public instruction, and advising the governor in the administration of his office. Judges, heads of departments, and executive boards are elected, and even in the few instances in which the governor appoints to office the confirmation of the Senate is necessary. Furthermore, in North Carolina the governor has no veto power. In addition to the executive officials mentioned above there are a lieutenant-governor, an attorney-general, a Bureau of Labor Statistics, established in 1887, and a Corporation Commission, which in 1899 superseded the Railroad Commission, established in 1891. The governor and the lieutenant-governor must at the time of their election be at least thirty years of age, and must have been citizens of the United States for five years and residents of the state for two years.
Sessions of the General Assembly are held biennially, beginning on the Wednesday after the first Monday in January. The Senate is composed of fifty members elected biennially by senatorial districts as nearly as possible equal to one another in population, and the House of Representatives (in the Constitution of 1776 called the House of Commons) of one hundred and twenty, elected biennially and chosen by counties[1] according to their population, each county having at least one representative, no matter how small its population. A senator must at the time of his election be at least 25 years of age, and must have been a resident and citizen of the state for at least two years, and a resident in his district for one year immediately preceding his election; and a representative must be a qualified elector of the state and must have resided in his county for at least one year immediately preceding his election. The pay for both senators and representatives is four dollars per day for a period not exceeding sixty days; should the session be prolonged the extra service is without compensation. Extra sessions, called by the governor on the advice of the council of state, are limited to twenty days, but may be extended under the same limitations in regard to compensation. The Senate may sit as a court of impeachment to try cases presented by the House, and a two-thirds vote is necessary for conviction.
There is a supreme court consisting of a chief justice and four associates, elected by popular vote for eight years, and a superior or circuit court, composed of sixteen judges elected by the people in each of sixteen districts for a term of eight years.
The county officials are the sheriff, a coroner, a treasurer, a register of deeds, a surveyor and five commissioners, elected for two years. The commissioners supervise the penal and charitable institutions, schools, roads, bridges and finances of the county. Subordinate to them are the township boards of trustees, composed of a clerk, and two justices of the peace.
By the constitution personal property to the value of $500 and any homestead to the value of $1000 is exempt from sale for debt, except for taxes on the homestead, or for obligations contracted for the purchase of said premises. Under the revised code (1905) a wife may hold property which she had acquired before marriage free from any obligation of her husband, but in general she is not permitted to make contracts affecting either her personal or real estate without the written consent of her husband. Neither can the husband convey real estate without the wife’s consent, and a widow may dissent from her husband’s will at any time within six months after the probate of the same, the effect of such dissent being to allow her the right of one-third of her deceased husband’s property, including the dwelling house in which they usually resided. The constitution prescribes that “all marriages between a white person and a negro, or between a white person and a white person of negro descent to the third generation inclusive, are hereby forever prohibited.” Until 1905 the only grounds for an absolute divorce were adultery, natural impotence, and pregnancy of the wife at the time of marriage; but an amendment of 1907 allows a divorce whenever there has been a separation of husband and wife for ten successive years, provided the parties have lived in the state for that period and no children have been born of the marriage. The working of children under twelve years of age in any factory or manufacturing establishment is unlawful, the working of children between the ages of twelve and thirteen in such places is allowed only on condition that they be employed as apprentices and have attended school for at least four months during the preceding year; and no boy or girl under fourteen is to work in such places during night time. An antitrust law of 1907 makes it unlawful for any corporation controlling within the state the sale of 50% of an article to raise or lower the price of that article with the intention of injuring a competitor. On the 26th of May 1908 the people of the state voted “against the manufacture and sale of intoxicating liquors” in the state; the prohibition act thus approved went into effect on the 1st of January 1909. State prohibition had been defeated in 1881 by a vote of 100,000; in 1902 the Anti-Saloon League organized in the state; in 1903 the Watts Law enacted rural prohibition, giving towns local option, under which many of the towns voted “no licence”; and in 1905 severe police regulations were provided for towns in which saloons were licensed.
