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STEPHEN BEAUREGARD WEEKS 
 
 !N North Carolina there was an intermittent 
 interest in the State's history during the greater 
 part of the last century, confined generally to 
 a few individuals or small groups. The earlier 
 period produced Burkitt and Reade's "History 
 of the Kehukee Association" (1803), William- 
 son's "History of North Carolina" (1812), and Martin's "History 
 of North Carolina" (1829). 
 
 The middle period was more prolific, and furnished a group 
 of able men, who made extensive additions to the literature of the 
 subject. Judge Murphey, Governor Swain, Doctor Hawks, 
 Colonel Wheeler, Jo Seawell Jones, Governor Graham, Judge 
 Battle, Mr. George Davis, Professor Hubbard, Doctor Foote, 
 Doctor Caruthers, Purifoy, Reichel, McRee and others would have 
 brought about a genuine historical awakening but for the Civil 
 War. As it was, they produced Jones's "Defence" and "Memo- 
 rials," Foote's "Sketches," Purifoy's "Sandy Creek," Reichel's 
 "Moravians," Caruther's "Caldwell" and "Old North State in 
 1776" (series one and two), the "Revolutionary History of North 
 Carolina," McRee's "Life of Iredell," the brilliant series of papers 
 in the old University Magazine, and many addresses, pamphlets 
 and newspaper articles. 
 
 The Civil War period yielded one pamphlet, "Nathaniel Macon," 
 bv Weldon N. Edwards. 
 
NORTH CAROLINA 
 
 The later period was characterized by a body of bright and 
 gifted writers, including Mrs. Cornelia Phillips Spencer, Major 
 Sloan, Doctor Battle, Doctor Huffham, Doctor Kingsbury, Colonel 
 Saunders, Judge Schenck, Major Moore, Doctor Bernheim, 
 Colonel Waddell, Captain Ashe, Bishop Cheshire, Chief Justice 
 Clark, Colonel Creecy, Major Graham, Doctor Vass, Doctor 
 Taylor, Doctor Clewell and others worthy of high mention. In 
 this enumeration the younger writers have been purposely omitted, 
 because it is conceived that they represent a distinct class and a 
 new departure in this field of literature. It is to be noted that 
 none of those named were trained to historical investigation, and 
 none of them except the venerable Doctor Battle have followed 
 it as a profession. The seminary method did not characterize their 
 work, and there were times when it was difficult to discover 
 whether the statements of some rested on authority or tradition. 
 They had liberty, and sometimes used it with much freedom. 
 Their culture was broad and their view was large. They were 
 frequently weak on fact, but strong on interpretation. They 
 understood the bearing of things, and translated dry details into 
 living pictures of real life. 
 
 Near the close of the century a new school of historical writers 
 came to the front, composed of the younger men, who were 
 trained in the science of historical investigation, principally at 
 Johns Hopkins University, which they adopted as a profession. 
 The old school sought such details as were needed for the picture 
 in hand. The new school was not picturesque. It sought to 
 complete the record by giving all the facts and noting the authority 
 for every statement. The one was strong in its generalization 
 and its interpretation, the other in its investigation and complete- 
 ness of detail. It is not intended to discredit the accuracy of the 
 one nor the understanding of the other, but to note the existence 
 of the two, and to show the trend and emphasis of each. Among 
 the leaders of the new school are Stephen B. Weeks, Charles Lee 
 Smith, J. S. Bassett, E. W. Sikes, C. L. Raper, W. E. Dodd and 
 M. De L. Haywood. 
 
 Stephen Beauregard Weeks is second of these in point of time 
 
 5, (h. (AT** 
 
STEPHEN BEAUREGARD WEEKS 
 
 and first in the extent of his writing - . He was born in lower 
 Pasquotank County, North Carolina, February 2, 1865, of English 
 and Huguenot ancestry. 
 
 The Weeks family was of Devonshire, England, extraction, and 
 appeared in North Carolina as early as 1727, when Thomas 
 Weekes settled in Perquimans County, where he died in 1762, 
 leaving five sons and a daughter. He was a large landowner, 
 and is mentioned in the old records as "gentleman" and "school- 
 teacher." He appears to have possessed considerable education 
 and to have occupied a position of influence and leadership.; He 
 was sheriff of the county, representative in the Assembly and 
 for many years one of the justices of the county. In the fourth 
 generation from Thomas Weekes, James Elliott Weeks, . father 
 of the subject of our sketch, was born. The same sturdy qualities 
 that marked the career of his earliest known ancestor characterized 
 his life. He was without political ambition, and his only office was 
 in the militia. He was a Methodist, with the industrious habits 
 of those excellent people, and was looked up to as a leader. He 
 died when Stephen was eighteen months old, leaving him a fair 
 estate for the times. 
 
 Doctor Weeks's mother was Mary Louisa Mullen (formerly 
 Moullin), and his earliest known maternal ancestor in this country, 
 was Abraham Moullin, of Huguenot family, who came from Vir- 
 ginia and settled in Perquimans County prior to March, 1732. 
 Through his mother's mother, who was a McDonald, he claims 
 descent from Bryan McDonald, who was slain at Glencoe. 
 
 Upon his mother's death, when he was three years old, he was 
 cared for by an aunt, Mrs. Robertson Jackson, of Pasquotank 
 County, who with her husband reared him as their own .child. He 
 was required to work on the farm, and was well grounded in 
 habits of industry, economy and sobriety. He pays this high 
 tribute to the faithfulness and affection of these foster parents : 
 "I knew no other home. ... I became to them as a son. They 
 were most surely all that parents could have been. . . . God 
 never made a nobler man than Robertson Jackson, quiet, peace- 
 able, unambitious, unassuming, uneducated, but withal one of 
 
NORTH CAROLINA 
 
 nature's noblemen, to whom all his neighbors looked up for com- 
 fort, advice and help of any sort that was needed — one of the 
 gentlest of men." 
 
 Young Weeks attended the rather poor country schools of his 
 neighborhood until he reached the age of fifteen years, when he 
 left the farm and entered the school of T. J. and W. D. Horner, 
 at Henderson, North Carolina, where he was prepared for en- 
 trance to the State University, at Chapel Hill. This school justly 
 ranked as one of the best preparatory schools of the State, and 
 was noted for the thoroughness of its work. Both principals 
 were men of fine scholarship and studious habits, and the younger 
 was a graduate of the University of North Carolina. The senior, 
 Reverend T. J. Horner, was a Baptist preacher, who ministered 
 principally to churches in Granville County. He was a younger 
 brother of the late James H. Horner, of Oxford, with whom he 
 was associated in teaching for many years. He was distinguished 
 for his scholarship and fine teaching ability, and was very highly 
 esteemed in his community. His age and failing health and the 
 bad health of his son and associate, Mr. W. D. Horner, led to a 
 suspension of the school about the year 1886. He has been dead 
 several years. The son yet lives in Henderson, highly esteemed 
 by his neighbors. Doctor Weeks writes of the father : "His influ- 
 ence was elevating and ennobling, and inspired and encouraged 
 me, as did that of Herbert B. Adams, of the Johns Hopkins." 
 This association of these two names is a high but just tribute to 
 Mr. Horner, who gave to Doctor Weeks his first real intellectual 
 impulse. 
 
 From Henderson young Weeks went to the University of North 
 Carolina, where he took the degree of A.B. in 1886. During 
 two years of post-graduate work there in English language and 
 literature, German and Latin, he took A.M. in 1887 and Ph.D. in 
 1888. He says: "These two years were among the most valuable 
 of my life in giving me ideals and ability to write, and acquaintance 
 with the masters." The three following years, 1888-91, were 
 spent as honorary Hopkins scholar at Johns Hopkins University 
 in the study of history, English language, political science and 
 
STEPHEN BEAUREGARD WEEKS 
 
 political economy. These latter studies were more emphasized at 
 first; later, by force of what he calls "invincible attraction," he 
 turned to history, and made that his life work. From this Uni- 
 versity he received the Ph.D. degree in 1891. 
 
 At the close of his student work at the University of North 
 Carolina, he was on June 12, 1888, united in marriage with 
 Miss Mary Lee Martin, daughter of Reverend Joseph Bonaparte 
 Martin of the North Carolina Conference, Methodist Episcopal 
 Church, South, from 1844 until his death in 1897. Mr. Martin 
 was a grandson of General Joseph Martin, pioneer, Indian fighter, 
 Indian agent, early settler of Tennessee and legislator in Virginia 
 and North Carolina ; he was a man of marvelous devotion to his 
 work, and more pleased with its fruitage than concerned for its 
 emoluments. Mrs. Weeks died May 19, 1891 ; two children were 
 born of this marriage, and one, Robertson Jackson Weeks, a youth 
 of seventeen years, survives his mother. 
 
 His second marriage was with Miss Sallie Mangum Leach, at 
 Trinity College, North Carolina, June 28, 1893. She is the 
 daughter of Colonel Martin W. Leach of Randolph County, North 
 Carolina, and niece of General J. Madison Leach, member of 
 Congress, who is yet remembered as one of the most remarkable 
 and versatile political campaigners in the State. She is grand- 
 daughter of Honorable Willie P. Mangum, representative and 
 senator from North Carolina in the Congress of the United States, 
 and president of the United States Senate, 1842-45, whose career 
 was highly distinguished and altogether honorable to the State. 
 She is also a descendant of the Cain and Alston families. There 
 have been four children of this marriage, of whom two are now 
 living. 
 
 The active career of Doctor Weeks began with his entrance upon 
 the professorship of history and political science at Trinity Col- 
 lege (old Trinity, Randolph County), in September, 1891. He 
 continued with the college during the first year after its removal 
 to Durham, and successfully organized its Department of 
 History, established the Trinity College Historical Society, 
 created an interest among the students in historical work, and or- 
 
NORTH CAROLINA 
 
 ganized the college library, which has since grown into such 
 splendid proportions under intelligent administration and the lib- 
 eral gifts of the Messrs. Duke. He resigned in June, 1893, owing 
 to differences between President Crowell and members of the 
 faculty and spent the Summer lecturing in Philadelphia, and in 
 historical investigations in Wisconsin. In the Fall he returned 
 to Baltimore and spent the following year as a fellow by courtesy 
 in Johns Hopkins University, giving a portion of his time to the 
 study of Roman law and comparative jurisprudence, and the re- 
 mainder to original investigations along historical lines. 
 
