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 UNIVERSITY OF 
 
 NORTH CAROLINA 
 
 ENDOWED BY THE 
 
 DIALECTIC AND PHILANTHROPIC 
 
 SOCIETIES 
 
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 renewed only once and must be brought 
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 Form No. A -369 
 
The John Lawson Monographs 
 
 OF THE 
 
 Trinity College Hi^orical Society 
 
 DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA 
 
 VOL. 11 
 
 MEMOIRS OF 
 
 W. W. HOLDEN 
 
 Durham, N. C. 
 
 Tt" Seeman Printer y 
 
 1911 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 ilBRAKY UNrV ' OF 
 NORTH CAROLINA 
 
 Introduction v 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY IN NORTH 
 CAROLINA TO 1861 
 
 David S. Reid and Free Suffrage — Contest with Gov- 
 ernor Bragg — The Charleston Convention of 1860 
 —The Election of February, 1861 — The Seces- 
 sion Convention 1 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 WAR POLITICS 
 
 The Nomination of Vance — Confederate and State 
 Politics — The Laurel Valley Affair — Editorials 
 of April, 1865 — Edwin G. Reade to the Confed- 
 erate Senate in 1864 18 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT AND RECON- 
 STRUCTION INCIDENTS 
 
 Scenes at Washington, May, 1865 — Provisional Gov- 
 ernor — Pardons — The Legislature of 1865 — 
 Criticisms of Moore's School History of North 
 Carolina on War Politics and Reconstruction. ... 44 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 GOVERNOR UNDER THE RECONSTRUCTION ACTS 
 
 Reminiscences of Early Life — Protest of Governor 
 Worth — Proclamations Regarding the Ku Klux — 
 The Shoffner Act — Correspondence with Captain 
 Pride Jones — Examples of Executive Clemency. . 94 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 IMPEACHMENT 
 
 Chief Justice Pearson — Letter of Governor Brogden 
 — Attitude Toward the Removal of Disabilities — 
 Last Letter to the Public 147 
 
 Appendix 187 
 
 V^n>- 
 
 u 
 
Introduction 
 
 The Memoirs of W, W, Holden, which form the 
 present volume of the John Lawson Monographs, 
 were written between E'ovember, 1889, and March, 
 1890. /Governor Holden was then seventy-one years 
 of ageV in 1882 he had suffered an attack of par- 
 alysis ; and his health was so feeble that he was com- 
 pelled to dictate the Memoirs, his amanuensis being 
 his daughter, Mrs. >C. A. Sherwood, of Rakigit. The 
 morning after the manuscript was finished he was 
 again stricken with paralysis, which completely shat- 
 tered his faculties. His death occurred in March, 
 1892. 
 
 It was Governor Holden' s desire that some one 
 should revise his manuscript and see it through the 
 press. For this work he turned to Theo. H. Hill 
 and John B. ISTeathery, but neither would undertake 
 the responsibility. He also solicited the aid of Gov. 
 C. H. Brogden in composing the manuscript; the 
 only result was the letter, Brogden to Holden, given 
 on page 169. 
 
 The conditions under which the Memoirs were 
 written explain several characteristics of the work. 
 Governor Holden's power of organizing material 
 had evidently been shattered by age and illness, for 
 frequently questions relating to the Civil War and 
 Reconstruction are discussed out of chronological 
 order, related topics are often widely separated from 
 each other, and the narrative of certain events is 
 repeated. His memory, also, failed him, for there 
 
vi Introduction 
 
 are some mistakes in detail and facts of much sig- 
 nificance are omitted. Doubtless it was in full real- 
 ization of these conditions that he writes, on page 25 : 
 *'And further I will say I am not writing a history. 
 While my mind is full of the events of the past, and 
 men and things of which I am writing swarm before 
 my vision, I have not the physical strength to catch 
 and fix them all on paper, or to refer to documents 
 and handle them, and deduce therefrom the actions 
 and the characters of the men concerned. These are 
 simply stray bits of history. I am innocent of any 
 purpose to do injustice to anyone." 
 
 On the other hand, there are certain strong, pos- 
 itive features of the Memoirs. One of these is a 
 remarkable absence of any vindictive feeling. The 
 y/ narrative of events which might recall the conflicts 
 and bitterness of the past is, as far as possible, 
 omitted. This is notably true of the contest with 
 Judge Ellis for the gubernatorial nomination in 
 1858 and of the bond issue in reconstruction days. 
 The discussion of bonds was omitted, I am sure, 
 because of personal attachment to some who were 
 concerned in the bond legislation ; in fact, Governor 
 Holden once wrote a newspaper sketch of the influ- 
 ences which shaped the issue of the bonds of 1869, 
 but refrained from publishing it on account of friend- 
 ship for one deeply involved in the measure. 
 
 Another characteristic of the Memoirs is that when 
 his own policies are under consideration, the author 
 assumes full responsibility and never shifts the bur- 
 den to others. A striking example of this is the view 
 of the military movement of 1870, known as the 
 
Introduction vii 
 
 ^' Kirk-Holden War." ISTot a word is given in the 
 Memoirs of the pressure brought to bear on the Gov- 
 ernor by leading members of his party to take mili- 
 tary measures. Yet, when measures which did not 
 involve his o^vn responsibility or the integrity of oth- 
 ers are under discussion, Governor Holden often 
 displays an insight into conditions and a power of 
 presentation that are far above the average. Such 
 are the descriptions of the Free Suffrage Movement, 
 the Charleston Convention of 1860, and the realign- 
 ment of parties in E'orth Carolina after secession was 
 accomplished. 
 
 Finally, the Memoirs reflect many of the convic- 
 tions of age and experience, the backward view of 
 one who had lived and fought through some of the 
 memorable political campaigns and movements in 
 the history of ^N'orth Carolina. 
 
 In full cognizance of these limitations, the Mem- 
 oirs are given to the public as an interesting and val- 
 uable contribution to the history of North Carolina. 
 Editorial emendations have been withheld as far as 
 possible, with the aim of letting Governor Holden 
 speak without restriction. However, to offset his 
 assumption of full responsibility for the military 
 movement of 1870, a letter of Edward Conigland 
 has been inserted as a foot-note to page 176 and in 
 an Appendix has been added the testimony of R. C. 
 Badger before the Senate Committee of 1871, which 
 investigated the relation of Senator John Pool to 
 the Kirk-Holden War. Both Conigland and Badger 
 were counsel for the defense in the Impeachment and 
 speak from knowledge and conviction. For these 
 
viii Introduction 
 
 additions to the original manuscript of Governor 
 Holden, editorial judgment is alone responsible. 
 Some details of Governor Holden's career not in- 
 cluded in the Memoirs are given in sketches entitled 
 " William W. Holden '' in the Historical Papers of 
 the Trinity College Historical Society, Series III. 
 
 Aug. 1, 1911. 
 
 WM. K. BOYD. 
 
Memoirs of W. W. H olden 
 
 CHAPTEE I. 
 
 THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY IN NORTH 
 CAROLINA TO 1861 
 
 DAVID S. REID A^T> FREE SUFFRAGE CONTEST WITH 
 
 GOVERNOR BRAGG THE CHARLESTON CONVEN- 
 TION OF 1860 THE ELECTION OF FEBRUARY^ 
 
 1861 THE SECESSION CONVENTION. 
 
 On the first day of June 1843, I became the owner 
 and Editor of the ^'orth Carolina Standard, a well 
 known DenjLOcr^tic journal. The Democratic party 
 of the State Avas at that time in the minority and was 
 depressed. The Whig party had controlled the State 
 from 1836, the end of Governor Spaight's adminis- 
 tration, until 1850, the end of Gov. Manly's admin- 
 istration. 
 
 The following statement of the vote for Governor 
 will show how the State stood, up to the election of 
 Governor Reid in 1850. 
 
 1840. 
 
 John M. Morehead, Whig 44,484 
 
 Romulus M. Saunders, Dem 35,903 
 
 Morehead's majority 8,581 
 
 1842. 
 
 John M. Morehead, Whig 37,943 
 
 Louis D. Henry, Dem 34,411 
 
 Morehead's majority 3,532 
 
2 Memoirs of W. W. Holdeis- 
 
 1844. 
 
 William A. Graham, Whig 42,586 
 
 Michael Hoke, Dem 39,433 
 
 Graham's majority 3,153 
 
 1846. 
 
 William A. Graham, Whig 43,486 
 
 James B. Shepard, Dem 35,627 
 
 Graham's majority 7,759 
 
 1848 
 
 Charles Manly, Whig 42,536 
 
 David S. Reid, Dem 41,682 
 
 Manly's majority 854 
 
 1850. 
 
 David S. Reid, Dem 45,080 
 
 Charles Manly, Whig 42,227 
 
 Reid's majority 2,853 
 
 1852. 
 
 David S. R^d, Dem 48,567 
 
 John Kerr, Whig 43,003 
 
 Reid's majority 5,564 
 
 Governor Reid was therefore defeated iu 1848, and 
 elected in 1850 and 1852. This made the State Dem- 
 ocratic. In 1854 Thomas Bragg defeated Alfred 
 Dockery by 2,085 ; in 1856 he defeated John A. Gil- 
 mer by 12,628; and in 1858 John W. Ellis defeated 
 D. K. McRae (a Democrat but generally voted for bj 
 the Whigs) by 16,383. 
 
Memoirs of W. W. Holden 
 
 I have given these figures to show that the State 
 was Whig under the new Constitution as amended in 
 1835, up to Keid's election in 1850. In 1836 Edward 
 B. Dudley, Whig, defeated Eichard Dobbs Spaight, 
 Democrat, by about six thousand majority, and in 
 1838 he defeated Ex-Governor John Branch, who 
 was brought forward by Willis Whitaker and 
 others of Wake County, by about fourteen thousand 
 majority. 
 
 The State Convention that nominated David S. 
 Reid for Governor w^as held in 1848 after the nom- 
 ination of Manly for the same office. I had the honor 
 to prepare the platform which was adopted by that 
 body. Robert P. Dick of Guilford, James B. Shep- 
 ard of Wake, William K. Lane of Wayne, and myself 
 were the members of the committee who urged the 
 nomination of Colonel Reid on the Convention. He 
 was nominated unanimously, almost as a '^ forlorn 
 hope''. Mr. Manly, his opponent, was a brilliant and 
 able speaker, and the chances against Reid appeared 
 to be as five to one. A committee was appointed to 
 notify him of his nomination and request his ac- 
 ceptance. He replied declining the nomination^ and 
 I had the letter in type, and was about to go to press. 
 But I looked at the correspondence as it stood in the 
 form in type, and thought of the hopeless condition 
 of the Democratic party if the correspondence with 
 the letter from Colonel Reid should be published in 
 the organ of the party, and I determined to withhold 
 the publication at least for one issue of the paper. 
 I at once consulted with friends as to the course to 
 be adopted, and the result was that Jerry Nixon and 
 
Memoirs of W. W. Holden 
 
 James B. Shepard, Esquires, and Dr. W. R. Scott 
 and myself sent a messenger on horseback, who rode 
 day and night to Reidsville with a letter to Colonel 
 Reid, urging him in most earnest terms to accept the 
 nomination and come to Raleigh at once, prepared 
 to enter on the campaign with Manly. I wrote the 
 letter and it was signed by the persons named. The 
 messenger went and returned in the shortest possible 
 time, and the day after he returned Colonel Reid- 
 H^appeared at Raleigh, accepted the nomination (stop- 
 l/tj/ ping at Guion's Hotel) and made ready for the cam- 
 paign. (Therefore, but for what I did. Colonel Reid 
 vwould not have accepted. Free Suffrage would not 
 •'^ have been broached to the people of the State, which 
 was the prime, great, and moving cause of the first 
 Democratic victory in the State since 1836, and of all 
 subsequent victories. And not only this, but Free 
 Suffrage was the source of benefit to the State, in 
 that it greatly liberalized the views of public men on 
 legislation. The discussion of the subject in 1848 no 
 doubt led to the assumption of a debt of more than 
 two millions for internal improvements. The Senate 
 was based on taxation, and was therefore not disposed 
 to incur State debts. 
 
 Colonel Reid was waited upon by a number of hib 
 friends at the Guion Hotel, and full and free conver- 
 sations were held in regard to the campaign. ^Ir. 
 Manly had already given notice of his purpose to 
 speak at Beaufort, Carteret County, in the course of 
 four or five days, and it was desired that Colonel 
 Reid should meet and reply to him at that place. 
 The platforin on which Colonel Reid was nominated 
 
Memoirs of W. W. Holder 
 
 contained no allusion to Free Suffrage/ and he said, 
 '^ Gentlemen, this nomination was not sought by me, 
 and it has been my purpose for a long time if I should 
 be a candidate for a State office before the people, to 
 broach one issue, which I deem very important. 
 What I mean is that the State Constitution shall be 
 so amended by the mode prescribed by the instrument 
 itself, that all voters for the House of Commons shall 
 be allowed to vote for Senators. What do you say to 
 my taking this ground in the canvass ? I mean, of 
 course, no disrespect to the convention that nominated 
 me, but I wish to discuss this question before the peo- 
 ple. I Avant your opinion. I will consult our friend 
 Dr. S. A. Andrews at Goldsborough, and friend Sam- 
 uel R. Street at ^ewberne, and friends at Beaufort, 
 and then decide finally what I will do."' 
 
 The friends present were Dr. Josiah Watson, 
 James B. Shepard, Perrin Busbee, Jerry E'ixon, 
 W. T. Eogers, Mark Williams, and myself. Dr. Wat- 
 son and Messrs. Shepard and Busbee were inclined 
 to decide against it, and Messrs. !Nixon, Rogers, Wil- 
 liams and myself were in favor of broaching the 
 issue. Colonel Reid was traveling in his buggy. He 
 had recently had a spell of fever and was feeble, but 
 he reached Beaufort in time to reply to Mr. .!^Ianlv. 
 In his reply he took ground for .Free Suffrage, and 
 Mr. Manly asked to be allowed till next day at l^ew- 
 berne to state his position on that subject. At ISTew- 
 berne he, topk ground against it, fei^d this sealed the 
 
 ^ By the Constitution of North Carolina, adopted in 1770, fifty- 
 acres in freehold was required of all who voted for State Sena- 
 tors. [Ed.] 
 
Memoirs of W. W. Holden 
 
 Jatt! of the Whig party in ^orth .I'aroliiia, and Iti&o 
 announced in ^uy ^ivxt paper. ~ 
 
 XTr. Manly was elected in August 1848, by 854 
 votes. In 1849 I wrote to Colonel Keid requesting 
 bim to be a candidate again for Governor in 1850. 
 He replied, stating that he was willing to do so, pro- 
 vided he should not be required to approve the pro- 
 posed Convention at Xashville, Tenn., and the act 
 by the Legislature passed in 1848, chartering the 
 N. C. Railroad. I answered Colonel Reid that on 
 neither question was he expected to commit himself, 
 for the reason that they were both aside from and 
 above the party. And therefore, all that was expected 
 of him was to enforce the law according to the char- 
 ter of the road — that a man could be a Democrat 
 and at the same time against or for the Road or the 
 Convention. At that time the Democratic party of 
 the State was opposed, by a large majority, to stat^ 
 aid for internal improvements. I remember well at 
 the session of 1846 when the proposition to enclose 
 the capitol grounds was pending, and $12,000 was re- 
 quired to build the present iron fence around it, Col- 
 onel John A. Fagg, of Buncombe, said to me, that if I 
 would vote $800 for the Buncombe turnpike road he 
 would vote $12,000 to enclose the capitol square. I 
 told him I would do it. The bill passed by Colonel 
 Fagg's vote, and this was as far as I ever went in 
 what is called " log-rolling/' 
 
 The East was especially opposed to appropria- 
 tions for railroads and other improvements. In 1848 
 the Democratic party in the State incurred great 
 danger from divisions on this subject. Colonel Reid, 
 
Memoirs of W. W. ITolden 7 
 
 Colonel Biggs, and many other leading and influen- 
 tial members of the party were indifferent or opposed 
 to internal improvements, while Calvin Graves, and 
 General E. M. Saunders, and Mr. J. C. Dobbin, and 
 Mr. William S. Ashe, and Judge Strange, and Mr. 
 William B. Shepard, and Mr. John S. Eaton, and 
 others, a small minority, were in favor of them. A 
 caucus was held in the (Commons Hall at night in 
 ^850, which nominated Colonel Reid for Governor. 
 Mr. John S. Eaton presided. Colonel Asa Biggs 
 offered a resolution to amend the State Constitution, 
 to allow no appropriation for internal improvements 
 unless it had been submitted to the people at the polls. 
 This produced great excitement. General R. M. 
 Saunders arose and declared indignantly that, if that 
 resolution was adopted, 5,000 internal improvement 
 Democrats would stay away from the polls, and Mr. 
 Eaton gave notice, if the caucus passed it, he would 
 no longer preside. Colonel Biggs then arose and 
 withdrew the resolution, and the party was thus 
 saved by the firmness and devotion to principle of ^. 
 that small minority. Colonel Reid was nominated V 
 the second time for Governor, and his opponent 
 was, as before, Governor Charles Manly. His ma- 
 jority was 2,853 in 1850. There was another State 
 Convention, and he (Reid) was nominated the third 
 time, his opponent being Hon. John Kerr of Cas- 
 well County. His majority over Mr. Kerr in 1852 
 was 5,564. Towards the close of his second term he 
 was chosen a Senator in the Congress of the United 
 States for four years, and here I take occasion in 
 this, the last paper I shall ever write on public affairs. 
 
