1. With the fall of Fort Fisher the fate of Wilmington was sealed. With the Federal troops in such a position the port was most effectually closed. The last connection of the beleaguered Confederacy with the outer world was thus broken, and North Carolina, with beating heart, listened to the approaching footsteps of countless invaders. General Lee, who had been made General-in-Chief of all the Southern armies, selected General Joseph E. Johnston to command in North Carolina.
2. General Bragg's forces having retired from Wilmington, met the corps of Major-General Schofield in an ineffectual engagement at Kinston on March 8th, and retired upon Goldsboro. This command, with the troops lately in Charleston and Savannah, the remnant of the Army of Tennessee and Hampton's Division from Virginia, soon made an army of twenty-five thousand men, under the command of General Johnston.
3. Against him were coming, from South Carolina, the great army under General W. T. Sherman; from Wilmington, the corps of General Terry, and from Kinston, the army of General Schofield. In addition to these overwhelming forces, another column was approaching from the west, under General Stoneman.
4. As this great array gathered toward Raleigh as a common focus, the first conflict was between the division commanded by General Hardee and the army of General Sherman at the hamlet of Averasboro. After a stubborn fight, Hardee withdrew, and, having joined General Johnston, the latter collected fifteen thousand men at Bentonsville, in Johnston county, on March 19th, and awaited Sherman's approach.
5. General Sherman, on that day, made six successive attacks upon Johnston's left, composed of Hoke's and Cheatham's divisions and the late garrisons on the Cape Fear. The Federal assaults were all repelled, and, at the order for our troops to advance, three lines of the enemy's field works were carried and several batteries captured. This success, however, was not bloodlessly effected.
6. General Sherman withdrew to Goldsboro to meet Schofield and Terry, and Johnston halted near Smithfield to await developments. With such a force it seemed impossible that he would be able to meet the combined strength of the three, armies assembling at Goldsboro, but the result at Bentonsville had greatly elated his troops, and they resolutely awaited General Sherman's return to the shock of arms.
7. After so much bloodshed the end of hostilities, however, was near at hand. General Sheridan, with heavy cavalry reinforcements, having assailed the right flank of General Lee's defences at Petersburg, after hard fighting, succeeded in winning a decisive battle at Five Forks on the 28th of March. The loss, of the six thousand Confederates made prisoners on that day was fatal to longer hold on the thinly-manned lines around the city that had been so long and nobly defended.
8. On the morning of the 2nd of April, in the general assault, General Lee's lines were pierced in three places, General A. P. Hill was slain, and, at nightfall the doomed Army of Northern Virginia began its famous retreat. After incredible hardships, having fought their way to Appomattox Court House, the small remnant of the heroes who had for four years so dauntlessly held their ground against all comers, were enveloped in the masses of pursuing hosts, and, on April 9th, at the command of their beloved leader, they there laid down their arms.
9. General Lee was never greater or more loved or more reverenced thanin the hour of his fall. He had not taken part in the struggle to gratify ambition or for love of war; but in the conscientious discharge of sacred duty. Into that struggle North Carolina had sent more than a hundred and fifty thousand of her sons, and to them all he was ever the ideal of the soldier, the gentleman and the Christian. At his command they laid down their arms, returned to their homes and in time renewed their allegiance to the United States.
1. What was the effect of the fall of Fort Fisher?
2. What occurred at Kinston? What was the size of General Johnston's army?
3. What great forces were marching against Johnston?
4. Where was the first conflict between these armies? When was the battle of Bentonsville fought? Point out Averasboro on the map. Bentonsville.
5. Can you tell something of the fight at Bentonsville? What was done by the Federal and Confederate commanders after this battle?
6. What occurred at Petersburg?
7. How did the battle result?
8. What took place at Appomattox?
9. What is said of the great General Lee?
When General Johnston became aware of General Lee's retreat, he was informed that his next duty would be to effect a junction of his forces with those withdrawn from Petersburg. In accordance with this object a movement was begun at Raleigh, April 10th. The army, Governor Vance accompanying it, having passed the capital, ex-Governors Graham and Swain, accompanied by Surgeon-General Warren, met General Sherman at the head of his vast army a few miles from Raleigh and asked him to protect the city.
2. General Sherman and his accumulated army of more than a hundred thousand men entered the capital city on April 13th, and encamped near it. As the advance, under General Kilpatrick, moved up Fayetteville street, a Confederate cavalryman, Lieutenant Walsh, of Texas, before his flight, halted near the State House and fired several times at Kilpatrick and his staff. His horse falling in his effort to escape, he was captured and taken before Kilpatrick, who ordered him to be immediately hanged. This outrageous order for the murder of a Confederate prisoner of war was speedily obeyed.
3. General Johnston was soon apprised of General Lee's capitulation, and, after conference with President Davis at Greensboro, he resolved to end the war by surrender of his army. To this end, having communicated with General Sherman, they met on April 18th, at the house of a Mr. Bennett, near Durham, and agreed upon conditions of surrender, subject to the approval of President Lincoln. Most unhappily for the Southern people, Mr. Lincoln never had an opportunity to express his opinion concerning this military convention; for he having just been assassinated at Washington by John Wilkes Booth. Andrew Johnson, the Vice-President, had become President in his place.
