NORTH CAROLINA. 



108 



necessity of a prompt and decisive action in 

 this matter, saying: "It is very important 

 tliat wo should compromise, commute, and 

 s.'ttU- tin- State debt, so that our financial con- 

 dition may be the better known, both at home 

 ami abroad, and our public credit again estab- 

 lished upon a sound basis." 



STATE SEAL OF NORTH CAROLINA. 



With a view greatly to increase the material 

 prosperity of the State, and also to retain 

 within her borders the vast sums of money 

 now constantly sent abroad for the purchase 

 of almost all kinds of manufactured poods, 

 Governor Bragden recommended that, without 

 abating the protection and favor due to nil 

 branches of agriculture, the chief source of all 

 wealth, the General Assembly should hold out 

 suitable inducements to encourage the estab- 

 lishment of other industries both to supply the 

 raw material required and to work it out for 

 use, more especially as North Carolina is en- 

 dowed by Nature with almost inexhaustible 

 resources for the raising of such raw materials 

 in great variety and abundance. He says: 



Wo ought to manufacture and supply ourselves 

 with a large proportion of our woolen clothes of all 

 kimU, especially of the coarser and more substantial 

 kind. 



We ought to spin and weave at least one-half of 

 our cotton-crop, which cannot be less than 200,000 

 bales per annum. 



We ought to manufacture our own iron from the 

 vast beds of ore which we have in various parts ot' 

 the State, some of which are not excelled for quality 

 elsewhere in the earth. 



We ought to get out and use more of our timber, 

 and send more of it than we do to the markets of the 

 world. We ought to direct very much more of our 

 attention and energies to the great work of building 

 up a home market for our people, and of thus living 

 more within ourselves. 



A policy of this kind would benefit every interest, 

 and would especially redound to the advantage and 

 prosperity of the farmers, bycreatinga demand here 

 at home for their products. 



It would also save millions of dollars per annum 

 to the State, which are now expended outside our 

 borders, and which constitute a constant drain upon 

 our wealth. 



It would also diversify labor and give employment 

 to all classes of our people, without which we cun- 



VOL. i vi. 89 A 



not hope to advance rapidly in intelligence and 



Wl-altll. 



The education of youth is commendably 

 cared for in the State, without discrimination 

 between whites and blacks, the children of 

 either race receiving instruction in separate 

 schools, but in the same manner and on the- 

 same conditions. The following statement ex- 

 hibits the number of children of school age, an 

 well as the number of teachers, school-houses, 

 and academies for white and colored children 

 in North Carolina in November, 1876 : 



Male white children of school age 125,580 



Female white children of school ago 119,980 



Total of white children 248,510 



Male colored children of school age 77,688 



Female colored children of school age 75,415 



Total number of colored children 152,998 



Total number of children of school age. . 401,506 



White-school districts 2,702 



Colored-school districts 1,872 



Total 4,070 



Public school-houses for white children 1,934 



Private school-houses for white children 545 



Public school-houses for colored children 1,871 



Private school-houses for colored children . . . 140 



Total 8,890 



Academies for white children 169 



Academies for colored children 5 



Colleges for white children 22 



Colleges for colored children 2 



White male teachers in public schools 1,294 



White female teachers in public schools 788 



Colored male teachers in public schools 629 



Colored female teachers in public schools . . . 388 



Total 2,694 



Graded schools, so called, have been opened 

 in several places, and are conferring signal 

 benefits on the communities in which they ex- 

 ist. The object and extent of the instruction 

 given in these schools are " to begin with the 

 rudiments for little children, and gradually to 

 ascend, until the larger and older scholars are 

 thoroughly instructed in the higher branches of 

 learning, thus fitting them for the active busi- 

 ness of life without further instruction, or pre- 

 paring them for college, where they may make 

 still further and higher progress in learning and 

 knowledge." 



The State University at Chapel Hill was 

 opened for the reception of students on the 

 10th of September, 1875, and is now in suc- 

 cessful operation. 



An act was passed by the last General As- 

 sembly directing the State Treasurer to issue 

 to the trustees of the said university a certifi- 

 cate of indebtedness for $125,000, bearing in- 

 terest at six per cent., payable in two semi- 

 annual installments, to be used by the said 

 trustees in support of the university. The sum 

 of $7,500 is annually paid from the public 

 Treasury on that account. 



In the State Asylum for the Insane there 

 were, at the beginning of November, 1876, 

 264 patients under treatment. The whole 

 number of patients admitted into this institu- 

 tion since the day of its first opening, Febra- 



