USA > North Carolina > History of North Carolina: The Federal Period 1783-1860, Volume II > Part 20
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But a still more striking and conclusive advantage, results from the great reduction effected in the expense of carrying produce to market. Previous to the construction of Rail Roads in the neighborhood of the falls of Roanoke River, the price of waggoning cotton and other articles to Petersburg was from seventy-five cents to one dollar per hundred, so that the saving to the grower of produce is, at the lowest estimate, twice as much as the freight per hundred on the Rail Road. Again, a merchant of much intelligence in Raleigh, has furnished the minority with a statement, showing the rates formerly paid on the transporta- tion of produce, by wagons, to Petersburg, and the rates now paid by the Rail Road. From this statement it appears, that the price by wagons was from one to two dollars per hundred, the average being one dollar and fifty cents. The price now paid by the Rail Road for the same articles is seventy cents, being a saving of more than one- half of the former rate. By wagons the price paid on salt was two dollars per sack; the price now paid by the Rail Road on the same article, is sixty-five cents, being a saving of double the amount now paid by the Rail Road. The saving to the growers of produce, who send to market by the Wilmington and Raleigh Rail Road, has also been very great.
No less important were the effects of the railroads on social life. Intercourse between the people of the east, pre- dominantly of English extraction, and the sturdy yeomanry of the western counties, mainly of Scotch-Irish and German descent, was facilitated by the North Carolina Railroad. The stress of local sectionalism was thus reduced. The spirit of individualism was tempered by a wider acquaintance and a new sense of public duty. The democrats, who bitterly de- nounced state aid in its early years, themselves adopted the policy after they came into power in 1850.
The early history of the railroads is replete with matters of antiquarian and other interest. Of these the character of the rails was notable. As stated, the first type used was the "strap iron," consisting of a long wooden sleeper with strips of iron nailed on the top side. Often these iron strips became loose, and as a train passed over them they would fly up and cause a wreck. Said the president of the Wilmington and Raleigh in 1848: "We are aware that the public generally have a dread of traveling upon strap iron roads, and althoughi by the most unremitting exertions our road has been kept in such condition that no serious accidents have occurred, yet, it can not be disguised that the common dread of traveling on such roads is not without just cause." The re-railing of the
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Wilmington and Raleigh and the Raleigh and Gaston with T iron became a necessity. The low state of railway finances brought about an appeal for state endorsement of new bond issues. To the Wilmington and Raleigh's appeal the legisla- ture of 1848 did not respond; instead it permitted a bond issue of $520,000 supported by a first mortgage. But the bonds would not sell at home or abroad. Finally 9,000 tons of rails were secured in England, payment being made in bonds. But when the rails reached the United States the duty and freight amounted to $125,000, and there was not sufficient money in the company's treasury to pay the bill, to say nothing of the expense of laying the new track. To meet the crisis the company adopted the policy of calling in its stock by offering reduced passenger fares in return for each $100 share sur- rendered. It was hoped that the value of the stock would thus appreciate and passenger traffic would also increase. Con- gress and the legislature were also appealed to; the former allowed the rails to be delivered, provided that the duty be deducted from the amount paid by the post office depart- ment for carrying the mails over the road. The legislature au- thorized an increase of the capital stock to $2,500,000. By these means were the rails paid for and money secured to place them. Provision for rehabilitation of the Raleigh and Gaston was made in the reorganization of the corporation in 1848.
Rates and passenger fares also constituted a problem. As . the prevailing belief in the days of early railroad agitation was that passenger travel would afford the chief income, the early fares were high. On the Wilmington and Raleigh a through ticket from Wilmington to Weldon, a distance of 161 miles, cost $20; it was later reduced to $12, resulting in an increase of travel. Over discrimination in freight rates there was complaint; likewise of free passes. Meetings of stock holders were usually gala occasions, attended by stockholders, directors, officers and their families, all traveling on special trains. Connections with roads outside the state and compe- tition with other lines were a problem. It was hoped that the Wilmington and Raleigh through its steamboat lines would secure through freights from Charleston. But the Charles-
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tonians were interested in transportation schemes of their own; hence in 1847 the Wilmington and Manchester was char- tered to directly penetrate the plantation region of South Carolina. Somewhat later difficulty arose with the Virginia railroads, which sought to divert traffic from the far South over the Virginia and Tennessee Railroad, a line extending to Chattanooga, away from the South Carolina and North Caro- lina lines. The least prosperous of the roads was the Raleigh and Gaston, but its business took on a new life with the con- struction of the North Carolina Railroad, which proved from the very beginning a profitable investment. There were also legal problems before the builders of railways, notably the question of eminent domain, which was affirmed by the Su- preme Court in 1837.3 In 1855 the Wilmington and Raleigh established a hospital for the treatment of its employees, a policy which proved permanent.
