THE CHARTER AND ORGANIZATION.

        It might be claimed that the Centennial year of American Independence was likewise the Centennial year of the University of North Carolina, although the charter was not granted until 1789.

        In December, 1776, a Convention, then called Congress, of enlightened men met at Halifax to form a Constitution for the new free State of North Carolina, under whose protection the people could maintain the independence they had declared a few months before.

        Without an army or navy, they had entered on a war for existence with a nation powerful, populous and wealthy, having the tradition of invincibility, which had, under Marlborough, within the century, broken the power of the Great Louis of France--had, with heavy hand, crushed the fortunes of the Pretender at Culloden--had sent Wolfe to storm the Heights of Quebec; had swept the seas with her fleets. The Revolution, if it failed, was Rebellion. The penalty of defeat was the doom of traitors. The State had barely two hundred thousand inhabitants, widely scattered, and badly armed, and divided in sentiment. But, notwithstanding these odds, this Congress, with wisdom unparalleled and faith approaching sublimity, provided for the interest of unborn children. They knew that those children would not be capable of freedom without education. They knew that there could be no education without teachers. They knew that teachers could not be procured without colleges. They knew that their leaders in the pulpit and in civil offices had received their education in distant States and even in the mother country across the ocean. They resolved that their youth, seeking intellectual advancement, should not be temporarily expatriated in order to obtain it. They made the requirement of the University a part of the fundamental law. On the 18th of December, 1776, in the Constitution of

the new State, then first adopted, are found these golden words, written amid storms and thunderings, to be made good when the sun shone on a free and united people: "All useful learning shall be duly encouraged and promoted in one or more universities."

        Tradition has it that this provision in the Constitution was due to the Scotch-Irish of Mecklenburg. Smarting under resentment caused by the disapproval by the Crown of the charter of Queen's College, its friends procured from the people of the county a positive instruction to their delegates to the Halifax Congress of 1776 to provide for a State college. Among these delegates was Waightstill Avery, a graduate of Princeton, likewise a member of the committee which reported the Constitution, and the tradition which credits him with being the draftsman of the University and public school clause is certainly plausible.

        That our forefathers thought that the University and the public school system were necessarily part of one organism is proved by their connection in the Constitution. The section in which the General Assembly is commanded to provide the University is as follows: Section 41--"A school, or schools, shall be established by the legislature for the convenient instruction of youth, with such salaries to the masters, paid by the public, as may enable them to instruct at low prices: and all useful learning shall be duly encouraged and promoted in one or more universities." It was clear to the statesmen of a hundred years ago, and it ought not to require argument to prove it, that money spent for schools without providing teachers is mere waste and folly. And certainly our forefathers who, with their hearts sore from the attempted domination of the Church of England in colonial times, inserted in the Constitution that, "no clergyman, or preacher of the gospel, of any denomination, shall be capable of being a member, either of the Senate, House of Commons, or Council of State, while he continues in the exercise of the pastoral function," together with other provisions, completely serving the connection between the Church and the State, never designed that state schools should look to religious colleges exclusively for their teachers, nor did they wish to be dependent on other States.

        During the War of the Revolution the mandate of the Constitution lay dormant. Inter arma silent leges. When Caswell and Lillington were beating McDonald at Moore's Creek Bridge, and Campbell, Shelby, Cleveland, Sevier, Williams and McDowell were capturing Ferguson's forces at King's Mountain, and Cornwallis and Greene were wrestling for the victory at Guilford, and Fanning was carrying as prisoner from Hillsboro the Governor of our State, and the momentous question whether our ancestors were patriots or traitors, was still undecided, there was no time for erecting universities. And after the war, industry must have time for restoring plenty to wasted lands and statesmanship to form a settled government in the place of a nerveless confederacy. In the month of November, 1789, our State, after a hesitation of a year, entered the American Union. In the month of December, as if forming part of a comprehensive plan, the charter of the University, under the powerful advocacy of Davie, was granted by the General Assembly. The Trustees under the charter comprised great men of the State, good men of the State, trusted leaders of the people.