 Even before this time Doctor Weeks had become interested in 
 North Carolina history, and a collector of the historical materials 
 of the State. His first impulse in that direction came from his 
 appointment, 1884-87, by the Philanthropic Society of the Uni- 
 versity of North Carolina, to edit its register of members. He 
 writes : "By my study of the old register I became acquainted 
 with the great men of the University; they became my familiar 
 friends, and I knew them as perhaps no one else has known them ; 
 from these, through Wheeler's Reminiscences, I branched out into 
 the general history and biography of the State and the work was 
 done." He became an untiring collector of everything pertaining 
 to North Carolina. It has been a hobby in which he has surpassed 
 all others. He now has more than 3300 books, pamphlets and 
 magazines dealing in whole or in part with that State. It is prob- 
 ably the most complete collection of books on North Carolina; 
 certainly, outside of newspapers and State publications, it is better 
 than any owned by the State. To a collector a most interesting 
 feature of this collection is one in which Doctor Weeks himself 
 takes great pride and for which he makes this claim : 
 
 "I have beyond question one of the finest collections of North Caro- 
 lina autographs in existence, including the greater part of the corre- 
 spondence of Calvin H. Wiley, that of Daniel R. Goodloe, the extensive 
 and varied correspondence of Willie P. Mangum and a part of that of 
 Willie P. Mangum, Jr. Speaking roughly, I have perhaps 3000 letters and 
 autographs from men who have been prominent in North Carolina from 
 the Lords Proprietors to the present day." 
 
STEPHEN BEAUREGARD WEEKS 
 
 During his educational period of which we have spoken, 
 Doctor Weeks had already given to the public the first fruits of 
 his studies in the following monographs : "History of Young 
 Men's Christian Association Movement in North Carolina, 
 1857-88" (Raleigh, 1888) ; "The Press of North Carolina in the 
 Eighteenth Century" (Brooklyn, 1891) ; "The Lost Colony of 
 Roanoke; its Fate and Survival" (New York, 1891) ; "The Re- 
 ligious Development in the Province of North Carolina" (Balti- 
 more, 1892) ; "Church and State in North Carolina" (Baltimore, 
 
 1893) ; "The History of Negro Suffrage in the South" (Boston, 
 
 1894) ; "General Joseph Martin and the War of the Revolution 
 in the West" (Washington, 1894). 
 
 Of these, the two dealing with religious conditions in North 
 Carolina touched upon controverted questions, and from the fact 
 that they did not give entire satisfaction to any of the parties to 
 such controversies it may be fairly inferred that he acted with 
 independence in his study. At any rate, a student must accept 
 these books as able, thoughtful and painstaking contributions to 
 the subjects with which they deal, and as a distinct advance upon 
 any previous work of like character. 
 
 In July, 1894, Doctor Weeks accepted a position with the United 
 States Bureau of Education, nominally as confidential clerk of 
 the commissioner. In reality he became associate editor of the 
 commissioner's reports, passing upon everything that went into 
 them and making such editorial changes and emendations as 
 seemed well. He was also a contributor of monographs to these 
 reports from year to year until 1899. It was a position that gave 
 him opportunity for indulging his taste for historical investiga- 
 tion. Indeed, much of his official employment was along that line, 
 and he issued the following additional contributions : 
 
 "A Bibliography of the Historical Literature of North Carolina" 
 (Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1895) ; "Libraries and Literature in 
 North Carolina in the Eighteenth Century" (Washington, 1896) ; 
 "Address on the University of North Carolina in the Civil War" 
 (Richmond, 1896) ; "Southern Quakers and Slavery" (Balti- 
 more, 1896) ; "Preliminary List of American Learned and Edu- 
 
NORTH CAROLINA 
 
 cational Societies" (Washington, 1896) ; "On the Promotion of 
 Historical Studies in the South" (Washington, 1897) ; "Anti- 
 Slavery Sentiment in the South" (Washington, 1898) ; "Begin- 
 nings of the Common School System in the South; or, Calvin 
 Henderson Wiley and the Organization of Common Schools in 
 North Carolina" (Washington, 1898). 
 
 This last of his publications in book form is probably the most 
 complete and exhaustive work yet undertaken by any one upon any 
 phase of North Carolina history. Indeed one will hardly read 
 any of his monographs without an impression of his wonderful 
 diligence and capacity in gathering and using materials. 
 
 In April, 1896, during his connection with the Bureau of Edu- 
 cation, he assisted in the organization of the Southern History 
 Association, in co-operation with Doctor Colyer Meriwether, of 
 South Carolina; Doctor Thomas M. Owen, of Alabama; Doctor 
 K. P. Battle, of the University of North Carolina ; Doctor J. L. M. 
 Curry, General M. C. Butler, Thomas Nelson Page and a number 
 of other distinguished Southerners. He has been since its or- 
 ganization a member of its Administrative Council and of its Pub- 
 lication Committee. The Publications of the association, of which 
 some ten volumes have been issued, are of high historical value 
 and importance. Doctor Weeks has been a frequent contributor 
 to these papers, and has also written for the Magazine of American 
 History, the Yale Review, the "Papers and Reports of the Ameri- 
 can Historical Association," the "Studies in Historical and Politi- 
 cal Science of the Johns Hopkins University," the American His- 
 torical Review, the "Bibliographical Contributions of Harvard 
 University," and the "Papers of the Southern Historical Society." 
 He is an active member of the American Historical Association, 
 honorary life member of the Southern History Association, cor- 
 responding member of the Wisconsin Historical Society and the 
 Maryland Historical Society. 
 
 The Fall of 1899 witnessed another turn in the tide of 
 Doctor Weeks's affairs. His health became so seriously affected 
 that he was compelled to change his residence and employment. 
 He obtained a transfer to the Indian service of the National Gov- 
 
STEPHEN BEAUREGARD WEEKS 
 
 ernment and was stationed at Santa Fe, New Mexico, as principal 
 teacher in an Indian school. He was made assistant superintend- 
 ent of the school in July, 1903, and the same month was transferred 
 to Arizona, as superintendent of the San Carlos Agency School 
 on the San Carlos Apache reservation, where he is surrounded by 
 the Apaches, who a few years ago were going on the warpath and 
 killing every man in reach. At Santa Fe he was brought in daily 
 contact with Pueblos, Navajoes, West Shoshones, Utes, Pimas, 
 Papagos, Uklahs, Puyallups, Wascos, Osages and other Indians 
 of the Southwest. He finds great interest in observing the work 
 of civilization among them, and speaks hopefully of their progress. 
 This enforced severance from his chosen work and from asso- 
 ciation with scholars of like tastes and interests has been extremely 
 trying to Doctor Weeks. But it has meant life to him. His health 
 has been restored. Friends continue to remember him in his far- 
 away home and demand the services of his pen. Wake Forest Col- 
 lege recognized his services by conferring upon him the degree 
 of LL.D. in 1902, and he still has his books and his work. He 
 yet follows the ruling passion and is engaged in the preparation of 
 an Index to the North Carolina Census Records for 1790, an In- 
 dex to the State and Colonial Records of North Carolina, a Bib- 
 liography of North Carolina, a History of Education in the South- 
 ern States during the Civil War, and a Life of Willie P. Mangum. 
 These would be a fair life's work for many men, but no one can 
 foresee what the active mind, the persistent curiosity and the rest- 
 less energy of this frail student of our history may yet search out 
 and spread before his fellows. He offers only one word to 
 searchers after success, "work." 
 
 Thomas M. Pittman. 
 
WILLIE PERSON MANGUM 
 
 ORTH CAROLINA has produced three men 
 who have attained the Presidency. Jackson, 
 Polk and Johnson were all her sons; but the 
 avenue of promotion lay through Tennessee. 
 The balance of power has long since crossed 
 the Alieghanies and is now crossing the 
 Mississippir~It long ago proved that geographical location is the 
 predominant factor in the making of Presidents and not inherent 
 ability, and so confirms Mr. Bryce's thesis that we do not elect 
 our greatest men to that office. It is to the doubtful States that 
 parties go for candidates; to the centers of wealth and popula- 
 tion. The rural community is no longer a factor in making nomina- 
 tions. Then, too, during the period of Mangum's active career 
 North Carolina was almost as solidly Whig as it is now Demo- 
 cratic. The change came in the fifties, just as he was retiring from 
 public life, and as a result the Whigs found their candidate for 
 Vice-President in 1852 in William A. Graham. In that year North 
 Carolinian was pitted against North Carolinian for the second 
 place and again it was given to the son who had migrated to win 
 the prize. Hence, while North Carolina produced three men who 
 filled the Presidency and one the Vice-Presidency, none were 
 elected to those offices as North Carolinians. But the State can 
 claim for herself what was at that time the third, and after the 
 death of the President or Vice-President the second, office in rank 
 
■ 
 
 ■ 
 
WILLIE PERSON MANGUM n 
 
 — the Presidency of the Senate. A President pro tempore of the 
 Senate is chosen by its members in each Congress. His duties are 
 nominal only, but upon the death or promotion of the Vice-Presi- 
 dent he became, before a recent law changed the order of succes- 
 sion, the heir apparent to the Presidency. 
 
 It follows then that while Willie P. Mangum was President of 
 the Senate, 1842-45, and was next in succession after Tyler to the 
 Presidency, he filled the highest post under this Government ever 
 attained by a North Carolinian as such. 
 
 Willie Person Mangum, lawyer, legislator, judge, Congress- 
 man, United States Senator and President pro tempore of the 
 United States Senate, was born in Orange, now Durham, County, 
 North Carolina, May 10, 1792 (not December 29, 1 791, as is some- 
 times stated). His birthplace was near but not at the site of his 
 later home, the present Umbra post office, known to the family 
 as Walnut Hall, and during his life as Red Mountain (not near 
 the present town of Durham, as is also said). 
 
