the Convention held at Hillsborough in 1788 for holding the future
meetings of the General Assembly, etc., came before the House of
Commons, when the question was put, Shall this bill pass? The House
divided, and there appeared fifty-one for it and fifty-one against
it, whereupon the Speaker [Mr. Cabarrus] gave his own vote, and
pronounced the passage of the bill. It was then sent to the Senate,
when that House divided, and there appeared an equal number of votes
for and against the passage of the bill, whereupon the Speaker
[General Lenoir] gave the casting vote against its passage, and the
bill was rejected."
In 1791, however, the General Assembly met at New Bern, and in
compliance with the positive constitutional injunction, passed an
act to carry the ordinance of 1788 into effect. The act provides
that ten persons shall be appointed to lay off and locate the city
within ten miles of the plantation of Isaac Hunter, and five persons
"to cause to be built and erected a State-house sufficiently large
to accommodate with convenience both houses of the General Assembly,
at an expense not to exceed ten thousand pounds."
In the following year (1792) a majority of the commissioners,
to wit: Frederic Hargett, Willie Jones, Joseph McDowell, Thomas
Blount, William Johnson Dawson, and James Martin, met on the 4th of
April, and on the following day purchased of Colonel Joel Lane one
thousand acres of land, and laid off the plan of a city, containing
four hundred acres, arranged in five squares of four acres and
two hundred and seventy-six lots of one acre each: Caswell Square
(the site of the Institute for the Deaf and Dumb and the Blind),
the northwestern; Burke (the site of the Raleigh Academy) [now the
Governor's Mansion], the northeastern; Nash, the southwestern; Moore
the southeastern, and Union, on which the State-house stands, the
central square.
The names of the towns towards which the principal streets ran
gave them their designation, and the names of the commissioners
and other prominent citizens were applied to the others. New Bern,
Hillsborough, Halifax, and Fayetteville streets were ninety-nine,
and all the other streets sixty-six feet in width.
In December, 1794, the General Assembly met in the new State-house
for the first time.
In 1802 an act was passed requiring the Governor to reside at the
seat of government, and a plain two-story frame building, painted
white, and an office on the corner, were provided on lot No. 131.
This first gubernatorial mansion was subsequently the residence of
the late James Coman. The First National Bank of North Carolina now
occupies the site from which the first executive office and Mr.
Coman's brick store were successively removed.
In 1813 the General Assembly appointed Henry Potter, Henry Seawell,
William Hinton, Nathaniel Jones, Theophilus Hunter, and William
Peace, commissioners to erect on the public lands near the city of
Raleigh a convenient and commodious dwelling-house for the Governor,
at a cost not to exceed five thousand pounds, to be derived from the
sale of lots which they were authorized to lay off, and from the
sale of lot No. 131, referred to as the residence, at successive
periods, of Governors Turner, Alexander, Williams, Stone, Smith, and
Hawkins.
The site selected for the new gubernatorial residence, in common
parlance the "Palace," was near the terminus of Fayetteville street,
directly south of and fronting the capitol, and just beyond the
southern boundary of the city. The edifice was completed during
Governor Miller's administration, from 1813 to 1816, and he was the
first occupant.
In 1819, Duncan Cameron, John Winslow, Joseph Gales, William
Robards, and Henry Potter were authorized to sell all or any
part of the lands purchased of Joel Lane, with the exception
of the stone-quarry, in lots to suit purchasers. The Governor
was authorized, from the proceeds of the sale, to improve the
State-house under the direction of the State architect, and in
conformity with a plan which he had prepared and submitted to the
General Assembly.
The old State-house, which is believed to have been constructed from
the net proceeds of the sales of city lots in 1792, was described
by a writer of the time as a huge, misshapen pile. In form it was
substantially, so far as the body of the building was concerned,
though on a smaller scale, very similar to the present edifice.
