USA > North Carolina > History of North Carolina: The Federal Period 1783-1860, Volume II > Part 8
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Academies existed; evidently they did not to any extent reach the masses. Consequently the only remedy for illiter-
s Coon. op. cit., I, p. 244.
9 Ibid, II, 813.
10 Ibid, II, 862.
11 Ibid, I, 252.
12 Letters on Popular Education. .
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HISTORY OF NORTH CAROLINA
acy was to establish schools supported by the state to which all children would be admitted. Sentiment for such a policy dates from the later colonial period. As early as 1754 £ 6,000 in bills of credit were emitted for the foundation of "a public school or seminary" to which George Vaughn, a London merchant, agreed to contribute £ 1,000 per annum. However, during the crisis of the French and Indian war the money voted was used for military purposes and after the end of the conflict it was not restored. Governor Dobbs advised the British Government to allow a reissue of bills of credit for that purpose, without results. The first vic- tory for the ideal of public education was attained in the Constitution of 1776, which declared in article 41 that "a school or schools shall be established by the Legislature, for the convenient instruction of youth, with such salaries to the masters, paid by the public, as may enable them to in- struct at low prices, and all useful learning shall be duly encouraged, and promoted, in one or more universities." This article was taken verbatim from the Constitution of Pennsylvania. In partial fulfillment of its provisions the University of North Carolina was founded in 1795, but for over a generation no action was taken for establishing schools of lower rank.
The failure to carry out the mandate for elementary edu- cation was due to many causes. One was its vague and uncer- tain terms. Some interpreted it to mean the creation of public schools by the legislature, others that its intent was to lend aid to existing academies or to charter new ones. Indeed many academies were chartered, but bills to extend state aid to them were always defeated. Another hostile influence was the sense of individualism which opposed any increase of the state's activity. According to popular political thought, the function of government was to restrain the lawless, not to stand sponsor for social forces. Instruction was pre-eminent- ly a parental obligation with which the state had no right to interfere. Consequently the only conception of public educa- tion was that of charity, to be undertaken by benevolent indi- viduals. Illustrative were societies for education of poor orphan children in Newbern, Fayetteville, Wilmington, Ra-
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leigh, and in Edgecombe, Wayne, and Johnston counties, established between 1800 and 1825. Aversion to taxation also checked the growth of educational sentiment. The purpose of taxation in a democracy, it was held, is to meet the neces- sary expenses of government, and any violation of this prin- ciple is dangerous to liberty. In fact the slender revenue schedules and the general complaint of the depreciation of property made impossible direct taxation for school purposes. However, agitation for public schools opened early in the nine- teenth century. Beginning with Governor Williams in 1802, recommendations for a school system were frequently made by the executives.
Evidently the improvement of trade relations, the stim- ulation of agriculture, and the inauguration of a public school system were the preeminent economic and social needs of North Carolina. A new epoch opened in 1815; popular apathy and legislative inactivity were supplemented by an ever increasing interest in public affairs and also legislative activity in their behalf. A number of influences were respon- sible for this change. Throughout the United States the close of the second war with England was followed by a keener interest in domestic matters. Party strife subsided with the collapse of the federalist party and made possible concentration on matters pertaining to public welfare. Per- sonifying the new epoch was Archibald DeBow Murphey, of Orange County. Repudiating the traditional spirit of par- tisanship, he consecrated his mind and heart to the cause of social and economic reform. His reports on trade and edu- cation mark him distinctly as the agitator and genius of his time. The condition of public finances was also an important factor in the new epoch. An inflation of the currency through the issue of treasury notes and bank notes created a speculative spirit favorable to large enterprises. At the same time a new source of revenue, dividends and taxes from bank stock, made possible state aid for public causes.
As there was general agreement that better trade rela- tions would improve agriculture and also create new values for taxation, the cause of internal improvement received first attention. The steps in the evolution of the new policy were
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halting. There were no guides to be found in experience at home or precedent abroad.13 Yet the appropriations were for that day exceedingly liberal. The legislative committee on inland navigation in 1815 recommended a comprehen- sive survey with reference to navigation, and subscription to one-third of the stock of the Tar, the Neuse, and the Yad- kin Navigation companies, and also a similar subscription to a canal that would connect the Yadkin and the Cape Fear
ARCHIBALD DEBOW MURPHEY
rivers. The proposal for a survey was readily adopted. Dis- cretion should have prevented appropriation for other pur- poses until a report on surveys could have been made; but the demand for better trade conditions was so great that a subscription of $25,000 was authorized to the capital stock of the Roanoke Navigation Company, capitalized at $300,- 000, and $15,000 to that of the Cape Fear Navigation Com-
13 Prior to 1815 there were chartered by the legislature 10 toll roads, 12 canal companies and 15 navigation companies. None received state aid and apparently none were serviceable. See Morganl. State Aid to Transportation (N. C. Booklet, Jan. 1911).
