The John Lawson Monographs
OF THE
Trinity College Historical Society
DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA
VOL. 11

MEMOIRS OF
W. W. HOLDEN

DURHAM, N. C.
THE SEEMAN PRINTERY
1911

CONTENTS

• Introduction . . . . . v
• CHAPTER I. THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY IN NORTH CAROLINA TO 1861 David S. Reid and Free Suffrage - Contest with Governor Bragg - The Charleston Convention of 1860 - The Election of February, 1861 - The Secession Convention . . . . . 1
• CHAPTER II. WAR POLITICS The Nomination of Vance - Confederate and State Politics - The Laurel Valley Affair - Editorials of April, 1865 - Edwin G. Reade to the Confederate Senate in 1864 . . . . . 18
• CHAPTER III. PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT AND RECONSTRUCTION INCIDENTS Scenes at Washington, May, 1865 - Provisional Governor - Pardons - The Legislature of 1865 - Criticisms of Moore's School History of North Carolina on War Politics and Reconstruction . . . . . 44
• CHAPTER IV. GOVERNOR UNDER THE RECONSTRUCTION ACTS Reminiscences of Early Life - Protest of Governor Worth - Proclamations Regarding the Ku Klux - The Shoffner Act - Correspondence with Captain Pride Jones - Examples of Executive Clemency . . . . . 94
• CHAPTER V. IMPEACHMENT Chief Justice Pearson - Letter of Governor Brogden - Attitude Toward the Removal of Disabilities - Last Letter to the Public . . . . . 147
• Appendix . . . . . 187

Introduction

        It was Governor Holden's desire that some one should revise his manuscript and see it through the press. For this work he turned to Theo. H. Hill and John B. Neathery, but neither would undertake the responsibility. He also solicited the aid of Gov. C. H. Brogden in composing the manuscript; the only result was the letter, Brogden to Holden, given on page 169.

        The conditions under which the Memoirs were written explain several characteristics of the work. Governor Holden's power of organizing material had evidently been shattered by age and illness, for frequently questions relating to the Civil War and Reconstruction are discussed out of chronological order, related topics are often widely separated from each other, and the narrative of certain events is repeated. His memory, also, failed him, for there

are some mistakes in detail and facts of much significance are omitted. Doubtless it was in full realization of these conditions that he writes, on page 25: "And further I will say I am not writing a history. While my mind is full of the events of the past, and men and things of which I am writing swarm before my vision, I have not the physical strength to catch and fix them all on paper, or to refer to documents and handle them, and deduce therefrom the actions and the characters of the men concerned. These are simply stray bits of history. I am innocent of any purpose to do injustice to anyone."

        On the other hand, there are certain strong, positive features of the Memoirs. One of these is a remarkable absence of any vindictive feeling. The narrative of events which might recall the conflicts and bitterness of the past is, as far as possible, omitted. This is notably true of the contest with Judge Ellis for the gubernatorial nomination in 1858 and of the bond issue in reconstruction days. The discussion of bonds was omitted, I am sure because of personal attachment to some who were concerned in the bond legislation; in fact, Governor Holden once wrote a newspaper sketch of the influences which shaped the issue of the bonds of 1869, but refrained from publishing it on account of friendship for one deeply involved in the measure.

        Another characteristic of the Memoirs is that when his own policies are under consideration, the author assumes full responsibility and never shifts the burden to others. A striking example of this is the view of the military movement of 1870, known as the

"Kirk-Holden War." Not a word is given in the Memoirs of the pressure brought to bear on the Governor by leading members of his party to take military measures. Yet, when measures which did not involve his own responsibility or the integrity of others are under discussion, Governor Holden often displays an insight into conditions and a power of presentation that are far above the average. Such are the descriptions of the Free Suffrage Movement, the Charleston Convention of 1860, and the realignment of parties in North Carolina after secession was accomplished.

        Finally, the Memoirs reflect many of the convictions of age and experience, the backward view of one who had lived and fought through some of the memorable political campaigns and movements in the history of North Carolina.

        In full cognizance of these limitations, the Memoirs are given to the public as an interesting and valuable contribution to the history of North Carolina. Editorial emendations have been withheld as far as possible, with the aim of letting Governor Holden speak without restriction. However, to offset his assumption of full responsibility for the military movement of 1870, a letter of Edward Conigland has been inserted as a foot-note to page 176 and in an Appendix has been added the testimony of R. C. Badger before the Senate Committee of 1871, which investigated the relation of Senator John Pool to the Kirk-Holden War. Both Conigland and Badger were counsel for the defense in the Impeachment and speak from knowledge and conviction. For these

additions to the original manuscript of Governor Holden, editorial judgment is alone responsible. Some details of Governor Holden's career not included in the Memoirs are given in sketches entitled "William W. Holden" in the Historical Papers of the Trinity College Historical Society, Series III.

Aug. 1, 1911.

WM. K. BOYD.

Memoirs of W.W. Holden

CHAPTER I.
THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY IN NORTH
CAROLINA TO 1861

        DAVID S. REID AND FREE SUFFRAGE - CONTEST WITH GOVERNOR BRAGG - THE CHARLESTON CONVENTION OF 1860 - THE ELECTION OF FEBRUARY, 1861 - THE SECESSION CONVENTION.

        On the first day of June 1843, I became the owner and Editor of the North Carolina Standard, a well known Democratic journal. The Democratic party of the State was at that time in the minority and was depressed. The Whig party had controlled the State from 1836, the end of Governor Spaight's administration, until 1850, the end of Gov. Manly's administration.

        The following statement of the vote for Governor will show how the State stood, up to the election of Governor Reid in 1850.

1840.

• John M. Morehead, Whig . . . . . 44,484
• Romulus M. Saunders, Dem . . . . . 35,903
• Morehead's majority . . . . . 8,581

1842.

• John M. Morehead, Whig . . . . . 37,943
• Louis D. Henry, Dem . . . . . 34,411
• Morehead's majority . . . . . 3,532

1844.

• William A. Graham, Whig . . . . . 42,586
• Michael Hoke, Dem . . . . . 39,433
• Graham's majority . . . . . 3,153

1846.

• William A. Graham, Whig . . . . . 43,486
• James B. Shepard, Dem . . . . . 35,627
• Graham's majority . . . . . 7,759

1848.

• Charles Manly, Whig . . . . . 42,536
• David S. Reid, Dem . . . . . 41,682
• Manly's majority . . . . . 854

1850.

• David S. Reid, Dem . . . . . 45,080
• Charles Manly, Whig . . . . . 42,227
• Reid's majority . . . . . 2,853

1852.

• David S. Reid, Dem . . . . . 48,567
• John Kerr, Whig . . . . . 43,003
• Reid's majority . . . . . 5,564

        Governor Reid was therefore defeated in 1848, and elected in 1850 and 1852. This made the State Democratic. In 1854 Thomas Bragg defeated Alfred Dockery by 2,085; in 1856 he defeated John A. Gilmer by 12,628; and in 1858 John W. Ellis defeated D. K. McRae (a Democrat but generally voted for by the Whigs) by 16,383.

        I have given these figures to show that the State was Whig under the new Constitution as amended in 1835, up to Reid's election in 1850. In 1836 Edward B. Dudley, Whig, defeated Richard Dobbs Spaight, Democrat, by about six thousand majority, and in 1838 he defeated Ex-Governor John Branch, who was brought forward by Willis Whitaker and others of Wake County, by about fourteen thousand majority.

        The State Convention that nominated David S. Reid for Governor was held in 1848 after the nomination of Manly for the same office. I had the honor to prepare the platform which was adopted by that body. Robert P. Dick of Guilford, James B. Shepard of Wake, William K. Lane of Wayne, and myself were the members of the committee who urged the nomination of Colonel Reid on the Convention. He was nominated unanimously, almost as a "forlorn hope". Mr. Manly, his opponent, was a brilliant and able speaker, and the chances against Reid appeared to be as five to one. A committee was appointed to notify him of his nomination and request his acceptance. He replied declining the nomination, and I had the letter in type, and was about to go to press. But I looked at the correspondence as it stood in the form in type, and thought of the hopeless condition of the Democratic party if the correspondence with the letter from Colonel Reid should be published in the organ of the party, and I determined to withhold the publication at least for one issue of the paper. I at once consulted with friends as to the course to be adopted, and the result was that Jerry Nixon and

James B. Shepard, Esquires, and Dr. W. R. Scott and myself sent a messenger on horseback, who rode day and night to Reidsville with a letter to Colonel Reid, urging him in most earnest terms to accept the nomination and come to Raleigh at once, prepared to enter on the campaign with Manly. I wrote the letter and it was signed by the persons named. The messenger went and returned in the shortest possible time, and the day after he returned Colonel Reid appeared at Raleigh, accepted the nomination (stopping at Guion's Hotel) and made ready for the campaign. Therefore, but for what I did, Colonel Reid would not have accepted. Free Suffrage would not have been broached to the people of the State, which was the prime, great, and moving cause of the first Democratic victory in the State since 1836, and of all subsequent victories. And not only this, but Free Suffrage was the source of benefit to the State, in that it greatly liberalized the views of public men on legislation. The discussion of the subject in 1848 no doubt led to the assumption of a debt of more than two millions for internal improvements. The Senate was based on taxation, and was therefore not disposed to incur State debts.

        Colonel Reid was waited upon by a number of his friends at the Guion Hotel, and full and free conversations were held in regard to the campaign. Mr. Manly had already given notice of his purpose to speak at Beaufort, Carteret County, in the course of four or five days, and it was desired that Colonel Reid should meet and reply to him at that place. The platform on which Colonel Reid was nominated

contained no allusion to Free Suffrage, and he said, "Gentlemen, this nomination was not sought by me, and it has been my purpose for a long time if I should be a candidate for a State office before the people, to broach one issue, which I deem very important. What I mean is that the State Constitution shall be so amended by the mode prescribed by the instrument itself, that all voters for the House of Commons shall be allowed to vote for Senators. What do you say to my taking this ground in the canvass? I mean, of course, no disrespect to the convention that nominated me, but I wish to discuss this question before the people. I want your opinion. I will consult our friend Dr. S. A. Andrews at Goldsborough, and friend Samuel R. Street at Newberne, and friends at Beaufort, and then decide finally what I will do." ¹

        The friends present were Dr. Josiah Watson, James B. Shepard, Perrin Busbee, Jerry Nixon, W. T. Rogers, Mark Williams, and myself. Dr. Watson and Messrs. Shepard and Busbee were inclined to decide against it, and Messrs. Nixon, Rogers, Williams and myself were in favor of broaching the issue. Colonel Reid was traveling in his buggy. He had recently had a spell of fever and was feeble, but he reached Beaufort in time to reply to Mr. Manly. In his reply he took ground for Free Suffrage, and Mr. Manly asked to be allowed till next day at Newberne to state his position on that subject. At Newberne he took ground against it, and this sealed the

fate of the Whig party in North Carolina, and I so announced in my next paper.

