North Carolina

“ In just a half century the iron lines, beginning at the sea, have reached and pierced the mountain barriers of Western North Carolina. From State to State rush the tireless ministers of our wealth and pleasure. Instead of the wagon toiling slowly in the rear of weary axemen, we see the long and well-appointed railroad train sweep by with the speed of the hurricane, bearing the wealth of States, and doing more in the course of twenty-four hours to diffuse civilization and luxury than our ancestors could have accomplished in as many years. ”

“ North Carolina, rich in biographical notices of
distinguished citizens and inscriptions from their
tombstones, upon reading which one might well
wonder why North Carolina had not long ago
eclipsed the rest of the world in wealth, wisdom,
glory, and renown. On almost every page of this
monumental work could be found the most ardent
panegyrics of liberty, side by side with the slavery
statistics of the State,--an incongruity of which
the learned author was deliciously unconscious. ”

“ Tories becoming daring and insolent; the British overrunning South Carolina and Georgia; the Indians upon the borders, bribed and inflamed against the Americans—all tended to increase the gloom and darken the prospect of achieving our independence. But amidst all the obscurity which shrouded the sun of American independence, there was a gallant band of patriots in the mountains of North Carolina and upper South Carolina, who never quailed in duty before the enemy, struck a severe blow at every opportune moment, and never despaired of final success. ”

“ North Carolina, the typical American Democracy, had loved peace and sought in vain to stand between the mad passions of the Cavalier of the South and the Puritan fanatic of the North. She entered the war at last with a sorrowful heart but a soul clear in the sense of tragic duty. She sent more boys to the front than any other state of the Confederacy—and left more dead on the field. She made the last charge and fired the last volley for Lee’s army at Appomattox. ”

“ We cannot refrain from quoting his description of North Carolina as printed on page 79 of his history: "A delicious country, being placed in that girdle of the world which affords wine, oil, fruit, grain, and silk, with other rich commodities, besides a sweet air, moderate climate, and fertile soil. These are the blessings, under Heaven's protection, that spin out the thread of life to its utmost extent, and crown our days with the sweets of health and plenty, which, when joined with content, render the possessors the happiest race of men upon earth." ”

“ Great God, it hurts me to think of North Carolina, the birthplace of my father and all his fathers before him that I know anything of, the birthplace of Polk and Shelby and Robertson and a host of others as great sons as ever God gave to the republic, the land of the Anglo-Celt, of patriotism and tar-heel gameness—it hurts me, I repeat, to learn that she stands at the foot, and Tennessee, her daughter and her equal in past grandeur, patriotism and principles, stands next! ”

“ This is an entirely new and valuable feature in a school book, and contains an analysis of our State government. This is just the information that every citizen of North Carolina ought to possess, and teachers should require all their students of this history to read and study the Constitution and endeavor to answer the questions thereon.
No State in the Union possesses a record of nobler achievements than North Carolina. Her people have always loved liberty for themselves, and they offered the same priceless boon to all who came within her borders ”

“ Sloping in a long, gradual sweep of undulating hills and valleys, overspread with the silver network of her myriad streams, from her lofty green-bannered battlements, erected by God, down to her shifting shore, where Hatteras lies in wait for her enemies by sea, North Carolina spreads out the peaceful lap of her bounteous land for her children and for all who cherish her. ”

“ In such mood it would have been an easy task for a ruler who was both patriot and statesman to re-establish Federal authority in North Carolina. It was simply impossible to punish all who had fought against the Federal government. It was quite as impossible to expect the many who had fought against it to take part in punishing the few. Amnesty and oblivion on one side, renewed allegiance and strict observer of the laws on the other, plainly constituted the true solution of the problem. ”

“ Can it be conceived that North Carolina, after the adoption of the Constitution, would cede to the general government the territory south of the Ohio river, intending thereby to expatriate those dauntless mountaineers of North Carolina who had shed lustre upon the Revolutionary arms by the victory of King's mountain? ”

“ Ardmore, how dare you suggest that we call United States troops into North Carolina! Don’t you know that would be an insult to every loyal son of this state? I should have you know that the state of North Carolina is big enough to take care of herself, and if any president of the United States sends any troops down here while I’m running this office, he’ll find that, while our people will gladly die, they never surrender. ”

“ However, one thing I will say for North Carolina—it has the best material for fire, and the noblest liberality in the use of it, of any place in the world. Such a spectacle as one of those rousing pine-wood chimneyfuls is not to be described, nor the revivification it engenders even in the absence of every other comfort or necessary of life. They are enough to make one turn Gheber,—such noble piles of fire and flame, such hearty, brilliant life—full altars of light and warmth. ”

“ No State in our Union can present a greater display of exalted patriotism, enduring constancy and persistent bravery than North Carolina. And yet, how many of our own people do we find who know but little of the early history of the State, her stern opposition to tyranny under every form, and her illustrious Revolutionary career.
On the shores of North Carolina the first settlement of English colonists was made; within her borders the most formidable opposition to British authority, anterior to the Revolution, was organized ”

“ For years past, it has been evident to intelligent observers that no bar exists to illimitable progression, both to North Carolina and the great American Republic, except in the senseless and cruel sectional hostilities. If the people, North and South, could only be induced to surrender their mutual distrust and aversion, thereby would disappear the last danger left to the American people. ”