 The Mangums were seated in Sussex and adjoining sections of 
 Virginia early in the eighteenth century, and seem to have been 
 caught by the last waves of the great stream of migration that 
 swept over the southern border of that State into North Carolina 
 for a hundred years. Tradition has it that the family is Welch 
 in origin and that the original form of the name was Manghamis ; 
 we know that the Irish branch still spells the name Mangham. It 
 is believed that the subject of this sketch is descended from the 
 Mangums, who about 1730 to 1750 were located in Albemarle 
 Parish, Sussex County, Virginia. There were three heads of fam- 
 ilies there at that time with this surname, William, James, John — 
 presumably brothers. William Mangum and his wife Mary had 
 four sons: James, born January 2, 1734; William, born May 16, 
 1736; Henry, born January 24, 1773 (sic, error for I737"3 8? ) J 
 Arthur, born May 2, 1743. James Mangum, the elder, had two 
 sons, William and James, and a daughter, Lucy; John had a 
 daughter, Rebeckah (Va. Mag. of Hist, and Biog., July, 1894, 
 p. 108). 
 
 We are not certain as to the exact time that Arthur Mangum, 
 
12 NORTH CAROLINA 
 
 grandfather of Willie P. Mangum, and believed to be identical 
 with the one named above, came into North Carolina ; but he seems 
 to have come by way of Warren County, and perhaps stopped in 
 Granville, for there was a Mangum family in that county as early 
 as 1757. That an Arthur Mangum was in North Carolina in 
 1763 we learn from a manuscript note made by Thomas Person? 
 "Bought of Arthur Mangum 1 Barrel corn @ 9/6 Cash he Dr. 
 to 2/6 for Writeing his Deed to Orange Co. next in May, Tuesday, 
 6 Apr." (1763.) And again: "Paid Jos. Langston to be given 
 to Arthur Mangum on acct. of a Barrel of Corn 10/. Cash 
 26 Ap." 
 
 The first land entries by Arthur Mangum, the grandfather 
 of Judge Mangum, so far as Orange County records seem to show, 
 date from 1760. Some of the lands taken up by him during 
 the next few years remained in the family till February, 1902. 
 Arthur Mangum married Lucy Person. She was a niece of 
 Colonel William Person, of Granville (1700-78) and as such a 
 cousin of General Thomas Person. I have not found the name 
 of her father. She was probably the daughter of that Mary Person 
 whose will was probated in Granville County Court August 11, 
 1761. Arthur Mangum died between March 12 and 24, 1789; his 
 wife remained a widow for forty years and died about 1829, aged 
 about ninety-two. They had children as follows, order uncertain : 
 
 (1) William Person Mangum, father of Willie Person Mangum; 
 
 (2) Arthur, who married Dicey Carrington, daughter of John Car- 
 rington ; he died about 1813, aged about forty, and left "a house 
 full" of children, who migrated to Georgia, Mississippi and Miss- 
 ouri ; (3) Willie, who was very handsome and a merchant, died 
 young and unmarried ; (4) Sally married Sion Bobbitt and went to 
 Tennessee; (5) Holly, who married Cozart ; one of her sons, 
 William, was a large merchant in Columbus, Mississippi ; another, 
 Herbert, was a merchant in Georgia ; another, James, was a planter 
 
 in Granville; (6) Chaney married Mangum, and was the 
 
 mother of Colonel Ellison Mangum and grandmother of Captain 
 Addison Mangum and of Professor A. W. Mangum; (7) Clary 
 (or Clara) married David Parker, a farmer of Granville; Colonel 
 
WILLIE PERSON MANGUM 13 
 
 Abner Parker, merchant ; Harrison Parker, planter ; and David 
 Parker, later of Edgecombe, were their sons. She left also a 
 daughter, who married William Horner, father of James H. and 
 Thomas J. Horner, the distinguished teachers. 
 
 William Person Mangum, who is thought to have been the old- 
 est child of Arthur Mangum, was born about 1762. He married 
 Catharine (Kate) Davis, who was born on the Schuylkill River 
 in Pennsylvania. Her father migrated to Orange County, North 
 Carolina, when she was about four years old and there he died. 
 William Person Mangum was a farmer and merchant and spent all 
 his life in Orange, where he died in 1837, aged seventy-five. His 
 wife had died in March, 1825. This couple had only three sons: 
 Willie Person, the oldest and subject of this sketch; (2) 
 Priestley Hinton, noticed in the sketch of his son, W. P. Mangum, 
 Jr. ; (3) Walter Alvis, born in Orange County, January 28, 1798; 
 married Miss Eliza P. Bullock, daughter of Doctor Benjamin Bul- 
 lock, of Granville; removed to Mississippi in 1832 and became a 
 planter; removed to Louisiana in 1856 and in 1863 to Texas as a 
 refugee ; after the war returned to Louisiana and died there Janu- 
 ary 20, 1868. He left a large family, some of whom have at- 
 tained distinction ; numerous descendants are still living in 
 Texas. 
 
 It would seem that Willie Person Mangum came to his feeling 
 for statecraft from his grandmother's family, and that the political 
 mantel of his distinguished relative, Thomas Person, rested on his 
 shoulders, for his father's family were merchants and planters and 
 had not been before his day in public life. He received his pre- 
 liminary education in part at the hands of Thomas M. Flint, a 
 strolling pedagogue; in part at the Fayetteville Academy under 
 Reverend Colin Mclver, and in part in the Raleigh Academy under 
 Reverend Doctor McPheeters. He spent some time also as a clerk 
 in his father's store and was graduated at the University of North 
 Carolina in 1815. 
 
 He began to study law with Honorable Duncan Cameron ; acted 
 as tutor to his son, the late Honorable Paul C. Cameron, and was 
 licensed to practice January 10, 1817. It is evident that 
 
i 4 NORTH CAROLINA 
 
 he was successful from the start. He writes to his brother 
 April 26, 1819: 
 
 "I have made a good deal of money this Spring, say upward of $1900 
 in actual receipts and nearly that sum in good bonds and accounts. My 
 prospects in the practice continue to grow more flattering. 
 
 "You know that I have made a considerable purchase in Haywood. I 
 think I have made more by that than all the rest of the labors of my 
 life. ... In one case of Mrs. Patty Taylor, I have secured a fee at 
 six months of one thousand dollars . . . and an equal share with 
 the first in the other business of that court which is profitable." 
 
 But even then he was dreaming dreams of political preferment. 
 
 "That I could go to Congress without difficulty I entertain no doubt," 
 he writes in the same letter. "The dangerous diadem has flittered before 
 my vision and ambition frequently lingers with delight in tracing the out- 
 line of the delusion, but interest, and in my opinion sound judgment, for- 
 bid the thought." 
 
 But even then he was in politics. He was a member of the 
 House of Commons in 1818 and 1819 from Orange County; 
 served on the judiciary and education committees; strongly ad- 
 vocated the organization of a distinct Supreme Court and favored 
 calling a Constitutional Convention, one of the burning questions 
 of that day. By the Legislature of 18 19 he was elected 
 (December 22, 1819) a Judge of the Superior Court of Law and 
 Equity to succeed Judge Toomer, resigned. There is a story that 
 he was the candidate of his old instructor, Judge Cameron, then a 
 member of the State Senate from Orange. John Stanly had 
 boasted that he would give the vacant judgship to his young kins- 
 man, George E. Badger. Cameron's first candidate was 
 William Norwood, of Hillsboro. Finding that he could not beat 
 Stanly with Norwood, young Mangum was brought out and 
 elected. He rode one of the eastern circuits, but the climate did 
 not agree with him, and after a year of work on the bench he re- 
 signed, November, 1820, and returned to the practice of law. 
 
 In 1823 he became a candidate for the 18th Congress 
 (1823-25) from what was then the eighth district, composed of 
 Orange, Person and Wake. His opponent was General Daniel L. 
 
WILLIE PERSON MANGUM 15 
 
 Barringer, a resident of Raleigh. The election was held in August, 
 1823, for until 1861 Congressional elections were held in the odd 
 years and after the term of service had begun in March. The 
 candidates fought it out on their legislative records and on State 
 issues. The main questions were the proposed amendment to the 
 Constitution making the representation of the two sections equal — ■ 
 the old fight between the sections. Mangum favored such an 
 amendment and Barringer avoided it; he also favored the bill 
 which required the banks to pay specie for their notes while Bar- 
 ringer voted on both sides. Mangum received 2523 votes ; Bar- 
 ringer, 1729. 
 
 Mangum went to Congress as a Republican, and in the Presi- 
 dential campaign of 1824 was a strong supporter of Crawford. 
 He writes Seth Jones, of Wake, on January 3, 1825 : "I feel it my 
 duty to vote for Mr. Crawford as long as he has the remotest 
 prospect of success." The North Carolina Assembly had nom- 
 inated Crawford, but the State in 1824 cast her vote for Jackson. 
 When the election came up in the House of Representatives Man- 
 gum voted for Crawford and so did the State, as a whole, for 
 Adams received but a single vote and Jackson but two. The fol- 
 lowers of Adams called themselves national Republicans. They 
 contended for the largest latitude in the construction of the Con- 
 stitution, favored internal improvements and encouraged immigra- 
 tion, advocated protection, gave fishing bounties and passed navi- 
 gation acts. This was the "American system" and its advocates 
 formed the nucleus of the Whig Party. On the other hand North 
 Carolina in general favored the strict construction views of Craw- 
 ford, Jackson and the Jefferson Party. It is believed that Man- 
 gum's vote for Crawford instead of Jackson made him unpopular 
 at home. I am told by Major William A. Graham, who, of course, 
 had it from his father, that strong effort was necessary to defeat 
 his opponent for the 19th Congress, 1825-27, in August, 
 1825. This opponent was Josiah Crudup, a skilful and versatile 
 Baptist preacher. Mangum is credited with saying that Crudup 
 was the most formidable candidate he ever met and that an op- 
 portune rain which prevented Crudup from preaching on a certain 
 
16 NORTH CAROLINA 
 
 occasion was all that saved him. He won by a bare majority of 
 fifty-six votes. 
 
