Free Black. . . . . 22,732 16.31 Slave. . . . . 245,817 .08

The explanation of this slow growth did not lie in a low birth rate. Although vital statistics are lacking, there is no doubt of the fecundity of North Carolinians of that day; large families were the rule throughout the State. Rather the explanation is to be sought in the steady emigration from the State to the West and South and in the absence of immigration; the outside world offering many inducements to North Carolinians, while the State itself offered few to natives and none to outsiders.

That such was the case is not wonderful. Internal conditions were such that opportunity was denied to all save a favored few. Means of communication were lacking, as were the means of education, and as a result, with every natural resource and opportunity, the State was poor and steadily growing poorer, and in relative rank as to wealth was lower than in respect to population. Not only was it poor, however: it was worse. It was ignorant. And its ignorance spread like a pall over the whole State dwarfing for a time every promise of growth, and retarding irresistibly every forward movement. Joseph Caldwell, not a man given to rash speech, said in 1829 that North Carolina was 300 years behind the rest of the world in enlightenment, and while his estimate may have been excessive, the general truth contained in it is undeniable.

The effects of the poor facilities for communication and commerce generally have already been intimated. Transportation cost so much that for a large part of the State agriculture, necessarily the main resource of the State and particularly so because of the presence of slavery, was profitless save to furnish one's own supplies. A barrel of flour in 1829 in the town of Hillsboro just about paid for a barrel of salt. Manifestly, there could be but small profit in growing grain. And so it was with everything else. In one way grain was profitable, and so grain was grown and fruit was grown—to furnish food for the distilleries, hundreds and thousands of which poured out their debauching flood throughout the State. In 1811 there were 159 in Edgecombe alone and more than 50 in Caswell. It is scarcely necessary to add that drunkenness was common.

While the prevailing ignorance and the sectional struggle already discussed made it very difficult for the enlightened to accomplish anything towards relieving the situation, the State was nevertheless affected by the new spirit following upon the war of 1812, and in 1815 it entered upon a policy of aiding internal improvements. This was done under the inspiring leadership of that far-seeing dreamer and statesman, Archibald D. Murphey. In consequence the State in a short time became a stockholder in a large number of companies and it also created an internal improvement fund. Thus in a sense the State became committed to a policy of internal improvement, but the immediate results were far from encouraging, since most of the enterprises failed and the movement for a time received a set-back. But the agitation was productive of good results in that the majority of the newspapers and a large number of influential men were educated by it and became firmly committed to the cause.

In other ways the State was little affected. Agriculture, even in the East where the problem was not nearly so acute, still remained of the most primitive sort and, under the blighting curse of slave labor land deteriorated steadily and rapidly. In spite of the fact that a million acres and more of new land was taken up between 1815 and 1833, the total value of the land was less at the later date by $106,048.80. One reason for this will be discussed later in another connection, but the main reason is to be found in the words of the memorial drawn up by a committee of an internal improvement convention in 1833: “Her wasted fields, her deserted farms, her ruined towns, her departing sons, all reproach us with supine neglect.” Wiley in 1852 described the situation thus: A purchaser of lands could easily find a seller in almost every owner; indeed almost every house and plantation exhibited in their decaying aspect the most unmistakable words, “For Sale.” This melancholy sentence was ploughed in deep black characters upon the whole State and even the flag that waved over the Capitol, indicating the sessions of the Assembly, was regarded by our neighbors of Virginia and South Carolina as an auctioneer's sign!

The reward of labor had “ceased to be a stimulus to industry and enterprise,” and so a steady tide of emigration rolled away from the State carrying enterprise, industry, youth, and ambition, not to mention the actual wealth which went in their wake to build new commonwealths on the frontier to the lasting impoverishment of the old mother State. A gentleman in Asheville wrote in 1827 that every day saw a stream of emigrants moving by, sometimes as many as fifteen wagons going together and the account might be duplicated many times.

