______AA FledglingFledgling StateState inin ______aa NewNew NationNation ______

ometimes a small decision leads to bigger and better accomplish- ments. This was certainly the case for early ’s most Terms: Articles of Confederation, famous bully. precedent, judicial review, compro- SSAndrew Jackson might well have been act- mise, Constitution, ing out his sorrow. The Waxhaws native had veto, ratify, Federalists, Anti- been orphaned during the war. He had also federalists, Bill of Rights, state’s been scarred for life after the British took him rights, republican simplicity, War of prisoner. When he refused to clean the boots 1812, recession, internal improve- of a British officer, the cavalryman slashed his ments, canal, common school, forehead with a saber. Literary Fund A teenaged Jackson came to Salisbury in People: Mrs. Elizabeth Bayard, 1784 to study law, but instead he ran races in James Iredell, Samuel Ashe, John the street, played cards all night, and pulled Sevier, Hugh Williamson, John Steele, pranks at parties. One Salisburian remembered Thomas Jefferson, Nathaniel Macon, him as “the most roaring, rollicking . . . mis- Benjamin Forsythe, Johnston Blakely, chievous fellow that ever lived in Salisbury.” Otway Burns, Dolley Madison, He was asked to leave town. , Archibald Murphey After getting his law license, Jackson moved Places: State of Franklin, west of the Blue Ridge to get a new start. But Portsmouth, Raleigh, Fayetteville, his continued reckless behavior there almost got Chapel Hill him killed. Jackson unwisely insulted a re- spected attorney who liked to say “I side with Bacon,” a reference to a famous law textbook. When Jackson made fun of the remark, a duel resulted where the two men were to fire at each other with pistols at close range. Friends con- vinced both men to fire into the air, which they did. To help ease the tension, Jackson then put “a side of bacon” in the saddlebags of his former opponent. The two became lifelong friends.

184 North Carolina: Land of Contrasts Although Jackson still had a temper, he began to use his energy more wisely. He became a leader in Tennessee: the new state’s first congress- man at age twenty-nine, a senator at thirty, a judge at thirty-one, and a general at thirty-five. It was the fastest rise to prominence seen anywhere on the American frontier. After helping win the at the Battle of New Orleans, Jackson ran for president in 1824, lost, but was elected in 1828. Jackson was soon followed as president by another North Caro- linian who had also moved to Tennessee, James K. Polk. While states like Tennessee helped lead the new United States, North Below: This lithograph depicts Carolina continued to struggle to get ahead in the early years of the na- General Andrew Jackson’s victory tion. Its geographic disadvantages continued to plague it, and its lack of at the Battle of New Orleans. unity hindered any progress it could make. It was no wonder that the Opposite page, above: The first most famous North Carolinians of the period often went elsewhere to North Carolina capitol building make a better life. in Raleigh.

Chapter 6: A Fledgling State in a New Nation 185 ______SIGNSSIGNS OFOF THETHE TIMESTIMES ______

______POPULATION______MUSIC______The______state______had______the______slowest______growth______rate______in______While______the______waltz______was______being______introduced______in______Europe,______North______Carolinians______still______danced______the______new______nation.______There______were______about______100,000______additional______residents______every______ten______“scampers,”______an______early______form______of______square______years.______The______state______population______was______478,000______dancing.______String______bands,______often______made______up______of______slaves,______played______at______“subscription______balls,”______in______1800______and______737,000______in______1830.______Only______2___ __percent______lived______in______a___ __sizable______town;______only______where______a___ __community______sold______tickets______for______a______Wilmington______and______Fayetteville______even______series______of______Saturday______night______events.______resembled______cities.______

______EDUCATION______FOOD______Most______North______Carolinians,______if____ _they______went______to______When______North______Carolinians______got______together,______school______at______all,______attended______“old______field______schools”______they______often______made______Brunswick______stew,______a___ __dish______built______in______abandoned______farm______fields.______Sons______of______that______originated______in____ _Virginia.______Huge______iron______richer______families______were______often______sent______to______pots______were______used______to______simmer______potatoes,______“military______schools,”______which______were______popular______onions,______and______beans______with______squirrel______meat.______across______the______state______in______the______early______1800s.______

______LITERATURE______RELIGION______Noah______Webster______of______Massachusetts______put______out______The______Second______Great______Awakening______encouraged______his______first______dictionary______in______1803______and______a___ __larger______people______of____ _the______new______nation______to____ _join______churches.______one______in______1828,______using______many______“American______It____ _was______started______in______Kentucky______by______people______who______words”______for______the______first______time,______like______bunkum______,______had______moved______there______from______North______Carolina.______coined______by______a___ _North______Carolinian______to______describe______The______revival______quickly______spread______back______to______North______a___ _political______speech______that______had______little______value.______Carolina______and______led______to______the______growth______of______the______The______word______came______from______Buncombe______County.______Baptist______and______Methodist______churches.______Americans______still______use______the______slang______word______bunk______.______

186 Chapter 6: A Fledgling State in a New Nation ______FADS______SPORTS______Rich______white______men______sometimes______settled______their______Horse______racing______took______the______state______by______storm______in______disputes______by______dueling.______Andrew______Jackson,______the______early______1800s.______Every______town______had______a______who______later______became______president,______fought______a______racecourse;______the______most______popular______were______in______duel______in______1788______with______Waightstill______Avery,______for______Halifax,______Raleigh,______and______Fayetteville.______whom______Avery______County______was______named.______

Figure 10 Timeline: 1780 –1820 ______

1788 1789 Hillsborough Convention rejected North Carolina ratified U.S. Constitution and ceded western lands; U.S. Constitution; State University established Raleigh named capital 1790 James Iredell appointed to U.S. Supreme Court 1787 Bayard v. Singleton case 1794 Legislature moved to Raleigh 1785 State of Franklin formed 1795 State University opened 1784 North Carolina 1799 ceded western lands William R. Davie appointed ambassador to France; for first time gold discovered in Cabarrus County

1780 1790 1800 1810 1820

1781 1795 Articles of Jay’s Treaty Confederation ratified 1791 U.S. Bill of Rights ratified

1788 U.S. Constitution ratified 1812 War of 1812 1787 Constitutional Convention

Signs of the Times 187 ______TARGETTARGET READINGREADING SKILLSKILL ______DistinguishingDistinguishing FactFact fromfrom OpinionOpinion ______

Defining the Skill 1. Most of the Federalists in North Carolina after the Not everything you read in a textbook is fact. Sometimes lived along the coast. authors weave facts, inferences, and opinions into their 2. North Carolinians gambled with their future by writing to make it more interesting. This writing style, delaying the ratification of the United States however, makes it more difficult to separate facts from Constitution. opinions. 3. Americans who came to distrust the Federalists A fact may be defined as something that can be proved rallied to the leadership of Thomas Jefferson. or verified. Facts may be verified by observation or by re- 4. The best citizens in a republic lived as simply and search. “Eighteen-year-olds have the right to vote” is a state- independently as possible in the country. ment of fact. 5. The best government was to be local, where people An opinion, on the other hand, is something a person knew one another and could work out what needed thinks, believes, or feels is true. Opinions are open to de- to be done. bate and cannot be verified. Opinion statements often in- 6. Conditions grew worse in North Carolina after the clude words like bad, good, probably, believe, feel, think, War of 1812. greatest, worst, best, most, least, always, never, all, none, and 7. North Carolinians elected representatives who may. For example, “A person should not be allowed to vote would not raise the already low tax rate. until he or she is twenty-one years of age” is a statement of 8. North Carolinians were proud people with close opinion. families, but they knew little beyond the habits and values of their locality. Practicing the Skill 9. North Carolinians tried to put the Revolutionary Read the following statements. On a separate sheet of War behind them. paper or a form like that below, write the statements and 10. Some prominent North Carolinians tried to make identify each as a fact or an opinion. the state better.

