its infirmities. A sanguine temper, a daring confidence in results,
a reliance on the apparent prosperity of the times, involved him
in pecuniary obligations, many of them, perhaps, of a speculative
character, which eventuated in disaster and swept away his estate.
A little later came an attack of chronic rheumatism, from which
he suffered much, and was often incapacitated for business during
the last half-dozen years of his life. But during this season of
adversity he struggled with a brave heart against the storms of
fate. With a pallid cheek and disabled limbs he made his appearance
in the courts, where, as we have seen, his gifted mind occasionally
shone out in all its meridian splendor; and when this was not
practicable, the hours of pain and misfortune were beguiled, if not
solaced, by the pursuit of those noble studies which had been the
delight of his leisure in the days of his prosperity.
He died in Hillsborough, then his place of residence, on February 3,
1832, and is interred in the graveyard of the town, a few feet from
the door of the Presbyterian church, and nearly in front of it. No
monument marks his resting-place. His sons, Dr. V. Moreau Murphy, of
Macon, Mississippi, and Lieutenant P. U. Murphy, of the navy of the
United States, are his only surviving children.
* * * * *
The work and worth and greatness of Murphy have never been duly
appreciated even in his own State; and yet, when our history is
written, if greatness is measured by the public benefit it confers,
perhaps Macon, Murphy, and Vance will stand together as the three
greatest men the State has yet produced.
In common-sense statecraft, in the choice and application of
principles to existing conditions, and in the prophetic knowledge
of the fruit they would bring forth after their kind, Macon was
greatest. In scholarship and breadth of culture, combined with
originality to conceive the most far-reaching policies of public
welfare, Murphy was greatest. In the knowledge of men, in his
boundless wealth of human sympathy, as the advocate and champion
of the people's rights, Vance was greatest. But Graham had a far
greater knowledge and grasp of the details of public business than
any of them; and Badger, in his ability to rapidly acquire and
assimilate law and learning, easily outstripped them all.
The sensibilities of Murphy were too refined for what is called
success in practical politics. His love and enthusiasm for the
public weal were so great that he forgot himself--but let us never
forget him.
If Murphy had lived to write, as he intended, the history of North
Carolina, he would have made all the world know and acknowledge that
some of her people began the Revolution against British tyranny four
years before the battle of Lexington. Perhaps he would have made it
too plain for cavil that more than a year before Jefferson penned
his immortal document, the spirit that resisted Tryon had formed
a government at Charlotte independent of British rule, and that,
in the strongest probability, the authors of that government had
prepared the way for it by a declaration of independence.
Leavened by that spirit, the people of the whole State, through
their convention at Halifax, on May 12, 1776, proposed, and on May
22 adopted, a resolution providing for "declaring independence" in
concurrence with the "other colonies"--the first step taken in that
direction by any of the colonies.
Perhaps his clear voice could have been heard above the conflicting
jargon about the Regulators' War. The threadbare statement that
the spirit of these people was so thoroughly crushed by Tryon's
dress-parade campaign that they all took sides with the British in
the Revolutionary war might have been thrashed a little thinner.
Perhaps he would have found at King's Mountain some of the fifteen
hundred families who fled west after the battle of Alamance.
Mrs. E. E. Moffitt of this city (a granddaughter of Judge Murphy's
sister, Mrs. John Daniel) is my authority for the statement that
Peter S. Ney--whom some believe to have been none other than the
great Marshal Ney--was Murphy's amanuensis. It was a singular fate
which drew these two peculiar men of genius together.
There is grim humor in his pathetic attempt to enkindle a love
of history and education in this State by appealing to the love
of gain. His other scheme, internal improvements, was equally
chimerical; not because it lacked intrinsic merit, but because the
times and people had changed. He had not calculated on the soporific
effect of indirect taxes upon the unpreferred States. It was too
early for any but a prophet to fully see that the States had dug the
graves of their ultimate autonomy by adopting a Constitution which
forbade them "to emit bills of credit"--a power of which they never
stood in dire need until the General Government had monopolized all
control of banking and currency.
No State, since the Union was formed, has, without Federal aid,
direct or indirect, made any material progress in developing its
resources!
ADDRESS AT THE UNIVERSITY.
BY ARCHIBALD D. MURPHY.
