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.
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?
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.
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?
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.
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?
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.
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?
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.
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?
Governor Dudley was opposed by ex-Governor John Branch, ofHalifax, as the candidate of the Democratic party in 1838.Governor Branch had been in the Cabinet of General Jackson, andupon his defeat in this contest, retired from public life inNorth Carolina to receive the appointment of territorialGovernor of Florida. In the Gubernatorial contest, two yearslater, John Motley Morehead, of Guilford, as the nominee of theWhigs, 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.
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?
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.
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?
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.
5. Upon the election of General Taylor as President of the United States, Mr. Polk retired to private life, and soon died at Nashville, Tennessee. He was a pure and laborious man, but was not the equal of Andrew Jackson in those great natural gifts which immortalized the hero of New Orleans.
6. Upon the cessation of war with Mexico, it had been agreed in the treaty of peace that upon the payment of a large sum of money, Upper California should, with other Mexican territory, belong to the United States. The discovery of immense deposits of gold on the Pacific coast led to such immigration there that, in 1850, California was applying for admission as a State into the Union.
7. Again the spectre of coming strife and bloodshed was seen in the renewal of the struggle over the question of freedom or slavery in this new sister in the galaxy of States. Southern men like Henry Clay thought that the whole subject had been settled in 1820, when, by the Missouri Compromise, it had been ordained that involuntary servitude should not obtain north of the geographical line 36° 30' north latitude.
1850.
8. It was understood that the surrender of the right to own slaves north of this line was the consideration for the admission of the right to own them south of it, and that this was what the "compromise" meant. But they were told that the inhibition alone was effective, and that no such converse right was intended to be conveyed as that contended for by the men of the South. The most logical of these men said that Congress had exceeded its powers in the enactment mentioned, and that no power could settle the question but the people of the new State.
9. It was seen that "Wilmot's Proviso," which was an amendment continually offered by Mr. Wilmot, of Pennsylvania, excluding slavery from all future States, was the fixed determination of the Northern people. So, after a protracted and bitter struggle, Mr. Clay, as the last service of a long and illustrious life, procured the passage of the compromise of 1850, in which the only concession by Northern men was the "Fugitive Slave Law."
10. This statute provided that Federal courts and officers should arrest and return to their owners such slaves as should be found absconding in the different States of the Union, whether free or slave-holding. It was greeted by a prodigious outcry from the Northern press and people. They determined that this national law should not be executed, and the different legislatures of the free States began their enactment of personal liberty laws, which made it penal to aid in carrying out the law of Congress.
1851.
11. The people of the South were both exasperated and disheartened at such manifestations, and in view of such palpable violations of their plain constitutional rights, began seriously to consider whether in a union with the Northern States the arbitrary will of the people of those States was not to be the rule of government rather than the Constitution solemnly agreed upon between their forefathers. If this were to be so, the dream of liberty, regulated by law in the Federal Union, was at an end.
1. What educational institutions are mentioned?
2. Who was Governor in 1818? What two men were distinguished in the United States Senate?
3. Who were the representative men in the House?
4. Who succeeded Governor Graham in 1849? What proposition was agitating the people?
5. Who succeeded James K. Polk as President of the United States? What is said of President Polk?
6. What events were occurring in the West?
7. What spectre of the past reappears? Relate circumstances.
8. In what condition was the question now seen?
9. What is said of the "Wilmot Proviso" and "Fugitive Slave Law"?
10. What was the"Fugitive Slave Law"? How did the North legislate against this law of Congress?
11. How was the South affected by these troubles?
The election of General Franklin Pierce to the Presidency, in 1852, was considered by many as a rebuke to those who had been so clamorous in the North against the compromise of 1850. He was a warm supporter of the rights of the individual States, and the knowledge of this fact brought repose to the minds of Southern men.
2. North Carolina had just entered upon a career of rapid development in her mineral resources. The incorporation of a clause extending the right of suffrage in the State Constitution, the completion of the great central railway, the opening of the asylums and the large addition to the number of schools, were evidences of progress and widespread prosperity. Capitalists, for the first time, began to invest their wealth in cotton and woolen factories.
1853.
3. The creation of the office of Superintendent of Common Schools, in 1853, and the appointment of Calvin H. Wiley, of Guilford, to that position, marked an extraordinary advance in the matter of popular education. Mr. Wiley soon evinced so much discretion and devotion to his duties that his propositions of improvement were adopted, and his views and wishes soon became those of the State government. The same year was further signalized by the Normal School, under charge of Mr. Craven, being empowered by the Legislature to grant literary degrees and the assumption of the full dignities of a college. After nearly thirty years of usefulness, this institution, now known as Trinity College, is still accomplishing great good under the auspices of the Methodists of the State.