It was divided by broad passages on the ground floor from north
to south and from east to west, intersecting in the center at
right angles. The offices of the Secretary, Public Treasurer and
Comptroller were on the lower floor. The Senate chamber and hall of
the House of Commons, with the offices appurtenant, above, as at
present. The executive office, as has been stated, was contiguous
to the palatial residence. The passages and halls of the first
State-house supplied all, and more than all, the accommodation to
the public contemplated by the founders of this less extensive,
but better furnished, and more finely finished edifice [referring
to Tucker Hall]. Here divine worship on the Sabbath, balls on
festive occasions, theatrical representations, sleight-of-hand
performances, and last but not least, fourth-of-July orations and
fourth-of-July dinners, all found their places, and their votaries
for a time. The construction of the dome, the erection of the east
and west porticoes, the additional elevation and covering of stucco
given to the dingy exterior walls, the improvement of the interior,
and especially the location of the statue of Washington, from the
chisel of Canova (a noble specimen of a noble art, commemorative of
the noblest of men), in the rotunda at the point of intersection
of the passages directly under the apex of the dome, converted the
renovated capitol into a sightly and most attractive edifice. There
were but few of the better class of travelers, who did not pause
on their passage through Raleigh, to behold and admire it. The
improvements were designed by, and executed under, the supervision
of Captain William Nichols, then recently appointed State architect,
and completed early in the summer of 1822. He was a skillful and
experienced artist, and made the public greatly his debtor for a
decided impulse given to architectural improvements throughout the
State, in private as well as in public edifices.
It was my lot on the 21st of June, 1831, to stand a helpless
spectator, when that noble edifice, adorned with the statue of the
father of his country, was a sheet of blinding, hissing flame, and
to hear, amidst the almost breathless silence of the stupified
multitude around it, the piteous exclamation of a child: "Poor
State-house, poor statue, I so sorry." There were thousands of
adults present as sorrowful and as powerless as that child.
It was my lot as Chief Magistrate of the Commonwealth, on the fourth
day of July, 1833, to lay the corner-stone of the present capitol,
supposed on its completion to be the most magnificent structure of
the kind in the Union.
It was my lot on the morning of the 13th of April, 1865, as the
friend and representative of Governor Vance, to find, on approaching
the southern front of the capitol, the doors and windows closed,
and a deeper, more dreadful silence shrouding the city than during
the sad catastrophe to which I have referred. I met at the south
front of the capitol, however, a negro servant, who waited on
the executive department, the only human being who had dared to
venture beyond his doors. He delivered me the keys, and assisted
me in opening the doors and windows of the executive office, and I
took my station at the entrance, with a safe-conduct from General
Sherman in my hand, prepared to surrender the capitol at the demand
of his approaching forces. At that moment a band of marauders,
stragglers from Wheeler's retiring cavalry, dismounted at the head
of Fayetteville street, and began to sack the stores directly
contiguous to and south of Dr. Haywood's residence. I apprised them
immediately that Sherman's army was just at hand; that any show of
resistance might result in the destruction of the city, and urged
them to follow their retreating comrades. A citizen, the first I saw
beyond his threshold that morning, came up at the moment and united
his remonstrances to mine, but all in vain, until I perceived,
and announced, that the head of Kilpatrick's column was in sight.
In a moment every member of the band, with the exception of their
chivalric leader, was in the saddle, and his horse spurred to his
utmost speed. He drew his bridle-rein, halted in the center of the
street, and discharged his revolver until his stock of ammunition
was expended in the direction, but not in carrying distance of his
foe, when he too fled, but attempted to run the gauntlet in vain.
His life was the forfeit at a very brief interval.
The remains of this bold man rest in the cemetery, covered with
garlands and bewept by beautiful maidens, little aware how nearly
the city may have been on the verge of devastation, and how narrowly
the fairest of their number may have escaped insult and death
from this rash act of lawless warfare. The bones of the old North
Carolinian, the founder of the city thus imperiled, moulder in the
midst of other unrecorded dead, beneath the shade of a mulberry on
his ancient domain, about as far west as those of the young Texan
east of the capitol.
About three o'clock in the afternoon, in company with Governor
Graham, who had risked life and reputation in behalf of this
community to an extent of which those who derived the advantage are
little aware, I delivered the keys of the State-house to General
Sherman, at the gubernatorial mansion, then his headquarters,
and received his assurance that the capitol and city should be
protected, and the rights of private property duly regarded.