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pany, capitalized at $100,000. The next year $65,000 were subscribed to the stock of other companies as follows: $6,000 to tlie Neuse River Navigation Company, chartered in 1812 with a capital of $50,000; $8,000 to the Tar River Naviga- tion Company, a new corporation with authorized capital of $75,000; $6,000 to the North Carolina Catawba Company, chartered in 1788; $25,000 to the Yadkin Navigation Com- pany, newly chartered with an authorized capital of $250,- 000, and $20,000 to the Lumber River Canal Company, also a new corporation, with a capital of $200,000, to connect the Yadkin and the Cape Fear. Later, in 1818, $5,000 were sub- scribed to the stock of the Roanoke and "Pamptico" Canal Company, organized with a capital of $150,000 to connect the Roanoke and Pamlico rivers, and $2,500 to the Club Foot and Harlowe's Creek Canal, chartered in 1813 to connect Neuse River with Newport River, so affording an outlet to the sea.
Thus a comprehensive policy for the improvement of river navigation was adopted. The appropriations for the improvement of the Roanoke, the Tar, the Neuse, the Cape Fear, the connection of the Roanoke and the "Pamptico," and the construction of the Club Foot and Harlowe's Creek Canal were designed to benefit eastern North Carolina, while the appropriation for the Catawba, the Yadkin, and the connec- tion of the Yadkin and the upper Cape Fear were planned to develop the west and to encourage intersectional relations. Of the total subscribed, $61,500 went to eastern and $51,000 to western projects. Considering the condition of the pub- lic finances, the appropriations were liberal; the state's in- come approximated $135,000, and the expenditures $130,- 000, per annum. It was expected that the subscriptions would be paid from loans secured from the banks, but the meager reports of the Treasurer and the Comptroller do not make clear the method actually used.
During the next few years additional appropriations were made for the above and also for other public works. The largest amount again went to the east, as follows: for the improvement of the Cape Fear River below Wilmington $39,730 were spent; for the Plymouth Turnpike connecting
.
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Plymouth and Hyde County $2,500 were appropriated, and also $300 for a road from Columbia to Gumneck; $25,000 for additional stock in the Roanoke Navigation Company were also voted, as well as $25,000 for stock in the Cape Fear Navi- gation Company, and $12,500 for stock in the Club Foot and Harlowe's Creek Canal. Loans to the latter company amount- ing to $18,000 were also made. For the development of the west $2,548 were spent in improvement of Broad River, since South Carolina undertook to improve the portion of the stream in that state. Most significant were appropriations in the mountain region, which developed rapidly after 1819. The roads so favored with their appropriations, were as follows: Wilkes County to the Tennessee line (two roads) $5,000; Old Fort to Asheville, $1,500; Wilkesboro to Iredell County, $500; Rutherfordton to Asheville, $2,452; Jefferson to the Tennessee line, $300; Saluda Gap to Tennessee, $500; Huntsville, Surry County, to the Virginia line, $500.
For the success of the new policy two things were evidently necessary-the establishment of a permanent source of rev- enue from which the state could meet its subscriptions, and a supervisory board or commission to direct and guide the state's policy. In 1817 and again in 1818 the creation of such a revenue and a board to administer it was recommended, but not until 1819, after a favorable report by Hamilton Fulton, the surveyor appointed under the act of 1815, was the recom- mendation carried out. Then were provided the Fund for Internal Improvements and the Board of Internal Improve- ments.