The whig program of state aid to railroads and other means of transportation made a reform of the public finances necessary. Spite of the $100,000 assigned to the unappropri- ated revenue from the federal surplus in 1836, another period of deficits arose within a few years. For this one cause was the construction of the new capitol. Its total cost, $572,- 070.53, was made in installments beginning in 1836. When the last, amounting to $31,581.00, fell due in 1841, the revenue was insufficient to meet it and the crisis was tided over by use of the Literary Fund. Then followed responsibility for rail- way obligations. In 1843, when the Raleigh and Gaston and the Wilmington and Weldon failed to meet their bonded in- debtedness endorsed by the state, there was another deficit, also met by the use of the Literary Fund. The following year the Literary Fund was again used to meet an obligation arising from the default of the Wilmington and Weldon in redeeming its bonds. In 1845 a deficit of $27,000 in general expenses was met in the same way, raising the full indebted- ness to the Literary Fund to $97,997.00. In 1846 practically the entire Fund for Internal Improvements was wiped out by appropriating its principal, $75,839, to meet another deficit in general expenses.
3 R. & G. R. R. Co. vs. Davis.
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In the meantime a revision of the tax system was under- taken. The first step was to utilize more thoroughly the ex- isting schedule and rates by the reassessment of landed prop- erty and a new enumeration of the polls. This was ordered in 1836; it disclosed an increase of over 3,000,000 acres; yet the resulting increase from the land tax was less than $7,000.
Another valuation in 1846 added 1,500,000 acres and 1,809 polls, bringing an increase in the land tax of nearly $6,000 and in capitation tax of over $1,500. However re-valuation and re- enumeration were not sufficient to meet the constant increase in expenditures. As there was much conservatism toward in- creasing the rates on land and polls, an effort was made to find new tax schedules. In 1846 and 1848 rates were placed upon inheritances, incomes, licenses, and luxuries, which rates were revised and expanded in 1854 and 1858. The agrarian standard of living and also rural prejudice were reflected in the income tax which levied three dollars on each $500 of salary and fees, and in the tax of three cents on each one dollar of interest, increased to four cents in 1854. The principle of the license tax was not new; its schedule was widened to include bowling alleys, playing cards, mortgages, marriage licenses, insurance companies and bank agencies. The old dis- crimination between local and state business also continued; thus drovers bringing cattle from other states were assessed $5 for each county, agents for vehicles not manufactured in North Carolina $100 for each county, while agents for North Carolina vehicles were assessed only $50, and liquor dealers buying from distilleries located in other states were assessed 10%, but only 5% when purchasing from North Carolina distilleries. The luxury tax included gold and silver plate, carriages, bowie knives, canes, pianos, harps, and pistols. In- vestment taxes of one-fourth, later of one-third of one per cent on the capital invested, were levied on merchants and five per cent on the value of drugs, provided the owner was not a native of North Carolina. Not until the policy in the above schedule was well 'established was there any change in the rates upon land and poll. In 1854 these, which since 1817 had been 6 cents on $100 value of land and 20 cents on the poll, were increased to 12 cents and 40 cents respectively ; in 1856
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the rate on land was fixed at 15 cents and that on the poll at 50; in 1858 they were increased to 20 and 80 cents respectively, but in 1860 the land tax was reduced to 18 cents. The general effectiveness of these measures is shown by the increase in taxes ; in 1835 the amount raised was $71,740, in 1850 $141,610, in 1860, $667,708. There were, however, inequalities in the revenue system, especially the light tax on slave property when compared with similar values on land or income, for which it paid only the rate on the poll.