May I be pardoned in connection with this narrative, for a brief
reference to an incident in my personal history, illustrative of
the character of one of the purest, as well as the wisest, men I
have ever known. At our first interview after I was elected Superior
Court Judge in 1831, Mr. Gaston, who was then at the bar, and who,
from our earliest acquaintance, had treated me with the kindness
of a father, after cordial congratulations on my elevation to the
bench, took occasion to advise me most earnestly never to permit
myself, except under an overpowering sense of public duty, to be
seduced into a return to political life. He said he was growing old,
and endeavored, as much as possible, to withdraw attention from
the threatening aspect of public affairs, but there were sleepless
hours, when he could not avoid reflection on the utter heartlessness
of party politicians, and the difficulty of preserving a conscience
void of offense, when mingling in political controversies--that he
had always endeavored to place country above party, and that yet,
on a calm review of his whole course of life, too many instances
presented themselves, when he convicted himself of having been
influenced to an extent of which he had no suspicion at the moment,
by other than purely patriotic considerations. In addition to all
this, it had been his fate on repeated occasions to be most loudly
applauded for what, in his own conscience, he regarded as least
praiseworthy, and to be bitterly reviled for what he considered to
have been the purest and most discreet acts of his public life.
In 1812, and along about that time, the only newspapers in Raleigh
were _The Raleigh Register_ and _The Star_, both published weekly.
_The Minerva_ had been discontinued.
From 1792 until the publication of _The Raleigh Register_, in
the autumn of 1799, _The North Carolina Journal_ was the great
advertising medium for the portion of the State north and west of
Halifax.
Conspicuous among the merchant princes of that day were the
brothers, Joseph and William Peace. They occupied a one-story frame
building, perhaps 20x24, nearly opposite to W. C. and R. Tucker. The
junior partner informed me many years ago that he had ordinarily
purchased goods twice a year, always for cash, and always at ten
per cent. discount, and that the advantage thus obtained over those
who bought upon credit was the nucleus of the large estate he had
realized. He was kind enough in October, 1822, as soon as I was
able to travel, after recovering from severe illness, to drive me
from Raleigh to the hospitable mansion of the late General Calvin
Jones, the present site of Wake Forest College. On the way he
related various incidents in his personal history, which interested
me. Referring to the success of an eminent lawyer and statesman,
as estimable in private as distinguished in public life, he stated
that that gentleman, who was licensed to practice law during his
minority, applied to him shortly thereafter for a suit of clothes
upon credit; that he had always made it a rule to meet such requests
with such prompt compliance as to impress the applicant with a
grateful sense of the confidence reposed, or, with so blank a denial
as to shield him from future annoyance. In this instance he admitted
that he hesitated. The appearance and manner of the applicant
impressed him most favorably, but he was very young as well as very
needy, and the Captain had learned from previous experience that the
young lawyer's prospects were a contingent remainder, which required
a particular estate of freehold to support them. It afforded him
great gratification to remember that his kind impulses prevailed,
and that he cut off the goods with great seeming cheerfulness.
I had no suspicion until three months afterwards that the story
could point a moral in relation to myself. At the close of a casual
interview, after the recovery of my health, he said: "Mr. Swain,
perhaps it is convenient for you to pay for that suit of clothes
now." "What suit, Captain?" "The suit you purchased some time
since." I replied, "I never bought anything of you in my life but
one bandanna handkerchief, and I paid for that when I got it." He
turned to his book and showed me an account for a full suit of
black, dated September 10. "On that day, Captain, I was sick in
bed, and my life despaired of by my physicians." "Oh! I remember
it was F---- got the clothes." He was sent for, and in reply to my
inquiry whether he ever got a suit of clothes for me, replied he
did. "Had you any order from me to do so?" "No, sir; but you were
expected to die every hour, I knew you had no burial suit, and
thought it my duty, as your tailor, to provide one." "Where are the
clothes?" "When I found you were getting well I sold them." "What
right had you to consider yourself my tailor?" "I made a pair of
pantaloons for you last spring." At the close of the dialogue the
Captain remarked: "I claim nothing from you, Mr. Swain." The tailor
left the store under the decided impression that his best interests
would be served by a prompt settlement of the account. Had I died,
a punctual but not opulent father, would have paid the bill upon
presentation without inquiry.
