ORATION

DELIVERED IN THE

CITY OF RALEIGH, NORTH-CAROLINA,

July 4th, 1856.

BY
WILLIAM W. HOLDEN, ESQ.,
OF RALEIGH.

RALEIGHi la
HOLDEN & WILSON, "STANDARD" OFFICE.
1856.

Raleigh, July 9, 1856.
Dear Sir:
At a meeting of the Committee of Arrangements for the celebration of our Na
tional Anniversary, held last evening, the following resolutions were unanimously
adopted :
Besolved, That the thanks of this Committee be tendered to W. W. Holden, Esq.,
for his very able and patriotic Oration on the Fourth of July.
BesoUed, That in view of the generally expressed wish of our fellow -citizens, we
respectfully request the publication of the same. P. F. PESCUD,
L. S. PERRY,
W. L. POMEROY,
EDWARD CANTWELL,
JAS. J. lEBDELL,
JNO. C. PARTRIDGE,
ISAAC PROCTOR,
W. J. BROWN,
H. C. SMITH,
P. P. WILLIAMS,
J. W. HOWARD,
JNO. NICHOLS,
A. D. TUMBRO,
JNO. SPELMAN,
W. W. Holden, Esq.

Raleigh, July 10, 1856.
Gentlemen :
Yours of yesterday has been received. I feel grateful for the kind and com-
plimeutary terms in which you have been pleased to notice my address ; and in com
pliance with your wish, I herewith place the address in your hands, to be disposed
of as you may think proper. With much respect,
Very truly yours, W. W. HOLDEN.
To Messrs. P. F. Pescud, and others, Committee.

ORATION,

Fellow-Citizens :
The return of this anniversary, with" the memories it brings
along with it, may well excite the noblest and best emotions
of our hearts. Eighty years is a brief period in the exist
ence of a nation ; yet during that time the Eepublic has ad
vanced to a height of power, grandeur, and renown never be
fore reached by any people. When this declaration which
you have just heard, was made, the States making it were
comparatively feeble, with no certain nor adequate reve
nues — with no navy — with a small and ill-furnished army ;
and with little, indeed, but their own strong wills and the
n'ghteousness of their cause. But Providence smiled upon
their exertions, and His word went forth in their behalf, for
them and for us. The stern resolve to be free, formed and
recorded in uncertainty and gloom, was estabUshed in the'
full blaze of the crowning victories of King's Mountain and
Yorktown ; and the masses of mankind saw it, and were
glad. And now what a spectacle is before us! The Eepublic
now stretches from north to south through twenty-four de
grees of latitude, and stands, east and west, with a vast
breadth across the entire continent. Its hand is upon both
oceans. Its area, thus bounded, is capable of sustaining in
comfort and abundance four hundred millions of human be
ings ; its revenues are ample, and its resources almost inex
haustible ; its flag, radiant with the light of many victories,
is' every where respected ; and its form of government is the
result of such princyples, and so wisely adjusted, as to give
promise, if we are only true to ourselves, of indefinite expan
sion and duration.
On this blessed morning, from four millions of dwellings —
from the uttermost headlands of Maine, to where the sun gild-

6
ed with his rising beams the banks of the Eio del Norte and
the golden shores of California, acclamations and offerings of
gratitude have ascended, mingling with the roar of artillery,
the sound of many waters, the hoarse notes of the drum, and
the many- voiced instruments of martial music. These accla
mations and these offerings of gratitude are the same in all
these regions. They thrill the air beside the great lakes, and
above the boundaries ofthe two great oceans, and along the
courses of the St. Lawrence, the Mississippi, and the Sacra
mento. They are heard amid the Alleghanies and the Rocky
Mountains, as the eagle, the proud emblem of all these liber
ties, sweeps by, with his wing of lightning and his eye of fire.
They are uttered above the battle-fields of Lexington, and
Brandywine, and Guilford Courthouse, and Eutaw, where the
fame of our forefathers was made immortal by almost super
human courage, and by baptisms of blood gushing hke w'ater,
in defense of their rights and ours. And far out upon the
seas, where our ships cleave the blue waters, or repose in
their strength near the shore, our brave seamen partake of
the same spirit, and are with us in heart in this celebration,
as the morning gun speaks out, and as the wondrous flag of
" Many in One " is run up before the gaze of all peoples, and
kindreds, and tongues. Thanks be to God for this day, and
for the deed which, eighty years ago, it witnessed !
When our ancestors had made tliis declaration against ty
rants, and had laid the foundations of our government in
gloom and cai-nage, they could not have hoped — confident
and far-seeing as they were — that in the space of eighty yeai-s
our population would be increased tenfold, and that thirty-
one States, instead of thhteen, would cluster around one com
mon centre. But the results of tlieir toils, of their sacrifices,
of their fortitude, of their hatred of oppression, and of their af
fection for their posterity, are before us ! What an admirable
and fortunate combination of federal pow^r and State so\-
ereignty !— what individual freedom !— what an exemption
from taxation and the evils of class legislation !— what de-
vel9pments in science, in arts, and in arms ! aud what capa
bilities of improvement and advanccineut iu all that concerns