        Mr. Manly was elected in August 1848, by 854 votes. In 1849 I wrote to Colonel Reid requesting him to be a candidate again for Governor in 1850. He replied, stating that he was willing to do so, provided he should not be required to approve the proposed Convention at Nashville, Tenn., and the act by the Legislature passed in 1848, chartering the N. C. Railroad. I answered Colonel Reid that on neither question was he expected to commit himself, for the reason that they were both aside from and above the party. And therefore, all that was expected of him was to enforce the law according to the character of the road - that a man could be a Democrat and at the same time against or for the Road or the Convention. At that time the Democratic party of the State was opposed, by a large majority, to state aid for internal improvements. I remember well at the session of 1846 when the proposition to enclose the capitol grounds was pending, and $12,000 was required to build the present iron fence around it, Colonel John A. Fagg, of Buncombe, said to me, that if I would vote $800 for the Buncombe turnpike road he would vote $12,000 to enclose the capitol square. I told him I would do it. The bill passed by Colonel Fagg's vote, and this was as far as I ever went in what is called "log-rolling."

        The East was especially opposed to appropriations for railroads and other improvements. In 1848 the Democratic party in the State incurred great danger from divisions on this subject. Colonel Reid,

Colonel Biggs, and many other leading and influential members of the party were indifferent or opposed to internal improvements, while Calvin Graves, and General R. M. Saunders, and Mr. J. C. Dobbin, and Mr. William B. Ashe, and Judge Strange, and Mr. William B. Shepard, and Mr. John S. Eaton, and others, a small minority, were in favor of them. A caucus was held in the Commons Hall at night in 1850, which nominated Colonel Reid for Governor. Mr. John S. Eaton presided. Colonel Asa Biggs offered a resolution to amend the State Constitution, to allow no appropriation for internal improvements unless it had been submitted to the people at the polls. This produced great excitement. General R. M. Saunders arose and declared indignantly that, if that resolution was adopted, 5,000 internal improvement Democrats would stay away from the polls, and Mr. Eaton gave notice, if the caucus passed it, he would no longer preside. Colonel Biggs then arose and withdrew the resolution, and the party was thus saved by the firmness and devotion to principle of that small minority. Colonel Reid was nominated the second time for Governor, and his opponent was, as before, Governor Charles Manly. His majority was 2,853 in 1850. There was another State Convention, and he (Reid) was nominated the third time, his opponent being Hon. John Kerr of Caswell County. His majority over Mr. Kerr in 1852 was 5,564. Towards the close of his second term he was chosen a Senator in the Congress of the United States for four years, and here I take occasion in this, the last paper I shall ever write on public affairs,

to do justice to Governor Reid, by bearing my testimony to his ability and fitness for the post of Senator, and by expressing my regret that I was at that time a candidate for the place in opposition to him. It was really not opposition to him so much as to Governor Bragg, who was elected to the Senate over both of us. A friend who attended the caucus held in Commons Hall to nominate a candidate for the Senate, gave me the caucus vote at the time, which I preserved, as follows: - Bragg 40, Holden, 36, Reid 18. On the second ballot Reid's supporters all went to Bragg, and his vote was 58, Holden 36.

        Thomas Bragg, Jr., Esq., of Northampton County, was Governor Reid's successor, and his nomination to the office took place thus: - The Hon. Daniel W. Courts was State Treasurer. In casting about for a Democratic candidate for Governor it was arranged between Mr. Courts and myself that when Mr. Bragg came to Raleigh at the winter term of the Supreme Court in 1854, I was to see him and confer with him on the subject. I did so at the Yarboro House. Mr. Bragg consented to be a candidate for Governor, provided he was nominated without serious opposition. At the proper time I called a Democratic meeting in Wake County, prepared the platform, which was adopted, containing a resolution recommending Thomas Bragg for Governor. Wake County having held the first meeting and thus acted, Bragg's name was taken up generally throughout the State, and at the State Convention held in the spring of that year he was unanimously nominated for Governor. His first opponent was General Alfred Dockery, of Richmond

County. Bragg's majority over Dockery was 2,085. In 1856 Bragg defeated John A. Gilmer, of Guilford County, by 12,628. I worked very hard for Bragg, as I had done previously for Reid. In 1854 Bragg's election was put in peril first, by the sudden appearance of the Know Nothings, and secondly, by his indifference towards the proposed railroad through the mountains. General Dockery was openly and boldly for this railroad, and was gaining votes rapidly in the West. I wrote to Bragg in Charlotte, on his way West, in his campaign with Dockery, that if he did not come out boldly and emphatically the signs were he would be beaten. I also wrote to Captain John Walker of Mecklenburg, asking him to urge Bragg to take my advice. Mr. Bragg at once took strong and positive grounds for the railroad to run through the mountains, and he was elected by a small majority in 1854.

        In 1858, at a Democratic State Convention held in Charlotte, Judge John W. Ellis of Rowan County, was nominated for Governor. ¹ His opponent was Colonel Duncan K. McRae of Newberne, Democrat, supported by that (Whig) party, which demanded a distribution of the proceeds of the sale of the public lands. Ellis was elected by a large majority. In 1860 Governor Ellis was re-elected over Hon. John Pool, of Pasquotank County, who ran on the Whig advalorem ticket, by 6,000 majority.

        The next Governor was chosen by the people under

an ordinance of the State Convention in 1862, which I shall speak after referring to the then condition of the country.

        In the winter of 1859-60 a State Convention of the Democratic party was held in Raleigh and delegates were appointed to a National Convention to be held in Charleston, S. C., to nominate candidates for President and Vice-President.

        The delegates appointed to represent the "state at large" were Bedford Brown, William S. Ashe, Waightstill W. Avery, and W. W. Holden. I travelled to Charleston with Hon. Bedford Brown. I found Hon. R. P. Dick there already. And here commences a most important sketch of my history. I had been acting for a long time with the State Rights party, (not of the Yanceyites), but was in accord with Jackson, Van Buren, and Bedford Brown. I was a state delegate, and had a right to speak for the State with Messrs. Ashe, Avery, and Brown.

        I was jealous for the so-called rights of the South on the question of slavery, and greatly concerned at the apparently impending election of a sectional candidate for the Presidency.

        But I was not a Secessionist nor a Revolutionist. I was strongly attached to the union of the states, and felt myself to be a national man. But for what I saw and heard I might have gone with my party and been a Secessionist.

        When I reached Charleston I was taken aside by a friend in whom I had full confidence, who said: "Holden, I know you want to do right; I have been

here for a day, and I have information of a purpose on the part of some of our Southern friends to dissolve the Union." I was greatly surprised and concerned. He said to me, "I give you to-night to listen and learn, and in the morning tell me what you think and what your purpose is."

        The night of the day on which we all reached Charleston, we held a meeting in our delegation room, and Mr. Senator Bayard of Delaware presided. A motion was made to appoint a committee from our delegation to visit the Southern delegations, and confer with them, mainly because some of them were natives of North Carolina. This motion was opposed by Bedford Brown, R. P. Dick, and myself and voted down. We maintained that it would be a sectional act, and under the circumstances would be improper.

        And there I saw the cropping out of the purpose of which my friend had just warned me. Colonel Bedford Brown had just said to me, "Mr. Holden, our delegation has very properly decided not to send officially any one to visit the Southern delegates, but we can go as individuals to a great meeting to be held to-night, near this place, on Charleston street. I propose to go, will you go?" William A. Moore of Edenton was standing by, and said he would go too.

        The meeting was held upstairs in a very large room which was filled. I heard several speeches and they were all for dis-union, save the short speech made by Colonel Bedford Brown. Mr. William L. Yancey of Alabama spoke first, for a considerable time. He was followed by Mr. Glenn, Attorney General of

Mississippi. Colonel Brown then took the floor, being called out by Mr. Glenn, who was his kinsman. He made a conservative, union speech, and was interrupted, and scraped, and coughed down. An Arkansas militia general, whose name I have forgotten, and who was unknown in the conflict between the North and South, replied to Colonel Brown and ridiculed his views, amid general and vehement applause. Colonel Brown then turned to me and said, "Mr. Holden, let us shake off the dust, from our feet, of this dis-union conventicle, and retire."

        We returned to the Charleston Hotel, and very soon a large crowd, with a band of music, appeared at the front of the hotel. Speaking was going on at the various points, and presently some bold fellow in front of the hotel shouted, "Three cheers for the star-spangled banner," and fled for his life. The reply from the crowd was, "Damn the star-spangled banner; tear it down!"

        On my return from Charleston I published all these facts in my paper, and warned my readers of the great, impending danger. The next morning I told my friend who had warned me of the danger of dis-union and of bolting the body, that my mind was made up, and that I would stand by the American Union at all hazards, and to the last extremity. A few days afterwards, while the vote was going on, and while South Carolina and Georgia and Mississippi and Florida and Arkansas and other states south of us were bolting, another friend of mine, Mr. R. C. Pearson of Burke, approached me from the rear and said to me most earnestly, "You

must make a speech and hold our delegation against going out." He had come for me through the Virginia delegation who sat in the rear, "for," said he, "from what I have heard, if our delegates go out, Virginia will go out also, and the convention will be broken up."

        I said, "Mr. Pearson, I am not in the habit of speaking very often - there are 600 delegates here and a vast audience - besides, it would be a piece of assurance on my part to attempt to address this body at this time, especially amid this excitement, with Mr. Cushing, the President of the body, hostile to Mr. Douglas and his friends. I can't get a hearing." "Yes, you can," said he, "I will go around and speak to the Indiana, the Illinois, and the Ohio delegations, and ask them when you arise to speak, to insist on North Carolina being heard." I then told him I would try as soon as Mr. Seward of Georgia took his seat. I arose and said: "Mr. President, Mr. Holden of North Carolina." Mr. Cushing sat for twenty seconds and did not recognize me. Then the States mentioned arose and demanded in a voice of thunder that North Carolina be heard. Mr. Cushing arose and bowed and gave me the floor. I spoke for ten minutes. I told the convention that I had been sent there by the State of North Carolina, one of the four delegates at large; that I could not be a party to any steps looking to dis-union; that my party had sent me to maintain and preserve, and not destroy, the bonds of the union; that by an immense majority the people of my state with George Washington the Father of the Country, "would frown indignantly

on the first dawning of every attempt to alienate any portion of our Country from the rest, or to enfeeble the sacred ties which link together the various parts."

        On my return from Charleston I attended a meeting of the delegates of Wake County in the Court House, about 225, to nominate candidates for the Legislature. I made a speech on their call, protesting in most earnest terms against secession and dis-union, and resolutions were adopted by the meeting embracing and sustaining all my views on this absorbing question. Only one man of that large body voted for dis-union.