The late William Boylan, the first editor of _The Raleigh Minerva_,
and the immediate successor of Colonel Polk as President of the
State Bank, was a gentleman sedate and grave in manner to a
degree that to a stranger might have been taken for austerity.
Traveling from Raleigh to Pittsborough about 1800, he and Mr.
Peace, on reaching the election ground at Brassfields, found a
multitude assembled engaged in dancing and other rural sports, in
the free-and-easy manner characteristic of the time and place.
Mr. Peace was comparatively at home. Mr. Boylan stood aloof until
a rowdy approached and invited him to enter the ring with the
dancers. On his declining, a dozen came forward, prepared to coerce
the submission of the proud aristocrat. In an instant Mr. Peace,
with great solemnity, beckoned the leader of the band aside, and
whispered: "My friend, be careful how you act. Bless your life,
that is Mr. Boylan, the man who made the almanac, and can foretell
eclipses and thunder-storms." The reference to the almanac-maker
secured at once the most deferential respect for the distinguished
visitor.
The late William Glendennin (one of the old merchants) resided and
did business during many years in the house nearly opposite the
old State Bank, the recent residence of Colonel William J. Clarke.
He built a meeting-house at his own expense at a very early period
in the history of the city, and during a series of years previous
to the erection of any other church, ministered in his peculiar
manner at his own altar, without earthly fee or reward, to all who
chose to hear him. His deserted tabernacle was pointed out to me,
when I first knew Raleigh, standing a little south of the corner, at
the intersection of Morgan with Blount street. I remember to have
seen, in my early boyhood, his autobiography, recounting numerous
conflicts, spiritual and physical, with the arch-enemy of the human
race. His little volume is probably out of print. It would be a rare
curiosity, at the present time, in many respects. Notwithstanding
these vagaries, he was shrewd and systematic in business, and in due
time accumulated a handsome fortune for that day. His eccentricities
increased, however, to such an extent that a guardianship became
necessary, and Mr. Boylan was selected as the person possessing the
requisite nerve and tact to control and manage him.
As soon as Glendennin was apprised of the arrangement his
confidential clerk, the late Robert Harrison, was dispatched
to invite Mr. Boylan to his house. When he entered, Glendennin
requested him to take a book from the mantelpiece, which proved to
be the Bible, and it disclosed, at opening, a fifty-dollar bill.
"The foul fiend was here last night and told me that he had come for
the soul of old ----. I obtained a year's respite for fifty dollars,
and the fiend is to take the money from that book at midnight."
Glancing his eye inquiringly at Mr. Boylan, "I understand that you
are my guardian, and I wish to know how I am to act, and what I am
to do?" Mr. Boylan intimated that as little change as possible would
be made in the management of his affairs. "Mr. Harrison will keep
the keys, sell goods, and collect debts, as heretofore." "Am I to be
master of my own house?" "Certainly." "May I invite any one I choose
into my house?" "Oh, yes; just as heretofore." "May I order a man
out, when I don't want him here?" No sooner had Mr. Boylan given
an intimation in the affirmative than Glendennin, with a frenzied
glare, stamping his foot, and clenching his fist, cried out: "Then,
sir, get out of my house; get out of my house, this instant!"
The poor old gentleman died in the summer of 1816, leaving a very
pretty property for two nieces in Scotland.
The recent abstraction of records from the executive and other
public offices, by persons acting under the authority of the Federal
Government, renders it impossible to give as minute an account of
an interesting event as I would like to present. As I must relate
the circumstances entirely from memory, after the lapse of more than
thirty years from the time the records were at my command, allowance
must be made for a want of precision, especially as to dates.