4. Mr. Johnson was a North Carolinian by birth. He had lived in Raleigh until be reached manhood and then emigrated to Tennessee, where he became a very prominent citizen. When the war came on he adhered to the Federal side, and was very bitter and harsh, in his hostility to the South. He was rewarded for his course by election to the Vice-Presidency of the United States in 1864. In the violent excitement which followed upon the killing of President Lincoln, Mr. Johnson would not sanction the liberal terms of surrender which General Sherman had granted to General Johnston, although General Sherman had been in conference with the deceased statesman just previous to his death, and was following his directions as to the treatment of the conquered South.
5. Notwithstanding this refusal of the President of the United States to carry out the agreement of the military commissioners, the army of General Johnston was surrendered at Greensboro on April 26th, 1865, and sent home on parole on like terms with the Confederate troops at Appomattox.
6. General Schofield was made military Governor of North Carolina, and his first official act was a proclamation declaring freedom to the slaves in the State. After two centuries of servitude, these people were at last delivered from their bondage. It is difficult at this day to say who were the more blessed in this deliverance—the slaves or their masters.
7. It was a hard thing for men who had been reared in the South to realize that their principal property, guaranteed to them as it was, in the fundamental law of the land, was founded in injustice; and still harder was it to accept poverty on the strength of a sentiment. Human nature is selfish in all regions, and, that Southern men should have clung to their property is no more than what their opponents would have done had the circumstances been exchanged. It will be difficult for posterity to understand what a mighty revolution in the domestic life of the people was involved in this single act of an army officer.
[NOTE—In the State election of 1860 the total vote polled was 112,586—the largest that had ever been polled. North Carolina furnished to the Confederacy over 150,000 men, or quite as many soldiers as she had voters, during the four years of the war. The total number of troops furnished by all the States of the Confederacy was about 600,000, and it will be seen that North Carolina furnished one-fourth of the entire force raised by the Confederate government during the war. At Appomattox North Carolina surrendered twice as many muskets as did any other State, and at Greensboro more of her soldiers were among the paroled than from any of her sister States. North Carolina's losses by the casualties of the war were largely over 30,000 men —Our Living and Our Dead.]
8. The slaves had been looking forward with hope, since the beginning of the war, that freedom might be in store for them, yet almost all of them had remained in quiet subjection at their homes while the war was progressing. It seemed hard for them to realize, for some time, that they were at last the masters of their own movements. As a general thing, they continued quietly at labor on the farms of their former owners until the crops that were growing were complete in their tillage, or, as they expressed it, "laid by."
9. Governor Vance was soon arrested and imprisoned in the "old capitol" at Washington. President Davis was also captured and imprisoned. Mr. Johnson appointed Vance's late political antagonist, W. W. Holden, Provisional Governor, and, at the same time, removed from office every State and county official in North Carolina. For some weeks no officer with civil powers was to be seen, and to the commanders of the many Federal posts alone could the peaceful have looked for protection against violence and fraud.
10. No man ever had so great an opportunity for fixing himself in the esteem and affection of the people as Governor Holden had during his administration as Provisional Governor, and no man ever so completely threw golden opportunities away. Had he risen to the full height of a patriot, his name would today be a loving household word in every section of the State. But he did not, and such opportunities rarely occur twice to any man.
11. His career had not been an uneventful one. Of humble origin, he had, by dint of his own work and his own brains, carried himself to the control of the Democratic party in the State. He was not satisfied with the position of the editor of the chief organ of the dominant party, and the pecuniary profits that then resulted from such a position, but desired to be made Governor of the State. He was defeated for the nomination by Judge Ellis before the Democratic State Convention at Charlotte, and from that period dates his downward career. He advocated the Douglas movement, and then supported Breckinridge and Lane. He voted for and signed the Ordinance of Secession, declaring he intended to preserve as an heirloom in his family the pen with which he attached his name to the ordinance; and then he became the head and front of the Union element in the State during the war. At the close of the war, as we have seen, he was made Provisional Governor by President Johnson.
12. No man knew better than Governor Holden that on our side the war was entirely at an end when the troops laid down their arms, and that when the people of North Carolina renewed their allegiance to the Federal government, they intended to stand to it honestly and faithfully. None better than he knew that they desired nothing so much as to set themselves to the task of rebuilding their fallen fortunes. He knew, too, that they were well aware that before this could be done, civil government, with all its varied machinery, must be re-established, and that in all that was right and proper for a people so situated, they were ready to aid him in doing this. The returned soldiers, too, especially felt that of them some recognition was due for the honorable terms and respectful treatment accorded to them at Appomattox and Greensboro.
13. In such mood it would have been an easy task for a ruler who was both patriot and statesman to re-establish Federal authority in North Carolina. It was simply impossible to punish all who had fought against the Federal government. It was quite as impossible to expect the many who had fought against it to take part in punishing the few. Amnesty and oblivion on one side, renewed allegiance and strict observer of the laws on the other, plainly constituted the true solution of the problem. Unfortunately, the partisan prevailed over the patriot. Instead of granting amnesty and oblivion, treason was to be made odious and traitors to be punished. Instead of making the path easy back to the Union, it was constantly blocked up in every possible way by both State and Federal authority. Of course an era of bitterness began, which the long imprisonment of Mr. Davis, the judicial murders of Mrs Surratt and Henry Wirz, the protracted exclusion of the Southern States from all participation in the general government, and the harsh policy of reconstruction, daily served to intensify.