        The first named, and the chairman, was Governor Samuel Johnston, who, in legislative, executive and judicial stations, in war and peace, left the impress of his wise conservatism on the State. There were James Iredell, one of the earliest Judges of the Supreme Court of the United States, and Alfred Moore, his successor in this high office. There were the first Federal District Judge, Colonel John Stokes, and John Sitgreaves, his successor.

        There were the three signers of the Constitution of the United States: Hugh Williamson, the historian William Blount, afterwards Senator of the United States from Tennessee, and Richard Dobbs Spaight, who left Trinity College, Dublin, when scarcely of age, to fight for the independence of his native State. He served as delegate to the Congress of the Confederation, and of the United States, and as Governor of North Carolina. Of others destined to be Governors, there were Samuel Ashe, then Judge, Benjamin Williams, and the first benefactor of the University, Benjamin Smith, and William Richardson Davie, its father. There were military men,

who had been conspicuous fighters in the Revolution: General Joseph Graham, scarred with wounds in the defence of Charlotte under Davie, the father of the revered statesman, William A. Graham, whose last public appearance was in behalf of the University; General Thomas Person, whose hatred of injustice began with the disastrous struggles of the Regulation, William Lenoir, Joseph McDowell, the elder, and Joseph Dixon (or Dickson), who aided in thwarting the plans of Cornwallis by the capture of Ferguson at King's Mountain; Henry William Harrington, an active militia general in service on our southern borders.

        Of the State judiciary we find three judges under the court law of 1777--Samuel Spencer, John Williams, and Samuel Ashe, already mentioned, whose name is worthily represented by his descendants, Thomas Samuel Ashe, late of Anson, and Samuel A. Ashe, of Raleigh; and of others distinguished in the history of the State--Archibald McLaine and Willie Jones, bold and active patriots, Stephen Cabarrus, long Speaker of the House of Commons, and John Haywood, the popular State Treasurer. There were the first two Senators of the United States--Samuel Johnston and Benjamin Hawkins, and of those destined to be members of the lower House of Congress were Charles Johnson, then Speaker of the State Senate, who had fought for the Stuarts at Culloden, James Holland of Guilford, Alexander Mebane of Orange, Joseph Winston of Surry, and William Barry Grove of Cumberland. We find in the list John Hay, the eminent lawyer of Fayetteville, who gave his name to Haymount; James Hogg, an enlightened merchant of Fayetteville and of Hillsboro; Adlai Osborne, the highly esteemed Clerk of Rowan Superior Court; the eminent teacher and divine, Rev. Samuel E. McCorkle, D.D.; and prominent and useful members of the State legislature, Frederick Hargett, Senator of Jones, Robert W. Snead, Senator of Onslow, Joel Lane, Senator from Wake, owner of the land bought for the site of the city of Raleigh, John Macon, Senator of Warren, brother of the more eminent Nathaniel Macon, John Hamilton, commoner of Guilford, William Porter, commoner of Rutherford, and Robert Dickson of Duplin.

        The moving spirit of this distinguished band was William

Richardson Davie. He was no common man. He had been a gallant cavalry officer in the Revolution. He had been a strong staff on which Greene had leaned. He had been conspicuous in civil pursuits; an able lawyer, an orator of wide influence. With Washington and Madison, and other great men, he had assisted in evolving the grandest government of all ages, the American Union, out of an ill-governed and disintegrated confederacy. He was beyond his times in the advocacy of a broad, generous education. His portrait has been drawn by a masterly hand, Judge Archibald Murphey, one of the most progressive and scholarly men our State has known. In his speech before the two Societies at Chapel Hill in 1827 he says: "Davie was a tall, elegant man in his person, graceful and commanding in his manners. His voice was mellow, and adapted to the expression of every passion; his mind comprehensive yet slow in its operations, when compared with his great rival (Moore); his style was magnificent and flowing; he had a greatness of manner in public speaking which suited his style, and gave to his speeches an imposing effect. He was a laborious student, arranged his discourses with care, and where the subject merited his genius, poured forth a torrent of eloquence that astonished and enraptured his audience."