The Literary Societies of this institution have resolved that an
address be delivered before them annually by some one of their
members. This resolution, if carried into effect in the spirit in
which it has been adopted, will be creditable to the Societies
and favorable to the general literature of the State. It is now
more than thirty years since these Societies were established,
and all the _alumni_ of this University have been members of one
or the other of them. Upon these _alumni_, and upon others who
shall go forth from this University, our hopes must chiefly rest
for improvement in our literary character; and their zeal for such
improvement cannot fail to be excited by being annually called
together, and one of them selected to deliver a public discourse
upon the progress and state of our literature, or some subject
connected therewith. The Societies have conferred on me an unmerited
honor by appointing me to deliver the first of these discourses. I
accepted the appointment with pride, as it was an evidence of their
esteem; yet with humility, from a conviction of my inability to meet
public expectation--an inability of which I am conscious at all
times, but particularly so after a painful and tedious illness.
Little that is interesting in the history of literature can be
expected in the infancy of a colony planted on a continent three
thousand miles distant from the mother-country, in the midst of
a wilderness and surrounded by savages. Under such circumstances
civilization declines, and manners and language degenerate. When
the first patent was granted to Sir Walter Raleigh, in 1584, the
English language had received considerable improvement. Spenser
had published his _Faerie Queene_, Shakespeare his _Plays_, Sir
Philip Sidney his _Arcadia_, Knolles his _General History of the
Turks_, and our theology had been enriched by the eloquent writings
of Hooker. This improvement was not confined to the learned; it
had already extended itself to the common people, particularly in
the towns and villages, and the language of the first colonists no
doubt partook of this improvement. But these colonists were all
adventurers; they joined in Sir Walter Raleigh's expedition only
for the purpose of making fortunes, and their chief hope was that
they would quickly find gold in abundance and return home to enjoy
their wealth. This delusive hope continued for many years to beguile
adventurers; who, not finding the treasure they came in quest
of, became idle and profligate, and abandoned a country in which
they had met with nothing but disappointment. Sir Walter Raleigh,
after expending a large part of his estate in attempts to settle a
colony, assigned to Thomas Smith, of London, and his associates, the
privilege of trading to Virginia and of continuing the colony. Under
the advice of Raleigh he directed his efforts to the waters of the
Chesapeake, and there caused to be planted a colony which became
permanent, and from which Virginia and Carolina were peopled. A new
charter was granted to Thomas Smith and his associates in 1606, and
enlarged in 1609. Their company continued with many vicissitudes
of fortune until the year 1626, when it was dissolved. The history
of the colony to the time of this dissolution was written by John
Smith and also by Stith. They were contemporary with Lord Clarendon,
who wrote the _History of the Great Rebellion_ in England. Their
style and manner of writing, and the public papers published by the
President and Council of the Colony, during this period, evidence
great improvement in our language. The chaos in which it lay in
the early part of the reign of Elizabeth gradually gave way to the
order and method which good sense introduced into every pursuit;
the pedantry and conceits which disfigured our literature in the
reign of James I. yielded to the influence of good taste. Sir
Walter Raleigh published his _History of the World_, Lord Bacon his
historical and philosophical works and moral essays, and our poetry
was adorned by the writings of Milton, Dryden, Butler, and Otway.
Shortly afterwards came Sir William Temple, Archbishop Tillotson
and others, who gave facility and grace to composition. These were
new beauties and pleased the nation more as they gave to style the
charm of polished conversation.
Whilst the literary taste of the nation was thus improving,
religious intolerance drove from England a great number of Quakers,
Presbyterians and other sectarians, who sought refuge in the
Virginia colony. They there soon met with the same persecution which
had driven them from their native country. They were compelled to
leave the colony; and Providence directing their course through the
wilderness, they settled near Pasquotank and Perquimans, and formed
the germ of the Carolina colony. Many of them were Quakers, and
their descendants continue to occupy that district of country to
this day.
