School History of North Carolina : from 1584 to the present time

by John W. Moore

CHAPTER LXXV.

CONCLUSION.

A. D. 1881.

In the financial prostration consequent upon the late war, a large debt was due from North Carolina to creditors who held the bonds of the State. That portion of these bonds which had been issued before the war was considered an honorable burden, that should be discharged by such payment as might be fixed by agreement between the State and the bondholders.

2. In this way a compromise was effected, and new bonds have been issued, which embrace a large portion of what was honestly due from the State to her creditors. For those which were made in defiance of the terms of the Constitution, and appropriated almost entirely by dishonest officials, no provision has been made, and doubtless, will never be.

3. When, in 1876, the great quadrennial contest for the Presidency of the Union again recurred; it was rightly considered one of the most momentous crises that had yet occurred in American history. The great issue was as to the continuance of State governments. The recent habits of General Grant in his dealing with Southern Commonwealths had virtually ignored their separate existence. In the strange and unprecedented action of Congress that resulted in the seating of Governor Hayes as President, the Federal troops were withdrawn, and the people of the States left to administer their own affairs, and State governments were recognized.

4. Ex-Governor Vance was this year elected over Judge Thomas Settle to the Chief-Magistracy, as has already been stated. General M. W. Ransom and ex-Judge A. S. Merrimon were sent to the United States Senate, in the place of John Pool and General J. C. Abbott. Through the efforts of our Congressmen, many needed appropriations by Congress have been secured to North Carolina, and their result is specially noticeable in the great improvement of the ship channels of the Cape Fear and other rivers.

5. Upon the election of Governor Vance to the United States Senate, February 8th, 1879, he was succeeded by Lieutenant- Governor T. J. Jarvis. The latter had served as a captain in the Eighth North Carolina Regiment in the late war, and subsequently, as Speaker of the House of Representatives. Chief- Justice Pearson died in 1878, on his way to attend the session of the Supreme Court at Raleigh. W. N. H. Smith was appointed by Governor Vance as Chief-Justice in the place of Judge Pearson. At the next election by the people, Judge Smith, with John H. Dillard and Thomas S. Ashe as Associate Justices, was elected without opposition. Judge Dillard having resigned in 1881, Judge Thomas Ruffin was appointed his successor.

6. The public charities of the State have been enlarged and elevated in their ministrations. The recent adoption of the Orphan Asylum at Oxford as a recipient of the State's bounty, the erection of a colored Deaf and Dumb Asylum, the erection of an hospital for the insane of the colored race, and the great building at Morganton for additional accommodation to white lunatics, are only a portion of the recent humanities inaugurated by the General Assembly.

7. Perhaps in no other respect is so much physical improvement possible as in the development of the mining interests of the State. Capital from abroad is flowing in, and from many counties fresh discoveries of mineral deposits are leading to the establishment of companies and firms for the purpose of working such mines. No other State of the Union presents such a variety of these rich and beautiful gifts of nature. The recent discovery, in the western part of the State, of a new gem, called the "Hiddenite," is attracting general attention and increasing the influx of visitors to the romantic scenery of the mountains.

8. 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.

1881.

9. God has blessed them year by year with over flowing barns. They are already one of the most numerous and wealthy of all nations; and yet, with so many blessings, sectional hatred had become the ruling emotion in countless breasts. Amid such a state of affairs, General James A. Garfield became President of the United States. On the 2d day of July he was shot down in Washington by an assassin. The news of this crime, when flashed over the electric wires, carried sorrow to the whole civilized world—and of all the cities of the Union, Raleigh was the first to express, by public meeting, the indignation of her people at the deed. In the weeks of the President's subsequent agony, as he lay battling with death, the hearts of the American people were strangely drawn together in the presence of this common national calamity.

10. When, on September 19th, it was announced that the long and painful struggle was ended, and the smitten statesman was at last eased of his agony by death, such grief was seen in all America as had never before been witnessed. In the presence of such a death all cries of dissension ceased to be heard, and every party and race united in the general mourning.

11. The people of North Carolina, with one accord, desire that such a spirit may continue to animate the American people. As they were the first of all the States to urge the independence of America, so may they ever be found sustaining the Constitution and the Union that guarantee its perpetuity.