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GENEALOGY
COLLECT
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY
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Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2016
https://archive.org/details/historyofnorthca02conn 0
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J. J. Aldesma
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1
THE CAPITOL
4
HISTORY
OF
NORTH CAROLINA
VOLUME II THE FEDERAL PERIOD 1783-1860
By WILLIAM K. BOYD, PH. D. Professor of History, Trinity College 1
S.J. Alderman
ILLUSTRATED
PUBLISHERS THE LEWIS PUBLISHING COMPANY CHICAGO AND NEW YORK 1919
COPYRIGHT, 1919 BY THE LEWIS PUBLISHING COMPANY
1357286
TO
P. Leo. B.
P. Snul.
PREFACE
In the present volume the effort has been to emphasize movements rather than events, ideals rather than men, or- derly development rather than phenomena of antiquarian in- terest. Such an undertaking has required a constant refer- ence to contemporary records and the exposition of many movements which have been hitherto neglected or slightly treated. Consequently the volume may leave the impression of a series of monographic studies rather than a conventional narrative history. That perhaps is necessarily the character of the treatment of any subject in which social and economic forces are emphasized.
The year 1836 is the first dividing line in the history of the state after the Revolution. Prior to that date political con- ceptions and ideals of social and economic duty bore the stamp of British heritage; thereafter the spirit of American democ- racy made rapid progress. The constitutional convention of 1835, the rise of the whig and democratic parties, the estab- lishment of a public school system, the foundation of asylums, the building of railways through state aid, and reform of the law-these matters, treated in considerable detail, are evi- dence of a new order. It has also been my effort to outline the regime they displaced; to the antiquarian it has the greater interest, whereas to him who prefers life in action the epoch after 1836 will always make a stronger appeal.
I wish to express my sense of obligation to many who have upheld my hands in gathering material. To a number of former students in Trinity College I am indebted for use of their researches in North Carolina history. To the authori- ties of the Trinity College Library and the State Library I am under obligation for special courtesies. To the South Atlantic Quarterly and the Historical Papers of the Trinity
V
vi
PREFACE
College Historical Society I am obligated for permission to embody in the text portions of articles I have contributed to their pages. Col. Fred A. Olds of the State Hall of History at Raleigh has rendered indispensable service in securing illustrations.
January, 1919.
WILLIAM K. BOYD.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I
POLITICAL AND SOCIAL CONDITIONS, 1783 -- 1787 1
CHAPTER II
FEDERAL RELATIONS, 1783-1787
21
CHAPTER III
FEDERALISTS AND REPUBLICANS, 1790-1815 47
CHAPTER IV
COURTS, BOUNDARIES, LAND DISPUTES, INDIAN REMOVAL, LOCATING THE CAPITAL 66
CHAPTER V
SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC CONDITIONS, 1800-1836
83
CHAPTER VI
STATE OF THE FINANCES
105
CHAPTER VII
BANKING PROBLEMS, 1804-1835
119
CHAPTER VIII
THE AGITATION FOR CONSTITUTIONAL REFORM AND TIIE CONVEN- TION OF 1835 139
vii
viii
CONTENTS CHAPTER IX
FEDERAL POLITICS, 1824-1836
166
CHAPTER X
RELIGIOUS DEVELOPMENT AFTER THE REVOLUTION 185
CHAPTER XI
SLAVERY AND THE FREE NEGRO; LEGAL, ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL. ... 202
CHAPTER XII
THE WHIG REGIME; DOMESTIC POLICY 225
CHAPTER XIII
THE WHIG REGIME; DOMESTIC POLICY 242
CHAPTER XIV
THE WHIG REGIME; POLITICS, STATE AND FEDERAL, 1836-1847. ... 263
CHAPTER XV
DECLINE OF THE WHIG PARTY, 1848-1852 288
CHAPTER XVI
PARTY POLITICS, 1852-1860 308
CHAPTER XVII
AGRICULTURE, MANUFACTURES, MINING, TRANSPORTATION 331
CHAPTER XVIII
ACADEMIES AND HIGHER EDUCATION 354
CHAPTER XIX
THE PRESS, LITERATURE, PROFESSIONAL AND MORAL ORGANIZATIONS 374
History of North Carolina
CHAPTER I
POLITICAL AND SOCIAL CONDITIONS, 1783-1787
FINANCE-LOYALISTS-THE STATE OF FRANKLIN
On April 19, 1783, Governor Alexander Martin formally notified the General Assembly of North Carolina that His Britannic Majesty had recognized the independence of the United States on the preceding November 30th. "Nothing now remains," he added, "but to enjoy the fruits of uninter- rupted Constitutional Freedom, the more sweet and precious as the tree was planted by virtue, raised by the Toil, and nurtured by the blood of Heroes." 1
Undoubtedly a new era opened, but the readjustment from war to peace was by no means easy. Among the population of 350,000, slave and free, there was neither unity nor amity. The divergence between the planters of English extraction in the tidewater section and the small farmers of the pied- mont, mainly Scotch-Irish and Germans, was as distinct as in the days of the Regulation. During the war thousands had been loyal to the British cause, and the conflict in its later stages had been a veritable civil war. Victory on the field of battle was followed by a policy of proscription. The agencies of intellectual and moral progress were prostrate. There had been no printing press in the state since 1778. Many of the academies had closed their doors, and no step had been taken to carry out the mandate of the state constitution regarding education. Religion was at a low ebb; the Church of England