1. What movement did General Johnston attempt after the surrender of General Lee? What men met General Sherman's army in behalf of the city of Raleigh?
2. When did Sherman's army reach Raleigh? What event is mentioned?
3. What was done by Johnston after learning of Lee's surrender? What occurred at Washington City?
4. What is said of President Andrew Johnson? How did he act concerning Johnston's surrender?
5. When and where did General Johnston surrender?
6. Who became military Governor of North Carolina? What was his first official act? What is said of the freedom of the slaves?
7. How is the question of slavery further considered?
8. How had the slaves acted during the war? How did they receive the news of freedom?
9. What befell Governor Vance? To what office was W. W. Holden appointed? What was the condition of civil affairs in North Carolina?
10. What is said of Governor Holden?
11. Can you tell something of his life?
12. How should Governor Holden have viewed the situation?
13. What would have been the proper course to pursue towards North Carolina?
1. When the bulk of the vast armies that had effected the overthrow of the Confederacy was marched northward and disbanded, the full extent of the ruin that had been wrought was at last realized. So many Federal troops had been collected in North Carolina that their subsistence and depredations had consumed nearly all the food in the State, and the utmost scarcity was disclosed in broad districts contiguous to the line of march and occupation by General Sherman's great armies.
2. Grief for the ruined South, the desolated homes and slain kinsmen was further supplemented by the pangs of want and hunger. Famishing men and women were forced to solicit rations of the Federal officers. Aid was given generally to needy applicants, upon their taking the oath of allegiance to the United States.
3. In the liberation of the slaves ruin was brought upon the banks and other fiscal corporations of the State, and, as a consequence, the endowments of the University and the colleges were, to a great extent, forever lost. Even the large Literary Fund, by which the whole system of common schools was sustained, being invested in similar securities, also disappeared in the general bankruptcy.
4. When the Provisional Governor had entered upon the discharge of his official duties, North Carolina was reduced to a small supply of cotton as the sum of her available means to discharge the current expenses of the new government, and even that was seized by the agents of the United States, and to Governor Holden's appeals for its release, the Secretary of the Treasury and President Johnson proved deaf and inexorable.
5. Judges Pearson and Battle were re-instated in their places of Supreme Court Justices, but Judge M. E. Manly was replaced by Edwin G. Reade, of Person. By orders from Washington, a proclamation was issued for an election of a Convention to restore the State to its former relations. This body met October 2nd, 1865, and selected Judge Reade as its president. Ordinances were passed repealing and declaring null and void the secession ordinances of May 20th, 1861, abolishing slavery and invalidating all contracts made in furtherance of the late war.
1866.
6. In the same election, Jonathan Worth, of Randolph, was chosen over Governor Holden as Chief-Magistrate. The State was apparently resuming its self-government, and was soon to show that some spirit was left in the people. They refused to ratify the ordinances of the late Convention by a decided majority; and while accepting the situation and submitting in all quietude to the authorities imposed, they were yet resolved to take no part in these constrained reformations.
7. The general government had been for four years declaring the Ordinances of Secession, passed by the several States, null and void. It had been repeatedly announced that no State could thus sever her connection with the Union; but when the legally elected Senators and Representatives from North Carolina reached Washington, they found that this doctrine was reversed, and were told that they could not take part in national legislation until Congress should restore the Southern States to their lost privileges.
8. In the Southern elections that were held, every man was required to take oaths of allegiance and for the support of the amended Federal Constitution. Some refused to attend the polls and a few left the country for foreign lands. A vast majority were resolved to support the Union in good faith, but, unhappily, this was not so understood by the men who controlled at Raleigh and Washington. They were impressed with the belief that only hostile sentiments actuated Southern white men, and, therefore, the proper policy was to confer political power upon the negroes, and in that way establish a new system of rule and social life in the Southern States lately in revolt.
1867.
9. This was a great and cruel mistake in policy. It was not only impossible of execution, but necessarily entailed trouble and suffering on both races thus put in antagonism. It could not be expected that white people would quietly submit to the domination of negroes who had so recently been their slaves, even if such rulers had been equally intelligent and socially respected. When the race feeling was added to the late subjection and present ignorance of the negroes, it was the most futile and abortive scheme ever proposed in America, and was at war with all the precedents and spirit of the great Republic.
1. What was the condition of the State after the departure of Federal troops?
2. How were the people enduring mental and bodily suffering?
3. What had become of the various educational funds?
4. What was the only means by which North Carolina could meet the expenses of the State government? What became of the small supply of cotton?
5. What changes did Governor Holden make in the Supreme Court? What orders did the Governor receive from Washington? What was the Work of the Convention?
6. Who. was chosen to succeed Governor Holden? What political opinions were expressed by the people in their votes?
7. What inconsistencies were observed in the management of affairs at Washington?
8. How did the men of the South feel concerning the laws of Congress?
9. How are the events of this period considered?
President Andrew Johnson, as has already been stated, was born and reared in the city of Raleigh. He went to Tennessee after reaching manhood, and, though blessed with small advantages as to early culture, devoted himself to political life. He is said to have mastered the rudiments of education with his wife's help. His native ability soon gave him position as a politician and eventually great popularity and control over the Tennessee people.
