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 1. By the Constitution of North Carolina, adopted in 1776, fifty acres in freehold was required of all who voted for State Senators. [Ed.] 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 1. Governor Holden is singularly silent concerning his own candidacy in this convention and his defeat for the nomination by Mr. Ellis. For a thorough discussion, see “The Democratic Convention of 1858,” in Charlotte Observer, May 3, 1908. [Ed.] 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.