NORTH CAROLINA. 



597 



The General Assembly shall make suitable provi- 

 sion by law for the management and regulation of 

 the public schools, and for perfecting the system of 

 free public instruction. 



An act was also passed providing " tor an 

 exchange of the stocks held by the State in 

 any railroad or other corporation, for the 

 bonds by which the State acquired such stocks; 

 or any other bonds of the State (not special 

 tax) where the stock is not specially pledged 

 for the redemption of bonds issued to such 

 corporation." This act contains the following 

 important features : 



To facilitate the exchange proposed in this act, the 

 State does hereby relinquish all claim for stock in 

 the Western Kailroad above one million one hundred 

 thousand dollars, and surrender to the said company 

 two hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars cou- 

 pons, now in the State Treasury, withheld on a for- 

 mer exchange of company bands for stock in said 

 railroad; and also the State does hereby relinquish 

 all claims to stock in said company above six hun- 

 dred thousand dollars upon the return to the Treas- 

 ury of the five hundred thousand dollars of Wil- 

 mington, Charlotte & Rutherford Company bonds, 

 and coupons heretofore issued to said Western Kail- 

 road Company. The State also relinquishes all 

 claims to stock in the Western North Carolina Eail- 

 road above four millions of dollars. 



Owing to some constitutional defects in the 

 existing law, and the inability or disinclination 

 of the people to support the expensive system 

 contemplated by it, a new school law was 

 passed, which took effect on the 14th of March. 

 Of this law the Superintendent of Public In- 

 struction, in his report of November 1st, says: 



It was framed upon the idea that education is not 

 a charity for the poor, but a debt which the State 

 owes to the young; that all the children of the State 

 have an equal right to the privilege of education, 

 and that it is the duty of the State to guard and 

 maintain that right It was intended to combine 

 public assistance with private enterprise; to secure 

 the cooperation of that class of people who are will- 

 ing and able to do something for the education of 

 their own children. Instead of having two systems 

 of schools, the one private and supported entirely 

 by subscription, and the other public, supported en- 

 tirely by taxation, it was intended to unite the two 

 systems to the advantage of both parties. It was 

 intended that the public schools should take the 

 place of private schools; that all the primary and 

 grammar schools in the State should become public 

 schools. 



If the people of any neighborhood desire to avail 

 themselves of the public-school money, they mnst 

 make up, by subscription, an additional sum suffi- 

 cient to satisfy the teacher and then employ the 

 teacher. The school must then be free to all pupils, 

 subject only to the restriction of section twenty of 

 the school law. 



If any neighborhood refuses to make up a school 

 in this way, it can have no claim whatever to any 

 part of the public-school funds. The law intends to 

 aid those who aid themselves. 



The present school law is not, and was not intend- 

 ed to be, a complete system. It i but the germ of a 

 system to be developed by future legislation. 



Bills were passed providing for the comple- 

 tion of the penitentiary, and redistricting the 

 State for legislative purposes. An act was 

 also passed dividing the State into eight con- 

 gressional districts. 



The political campaign of the year, the 



most exciting that had ever occurred in the 

 State, was opened by the assembling of the 

 Republican State Convention at Raleigh, on 

 the 17th of April. This body, which was the 

 largest, most respectable, and decidedly the 

 most intelligent Republican State Convention 

 ever held in the South, consisting of over 

 seven hundred delegates, about half of whom 

 were colored, resulted in the renomination 

 of Tod R. Caldwell for Governor, and the 

 nomination of Curtis H. Brogden for Lieuten- 

 ' ant-Governor,' Dr. William H. Plowerton for 

 Secretary of State, Colonel Tazewell Hargrove 

 for Attorney-General, David A. Jenkins for 

 Treasurer, John Reilly for Auditor, Rev. 

 James C. Reid for Superintendent of Public 

 Instruction, and Silas Burns for Superintend- 

 ent of Public Works. The following resolu- 

 tions were adopted : 



1. The principles of the Republicans of North 

 Carolina, as heretofore enunciated in the conven- 

 tions, are hereby reaffirmed, and events have proved 

 that their practical enforcement is essential to the 

 welfare of the country and to the maintenance of the 

 rights, interests, and liberties of the people. 



2. That the Administration of General Grant meets 

 with our hearty and unqualified approval, and our 

 delegates to the National Republican Convention, to 

 assemble at Philadelphia on the 5th day of June, 

 are instructed to vote for his renomination to the 

 presidency of the United States. 



3. That the Republican party of North Carolina 

 favors as rapid a diminution and as early an extinc- 

 tion of internal revenue taxation as the exigencies of 

 the Government will permit, for the reason that the 

 details of its collection are necessarily offensive, and 

 in many respects oppressive to the people, and that 

 such taxation should not be continued for the pur- 

 pose of paying any part of the principal of the na- 

 tional debt. 



4. That all internal revenue taxes on the distilla- 

 tion of fruit ought to be abolished. 



5. That the Republican party of North Carolina 

 recommend to the Congress of the United States the 

 passage of a general amnesty bill, and the adoption 

 of all necessary measures for the enforcement and 

 protection of the civil and political rights of all 

 classes of American citizens. 



6. That in a free and representative government 

 we recognize the paramount obligation to provide 

 efficiently for the general education of the people, 

 and we favor such legislation as will accomplish that 

 end; that we respectfully recommend and ask of the 

 national Government such aid, by the provision of a 

 public fund or the donation of public land to the 

 purposes of establishing schools in the several 

 States, as will secure to the masses of the people of 

 all classes the benefits of a liberal education. 



7. That we fully indorse the acts of Congress 

 passed to secure equal rights and protection to the 

 citizens of the United States in the several States; 

 and we respectfully recommend a continuance of the 

 present haws and the adoption of such further legis- 

 lation as will more certainly secure to the citizens 

 full and practical enjoyment of all their rights, privi- 

 leges, and liberties. 



8. In the opinion of the convention, the Demo- 

 cratic majority of the last Legislature, Toy consolidat- 

 ing into one act its numerous propositions to amend 

 the State constitution, endeavored to force upon the 

 people a false issue and to coerce them _ into the 

 adoption of obnoxious amendments; and inasmuch 

 as all these propositions must be submitted to the 

 next Legislature for ratification before the same can 

 be referred to the people : therefore 



Resolved, First, that the amendments proposed as 