 During these two terms in Congress Mangum served on the 
 committee on commerce, and on that on the services and sacrifices 
 of LaFayette. He resigned March 18, 1826, and was succeeded 
 by Daniel L. Barringer, Democrat, who took his seat December 4, 
 1826. 
 
 Mangum was on August 18, 1826, appointed by Governor Bur- 
 ton to fill an unexpired term as judge of the Superior Court of 
 Law and Equity. The term for which he was appointed expired 
 the same year and his failure of re-election by the Assembly of 
 that year called out expressions of regret from Nat Macon and 
 others. In 1828 he was an elector on the Jackson-Calhoun Ticket, 
 showing that he had not as yet accepted the principles of Adams, 
 whose re-election was advocated in North Carolina by Gaston 
 and others. Jackson electors were chosen in North Carolina 
 (November 13, 1828). Mangum was again chosen without op- 
 position a judge of the Superior Court (December 10, 1828), to 
 succeed Ruffin. He served in this capacity through 1829 and 
 into the Spring of 1830 (later than April 3, 1830), when he re- 
 signed, presumably to enter the race for Senator. 
 
 The first intimations we have of senatorial aspirations is in 
 a letter from his lifelong friend, Thomas J. Green, who writes 
 him May 24, 1828 : 
 
 "If you could have a desire to return to the Federal city in a higher char- 
 acter than when you left it, go to our next Legislature a member. A word 
 to the wise is sufficient." 
 
 There was then no vacancy in the Senate, for Macon did not 
 resign till November 14, 1828, but there is no doubt that Green's 
 letter was in anticipation of such an event, which was probably 
 expected. Mangum withdrew, however, in favor of Iredell, who 
 received the appointment, as is seen from the following letter of 
 General Edward Ward, dated Raleigh, November 30, 1830: 
 
 "The friends of Judge Donnel [sic ] are very desirous to know from 
 you whether you are to be a candidate at the present session of the Gen- 
 
WILLIE PERSON MANGUM 17 
 
 eral Assembly for a seat in the Senate of the next Congress of the United 
 States. 
 
 "They are by no means disposed to jeopardize the interests of the Re- 
 publican Party, by starting, or having two candidates of the same party to 
 run, when in all probability the opposite party will start a candidate to 
 defeat their object; your declining to run two years ago, when the Eastern 
 Republicans were anxious to start you, was the cause of Judge Donnel's 
 being brought forward at the last session, and many of his friends are 
 anxious to run him again, but they are, however, anxious to have a friendly 
 understanding with you upon the subject." 
 
 Iredell had been elected to fill out Macon's term, which expired 
 March 3, 183 1. In 1830 Mangum was a candidate for the full 
 term, as were also Governor Owen, Judge Donnell, R. D. Spaight 
 and Governor Stokes. Mangum was thought to be the most avail- 
 able candidate against what was characterized as the "Spaight 
 faction," composed of R. D. Spaight, Charles Fisher, R. M. 
 Saunders and Joseph H. Bryan as leaders, followed by Stokes, 
 Montgomery, O'Brien, Steadman, Bynum and others. It was 
 thought that Donnell would prevail over Owen in the race for 
 Senator and that Spaight would beat him for Governor (letter of 
 W. M. Sneed, November 18, 1830). 
 
 December 2, 1830, Charles L. Hinton writes Mangum: 
 
 "There was no general concert, there was a rebellion on the part of the 
 friends of Owen, Donnel [sic], Fisher and Jesse Spaight with a hope of 
 bringing each on the turf. . . . Your angry feelings toward Governor 
 Owen I know can never be allayed. I regret the occurrence. If, as you 
 say, he has ever been your enemy he has deceived me, for during the sum- 
 mer he frequently expressed his preference for you and unwillingness to 
 be in your way." 
 
 The fight turned more and more on the defeat of Owen. On 
 December 3d Romulus M. Saunders gives further news of the 
 battle : 
 
 "Your letter directing the withdrawal of your name was not received 
 until Owen's nomination and two ballots, having you tied at 89. Yesterday 
 Owen had 97, you 86, 14 blanks. . . . The intention is if you wish 
 to decline a further ballot and Donnel [sic] or some other person cannot 
 succeed to postpone until the next session. . . . Both your sayings and 
 your letters have been misrepresented. The letter you wrote to Governor 
 
18 NORTH CAROLINA 
 
 Owen has been used as a menace or challenge, and he has not thought 
 proper to call either for General Ward's letter or Colonel Hinton's . . . 
 Donnel and friends are prepared to co-operate in whatever shall be deemed 
 advisable. Fisher . . . feels confident your presence and nothing else 
 can save us from Owen's election. I view his success under existing cir- 
 cumstances as fatal to our future prospects." 
 
 It seems that Owen was finally induced to withdraw in favor 
 of Mangum, and the latter was chosen Senator. I have not learned 
 with exactness the reason for his anger with Owen save that it 
 grew out of the bitterness of this campaign. But on December ist, 
 in letters to General Ward and Charles L. Hinton, Mangum took 
 occasion to implicate Owen's "political principles in the strongest 
 and most unequivocal manner," and with that open frankness and 
 chivalrous disregard of personal consequences that characterized 
 him all his life he at once notified Owen of his letters and avowed 
 his willingness to give him the satisfaction then usual among gen- 
 tlemen. Owen considered this a challenge and accepted. Louis D. 
 Henry was his second, while W. M. Sneed, State Senator from 
 Granville, acted for Mangum ; but through the mediation of 
 D. F. Caldwell arid an intelligence as sensible as unusual, the sec- 
 onds appeased the wrath of the principals, and later they became 
 political friends. 
 
 It will be seen that Mangum was elected as a Republican or 
 Democrat, or follower of Jackson. He had been a Jackson elector 
 in 1828, and this contest for Senator seems to have been a sort of 
 friendly squabble among the leaders of the Republican Party. 
 Mangum had as yet developed few of those tendencies which after- 
 ward led him into the Whig Party. 
 
 His first important speech on the floor of the Senate seems to 
 have been that on the Tariff of 1832. His sympathies were with 
 the South on that question, and he was by no means in love with 
 Jackson's constitutional views, as announced in his famous proc- 
 lamation to the people of South Carolina ; but while his sympathies 
 drew him in that direction he was not a nullifier, although often 
 so charged by his enemies. In January, 1832, Mr. Clay proposed 
 the removal of all duties from articles which did not come in com- 
 
WILLIE PERSON MANGUM 19 
 
 petition with similar articles produced in this country. The effect, 
 and the purpose, was to make necessary higher rates of duty upon 
 the articles which could be or were produced by our people. 
 Mangum said in part: 
 
 "Sir, the State from which I come regards this struggle with deep solici- 
 tude, and the most patriotic anxiety. . . . She deprecates the pres- 
 ent system of taxation as especially sectional and selfish, and as gradu- 
 ally undermining the fabric of our noble institutions. She has hitherto 
 acquiesced in this policy with a dignified moderation, looking to the 
 extinguishment of the public debt as a period favorable to the alleviation 
 of her burdens, and as a rectification of the systems. . . . What is the 
 effect of the resolution upon the table? It is to aggravate the evil. It is 
 to tax the necessaries of the poor man, while the rich man may revel in 
 luxuries as free from taxation as the air he breathes. . . . The only 
 feature of mitigation is to be found in the reduction of revenue. This, 
 however, is more than counterbalanced by the increased inequality in the 
 action of the system." 
 
 He controverted the claim of constitutional authority to tax 
 imported foreign goods for purposes of protection. This right was 
 claimed under the clause "to regulate commerce with foreign na- 
 tions," and under this clause they assumed the right to annihilate 
 commerce by the imposition of prohibitory duties. He also dis- 
 sented from the position taken by Jackson in his annual message 
 in December, 1830, in which it was claimed that as the States be- 
 fore the Constitution was adopted had absolute control of the sub- 
 ject, and as the whole authority to regulate commerce was trans- 
 ferred to the general government by that instrument, Congress 
 therefore possessed all the power over the subject which the States 
 had formerly possessed. 
 
 After pointing out the inequalities in the working of the tariff 
 and its disastrous effects on the South in piling up money in the 
 hands of manufacturers at the North, he concludes : 
 
 "It is money — money — give me money or — sir, if I could coin my heart 
 into gold, and it were lawful in the sight of Heaven, I would pray God 
 to give me firmness to do it, to save this Union from the fearful — the 
 dreadful shock which I verily believe impends." 
 
 Of this speech Mangum writes to his wife (February nth) : 
 
20 NORTH CAROLINA 
 
 "I was not exactly pleased with my own effort, yet I have reason to be- 
 lieve that the almost universal opinion of the Senate is that it was elo- 
 quent and powerful." 
 
 Mangum was now leaning away from Jackson, but he was not 
 one of those who voted against the confirmation of Van Buren as 
 Minister to England. He spoke on the bill, commonly called the 
 Force Bill, or bill to collect the revenue in South Carolina, on 
 January 22d, and writes his wife February 2, 1833: 
 
 "We are deeply engaged in the Senate upon South Carolina affairs. I 
 fear we shall make war upon her. I am opposed to all harsh measures." 
 
 It was thus that Mangum's alienation from the old Jacksonian 
 republicanism was developed: 1. He was hostile to Jackson's 
 tariff system, and also to that of Clay. He believed in a tariff 
 for revenue only ; and indeed Clay at that time was forced by 
 stress of circumstances to abandon protection and come round to 
 his position. In his anxiety to prevent impending war between 
 the sections, Clay, after a conference with Calhoun, drew a bill 
 which his friends first put through the House of Representatives 
 and which he had no difficulty in putting through the Senate, 
 which by a gradual process, running through nine years, com- 
 pletely abandoned protection and brought the duties down to the 
 revenue standard of 20 per cent, ad valorem. As agreed, Cal- 
 houn voted for this bill, and it became a law March 2, 1833, and 
 it settled the sectional troubles of that day. 2. He opposed Jack- 
 son's policy of coercing South Carolina, while himself opposed 
 nullification. 3. In 1834 came up the question of the United 
 States Bank, its recharter, the removal of the deposits, the cen- 
 sure on Jackson and Benton's Expunging resolution. He had 
 long seen the drift in the matter of the bank and had proclaimed 
 his hostility to Jackson as early as January 19, 1832, in a letter to 
 William Gaston : 
 
 "I think it is to be very much regretted that the United States Bank has 
 come before Congress at this session. I regard the continuance of that in- 
 stitution as of almost indispensable necessity. 
 
