passing away.

6. The churches were likewise providing for increased effect among the people. The Methodist conference was each year adding to the number of its churches and itinerant preachers. The Baptists had added the "Chowan" as a coadjutor to similar bodies known as "Sandy Creek" and "Kehukee" Associations.

7. The Episcopal Diocese of North Carolina, in 1816, perfected its organization by the election and consecration of Bishop John Stark Ravenscroft. He was a man of strong character and eminent piety and usefulness. As a preacher, he was held in equal reverence with another distinguished divine of that day, the Rev. John Kerr, of Caswell, a leader among the Baptists.

[NOTE—In 1827, Dr. Caldwell delivered an exceedingly able address before the Legislature, on the subject of railways, and a considerable interest was awakened. The first railway in the United States was built in 1826. This was in Massachusetts, and was only two miles long. It was known as the "Quincey Railroad." The first passenger railway was the Baltimore and Ohio road, fifteen miles long, and was regularly opened in 1830. The cars were drawn by horses until the next year, when a locomotive was used.]

8. The Presbyterian Synod also contained many able and excellent ministers. Rev. Drs. Samuel E. McCorkle, David Caldwell and James Hall were greatly esteemed for their learning; and devotion. This church was specially active and efficient in refuting the teachings of the French atheists.

9. William Gaston and Bartlett Yancey were leaders among the statesmen of North Carolina at this period. They were both greatly distinguished for eloquence and ability. For purity of character they had not been surpassed in all our annals. Another James Iredell had arisen in Chowan county, and in Craven were John Stanly and young George E. Badger. In Caswell appeared Romulus M. Saunders, another young lawyer of fine abilities, who became a distinguished citizen of the State.

10. The establishment of the Supreme Court, in 1818, on its present basis, was largely the work of Bartlett Yancey. John Louis Taylor, the Chief-Justice, with Leonard Henderson and John Hall, as Associates, constituted a tribunal which was soon to win the veneration of American lawyers.

1820.

11. This has been called the era of "Good Feeling" in American politics. But the question of slavery in the Territories was fast assuming a dangerous importance.

12. The Northern States objected to the admission of any more slave States. The Southern would consent to no such prohibition. The storm grew louder, until it was temporarily settled by the "Missouri Compromise" of March 3d, 1820, which provided that henceforward slavery should be forever forbidden north of the parallel of 36 60' The news of which, however, Mr. Jefferson declared fell on his ears "like a fire-bell at night."

QUESTIONS.

1. What was the condition of North Carolina after the war of 1812?

2. How many counties were in North Carolina in 1815? What is said of the representation in the General Assembly? What towns had special privileges?

3. Give some account of the growth of the Moravian settlement at Salem.

4. Give some description of various towns and villages.

5. What efforts was Dr. Joseph Caldwell putting forth for the advancement of the State?

6. What growth was seen among the Methodist churches?

7. Who was at the head of the Episcopal Church? What is said of Bishop Ravenscroft?

8. Who were the most eminent Presbyterian divines? What benefit was derived from their labors?

9. Mention the political leaders.

10. Through whose efforts was the Supreme Court established? Who were the Justices?

11. What was this period called?

12. What question was greatly agitating the people?



CHAPTER XLV.

THE WHIGS AND THE DEMOCRATS.

A. D. 1821 TO 1827.

1821.

In the decade following the enactment of the Missouri Compromise there was prodigious material growth in every section of the American Union. In North Carolina the real prosperity of the people was imperceptible, by reason of the heavy emigration to the South and West. Not only population, but wealth, was continually withdrawing to more profitable fields of labor and speculation.

2. While the Northern and Western sections of the Union were receiving the thousands who came every year from Europe and elsewhere, there was no such accession to our numbers. For a century past there has been little or no immigration to North Carolina. The stream of settlers that once poured so steadily into the hill country had ceased even before the Revolution.

3. After the overthrow of the Federalists by Mr. Jefferson, in the year 1800, there was no national party struggle on the old issues, but in every portion of the country were individuals who adhered to the views of Alexander Hamilton as to the proper construction of the Constitution of the United States. Many of these were men of great social and professional eminence.

4. Under Mr. Madison and his successors there was, in fact, no party but the Democratic-Republicans. Every one who hoped for political promotion professed the faith of that organization. There was no party division as to the Bank or the United States, or the tariff of duties on foreign imports.

5. In the year 1825 the State was graced by the visit of General La Fayette. A half century before he had left his wife and all the charms of life in Paris to do battle in behalf of the struggling American colonies. After acting a distinguished part in the French Revolution, he had returned as the Nation's guest, to receive the thanks of another generation for the great services he had rendered in the past. He went from State to State, every where greeted with the utmost love and veneration. He soon returned to France in the United States ship Brandywine, after receiving princely recognition and rewards from Congress.

6. In this year, also, a considerable excitement was created on account of an extraordinary advance in the price of cotton. In a few weeks the price went from twelve to thirty-two cents per pound. This great rise was only temporary, and many people were ruined by the sudden and unexpected fall.

