Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1869-05-14
NO.


NO. j.
The University of North Carolina, situa-
ted at Chapel Hill in the beautiful hill
country of Orange county, was founded al
most Immediately after the Revolution:
We are all familiar with this fact, and also
with the compliments that are always paid
when it is stated. to the Scotch and Irish
blood of our early settlers. who are popu-
larly believed to have been wider awake to
the Importance of education than any
other class That they may have BEEN
But it is one thing to have a keen desire
for good education and its accompany
ing advantages. and another thing to be
willing to pay handsomely for it. Estab-
fishing University was all very we'll. but
when we come to look at its endowments,
I do not think North Carolina has much
room for Dragging
Gen. Davie may be said to have been
the father of the University, though every
man of distinction in the State at that
time manifested deep and cordial in
terest in the undertaking. The act OF
Corporation was passed in 1879, just eighty
years ago.
IT'S PRINCIPLES.
The great principle of preserving invio-
late the civil and religious liberties of the
people was carly and deeply impressed on
the minds of North Carolinians. There were
certain gross acts of injustice and tyranny
committed by the mother country, that no
doubt did more to arouse the spirit of re-
bellion than the Stamp Act. For instance
the charter of the very first college ever at
tempted in the State, Queens College at
Charlotte. Mecklenburg county college,
town and county, all three, named in loyal
compliment to the Queen of England) was
revoked by George III, because there were
some trustees elected who were not mem
bers of the established churchS of Eng
land. Besides the money that belonged
to the common school fund of that day was
squandered by the government in the erec-
tion of saperb residence in Newbern for
the royal Governor Tryon. We may be
very sure that the VOW was registered deep
in the heart Of our indignant fathers that
the day should come when their rights and
liberties were to be respected and when
their children were to receive a liberal
education.
Therefore, in the establishment of
State University, no principle was more
distinctly laid down than that it should be
uncontrolled and uncOnt07nindted By party
politics, and that, while the great truths of
christianity should be taught and enforced
there, no Sectdridn bias or Interference
should be tolerated. All honor to such prin-
ciples, and to the men who carried them
out
ITS ENDoWMENTs.
The General Assembly of North Caro-
lima has always acted the step-mother's
part to the University. What has been
given to it by that body has been given
sparingly and grudgingly. At the begin
ming nothing was done beyond endowipg
it with certain doubtful debts due the State,
all escheated property, and subsequently
all coniscated property of this latter
source of revenue the Trustees we're soon
after divested. So that if aid had not been
promptly and generously given by private
munifcence it would have been long years
before the Institution could have struggled
into existence.
It is a principle in human nature to value
that most for which we sacrifice most. If
the people of North Carolina had been
made to pay good round sum early for
the support of their University, ever since
it's foundation, love of it, and veneration
for it, and jealous care for it's welfare
and reputation, would have grown with
their growth, and guarded it as with walls
of adamant.
At the very first meeting of the Trustees
Col Benjamin Smith (who had been an
aid of Gen. Washington, and subsequent
ly Governor of the State), gave the lnsti-
tuition twenty thousand acres of Chickasaw
land. Major Charles Gerard, who had also
served through the war, and who was
childless, adopted the newly born child Of
the State, and bestowed on it property to
the value of $40, 900. Gen. Thos. Person, the
old Chief of the Regulators, gave $1,O25
~ 4au dc ho nf ho
buildings. This gift was the most imme
diately valuable of all, as there was little
or no money in the country. These three
men were the earliest, and remain yet the
most munifcent patrons of Chapel Hill,
and their names, not descending to US
through any of their blood, are preserved
in Person, Gerard and Smith Halls among
the University buildings, and will be fra
grant in the State as long as the love of
letters remains among us. There were
doubtless many men in North Carolina at
that day richer than either of these. But
they preferred a different investment of
their money. Where now are their names,
and what has become of their real es-
tate L?
The ladies of Newbern, in token of their
quadrant and some years later. the ladies
of Raleigh pair of globes. [ have seen
the letter addressed by the Raleigh ladies
to the Trustees on the occasion. written
by the elegant pen of Mrs. Winifred Gales
and signed by some dozen or more who
were then prominent in Raleigh society:
The paper was worn and discoloreG, and
the gentle signatures much faded by time,
but the generous impulse and the intelli-
gent interest in noble undertaking were
still fresh and striking.
ITS BEGINNING.
What led to the choice of Chapil Hill
for the location Of the University is a
question have never heard definitely an
swered Gov. Swain himself, who knew
more about most things than any other
man in the State, never could say. The
story is, the Committee appointed ts de-
termine the site, travelling through the up
lands of Orange, stopped at Chapil Hill to
| lunch, and taking their rejection at the
foot of the great Poplar which now stands
in the campus, fell SO in love, under these
benignant circumstances with the beauty
of the spot, that they resolved to look nc
further. Chapel Hill was certainly Local
habitation, and had name before the
DAYS of the Revolution. for the ruins of a
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