Educationally, the State in 1835 was scarcely moving, if indeed there was any movement. That in part explains the failure of internal improvements. As “Old Field” said in the Raleigh Register in 1833, “The people will have to learn to spell internal improvements before they can comprehend the meaning of the term.” The elaborate plans of Murphey in 1817 failed, but in 1825 the Literary Fund was established, a step in the right direction it is true, but one not highly productive at first except to the legislature which year after year used its proceeds to pay its own members. Year after year through half a century the legislature had displayed utter apathy toward everything which meant the upbuilding of the State and its people. Its time was consumed with small things almost entirely and in the playing of what we call at a later date “peanut politics.” Its expenses meanwhile, were nearly always more than half the total expenditure of the government. In his last message to the legislature in 1836, Governor Swain said:

In the State in 1835, there was not one school house for every 15 miles square, not a single high school, and only a few good academies, the whole number of the latter being certainly less than half and possibly less than a third of the number of counties. In 1811 while two-thirds of the adult white population of Edgecombe County could read, only one-half the adult white males and less than one-third of the women could write. In the whole State, according to Wiley, nearly every tenth white man was totally illiterate and nearly one-half the white people of every county were uneducated. The people had no thirst for knowledge; in many cases it was dreaded, despised, and hated. We are again indebted to Wiley for an expressive description. Said he:

Willie P. Mangum was at this time one of the most important figures in the political life of North Carolina. Born in Orange County, May 10, 1792, he was prepared for college in Fayetteville and Raleigh, and graduated at the University in 1815. Studying law with Judge Duncan Cameron he was admitted to the bar in 1817 and was immediately successful, but his inclinations were all towards politics and in 1818 and again in 1819 he was a member of the House of Commons from Orange and took a prominent place. In 1819, two years after he received his license, he was elected a judge of the Superior Court over George E. Badger and William Norwood, but only remained on the bench for one year. In 1823 he defeated Daniel L. Barringer for Congress and was re-elected in 1825, defeating Rev. Josiah Crodup, a Baptist minister and one of the most accomplished politicians in the State. In 1824 Mangum was a strong supporter of Crawford for the presidency and voted for him when the election went to the House of Representatives. In March, 1826, he resigned and in August was appointed by Governor Burton to the Superior bench to succeed Judge Paxton, but the legislature failed to confirm the election and chose Robert Strange. In 1828 he was an elector on the Jackson ticket, and was a strong Jackson supporter. In the same year he was chosen without opposition to succeed Thomas Ruffin on the Superior bench and served until 1830 when he resigned to become a candidate for United States senator. He withdrew in favor of Iredell as far as Macon's vacant seat was concerned but in 1830 he was elected over Governor John Owen, Judge John R. Donnell, Richard D. Spaight, and Montford Stokes. He was at this time still a Jackson man, but as time went on, he drifted away from Jackson and the Democratic party. He was not a protectionist and so was not in full sympathy with Henry Clay, but while not a nullifier, he opposed Jackson's South Carolina policy and violently opposing his bank policy, voted for the resolution of censure. As North Carolina Democrats made support of Jackson and consequent hatred of the bank and of nullification not only cardinal virtues, but required doctrine, Mangum was soon entirely out of sympathy with the Jackson wing of the old Republican party, and when the legislature of 1834, after a very long and most bitterly contested struggle instructed him and his colleague, Bedford Brown, to vote for Benton's resolution to expunge the resolution of censure, he denied absolutely the right of the General Assembly to take such action and announced on the floor of the Senate his intention of ignoring the instructions as of no validity. Bedford Brown, on the other hand, accepted the instructions, which accorded with his inclinations, and endorsed the principle involved. His term expired at this session and he was triumphantly re-elected.

Bedford Brown was scarcely a less striking figure in North Carolina politics than Mangum. Born in Caswell County in 1792, he was a student at the University for one year, and the next, 1815, he was elected to the House of Commons from Caswell along with Romulus M. Saunders, another prominent figure of the time, and served for three terms. He was a member of the House again in 1823, and in 1828 was elected to the state Senate to succeed Bartlett Yancey. The following year he was re-elected and was chosen speaker, and while filling that position, a deadlock having occurred in the election of a United States senator to succeed John Branch who had entered Jackson's cabinet as secretary of the navy, he was elected to the position. He was already a strong supporter of Jackson and while in the Senate became his close personal friend.