7. In 1825 the election of John Quincy Adams, by The House of Representatives, to the Presidency, resulted in giving a new aspect to political matters. General Andrew Jackson, who had received the largest popular vote, and was then a Senator from Tennessee, became the leader of those who were called "Democrats." Those who were opposed to him assumed the name of "Whigs."

8. Mr. Adams, though elected as a Democrat-Republican, soon found that party arrayed against his administration. Henry Clay, and all of those who had been Federalists, supported the President. In North Carolina many prominent men arrayed themselves with the new party. These Whigs, as they were called, advocated a continuance of the United States Bank, a tariff for protection on importations, and a distribution to the several States of the money realized by the sale of public lands.

9. General Jackson and the Democrats favored a tariff for revenue. They contended that the National Bank was not only unauthorized by the Constitution, but also dangerous to the liberties of the people. They were likewise unfriendly to the plan of making the States pensioners of the general government, as proposed in the policy of distribution.

10. Soon great rancor developed between the two parties, both of which had lately been included in the Republican ranks. Henry Clay and John Randolph inaugurated animosities by a duel; and soon, in North Carolina, as elsewhere, social amenities were but little regarded between the Whigs and Democrats.

11. This was very absurd. All were citizens of a free country, and were entitled to hold and express opinions as to what was the best policy for the government to pursue. God has so constituted men that, of necessity, they must differ in opinion on all subjects. How weak and wicked, then, is the man who hates his brother because of the failure to agree on matters that are, after all, involved in doubt.

12. It was not always so, however, for when the Constitution was framed in Philadelphia, in 1787, all the States but Massachusetts recognized the legality of slave property. Very soon afterwards, however, the "Society for African Emancipation" was formed, with Dr. Benjamin Franklin as its president. This body petitioned Congress to abolish slavery in the States and Territories, but was answered that the Constitution left this matter to the States, and that the Federal authorities had no powers.

13. The Northern States finding slave labor unprofitable, had all abolished this institution in their midst, and their slaves had been sent to the South and sold. Southern men, also, had been divided as to the policy of continuing a state of society so opposed to the general liberties of mankind; but this liberal spirit in the South was checked by the violent and unreasonable criticisms and denunciations of the Northern reformers.

QUESTIONS.

1. What growth was noticed in the Union during the years just considered?

2. What is said of immigration to North Carolina?

3. In what condition were the political parties of the country?

4. What is said of President Madison's administration?

5. What distinguished Frenchman visited North Carolina in the year 1825? How was he everywhere received by the people? How did Congress treat him?

6. What is said of the extraordinary rise in the price of cotton? How did it affect many people?

7. What was the effect of the election of John Quincy Adams? What two political parties then existed?

8. What troubles did Mr. Adams find? What party was led by Henry Clay? What were some of the Whig principles?

9. What did General Jackson and his party advocate?

10. What results were produced by the violent assertions of these opinions?

11. What is said of political animosities?

12. How was the question of slavery viewed? What State refused to recognize the legality of slave property? What society was organized?



CHAPTER XLVI.

THE CONDITION OF THE STATE.

A. D. 1827 TO 1836.

1. While the Republic of the United States was so divided and agitated as to matters of policy touching the interests of all the Union, there were, at the same time, many issues of local importance confined to North Carolina.

2. The old habit of annually changing the place for holding the sessions of the Legislature had first brought about a feeling of sectionalism between the eastern and western counties. Western men had first learned to combine in securing Hillsboro rather than New Bern for this purpose. It was natural and right for them to seek to lessen as much as possible the distance that separated the State capital from their homes.

1829.

3. The western counties were also anxious to change the system of representation, so that their weight in population should be felt in legislation. As it was, the east held control of both Houses of the General Assembly. Hertford, with five hundred voters, had exactly the weight of Buncombe or Orange, with its thousands. Eastern men would not consent to modify this hardship. They insisted that the Halifax Constitution was still to be adhered to, and refused to go into a constitutional convention for fear of changes that might subject eastern wealth to taxation in order to secure the construction of highways in the west.

1831.

4. On the morning of the 21st of June the capitol at Raleigh was burned. The fire was caused by the carelessness of a workman who was covering the roof. The building was a total loss, as was also the beautiful statue of Washington, which stood in the rotunda. A new capitol was erected upon the site of the old building, by act of the Legislature of 1832. It is an elegant structure, and was built of native granite, at a cost of over a half million of dollars.

5. The burning of the Capitol, or State-House, as it was called, was a calamity and inconvenience, but the chief regret was over the loss of the marble statue of Washington. This fine work had recently been received from the famous sculptor Canova, in Italy, and was said to be one of his finest productions.

[NOTE—By a freak of liberality, unusual in those good old days, when the State never spent over ninety thousand dollars a year for all purposes, when taxes were six cents on the one hundred dollars value of real estate only, and personal property was entirely exempt, the General Assembly had placed in the rotunda a magnificent statue of Washington, of Carrara marble, by the great Canova. It was the pride and boast of the state. Our people remembered with peculiar pleasure that La Fayette had stood at its base and commended the beauty of the carving and fitness of the honor to the great man, under whom he had served in our war of independence, and whom he regarded with a passionate and reverential love. —(Hon. Kemp P. Battle. LL. D. ).]