During Governor Ashe's administration, embracing the years 1796,
1797, and 1798, it was ascertained that numerous frauds had been
perpetrated in the office of the Secretary of State and the offices
of John and Martin Armstrong, in the entry and survey of western
lands, and active exertions were made to discover and arrest the
offenders in this State and Tennessee. It was, I think, in 1797,
that a confidential messenger was sent by Judges Tatum and McNairy
from Nashville to the Governor to warn him of a conspiracy to burn
the State-house, in order to destroy the records, the production
of which upon the trial was indispensable to the conviction of the
offenders. A guard was armed and stationed around the capitol for
the next two months. The communication from Nashville requested the
Governor, immediately on its receipt, to erase from the despatch
the name of the messenger who bore it, as any discovery of his
connection with it would lead to assassination. This was done
so carefully as to elude every effort on my part to restore and
ascertain it, thirty years ago, and I have not at the present moment
the slightest suspicion of the agent who overheard the plot of the
conspirators in Knoxville and was sent from Nashville to Raleigh on
this secret and dangerous mission.
The earliest letter I ever saw from General Jackson was in relation
to this affair. With his instinctive hatred of fraud, he tendered
his service to the Governor in any effort that might be necessary to
arrest the offenders who were supposed to have sought refuge in the
then Spanish domains in the direction of Mobile. This letter was on
file in the executive office in 1835.
In 1797, according to my remembrance, on the night when the ball
was given at Casso's hotel to the bridal party, very shortly after
the second marriage of the Public Treasurer, the festivities were
interrupted by the hasty entrance of a servant, with the information
that some one was forcing an entrance into the window of the office,
where the trunk containing the records in question was deposited. He
was caught, was ascertained to be the slave of one of the persons
charged with fraud, was convicted of burglary, and executed.
In 1799 the General Assembly passed the act directing the Judges of
the Superior Courts to meet together to settle questions of law and
equity arising upon their circuits, and to provide for the trial of
all persons concerned in the commission of frauds in the several
land offices. This act was carefully and skillfully drawn, consisted
of fifteen sections, and, voluminous as it was, contained more
than met the eye of the ordinary observer: the germ of the present
Supreme Court, notwithstanding the proviso in the closing section,
"that this act shall continue in force from its commencement only
for two years, and from thence to the end of the next succeeding
General Assembly" was contained in that act.
Under the provisions of this act Colonel James Glasgow, the
Secretary of State, was indicted for a misdemeanor in the
fraudulent issue of land-warrants. The four judges of the Superior
Courts were John Haywood, Spruce Macay, John Louis Taylor, Samuel
Johnston. Blake Baker was Attorney-General, and Edward Jones,
Solicitor-General. The latter seems to have been mainly relied on to
conduct the prosecution.
The commission under which the court was held was drawn by Judge
Haywood. While on his way to Raleigh to meet his brother judges he
accepted a fee of one thousand dollars, resigned his seat upon the
bench, and undertook the defense of Glasgow.
There has rarely convened from that day to this, even after the
resignation of Haywood, an abler tribunal, on any occasion, or for
any purpose, than that which tried and convicted the distinguished
culprit. In relation to the advocate the late Judge Hall remarks
in a judicial opinion delivered in 1828: "I shall not treat with
disrespect the memory of the dead nor the pretensions of the living,
when I say that a greater criminal lawyer than Judge Haywood never
sat upon the bench in North Carolina." The General Assembly in
anticipation of the judgment of the court, in 1799, changed the name
of the county of Glasgow, erected in 1791, to the county of Greene.
Duncan Cameron, at the early age of twenty-three, was the clerk,
and immediately after the close of the trial reported and published
the decisions of the court in an octavo of one hundred and eight
pages. As I have the only copy I have ever seen of this brochure,
the earliest, with the exception of _Martin_ and _1 Haywood_, in
the entire series of North Carolina Reports, I give for the benefit
of legal antiquarians an exact copy of the title-page: "Reports of
cases determined by the Judges of the Superior Courts of law and
Court of Equity of the State of North Carolina, at their meeting on
10th of June, A. D. 1800, held pursuant to an act of the General
Assembly for settling questions of law and equity arising on the
circuit, by Duncan Cameron, attorney at law, Raleigh. From the press
of Hodge & Boylan, printers to the State, 1800."