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Undoubtedly the principal cause of the expansion of the revenue in 1848 and thereafter was to meet the interest on the bond issues. The policy of issuing bonds was begun in 1848 as a means of meeting obligations for stock subscription to the North Carolina Railroad, the Fayetteville and Western Plank Road and other public works, and also of paying off temporary loans and meeting obligations for the Raleigh and Gaston subscription. These early issues were successful and the policy continued under the democratic regime from 1850 to 1860. At the latter year the total bonded debt amounted to $9,125,505.
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Vol. II-16
CHAPTER XIII
THE WHIG REGIME; DOMESTIC POLICY
PUBLIC SCHOOLS, ASYLUMS, LEGAL REFORM
Contemporary with the whig policy of aid to the railways and revision of the revenue were other movements of equally vital importance,-the establishment of a system of common schools, the foundation of asylums, and legal reform.
The educational movement began with the legislature of 1836, which added to the Literary Fund $500,000, to be in- vested in swamp lands and bank stock, and also the state stock in the Wilmington and Raleigh and all future railroad stocks held by the state. At the same session there was a demand for the immediate enactment of a school law, but the problem of framing an adequate measure was so great that the matter was referred to the trustees of the Literary Fund for a report at the next session. The result, after somewhat divergent bills had been introduced in both houses of the session of 1838, was a compromise measure, adopted January 7, 1839, by a non-partisan and almost unanimous vote. The law provided for an election in each county for the establishment of schools; in those counties in which the issue was carried the county courts were directed to appoint a board of county superin- tendents who should lay off school districts and appoint school commissioners for each district. It was also the duty of the court in each county voting for schools to levy a tax of $20 for each district, to be supplemented by an appropriation of $40 from the Literary Fund.
Now followed a state-wide campaign on the question of schools. The arguments advanced by the opposition well illustrated the contrast of the ideals of progress and reaction. The local tax was held to be a burden to the poor, unjust
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to the childless, and also to those who educated their children at their own expense. The school law was also criticised as impractical in that the school districts would be too large, the salaries of the teachers too small, and the expected school term of three months too short. The case of the self-made, prosperous citizen was held up as an example of the useless- ness of education. Illustrative was an incident in Rowan County. "There are some self-sufficient ones in this county," wrote the editor of the Carolina Watchman, "who say they never had any education and they have got on very well, and their children can do as they did. We were told a joke on one of these gentlemen which we think will answer as well as any argument we could advance. This natural genius had been holding forth at a gathering against the School Bill and holding up his own success as a proof that natral sense was better than edecation. In the midst of the harangue a neighbor took him out to pay him the balance on a note which he held. Neither creditor or debtor understand- ing figures, they called to a schoolmaster in the crowd to come and calculate the interest for them. 'Let Mr. M. do it by his natral sense,' said he of the birchien sceptre; and the crowd shouted at the expense of the genius." 1
However the cause of schools was supported by the more virile newspapers, many members of the legislature, and some of the county officials.' As result, nearly all the counties voted to take advantage of the school law, the exceptions being Columbus, Edgecombe and Wayne in the east, and David- son, Lincoln, Rowan and Yancey in the west. At the succeed- ing legislature the school law was amended by apportioning the Literary Fund among the counties according to federal population and authorizing, instead of requiring, the county courts to levy a local tax not greater than half the appropria- tion from the Fund.
The legislation providing for common schools indeed marks an epoch. For a decade, however, there was neither univer- sal response to the opportunity offered nor any organization or administration resembling a modern school system. The
1 Coon, Documentary Hist. of Public Education in N. C. to 1840, II, p. 896.
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natural conservatism of the people, the lack of successful ex- perience in public education in neighboring states, the apathy toward local taxation, and the old feeling that public aid smacked of charity,-all these provoked a sense of indiffer- ence. Establishing schools was left to the option of the coun- ties, and not until 1846 did all respond to the opportunities of the law. As the county courts were authorized, not required, to levy the local tax, some of them levied a moderate tax, others a very small one, and some none at all. Hence "in all those counties dependent solely on the Literary Fund, the sum they received, when subdivided among a large number of dis- tricts is so small per each that many districts have no schools at all, and derive no benefit from this provision." 2 Indeed in some counties all the income from the Fund was not spent on schools but found its way into the pocket of local officials ; Governor Manly in 1850 estimated that certainly $90,000 and probably $180,000 had been so lost. There was practically no executive or administrative control, the trustees of the Liter- ary Fund confining their activities mainly to financial matters, and few counties made reports to them on the condition of schools as required by law in 1846. Thus "diverse habits sprung up in different counties, and the best county system, made so by the exertions of discreet and zealous local friends, naturally felt least interest in state action and the system as a whole." 3 The result was that in many sections school houses were deserted, the doors broken from their hinges, and the grass grew in the school yards.