^Ikmoirs of W. W. Holdex 
 
 to do justice to Governor Reid, by bearing my testi- 
 mony to his ability and fitness for the post of Sena- 
 tor, and by expressing my regret that I Avas at that 
 time a candidate for the place in opposition to him. 
 It was really not opposition to him so much as to 
 Governor Bragg, who was elected to the Senate over 
 both of us. A friend who attended the caucus held in 
 Commons Hall to nominate a candidate. for the Sen- 
 ate, gave me the caucus vote at the time, which I pre- 
 served, as follows :-:^JBraj^". 40k HqI/J/'U,-^ Reid 18. 
 On the second ballot Reid's supporters all went to 
 Brag'g, and his vote was 58, Holden 36. 
 _ Thomas Brag gyJr., Esq., of Northampton County, 
 was Governor ixeid's successor, and his nomination 
 to the office took place thus: — The Hon. Daniel W. 
 Courts was State Treasurer. In casting about for a 
 Democratic candidate for Governor it was arranged 
 between ^^Ir. Courts and myself that when Mr. Bragg 
 came to Raleigh at the winter term of the Supreme 
 C\)urt in 1854, I was to see him and confer with him 
 on the subject. I did so at the Yarboro House. Mr. 
 Bragg consented to be a candidate for Governor, pro- 
 vided he was nominated without serious opposition. 
 At the proper time I called a Democratic meeting in 
 Walce County, prepared the platform, which was 
 adopted, containing a resolution recommending 
 Thomas Bragg for Governor. Wake County having 
 held the first meeting and thus acted, Bragg's name 
 was taken up generally throughout the State, and at 
 the State Convention held in the spring of that year 
 he was unanimously nominated for Governor. His 
 /I first opponent was General Alfred Dockcry, of Rich- 
 
 v.^_ 
 
Memoirs of W. W. Holden 9 
 
 niond County. Bragg's majority over Dockery was 
 2,085. In 1856 Bragg defeated John A. Gilmer, of 
 Guilford Coimty, by 12,628._XAV'orked very hard f or-. 
 Bragg, as I had done previously for Reid. In 1854 
 Bragg's election was put in peril first, by the sudden 
 .appearance of the Know ^Nothings, and secondly, by 
 his indifference towards the proposed railroad 
 through the mountains. General Dockery was openly 
 and boldly for this railroad, and was gaining votes 
 rapidly in the West. I wrote to Bragg in Charlotte, 
 on his way West, in his campaign with Dockery, that 
 if he did not come out boldly and emphatically the 
 signs were he would be beaten. I also wrote to Cap- 
 tain John Walker of Mecklenburg, asking him to 
 urge Bragg to take my advice. Mr. Bragg at once 
 took strong and positive grounds for the railroad to 
 run through the mountains, and he was elected by a 
 small majority in 1854. 
 
 In 1858. at a Democratic State iConvention held 
 in Charlotte, Judge John W. Ellis of Rowan County, 
 was nominated for Governor.^ His opponent was 
 Colonel Duncan K. McRae of Xewberne, Democrat, 
 supported by that (Whig) party, which demanded a 
 distribution of the proceeds of the sale of the public 
 lands. Ellis was elected by a large majority. In 
 1860 Governor Ellis was re-elected over Hon. John 
 Pool, of Pasquotank County, who ran on the Whig 
 advalorem ticket, by 6,000 majority. 
 
 The next Governor was chosen by the people under J^ 
 
 ^ Governor Holden is singularly silent concerning his own candi- 
 dacy in this convention and his defeat for the nomination by Mr. 
 Ellis. For a thorough discussion, see "The Democratic Convention of 
 1858,"' m Charlotte Observer, May 3, 1908. [Ed.] 
 
10 Memoirs of W. W. Holden 
 
 an ordinance of the State Convention in 1862^ of 
 which I shall speak after referring to the then condi- 
 tion of the country. 
 
 .,][n the winter of 1S50-60 a State Convention of the 
 
 ._J)emocratie paiiv \va> lu'L! iu lialeigh and delegates" 
 
 were appointed to a National Convention to be held 
 
 in Charleston, S. C. to nominate candidates for Pres- 
 
 "ident and Vice-President. 
 
 The delegates appointed to represent the '^ state at 
 large" were Bedford Brown, William S. Ashe, 
 Waightstill W. Averj, and W. W. Holden. I trav- 
 eled to Charleston mth Hon. Bedford Brown. I 
 found Hon. R. P. Dick there already. And here 
 commences a most important sketch of my history. 
 I had been acting for a long time with the State 
 Rights party, (not of the Yanceyites), but was 
 in accord with Jackson, Van Buren, and Bedford 
 Brown. I was a state delegate, and had a right to 
 speak for the State with Messrs. Ashe, Avery, and 
 Brown. 
 
 I Avas jealous for the so-called rights of the South 
 on the question of slavery, and greatly concerned at 
 the apparently impending election of a sectional can- 
 <lidate for the Presidency. 
 
 But I was not a Secessionist nor a Revolutionist. 
 I was strongly attached to the union of the states, and 
 felt myself to be a national man. But for what I saw 
 and heard I might have gone with my party and been 
 a Secessionist. 
 
 ^ _When I reached Charleston I was taken aside by 
 a friend" in whom I had full confidence, who said: 
 *' Holden, T know you want to do right; I have been 
 
Memoirs of W. W. Holden 11 
 
 here for a day, and I have information of a purpose ^ 
 on the part of some of our Southern friends to dis- 
 solve the Union.'' I was greatly surprised and con- 
 cerned. He said to me, ^' I give you to-night to listen 
 and learn, and in the morning tell me what you 
 think and what your purpose is." 
 
 The night of the day on which we all reached 
 Charleston, we held a meeting in our delegation room, 
 and Mr. Senator Bayard of Delaware presided. A 
 motion was made to appoint a committee from our 
 delegation to visit the Southern delegations, and con- 
 fer with them, mainly because some of them were 
 natives of l!^orth Carolina. This motion was opposed 
 by Bedford Brown, B. P. Dick, and myself and 
 voted down. We maintained that it would be a sec- 
 tional act, and under the circumstances would be 
 improper. 
 
 And there I saw the cropping out of the purpose 
 of which my friend had just warned me. Colonel 
 Bedford Brown had just said to me, ^' Mr. Holden, 
 our delegation has very properly decided not to send 
 officially any one to visit the Southern delegates, but 
 we can go as individuals to a great meeting to be held 
 to-night, near this place, on Charleston street. I 
 propose to go, will you go?" William A. Moore of 
 Edenton was standing by, and said he would go too. 
 
 The meeting was held upstairs in a very large room 
 which was filled. I heard several speeches and they 
 were all for dis-union, save the short speech made by 
 Colonel Bedford Brown. Mr. William L. Yancey of 
 Alabama spoke first, for a considerable time. He 
 was followed by Mr. Glenn, Attorney General of 
 
 
 '-^%« 
 
12 Memoirs of W. W. Holden 
 
 Mississippi. Colonel Brown then took the floor, being 
 called out by Mr. Glenn, who was his kinsman. He 
 made a conservative, union speech, and was inter- 
 rupted, and scraped, and coughed down. An Arkan- 
 sas militia general, whose name I have forgotten, and 
 who was unknown in the conflict between the Korth 
 and South, replied to Colonel Bro^\^l and ridiculed 
 his views, amid general and vehement applause. Col- 
 onel Brown then turned to me and said, '' Mr. 
 Holden, let us shake oft" the dust, from our feet, of 
 this dis-union conventicle, and retire." 
 
 We returned to the Charleston Hotel, and very 
 soon a large crowd, with a band of music, appeared at 
 the front of the hotel. Speaking was going on at va- 
 rious points, and presently some bold fellow in front 
 of the hotel shouted, (f Three cheers for the star-span- 
 gled banner," and fled for his life. The reply from 
 the crowd was, y Dcmm the star-spangled banner; 
 tear it down!'* 
 
 On my return from Charleston I published all 
 these facts in my paper, and warned my readers of 
 the great, impending danger. The next morning I 
 told my friend who had warned me of the dan- 
 ger of dis-union and of bolting the body, that 
 my mind was made up, and that I would stand by 
 ^tlie American Union at all hazards, and to the last 
 extremity. A few days afterwards, while the vote 
 was going on, and while South Carolina and Georgia 
 and Mississippi and Florida and Arkansas and other 
 states south of us were bolting, another friend of 
 mine, Mr. R. C. Pearson of Burke, approached me 
 from the rear and said to mo most earnostly, ^' You 
 
Memoirs of W. W. Holden 13 
 
 must make a speech and hold our delegation against 
 going out." He had come for me through the Vir- 
 ginia delegation who sat in the rear, ^^ for," said he, 
 ^' from what I have heard, if our delegates go out, 
 Virginia will go out also, and the convention will be 
 broken up." 
 
 I said, '' Mr. Pearson, I am not in the habit of 
 speaking very often — there are 600 delegates here 
 and a vast audience — besides, it would be a piece 
 of assurance on my part to attempt to address this 
 body at this time, especially amid this excitement, 
 with Mr. Gushing, the President of the body, hostile 
 to Mr. Douglas and his friends. I can't get a hear- 
 ing." ^^ Yes, you can," said he, " I will go around 
 and speak to the Indiana, the Illinois, and the Ohio 
 delegations, and ask them when you arise to speak, to 
 insist on ^N^orth Carolina being heard." I then told 
 him I would try as soon as Mr. Seward of Georgia 
 took his seat. I arose and said : " Mr. President, Mr. 
 Holden of Xorth Carolina." Mr. Cushing sat for 
 twenty seconds and did not recognize me. Then the 
 States mentioned arose and demanded in a voice of 
 thunder that l^orth Carolina be heard. Mr. Cushing 
 arose and bowed and gave me the floor. I spoke for 
 ten minutes. I told the convention that I had been 
 sent there by the State of ^orth Carolina, one of 
 the four delegates at large ; that I could not be a\ 
 party to any steps looking to dis-union; that my 
 party had sent me to maintain and preserve, and not 
 destroy, the bonds of the union ; that by an immense 
 majority the people of my state with George Wash- 
 ington the Father of the Country, "would frown in- 
 
Memoirs of W. W. Holden 
 
 J 
 
 ,<^ 
 
 
 digiiantly on the first dawdling of every attempt to 
 alienate any portion of our Country from the rest, 
 or to enfeeble the sacred ties which link together the 
 various parts.'' 
 
 On my return from Charleston I attended a meet- 
 ing of the delegates of Wake County in the Court 
 House, about 225, to nominate candidates for the 
 Legislature. I made a speech on their call, protest- 
 ing in most earnest terms against secession and dis- 
 union, and resolutions were adopted by the meeting 
 embracing and sustaining all my views on this ab- 
 sorbing question. Only one man of that large body 
 voted for dis-union. 
 ^ ' ' The Honorable George E. Badger, who had been 
 . identified as a member of the Whig party with the 
 
 ^ ' *^cause of the Union, and who had served the ''Xational 
 j&overnment" both as Senator in Congress and as Sec- 
 ' retary of the Navy, with Quentin Busbee and myself, 
 ^ were candidates in Wake County as Union Demo- 
 ^ ' crats for a convention which was to be called, if the 
 j)eople at the polls voted for it. The election of the 
 delegates to the state convention, and for and 
 against the convention was set for the 22nd day of 
 February, 1861. Party lines were totally swept away, 
 and the people voted against the convention, and the 
 delegates-elect just named of course never met. But 
 in May an act was passed by the Legislature for an 
 election of delegates to assemble in Raleigh on the 
 20th of May. Of course this convention assembled, 
 for the first convention which was rejected, was never 
 held. The vote of Wake was as follows : — for Bad- 
 ger, 1952, Holden 1937, Busbee 1930. The vote of 
 
Memoirs of W. W. Holden 15 
 
 Ealeigh was: — Badger 712, Holden 703, Busbee 
 01 >4, that is to say in the county 1952 for the Union, 
 and 758 for Secession, and in the city 712 for the 
 Union and 81 for Secession. 
 
 In February 1861, on the morning of the election, 
 I voted about 10 o'clocE^ Soon after I met Mr. Bad- 
 ger. He asked me good humoredly if I had voted 
 the ticket. I told him I had voted for himself, and 
 Mr. Busbee, and for the convention. He expressed 
 surprise at my vote for a convention, and asked my 
 reasons for thus voting. I replied, '' Mr. Badger, 
 today the people of the State will elect 80 union and ' 
 40 secession delegates, and if the convention carries 
 and is assembled, we can take steps to prevent seces^ 
 "sioiTaHd save the union.'' ""'He'then voted for Mr. 
 Busbee and myself and for the convention. The re- 
 sult of this election showed that I had properly esti- 
 mated the delegates elected, (as for the Union and 
 Secession.) There were for the Union 83, for Secesi 
 sion 37. 
 
 In May of the same year Mr. Badger and Mr. 
 Kemp P. Battle, (now President of the University) / 
 were with myself candidates for the convention. 
 This was after the firing of the first gun by the Con- 
 federates and after the call by Mr. Lincoln fori 
 troops from all of the States to put down secession 
 in the South. E^orth Carolina could no longer be 
 held for the Union, but went with the Southern 
 States in the contest for independence. The friends 
 ^_of the Union had assumed the names"bl 'Conserva^ ^ 
 Jives, and those of the opposite party were still called 
 Democrats. The delegates met in Convention in 
 
16 
 
 Memoirs of W. W. Holden 
 
 / 
 
 Raleigh on the 20th of May, and the body Avas organ- 
 ized by the appointment of Hon. Weldon X. Ed- 
 wards as President. The Hon. William A. Graham, 
 of Orange County, was voted for against him. Mr. 
 Edwards' majority was about 20. On that day the 
 Ordinance of Secession w^as passed; the DemocraJ:s 
 insisted ^on Bu rton Craj ge's _Ordinanc^"wM 
 Repe aled ^the act of'lTSOj n^ w hich the Stat^ 
 
 j gr o f the American J>JAJon. 
 pro^osui^n_ta-_4ill£nd Mr. 'iCraigeX_0rdi»ati^e^J5:as 
 dpf ftatpd_ The Conservatives voted to amend 3Ir. 
 
 aarte^ 
 rTEadgeiils^ 
 
 r d i n ance_b^J-aii^er ti 
 
 place. Mr. ^aogers^^ 
 
 famed the reas 
 
 Ordi- 
 
 claimed r evolu tion^^-aiid c 
 
 Lthe State resisted Mr. Lincoln's call 
 co erce the Soutfa^fn'''Bta 
 
 I votea~for Governor Graham for President 
 against Mr. Edwards. I had been opposed to Gov- 
 ernor Graham in politics for 17 years, and acting 
 with Mr. Edwards as a Democrat for 17 years, but 
 Mr. Edwards had been a secessionist, and Governor 
 
 fGraham had been and was a Union man, and I 
 voted accordingly. In the Convention Mr. Badger 
 Ex-Governor Graham, and myself sat near each 
 other, and Governor Graham the next day sent me 
 word by Mr. Ben Xittrell, of Davidson County, now 
 deceased, that he proposed that we should be recon- 
 ciled and on speaking terms, "for," said Mr. Kittrell, 
 " Mr. Graham has just said to me, he believes you 
 are a true man." I replied to Mr. Kittrell, '* Please 
 say to Mr. Graham, I would like to be on speaking 
 terms with him, but how shall it be effected V' He 
 
Memoirs of W. W. Holden 17 
 
 said, ^' Mr. Graham has arranged all that. He says 
 you are the youngest man, and should approach him 
 first. You have both about equally offended each / 
 other. He says when the Convention adjourns today, 
 he will stand in his place near his seat, and as you 
 approach him he will extend his hand and shake 
 hands." I was glad to be on speaking terms with 
 Governor Graham, and during the session and after- 
 wards, I conferred with him freely and profited by 
 his advice. 
 
 Mr. Badger and myself had also been on indiffer- 
 ent terms, until in the Court House on the day he 
 accepted the nomination, I having just accepted mine, 
 he approached me through the bar and offered his 
 hand which I cordially and gladly accepted. The 
 audience knowing our alienation approved it, with 
 thunders of applause. 
 
 The Convention, in which I served for some time, 
 consisted of about 70 Democrats and 50 Conserva- 
 tives. Their political antipathies were deep and 
 strong, yet they controlled themselves admirably, and 
 nothing occurred to interrupt their personal friend- 
 ships. I remember well, that when the act of seces- 
 sion was consummated, the body looked like a sea^ 
 partly in storm, partly calm, the Secessionists shout- 
 ing and throwing up their hats and rejoicing, the ^ 
 Conservatives sitting quietly, calm, and depressed.) 
 
CHAPTER IT. 
 
