CHAPTER XLII.
GROWTH AND EXPANSION.
A. D 1802 TO 1812.
The Republic of America was wisely ruled during the eight years of Mr. Jefferson's administration as President. He was not only the greatest of political philosophers, but a consummate party leader. Under his management the Federalists were so completely won over that even ex-President John Adams was found among the electors who voted for Jefferson's re-election.
2. Vermont, Ohio, Kentucky and Tennessee were added to the list of States, and the vast territory known as "Louisiana" was purchased from France and made a portion of the American Union. For this magnificent territory the United States paid fifteen million dollars. But with all this evidence of internal advancement, there was unnecessary and ever-growing trouble with foreign powers.
1804.
3. Great Britain had not only failed to carry out the conditions of the treaty of Paris, but continual trouble and war with the western Indians were traced to the plotting of British agents. In Europe, on the high seas, American ships were frequently subjected to wrong and indignity by British cruisers, which seized their cargoes or crews on various pretexts. These maddening interferences, were fast bringing the people of the United States to a determination to vindicate, by arms, their claims as a free and independent people. Europe was still convulsed by war. Napoleon Bonaparte had been crowned Emperor, and in the mighty struggle the claims of the aggrieved public were overlooked or despised.
4. The people of North Carolina were still in great want of general education. The University, at Chapel Hill, was sending out graduates who had already conferred honor upon that seat of learning, but the preparatory schools, so necessary as feeders to such an establishment, were few and far between.
5. Rev. William Bingham had begun a school in the eastern part of the State. He removed temporarily to Pittsboro, but finally settled at Hillsboro and established the academy which is even at this day continued near by, at Mebaneville, under the management of one of his descendants. This school, dating from 1793, was, even in its infancy, of marked excellence, and has won more reputation than any similar institution in the Southern States. Rev. Dr. David Caldwell's school in Guilford, Rev. J. O. Freeman's in Murfreesboro, and a few academies in the villages, however meritorious, produced but slight effect upon the great mass of the people.
6. There had not been opened a single free school in all the State. Occasionally there could be found neighborhoods where a few citizens joined in employing a man to teach the elementary branches of English education, but these were generally attended for only a few months, and were not very admirable either for discipline or in the matters taught.
1805.
7. The people of the interior and west were becoming anxious for some means of conveyance and travel to the outer world. The crops raised were generally too bulky to pay for expensive transportation over long distances, and for this reason were available to feed only the community in which they were grown. Tobacco from all the counties in the northern portion of the State was conveyed to market by rolling the hogsheads containing it along the roads, to markets at Petersburg, in Virginia, and Fayetteville.
8. In the regions of the long-leaf pine much attention was given to the preparation of turpentine and tar. Indeed, so large a trade grew up in these articles, that some people abroad came to think that North Carolina produced little else. There were no turpentine distilleries to be found, at this time, in North Carolina; and the crude product of the tree was shipped from our ports to be manufactured in other States.
9. In 1805, during the sessions of the Legislature, General James Wellborn, of Wilkes, introduced a proposition to build, at the State's expense, a turnpike from Beaufort Harbor to the mountains; but this and all other such improvements were neglected for some time to come.
1810.
10. The canal through the Dismal Swamp was to prove very beneficial to eastern counties; but this work, though authorized long before, was yet unfinished. Vessels to New York or Baltimore still passed out to sea by the dangers of Cape Hatteras, and not unfrequently both cargo and crew were engulfed amid its cruel sands.
11. There was, at this period of our history, a brisk trade between the West Indies and several of the eastern towns. Wilmington, New Bern, Washington and Edenton were all largely engaged in the shipment of staves and provisions; importing salt and tropical stores in return. This, and all other foreign trade, was ruthlessly stopped by the embargo laid by Congress.
12. This embargo was the result of an act of Congress which forbade the exportation of all goods from the United States to Great Britain or her dependencies. It was very similar to the expedient resorted to by the Second Continental Congress for a like purpose, but was not enforced by any voluntary associations of the people, as it was in 1775.
1812.
13. This extreme measure failed to bring Great Britain to a surrender of her claim to search American ships; and on the 19th of June, for this and other just causes, war was declared against her. Mr. Madison would have temporized and still deferred the dreadful expedient, but the American people were resolved upon indemnity for the past and security for the future; and thus two kindred nations were to waste blood and treasure in an unnecessary quarrel.