School History of North Carolina Part 30

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 Const.i.tution, 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 ent.i.tled to hold and express opinions as to what was the best policy for the government to pursue. G.o.d has so const.i.tuted 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 Const.i.tution was framed in Philadelphia, in 1787, all the States but Ma.s.sachusetts recognized the legality of slave property. Very soon afterwards, however, the "Society for African Emanc.i.p.ation"

was formed, with Dr. Benjamin Franklin as its president. This body pet.i.tioned Congress to abolish slavery in the States and Territories, but was answered that the Const.i.tution 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 inst.i.tution 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 a.s.sertions 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 a.s.sembly. 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 Const.i.tution was still to be adhered to, and refused to go into a const.i.tutional 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 a.s.sembly 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 pa.s.sionate 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 Const.i.tution 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 pa.s.sage of the "Convention Bill."

7. On a close vote, aided by the votes of eastern borough members, the bill was pa.s.sed 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 Const.i.tution 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 a.s.sembly 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 const.i.tuted 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 Const.i.tution 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?