        The Honorable George E. Badger, who had been identified as a member of the Whig party with the cause of the Union, and who had served the "National Government" both as Senator in Congress and as Secretary of the Navy, with Quentin Busbee and myself, were candidates in Wake County as Union Democrats for a convention which was to be called, if the people at the polls voted for it. The election of the delegates to the state convention, and for and against the convention was set for the 22nd day of February, 1861. Party lines were totally swept away, and the people voted against the convention, and the delegates-elect just named of course never met. But in May an act was passed by the Legislature for an election of delegates to assemble in Raleigh on the 20th of May. Of course this convention assembled, for the first convention which was rejected, was never held. The vote of Wake was as follows: - for Badger, 1952, Holden 1937, Busbee 1936. The vote of

Raleigh was: - Badger 712, Holden 703, Busbee 694, that is to say in the county 1952 for the Union, and 758 for Secession, and in the city 712 for the Union and 81 for Secession.

        In February 1861, on the morning of the election, I voted about 10 o'clock. Soon after I met Mr. Badger. He asked me good humoredly if I had voted the ticket. I told him I had voted for himself, and Mr. Busbee, and for the convention. He expressed surprise at my vote for a convention, and asked my reasons for thus voting. I replied, "Mr. Badger, today the people of the State will elect 80 union and 40 secession delegates, and if the convention carries and is assembled, we can take steps to prevent secession and save the union." He then voted for Mr. Busbee and myself and for the convention. The result of this election showed that I had properly estimated the delegates elected, (as for the Union and Secession.) There were for the Union 83, for Secession 37.

        In May of the same year Mr. Badger and Mr. Kemp P. Battle, (now President of the University) were with myself candidates for the convention. This was after the firing of the first gun by the Confederates and after the call by Mr. Lincoln for troops from all of the States to put down secession in the South. North Carolina could no longer be held for the Union, but went with the Southern States in the contest for independence. The friends of the Union had assumed the names of Conservatives, and those of the opposite party were still called Democrats. The delegates met in Convention in

Raleigh on the 20th of May, and the body was organized by the appointment of Hon. Weldon N. Edwards as President. The Hon. William A. Graham, of Orange County, was voted for against him. Mr. Edwards' majority was about 20. On that day the Ordinance of Secession was passed; the Democrats insisted on Burton Craige's Ordinance which simply repealed the act of 1789 by which the State became a member of the American Union. Mr. Badger's proposition to amend Mr. Craige's Ordinance was defeated. The Conservatives voted to amend Mr. Craige's Ordinance by inserting Mr. Badger's Ordinance in its place. Mr. Badger's Ordinance proclaimed revolution and contained the reasons why the State resisted Mr. Lincoln's call for troops to coerce the Southern States.

        I voted for Governor Graham for President against Mr. Edwards. I had been opposed to Governor Graham in politics for 17 years, and acting with Mr. Edwards as a Democrat for 17 years, but Mr. Edwards had been a secessionist, and Governor Graham had been and was a Union man, and I voted accordingly. In the Convention Mr. Badger, Ex-Governor Graham, and myself sat near each other, and Governor Graham the next day sent me word by Mr. Ben Kittrell, of Davidson County, now deceased, that he proposed that we should be reconciled and on speaking terms, "for," said Mr. Kittrell, "Mr. Graham has just said to me, he believes you are a true man." I replied to Mr. Kittrell, "Please say to Mr. Graham, I would like to be on speaking terms with him, but how shall it be effected?" He

said, "Mr. Graham has arranged all that. He says you are the youngest man, and should approach him first. You have both about equally offended each other. He says when the Convention adjourns today, he will stand in his place near his seat, and as you approach him he will extend his hand and shake hands." I was glad to be on speaking terms with Governor Graham, and during the session and afterwards, I conferred with him freely and profited by his advice.

        Mr. Badger and myself had also been on indifferent terms, until in the Court House on the day he accepted the nomination, I having just accepted mine, he approached me through the bar and offered his hand which I cordially and gladly accepted. The audience knowing our alienation approved it, with thunders of applause.

        The Convention, in which I served for some time, consisted of about 70 Democrats and 50 Conservatives. Their political antipathies were deep and strong, yet they controlled themselves admirably, and nothing occurred to interrupt their personal friendships. I remember well, that when the act of secession was consummated, the body looked like a sea partly in storm, partly calm, the Secessionists shouting and throwing up their hats and rejoicing, the Conservatives sitting quietly, calm, and depressed.

CHAPTER II.
WAR POLITICS

        THE NOMINATION OF VANCE - CONFEDERATE AND STATE POLITICS - THE LAUREL VALLEY AFFAIR - EDITORIALS OF APRIL, 1865 - EDWIN G. READE TO THE CONFEDERATE SENATE IN 1864.

        It was during the session of that Convention that the candidates for the office of Governor were agreed upon.¹ Colonel Z. B. Vance was in Raleigh in December 1861, on his way to Washington City. In all respects he was a devoted friend to the Union of the States. He spoke twice in Raleigh to large audiences, one night in the Court House and one night in Commons Hall. He was on each occasion in a very serious frame of mind. All the portents indicated bloodshed and war. He spoke on both occasions for more than an hour, and though his manner and style up to that time had always been full of anecdote and fun, yet he was first and last as sober as a judge. He was too deeply in earnest to make a joke or provoke a laugh.

        That great tribune of the people, Henry Watkins Miller, spoke in Commons Hall at the same time, and the people of all parties, who were present in large numbers, hung on and endorsed their words.

        During the winter and spring of 1862, the Conservatives of the State were casting about for a candidate for Governor. Z. B. Vance and Ex-Governor

Graham were nominated in various counties, but the latter declined in a card, published in the Standard.

        The Reverend William E. Pell was then employed by me as Assistant Editor of the Standard, and I requested him to call on Governor Graham, who was then in Raleigh, and urge him to be a candidate. Mr. Pell did so and had a long conversation with Governor Graham on the subject and on public affairs. I also asked Mr. Badger to see Governor Graham and urge him to run for Governor. Mr. Badger declined to do so, and said Graham had been Governor once for four years, and would have the trouble and expense of moving his family to Raleigh, and also no doubt be involved in troubles and difficulties with the central government at Richmond, and that when this should occur, as he feared it would, he did not want Ex-Governor Graham to point at him and say, "Badger, you helped to involve me in all this trouble." I then determined to fix on Z. B. Vance for Governor. I felt that being a Democrat, and Vance a Whig, his nomination had better proceed from a Whig - for example, the Fayetteville Observer. I wrote therefore at once to Augustus S. Merrimon of Asheville, Buncombe County, to come to Raleigh and aid me in the work of bringing Vance forward. I had heard Mr. Merrimon speak in the House of Commons in the fall of 1861 with marked ability and power for the Union. He was a young man of the highest promise. He has since been a Senator in Congress and is now Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of North Carolina. After consulting with Mr. Merrimon, he

went to Fayetteville and consulted with Mr. Hale. Mr. Hale said to Mr. Merrimon that I (Holden), having been a Democrat, was the proper person to raise Colonel Vance's name. Mr. Merrimon then wrote a brief article which appeared under the editorial head of the Observer, marked "communicated," nominating Vance for Governor. He then returned to Raleigh by way of Kinston - Colonel Vance being at Kinston with his regiment - and obtained from him his letter of acceptance, and reached Raleigh with it. A meeting was held in the office of Daniel G. Fowle ¹ (now Governor of the State) in a house then standing on the site of the present Henry building on Fayetteville St. There were present in this meeting Honorable Daniel G. Fowle, Colonel W. H. Harrison, A. S. Merrimon, Esq., Colonel James F. Taylor, and myself, and on the 4th day of June 1862, I hoisted Vance's name for Governor. The election took place in August, 1862, and Vance's majority over Colonel William Johnston of Mecklenburg was 33,975. The vote of Wake County was: - Vance 2,269, Johnston 489. The following is Colonel Vance's letter of acceptance:

HEADQUARTERS N. C. TROOPS,
KINSTON, June 15, 1862.

        EDITOR OF THE STANDARD: - A number of primary meetings of the people, and a respectable portion of the newspapers of the State, having put forward my name for the office of Governor, to which I may also add the reception of numerous letters to the same purport, I deem it proper that I should make some response to these flattering indications of confidence and regard.

        Believing that the only hope of the South depended upon the prosecution of the war at all hazards and to the utmost extremity, so long as the foot of an invader pressed Southern soil, I took the field at an early day, with the determination to remain there until our independence was achieved. My convictions in this regard remain unchanged. In accordance therewith I have steadily and sincerely declined all promotion, save that which placed me at the head of the gallant men whom I now command. A true man should, however, be willing to serve wherever the public voice may assign him. If, therefore, my fellow-citizens believe that I could serve the great cause better as Governor than I am now doing, and should see proper to confer this great responsibility upon me, without solicitation on my part, I should not feel at liberty to decline it, however conscious of my own unworthiness.

        In thus frankly avowing my willingness to labor in any position which may be thought best for the public good, I do not wish to be considered guilty of the affectation of indifference to the great honor

which my fellow-citizens thus propose to bestow upon me. On the contrary, I should consider it the crowning glory of my life to be placed in a position where I could most advance the interests and honor of North-Carolina, and, if necessary, lead her gallant sons against her foes. But I shall be content with the people's will. Let them speak.

        Sincerely deprecating the growing tendency towards party strife amongst our people, which every patriot should shun in the presence of the common danger, I earnestly pray for that unity of sentiment and fraternity of feeling, which alone, with the favor of God, can enable us to prosecute this war for Liberty and Independence against all odds, and under every adversity, to a glorious and triumphant issue.

Very sincerely yours,
Z. B. VANCE.

        Gov. Vance was elected Governor in 1862. He was in the Confederate service at the head of a regiment raised partly in Buncombe (his native) County. He participated in the battle below Newbern under General L. O'B. Branch. Gen. Branch was defeated and Newbern was occupied by the federal forces. Col. Vance retreated in a masterly manner, crossing the Trent river and reaching Kinston where he remained until nominated for Governor. He had been engaged with his troops in the great battle of Malvern Hill which was fought on the 3rd day of July 1862, and his friends were anxious for his promotion to be a brigadier, and therefore he had received authority to form a legion of men to be as

large a body of men as a brigade. In the Spring of 1862 it was stated in the Standard that forty (40) companies had tendered themselves to Vance to form his Legion. The Adjutant of his regiment under orders of Col. Vance applied to the War Office at Raleigh for tents and all necessary articles for a camp at Kittrell Springs for his Legion. The request was granted, and the Adjutant left the Office and had reached the northern gate of the Capitol, when he was called back by an officer and the order taken away and refused. The question occurs again and again, why was not Vance made a brigadier by the powers at Richmond? When Governor, and before, in the ensueing August he went to Richmond to confer with Mr. Davis, he and I noted the fact that Mr. Davis had appointed twenty-one brigadier generals and all Democrats but one, and that one was General R. B. Vance, his brother.

