School History of North Carolina Part 35

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?

CHAPTER LIII.

THE SOCIAL AND POLITICAL STATUS.

A. D. 1852 TO 1859.

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 Const.i.tution, 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 a.s.sumption of the full dignities of a college. After nearly thirty years of usefulness, this inst.i.tution, now known as Trinity College, is still accomplis.h.i.+ng 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 Ma.s.sachusetts 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 n.o.blest 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 pa.s.sage 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 b.l.o.o.d.y 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 Mitch.e.l.l, 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 "Mitch.e.l.l's Peak." Dr.

Mitch.e.l.l found, by measurement, that the Black Mountain was the highest point of land east of the Rocky Mountains. "Mitch.e.l.l's Peak" is 6,672 feet above the level of the sea, and 244 feet higher than Mount Was.h.i.+ngton, in New Hamps.h.i.+re.

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 compet.i.tor, Duncan K. MacRae, of c.u.mberland, 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.

QUESTIONS.

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 Ma.s.sachusetts? 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 Mitch.e.l.l in 1857?

12. What changes in the government of the State are now mentioned?

CHAPTER LIV.

PRESIDENT LINCOLN AND THE WAR.

A. D. 1860 TO 1861.

1860.

After seventy years of party struggles touching the relations of the General Government to the individual States, the Presidential contest of 1860 opened with such notes of violence and public confusion, that it was at once seen that at last the supreme crisis had come.

2. The only issue apparently before the American people was that of slavery in the Territories. The Democrats were divided into two fragments. Those supporting Judge Douglas for the Presidency advocated "Squatter Sovereignty." The Breckinridge men said that the question of slavery should only be settled as to the new States at their const.i.tutional conventions; while Republicans supporting Abraham Lincoln, proclaimed that only the enactment of the "Wilmot Proviso" would satisfy them. The Whig candidates, Messrs. Bell and Everett, and the Whig party, were silent on all these stormy differences, and were not of much significance in the general upheaval.

3. Back of this question, however, about slavery in the Territories, and involved in it, was the real issue between the Republican and Democratic parties, and that was whether the Federal Const.i.tution should be the supreme law of the land. The right of property in slaves was guaranteed by that Const.i.tution, and if the Republican party could thus destroy that right it might when it so pleased, destroy any and all other rights. The Democrats hold that the Const.i.tution was supreme; the Republicans held that there was a still higher law unwritten and undefined.

One was certainty, the other chaos.

4. It was seen at an early period of the contest, that the bulk of the Southern people would be found supporting Breckinridge and Lane. * It was generally held in all the slave-holding States that the election of Mr. Lincoln would be significant of a purpose among Northern men to disregard their rights, and that the inauguration of the abolition policy by the Federal officers would compel and justify the secession of the Southern States from the Union.

*Joseph Lane was born in Buncombe county in this State, and was the cousin of Colonel Joel Lane, who once owned the lands upon which Raleigh was built. He had served gallantly as a Brigadier General in Mexico, afterwards in Congress, and as Governor of Oregon.