STATEMENT FACTOPINION WHY?

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188 Chapter 6: A Fledgling State in a New Nation ______TheThe StateState inin thethe ______ConfederationConfederation ______

As you read, look for: This section will help you meet the • the first government set up by the new United States following objective: 8.2.05 Describe the impact of • the problems faced by North Carolina after the war various significant documents on the • vocabulary terms Articles of Confederation, formation of the state and national precedent, judicial review governments.

During the War for Independence, the Continental Congress adopted the country’s first constitution, called the Articles of Confederation. The Articles created a one-house national legislature—Congress—in which each state had one vote. There was no president and no court system. The Confederation, as that government was called, provided for national defense and foreign policy during those years. (Foreign policy refers to a nation’s international relations.) The Confederation Congress did succeed in signing a peace treaty with the British and securing new lands west of the Appalachian Mountains. However, the Confederation was most often ineffective because it lacked money and resources. Its difficulties were much the same, but on a larger scale, as those of North Carolina. North Carolina After the War North Carolina only slowly recovered from the hate and destruction left over from the War for Independence. The state was so disorganized that the General Assembly moved from place to place after the war. Some host towns, like Tarboro, Smithfield, or Wake Court House, had fewer Above: Samuel Johnston of Edenton houses than there were legislators. There was even less money for the was a member of the Continental state to spend than there were places to meet. The paper money issued Congress. In the government formed to pay for military expenses was worthless, and state residents did not under the Articles of Confederation, want to accept it. Trade suffered at ports like Ocracoke. New towns like he was chosen the first “President Kinston on the Neuse River were slow to grow. of the United States in Congress To raise money, the state continued to sell the confiscated lands of To- Assembled.” However, he chose not ries, even though the Treaty of Paris of 1783 said that was illegal. The state to serve. He was North Carolina’s also could not make up its mind whether to give its lands west of the first U.S. senator. Appalachians to the Confederation. In 1784, the state decided to cede those lands. Then it reversed that decision when it thought it could raise money from their sale. Some North Carolinians also wanted to get rich by being

Section 1: The State in the Confederation 189 the agents for the sales. As William Hooper, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, observed, what some North Carolinians called “politi- cal zeal” was really “avarice clothed in the cover of patriotism.” A Landmark Case Since Tories could show that the Treaty of Paris protected their prop- erty, they sued to recover their possessions in the new state courts. The General Assembly then passed a law that said no one could sue that way. What resulted was one of the most important court cases in state history. Mrs. Elizabeth Bayard, a resident of England, challenged the new law. She took her case to the state’s supreme court. She wanted the property willed to her by her father, a Tory merchant in New Bern. Spyers Single- ton had bought it after the state confiscated it. In 1787, the very best lawyers in the state gathered in the courthouse in New Bern to partici- pate in the case. Among them were William R. Davie and James Iredell. Singleton’s lawyers asked for the case to be dismissed, because the law Above: James Iredell, an Edenton clearly stated that suing was not permitted. The state court refused, even lawyer, helped the state supreme though the legislature made clear what to do. court develop the idea of judicial The court, led by Chief Justice Samuel Ashe, argued that the Declara- review, where a court can void a tion of Rights in the state constitution guaranteed a trial by jury. The state legislative act as unconstitutional. legislature had no authority to take away that right. Thus, they argued, Iredell went on to become one of the Confiscation Act was “unconstitutional.” It violated one of the rights the first justices of the United that protected every North Carolinian. But, the justices continued, since States Supreme Court. Mrs. Bayard was a British citizen and her father was dead, she was not entitled to the same right. They dismissed Mrs. Bayard’s case, as well as twenty-seven similar ones. Samuel Ashe in particular was honored by North Carolinians for his brave stand. The cities of Asheville and Asheboro and the county of Ashe were named for him. Ashe was eventually the second North Carolinian In her court case, Mrs. named to the U.S. Supreme Court. Bayard was represented Bayard v. Singleton became an important legal precedent, that is, a by Samuel Johnston case used later as a guide to judge other disputes. It was the first time a and William R. Davie. court had so strongly challenged what a legislature had done. This idea Spyers Singleton was of judicial review (that a court could judge the constitutionality of a law) represented by Abner became part of the checks-and-balances approach to government in the Nash and Alfred Moore. United States. In 1803, the case was also a precedent for the first judicial review by the United States Supreme Court. The State of Franklin While North Carolinians in the east argued over Tory rights, residents west of the Blue Ridge wanted more control over their own rights. Most of these settlers lived on the tributaries of the Tennessee River like the Holston or the Watauga. Some had moved to this fertile, but remote, area to escape the Regulation. Others were veterans of the War of Indepen- dence who went west to claim lands the state owed them for their mili- tary service. They did not particularly like the leaders from the Coastal Plain who had beaten them at Alamance and deserted them after Camden.

190 Chapter 6: A Fledgling State in a New Nation One eastern legislator returned the scorn. The Watauga settlers, he Map 18 claimed, were “the offscourings of the earth.” When North Carolina’s General Assembly in 1784 ceded its western The State of lands to the Confederation government, the leaders of the Watauga area Franklin immediately petitioned Congress to set up a new state. They wanted to name the state Franklin, after Benjamin Franklin of Philadelphia, one of Map Skill: Approximately how the great leaders of the Revolution. When North Carolina took back the far was the State of Franklin land, the organizers of the state of Franklin went ahead anyway. In 1784, from New Bern? they met in Jonesborough, wrote a constitution, and elected John Sevier, one of the commanders of the Overmountain Men, as their governor. Like most other events in North Carolina history, the state of Franklin was controversial. Both the Confederation Congress and the North Caro- lina General Assembly refused to recognize the new state. Soon Franklin’s residents began to fight among themselves. Some people were actually killed over the issue. Split from within, and scorned elsewhere, the “state There is a bank based in of Franklin” ceased to exist by 1787. Johnson City, Tennessee, The fight over Franklin, however, did help create the state of Tennes- called the “State of see. The long distance to the mountains made it impractical for North Franklin Savings Bank.” Carolina to provide a fair government. After North Carolina joined the new United States in 1789, the lands were once again ceded. The terri- tory of Tennessee was set up in 1794, and statehood was granted in 1796.

It’s Your Turn

1. What was the Articles of Confederation? 2. What is a precedent? 3. Why did the settlers in western North Carolina want to form their own state?