In the year 1663, Charles II. granted the soil and seigniory of
Carolina to eight Lords Proprietors, who, to encourage emigration,
held out favorable terms. They promised to adventurers gratuities
in land according to the number of their respective families, and
the most perfect freedom in the exercise of religion. A civil
government was established purely representative; a circumstance
to which may be attributed, in a great degree, the republican
feelings and opinions which soon characterized the colony, and
which led to the plan of civil polity under which we now live. When
the Lords Proprietors discovered that the colony was likely to
become numerous and powerful they endeavored to restrain the civil
and religious liberty which they had promised to emigrants: they
established a new form of government, declaring their object to be
"to make the government of the colony agree as nearly as possible
with the monarchy of which it was a part, and to avoid erecting a
numerous democracy." This plan of government was the joint work of
Lord Ashley and the celebrated John Locke; and its chief aim was
to appoint orders of nobility, establish a powerful aristocracy
and check the progress of republican opinions and manners. A more
ridiculous plan for the government of the colony could not have been
devised. The people were accustomed to equality and self-government;
a rank of nobility was odious to them, and they disregarded laws
which they had not been consulted in making. The prosperity of
the colony declined, public morals relaxed, the laws lost their
energy, a general spirit of discontent grew up and ripened into
rebellion; the Governors became corrupt, and the people idle and
vicious. The attempt to give effect to the new plan of government
entirely failed, and the Lords Proprietors abolished it as unsuited
to the condition of the colony. Two factions then arose; one that
wished to establish a high-toned prerogative government; the other
consisted of High-churchmen, who gained the ascendency, and by
their violence brought the government into contempt. Their object
was to deprive all dissenters of the right of suffrage, to curtail
their civil rights, and render their situation so oppressive as
to compel them to leave the colony. A party of French Huguenots
had emigrated to the colony to enjoy that liberty of conscience
and of worship which was denied to them in their native country.
These people, entitled by their sufferings no less than by their
Protestantism to the friendship and hospitality of the colonists,
were treated with a cruelty that disgraced the High-church party.
Being aliens, they were incapable of holding lands until they were
naturalized; and this party having the ascendency in the Assembly,
not only refused to naturalize them, but declared their marriages
by ministers not ordained by Episcopal Bishops illegal and their
children illegitimate. The progress of this violent, persecuting
spirit was checked by the wise and conciliating measures adopted by
Governor Archdale. He assumed the government of the colony in 1695;
he was a Quaker, and possessed in an eminent degree the philanthropy
and command of temper for which this sect has been distinguished. He
was one of the Proprietors of the province, and by the mere force
of his character overawed the turbulent and restored good order.
To this excellent man our ancestors are indebted for that tolerant
provision in their militia law which we still retain as part of our
code, for granting exemption to men who were restrained by religious
principles from bearing arms.
The religious intolerance of the High-church party was exerted
with new energy after the departure of Governor Archdale from the
province. This party passed laws, which the Lords Proprietors
ratified, to establish the Church of England and to disable
dissenters from being members of the Assembly. This was in direct
violation of the chartered rights of the colonists. The dissenters
remonstrated to the House of Lords; and Queen Anne, upon the
advice of that body, caused these laws to be repealed. But the
High-church party, steady to their purpose, varied their mode of
attack; the spirit of intolerance grew with the growth of the
province; emigrations from the Virginia colony and the patronage
of the Lords Proprietors gave to this party a decided majority in
the Assembly; they levied a tax on each precinct for the support
of a minister, and built churches. Protestant dissenters were only
permitted to worship in public, and there to be subject to the
rules and restrictions contained in the several acts of Parliament.
Quakers were permitted to affirm instead of swearing; but they could
not hold an office of profit or trust, serve as jurors, or give
evidence by affirmation in any criminal case. This contest between
the High-church party and the dissenters produced an hostility of
feeling which time has softened, but which the lapse of more than
a century has been insufficient to allay. This contest, however,
promoted freedom of thought and inquiry among the people; it
sharpened their understandings, and in a great degree supplied the
place of books for instruction. At that time there were few books in
the colony: the library of a common man consisted of a Bible and a
spelling-book; the lawyers had a few books on law, and the ministers
a few on theological subjects, and sometimes a few of the Greek and
Roman classics: for they, particularly the Presbyterian ministers,
were generally school-masters--and from them the poor young men of
the colony, who wished to preach the gospel or plead law, received
their humble education. The turbulent spirit of the colonists, their
leaning towards republicanism and sectarianism, had induced the
Lords Proprietors to forbid the establishment of printing presses in
the colony; and Sir William Berkeley, who had the superintendence
of this colony in 1661, gave thanks to heaven that there was not a
printing office in any of the Southern provinces.
What improvement in literature could be expected among a people who
were thus distracted by faction, destitute of books, and denied
the use of the press? Notwithstanding all these discouragements
and disadvantages, however, the literature of the colony evidently
advanced. The public papers of that period are written in a
conspicuous, nervous style, corresponding in force of expression,
purity of language and perspicuity of arrangement, with similar
writings in the reigns of Charles II., King William, and Queen Anne.
