School History of North Carolina Part 27

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 pa.s.sed, 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 pa.s.sage in the House to which he belonged.

3. There was grief in the last hours of the century, when it became known that General Was.h.i.+ngton had died in his retirement at Mt. Vernon. Judge James Iredell had also died about the same time. He had been one of the a.s.sociate Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States by the appointment of General Was.h.i.+ngton, 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 a.s.semblages of the people were seen at the camp meetings. For weeks together the ordinary avocations of life were abandoned by mult.i.tudes in order to engage in religious wors.h.i.+p; 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 pa.s.sed 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 s.h.i.+ps 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 inst.i.tution 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 ma.s.s 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 s.h.i.+pped 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 ca.n.a.l 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 pa.s.sed 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, Was.h.i.+ngton and Edenton were all largely engaged in the s.h.i.+pment 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.