“ This Congress was the first great step in the Revolution, which was to deliver North Carolina and America from the dominion of a distant King and Parliament. The men of America were soon to be free from all foreign interference in their government. It was a bold and hazardous step in Colonel Harvey and the men over whom he presided as Moderator, but safety in the end was the reward of those who thus dared to be free. ”

“ There was in North Carolina great indignation at the result of the enforced changes wrought in the polity of the State by means of the various congressional enactments. Strangers from other States, and men entirely unused to legislation, had effected many alterations in our government and laws. ”

“ Brickell were moved by such a spirit, the muses have not made the Old North State very remarkable in this respect.
2. North Carolina has always been, since its settlement, the home of some highly cultivated people, but all the while the mass of the population has possessed but little knowledge of books. This fact has been a great discouragement to the production of authors. Professions are not eagerly sought when not encouraged by the sympathy and support of the public. ”

“ North Carolina had just entered upon a career of rapid development in her mineral resources. The incorporation of a clause extending the right of suffrage in the State Constitution, the completion of the great central railway, the opening of the asylums and the large addition to the number of schools, were evidences of progress and widespread prosperity. Capitalists, for the first time, began to invest their wealth in cotton and woolen factories. ”

“ Ever since the close of the late war, the colored people of North Carolina have shown a remarkable unanimity in their efforts to procure education for themselves and their children. In this desire they have been nobly aided by the white men and women, and their progress has been rapid. It is the belief of all that only in enlightened public sentiment can safety be found for our peace and liberties; and thus the State is doing all that can be effected for the culture and mental improvement of all classes of its population. ”

“ North Carolina was thus manfully meeting the requirements of both civilization and humanity; for as the condition of their highways affords the truest test of a people's advancement in civilization, so, also does the provision made for the care and comfort of the unfortunate and helpless afford the highest evidence of a people's progress in humanity.
10. In this memorable session of 1848-49, a still further exemplification of the wisdom of the North Carolina Legislature was seen in their statute for the protection of married women. ”

“ The daily and weekly newspapers of North Carolina are now largely supplied with printing papers by the mills of the State. The first paper mill in North Carolina was erected near Hillsboro, in 1778; the second one was built at Salem, in 1789, by Gotleib Shober.
5. North Carolina has ever been slow to change in the habits of her people. The ways of their forefathers always seem best to most of them until abundant example has shown the wisdom of an innovation. Steam, however, is usurping a place in every species of labor and motion. ”

“ North Carolina will thus be seen to be a State of vast resources, whether we regard the variety and value of her natural or cultivated productions, the immense range of her minerals or her facilities for manufacturing industries. It would, perhaps, be safe to say that no equal portion of the earth's surface will, in half a century, be the scene of industries so various and of such value. ”

“ The rich and beautiful lands which fell under the eye of the North Carolina and Virginia pioneers under Waddell, Byrd, and Stephen, lured them irresistibly on to wider casts for fortune and bolder explorations into the unknown, beckoning West. ”

“ It can hardly be realized amid the present luxuries and enjoyments of the American people, what dangers and privations were encountered by the white settlers in North Carolina two hundred years ago; for while now thronging cities, teeming fields and busy highways of a people numbering many millions cover the land, then cruel and crafty Indians, always hostile at heart to the tread of the white man, surrounded the defenceless homes of the scattered colonists and filled the great forest stretching three thousand miles toward the setting sun. ”

“ No state in the Union has made such rapid increase industrially, agriculturally, and educationally as North Carolina, during the recent years. Her growth sounds more like a fairy tale than it does real facts. ”

“ With Virginia, one reaches the region where the old native American holds his ground.
North Carolina makes a still more striking picture. In its population of more than three million, the 1930 census enumerators found scarcely 25,000 foreign-born or of foreign parentage. North Carolina is an active industrial State, yet it has been able to attain to its modern development from its own resources. Its neighbors on the North and South, together, have supplied a hundred thousand citizens ”

“ The census of 1870 showed vast improvement in many departments of human industry. North Carolina, in the many alterations wrought by the war, was learning the wisdom of diversifying the pursuits of the people. Slowly public attention was being turned to the opening of new industries. The Western North Carolina, the Raleigh & Augusta and the Carolina Central Railroads were opening up a new era in the history of such interests in the Old North State. ”

“ The recent accession of the important state of north Carolina to the Constitution of the United States (of which official information has been received) — the rising credit and respectability of our Country — the general and increasing good will towards the Government of the Union — and the concord, peace and plenty, with which we are blessed, are circumstances, auspicious in an eminent degree to our national prosperity. ”

“ When the year of our Lord 1842 had come, peace and prosperity were in all portions of North Carolina. Society was still divided into three classes. These were: the white people, the slaves and the free negroes. The latter class had originated by manumission, and were numerous in some of the eastern counties. They had lost the right of suffrage by the action of the State Convention of 1835. ”

“ The militia were, of course, aided by Whig troops of that province. The readiness with which North Carolina marched troops both to Virginia and to South Carolina caused her to stand very high in the estimation of the Continental Congress.
11. The term "Tory" was applied to men who upheld the royal authority, and were opposed to any movement to defend the colonies against the exactions of the Crown and Parliament. The "Whigs," on the contrary, were at that day demanding that American commerce should be free, and that no taxes should be imposed by Great Britain upon the colonies. ”