        He had, in the Constitutional Convention of 1787, at a critical moment, caused the vote of North Carolina, then one of the large States, to be cast for a compromise, the equality of States in the Senate, without which union would have been impossible. In the State Conventions of 1788 and 1789 he had advocated the adoption of the new Constitution with equal ability. It was his foresight and wisdom which provided the University, by whose means North Carolina could keep pace in culture and influence with her sisters. He drew for the University the Plan of Studies pursued for many years, and maintained its interest by his purse, his eloquence, his counsels, and constant attention to its exercises. The Dialectic Society is the fortunate owner of an excellent portrait of this great man--the picture of a man of military bearing, strikingly handsome, a gentleman, a scholar and a statesman.

        Such were the guardians into whose care the General Assembly committed the institution provided for the youth of North

Carolina. Six of them--McLean, Person, Ashe, Jones, Lane and Mebane--were carrying into effect the mandate of the Constitution for which as members of the Halifax Congress of 1776 they had voted. Twenty-three, viz: Hargett, Smith, McDowell, Hay, Grove, Cabarrus, Samuel Johnston, Charles Johnson, Robert Dickson, Hamilton, Person, Sneed, Mebane, Stokes, Holland, Winston, Blount, Williamson, Hawkins, Lane, Lenoir, Davie, and Porter, were members of the Convention of 1789, and of them only Dickson, Hamilton, Person, and Lenoir voted against the ratification of the Constitution of the United States.

        The charter, granted by the General Assembly, was ratified December 11, 1789. The preamble, in wise and weighty words, asserts that, "in all well regulated governments it is the indispensable duty of every legislature to consult the happiness of a rising generation, and endeavor to fit them for an honorable discharge of the social duties of life by paying the strictest attention to their education, and that, a University, supported by permanent funds and well endowed, would have the most direct tendency to answer the above purpose."

        Among the provisions of the charter, in addition to the usual powers of corporations, are the following:

        The Trustees were a self-perpetuating body, having cooptative powers; being authorized to fill vacancies occurring by death, refusing to act, resignation or removal from the State.

        The principle of having the Trustees distributed in the judicial districts was to be retained in all elections.

        The first meeting of the Trustees was directed to be on the third Monday of the next General Assembly at Fayetteville, at which time were to be elected a President of the Board, and a Secretary. At all subsequent, regular, or annual meetings, the members present, with the President and Treasurer, or a majority without either of these officers, were to be a quorum.

        Special meetings could be called by the President and two Trustees, notice being given to every Trustee, and advertisement to be made in the State Gazette. These meetings were prohibited from appropriating money, and from electing the President and Professors of the University. They, however, could fill a vacancy until the next annual meeting.

        The meeting, at which the site of the University should be fixed upon, was to be advertized in the Gazette for at least six months and special notice given to each Trustee.

        The Treasurer was to give bond, payable to the Governor, in the sum of £5,000 ($10,000), and to hold office for two years. If he should prove delinquent recovery was to be had as in the case of Sheriffs.

        The Treasurer was directed to publish annually in the State Gazette a list of moneys and other donations under penalty of £100 ($200) at the suit of the Attorney-General, the penalties to belong to the University. The Treasurer was ordered to pay annually to the Treasurer of the State all moneys received by him, on which the State was to pay six per cent interest, the principal to be a permanent fund. (This was repealed four years afterwards.)

        The site of the University was not to be within five miles of the seat of government, or any of the places of holding the courts of law or equity.

        The Trustees could appoint a President of the University, and the professors and tutors, whom "they may remove for misbehavior, inability, or neglect of duty." They could "make all such laws and regulations for the government of the University and preservation of order and good morals therein as are usually made in such seminaries, and as to them may appear necessary: Provided, the same are not contrary to the inalienable liberty of a citizen or to the laws of the State."

        The power of conferring degrees was given to the Faculty of the University, that is to say, the President and Professors, but the Trustees must concur.

        Any subscriber of £10 ($20), payable in five equal annual installments, was entitled to have one student educated free of tuition.

        The public hall, and the library and rooms of the college shall be called by the names of one or another of the six largest subscribers within four years. "And a book shall be kept in the library in which shall be entered the names and places of residence of every benefactor to this seminary, in order that posterity may be informed to whom they are indebted for the

measure of learning and good morals that may prevail in the State."

