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

by John W. Moore

13. What reflections are made upon this era?

CHAPTER LII.

A SPECTRE OF THE PAST REAPPEARS.

A. D. 1848 TO 1852.

1. The female seminaries of Salem, Raleigh and Greensboro were supplemented, in 1843, in the establishment, by the Chowan and Portsmouth Baptist Associations, of another female school of high grade, at Murfreesboro. This useful and popular institution soon gained reputation and attracted patronage from many of the Southern States. The Edgeworth Seminary at Greensboro was a similar institution under Presbyterian rule. It was a worthy rival of its compeers in the education of Southern girls. The University, Wake Forest and Davidson College were advancing their standards and growing in prosperity. The University, especially, under the sagacious administration of ex-Governor Swain, assisted by an able body of experienced teachers, made great progress. Several hundred students were in attendance, gathered from all the Southern and Southwestern States.

2. Governor Morehead had been succeeded in office by William A. Graham, of Orange. In the United States Senate, Judges Mangum and Badger were the peers of the best men of the Republic, and reflected honor on North Carolina.

3. In the House of Representatives, Colonel James I. McKay, of Bladen, had long been recognized as one of the leading men, and was chairman of the Committee on Ways and Means. Messrs. Kenneth Rayner and Thomas L. Clingman were also men of recognized ability, the latter bringing varied accomplishments to aid his discharge of duty.

1849.

4. At the expiration of Governor Graham's term of office Charles Manly, of Wake, became Governor. The people of the State grew excited in the contest between Messrs. Manly and Reid over the Democratic proposition to abolish the freehold qualification of voters for State Senators. It had been, ever since 1776, necessary for a man to possess fifty acres of land to be entitled to this franchise. It was now proposed to allow all white men the privilege of suffrage.

5. Upon the election of General Taylor as President of the United States, Mr. Polk retired to private life, and soon died at Nashville, Tennessee. He was a pure and laborious man, but was not the equal of Andrew Jackson in those great natural gifts which immortalized the hero of New Orleans.