The difference between the views of the two senators gives a good idea of the opinions of the two factions in North Carolina soon to become political parties. Brown was a strict constructionist and a strong State's rights man of views very similar to those of Nathaniel Macon. This type formed the Democratic party. Mangum, on the other hand, represented the latitudinarian, anti-Jackson, pro-bank group which soon formed the Whig party. Brown's supporters were mainly in the east and hence were those who had fairly consistently opposed constitutional reform in the State, while Mangum found his chief support in the West which had supported Jackson in 1824 but abandoned him after 1828, largely because the East had turned a somersault and accepted him. The West, therefore, became Whig territory, and the organization formed for securing constitutional reform, became a potent factor in state politics after reform was secured. Indeed, it was this which made the State Whig for the long period which followed.

But to return to the question of instructions, Mangum, conscious of the support of the anti-Jackson men in the State, and with constitutional reform in sight which would greatly increase the political power of his followers, relied upon the prospects of immediate victory. To the Jackson supporters he at once became a hated object, the feeling being sharply intensified by the fact that he had formerly been himself a supporter of the President. Wherever possible, pressure was brought to bear by his opponents. The grand jury of Edgecombe County passed a vote of lack of confidence in him and calling upon him to resign and the Democratic press attacked him sharply, suggesting the same course.

Soon after the election of Governor Spaight and the adjournment of the legislature of 1835, the question of candidates for the first popular election was raised. The two political influences in the State of greatest power were the Standard, a paper established in Raleigh in 1834 by Philo White, and now edited by Thomas Loring, its political position being best understood by its motto, which was: “The Constitution and the Union of the States—they must be preserved,” and the Register, established in Raleigh in 1799 by Joseph Gales and continued under the editorial control of Weston R. Gales. The latter had been at the time of its establishment a Republican paper, but it was at this time definitely aligned with the opposition to Jackson who called themselves National Republicans, but were already being generally called Whigs. In a sense it may be regarded as the organ of the party. Both papers were very active in calling attention to the names of suitable persons for the governorship and the other papers of the State were not less enterprising. Almost without discussion the pro-Van Buren, or rather pro-Jackson, forces settled upon Governor Spaight for re-election. Indeed it was almost necessary that they should, for in ability, in character, and in record they had no better man and they could not afford to neglect him. The Democrats of Macon County held a meeting in February, 1836, and placed his name in nomination and their example was followed by Lincoln and Warren almost immediately. Early in March the Standard placed his name at the head of its editorial columns as its candidate and thereafter none of the party questioned the wisdom of the choice while Democratic meetings in a majority of the counties definitely endorsed him.

There was more difficulty in choosing a candidate for the opposition. Mangum's name was mentioned in 1835, but he did not desire the position, or care to leave the Senate. In addition, he would have been a dangerous candidate on account of the heat aroused by the instructions question. He was, moreover, in a sense, already a candidate for vindication and would not help the ticket. He was, however, denounced by the Standard as a “blue light Federalist speechifier during the war.” In a short while the anti-administration candidates narrowed down to Edward B. Dudley of New Hanover, and Thomas G. Polk of Rowan, who had been named by Fayetteville and Salisbury papers respectively. Early in January Polk wrote a letter to the Western Carolinian, which had nominated him and, declining to have his name considered, endorsed Dudley for the nomination. Two weeks later a Whig mass meeting in Wake County formally nominated Dudley as a supporter of Hugh L. White of Tennessee for the Presidency. This was really the keynote of the campaign; local issues had no part in the choice of candidate and the candidates appealed for support on the ground of the strength of their loyalty to the presidential candidates of their respective parties. When Dudley wrote accepting the Wake nomination, he said nothing whatever about state issues or the needs of the State, but devoted nearly all the space of his letter to denunciation of Van Buren, saying among other things, “To say all in one sentence: He is not one of us. He is a Northern man in soul, in principle, and in action, with not one feeling of sympathy or interest for the South.” The Standard denounced this view as narrow, unpatriotic and entirely characteristic of a “nullification candidate.”

