VIRGINIA.

this evil, the Virginia company at London, who then had the direction of its affairs, in 1620, procured one hundred and sixty females of humble condition, but of fair character, and sent them to the colony to be disposed of as wives to the planters, at the rate of one hundred and sixty pounds of tobacco for each, being the average expense of procuring and shipping them. This singular proceeding was attended with happy effects to the parties, and to the colony.

The christian religion, according to the forms of the episcopal church, was the established religion of Virginia during its colonial state. In 1785, the legislature repealed all laws which recognized the protestant episcopal church as a legal establishment. The glebe lands, and other church property, except the houses of worship, were taken from their owners and vested in the overseers of the poor, reserving to the incumbents only an estate for life.

At the commencement of the revolution, Virginia was much the largest and most powerful state in the confederacy. Though she had individually suffered nothing, she took an early and sympathetic part in oppressions attempted to be inflicted on Massachusetts. Mr. Jefferson from the former, and Mr. Adams from the latter, were united in principles and measures, and directed the early proceedings of Congress which eventuated in the independence of the states. She has furnished a president of the United States for eight out of the thirteen presidential terms that have already occurred, and the present acting executive, Mr. Tyler, is also a Virginian.

Virginia has no large cities, Norfolk, situated on Elizabeth river, eight miles above its entrance into the Chesapeake, is the most commercial. It contains a population of 10,920. Richmond is the seat of government, situated on James river, at the head of tide water, one hundred and fifty miles above its mouth.

NORTH CAROLINA. ITS CONSTITUTION.

EDUCATION.

It contains a population of 20,153. Charlotteville is eighty-six miles north-west of Richmond; two miles to the east of this village is Monticello, the seat of the late president Jefferson, on a gentle rise, near the base of Carter's mountain.

NORTH CAROLINA. North Carolina, next south of Virginia, extends from the Atlantic to the state of Tennessee, containing 50,000 square miles, and 753,419 inhabitants, of which 245,817 are slaves, and 22,782 free colored. The militia amount to 66,552. Population to the square mile, fifteen.

ITS CONSTITUTION. The constitution of North Carolina was formed in 1776, and amended in 1835. This is the only constitution in which the word commons is used to designate the second or more numerous branch of the legislature. It is inappropriate to the American constitutions, because it is connected with the idea of a nobility, or a higher order of rank in society, which is not recognized in any of the United States.

The constitution of North Carolina provides that the governor, senate, and house of commons, shall be chosen biennially; that the general assembly shall meet biennially, and, at each session, elect, by a joint vote of the two houses, a secretary of state, treasurer, and council of state, who are to continue in office for the term of two years. The general assembly is also to appoint an attorney general, whose term of office is to be four years. The governor is not eligible more than four years in any term of six years.

The thirty-second section of the constitution provides, that "no person who shall deny the being of a God, or the truth of the Christian religion, or the divine authority of the Old and New Testaments, or who shall hold religious principles incompatible with the freedom or safety of the state, shall be capable of holding any office, or place of trust, or profit, in the civil department within this state."

Test acts of this character, however well intended, have been found to answer no valuable purpose.

The first declaration of American independence was made in the interior of North Carolina. A convention of two delegates from each militia company in the county of Mecklenberg, met at Charlotte, on the 19th of May, 1775, to take into consideration the existing state of things." From this meeting issued a manifesto, containing most of the principles of that made by congress on the 4th of July of the succeeding year.

EDUCATION. There is a college in the state, established at Chapel Hill, called the university of North Carolina; number of students, one hundred and sixty-nine. Davison college was founded in Mecklenburg county in 1837. Wake Forest college, founded in 1839. Academies are established in various places,

GOLD REGION.

and an increasing attention has of late been paid to education. The state has a literary fund pledged to the support of common schools, consisting of swamp lands estimated at 1,500,000 acres, bank stock and cash amounting to something more than a million of dollars. The management of this fund is committed to a "board of literature."

North Carolina is divided into three sections; the tide water or alluvial, the hilly, and the mountainous section. In the first the plantations are large, and principally managed by slave labor; in this, the slaves are nearly as numerous as the whites. In this region also are extensive pine plains, or barrens, as they are called, affording great quantities of lumber for exportation. In the other two the plantations take the name of farms, and are smaller; much of the labor is done by whites. The elevation of a thousand feet, which is computed to be the average height of the table lands of Virginia and North Carolina above the tide water lands, is equivalent in relation to climate, to a difference of two and a half degrees of latitude; and gives the same temperature to western Virginia and North Carolina as to the latitude of 40° on the Atlantic coast.