Two sources of revenue were set aside for the fund. First was the Cherokee Lands, consisting of approximately 1,000,- 000 acres in the mountain region to which the Indian titles had been extinguished by the federal treaties of 1819. These lands were now open to settlers. Commissioners were ap- pointed to survey and divide them into four classes, which should sell respectively for $4, $3, $2, and 50 cents to $2 per acre. One-eighth was required of purchasers as first pay- ment, notes being taken for the balance, redeemable in four annual installments. The second source of revenue of the fund was stock held by the state in the banks of Newbern and
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Cape Fear, 1,304 shares in the former and 1,250 in the latter ; each bank was paying in 1819 dividends of 7 per cent. The state was also to receive stock in each company aided equiva- lent to the amount of money subscribed.
For the administration of the fund, the Board of Internal Improvements was created. It consisted of six commissioners, one for each of the judicial districts, elected by the legislature, with the governor as member ex officio. It had authority to appoint engineers, to make subscriptions to public works authorized by the legislature, to report to the legislature "the exact state of the Fund for Internal Improvements: The progress, condition, and net income of all the public works under their charge, the surveys, plans, estimated expense of such new works as they may recommend to the patronage of the General Assembly, together with such other important in- formation as they may have it in their power to collect or in relation to the object committed to their trust." In 1823 membership of the board was reduced to the governor and three directors elected by the legislature, and in 1831 to three, the governor, the state treasurer, and one elected member.
The growth of the Fund for Internal Improvements had peculiar difficulties. First of all the accounts rendered by the Board of Internal Improvements and by the Treasury, when the income of the fund was investigated by the legislature in 1823, differed. With the report of the board as the basis, the income of the fund from 1819 to 1823 was as follows: from the Cherokee Lands, $110,217.701/4, of which $39,560 was cash, the remainder notes due from purchasers; from bank stock, $27,870; and appropriations before the board was organized, $6,264.06; total, $144,351.761/4. Expenditures had been $60,- 879.11, leaving about $70,657.061/4 in notes and $12,815.59 in cash. However, Treasurer Haywood reported the income from land sales to be $1,247 less than the estimate of the board, and that the balance due the fund was $17,361.381%, that claimed by the board being $12,815.59. In the adjustment of accounts the lower cash balance of the board was ac- cepted, while the amount due from Cherokee notes was entered as $87,111.561/4. For the following three years the fund pros- pered; the cash income from 1824 to 1827 amounted to $118,-
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269.7012, expenditures were $109,265.521/2, and the cash bal- ance was $21,675.161%. But in November a defalcation by the recently deceased treasurer, John Haywood, was disclosed. Of the total deficiency of $69,377.34 in his account, $22,195.157/8 were charged to the Fund for Internal Improvements.
The most serious check to the growth of the fund, however, was the decline of the dividends from bank stock. In June, 1827, the dividends of the Bank of Newbern dropped from 4 per cent semi-annually to 316 per cent, in December to 3 per cent, in December, 1828, to 2 per cent; in 1830 no dividends were declared; one of 3 per cent was paid in 1831, but there- after none until stock dividends at liquidation. In 1828 the Bank of Cape Fear reduced its dividends from 312 to 2 per cent, passed one dividend in 1830, and all after January, 1831, until reorganization in 1835. This policy of the banks meant a decline of approximately $8,000 per annum for the Fund during the years of reduced dividends and a total loss of $18,000 per annum when dividends were suspended. Thus while the annual income from 1824 to 1827 averaged $27,000, during the succeeding four years the average income was $11,000, and in 1832 and 1833, when no dividends were paid, the average income was only $2,000.
Another cause of the decline of the Fund was the difficulty in collecting the notes due on the Cherokee land sales. The notes taken at the sales of 1819, 1821, and 1822, amounted to $110,117.701/4. The balance uncollected in 1823 was $87,- 111.5614. Prior to 1829 the collections varied from $6,000 to $15,000 per annum. Thereafter they declined, dropping in 1835 to $1,835.17. The amount of bonds still uncollected in 1833 was $49,332.67. One cause of this delinquency was the financial depression which pervaded the state after 1828. In 1834 the treasurer was authorized to bring suit for the collec- tion of notes due and unpaid, and similar action was taken in later years, notably in 1842; but all delinquencies were never settled, and no comprehensive report on Cherokee land was ever made.
The expenditure for internal improvement from the initia- tion of the policy to 1836, inclusive, was $291,446.50. How- ever, of this amount only $205,388.881% was from the Fund,
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the balance being derived from the general revenue of the state. The projects and the amount appropriated to each were as follows:
Engineering
$ 67,808.26
Stock Subscriptions-
Roanoke Navigation Co. $50,000
Cape Fear Navigation Co 40,000
Yadkin Navigation Co. 25,000
Tar River Navigation Co.