4. With the new lines of railway and the restoration of the old routes, there was a large advance in the value of real estate and in the amount of productions sent abroad. The use of Peruvian Guano and other concentrated fertilizers was just being introduced, and the example of Edgecombe county in the use of compost heaps was being followed in every direction and adding immensely to the yield of exhausted fields.
5. It was a notable thing in the political history of the country, that in the Presidential contest of 1852 the candidates for Vice-President, of both the Whig and Democratic parties, were born in North Carolina and educated at Chapel Hill. Ex-Governor William R. King, Democrat, then of Alabama, was chosen over ex- Governor Graham, who had been Secretary of the Navy in the Cabinet of President Fillmore.
6. The churches were prospering under their increased attentions to education. A larger culture was coming to those who filled the pulpits at home, and devoted men like Dr. Matthew T. Yates were going to heathen lands to spend their lives for the good of other races. The Episcopal Church had abundant compensation in the wisdom and virtues of Bishop Atkinson for the loss of Bishop Ives, upon his leaving that communion for the Church of Rome. The great slavery controversy was bringing trouble and division to the Baptists and Methodists, and thus, not only statesmen and politicians, but ministers of the Gospel, were also set at variance.
1854.
7. From Massachusetts was sent, at this period, a new and startling impulse to the Northern pulpits and hustings. It had been the peculiar glory of the American people that they were the originators of the great doctrine and practice of religious liberty. A new party, calling themselves the "KnowNothings," had carried that State and were proclaiming their opposition to all Roman Catholics as public officers. The "Know-Nothings" were also called the "American Party," and their motto was "America for Americans."
8. This was to prove a short-lived and pernicious movement. It not only contravened the noblest American precedents, but at once combined all the ends and fragments of parties which had previously opposed the great organization that had been led by Jefferson and Jackson. Besides their hostility to the Roman Catholic religion, they inculcated one other principle; this was opposition to the naturalization of foreign immigrants until after a residence of twenty-one years within the borders of the United States. The success of this new party ended in the Virginia campaign between Governor Wise and T. S. Flournoy.
1855.
9. About this time another party began to be prominent in the Northern States. It was called the "Republican Party," and was the outgrowth of the notorious controversy over the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act through Congress. This statute was, in effect, but a continuance of the legislation in regard to California, and amounted to little beyond transferring the question of slave or free territory from Congress to the new States. The North, however, was fanatically bent on the destruction of slavery everywhere within the United States, and would not consent that each new State should settle the question for itself. On the contrary, it was determined to prohibit the spread of slavery whether the people in the new States and Territories desired it or not.
10. It was soon seen, therefore, in the bloody conflicts between the settlers from the North and those from the South, especially in Kansas, that "Squatter Sovereignty" would neither afford protection to Southern immigrants in removing with their property there, nor any prospect of a fair solution of a vexed question.
1857.
11. On June 27th, 1857, an event occurred in North Carolina which brought sadness to the whole State. Rev. Elisha Mitchell, D. D., while making researches and surveys upon Black Mountain, in the darkness of night, lost his way and fell over a very steep precipice and waterfall, and was killed. His remains were found, eleven days after the accident, in a pool of clear water at the foot of the waterfall. They are now resting on the highest point of the mountain, and the spot is known as "Mitchell's Peak." Dr. Mitchell found, by measurement, that the Black Mountain was the highest point of land east of the Rocky Mountains. "Mitchell's Peak" is 6,672 feet above the level of the sea, and 244 feet higher than Mount Washington, in New Hampshire.
12. After the defeat of Charles Manly by David S. Reid, of Rockingham, for Governor in 1852, the Democrats continued to gain in strength in each succeeding election. In 1854, Governor Bragg was elected to succeed Governor Reid, by an increased majority, over Hon. John A. Gilmer, the Whig candidate. Messrs. Mangum and Badger were succeeded by Governor Reid and Colonel Asa Biggs, of Martin, as United States Senators; and when, in 1858, another Governor was to be chosen, both Judge John W. Ellis, of Rowan, and his competitor, Duncan K. MacRae, of Cumberland, claimed to be defenders of the Democratic faith. The differences between the North and the South were fast bringing the people of North Carolina to one mind.
1. Of what does this chapter treat ? How was the election of President, Pierce considered ?
2. What is said of internal improvements?
3. What educational progress was being made?
4. How was the value of lands increasing?
5. What is said of the Presidential campaign of 1852?
6. In what condition were religious matters?
8. How was the question of slavery affecting some of the religious denominations?
7. What new party was organized in Massachusetts? What was the main policy of the "Know-Nothings"?
8. What is said of this new party?
9. What party next originated?
10. How was the South affected by "Squatter Sovereignty"?
11. What fatal accident befell Dr. Elisha Mitchell in 1857?
12. What changes in the government of the State are now mentioned?