North Carolina To be rather than to seem



Carolina! Carolina! heaven's blessings attend her,
    While we live we will cherish, protect, and defend her.

                                            from The Old North State by William Gaston

Up
Joseph Hewes
William Hooper
John Penn

North Carolina 1868, Preamble.
We, the people of the State of North Carolina, grateful to Almighty God, the Sovereign Ruler of Nations, for the preservation of the American Union and the existence of our civil, political and religious liberties, and acknowledging our dependence upon Him for the continuance of those blessings to us and our posterity, do, for the more certain security thereof and for the better government of this State, ordain and establish this Constitution.

And we know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may know him that is true, and we are in him that is true, even in his Son Jesus Christ.  This is the true God, and eternal life.

1 John 5:20
 

Thus speaketh the LORD of hosts, saying, Execute true judgment, and shew mercy and compassions every man to his brother:

Zechariah 7:9


Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.
 Philippians 4:8

Institution of Higher Learning

1789    Beginning instruction in 1795, the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, is the oldest public university in the nation.  William Davies, son of the Reverend Samuel Davies, led efforts to build legislative and financial support for the University.  He graduated from Princeton, studied law under his guardian Richard Stockton, and served seven years in the Revolutionary War.  The University's first Board of Trustees included forty of the state's most influential men.  More than a third of them were heroes of the American Revolution.

            Samuel Davies was fourth president of the College of New Jersey (Princeton).  The first was Joseph Caldwell.

Illustration from Invitation to the 1843 Commencement Ball, from the North Carolina Collection, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Library.

     Chartered in 1967, the Chapel Hill Historical Society missions to preserve Chapel Hill and the University of North Carolina heritage through various active projects.  http://www.ibiblio.org/chhistsoc/   Membership Chairperson, The Chapel Hill Historical Society, P.O. Box 9032, Chapel Hill, NC 27515-9032
  From early governing documents:

  "Article XIX. That all men have a natural and unalienable right to worship Almighty God according to the dictates of their own consciences.

  Article XXXI. That no clergyman, or preacher of the gospel, of any denomination, shall be capable of being a member of either the Senate, House of Commons, or Council of State, while he continues in the exercise of pastoral function.

  Article XXXII. That no person, who shall deny the being of God or the truth of the Protestant religion, or the divine authority of the Old or New Testaments, or who shall hold religious principles incompatible with the freedom and safety of the State, shall be capable of holding any office or place of trust or profit in the civil department within this State.

  Article XXXIV. That there shall be no establishment of any one religious church or denomination in this State, in preference to any other; neither shall any person, on any presence whatsoever, be compelled to attend any place of worship contrary to his own faith or judgment, nor be obliged to pay, for the purchase of any glebe, or the building of any house of worship, or for the maintenance of any minister or ministry, contrary to what he believes right, of has voluntarily and personally engaged to perform; but all persons shall be at liberty to exercise their own mode of worship: -- Provided, That nothing herein contained shall be construed to exempt preachers of treasonable or seditious discourses, from legal trial and punishment."     North Carolina Constitution, 1776

        The early settlers developed colonial charters that were decidedly evangelical in their purpose, often expressing a goal for their colony to advance the Christian religion.  As the country progressed up to the revolutionary war period, state constitutions evolved from the charters.  Those state constitutions served to maintain the order already established by the original charters, the charters based on Christianity.

 

 

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