the moral, the physical, and the intellectual condition of man
kind ! Elsewhere, over all the earth, with the exception of
some favored spots, the hand of the oppressor, whether dis
closed as that of the oligarch, the emperor, or the king, is still
lifted in its cruel and bloody work ; yet as the great idea of
the eighteenth century was that of vmion against tyrants, so
is that of the nineteenth century, the ind&pendence of nation
alities — the riglit_of all^peoples to determine for themselves
their own m^rmsj3,f , government. And as the masses of the
old world, animated . by this idea, struggle up from beneath
the darkness which blinds, and the despotisms that consume,.
we would have them look hitherward, and take new courage
from the light which burns with so steady and glorious a lus
tre in this Western hemisphere.
Our federal government, fellow-citizens, was wisely formed,
not only for the common defence, the protection of State
rights, and the preservation of individual- freedom, but for
expansion and duration. . Of the eighteen new States which
have been added since 1789, six — to wit, Louisiana, Missouri,
Arkansas, Florida, Texas, and California — were formed out of
territory acquired by treaties with foreign States ; and there
are seven territories — to wit, Oregon, Washington, Minesota,
^ew Mexico, Utah, Nebraska and Kansas — acquired by th^
same treaties, which at no distant day will apply for admission
into the Union. Of the territory which we possessed at the
close of the revolution, New York gave Verniont-^-Massachu-
setts gave Maine^ — ^North-Carohna gg.ve Tennessee — South-
Carohna and Georgia gave Mifcissippi and Alabama ; and Vir
ginia, the mother of States, bestowing her jewels with a lav
ish hand, gave Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana, lilliuois, Michigan,
Iowa, and Wisconsin to the Union.
We know that although the prominent idea of the revolu
tion was that of union against unjust power, yet the States
were jealous of strong government, and apprehensive of en
croachments on their individual rights. They_went, each
State for itself, voluntarily into the revolutionary struggle, and
they emerged from it shorn ofnone of their attributes of sov
ereignty. The Confederation, formed in the second year of

independence, was fally tested, and faUed. It was soon dis
covered that the " Articles of Confederation and perpetual
union," as they were styled, were insufficient for purposes of
revenue, finance, foreign intercourse, expansion of domain,
and general defence. In the language of our present Consti
tution, " a more perfect union " was required, — a Union, which
Would combine the greatest amount of strength with the least
abatement or concession of State sovereignty, — a Union,
which would leave to the gtates supreme control over all their
domestic concerns, while it undertook for them the direction
and management of their general interests and exterior rela
tions. That, fellow-citizens, was a most critical and impor
tant period in our history. Free representative govemment
was for a time arrested in its course, and many feared a final
separation, with all the evils of coterminous but disunited
and discordant sovereignties. Wise counsels, however, pre
vailed, and the present Constitution was adopted. The ques
tion was, not whether there should be a Union, for aU felt its
necessity, and were agreed about it ; but how it should be ac
complished, and by what concessions and hmitations of_power.
The Constitution, therefore, stands out before us as the great
work of that day, and the Union as incidental to it, or, as the
result of it. As it was understood then, that there could be
no further union if this Constitution should not be adopted,
so it is true now, that if this Constitution shall be palpably
broken, or shall utterly fail in its objects, as the Articles of
Confederation failed, then there will le no more Union.
The -Cigistitution is the bond *' the Union, and the attach
ment of the people of all the States to the Constitution is the
life of the Union. We know also, fellow-citizens, that this
Constitution was established in a spirit of compromise ; that
it is to be strictly construed; and that the objects of tlu-
Union will be most surely accomplished and the rights of the
States most efl'ectually guarded, by a close and just observ
ance of all the grants and limitations of the instrument.
At the formation of the Constitution all the States, save
one, were slaveholding. Slavery was recognized in the Con
stitution, as a part of our political aud social system ; and