        The truth is a very sad one, that it was a party war on both sides. Mr. Davis and his government at Richmond were Democrats. Mr. Lincoln and his government at Washington were Republicans. Party and faction ruled the hour. Governor Vance went to Richmond in August, 1862, and remained four or five days. I know the fact that he felt that Mr. Davis had treated him badly as a party man. Vance himself showed no party spirit and no spirit of faction in his high office. He had full and free conversations with Mr. Davis and others high in power at Richmond. Soon after this the Hon. John H. Haughton of Chatham wrote him a letter, and he replied to it stating views and opinions which were, as I deemed

them, very extreme and violent. I thought it an ultra war letter and calculated to dim the prospects of peace between the two sections. He showed it to me and asked my opinion of it. I dissented from its tone. He then sent it to Governor Graham and asked his opinion as to whether he should send it to Mr. Haughton and publish it. Governor Graham struck out the material portion of the letter and greatly changed it. The letter was never published, but much of it appeared later in one of his proclamations.

        A short time after this Governor Graham was invited to Raleigh, and I was sent for to come down and meet him at the Governor's Mansion. I went down in company with F. E. Satterthwaite, Esq., of Washington, N. C. Mr. Satterthwaite agreed with me, but took no part in the conversation. Governors Graham and Vance and myself talked for a long time on the state of the country. About that time I was publishing a series of proceedings of peace meetings in various counties. Gov. Vance was opposed to to them. I told him the people had a right to assemble and express their opinion and petition for redress of grievances, but I did not approve of propositions to return to the union unconditionally; yet the people who held these meetings were the men who elected him Governor. Governor Graham in this respect seemed to concur with me more than Governor Vance, and he said to me, "Mr. Holden, what can we do? You have spoken very strongly of the Confederate Government at Richmond. Where is the remedy? It is the only Government we have - we owe a great deal to the states that went out with us - we

did not want to go out, but the pressure was so great that we had to go with them, and as a matter of honor we could not abandon them. I am not without hope that the crisis will be upon us in the ensueing Spring, when the troops will then cease to re-enlist." The meaning of which was, as I understood it, Governor Graham feared that the troops would fail to re-enlist, and the Confederate Government would be greatly embarrassed. He added, "Let us worry through the fall and winter as best we may." Governor Graham said he hoped that I would in my paper counsel the people to submit to the laws, although the officers appointed to collect the tithes were mainly Virginians and Marylanders, and therefore there was danger of the people resisting the law because the officers were from other states. I told him I would do so in my next issue, and I did so, and counselled the people to obey the law, no matter who the officers might be.

        This was the beginning of the wide separation between Governor Vance and myself which resulted in my opposing him for Governor in 1864, and here I may say, and do say in the most emphatic manner, that I have never questioned his integrity, nor his honor, nor the sincerity of his devotion to his principles, or to the people whose servant he was and is.

        And further I will say I am not writing a history. While my mind is full of the events of the past, and men and things of which I am writing swarm before my vision, I have not the physical strength to catch and fix them all on paper, or to refer to documents and handle them, and deduce therefrom the actions

and the characters of the men concerned. These are simply stray bits of history. I am innocent of any purpose to do injustice to anyone.

        As I have said, Governor Vance but one month before his election for Governor was unavoidably obliged to be engaged in the great battle of Malvern Hill. If he had been slain in that battle, the people of North Carolina would have been put to loss and sadly grieved. Without asking for it, or his friends asking for it, he ought to have been furloughed as soon as he was announced as candidate for Governor, and my belief is that this would have been done if he had been a Democrat.

        Governor Vance was inaugurated on the 8th day of September, 1862. There was a large crowd of people in Raleigh on this occasion. He was inaugurated on the western front of the State House, on the same spot where Henry Clay made his speech in 1844. He was destined to be the great Conservative War Governor of the South. Before his inauguration I called upon him at the Yarboro House, and he showed me his inaugural speech in manuscript, and asked my opinion of it. It was a good document of its kind. He made one alteration at my suggestion. He had referred to the conscript law as constitutional; he altered it so as to make it read that it might be constitutional. I had always regarded it, under both governments, old and new, as unconstitutional. Hon. William Gaston, in a great speeech in the House of Representatives in Washington City in 1812, during the war with Great Britain, had declared conscription unconstitutional, and had vehemently

opposed it. There was no power under the old government or the new to enact it.

        The idea of sending free citizens of the States from their homes to camps of instruction against their will, to be trained to fight for liberty, was, to say the least, absurd. The war should have been a voluntary one, and if force had been necessary to be used to put men in the Southern Army, that force should have been used by the States themselves, and not by the Confederate Government. When that law was passed by the Confederate Government over the States and enforced by that Government in the States, every vestige of constitutional liberty in the States vanished.

        For holding these views, which I did sincerely, the separatioin between Gov. Vance, myself, and Mr. Davis was still more widened, not that Vance preferred the conscript law, and not that as far as he could he did not acquiesce in injustice to North Carolina, yet he was powerless under the circumstances to defend his State against the agressions of the central power.

        In Deecmber 1862 occurred the famous or rather infamous execution of loyal men in the Laurel Valley, in the County of Madison. Mr. Augustus S. Merrimon then Solicitor in the mountain district reported the facts to Governor Vance. I called at his office to get the facts. Governor Vance was very indignant. His form dilated as he said, "This was done by Colonel Keith of the 64th N. C. and I will write to Mr. Seddon, Secretary of War at Richmond, to have him courtmartialed, and I will follow him

(Keith) to the gates of hell or hang him." The facts were, that a body of men and boys, eight or ten, had made a raid from Laurel Valley to Salisbury to get, as they said, their share of salt, and going and returning committed outrages by taking property, etc., on their route. For this Lt. Colonel Keith, commanding the 64th regiment in that locality, arrested them - men and boys and some women - and shot them and buried them on the spot in trenches. The women, with ropes around their necks, were whipped. One of the boys, about fifteen years old, was shot and not killed. His arm, badly shot, hung by his side. His mother begged for his life and Colonel Keith killed him by shooting him in the head with a pistol. Mr. Seddon, Secretary of War, had Colonel Keith courtmartialed at Governor Vance's request, and Colonel Keith on the trial justified himself by showing that he had acted in the matter by the authority of General Harry Heth. Afterwards, at the close of the war, Colonel Keith was arrested and lodged in Raleigh jail. He thus strangely enough fell into my hands to be sent to Madison County for trial for this crime. The Sheriff of Madison County with the deputy called on me for him. I told him (the Sheriff) that I had heard that Keith's life would be in danger at the hands of the friends of the murdered people, if he was carried through Buncombe and Madison to the jail in the latter county; and that he must promise me as the condition of the delivery of Keith to him, that he would take him by way of the Fast Tennessee railway, to a point west of Madison County, and deliver

him from that point to the jail of the county. He promised to do this, and Keith was thus delivered safely to the jail to be held for trial for this outrage, but he escaped from the jail and fled the State, and I, as Governor offered a reward of $500 for his apprehension and detention, and this is the last I have heard from Keith. It is thought he escaped to California. He may be alive yet. And thus the blood of these people is still unavenged. I refer to this unhappy matter as a specimen of many events which took place to embarrass and trouble Governor Vance.

        But these were only the beginnings of troubles and sorrows. This opens the year 1863. Through this year and the next, 1864, and half of the next, 1865, until Sherman and his mighty army reached here, in April, for two years and six months we worried and fought on, and suffered as no people have ever worried, and fought and suffered in civilized ages or States. I have ransacked repeatedly all the chambers of my memory in relation to these things, and I here state unreservedly that history contains no account of a people who have endured more for the sake of their principles and liberties, as they understood them, than the people of North Carolina. Modest, unselfish, brave beyond the common run of men, they have never demanded what was not by right their own, and never submitted cravenly to injustice or wrong - and with the help of God they never will! And I also state unreservedly, having said thus much, that ZEBULON BAIRD VANCE, their leader in all these things, was and is, their foremost man in all their annals, old and new. I know whereof

I speak. As to mere bravery it is useless to speak. The number of those who went to battle and steeled and hardened themselves for their State and her cause, is legion. It would be in vain to attempt to point out the meritorious among the thousands and thousands in the ranks, among the privates who stood for and died in her service, and those of them of this stamp who survive can be trusted implicitly, for brave men are never treacherous, but will do what they promise. In the presence of the shades of the dead and in the presence of those who survive, I would name but two men of all that vast number, (and I might name thousands), but I refer to only two men who were the bravest of the brave. I mean Clark Moulton Avery, of Burke County, and Bryan Grimes, of Pitt.

        And so we worried on and suffered and fought till Sherman came in from the South in April, 1865. Gov. Vance sent Ex-Gov. Swain and Ex-Gov. Graham to meet Sherman to surrender the City of Raleigh and ask for terms. They met him a few miles south of the City. He told them he had no power to treat, and they effected no special terms, yet they received the impression the City would be spared if no resistance were near it, or in it. General Sherman reached here on the 15th of April with 75,000 men, which were encamped in and around the City. Governor Vance of course had left for the western part of the State. Gen. Sherman afterwards undertook to make a covenant with General Joseph E. Johnston, commanding the Confederate Army which when reported to President Johnson at Washington

City and his Secretary of War, Mr. Stanton, was not approved. The State was not to go back with her then government as she was, but the new administration of Johnson, who had just succeeded President Lincoln, determined to restore the States lately in rebellion to their new relations to the National Government. It was not reconstruction, but restoration which was then proposed. The following order from Gen. Sherman, which appeared in a Raleigh paper, contains the grateful assurances of peace: -

HIGHLY IMPORTANT ORDER.

        We have only time to say that the assurances of a speedy Peace which this Order contains, will cause a thrill of joy in the breast of every true American.

HD'QRS MILITARY DIV'N OF THE MISS.,
IN THE FIELD,
Raleigh, N. C., April 19th, 1865.

        SPECIAL FIELD ORDERS, No. 58.

        The General commanding announces to the army a suspension of hostilities and an agreement with General Johnston and other high officials which, when formally ratified, will make peace from the Potomac to the Rio Grande. Until the absolute peace is arranged, a line passing through Tirrell's Mount, Chapel Hill University, Durham Station and West Point on the Neuse River will separate the two armies.

        Each army commander will group his camps entirely with a view to comfort, health and good police.

        All the details of military discipline must still be maintained, and the General hopes and believes that, in a few days, it will be his good fortune to conduct you all to your homes.

        The fame of this army for courage, industry and discipline is admitted all over the world. Then let each officer and man see that it is not stained by any act of vulgarity, rowdyism, or petty crime.

        The Cavalry will patrol the front line; Gen. Howard will take charge of the district from Raleigh up to the Cavalry; Gen. Slocum to the left of Raleigh; Gen. Schofield in Raleigh, its right and rear.

        Quartermasters and Commissaries will keep their supplies up to a light load for their wagons, and the Rail Road Superintendent will arrange depot for the convenience of each separate army.

By order of

"'MAJ. GEN. W. T. SHERMAN.