 "By deferring its application to next session I have no doubt, with but 
 slight modification (to save appearances), it would have met with the Ex- 
 
WILLIE PERSON MANGUM 21 
 
 ecutive favor. It is now more than doubtful whether it will — and the whole 
 may ultimately take the appearance of a trial of strength between General 
 Jackson and the bank. In that case the bank will go down. For General 
 Jackson's popularity is of a sort not to be shaken at present. I hope for 
 the best results from the wise and patriotic counsels of Mr. McLane." 
 
 4. In the State there was also bitter warfare over the question 
 of instruction of Senators. This principle Mangum denied, while 
 Bedford Brown, his colleague in the Senate (who had succeeded 
 John Branch), accepted. In fact, these two Senators came more 
 and more to represent the two wings into which the old Republi- 
 can Party was splitting in North Carolina as elsewhere. In 1834 
 they canvassed the State on the subject of instruction. They 
 aroused great interest and some excitement. The partizans of 
 each vied with their opponents in giving the biggest public din- 
 ners and forming the largest processions. Brown stood for the 
 strict construction idea, which supported Jackson and developed 
 into the modern Democratic Party. As we have seen, Mangum 
 was more of a latitudinarian, anti-Jackson, pro-bank, and later 
 came to support Clay. Out of this latter class grew the Whig 
 Party. Besides Clay and Mangum, it numbered among its adher- 
 ents Preston and McDuffie of South Carolina ; Poindexter of Mis- 
 sissippi, Berrien of Georgia, Bell of Tennessee and others. In 
 North Carolina it claimed Badger, Graham, Gaston, the Galeses 
 and others. Hugh L. White, representing the hostility to Van 
 Buren, Jackson's political heir, was the candidate of this still unor- 
 ganized party for President in 1836, and Mangum was freely 
 talked of as his running mate. 
 
 The tendency to party cleavage in Mangum's career was 
 accentuated and confirmed by the bank struggle. The Whig 
 Party, of which we may now begin to speak, with the help of 
 Calhoun, concentrated their forces in opposition to Jackson. The 
 United States Bank was selected as the subject over which the 
 trial of strength should be. The bank had never been popular in 
 North Carolina, but under the leadership of Mangum, Gaston and 
 others it gained ground, and branch banks were established. In 
 fact, Iredell writes Mangum February 4, 1832: "Whether right 
 
22 NORTH CAROLINA 
 
 or wrong, that bank is at this time very popular in our State; I 
 believe, indeed I know, it has done us vast good, and as yet we 
 have felt no evils from it." Calhoun allied himself with Benjamin 
 Watkins Leigh in Virginia and Mangum in North Carolina, not 
 only because they were representatives of the pro-bank idea, but 
 also because they represented the opposition to receiving instruc- 
 tions from the Assembly, and the party in those States which stood 
 out against the tyranny and extra-constitutional assumptions of 
 Jackson. Mangum voted for the resolution of censure on Jackson 
 for removing the deposits, passed March 28, 1834, and refused to 
 vote for Benton's resolution to expunge the censure. The North 
 Carolina Legislature of 1834-35 was Democratic or pro- Jackson, 
 and hence opposed to Mangum. It availed itself of the oppor- 
 tunity offered and instructed him to vote for the Expunging reso- 
 lution (North Carolina acts, 1834-35, p. 95). These instructions, 
 with a bitter arraignment of the party in power, Mangum refused 
 to obey. He said that in reference to the instructions he would 
 avail himself of the occasion barely to say that he should not con- 
 form to them. He should vote against the Expunging resolution. 
 The Legislature had no right to require him to become the instru- 
 ment of his own personal degradation. He repelled the exercise 
 of so vindictive a power ; and when applied to himself he repelled 
 it with scorn and indignation. The members of the Legislature 
 were servants and representatives of the people. He was likewise 
 one. That they were disposed to guard with jealousy the honor 
 of the State, it was not his province to discuss or question. He, 
 likewise, felt it his duty to guard the honor of the State, and not 
 less to guard his own personal honor ; both, in his con- 
 ception, imperiously required him to disregard the resolutions ; 
 and, that point being settled in his mind, he trusted no one 
 who knew him would entertain a doubt as to his course on this 
 subject. 
 
 His course in the Senate was applauded by his political friends 
 in the State and denounced by his opponents (including Brown, 
 his colleague), but the weight of opinion in the State, so far at 
 least as it found expression in the form of memorials to Con- 
 
WILLIE PERSON MANGUM 23 
 
 gress, seems to have been decidedly pro-bank and in favor of 
 Mangum. 
 
 In 1836 came up for consideration Jackson's scheme of specie 
 payments. Mangum seems to have been rather uncertain as to 
 the proper steps, but even then saw the growing danger from cor- 
 porations. He said on the specie payments matter: That the 
 measure contemplated an important change in the currency of 
 the country, and he preferred it should be left in charge of its 
 friends, who better understood it. He was perfectly ready to 
 vote for it, if it came recommended by the gentlemen from the 
 new States ; and he was willing to do so because he looked upon 
 it to be a remedy against speculation in the public lands; and 
 because it might possibly bring about a sounder state in the circu- 
 lating medium. They might be chimeras, but he believed that all 
 these wealthy corporate institutions were inimical to a spirit of 
 liberty, which he preferred to all the wealth and splendor of the 
 great cities. Banks, railroads, stock companies of every descrip- 
 tion, might be useful, but he was opposed to them all, because, 
 in his opinion, they were inconsistent with the true spirit of lib- 
 erty. On another occasion he opposed giving pre-emption rights 
 to squatters on the public domain in the West. 
 
 The campaign of 1836 was conducted in North Carolina on the 
 United States Bank, nullification and the instruction of Senators. 
 The Legislature chosen was at first Whig, but Muse of Pasquotank 
 resigned and was succeeded by a Democrat. This threw the Legis- 
 lature into the Democratic camp, and Mangum, interpreting this 
 as a condemnation of his course, resigned (last of November or 
 first of December, 1836) and was succeeded by Robert Strange, 
 a Democrat, who took his seat December 15, 1836. 
 
 In 1837 the eleven electoral votes of South Carolina, which 
 Calhoun was said to have carried "in his vest pocket," were given 
 to Mangum for President. This, in view of the fact that Mangum 
 had supported some of the policies of the great South Carolinian, 
 raised a howl in the Democratic papers that there had been a cor- 
 rupt bargain between the two. Of this there is no evidence. 
 There is in fact little evidence that the vote of South Carolina was 
 
24 NORTH CAROLINA 
 
 due more to the action of Calhoun than of William C. Preston, 
 his Whig colleague in the Senate, a personal friend, and for whom 
 Mangum named his only son (cf. Dodd's Macon, 335-397). 
 
 After his resignation from the Senate in 1836 Mangum retired 
 to his plantation and returned to the law ; but politics was to him 
 as the breath of his nostrils. He was no less in public life, though 
 not in public office; in 1837 he declined to become a candidate 
 for the House of Representatives, though strong pressure was 
 brought to bear upon him; but in 1840 he was sent to the State 
 Senate from Orange County. He was chairman of the Commit- 
 tee on Education and assisted in drawing an act to provide public 
 schools for the State. Although since revised and altered, the 
 Act of 1840 is in reality the basis of the common school system of 
 North Carolina to-day (see Weeks's "Beginning of the Common 
 School System in the South" in Report United States Commis- 
 sioner of Education, 1896-97, p. 1422). 
 
 In the meantime the organization of the Whig Party was being 
 perfected. It was composed of men with many different shades 
 of political belief and with very different political antecedents, but 
 all were drawn together by the particular hope of defeating the 
 Locofos, as the Van Buren branch of the Democratic Party was 
 called. The name Whig, so Clay explained, was generic and was 
 expressly adopted to embrace men of all political opinions. In 
 1839 this newly formed party met in convention in Harrisburg to 
 nominate candidates for President and Vice-President. Mangum 
 was a member and went to the convention as a friend of Clay. It 
 was a time when both North and South had to be propitiated in 
 the matter of nominations ; when the nomination for President 
 went to Harrison, Clay's chances were gone. Mangum thought 
 that Clay had been unfairly treated and that his own acceptance 
 of the second place would prove him untrue to his friend, espe- 
 cially as he was also a member of the convention. This was his 
 reply in substance to a committee which asked him to accept the 
 second place. The committee went to him three times and urged 
 the place upon him, but their solicitations were unheeded. This 
 is the report that comes to me of the matter from his family, and 
 
WILLIE PERSON MANGUM 25 
 
 I have found contemporary evidence in Niles's Register which 
 confirms this account. The family account says further that when 
 Mangum's name was under consideration Governor Owen, who 
 was president of the convention, remarked, "We have better things 
 in store for Mr. Mangum." This would imply that the North 
 Carolina delegation was not a unit in his support, which we learn 
 also from other sources, and this no doubt had its weight in 
 defeating any aspirations he may have cherished. On the other 
 hand, Dr. Lyon G. Tyler, son of President Tyler, claims that 
 his father was from the first the choice of the convention, while 
 Henry A. Wise, in his uncritical biography of Tyler, "Seven 
 Decades of the Union" (pp. 158, 161, 169), claims that Tyler's 
 nomination had been settled long in advance. 
 