2. He soon relaxed in the severity of his feelings toward the late Confederates, and thereby incurred the resentment of the leaders in the party which had elected him Vice-President. In the bitterness of the mutual recriminations, between him and his late friends in Congress, there was, unhappily, evil to result to North Carolina and the South; for to the old resentments against the South was added a desire in many men to thwart the President who had become their ally.
3. Governor Worth had ever been marked as a public man by the utmost devotion to the Federal Union. He had constantly opposed the doctrine and necessity of secession. He was now to show his wisdom and attachment for the State of his birth. As Governor, he was continually pressed to secure legal protection for the people against the interference of military commanders and courts-martial, which were constantly intruding upon the jurisdiction of the State courts.
4. The whole system of education in the common schools had perished in the loss of the Literary Fund. The University still continued its ministrations, but with a diminished faculty and patronage. The colleges, male and female, belonging to the different religious denominations, were re-opened and generally were slowly regaining their former efficiency.
5. Among the first enactments by the Legislature after the war, was the law allowing negroes to testify against or for white parties in courts of justice. This was a great change in our law, but was now necessary for their protection, as they no longer had masters to care for them.
6. The agriculture of the period was rapidly advancing in the perfection of its details. Concentrated fertilizers were coming into general use and the area of cotton culture was immensely expanding. The farms were about equally divided as to the style of their management. The best farmers still hired their "hands" and superintended the details of operation in person, but many leased their lands to laborers and furnished the teams and supplies needed by the tenants.
7. Under the sensible and moderate rule then seen in the State, prosperity seemed rapidly returning, but as the United States Congress still refused to allow any representation in that body, there was great and increasing uneasiness as to the terms that would be finally exacted from the South in the proposed reconstruction measures.
1868.
8. Early in the year 1868 a convention, so-called, was held to frame a new Constitution under the Reconstruction Act of Congress. The election for the delegates was held under General Canby's orders, and the returns were sent to him at Charleston. Upon his order the Convention met and upon his order its delegates were seated and unseated.
9. In the latter part of April the Constitution thus framed was submitted to such of the people as were allowed to vote, at an election held as before, under General Canby's order, and by him, in Charleston, South Carolina, the returns having been sent to him there, declared to have been adopted. It is now generally known as the "Canby Constitution." In June, by order by telegram from General Canby, Governor Worth, who had been elected Governor by the people in 1866, was turned out of his office and Governor Holden put in his place. The only authority for this and other outrages was the might of Federal bayonets.
10. The Legislature elected under the recently adopted Constitution met on the 1st of July, 1868. It was comprised largely of negroes and of men from the North who had lately come to North Carolina. These latter were popularly known as "carpetbaggers," and as a class were mere birds of prey who came here for plunder. As might have been expected, the legislation of such a body was both corrupt and injurious. Ignorant of the resources of the State, of its people and their necessities, it would have been a miracle almost, no matter how honest, had their legislation not been harmful. Unfortunately, there was added to gross ignorance the most unblushing corruption and wanton extravagance. Many millions of debt, in the shape of "Special Tax Bonds," as they were called, were attempted to be fastened upon the State by this Legislature, but the people have persistently refused to recognize them.
11. The Convention and elections of 1868 will ever be remembered. The act of Congress, passed on February 20th, 1867, was in vain vetoed by the President. It was made the law of the land, and under its provisions, while twenty thousand white men of North Carolina were deprived of the right to vote, that privilege was extended to every colored male in the State who had attained the age of twenty-one years.
12. The year closed with great apprehensions to all classes. The new State government possessed neither the confidence nor the affection of the people, and in the pandemonium of bribery and corruption there was justification for the fears of men, who, in corrupt and reckless appropriations and corrupt and reckless expenditures, foresaw ruin to all material interests of the State.
12. In Robeson county, life and property were so insecure that extraordinary measures were adopted to extirpate the bandits who slew and plundered as if no legal restraints were left in the land. The story of Henry Berry Lowery and his "Swamp Angels" will ever stand as a convincing proof of the incompetency of the government of that day or of its wanton disregard of its duties to its citizens.
1. Where was President Andrew Johnson born? To what State did he go? To what profession did he devote himself? How is he said to have mastered the rudiments of education? What position did his native ability give him?
2. How did his feelings toward the South undergo a change? What did he incur thereby? How did this affect North Carolina and the South?
3. What is said of Governor Worth?
4. In what condition were the institutions of learning at this period?
5. What legislation is mentioned favoring the colored people? Why was this now necessary?
6. How were agricultural matters progressing? How were the farms conducted?
7. What was the general condition of the State?
8. For what was the Convention of 1868 held? Under whose order was the election for delegates held?
9. When was the Constitution thus framed submitted to the people?How is this Constitution now known? How was Governor Worth removed from office,and who was put in his place?What was the authority for this and other high-handed measures?
10. When did the Legislature of 1868 meet, and of whom was it composed? What is said of this Legislature? What is said of the "Special Tax Bonds"?
11. What is said of the Convention and elections of 1868?
12. In what condition were public affairs?
13. What is said of Robeson county, and Henry Berry Lowery and his "Swamp Angels"?
There was in North Carolina great indignation at the result of the enforced changes wrought in the polity of the State by means of the various congressional enactments. Strangers from other States, and men entirely unused to legislation, had effected many alterations in our government and laws. It was to be expected that such things, done in such manner, would prove distasteful to a proud race that had so lately withstood so stoutly on the field of battle, and so long, such superior numbers.