L. M. DAYTON, A. A. G.'"

        In the North Carolina Standard of April 20th, 1865, I used the following words: -

        "Our people are just emerging from a desolating war, and a large majority of them are destitute not only of the comforts but of the necessaries of life. They have been compelled to drink the cup of 'peaceabel secession' to the dregs. They have lost life, property, comforts, everything but honor; and at

one time many of them feared that even hope was gone. The contest is now virtually at an end, and it is the duty of every good citizen to strengthen the arm of just authority, and to aid in bringing order from chaos, so that industry may be protected and rewarded and our former prosperity and happiness restored.

        "Up to the hour when the states south of us madly shot from their appropriate orbits in the federal system, the hands of the federal government had never been laid upon them but to protect and benefit them. The old flag never waved whether on land or sea but for their protection. And now, after a long and most desolating war between brethren, let us hope that the same flag, restored to its original place in the heavens, will wave as our flag once more and forever, protecting everyone who may rest or labor under its gorgeous folds. We feel sure that it will. We feel sure that our recent enemies are now generous friends. We see, and hear, and feel this in all they say and do in our midst. But the ocean, after a storm, does not immediately subside. The great waves still roll, and the "white-caps" are seen upon the breakers. It is so with society. Our people will need, for months to come, the strong arm of military power to protect them in their pursuits, and to restore order to society. It is not for us to say by what mode this shall be accomplished, but only to declare our conviction that it is indispensable. Under proper auspices, and with the incitement to renewed labor which all our people will have, we may hope again to see our fields growing green for the future harvests, our workshops

crowded with industrious mechanics and artisans, our commerce whitening our waters, our schools resuming their operations, and plenty and happiness beaming among us. Let us look forward with hope to the good day which seems to be ahead of us, and endeavor to forget the sufferings through which we have passed. 'The gods help those who help themselves.' Let us all cheerfully 'accept the situation,' and go to work to improve our condition. We are all comparatively poor, but we have friends who will aid us, - we shall have the protection of a strong and good government, one that will extend to us credit for what we may need, and take pleasure in encouraging us in our efforts to restore our former prosperity."

        Also in the Standard of April 24, 1865, I wrote as follows: -

        "One of the most difficult and perplexing questions to be settled is the relation which must subsist in the future in this state between the white and black populations. Everyone agrees that slavery will cease to exist, but the question now is, What must be the relative condition of the two races for the next few months? And, What must be the ultimate status of the colored race?

        "The negro is not to blame for any of the sufferings entailed upon him by this war. It is not his fault that the children of Washington have been destroying each other in battle, nor can he reproach himself with the reflection that he has contributed either by word or deed to the privations and sufferings

he is now enduring. He has been docile, and faithful, and even affectionate towards his owners for long generations; and when we add the fact that he is the innocent cause of all this strife and all this bloodshed, we perceive at once that he has strong claims on the sympathy of every right thinking person.

        "Governor Brownlow, of Tennessee, whose judgment in all matters is entitled to respect, is in favor of providing for the colored race a separate and appropriate amount of territory, and settling them down permanently as a nation of freedmen, - and there is much force and propriety, it seems to us, in this suggestion, for the two races could not well live in harmony together as free races; but the question still presents itself, What must meanwhile be the condition of the colored race?

        "Thousands of these people are leaving their own homes and following the Federal army. They are crowding into our towns and villages, subsisting on government rations, contracting diseases, and incurring fearful risks in their morals and habits of industry. Many of them, it is true, are compelled to follow the army in order to procure food, for the provisions on most of the farms have been swept away. But our advice to them is to remain at home and continue to labor for their old masters at fair wages, except in those cases in which they feel that they owe it to themselves to seek new homes. In Maryland, for example, the great bulk of these people have remained at their former homes, are receiving wages for their work,

and are contented and happy. These persons will find that mere freedom will be a curse, unless it is followed by habits of industry and sobriety. The government has no idea of supplying them with rations as a permanent thing. It does so now, and only for a short time, to keep them from starving. They will have to work, and work hard for a living, and we warn them of this in time.

        "If a state convention should abolish slavery, that body would most probably define the relations between the two races; and if the states should adopt the amendment proposed by Congress abolishing the institution, the latter body will define those relations. Meanwhile we say to the colored people remain where you are, cultivate habits of industry, preserve your morals against the manifold temptations that will beset you, and endeavor by your conduct to secure the respect and confidence of all good people."

        And having given facts thus far up to the time Gen. Sherman entered Raleigh, I must now go back to January, 1864, to an event which shows the character and bearing of North Carolina throughout the entire struggle. In January, 1864, Gov. Vance appointed the Hon. Edwin G. Reade to the Confederate State Senate from the County of Person, to fill the place of Hon. George Davis of New Hanover County, who had been appointed by President Davis Attorney General of the Confederate States. Soon after taking his seat Mr. Reade delivered a speech reported as follows:

"SENATE OF THE CONFEDERATE STATES,
Saturday, Jan. 30th, 1864.

        "Mr. Reade, of North Carolina, introduced a joint resolution of thanks to certain North Carolina troops who had re-enlisted for the war, which is as follows:

        'The Congress of the Confederate States having learned through the public press of the re-enlistment for the war of the North Carolina brigade in the Army of Northern Virginia, serving under General Robert D. Johnston, do Resolve, That the patriotism and spirit of the North Carolina troops, evinced by their prompt and voluntary devotion of themselves afresh to the services of the country are beyond all praise and deserve the unbounded gratitude of the government.'

        "In support of the resolution, Mr. Reade said:

        'Mr. President: - It is with much State pride and personal pleasure that I offer this resolution for the consideration of Senators, and ask their favorable action.

        'In this great war we need all our strength. But what is strength in war? It is not the multitude of faint hearts and nerveless arms which achieve success; these are burdens rather than helps. It is spirit that moves an army and makes it irresistible.

        'These troops have been in service for years. They are scarred and worn. They are away from their homes where they have much to love. But they tarry not for these. They await not your bidding, but they spring to action as springs the tiger from his lair. This, Senators, is strength in war.

        'I would be proud of them if they were the soldiers of any other State. When, a few days ago, the Senator from Tennessee offered resolutions appreciative of like conduct on the part of troops from his State, my affection ran out after them. And I grew larger as I remembered that Tennessee was North Carolina's daughter, and that North Carolina, like a mother, had only allowed her queenly daughter to be a little in the front.

        'The conduct of these troops, Senators, is in consonance with the spirit of all the troops from North Carolina during this war, and of her people at home as well. Yet malicious rumor has thrown the stain of disloyalty upon her name. It matters nothing that not a man has staid at home who was called to the field; it matters nothing that they have swelled every triumph and staid every reverse; it matters nothing that every legitimate burden has been cheerfully borne by her people; it matters nothing that her youthful Executive, called from the field to his responsible position, has so managed her affairs, internal and external, as to have obtained the name "Model Governor"; it matters nothing that her Convention was unanimous and her Legislature provident; nothing matters. Malignity says she is disloyal, and disloyal she must be. I will not make the Senate the arena for battling with this malignant charge against North Carolina. Her reputation is very dear to me. It can scarcely be less so with you, Senators; but that resolution depends not upon any poor word of mine. She calls up the history of the

past as witness of what she is now, and will be hereafter.

        'I do not conceal from Senators that there is dissatisfaction in North Carolina. And the question is again and again asked, "What does it mean?" It is easy to tell you what it does not mean, and quite as easy, but much more tedious, to tell you what it does mean. It does not mean disloyalty. - It means rather an excess of loyalty to the State, without any abatement towards the Confederacy. - This ought to be satisfactory, at least to all outside of the State.

        'I will only mention a few of the annoyances which she has suffered. Her people are sensitive and spirited, as easily led as a child, in the right way, because they are a good people. But against the front of offense she stands a giant form.

        'Very early in this struggle, an order was sent to North Carolina, which, so far as as I know, was sent to nowhere else, to deprive citizens of their arms, "good, bad and indifferent." I believe I quote the words; I am sure I have the substance. This may have been all very innocent; but the impression was made, not unreasonably, that the purpose was to disarm her because she was suspected. Time and again her citizens have been arrested, without warrant and without cause, and thrown into prisons in Richmond and elsewhere.

        'The decsions of her judiciary have not been respected.

        'Many of the offices in the State, to which her citizens were entitled by courtesy, if not of right, were filled by obnoxious strangers.

        'Suspicions, distrusts and threats on the part of the authorities, have chafed her continually. And Senators have doubtless heard, as I have, that it has been gravely considered whether force ought not to be employed to overawe and silence her people. - Distrust of her has begotten distrust in her towards them, and now she is alarmed afresh at the dangerous powers which it is proposed in Congress to confer.

        'Just now a new clamor is raised against the State, because the propriety of calling a Convention is being discussed. I know nothing of that movement except what is before the public. Its enemies say it means mischief; its friends say it does not. I suppose its friends ought to know best. But however this may be, let me enquire when was it ever before that a Convention in North Carolina was an occasion of alarm to her friends. Was it that first little Convention in Mecklenburg, or was it her last Convention, when she unanimously assumed the position she now holds? I speak against no party and for no party. I speak for the State. I say that whether she call a Convention or not, or whatever else she may do, will be so marked with propriety that others in time to come, as in time past, will evince their high appreciation of it, by claiming that she was not the first to do it, but that they were.

        'Appreciate North Carolina, Senators, as I ask you to appreciate the gallant bearing of these her soldiers, and her people, whether at home or in the field, will be faithful to every pledge she ever gave you.'

        "The resolution being read the requisite number of

times, was considered in committee of the whole, and, no amendment being proposed, was adopted, and ordered to be sent to the House of Representatives.

        "On motion of Mr. Semmes, the Senate adjourned."

        As I have stated, Gov. Vance appointed Mr. Reade to the Confederate Senate in January, 1864. A better appointment could not have been made. Mr. Read had been reared a Whig of the old Henry Clay school, like Gov. Vance. In 1861, after secession in this State, party names had ceased with the exception that a fragment of the old Democratic party remained. Mr. Reade was a Conservative, as were the 30,000 majority who had in 1862 voted for Vance, as against Johnston. Mr. Reade simply spoke forth in his place at Richmond the "words of truth and soberness." It is not true that North Carolina was divided in her resistance to the coercive policy of the federal government, or that any one was disposed to submit unconditionally to obtain peace, but party feeling was all the while manifesting itself with great bitterness, and injustice in that fragment of the so-called Democratic party. It was this fragment that had produced the impression referred to by Mr. Reade, that the Confederate government thought of coeercing the people of North Carolina. I remember well that in 1861, I was present at two meetings held in Raleigh composed of the Conservative members of the Convention, over which Ex-Governor Graham presided. The first meeting was held at my house. It was held with closed doors, because of the bitter opposition of this so-called fragment. Conservatives

were those who had been previously Democrats or Whigs.