Section 1: The State in the Confederation 191 ______NorthNorth CarolinaCarolina ______JoinsJoins thethe NewNew UnionUnion ______

This section will help you meet the As you read, look for: following objective: • the first government of the United States 8.2.05 Describe the impact of • the writing of the United States Constitution various significant documents on the • North Carolina’s ratification of the Constitution formation of the state and national • vocabulary terms compromise, United States governments. Constitution, veto, ratify, Federalists, Antifederalists, Bill of Rights

In the years after the War for Indepen- Figure 11 Weaknesses of the Articles dence, North Carolina was not the only state to have problems. Americans of Confederation generally suffered during the period ______because the British refused to abide by • Confederation Congress had no way to tax the states. some of the terms of the 1783 treaty. ______In 1784, the British closed off trade • Each state had only one vote, regardless of size. ______to its Caribbean islands. This trade had •______Nine______of______the______thirteen______states______had______to______approve______each______law.______provided North Carolinians with more than half of their income. The British •______The______Congress______had______no______way______to______enforce______laws______that______were______passed. also refused to leave the military bases ______they had built west of the Appala- •______Confederation______Congress______had______no______power______to______regulate______chians. From forts like Detroit, the Brit- ______foreign______or______interstate______trade.______ish encouraged the Indians to attack • Amending the Articles required a unanimous vote of white settlers who were moving into ______the valleys of the Kentucky and Tennes- the states. ______see rivers. More than once, the Watauga • No judiciary or executive branch. settlers—led by John Sevier—fought off attacks. North Carolina and the Constitutional Convention The new United States seemed shaky on many fronts in 1786 and 1787. North Carolinians were fighting each other in Franklin. Massachusetts mobs were marching on their courthouses to keep farmers from having their property seized for unpaid debts, just as the Regulators had done

192 Chapter 6: A Fledgling State in a New Nation years before. These rebellions convinced many American leaders that a Above: This mural of the signing stronger government was needed in every state. of the United States Constitution Since the Confederation Congress lacked the resources and power to can be seen in the Capitol in do much, prominent citizens took action to protect their lives and invest- Washington, D.C. ments. In , George Washington was having problems selling the crops grown at his home at Mt. Vernon. He called for the leaders of nearby states to meet and discuss new ways to improve trade and government. This led to a meeting in Annapolis, , in 1786 that called for the reform of the Confederation. (North Carolina appointed delegates but no one attended the meeting.) The Annapolis group then put out an invita- North Carolina’s delegates tion to every state to come to Philadelphia in 1787 to decide what to do. to the Constitutional All thirteen states sent representatives to the Philadelphia Constitu- Convention were William tional Convention in summer 1787. Soon, most delegates had agreed that R. Davie, Richard Dobbs the Articles could not be fixed and that a new government was needed. Spaight, Richard Caswell, They began to write a constitution to organize it. Alexander Martin, and The Virginians, led by James Madison, proposed a more powerful na- Hugh Williamson. tional government that would oversee most activities of citizens and states. William Blount later This plan called for a Congress with two houses. Representation in each replaced Governor house would be based upon population. Thus, North Carolina, which was Caswell as a delegate. the fifth most populous state at the time, would benefit. The smaller states, like Connecticut, objected, since they would lose power under that plan. They countered with a plan that gave each state an equal vote on every issue, regardless of its size. This followed the organization of the Confed- eration. When it became apparent that the two sides could not agree, the leaders of the convention came up with a compromise (an agreement where each side gives up something and gets something it wants).

Section 2: North Carolina Joins the New Union 193 The “Great Compromise,” as it was called, set up the govern- ment Americans have today. In the House of Representatives, members are elected every two years. The number of representa- tives a state has is based on its population. That way, states with a lot of people get more representatives. The Senate, in turn, con- sists of two members from each state, giving each state an equal role in that branch of the legislature. Senators were given six-year terms of office. Only a third would be elected at one time. This meant that elections could be held every two years for Congress, but someone with experience would still be in office, even if all the representatives and senators up for reelection lost. Once a balanced scheme for representation was agreed to, most of the rest of the United States Constitution was logically thought out. For example, the chief executive, called the president, was given veto power over laws passed by Congress. (To veto is to refuse to sign a bill.) However, Congress could override the veto by a two- thirds majority. The president was to serve a four-year term, as a balance between the terms of the two houses in Congress. North Carolinians had only a small role in the drafting of the Constitution. William R. Davie, a Halifax lawyer, was on the com- Above: William R. Davie helped mittee that came up with the Great Compromise. Davie also spoke to the forge the Great Compromise that convention more often than any other North Carolina delegate. Hugh led to the writing of the U.S. Williamson, an Edenton physician, proposed the six-year term for sena- Constitution. Below: Davie lived in tors as a way to balance how long different representatives would serve. this house in Halifax in the 1780s. Williamson also suggested that two-thirds be the proportion of congres-

194 Chapter 6: A Fledgling State in a New Nation sional votes needed to override a president’s veto. North Carolina Because North Carolina Hesitates to Ratify had not yet ratified the The writers of the Constitution United States Constitu- decided to ask the people in the tion, it could not take part various states to ratify (agree to) in the election of George the “new form of government.” Washington as president. Before the end of 1787, several states had ratified the document; by 1788, enough states had joined the Union that the United States held its first elections and chose George Washington as president. North Carolina was not among them. Although leaders like Will- iam R. Davie and Hugh William- son assured people that the U.S. Constitution was superior to the Confederation, many residents dis- Above: Hugh Williamson, an trusted the plan. The state was Edenton physician, had witnessed divided between Federalists the Boston Tea Party in 1773. (those in favor of the new govern- During the War for Independence, ment) and Antifederalists (those he was surgeon general of the who distrusted its ideas). state. After signing the Constitution, Most of the Federalists lived along the coast. They included, for ex- he helped get it ratified in North ample, James Iredell of Edenton, who urged that “local interests give way Carolina. to the general good.” Federalists stood to benefit from the new powers over business and money that the new government would have. For example, coins were to have the same value anywhere in the nation. North Carolina, the Federalists said, would be better organized and protected to make more money in overseas trade. Antifederalists often came from the backcountry. They included the Reverend David Caldwell of Guilford County, the state’s most respected educator. They worried about how powerful the new government would become, remembering how Governor Tryon had taken advantage of them before the Revolution. One Antifederalist feared that the Federalists would act just like the British had, sending out armies and “crushing the liber- ties of the people.” People across North Carolina debated the merits of the Constitution. Sometimes they were louder than they were logical. One Federalist called the opposition “a set of fools and knaves.” An Antifederalist declared that even George Washington was a “rascal and traitor” for being a Federalist. Since so many people in the backcountry had suffered in the Regulation and the Revolution, and since they were the majority, the Antifederalists were able to stop the first attempt to ratify the Constitution.