1834.

6. On the 4th day of June, 1823, a political convention, composed of gentlemen from the western portion of the State, met in Raleigh. It was presided over by Bartle Yancey. The object of the convention was to devise measure to secure greater weight in the Legislature to their great and growing popular majorities. Many wise and desirable changes in the Constitution of 1776 were suggested, and the result was that sectional feeling ran very high. So much so, that in time the people of the west might have proceeded to extreme measures had not the Legislature of 1834 come to the rescue in the passage of the "Convention Bill."

7. On a close vote, aided by the votes of eastern borough members, the bill was passed which provided that, in case a call for a convention therein contained should be endorsed by a majority of the voters in the State, then a convention should be held; and each member chosen, before taking his seat should take oath that he would not be a party to any further alterations of the Constitution than those specified in the enabling act.

1835.

8. The Convention met in Raleigh on June 4th 1835, and Nathaniel Macon was made President. Many of the ablest men in the State were members. Judge Gastor, Governor David L. Swain and Judge J. J. Daniel were leaders in the debates. Borough representation and free negro suffrage were abolished. The election of Governor was taken from the Assembly and committed to the people. The legislative sessions were made biennial instead of annual, as of old. Each county was to send one member to the House of Commons, and more if its population justified so doing. One hundred and twenty members constituted this body, while the Senators were limited to fifty. The upper House was to represent taxation; and the lower, population.

9. These organic changes were ratified by a popular majority of more than five thousand votes. This change of Constitution was soon followed by the first popular election for Governor. Governors Miller, Burton, Owen and Swain had successively occupied the Executive Office in North Carolina, until the Legislature, in 1835, for the last time, selected a Governor in the person of Richard Dobbs Spaight, of Craven.

10. This gentleman did not equal his father in the brilliance of his endowments, but he was well fitted for the exigencies of a contest before the people. He was nominated for re-election by the Democrats the next year, but was beaten by the Whig nominee, Edward B. Dudley, of Wilmington. Mr. Dudley was not only a very able lawyer, but proved himself a statesman of enduring worth.

QUESTIONS.

1. What is said of these troublesome years?

2. What troubles were seen in North Carolina? What divisions had rung up between the eastern and western men of the State?

3. How did the men of the two sections view the question of representation?

4. What public building was burned on June 21st, 1831? What was the cause of the fire? What was lost with the building? Where was the new capitol built? Of what was it built?

5. What was the chief regret? Who was this work by?

6. What is said of the Western Convention of 1823?

7. What law was enacted concerning a convention?

8. What is said of the memorable convention of 1835? What changes were made in the Constitution?

9. What was the majority of the votes given to the amendments? Who was the last Governor selected by the Legislature?

10. What two candidates were before the people in 1836? Who was the first Governor elected by the people?

13. How had the Northern States acted in regard to slavery? What checked the liberal spirit of the South concerning slavery?



CHAPTER XLVII.

INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS—THE COURTS AND THE BAR.

A. D. 1836.

There had been many changes effected among the people of North Carolina by the lapse of time when the year 1836 came in. Bartlett Yancey, the two Drs. Caldwell and Archibald Henderson were all dead, and their places filled by other men. Cotton was becoming more and more widely cultivated, and, year by year the value of slave property was increasing by reason of the profits realized in the cultivation of this great Southern staple.

2. The Dismal Swamp Canal was at last ready for traffic between the Albemarle country and Norfolk, in the State of Virginia. A change was soon apparent in the trade of the towns thus connected by a new watercourse with the outer world. The dangerous voyages through the inlets and out into the ocean were by degrees abandoned, and almost all direct trade with the West Indies ceased.

3. The first railway charter given in North Carolina was that of the Petersburg Railroad. This was in 1830, and was followed, two years later, by that of the Portsmouth and Roanoke route. Soon after, Governor Dudley and others organized the Wilmington Railroad, leading to Weldon, the same terminus fixed for the others. This was for some time the longest single line in the world.

4. A few lines had been constructed in the United States prior to these, but they were among the pioneer works of the vast network of railways now seen in every portion of the Republic. Wonderful changes have taken place in the travel and traffic of the States. The vast extent of the national territory once presented to wise observers of our institutions a bar to any unity of thought and interest; but steam and electricity have triumphed over space, and the Republic, in 1882, is far more compact and its parts greatly more accessible than were the Atlantic States in 1787.

5. In just a half century the iron lines, beginning at the sea, have reached and pierced the mountain barriers of Western North Carolina. From State to State rush the tireless ministers of our wealth and pleasure. Instead of the wagon toiling slowly in the rear of weary axemen, we see the long and well-appointed railroad train sweep by with the speed of the hurricane, bearing the wealth of States, and doing more in the course of twenty-four hours to diffuse civilization and luxury than our ancestors could have accomplished in as many years.