        The foregoing summary shows some provisions which appear strange in our eyes. For example, that any number of Trustees, no matter how small, should be a quorum, if only the President of the Board and the Treasurer should be present, neither of whom was necessarily a member. Then, again, the prohibition of locating the University within five miles of the seat of government or of any court town is contrary to our experience. It was doubtless on account of the rowdyism and drunkenness during court week, then so prevalent, now happily passing away. The provision that only the State should be the custodian of the donations of money and pay interest on the same, the University being prohibited from using the principal, seems inconsistent with the imperative duty of erecting buildings. Note also that only the President and Professors, excluding tutors, constitute the faculty, and that the Trustees have no power of conferring degrees, but can only confirm or reject the nominations of the faculty. The provision that a student should have his tuition for four years on a payment of $20 by a subscriber seems reckless, unless there was a general idea prevalent that tuition should be nearly free. The appeal to the vanity of the wealthy is interesting, firstly, because it shows that the projectors of the University, even in those dark days, had grand ideas as to the future, when without a dollar in sight they estimated no less than six buildings, to be essential, and, secondly, because the promise of honoring benefactors was made irrespective of the amounts to be given.

        The fear that the Trustees might, in making their by-laws, be more severe on the students than would be consistent with the "Rights of Man," for which so much blood had been spilt, is shown in the protective clause that those laws should not be "contrary to the inalienable liberty of a citizen." It will be seen in the sequel that the young men interpreted this in the broadest latitude as negativing all restraint. The construction of this charter provision by the Trustees, that the professors and tutors were to be like police officers in carrying out the discipline of the institution, led to serious evils for very many years.

        The locating of the Trustees in the several judicial districts in those days of bad roads, although possibly propitiating favor, was fatal to wise management. The expedient of giving wide powers to an executive committee of seven, which works so wisely now, had not then been thought of.

        The power of the Trustees of filling vacancies in their body seemed harmless, if not wise. It was destined, however, to place the institution under the suspicion of being aristocratic, a suspicion fatal to its popularity in the days when there existed among the people a real fear of the introduction of English class distinctions and of a government monarchical in nature, though not in name. The provision was changed eventually, as will be seen.

        On the whole, it seems probable that some of these outre provisions were inserted on the motion of members hostile to the movement, or by its friends for the purpose of placating them. Like the Fundamental Constitutions of the Lords Proprietors, the charter of the University is another evidence that all good government is the product of experience and growth, and can not be planned beforehand by the wit of man.

        There was no appropriation of money made for erection of buildings or other expenditure for the new institution. An act was, however, passed which conferred on it certain claims, which the officers of the State had been unable to collect. These were arrearages due from sheriffs and other officers prior to January 1, 1783, none of them less than six years old and some far more. The proceeds of sales of confiscated lands were excepted from the gift, probably because the legislature deemed them easily collectible. A further exception was made of all the arrearages due by Robert Lanier, treasurer of the judicial district of Salisbury, and also those from the sheriffs of that district, but if they should not settle their dues in two years, the University was authorized to have all the uncollected residue.

        The delinquents, sixty-eight in number, whose accounts were turned over by the act, were officers of the State or counties, some distinguished and of high character--such as General Horatio Gates, Governor Burke, Colonel Benjamin Cleveland.

General Hogan, Marquis de Bretigny. Evidently many were for agencies during the war, in which vouchers were lost or captured by the enemy, or the settlements of the agencies destroyed. Colonel Waightstill Avery, for example, was included in the list, but he promptly proved that there was a mistake, and his name was at once struck off. The following list shows more clearly the employments of those indebted to the State according to the Comptroller's report, which debts were transferred to the University: namely, Clerks, Sheriffs, purchasers of confiscated property, Judges (fees for lawyer's licenses), entry-takers, agents, purchasers of lots in Raleigh, commissionaries (commissaries?), purchasers of western lands, buyer of eleven head of cattle, also of four head of cattle, buyer of one horse, hirer of McKnight's negroes (McKnight was a Tory), debtors for specie certificates, also for "old dollar money," also for officer's certificates, entries of western lands, and certificates of the Auditors of the Upper Board of Salisbury.