Section 2: North Carolina Joins the New Union 195 The Hillsborough Convention The delegates met in July 1788 at Hillsborough. They voted overwhelm- ingly—184 to 83—to delay ratifying the Constitution. The majority believed the new government would be too powerful. Since the new government Originally, twelve was about to be put into effect anyway, the delegates did agree that they amendments to the U.S. would accept the Union if some changes were put into the Constitution. Constitution were The Antifederalists particularly wanted a Bill of Rights that would protect proposed. The two that them. The members of the Hillsborough convention proposed more than were not ratified twenty amendments to safeguard “the Great Principles of civil and reli- concerned the payment gious liberty” that were “unalienable rights of the People.” for congressmen and the North Carolinians were gambling with their future by refusing to join number of constituents for the rest of the United States. Their state would be surrounded by the new each representative. nation and denied its promised benefits, like real money and reliable markets. Rhode Island had been the only other state to turn down the Constitution. Since Rhode Island and North Carolina had poor records managing their money, business leaders expected to pay high prices to trade with the new country. To encourage North Carolina to join the Union, Congress delayed any special taxes on North Carolina goods until 1790. In addition, James Madison, the leader of the new Congress, worked to have a Bill of Rights approved by the other states. Both the friendliness of the new Union and the disadvantages of not joining became apparent to many North Carolinians. The Fayetteville Convention In November 1788, the North Carolina legislature called for a second vote on the Constitution. A year later, in November 1789, another con- vention met in Fayetteville. This time the vote was as overwhelmingly for the Union as the previous vote in Hillsborough had been against it. The vote was 194 to 77. Only a few counties full of former Regulators continued to oppose ratification. Supporters of ratification were particu- larly pleased by growing national support for a Bill of Rights. North Carolina sent its first representatives and senators to the new government in 1790. They were mostly Federalists. The representatives Above: John Sevier had been a included Hugh Williamson of Edenton and John Sevier of Jonesborough. commander at the battle of Kings Sevier’s election showed just how up and down state politics could be. Mountain, had been the governor He had been the governor of the rebel state of Franklin, but the voters of the ill-fated State of Franklin, and the state had long forgiven him. and became one of the first congressmen elected to the U.S. House of Representative once North Carolina joined the federal It’s Your Turn Union. When Tennessee was established in 1796, he was its 1. Name three weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation. first governor. 2. What is a veto? Who has veto power in the national government? How can it be overcome? 3. How did the Federalists and Antifederalists differ?

196 Chapter 6: A Fledgling State in a New Nation ______NorthNorth Carolina’sCarolina’s RoleRole ______inin thethe NewNew NationNation ______This section will help you meet the following objectives: 8.3.01 Describe the causes of the War of 1812 and its impact on North As you read, look for: Carolina and the nation. • North Carolina’s shift from Federalist to 8.3.02 Investigate the conditions Antifederalist that led to North Carolina’s decline • causes and results of the War of 1812 and assess the implications for the future development of the state. • vocabulary terms state’s rights, republican simplicity, 8.3.08 Examine the impact of War of 1812 national events on North Carolina.

North Carolina had been a backwater colony before the Revolution. Little changed, relatively speaking, once the Constitution was written. Much of the political power re- mained in richer states like New York and Virginia. Al- though North Carolina was large in area and people, it only marginally shaped the early nation. Its tradition of distrust- ing political power of any type, however, reflected the gov- erning approach that dominated the nation after 1800. North Carolina and Federalism North Carolina’s defiant character came out soon after the state joined the Union. Congress had passed a law to organize the United States Supreme Court. The law said that any dispute between a state and people in another state would be decided in the federal court, not the state courts. North Carolinians once again remembered how William Tryon had tried to take away their ability to govern them- selves. They objected to this measure so strongly that the state legislature, meeting in 1790, refused to take an oath of allegiance to the new federal government. North Carolinians were happy to see the ratification of the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution. It reserved all power to the states not directly stated in the Constitution itself. North Above and right: James Iredell, Carolina, thus, became one of the first proponents of state’s rights, the Sr., bought this house in Edenton political position that the states could assert their independence when in 1778. He lived in the house until they believed the federal government was doing something wrong. James he died in 1799. Iredell of Edenton argued this position in 1794. His dissent against the

Section 3: North Carolina’s Role in the New Nation 197 Above: The sitting room of the James Iredell House in Edenton was part of the original house, built in 1759. Right: The dining room of the Iredell House was part of a 1776 addition.

President George Washington appointed James Iredell to the U.S. Supreme Court in 1790. He was the sixth justice appointed.

198 Chapter 6: A Fledgling State in a New Nation rest of the Court helped pave the way for the passage of the Eleventh Amendment to the Constitution. It restrained the Supreme Court from taking over cases brought Jay’s Treaty resolved by a citizen of one state against some old issues between another state. the United States and During the 1790s, the Federal- Great Britain. The most ists who wrote the Constitution important concession continued to run the new nation. was that the British Only a few North Carolinians had agreed to leave western a role in running the government. forts. The United States In addition to James Iredell on was also named a “most the Supreme Court, John Steele of favored nation” in trade Salisbury became the comptroller of with Great Britain. the treasury, which meant that he made sure the ac- counts were accurate and honest. William R. Davie became ambassador to France in 1799. North Carolinians tried as hard as they could to follow Feder- alist policies, but state leaders often disagreed with what was going on in the nation. Some congressmen objected to plans to pay off all the war debts of the various states. They did not want poor North Carolinians to help pay off other states’ debts. When the French Revolution caused France and England to go to war in 1794, President Washington declared the United States to be neutral in the conflict. North Carolinians, however, still resented the British for what they had done during the Regula- tion and Revolution. Many openly sided with the French. French ships were even supplied in ports like Beaufort and New Bern. Many North Carolinians condemned the Federalists when Jay’s Treaty was approved in 1795. One part of that treaty restricted the size of cargoes shipped to British islands in the Caribbean. Since much of the profit gained from North Carolina products came from such islands, this hurt the state. As a result, North Carolinians voted for Antifederalist Thomas Jefferson for presi- dent, instead of Federalist John Adams, in the 1796 presidential election. Above: Antifederalist Thomas Only in 1798, when France threatened the United States with war be- Jefferson had the support of North cause Jay’s Treaty helped the British, did the state vote for Federalists. Carolinians in the 1796 presidential election (which he lost to Federalist North Carolinians Become Jeffersonians John Adams) and in the 1800 Americans who came to distrust the Federalists rallied to the leadership election (in which he defeated of Thomas Jefferson. The Virginian, who had been the author of the Dec- Adams). laration of Independence, believed the Constitution did not give the Feder- alists the power to do all the things they wanted to do. Many Antifederalists in North Carolina agreed, and their leaders soon controlled the state. Wil- liam R. Davie, the state’s leading Federalist, was so disheartened by this

Section 3: North Carolina’s Role in the New Nation 199 that he moved to . Re- placing him as the state’s most influ- ential leader was Nathaniel Macon. Macon lived in Warren County in a Nathaniel Macon is the small house on a large plantation near only North Carolinian, so the Roanoke River. He had fought at the far, ever to hold the office Battle of Guilford Courthouse, attended of Speaker of the House. Princeton University, and been an Antifederalist congressman through the 1790s. While Jefferson was president from 1801 to 1807, Macon served as Speaker of the House of Representatives in Washington, one of the most powerful positions in the nation. Macon stayed in Congress, in the House or Senate, for more than twenty years. Macon became North Carolina’s leading spokesman for “republican simplicity.” The phrase meant something very particular to him and many of his fellow North Carolinians. The best citizens in a republic lived as simply Above: Nathaniel Macon’s views and independently as possible in the country. They believed Americans reflected North Carolina’s strict should be self-sustaining farmers, who depended upon themselves, their Republican values. family, and their neighbors—in that order—to provide for their needs. Government was to stay out of the way, except to promote defense and other matters essential to the nation’s survival. Education and religion, es- Map 19 pecially, were family matters. The best government was to be local, where people knew one another and could work out what needed to be done. The Louisiana Macon was very frugal himself. Although he was a prosperous man, Purchase he lived his whole adult life in a two-room house, with a nearby kitchen. When he died, he ordered his family not to put a tombstone above his Map Skill: What formed grave. Such extravagance contradicted “simplicity.” Instead, he asked his the eastern boundary of the neighbors to each bring a rock from their farm and cover his grave. While Louisiana Purchase? in Congress, he was so against government spending that he voted against the government paying for furniture in the White House. He believed each president should be respon- sible for his own furnishings. When President Jefferson doub- led the size of the nation with the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, Macon and other North Carolinians did not support him. Control of the Missis- sippi River basin would greatly help people who went into farming in the future. When President James Madison, Jefferson’s friend and ally, continued to oppose the British at- tempts to control American devel- opment, Macon helped sponsor some of the bills in Congress that led to the War of 1812.