6. The Baptist churches of the greater portion of North Carolina, in 1830, formed what they called a "State Convention" and organized for missionary and other purposes. This important movement resulted in a great improvement to this denomination, for out of this combination learned periodicals, new churches and many colleges and schools were to have their origin.

7. Among public men of that day, Judge Willie P. Manguni, of Orange, held a distinguished position. His brilliant eloquence and gracious demeanor secured his election in 1830, over Governor John Owen, to the United States Senate. In this distinguished body he remained long and became highly influential. A personal difficulty came near resulting in a duel between these two gentlemen, but it was amicably settled. Governor Owen was no further in public life, except to preside over the convention which nominated Harrison and Tyler for the chief executive offices of the United States in 1840.

8. Upon the death of Chief Justice Taylor, in 1829, the legal profession lost one of its greatest ornaments. His strong natural understanding was further improved by his learning; but in addition to this, he possessed qualities which peculiarly fitted him for framing the practice and precedents of a new tribunal. He was an eminently wise and just man, and well deserved to be called the "Mansfield of North Carolina."

9. Upon Judge Taylor's death, Leonard Henderson became Chief- Justice, and Judge J. D. Toomer, Associate-Justice. The latter only remained a member of the Court a few months, and having resigned, was succeeded by Thomas Ruffin, of Orange. No one in our history has brought higher judicial qualities to the bench than were seen in Judge Ruffin. Deep learning, wide grasp and luminous statement soon made him respected both at home and abroad.

10. Upon the death of Chief-Justice Henderson, in 1833, William Gaston, of Craven, was elected to the Supreme Court. The Court was then composed of Chief-Justice Thomas Ruffin, Joseph J. Daniel and William Gaston, Associates; and was unequaled in America as a legal tribunal. Judge Daniel was able, learned and upright; and in Gaston nature had combined her highest gifts. His Roman Catholic creed was not shared by many people of the State, but such were the purity and usefulness of his life, that no man of his time was more beloved or trusted.

11. The Judges of the Superior Courts were also men of integrity and ability. Henry Seawell, who was a powerful advocate in the courts, and had twice been clothed with the judicial ermine, had recently died, and the different circuits were then presided over by Thomas Settle, of Rockingham; R. M. Saunders, of Wake; John M. T. Dick, of Guilford; John L. Bailey, of Pasquotank, and Richmond M. Pearson, of Rowan.

12. The Bar of North Carolina was never more respected for the learning and eloquence of its members than at the period now reached in this narrative. Gavin Hogg, Peter Browne and Judge Duncan Cameron were all men of renown. They were possessed of large fortunes and left names of unsullied honor.

13. Judge Badger, B. F. Moore, Thomas Bragg, and W. N. H. Smith, were all in full practice before the courts, and were the peers of Iredell, Davie and Archibald Henderson of former days. It is impossible to overestimate the influence for good or evil which has been and ever will be exerted by the lawyers in a free land. They are the sentinels and conservators of public liberty, and, next to the clergy, improve or impair the morality of the masses.

QUESTIONS.

1. What changes were noticed in North Carolina in 1836? What is said of cotton and slave property?

2. What canal had been completed? How did it benefit that section?

3. What is said of the railway charters?

4. In what condition were railroads at this time?

5. What is said of the present means of travel?

6. What religious convention had been formed in 1730?

7. What public man is now mentioned, and what is said of his abilities?

8. What mention is made of Chief-Justice Taylor?

9. What changes were made in the Supreme Court? What is said of Judge Thomas Ruffin?

10. Who succeeded Judge Henderson? Who composed the Supreme Court in 1833?

11. Can you name some of the Judges, of the Superior Court?

12. What is said of the Bar at this period?

13. How is the influence of lawyers always felt in a community?



CHAPTER XLVIII.

ORIGIN OF THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS.

A. D. 1837 TO 1842.

It will be remembered that in 1767 the first school was incorporated by the Legislature of North Carolina, by the act in favor of the academy at New Bern. In this, and subsequent legislation for schools at Edenton and elsewhere, it had provided that the teachers should all be communicants of the Church of England. This stipulation was, of course, part of the English Church and State system of government.

2. When, just previous to the outbreak of the Revolutionary war, the founders of the "Queen's Museum," at Charlotte, a school so named in honor of the queen of England, asked incorporation of the Colonial General Assembly, it was not granted, for the reason that this institution was Presbyterian, both as to trustees and faculty. Up to that period dissenting ministers had not been allowed any legal recognition, and it was considered a great concession that the Presbyterian clergy were allowed to officiate at marriages.

3. During the Revolution (in 1777) the useful seminary at Charlotte was first legally chartered as "Liberty Hall." It was in no way sustained by or connected with the State, but was to the Presbytery of Orange what Davidson College is now to the, Synod of North Carolina, and was sustained solely by the contributions and patronage of private citizens. Indeed, this had been the case all along with the chartered schools of New Bern and Edenton.

