State

Page Six THE STATE October 12, 1935 GOVERNORS OF NORTH CAROLINA - No. 34-BENJAMIN WILLIAMS - - By W. J. Sadler - ★ THE administration of Benjamin ★ Williams as Governor of IVortli Carolina, which extended over a period of three years, saw the estab¬ lishment of the State Supreme Court and the State Medical Society. He also paid considerable attention to education and agriculture, and seems to have made a very efficient Chief Executive. BEX JAM IN W I L- I.IAMS. of Moor о County, assumed the office of Governor of North Carolina a little more than one short month before the beginning of the nineteenth century. Historical ac¬ counts indicate that he served in a most creditable manner as Chief Executive of the stato during the en¬ suing three years. Williams succeeded Gov¬ ernor William K. Davie, who had been inducted into the gul.er- nntorial office following the retirement of Governor Samuel Ashe in 170S. Davie, however, served less than a year, declining to stand for rec-lection Ice- cause he had been selected by President Adams as one of a commission of three to negotiate with the French govern¬ ment in an effort to prevent what ap¬ parently was an inevitable war between the youthful American Republic and the European country. Helps Arrange Peace “Governor Davie felt that he could not decline «о honorable a duty," says an historian. “He. therefore, at the end of his first year in office, asked the legislature to elect another Gover¬ nor. ... In the capital of the showy French nation. Davie's handsome face and figure ami his charming manners won attention. His dignity and good sense commanded respect. Napoleon was glad to make a treaty with the Americans, and thus our country es¬ caped a war with France." Little of exceeding importance oc¬ curred during Davie’s brief tenure of office a* Governor of North Carolina. One of the outstanding events of his administration was the passage of nil act by the General Assembly provid¬ es that the Secretary of State should be bonded in the sum of ton thousand pound-. This action was the outcome oi the land frauds scandal which had taken place while Governor Ashe was in office, and which resulted in the dis¬ grace of several high public officials of the state. On December 14. 1 7J»£». within less than a month after Governor Williams had taken his official seat in the Ca|»- itol at Raleigh. General George Wash¬ ington. that great American who had led his country to victory over the British and who had become the first President <>f the new republic, died at his Mount Vernon home. This occur¬ rence plunged the entire country into gri«-f and mourning, and North Caro¬ lina joined with her sister states in paying proper homage to the memory of the man who had done so much un¬ der terrific handicaps to assure free¬ dom for the New World colonists. Captain Samuel Ashe of Raleigh, in his History of North Carolina, de¬ scribes Governor Williams as “a man of fine intelligence who stood among the first, of the progressive agricultur¬ ists of the state. . . . Mr. Williams was a large and successful planter of Moore County, and closely connected with some of the leading families of the eastern counties." Another outstanding accomplishment of the administration of Governor Williams was the establishment of the Supreme Court of the state, which was made possible through action of the first legislature to gather in Raleigh following Williams' elevation to the governorship. It was not. however, in the same form which now prevails. Ac¬ cording to historians, that first Su¬ preme Court was composed of four Superior Court judges, who were au¬ thorized to meet together in the Capital City at certain intervals to consider such matters as might have been brought up for appeal. After these sittings, the jurists would resume their "ridings” in various sections of the state. Another important step taken by Williams, shortly before lie retired from office on December fi. 1802, after having served since Novem¬ ber^*:». 1700, was the par¬ doning of John Stanley. That youthful political zealot, a member of the na¬ tional House of Represent¬ atives. had killed former Governor Richard Dobbs Spaight in a duel on September 5, only three months before Williams' term was to expire. The slaying of Spaight resulted from differences aris¬ ing .luring the heat of a political cam¬ paign. Strong For Education Education apparently made rapid strides in the state during the time that Governor Williams held office. Many academies were established in various sections of the state, as well as a large number of private schools, ami the zeal for education seemed to have been aroused in the hearts and minds of much of the populace of North Carolina. Governor Williams, it seems, encouraged this attitude, and did his Itest to inoculate the germ of education into his people. Medical Society Formed The State Medical Society was an¬ other important organization formed while Williams was Governor, and ef¬ forts also were made to improve the condition of farmers of the state. Even at that time there were protests against the production of a single “money crop," such as cotton, and Captain Ashe, quoting a leader of the times, says in his history: "Notwithstanding the great cry about cotton, I think the best farming we can go in would be to sow a crop of wheat, and. immedi¬ ately after it is off. put in corn.” Governor Williams, after a some¬ what unexciting administration, was succeeded in 1802 by James Turner of Warren County.