There was also a dearth of capable teachers, and consider- able opposition to the new type of institution was often man- ifested by the academies and the old field schools. Distribution of the proceeds of the Literary Fund according to federal rather than white population caused criticism in those coun- ties which had few slaves. Yet the forces of progress were at work. The educational law was the most liberal and modern in the South at that time, for it made no distinction between the children of the pauper and those of the wealthy,
2 Message of Governor Manly, 1850.
3 Wiley, Hist. of Common Schools of N. C. (N. C. Journal of Edu- cation, Sept. 15, 1881).
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and by 1850 approximately 104,000 were enrolled in the com- mon schools, which numbered 2,657, a record excelled in the South only by Tennessee. In 1851 definite action toward the better preparation of teachers was taken. Braxton Craven, principal of Union Institute, in Randolph County, presented in pamphlet form a plan for teacher training. . By act of January 28, 1851, Union Institute was changed to Normal College and its graduates were authorized to teach in the common schools without re-examination by school authorities. In 1852 an amended charter provided a loan of $10,000 from the Literary Fund, made the Governor and the Superintend- ent of Common Schools respectively, ex-officio president and secretary of the board of trustees, a relationship which the state maintained until 1859.
By far the greatest improvement in the nascent educa- tional system came during the democratic regime, by the in- stitution of the office of Superintendent of Common Schools in 1852. Its first incumbent was Calvin H. Wiley, of Guilford County, a young lawyer of prominence and author of two works of fiction, "Alamance" (1842) and "Roanoke" (1849), and editor, with W. D. Cooke, of The Southern Weekly Post (Raleigh), designed to cultivate among native North Caro- linians a knowledge of the history and resources of the state and an improvement of literary taste. From his as- sumption of the state superintendency on January 1, 1853, to the close of the Civil War, the common schools are as much a part of Mr. Wiley's biography as a chapter in the state's history. His constant appeals to the public, his patience, self- denial, and sense of moral responsibility made him a veritable missionary. Indeed "he assumed his delicate trust on his knees, solemnly committing his way to God, and resolving ever to seek his guidance, and to act as before him."4 His first work was to arouse public opinion to the cause. For this purpose he visited all parts of the state by private con- veyance. "Incessant efforts by pen and tongue were re- quired to correct misconception, to make known the true spirit of the mission of the schools, to provoke system and
+ Ibid., July 15, 1882.
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uniformity of effort, to overcome doubts and combat covert and open opposition, and create and foster a healthy public spirit on behalf of the system. Special pains were needed and taken to show academies, high schools and colleges their interest in the common school, to enlist sympathy and co- operation of ministers of the gospel of all denominations
CALVIN H. WILEY
as a duty to humanity, and to make friends of the cause everywhere feel that it was one, and that the teacher and officer of the coast were joined to officer and teacher on the Smoky Mountains. At that day all these points, some of which now seem elementary, had to be fixed, and some of them after a hard struggle, and the whole system had to be purged of the fatal taint of charity once adhering to it and especially,
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after protracted effort, lifted from the beneficence of a class, to that of a fundamental interest of all the state." 5
No less important was the necessity of supplying more and better equipped teachers. Those immediately available were mainly self-taught, individualistic and ignorant of the higher branches. "The teacher in most cases," said Dr. Wiley, "was a law to himself, knew little of the methods of his brothers at other places, and never regarded himself as an element of a general system, and his progress was in the mechanical art of writing, and from years of practice many became masters of penmanship and naturally looked with contempt on their brethren of the new generation whose qualifications were mental and who had not spent a life time in learning to make graceful curvatures and flourishes with the quill." 6
Several methods were used to solve the problem of the teacher. One was to establish examining boards in each county and to require the teacher to secure from them certifi- cates annually. Another was to get recruits from a class which had as a rule overlooked the teaching profession, ambi- tious young men and women who had to rely on their own efforts for a livelihood. An important result was to increase the number of women in the teaching force, yet in 1860 the number of men and women teachers licensed were respectively 1,849 and 315. The question of teacher training was met by county institutes rather than normal schools. Professional organization was perfected through the Educational Asso- ciation of North Carolina, the direct outgrowth of a teachers' convention held in Goldsboro in May, 1856. In the same year appeared the first issue of the North Carolina School Journal; its publication, suspended after the first year, was resumed in 1858 under the new title, The North Carolina Journal of Education, Wiley being chief editor. The matter of text- books also received attention. It was Wiley's hope to see founded a uniform series especially adapted to North Caro- lina conditions. To that end he planned a series of readers and other textbooks before his election to the superintenden-
