Semi-weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1853-18??, 1857-08-05

Ipuar ,sHzD BY REQUEST OF THE AsSocIATIoN.J
ADDRESS
ezicerd before the State Educational Assocsaeee,'
of North. Carolina at WGrrenton, July Isl, io'''
By WILLIAM W. HOLDEN, Esq
Aoo' snnsn ~ a shs ss Educational Association
1u h... - a.,, ,,,o,, the invitation of the Exec
ut;ve COMMITTEES Of the State Educational Assoca-
ton to saw someth:ng on the subject OF eaucato"
in North carolina. and particularly IN 1elat'oh u
common schools Unified as l am tor TINS ou'y'
and with no desire, trust for mere personal pro.
m;nence or display, nevertheless felt ought 10
Accent the position SO kindly assigned me. There is
no cause more important to free people than that
If Observation-Disclosures of the mind and OF the
heart; and it is the duty and the privilege OF every
one however humble, to cast his mite into the treas
ury of this common cause.
Our ancestors did not come hither in organized
communities like those of the people of Massachu-
sets, but, as a general thing in detached bands
from the other colonies and from Europe. They
spread themselves over wider surface, and their
habits and customs were more varied and more u.s.
similar than those of many other colonies In the
words of our own historian, DR.. Hawks that por-
ton of the United States included within the limits
Of North. Carolina, may justly claim the honor OF
having received the first English colony that was
planted in the western hemisphere" yet, owing 10
various causes no permanent settlement was mace
till about the year 1660-torty years alter the iahu
ing of the pilgrims at Plymouth rock. AND al
though many Of the early settlers of North Carolina
were men of education and refinement, and though
they brought with them laws and constitutions, and
the frame work of civil and social government, and
claimed the right through their delegates or depu-
ties to enact new laws and frame new constitutions;
vet they were deficient in that organization which
must always precede educational establishments
and which, in Massachusetts,, for example, resulted
among the first acts of that colony, in the creation
of public schools.
In the glowing account given by Mr.. Bancroft, OF
the early settlers of Carolina, he
less of religious sects, or colleges or lawyers or
absolute laws, the early settlers enjoyed liberty OF
conscience and personal independence, freedom OF
the forest and of the river -and, he adds. Nort@
Carolina scas settled By the treest Of the tree."
No allusion is made to education in the first and
second charters of Charles the Second, nor in the
Fundamental constitutions of Carolina" CiVii
government based for the most part on monarchlcat
and aristocratica! principles, was founded; ana he
church-the old English church-following the
footsteps of ancestors, and INTERVIEWING itself
with the civil fabric sought to provide not only for
their souls, but for their minds and bodies. jealous
of ecclesiastical rule, and having witnessed or en-
dured the misapplication and the perverslon OF
for surprise that our ancestors were not ncheo u
endow and sustain parochal schools the only ones
probably of a public character which the govern
ment would have sanctioned. Besides, the risnts
of the masses of mankind were then comparatively
unknown and underlined. The great body OF the
people at that day were expected rather to obey
than to govern and the condition Of their descend
ants for many generations to come, was thought 10
have been already fixed There appeared there
fore, even t. the educated and active members OF
the colony, no imperative necessity for providing
means for enlghtening the masses; and it is 10 be
questioned, if such means had been PROVIDED
whether they would have produced substantial ben
efts among people SO sparsey settled, SO d'ssim'-
lar in their origin, their habits and CUSTOMS and 50
jealous Of their personal independence.
No provision was, therefore, made for public or
common schools by the early settlers of North Caro-
lima and there was no printing press even erected
till about the year 1850.
The prominent men of the colony, themselves ed.
ucated, as we have seen, for the most part caused
their sons to be educated in Europe and thus the
light of science kndled at an early period on these
shores, was kept burning by regular supplies from
the parent fountain.
But gradually, as the masses Of the people emery
ed from obscurty and poverty, the old English
neighborhood schools were established and their
children instructed in the rudments Of knowl.
edge. We know that the men Of 1865, in the Al
bemarle the Pamptco, the Cape Fear, the Orange
and the Mecklenburg regions, understood thel'
rights as British subjects; and We know also, tina
the enlightened and patriotic leaders in the ncipl
ent struggles for independence, were followed BY
men no less patriotic than they were, and who pos
sessed well defined and sensible ideas of the mean
ing and objects of laws and constitutions. The free
dom of conscience the full recognition of the rights
of property and that high sense of individuality ant
of personal independence which characterized oul
ancestors, were the legitimate fruits of beth menta
81 hat not OoD
eral could have been wished, We yet know that i
existed and its results in the resistance
to the stamp act in the Cape Fear country, in thu
great deed of Mecklenburg and in the fact that thu
Congress at Halifax was the first, in all the colonies
to instruct their delegates in general Congress to g
for independence.
The first public official allusion to the want o
schools, is believed to have been made by Gov
Johnston, native of Scotland in his address to tn
Legislature in Edenton, in 1886; and the first ef
fectual act for the encouragement of literature wa
q law passed in 1862, for the erection of school
house in the town of New-Berne.
Constitutions are the products not merely o
physical effort, but of thought. The founders o
our liberties in 1775-6, were noted for thei
thoughtfulness, their habits of observation, and tn
soundness of their judgments They felt they wer
doing work for all time and they sought to ado
to the benefcence and grandeur of that work, ant
to render it enduring by binding the generations o
all coming time to be faithful to what they had be
gun. They knew that liberty could not exist with
out knowledge; and so in the State Constitution
framed at Halifax, in December, 1776, they provid
ed "that school or schools shall be established b.
the Legislature for the convenient instruction q
youth, with such salaries to the masters paid By til
public may enable them to instruct at low prices
and all useful learning shall be encouraged in one
more Universities" The establishment of publi
schools was thus expressly enjoned upon the Leg
islature; and the order in which the public schoc
and the University is mentioned, shows the connee
ton and dependence which the trainers of the cor
stitution thought should exist between them. The
knew that the great river of knowledge was con-
posed of many streams and they wished first t