North Carolina has no large towns; its citizens are chiefly agriculturists, settled upon their plantations and farms. Raleigh, on the river Neuse, 120 miles above Newbern, is the seat of government. Population, 2244. The latter is the largest and most commercial town in the state, and the principal place of export for corn and the productions of the pine forests.

There are three banks in the state, with several branches.

GOLD REGION. Gold was first discovered in the United -States, on the border of the Yadkin river, in North Carolina. A small quantity of it was first brought to the mint for coinage in 1804. In 1824, it was found to the amount of $5000, and in 1833, to the amount of $475,000. The gold region, the righest

INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS.

and best part of which is in North Carolina, extends into Virginia, South Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee and Alabama, and is supposed to comprise a surface of about a thousand square miles. The director of the mint computes that one half only of the annual product reaches the mint, the other being exported in bullion, or wrought up in various manufactures. Considering the increased eagerness with which gold is now sought, and that it generally well rewards the search, scarcely a limit can be placed to the expected amount. Gold is found generally in minute particles near the surface, mixed with earth; sometimes in considerable lumps, nearly pure. The principal labor con

sists in gathering and washing the particles. It has been estimated, that the total value of bullion found in the North Carolina mines, since their first discovery, amounts to ten millions of dollars.

INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS. The internal improvement fund of this state, amounts to about $1,000,000; a number of rail road charters have been granted by the legislature; but two only which lie wholly within the state, have yet been completed, viz., the Wilmington and Raleigh rail road, 161 miles in length, extending from Wilmington, on the Cape Fear, to Weldon, on the Roanoke, where it connects with the Portsmouth and Roanoke rail road; and the Raleigh and Gaston rail road, 85 miles in length, extending from Raleigh to Gaston, on the Roanoke, where it connects with the Petersburg and Roanoke rail road. Both of these roads were opened in March, 1840.

SOUTH CAROLINA. COLLEGES.

SOUTH CAROLINA. South Carolina is computed to contain thirty thousand square miles. Its number of white inhabitants is 259,084; of slaves, 327,008; of free colored, 8,276; whole number, 594,398: being twenty to the square mile. Its militia amount to 48,817. The domestic exports of South Carolina in 1810, exceeded ten millions of dollars.

The first constitution of South Carolina was made in 1775; the present one, in 1790, to which some amendments have since been added. The legislative authority is vested in a general assembly, consisting of a senate of forty-five members, elected for four years, one half biennially, and a house of representatives of 124 members, chosen for two years. The governor is chosen by joint ballot of both houses, for two years, at the first meeting after a house of representatives is chosen. The assembly meet annually at Columbia, on the fourth Monday of November. The governor can hold his office but two years out of six. He is called in the constitution the executive power, but in this, as in several other states, the operative and most important branch of this power is reserved to the legislature. The chancellor, judges, secretary of state, commissioners of the treasury, and surveyor general, are elected by joint ballot of both houses. The judges hold their offices during good behavior. Other executive officers hold their offices for four years, and are ineligible for the next term.

This constitution also contains a proscriptive clause against clergymen. In the eleventh article is a paragraph in the following terms; "No convention of people shall be called, unless by a concurrence of two thirds of both branches of the whole representation." In virtue of the powers supposed to be granted in this prohibitory clause, a special legislature ordered a convention to meet, November, 1832, which passed the celebrated nullification ordinance, declaring that the tariff law of 1832 was unconstitutional, and that its execution should not be permitted in South Carolina.

The bank of the state of South Carolina is an institution in which the state is the proprietor, and from which it draws an annual revenue of $150,000. Whole number of banks is twelve, with an authorized capital of about eleven and a half millions of dollars.

COLLEGES. The South Carolina college was established at Columbia, in 1804. It is wholly a state institution. Since its foundation, the state has paid $420,000 for buildings, library, cabinet, and instruction. Number of students, one hundred and fifty.

The Charleston college was first established in 1795, and in 1824, was new organized, and placed on a more respectable footing. It is supported by private donations, and tuition fees.