        At the same session was granted a right, shadowy, uncertain, well nigh in nubibus, but which in the course of time by skillful management brought considerable money into the treasury. This grant was such property as had escheated, or should thereafter escheat, to the State. This by the energy and good management of the Trustees, after a long period, was the source of the endowment of the University, lost in the Civil War. Many denizens of foreign birth left no heirs, citizens of North Carolina, and under the law as it stood until 1831, their lands escheated to the State; and in a like manner obscure soldiers of the Continental Line, to whom land warrants were granted for their services in the war, died leaving no heirs to inherit their claims. Of course the revenue from this source naturally diminished as the years rolled away from the Revolution, and it was still further diminished by acts of the Legislature giving the lands to a remoter heir, being a citizen, when the next heir is an alien, and giving the widow all the estate if her husband should die without an heir. At this day the chances of an escheat are worth but little, as an alien stands on the same footing with a citizen in regard to the possession of real estate.

        It was not from parsimony but hard necessity that the long services of our patriot soldiers, in hunger, and thirst, and cold,

and nakedness, were paid for in a paper currency, like that of which the conquered Confederates have had such bitter experience. To this meagre dole was added for faithful service warrants for land to be located in a country of great fertility, but the homes of bears, panthers, and Indians, the western region of Tennessee, then a part of the domain of North Carolina. To a private was given 640 acres, to a lieutenant 2,560, to a Captain 3,840, to a Major 4,800, to a Colonel, or Lieutenant-Colonel Commanding, 7,200, to a Brigadier-General 12,000 acres. To the great General Greene, who had by his genius retrieved the fortunes of the war after Gates' disastrous failure, they gave 25,000 acres.

        The gift of the unclaimed land warrants was for years to the University like the cool waters near the parched lips of Tantalus. North Carolina, in 1789, ceded all its territory of Tennessee to the United States. The new State, after its admission into the Union in 1796, claimed all the rights of sovereignty, and refused to give effect to the grants made by North Carolina.

        The State of North Carolina would never have secured an acre of these lands. No argument but that they were to be used for education, had any weight with the legislators of Tennessee. The Trustees sent to plead their cause one of their most enlightened members and most skilled in the arts of managing men, Judge Archibald Murphey. Even he, with all his eloquence and address, was forced to a hard compromise. Two-thirds of the warrants were given to the College of East Tennessee and College of Cumberland, and one-third to the University of North Carolina. It was not until 1835, after suffering untold privations, staggering under a debt of nearly $40,000 to the banks, that funds were gathered from this source and from the donations of Smith, Gerrard and others, to lift its head above the waters. A detailed narrative of the negotiations will be given hereafter.

        It is pleasant to note that by the providence of our ancestors the enemies of our country's freedom contributed, albeit unwillingly, to the enlightment of our people. But it is of pathetic interest to know that the ignorant soldiers of America, who,

after countless sufferings filled uncoffined graves, were not only gaining liberty for their country but, unintentional benefactors, were building a great institution of learning. They did glorious work, those "unnamed demigods of history," as Kossuth called them, blindly suffering martyrdom for a cause they dimly understood, but that cause triumphant and leading to never ending blessings of free institutions and liberal education.

        The first meeting of the Trustees was on the 18th of December, 1789, seven days after the ratification of the charter. To copy from the record those present were:

• The Hon. Charles Johnson, of Bertie, Chairman.
• Hon. S. Cabarrus of Chowan.
• James Holland of Rutherford.
• Benjamin Smith of Brunswick.
• John Stokes of Surry.
• Hugh Williamson of Edenton.
• William Blount of Tennessee.
• Thomas Person of Granville.
• William Porter of Rutherford.
• William Lenoir of Wilkes.
• Joseph Dixon of Lincoln.
• Robert Dixon of Duplin.
• Alexander Mebane of Orange.
• John Hamilton of Guilford.
• William R. Davie of Halifax.
• Frederick Hargett of Jones.
• James Hogg of Orange.

        It will be noticed that the only persons dignified with the affix "Hon.," are Johnson and Cabarrus. That was because they were Speakers of the Senate and of the House respectively, and represented those august bodies. The title was then restricted as a rule to the actual incumbents of these and such high officers as President, Governor and Judge. It is now rapidly descending to the same dead level as that occupied by Mister, which itself has experienced the like degradation. Johnson, the grandfather of the late eminent Dr. Charles E. Johnson, of Raleigh, was a relation of Governor Gabriel and of Governor Samuel Johnston, but omitted "t" from his name because, having, when barely of age, fought for Charles Edward, he wished to conceal his identity.