        The great object of the Conservatives was to strengthen on the one hand the Confederate government in its effort to resist the subjugation of the Southern States, and meanwhile to preserve among our people the old fashioned principles of States Rights and personal liberty. The first meeting was held at my house, and the second at the house of Henry Watkins Miller. I was present at both, and heard and saw all that was said and done.

        Mr. Gilmer, Ex-Governor Graham, Mr. Robert P. Dick, Mr. Miller, Lieut. Merritt, - a young member of the bar from Chatham who afterwards died in battle for the South - and others spoke, setting forth their views as Conservatives, as Confederates, as the fast friends of civil liberty at home, whilst their friends and brothers were fighting for liberty abroad. The Raleigh Standard was the well-known organ of all these men, a paper which itself had been the means of putting into the service of the States at least 10,000 soldiers, and which though differing in political sentiment with the administration at Richmond, was neverthelesss true to the Confederate cause. Anyone who is regarded by sane men as sane as themselves would not for a moment doubt the honesty or the patriotism of such men as Badger, Graham, Gilmer, Bedford Brown, Robert P. Dick, Joseph S. Cannon, or in fine of the fifty members of the secession convention of 1861, who were known as conservatives. Mr. Senator Reade in standing for and speaking for the people of the entire State, meant

to include these fifty conservatives, as well as the seventy members of the same body, who were called Democrats.

        In 1865, while I was provisional Governor, B. F. Moore, Esq., who was one of my confidential friends and advisors, asked me to obtain a pardon from the President for Hon. William T. Dortch, of Goldsborough. I told Mr. Moore that he knew the instructions I had received from the President, not to be too forward in obtaining pardons for distinguished persons like Mr. Dortch, who had been a Confederate Senator, and that I could not obtain his pardon then, but would as soon as practicable. The next day Mr. Moore called again, and asked me as a favor personal to himself to get the pardon. I told him I would do so, and when I obtained it and handed it to him he said: "I could not tell you before, but will tell you now, my reasons for asking for it. Mr. Dortch was my law student, and I esteem him highly. He told me that Mr. Davis had my name and your name and the name of the Hon. Richard S. Donnell on his list to be arrested for disloyalty, and that he (Mr. Dortch) had induced Mr. Davis not to do that. I could not tell you this as an inducement to obtain his pardon, but I tell you now as you have given me his pardon." I state this simply as a matter of fact, and with no purpose to reflect on Mr. Davis. He was misled and misinformed by certain parties in North Carolina.

CHAPTER III.
PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT AND
RECONSTRUCTION INCIDENTS.

        SCENES AT WASHINGTON, MAY, 1865 - PROVISIONAL GOVERNOR - PARDONS - THE ELECTIONS OF 1865 - CRITICISMS OF MOORE'S SCHOOL HISTORY OF NORTH CAROLINA ON WAR POLITICS AND RECONSTRUCTION.

        At length the war was was over. Both sides after a tremendous struggle of four years furled their flags, and their officers and soldiers returned to their homes. Thousands on thousands of brethren had been slain and were buried where they fell. The Northern soldiers returned to their homes which had not been trampled by armies or impoverished by serious loss of property. The Southern soldiers returned, stripped of all save their honor. No one sympathized more than I did with North Carolina soldiers. I had been their friend throughout the entire war, and bade them God-speed in renewed efforts to make a living and a name among their neighbors.

        About the 20th day of May, 1865, I was summoned to Washington City. The call made upon me by the President was totally unexpected. He telegraphed me to come to Washington at once, and invite such friends to accompany me as I desired. On the same day I received the telegram, and almost the very hour, Mr. Richard C. Badger, the son of Hon. George E. Badger, called upon me at my house with a letter

from Hon. Edward Stanley, in which Mr. Stanley urged Mr. Badger to see me, and urge me to repair at once to Washington. Mr. Stanley believed, and so stated, that I was the best person, all things considered, to be appointed Provisional Governor of North Carolina. I invited Messrs. William S. Mason, Robert P. Dick, John G. Williams, J. P. H. Russ, and W. R. Richardson to go with me to Washington City, and obtained transportation from Gen. Schofield, then in command of the army. We left for Washingington City. I was very anxious to have Judge Edwin G. Reade of the number of friends who went with me, but he lived at some distance from Raleigh (Roxboro) and the mails were at that time uncertain and unreliable. I had time therefore to invite only Raleigh men, and Mr. Dick, of Greensboro, on the line of the railroad. We traveled to Washington by way of the Chesapeake and Albemarle canal to Norfolk, from thence to Baltimore and Washington. We saw President Johnson first in a large room in the Treasury building. He had not then occupied the White House. A few days afterwards we saw him in the White House. We also met Gov. Vance, who was a prisoner, and Ex-Governor Swain, Bartholomew F. Moore, and William Eaton, Esq.'s, who were there to see the President. Just before I started from Raleigh Gen. Schofield dropped me a note and asked me if I objected to granting transportation to Swain, Moore, and Eaton. I replied I did not.

        I did not when in Washington call to see Gov. Vance. I thought if I did it might look like an assumption of superiority over him, he a prisoner,

and I a free citizen, but I sent him word by Mr. Moore and Col. Wheeler who called upon him, that I sympathized with him, and would be glad to loan him funds if he needed them. Meanwhile I appointed Dr. Robert J. Powell, formerly of Richmond County, State Agent, to facilitate my correspondence with the President, to represent North Carolina in that capacity at Washington. Among other things I asked Dr. Powell what he thought would be done with the Southern Governors then in the old Capitol Prison. Feeling at Washington was then intense against the South. I asked especially what he thought would be the fate of Gov. Vance. He said he thought they would all be hanged. I replied: "Dr. Powell, that will never do. If that is done we cannot reconstruct nor restore North Carolina. Vance stood and stands for our people as Davis did for the entire South. Please keep me informed on these matters constantly. If there is danger of what you say, I will return here at once and appeal to the President." I would not, of course, have served if the President had allowed these things to be done.

        On the morning of the 4th of July, 1865, Col. Tod R. Caldwell told me with much concern that he had just passed through Statesville from the west, and heard Mrs. Vance was very sick, and at the point of death, and asked me to telegraph President Johnson to release Governor Vance to return home to his wife. I telegraphed the President at once, and in two hours he replied: "Ex-Governor Vance has been released, and is on his way home." Twelve months afterwards I went to Washington to see the President. Governor

Vance went at the same time to renew his parole. Of course he was never tried.

        I was in Washington seven or eight days, and was the first Provisional Governor appointed. At the first interview we had with the President, there were present, altogether at his request, all the North Carolinians in the city, his purpose being to consult them as to who was the proper person to be appointed Governor of North Carolina, whose duty it would be to take steps to restore the State to the Union. There were present on that day Messrs. Robert P. Dick, William S. Mason, J. P. H. Russ, W. R. Richardson, John G. Williams, Ex-Gov. Swain, William Eaton, Jr., B. F. Moore, Col. John H. Wheeler, and Dr. R. J. Powell. I arose with Ex-Gov. Swain and walked out while the President was taking the opinions of those present. Gov. Swain appealed to me in the most earnest tones not to accept the place of Provisional Governor. Thinking he had some apprehension as to the University, I said to him: "Governor, I have always been a firm friend to the University, though myself not a graduate as you were not. I am not yet assured of my appointment. I may be, or I may not be, but in any event I am your friend, and the friend of Chapel Hill." We had walked from the White House to a point overlooking the statue of Gen. Jackson, and when we returned, as we did slowly, to where the President and his friends were, it was announced that I had been appointed Provisional Governor. Mr. Moore and Mr. Eaton did not vote. They said they did not come there for that purpose.

        I was appointed Provisional Governor by the President on the 29th day of May, 1865. The President directed me to provide a government for the State. I appointed such state officers as were needed. I appointed seven judges of the Superior Courts, also magistrates or Justices of the Peace, town officers, county officers, corporation officers, etc. I issued proclamations providing for the election of members of a State Convention, one for every member of the House of Commons, in all one hundred and twenty (120); also after this, for the election of members of the Legislature, Senate and House. I appointed also State officers to aid me in my work as follows: Aids, Joseph S. Cannon, Eugene Grissom, Tod. R. Caldwell; Private Secretary, Lewis Hanes; Clerks, Richard C. Badger, William H. Bagley, S. M. Parrish; State Treasurer, Jonathan Worth; Secretary of State, Robert W. Best. Donald W. Bain, Esq., the chief clerk under the former Treasurer, was in office, and remained until appointed by Mr. Worth. The following gentlemen were appointed Superior Court Judges to ride the seven circuits of the State: Messrs. David A. Barnes, Edward J. Warren, Daniel G. Fowle, Ralph P. Buxton, Robert B. Gilliam, Edwin G. Reade, Anderson Mitchell. Sion H. Rogers was appointed Attorney General. 1

        I wrote the following editorial for the Standard of the 10th of June, 1865, about Jonathan Worth: -

        "It gives us much pleasure to be able to announce that Jonathan Worth, Esq., has consented to accept the office of Treasurer and Property Agent for the State. In addition to the duties of Treasurer, he will be charged with collecting and selling all the property belonging to the State - cotton, turpentine, and every other article of state property - and to investigate the condition of State finances, the condition of banks, railroads, asylums, and other public corporations. The office is a very important one, and it will give the citizens of the entire State great satisfaction to know that Mr. Worth is to discharge its duty. His judgment, energy, and integrity mark him as the man who will perform them for the best interest of the State."

        And in my first proclamation to the people of the State I used the following language in regard to the colored people: -

        "To the colored people of the State I would say, you are now free. Providence has willed that the very means adopted to render your servitude perpetual, should be His instruments for releasing you from bondage. It now remains for you, aided as you will be by the superior intelligence of the white race, and cheered by the sympathy of all good people, to decide

whether the freedom thus suddenly bestowed upon you will be a blessing to you or a source of injury. Your race has been depressed by your condition of slavery, and by the legislation of your former masters for two hundred years. It is not to be expected that you can comprehend and appreciate as they should be comprehended by a self-governing people, the wise provisions and limitations of the Constitution and the laws; or that you can now have that knowledge of public affairs which is necessary to qualify you to discharge all the duties of citizens. No people has ever yet bounded at once into the full enjoyment of the right of self-government. But you are free, in common with all our people, and you have the same right, regulated by law, that others have, to enter upon the pursuits of prosperity and happiness. You should henceforth sacredly observe the marriage relation, and you should provide for your offspring. You can now not only learn to read yourselves, as some of you have been able to do heretofore, but you can instruct others, and procure instruction from others for yourselves and your children, without fear of punishment. But to be prosperous and happy you must labor, not merely when you feel like it, or for a scanty support, but industriously and steadily, with a view to making and laying up something for yourselves and your families. If you are idle you will become vicious and worthless; if vicious and worthless you will have no friends, and will at last perish. 'In the sweat of thy face shalt you eat bread all the days of thy life.' The same Providence that has bestowed freedom upon you, has

told you that diligence in business is required of all his creatures; and you cannot expect that your race will escape ultimate extinction, if you wilfully violate or disregard this, one of His great commands. Freedom does not mean that one may do as he pleases, but that everyone may, by industry, frugality, and temperance, improve his conditions and enjoy the fruits of his own labors, so long as he obeys the law. I have no prejudice against you. On the contrary, while I am a white man, and while my lot is with my own color, yet I sympathize with you as the weaker race; and I cannot forget that during this rebellion many of you fought for the preservation of the Union, and that those of you who remained at home in the then slave holding States, were for the most part, docile and faithful, and made no attempt by force of arms to gain even their freedom. I will see to it, as far as I can, that you have your liberty; that you are protected in your property and persons; and that you are paid your wages. But, on the other hand, I will set my pace against those of you who are idle and dissipated, and prompt punishment will be inflicted for any breach of the peace or violation of the law. In fine, I will be your friend as long as you are true to yourselves, and obedient to the law, and as long as you shall labor, no matter how feebly, if honestly and earnestly, to improve your condition. It is my duty, as far as I may, to render the government a 'terror to evil doers, and a praise to them that do well' - and this I will endeavor to do in relation to the whole people of the State of North Carolina, 'without fear, favor or affection, reward, or hope of reward.'"