1 State Records, XIX, 243.
Vol. II-1
1
2
HISTORY OF NORTH CAROLINA
had collapsed with the opening of the Revolution, and all de- nominations suffered by the confusion of war and the preva- lence of eighteenth century scepticism. Commerce was de moralized, not only by the crippling of foreign shipping, but also by interstate tariffs. There was also antagonism be- tween the planters and the merchants, revealed in the tax laws. In governmental affairs there was confusion and cor- ruption. The local officers were in arrears with the settle- ment of the tax lists, the state's share of the continental ex- penditures was unpaid, the currency was so depreciated as to be practically worthless, and the laws enacted since 1776 were diffuse, conflicting, and uncodified. "Neglect of duty," said Governor Martin, "abuses of power, Disobedience of Laws, your monies unaccounted for, and public credit sunk, all call for your authority and correction. These weaken the springs of government and relax their vigor." With such a background political strife became intense and partisan. Military leaders, unwilling to see their influence wane after laying down their arms, entered politics. "Then began," says McRee, "a contest hot enough, between thought and action.'' 2
The process of readjustment began immediately. In the summer of 1783 Robert Keith established a printing press at Newbern and published the North Carolina Gazette; the next year a second press was established at Halifax, and another at Hillsboro in 1786. In place of public schools private acad- emies were chartered, fifteen between 1783 and 1788. For care of the poor the election of wardens in each county was ordered in 1785 and for the same purpose the glebe lands in Granville County were confiscated. The ideal of equality bore fruit in the abolition of entails in 1784. The return of peace brought an increase of land values. Roads were re- paired and rivers improved by direction of private acts of the legislature. Restrictions on foreign commerce being re- moved, there was such a demand for manufactured goods that markets were inflated. Social organization also felt the impulse of new life. In October, 1783, a branch of the
2 Life and Correspondence of James Iredell II, 81.
1
3
HISTORY OF NORTH CAROLINA
Society of the Cincinnati was established in Hillsboro. In 1787 the Grand Lodge of the Masonic Order, extinct since 1776, was revived. The churches also rallied to the oppor- tunity before them. In 1784 the Methodist Societies took on the clothes of a denomination in Baltimore and on North Carolina soil were projected its first publishing enterprise and its first preparatory school. The Presbyterians in 1788 organized the Synod of the Carolinas, and by 1790 expan- sion of the Baptists revived with the formation of new as- sociations.
Contemporary with these unifying influences were three problems which kept alive old issues, aroused the spirit of partisanship, and checked the development of a sound pub- lic policy. First of these was the currency. During the Revo- lution, as in colonial days, the main source of revenue was fiat money. A new denomination, the state dollar, supplanted the colonial pound and shilling. Between 1775 and 1780 $6,590,000 in paper were authorized. As taxes for redemp- tion were suspended, depreciation set in, amounting to 50 to 1 specie in 1780 and 800 to 1 in 1784. As depreciation in- creased, a new obligation was invented, certificates or promis- sory notes, bearing interest either in specie or in paper. The amount issued is unknown, but in one year (1781) $26,- 250,000 in certificates were offered as bounties to volunteers in the army. For redemption three measures were adopted; the sale of confiscated property, land grants beyond the moun- tains, and taxation. In 1782 the value of the certifi- cates in specie was 150 to 1 for those issued prior to 1781, and 800 to 1 for those issued after that date, bounty certificates ex- cepted, but the value of the latter was also rated at 800 to 1 in 1784. Besides depreciation there were other evils connected with the certificates, notably counterfeiting and fraud. The crowning revelation came in 1786, when it was discovered that over a score of individuals had secured forged certificates and due bills for military service, signed by military officers, and had presented them to the Commissioners of Army Accounts, whose duty was to settle claims arising from the Revolution. The commissioners were a party to the fraud, for they re- ceived a discount for the false certificates and due bills which
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HISTORY OF NORTH CAROLINA
they approved. These were then cashed by the treasurer to the amount of £47,175.173/4 before the governor detected the swindle and forbade further redemption. The legislature of 1786 made an investigation, ordered the arrest of the of- fenders and their prosecution at the succeeding term of court at Warrenton. A number of indictments were returned, and nine individuals were found guilty. Among those impli- cated was Memecun Hunt, treasurer of the state; he resigned from office and was succeeded by John Haywood in 1787.