 The question of instruction of Senators had now received a 
 new turn in North Carolina. Mangum had been instructed in 
 1834 to vote for Benton's Expunging resolution and had refused 
 to do so or to resign, and this had brought him into sharp conflict 
 with Bedford Brown, his colleague, as we have seen. After his 
 resignation, Brown and Strange, his successor, voted for Benton's 
 resolution (passed January 16, 1837). The North Carolina 
 Assembly of 1838 was Whig. It censured Brown and Strange 
 for voting for the Expunging resolution and then instructed them 
 to oppose Van Buren's sub-treasury system, to advocate a division 
 of the proceeds from the sale of public lands among the States 
 according to population, and to endeavor to secure reform in the 
 public expenditures and a reduction of taxes (December 8, 1838). 
 The Senators were both Democrats, and in a letter, dated Decem- 
 ber 31, 1838, claimed not to understand the purport of the cen- 
 sure and resolutions of the Assembly. Their resignations were 
 finally forwarded during the Harrison- Van Buren campaign in 
 1840 and caused considerable excitement. 
 
 In that year the State went with the Whigs. Mangum was 
 re-elected to the Senate as a Whig to succeed Brown, and took 
 his seat December 9, 1840; William A. Graham, also a Whig, suc- 
 ceeded Strange and took his seat December 10. As Brown's term 
 expired March 4, 1841, Mangum was chosen to fill the full term 
 
26 NORTH CAROLINA 
 
 beginning on that date, and so served continuously by re-elections 
 from December 9, 1840, to March 3, 1853. During his senatorial 
 terms he served on the committees on roads and canals, pensions, 
 foreign relations, judiciary, militia, District of Columbia, finance 
 and as chairman of the committee on naval affairs in 184 1. In 
 general he advocated the policies of the Whig Party. The Whigs 
 repealed Van Buren's Independent Treasury or sub-treasury 
 and passed an act establishing a new Bank of the United States, 
 which was vetoed by Tyler. They then passed an act for a fiscal 
 corporation which was to have the functions of a bank, and the 
 draft of which had been submitted to Tyler. This act he also 
 vetoed ; he was then read out of the Whig Party. After these 
 failures Mangum favored depositing the public money in State 
 banks, regulated by law, and said that not one Whig in five thou- 
 sand in North Carolina was opposed to a national bank. He 
 opposed the Exchequer Board scheme, devised by the Secretary 
 of the Treasury. This Board was to consist of three men who 
 were to have charge of the finances. It was denounced with great 
 severity by Mangum and others and defeated. He regarded it as 
 placing the public purse as well as the sword in the hands of the 
 President. 
 
 On Tyler's accession to the Presidency, Samuel L. Southard 
 of New Jersey, who had been previously chosen President of the 
 Senate pro tempore, became its regular presiding officer and as 
 such acting Vice-President. Southard resigned May 3, 1842, 
 and on May 31st Mangum was chosen his successor. He continued 
 to occupy this position till March 4, 1845 > ft was he who that day 
 inaugurated the practice of turning back the hands of the clock in 
 order to lengthen the official day. 
 
 In 1844 the Whigs opposed the immediate annexation of Texas 
 and rejected Tyler's treaty on that subject; in 1846 Mangum 
 strongly opposed the attitude of the country on the Oregon Ques- 
 tion, which threatened to involve us in a war with England ; he 
 also opposed the war with Mexico. In 1847 he was offered the 
 nomination for President by the executive committee of the Native 
 American Party of Pennsylvania; in 1848 he was much talked of 
 
WILLIE PERSON MANGUM 27 
 
 as a running mate to Judge McLean of Ohio, who was being con- 
 sidered for the Presidency; again in 1852 he could have had the 
 Whig nomination for Vice-President, but because of the temper 
 of the people in North Carolina declined. 
 
 It will be noted that at the time of Mangum's election to the 
 highest office in the gift of the Senate, and what was at that par- 
 ticular time but one remove from the Presidency, he had had less 
 than seven years of senatorial life in all and had been returned to 
 the Senate less than two years before. He had been chairman of 
 the Senate Committee on Naval Affairs in 1841 ; it is evident that 
 he had rapidly forged ahead and had in a very short time taken 
 high rank among the leaders of his day. This position of leader- 
 ship he continued to hold. He was not a frequent speaker. He 
 did his work outside the Senate chamber in settling disputes, 
 shaping policies and keeping the running gear of the party in 
 good order. He was such an astute political manager that his 
 political enemies were even inclined to regard him as a Machia- 
 velli. Clay was perhaps his warmest personal friend, although he 
 was hardly less intimate with Webster. The secret of his power 
 seems to have been in his masterful intellect, his dignity and 
 character. He never neglected his duty ; was a thorough parlia- 
 mentarian and was never uninformed as to anything pertaining 
 to his station. The Senate ranked him higher than his own 
 people. 
 
 We have a contemporary estimate of him as a presiding officer. 
 Caleb Atwater of Ohio, in his "Mysteries of Washington City" 
 (Washington, 1844), says: 
 
 "He presides in the Senate and occupies the Vice-President's room in 
 the Capitol. He is a man above the common size, of fair complexion and 
 commanding air, rather grave in his manners, but very agreeable and ap- 
 pears to be kind-hearted. His voice is clear, sufficiently loud and distinct to 
 be heard all over the Senate chamber and its gallery. On the whole, he is, 
 taking him all in all, the best presiding officer that I ever saw in any legis- 
 lative assembly. He is always at his ease, always dignified and always 
 agreeable. His appearance is that of a man about forty years old. He is 
 a Whig, unwavering and unflinching, yet, like the Kentucky Senators, not 
 a persecuting Whig, often voting to confirm men in offices who are not 
 
28 NORTH CAROLINA 
 
 Whigs or anything else — long. He appears to look more to the interests 
 of his country than his party." (Page 131.) 
 
 Alexander H. Stephens said he had great influence in the 
 Senate ; that he spoke with clearness, conciseness, terseness and 
 power and dealt very little in the flowers of rhetoric or the orna- 
 ments of oratory. Hannibal Hamlin called him one of the ablest 
 men of his time. In fact, it has been said that he had more 
 influence in the Senate than any other Southern man of his 
 day. 
 
 The whole of Judge Mangum's life was spent in the service of 
 his State. For thirty-five years, 1818 to 1853, when his health 
 had already failed, to be followed soon after by a disease of the 
 spinal column, he was almost constantly in the public service. He 
 was so passionately devoted to the Union and to the interests of 
 his State that his private affairs, had it not been for the business 
 capacity of his wife and daughter, would have been seriously 
 impaired. As a campaigner he has seldom had an equal in the 
 State, for he was subtile and persuasive and skilful as a dialecti- 
 cian. His superior among North Carolina speakers has never 
 appeared. In the day of great orators in the Senate he held his 
 own, and I am told that traditions of his fame in oratory still 
 linger in the Senate chamber like a sweet aroma of a long- 
 vanished past ; the reputation of an orator, however, does not con- 
 sist in the things that men remember but in the memory of the 
 effects produced, and it is impossible for the historian to transfer 
 to writing the persuasiveness of his compelling periods. 
 
 He was for many years a trustee of the University of North 
 Carolina; received the degree of A.B. in 1815, A.M. in 1818, and 
 LL.D. in 1845. He was often in demand as a commencement 
 orator, but seems to have carefully avoided such engagements. 
 He was a Mason and an Odd Fellow ; in personal appearance was 
 large, being over six feet in height and well proportioned ; full 
 of dignity and courtesy, his stateliness was noticeable and com- 
 manding. He was successful as a lawyer and judge, and, while 
 a man of splendid accomplishment, was still more remarkable for 
 the suggestiveness of his thought (see Tourgee's "A Royal 
 
WILLIE PERSON MANGUM 29 
 
 Gentleman," for a pregnant paragraph on this phase of Southern 
 character). 
 
 On the more personal and human side Mangum was the life 
 and soul of a dinner party, and his stories were full of pith and 
 point. The charm of his conversation was extraordinary, his 
 sincerity, his mellifluous voice, the grace and dignity of his per- 
 sonal carriage, his affability and kindness, his love of nature in 
 general and birds in particular, his unbounded charity — were 
 winning qualities which made him honored, respected and loved. 
 
 Of his kindness in particular Judge Edwin G. Reade wrote in 
 1865 that he "was always interested in the young and in the 
 friendless. It was characteristic of him ; whenever he could, he 
 made them his companions and advised them and praised them, 
 and when need was defended them." Of his powers as a popular 
 orator, he says : "He was almost all his life in the public coun- 
 cils, and no man of his day was esteemed wiser. But his most 
 interesting exhibitions were before his own people as a popular 
 orator. It was then that his commanding person, his rich, flowing 
 language, his clarion voice, his graceful gesticulation and his 
 genial humor, made him almost irresistible. No one ever tired of 
 listening to him. He never let himself down, was never afraid of 
 overshooting his audience." 
 
 And in more recent years the late Daniel R. Goodloe wrote : 
 
 "As presiding officer he discharged its duties with distinguished ability 
 and courtesy, and received the unanimous thanks of the body. He be- 
 came an ardent friend of Mr. Clay, and in 1852 took an active part in 
 bringing out General Scott to succeed General Taylor. 
 
 "Mr. Mangum was an admirable conversationalist. My friend, John 
 B. Fry, who is a devoted admirer of Mr. Clay, whom he knew intimately, 
 as he did Mr. Mangum, thinks the latter excelled the great Kentuckian in 
 this accomplishment. I knew him well, and I have never met his equal 
 in this regard, taking him all in all ; for he never forgot to listen, as well 
 as to talk, which most superior men who are good talkers are apt to do. 
 
 "Judge Mangum was my best friend, to whom I am greatly indebted for 
 kindness. I came here in 1844 in search of employment. He found it for 
 me as associate editor of a daily Whig paper, The Whig Standard. ... At 
 the end of the campaign in November, I owed him nearly fifty dollars; 
 and when I was able to repay him, two years later, he was unwilling to 
 
30 NORTH CAROLINA 
 
 admit that I owed him anything. When I told him the exact amount, and 
 insisted on paying, he urged me to go and buy me a suit of clothes. How- 
 ever, I persisted in forcing the money on him, and he at length received 
 it. It is my pleasure, and my duty, to record this fact, illustrative of the 
 generous nature of one of North Carolina's greatest men." 
 