Edward B. Dudley was a native of Onslow, which county he represented in the House of Commons in 1811 and 1813, and in the Senate in 1814. He then moved to Wilmington where he at once became prominent. He represented New Hanover in the House of Commons in 1816, 1817, 1834, and 1835. He also served one term in Congress from 1829 to 1831, but refused to return on the ground that Congress was not a fit place for any person who wanted to be honest. Dudley was a man of great wealth, of liberal and large views, of genial disposition, but at the same time of a firmness and courage that at times approximated very closely to obstinacy. He was a man of large frame and imposing presence and while he was possessed of no remarkable ability, he had a great fund of practical common sense, a possession which has rightly been called uncommon. As was to be expected he was an earnest opponent of instructions to senators in theory and had opposed it in practice. He was a staunch friend of railroads and other internal improvements and at this time was president of the Wilmington & Raleigh Railroad, soon to become the Wilmington & Weldon Railroad. It was his interest in internal improvements which made him especially acceptable to the West.

The campaign continued throughout the spring and summer and was of course an entirely new thing for North Carolina. The candidates were not on the stump, but they were constantly writing letters and conferring with interested politicians. A feature of the campaign was the banquets at various places where great enthusiasm was aroused. But nowhere were state issues discussed if indeed it can truthfully be said that there were any state issues. The national political situation swamped and overwhelmed that of the State. It was indeed a far cry to that time when men resigned from the Senate, the Cabinet, and even from the chief justiceship of the Supreme Court of the United States to run for governor or even lesser state offices. The change of attitude undoubtedly helped the national government, but it proved highly disastrous for the States.

The campaign was accompanied by many charges and counter charges, and the press was unsparing in its criticism and denunciation of opponents. Both the Standard and the Register were inclined to carry the matter rather far, but each had much to say of the offenses of the other. The Standard early in the year, under the heading, “Editorial Courtesy,” had the following to say on the subject:

During the campaign the Democrats attempted to prove that Dudley was inclined to abolitionist views because as a member of the legislature he had voted for a resolution which condemned any interference by Congress with slavery in the District of Columbia, but which conceded the right of Congress to interfere. Dudley, interestingly enough, made the identical charge against Van Buren upon almost the same ground. Leading Democrats in the State had already drawn from Van Buren a statement of his views on the question which were substantially the same as those held by Dudley and the majority of North Carolinians. In other words it was entirely a feigned issue. In the same way nullification played a large part in the campaign. The Whigs charged Spaight with having attempted to establish a newspaper in the State in the interest of nullification. This was disproved, and the Democrats were equally unfortunate in their attempts to prove that the Whig leaders almost without exception had nullification sympathies. They were, however, able to make considerable capital of the fact that Calhoun and the other South Carolina nullifiers were opposing Van Buren and acting in other ways with the Whigs. Just at this time Calhoun had an exceedingly small following in North Carolina. He had been very strong in the State prior to the nullification controversy and his break with Jackson, and he was destined again to be accepted as a leader by those who now opposed him most bitterly, but in 1836 both factions disclaimed him, the administration followers with peculiar bitterness. The Standard never lost an opportunity of abuse and criticism, the following extract being characteristic: “There was a time when Mr. Calhoun was suspected and when the patriots of our country dreaded his criminal ambition. But that time is past; he is now known; and is as much entitled to the political confidence of the American people, as Judas Iscariot was to that of the faithful eleven—and no more.”

Other questions which entered the campaign were the bank and senatorial instructions. The last-mentioned was practically the only subject brought up which bore any relation to a state issue. This was so because of the Mangum incident. His term in the Senate was about to expire, and he was a candidate for re-election. The Democrats, therefore, sought to arouse as much feeling on the subject as possible.

Both sides had much to say of the evils of party spirit. The Democrats being in office, naturally deprecated it more than their opponents who were trying to get in. In 1835 the Standard had condemned the opposition very harshly for attempting to elect the speaker of the House of Commons and it now had much to say in the same vein about the opposition to Governor Spaight's re-election.

The North Carolina Whigs generally had accepted Judge Hugh L. White as the most suitable opponent for Van Buren and practically every leader was pledged to him and nearly every Whig meeting endorsed his candidacy. But when General Harrison's name was brought out, a strong disposition favorable to him was apparent, not that he was a first choice; it is doubtful if the Whigs really had any choice; still he was regarded as a good compromise candidate in the event of the election's being thrown into the House of Representatives. In other words, the Whigs wanted to defeat Van Buren; if with White, well and good; if not, with someone else, whoever he might be. Jackson, after all, was the national as well as state issue with the North Carolina Whigs, as to a great extent he was the issue with the North Carolina Democrats, for many of the latter were not wildly enthusiastic over Van Buren except as Jackson's choice for his successor.