5 Ibid.
6 Ibid., March 15, 1882.
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cy; but after entering on the duties of the office he sold all copyrights and plates to A. S. Barnes & Co., for cost. This disposed of his North Carolina Reader, published by Lip- pincott in 1851; later editions were published by Barnes and also two other North Carolina Readers, edited by Professor F. M. Hubbard, of the University.
Dr. Wiley's efforts on behalf of the common schools were successful. In 1860 the number of schools was 2,854, the number of teachers licensed 2,164, the average salary $26 per month, the enrollment 105,054 out of 200,855 of school age, and the average school term was 3 2/3 months. The school expenditure was $255,641, of which approximately $100,000 was from local taxation, the remainder coming from the Literary Fund. Although the percentage of white adult illiterates had not been materially reduced from that of 1840, the idea of a common school had been well integrated in the life of the people, and Wiley, a whig, held office continuously under the democratic administration.
School administration was not the only educational prob- lem. The management of the Literary Fund was equally as vital. In 1836 the Board of Trustees was reorganized, the governor remaining president and appointing the other mem- bers. Its principal duty was the oversight of the Fund's se- curities and the investment of that part of its income not ap- propriated to the schools. As public education was only one of the movements for social and economic improvement, there was a strong feeling that the Literary Fund should aid kindred causes. Thus by 1840 the trustees had invested $140,000 in state endorsed bonds of the Raleigh and Gaston Railroad and $85,000 in privately endorsed bonds of the Wilmington and Weldon, and in 1842 they also invested $1,800 in Wil- mington and Weldon bonds and $22,764 in bonds of the Raleigh and Gaston. Where the trustees led, the legisla- ture followed, that body in 1843 ordering the trustees to invest $50,000 in the maturing bonds of the Wilmington and Weldon endorsed by the state, which neither the road nor the treasurer could redeem. Another legislative policy was to meet deficits with the fund; by 1850 $122,150 had been so used and $40,380 of bonds and notes had also been trans-
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ferred to the general fund. No interest was paid on the money thus used until 1853, none on the bonds and notes transferred until 1857. Moreover the treasurer used the Lit- erary Fund to meet temporary deficits, restoring the money when the tax returns came in.
Among other investments by the trustees were state bonds ($97,000), state endorsed bonds of the Fayetteville and West- ern Plank Road ($12,500), and bonds of the Cape Fear and Deep River Navigation Company ($93,000). Appropriations ordered by the legislature were made to turn-pikes in the mountainous section, amounting to $8,799. Bank stock was another favorite investment. In 1839 and 1840 $115,000 were invested in the Bank of the Cape Fear, and $2,700 in the Bank of the State in 1843. When the charter of the latter cor- poration expired in 1858, the fund invested in the stock was transferred to its successor, the Bank of North Caro- lina. The cause of private education was also aided by loans as follows: to Wake Forest College $10,000, to Nor- mal (later Trinity College) $10,000, Greensboro Female Col- lege $7,000, Chowan Female Institute $3,000, Clinton Female Institute $3,000, Floral College $2,000, and Mt. Pleasant Academy $2,000. Education of the deaf, dumb and blind was also aided by an appropriation of $5,000 a year beginning in 1845, increased to $8,000 in 1852. Loans to individuals amounting to $282,677 were made in 1838 but by 1860 these had been reduced to $5,821.
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