        It was thought for years, until the Supreme Court settled the question by deciding to the contrary, that the University is a private corporation. That the earliest Trustees thought differently is proved by the fact that they did not formally accept the charter, but organized at once as public officers.

        Messrs. Davie and Hogg were requested to prepare blanks for subscriptions, one as specially directed by the Act of Assembly, the other on the principle of a mere donation.

        Mr. Davie made the agreeable announcement that Colonel Benjamin Smith offered a gift to the University of 20,000 acres of land warrants. The Trustees recorded their thanks for "the liberal and generous donation."

        Another early friend of the institution should be held in grateful remembrance. Governor Alexander Martin showed his interest by frequent attendance on the meetings of the Board, by occasional timely gifts and by advocating in his message to the General Assemblies its establishment and maintenance. In the fall of 1790 he wrote, "This institution already stamped with importance, having the great cause of humanity for its object, might do honor to this and the neighboring States, had it an adequate support, where our youth might be instructed in true religion, sound policy and science, and men of ability drawn forth to fill the different departments of government with reputation, or be formed for useful and ornamental members of society in private or professional life." He then recommends a loan for erecting buildings to "give it a more essential than a paper being."

        The second meeting of the Board of Trustees, the first prescribed by the charter, was held likewise in Fayetteville on the 25th of November, 1790. General William Lenoir, of Wilkes County, President of the Senate, a hero of King's Mountain, on the nomination of the Speaker of the House, Stephen Cabarrus, was made President of the Board. He, first of a long line of eminent men who held this office, was the last survivor of the original Trustees, dying at the age of 88, just fifty years after the enactment of the charter. In such high estimation was he held that an eastern county and a western town were named in his honor.

        Changes had occurred in the Board of Trustees. The old heroes were dropping off. The venerable Robert Dixon gave way to James Kenan, grandfather of our worthy Trustee and President of our Alumni Association; and battle-scarred Judge Winston to Alexander Martin, who, like our Vance, had been Governor in times of war, and, after a long interval, in times of peace occupied the executive chair. James Hogg proceeded to the welcome duty of presenting to the Board patents for the 20,000 acres of land, donated at the preceding meeting by

General Smith. On the resignation, by Colonel Lenoir, of the chairmanship, Governor Alexander Martin was chosen as his successor. On balloting for the office of Treasurer, John Craven, the State Comptroller, an old bachelor of Halifax County, was unanimously elected. His bondsmen were Colonel John Macon, of Warren, and General Thomas Person, of Granville. James Taylor, a Commoner from Rockingham County, was with like unanimity chosen Secretary. It was agreed that the place of the next meeting should be selected by ballot. Hillsborough, Salem, Williamsburg (now Williamsboro), Goshen (in Granville), Rockingham and Wake Court House were placed in nomination. The vote of the majority was for Hillsboro. It is pleasant to note the care taken to satisfy all sections that the location of the University should be fairly made. It was resolved that at the next meeting on the third Monday of July, 1791, the special business should be the selection of the site. Each Trustee was notified of this and a copy of the resolutions was ordered to be published in the State Gazette for six months. [In those days the General Assembly designated some newspaper as the official organ of the State. At this date it was the North Carolina Journal at Halifax, published by Hodge & Willis. Hodge was the uncle of the prominent Raleigh citizen, William Boylan, and brought him from New Jersey to assist him in his publications.]

        The Board of Trustees ordered that the efforts to obtain donations should be continued. As was hoped by its friends, the University was a more successful collector than the State. On December 6, 1790, the empty treasury was gladdened by the receipt of $2,706.41, paid by John Harvey, Clerk of Perquimans Court, recovered from a delinquent "Commissioner of Specifics." This was by the Trustees, as then required by the charter, invested in United States stock created by the financial ability of Alexander Hamilton.