Charitable and Penal Institutions.—In the systematic care of the dependent and defective classes North Carolina was one of the pioneer states of the South. An institute for the deaf and dumb and blind was opened at Raleigh in 1845, and another for the deaf and dumb at Morganton in 1894; by a law of 1907 every deaf child of sound mind must attend, between the ages of eight and fifteen, a school for the deaf at least five terms of nine months each; and by a law of 1908 every blind child (between seven and seventeen), if of sound mind and body, must attend some school for the blind for nine months of each year. The North Carolina State Hospital (for the insane) at Raleigh was opened in 1856 as a result of the labours of Miss Dorothea Lynde Dix (1805–1887); in connexion with it there is an epileptic colony. The State Hospital at Morganton, opened in 1883, completed in 1886, and intended for the use of the western part of the state, is perhaps the best equipped institution of its kind south of the Potomac. In 1901 a department for criminal insane was opened in a wing of the state prison at Raleigh. The Oxford Orphan Asylum at Oxford (1872) is supported partly by the Masonic Order and partly by the state. A movement begun by the Confederate Veterans Association in October 1889 resulted in the establishment in 1890 of a home for disabled veterans at Raleigh; this became a state institution in 1891. In 1908 a state tuberculosis sanatorium was opened near Aberdeen, Moore county. The state also takes good care of the unfortunates among the negro race. The Institute for the Colored Deaf, Dumb and Blind (1867) at Raleigh and the Eastern Insane Hospital (1880) near Goldsboro are the oldest institutions of the kind for negroes in the world; in connexion with the last there is an epileptic colony for negroes. There is also (at Oxford) an Orphanage for the Colored (1883), which was established by the “Wake and Shiloh Associations of the Colored Baptist Church,” first received state aid in 1891, and is now supported chiefly by the state. The state prison is at Raleigh, although most of the convicts are distributed upon farms owned and operated by the state. The lease system does not prevail, but the farming out of convict labour is permitted by the constitution; such labour is used chiefly for the building of railways, the convicts so employed being at all times cared for and guarded by state officials. A reformatory for white youth between the ages of seven and sixteen, under the name of the Stonewall Jackson Manual Training and Industrial School, was opened at Concord in 1909, and in March 1909 the Foulk Reformatory and Manual Training School for negro youth was provided for. Charitable and penal institutions are under the supervision of a Board of Public Charities, appointed by the governor for a period of six years, the terms of the different members expiring in different years. Private institutions for the care of the insane, idiots, feeble-minded and inebriates may be established, but must be licensed and regulated by the state board and become legally a part of the system of public charities.
Education.—The public school system was established in 1839, being based on the programme for state education prepared in 1816–1817 by Archibald Debow Murphey (1777–1832), whose educational ideas were far in advance of his day. Calvin Henderson Wiley (1819–1887), the author of several romances dealing with life in North Carolina, such as Roanoke: or, Where is Utopia? (1866), and of Life in the South: a Companion to Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852), was superintendent of common schools in 1853–1865 (the executive head of) the state’s educational department having previously been a “literary board”), and won the name of the “Horace Mann of the South” by his wise reforms. He kept the public schools going through the Civil War, having advised against the disturbance of the school funds and their reinvestment in Confederate securities. The present school system is supervised by a state board of education consisting of the governor, lieutenant-governor, secretary of state, treasurer, auditor, attorney-general, and superintendent of public instruction. In the counties there is a board of education and there is also a local school committee of three in each township. The compulsory attendance at school of children between the ages
- ↑ Under the Constitution of 1776 senators were elected by counties, one for each county, and representatives also by counties, two for each county—in addition, the towns of Edenton, Newbern, Wilmington, Salisbury, Hillsboro and Halifax each elected one representative; and a property qualification—a freehold of 50 acres held for six months before an election—was imposed on electors of senators. Under amendments of 1835 senators were chosen by districts formed on the basis of public taxes paid into the state treasury, representatives were still chosen by counties, and were apportioned among them on the same basis as their Federal representation (i.e. counting three-fifths of the slaves), and free negroes or mulattoes “descended from negro ancestors to the fourth generation inclusive” were excluded from the suffrage. In 1856 the property qualification for electors of senators was removed.
