Alexander Martin Alexander Martin ( 1740November 10 , 1807 ) was the fourth and seventh Governor of the U . S . state of North Carolina from 1782 to 1784 and from 1789 to 1792 . Early life . Born in New Jersey in 1740 , Alexander Martin was a North Carolinian politician and delegate to the Federal Constitutional Convention . Aside from his role in the Constitutional Convention , Martin witnessed several significant chapters in colonial and early U . S . history , including the Regulator Rebellion , the Revolutionary War , and the North Carolina ratification debates . Martin held bachelor ' s and master ' s degrees from Princeton University ( then called the College of New Jersey ) , making him one of the most erudite delegates to the Constitutional Convention . After graduating from Princeton , Martin moved to Salisbury , North Carolina . There he worked first as a merchant and later as an attorney . As his legal career took shape , the Regulator Rebellion began . On September 24 , 1770 , a bevy of angry Regulators took over the Hillsboro Court . When their demonstration spilled onto the streets of Hillsboro , several lawyers , including Martin , who likely was serving as a justice of the peace , were whipped and beaten . American Revolution . Military service . By 1774 , Martin had become judge of the Salisbury district . When the American Revolution began , he served as a colonel in Richard Caswell ' s militia in North Carolina . After Martin ' s promotion to colonel , his regiment joined George Washington ' s army . In October 1777 , at the Battle of Germantown , thick fog caused Martin and the soldiers under his command to mistake British troops for Continental soldiers . After this debacle , Martin faced a court - martial for cowardice . Though not convicted , Martin resigned from the army due to stress and poor health . Political service . In 1778 , while still recuperating from his military service , Martin was elected to the North Carolina Senate . His tenure in the Senate was eventful : he served as president of the Senate ' s Board of War and in 1781 became acting governor of North Carolina when the sitting governor , Thomas Burke , was kidnapped by Tories . In 1782 , the General Assembly elected Martin governor of North Carolina . While the cessation of hostilities had eliminated the gravest threat to North Carolina , the end of the Revolution posed many challenges , the most pressing of which was the question of how to treat Tory and Loyalist property . Martin resisted popular pressure to confiscate and redistribute this property , instead advocating its return to all except for North Carolina ' s more infamous Tories . Constitutional conventions . After Martin ' s gubernatorial term ended , he returned to the General Assembly , where he soon became speaker of the Senate . In 1787 , the General Assembly elected him delegate to the Federal Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia , where the difficulties of the U . S . government under the Articles of Confederation would be weighed . Martin arrived in Philadelphia before the start of the convention and stayed until late August , a few weeks before the convention ' s close . He played little public role in the debates there , and he was not appointed to any of the convention ' s committees . He seconded several minor motions , none of which profoundly affected the course of the convention . Because Martin left the Federal Convention early , he did not sign the Constitution . In 1788 , Martin sought election to the Hillsborough Constitutional Convention , where North Carolina would consider ratifying the Constitution . A proponent of the Federal Constitution , Martin was helpless in the face of a wave of Anti - Federalist sentiment in North Carolina . Delegates were selected county by county , and Martin , who lived in the predominantly Anti - Federalist Guilford County , ran at a disadvantage . His opponent in the election - the Anti - Federalist Presbyterian minister David Caldwell - won a seat , as did four of his congregation . Martin was the only delegate to the Federal Convention who sought election to a state convention and lost . Later political career . Martin ' s failure in Guilford County did not reflect any loss of popularity in the General Assembly . He was again elected governor in 1789 and held the office until 1792 , when he reached the office ' s term limit . During his second gubernatorial tenure , a permanent seat of North Carolina government , named Raleigh , was founded in Wake County . Moreover , Martin effected the establishment of the University of North Carolina in 1789 . Immediately after Martin left the governor ' s seat , he joined the U . S . Senate . His legislative record in the 1790s indicates that Martin ' s political views were nuanced . Though he had supported the ratification of the Federal Constitution and had always run for election as a Federalist , he repeatedly voted against the Federalists in the 1790s . His convictions appear to have become more Federalist in the midst of the XYZ affair , and he voted for all of the Alien and Sedition Acts . In 1799 , Martin , having lost the support of North Carolina Federalists , was voted out of the Senate . He returned to the North Carolina General Assembly in 1804 , and in 1805 again became Speaker of the North Carolina Senate . He died in 1807 .