        At a union meeting held in Raleigh before we left for Washington I addressed a large body of people. Among other things looking to reconstruction I said: -

        "Prevention of secession was absolutely impossible in this State. I with others signed the ordinance of secession under the force of unavoidable circumstances. Union men, bowed down and stricken in spirit, silently acquiesced, while secessionists greeted the act with hats off and hurrahs, the firing of canon and the ringing of bells.

        "This war has resulted in the utter extinction of African slavery. This is an accomplished fact. There can and will be no question about it. It remains for the people of this State in Convention and by legislative action to define the status of the emancipated race. I, for one, have no fear in this regard. I am willing to see the alphabet, the Bible and the school book placed in their hands, and to recognize among them the marriage relations heretofore so culpably disregarded. The extent of their further elevation belongs legitimately to the governing race.

        "In my opinion this emancipated race must have, to a large extent the sympathy, the aid and support, of the white race, without which they would be extinct.

        "We are financially ruined. The bonded debt of the State prior to secession was $11,000,000 and this has been since increased by an indebtedness of at least $40,000,000.00, incurred by the State and counties during the war. Of the banks some are probably bankrupt while others are materially crippled. If

we add to this the loss of fifty thousand men who have been slain in battle or have died in hospitals and the devastation of a large portion of the State by both armies, no little nerve is required to meet the future. I believe, however, that the old government, the parental government, will be kind. It devolves on the Assembly to maintain the integrity of the State and to encourage the people to resume their wonted pursuits.

        "And now, fellow citizens, what remains but to address ourselves to our duties as loyal citizens and to improve and build up our native State? At the formation of the Federal constitution North Carolina had, as she has now, the same area of territory, 50,000 square miles, with the State of New York, and the same representation in Congress, fifteen. In 1860 New York had thirty-six members of Congress and North Carolina eight. To what was this difference to be attributed but to the retarding, dwarfing influence of slavery? With this incubus removed, let us start anew in the career of prosperity. Our latitude is the best on the globe and we have a climate capable of producing nearly every article produced in any other state. We have a long sweep of seacoast, and one of the best harbors on the Atlantic front, and from Nash County to the Tennessee line our water power is inexhaustible. We grow all the cereals besides cotton and tobacco; and the bowels of the earth are stored with iron, coal, marl, copper, marble, gold, silver, and precious stones. We have vast forests of the most valuable timber and large resources of naval stores. In a word, though greatly impoverished by

the war, we have all the resources and all the elements of a great State. Let us go to work to develop these resources. We need capital and labor. To our brethren of the North and East and West we say, come over and help us. Bring your capital, your muscle, your intelligence, your industry, your ingenuity, and settle among us. The way is now open, and with us and our children you can purchase and build, and plant and reap, and repose and labor, and live and die, leaving your possessions an assured inheritance, for I tell you that the stars in that banner will never go out, and the sun of American liberty will never go down. Our banner staff is at last so firmly planted that no convulsion which did not split the earth could upheave it from its place.

        "May our children and our children's children for a thousand generations, walk and be happy in the light of that glorious ensign; and may they, as we do now, on the distant shores of all coming time, by the waters of the two great oceans, by the lakes of the North, and amid the central portions of the continent, and far towards the South, where tropic groves perfume the breath of morn, repeat with the same heartfelt, impassioned, holy zeal, those thrilling words of Mr. Webster: -

        'When my eyes shall be turned to behold, for the last time, the sun in heaven, may I not see him shining on the broken and dishonored fragments of a once glorious Union; on States dissevered, discordant, belligerent; on a land rent with civil feuds, or drenched, it may be, in fraternal blood! Let their last feeble and lingering glance, rather, behold the

gorgeous ensign of the republic, now known and honored throughout the earth, still full high advanced, its arms and trophies streaming in their original lustre, not a stripe erased or polluted, nor a single star obscured, bearing for its motto no such miserable interrogatory as, What is all this worth? Nor those other words of delusion and folly, Liberty first, and Union afterwards: but every where, spread all over in characters of living light, blazing on all its ample folds, as they float over the sea and over the land, and in every wind under the whole heavens, the other sentiment, dear to every true American heart - Liberty and Union, now and forever, one and inseparable!'"

        Before I left Washington I had several conversations with the President. Generally Mr. Dick was with me. The President had his Private Secretary, Gen. Massey, read to us his proclamation, he commenting paragraph by paragraph, asking our opinion as the Secretary read. Mr. Dick and myself talked to him very plainly and courteously. He said to us he expected to confiscate the estates of the large slave owners, who were traitors and proscribed, and divide them among the wool hat boys of the South, who had been impoverished and had been compelled to fight for slavery against their will. Mr. Dick and myself remonstrated against this in earnest terms. We begged him to be as forbearing and as generous as possible. He said he would be, and especially when asked by the proscribed classes, of whom there were fourteen in the proclamation, for their pardons,

he would give immediate attention, and pardon where he could. He said though, "Gentlemen, treason must be made odious, and coming generations ought to know it and profit by it."

        Mr. Moore was also, as I know, very earnest and candid in his talk with the President, and concurred with us in urging on the President forbearance and kindness toward the Southern States.

        The President said that he would give to me for North Carolina all the war property that was in the hands of Gov. Vance. This included cotton, naval stores, tobacco and the like. The net results of this gift of the President to his native State was $150,000, collected and realized by Treasurer Worth in the State Treasury, leaving when I retired from office on the 29th day of December, 1865, the sum of $40,000 in the hands of Hon. Kemp Battle, the new Treasurer who succeeded Treasurer Worth.

        I administered the amnesty oath to all the people of the State, and called a Convention, and also the Legislature, both of which sat during the seven months of my provisional governorship, and paid all expenses, including the seven judges heretofore mentioned. And this President Johnson did for no other State. In addition to this he allowed me $7,000 from the United States Treasury to cover the expenses of my office.

        Mr. Seward asked me in his presence what the salary of Governor in my State was. I told him it was $3,000, but did not mention the fact that I would have a house to live in. He therefore allowed me at the rate of $3,000 a year for seven months, and I

have never received anything for house rent, as allowed by the law of this State.

        Mr. Seward also asked me about Mr. Badger, and his boys who had been in the army, and were then prisoners of war. He spoke of him very kindly, and said he was facilitating the return of his sons to their homes. He said: "What do you think? One of his sons who has a way of thinking for himself, refused to take the oath. I told the officer it made no odds but turn him loose, I would not stand on that and keep him from his father." I suppose that was Edward, now dead. Some months previous to this Mr. Badger's friends had procured the election of his son, Richard, to be chief clerk of the Senate, in order, as Mr. Badger was paralyzed and comparatively helpless, his son Richard might be with him at home.

        On my return from Washington City I was closely and constantly engaged, and found I had undertaken a very heavy task indeed. I had able assistants who helped me very much, but I had to conceive, and plan, and do everything in the way of reconstructing the State. For the first months I had not less than seventy-five visitors every day, which engaged my attention for hours, for the most part of the time, in fact. I had to provide books with the Amnesty oaths for all the counties, to appoint persons in various counties to administer those oaths, to obtain horses and mules for applicants by applying to the military, and settle disputes between men in regard to property of various kinds, to correspond on matters of business which required attention, and in all respects to work, work, work.

        I received every day a large number of applications for pardon which I read carefully. I was the medium through which these applications went to the President, and my duty was to mark them Granted, Postponed, or Rejected. Not that I did that, but they were thus marked for the President. It was with him to grant, postpone, or reject them. During my time of seven months about twelve hundred pardons (1200) as well as I recollect, were thus obtained from the President. I asked him during all this time to reject but four; some were postponed, and many granted. These pardons were recorded in a book marked "Pardons" by Mr. S. M. Parish, a good scribe. I left the book in the Executive office.

        About the middle of my term, say in August, Ex-Gov. Graham came to Raleigh. I was sick at the time, confined to my house. I did not see him. He filed in my office his application for pardon addressed to the President. When I got back to my office I read his application carefully, and was pleased with it. It was an able and truthful paper. I rose up from my place in the office and approached Maj. Bagley, who was pardon clerk, and asked him to endorse Ex-Gov. Graham's paper, "His pardon is to be granted by the President at once." Col. Cannon, one of my aids, who was standing by, said to me, 'Governor, have you seen the New York Herald of this morning?" I said, "No, what of it?" He said: "The Herald says, 'Gov. Graham has been pardoned already, and you are engaged in pardoning a great many distinguished unpardoned rebels.' I would advise you to send on the paper, and mark it

continued, and in a few weeks write to the President and ask him to send the pardon." Colonel Cannon and Maj. Bagley were both old line Whigs, or had been, and both devoted friends of Gov. Graham, as I was. I took their advice and continued his case. They advised me to pursue this course and not grant the pardon immediately, lest the radicals North should complain and lose confidence in the President.

        In the course of a week or so, being still feeble on account of my hard labor, I went to Kittrell Springs and there saw Mr. Thomas Webb. In the course of conversation with him I said, "I hope Ex-Gov. Graham will soon have his pardon and that he can then enter public life and be of great service to us." On my return to Raleigh I found he had written a communication in the Hillsborough Recorder assailing the constitutionality of an act of Congress. The communication referred to was published in the Hillsborough Recorder and Raleigh Sentinel and of course excited attention. We were then under military rule, and it was therefore not proper that an unpardoned person asking for pardon should write in that way over his own name.¹

        Meanwhile, the Hon. Josiah Turner called on me at my office, and had a long, warm conversation with me in regard to his pardon, and that of Ex-Gov. Graham. I told Mr. Turner I could not tell him what endorsement I had made on his application, or on the application of Gov. Graham; that they were both

leading public men, and it was not my habit to give information of that kind; but would tell him of one case of a private citizen and what I had done. I said: "Sir, you wrote your father's application for pardon. He owned a large amount of land, he was no doubt apprehensive that it might be confiscated. You made him say that if he had been a young man he would have shouldered his musket and fought for the South. I feared this expression might move the President to refuse his pardon, whereupon I made a note of it, that your father was an old man and had been a Henry Clay Whig, and that the President might overlook the expression and send the pardon. I received the pardon by return mail, and sent it to your father at Hillsborough." I found it impossible to satisfy Mr. Turner, and he left my office evidently dissatisfied. About this time Mr. Turner made a speech in Raleigh. I did not hear him. The speech was understood to be against me, and my policy of reconstruction. Under all these circumstances it was not to be reasonably expected that I would at that time write to the President to forward either of these pardons. I had the greatest respect for Governor Graham, and did not intend to be in the way of his pardon. If he had come to Raleigh again, and the whole matter could have been explained between us, I would no doubt have written to the President and obtained his pardon.