The state election came in August, and its results were in doubt for some time. Finally it was clearly evident that Dudley was elected though his majority—4,043—was not known until the legislature canvassed the vote after the national election. The complexion of the legislature remained in doubt until the session began, but both sides claimed control.

The election returns are interesting. The following western counties were carried by Spaight: Ashe, Caswell, Haywood, Lincoln, Macon, Mecklenburg, Person, Rockingham, Surry and Yancey. Person always voted with the East but not so the others, and the split shows interesting Democratic strength in the West. Dudley carried the following eastern counties: Beaufort, Brunswick, Carteret, Camden, Columbus, Granville, Halifax, Hertford, Hyde, Jones, Northampton, Pasquotank, Perquimans, Richmond, Tyrrell and Washington. He was an eastern man and was well and favorably known in that section of the State, a fact which of course counted for much in the election. But the general result does indicate that sectionalism was decreasing and points to the existence of two political parties geographically coincident.

The Democrats were greatly upset at the result. They made many explanations of which the following, appearing in the Standard in September, while not quite typical, is not much more laughable than many others, and probably it had much more truth. In any event it furnishes a shocking commentary upon political conditions in the State: “They even condescended in some distant parts of the State where the people were not familiar with the names and policies of the candidates to represent Governor Spaight as the candidate of the opposition and General Dudley as the candidate of the Administration party.” The truth is that the day of the Democrats in state affairs was over for many a year. The tardiness of the emancipation of the West had permitted the growth and development of a party there which in alliance with certain elements of the East could easily control the State, and under normal conditions it did so for 14 years.

The election was watched with great interest outside the State as bearing upon the national campaign. There was little comfort for the administration. Van Buren wrote Bedford Brown that the administration could not deceive itself as to what the result indicated for November so far as North Carolina was concerned. But in the State the Democrats did not lose heart. As national politics had dominated the state campaign, at least so far as the leaders were concerned, the chief interest of the year was still to come in the presidential election. So they lost no spirit, but rather redoubled their exertions. The Whigs, on the other hand, being over-confident, grew slack. The Democrats were fortunate in enlisting Nathaniel Macon in the cause, and he finally consented to be a candidate for elector on the Van Buren ticket. The old leader was heart and soul for Van Buren just as in later years, he had been for Jackson, and his presence on the ticket undoubtedly helped it. The Democrats made much of it, and the last political effort of Macon was crowned with success. He died the next year.

The election resulted in the selection of Democratic electors with a popular majority of 9,240. It was the expiring flicker of Jacksonian Democracy in North Carolina national elections, the last triumph of the Democrats in a national election there for twenty years. Then, under the pressure of new national problems, the State returned to the Democratic fold, but the Democracy of 1856 was not Jacksonian; rather it was that of Calhoun.

The geographical division of the vote was somewhat the same as in the state election. In the West the Democrats gained Buncombe, Orange and Stokes, and in the East they gained Columbus, and lost Pitt. Their majorities in many cases were, however, considerably increased. The explanation lies wholly in the hold of Jackson upon the State.

The legislature as elected turned out to be a tie between the parties on joint ballot, but for some reason not known, John B. Muse of Pasquotank, a Whig, resigned before the meeting, and his successor was a Democrat. This gave that party a majority of one before the successor was elected. The Senate chose Hugh Waddell of Orange, a Whig, as speaker over W. D. Moseley, and the House of Commons elected William H. Haywood over William A. Graham. Governor Spaight in his message endorsed public education and internal improvements, both of which were to be the main reliance of the Whigs in the period of their supremacy.

On November 26, Mangum, who received the electoral vote of South Carolina for President, interpreting the election as an endorsement of the doctrine of instructions, as indeed in part it was, and realizing that he had no hope of re-election, resigned from the United States senate. Judge Robert Strange of Fayetteville, a strong Democrat and a firm believer in the doctrine of instructions, was chosen for the unexpired term and, a few days later, for the new term. His majority was the party majority of one.