4. In 1776, when the convention at Halifax framed the first Constitution for the State, among the leading ordinances of that instrument was that for the State's active aid to the education of the people. With this clause in the Constitution which they all swore to uphold, the legislators had done nothing so far, except to provide, in 1790, for the establishment of the University at Chapel Hill. *

*Section 41 of the Halifax Constitution declared "that a school or schools shall be established by the Legislature for the convenient instruction of youth, with such salaries to the masters, paid by the public, as may enable them to instruct at low prices. All useful learning shall be duly encouraged and promoted in one or more universities."

5. This disregard of their organic law, on the part of those constituting the State government, was deeply regretted by many wise and good men. But only a few dared to encounter the opposition to taxation for popular education. Governors Johnston and Davie in former days, and Judge Murphy and Bartlett Yancey of later times, had been strenuous for a larger compliance with the terms of the State Constitution, but the members of the several Legislatures, fearful of incurring popular displeasure, or for other reasons, had held back.

6. General Jackson and the Democratic party had opposed the distribution of the proceeds from the sale of national public lands as a fixed rule in the policy of the government, but in his last administration many millions of dollars had accumulated in the Federal treasury, for which the general government had no immediate use. In 1837 this fund was divided out to all the States except Virginia (that Commonwealth refusing her share). North Carolina's proportion amounted to one and a half million dollars.

7. This fund, together with the amounts realized from the sale of swamp lands belonging to the State, and certain shares of bank stock, also the property of North Carolina, was set aside and invested for the benefit of the public schools of the State, and was known as the "School Fund."

8. It was not until the year 1840 that any effective legislation was had for the establishment of the free educational system. By an act of the Legislature of 1836, the Governor and three others, by him to be appointed, were constituted the "Literary Board." In 1839 an act was passed to divide the counties into school districts. It left to each county the option of schools or no schools. It showed considerable advance in popular wisdom, that all but one of the counties decided to have schools and to be taxed for the election of such buildings as were necessary in the work.

[NOTE—The Presidential campaign of 1840 was an unusually exciting one. The Whig nominee, William Henry Harrison, was charged by his opponents as having lived in a "log cabin," with nothing to drink but "hard cider." His friends made good use of these charges. "Hard Cider" became a political watchword, and in the numerous Whig processions a "log cabin" on wheels occupied the most prominent and honored position. The "Log cabin Campaign" will long be remembered. President Harrison died within one month after his inauguration. His last words were, "The principles of the government; I wish them carried out. I ask nothing more."]

9. Not in the General Assembly alone was the subject of education receiving unusual attention. The Baptists, in 1826, established a high school on the farm of Colonel Calvin Jones, in Wake county. A little later it was changed in name and became Wake Forest College. The Presbyterians, in 1838, founded Davidson College, in Mecklenburg. These denominational institutions became noble adjuncts to the University in affording opportunities for liberal culture in our own borders.

10. Thus, at last, the "old-field schools" were superseded as better institutions took their place. The old-fashioned country teacher, who passed from house to house for subsistence, and was wholly dependent upon the feelings or caprices of one or two employers, gradually disappeared as academies and common schools multiplied.

11. The Bingham School in Orange, the Lovejoy School in Raleigh, the Bobbitt School in Franklin, the Caldwell Institute in Greensboro, Trinity College near Raleigh, the Donaldson Academy in Fayetteville, and numerous other excellent male academies greatly added to the number of well-informed and useful men.

1842.

12. The Salem Seminary, so widely renowned for the host of cultured women sent out to every portion of the South, at last found a worthy rival in St. Mary's School. This institution was established at Raleigh, in 1842, under the patronage of Bishop Ives and the Episcopal Diocese of North Carolina. Rev. Dr. Aldert Smedes, who soon presided over its fortunes, was singularly fitted for such place; for in no other institution in America was intellectual training more largely supplemented by the moral and social graces. These popular institutions were soon reinforced by the excellent Methodist Female College at Greensboro.

13. Presbyterian's, a few years later, had a first-rate school for the education of their daughters in "Edgeworth," a noble seminary established by Governor Morehead at Greensboro.

QUESTIONS.

1. What is this chapter about? What laws has been enacted concert concerning education?

2. Why had incorporation been refused to the "Queen's Museum"?

3. What is said of the schools at Charlotte and Davidson?

4. What clause was in the first State Constitution? How had the intent of this clause been carried out?

5. What were some of the views in regard to popular education? What men had advocated the provisions of the Constitution?

6. What addition to the School Fund did North Carolina receive in 1837?

7. How was the fund further increased?

8. Can you mention the legislation at this period affecting school matters?

9. What denominational schools were founded about this time?

10. What is said of the "old-field schools"? 11. Where were the leading male schools, and what is said of the usefulness?

12. What female schools are mentioned? What is said of St. Mary's School? What is said of other schools?



CHAPTER XLIX.

SLAVERY AND SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT.

A. D. 1842 TO 1844.

1. When the year of our Lord 1842 had come, peace and prosperity were in all portions of North Carolina. Society was still divided into three classes. These were: the white people, the slaves and the free negroes. The latter class had originated by manumission, and were numerous in some of the eastern counties. They had lost the right of suffrage by the action of the State Convention of 1835.