 WAR POLITICS 
 
 THE NOMIXATIOX OF VANCE CONFEDERATE AND 
 
 STATE POLITICS THE LAUKEL VALLEY AFFAIR 
 
 EDITORIALS OF APRIL^ 1865 EDWIN G. READE 
 
 TO THE CONFEDERATE SENATE IN 1864. 
 
 It was during the session of that Convention 
 that the candidates for the office of Governor 
 were agreed upon.^ Colonel Z^^JB^Vance was in 
 Raleigh in December 1^1, on his way to Wash- 
 ington City. In all respects he was a devoted 
 £ friend to the Union of the States. He spoke 
 twice in Raleigh to large audiences, one night 
 in the Court House and one night in Commons Hall. 
 He was on each occasion in a very serious frame of 
 mind. All the portents indicated bloodshed and war. 
 He spoke on both occasions for more than an hour, 
 ; and though his manner and style up to that time had 
 always been full of anecdote and fun, yet he was 
 first and last as sober as a judge. He was too deeply 
 in earnest to make a joke or provoke a laugh. 
 
 That great tribune of the people, Henry Watkins 
 Miller, spoke in Commons Hall at the same time, and 
 the people of all parties, who were present in large 
 numbers, hung on and endorsed their words. 
 
 During the winter and spring of 1862, the .Con- 
 servatives of the State were casting about for a can- 
 didate for Governor. Z. B. Vance and Ex-Governor 
 
 ^ * There were four sessions of the Convention, the last in April, 
 1862. [Ed.] 
 
Memoirs of W. W. Holden 19 
 
 Graham were nominated in various counties, but the 
 latter declined in a card, published in the Standard, 
 The Reverend William E. Pell was then employed 
 by me as x\ssistant Editor of the Standard, and I re- 
 quested him to call on Governor Graham, w^ho was 
 then in Raleigh, and urge him to be a candidate. Mr. 
 Pell did so and had a long conversation with Gov- 
 ernor Graham on the subject and on public affairs. 
 I also asked Mr. Badger to see Governor Graham and 
 urge him to run for Governor. Mr. Badger declined 
 to do so, and said Graham had been Governor once 
 for four years, and would have the trouble and ex- 
 pense of moving his family to Raleigh, and also no 
 doubt be involved in troubles and difficulties with 
 the central government at Richmond, and that 
 when this should occur, as he feared it would, 
 he did not want Ex-Governor Graham to 
 point at him and say, ^^ Badger, you helped 
 to involve me in all this trouble.'' I then de- 
 termined to fix on Z. B. Vance for Governor. I felt 
 that being a Democrat^ and Vance a Whig, his nom- 
 ination had better proceed from a Whig — for exam- 
 ple, the Fayetteville Observer. I wrote therefore at 
 once to Augustus S. Merrimon of Asheville, Bun- 
 combe County, to come to Raleigh and aid me in 
 the work of bringing Vance forward. I had heard 
 Mr. Merrimon speak in the House of Commons in 
 the fall of 1861 with marked ability and power for 
 the Union. He was a young man of the highest prom- 
 ise. He has since been a Senator in Congress, and 
 is now Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of ^orth 
 Carolina. After consulting with Mr. Merrimon, he 
 
20 Mkmoiks of \V. W. Holden 
 
 went to Fayetteville and consulted with Mr. Hale. 
 Mr. Hale said to Mr. Merrimon that 1 (Holden). 
 having been a Democrat, was the proper ]jerson to 
 raise Colonel Vance's name. Mr. Merrimon then 
 wrote a brief article which appeared under the edi- 
 torial head of the Observer, marked ^' communi- 
 cated/' nominating Vance for Governor. He then 
 returned to Raleigh by way of Kinston — Colonel 
 Vance being at Kinston with his reghnent — and ob- 
 tained from him his letter of acceptance, and reached 
 Raleigh with it. A meeting was held in the 
 office of Daniel G. Fowle' (now Governor of the 
 State) in a house then standing on the site of the 
 present Henry building on Fayetteville St. There 
 were present in this meeting Honorable Daniel G. 
 Fowle, Colonel W. H. Harrison, A. S. Merrimon. 
 Esq., Colonel James F. Taylor, and myself, and on 
 the 4th day of June 1862, I hoisted Vance's name for 
 [jCjovernor. The election took place in August, 1S62, 
 and Vance's majority over Colonel William Johnston 
 of Mecklenlnirg was 33,975 . The vote of Wake 
 County was: — Vance 2,269, Johnston 489. The fol- 
 lowing is Colonel Vance's letter of acceptance : 
 
 ' Daniel <i. Fowle now Governor of this State is a native of the 
 County of Beaufort, N. C. When a young man he settled in Ral- 
 eigh as a member of the bar. He had in Wake County court a case 
 in Detinue among other cases. He had made his argument and 
 Mr. Badger who was presiding in the Court charged against him. 
 He asked to be heard and spoke for a little while on the law in the 
 case. Mr. Badger asked him to stop. He said, "The counsel has 
 refreshed my mind on the ancient principles in the case. I have 
 heard him with pleasure and thauK him for his citation of the 
 old principles in the case. Believing him to be correct, I with- 
 draw my charge to the jury". This incident was the town talk 
 for some time and did Mr. Fowle much good in his profession. I 
 trust he will he nivvays as fortunate in his positions and views, 
 as he was on this occasion with Mr. Badger. 
 
 In the Sttindnrfl of Dec. 12, 1862, I used the following language 
 in relation to Col. Daniel (i. Fowle. "He is destined, if his life 
 and health should be spared, to achieve an enviable State reputa- 
 tion." 
 
Memoirs of W. W. Holden 21 
 
 Headquarters X. ,C. Troops^ 
 
 KiNSTOJf^ June 15, 1862. 
 
 Editor of the Sta]?^dard: — A number of pri- 
 mary meetings of the people, and a respectable por- 
 tion of the newspapers of the State, having put 
 forward my name for the office of Governor, to which 
 I may also add the reception of numerous letters to 
 the same purport, I deem it proper that I should 
 make some response to these flattering indications 
 of confidence and regard. 
 
 Believing that the only hope of the South depended 
 upon the prosecution of the war at all hazards and 
 to, the utmost extremity, so long as the foot of an 
 invader joressed Southern soil, I took the field at an 
 early day, with the determination to remain there 
 until our independence was achieved. My convic- 
 tions in this regard remain unchanged. In accord- 
 ance therewith I have steadily and sincerely declined 
 all promotion, save that which placed me at the head 
 of the gallant men whom I now command. A true 
 man should, however, be willing to serve wherever 
 the public voice may assign him. If, therefore, my 
 felloAv-citizens believe that I could serve the great 
 cause better as Governor than I am now doing, and 
 should see proper to confer this great responsibility 
 upon me, without solicitation on my part, I should 
 not feel at liberty to decline it, however conscious of 
 my own unworthiness. 
 
 In thus frankly avowing my willingness to labor 
 in any position which may be thought best for the 
 public good, I do not wish to be considered guilty of 
 the affectation of indifference to the great honor 
 
/ 
 
 22 Memoirs of W. W. Holden 
 
 which my fellow-citizens thus propose to bestow upon 
 me. On the contrary, I should consider it the crown- 
 ing glory of my life to be placed in a position where 
 I could most advance the interests and honor of 
 i^orth-Carolina, and, if necessary, lead her gallant 
 sons against her foes. But I shall be content with 
 the people's will. Let them speak. 
 
 Sincerely deprecating the growing tendency to- 
 w^ards party strife amongst our people, which every 
 patriot should shun in the presence of the common 
 danger, I earnestly pray for that unity of sentiment 
 and fraternity of feeling, which alone, with the favor 
 of God, can enable us to prosecute this war for Lib- 
 erty and Independence against all odds, and under 
 every adversity, to a glorious and triumphant issue. 
 Very sincerely yours, 
 
 Z. B. Vance. 
 
 ^ov. Vance was elected Governor in 1862. He 
 was in the Confederate service at the head of a reg- 
 iment raised partly in Buncombe (his native) 
 County. He participated in the battle below Xew^- 
 bern under General L. O'B. Branch. Gen. Branch 
 was defeated and Newborn was occupied by the fed- 
 eral forces. (Col. Vance retreated in a masterly man- 
 ner, crossing the Trent river and reaching Kinston 
 where he remained until nominated for Governor]^ 
 He had been engaged with his troops in the great bat- 
 tle of Malvern Hill which was fought on the 3rd day 
 of July 18G2, and his friends were anxious for his 
 promotion to be a brigadier, and therefore he had 
 received authority to form a legion of men to be as 
 
Me:\ioirs of W. W. Holden 23 
 
 large a body of men as a brigade. In the Spring of 
 1862 it was stated in the Standard that forty (40) 
 companies had tendered themselves to Vance to form 
 his Legion. The Adjutant of his regiment under 
 orders of Col. Vance applied to the War Office at 
 Raleigh for tents and all necessary articles for a camp 
 at Kittrell Springs for his Legion. The request was 
 granted, and the Adjutant left the Office and had 
 reached the northern gate of the Capitol, when he 
 was called back by an officer and the order taken away 
 and refused. The question occurs again and again, 
 why was not Vance made a brigadier by the powers 
 at Richmond ? When Governor, and before, in the 
 ensueing August he went to Richmond to confer with 
 Mr. Davis, he and I noted the fact that Mr. Davis 
 had appointed twenty-one brigadier generals and all 
 Democrats but one, and that one was General R. B. 
 Vance, his brother.. 
 
 Tlie_ truth, i s .jaL-Mj^r^^gd , one^ Jha t _i t was. a party*) 
 Avar on botJudxLe*, — Mr^- .Duvia„.^nd...hi_s_go}^rnment ' 
 at Richmond were Democrats. Mr. Lincoln and his*' 
 government at Washington were Republicans. Party 
 and faction ruled the hour. Governor Vance went 
 to Richmond in August, 1862, and remained four or 
 ^ve days. I know the fact that he felt that Mr. Davis , 
 had treated him badly as a party man. Vance him- 
 self showed no party spirit and no spirit of faction ( 
 in his high office. He had full and free conversations 
 with Mr. Davis and others high in power at Rich- 
 mond. Soon after this the Hon. John H. Haughton 
 of Chatham wrote him a letter, and he replied to it 
 stating views and opinions which were, as I deemed 
 
24 Memoirs of W. W. Holdex 
 
 them, very extreme and violent. I thouglit it an ultra 
 war letter and calculated to dim the prospects of 
 peace between the two sections. He showed it to me 
 and asked my opinion of it. I dissented from its 
 tone. He then sent it to Governor Graham and asked 
 his opinion as to whether he should send it to Mr. 
 Haughton and publish it. Governor Graham struck 
 out the material portion of the letter and greatly 
 changed it. The letter was never published, but 
 much of it appeared later in one of his proclamations. 
 A short time after this Governor Graham was in- 
 vited to Raleigh, and I was sent for to come do^vn 
 and meet him at the Governor's Mansion. I went 
 down in company with F. E. Satterthwaite, Esq., of 
 Washington, N. C. Mr. Satterthwaite agreed with 
 me, but took no part in the conversation. Governors 
 Graham and Vance and myself talked for a long time 
 on the state of the country. About that time I was 
 publishing a series of proceedings of peace meetings 
 in various counties. Gov. Vance was opposed to 
 ' to them. I told him the people had a right to assem- 
 ble and express their opinion and petition for redress 
 of grievances, but I did not approve of propositions 
 to return to the union unconditionally; yet the peo- 
 ple who. held these meetings were the men who elected 
 him Governor. Governor Graham in this respect 
 seemed to concur with me more than Governor 
 Vance, and he said to me, ^'Mr. Holden, what can we 
 do ? You have spoken very strongly of the Confed- 
 erate Government at Richmond. Where is the rem- 
 edy ? It is the only Government we have — we owe 
 a areat deal to the states that went out with us — we 
 
Memoirs of W. W. Holden 25 
 
 [did not Avant to go out, but the pressure was so great 
 that we had to go with them, and as a matter of 
 honor we could not abandon them. I am not without 
 hope that the crisis will be upon us in the ensue- 
 ing Spring, when the troops will then cease to re- 
 enlist/' The meaning of which was, as I understood 
 it, Governor Graham feared that the troops would 
 fail to re-enlist, and the Confederate Government 
 would be greatly embarrassed. He added, ^' Let us 
 worry through the fall and winter as best we may.'^ 
 Governor Graham said he hoped that I would in my 
 paper counsel the people to submit to the laws, al- 
 though the officers appointed to collect the tithe*? 
 were mainly Virginians and Marylanders, and 
 therefore there was danger of the people resisting 
 the law because the officers were from other states. 
 I told him I would do so in my next issue, and I did 
 so, and counselled the people to obey the law, no 
 matter who the officers might be. 
 
 This was the beginning of the wide separation^ 
 between Governor Yance and myself which resulted^- 
 in my opposing him for Governor in 1^4, and here 
 I may say, and do say in the most emphatic manner, 
 that I have never questioned his integrity, nor his 
 honor, nor the sincerity of his devotion to his prin- 
 ciples, or to the people whose servant he was and is. 
 
 And further I will say I am not writing a history. 
 While my mind is full of the events of the past, and 
 men and things of which I am writing swarm before 
 my vision, I have not the physical strength to catch 
 and fix them all on paper, or to refer to documents 
 an«l handle them, and deduce therefrom the actions 
 
26 Memoirs of W. W. Holden 
 
 and the characters of the men concerned. These are 
 simply stray bits of history. T am innocent of any 
 purpose to do injustice to anyone. 
 
 As I have said. Governor Vance but one month 
 before his election for Governor was unavoidably 
 obliged to be engaged in the great battle of Malvern 
 Hill. If he had been slain in that battle, the people 
 of Xorth Carolina would have been put to loss and 
 sadly grieved. Without asking for it, or his friends 
 asking for it, he ought to have been furloughed as 
 soon as he was announced as candidate for Governor, 
 and my belief is that this would have been done if he 
 had been a Democrat. 
 
 Governor Yance was inaugurated on the 8th day 
 of September, 1862. There was a large crowd of 
 people in Raleigh on this occasion. He was inaugu- 
 rated on the western front of the State House, on the 
 same spot where Henry .Clay made his speech in 
 1844. yTe was destined to be the great Conservative 
 War Governor of the South. Before his inaugura- 
 tion I called upon him at the Yarboro House, and he^ 
 showed me his inaugural speech in manuscript, and 
 asked my opinion of it. It was a good document of 
 its kind. He made one alteration at my suggestion. 
 He had referred to the conscript law as constitu- 
 tional ; he altered it so as to make it read that it 
 might be constitutional. I had always regarded it, 
 under both govoniments, old and new, as unconsti- 
 tutional. Hon. William Gaston, in a great speeech in 
 the House of Representatives in Washington City 
 in 1812, during the war with Great Britain, had de- 
 clared conscription unconstitutional, and had vehe- 
 
Memoirs of W. W. Holden 27 
 
 mently opposed it. There was no power under the 
 old government or the new to enact it. 
 
 The idea of sending free citizens of the States 
 from their homes to camps of instruction 
 against their wil l, to be trained to fight for liberty, 
 was, to say the least, absurd. The war should have 
 been a voluntary one, and if force had been necessary 
 to be used to put men in the Southern Army, that 
 force should have been used by the States themselves, 
 and not by the Confederate Government. When that! 
 law was passed by the Confederate Government over I / 
 the States and enforced by that Government in the 
 States, every vestige of constitutional liberty in 
 the States vanished. 
 
 For holding these views, which I did sincerely, the 
 separatioin between Gov. Vance, myself, and Mr. 
 Davis was still more widened, not that Vance p^- 
 ferred the conscript law, and not that as far as he 
 could he did not acquiesce in injustice to Korth Car- 
 olina, yet he was powerless under the circumstances 
 to defend his State against the agressions of the 
 central power. 
 