1,200
Neuse River Navigation Co. 1,800
North Carolina Catawba Co. 2,400
Club Foot & Harlowe's Creek Canal
15,000
Buncombe Turnpike
5,000
Plymouth Turnpike
2,500
142,900
Direct Appropriations-
Broad River
2,548
Cape Fear
39,730.16
Lumber River
427.20
Highways
16,452.00
59,157.36
Loans-
Club Foot & Harlowe's Creek
Canal
18,000
Old Fort and Asheville Road. 2,000
Tenn. River Turnpike.
2,000 22,000.00
Total
$291,446.50
As paying investments or even successful in securing the desired improvements these appropriations were a failure. Only three of them yielded any dividends; these were the Roanoke Navigation Company, which declared a dividend of 13/4 per cent in 1831 and 1833, the Cape Fear Navigation Com- pany, which paid ten dividends averaging 41% per cent, and the Buncombe Turnpike, which paid a few dividends averag- ing 3 9/10 per cent. For all practical purposes, the Yadkin Navigation Company, the Nense Navigation Company, and the North Carolina Catawba Company were by 1833 unsuc- Vol. II-7
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cessful, and the state's investment in them a complete failure. The Club Foot and Harlowe's Creek Canal was reported to be "productive of some benefits," but in 1834 work on it was suspended. Of direct appropriations, that to the Cape Fear was alone profitable, the construction of jetties and dredging helping navigation considerably. The appropriations to roads benefited those communities which they aimed to benefit.
Two facts explain the failure of this early policy toward in- ternal improvements. The amount of work undertaken was too great for the available revenue and there was a distinct lack of experience and skill in carrying on the part of those directing the enterprises. Said the report of the Board of Internal Improvement in 1833:
When attention was first called to the improvement of our internal condition, by a distinguished son of North Carolina, the public mind was seized and carried away by an amiable enthusiasm on a subject which promised happy results-our citizens and the Legislature were disposed to contribute freely to accomplish objects important to the prosperity of the State, and beneficial to the individual contributors. But, unfortunately for the success of our attempts, we had no ex- perience to guide our efforts or to limit our expectations within proper bounds. Excited to action by the brilliant success of similar attempts elsewhere, and the splendid results which were anticipated from the accomplishment of the projected improvements, many were under- taken without due examination. In some instances a wild spirit, which was generated by the circumstances of the times, diverted the funds from a proper direction ; and the attempt in other instances to gratify local feelings and interests, by commencing operations at many different points, rendered the whole utterly useless, because none could be completed. These and other circumstances contribute to dis- appoint expectations, perhaps too sanguine, and produced doubts of the success of any attempts at internal improvement in our State. *
The science of engineering was at that time little understood, and no individual could be obtained competent to direct our opera- tions. The politicians who devised the plans, undertook the execution of the work and with a fund not larger than some of our citizens have employed profitably on their own farms, improvements were com- menced simultaneously at the sources of all the principal rivers of the State. This system was persevered in until * *
* about $50,000 were lost to the Treasury. The public disappointed by the results of the expenditure, became discouraged and improvement was aban- doned.
The most significant fact in the policy of internal improve- ment was that in spite of its failures there arose a demand for
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HISTORY OF NORTH CAROLINA
larger state aid. In this the Board of Internal Improvement took the lead, recommending in 1821 that the state borrow $500,000 to be spent in the improvement of transportation. In 1825 and again in 1830 the recommendation was repeated. In 1833 the amount recommended was $6,000,000. The desire for larger expenditures was not limited to the board. In the later 'twenties it took the form of a genuinely popular move- ment. One basis for this popular demand was the rise of a new form of transportation, the railway, for the development of which private capital was not sufficient. The most notable expression of the new sentiment was the "Numbers of Carl- ton," published in 1825 by Dr. Joseph Caldwell, president of the University, urging the advantages of railroads.
Popular interest was also expressed in a large number of public meetings. In January, 1829, at a meeting in Raleigh a definite organization was perfected by the friends of internal improvement; a central committee was appointed, and also local committees in each county of the state, to carry on the agitation. The climax in the agitation was reached in 1833 when delegates from forty-eight counties met at Raleigh and adopted a memorial to the legislature asking for state aid to various enterprises, amounting to $5,000,000.