Governor Dudley was inaugurated on the first of January, 1837, and in his inaugural address made a strong plea for progress. The following is the highly significant part of his message in that it was the keynote of the Whig party at its best stage:

The year 1837 had little of political interest outside of the congressional campaign which, concerned, properly enough it is true, only with national affairs, excited genuine and widespread interest. It must not be supposed that the interest in national affairs indicated any unusually strong national feeling. States' Rights sentiment was powerful in North Carolina throughout the entire period from 1776 to 1860. The reasons for the fact have already been discussed and will cause further comment later.

The congressional elections were therefore hotly contested in most cases. The Whigs gained one seat only to lose it during the term of the next Congress through a change of opinion on the part of the member. William B. Shepard of Pasquotank, a Whig, was succeeded by Samuel T. Sawyer of Chowan, and Jesse Speight of Greene, a Democrat, was defeated by Charles Shepard of Craven, who was a moderate Whig. These were the only changes made in the delegation.

With the congressional canvass completed, the politics-ridden State turned its attention to a discussion of suitable candidates for the presidency in 1840 and to incidental mention of possible and gubernatorial candidates in 1838. In the Whig camp there was little need for discussion, for the party was committed heart and soul to Henry Clay. But party lines were in a way very loosely drawn and so it was felt to be necessary to sing his praises in and out of season in order to draw the hesitant and the doubting to his standard. Practically no one else was mentioned at this time. All the Whig papers were enlisted in his behalf and they considered no one else. In the same way the Whigs took Governor Dudley's renomination for granted, and no other candidate was suggested.

In the Democratic ranks there was the same unity as to a presidential candidate. Van Buren's supremacy was undisputed and the only quarrel was with the opposition. So Clay and Webster were consistently accused of yielding on all points to the abolitionists, while Harrison was mentioned only to belittle him. For the governorship the Democrats had apparently no one to offer. In February, the Standard, stating that a considerable number of leading Democrats agreed with it, took the ground that the governorship ought not to be contested, declaring that if the office was to be put on a party basis, it would be “disturbing to the repose of the State.” “If the official conduct of the executive officer of a State is unexceptionable, it certainly gives him claim to election. In the case of Governor Dudley, so far, no dissatisfaction has been given to the people of the State.” Declaring that the question of abolition was the only issue, that therefore the State should be undivided, and that Dudley had never been a party governor, it continued: “It may be said that the opposition had no regard to the claims of Governor Spaight who had done nothing to provoke hostility. True! but the conduct of the opposition can furnish no plea to Democratic Republicans for desertion of their principles. The time was (though we fear it has gone by) when the orthodox Democratic creed taught that in the selection of State officers we should ask what were their opinions of State matters; in choosing National officers, what do they hold on National affairs. That this has not continued to be the plan of selection may be attributed to the proscriptive spirit of the Federal party.” In view of the facts of the case, this last assertion of the Standard is interesting, and yet, as will be seen, it is true that the Whig party in North Carolina first began to apply the spoils system to state affairs.

It is difficult now to understand just the reasons for the Standard's position as to Dudley. It is true that he had always been exceedingly popular and that he had grown more so during his term of office. In addition, the Standard had no one to offer in opposition and it later appeared that the editor at the time believed that Dudley would vote neither for Clay, Webster, nor Harrison, and that he was opposed to the re-establishment of the United States Bank. As Dudley was on record in believing that a protective tariff was unconstitutional, it can readily be seen that he was not an unattractive candidate as Whig candidates went. Here is probably the explanation of the Standard's action. However, that may be, the position taken was not popular with the rest of the Democratic press and criticism was very sharp from all quarters of the State.

In the meantime, Dudley had seriously considered refusing to be a candidate for re-election. He told John Branch, who was a warm personal friend, of his intention. Branch, who, although he had revolted against Jackson after the break-up of the cabinet and his own consequent retirement from the Navy Department, had now returned to his full Democratic allegiance, warned him against undue haste in making his decision; and Dudley later decided to be a candidate. In July, a group of Wake County Democrats met at the house of one of their number and nominated Branch. He was informed of this action by a letter dated July 4, in which he was asked to define his opinion on the Independent Treasury and the Bank of the United States, and three days later he replied accepting the nomination. In his letter he declared that the immediate issue was that of the establishment of the bank, but that behind it lay the menace of a loose construction of the Constitution when the South could only be safe under a system of strict construction. “For Governor Dudley I entertain personally the highest respect and esteem and nothing could induce me to oppose his re-election, but the paramount consideration above alluded to.” The Democratic press and leaders accepted his candidacy, but the Standard, in announcing its support of the nominee, declined to retract any of its former statements as to the campaign.