even the slave-trade was continued by it to a certain time,
the majority of the free States, who were most interested in
it, urging with much zeal the continuance of the traffic. It
was provided thd,t three-fifths of the slaves should be repre
sented in Congress, and that laws should be passed to enable
owners to recover those escaping from service, North-Caro
lina has two members of the House of Eepresentatives based
on slave population, who are thus represented both as pro
perty and as persons. It was also provided that new States
might be admitted into the Union ; and, by clear implication,
slaveholding States as well as free. But for these- provisions,
the Constitution would never have been adopted ; and as it
was, North-Carolina once deliberately rejected the Constitu
tion, and was one of the last States to accept it. I refer to
these facts, first, to show the nature and e:d;ent of our Consti
tutional rights in this respect ; and secondly, to remind you
of the anxiety and jealous care with which our forefathers
protected and guarded their rights and liberties.
The people of the North, finding that the institution of
slavery was not profitable to them, on account of the nature
of their climate and soil, sold their slaves to the people of the
middle and Southern States, and pocketed the nioney. They
did not really emancipate them, as they professed to do.
They did not attempt to colonize them in ^their native land,
Africa. That would have been an expensive philanthropy ;
and it might have been useless, and have failed, as the pre
sent colony of Liberia may fail of its objects ; but, like sensi
ble people, they disposed of this species of property to those
who could use it to more advantage and profit than they
could, and invested the proceeds of the sales in lands, ships,
and factories. This was all very well. We heard little then,
from that quarter, of the alleged sin of slavery. No meetings
were then held in Boston, New York, and Providence, to pro
test against the extension of the institution over Southern ter
ritory, and to denounce slaveholders as criminals before God
and man. It was a question of soil, and climate, and dollars
and cents ; and, just where interest led, there our Northern
brethren followed; Nay, more than this! The slave-trade

10
was prosecuted in that quarter with an eagerness, and with a
cruelty not exceeded by the Spaniards themselves ; and to
this day, slave ships are fitted out in Northern ports, and
used in this ti-affic between Afi-ica and Cuba, in defiance of
the policy and laws of this country, and of all civilised na
tions. No such trade, feUow-citizens, exists, or is counte
nanced in these slaveholding States, The best and the most
steadfast friends of the African, whether here or on his na
tive shores, are the people of the South,
Such being the record of our Northern brethren on this
subject, with what justice, with what consistency, with what
honesty can they now turn upon us, and demand that we shall
be limited in our progress as a people, and that our institu
tions, which we inherited with them, and in part AeriveAfrom
them, shall not have free course over this continent? The
extension of slavery will not add one to the number, whUe it
will improve the condition of both master and slave. Nor
will the institution take root and flourish in any territory
where the great staples of cotton, tobacco, rice, sugar, and
hemp are not cultivated ; so that, thus regulating its own pro
gress by the demand which nature and commerce may make
for it, it wUl not interfere with those fields and departments of
labor and industry, which are best suited to the white race.
We may safely assert, that but for slave labor a large portion
of the fertile lands of the Southwest would have been still
unreclaimed — lands, the cultivation of which has added so
largely to the commerce and power of all the States, and
which are constantly pouring their floods of wealth into New
York, and other non-slaveholding- ports. And we may also
assert, that in a pecuniary point of view, the institution has
been of more benefit to tiie people of the free States than it
has been to us. The financial pohcy of the federal govern
ment has always favored the Northern people. Tliree-fourtbs
of the revenues of the government are collected and disbui-s-
ed north of the State of Virginia. The policy of the plant
ing States has always been, for obvious reasons, that of Free
Trade— of comparatively unrestricted commerce. The South
is now submitting, without a murmer, to a tarifi" avera^iiu.