The total amount of certificates issued and the total amount redeemed cannot be ascertained. "It has been al- leged," wrote Hugh Williamson, "that our certificate debt bears some resemblance to that many headed monster which defied danger; whenever one of its heads was cut off, two other heads arose to support the loss." 3 In 1786 the amount of the certificate debt was estimated at £786,264.6, face value, with an annual interest charge of £47,571.13/4. The next year the amount outstanding was estimated at £1,000,000, with accrued interest of £60,000.
In the light of this experience with paper money, further issues would seem inadvisable. In fact by 1782 paper was so worthless that specie, which had disappeared as inflation set in, returned to circulation and the revival of commerce after the war ended seemed to promise a further diffusion of hard money. But a majority of the people were small farm- ers, far removed from good markets, among whom money was always scarce. The result was a demand for a new issue of paper to take the place of the Revolutionary currency. So in 1783 £100,000 were emitted, to be redeemed by the sale of confiscated property, with a scale of depreciation to be used in settling debts contracted in the old money. The term "state currency" was applied to this new issue, and the denominations of pound and shilling were adopted to dis- tinguish it from the state dollars of the Revolutionary period. Again depreciation set in; the remedy adopted in 1785 was another issue of £100,000. By 1787 depreciation at home was
3 Letters of Sylvius VI.
NORTH CAROLINA, CURRENCY
ONE EIGHTH OF A LOLLAR
NÓ
STATE of NORTH CAROLINA.
HIS Bill intitles the Bearer to receive One T Eighth of a Spanita milked Dollar, fr ite
Value thereef in Gold or Silver, agreeable to any
A& of Afferably paffed at Hilifborough the Sth
Day of Auguft, 1775.
Union of Hearts
the Strength of
Interefts.
ONE TO UND.
THIS BILL OF TWENTE SINLLINGS
Shall be a tardey Kah payments sulate
AGLIRILE TO
ACT SAF MBL
Paffed at ]'Ember the zgth of De-
cembal 1789.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Twenty Shillings Currency.
To cminterfeit is Death? { 20S.
Tro und a iff Dollars.
REVOLUTIONARY AND POST-REVOLUTIONARY CURRENCY
ONE RIGHTH OF A DOLLAR.
Hillfborough : Printed dy
6
HISTORY OF NORTH CAROLINA
at the rate of 13s paper to Ss specie, while outside the state the currency was practically valueless.
The new issues, like the certificates, illustrate the low standard of public morality. Fraud and corruption were soon manifest. Of the issue of 1785, £36,000 were reserved for the purchase of tobacco which was to be sold and the proceeds applied to the state's quota of the continental debt. The commissioners who purchased the tobacco were allowed to offer 50s per hundred, which was higher than the market price. Considerable weight was lost in storing and trans- ferring the leaf. Finding a purchaser was difficult. The delegates in Congress were authorized to act as selling agents, and they succeeded in making a contract with an English firm at $3.50 per hundred (Spanish milled dollars), for about half the authorized purchase. After more than 100,000 pounds had been delivered, the company failed, but credit to the amount due by the company was allowed the state by the continental authorities. A small sale was negotiated by Rich- ard Blackledge with a French firm; he withheld the proceeds on the ground that he had a claim against the state for sup- plies furnished during the war. However the legislature refused to credit his case and forced a settlement. Altogether £37,577 were spent for tobacco, more than the law allowed, exclusive of commissioners' fees, the cost of storage, and transportation. The amount sold was less than the amount purchased. The story of inefficiency spread beyond the state and became one of the public scandals of the time.