2. This action on the part of the Convention was due in some degree, doubtless, to the constant agitation of the slavery question, though by no means due to that alone; but to the further fact, as well, that during the time they voted by sufferance they had plainly demonstrated their utter unfitness to appreciate or exercise the great right of suffrage.

3. As a class they were unthrifty and dishonest, and each year becoming more useless as members of the community; their association with the slaves was regarded as an evil to be avoided if possible; therefore, they were discriminated against in the legislation of the period. Virginia and Ohio had both enacted statutes which forbade them access to their borders. North Carolina provided by law that in case of their removal from the State they lost their residence, and were forbidden to return.

4. The right of the States to pass such laws for the protection of their slave property cannot be denied, unless the right of property in slaves be also denied. Nor can they properly be called unjust. The right of property in their slaves the people of North Carolina regarded as settled by the Constitution of the State and that of the United States. Theorists might speculate whether African slavery was consistent with the American Declaration of Independence as they pleased, but the right of property in slaves was undisputably recognized and secured in the fundamental laws of the land. As to the moral question involved, if any such there was, the Southern slave-owner regarded it as one between himself and his God, and not between himself and his Northern brother.

5. As a matter of course, slavery and intellectual culture are incompatible, and education was therefore denied the slaves. The right to testify in the courts against a white man, and even the right to defend himself from the assaults of white men, except in defence of life in the last extremity, were also necessarily denied him. These restrictions were necessary to the maintenance of the legal relations between the dominant and subject races.

6. Of course there were those who studied the slavery problem from every possible standpoint, except the constitutional legality of it. That, at least, was fixed. Some doubted the morality of it and others questioned the policy of it, and it is quite possible, had time and opportunity for gradual manumission and exportation offered, North Carolina would have been a free State, in the course of events, of her own accord.

7. The Northern States had sold their slaves rather than free them under their acts of manumission. It was not possible for this to be further repeated by the Commonwealths still retaining the institution; so in a blind ignorance of the future and in utter hopelessness of any practicable solution of their difficulty, except in remaining as they were, the statesmen of the South contented themselves with a simple policy of resistance to change.

1844.

8. Among the white people of North Carolina were found all who participated in the conduct of public affairs. The means of popular education had been too recently adopted to show effects upon the community. The labors of a few wise men were just being crowned with success, and the children of the poor were receiving the rudiments of education in every portion of the State.

9. In religion, the great mass of the people belonged to country churches. These rural congregations, as a general thing, met on one Saturday and the succeeding Sabbath of each month, to attend the preaching of a minister who often served other churches as pastor the remaining Sundays. Beyond the Sunday schools and annual protracted meetings, there were no other religious observances except occasional funerals and prayer meetings at private houses.

10. The balls and horse-races of former days in the eastern counties had, in a large measure, ceased. In the growth of the Methodist and Baptist Churches in that section, such amusements had been so discouraged that festivities of this kind became rare. In the western sections of North Carolina they had never been countenanced by the Presbyterians.

11. The summers became more or less marked by great assemblages in the protracted or "camp-meetings." They were, to the devout, seasons of religious devotion, but to the young and thoughtless, opportunities for courtship and social enjoyment.

QUESTIONS.

1. What three classes of society existed in North Carolina in 1842?

2. What action was taken by the Convention of 1835 in regard to free negroes?

3. What is said of this class of our population?

4. How did our people view the question of slavery?

5. What privileges were denied the slaves? Why?

6. What would probably have been the final result in North Carolina?

7. What had the Northern States done with their slaves? How was the South compelled to act?

8. What educational progress was being made?

9. What was the condition of religious matters?

10. What effects were seen from the growth of the churches?

11. What great congregations were found in various places during the summer?



CHAPTER L.

THE MEXICAN WAR.

A. D. 1844 TO 1846.

Governor Dudley was opposed by ex-Governor John Branch, of Halifax, as the candidate of the Democratic party in 1838. Governor Branch had been in the Cabinet of General Jackson, and upon his defeat in this contest, retired from public life in North Carolina to receive the appointment of territorial Governor of Florida. In the Gubernatorial contest, two years later, John Motley Morehead, of Guilford, as the nominee of the Whigs, likewise defeated the Democratic leader, Judge Romulus M. Saunders.

2. They were both men of large natural endowments, and have never been surpassed in the vigor of their debates before the people. They were both educated at Chapel Hill, and were types of public Southern men of their day. Judge Saunders made a high reputation as a member of Congress; and Governor Morehead so grew in favor that eloquent Louis D. Henry, who opposed his re- election, was also defeated by a considerable majority.

3. The loss of the State in the deaths of Judge Gaston, of Judge Daniel, and of Lewis Williams, long one of our Representatives in Congress, was not easily repaired. Michael Hoke, of Lincolnton, was rising to prominence as a politician when his untimely death occurred. He had just concluded a brilliant canvass against William A. Graham, of Orange, for the office of Governor, and lost his election and his life in the summer of 1844.