200 Chapter 6: A Fledgling State in a New Nation THETHE ARTART OFOF POLITICSPOLITICS

During the War of 1812, the British invaded and set fire to Washington, D.C. This British cartoon entitled “The Fall of Washington or Maddy in full flight” shows President James Madison and probably John Armstrong, his secretary of war, with bundles of papers, fleeing from Washington, with burning buildings behind them.

North Carolina in the War of 1812 In the War of 1812, Americans fought the British to ensure that Ameri- cans could settle the West and be safe from interference on the high seas. Aside from Macon, North Carolinians did not have much of a role lead- ing the nation during the presidencies of Jefferson and Madison. During The War of 1812 the War of 1812, North Carolinians continued to follow more than lead. has been called The war hardly impacted the state. The British did land at Portsmouth, America’s “second war but they looked around and decided that the state was too insignificant to for independence.” invade. More than 10,000 North Carolina men were called into militia ser- vice during the three-year conflict. Most went to the Outer Banks or the Cape Fear to guard the state’s coastline. Others were sent to fight Indians in but arrived just “in time to look on” as the campaign ended. Three state residents became heroes in the war. Benjamin Forsyth served in the U.S. Army. He rose to be a lieutenant colonel before being

Section 3: North Carolina’s Role in the New Nation 201 Figure 12 Causes of the War of 1812

______•______British______blockade______of______American______shipping______•______British______impressment______of______American______sailors______•______British______encouragement______of______Indian______attacks______on______American______settlers______•______Election______of______War______Hawks—westerners______who______wanted______to______declare______war______on______Great______Britain—to______Congress______

killed in action in 1814 in Canada. Forsyth County was later named for him. Johnston Blakeley was a captain in the U.S. Navy. He won a number of sea battles against British war- ships and boldly disrupted traffic in the English Channel. In 1814, his ship disappeared at sea. Congress awarded Blakely’s family a gold medal for his service. Otway Burns, a Beaufort ship captain, became a privateer during the war. Congress commissioned him to capture enemy merchant ships to dam- age their supply lines. Burns sailed back and forth from Canada to Brazil and took so many prizes that he became one of North Carolina’s wealthiest men. Later, the mountain town of Burnsville was named for him. Two former North Carolinians became national heroes for the courage they showed during the war. Guilford County native Dolley Payne Madison was First Lady during the war. Andrew Jackson became the leading military hero of the war. After the war, many North Carolinians moved west. During the tumultuous years of the nation’s youth, North Carolina once again found itself on the backbench of achievement. It contin- Top: Captain Johnston Blakeley ued to have the same problems that had hindered it during colonial days. won fame for his naval victories There was one key difference, however. The problems of the colony had over the British in the War of not kept people from moving in. After 1800, however, more people moved 1812. Blakeley disappeared with out than came in. By the 1820s, for example, on a typical fall day more his ship, the Wasp. Above: During than a dozen wagons passed through Asheville on the way west. the War of 1812, Otway Burns commanded The Snap Dragon. It’s Your Turn

1. What is the state’s rights position? 2. Were North Carolinians basically Federalists or Antifederalists? 3. Name two North Carolina heroes of the War of 1812.

202 Chapter 6: A Fledgling State in a New Nation ______Carolina Celebtities______CAROLINACAROLINA CELEBRITIESCELEBRITIES ______Dolley Payne Madison ______Dolley Payne Madison ______

Dolley Madison, the only First Lady working to elect his friend, Thomas of the United States from North Car- Jefferson, to be the next president. olina, was born in North Carolina but Jefferson lost the election of 1796, did not stay here for long. Her par- but he won in 1800. Jefferson made ents, John and Mary Coles Payne, Madison the secretary of state. moved to the New Garden Quaker Jefferson, a widower, asked Dolley to community (at present-day Greens- host his social events. She threw the boro) in 1765. As the New Garden biggest party in the nation’s history Quakers recorded, “Dolley their to celebrate the Louisiana Purchase daughter was born ye 20 of ye 5 mo. in 1803. When Jefferson finished his 1768.” Eleven months later, her par- two terms, Madison was elected ents returned to Virginia. Why is not president in 1808. certain. Since Dolley was a Quaker, she did Dolley grew up in a prosperous not dance, yet she encouraged visi- family in Virginia. She attended the tors to the executive mansion to have nearby Quaker school during the a good time. She was said to always Revolutionary War. When the war be “unassuming” and behaved with ended, her father freed his slaves “dignity, sweetness, and grace” to ev- —one of the first Quakers to do eryone she encountered. When the so in the United States—and moved executive mansion was open to the to Philadelphia. In 1791, at age public, Mrs. Madison often greeted twenty-three, Dolley married John Todd, a lawyer and a fel- any visitor, then carried his or her concern to the president. low Quaker. Two years into their marriage, yellow fever killed She became a national hero after she saved the portrait of both her husband and her younger son, on the same day. General Washington when the British invaded the capital Because she still had family wealth, Dolley continued to during the War of 1812. When the war was ended, she was live in Philadelphia. Within a year she met James Madison; the most popular person in the country. they were married in six months. Madison, a fellow Virgin- The Madisons lived in retirement at their Virginia ian, was one of the most important men of the new nation. plantation for twenty years. After Madison died, she moved He had been one of the principal writers of the United States back to the District of Columbia to be part of the social scene. Constitution. As the first leader of the U.S. House of Repre- No one who was anyone in Washington dared to have a party sentatives, he had steered to passage the ten Constitutional and not invite her. Everyone expected to see her. They could amendments that became known as the Bill of Rights. At recognize her immediately, for in those years she wore flashy the time he met Dolley, Madison was the major opposition turbans. The wife of an important congressman of the leader in the government. He opposed the strong govern- day noted, “Everyone loves Mrs. Madison, because Mrs. ment measures of President George Washington and was Madison loves everyone.” Section 3: North Carolina’s Role in the New Nation 203 ______EffortsEfforts toto ImproveImprove ______NorthNorth CarolinaCarolina ______This section will help you meet the ______following objectives: _ 8.3.02 Investigate the conditions that led to North Carolina’s decline and assess the implications for the future development of the state. As you read, look for: 8.3.03 Identify and evaluate the • North Carolina’s new capital impact of individual reformers and • conditions that led to North Carolina’s decline groups and their programs. • proposals made by Archibald Murphey to improve 8.3.06 Evaluate the implications of conditions in the state the North Carolina Gold Rush. 8.3.08 Examine the impact of • vocabulary terms recession, internal improvements, national events on North Carolina. canal, common school, Literary Fund

Two children were left at their home in Cabarrus County when their parents went to church. Conrad Reed, 14, and his sister, Elizabeth, 12, decided to go wading in the nearby stream. Conrad was poking around in the water with a stick when he turned up a large shiny rock. Its yellow gleam was brighter than anything the two children had ever seen. Their father, John, had never seen untreated gold. When he took the nugget to a silversmith in Fayetteville, the jew- eler gave him $3.50 for it. Only later, when he found more gold and opened the state’s first mine, did he learn he had been cheated. The Reed family story symbolized the many handicaps North Carolinians faced during the founding of the nation. They were proud people with close families and solid neigh- borhoods. But they knew little beyond the habits and val- ues of their locality. Not only were schools lacking for most residents after the War of Independence, so were easy links to the outside world. The towns of the state, with minimal access to ports, continued to be small. There was virtually no statewide effort to build roads, and the quality of trans- portation varied considerably from county to county.

