Only three classical schools in 1794. Praise for Caldwell's school. 2. EDUCATIONAL CONDITIONS. Before this University went into operation, in 1794, there were not more than three schools in the State, in which the rudiments of a classical education could be acquired. The most prominent and useful of these schools was kept by Dr. David Caldwell, of Guilford County. He instituted it shortly after the close of the war, and continued it for more than thirty years. The usefulness of Dr. Caldwell to the literature of North Carolina will never be sufficiently appreciated: but the opportunities of instruction in his school were very limited. There was no library attached to it; his students were supplied with a few of the Greek and Latin Classics, Euclid's Elements of Mathematics, and Martin's Natural Philosophy. Moral Philosophy was taught from a syllabus of lectures delivered by Dr. Witherspoon in Princeton College. The students had no books on history or miscellaneous literature. history and litera- There were indeed very few in the State, except in the libraries of lawyers who lived in the commercial towns. I well remember, that after completing my course of studies under Dr. Caldwell, I spent nearly two years without finding any books to read except some old works on Books which gave Theological subjects. At length I accidentally met with Course of study. Dearth of books on ture. Murphey a taste for reading. Voltaire's history of Charles the twelfth of Sweden, an odd volume of Smollett's Roderic Random, and an abridgment of Don Quixote. These books gave me a taste for reading, which I had no opportunity of gratifying until I became a student in this university in 1796. Few of Dr. Caldwell's students had better opportunities of getting books than myself; and with these slender opportunities of instruction, it is not surprising that so few became eminent in the liberal professions. At this day, when libraries are established in all our towns, when every professional man, and every respectable gentleman, has a collection of books, it is difficult to conceive the inconveniences under which young men labored thirty or forty years ago. From an "Oration delivered in Person Hall, on Wednesday the 27th June, 1827-under the appointment of the Dialetic Society-by the Hon. Archibald D. Murphey, and published by order of said Society." -Raleigh Register, July 24, 1827. 1. RALEIGH ASKS STATE AID TO ESTABLISH ACADEMY. To the Honorable the General Assembly of the State of The petition of the undersigned Inhabitants of the City of Raleigh, and its Vicinity, Raleigh. SHEWETH, That your Petitioners, fuily impressed Need of a school in with the importance of affording the Means of Education to the Rising Generation and lamenting the want of an Academy at the Seat of Government of this State (a Place in their opinion particularly adapted for such an Institution) in which Youth of both Sexes, might be taught, at least, the most useful branches of Learning, instead of sending them to a Distance to be educated, as at present Parents and Guardians are under the Necessity of doing: And your Petitioners being also in need of a commodious room or Rooms in which to hold meetings of a public nature, on various occasions, they pray your honourable Body that you will be pleased to favor the Undertaking they have in view of establishing such a Seminary, and of erecting such Public Buildings, by granting unto them, Ask for a lot. as a Scite for this purpose, one of the public Squares of the said City; and if your Petitioners might be permitted to designate that which appears to them most convenient for the Occasion, they would name Burke Square, situate in the North Eastern Part of the City, as the most eligible. Should your Honourable Body be pleased to grant the Prayer of your Petitioners, it is their Intention to have made immediately a Plan and estimate of the contemplated Buildings, and to open a subscription, in order to raise the necessary funds for the erection of the same, which they |