School History of North Carolina Part 26

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 Const.i.tution 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 gra.s.s, 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 Const.i.tution 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 n.o.ble 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 a.s.sembled 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 inst.i.tution was regularly opened for the reception of students. The Rev. David Kerr and Samuel A. Holmes const.i.tuted the faculty, and Hinton James, of Wilmington, was the first student to arrive. Thus began an inst.i.tution 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 Const.i.tution, 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 fict.i.tious 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 a.s.sembly 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 pa.s.sage 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 pa.s.s the famous resolutions of 1798-99, according to which the Federal Const.i.tution 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 a.s.serted, has been the experience of the American people whenever the majority of them has differed from the learned few. The ma.s.ses 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 const.i.tuted the faculty? Who was the first student to enter?

What have been the labors of this inst.i.tution?

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.