 In Deecmber 1862 occurred the famous or rather 
 infamous execution of loyal men in the Laurel Val- 
 ley, in the County of Madison. Mr. Augustus S. 
 Merrimon then Solicitor in the mountain district 
 reported the facts to Governor Vance. I called at 
 his office to get the facts. Governor Vance was very 
 indignant. His form dilated as he said, " This was 
 done by Colonel Keith of the 64th ]N'. C. and I will 
 write to Mr. Seddon, Secretary of War at Richmond, 
 to have him courtmartialed, and I will follow him 
 
28 Memoirs of W. W. Holdex 
 
 (Keith) to the gates of hell or hang him.'' The 
 facts were, that a body of men and boys, eight or ten, 
 had made a raid from Laurel Valley to Salisbury 
 to get, as they said, their share of salt, and going and 
 returning committed outrages by taking property, 
 etc., on their route. For this Lt. Colonel Keith, 
 commanding the 64th regiment in that locality, ar- 
 rested them — men and boys and some women — 
 and shot them and buried them on the spot in 
 trenches, j The women, with ropes around their 
 necks, were whipped. One of the boys, about fifteen 
 years old, was shot and not killed. His arm, badly 
 shot, hung by his side. His mother begged for his 
 life and Colonel Keith killed him by shooting him in 
 the head with a pistol. Mr. Seddon, Secretary of 
 War, had Colonel Keith courtmartialed at Governor 
 Vance's request, and Colonel Keith on the trial jus- 
 tified himself by showing that he had acted in the 
 matter by the authority of General Harry Heth. 
 Afterwards, at the close of the war, Colonel Keith 
 was arrested and lodged in Raleigh jail. He thus 
 strangely enough fell into my hands to be sent to 
 !Madison County for trial for this crime. The Sheriff 
 of Madison County with the deputy called on me for 
 him. I told him (the Sheriff) that I had heard that 
 Keith's life would be in danger at the hands of the 
 friends of the murdered people, if he was carried 
 through Buncombe and Madison to the jail in the 
 latter county; and that he must promise me as the 
 condition of the delivery of Keith to him, that he 
 would take him by way of the East Tennessee rail- 
 way, to a point west of Madison County, and deliver 
 
Memoirs of W. W. Holden 29 
 
 him from that point to the jail of the county. He 
 promised to do this, and Keith was thus delivered 
 safely to the jail to be held for trial for this outrage, 
 but he escaped from the jail and iled the State, and 
 I, as Governor offered a reward of $500 for his appre- 
 hension and detention, and this is the last I have 
 heard from Keith. It is thought he escaped to Cal- 
 ifornia. He may be alive yet. And thus the blood 
 of these people is still unavenged. I refer to this 
 unhappy matter as a specimen of many events which 
 took place to embarrass and trouble Governor Vance. 
 But these w^ere only the beginnings ' of troubles 
 and sorrows. This opens the year 1863. Through 
 this year and the next, 1864, and half of the next, 
 18^5, until Sherman and his mighty army reached 
 here, in April, for two years and six months we wor- 
 ried and fought on, and suffered as no people have 
 ever w^orried, and fought and sufl'ered in civilized 
 ages or States. I have ransacked repeatedly all the 
 chambers of my memory in relation to these things, 
 and I here state unreservedly that history contains 
 no account of a people who have endured more for 
 the sake of their principles and liberties, as they un- 
 derstood them, than the people of i^orth Carolina. 
 Modest, unselfish, brave beyond the common run of 
 men, they have never demanded what was not by 
 right their own, and never submitted cravenly to 
 injustice or wrong — and with the help of God they 
 never will! And I also state unreservedly, having 
 said thus much, that Zebulo^" Baird Vance, their 
 leader in all these things, was and is, their foremostj 
 man in all their annals, old and new. I know whereof 
 
30 Memoirs of W. W. Holdex 
 
 I speak. As to mere bravery it is useless to speak. 
 The number of those who went to battle and steeled 
 and hardened themselves for their State and her 
 cause, is legion. It would be in vain to attempt to 
 point out the meritorious among the thousands and 
 thousands in the ranks, among the privates who stood 
 for and died in her service, and those of them of this 
 stamp who survive can be trusted implicitly, for 
 J^rave men are never treacherous, but will do what 
 they promise. In the presence of the shades of the 
 dead and in the presence of those who survive, I 
 would name but two men of all that vast number, 
 (and I might name thousands), but I refer to only 
 two men who were the bravest of the brave. I mean 
 Clarl- Moulton Avery, of Burke County, and Bryan 
 Grimes, of Pitt. 
 
 And so we worried on and suffered and fought till 
 Sherman came in from the South in Api^l, 1865. 
 Gov. Vance sent Ex-Gov. Swain and Ex-Gov. Gra- 
 ham to meet Sherman to surrender the City of 
 Ealeigh and ask for terms. They met him a few 
 miles south of the -City. He told them he had no 
 l^ower to treat, and they eifected no special terms, 
 yet they received the impression the City would be 
 spared if no resistance were near it, or in it. Gen- 
 eral Sherman reached here on the 15th of April with 
 75,000 men, which were encamped in and around the 
 City. Governor Vance of course had left for the 
 western part of the State. Gen. Sherman afterwards 
 undertook to make a covenant with General Joseph 
 E. Johnston, commanding the Confederate Army 
 which when reported to President Johnson at Wash- 
 
Memoirs of W. W. Holden 31 
 
 ington City and his Secretary of War, Mr. Stanton, 
 was not approved. The State was not to go back with 
 her then government as she was, but the new adminis- 
 tration of Johnson, who had just succeeded President 
 Lincohi, determined to restore the States lately in 
 rebellion to their nej^v relations to the National Gov- 
 ernment. It was not reconstruction, but restoration 
 which was then proposed. The following order from 
 Gen. Sherman, which appeared in a Raleigh paper, 
 contains the grateful assurances of peace : — 
 
 HIGHLY IMPOKTANT ORDER. 
 
 We are indebted to the courtesy of Gen. Sher- 
 man for the following highly important Order, which 
 we lose no time in laying before our readers. 
 
 We have only time to say that the assurances of 
 a speedy Peace which this Order contains, will cause 
 a thrill of joy in the breast of every true American. 
 
 Hd^qrs Military Div^n of the Miss.^ 
 ijn^ the field^ 
 Raleigh, JST. C, April 19th, 1865. 
 
 Special Field Orders^ 'No. 58. 
 
 The General commanding announces to the 
 army a suspension of hostilities and an agreement 
 with General Johnston and other high officials which, 
 when formally ratified, will make peace from the 
 Potomac to the Rio Grande. Until the absolute peace 
 is arranged, a line passing through Tirrell's Mount, 
 Chapel Hill University, Durham Station and West 
 Point on the ISTeuse River will separate the two 
 armies. 
 
Memoirs of W. W. Holden 
 
 Each army commaiuler will group his camps 
 entirely with a view to comfort, health and good 
 police. 
 
 All the details of military discipline must still 
 be maintained, and the General hopes and believes 
 that, in a few davs, it will be his 2;ood fortune to 
 conduct you all to your homes. 
 
 The fame of this army for courage, industry 
 and discipline is admitted all over the world. Then 
 let each officer and man see that it is not stained by 
 any act of vrdgarity, rowdyism, or petty crime. 
 
 The Cavalry will patrol the front line ; Gen. 
 Howard will take charge of the district from Raleigh 
 up to the Cavalry; Gen. Slocum to the left of 
 Raleigh; Gen. Schofield in Raleigh, its right and 
 rear. 
 
 Quartermasters and Commissaries will keep their 
 supplies up to a light load for their wagons, and 
 the Rail Road Superintendent will arrange depot 
 for the convenience of each separate army. 
 
 By order of 
 
 " ' Maj. Gen. W. T. Sherman. 
 L. M. Dayton, A. A. G.' '' 
 
 In the North Carolina Standard of April !20th, 
 1865, I used the following words: — 
 
 '' Our people are just emerging from a desolating" 
 war, and a large majority of them are destitute not 
 only of the comforts but of the necessaries of life. 
 They have been compelled to drink the cup of ^ peace- 
 abel secession ' to the dregs. They have lost life, 
 property, comforts, everything but honor ; and at 
 
Memoirs of W. W. Holden 33 
 
 one time many of them feared that even hope was 
 gone. The contest is now virtually at an end, and it 
 IS the duty of every good citizen to strengthen the 
 arm of just authority, and to aid in bringing order 
 from chaos, so that industry may be protected and 
 rewarded and our former prosperity and happiness 
 restored. 
 
 '' Up to the hour when the states south of us madly 
 shot from their appropriate orbits in the federal sys- 
 tem, the hands of the federal government had never 
 been laid upon them but to protect and benefit them. 
 The old flag never waved whether on land or sea but 
 for their protection. And now, after a long and most 
 desolating war between brethren, let us hope that the 
 same flag, restored to its original place in the heavens, 
 will wave as our flag once more and forever, protect- 
 ing everyone who may rest or labor under its gorgeous 
 folds. We feel sure that it will. We f eel .^re that 7 
 our recent enemies are now generoua^riends. We 
 see, and hear, and feel this in alllhey say and do in 
 our midst. But the ocean, after a storm, does not 
 inmiediately subside. The great waves still roll, and 
 the 'Svhite-caps" are seen upon the breakers. It is so * 
 with society. Our people will need, for months to 
 come, the strong arm of military power to protect/ 
 them m their pursuits, and to restore order to soci-* 
 ety. It is not for us to say by what mode this shall 
 be accomplished, but only to declare our conviction' 
 that It is indispensable. Under proper auspices, and 
 with the incitement to renewed labor which all our 
 people will have, we may hope again to see our fields 
 growing green for the future harvests, our work- 
 
34 Memoirs of W. W. Holden 
 
 shops crowded with industrious mechanics and arti- 
 sans, our commerce whitening our waters, our schools 
 resuming their operations, and plenty and happiness 
 beaming among us. Let us look forward with hope 
 to the good day which seems to be ahead of us, and 
 endeavor to forget the sufferings through which we 
 have passed. ^ The gods help those who help them- 
 selves.' Let us all cheerfully ^accept the situation,' 
 and go to work to improve our condition. We are 
 all comparatively poor, but we have friends who will 
 aid us, — we shall have the protection of a strong and 
 good government, one that will extend to us credit 
 for what we may need, and take pleasure in encour- 
 aging us in our efforts to restore our former pros- 
 perity." ^ 
 
 Also in the Standard of April 24^ 1865, I wrote 
 as follows : — 
 
 '' One of the most difficult and perplexing ques- 
 tions to be settled is the relation which must subsist 
 in the future in this state between the white and 
 black populations. Everyone agrees that slavery will 
 cease to exist, but the question now is. What must be 
 the relative condition of the two races for the next 
 few months ? And, What must be the ultimate status 
 of the colored race ? 
 
 '' The negro is not to blame for any of the suffer- 
 ings entailed upon him by this war. It is not his 
 fault that the children of Washington have been 
 destroying each other in battle, nor can he reproach 
 himself with the reflection that he has contributed 
 either by word or deed to the privations and suffer- 
 
Memoies of W. W. Holden 35 
 
 ings he is now enduring. He has been docile, and 
 faithful, and even affectionate towards his owners 
 for long generations ; and when we add the fact that 
 he is the innocent cause of all this strife and all this 
 bloodshed, we perceive at once that he has strong- 
 claims on the sympathy of every right thinking per- 
 son. 
 
 " Governor Brownlow, of Tennessee, whose judg- 
 ment in all matters is entitled to respect, is in favor 
 of providing for the colored race a separate and ap- 
 propriate amount of territory, and settling them do^vn 
 permanently as a nation of freedmen, — and there is 
 much force and propriety, it seems to us, in this sug- 
 gestion, for the two races could not well live in har- 
 mony together as free races; but the question still 
 presents itself. What must meanwhile be the condi- 
 tion of the colored race ? 
 
 ^' Thousands of these people are leaving their own 
 homes and following the Federal army. They are 
 crowding into our to^^ms and villages, subsist- 
 ing on government rations, contracting dis- 
 eases, and incurring fearful risks in their 
 morals and habits of industry. Many of them, 
 it is true, are compelled to follow the army 
 in order to procure food, for the provisions on most 
 of the farms have been swept away. But our advice 
 to them is to remain at home and continue to labor 
 for their old masters at fair wages, except in those 
 cases in which they feel that they owe it to themselves 
 to seek new homes. In Maryland, for example, the 
 great bulk of these people have remained at their 
 former homes, are receiving wages for tlieir work. 
 
36 Memoiks of W. W. Holden 
 
 and are contented and happy. These persons will 
 find that mere freedom will be a curse, unless it is 
 followed by habits of industry and sobriety. The 
 government has no idea of supplying them with ra- 
 tions as a permanent thing. It does so now, and only 
 for a short time, to keep them from starving. They 
 will have to work, and work hard for a living, and we 
 warn them of this in time. 
 
 ^' If a state convention should abolish slavery, that 
 body would most probably define the relations be- 
 tween the two races ; and if the states should adopt 
 the amendment proposed by Congress abolishing the 
 institution, the latter body will define those relations. 
 Meanwhile we say to the colored people remain where 
 you are, cultivate habits of industry, preserve your 
 morals against the manifold temptations that will 
 beset you, and endeavor by your conduct to secure 
 the respect and confidence of all good people." 
 
 And having given facts thus far up to the time 
 Gen. Sherman entered Raleigh, I must now go back 
 to January, 1864, to an event which shows the char- 
 acter and bearing of Xorth Carolina throughout the 
 entire struggle. In January, 1864, Gov. Vance ap- 
 pointed the Hon. Edwin G. Reade to the Confederate 
 State Senate from the County of Person, to fill the 
 place of Hon. George Davis of Xew Hanover County, 
 who had been appointed by President Davis Attor- 
 ney General of the Confederate States. Soon after 
 taking his seat Mr. Reade delivered a speech reported 
 as follows : 
 
Memoirs of W. W. Holden 37 
 
 " Senate of the Confedeeate States, 
 
 Saturday, Jan. 30th, 1864. 
 ^^Mr. Eeade, of ^orth Carolina, introduced a joint 
 resolution of thanks to certain IvTorth Carolina troops 
 who had re-enlisted for the war, which is as follows : 
 
 ' The Congress of the Confederate States having 
 learned through the public press of the re-enlistment 
 for the war of the ^orth Carolina brigade in the 
 Army of E'orthern Virginia, serving under General 
 Robert D. Johnston, do 
 
 Resolve, That the patriotism and spirit of the 
 N^orth Carolina troops, evinced by their prompt and 
 voluntary devotion of themselves afresh to the ser- 
 vices of the country are beyond all praise and deserve 
 the unbounded gratitude of the government' 
 
 '' In support of the resolution, Mr. Reade said : 
 
 ^ Mr. President : — It is with much State pride and 
 personal pleasure that I offer this resolution for the 
 consideration of Senators, and ask their favorable 
 action. 
 
 ' In this great war we need all our strength. But 
 what is strength in war ? It is not the multitude of 
 faint hearts and nerveless arms which achieve suc- 
 cess; these are burdens rather than helps. It is 
 spirit that moves an army and makes it irresistible. 
 
 ' These troops have been in service for years. They 
 are scarred and worn. They are away from their 
 homes where they have much to love. But they tarry 
 not for these. They await not your bidding, but they 
 spring to action as springs the tiger from his lair. 
 This, Senators, is strength in war. 
 
38 Memoies of W. W. Holdex 
 
 ' I would be proud of them if they were the soldiers 
 of any other State. When, a few days ago, the Senator 
 from Tennessee offered resolutions appreciative of 
 like conduct on the part of troops from his State, my 
 affection ran out after them. And I grew larger as 
 I remembered that Tennessee was Xorth Carolina's 
 daughter, and that i^orth Carolina, like a mother, 
 had only allowed her queenly daughter to be a little 
 in the front. 
 
 ^ The conduct of these troops, Senators, is in con- 
 sonance with the spirit of all the troops from Xorth 
 Carolina during this war, and of her people at home 
 as well. Yet malicious rumor has thro^vn the stain 
 of disloyalty upon her name. It matters nothing 
 that not a man has staid at home who was called to 
 the field; i l ma tters nothing that they have swelled 
 every triumph and staid every reverse; it_ matters 
 nothing that every legitimate burden has been cheer- 
 fully borne by her people; it_matters nothing that 
 her youthful Executive, called from the field to his 
 responsible position, has so managed her affairs, in- 
 ternal and external, as to have obtained the name 
 " Model Governor " ; it matters nothing that her 
 Convention was unanimous and her Legislature prov- 
 ident; nothing matters. fMalignity says she is dis- 
 loyal, and disloyal she must be. I will not make the 
 Senate the arena for battling with this malignant 
 charge against Xorth Carolina. Her reputation is 
 very dear to me. It can scarcely be less so with you, 
 Senators ; but that resolution depends not upon any 
 poor word of mine. She calls up the history of the 
 
Memoirs of W. W. Holden 39 
 
 past as witness of what she is now, and will be here- 
 after. 
 
 ' I do not conceal from Senators that there is dissat- 
 isfaction in E^orth Carolina. And the question is 
 again and again asked, ''What does it mean?" It is 
 easy to tell you what it does not mean, and quite as 
 easy, but much more tedious, to tell you what it does 
 mean. It does not mean disloyalty. — It means rather 
 an excess of loyalty to the State, without any abate- 
 ment towards the Confederacy. — This ought to be 
 satisfactory, at least to all outside of the State. 
 
 ' I will only mention a few of the annoyances which 
 she has suffered. Her people are sensitive and spir- 
 ited, as easily led as a child, in the right way, be- 
 cause they are a good people. But against the front 
 of offense she stands a giant form. 
 
 ^ Very early in this struggle, an order was sent to 
 IN^orth Carolina, which, so far as as I know, was sent 
 to nowhere else, to deprive citizens of their arms, 
 ''good, bad and indifferent." I believe I quote the 
 words; I am sure I have the substance. This may 
 have been all very innocent ; but the impression was 
 made, not unreasonably, that the purpose was to dis- 
 arm her because she was suspected. Time and again 
 her citizens have been arrested, without warrant and 
 without cause, and thrown into prisons in Hichmond 
 and elsewhere. 
 
 ' The decsions of her judiciary have not been re- 
 spected. 
 
 ' Many of the offices in the State, to which her citi- 
 zens were entitled by courtesy, if not of right, were 
 filled by obnoxious strangers. 
 