The Whigs immediately accused Branch of inducing Dudley to run only to contest his election himself. They also called attention to the fact that Branch had been recently nominated in Leon County, Florida, for membership in a constitutional convention which the people were trying to secure, and said that this was proof positive that he was a citizen of Florida and hence ineligible to office in North Carolina. They also used against him with some effect his famous speech in the legislature of 1834 which gave an inside account of the break-up of the cabinet, and in which he had expressed no flattering opinion of Van Buren.

John Branch was a native of Halifax County. Born in 1782, he graduated from the University in 1801 and studied law under Judge John Haywood. He was, however, possessed of great wealth by inheritance and never practiced his profession. In 1811 and from 1813 to 1817 he represented his county in the state Senate, being speaker in 1816 and 1817. In the latter year he has was elected governor and served for the three terms, the maximum number under the constitution. He returned to the state Senate in 1822 for one term and in 1823 was elected United States senator to succeed Montford Stokes and was re-elected in 1829. In March, 1829, he resigned to become secretary of the navy under Jackson. Parton says of him: “Mr. Branch was not one of those who achieve greatness, nor one of those who have greatness thrust upon them. He was born to it. Inheriting an ample estate, he lived for many years upon his plantations and employed himself in superintending their culture. He was a man of respectable talents, good presence, and high social position.” When the cabinet was broken up Jackson offered him the governorship of the territory of Florida, a position he was later to hold under President Tyler, but while Branch owned much property in Florida and the position might not have been uncongenial, he was in no mood to accept anything at the President's hand and peremptorily refused to consider any appointment. Returning to North Carolina, he was at once elected to Congress. He was in the legislature in 1834 and he was a member of the convention of 1835 and quite prominent in its activities. Such was the distinguished career of the Democratic candidate.

The campaign such as it was, for in the modern sense there can scarcely be said to have been any, was very dull with little to arouse interest. Also because Branch was not nominated until July, it was very short. Immediately after his nomination it was evident that a mistake had been made in bringing him out so late and there was really never any hope of his election. National discussion, as always, predominated and the United States Bank was the chief issue. The Standard now had a sub-motto: “The people against the Bank.” Once more, too, nullification sentiments and sympathies were charged against political opponents. But a change was coming over some of the people. This is best indicated by the fact of the Standard's reprinting Calhoun's speeches in the Senate on various subjects and endorsing them. The abolition movement was making considerable headway by 1838 and the effects were easily visible in North Carolina. This question also entered into the campaign.

In spite of the dullness of the campaign, the press waxed bitter. Parenthetically it may be said that there have been but few if any campaigns since when at least a part if not all of the press was not bitter. It has been a characteristic of North Carolina political campaigns. Speaking of the bitterness, the Standard said: “We have before us three of the leading Whig papers of North Carolina, published within a month in which collectively the terms loco foco, imposters, agrarians, senseless loafers, sluggish idlers, swaggering penniless braggarts are used as applicable to the Democratic Republican party.” The charge was true and is particularly interesting in that it shows the tendency of the Whig party in North Carolina, in spite of the facts of its foundation and its geographical strength to become a party of the classes as distinguished from the masses.

The election came and Dudley carried forty-three counties with a majority of more than 14,000. The total Whig vote increased only 336 votes while the Democratic vote decreased 9,797. A Whig legislature was chosen with control of both houses and a majority on joint ballot of fourteen. Mangum—who had declined to be a candidate for Congress the year before, probably because he was afraid that Doctor Montgomery would defeat him, a fear not entirely unfounded,—was a candidate for the Senate from Orange, but was defeated, to the unholy joy of the Democrats who made special efforts to that end. Mangum said during the campaign with some truth: “The Van Buren party would rather see the devil unchained and put in the Legislature than to see me elected.”