The effects of paper money and certificates on business morality were perhaps their worst feature. On account of depreciation transactions were honeycombed with fraud. "Some time ago," wrote Williamson, "a young adventurer in North Carolina married a widow who had three children. She chanced to have three thousand hard dollars in the house, two-thirds of which belonged to the children. The guardians claimed their share of the specie for the children, and the honest step-father is now buying up paper at twelve or thir- teen shillings for the dollar; and such money will be a legal payment for the use of the orphans. Is it strange that paper
1
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HISTORY OF NORTH CAROLINA
depreciates when such men are profited by the deprecia- tion ?'' 4
Trade and credit were demoralized. One of the first duties after the war was to make provision for the settlement of debts. In 1783 the statute of limitations was suspended from all debts contracted between July, 1776, and June, 1784, and suits for collection of debts contracted prior to May, 1783, were forbidden until a year from that date, unless the debtor attempted to leave the state to avoid payment. In render- ing decisions the courts were directed to give judgment in specie according to a scale of depreciation, although the bond or contract had been made in Revolutionary currency, and the law making that currency legal tender for the payment of debts was repealed. This statute was so vague in its terms that several questions arose which the courts undertook to settle. First was the extent to which the repeal of the tender law could be applied. Creditors went so far as to claim that payments previously made should be revised to meet the terms of the new scale of depreciation, and that all debts already contracted and unpaid should be settled according to the new standard. Such a principle would have worked untold hardship on the debtors. Hence the courts held that the law of 1783 did not "destroy the effect and operation of the laws upon transactions that had already taken place under them," that the scale of depreciation applied only to obliga- tions assumed and unadjusted since depreciation began in 1777, and that in settling debts contracted during the Revolu- tion payment should be made according to a rate of deprecia- tion for the year in which the debt was contracted. On the other hand debtors tried to take advantage of the law by settling their obligations, payable in specie, in state cur- rency, according to the ratio between the two set forth in the scale of depreciation. But the courts held that the scale of depreciation could be applied only to the year 1783 in which it was enacted, not to previous years, and could not be binding on contracts made in the future, and that in the absence of any prohibition the juries might settle all cases of deprecia-
4 Letters of Sylvius II.
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HISTORY OF NORTH CAROLINA
tion between specie and paper after 1783. A favorite method of adjusting depreciation was to allow damages for withheld interest equal to the difference between the depreciation fixed in the law and the actual depreciation.5 Thus the sphere of judicial activity was enlarged and the doctrine of implied powers invoked. Much of the opposition to the courts which characterized the period was due to this policy toward de- preciation. .
Paper money was closely related to political development. There was a strong minority opposed to the inflation of the currency. Among its members were some of the strongest minds of the state. Prominent were James Iredell and Sam- uel Johnston. They were the leading spirits in a popular meeting at Edenton in August, 1783, which protested against the monetary policy of the legislature. James Hogg, writing to Iredell, described the legislators which carried through the first £100,000 bills of credit as "a set of unprincipled men, who sacrificed everything to their popularity and pri- vate views."6 Any policy that would check the issue of paper or would not give the state full credit for obligations dis- charged thereby, was certain to meet opposition. Herein lay one of the causes of the opposition to the ratification of the Federal Constitution and to the assumption of state debts . by Congress.
The cleavage between the conservatives and the radicals disclosed by the currency problem was intensified by the policy toward the loyalists, especially as that policy affected rights of property. According to the Bill of Rights prefixed to the Constitution of 1776, property in the soil was "one of the essential rights of the collective body of the people." Hence the State of North Carolina succeeded the Crown as head of the land system. The Bill of Rights also provided that titles of individuals holding under laws previously en- forced should not be affected. Spite of this guarantee the legislature, acting on the British theory that aliens could not hold property within the realm, confiscated the lands of
5 Anonymous, 1 Haywood, 138; Burton vs. Bullock, Conference Reports, 372; Winslow vs. Bloom, 1 Haywood, 217.
6 McRee, Iredell II, 46.
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HISTORY OF NORTH CAROLINA
those who were absent from the state on July 4, 1776, and did not return and become loyal citizens, as well as the property of those guilty of treason. Later the property of certain cor- porations and certain individuals was specifically singled out for confiscation. However in all cases the rights of widows and the interests of dependents were protected. To what ex- tent the confiscation laws were enforced during the war is unknown; in 1780 and 1781 they were relaxed and pardon was offered to such loyalists as would join the continental army. With the advent of peace the policy toward loyalists naturally came up for revision. In 1783 pardon was extended to all except those who accepted commissions from the Crown, or were guilty of murder, rape, and arson, or were specifically named in the confiscation laws.