The intelligence of the common people and the ability and learning
of the men who managed the affairs of the colony in that period are
matters of surprise and astonishment to any one acquainted with the
disadvantages under which the colony labored. The Assembly and the
courts of justice sat in private houses; the acts passed by the
Assembly were not printed; they were read aloud to the people at
the first court after they were passed; they were in force for only
two years, and every biennial Assembly was under the necessity of
reenacting all that were thought useful. There was no printing press
in the colony before the year 1746, at which time the condition of
the statute-book required a revisal, and the public interest called
aloud for the printing of it. The learning and literature of the
colony were confined to the lawyers and ministers of the gospel,
most of whom were educated in England; and it was owing to this
circumstance chiefly that the literature of the colony advanced so
steadily with that of the mother-country.
The legislation of the colony began to assume form and system in
the reign of Queen Anne; and in the year after her death, 1715, the
Assembly passed sixty-six acts, most of which had been frequently
reenacted before. Many of those acts remain in force to this day,
and are monuments of the political wisdom and legal learning of that
time. In style and composition they are equal to any part of our
statute-book; they are the first statutes of the colony that have
come down to our time.
In the year 1729 the Lords Proprietors, with the exception of Lord
Granville, surrendered to the Crown their right to the soil and
seigniory of North Carolina; and from that time the population and
prosperity of the colony rapidly increased. But in a few years
the great contest commenced between the prerogative of the Crown
and the liberty of the colonial subject, which contest eventually
terminated in the American Revolution. This contest gradually
introduced into North Carolina, and into all the British colonies
which took part in it, a style in composition which distinguishes
this period from all others in English or American literature: a
style founded upon and expressive of exalted feeling. Education
embellished it and gave to it new beauties; but its force and
impressive character were perceptible in the writings and speeches
of ordinary men. What age or nation ever produced compositions
superior to the addresses of the Continental Congress? When or
where shall we find a parallel to the correspondence of General
Washington and the general officers of the American army? The style
of these addresses and of the correspondence is the style of high
thought and of lofty, yet chastened feeling, and reminds the reader
of the finest specimens of composition in Tacitus, and of the
correspondence of Cicero and his friends after the death of Pompey.
There is something in the style and sentiment of the writings
of this period which gives to them a magic charm, and seems to
consecrate the subjects on which it is employed--a something
connected with the finest perceptions of our nature. The reader is
every moment conscious of it, yet knows not how to explain it. The
high moral feeling and virtuous sympathy which characterized the
American Revolution have given to it a hallowedness of character.
It is fortunate for us that Chief Justice Marshall has written the
history of this Revolution. Whatever may be the defects of this
work, the history of our Revolution will never be so well written
again: no work on that subject so well calculated to produce an
useful effect upon its readers will ever appear. Marshall was a
soldier of the Revolution, and possessed the finest genius; he was
the personal friend of the Commander-in-chief; partook of all the
feelings of the officers of the army; and he has transfused into
his work that exalted sentiment which animated his compatriots in
arms. This sentiment is strongly portrayed in the writings of the
Marquis de Chastellux and Count Rochambeau, two French general
officers in the American service, and in the correspondence of
the Commander-in-chief and the American general officers. But it
can never be embodied into an historical work by a man who did not
feel it in all its force in the American camp. Literary elegance
disappears before such moral beauty. There is no historical work
in any language that can be read with so much advantage, such
moral effect, by American youth, as Marshall's _Life of George
Washington_. They should read it with diligence, and read it often.
They will never rise from the perusal of it without feeling fresh
incentives both to public and private virtue.
The progress of the style which marked the period of the American
Revolution may be traced in North Carolina from the administration
of Governor Dobbs. It had become the common style of the leading
men of the colony before the meeting of the Continental Congress in
1774. The correspondence and public papers of Samuel Johnston and
Joseph Hewes, of Edenton; of William Hooper and Archibald Maclaine,
of Wilmington; of Richard Caswell, of Kinston; of Thomas Burke, of
Hillsborough; of Francis and Abner Nash of New Bern, upon the great
subjects which then engrossed the public attention, do honor to the
literature of North Carolina at that time. They wrote upon matters
of business--business which concerned the welfare of the nation;
they wrote as they felt; and their compositions, coming warm from
the heart, are free from affectation or pedantry, and equally free
from that prolixity which is the vice of modern composition.