Hillsborough, North Carolina, State Capital?

Hillsborough, North Carolina, State Capital? by Jean Bradley Anderson "Hillsborough, North Carolina, Capital?" began as a lecture. It tells the history or the town's years as temporary state capital and the struggle for a permanent capital. It also describes the town's beginnings and inhabitants and their prominence in the colonial and revolutionary periods. If winning elections depends on the familiarity of voters with the candidates, Hillsborough was well placed in 1782 to win the high-stakes contest for permanent capital of North Carolina. The rovings of the state government, homeless since its start, had been notably unsatisfactory, but because of them Hillsborough had become well known to North Carolina leaders. It was the site of the Third Provincial Congress in 1775 and the emergency sessions of the General Assembly in 1778 and 1780. It hosted the army leaders and their forces in 1780 and 1781, and for a few months in 1780 it was the actual command center for North Carolina's conduct of the Revolutionary War, and it continued to be a while longer the supply center for the troops. In addition, Hillsborough was connected by roads with all parts of the state, of which it was the geographic center. For all these reasons the General Assembly was probably influenced to vote for Hillsborough as state capital in 1782. Unfortunately, too much was at stake for competitors to concede defeat without a fight. The act was repealed the following year; nevertheless, the General Assembly continued to meet in Hillsborough throughout 1783 and the first session of 1784. At that session Hillsborough was only two votes short of a majority when the question of a permanent capital was again raised and voted on. Nevertheless, the treasury and printing office were moved there in 1785. At the January 1787 session of the General Assembly, Hillsborough's promoters, still fighting for the cause, presented a bill to locate the offices of the treasury, secretary of state, and comptroller permanently in Hillsborough. Obviously its rivals saw this effort as the thin end of the wedge and managed to defeat it. Hillsborough's fate was finally sealed when the 1788 Constitutional Convention, meeting in Hillsborough, decided that the capital would be located in Wake County.