 As the war came on Judge Mangum naturally sided with the 
 South, but he was never a secessionist ; in fact, he was a strong 
 Union man till the war became a reality. He then went with the 
 South and sent his only son to the front. The death of this son 
 caused a return of the paralysis with which he had been afflicted 
 for years, and he died at his country seat, Walnut Hall, then in 
 Orange, now in Durham County, North Carolina, September 7, 
 1 86 1 (not September 14th). 
 
 Judge Mangum married September 30, 1819, Charity Alston 
 Cain (1795- 1 873). She was the daughter of William Cain and 
 of Mrs. Sarah (Alston) Dudley. The Cains were Irish and set- 
 tled in Maryland. William Cain was born in Baltimore ; migrated 
 to Orange County, North Carolina ; became a prosperous merchant 
 and planter ; founded a large and well-known family, and at the 
 first meeting of the trustees of the University of North Carolina, 
 December 18, 1789, made to that body a larger donation than they 
 had up to that time received from any other source. Mrs. Man- 
 gum's mother was the daughter of James Alston (died 1761) of 
 Orange and granddaughter of John Alston (1673-1758), founder 
 of the North Carolina family of that name and a justice of the 
 colonial Supreme Court (q. v.). To Judge and Mrs. Mangum 
 were born five children: Sallie Alston (1824-96); Martha 
 Person (Pattie) (1828-1902) ; Catharine Davis, died in infancy; 
 Mary Sutherland (1832-1902) ; and William Preston (1837-61). 
 The son was educated at the University of North Carolina 
 and began the study of law, but delayed practice to attend his 
 father's plantation ; he volunteered as a private, became second 
 lieutenant in Company B, Sixth North Carolina Regiment, Colonel 
 Charles F. Fisher, C. S. A., and died July 28, 1861, from the 
 effects of wounds received at the first battle of Manassas. 
 
 Sallie Alston Mangum married in 185 1 Colonel Martin Wash- 
 
WILLIE PERSON MANGUM 31 
 
 ington Leach (1806-69), an older brother of General James 
 Madison Leach (1815-91), and an extensive planter and capi- 
 talist of Randolph County, North Carolina. They had three chil- 
 dren to attain maturity and who are still living: Mrs. Julian A. 
 Turner of Greensboro, Mrs. Stephen B. Weeks and Miss Annie 
 Preston Leach of Randolph County, North Carolina. The third 
 generation is represented by three boys and six girls. None of 
 the other children of Judge Mangum ever married. Misses 
 Martha and Mary Mangum resided at Walnut Hall till their 
 death. During the war and for some years after its close they 
 conducted at their home a select school for young ladies, which 
 drew patrons from many sections of the State. 
 
 This brief sketch of the very active career of Judge Mangum 
 is based mainly on his correspondence and on family history. His 
 public career will be found in the journals of the Assembly and 
 of Congress, while the genealogy of his family will be found in 
 part in the supplement to Groves's "The Alstons and Allstons of 
 North Carolina and South Carolina." Short sketches of his career 
 have appeared in the various biographical works dealing with the 
 United States and North Carolina, but no suitable biography, no 
 worthy sketch even has hitherto appeared. There are at least four 
 oil portraits of Mangum, one in possession of Willie Mangum 
 Person, Esq., of Louisburg, North Carolina, one in the hall of 
 the Dialectic Society at Chapel Hill and two in possession of the 
 family, including the one from which the accompanying engrav- 
 ing is made. His correspondence, large in amount and varied in 
 character, is in my hands, and I have in preparation a volume on 
 his life and times which I hope to make definitive. 
 
 Stephen B. Weeks. 
 
WILLIE PERSON MANGUM, JR. 
 
 'ILLIE PERSON MANGUM, JR., was the 
 second child and oldest son of Priestley Hinton 
 Mangum, brother of the distinguished judge 
 and senator, and of Rebecca Hilliard Sutherland 
 of Wake Forest, Wake County, North Carolina. 
 He was born in Wake County, May 7, 1827, and 
 was on his mother's side descended from Colonel Ransom Suther- 
 land, one of the patriots of the Revolution. His father was born 
 April 3, 1795, and, like his uncle, was educated at the University of 
 North Carolina, took the whole course in two years and received 
 the A.B. degree in 181 5 with first honor. He chose the law as a 
 profession, settled in Wake, but in February, 1830, removed to 
 Hillsboro, where he lived till his death, September 17, 1850. 
 Unlike his better known brother, he stuck closely to the law, had 
 a large practice in Wake, Granville and adjoining counties, and 
 accumulated what was a handsome estate for his day in negroes 
 and real estate. Besides the subject of this sketch there were 
 other children: Catharine (Kate), born 1825, who died soon after 
 her father ; Rebecca, who married John R. Williams of Arkansas ; 
 Mary L., who married J. J. James, for some years editor of the 
 Biblical Recorder; Priestley Hinton, Jr., who studied medicine but 
 devoted himself to farming; and Leonard Henderson, who was 
 graduated from Princeton, studied law and removed to Arkansas, 
 saw hard service in the Confederate Army, went into politics, be- 
 
WILLIE PERSON MANGUM, Jr. 33 
 
 came a judge of one of the inferior courts in Arkansas and died 
 in Washington City, April, 1903. 
 
 In 1838 Willie P. Mangum, Jr., entered the Bingham School 
 and remained there till 1844, when he entered Wake Forest Col- 
 lege. He was there two years ; went to the University of North 
 Carolina in 1846 and was graduated in 1848, delivering an oration 
 on the character of Sir Walter Raleigh. He became a tutor in 
 Wake Forest College and remained one year, when he began the 
 study of law under his father; after his death he removed to 
 Washington City and took a position in the Census Office. In 
 1853 he returned to North Carolina and resumed the study of 
 law, this time in Raleigh, under Judge Badger, and later con-, 
 tinued his studies in New York City under Honorable E. W. 
 Stoughton, judge and later United States Minister to Russia. He 
 was admitted to the bar in New York State, in the District of 
 Columbia and to practice before the Supreme Court of the United 
 States, and the next few years were devoted to his profession. 
 
 Unlike the rest of his family in the civil struggle which was now 
 coming on, he sided with the North, and on March 27, 1861, was 
 commissioned by the State Department as United States Consul at 
 Ningpo, China. He arrived there December 11, 1861, two days 
 after its capture by the T'ai-p'ing rebels, under Fang. It soon be- 
 came necessary to take measures for the safety of the foreign com- 
 munity at Ningpo, and on January 12, 1862, proceedings were 
 taken to this end and for the government of the 75,000 Chinese 
 who had crowded for protection into the foreign quarter of the 
 city. This heavy duty fell upon the consuls of the treaty powers, 
 and as the French consul was practically incapacitated it was dis- 
 charged by the consuls of England and the United States, 
 Mr. Mangum and his colleague holding court on alternate weeks, 
 from January 12, to May 10, 1862, when power was restored to the 
 former authorities through a bombardment of the city by the 
 English and French. These judicial services were highly appreci- 
 ated by the people, who expressed their thanks in oriental fashion 
 by presenting to each of the consuls a large umbrella, like that 
 borne before mandarins of the first rank. 
 
34 NORTH CAROLINA 
 
 In the Spring of 1864 Mangum was transferred to the consulate 
 at Chin-Kiang, on the Yang-tse, at the junction of the Grand 
 Canal with that river, but the confinement resulting from the dis- 
 turbances in Ningpo and the Chekiang province had undermined 
 his health and compelled his return to America, for which he 
 sailed April 29, 1864. The change of scene, the sea voyage, and 
 Winter restored his health, and on March 18, 1865, he was made 
 consul to Nagasaki, Japan ; he was reappointed by Johnson, 
 May 29, 1865, and there he remained till 1880. 
 
 He was detailed to take charge of the consulate general in 
 Shanghai, as Vice-Consul-General, February 1, 1867, to March 19, 
 1868, in the absence of George F. Seward, the Consul-General, and 
 in this connection was also United States postal agent ; he organ- 
 ized and started the first American mail service in China, their 
 first office being in the consulate general in Shanghai. After 
 resuming his duties at Nagasaki he continued his postal work till 
 arrangements were perfected by the Japanese Government for 
 taking over their mail service. 
 
 In December, 1868, along with Reverend Guido Verbeck, the 
 apostle of Japan, he spent some days, by invitation, in visiting the 
 Prince of Hizen in Saga, his capital. They were the first white 
 men to be seen in Saga, and this was one way taken by the Prince 
 to reconcile his people to the impending changes, for the clans 
 of Satsuma, Choshiu, Tosa, and Hizen were leaders in the strug- 
 gle then going on against the Shoguns (Tokugawa family), and 
 out of which came the restoration of the Mikado to supreme power 
 and the opening of Japan to the Western world. The Prince of 
 Hizen remained the firm friend of Mangum and presented him 
 many rare specimens of ceramics, which cannot now be duplicated. 
 
 Mangum sailed for America November 10, 1872, and his last 
 visit to North Carolina was in the spring of 1873. He reached 
 Japan on his return July 16, 1873, and resumed his duties at 
 Nagasaki. In the Spring of 1874 he was chosen sole arbitrator 
 in the case of the Takashima coal mines, a matter which involved 
 England, Holland and Japan in many intricate and opposing 
 views and had been long in the courts. No satisfactory conclusion 
 
WILLIE PERSON MANGUM, Jr. 35 
 
 seeming possible, it was decided to submit the whole matter to 
 three arbitrators, one to be chosen by each nationality ; but, on 
 comparing the nominations, it was found that Mangum had been 
 chosen by each, a singular and remarkable proof of the esteem in 
 which he was held. His decision was rendered the following 
 summer and was acceptable to all. 
 
