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Page 19 text:
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THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA An Historical Sketch THE University of North Carolina, conceived in the year of independence and born with the founding of the Republic, is the child of the American Revolution. Revolutionary constitution-makers believed that the success of their experiments in democracy and self-government depended upon an educated citizenship. Liberty and law, declared the orator at the laying of General William Richardson Davie the cornerstone of the University of North Carolina in 1793, call for general knowledge in the people and extensive knowledge in matters of the State, and these in turn demand public places of education. This idea gave a decided im- pulse to higher education in America. In 1775 there were only nine colleges in the colonies; within a decade after Yorktown there were eighteen. [3]
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Page 20 text:
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Y A C K E T Y Y A C K Joseph Caldwell The most significant contribution of the period to higher education was the state university, and in this contribution North Carolina led the way. The North Carolina Constitution of 1776 required the Legislature to establish one or more univer- sities. Twenty-three years passed, however, before the Legislature obeyed this mandate, and the in- spiration which finally induced it to do so came from the same enlightened statesmanship that had just inspired North Carolina to ratify the Federal Constitution. The Constitution was ratified November 21, 1789; the University was chartered December 11, following. In these two acts, Kemp P. Battle, the historian of the University, discov- ered a comprehensive plan. In the Legislature the charter of the University was put through by the same men who in the Constitutional Conven- tion had just procured the ratification of the Federal Constitution. Indeed, William R. Davie passed almost immediately from the Legislature where, on November 12, he had introduced the bill to charter the University, into the Convention where, on November 21, he moved the ratification of the Constitution of the United States. Of the first forty trustees of the University, twenty-eight had served in the Constitutional Convention of 1789, where twen- ty-one of them had voted for ratification. Indeed, so clearly was the early University primarily a Federalist enterprise that the Anti-Federalists charged it with making every effort to give direction to the minds of the students on political subjects, favorable to a high-toned aristocratic government. The trustees held their first meeting December 18, 1789. Since the Legis- lature had left the infant University to support itself or starve, the trustees turned their immediate attention to the task of financing it. Their only resources were a gift of land warrants for 20,000 acres, and cash amounting to only $2,706.41. The trustees were forced, therefore, to apply to the Legislature for aid. Again Davie came to the rescue and by sheer power of logic and eloquence, wrung from an un- willing Legislature a loan of $10,000 (afterwards converted into a gift), which enabled the trustees to take the first step in the founding of the Uni- versity. Their first problem was the selection of a site. After examining several places, they selected New Hope Chapel, in Orange County. On October 12, 1793, in the presence of a disting uished company, surrounded by a forest of oaks, maples and dog- wood brilliant with the red and yellow hues of autumn, William R. Davie, Grand Master of Masons, laid the cornerstone of the first building. On January 15, 1795, the formal opening cer- dawd lowrv Swain [41
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