40 Memoirs of W. W. Holdei!^ 
 
 ^ Suspicions, distrusts and threats on the part of the 
 authorities, have chafed her continually. And Sen- 
 ators have doubtless heard, as I have, that it has 
 been gravely considered whether force ought not to 
 be employed to overawe and silence her people. — Dis- 
 trust of her has begotten distrust in her towards them, 
 and now she is alarmed afresh at the dangerous pow- 
 ers which it is proposed in .Congress to confer. 
 
 'Just now a new clamor is raised against the State, 
 because the propriety of calling a Convention is be- 
 ing discussed. I know nothing of that movement 
 except what is before the public. Its enemies say it 
 means mischief; its friends say it does not. I sup- 
 pose its friends ought to know best. But however this 
 may be, let me enquire when was it ever before that 
 a (Convention in Xorth Carolina was an occasion of 
 alarm to her friends. Was it that first little Con- 
 vention in Mecklenburg, or was it her last Conven- 
 tion, when she unanimously assumed the position she 
 now holds ? I speak against no party and for no 
 party. I speak for the State. I say that whether she 
 call a Convention or not, or whatever else she may do, 
 will be so marked with propriety that others in time 
 to come, as in time past, will evince their high appre- 
 ciation of it, by claiming that she was not the first 
 to do it, but that they were. 
 
 'Appreciate North Carolina, Senators, as I ask you 
 to appreciate the gallant bearing of these her sol- 
 diers, and her people, whether at home or in the 
 field, will be faithful to every pledge she ever gave 
 you.'' 
 
 ''The resolution being read the requisite niniiber of 
 
Memoirs of W. W. Holden 41 
 
 times, was considered in committee of the wliole, and, 
 no amendment being proposed, was adopted, and or- 
 dered to be sent to the House of Representatives. 
 On motion of Mr. Semmes, the Senate adjourned." 
 
 As I have stated. Gov. Vance appointed Mr. Reade 
 to the Confederate Senate in January, 1864. A bet- 
 ter appointment could not have been made. Mr. 
 Read^had been reared a Whig of the old Henry Clay 
 school, like Gov. Vance. In 1861, after secession in 
 this State, party names had ceased with the exception 
 that a fragment of the old Democratic party re- 
 mained. Mr. Reade was a Conservative, as were the 
 30,000 majority who had in 1862 voted for Vance, 
 as against Johnston. Mr. Reade simply spoke forth 
 in his place at Richmond the '^words of truth and 
 soberness." It is not true that ^orth Carolina was 
 divided in her resistance to the coercive policy of the 
 federal government, or that any one was disposed to 
 submit unconditionally to obtain peace, but party 
 feeling was all the while manifesting itself with great 
 bitterness, and injustice in that fragment of the 
 so-called Democratic party. It was this fragment 
 that had produced the impression referred to by Mr. 
 Reade, that the Confederate government thought of 
 coeercing the people of North Carolina. I remember 
 well that in 1861, I was present at two meetings held 
 in Raleigh composed of the Conservative members of 
 the Convention, over which Ex-Governor Graham 
 presided. The first meeting was held at my house. 
 It was held with closed doors, because of the bitter 
 opposition of this so-called fragment. Conservatives 
 
42 Memoirs of W. W. Holden 
 
 were those who had been previously Democrats or 
 Whigs. 
 
 The great object of the Conservatives was to 
 strengthen on the one hand the Confederate govern- 
 ment in its effort to resist the subjugation of the 
 Southern States, and meanwhile to preserve among 
 our people the old fashioned principles of States 
 Rights and personal liberty. The first meeting was 
 held at my house, and the second at the house of 
 Henry Watkins Miller. I was present at both, and 
 heard and saw all that was said and done. 
 
 Mr. Gilmer, Ex-Governor Graham, Mr. Robert P. 
 Dick, Mr. Miller, Lieut. Merritt, — a young member 
 of the bar from Chatham who afterwards died in 
 battle for the South — and others spoke, setting forth 
 their views as Conservatives, as Confederates, as the 
 fast friends of civil liberty at home, whilst their 
 friends and brothers were fighting for liberty abroad. 
 The Raleigh Standard was the well-known organ of 
 all these men, a paper which itself had been the 
 means of putting into the service of the States at 
 least 10,000 soldiers, and which though differing 
 in political sentiment with the administration at 
 Richmond, was neverthelesss true to the Confederate 
 cause. Anyone who is regarded by sane men as sane 
 as themselves would not for a moment doubt the hon- 
 esty or the patriotism of such men as Badger, Gra- 
 ham, Gilmer, Bedford Bro^\^l, Robert P. Dick, Jo- 
 seph S. Cannon, or in fine of the fifty members of the 
 secession convention of 1861, who were known as 
 conservatives. Mr. Senator Reade in standing for 
 and speaking for the people of the entire State, meant 
 
Memoirs of W. W. Holden 43 
 
 to include these fifty conservatives, as well as the 
 seventy members of the same body, who were called 
 Democrats. 
 
 In 1865, while I was provisional Governor, B. F. 
 Moore, Esq., who was one of my confidential friends 
 and advisors, asked me to obtain a pardon from the 
 President for Hon. William T. Dortch, of Golds- 
 borough. I told Mr. Moore that he knew the instruc- 
 tions I had received from the President, not to be too 
 forward in obtaining pardons for distinguished per- 
 sons like Mr. Dortch, who had been a Confederate 
 Senator, and that I could not obtain his pardon then, 
 but would as soon as practicable. The next day Mr, 
 Moore called again, and asked me as a favor personal 
 to himself to get the pardon. I told him I would do 
 so, and when I obtained it and handed it to him he 
 said : '^ I could not tell you before, but will tell you 
 now, my reasons for asking for it. Mr. Dortch was 
 my law student, and I esteem him highly. He told 
 me that Mr. Davis had my name and your name and 
 the name of the Hon. Richard S. Donnell on his list 
 to be arrested for disloyalty, and that he (Mr. 
 Dortch) had induced Mr. Davis not to do that. I 
 could not tell you this as an inducement to obtain his 
 pardon, but I tell you now as you have given me his 
 pardon.'' I state this simply as a matter of fact, 
 and with no j^urpose to reflect on Mr. Davis. He was 
 misled and misinformed by certain parties in Xorth 
 Carolina. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT AND RECON- 
 STRUCTION INCIDHNTS. 
 
 SCENES AT WASIIINGTOX^ MAY, 1865 PROVISIONAL 
 
 GOVERNOR PARDONS THE ELECTION OF 1865 
 
 CRITICISMS OF MOORe's SCHOOL HISTORY OF 
 
 NORTH CAROLINA ON AVAR POLITICS AND RECON- 
 STRUCTION. 
 
 At length the war was over. Both sides after a 
 tremendous struggle of four years furled their flags, 
 and their officers and soldiers returned to their 
 homes. Thousands on thousands of brethren had 
 been slain and were buried where they fell. The 
 l^orthern soldiers returned to their homes which had 
 not been trampled by armies or impoverished by 
 serious loss of property. The Southern soldiers re- 
 ^ turned, stripped of all save their honor. 'No one sym- 
 pathized more than I did with Xorth Carolina sol- 
 diers. I had been their friend throughout the entire 
 war, and bade them God-speed in renewed efforts to 
 make a living and a name among their neighbors. 
 
 About the 20th day of May, 1865, 1 was summoned 
 to Washington City. The call made upon me by the 
 President was totally unexpected. He telegraphed 
 me to come to Washington at once, and invite such 
 friends to accompany me as I desired. On the same 
 day I received the telegram, and almost the very hour, 
 Mr. Eichard C. Badger, the son of Hon. George E. 
 Badger, called upon me at my house with a letter 
 
Memoirs of W. W. Holden 45 
 
 from Hon. Edward Stanley, in which Mr. Stanley 
 urged Mr. Badger to see me, and urge me to repair at 
 once to Washington. Mr. Stanley believed, and so 
 stated, that I was the best person, all things consid- 
 ered, to be appointed Provisional Governor of North 
 Carolina. I invited Messrs. William S. Mason, Rob- 
 ert P. Dick, John G. Williams, J. P. H. Puss, and 
 W. P. Pichardson to go with me to Washington City, 
 and obtained transportation from Gen. Schofield, 
 then in command of the army. We left for Washing- 
 ington City. I was very anxious to have Judge Ed- 
 win G. Peade of the number of friends who went with 
 me, but he lived at some distance from Paleigh (Pox- 
 boro) and the mails were at that time uncertain and 
 unreliable. I had time therefore to invite only 
 Paleigh men, and Mr. Dick, of Greensboro, on the 
 line of the railroad. We traveled to Washington by 
 way of the Chesapeake and Albemarle canal to E^or- 
 folk, from thence to Baltimore and Washington. We 
 saw President Johnson first in a large room in the 
 Treasury building. He had not then occupied the 
 White House. A few days afterwards we saw him 
 in the White House. We also met Gov. Vance, who . 
 was a prisoner, and Ex-Governor Swain, Bartholo- 
 mew F. Moore, and William Eaton, Esq.'s, who were 
 there to see the President. Just before I started from 
 Paleigh Gen. Schofield dropped me a note and asked 
 me if I objected to granting transportation to Swain, -^ 
 Moore, and Eaton. I replied I did not. 
 
 I did not when in Washington call to see Gov. =- 
 Vance. I thought if I did it might look like an 
 assumption of superiority over him, he a prisoner, 
 
46 Memoirs of W. W. Holden 
 
 and I a free citizen, but I sent him word by Mr. 
 Moore and Col. Wheeler who called upon him, that 
 I s^Tupathized with him, and would be glad to loan 
 him funds if he needed them. Meanwhile I ap- 
 pointed Dr. Kobert J. Powell, formerly of Rich- 
 mond County, State Agent, to facilitate my corres- 
 pondence with the President, to represent Xorth Car- 
 olina in that capacity at Washington. Among other 
 things I asked Dr. Powell what he thought would be 
 done with the Southern Governors then in the old 
 Capitol Prison. Feeling at Washington was then 
 intense against the South. I asked especially what 
 he thought would be the fate of Gov. Vance. He 
 
 — said he thought they would all be hanged. I replied : 
 '^ Dr. Powell, that Avill never do. If that is done we 
 cannot reconstruct nor restore Xorth Carolina. 
 
 *- Vance stood and stands for our people as Davis did 
 for the entire South. Please keep me informed on 
 these matters constantly. If there is danger of what 
 you say, I will return here at once and appeal to 
 the President." I would not, of course, have served 
 if the President had allowed these things to be done. 
 
 On the morning of the 4th of July, 1865, Col. Tod 
 R. Caldwell told me with much concern that he had 
 just passed through Statesville from the west, and 
 heard Mrs. Vance was very sick, and at the point of 
 death, and asked me to telegraph President Johnson 
 to release Governor Vance to return home to his wife. 
 I telegraphed the President at once, and in two hours 
 he replied : " Ex-Governor Vance has been released, 
 and is on his way home." Twelve months afterwards 
 I went to Washington to see thePresident. Governor 
 
Memoirs of W. W. Holden 47 
 
 Vance went at the same time to renew his parole. Of 
 course he was never tried. ^ 
 
 I was in Washington seven or eight days, and was («^ 
 the first Provisional Governor appointed. At the first \ 
 interview we had with the President, there were pres- 
 ent, altogether at his request, all the E^orth Caro- 
 linians in the city, his purpose being to consult them 
 as to who was the proper person to be appointed Gov- 
 ernor of N^orth Carolina, whose duty it would be to 
 take steps to restore the State to the Union. There 
 were present on that day Messrs. Robert P. Dick, 
 William S. Mason, J. P. H. Russ, W. R. Richardson, 
 John G. Williams, Ex-Gov. Swain, William Eaton, 
 Jr., B. F. Moore, Col. John H."Wheeler, and Dr. R. 
 J. Powell. I arose with Ex-Gov. Swain and walked 
 out while the President was taking the opinions of 
 those present. Gov. Swain appealed to me in the 
 most earnest tones not to accept the place of Provi- 
 sional Governor. Thinking he had some apprehen- 
 sion as to the University, I said to him : '^ Governor, ^ 
 I have always been a firm friend to the University, 
 though myself not a graduate as you were not. I am 
 not yet assured of my appointment. I may be, or 
 I may not be, but in any event I am your friend, and 
 the friend of Chapel Hill." We had walked from the 
 White House to a point overlooking the statue of 
 Gen. Jackson, and when we returned, as we did 
 slowly, to where the President and his friends were, 
 it was announced that I had been appointed Provi- 
 sional Governor. Mr. Moore and Mr. Eaton did not 
 vote. They said they did not come there for that 
 purpose. 
 
48 Memoirs of W. W. Holdex 
 
 . j I was appointed Provisional Governor by the Pres- 
 I ident on the 29th day of May, 1865. The President 
 directed me to provide a government for the State. 
 I appointed such state officers as were needed. I ap- 
 pointed seven judges of the Superior Courts, also 
 magistrates or Justices of the Peace, town officers, 
 county officers, corporation officers, etc. I issued 
 proclamations providing for the election of members 
 of a State Convention, one for every member of the 
 House of Commons, in all one hundred and twenty 
 (120) ; also after this, for the election of members 
 of the Legislature, Senate and House. I appointed 
 also State officers to aid me in mv work as follows: 
 Aids, Joseph S. Cannon, Eugene Grissom, Tod. R. 
 Caldwell; Private Secretary, Lewis Hanes; Clerks, 
 Eichard C. Badger, William H. Bagley, S. M. Par- 
 rish ; State Treasurer, Jonathan Worth ; Secretary 
 of State, Robert W. Best. Donald W. Bain, Esq., 
 the chief clerk under the former Treasurer, was in 
 office, and remained until appointed by Mr. Worth. 
 The following gentlemen were appointed Su]:)erior 
 Court Judges to ride the seven circuits of the State : 
 Messrs. David A. Barnes, Edward J. Warren, Daniel 
 G. Fowle, Ralph P. Buxton, Robert B. Gilliam, Ed- 
 win G. Reade, Anderson Mitchell. Sion H. Rogers 
 w^as appointed Attorney General.-^ 
 
 ^ President Johnson asked me while in Washington to furnish 
 names for various (federal) offices in the State. I pavo him Rob- 
 ert I'. Dick to l)e appointed U. S. District .Tudg(\ William S. 
 Mason to be appointed District Attorney ; W. R. Richardson to be 
 appointed Postmaster at Raleigh, and John (J. Williams, National 
 Depositary of Lands. We went to the office of the Attorney (ion- 
 eral to see what oath we would have to take. We were tendered 
 the Iron Clad Test Oath. Neither of us could take it, for we had 
 all of us. more or less, aided the rebellion ; indeed I took no oath 
 ^ as Provisional (Jovernor 'until August, when I took the Amnesty 
 ^ Oath. Mr. Johnson afterwards tendered me the office of Minister 
 
Memoirs of W. W. Holden 49 
 
 I wrote the following editorial for the Standard of 
 the 10th of June, 1865, about Jonathan Worth: — 
 
 '^ It gives us much pleasure to be able to announce 
 that Jonathan Worth, Esq., has consented to accept 
 the office of Treasurer and Property Agent for the 
 State. In addition to the duties of Treasurer, he will 
 be charged with collecting and selling all the property 
 belonging to the State — cotton, turpentine, and every 
 other article of state property — and to investigate the 
 condition of State finances, the condition of banks, 
 railroads, asylums, and other public corporations. 
 The office is a very important one, and it will give 
 the citizens of the entire State great satisfaction to 
 know that Mr. Worth is to discharge its duty. His 
 judgment, energy, and integrity mark him as the 
 man who will perform them for the best interest of 
 the State." 
 
 And in my first proclamation to the people of the 
 State I used the following language in regard to the 
 colored people : — 
 
 ''To the colored people of the State I would say, 
 you are now free. Providence has willed that the 
 very means adopted to render your servitude perpet- 
 ual, should be His instruments for releasing you from 
 bondage. It now remains for you, aided as you will 
 be by the superior intelligence of the white race, and 
 cheered by the sympathy of all good people, to decide 
 
 Plenipotentiary to a South American Republic, San Salvador. But 
 Mr. Summer, who was then chairman of the Committee on Foreign 
 Affairs, declined to present my name, and I was not confirmed. 
 
 Afterwards while in Washington City in 1871 General Grant 
 asked me to call on Mr. B^'ish, Secretary of State. Mr. Fish 
 tendered me my choice of the mission to Peru or to the Argentine 
 Confederation. I declined both. I did not wish to leave North 
 Carolina. 
 