2. Among the many unnecessary changes that were rendered more distasteful by the harsh manner of their accomplishment, were those made by Governor Holden and his party at the State University at Chapel Hill. This venerable institution, which had given education to many men of renown, was taken in hand, and, with a new management and a new faculty, made up of carpetbaggers and unsuitable native North Carolinians, re-opened its doors. Its late president, ex-Governor David L. Swain, had died shortly after his removal, his colleagues in the Faculty had dispersed in search of new homes, and silence had usurped the halls so long thronged by students from many States. The village of Chapel Hill, depending on the existence of the University for its support, became almost deserted. No less than thirty of its best families removed within two years. The people of North Carolina refused to patronize the new organization, and the institution was for seven years prostrate.
3. The changes did not stop with the University. The judges of all the courts had been, since 1776, elected by the Legislature. This was altered, so that they were in future to be selected by the votes of the people. The name of the lower branch of the General Assembly, so long known as the House of "Commons," became that of the "Representatives." The meeting of the Assembly was made annual instead of biennial, and the pay of the members and State officials largely increased. Our county government system, too, was changed, and so was the mode of electing magistrates, who had hitherto been elected by the Legislature. In future they were to be elected by the people. In many portions of the State the effect was to put the white race at once under the domination of the black race. Bitterness and great excitement were the inevitable results. But of all the innovations, none, perhaps, was so startling as that made in the procedure and practice of the courts. It was distasteful both to client and counsel, but to the older lawyers it was especially objectionable.
1869.
4. The distinguishing event of this year in North Carolina was the appearance, in various parts of the State, of well-organized bodies of horsemen, commonly called Ku-Klux, who rode about at night in full disguise and punished crimes that the law had failed to punish. The mystery attending their coming and their going, the silence they preserved in their marches, the disguises they wore, coupled with the terrible punishment they inflicted, struck terror into the hearts of men with guilty consciences.
5. These midnight riders were doubtless in their origin the natural outgrowth of the condition of society that had prevailed in North Carolina for some time past—that is to say, they were originally nothing more nor less than local mutual protective associations, with little form about them and but little more secrecy. The first step having been taken in that direction, the next followed as a matter of course. Next came associations to prevent future crime by punishing past crime. These organizations were more complex in their character and of wider range in their operations.
6. The condition of society was very bad, but not worse than might have been expected under a government which, obnoxious in its creation, daily became more hateful in its conduct. Negro suffrage had just become a reality. Spies and eavesdroppers were everywhere catching up men's words and watching men's actions for report to the government at Raleigh. Corruption and licentiousness stalked openly in the legislative halls and sat unblushingly on the judicial bench, while in the Executive office was a Governor ready to obey the behests of his party at any cost. It was an era of extravagance, bribery, corruption, oppression, licentiousness and lawlessness. Of the negroes, ignorant slaves but yesterday, with all their passion stirred to the utmost, large numbers blindly believed that freedom and suffrage would make them masters tomorrow were it not for the native white race. First suspicious, then sullen, then aggressive, they soon came under the bad teaching of the men who were their leaders, to regard the native white men as their born enemies. The result was the murder of men, the outraging of women, the burning of barns and other like destruction of property, then of vital importance, for the law had no terror for an evil doer who had friends at court or in the Executive chamber. It is but just to the negroes, however, to say that it is not believed that if they had been left to themselves they would have acted as they did, but that they were influenced to bad deeds by bad white men, who used them as tools to accomplish political ends. Under such circumstances as these, good citizens felt that they were tried beyond human endurance, and justified themselves to their own consciences for taking the law into their own hands.
7. The evils the Ku-Klux came to cure were indeed unbearable; but it must be said, also, that while the disease was desperate, the remedy was fearful. It is a fearful thing for men to band themselves together in secret and take the law into their own hands, and nothing but the direst necessity and the gravest emergency can ever justify it. Inseparable from every such organization, and this proved no exception to the rule, is the danger of its easy perversion to the gratification of personal malice or the improper punishment of petty offences, and this alone ought to be warning that in such a remedy lies terrible danger.
8. Governor Holden quailed before the Ku-Klux, and from his guarded house issued proclamation after proclamation, but they would not down at his bidding. When winter came and with it the Legislature, Senator Shoffner, of Alamance, at the instance of the Governor, introduced a bill into the Senate, in its terms conferring upon the Governor the right to declare any and every county in the State to be in insurrection, and to recruit and maintain an army whenever he saw proper. In other words, the bill sought to confer upon the Governor the power to declare martial law at will. Of course this was unconstitutional.
1870.
9. The Shoffner bill was ratified on the 29th of January, 1870. On the night of the 26th of February, Wyatt Outlaw, a negro, was hung in the county town of Alamance, by the Ku-Klux. On the 7th of March the county was declared to be in a state of insurrection. Federal troops were sent there, but beyond eating their rations they had no occupation, for quiet and good order prevailed throughout the county.