Above: Joel Lane, whose plantation The State Establishes a New Capital was the site for the new capital city North Carolina made a major effort to get organized and move for- of Raleigh, built this house in 1770. ward during the debate over the Constitution. The 1788 Hillsborough It is the oldest house in Raleigh. Convention had agreed to a site for a permanent state capital. The con-

204 Chapter 6: A Fledgling State in a New Nation vention chose an area in Wake County “within ten miles” of Isaac Hunter’s Above: The first capitol of the tavern. They chose Raleigh as the capital’s name. The site was just about state of North Carolina was equal distance for people in the backcountry, the Cape Fear, and the completed in 1796. It was used Albemarle to travel. After a commission found a location at the Joel Lane until it burned down in 1831. plantation, the legislature moved to Raleigh in 1794. Not everyone accepted the Raleigh location. The newly created town of Fayetteville made a real effort to gain the capital. Fayetteville was the result of two colonial towns—Cross Creek and Campbelltown—grow- ing together on the Cape Fear River. The town was named for the Mar- quis de Lafayette, a Revolutionary War general. Even after the 1788 decision, Fayetteville built a “new state house” to host the 1789 conven- tion, hoping for a reversal. It did not get the right number of votes, and Raleigh’s streets were soon laid out. The new capital grew very slowly, however. One early visitor said that every street “ended in the woods.” The First State University The legislature that met in Fayetteville in 1789 also established a state University. William R. Davie, who led the effort, later chose a location for the school south of Hillsborough, near the New Hope Chapel of Gov- ernor Tryon’s day. Soon after the University was opened in 1795, school officials also established the village of Chapel Hill.

Section 4: Efforts to Improve North Carolina 205 ______CAROLINACAROLINA PLACESPLACES ______ReedReed GoldGold MineMine ______

In the early 1800s, when most North Carolinians Above: Little Meadow Creek was where gold was first struggled to get by, a few state residents got rich. None was discovered in the state by Conrad Reed. richer than the Reeds of Cabarrus County. They literally found gold in their own backyard. Like most farm folks in the state, John Reed went to John Reed had been a Hessian soldier in Cornwallis’s army market every fall. In 1802, he went to Fayetteville. While during the Revolution. He deserted and came to live with there, he showed the rock to a silversmith. The craftsman other Germans on Dutch Buffalo Creek. Reed was said to knew it was gold. He also knew that he had a country bump- be “honest, but unlearned” and something of “a primitive kin before him, so he shrewdly asked Reed to name his price character.” He was soon married to Sarah Kiser. For twenty for the rock. Reed asked for $3.50, the most money he had years, they eked out a living on meager soil, just like most ever gotten for any one thing in his life. The Reed children folks in the backcountry. later recalled that their excited father splurged and bought One Sunday in 1799, John’s son Conrad spied a shiny rock coffee for the first time in his life. Meanwhile, the silversmith in Little Meadow Creek and pulled it out. It was unusually sold the 17-pound gold nugget for $3,600. yellow. The Reeds, unaware it was gold, decided to use it as Word soon got back to the Reeds that they had been their front door stop. It lay on the front porch for two years. cheated. They and some neighbors went looking for more

206 Chapter 6: A Fledgling State in a New Nation gold. In 1803, Peter Love, a neighbor’s slave, dug down six inches into the stream and came up with a 28-pound nugget! The Reeds sent the nugget to the federal mint in Philadelphia and made a big profit. For the next several years, the Reeds, their slaves, and their neighbors continued to dig holes up and down Little Meadow Creek. They found that most of the gold was about four feet deep, level with the nearby streambed. Some- times they “dug up gold like potatoes,” finding as much as 20 pounds in a day. When they did not turn up nuggets, they sifted the soil with “rockers” to separate the heavier gold from the lighter dirt. The Reeds and their partners expanded the mine in 1821. By this time, more than fifty mines had been started in that area of the backcountry. Farmers looked for gold from Greensboro all the way south to Charlotte. During this time, John Reed continued to live like the typical North Carolinian. His house was larger than that of his neighbors, but he still farmed his own fields. Reed even forbade his sons from digging holes for gold in planted fields. When John Reed died in 1845, the family’s fortunes began to change. His children agreed to share what they would find in the mine. How- ever, the family began to argue about who would get how much. The mine was closed down for a decade, as family members sued one another.

Above: This man is looking up a shaft at the Reed Gold Mine, which is now a state historic site. Left: Visitors to the state can still pan for gold at the Reed Gold Mine. Notice the small nugget and other flecks in the pan.

Eventually, the mine was sold, first in 1846, then again in 1853. Although the new owners sank deep shafts into the ground and tried to use new technology to extract more gold, they did not make a profit. The Reed Mine passed from owner to owner after the Civil War. The last real nugget was found in 1896. The mine was closed during the first half of the twentieth century. Its last private owner donated the land to the state in 1962, and the state made it a historic site in 1976. Since that time, it has been one of the most visited places in the state.

Section 4: Efforts to Improve North Carolina 207 The founding of the University was twenty years in the making. The leaders of Queen’s Academy in Charlotte had made sure that the state promised to start “one or more universities” when the 1776 state constitution was written. Davie and several of the other University founders had been either teachers or students at Queen’s. The Poor Shape of the State Despite the best efforts of some leaders in the state, North Carolina only slowly built itself up in the years after the Revolution. Wil- Above: The Old East, shown here, mington, New Bern, and Beaufort all vied to be the leading port, but the was the first building, and the only shallow sounds and the capes kept many ships away. There was some one for two years, at the University growth in the backcountry towns, but when President Washington vis- of North Carolina. It was opened to ited the state in 1791, he found Charlotte to be “a trifling place” and students in 1795. Salisbury at best to be “a pleasant village.” Low levels of trade meant less money to go around. Although the United States established a national bank in 1791, no branch was opened in North Carolina for years. In fact, every state in the Union had a bank before North Carolina got its first one. Banks in New Bern and Wilmington were privately opened in 1804. The legislature tried to open a state bank The University of North in 1805, but it took until 1810 to find enough investors. During the War Carolina at Chapel Hill of 1812, investment did increase, but that was because businessmen in is the nation’s oldest the state were afraid to take their money elsewhere. state university. North Carolina even had continuing problems with its boundaries. In the early 1800s, state officials—among them Robert Henry, the former sentry at Cowan’s Ford—set the western boundary line along the ridges of the Smokies. The state’s southern boundary, however, ran into trouble in the mountains. South Carolina had once claimed a twelve-mile-wide strip of land that extended all the way to the Mississippi River. In 1803, Georgia and North Carolina each claimed an overlapping piece of it. Georgia created Walton County there, and soon rival settlers started the Walton War. The gun-toting feud eventually involved thousands of moun- tain residents in both states. By 1807, the national government had in- tervened and decided that North Carolina had the better case. But it was not until 1819 that Georgia officially agreed. Conditions grew worse across the state after the War of 1812. By that time, two or three generations of farmers had plowed the best land over and over. Because little was done to preserve the land, the topsoil eroded away in heavy rains. Over time, the size of harvests went down. Soil washed into nearby streams, clogging them and increasing the chance