 Mangum's health was always more or less delicate, and with 
 the hope that a colder climate would restore him, he was trans- 
 ferred to Tien-Tsin, in North China, March 29, 1880. He left 
 Japan in September of that year, but the colder climate failed to 
 do what was hoped from it, and he died in Tien-Tsin, February 11, 
 1881. He was temporarily interred at that port, but was later 
 removed to America and reinterred in the Congressional cemetery 
 in Washington City. 
 
 He was long dean of the consular corps in Nagasaki and was 
 held in high esteem by his colleagues. He was of a pleasant, 
 courteous disposition, dignified, but genial and charming in con- 
 versation, and while energetic and business-like in important 
 affairs, in unessential things was disposed to the doctrine of 
 laissez faire. He was elected March 20, 1866, a non-resident mem- 
 ber of the North China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, and 
 on June 30, 1876, for long services rendered to his consulate, was 
 decorated by the King of Portugal with the Royal Portuguese 
 Military Order of Our Lord Jesus Christ. He was highly 
 esteemed by resident and visiting Americans and the Japanese 
 soon learned to consult with and trust him in many matters of im- 
 portance outside of his consular duties. Although long a non- 
 resident, Mr. Mangum never forgot the State of his nativity. 
 That he considered it his home to the last is shown by the filing 
 of his will for probate in Wake, the county of his birth. 
 
 Mr. Mangum married in Washington, D. C, on October 24, 
 1855, Miss Fannie Vaulx Ladd, daughter of Joseph Brown Ladd 
 and Harriet Vaulx Conway, widow of Major W. H. Nicoll, 
 U. S. A. No children were born to this marriage. Mrs. Mangum 
 was a woman of decided literary tastes ; she was an artist, and an 
 authority on ceramics and conchology and to some extent on 
 
36 
 
 NORTH CAROLINA 
 
 numismatics. She gathered an extensive and costly library and 
 made a great collection of ceramics from China and Japan, many 
 of them being in costly patterns, gifts from distinguished person- 
 ages, which can no longer be procured or produced. She made 
 also a great and valuable collection of shells. Her collections were 
 in part destroyed by fire ; the remainder, after being somewhat aug- 
 mented by other selections from the East, were presented to the 
 University of North Carolina. She presided over the social life of 
 the foreign residents in Nagasaki, accompanied her husband in all 
 his travels, brought back his body to America, and spent her last 
 days in Washington City, where she died in 1901. 
 
 This sketch is made up from a sketch printed by Mrs. Mangum 
 in the North Carolina University Magazine in 1890, and from 
 materials in possession of the family. 
 
 Stephen B. Weeks. 
 
........ 
 
 
 \\\ 
 
 t 
 
 
 C^lsls<3 
 
PRIESTLEY HINTON MANGUM 
 
 RIESTLEY HINTON MANGUM, one of the 
 most progressive agriculturalists of the State, 
 was born on August 21, 1829, in Wake Forest 
 Township, Wake County. The Mangums are 
 of Welch extraction, the first of the name com- 
 ing to America being John Mangum, who emi- 
 grated to this country from Wales. The family early settled in 
 Orange County, where its members were highly esteemed for their 
 capacity and sterling worth. Mr. P. H. Mangum, Sr., graduated 
 in the same class as his brother, Willie P. Mangum, at the Uni- 
 versity of North Carolina in 1815, and studied law. He repre- 
 sented Orange County in the Legislature of 1832, but he was not 
 drawn into a public career like his more gifted brother, who 
 became one of the most distinguished of North Carolinians. Mr. 
 Willie Mangum was an orator of the first class and a jurist who 
 was an ornament to the bench, and a statesman who reflected 
 great honor on the people of North Carolina. He was elected to 
 the United States Senate in 1831, and again in 1841 and again 
 in 1847. In 1837 South Carolina cast all of her electoral votes 
 for him for President. And five years later, when Vice-President 
 Tyler had succeeded to the Presidency, Mr. Mangum, who was 
 esteemed as one of the most distinguished of the Senators, was by 
 the choice of his fellow-members elected President of the Senate 
 and continued to hold that position for three years ; and it has been 
 
38 NORTH CAROLINA 
 
 well said of him that he was equal to every station he occupied. 
 He, Governor Graham, Mr. Macon and Judge Badger were the 
 most influential sons North Carolina has produced. 
 
 Mr. Priestley Mangum married Miss Rebecca Hilliard Suther- 
 land, whose father, Colonel Ransom Sutherland, was a Revolu- 
 tionary officer and served with high distinction during the war for 
 independence. 
 
 The influence of such parents and of such association in his early 
 life was not without its effect in forming the character of the sub- 
 ject of this sketch. His father was a man of fine judgment and 
 strong common sense, a man of high integrity, well educated and 
 a lawyer of great influence in his community ; but he was fond of 
 home life and preferred a residence on his farm, and as Mrs. Man- 
 gum unhappily died when her son was very young, he fell more 
 particularly under the directing care of his father than is usual 
 with children. 
 
 He was prepared for college by William J. Bingham, the second 
 of that name, and entering Wake Forest College, graduated at that 
 institution in 1851. Intending to devote himself to agriculture, 
 he immediately began the life of a farmer and located on the farm 
 where he was born two miles west of Wake Forest ; and there, on 
 December 16, 1856, he brought his bride, Miss Mary Thomas 
 Price, and six children, now surviving, blessed their union. 
 
 Agriculture has always been the most important industry of the 
 people of North Carolina, and it has employed the best talent of 
 the State. In the days of slavery the finest minds and strongest 
 men were engaged in this occupation, and they brought to it their 
 best intelligence, and it was esteemed the noblest employment for 
 a man's capabilities, as it was accompanied by a spirit of independ- 
 ence and of self-reliance and of noble manhood that was not so 
 thoroughly fostered by other vocations. 
 
 Since the abolition of slavery it has been attended with more 
 difficulties, and its successful practice has required even closer at- 
 tention and more strenuous endeavors ; but still it is a field for the 
 exercise of superior talent, and Mr. Mangum's career is a notable 
 illustration of this fact, for it has been said that "by his farm he 
 
PRIESTLEY HINTON MANGUM 39 
 
 has reflected as much credit on the State as his uncle did by his 
 distinguished services in the Senate of the United States." The 
 very fields amid which he was born and reared have been the scene 
 of his exploits as a successful and intelligent farmer. His methods 
 have attracted wide attention, and his farm has been held up before 
 the agriculturalists of the State as an example. Indeed, one of the 
 foremost men of Mecklenburg County, which has always been 
 noted for its fine farms and improved methods, has been par- 
 ticularly pronounced in calling attention to the advantages of the 
 new methods introduced and used by Mr. Mangum ; and residents 
 of other parts of the State have recommended the adoption of the 
 system practiced on this model farm. In an article entitled 
 "A Model Farmer," a judicious and intelligent editor says: 
 
 "Mr. Mangum's wheat was just about ripening and the fields of golden 
 grain presented a most attractive scene. One field of thirty acres would 
 yield at least thirty bushels to the acre. In the same field was clover knee 
 high. In another large field was a good stand of cotton, which last year 
 averaged over a bale to the acre, there were several fields of clover and 
 other grasses, and there were stacks of last year's hay not yet used. The 
 cattle looked fat and sleek, the milch cows with distended bags, and many 
 of improved breeds. The hogs were kept in a clover field and literally 
 looked like they were 'living in clover/ so fat and healthy were they. The 
 barns and stables were commodious and conveniently arranged, and large 
 piles of barnyard manure showed that Mr. Mangum did not depend upon 
 bought fertilizers. We saw quite a number of the most improved labor-sav- 
 ing machines, which nowadays are necessary for profitable farming." 
 
 As eloquently as these facts speak of the successful results of 
 Mr. Mangum's farming operations, they are also evidence of the 
 judgment and intelligence which he brings to his aid in following 
 his business as an agriculturalist. Another illustration of his su- 
 perior merit is to be found in his progressiveness. He devised and 
 introduced the modified terrace and used them in his fields, doing 
 away entirely with hillside ditches. Under his system the land 
 is prevented from washing and it can be cultivated more easily 
 than under the system of ditches and without any waste. These 
 terraces are from one to two feet high and about ten feet wide and 
 carry off the water in a gently flowing current. In constructing 
 
40 NORTH CAROLINA 
 
 them he utilized his old hillside ditches, plowing down the upper 
 bank several times, but allowing the low embankment to remain. 
 In front of this, where the ditch was, is a space of ten feet on a 
 dead level. This level drain has a fall of i| inches to 13 feet, 
 4 inches. The guide row is then staked off and horizontal furrows 
 run plowing through this level drain and the embankment just as 
 they chance to go. To run these terraces a spirit level set in a 
 light frame 13 feet, 4 inches wide is used, and of course much 
 judgment is needed to make them. Plowing down the hillside 
 across the ten-foot level drain and lightly over the embankment, 
 the water is distributed uniformly and slowly, and in the severest 
 rain will never overflow. Whatever sediment or soil washes down 
 is saved, the terrace gradually gaining more soil and becoming the 
 richest part of the field. General Barringer, in his account of this 
 fine farm, says : 
 
 "We saw land which was formerly ravines and gulleys presenting a 
 beautiful and uniform slope. The terrace system as devised by Mr. Man- 
 gum rids the field of grass. Every foot of land is under cultivation." 
 
 His system has attracted general attention and has found such 
 favor as to have been adopted by other progressive and intelligent 
 farmers in the hillside country with advantage. If he who has 
 made two blades of grass to grow where one grew before is to be 
 commended, the advantage to agriculture of the devices in- 
 augurated by Mr. Mangum are still more beneficial, and are yet 
 more worthy of high commendation. 
 
 In his political affiliations Mr. Mangum, like his illustrious uncle 
 and other members of his family, was a Whig before the Civil 
 War, but because of the issues evolved since that period, he has 
 affiliated with the Democratic Party. 
 
 He is a member of the Episcopal Church and his walk in life 
 has been consistent with his religious profession. A busy man, 
 earnest and active in his agricultural pursuits, he has had no time 
 for sports or amusements, and he finds sufficient exercise in horse- 
 back riding over his farm, every part of which is constantly under 
 his supervision. £ ^ Ash ^ 
 
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