 4 
 
50 Memoirs of W. W. IIoldex 
 
 whether the freedom thus suddenly bestowed upon 
 you will be a blessing to you or a source of injury. 
 Your race has been depressed by your condition of 
 slavery, and by the legislation of your former masters 
 for two hundred years. It is not to be expected that 
 you can comprehend and appreciate as they should be 
 comprehended by a self-governing people, the wise 
 provisions and limitations of the Constitution and the 
 laAvs ; or that you can now have that knowledge of 
 public affairs which is necessary to qualify you to dis- 
 charge all the duties of citizens. Xo people has ever 
 yet bounded at once into the full enjoyment of the 
 right of self-government. But you are free, in 
 common with all our people, and you have 
 the same right, regulated by law, that others 
 have, to enter upon the pursuits of prosperity and 
 happiness. You should henceforth sacredly observe 
 the marriage relation, and you should provide for 
 your offspring. You can now not only learn to read 
 yourselves, as some of you have been able to do here- 
 tofore, but you can instruct others, and procure in- 
 struction from others for yourselves and your chil- 
 dren, without fear of punishment. But to be pros- 
 perous and happy you must labor, not merely when 
 you feel like it, or for a scanty support, but industri- 
 ously and steadily, with a view to making and laying 
 up something for yourselves and your families. If 
 you are idle you will become vicious and worthless ; if 
 vicious and worthless you will have no friends, and 
 will at last perish. 'In the sweat of thy face shalt 
 you eat bread all the days of thy life.' The same 
 Providence that has bestowed freedom upon you, has 
 
Memoirs of W. W. Holden 51 
 
 told you that diligence in business is required of all 
 his creatures; and you cannot expect that your race 
 will escape ultimate extinction, if you wilfully vio- 
 late or disregard this, one of His great commands. 
 Freedom does not mean that one may do as he pleases, •» 
 but that everyone may, by industry, frugality, and 
 temperance, improve his conditions and enjoy the 
 fruits of his own labors, so long as he obeys the law. 
 I have no prejudice against you. On the contrary, ^ 
 while I am a white man, and while my lot is with my '^ 
 own color, yet I sympathize with you as the weaker 
 race; and I cannot forget that during this rebellion 
 many of you fought for the preservation of the Union, 
 and that those of you who remained at home in the 
 then slave holding States, were for the most part, 
 docile and faithful, and made no attempt by force of 
 arms to gain even their freedom. I will see to it, as ^ 
 far as I can, that you have your liberty ; that you arer^ 
 protected in your property and persons ; and that you 
 are paid your wages. But, on the other hand, I will 
 set my pace against those of you who are idle and dis-P 
 sipated, and prompt punishment will be inflicted for 
 any breach of the peace or violation of the law. In 
 fine, I will be your friend as long as you are true to 
 yourselves, and obedient to the law, and as long as you 
 shall labor, no matter how feebly, if honestly and 
 earnestly, to improve your condition. It is my duty, 
 as far as I may, to render the government a ' terror 
 to evil doers, and a praise to them that do well ' — and 
 this I will endeavor to do in relation to the whole 
 people of the State of Korth Carolina, Svithout fear, 
 favor or affection, reward, or hope of reward.' " 
 
62 Memoirs of W. W. Holde]!^ 
 
 At a union meeting held in Raleigh before we left 
 for Washington I addressed a large body of people. 
 Among other things looking to reconstruction I 
 said : — 
 
 ' 'Prevention of secession was absolutely impossible 
 in this State. I Avith others signed the ordinance of 
 secession under the force of unavoidable circum- 
 stances. Union men, bowed down and stricken in 
 spirit., silently acquiesced, while secessionists greeted 
 the act with hats off and hurrahs, the firing of canon 
 and the ringing of bells. 
 
 ^' This war has resulted in the utter extinction of 
 African slavery. This is an accomplished fact. There 
 can and will be no question about it. It remains for 
 the people of this State in iConvention and by legis- 
 lative action to define the status of the emancipated 
 race. I, for one, have no fear in this regard. I am 
 willing to see the alphabet, the Bible and the school 
 book placed in their hands, and to recognize among 
 them the marriage relations heretofore so culpably 
 disregarded. The extent of their further elevation 
 belongs legitimately to the governing race. 
 
 ''In my opinion this emancipated race must have, 
 to a large extent the sjTiipathy, the aid and support, 
 of the white race, without w^hich they would be ex- 
 tinct. 
 
 " We are financially ruined. The bonded debt of 
 the State prior to secession was $11,000,000 and 
 this has been since increased by an indebtedness of at 
 least $40,000,000.00, incurred by the State and coun- 
 ties during the war. Of the banks some are probably 
 bankrupt while others arc materially crippled. If 
 
Memoirs of W. W. Holden 53 
 
 we add to this the loss of fifty thousand men who have " < 
 been slain in battle or have died in hospitals and the 
 devastation of a large portion of the State by both 
 armies, no little nerve is required to meet the future. 
 I believe, however, that the old government, the pa- 
 rental government, will be kind. It devolves on the 
 Assembly to maintain the integrity of the State and 
 to encourage the people to resume their wonted pur- 
 suits. 
 
 "And now, fellow citizens, what remains but to 
 address ourselves to our duties as loyal citizens and 
 to improve and build up our native State ? At the 
 formation of the Federal constitution N'orth Carolina 
 had, as she has now, the same area of territory, 50,- 
 000 square miles, with the State of E'ew York, and 
 the same representation in Congress, fifteen. In 
 1860 JSTew York had thirty-six members of Congress 
 and E'orth Carolina eight. To what was this differ- ^ 
 ence to be attributed but to the retarding, dwarfing 
 influence of slavery ? With this incubus removed, let 
 us start anew in the career of prosperity. Our lati- 
 tude is the best on the globe and we have a climate 
 capable of producing nearly every article produced 
 in any other state. We have a long sweep of seacoast, 
 and one of the best harbors on the Atlantic front, and 
 from E"ash County to the Tennessee line our water 
 power is inexhaustible. We grow all the cereals be- 
 sides cotton and tobacco : and the bowels of the earth 
 are stored with iron, coal, marl, copper, marble, gold, 
 silver, and precious stones. We have vast forests of 
 the most valuable timber and large resources of naval 
 stores. In a word, though greatly impoverished by 
 
 J 
 
54 Memoiks of W. W. Holden 
 
 the war, we have all the resources and all the ele- 
 ments of a great State. Let us go to work to develop 
 these resources. We need capital and labor. To 
 our brethren of the Xorth and East and West we say, 
 come over and help us. Bring your capital, your 
 muscle, your intelligence, your industry, your in- 
 genuity, and settle among us. The way is now open, 
 and with us and our children you can purchase and 
 build, and plant and reap, and repose and labor, and 
 live and die, leaving your possessions an assured in- 
 heritance, for I tell you that the stars in that banner 
 will never go out, and the sun of American liberty 
 w^ill never go down. Our banner staff is at last so 
 firmly planted that no convulsion which did not split 
 the earth could upheave it from its place. 
 
 ''May our children and our children's children for 
 a thousand generations, walk and be happy in the 
 light of that glorious ensign ; and may they, as we do 
 now, on the distant shores of all coming time, by the 
 waters of the two great oceans, by the lakes of the 
 ISTorth, and amid the central portions of the conti- 
 nent, and far towards the South, where tropic groves 
 perfume the breath of morn, repeat with the same 
 heartfelt, impassioned, holy zeal, those thrilling 
 words of Mr. Webster; — 
 
 *• When my eyes shall be turned to behold, for the 
 last time, the sun in heaven, may I not see him shin- 
 ing on the broken and dishonored fragments of a once 
 glorious Union; on States dissevered, discordant, 
 belligerent; on a land rent with civil feuds, or 
 drenched, it may be, in fraternal blood ! Let their 
 last feeble and lingering glance, rather, behold the 
 
Memoirs of W. W. Holden 55 
 
 gorgeous ensign of the republic, now known and hon- 
 ored throughout the earth, still full high advanced, 
 its arms and trophies streaming in their original 
 lustre, not a stripe erased or polluted, nor a single 
 star obscured, bearing for its motto no such miserable 
 interrogatory as, What_is.all this worth? ^or those 
 other words of delusion and folly. Liberty first, and 
 Union afterwards : but every where, spread all 
 over in characters of living light, blazing on all 
 its ample folds, as they float over the sea and over 
 the land, and in every wind under the whole heavens, 
 the other sentiment, dear to every true American 
 heart — Liberty and Union, now and forever, on&J 
 and inseparable !' '' 
 
 Before I left Washington I had several conversa- 
 tions with the President. Generally Mr. Dick was 
 with me. The President had his Private Secretary, 
 Gen. Massey, read to us his proclamation, he com- 
 menting paragraph by paragraph, asking our opin- 
 ion as the Secretary read. Mr. Dick and myself 
 talked to him very plainly and courteously. He sdid 
 to us he expected to confiscate the estates of the large % 
 slave owners, who were traitors and proscribed, and 
 divide them among the wool hat boys of the South, * 
 who had been impoverished and had been compelled 
 to fight for slavery against their will. Mr. Dick and 
 myself remonstrated against this in earnest terms. ^ 
 We begged him to be as forbearing and as generous 
 as possible. He said he would be, and especially 
 when asked by the proscribed classes, of whom there 
 were fourteen in the proclamation, for their pardons, 
 
56 Memoirs of W. W. Holden 
 
 he would give immediate attention, and pardon where 
 he could. He said though, ''Gentlemen, treason must 
 be made odious, and coming generations ought \0 
 know it and profit by it/' 
 
 Mr. Moore was also, as I know, very earnest and 
 candid in his talk with the President, and concurred 
 with us in urging on the President forbearance and 
 kindness toward the Southern States. 
 
 The President said that he would give to 
 
 » me for Xorth Carolina all the war j^roperty that was 
 in the hands of Gov. Vance. This included cotton, 
 naval stores, tobacco and the like. The net results 
 of this gift of the President to his native State was 
 
 -^ $150,000, collected and realized by Treasurer Worth 
 in the State Treasury, leaving when I retired from 
 office on the 29th day of December, 18G5, the sum of 
 $40,000 in the hands of Hon. Kemp Battle, the new 
 Treasurer who succeeded Treasurer Worth. 
 
 ^ I administered the amnesty oath to all the people 
 
 of the State, and called a Convention, and also the 
 
 Legislature, both of Avhich sat during the seven 
 
 ^ jiO months of my j^rovisional governorship, and paid all 
 
 expenses, including the seven judges heretofore men- 
 
 -, tioned. And this President Johnson did for no other 
 State. In addition to this he allowed me $7,000 
 from the United States Treasury to cover the expenses 
 of my office. 
 
 Mr. Seward asked me in his presence what the 
 salary of Governor in my State was. I told him it 
 was $3,000, but did not mention the fact that I would 
 have a house to live in. He therefore allowed me at 
 the rate of $3,000 a year for seven months, and I 
 
Memoirs of W. W. Holden 57 
 
 have never received anything for house rent, as al- 
 lowed by the law of this State. 
 
 Mr. Seward also asked me about Mr. Badger, ivvl 
 his boys who had been in the army, and were then 
 prisoners of war. He spoke of him very kindly, anJ 
 said he was facilitating the return of his sons to their 
 homes. He said : ^^What do you think ? One of his 
 sons who has a way of thinking for himself, refused 
 to take the oath. I told the officer it made no odds 
 but turn him loose, I would not stand on that and 
 keep him from his father.'^ I suppose that was Ed- 
 ward, now dead. Some months previous to this Mr. 
 Badger's friends had procured the election of his son, 
 Eichard, to be chief clerk of the Senate, in order, as 
 Mr. Badger was paralyzed and comparatively help- 
 less, his son Richard might be with him at home. 
 
 On my return from Washington City I was closely 
 and constantly engaged, and found I had undertaken 
 a very heavy task indeed. I had able assistants who 
 helped me very much, but I had to conceive, and 
 plan, and do everything in the way of reconstructing 
 the State. For the first months I had not less than 
 sezenty-five visitors every day, which engaged my at- 
 tention for hours, for the most part of the time, in 
 fact. I had to provide books with the Amnesty oaths 
 for all the counties, to appoint persons in various 
 counties to administer those oaths, to obtain horses 
 and mules for applicants by applying to the military, 
 and settle disputes between men in regard to prop- 
 erty of various kinds, to correspond on matters of 
 business which required attention, and in all respects 
 to work, work, work. 
 
58 Memoirs of W. W. Holden 
 
 I received every day a large number of applica- 
 tions for pa^dori which I read carefully. I was the 
 medium through which these applications went to 
 the President, and my duty was to mark them 
 Granted, Postponed, or Rejected. Not that I did 
 that, but they were thus marked for the President. 
 It was with him to grant, postpone, or reject them. 
 During my time of seven months about twelve hun- 
 dred pardons (1200) as well as I recollect, were thus 
 obtained from the President. I asked him during 
 all this time to reject but four; some were postponed, 
 and many granted. These pardons were recorded in 
 a book marked '^Pardons" by Mr. S. M. Parish, a 
 good scribe. I left the book in the Executive office. 
 
 About the middle of my term, say in August, Ex- 
 Gov. Graham came to Raleigh. I was sick at the 
 time, confined to my house. I did not see him. He 
 filed in my office his application for pardon addressed 
 to the President. When I got back to my office I 
 read his application carefully, and was pleased with 
 it. It was an able and truthful paper. I rose up 
 from my place in the office and approached Maj. 
 Bagley, who was pardon clerk, and asked him to en- 
 dorse Ex-Gov. Graham's paper, ''His pardon is to 
 be granted by the President at once." Col. Cannon, 
 one of my aids, who Avas standing by, said to me, 
 "Governor, have you seen the Xew York Herald of 
 this morning?" I said, "l^o, what of it?" He said: 
 "The Herald says, 'Gov. Graham has been pardoned 
 already, and you are engaged in pardoning a great 
 many distinguished unpardoned rebels.' I would 
 advise you to send on the paper, and mark it con- 
 
Memoirs of W. W. Holden 59 
 
 tinued, and in a few weeks write to the i'resident and 
 ask him to send the pardon." Colonel Cannon and 
 Maj. Bagley were both old line Whigs, or had been, 
 and both devoted friends of Gov. Graham, as I was. 
 I took their advice and continued his case. They ad- 
 vised me to pursue this course and not grant the par- 
 don immediately, lest the radicals ^orth should com- 
 plain and lose confidence in the President. 
 
 In the course of a week or so, being still feeble on 
 account of my hard labor, I went to Kittrell Springs 
 and there saw Mr. Thomas Webb. In the course of 
 conversation with him I said, ''I hope Ex-Gov. Gra- 
 ham will soon have his pardon and that he can then 
 enter public life and be of great service to us." On 
 my return to Raleigh I found he had written a com- 
 munication in the HiUshorough Recorder assailing 
 the constitutionality of an act of Congress. The 
 communication referred to w^as published in the 
 HiUshorough Recorder and Raleigh Sentinel and of 
 course excited attention. We were then under mil- 
 itary rule, and it was therefore not proper that an 
 unpardoned person asking for pardon should write 
 in that way over his own name.^ 
 
 Meanwhile, the Hon. Josiah Turner called on me 
 at my office, and had a long, warm conversation with 
 me in regard to his pardon, and that of Ex-Gov. Gra- 
 ham. I told Mr. Turner I could not tell him what 
 endorsement I had made on his application, or on the 
 application of Gov. Graham; that they were both 
 
 ^The article of Gov. Graham was a criticism of the expediency 
 of applying the "Iron Clad Oath" of 1862 to the Congressmen and 
 Senators elected in the South : he also questioned the constitu- 
 tionality of the measure. See Sentinel^ Oct. 16, 1865. 
 
60 Memoirs of W. W. Holder 
 
 leading public men, and it was not my habit to give 
 information of that kind; but would tell Iiim of one 
 case of a private citizen and what I had done. I 
 said: " Sir, jou wrote your father's application for 
 pardon. He o^vned a large amount of land, he was 
 no doubt apprehensive that it might be confiscated. 
 You made him say that if he had been a young man 
 he would have shouldered his musket and fought for 
 the South. I feared this expression might move the 
 President to refuse his pardon, whereupon I made a 
 note of it, that your father was an old man and had 
 been a Henry Clay Whig, and that the President 
 might overlook the expression and send the pardon. 
 I received the pardon by return mail, and sent it to 
 your father at Hillsborough." I found it impossible 
 to satisfy Mr. Turner, and he left my office evidently 
 dissatisfied. About this time Mr. 'rurner made a 
 speech in Raleigh. I did not hear him. The speech 
 was understood to be against me, and my policy of 
 reconstruction. Under all these circumstances it was 
 not to be reasonably expected that I would at that 
 time write to the President to forward either of these 
 pardons. I had the greatest respect for Governor 
 Graham, and did not intend to be in the way of his 
 pardon. If he had come to Raleigh again, and the 
 whole matter could have been explained between us, 
 I would no doubt have written to the President and 
 obtained his pardon. 
 
 An old and esteemed friend of mine, now dead, 
 Council Wooten, of Lenoir County, called on me sev- 
 eral times for his pardon. I put him off, but having 
 heard at last from his friend and neighbors in rela- 
 
Memoirs of W. W. Holden 61 
 
 tion to his application and his merits I obtained his 
 pardon. 
 
 I will make this statement also in relation to Gov. 
 Bragg. I had marked his application to be continued, 
 as Gov. Graham's was marked. A package contain- 
 ing a number of pardons was received in my ofl&ce by 
 express, and Col. Cannon opened it, and much to his 
 surprise he found Gov. Bragg's pardon. He said, 
 '' You marked his application to be continued." I 
 said, ''I did." He then removed it, and put it in his 
 drawer in my room. In a few days Gov. Bragg called 
 for his pardon. The clerks in the office of the Pri- 
 vate Secretary said it was not there. In a few days 
 Dr. Powell, State Agent, who handled these pardons, 
 came to Kaleigh and asked for Gov. Bragg's pardon. 
 I told him the facts. He said the President told him 
 the pardon had vested, and I might therefore just as 
 well give it to Gov. Bragg. Dr. Powell then said 
 that he did not know it was Gov. Bragg, but thought 
 it was plain Thomas Bragg. I told him I was not 
 disposed to treat Gov. Bragg unkindly, but he had 
 not been to see me since I was Governor, but if he 
 would call on the day I retired from office I would ^ 
 hand him his pardon myself. Gov. Bragg called on 
 that day, the 29th Dec, 1865, and I handed him his 
 pardon. 
 