The Whigs, naturally were very jubilant, the Register expressing their feeling in the following editorial:

It is with feelings such as we have rarely experienced that we announce that North Carolina, too, has cast down her idols, and joined in the loud chorus of triumph and joy, which commencing in Maine, has been now reverberated from almost every State in the Union. Yes, the Old North is now emphatically “redeemed, regenerated, and disenthralled.” After a fight of war to the knife and the knife to the hilt, victory has perched upon the Whig banner, under the glorious folds of which so many gallant States have taken shelter. Make way then for us and proclaim to the utmost verge of the Union that North Carolina has elected a Whig Governor! a Whig Senate!! and a Whig House of Commons!!!

The legislature met in November and the Whigs elected the officers. Andrew Joyner of Halifax, was chosen speaker of the Senate over Louis D. Wilson of Edgecombe, and William A. Graham of Orange, speaker of the House over Michael Hoke of Lincoln. Governor Dudley's message contained bitter criticism of the protective tariff and also of the financial measures of Jackson's and Van Buren's administrations. It also strongly endorsed the re-establishment of the Bank of the United States and made a plea for the state banks. A large part of the message, which was unusually long for that day, was taken up with these matters. He suggested an entailed homestead, urged continuance and elaboration of the system of internal improvements, and urgently recommended the creation of a system of public schools. Struck with the lack of suitable and prepared teachers, he suggested the plan since adopted of providing free tuition at the University for those would agree to teach for a certain term of years.

In his inaugural which came later in the session, the Governor again urged public education and internal improvements. The address showed evidence of considerable party heat and rancor. Declaring that the stability of the State's institutions was threatened by the levelling spirit prevalent, he called upon the people to hold it in check. This part of the address excited considerable hostile comment, the Standard saying that it was “a political firebrand wantonly and gratuitously thrown into our councils at a time when conciliatory language was of vast importance to the interests of the State.”

Towards the close of the campaign, the Democrats quite frequently made the charge that the Whigs planned in the event of their controlling the legislature, to instruct the two Democratic senators, and thus force their resignation. No sooner was the result certain than it became evident that they had some such intention, and soon after the session opened, Kenneth Rayner of Hertford, introduced a series of resolutions designed to embarrass the senators. Declaring that a great crisis had arrived in the political history of the country, in which it was the duty of the people's representatives to express their opinions calmly and dispassionately, the resolutions condemned the passage of the expunging resolution, and called for a counter resolution by the Senate condemning that action; condemning the proposed sub-treasury scheme; and endorsing the distribution policy. The final resolution was the important one. It was as follows: “Resolved, That our Senators in Congress will represent the wishes of a large majority of the people of this State by voting to carry out the foregoing resolutions.”

These resolutions had been the subject of prolonged Whig caucuses and were finally decided upon after advice was taken from practically every leading member of the party in the State. Their form was a matter of considerable importance and much care was taken in regard to it. In the long debate which followed upon their introduction, the whole purpose of the Democrats was to amend the resolutions so as at least to commit the Whigs to an endorsement of the principle of instruction; but all attempts at this were futile. The Whigs had the power and were determined to use it and, if possible, to drive Brown and Strange from the Senate; but they were unwilling to accept the doctrine of instructions. And so, by a strict party vote in each house, they defeated every amendment and passed the resolution. David S. Reid immediately moved a resolution endorsing the votes of the two senators against certain abolitionist measures, but this was defeated by a party vote.

As soon as the senators received the resolutions, they wrote expressing the belief that the General Assembly was not exerting their undoubted right of instruction and expressing their readiness to obey or resign whenever instructions should be given, but asking for correction if their construction of the resolutions was at fault. This action put the Whigs in a difficult position, and they had no answer to give that would not commit them in a way that they did not wish. In the House the letter was laid on the table, but in the Senate the following resolution was adopted by a party vote:

On January 14, 1839, Senator Brown presented the resolutions to the Senate and defended his course and that of his colleague who joined him in the defense. They then announced their intention of presenting their resignations at the next legislature. Henry Clay took upon himself the defense of the North Carolina Whigs and answered them rather discourteously. Brown and Strange both replied to him so effectively as to delight the heart of every North Carolina Democrat and equally disgust that of every North Carolina Whig.