11
thirty per cent, ad valorem, and that with but slight compen
sating results to herself, for the benefit of the industrial oper
ations and interests of the North. Yet, with aU these disad
vantages — with Noi-thern vessels monopolizing her carrying
trade, and with a system of revenue and finance constantly
operating against her, the South not only contributes largely
to support the North with her breadstufl's, her rice, and her
sugar ; but she supphes the world with tobacco, and the looms
of all New England, of all old England, and of France and
Germany with her cotton.
Gentlemen, threats are borne to us from the North of a
dissolution of the Union. The pubhc mind, comparatively
calm here, is greatly excited there. It is the excitement of
injustice and aggression on the one hand, and the calmness
of freemen on the other, determined in the last resort to de
fend, and, if need be, to die by their rights. We are told
that the North will not only not submit to the extension of
slavery; but that they will continue their aggressions until
slavery ceases to exist. Good men, in all portions of the
country, are disturbed by serious apprehensions. The mere
thought of the destruction of the Constitution, and the con
sequent disruption of the Union, is sad and painful ; but the
danger appears to be at hand, and must be confronted and
boldly dealt with. Gentlemen, I tell you here and now, as
all true men in the free States are likewise this day proclaim
ing, that in my humble opinion, the people of the North
would not, if they could, and that they dare not dissdhe the
Union !
The institution of slavery, in its operations and results, is
the conservative influence, which, next to mutual dependence
and revolutionary associations, holds these States together.
The great staple of cotton itself, which can be produced for
exportation alone by slave labor, gives employment to not
less than five millions of persons in England, and to one mil
lion in the Northern and Eastern States. We know that the
cultivation of cotton elsewhere is decreasing, and that tiie
Southern States are the only part of the world wliere it is iii-
Cut off this crop from the free States, as dissoUi-

12
tion would do ; and what would be the instantaneous efi'ect
upon their manufacturing interests ? Look, too, at the pro'
duction of breadstuffs, to say nothing of the other products of
slave labor. The statistics of the last census show, that the
production of breadstuffs and animal food in the New Eng
land States, taken altogether, is declining ; and this fact, with
the prices realized from the manufacture of Southern staples,
accounts for the increasing, tendency of their population to
abandon their soil for new lands, in distant States and Terri
tories, and to desert the country and concentrate in their
towns and factories.
We judge of the prosperity and power of a people by the na
ture and quantity of their productions and the value of their
exports. The productions and the exports together, of the
slaveholding States, are much greater than those of the non-
slavpholding ; and we know, too, that the great bulk of the ex
ports of the free States consists in articles manufactured fix)m
Southern raw material. Let the free States, therefore, by any
mode they may select, divide the Union anl set up for them
selves, aXxA they would soon find that they had sacrificed their
best interests, and the main elements of their prosperity, for
an idle, and we may add, a vicious sentiment. They would
at once lose our carrying trade, which is the basis of their
commerce ; their supplies of breadstuffs and tobacco would
be cut off, or burthened with heavy imposts, imposed to raise
money to sustain their army and navy, and to caiTy on their
government ; while England and other foreign States would
at once compete with them, and obtain the advantage over
them in our markets, in the sale of nearly all manufactured
articles. Superadd to this, the conflict constantly going on iu
free society between capital and labor, and tiie tendency tif
agrarianism, and we .can form some idea of the evils that
would afflict the Northern people in the event of dissolution.
Nor could they look with hope to the gi'eat North-west, or
Mississippi valley. Nature has bound that valley to the
Southern States. It embraces eight or ten of the most flour
ishing States of tlie Union, whose productions find an outlet,
under a Southern sun, through the Golf of Mexico. Theiv

13
immense supphes of breadstuffs, then- coal, their cotton, then-
lead, and hemp, would no longer seek Northern markets, but
would be poured, with a constantly increasing tide, along our
Railroads and down the Mississippi, enriching as they flowed,
and adding incalculably to our commerce, and to our means
of improvement and defence. Besides, the great line of in
tercourse across the continent, between the Atlantic and the
Pacific, marked out by nature, and destined to be occupied,
runs through the slaveholding States. The harbor of Beau
fort, in this State, is nearly on a line with San Francisco,
China, and Japan ; and through this channel the commerce
of the East, which has enriched all nations that have hereto
fore possessed it, may yet find its way. '
The soUd men of the North, fellow-citizens, are weU in
formed of these things, and they properly estimate them.
The people of the North — not the miserable fanatics, not the
vile demagogues, not the whited sepulchres, not the long-
faced canting Pharisees, who groan over slavery according to
rule, and who, while they~are arming and inciting adven
turers and madmen to murder their countrymen in Kansas
nevertheless thank God they are not as others ; sot the race
of degenerates and hypocrites, who disturb, and irritate, and
afflict society where they exist, but who cannot control it ; —
not these, but the people of the North know, as we know, that
their safety and our safety, their progress and our progress^
their happiness and our happiness, are bound up together, by
nature, by ancient association, by all-pervading and all-con
trolling interest, and by every consideration which should
have weight with the judgment or lodgment in the heart.
Dissolve the Union I — wherefore ? in God's name, wherefore ?
Has it dispensed among us, in all these States, any thing but
blessings ? Does any one here, or in New England, really
feel the operations of this Constitution but in the benefits it
confers ? Do we of the South complain that of the thirty or
forty millions of taxes which we pay by way of imposts,
three-fourths of them are expended in the free States ? No,
fellow-citizens. We submit to this, and to other inequalities,

