CHAPTER XXXIX.
FRANCE AND AMERICA.
A. D. 1790 TO 1794.
1. When North Carolina had thus taken her place in the Federal Union, and the whole system of State and National polity became perfected in America, many hearts beat with gratitude to God for the promises of a glorious future. The magnificent realm won by the blood of heroes was at last guarded by a system of laws so wise and effective that peace and prosperity were soon to make it one of the greatest of civilized lands.
2. This example of freedom achieved in the wilds of America was speedily felt in Europe. General Washington had been in the discharge of his duties as President about a month, when the States-General of France met in the famous convention which was to pull down the ancient French monarchy and engulf all Europe in seas of blood. The overtaxed and excitable Frenchmen were maddened by the contrast afforded in their sufferings and the blessings achieved by their late allies on the other side of the Atlantic.
3. Governor Caswell, while in the discharge of his duties as a member of the State Senate, died at Fayetteville, in the month of December, 1789. He was shortly followed in death by William Hooper and Archibald Maclaine. Willie Jones had retired from public life; and thus, four most conspicuous leaders almost simultaneously disappeared from public life.
4. Colonel William R. Davie, of Halifax, John Haywood, of the same county, and Alfred Moore, of Brunswick, were greatly influential, and were worthy successors of the older servants of the public who had been thus removed from the arena of their former usefulness. Governor Johnston having been elected United States Senator, was succeeded as Governor by Alexander Martin.
1792.
5. It was during this second term of Governor Martin's rule that Raleigh was selected for the State capital. A large tract of land at Wake Court House had been bought of Colonel Joel Lane, and upon it a city was laid off and the public buildings erected. Before that time, since Governor Tryon's palace at New Bern had been burned, the main question to be determined by every General Assembly was what town should be selected for the holding of the next session.
6. Fayetteville, Hillsboro, New Bern and Tarboro were sure to get up an excitement and contest as to which of them should be next favored with the presence of the State officers and the General Assembly. The Governor and his assistants had been dwelling wherever it best suited them, and the public records had thus been continually migrating over the State.
7. There was little church organization in America until after the Revolution. There was not a single Bishop of the Episcopal Church in all America before the Revolution, and not until 1789 was an effort made to supply such a prelate for the Church in North Carolina. The Rev. Charles Pettigrew was then elected Bishop of the Diocese by a Convention at Tarboro, but he died before consecration.
8. The Baptists had united their churches in this State and southern Virginia, in 1765, in a body which was called the "Kehukee Association." In 1770 the Presbyterians had formed the Presbytery of Orange; and in 1788 they set off the Synode of the Carolinas. The Quakers and Moravians were flourishing in certain sections, but as yet the Methodist missionaries had effected but little in the way of planting churches in North Carolina.
9. Richard Dobbs Spaight, in 1792, became Governor, and was the first native North Carolinian to fill that distinguished office. He possessed much ability and was familiar with the conduct of public affairs. He found that great excitement and division existed among the people as to the French Revolution. Because aid had been sent from that country to the struggling American colonists, many men insisted that it was the duty of America to take sides with France in the war then raging in Europe.
1794.
10. General Washington and other wise men resisted this dangerous opinion, and held that America should take no part in the affairs of foreign nations. The great struggle went on, with Napoleon Bonaparte rapidly growing more formidable to the allied kings.
11. The French had acquired a thirst for freedom from America, but they in turn exerted an influence upon the religious creeds of our people. French books and modes of thought and French fashions became popular, and the country debating clubs were heard repeating the doubts and sneers of Voltaire, Diderot and other French infidels.
12. The world's creeds were on trial. Kings and priests were as keenly criticised as in the sixteenth century, but out of all the turmoil and bloodshed a larger measure of liberty was to be won. Constitutional kings and purified churches were the outgrowth and result of the most prodigious uproar yet witnessed among civilized nations.