10. A striking fact, true of every place during these unhappy times, is that whenever white Federal troops were sent to a troubled section, whether in Alamance, Caswell, Orange or elsewhere, there was straightway an end of trouble. The law- breakers were awed into good behavior, and those who in self- protection had forced, in their own judgment, to take into their own hands the administration of justice, of course had no further occasion to do so.
11. Governor Holden, however, seemed not to be satisfied with the Shoffner bill, for on the 10th of March he wrote* to the President, asking that stringent orders be sent to the commanding general, and stating that if "criminals could be arrested and tried before military tribunals and shot, there would soon be peace and order throughout the country. The remedy," he said, "would be a sharp and bloody one, but indispensable as was the suppression of the rebellion." The 14th he wrote to the members of Congress from North Carolina**, beseeching them to induce Congress to author the President to declare martial law in certain localities, so that he might "have military tribunals, by which assassins and murderers can be summarily tried and shot," and telling them at the same time that he could not have such tribunals unless the President was authorized to suspend the habeas corpus.
*For letter in full, see Governor's Letter-book, page 328.
**For letter in full, see Governor's Letter-book, page 329.
12. At the time when the Governor was so anxious thus "summarily" to try and shoot people, not a single man had been killed in Caswell, and only one in Alamance. It might be borne in mind, too, that the men whom he refers to, and whom he afterwards arrested as assassins and murderers, were among the best men in all the land, many of them venerable for age as well as respected for personal integrity and Christian character.
1. How did our people take the many changes in State polity?
2. What was done with the University?
3. How was the manner of electing judges changed? What was the effect of this change?
4. What secret organization was formed at this time?
5. What is said of the Ku-Klux?
6. Can you tell something of the condition of society?
7. How are the doings of the Ku-Klux considered?
8. What was done by the Governor in regard to the Ku-Klux?
9. What occurred in Alamance county?
10. What was the general effect produced by the Federal troops?
11. What was the next step taken by Governor Holden?
12. Who were the men arrested by order of the Governor?
THE RESULTS OF RECONSTRUCTION—Continued.
On the 21st of May, John W. Stephens, then a Senator from Caswell county, was secretly murdered in an unused room in the courthouse at Yanceyville. A large concourse filled the house when the deed was committed, the occasion being a Democratic political gathering, and Stephens was seen and talked to at the meeting, being there as a spectator. Strange to say, however, it is a mystery to this day as to who committed the crime.
2. It was insisted by Governor Holden and his party that Stephens had been murdered by the Ku-Klux. This however, was as stoutly denied, and the assertion added that, as Stephens was an object of derision and contempt rather than of hatred, there was neither desire nor cause to put him to death.
3. Meanwhile, Congress had refused to confer upon the President the power to declare martial law, and the August elections kept drawing near. A new Attorney-General and a new Legislature and new Congressmen were to be elected. The Governor and his party were therefore compelled to rely on the Shoffner bill alone.
4. State troops, as they were called, were now recruited, and, on the 21st of June, George W. Kirke, a brutal ruffian of infamous character, and known to be such, who had commanded a regiment of Federal troops during the war, was brought from his home in Tennessee and commissioned Colonel. This man Kirke, in his public posters calling for recruits, the original of which was found in Governor Holden's own hand-writing, appealed to his old comrades to join him, saying that "the blood of their murdered countrymen, inhumanly butchered for opinion's sake, cried to them from the ground for ensconce."
5. On the 8th of July, the county of Caswell was declared to be in a state of insurrection. Meanwhile, however, a company of Federal troops had been stationed at Yanceyville, and had found use for neither ball nor bayonet, and in both Alamance and Caswell the courts were open and not the slightest obstruction to any process of the law.
6. On the 13th of July, Kirke having organized his regiment, was ordered to take command of the counties of Alamace and Caswell. In a few days more than a hundred citizens of Alamance and Caswell were arrested and imprisoned by Kirke and his subordinates. In some instances persons thus seized were hung up by the neck, or otherwise treated with great brutality. Among there prisoners were many men who had been for years of the first respectability as citizens, and were known and honored in every portion of the State.
7. Application was speedily made to Chief-Justice Pearson for a writ of habeas corpus, that Adolphus G. Moore, and others thus imprisoned, might know the cause of their detention and receive the protection of the laws. Judge Pearson granted the writ, but when it was served on Kirke, he directed the messenger to inform the Chief-Justice that such things "had played out," that he was acting in accordance with Governor Holden's orders, and he refused to obey the command of his Honor. The lawyers of the imprisoned men then asked for further process of the Judge to punish Kirke for his disregard of his orders; but Judge Pearson passed over his contemptuous message as the "flippant speech of a rude soldier," and held that his powers were exhausted, as the Governor had ordered Kirke to seize the men, and the judiciary could not contend with the Executive, and in this he was sustained by the other members of the court.
8. The conspiracy against the Constitution, the laws and the liberties of the people developed rapidly, now that the highest judges in the State had declared the courts of the State to be impotent. The military tribunals that the Governor failed to get from Congress in March, he now proceeded to organize under the Shoffner act. The court was to consist of thirteen members, seven of whom Governor Holden selected from among his own partisans in the militia and six he left to Kirke to select from the officers of his command. * The 25th day of July was first selected for the meeting of the court, and then the 8th of August. [!] It was a terrible state of affairs. The Chief Executive of the State was daily making his preparations for holding a drum head court-martial to try the best men in all the land, tie them to stakes and shoot them like dogs, while the judiciary, standing in sight and in hearing, declared itself helpless!