 There were two persons, possessed each of large 
 means, who obtained their pardons from the Presi- 
 dent directly when I had not consented to it, and the 
 President, when informed by Dr. Powell of the fact, 
 telegraphed authorizing me to tax each one of these 
 persons for thus obtaining pardons $10,000 each by 
 
62 Memoirs of W. W. Holden 
 
 way of punishment, which of course I declined to do. 
 One day toward the close of my term Col. Tod R. 
 Caldwell, who had lately been to Hillsborough, said 
 to me that Mr. Paul C. Cameron and his friends 
 were very much concerned about his application for 
 pardon. I told Col. Caldwell that the President was 
 not disposed to favor applications for conspicuous 
 persons who had been engaged in the rebellion. I 
 could not, therefore, recommend Mr. Cameron's par- 
 don just then. He said Mr. Cameron was in town, 
 and out in the passage of the Capitol. He said he 
 was there in attendance on the Episcopal Conven- 
 tion. I asked him to request Mr. Cameron to come 
 in. He did so, and I received him very politely in- 
 deed. I told him what I had just said to Col. Cald- 
 well, and furthermore I had no apprehension of the 
 confiscation of his property. This did not seem to 
 satisfy him, and I at last said, "Mr. Cameron, I will 
 obtain your pardon from the President." He seemed 
 much gratified at what I said, and said to me, "Gov- 
 ernor, please bear in mind that my father-in-law, 
 Judge Puffin, who is now an old man, wishes to know 
 before he dies how much he is worth." I replied: 
 "Mr. Cameron, I am glad you have mentioned Judge 
 Puffin. He and Gov. Morehead stood in the Peace 
 Conference like rocks for the Union. I will send 
 your application today, and at the same time ask the 
 President to send pardons to Judge Puffin and Gov- 
 ernor Morehead." I have no doubt the pardons of 
 Judge Puffin and Gov. Morehead and Mr. Cameron 
 were all granted and sent. It affords me pleasure to 
 
Memoirs of W. W. Holden 63 
 
 have been the humble medium through which they 
 were obtained. 
 
 As I have heretofore stated, much of my time was 
 occupied in obtaining pardons for the people of 
 l^orth Carolina, ^ot less, I think, than twelve hun- ^ 
 dred (1200) were obtained through me. The Pres- 
 ident granted all for which I asked, and rejected only 
 four (4), which I marked to be rejected. I did not « 
 suggest or approve, and I do not believe Mr. Dick 
 or any other friends suggested or approved of this 
 distinction made among our people, requiring certain 
 of them to obtain pardons for what they had done 
 during the war, while the great body of them were 
 pardoned by the terms of the proclamation (of am- 
 nesty) itself. Mr. Johnson had decided upon this 
 matter before we reached Washington, but I tried to 
 carry out his wishes in this respect honestly, all the 
 while leaning to charity and goodwill towards the 
 persons seeking pardons. In some cases confiscation 
 had commenced, and in every instance on my appli- 
 cation the property was restored. The mere reading 
 of the applications sent to me was very great, and ex- 
 hausted me very much. I was robust and in good 
 health when I entered on my duties, but at the close 
 of them I was thin and sallow and weak, so intensely 
 had I labored, as I thought, for Xorth (Carolina. 
 
 A great many of our people regarded the State as 
 a sovereign State, and they had acted accordingly. 
 They had suffered the loss of all things but their 
 honor for what was called the Confederate Cause. 
 The statistics will show that in proportion to popu- 
 lation ^orth Carolina had more men in the army o 
 
64 Memoirs of W. W. Holden 
 
 than any other State of the Confederate States ; had 
 more troops and did more fighting. Was she not 
 honest ? Was she not sincere ? Certainly she was. 
 The bones of her sons on a hundred battle fields attest 
 her honesty, her sincereity and her courage. She 
 thoiight she was doing right, and she will prove as 
 true hereafter to the banner of the Stars and Stripes 
 as any like aggregation of men anywhere. Suppose 
 Maine had seceded and the Commonwealth of Massa- 
 chusetts had been called upon to coerce her ? Would 
 she have done it ? We know she w^ould not. 
 
 I had thus after a very arduous service of seven- 
 months in which I had labored, in which I had en- 
 deavored honestly and sincerely for the good of the 
 whole people of Ntorth Carolina approached the 
 period in Xovember, when an election for Governor 
 took place. I was a candidate for election myself, 
 at the request of my friends, and the friends of the 
 President, and a large number of friends in the Con- 
 vention called to frame the new Constitution for the 
 State. 
 
 On the 14th of October, 1865, the following cor- 
 respondence took place: 
 
 " Raleigh, October 14, 1865. 
 '' Hon. W. W. Holden, 
 
 Sir: The undersigned members of the State Con- 
 vention of K'orth Carolina, fully appreciating your 
 earnest and effective efforts for restoring our State 
 to her constitutional relations with the Federal 
 Government, and being desirous that restoration 
 should be completed by one under whose guidance it 
 
Memoirs of W. W. Holden 
 
 65 
 
 has been so auspiciously begun, respectfully request 
 that you will allow your name to be placed before 
 the people of North Carolina for the office of Gov- 
 ernor at the ensuing election. 
 
 Very respectfully yours, 
 
 Lewis Thompson, 
 John Pool, 
 L. S. Bingham, 
 J. M. McCorkle, 
 G. P. Moore, 
 Robert Love, 
 A. E. McDonald, 
 A. H. Jones, 
 Bedford Brown, 
 William Sloan, 
 R. M. Henry, 
 Samuel Forkner, 
 D. G. McRae, 
 G. W. Gehagen, 
 G. W. Brooks, 
 C. L. Harris, 
 R. P. Buxton, 
 G. W. Logan, 
 R. Swann, 
 William Barrow, 
 Thomas Settle, 
 John JSTorfleet, 
 G. Garland, 
 W. G. B. Garrett, 
 H. McGehee, 
 
 A. H. Joyce, 
 Tod R. Caldwell, 
 John B. Odum, 
 J. A. McDonald, 
 Henderson Adams, 
 Thomas Haynes, 
 W. T. Faircloth, 
 A. B. Barnes, 
 James R. Ellis, 
 James Rumley, 
 Simon Godwin, 
 Robert P. Dick, 
 J. W. McAuley, 
 George W. Dicky, 
 William H. Harrison, 
 J. Q. A. Bryan, 
 G. W. Bradley, 
 H. A. Hodge, 
 E. B. Lyon, 
 R. J. Williams, 
 D. Kelly, 
 R. W. King, 
 R. S. Donnell, 
 Eugene Grissom, 
 S. P. Smith." 
 
6Q Memoirs of W. W. Holde:^ 
 
 " Kaleigh, October 17, 1865. 
 
 "Gentlemen: Your letter of the 14th inst, re- 
 questing me to be a candidate for Governor at the 
 election to be held on the 9th of next month, has 
 been received. I beg to assure you that I am very 
 grateful for this proof of your esteem and confidence. 
 
 '' I did not see Mhe place I now occupy, nor have I 
 sought a nominanon for election by the people. I 
 have been content to do my duty to the best of my 
 ability under the instructions of the President, and 
 to leave my conduct to be judged by an intelligent 
 and indulgent people. I do not fear that judgment. 
 
 ^' My duty has been, in many respects, new, un- 
 usual, and very onerous. I had no lights to guide me 
 in the work of reorganizing and reconstructing an 
 American state, save the instructions received from 
 time to time from the President; and necessarily 
 those instructions have been only of a general char- 
 acter. My paramount concern has been, so to do 
 that part of the work assigned to me as to secure the 
 restoration of the State to the Union at the earliest 
 practicable period. To what extent I have succeeded 
 in this respect it is for the people to say. I can only 
 declare, as I most solemnly do, that I have labored 
 with an eye single to the good and the glory of North 
 Carolina ; and that, whatever may be the decision of 
 the people on the 9 th of Xovember, I shall always 
 possess the consciousness that I am a faithful and 
 devoted son of our dear old State, and that I have 
 labored with zeal, and with what success my poor 
 faculties could command, to improve the condition 
 
Memoirs of W. W. Holden 67 
 
 of her people, and to restore her to her appropriate 
 and natural position in the Union. 
 
 " Gentlemen, it is not agreeable to my feelings in 
 a crisis like the present, when everything dear to 
 us depends upon union and harmony among our- 
 selves, to speak of parties. I deprecate faction and 
 bitter party spirit as the bane of the Republic. The 
 evils we are now suffering, with all the calamities 
 that have befallen us, may be traced to this source. 
 As Provisional Governor of the State, in all I have 
 said and done, I have known no party but the sin- 
 cere friends of the Union. I am neither a Democrat 
 nor a Whig. Both these parties were buried in the 
 grave of the rebellion. All I can say is I am a 
 North Carolinian, heart and soul. " I am an Amer- 
 ican," the proudest expression that can issue from 
 human lips; and while I hold with Andrew Jack- 
 son and Henry Clay, that the people are the source 
 of all power in this country, and alone entitled to 
 rule, I declare that the only party to which I belong 
 is the National Union party, composed of the best 
 element of the old parties, of which Andrew John- 
 son is the head. 
 
 "If elected Governor by the people, I will do every- 
 thing I can to promote the prosperity and the hap- 
 piness of North Carolina, and to secure her return 
 at the earliest possible moment to her place in the 
 Federal Union. 
 
 ''With many thanks, gentlemen, for the confidence 
 you have reposed in me, and for the flattering man- 
 
68 Memoirs of W. W. Holdex 
 
 ner in which you have been pleased to allude to me 
 in your letter, I have the honor to be 
 
 '' Your most obedient servant, 
 
 W. W. HOLDEN." 
 
 My opponent was the Hon. Jonathan Worth, from 
 the County of Randolph, who was my State Treas- 
 urer. I made no speeches, and did not electioneer 
 for the office. Gov. Worth made no speeches, but 
 remained in his office, and said nothing to me about 
 his candidacy, but he and his family were understood 
 to have been very active in the campaign. However, 
 he resigned his place as treasurer (during the cam- 
 paign) and Dr. William Sloan, of Gaston County, 
 succeeded him. 
 
 I have not the vote in full for Governor, but Gov. 
 Worth's maj^prity over me was about six thousand 
 (6^P0), and the returns of the election in the vari- 
 ous counties will show that I was supported mainly 
 by the old Union men, and he for the most part by 
 the Secessionists of the Democratic party. For exam- 
 ple, Bladen, Brunswick, Caldwell, Catawba, Cum- 
 berland, Cleveland, Duplin, Edgecomb, Franklin, 
 Halifax, Mecklenburg, Xew Hanover, Orange, Pitt, 
 Rowan, Rockingham, Wayne, Warren, Wilson, gave 
 majority for Gov. Worth. Bertie, Burke, Buncombe, 
 Caswell, Chatham, Greene, Harnett, Henderson, 
 Johnson, McDowell, Randolph, Rutherford, Surrey, 
 Wake, Stokes, Wilkes, gave majority for Holden. 
 The -County of Wake gave Holden 1,702 ; Worth 453. 
 The County of Randolph gave Worth 640 ; Holden 
 652. The County of Forsythe gave Holden 68; 
 
Memoirs of W. W. Holden 69 
 
 Worth 1,110. This was owing to the fact that Hol- 
 den sent to the Convention as Provisional Governor 
 the telegram from President Johnson advising that 
 body that it was indispensable to repudiate the rebel 
 debt, including State Treasury notes. The same 
 County of Forsythe voted for me for Governor in 
 1868, by 800 majority. Both her delegates, Messrs. 
 Starbuck and Lash, were for paying the rebel debt. 
 
 Soon after my defeat I received the following let- 
 ter from the President: 
 
 " Washington, l^ovember 27, 1865. 
 
 "Accept my thanks for the noble and efficient man- 
 ner in which you have discharged your duty as Pro- 
 visional Governor. You will be sustained by the 
 government. 
 
 '^ The results of the recent elections in E^orth Caro- 
 lina have greatly damaged the prospects of the State 
 in the restoration of its governmental relations. 
 Should the action and spirit of the legislature be in 
 the same direction, it will greatly increase the mis- 
 chief already done and might be fatal. 
 
 '' It is hoped that the action and spirit manifested 
 by the legislature will be so directed as rather to 
 repair than to increase the difficulties under which 
 the State has already placed itself. 
 
 Andrew Johnson^ 
 President of the United States.'' 
 
 In ITovember, 1881, I wrote a number of articles 
 
70 Memoirs of W. W. Holden 
 
 for the Raleigh News and Observer, which I beg 
 leave to reproduce entire. Thej contain many things 
 which I desire the people of the State to know. 
 
 LETTERS from GOVERXOR HOLDEN. 
 
 (Cor. of The News and Observer.) 
 
 Raleigh, November 24, 1881. 
 
 Capt. S. A. Ashe: — I have examined carefully 
 Major John W. Moore's School History of North 
 Carolina, revised and enlarged, adopted by the State 
 Board of Education, and published by Messrs. Alfred 
 Williams & Co. 
 
 I have no wish to appear before the people of the 
 State. I could not ask anything at their hands if 
 I would, for, as Mr. Moore nervously states it in his 
 forty-first chapter, I have been '^declared incapable 
 of holding any further honor or dignity in the State." 
 Yet I ask to be heard while I attempt a few correc- 
 tions in Major Moore's History which concern my- 
 self and others. I will do this in no carping or com- 
 plaining spirit, and I will not have a controversy 
 with any one. The whole people of the State, and 
 especially the youth of the State, are interested in 
 having its history correctly written. The form and 
 pressure of the time may be correctly outlined, but 
 if the details are incorrect, or only partially pre- 
 sented, or if the writer seems to favor one class more 
 than another, or to champion his side, then to this 
 extent the book which is called a history is incom- 
 plete. I do not say that Major Moore has delib- 
 erately presented or omitted details which are 
 
Memoirs of W. W. Holden 71 
 
 so necessary to the truth of history, or that he has 
 been consciously governed in writing by party or 
 sectional feeling; and with this disclaimer, which 
 is certainly sincerely made, I feel the more free in 
 discussing certain statements in his history, to speak 
 with candor and plainness, as I am sure I shall, with 
 respect and courtesy. 
 
 On page 232 of Major Moore's history, a state- 
 ment is made that "a few men who had been his 
 (Governor Vance's) warmest friends two years be- 
 fore, were found opposing him. These composed a 
 small fragment of the people, and William W. Hol- 
 den of Wake, was their candidate. He was editor 
 of the Standard^ a newspaper that had, in years past, 
 been extreme in Southern proclivities, but of late Mr. 
 Holden had advocated J^orth Carolina's withdrawal 
 from the Confederacy, and the making of separate 
 terms with the powers at Washington. Governor 
 Vance, and most of the people in and out of the 
 army, opposed this project as dishonorable and un- 
 just to their compatriots of other states." 
 
 Without saying what the character of the Standard 
 was previously to 1860, I state that during the year 
 I joined with the great body of the Whigs of the 
 State in efforts to preserve the Union; but that the 
 Unionists of the State, the bulk of whom afterwards 
 became Conservatives and ^^peace" men, did nothing 
 that can be justly characterized as ^^dishonorable." 
 These men, known as Conservatives, elected Gov- 
 ernor Vance Governor by an immense majority in 
 1862 ; and throughout the campaign which termi- 
 nated in his election he was denounced by the Dem- 
 
72 Memoirs of W. W. Holdex 
 
 ocrats and the Democratic press as a traitor to the 
 Confederacy, and a siibmissionist to Northern 
 aggression, though he was at the same time gallantly 
 baring his bosom to the bullets and bayonets of the 
 Union armies. But as a ''peace" man, after July 
 1863, I urged that this State alone, or with other 
 Southern States, should negotiate for peace on hon- 
 orable terms with the general government, as it 
 seemed to be clear that Mr. Davis would not in any 
 event attempt to negotiate; and as it also appeared 
 to be clear that if the war went to its end our subju- 
 gation was inevitable. In this I was sustained by a 
 large majority of our people, until Governor Vance's 
 Wilkesborough speech on the 22d of February, 1864. 
 
 I have no doubt I have made numerous mistakes 
 as a public man, but I am satisfied that I made no 
 mistake in the course I pursued for the last year or 
 two of the war as a ''peace man." Indeed, Major 
 Moore himself says, on page 230 of his history: 
 
 " The siege of Petersburg went on, and the sad 
 news of General Early's defeats in the valley came 
 ever and anon to add fresh sorrow and despair to 
 the South ; but with a blind and desperate disregard 
 of the situation, no hand was lifted to stay the slaugh- 
 ter or make terms amid so many combatants." 
 