        An old and esteemed friend of mine, now dead, Council Wooten, of Lenoir County, called on me several times for his pardon. I put him off, but having heard at last from his friend and neighbors in relation

to his application and his merits I obtained his pardon.

        I will make this statement also in relation to Gov. Bragg. I had marked his application to be continued, as Gov. Graham's was marked. A package containing a number of pardons was received in my office by express, and Col. Cannon opened it, and much to his surprise he found Gov. Bragg's pardon. He said, "You marked his application to be continued." I said, "I did." He then removed it, and put it in his drawer in my room. In a few days Gov. Bragg called for his pardon. The clerks in the office of the Private Secretary said it was not there. In a few days Dr. Powell, State Agent, who handled these pardons, came to Raleigh and asked for Gov. Bragg's pardon. I told him the facts. He said the President told him the pardon had vested, and I might therefore just as well give it to Gov. Bragg. Dr. Powell then said that he did not know it was Gov. Bragg, but thought it was plain Thomas Bragg. I told him I was not disposed to treat Gov. Bragg unkindly, but he had not been to see me since I was Governor, but if he would call on the day I retired from office I would hand him his pardon myself. Gov. Bragg called on that day, the 29th Dec., 1865, and I handed him his pardon.

        There were two persons, possessed each of large means, who obtained their pardons from the President directly when I had not consented to it, and the President, when informed by Dr. Powell of the fact, telegraphed authorizing me to tax each one of these persons for thus obtaining pardons $10,000 each by

way of punishment, which of course I declined to do.

        One day toward the close of my term Col. Tod R. Caldwell, who had lately been to Hillsborough, said to me that Mr. Paul C. Cameron and his friends were very much concerned about his application for pardon. I told Col. Caldwell that the President was not disposed to favor applications for conspicuous persons who had been engaged in the rebellion. I could not, therefore, recommend Mr. Cameron's pardon just then. He said Mr. Cameron was in town, and out in the passage of the Capitol. He said he was there in attendance on the Episcopal Convention. I asked him to request Mr. Cameron to come in. He did so, and I received him very politely indeed. I told him what I had just said to Col. Caldwell, and furthermore I had no apprehension of the confiscation of his property. This did not seem to satisfy him, and I at last said, "Mr. Cameron, I will obtain your pardon from the President." He seemed much gratified at what I said, and said to me, "Governor, please bear in mind that my father-in-law, Judge Ruffin, who is now an old man, wishes to know before he dies how much he is worth." I replied: "Mr. Cameron, I am glad you have mentioned Judge Ruffin. He and Gov. Morehead stood in the Peace Conference like rocks for the Union. I will send your application today, and at the same time ask the President to send pardons to Judge Ruffin and Governor Morehead." I have no doubt the pardons of Judge Ruffin and Gov. Morehead and Mr. Cameron were all granted and sent. It affords me pleasure to

have been the humble medium through which they were obtained.

        As I have heretofore stated, much of my time was occupied in obtaining pardons for the people of North Carolina. Not less, I think, than twelve hundred (1200) were obtained through me. The President granted all for which I asked, and rejected only four (4), which I marked to be rejected. I did not suggest or approve, and I do not believe Mr. Dick or any other friends suggested or approved of this distinction made among our people, requiring certain of them to obtain pardons for what they had done during the war, while the great body of them were pardoned by the terms of the proclamation (of amnesty) itself. Mr. Johnson had decided upon this matter before we reached Washington, but I tried to carry out his wishes in this respect honestly, all the while leaning to charity and goodwill towards the persons seeking pardons. In some cases confiscation had commenced, and in every instance on my application the property was restored. The mere reading of the applications sent to me was very great, and exhausted me very much. I was robust and in good health when I entered on my duties, but at the close of them I was thin and sallow and weak, so intensely had I labored, as I thought, for North Carolina.

        A great many of our people regarded the State as a sovereign State, and they had acted accordingly. They had suffered the loss of all things but their honor for what was called the Confederate Cause. The statistics will show that in proportion to population North Carolina had more men in the army

than any other State of the Confederate States; had more troops and did more fighting. Was she not honest? Was she not sincere? Certainly she was. The bones of her sons on a hundred battle fields attest her honesty, her sincereity and her courage. She thought she was doing right, and she will prove as true hereafter to the banner of the Stars and Stripes as any like aggregation of men anywhere. Suppose Maine had seceded and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts had been called upon to coerce her? Would she have done it? We know she would not.

        I had thus after a very arduous service of seven months in which I had labored, in which I had endeavored honestly and sincerely for the good of the whole people of North Carolina approached the period in November, when an election for Governor took place. I was a candidate for election myself, at the request of my friends, and the friends of the President, and a large number of friends in the Convention called to frame the new Constitution for the State.

        On the 14th of October, 1865, the following correspondence took place:

"Raleigh, October 14, 1865.

"Hon. W. W. Holden,

        Sir: The undersigned members of the State Convention of North Carolina, fully appreciating your earnest and effective efforts for restoring our State to her constitutional relations with the Federal Government, and being desirous that restoration should be completed by one under whose guidance it

has been so auspiciously begun, respectfully request that you will allow your name to be placed before the people of North Carolina for the office of Governor at the ensuing election.

Very respectfully yours,

Lewis Thompson, A. H. Joyce,
John Pool, Tod R. Caldwell,
L. S. Bingham, John B. Odum,
J. M. McCorkle, J. A. McDonald,
G. P. Moore, Henderson Adams,
Robert Love, Thomas Haynes,
A. R. McDonald, W. T. Faircloth,
A. H. Jones, A. B. Barnes,
Bedford Brown, James R. Ellis,
William Sloan, James Rumley,
R. M. Henry, Simon Godwin,
Samuel Forkner, Robert P. Dick,
D. G. McRae, J. W. McAuley,
G. W. Gehagen, George W. Dicky,
G. W. Brooks, William H.Harrison,
C. L. Harris, J. Q. A. Bryan,
R. P. Buxton, G. W. Bradley,
G. W. Logan, H. A. Hodge,
R. Swann, E. B. Lyon,
William Barrow, R. J. Williams,
Thomas Settle, D. Kelly,
John Norfleet, R. W. King,
G. Garland, R. S. Donnell,
W. G. B. Garrett, Eugene Grissom,
H. McGehee, S. P. Smith."

"Raleigh, October 17, 1865.

        "Gentlemen: Your letter of the 14th inst., requesting me to be a candidate for Governor at the election to be held on the 9th of next month, has been received. I beg to assure you that I am very grateful for this proof of your esteem and confidence.

        "I did not seek the place I now occupy, nor have I sought a nomination for election by the people. I have been content to do my duty to the best of my ability under the instructions of the President, and to leave my conduct to be judged by an intelligent and indulgent people. I do not fear that judgment.

        "My duty has been, in many respects, new, unusual, and very onerous. I had no lights to guide me in the work of reorganizing and reconstructing an American state, save the instructions received from time to time from the President; and necessarily those instructions have been only of a general character. My paramount concern has been, so to do that part of the work assigned to me as to secure the restoration of the State to the Union at the earliest practicable period. To what extent I have succeeded in this respect it is for the people to say. I can only declare, as I most solemnly do, that I have labored with an eye single to the good and the glory of North Carolina; and that, whatever may be the decision of the people on the 9th of November, I shall always possess the consciousness that I am a faithful and devoted son of our dear old State, and that I have labored with zeal, and with what success my poor faculties could command, to improve the condition

of her people, and to restore her to her appropriate and natural position in the Union.

        "Gentlemen, it is not agreeable to my feelings in a crisis like the present, when everything dear to us depends upon union and harmony among ourselves, to speak of parties. I deprecate faction and bitter party spirit as the bane of the Republic. The evils we are now suffering, with all the calamities that have befallen us, may be traced to this source. As Provisional Governor of the State, in all I have said and done, I have known no party but the sincere friends of the Union. I am neither a Democrat nor a Whig. Both these parties were buried in the grave of the rebellion. All I can say is I am a North Carolinian, heart and soul. "I am an American," the proudest expression that can issue from human lips; and while I hold with Andrew Jackson and Henry Clay, that the people are the source of all power in this country, and alone entitled to rule, I declare that the only party to which I belong is the National Union party, composed of the best element of the old parties, of which Andrew Johnson is the head.

        "If elected Governor by the people, I will do everything I can to promote the prosperity and the happiness of North Carolina, and to secure her return at the earliest possible moment to her place in the Federal Union.

        "With many thanks, gentlemen, for the confidence you have reposed in me, and for the flattering manner

in which you have been pleased to allude to me in your letter, I have the honor to be

"Your most obedient servant,
W. W. HOLDEN."

        My opponent was the Hon. Jonathan Worth, from the County of Randolph, who was my State Treasurer. I made no speeches, and did not electioneer for the office. Gov. Worth made no speeches, but remained in his office, and said nothing to me about his candidacy, but he and his family were understood to have been very active in the campaign. However, he resigned his place as treasurer (during the campaign) and Dr. William Sloan, of Gaston County, succeeded him.

        I have not the vote in full for Governor, but Gov. Worth's majority over me was about six thousand (6,000), and the returns of the election in the various counties will show that I was supported mainly by the old Union men, and he for the most part by the Secessionists of the Democratic party. For example, Bladen, Brunswick, Caldwell, Catawba, Cumberland, Cleveland, Duplin, Edgecomb, Franklin, Halifax, Mecklenburg, New Hanover, Orange, Pitt, Rowan, Rockingham, Wayne, Warren, Wilson, gave majority for Gov. Worth. Bertie, Burke, Buncombe, Caswell, Chatham, Greene, Harnett, Henderson, Johnson, McDowell, Randolph, Rutherford, Surrey, Wake, Stokes, Wilkes, gave majority for Holden. The County of Wake gave Holden 1,702; Worth 453. The County of Randolph gave Worth 640; Holden 652. The County of Forsythe gave Holden 68;

Worth 1,110. This was owing to the fact that Holden sent to the Convention as Provisional Governor the telegram from President Johnson advising that body that it was indispensable to repudiate the rebel debt, including State Trea