In contrast to the policy of proscription was the Treaty of Peace which provided that creditors should meet with no lawful impediment in the collection of debts, that Congress should recommend to the states the restitution of confiscated property of real British subjects, and that no further confis- cation should be made or prosecution entered for participa- tion in the war. Controversy at once began; one faction urged a literal conformance to the treaty, while the other held that the treaty did not refer to laws already made, so placing local interests and prejudice above national obligation. In the legislature of 1784 bills to repeal the confiscation laws so far as they were inconsistent with the treaty were de- feated, and commissioners were appointed to collect and sell confiscated property. By 1786 sales amounting to £221,374.1.6 were reported. In 1785 the proscriptive policy gained an- other victory, for the courts were forbidden to entertain suits for recovery of property the title of which originated in sales under the confiscation laws. In 1787 negroes, horses, and other property of the British army left in North Carolina were also confiscated, and in 1789 individuals who had aided or abetted the British cause were denied the right to hold office.
The law of 1785 injected into the controversy a new is- sue, the relation of the legislature to the judiciary. The extension of judicial interpretation, already developing in the matter of the currency, now reached a crisis in the treat-
10
HISTORY OF NORTH CAROLINA
ment of the loyalists. In December, 1785, a decision rendered at Wilmington held that fines could not be remitted until paid into the treasury and so set aside a private act of the legislature. In May, 1786, one Bayard brought suit at New- bern for recovery of property sold to Singleton under the confiscation laws. Abner Nash, defendant's counsel, moved that the suit be dismissed and cited the law of 1785 forbidding the courts to hear cases involving the validity of the confis- cation law. Opposing the motion were James Iredell, Samuel Johnston, and William R. Davie, who argued that the clause of the Constitution of the state which guaranteed jury trial took precedence over any act of the legislature. The court refused to dismiss the case, but deferred judgment in the hope that the legislature would repeal the statute. Consequently the session of the legislature which met in November, 1786, saw a test of strength concerning the power of the courts. Charges were preferred against the judges for their decisions in the matter of fines and failure to dismiss the case of Bayard vs. Single- ton. Two of the judges, Samuel Spencer and John Williams, attended the hearings, but the third, Samuel Ashe, was absent, declaring the charges malicious and groundless and that in his judicial character he was "righteous and therefore bold." The report of the committee on the conduct of the judges, holding that they were not guilty of misconduct, was adopted. Thus were the guarantees of the Constitution placed above the will of the legislature, and the doctrine of judicial review was approved. The controversy gave rise to considerable pamphlet literature. Iredell's essay defending judicial re- view was widely quoted in other parts of the country where the principle was under criticism, and the doctrine was main- tained by him when he later became a member of the Supreme Court of the United States.
However loyalists were not yet given the protection of the treaty, for the judges had imposed fines on those return- ing to the state, holding that the privilege of returning as stated in the treaty to be a recommendation, and they also held that pardons did not give the right to sue in the courts. Moreover the decision in Bayard vs. Singleton, rendered in May, 1787, after the legislative inquiry, upheld the confisca-
11
HISTORY OF NORTH CAROLINA
tion laws.7 A more liberal policy was made possible in 1787 when the legislature ratified the Treaty of Peace. Thereafter debts to loyalists were held valid by the courts, but titles arising from the confiscation laws were protected on the ground that the guarantee of individual property rights in the Bill of Rights was intended to extend only to citizens of the state. For years litigation was frequent. The most prominent case was that of William, Earl Coven- try, successor by devise to the title of Earl Granville, who brought suit in the Federal District Court of North Caro- lina in 1801 to secure possession of the Granville District. Failing to secure a favorable verdict, the plaintiff appealed to the Supreme Court of the United States, but no decision was ever rendered.
The problem of the loyalists and the courts was of vast political significance. Like the currency question, it marked the division between the conservatives and the radicals. Wrote Iredell in 1783: "Not only the most wanton injury has been done to individuals, but the national character has been disgraced, as more than one article of the Treaty of Peace has been expressly violated. If such things are much longer suffered, this will not be a country to live in, and in the mean- time they must deeply wound the feelings of every man of sensibility and honor." 8
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