The state chronicle. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1883-1893, 1888-09-14

we're pre- o-enlnGnIIV great. ana the leaNeTS
whom We had in the colony We're natives
of other colonies, with only two or three
notable exceptions, and yet it was North
Carolina grit, pluck, and stck-to itiveness
that kei the heel of OPP re~sion off our
ne,kS. arc WI akened the British power
as to make he final triumph of our cause
possib!.- b 1T the man who commanded
the g'' a. est 4 umber of our North Carolina
troops w.,s, | believe, /, Quaker from Con
NJ ctlcut.
In the great Civil War we furnished
more troops in proportion to population
than any other State; the number of our
troops was greater than the largest vote
we had ever polled, and in the foremost
ranks wherever dead Conf. derates Law
thickest there lay North CaroIinians, vet
We had in North Carolina few leaders who
could stand with the gleat leaders of Nir-
glnla. A large ma jority of our best sol
dlers were under he command of Generals
from other States. StOnewall Jackson.
Baker, Lane and Robinson of Virginia.
D. H. Hill Of South Carolina. Iverson Of
Georgia, Daniel Of Louisiana, who was
born in North Carolina but gained promi-
nence in the State of his adoption and
many others whom cannot now recall
We have given birth to three Presidents
though We can hardly claim to have pro-
duced them, and half dozen cabinet
officers have been from North Carolina
In Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama, and
Mississippi very large proportion of the
men whose influence has been most felt
are natives of North Carolina or are of
North Carolina stock, and for very great
period nearly two thirds of the represent
atives in Congress from the South and
SOut uthWeSt have been of this same stock
while the decisions of our Supreme Court
have been regarded as models the world
over, yet We have produced comparatively
few men of national Importance.
our day is yet to come. We made
very good start, but it cannot be denied
that we got behind in many of those
things which go to make up a MATERIAL
civilization. The first geological survey
by public authority in America was order,
ed by the State of North Carolina in 1923.
but Professor Olmstead's geological map
of the State dated 1926 still remains un-
printed and was entirely unknown until
Mr.. birdsong, the State librarian, found
1t in some old papers not many days ago.
and even in this year of grace, 1888, there
does not exist a Typographical map of the
State worthy of the name, or one that can
with safety be Used as Il basis for geologi-
cal work. We boast of our great mineral
wealth and of about thirty more species
of minerals than any other State can
show. Gold was known to exist within
our borders 50 early as the sixteenth CEN
tury, and the largest nugget ever found,
before the discovery of gold in California,
came from Cabarrus county, N. G. We
have, perhaps, the best deposits Of iron ia
the world, whole mountains of ore far
richer than that Of some of the ''moun-
tains Of solid iron" told of in the geogra-
phies that our children use and yet
recent government report on mines and
mining Industries makes the startling
statement that the CarOlinaS are farther
behind in such industries than any Of their
sister States in mineral bearing districts
| confess hat the statement was a surprise
aud shock to me.
We say that North Caroinians MAKE
history; they do not WRITE it. and we
CON plain that we are ri represented and
slandered by historians yet no one is more
to blame for this than we ourselves. The
writers of American history are men who
do like TO get at the truth of things, and
our State Officials, who have for years
been answering letters as best they could,
can testify to the truth of this statement.
The trouble has been that We have not
until now had man like Col. Wm L.
Saunders who could and would take the
fr,,;ibie to collect and print our records,
aid Il legislature willing to help him; and
some of the jokes written about US have
heret ofore been taken too seriously. We
take less interest Ill ourselves than the
natives of other States take in us have
had numerous requests from MasSachu
sets. and some from New York, Mary
land, South Carolina, and Georgia for
some articles | have bt en- printing on the
early history of the State, and know very
few North CaroiGians who have taken
much interest in the subject. Though the
Preshyterians claim that their church in
North Carolina has impressed itself indelib
ly on the government of the nation. the two
men who are bodest in asserting those
claims and who are most interested in The
history Of that church in North Carolina
are na'ives of other States and the best
Presby terrain pastOrates in the State are
largely filled by men born elsewhere than
in North Carolina, and the same thing is
true of the Methodist and Baptist churches.
The Baptist churches of Virginia and in
deed of all the Southern States have
sprung from North Carolina, yet we did
not know it till native of another State
told it to Us.
One great cause or all this has been a
lack of homogeniety in our people. Their
diverse origins and the great diversity of
climate and productions between the diff
ferent sections have tended to keep the
people apart To the mountaineer the
| lowlander is foreis ner, ard to the low
| lander the mountaineer is barbarian.
| The war did much to obliterate these lines
| by bringing the people near together. Our
railroads are so constructed and managed
| that we are nearer to people north or
| south of us in other States than we are
| to our own people east or west of us in
| North Carolina, and it is not very surpris
| ing that we are ever ready to choose as
| leaders men from other States when it is
so hard for all of us to know one of oul
| own men.
OF course all these things will change
and are already rapidly changing for the
better. We can't hope to gain much from
immigration, and if it is to be such immi
| grafton as they are getting in New knglanC
and the West, we may lose rather thar
gain by it. 1t is a subject for cOngratua
ton that only 3,67S of our population are
foreign born, and that most of the new
settlers that we get are industrious fami
lies and substantial men from other part
of our own country. The natural increas,
in our population has been, for the las
fifteen or twenty years much greater thar
that from all sources in most of the othe
States, and from the good staying qualltie
of our people, who pos >eSS that hi@ b mora
tone and religious conservatism upol
which depend the salvation and advance
ment of a State, we may expect Nortl
| Carolina to fnlfil the prOmiSe of her earl