4. What public building was burned on June 21st, 1831? What was the cause of the fire? What was lost with the building? Where was the new capitol built? Of what was it built? 5. What was the chief regret? Who was this work by? 6. What is said of the Western Convention of 1823? 7. What law was enacted concerning a convention? 8. What is said of the memorable convention of 1835? What changes were made in the Constitution? 9. What was the majority of the votes given to the amendments? Who was the last Governor selected by the Legislature? 10. What two candidates were before the people in 1836? Who was the first Governor elected by the people? 13. How had the Northern States acted in regard to slavery? What checked the liberal spirit of the South concerning slavery? CHAPTER XLVII. INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS--THE COURTS AND THE BAR. A. D. 1836. There had been many changes effected among the people of North Carolina by the lapse of time when the year 1836 came in. Bartlett Yancey, the two Drs. Caldwell and Archibald Henderson were all dead, and their places filled by other men. Cotton was becoming more and more widely cultivated, and, year by year the value of slave property was increasing by reason of the profits realized in the cultivation of this great Southern staple. 2. The Dismal Swamp Canal was at last ready for traffic between the Albemarle country and Norfolk, in the State of Virginia. A change was soon apparent in the trade of the towns thus connected by a new watercourse with the outer world. The dangerous voyages through the inlets and out into the ocean were by degrees abandoned, and almost all direct trade with the West Indies ceased. 3. The first railway charter given in North Carolina was that of the Petersburg Railroad. This was in 1830, and was followed, two years later, by that of the Portsmouth and Roanoke route. Soon after, Governor Dudley and others organized the Wilmington Railroad, leading to Weldon, the same terminus fixed for the others. This was for some time the longest single line in the world. 4. A few lines had been constructed in the United States prior to these, but they were among the pioneer works of the vast network of railways now seen in every portion of the Republic. Wonderful changes have taken place in the travel and traffic of the States. The vast extent of the national territory once presented to wise observers of our institutions a bar to any unity of thought and interest; but steam and electricity have triumphed over space, and the Republic, in 1882, is far more compact and its parts greatly more accessible than were the Atlantic States in 1787.