Mrs. Atkins is the only living child of President Swain. No male representative of the family survives..

President Swain had never entertained extreme views in regard to "State rights," and did not permit himself to become embittered against the North during the War. Mrs. C. P. Spencer, a neighbor and familiar acquaintance of President Swain, in her Pen and Ink Sketches of the University, says: "Governor Swain believed this marriage was but the first of many others like it to take place all over the South; that our peace was to flow like a river, and that North and South were coming together at once to be more firmly united than ever. He was a sagacious man and accustomed to calculate possibilities very closely and accurately, but he did not once dream of the party issues that were to spring up and divide the country even more effectually than the War, nor of the bitterness that was to be engendered and revived."

This marriage provoked much adverse criticism throughout the State. President Swain's course was censured by many, some being alienated from the University on account of it; but now that prejudice has yielded to reason, his wisdom in this matter is admitted. Had all been as charitable as he was, the wounds of the War would soon have been healed.

LAST YEARS OF SWAIN'S ADMINISTRATION.

Now that the War was over, it was hoped that the University would rise to its former prosperity. But it seemed that President Swain had lost his hold upon the affections of the people of the State, and in consequence the institution suffered. His liberal policy had pleased neither of the then existing political factions. The leaders of the Republican party looked upon him with suspicion, and regarded the University as "a hot-bed of treason." He had displeased many prominent and influential friends of the institution by his willingness to accept the results of the War and banish all sectional strife. Many clamored for his removal. His resignation was tendered in 1867, but was not accepted, the reason probably being that the trustees were aware that they were soon to be succeeded by a new board of trustees, and they wished to throw the responsibility of the reorganization of the University upon them.

In 1868 the State passed under the new Constitution. There was an entire change in the State government. The University was placed in the hands of a new board of trustees, and one of their first official acts was to dismiss the president and Faculty, that they might remodel it on a partisan basis.

President Swain did not long survive this dark hour of the University. On August 11, 1868, while out driving with a friend near Chapel Hill, he was thrown from the buggy and painfully injured. He died from the effects of his injuries August 27, following the accident. He was buried in Oakwood Cemetery, near Raleigh.

President Swain was an earnest Christian and an honored member of the Presbyterian Church. Senator Vance, in referring to his Chris tian character, says: "He was a praying man, and was not ashamed to be known as such. He first introduced the practice of opening the regu lar meetings of the faculty with prayer." Truly has it been said that "the soil of our State holds the dust of no son who loved her more or served her better."

RECONSTRUCTION.

The first acts of the board of trustees, which had been appointed upon the adoption of the Constitution of 1868, were unconstitutional and condemned by the best citizens of the State.

They ordered the University to be closed, declared all the chairs vacant, and all the professorships abolished. The Constitution of the State provides that the University shall be perpetuated and maintained, and the charter of the institution expressly states that the members of the Faculty shall not be dismissed unless certain specified charges shall be proved.

The larger part of the endowment was unwisely invested and lost, and political bias was manifested in all that was done.

Upon the re-opening of the University in 1869, the friends of the insti tution were dissatisfied to find that the late distinguished president and his able coadjutors had been succeeded by new and untried men.

In referring to President Swain and this period of the history of the University, Mr. Paul C. Cameron, president of the Alumni Association, in an address before that body in 1881, said:

"The shadows of a dark night were falling round him and his colleagues and the object of his care. A special Providence seemed watchful to save these old servants of our State University from the humili ation of a painful exile from homes, labors, honors, offices, and altars. Professor Mitchell had fallen on rest in the deep and dark chambers of the Black Mountain. Professor Phillips had lain down with his harness on, upon the rostrum of the chapel, for his long sleep whilst the students were assembling for morning prayer. President Swain, in visiting a small farm in preparation for the comfort of his small family of old servants, is by an accident fatally injured; lingering a few days his useful life and well-rounded labors are closed in charity and kindness to all, but with anxious fears for the future of an institution that he had loved so long and served so well. He knew that new and unknown men would soon be placed in charge. Pleasant is the memory of such a man to the good people of North Carolina, and they silently rebuked the punishment of a man without a crime, and a Faculty without a stain, and in fortitude submitted to the inevitable, and passed their sons to the care of the undisturbed institutions of learning of our sister State of Virginia."

THE FOURTH PRESIDENT, REV. SOLOMON POOL, D. D.