The agitation produced no immediate result, the principal reason being the conflict between the east and the west, which was at fever heat from 1830 to 1835. By 1830 the counties west of Raleigh had outstripped those to the east in popula- tion; yet because representation was apportioned equally among the counties, the east, with a larger number of counties, had a larger representation in the legislature and controlled legislation. Consequently there was a demand for constitu- tional reform with especial attention to the matter of repre- sentation, championed by the west and opposed by the east. This issue was so acute that it obstructed all other questions. Therefore the memorial of the Internal Improvement Conven- tion of 1833 received no response from the legislature. A wave of protest swept the state. Prominent leaders and newspapers in the east as well as the west condemned the legislature for its failure to heed the popular demand. It was also evident that the matter of representation must be settled before economic problems could be impartially considered. Hence the imme-
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diate outcome of the agitation for internal improvement was to strengthen the sentiment for constitutional reform. After that issue was adjusted by the constitutional convention of 1835, a new chapter opens in the history of state aid.
However new means of financing public works had to be found, for in 1835 the income of the Fund for Internal Im- provements was only $14,736. This difficulty was overcome by the distribution of the federal surplus revenue among the states. Two other problems, however, had also to be met with the surplus revenue; one was the obligations due by the state treasury, the other was the demand for aid to public edu- cation.
That better markets would make agriculture more profit- able was undoubtedly one of the influences which brought about the Fund for Internal Improvements. Regeneration of farming was also sought through the organization of agri- cultural societies. Such a society was formed in Edgecombe County as early as 1810, and others were established in Beau- fort, Halifax, Cumberland, Wake, Guilford, Mecklenburg, Chatham, and Surry. In 1819 the State Agricultural Society was organized at Raleigh, but very little is known of its activi- ties. In 1822 the policy of state aid was directly extended by the creation of the Agricultural Fund, consisting of the in- come, not exceeding $5,000 per annum, from the sales of vacant land, and uncalled-for sums in the hands of the clerks of the County courts. Expenditures were authorized for three purposes : the support of local agricultural societies, the pur- chase and distribution of seeds, and publishing the reports and proceedings of county societies. For supervision of this work the presidents or delegates of the county societies were constituted a Board of Agriculture. The activities of the board were not extensive. One of its services was to issue several pamphlets relating to agriculture; more important was to undertake the publication of a geological survey of the state. The first two parts, prepared by Prof. Denison Olm- stead, of the university, were published in 1824 and 1825, the third and fourth parts by Prof. Elisha Mitchell, of the same institution, in 1826 and 1827. With the latter were also issued a "Report on the Mineralogy of North Carolina" by C. Rothe, a reprint from Silliman's Journal of Science. These pamph-
,
.
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lets were not only the earliest publication of the State Geo- logical Survey, but were also the first efforts toward a geo- logical publication by any state in the Union. However there seems to have been little inclination to take advantage of the Agricultural Fund by the county societies, for in 1825 there was an unexpended balance of over $7,000. This, and also all future annual balances, were therefore appropriated to the Literary Fund, established in the interest of public schools in 1825.
There was a tremendous increase in the cause of public education in 1815 and after, due to the same influences that increased the interest in internal improvements. In 1815, the year that the policy of state aid to transportation was adopted, a joint committee on education was appointed by the legis- lature, but it made no report. In 1816 another legislative com- mittee submitted a report, written by Archibald DeBow Murphey, which pointed out the importance of education to a people and to a state. "In all ages and in all countries," it said, "the great body of the people have been found to be virtuous in the degree in which they have been enlightened. There is a gentleness in wisdom, which softens the angry pas- sions of the soul, and gives exercise to its generous sensibili- ties. And there is a contentment which it brings to our aid; humility in times of prosperity, fortitude in the hour of ad- versity, and resignation in affliction. True wisdom teaches men to be good rather than great; and a wise providence has ordered that its influence should be most felt where it is most needed, among the great body of the poeple, who, constituting the strength of the state, have no other ambition than to see their country prosper and their wives and children and friends . happy. To the several classes which compose this great body, the attention of the Government should be particularly di- rected; to teach them their duties and enable them to under- stand their rights." 14 The result was the appointment of an ad interim committee to plan a school system. Its report, also written by Murphey, is a landmark in the state's educa- tional history. It outlined a system including grammar schools, academies, the improvement of the University, and
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