14
with cheerfulness ; for we know that what we lose in one re
spect, we gain in another.
Who can estimate, in dollars' and cents, the worth of this
Constitution, or the value of the united American name?
Can the North do it ? Let her attempt it, and she will start
back in dismay from the gulf that yawns before her. Can
the South ? In defence of her honor and of her Constitutional
rights, she will not calculate, but she will dare, and do, if the
hour should come ; which may Providence evermore forbid !
If this Union should ever be destroyed, it will be done by such
a triunjph and such a predominance of sectional power as to
leave no hope to the minority ; or by a palpable violation or
disregard, by all the departments of the govemment, of the
Constitution, which is the bond of the Union. Either would,
in itself, be dissolution. The South would deplore, and would
feel the catastrophe ; but no man could say that her fofly or
her madness did it. If not entirely blameless in aU this sec
tional strife, yet no part of the responsibility for the Crime of
Diswnion could be placed upon her.
What a wail would go up, from all this world ; what agony,
what prayers, what horrors, what bitter and burning tears, if
some messenger, commissioned by Divine authority, should
proclaim that the Sun — now hastening as of old to his setting
in the western sky — would rise no more ; and that thence
forth there would be left to us only the pale hght of the moon
and stars ! Such and so great, fellow-citizens, would be the
darkness in the pohtical and moral world, and such and so
small would be the light, which would foUow the dashing out
or the obscura,tion of this Constitution, which is the Sun of
our system and the centre of all our hopes.
But the South will neither abandon the Constitution nor
surrender her rights. She will stand on, and stand by, the
Constitution and all its principles, whether the Union shall sur
vive or perish. But I have confidence that it wiU not perish.
It is not all gloom in the Northern sky. The Constitution
BtiU illumines the heavens that look down on Bunker Hill and
Concord ; and there are hosts of true men there who yet
walk in its hght. They look back with us to the time when
the States stood shoulder to shoulder in a common strue-yle

15
for independence ; they estimate, as we do, the blessings of
the present ; they unite with us in the prayer that this inde
pendence and these blessings may be immortal ; and they
know, as we do, that the deed of fidelity to aU their Consti
tutional obligations must keep step with the prayer ; and they
wUl ie- faithful, as we are, to the Union. They say, to the
incendiaries and traitors in their midst, and to those among
them who dare to threaten that in a certain event they will
coerce us, that the contest for the, preservation of the Union
must commence there ; and that these incendiaries and trai
tors must walk over their dead bodies before they can reach
the bosoms of their Southern brethren. I have seen it pro
claimed in their public journals, that the monument which
crowns that memorable hill near Boston, was fownded on
Union; and that, so long as it shall stand, and they have
arms for the contest, they will use them against those there,
if necessary, who are engaged in unjust aggressions upon us.
Nobly spoken ! — worthy, great-hearted, high-souled descend
ants of illustrious sires ! The blood of Warren — ^like that of
" sacrificing Abel's," cries, " even from the tongueless caverns
of the earth," — and the true men there answer, that their
blood shall sink into the same sacred soU that received his,
before the Mberties of States and people, which he died to
estabhsh, shall be struck down and destroyed. With us they
exclaim — " Though many and bright are the stars that appear,
In the flag by our country unfurled ;
And the stripes that are swelling in majesty there,
Like a rainbow adorning the worid :
Their lights are unsullied as those in the sky,
By a deed that our fathers have done ;
And they are leagued in as true and as holy a tie,
In their motto of " Many in One."
From the hour when our fathers so fearlessly flung
¦ That banner of starlight abroad,
Ever true to themselves, to that motto they clung.
As they clung to the promise of God.
By the bayonet traced at the midnight of war,
On the fields where our glory was won ;
Oh perish the hand or the heart that would mar
. Our motto of " Many in One."

