North Carolina: Old North State (nickname)

“Old North State” is one of the oldest nicknames for the state of North Carolina. “The old north State” was cited in print in April 1824 in the Raleigh Register, and North-Carolina State Gazette (Raleigh, NC).
 
“The Old North State” is North Carolina’s official state song, and “Old North State” is also mentioned frequently in North Carolina’s official state toast.
 
   
Wikipedia: The Old North State (song)
“The Old North State” is the official state song of the U.S. state of North Carolina. Written by William Gaston in 1835 and set to an arrangement composed by Mrs. E.E. Randolph in 1926, it was adopted as the state song by the North Carolina General Assembly in 1927.
 
Lyrics
Carolina! Carolina! Heaven’s blessings attend her!
While we live we will cherish, protect and defend her;
Tho’ the scorner may sneer at and witlings defame her,
Still our hearts swell with gladness whenever we name her.
Hurrah! Hurrah! The Old North State Forever!
Hurrah! Hurrah! The good Old North State! ...
 
Wikipedia: North Carolina State Toast
“A Toast” was adopted by the North Carolina General Assembly in 1957:
 
Here’s to the land of the long leaf pine,
The summer land where the sun doth shine,
Where the weak grow strong and the strong grow great,
Here’s to “Down Home,” the Old North State! ...
 
(Oxford English Dictionary)
Old North State  n. U.S. North Carolina.
1839   Spirit of Times 27 July 247/3   On dits from the Old North State.
1994   D. S. Cecelski Along Freedom Road 164   While the Old North State’s total population boomed by more than 12 percent that decade [sc. the 1980s], the growth concentrated in urban and tourism centers.
 
13 April 1824, Raleigh Register, and North-Carolina State Gazette (Raleigh, NC), pg. 2, col. 1:
Natives of North-Carolina! (...) be not alarmed, ye citizens of the old north State, at my unfurling the standard of Liberty; the same good faith and disinterestedness, which has characterised the elder Adams’ administration, is now felt and cherished by me, and will be tenaciously adhered to.
 
22 November 1830, Daily National Intelligencer (Washington, DC), “North Carolina,” pg. 3, col. 1:
Seeing that it has been declared elsewhere that nothing short of a total repeal of the Tariff will be accepted as a propitiatory ovation to prevent discontents, and that even that will not be sufficient to satisfy tbc demands of the Reformers, we should be sorry indeed to find the old North State (North Carolina—ed.) range herself un the side of such wild and visionary politics and politicians.
 
1 January 1833, The Globe (Washington, DC), “All Hail North Carolina,” pg. 3, col. 5:
Such Mr. Editor, is the course of “the good old North State.”
 
Google Books
A Defence of the Revolutionary History of the State of North Carolina:
From the Aspersions of Mr. Jefferson
By Joseph Seawell Jones
Raleigh, NC: Turner and Hughes
1834
Pg. 5:
If the “Raleigh Register” had published an article in favor of any of the various principles of the Virginia school of politics, it would have been found on the front column of the next ” Enquirer,” with some word of hurra for the old North State.
 
11 November 1842, The Daily Picayune (New Orleans, LA), “A North Carolina Joke,” pg. 2, col. 3:
North Carolina is “a place. Every body who has ever heard any thing has heard that it is called the “Old North State,” the “Rip Van Winkle State,” the “Buncombe State,” and the “Tar, pitch and turpentine State.” The river Tar is one of its most prominent and important tributaries—on the banks of which is situated the famous town of Tarborough.
 
OCLC WorldCat record
The Old North State : a patriotic song
Author: William Gaston; R Culver
Publisher: Philadelphia : George Willig, 1844.
Series: Elvie F. Searcy Music Collection, vol. 2, no. 20.
Edition/Format:   Musical score : English
 
Chronicling America
16 December 1858, White Cloud Kansas Chief (White Cloud, Kansas),  “Nicknames,” pg. 1, col. 3:
North Carolina, “Old North State.”
           
Google Books
January 1865, The Ohio Educational Monthly, pg. 14:
ANTONOMASIA IN GEOGRAPHY.
BY W. D. HENKLE.
Pg. 15:
... North Carolina, the “Old North State,” and “Turpentine State;” ...
   
Google Books
Universal Dictionary of the English Language
Edited by Robert Hunter and Charles Morris
New York, NY: Peter Fenelon Collier, Publisher
1898
Pg. 5343:
North Carolina. Old North State. The Turpentine State (from one of its principal products).
 
OCLC WorldCat record
North Carolina, a guide to the old north State,
Author: Federal Writers’ Project (N.C.)
Publisher: Chapel Hill, The University of North Carolina Press, 1939.
Series: American guide series.
Edition/Format:   Print book : English
 
OCLC WorldCat record
The Old North State fact book.
Author: North Carolina. Division of Archives and History.
Publisher: Raleigh : Office of Archives and History, North Carolina Dept. of Cultural Resources, 2005.
Edition/Format:   Print book : State or province government publication : English