208 Chapter 6: A Fledgling State in a New Nation of flooding. There was a major flood in the western part of the state in Above: The Schenck-Warlick cotton 1816. Down east, the sediment carried by the Roanoke, Tar, and Neuse factory near Lincolnton was built in rivers gradually flowed into the sounds, making them even more shal- 1813 to help the state become more low and harder to navigate. economically self-sufficient. North Carolinians tried to put the war behind them. Several partners started a cotton mill at Lincolnton to make yarn. Otway Burns used some of his wartime profits to run a steamboat from Wilmington to Fayetteville. Newly cleared land, however, just increased the erosion problem. Then, a national recession (economic slowdown) in 1819 caused many farmers to go into debt. Land values in the state fell by one-third in five years. Only The Buncombe Turnpike Wilmington shipped more than $1 million in goods during the period. charged tolls for users. The state did little to help. Most of the legislators were followers of The tolls were 2 cents for Nathaniel Macon, who continued to argue that most problems could be each hog or sheep, 4 solved without government direction. North Carolinians elected represen- cents for each beef cattle, tatives who would not raise the already low tax rate. Most years, the state 5 cents for pack horses, barely had enough money to pay the salaries of state officials. Sometimes 12.5 cents for each sheriffs did not even bother to send tax collections to Raleigh. Many of the person on horseback, and academies founded in the state closed when students could not keep up 50 cents to $1.50 for payments. In 1826, a governor observed that it had been easier to be edu- horse-drawn carriages. cated in North Carolina before the Revolution than it was after 1815. There were only a few hopeful developments in the state during the 1820s. The best was the construction of the Buncombe Turnpike from Section 4: Efforts to Improve North Carolina 209 the Tennessee valley to Charleston, South Carolina. The pike made Asheville a prosperous town. North Carolinians increasingly left their state. They headed across the Appalachians to the newer states on the Mississippi River. In 1817, a legislator estimated that more than 200,000 na- tives had left in the previous twenty years. Some who left were among the most talented leaders of the new nation, like future presidents Andrew Jackson and James K. Polk. Five of the early governors of Tennessee were born in North Carolina, as were three of the first governors of Alabama. Levi Coffin, one of the founders of the Underground Railroad, left Guilford County for Indiana and later Ohio. Nathaniel Rochester, for whom Rochester, New York, was named, had gone there to take advantage of the new Erie Canal after the War of 1812. Murphey’s Proposals Some prominent North Carolinians tried to make the state better. Their leader after the War of 1812 was Archibald D. Top: North Carolina’s bad roads Murphey, one of the more renowned leaders in the history of North made it difficult for farmers to Carolina. Murphey grew up in Caswell County near the Virginia border. get their crops to market. Above: He attended David Caldwell’s academy, then the University in Chapel Archibald D. Murphey was the Hill. He became a lawyer and judge and started a large farm west of leading voice of reform in the state. Hillsborough. Murphey’s allies in a program of reforms included Will- His broad program for internal iam Gaston, a New Bern lawyer; Charles Fisher, a Salisbury newspaper improvements gave the state a editor; and Joseph Caldwell, the president of the University. blueprint for the future. Murphey’s group eventually presented a series of ideas to the legisla- ture for funding. The two principal plans focused on internal improve- ments and public education. Internal improvements, a phrase popular at the time, referred mostly to transportation. For Americans after the War of 1812, that meant wa- ter-borne travel. In states like Tennessee or New York, a resident could

210 Chapter 6: A Fledgling State in a New Nation HISTORYHISTORY BYBY THETHE HIGHWAYHIGHWAY ______Slink Shoal Sluice ______Slink Shoal Sluice ______

Despite the failures of the Murphey Plan for internal improvements, some efforts were made to make North Caro- lina streams navigable in the early 1800s. The most promising area was the Roanoke River and its tributary, the Dan (pictured right). The hope was that the wing dams would allow enough water to build up to allow boats to float over the shoals at the town of Madison, in Rockingham County. The completion of the sluice (a controlled waterway) allowed flatboats to carry goods from plantations upriver.

take a boat from one end of the state to the other. This was not so in North Carolina, where residents in the backcountry continued to be sepa- rated from the coast by their rivers. And, eastern residents increasingly were hemmed in by clogged sounds. Murphey’s proposals attacked both problems. He recommended the The common schools state deepen channels through the inlets and sounds to enable ports like were to teach three years Edenton, Beaufort, and New Bern to receive larger ships. In the west, of reading, writing, and the state would remove all the rocks that made navigation of the Catawba arithmetic. These schools and Yadkin rivers difficult. Then, Murphey proposed two canals, were like the primary manmade water channels that allowed a horse or mule to pull flatboats schools of today. with one-fourth the effort needed on the roads. One canal would con- nect the Roanoke, Tar, and Neuse rivers with the channel that went out at Beaufort. The other would connect the backcountry to the one sizable river in the state, the Cape Fear. The backcountry canal was to be dug from the Charlotte area to Fayetteville, opening the Catawba from Morganton and the Yadkin from Wilkesboro all the way to Wilmington. The second part of the plan dealt with public education. Murphey, Caldwell, and others urged the state to fund in every county at least one common school, a school where even the most “common” family could send a boy to learn “the rudiments of education.” Statewide taxes were to help pay the teachers. Students would pay according to their family’s

Section 4: Efforts to Improve North Carolina 211 income. In addition, academies would be built across the state for the better students to continue their education. The brightest students would be allowed to go to the acad- emies with a scholarship. Finally, the brightest graduates of the acad- emies would be sent on to the Uni- versity. If a student from a poor family got that far, then he would go at reduced cost. In this way, the educational reformers hoped to keep the smartest students in the state, to provide the leaders for the next generation. Schooling was to be for all white boys—slave children would not be in the plan. Girls could go only to the common schools. However, among males, the plan was to be offered on an equal basis to “the rich and poor, the dull and the sprightly,” Murphey argued. The leaders of North Carolina were still under the control of the frugal Maconites of the east. As a result, they were very slow to fund the Murphey proposals. A national Above: The New Bern Academy recession after 1819 made it hard for the state to pay its bills for a num- had been founded in 1766 and was ber of years. In 1825, however, the state legislature set up a Literary Fund, one of the oldest private schools in where revenues from stocks the state held in banks and canals could be the new state. This building was used to help build schools. Little money was raised, however, since the erected in the early 1800s. By that state was so poor. Plus, the state kept borrowing from the fund, which time, dozens of private academies stopped the growth of schools. The same course was taken with the Board had been built across the state. of Internal Improvements. It scattered what little money it had for minor projects in different places in the state, to little effect. Murphey himself did not live to see the fulfillment of his plan. He died in 1832, broke but not forgotten by his admirers, the very year that North Carolina began to take steps to do the right things.