        At the July, 1791, meeting Robert Burton, of Granville, father of Judge Robert H. Burton, of Lincolnton, and great grandfather of the distinguished North Carolina General, Robert F. Hoke, and great-great-grandfather of the still more distinguished (in athletic circles) Captain of our football team which

took the scalp of the University of Virginia team at Atlanta--Dr. Mike Hoke--was chosen Secretary in the place of James Taylor, resigned. Probably on account of the meagre amount of money on hand and in sight, no steps were taken to select the site, but vigorous action was had for the collection of the arrearages and escheats granted by the Assembly. Each Trustee was authorized to act as agent of the Board in the matter of escheats, and attorneys, vested with full powers of collection and compromise in regard to them and the arrearages, were appointed in each judicial district. As evidently the lawyers who combined ability, integrity, activity, and friendship to the University, were chosen, I give their names. They were Edmund Blount for the Edenton District, David Perkins for that of New Bern, William H. Hill for that of Wilmington, Thomas F. Davis for that of Fayetteville, Adlai Osborne for that of Salisbury, Waightstill Avery for that of Morgan, William Watters for that of Hillsborough, and John Whitaker for that of Halifax. The sensibilities of the modern lawyer will be shocked by the statement that they were required to give bond with good security for performance of duty.

        The Trustees made a manly implied confession of ignorance on the subject of the great task resting on their shoulders and displayed a proper carefulness to perform their duties intelligently, when they appointed Rev. Dr. McCorckle, the teacher, Benjamin Hawkins, the Federal Senator, and Dr. Hugh Williamson, an ex-professor of the University of Pennsylvania, then a member of Congress from the Edenton District, to procure for the use of the Board information respecting the laws, regulations, and buildings of the universities and colleges in the United States, together with an account of their resources and expenditures, and an estimate of the cost of the necessary buildings for our University. The confidence of the Board in James Hogg, Alfred Moore, and John Haywood, was shown by taking away from a large committee, previously appointed, the power of selecting a device for a seal of the corporation, and conferring it on them. They chose the face of Apollo, the God of Eloquence, and his emblem, the rising sun, as expressive of the dawn of higher education in our State.

        At New Bern, in December, 1791, William Lenoir, in behalf of a committee, consisting of himself, Stephen Cabarrus, Benjamin Williams, John Haywood (the Treasurer), Joseph McDowell, of Pleasant Garden, and Samuel Johnston, made a woeful report on the finances, present and prospective, of the institution. The total cash was $301.24, received from arrearages. There was hope that more would be realized, which the committee estimated at $300. The University owned also a certificate of United States loan for $2,706.41, of which under the charter only the interest, six per cent, could be used. The subscription papers sent out had not been returned and the amount to be expected from them was not ascertainable.

        The committee pathetically state that they are "pained when they reflect how extremely illy the resources of the Trustees are proportioned to their necessities." As to the claims due the State from Colonial days, no evidence is found in regard to them "other than a report or list of balances made out by a committee of the Assembly in 1773."

        As to the arrearages voted to the University, which arose under the State government, it is stated that for many years after the Revolution the revenue business was under a Treasurer in each district, some of whom knew not how to keep accounts; that the Treasurer of New Bern had fled the State, carrying his books with him; the Treasurer of Salisbury District had died, leaving his account in such bad shape that the executor, William Lanier, had induced the General Assembly to close them by settlement. When Treasurers duly settled their accounts, their books and papers were sent to the agent of the State in Philadelphia to be used in supporting the claims of North Carolina against the United States for troops and supplies furnished during the Revolution, and the only evidences of debts accessible are the statements of the Comptroller as to balances appearing on his books.

        Of these there had been delivered to the Trustees claims against seventy-three persons. The nominal amount was in round numbers $11,410, ranging all the way from $2,660 against one person to $3 against another. One claim was for $4.10, the equivalent of $410 "old Dollar money." Among them was an account against Governor Burke for about $100,

another for "£1,056 Dollar Money," scaled down to $35.40; another against no less a man than Colonel Benjamin Cleveland for $368.00. Doubtless many of these claims had been settled and the vouchers lost during the war.

        As has been stated there had been collected the sum of $2,706.41 from the arrearages due by delinquent collecting officers. By activity and skill the attorneys of the University succeeded eventually in wresting from this source the scarcely hoped for total of $7,362, of which the interest only could be used.