*For full letter, see Impeachment Trial, Volume I, page 238.
[!]For full letter, see Impeachment Trial, Volume II, page 1147.
9. Fortunately, Chief-Justice Pearson and those who sat with him were not the only judges in North Carolina. There proved to be at least one judge who did not think his powers exhausted. That judge was George W. Brooks, Judge of the United States District Court for North Carolina, and application was accordingly made to him for a writ of habeas corpus. He came to Raleigh, and was told by the Governor that if he interfered civil war would ensue; but Judge Brooks was inflexible, and, on August 6th he ordered Marshal Carrow to notify Colonel Kirke that in ten days his prisoners should be brought before his Honor at Salisbury.
10. Governor Holden then appealed to President Grant, informing him of the situation; and the President, after advising with the Attorney-General, replied that the authority of Judge Brooks must be respected. Kirke accordingly brought a portion of his prisoners as ordered, to Salisbury, and as no crimes were alleged for their detention, they were all set at liberty.
11. As soon as Governor Holden was informed of the decision of the President, he sent a messenger in haste to the Chief Justice, who thereupon came to Raleigh, and the prisoners who had not been brought before Judge Brooks at Salisbury were carried before him and the other Judges of the Supreme Court at Raleigh.
12. But it was Judge Brooks who broke the backbone of this great conspiracy against the government of North Carolina. No man ever lived on our soil who deserved to be held in more grateful remembrance by the people of North Carolina than he. Whatever others may have done in building up the State, it was he that saved her Constitution and her laws and the liberties of her people. The scenes of horror that would have been witnessed but for his timely interference cannot be thought of, even now, without a shudder. It is greatly to be hoped that the Legislature will speedily erect a suitable monument in the capitol square in token of the gratitude of the people for whom he did so much.
1. What occurred at Yanceyville on May 21st?
2. Who were accused as the murderers of Stephens? Upon what ground was this denied?
3. What had Congress done concerning martial law?
4. What man was put in charge of the state troops? Where was Kirke from, and what was his character?
5. What was the condition of affairs in Alamance and Caswell counties?
6. Give an account of Kirke's exploits in these counties?
7. To whom did the people apply for aid? With what result?
8. What was next done by the Governor?
9. To what judge did the people next go for protection? What did Judge Brooks do?
10. What was Governor Holden's next step? Where were Kirke's prisoners taken?
11. Where were the prisoners then carried?
12. What tribute is made to Judge Brooks? What are the reflections upon this matter?
The election of 1870 resulted in a great triumph for the people. Opponents of the administration were elected to the Legislature in overwhelming majorities, and a determination to bring Governor Holden to trial for his crimes against the Constitution and liberties of the people was at once apparent.
2. Nothing can be more important; in a civilized government than protection to the liberties of the people. Nothing is truer than that "eternal vigilance is the price of liberty," Even in the royal government of England, for more than two centuries the King has had no power to deprive a citizen of the right to be heard in the courts, when restrained by legal process or otherwise. Neither there nor in America could anything but foreign invasion or positive insurrection justify even Parliament or Congress in suspending the right to this palladium of civil liberty.
3. Upon motion in the House of Representatives, the Legislature having assembled, a committee was appointed to inquire into the facts, and soon, articles of impeachment were presented to the Senate, charging the Governor of the State with the commission of "high crimes and misdemeanors."
1871.
4. By the terms of the State Constitution, this worked a disability in Governor Holden; and Tod R. Caldwell, of Burke, then Lieutenant-Governor, assumed control of the Executive Department.
5. In a court of impeachment in North Carolina, when the Governor is on trial, the Chief-Justice is the president of the body. The members of the Senate are triers and the House of Representatives act as prosecutors in behalf of the people, and a two-thirds vote is required to convict.
6. Thus, with Judge Pearson presiding, there was a long and deliberate examination as to the charges made against the Chief- Magistrate of North Carolina. After hearing the testimony presented both by the accusers and by the respondent, Governor Holden was convicted of the charges made against him, deprived of his office, and declared incapable of holding any further honor or dignity in the State.
7. Such a trial has been seen but in this single instance in all the history of the State, and it attracted considerable attention in its progress. It involved great and important issues, and was happily followed by peace and quiet in every portion of the State.
8. After eight years' absence, a delegation was again seen in the Federal capital representing the State of North Carolina in the Congress of the United States. For two years past her members of Congress had been allowed to participate in the national legislation, and thus an ignominious disability had at last been removed from her Federal relations. A mighty convulsion, that had stirred the nation to its depths, was being slowly hushed into calm by the adoption of wiser and more peaceful methods. A broader nationality was coming alike to the Northern and Southern people, and the wounds of the war were fast healing in the lapse of time.
9. The census of 1870 showed vast improvement in many departments of human industry. North Carolina, in the many alterations wrought by the war, was learning the wisdom of diversifying the pursuits of the people. Slowly public attention was being turned to the opening of new industries. The Western North Carolina, the Raleigh & Augusta and the Carolina Central Railroads were opening up a new era in the history of such interests in the Old North State.