It’s Your Turn

1. Why was Raleigh chosen as the location for the state capital? 2. What caused the poor harvests after the War of 1812? 3. What was the purpose of the Literary Fund? How successful was it?

212 Chapter 6: A Fledgling State in a New Nation ______CAROLINACAROLINA CURIOSITIESCURIOSITIES ______Who Was Peter Stuart Ney? ______Who Was Peter Stuart Ney? ______

North Carolina had a few notable schoolteachers in its Napoleon escape from exile. Ney was taken to a Paris street early days. For sixty years, David Caldwell in Greensboro ran and shot dead by a firing squad. After the body was put on the famous “log academy” that prepared students for the display at a nearby hospital, it was buried. University. John Chavis’s Raleigh school helped start the ca- Well, at least, some body was buried. By 1816, French reers of a number of famous citizens. The best-known, and refugees living in North and South Carolina buzzed with most mysterious, teacher in the western half of the state in rumors that a Scottish schoolmaster looked just like the old the 1800s was Peter Stuart Ney. Why? Because no one really knew if Ney was the Scottish schoolmaster he claimed to be or someone else. P. S. Ney arrived in North Carolina in the early 1820s. At one point, he was a research assistant to Archibald Murphey. Ney went on to teach in private schools in the Piedmont, particularly in Davie and Iredell counties. Ney was an excellent teacher. He was so skilled at mathematics that his students turned his notes into their own textbook. Ney could be very tough in the classroom. He would line the students up against the wall to recite their lessons. If anyone even got their toes out of line, Ney would be in the student’s face. Yet, his students loved him. He was so Above: Peter Stuart Ney’s grave is enclosed by this compassionate that if a student lacked the fees to pay the brick mausoleum in the graveyard of the Third school, Ney would pay them out of his own meager salary. Presbyterian Church in Cleveland, North Carolina. No one really believed Ney was just a simple school- teacher. People all across the state speculated that he really general. Some people in Paris believed that Ney’s execu- was a famous French general in exile. Michel Ney had been tion had been faked, that he had crushed a bag of red ink one of Napoleon Bonaparte’s best generals. Ney—whom when he fell “dead.” Although the official report said that Napoleon once called “the bravest of the brave”—was with Ney had been shot in the head, descriptions of the body noted the emperor in most of the great battles in the early 1800s. that the face was still recognizable, which was unlikely for Ney even saved the French army when Napoleon unwisely someone who took round balls into his face at close range. invaded Russia in 1812. It was claimed that French and English soldiers who had After Napoleon was exiled in 1815, the French govern- admired his bravery had covered his face with false wounds, ment ordered Ney shot as a traitor, for having helped then sneaked him out of France.

Section 4: Efforts to Improve North Carolina 213 ______CHAPTERCHAPTER REVIEWREVIEW ______

Summary • Archibald Murphey made several proposals to improve the state, but the legislature did not fund • The state’s attempts to raise money by selling the them. confiscated land of Tories led to one of the most important court cases in North Carolina, and United States, history—Bayard v. Singleton. Reviewing People, Places, and Terms • Settlers in North Carolina’s western lands tried to Select the correct word or words to complete each of the establish a separate State of Franklin in 1785. following sentences. Internal problems brought an end to the “state” in 1. The first government of the United States was 1787. organized by the (a) Articles of Confederation, (b) • The first constitution of the United States was the decision in Bayard v. Singleton, (c) United States Articles of Confederation. The Confederation Constitution. government, however, was weak, and in 1787 2. The idea that a court can judge the constitutionality representatives met in Philadelphia to reform the of a law is called (a) legal precedent, (b) judicial government. The result was the United States review, (c) legislative review. Constitution. 3. A North Carolinian who became a U.S. Supreme • North Carolinians, distrustful of a strong federal Court justice was (a) William R. Davie, (b) James government, did not ratify the Constitution until Iredell, (c) Samuel Ashe. 1789. Their reluctance led to the adoption of the Bill of Rights. 4. The 1787 Hillsborough Convention proposed more than twenty amendments to protect the “unalien- • North Carolinians eventually favored the able rights of the people.” Congress then worked to Antifederalists. Nathaniel Macon was the state’s develop the (a) Bill of Rights, (b) U.S. Constitution, most influential leader during these years. He was (c) Confederation. a spokesman for “republican simplicity.” 5. The position that the states could assert their • The United States and Great Britain fought each independence if they believed the federal other once again in the War of 1812. The state was government was doing something wrong was called little impacted by the war, although some North (a) federalism, (b) democracy, (c) state’s rights. Carolinians became heroes during the war. 6. The most influential Antifederalist leader in North • Conditions across the state grew even worse after Carolina in the early 1800s was (a) William R. the War of 1812, and North Carolinians left the Davie, (b) Nathaniel Macon, (c) Archibald Murphey. state in increasing numbers. 7. The permanent state capital was established in (a) • The 1789 Fayetteville Convention established a Chapel Hill, (b) Greensboro, (c) Raleigh. new, permanent capital of Raleigh. It also char- tered the State University.

214 Chapter 6: A Fledgling State in a New Nation 8. America’s “second war for independence” was the 2. On a state map, mark the towns that were named (a) Revolutionary War, (b) War of 1812, (c) French for two of the three state residents who became and Indian War. heroes in the War of 1812. Mark the place where Andrew Jackson studied law. Understanding the Facts Exploring Technology 1. What was challenged for the first time in the Bayard v. Singleton court case? 1. North Carolinians were very happy to see the adoption of the Tenth Amendment. Use your 2. What rights did North Carolinians in the east argue favorite search engine to find the exact wording of over? What rights did North Carolinians west of the the amendment. Then rewrite the amendment in Blue Ridge want? common and easy-to-understand language. 3. What state did the fight over Franklin help to 2. Nathaniel Macon was the only Speaker of the create? House of Representatives ever to have been from 4. What did the “Great Compromise” set up? Explain. North Carolina. Use your favorite search engine to find five facts about his life that were not taught in 5. Why did the North Carolina Antifederalists distrust your textbook. the new U.S. government and Constitution? 6. What United States president did North Carolina Writing Across the Curriculum Antifederalists support in 1796? 1. Write a paragraph describing Samuel Ashe’s role in 7. How did the War of 1812 impact North Carolina? the practice of judicial review. In your paragraph, 8. When and where was the first state university explain how this practice is important today. founded? 2. Your textbook describes North Carolinians’ tradition 9. What two plans did Archibald Murphey propose to of distrusting political power of any type. Write a improve conditions in North Carolina after the War paragraph to show how this tradition still exists of 1812? today.

Developing Critical Thinking Encountering Diversity 1. Why do you believe the Antifederalists had enough 1. Pick one way in which the actions of the people of courage to advocate for a Bill of Rights when they North Carolina set them apart from the other not only faced opposition from the rest of the states. Describe the reasons the people of North country but also from within their own state? Carolina decided to engage in this action and how they felt it benefited them. How did it hurt them? 2. How did the policy of “republican simplicity” hurt North Carolina residents after the War of 1812?

Applying Your Skills 1. Raleigh was chosen as the state capital because it was in a more central location. Determine how far your hometown is from Raleigh.

Chapter Review 215