4. This election of Governor Graham marked a new era in the development of the State. He was the son of General Joseph Graham, of the Revolution, and inherited many of his virtues. No public man in the history of the State has brought closer application or a higher elevation to his duties. Like Richard Caswell and Nathaniel Macon, his hold upon the public affections was never lost, and to the day of his death he was "first in the hearts of his countrymen" of North Carolina.

5. In 1844, James Knox Polk, of Tennessee, who was a native of North Carolina and a graduate of our University, was elected President of the United States. During his administration the United States and the neighboring Republic of Mexico went to war. The boundary line between Texas and Mexico had long been in dispute between those countries, a dispute that practically amounted to a constant border warfare. Of course as soon as Texas was annexed to the United States the Federal government took the place of Texas as a party to the quarrel, and undisguised, open war followed.

6. President Polk made a visit to the University during his term of office, which was highly appreciated and greatly redounded to the honor of that ancient institution. President Polk was born in Mecklenburg county in 1795, and died in 1849. The announcement of his nomination for the Presidency was the first message ever sent by telegraph. It was sent from Baltimore, where the National Democratic Convention was in session, to Washington City, on 29th May, 1844, over an experimental line, put up at the expense of the Federal government, to test Professor Morse's recent invention.

1846.

7. A regiment of North Carolina volunteers was sent to Mexico under Colonel Robert Treat Paine, of Chowan. It was stationed on the line of communication, but was not actively engaged in any of the battles. Two companies of North Carolina troops under Captains W. J. Clarice and Charles R. Jones, were mustered into the Twelfth Regiment United States Infantry, and did valiant service in the battle at National Bridge.

8. Louis D. Wilson, of Edgecombe, had been Captain of Company A, in Colonel Paine's regiment. He was promoted Major and assigned to duty in the Twelfth United States Infantry. He died on duty in Mexico, and left his estate to the benefit of the poor of his native county.

9. Captain Braxton Bragg gained great credit for his conduct at the battle of Buena Vista, where, with a single battery of light artillery, he resisted the attack of a large force upon General Taylor's left flank, and thus prevented a movement that would otherwise have caused the immediate retreat and probable destruction of the American army.

10. The smoke was so dense in this action that Captain Bragg was able to place his battery within fifty yards of the advancing column. He gave the foe a round of double canister shot, which opened great gaps in their ranks. They staggered and recoiled under this murderous fire. When the delighted American commander saw that the battle was won, he arose in his stirrups and joyfully shouted: "Give them a little more grape, Captain Bragg!"

11. Major Samuel McRee, of Wilmington, rendered valuable service as Quartermaster in the army under General Scott. Captain J. H. K. Burgwin, of the first United States Dragoons, died of his wounds at Taos. Lieutenant James G. Martin lost an arm and gained a brevet at Churusbusco. Captains T. H. Holmes and Gabriel Rains, and Lieutenant F. T. Bryan, all gave valuable and recognized service in the two columns under Generals Scott and Taylor.

QUESTIONS.

1. What period have we now reached? Who were Governors at this time? What is said of Governor John Branch?

2. What mention is made of the candidates for Governor?

3. What deaths of prominent men occurred about this period?

4. What Governor was elected in 1844? How was he beloved in the State?

5. What troubles arose in national matters on the election of James K. Polk?

6. What is said, of his visit to the University? Of what State was President Polk a native? How was his nomination announced?

7. Can you mention the North Carolina troops sent to Mexico, and their commanders?

8. Tell something about Major Louis D. Wilson.

9. What valiant officer was with General Taylor at Buena Vista? Give an account of his timely aid to the American army.

10. Describe the action.

11. What other officers are spoken of?



CHAPTER LI.

THE NORTH CAROLINA RAILWAY AND THE ASYLUMS.

A. D. 1845.

No single year in human records has been more prolific of change and social advancement than that which witnessed the overthrow of King Louis Phillipe in France and the general upheaval of all Europe. It seemed that the spirits of the sixteenth century had revisited the earth, and that men were everywhere resolved on revolution or amendment.

1848.

2. North Carolina formed no exception to this general impulse of Christendom. A wise and patriotic disregard of old sectional and party traditions first led to the assumption by the State of a controlling part in the great work of internal improvement. The railroads that had been previously constructed from different points to Roanoke River, were all in a deplorable condition.

3. The Raleigh and Gaston route was so decayed and impaired in its equipments that a whole day was consumed in the passage of a mail train over the eighty miles traversed. The Seaboard route to Portsmouth, Virginia, was prostrate and out of use. The Wilmington Road, though it was in somewhat better plight, was still served by feeble engines, which drew a few trains slowly along the track, ironed no more heavily than the wheels of a six- horse wagon.

4. The additional fact that no railway went further west than the village of Raleigh, also prevented the accumulation of such travel and traffic as to repay the outlay of construction and equipment. The Wilmington Road furnished the great route between the North and South, and in that way won richer returns than lines leading to the interior.

5. The long deferred hopes of Western North Carolina were at last to be realized. Ex-Governor Morehead and others besought the Legislature for the State's aid in a great line which should connect Charlotte, Greensboro, Raleigh and Goldsboro. This was to be called the "North Carolina Railroad," and was to be two hundred and forty miles long.

