10. How was this matter considered by General Washington and others?
11. How were the works of celebrated French writers affecting the people of America?
12. What was to be the conclusion of all these troubles?
CHAPTER XL.
THE FEDERALISTS AND THE REPUBLICANS.
A. D. 1794 TO 1800.
1. In the last days of the eighteenth century men became more and more plainly divided into two political parties. Thomas Jefferson, of Virginia, a man of decided genius and consummate ability, was the leader of those who maintained that the government of the United States should be strictly limited to the powers expressly granted in the Federal Constitution and prohibited from the use of any of those reserved to the individual States.
2. Alexander Hamilton, of New York, another very able and patriotic statesman, took an entirely different view. He did not consider the people capable of ruling the country, and wished to subordinate the State governments to Federal authority. The "Federalists" were those who followed his views, while the "Republicans" were no less strenuous in upholding Mr. Jefferson and his policy.
3. The Superior Courts of this State, after the resignation of Judge Iredell, were held, as in old provincial times, at the six favored villages, by Judges Samuel Ashe, Samuel Spencer and John Taylor. In the year 1794, Judge Spencer came to his death in a singular manner. He was in extreme old age, and had suffered with a long and wasting illness. One warm evening he was carried out and laid upon the grass, beneath a tree in his yard. While lying there the red flannel of his shirt infuriated a large turkey-gobbler, which attacked him with great violence. When Judge Spencer's feeble cries attracted attention, he had been so injured that he soon after died of nervous exhaustion.
4. In accordance with the law of 1790, the provisions of the Constitution of 1776 were first seen in process of fulfillment when the trustees, after mature deliberation, selected Chapel Hill, in Orange county, as the site of the State University. Here, upon one of a long range of great hills traversing that region, they secured several hundred acres on the crest of a noble elevation that overlooks the surrounding country.