Rev. Solomon Pool, D. D., became president in 1869. Doubtless he had the interest of the University at heart in accepting the position, but time has proved that it was unfortunate for him and for the institution that he did so. In becoming a member of the Republican party at the time he did and under the then existing circumstances, he rendered himself unpopular with some of the best and most influential people in the State-the former friends and supporters of the University. The board of trustees, of which Dr. Pool was a member, was regarded with disfavor, and the fact that he was its choice did not add to his reputation.

Without reputatlon for broad scholarship or administrative ability, without influential friends outside his own party, without any claim upon the people of the State, he accepted the presidency of one of the leading institutions in the Union. Even though his best efforts were put forth in its behalf, yet that his administration was a comparative failure is no surprise. It is due Dr. Pool to add that he was the best man of his party in the State for the position, and at that time it would have been almost, if not quite impossible, for any Republican to have suc ceeded in the management of the University.

During the presidency of Dr. Pool the attendance at any time was not more than seventy-five, a large proportion of the students coming from the immediate neighborhood of the institution and none from without the State. The faculty numbered five; all were Republicans, and two of them were Northern men who had previously been connected with institutions for the education of colored people. This, in a measure, accounts for the small attendance. The writer is glad to add that the day has now come when no man is ostracized in North Carolina on account of political convictions, and that some of the most prominent physicians and one of the ablest divines in the State are professors in Shaw University, an institution in Raleigh for the higher education of the negro in medicine, law, divinity, and letters, and no right-thinking man condemns them for their course.

After 1870 all exercises were discontinued until the reorganization in 1875. Dr. Pool continued as nominal president in charge of the University property until the reopening.

Dr. Pool is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church South. He is a native of Elizabeth City, N. C. In 1849, at the age of seventeen, he entered the University, where he was graduated in 1853. In December, 1853, he was elected tutor of mathematics in his alma mater, and in 1860 he was promoted to the adjunct professorship of pure mathematics, which position he held until 1866, when he accepted a Government position in the revenue service. He was president of the University from 1869 to 1875. After his connection with that institution was severed, he was for a short time principal of a school in Cary,

but he now devotes all his time to the ministry. He is considered one of the ablest and most eloquent divines in the State.

THE RE-OPENING.

In 1875, the trustees being elected by the General Assembly, in pursuance of a Constitutional amendment of that year, the University was re-opened with a corps of seven professors, the Rev. Charles Phillips, D. D., LL. D., professor of mathematics, being made chairman of the Faculty.

Dr. Phillips is a native of Harlem, N. Y. His father, James Phillips, came to this country from England, and from 1826 to his death in 1867, was professor of mathematics at Chapel Hill. He was graduated at the University in 1841, and after studying a year at Princeton, became tutor of mathematics at his alma mater in 1844; was promoted to the professorship of civil engineering in 1853, and upon the death of his father was transferred to the chair of mathematics. After the dispersion of the Faculty of the University, he became professor of mathematics in Davidson College in 1869, where he remained till his recall to Chapel Hill in 1875. In 1879, owing to bad health he gave up active work and was made professor emeritus in his department. He has written much for the religious and secular press, and published a Manual of Trigonometry for use at the University.

The requirements for admission were made essentially the same as at the close of the administration of President Swain. Three courses of study were provided: the classical, requiring four years for its completion, and leading to the degree of Bachelor of Arts; the scientific, requiring three years, and leading to the degree of Bachelor of Science; the agricultural, requiring three years, and leading to the degree of Bachelor of Agriculture.

During the session of 1875-76 sixty-nine students were enrolled.

THE FIFTH PRESIDENT, KEMP PLUMMER BATTLE, LL. D.

In 1876 the Hon. Kemp P. Battle was elected president of the University and has held the position continuously since. He is a son of the late Judge William H. Battle, at one time a member of the Supreme Court of North Carolina, and author of a digest of the laws of the State. President Battle was born December 19, 1831. He was graduated at the University in 1849, being valedictorian of his class, and for four years was tutor of mathematics in that institution. In 1854 he began the practice of law and made rapid advancement in his profession. He was a Whig delegate to the secession convention of 1861, and was State treasurer from 1866 to 1868. At the time of his election to the presidency he was a prominent lawyer of Raleigh.

At the beginning of his administration the Faculty was increased, the courses enlarged, and the standard of instruction raised. The course