        Steps were again taken to raise money by subscription. On November 5, 1792, papers were circulated inviting donations payable one year after the selection of the site. Most of the promises by citizens of Orange County were made on condition that the location should be therein.

        On December 23, 1791, a committee, whose names are not given in the journal, reported a memorial to the General Assembly asking for a loan of $10,000 in order to erect the buildings necessary for opening the institution. The measure was placed under the charge of Davie, who was a member of the House for the Borough of Halifax. His speech in support of it is thus described by Judge Murphey in his address of 1826: "I was present in the House of Commons when Davie addressed that body upon the bill granting a loan of money to the Trustees for erecting the buildings of the University, and although more than thirty years have since elapsed. I have the most vivid recollection of the greatness of his manner and the powers of his eloquence on that occasion." The appeal was successful. The loan was afterwards converted into a gift--the only appropriation ever made from the State Treasury until the annuity of $5,000, granted in 1881, with the exception of $7,000 for the suffering officers soon after the Civil War.

        This loan was not secured without a struggle. There were many members who believed that the people's money should not be expended for any purpose other than the prevention and punishment of crime, settling disputes among citizens and other similar governmental functions. The vote was 57 to 53 in the House of Commons and 28 to 21 in the Senate. Among those

who supported the measure in the House were Messrs. Richard Blackledge and John Lanier of Beaufort, David Stone of Bertie, Joseph McDowell, Jr., of Burke, David Vance of Burke, Thomas Granberry of Gates, Wm. E. Lord and Benjamin Smith of Brunswick, Richard Benbury of Chowan, Willis Alston of Halifax, Ebenezer Slade of Martin, Timothy Bloodworth of New Hanover. The affirmative Senators were Joseph McDowell (Quaker Meadows) of Burke, Gautier of Bladen, F. Campbell of Cumberland, Carney of Craven, Charlton of Bertie, Dauge of Camden, Kennedy of Beaufort, Humphries of Currituck, Reddick of Gates, Eborn of Hyde, Gray of Johnston, Hargett of Jones, Dixon of Lincoln, Mayo of Martin, Person of Granville, Sneed of Onslow, Benford of Northampton, Skinner of Perquimans, Moye of Pitt, Williams of Richmond, Willis of Robeson, Singleton of Rutherford, Lane of Wake, Macon of Warren, Swann of Pasquotank, Dickens of Caswell, Johnson of (county doubtful).

        Opposed to the bill were Wade of Anson, Bell of Carteret, J. Stewart of Chatham, Tyson of Moore, Graham of Mecklenburg, J. A. Campbell of New Hanover, Turner of Montgomery, Quails of Halifax, Wynns of Hertford, Hill of Franklin, Winston of Stokes, Clinton of Sampson, Berger of Rowan, Griffin of Nash, Galloway of Rockingham, Edwards of Surry, Hodge of Orange, Wood of Randolph, Gillespie of Guilford, Caldwell of Iredell, Phillips of Edgecombe. A very few did not vote, among them, Wm. Lenoir, it not being the custom for the Speaker to vote except in case of a tie. On inspecting the list it will be found that three of the affirmative Senators. Stone, Hargett and Lane, were on the Committee of Location, Reddick was for eleven years Speaker of the Senate, Dixon and Lane were Trustees. Of the opponents Hodge and Stewart would have probably voted differently if they had foreseen the location in Orange, near the Chatham line. It is surprising to see New Hanover, noted for its liberality, in this column. Doubtless Campbell misrepresented his constituents. It is equally surprising to see General Thomas Wynns and General Joseph Graham opposing higher education. The mistake of Graham is amply atoned for by the constant and active friendship to the University of his broad-minded sons and grandsons.

        It was not until January, 1792, that further steps were taken to select the University site. On that day a resolution was passed appointing Judge John Williams, General Thomas Person, General Alexander Mebane, Colonel John Macon, Colonel Benjamin Williams, Colonel Joel Lane, and General Alfred Moore, or any three of them, to examine the "most proper and eligible situations whereon to fix the University, in the counties of Wake, Franklin, Warren, Orange, Granville, Chatham and Johnston," and ascertain the terms on which such situation can be bought and report to the next meeting. Probably the committee failed to act, as no report was made by them. Action under the resolutions was not had, by common consent a different method being deemed advisable.