1780-1804

Momentous decisions made here

The 'State House' burned and was replaced by the Market House.

"Decision at Fayetteville": That's the name of a 1989 historical booklet marking a momentous occasion in Fayetteville 200 years earlier.

The decision to be made was this: Would North Carolina vote to ratify the U.S. Constitution, or would it remain one of the final holdouts from joining the newly strengthened federal union?

About 290 delegates to the constitutional convention converged on Fayetteville, the first town in the country named in honor of the Revolutionary War hero Marquis de Lafayette. The delegates met in a new building known as the "State House," which later burned and was replaced by the Market House.

There was a bit of jockeying even in the naming of the State House. That's because Fayetteville wanted to be the permanent state capital and hoped the new building would serve as an enticement. But the General Assembly in 1788 recommended a site near Wake Courthouse (now Raleigh) as the new capital, and that decision did not change.

A second convention

The state's thinking on ratifying the Constitution did change, though.

It happened in November 1789 as the General Assembly and a second constitutional convention (which followed a contentious convention the year before in Hillsborough) met in Fayetteville.

The debate pitted the Antifederalists, who opposed parts of the Constitution, and the Federalists, who favored it. The Antifederalists' opposition had been weakened with James Madison's announcement that he would submit a Bill of Rights as amendments to the Constitution.

The legislators paused for the state funeral of former Gov. Richard Caswell, who fell ill after arriving in Fayetteville and died Nov. 10.

Then the delegates to the convention got down to business. On Saturday, Nov. 21, 1789, they ratified the Constitution, with 194 delegates voting in favor and 77 voting against it.

North Carolina thus became the 12th state to join the union.

The General Assembly sessions that resumed after the convention produced a number of accomplishments, including Cumberland County's annexing of northern Bladen County and, on Dec. 11, the chartering of the University of North Carolina.

The decision at Fayetteville? For statehood, most notably, and for establishing the nation's first public university.