16

i'rom where our " Green Mountain " tops blend with the sky.
And the giant St. Lawrence is rolled.
To the waves where the balmy Hesperides lie,
Like the dream of some prophet of old —
They conquered— and dying, bequeathed to our care,
Kot this boundless dominion alone,
But that banner, whose loveliness hallows the air,
And their motto of "Many in One."
Then up with our flag — let it stream on the air,
Though our fathers are cold in their graves ;
They had hands that could strike, they had souls that could dar^
And their sons were not bom to be slaves."

But, fellow-citizens, whatever may happen, let us cling to
thejnstitutions and to the soil _qf North-Carohna. We cele
brate to-day the 80th anniversary of the independence of the
United States ; but this is the 81st year of the independence
of North-Carolina, Let us hope that the star, which on the
20th day of May, 1Y75, rose midway between the ocean and
the mountains, and " stood over the place " Mecklenburg,
where fiberty was bom, —
" Gladdening all heaven with its inaugnral smile " —
may never go out, nor go down, nor cease to dispense its be
neficent influences on the generations of mankind. We may
deplore the overthrow of other systems ; we may shed tears
of sorrow and of patriotic anguish over the disastrous dark
ness which even now seems to be settling on the star of Mas
sachusetts; yet, happen what may, let us be true to our
selves — let us uphold, and maintain, and augment the honor
and the glory, which, dating from the battie of the Alamance
fought in old Orange, and from the resistance to the Stamp
Act in the Cape Fear country, and from the great deed of
Mecklenburg, have become the proud inheritance of every
son of North-Carolina,
Look abroad this day, upon this large expanse of seashore,
and plains, and hills, and mountains ; upon the cattie, the
meadows, the rivers, and sounds, and bays ; upon the ships
and the steam-cars ; upon the churches, sending their spires
up into the pure air above towns and cities, or nestiing amid
thousands of groves, still fragrant with the lingering breath

17
of Spring ; upon the ripe sheaves, gleaming upon countless
acres, and the tall corn waving over innumerable furrows,
giving promise of a full harvest and abundant cheer ; upon
nine hundred thousand people^ embracing different and most
opposite races, dwelling together in peace, unsmitten by pes
tilence or plague — with no regular military organization, and
none daring to molest them — with schools open to all, " with
out money and without price "—with the Bible — with the
right of free speech, of habeas corpus, and trial by jury —
with a free press, and an able "and upright judiciary — with
all liberties and every blessing which rational beings could
desire ; look upon all this, and then say, if our lots have not
been cast in a good time in the world's history, and in pleas
ant places ; and if we have not a State worthy of all our de
votion and affection — richly entitled to our best efforts to im
prove her in peace, and to our blood and our treasure, if re
quired, in the day of danger ? Consider, too, her capacities
for improvement, and the progress which has been made du
ring the last twenty years. We aU remember the sacrifices,
the expenditures, and the earnest and anxious efforts of the
early friends of internal improvements; and the mingled
pride and' joy with which we first heard the whistle of the
steam-car above our soil. Now, there are nearly six hundred
miles of Eailroad in the State in successful operation ; with
six hundred miles more projected, and which wiU be ready,
at no distant day, for use. There are persons in this assem
blage, who witnessed the labors of Caldwell, and Bartiett
Yancy, and Murphy, and others, in the cause of education and
of Common Schools, and who stood with them and sustained
them m those labors. The University was then struggling
up amidst many difficulties, if not against prejudice and ac
tual opposition. It is now established on an enduring basis,
and is one of the best and most flourishing institutions of the
kind in the whole country. Up to 1840, when our Common
Schools were commenced, there were but two CoUeges in the
State, but one hundred and fifty academies, and only six hun
dred primary schools. Now, there are fourteen Colleges,
male and female; over three hundred academies ; and thre«5

