Title: Petition, April 27, [1861] : Electronic Edition.
Author: Price, Harry Hill, b. 1842
Author: Peebles, Robert Bruce, 1841-1916
Author: Avery, Willoughby F., 1843-1876
Editor: Erika Lindemann
Funding from the State Library of North Carolina supported the electronic publication of this title.
Text transcribed by Erika Lindemann
Images scanned by Mara E. Dabrishus
Text encoded by Amanda Page
First Edition, 2005
Size of electronic edition: ca. 11K
Publisher: The University Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Chapel Hill, North Carolina
2005

No Copyright in US

The electronic edition is a part of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill digital library, Documenting the American South.
Languages used in the text: English
Revision history:
2005-05-19, Amanda Page finished TEI/XML encoding.
Part of a series:
This transcribed document is part of a digital collection, titled True and Candid Compositions: The Lives and Writings of Antebellum Students in North Carolina
written by Lindemann, Erika
Source(s):
Title of collection: University Papers (#40005), University Archives, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Title of document: Petition, April 27, [1861]
Author: Harry Hill Price, b. 1842
Author: Robert Bruce Peebles, 1841-1916
Author: Willoughby F. Avery, 1843-1876
Description: 3 pages, 4 page images
Note: Call number 3129 (Southern Historical Collection, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill)
Topics covered:
Education/UNC Administration
Education/UNC Curriculum
Examples of Student Writing/Petitions
War/Civil War
Editorial practices
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Originals are in the Southern Historical Collection, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Original grammar, punctuation, and spelling have been preserved.
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Letters, words and passages marked as deleted or added in originals have been encoded accordingly.
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All double right and left quotation marks are encoded as ".
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For more information about transcription and other editorial decisions, see Dr. Erika Lindemann's explanation under the section Editorial Practices.

Document Summary

A petition on behalf of the first-year, sophomore, and junior classes requesting the suspension of college duties so that students can prepare for war.
Petition, April 27, [1861]1
Price, Harry Hill, b. 1842
Peebles, Robert Bruce, 1841-1916
Avery, Willoughby F., 1843-1876



Page 1
Raleigh—April 27

Gov' Manlylink opens in a new window ;

Dear Sir,

We the undersigned in behalf of the Junior– Sophomore and Freshman Classes of the University of North Carolina do respectfully petition through you to the Trustees of the said University to have College duties suspended until next Session. In presenting this petition we have been actuated by no desire to be released from our studies but by a thorough conviction that the present perilous condition of our country and our own interest demand it. From a weeks experience we are thoroughly convinced that it is impossible for us to attend to our duties in the midst of so much excitement. It may be urged against our petition that the War may not last more than two or three months in which case our services will not be needed. This we admit but even then we loose nothing—since we cannot study as it is—while we gain a great deal

Page 2
in bodily strength which would enable us to prosecute our studies without more vigor next Session; but on the other hand if the War should be one of long duration we certainly would be needed and in all probability we would have to leap at once from ease and inactivity into the hardships of War, unprepared to render to our country anything like that aid which our love for her and her institutions would prompt us to offer, and which we would render were we permitted to prepare ourselves to undergo the fatigue of a Campaign.
And moreover, we are thoroughly convinced by deligent enquiries that should College duties not be suspended– there will not be more than seventy five students at Chapel Hill by the 1st of June– For the last five or six days eight or ten have left per day and many more are only waiting to receive money– to leave Sincerely hoping that the above may meet with the approbation and sanction of the Trustees, and knowing that they have an eye single to the welfare of their country. We do sincerely hope that they may see they necessity of every arms being wielded in the coming contest and every sons participating in the defence of our "homes and our firesides".
N. B. The Senior Class intending to leave after

Page 3
Senior Speaking took no part in the meeting in which we were appointed to address you.

Envelope page

Endnotes:

1. University Papers, UA. The petition, which must have been written in the same month as the surrender of Fort Sumter, is addressed to Charles Manlylink opens in a new window , former governor of North Carolina(1849-51) and secretary of the University's board of trustees. An endorsement in Manly'slink opens in a new window hand appears on the verso of the second leaf "Petition/of/Students/to/dismiss the College." The letter was written in Raleigh, which also is where Manlylink opens in a new window lived, but which of the three signers wrote it is unclear. According to Battlelink opens in a new window , "The petition met with no success" (1:720).