174 Chronicles of the Cape Fear River

This accounts for the constant use of bayonets and throws the

needed light upon pictures of the olden time where the musket
is so often seen used as a club.

What a of the court when the courthouse was burned
in 1840 ¢ Well, for a while the sessions of court were held in
Society Hall, as it was called, a building in the rear of St.

James’s Church, but quite promptly the county magistrates had
the courthouse building erected on Princess Street, the same

building which only about a year or so ago was vacated that the

present elegant and commodious quarters migh
nt 10 ght be occupied.
The jail of 1840 was the building still standing on the sort

east corner of Second and Princess Streets, and now used as a
wagon-making shop.

Judges were elected by the Legislature in 1840 and for over
twenty years thereafter. The office was held for life or during
good behavior unless sooner voluntarily vacated by the occupant.

Commissioners of navigation were appointed by the commis- -

sioners of the town of Wilmington. Later in the forties they

were elected by the citizens of Wilmington and so continued to
be for a score or so of years.

The commissioners of the town in 1840 had been elected in
1839. They were named in a previous article. They held
office for two years. So did those elected in 1841, viz. : James
F. McRee, magistrate of police; Armand J. DeRosset jr.
Thomas W. Brown, Charles D. Fis, and John MacRae. I,
the Legislature of 1842-1843 a bill was passed “For the bettae
regulation of the town of Wilmington,” which provided for an-
nual elections of commissioners and increased the number to be
elected to seven. Why this should be decidedly objectionable
does not appear, but it was. The publication of intention for
thirty days, required in such cases, was made in a Raleigh
paper, and it was announced when the bill became a law that
not more than a dozen citizens of Wilmington knew what was

doing, which, compared with some things since, confirms Solo-
mon’s statement that “there is no new thing under the sun.” A

digression may be pardoned here. The same Legislature passed
an act establishing common schools in North Carolina and ap-
portioning two districts (of 35 in the county) to Wilmington.
The commissioners selected in January, 1843, under the new
law, were John MacRae, C. D. Ellis, T. W. Brown, Alexander
Anderson, Thomas J. Armstrong, William A. Wright, and
Oscar G. Parsley. |

Early Years 175

State elections in 1840 were held on different days in the

- various counties. The first was held on July 23 and the last
on August 13 (Wilmington Chronicle, May 18, 1840). Hyde,

Pitt, Washington, Wayne, and others had voted July 30, 1840
—+this was noted in the Chronicle of August 5, 1840. On Au-
gust 12 the paper contained the election news from these coun-
ties, or some of them. New Hanover voted on August 15 and
the result was given in the Chronicle of August 19, 1840.
Elections for State officers and members of Congress from that
time to the present have been held on the same day throughout
the State, formerly on the first Thursday in August, latterly
contemporaneously with the presidential election when occur-
ring in the same year.

John M. Morehead was elected governor in 1840 over Rom-
ulus M. Saunders by some 5,000 votes, perhaps more, but the
Legislature was Democratic in both branches.

But 1840 was a grand presidential year. The Whig party,
from a mere coterie having its origin in a New York City char-
ter election in 1834, had in six years grown to immense propor-
tions. It had all the enthusiasm of phenomenal growth. The
Democratic party—the party of Andrew Jackson and Martin
Van Buren—had dominated for twelve years past, and had all
the power and prestige pertaining to that fact. Not a great
while before this at a Tammany meeting in New York City two
factions, whom it will suit to call “Regulars” and “Reformers,”
were in high dispute. The “Reformers,” finding themselves
losing ground, turned off the gas, but the “Regulars,” prepared
for the occasion, instantly whipped out a hundred candles from
as many pockets and with the scratch of as many “Loco Foco”
matches the hall was again alight and the business proceeded.
There were no matches other than “Loco Foco” in those days,
and this incident, with little good reason seemingly, gave a name
of derision to the Jacksonian or regular Democratic party.

William Henry Harrison and John Tyler were the Whig
nominees for the Presidency. Martin Van Buren, then occupy-

ing the presidential chair, and Richard M. Johnson were the
nominees of the Democratic party. Van Buren was a man of
wealth; Harrison, if not poor was at least not wealthy, and had
lived in his early days—his friends did not let the people forget
it—in a log cabin. It is said that a Democratic editor, if not
building better than he knew, at least building otherwise than
he intended, said: “Give Harrison a log cabin and a barrel of

ee et ee