18
thousand five hundred primary or Common Schools. In
1840, there were not more than two hundred students at Col
leges, not more than four thousand at academies, and not
more than twenty-five thousand at all the schools, of whatso
ever kind, in the State. Ncm, there are one thousand stu
dents in the various Colleges, nine thousand in academies,
and not less than one hundred and forty thousand in the pri
mary or Common Schools. What cheering results are these !
How they gladden the heart of the philanthropist and patriot !
It may be truly asserted that no State in the Confederacy
possesses any advantages over North-Carolina, whether we
consider the extent of her seacoast and the value of her har
bors — her geographical situation, or the nature and variety of
her resources and productions. She occupies, Upon the sur
face of the globe, those paraUels of latitude, which have been
most favorable m all past time to civilization, to valor, to im
provement in letters, and in whatsoever contributes most to
elevate and refine the human race. She is shielded on the
one hand from the protracted and rigorous winters of the
North ; and on the other from the blastiag heats of the South.
Her son can be made to yield in perfection all the great sta
ples, and indeed, almost every article which is produced in
any one, or in all of the thirty-one States. Her timber is
varied in kind, and almost inexhaustible in quantity; the
banks of her rivers and her Eastern plains are weU stored with
materials for improving the soil ; her hUls and her valleys are
rich in .deposites of gold, of iron, of silver, of copper, of mai-
ble, of coal, and other valuable minerals ; — and, to crown all,
there is a spirit of intelligence, of enterprize, and improve
ment among her people, which wiU in due time bring out all
these resources, to adorn her surface, to add to her wealth
and to the general comfort, and to raise her to her proper
and just rank in the Confederacy of States. Develop her coal
and her iron, and send them out to the markets of tiie world,
and we shall cease to pay tribute to Northern banks and Nor
thern capitalists. Exchange wiU then be in our favor ;
and our State credit, so well maintained throughout the re
cent financial embarrassments and difficulties, will be placed

19
on still higher and stronger foundations. Build up our own
market towns, and let our productions, as far as practicable,
be shipped from our own ports, and our own people will then
reap the benefits realized fi-om handling, and shipping, and
selHng them. We shall not then see our exports stated m
federal commercial returns at four hundred thousand dollars,
when really they might be estimated by millions. In a word,
feflow-citizens, let us cut loose, as far as we can, from that
dependence for markets on our sister States, which for half a
century has injured our circulating medium, embarrassed
and Hmited the action of our banking institutions, drained us
of our resources to enrich others, lowered the tone of State
pride and State manhood, and dwarfed our State inde
pendence. But a better and a brighter day has already risen upon us.
Interng,l Improvements and Common Schools have become
the established policy of the State ; and the great interests of
agriculture and the mechanic arts are receiving the attention
of the Legislature and of the people generally. The steam-
car now thunders along from the mountains to the seaboard,
freighted with the productions of the interior counties, and
bearing back for consumption, for use, and for ornament, the
commodities of other and distant regions. The mind of the
capitahst is stimulated, and the arm of the miner, the me-
. chanic, and the manufacturer, invigorated by the prospect of
fair rewards for their expenditures and labors. Our Common
Schools and our academies are thronged with thousalMs of
happy apd ingenuous chUdren; emigration is ceasing and
the old State lifts herself up, and girds herself for tl^l^S
of improvement, physical, mental, and moral, in which ^^a
engaged. And is this a time for any true son of hers to falter in her
service, or to abandon her for other lands? No— feflow-citi
zens— No ! Here let us remain, and plan, and labor for the
improvement of our State, and for ourselves and our posteri
ty. It is a goodly and a glorious land, worthy of our best af
fections, and of aU efforts and every sacrifice which we can
make in its behalf. It is the land of our forefathers, "just

20
and fi-ee in their day, and hopefiil in their death. Their hon^
ored ashes mingle with its sofl, and their patriotic spirits hov^
er through its air." They speak to us by their great exam
ples, and invoke us to be faithful to the rich inheritance which
has fallen to us fi-om their hands. We respond to the invo-
catioui We are resolved, that as they performed their whole
duty iu their day, so we will perform ours ; and that, with
one niind and one heart, we wiU unite to keep the State on
the high road of advancement and improvement, and to give
to her star a new lustre in the constellation of the Union.
So shaU our posterity look back with gratitude to us, as we
look back to those who have preceded us; so shaU intelli
gence, and fi-eedom, and manliness, and State pride, and vir
tue and piety, increase and abound among us ; and so shall
aU the generations which are destined to exist within onr
borders, utter fervent thanks that they first saw the light on
this continent, and that they are sons and daughters of Noi-th
GaroUnas

YALE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY

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