Part 31 (2/2)

13. Judge Badger, B. F. Moore, Thomas Bragg, and W. N. H. Smith, were all in full practice before the courts, and were the peers of Iredell, Davie and Archibald Henderson of former days. It is impossible to overestimate the influence for good or evil which has been and ever will be exerted by the lawyers in a free land.

They are the sentinels and conservators of public liberty, and, next to the clergy, improve or impair the morality of the ma.s.ses.

QUESTIONS.

1. What changes were noticed in North Carolina in 1836? What is said of cotton and slave property?

2. What ca.n.a.l had been completed? How did it benefit that section?

3. What is said of the railway charters?

4. In what condition were railroads at this time?

5. What is said of the present means of travel?

6. What religious convention had been formed in 1730?

7. What public man is now mentioned, and what is said of his abilities?

8. What mention is made of Chief-Justice Taylor?

9. What changes were made in the Supreme Court? What is said of Judge Thomas Ruffin?

10. Who succeeded Judge Henderson? Who composed the Supreme Court in 1833?

11. Can you name some of the Judges, of the Superior Court?

12. What is said of the Bar at this period?

13. How is the influence of lawyers always felt in a community?

CHAPTER XLVIII.

ORIGIN OF THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS.

A. D. 1837 TO 1842.

It will be remembered that in 1767 the first school was incorporated by the Legislature of North Carolina, by the act in favor of the academy at New Bern. In this, and subsequent legislation for schools at Edenton and elsewhere, it had provided that the teachers should all be communicants of the Church of England. This stipulation was, of course, part of the English Church and State system of government.

2. When, just previous to the outbreak of the Revolutionary war, the founders of the ”Queen's Museum,” at Charlotte, a school so named in honor of the queen of England, asked incorporation of the Colonial General a.s.sembly, it was not granted, for the reason that this inst.i.tution was Presbyterian, both as to trustees and faculty. Up to that period dissenting ministers had not been allowed any legal recognition, and it was considered a great concession that the Presbyterian clergy were allowed to officiate at marriages.

3. During the Revolution (in 1777) the useful seminary at Charlotte was first legally chartered as ”Liberty Hall.” It was in no way sustained by or connected with the State, but was to the Presbytery of Orange what Davidson College is now to the, Synod of North Carolina, and was sustained solely by the contributions and patronage of private citizens. Indeed, this had been the case all along with the chartered schools of New Bern and Edenton.

4. In 1776, when the convention at Halifax framed the first Const.i.tution for the State, among the leading ordinances of that instrument was that for the State's active aid to the education of the people. With this clause in the Const.i.tution which they all swore to uphold, the legislators had done nothing so far, except to provide, in 1790, for the establishment of the University at Chapel Hill. *

*Section 41 of the Halifax Const.i.tution declared ”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 instruct at low prices. All useful learning shall be duly encouraged and promoted in one or more universities.”

5. This disregard of their organic law, on the part of those const.i.tuting the State government, was deeply regretted by many wise and good men. But only a few dared to encounter the opposition to taxation for popular education. Governors Johnston and Davie in former days, and Judge Murphy and Bartlett Yancey of later times, had been strenuous for a larger compliance with the terms of the State Const.i.tution, but the members of the several Legislatures, fearful of incurring popular displeasure, or for other reasons, had held back.

<script>