6. Eastern men, as a general thing, opposed this bill, but it was earnestly supported by William S. Ashe, of New Hanover, and others, in the House of Representatives; and, having passed that body, it was sent to the Senate. The vote in the upper House resulted in a tie. Calvin Graves, of Caswell, was Speaker. He had been a life-long Democrat, and knew that the people of his County were opposed to the State's aiding the proposed road, but he nobly discharged what he thought to be his duty, and, by his casting vote, the bill became a law.

7. This great step in building up the material prosperity of the Commonwealth did not satisfy the desires of this memorable Assembly. Measures that had been adopted at the previous session for the establishment of an institution for the education of the deaf, dumb and the blind children of the State were extended; and, at the earnest solicitation of Miss Dorothea Dix, of New York, a further appropriation was made for the erection of a hospital for the insane.

8. Miss Dix devoted her life to the amelioration of this unfortunate class of people. In North Carolina, as generally in the Republic, there had been no better disposition of lunatics than their confinement in the loathsome dungeons of county jails. Numbers who might have been restored to reason and usefulness were, in this way, condemned to the horrors of perpetual insanity. Instead of the comforts, kindness and restoration now to be found in the management of the Insane Asylums, the poor lunatic lay in chains in the murderer's cell and howled out his life amid the darkness and foetid exhalations of the hell to which he was doomed.

9. North Carolina was thus manfully meeting the requirements of both civilization and humanity; for as the condition of their highways affords the truest test of a people's advancement in civilization, so, also does the provision made for the care and comfort of the unfortunate and helpless afford the highest evidence of a people's progress in humanity.

10. In this memorable session of 1848-49, a still further exemplification of the wisdom of the North Carolina Legislature was seen in their statute for the protection of married women. Before that time the husband acquired by marriage absolute title to his wife's personal estate and a life interest in her real property, and these interests he could sell without her consent. He could also restrain her of her personal liberty.

11. The statute of this year provided that the husband's interest in the wife's lands should not be subject to sale by the husband without her full and free consent and joinder in the conveyance. This was to be attested by a privy examination and certificate appended to the deed conveying such lands.

12. A further much needed improvement took place when the ancient English rules allowing the husband the right of personal chastisement were also abolished, and this infamous badge of inferiority numbered among the things of the past.

13. There have been periods in the history of all communities when extraordinary development was witnessed. The overthrow of one ancient abuse leads to the correction of another; and thus, in the awakening sympathies of the hour, reformations give way to a new and higher humanity.

QUESTIONS.

1. What is this lesson about? What is said of the period now reached?

2. How was North Carolina feeling the general impulse of improvement?

3. In what condition were the railroads?

4. How far west were the railroads reaching? Which of the roads was obtaining most travel?

5. What important railway is now mentioned? What was to be its extent?

6. Can you describe the passage of the "Railroad Bill" through the Legislature?

7. What charitable institutions were provided for at this session? Through whose instrumentality was the appropriation made for the Insane Asylum?

8. What devotion did Miss Dix give to this subject? What had been the disposition of the insane before this?

9. What is said of these internal improvements?

10. What other important law was enacted at this session? Can you tell something of the rights of married women previous to this time?

11. What were the provisions of the new law?

12. What was indicated by these acts of the State?

13. What reflections are made upon this era?



CHAPTER LII.

A SPECTRE OF THE PAST REAPPEARS.

A. D. 1848 TO 1852.

1. The female seminaries of Salem, Raleigh and Greensboro were supplemented, in 1843, in the establishment, by the Chowan and Portsmouth Baptist Associations, of another female school of high grade, at Murfreesboro. This useful and popular institution soon gained reputation and attracted patronage from many of the Southern States. The Edgeworth Seminary at Greensboro was a similar institution under Presbyterian rule. It was a worthy rival of its compeers in the education of Southern girls. The University, Wake Forest and Davidson College were advancing their standards and growing in prosperity. The University, especially, under the sagacious administration of ex-Governor Swain, assisted by an able body of experienced teachers, made great progress. Several hundred students were in attendance, gathered from all the Southern and Southwestern States.

2. Governor Morehead had been succeeded in office by William A. Graham, of Orange. In the United States Senate, Judges Mangum and Badger were the peers of the best men of the Republic, and reflected honor on North Carolina.

3. In the House of Representatives, Colonel James I. McKay, of Bladen, had long been recognized as one of the leading men, and was chairman of the Committee on Ways and Means. Messrs. Kenneth Rayner and Thomas L. Clingman were also men of recognized ability, the latter bringing varied accomplishments to aid his discharge of duty.

1849.

4. At the expiration of Governor Graham's term of office Charles Manly, of Wake, became Governor. The people of the State grew excited in the contest between Messrs. Manly and Reid over the Democratic proposition to abolish the freehold qualification of voters for State Senators. It had been, ever since 1776, necessary for a man to possess fifty acres of land to be entitled to this franchise. It was now proposed to allow all white men the privilege of suffrage.