service as Quartermaster in the army under General Scott. Captain J. H. K. Burgwin, of the first United States Dragoons, died of his wounds at Taos. Lieutenant James G. Martin lost an arm and gained a brevet at Churusbusco. Captains T. H. Holmes and Gabriel Rains, and Lieutenant F. T. Bryan, all gave valuable and recognized service in the two columns under Generals Scott and Taylor.

QUESTIONS.

1. What period have we now reached? Who were Governors at this time? What is said of Governor John Branch?

2. What mention is made of the candidates for Governor?

3. What deaths of prominent men occurred about this period?

4. What Governor was elected in 1844? How was he beloved in the State?

5. What troubles arose in national matters on the election of James K. Polk?

6. What is said, of his visit to the University? Of what State was President Polk a native? How was his nomination announced?

7. Can you mention the North Carolina troops sent to Mexico, and their commanders?

8. Tell something about Major Louis D. Wilson.

9. What valiant officer was with General Taylor at Buena Vista? Give an account of his timely aid to the American army.

10. Describe the action.

11. What other officers are spoken of?

CHAPTER LI.

THE NORTH CAROLINA RAILWAY AND THE ASYLUMS.

A. D. 1845.

No single year in human records has been more prolific of change and social advancement than that which witnessed the overthrow of King Louis Phillipe in France and the general upheaval of all Europe. It seemed that the spirits of the sixteenth century had revisited the earth, and that men were everywhere resolved on revolution or amendment.

1848.

2. North Carolina formed no exception to this general impulse of Christendom. A wise and patriotic disregard of old sectional and party traditions first led to the assumption by the State of a controlling part in the great work of internal improvement. The railroads that had been previously constructed from different points to Roanoke River, were all in a deplorable condition.

3. The Raleigh and Gaston route was so decayed and impaired in its equipments that a whole day was consumed in the passage of a mail train over the eighty miles traversed. The Seaboard route to Portsmouth, Virginia, was prostrate and out of use. The Wilmington Road, though it was in somewhat better plight, was still served by feeble engines, which drew a few trains slowly along the track, ironed no more heavily than the wheels of a six- horse wagon.

4. The additional fact that no railway went further west than the village of Raleigh, also prevented the accumulation of such travel and traffic as to repay the outlay of construction and equipment. The Wilmington Road furnished the great route between the North and South, and in that way won richer returns than lines leading to the interior.

5. The long deferred hopes of Western North Carolina were at last to be realized. Ex-Governor Morehead and others besought the Legislature for the State's aid in a great line which should connect Charlotte, Greensboro, Raleigh and Goldsboro. This was to be called the "North Carolina Railroad," and was to be two hundred and forty miles long.

6. Eastern men, as a general thing, opposed this bill, but it was earnestly supported by William S. Ashe, of New Hanover, and others, in the House of Representatives; and, having passed that body, it was sent to the Senate. The vote in the upper House resulted in a tie. Calvin Graves, of Caswell, was Speaker. He had been a life-long Democrat, and knew that the people of his County were opposed to the State's aiding the proposed road, but he nobly discharged what he thought to be his duty, and, by his casting vote, the bill became a law.

7. This great step in building up the material prosperity of the Commonwealth did not satisfy the desires of this memorable Assembly. Measures that had been adopted at the previous session for the establishment of an institution for the education of the deaf, dumb and the blind children of the State were extended; and, at the earnest solicitation of Miss Dorothea Dix, of New York, a further appropriation was made for the erection of a hospital for the insane.

8. Miss Dix devoted her life to the amelioration of this unfortunate class of people. In North Carolina, as generally in the Republic, there had been no better disposition of lunatics than their confinement in the loathsome dungeons of county jails. Numbers who might have been restored to reason and usefulness were, in this way, condemned to the horrors of perpetual insanity. Instead of the comforts, kindness and restoration now to be found in the management of the Insane Asylums, the poor lunatic lay in chains in the murderer's cell and howled out his life amid the darkness and foetid exhalations of the hell to which he was doomed.

9. North Carolina was thus manfully meeting the requirements of both civilization and humanity; for as the condition of their highways affords the truest test of a people's advancement in civilization, so, also does the provision made for the care and comfort of the unfortunate and helpless afford the highest evidence of a people's progress in humanity.

10. In this memorable session of 1848-49, a still further exemplification of the wisdom of the North Carolina Legislature was seen in their statute for the protection of married women. Before that time the husband acquired by marriage absolute title to his wife's personal estate and a life interest in her real property, and these interests he could sell without her consent. He could also restrain her of her personal liberty.

11. The statute of this year provided that the husband's interest in the wife's lands should not be subject to sale by the husband without her full and free consent and joinder in the conveyance. This was to be attested by a privy examination and certificate appended to the deed conveying such lands.

12. A further much needed improvement took place when the ancient English rules allowing the husband the right of personal chastisement were also abolished, and this infamous badge of inferiority numbered among the things of the past.

13. There have been periods in the history of all communities when extraordinary development was witnessed. The overthrow of one ancient abuse leads to the correction of another; and thus, in the awakening sympathies of the hour, reformations give way to a new and higher humanity.

QUESTIONS.

1. What is this lesson about? What is said of the period now reached?

2. How was North Carolina feeling the general impulse of improvement?

3. In what condition were the railroads?

4. How far west were the railroads reaching? Which of the roads was obtaining most travel?

5. What important railway is now mentioned? What was to be its extent?

6. Can you describe the passage of the "Railroad Bill" through the Legislature?

7. What charitable institutions were provided for at this session? Through whose instrumentality was the appropriation made for the Insane Asylum?

8. What devotion did Miss Dix give to this subject? What had been the disposition of the insane before this?

9. What is said of these internal improvements?

10. What other important law was enacted at this session? Can you tell something of the rights of married women previous to this time?

11. What were the provisions of the new law?

12. What was indicated by these acts of the State?

13. What reflections are made upon this era?

CHAPTER LII.

A SPECTRE OF THE PAST REAPPEARS.

A. D. 1848 TO 1852.

1. The female seminaries of Salem, Raleigh and Greensboro were supplemented, in 1843, in the establishment, by the Chowan and Portsmouth Baptist Associations, of another female school of high grade, at Murfreesboro. This useful and popular institution soon gained reputation and attracted patronage from many of the Southern States. The Edgeworth Seminary at Greensboro was a similar institution under Presbyterian rule. It was a worthy rival of its compeers in the education of Southern girls. The University, Wake Forest and Davidson College were advancing their