10. With a greatly extended area of production in cotton, there was, besides, an enormous addition, of railroad profits from the increase both of travel and freights. As the railway lines lengthened to the west, it was found that they would repay the cost of construction, and each of the rival political parties pledged itself to the completion of the great Western Road which was to pierce the extreme mountain barriers and find outlets into Tennessee, both at Ducktown and the Warm Springs, in Madison county.
11. Slowly this great dream of the wise men of the past approaches the day of its accomplishment. A half century has gone by since Dr. Joseph Caldwell and Governor Dudley first impressed this scheme upon the public mind as a work of the future.
1. What was the result of the election of 1870? Upon what was the Legislature determined?
2. Can you tell what is said about protection of the liberties of the people?
3. What was done by the House of Representatives?
4. How did these charges affect the Governor? Who assumed control of the Executive Department?
5. Who constitutes a court of impeachment in North Carolina, and what vote does it take to convict?
6. Who presided at the trial of Governor Holden? How did the trial terminate? What was the punishment?
7. What is said of this great trial? What did it involve? By what was it followed?
8. What political changes were seen at Washington City? How was the condition becoming better?
9. What is said of industrial pursuits in North Carolina? Of railroads? Can you trace the route of these railroads on the map?
10. How was the State being agitated upon the question of internal improvements?
11. What is said of the accomplishment of these improvements? How long has it been since this scheme was impressed upon the public?
In the years that had passed since the close of the war between the States, the people of North Carolina had been continually looking forward to the hour when the State should be fully restored to its old relations with the Federal government. In the consummation of the reconstruction policy, inaugurated and carried out by Congress, this had been partially attained, but, in the provisions of the Constitution adopted in 1868, there were many particulars that were unsuited to the habits of the people, and amendment was eagerly desired in this respect.
2. Political animosities were being softened by the lapse of time, and general prosperity was fast extending to different sections. Towns and villages were being built along the lines of railroads, and cotton and other factories were constantly being added.
3. Just previous to the outbreak of the late war the Masonic Grand Lodge of North Carolina had reared at Oxford a large and costly building, which was called "St. John's College," and was intended for the education of young men. In 1872 this building was devoted, by the fraternity that had erected it, to the education of the orphan children of North Carolina. This noble charity was placed in the care of John H. Mills, who has abundantly justified the wisdom of those who were parties to his being chosen for so responsible a place.
4. This school, which educates so many who would otherwise grow up in ignorance and vice, is aided now by an annual appropriation from the State and another from the Grand Lodge of Masons, but on individual contributions of the charitable it is mainly dependent for its support. Perhaps no other charity ever so much enlisted popular sympathy in North Carolina, and none ever more richly repaid the unselfish contributions of the people.
5. At the period now reached the University had ceased to be attended as a college. Rev. Solomon Pool still remained its President, but the buildings were silent, and the famous seat of learning no longer held its proud position among American institutions. Meanwhile, the denominational colleges were vigorously at work, and were receiving a larger patronage than formerly.
6. Among the female seminaries of the State a new and formidable rival for popular favor arose—Peace Institute, at Raleigh. This institution, like the Orphan Asylum, had originated before the war, but, during the years of strife the building was used as a hospital. It is controlled by the Presbyterians, and under their excellent management it has become one of the best appointed and most popular institutions in all the State.
7. In the nomination and re-election of General Grant as President of the United States in 1873, there were many incidents to show the alteration in Southern sentiment. The white men of the South, as a general thing, voted in that contest for Horace Greeley, of New York. He had been long identified with all the movements that were specially obnoxious to Southern people, and yet, after so many bitter differences in the fifty years past, the old leader of the Abolitionists became the nominee of the Democrats and received their votes for the Presidency.
8. This strange course was said by those who pursued it to be dictated by the desire on their parts to show that they did not harbor resentment toward old enemies, and were not now disaffected toward the Union, but were willing for "the dead past to bury its dead," and well might they pursue such a course. With the close of the war had passed all reason for the existence of another Republic. In the abolition of slavery the States had become uniform in interest, and it was soon patent that it ought to need only a little time to heal the breaches of the war and restore concord to the two great sections of the mighty American Commonwealth.
9. Unfortunately, however, the men who swayed the destinies of the country were more partisans than patriots, and sought to perpetuate the domination of their party more than the restoration of peace and concord.
10. In the sober, second thought of the American people it is to be hoped that patriotism will prevail. That hatred and malevolence can continue indefinitely in the relations of the two grand divisions of the Republic, is as impossible as it would be unwise and wicked. Their destiny is too grand for the people of America to think of marring it by a continuance of strife. Year by year the traces of blood disappear from the face of the land, and more closely grow the bands that make us a free and united people.
1. To what period had the people of North Carolina been looking forward since the close of the war? What acts had somewhat prevented the arrival of this state of affairs?
2. What is said of political animosities and the general prosperity of the State? Of towns and factories?
3. What charitable institution had been opened by the Masons? Who was put in charge?
4. What is said of the Orphan Asylum?
5. In what condition was the University? What is said of other colleges?
6. What female school is now mentioned?
7. What political changes were seen in the Presidential campaign of 1872?
8. What was said to have dictated this course? What was the general position of the people since the close of the war?
9. What was the cause of sectional prejudices continuing to exist?
10. In what characteristics do the American people stand high? Why should all sectional animosities be speedily removed?