 This is very strong language. In the midst of 
 these scenes of "sorrow and despair," was it "dishon- 
 orable" in the "peace" men of this State to lift their 
 hands to "stay the slaughter" and make terms of 
 peace with t'Ee advancing conqueror ? North Caro- 
 lina had very reluctantly followed her compatriots of 
 the Southern States in resisting the authority of the 
 
Memoirs of W. W. Holden 73 
 
 Union. The chief corner stone of the Confederacy 
 was the right of secession. North Carolina was, 
 therefore, a sovereign State, and had a right to do 
 whatever she deemed best for the protection and 
 prosperity of her people. The adherents of the Con- 
 federacy to the last and the ^^peace" men were 
 equally honest and patriotic. Both classes fought to 
 the last. And I believe it to be a fact that two- 
 thirds of the soldiers of ^N^orth Carolina sent to the 
 field had been Union men. 
 
 If I foresaw the awful scenes of "sorrow and de- 
 spair" referred to sooner than others foresaw them, 
 and raised my voice for peace in time to avert those 
 scenes, if my voice had been heeded, am I to be cen- 
 sured for it? 
 
 On page 249 Major Moore speaks of Andrew John- 
 son as having "gained position in the courts of Ten- 
 nessee." My recollection is that Mr. Johnson never 
 practiced in the courts. 
 
 On page 251 Major Moore says that in 1868, "by 
 orders of General Canby, Governor Holden was 
 again restored to the chief magistracy." This state- 
 ment is calculated to mislead the student. It is true, 
 in the preceding paragraph Major Moore refers to 
 the "election in 1868," but he omits the fact that I 
 was elected by the people by nearly twenty thousand 
 majority, as the first civil Governor after the war, 
 over Thomas S. Ashe, now a Supreme Court Judge. 
 I was not, therefore, "restored" to the office by Gen- 
 eral Canby, but I was elected to it by the people. I 
 had been Provisional Governor for seven months in 
 1865, and Governor Worth succeeded me, chosen by 
 
74 Memoirs of W. W. Holden 
 
 the people ; but Governor Worth was as much under 
 the Federal power as I was in 1865. It is true, as 
 Major Moore states, that Governor Worth contended 
 ''for legal protection for the people against the inter- 
 ference of military commanders and courts-martial," 
 but he contended in vain so far as power was con- 
 cerned, as I did in 1865. The records of the Execu- 
 tive office show many able arguments in my name, 
 written by Col. Tod R. Caldwell, then one of my 
 aides, afterwards Governor, to convince the military 
 that we ought to be allowed to try State criminals in 
 our o^vn courts. 
 
 On page 246 Maj. Moore says that in 1865 ''Gov- 
 ernor Holden continued Judges Pearson and Battle 
 in their places as Supreme fCourt Judges, but re- 
 placed Judge M. E. Manly by Edwin G. Reade, of 
 Person." The fact is, I appointed no Supreme Court 
 Judges in 1865, but I appointed the following gen- 
 tlemen Superior Court Judges: David A. Barnes, 
 Edward J. Warren, Daniel G. Fowle, Ralph P. 
 Buxton, Robert B. Gilliam, Edwin G. Reade, Ander- 
 son Mitchell, with Sion H. Rogers as Attorney- 
 General. 
 
 On page 245 Maj. Moore says: "When the Pro- 
 visional Governor had entered upon the discharge of 
 his official duties, he and the Treasurer discovered 
 that North Carolina was reduced to a small supply 
 of cotton as the sum of her available means to dis- 
 charge the current expenses of the new government. 
 This last resort was seized by the agents of the 
 United States, and, to Gov. Holden's pathetical ap- 
 peals for its release, the Secretary of the Treasury 
 
Memoirs of W. W. Holden 75 
 
 and President Johnson proved deaf and inexorable." 
 JSTow the facts are these: As the result of appeals 
 to President Johnson while I was in Washington in 
 May, 1865, he did for this, his native state, what he 
 did for no other Southern State. He authorized me 
 to collect and sell all the cotton, resin, wagons, horses, 
 mules, and indeed all the property which had be- 
 longd to Gov. Vance's war department, and use the 
 proceeds in the work of " restoration," as he called 
 it. He also, as the result of a cogent argument writ- 
 ten for me by the lamented John A. Gilmer, and 
 copied and forwarded by me, released to the private 
 stockholders the Piedmont railroad from Danville 
 to Greensboro, which was then in process of confisca- 
 tion by the general government as a Confederate war 
 road. Governor Worth, who was Treasurer, col- 
 lected under my direction and sold the property thus 
 given by President Johnson to the State at my re- 
 quest. The amount realized for it in cash was about 
 one hundred and fifty thousand dollars. This 
 amount, with seven thousand five hundred dollars 
 allowed me by President Johnson for office expenses, 
 sufficed for all State expenses for seven months. The 
 amnesty oath was administered throughout the State, 
 all the cities, to^^^ms and counties were reorganized, 
 the courts were held in all the counties, a convention 
 of the people, and a legislature was elected and 
 held, and, on going out of office on the 29th Decem- 
 ber, 1865, I left of this amount in the hands of the 
 new Treasurer, Hon. Kemp P. Battle, as the records 
 will show, the sum of forty thousand dollars for cur- 
 rent State expenses. 
 
76 Memoirs of W. W. Holden 
 
 Andrew Johnson loved his native State. It was 
 not necessary to make ^'pathetic" appeals to him to 
 influence him to show even special favors to Xorth 
 Carolina. 
 
 Very respectfully, 
 
 W. W. HOLDEN. 
 
 Ealeigh, IJ^ovember 29, 1881. 
 
 Capt. S. A. Ashe: — On page 232 of his history, 
 Maj. Moore says: 
 
 " The persistency of President Davis, at Rich- 
 mond, in refusing to make overtures to Mr. Lincoln, 
 in order to break the force of the coming overthrow, 
 led to secret propositions by certain members of the 
 Confederate Congress from other States, in which 
 they besought Ex-Governor Graham to approach 
 Gov. Vance on this subject. Gov. Vance refused to 
 take any part in such a scheme." 
 
 The last sentence in the above paragraph may not 
 be entirely just to Gov. Graham, for it may leave the 
 impression on the mind of the student that he ap- 
 proved these ''secret propositions," and was, there- 
 fore, covertly disposed to abandon the Confederacy. 
 I am sure I may truly say that, after Gov. Vance's 
 Wilkesborough speech, which separated him and my- 
 self. Gov. Graham stood by him unflinchingly to the 
 last. But I think he had misgivings as to his course. 
 I remember vividly a protracted interview in the Ex- 
 ecutive Mansion between Gov. Graham, Gov. Vance 
 and myself, in August, 1863. The conversation 
 
Memoies of W. W. Holden 77 
 
 lasted two hours. It might not be proper to repeat 
 all that was said on the occasion. The utmost can- 
 dor was shown by all of us. Mr. Satterthwaite, of 
 Beaufort, was present. He is dead, and Gov. Vance 
 and myself are the only survivors. I believe I may 
 truly say that, in this conversation Gov. Graham 
 agreed with me rather than with Gov. Vance. It is 
 probable that Gov. Graham took no active part for 
 State action looking to an honorable peace, because 
 he hoped and believed that Mr. Davis himself would 
 make overtures for peace. I have it from a dis- 
 tinguished ex-member of the Confederate Congress 
 from this State, that at Gov. Graham's request he 
 sounded Mr. Davis early in 1865 as to his final pur- 
 pose in this regard, and that the answer of Mr. Davis 
 was, and given with emphasis, " I will never accept 
 any peace short of the independence of the (Confed- 
 eracy.'' When this answer was reported to Gov. 
 Graham, he said, ^'then Mr. Davis has deceived me." 
 The demand for an honorable peace flashed like 
 fire throughout this State in August and September, 
 1863. Within eight weeks one hundred peace meet- 
 ings were held, composed mainly of men who had 
 elected Gov. Vance. These meetings tested Gov. 
 Vance's native firmness. He was not moved by 
 them in his steadfast adherence to the Confederacy. 
 It has been said that these meetings led to desertions 
 from the army. But the ^'peace" men had no such 
 purpose. The Standard files will be searched in vain 
 for any intimation even that ISTorth Carolina soldiers 
 should desert their colors. The motto of the ^^peace" 
 men, which I received from the lips of John A. Gil- 
 
78 Memoirs of W. W. Holden 
 
 mer, was, " Let us figlit and talk for peace at the 
 same time." ^orth Carolina was at that time at 
 fever-heat for peace, and I think it more than likely 
 that these meetings were safety valves to the Con- 
 federacy; for the people at home, having expressed 
 their views and opinions, and finding that nothing 
 could be done to arrest the war, relapsed into their 
 condition of suffering and endurance, and 'Svaded 
 deeper" as Maj. Moore said on page 230, '^into the 
 crimson flood." Indeed, the exmember of Congress 
 to whom I have referred, and who was a good Con- 
 federate, told Mr. Davis that if something was not 
 done by him looking to peace, North Carolina could 
 not be held to her place in the Confederacy. 
 
 Under the head of 1867 and 68 I quote as follows, 
 from pages 250 and 252 : '' In society there was great 
 confusion in the presence of two rival secret socie- 
 ties. These were known as the Union League and 
 the Ku Klux Klan. The negroes and a few white 
 men belonged to the former, and, in those sections 
 of North Carolina where the Regulators of old were 
 found, the famous White Brotherhood or Ku Klux 
 also became numerous during the years subsequent 
 to the advent of their rival. 
 
 '^ The year closed in with apprehension to all 
 classes in the South. The new State governments 
 were greatly disturbed by the Ku Klux, and in the 
 pandemonium of bribery and corruption developed 
 in the different assemblies was justification for the 
 fears of the men who, in the reckless appropriations, 
 foresaw ruin to all material interests of the State." 
 
 It is not my purpose to defend the Union League 
 
Memoirs of W. W. Holden 79 
 
 or to assail the Ku Klux Klan. It is sufficient to 
 say that the former was comparatively harmless, and 
 was unarmed, and that the latter was armed. I was ^ 
 myself at the head of the League in this State, and 
 the violations of law complained of were without my 
 knowledge and against my orders. The rituals of 
 this order were freely distributed everywhere, and 
 those who read them will remember that they simply 
 inculcated what was then known as loyalty, with in- 
 dustry, especially among the colored people, and 
 obedience to law. The day before I took the oath of 
 office of Governor in Capitol Square, I resigned my 
 position as chief of the League in this State, because 
 I could not have on my conscience my oath as Gov- 
 ernor and at the same time an oath binding myself 
 to a secret political society. I have not, since that 
 day, attended ai^ League meeting. My correspond- 
 ence as Governor, in 1870, with ,Captain Pride 
 Jones, of Orange, which is of record, will show that I 
 deprecated all secret political societies, and that I 
 did not, while I belonged to one of these societies, 
 proceed to put down another one of them, namely, * 
 the Ku Klux. Maj. Moore is mistaken in assuming 
 that the Ku Klux were for the most part numerous 
 in the ancient territory of the Kegulators. It is true, 
 if my recollections be not at fault, that the Honorable 
 John W. :Nrorwood stated in the Senate, in 1873, that 
 there were, or had been eighteen hundred Ku Klux 
 in the County of Orange ; but this order existed, as 
 I think, in a majority of the counties, and, as some 
 of the members of it swore before the courts, the 
 number was not less than forty thousand in the State. 
 
80 Memoirs of W. Yl. Holdex 
 
 Maj. Moore states the fact that the new State gov- 
 ernments were greatly disturbed by the Kii Klux. 
 He also does me the justice to state that, in repeated 
 proclamations I demanded that violence should 
 cease. This I did in five proclamations and in nu- 
 merous letters and orders, for the space of eighteen 
 months, from October 1868 until June 1870; but 
 all my appeals for law and order and peace addressed 
 to both parties, were in vain. One of two courses was 
 before me: Either to enforce the law with a strong 
 hand, and thus make the fight of the sword, and not 
 the use of it, as I did, the instrument for restoring 
 civil power; or to resign my place and skulk from 
 my oath and my duty into retirement. I could not 
 do the latter, and hence I acted. I have no doubt 
 I made blunders and mistakes in some of the means 
 which I employed to suppress the Ku Klux, but let 
 me ask, did the Union and Confederate commanders 
 make no mistakes in their operations during the 
 late war ? 
 
 Maj. Moore would leave the impression, on page 
 255, that there had been "great improvement in 
 peaceful relations" until May, 1870, when Senator 
 Stephens was murdered in Caswell court house, and 
 said "on the publication of the news of the murder 
 of Mr. Stephens, Gov. Holden hastened to carry out 
 the intention of the framers of this (the Shoffner) 
 statute." He adds significantly, on the same page, 
 "the election was to occur on the first Thursday in 
 August." 
 
 I am obliged to the historian for these statements, 
 because they enable me to state a fact hitherto un- 
 
Memoirs of W. W. Holden 81 
 
 known to the people of the State. Governor Graham 
 dwelt much in the impeachment trial on the fact that 
 I began mj military movement only a month before 
 the August election ; and he thence drew the infer- 
 ence that my purpose was to influence the election 
 thus near at hand. The Senate or impeachment 
 court had ruled that no witnesses outside of the two 
 counties in insurrection could be heard in evidence. 
 The Legislature had appropriated seventy thousand 
 dollars to be used by me in enforcing the law. If 
 the Hon. David A. Jenkins, the State Treasurer, 
 could have been heard as a witness, he would have 
 sworn that it was my wish to begin the movement at 
 least two months before the election ; that he had no 
 funds in hand at that time that I could use; and that 
 he notified me on the first of July that he was in 
 receipt of ninety thousand dollars, dividends from 
 the ]^orth Carolina Eailroad and that I could have 
 the seventy thousand from the amount thus received. 
 I think this explains the matter to the satisfaction of 
 every fair-minded man. My recollection is that 
 W. R Albright, Esq., of Alamance, swore before the 
 impeachment court or before the court in chambers, 
 that he had told me a week or two before the election 
 that while he approved my course, yet the shock to 
 the people of the State was so great as the result of 
 my course that he feared the result would lose the 
 State; and that I replied in these words: "I do not • 
 care how the State goes, if by what I am doing I 
 shall save one human life.'' I declared that all I 
 desired was a free ballot and a fair count; and that 
 I was moved solely in what I did by a wish to pro- 
 
82 Memoirs of W. W. Holdex 
 
 tect life and property; to protect the poor and the 
 humble as well as the rich, and that, too, without 
 regard to race or party. 
 
 Thanking you, Sir, for your kindness and courtesy 
 in publishing my letters, I am 
 
 Very respectfully, 
 
 W. W. HOLDEN. 
 
 GOV. HOLDEN OX MOORE^S HISTORY. 
 
 ( Cor. of the Xews and Observer. ) 
 
 Ealeigh, December 6, 1881. 
 
 Capt. S. A. Ashe : — I have read your comments on 
 my first and second numbers. Maj. Moore and my- 
 self are trying to write a little history. It is not 
 my purpose to write politics, or to assail or defend 
 any party formerly or now in existence. We want 
 the truth of history; and men who have heretofore 
 differed in politics, and who now differ, should each 
 contribute his mite to the presentation and perpetu- 
 ation of this truth. It is Xorth Carolina who is con- 
 cerned in these discussions, and not party politics. 
 0.0 page 251 of his history Maj. Moore says: 
 " The Legislature, elected under the recently 
 adopted constitution, met on January 14, 1868." 
 IN^ow, Gov. Worth was still Governor on January 14, 
 1868. I have before me the journal of the two 
 houses for the first session of the Legislature, from 
 which it appears that that body assembled on the 
 first day of July, 1868, in pursuance of a proclama- 
 tion issued the morning of that day by myself as Gov- 
 ernor. On this day Gov. Caldwell for the first time 
 
Memoies of W. W. Holden 83 
 
 assumed his duties as presiding officer of the Senate, 
 and in the House of Eepresentatives Joseph W . Hol- 
 den was elected speaker. 
 
 But Maj. Moore says this Legislature was "com- 
 posed principally of colored men and citizens from 
 the North who had lately taken residence in North 
 Carolina/' 
 
 The Senate consisted of fifty members, and the 
 House of one hundred and twenty. Thirty-eight 
 Senators appeared in their seats on the first day, and 
 I have traced eight more Senators through the jour- 
 nal. Of these forty-six Senators thirty-three were 
 natives, nine were adopted citizens and four were 
 colored. On the first day one hundred members of 
 the House appeared in their seats. Of these one 
 hundred, seventy-five were natives, eleven were | 
 adopted citizens, and fourteen were colored. Thus, 
 of one hundred and forty-six members of the two i 
 houses, one hundred and eight were natives, twenty 
 were adopted citizens and eighteen were colored. 
 
 On page 247 Maj. Moore says: " 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.'' 
 
 This is true. But it might have been as well if 
 not better for the instruction of the rising generation, 
 if Maj. Moore had added to the foregoing something 
 like the following : The Southern people had honestly 
 chosen to renounce their allegiance to the Federal 
 government. It was natural, and has always been 
 usual, for a people thus situated to renew their oaths 
 as the Southern people did. They could not have 
 
84 llE^roiRS OF W. W. Holder 
 
 been good citizens of the restored Union with the old 
 Confederate oaths upon their consciences. 
 But Maj. Moore adds: 
 
 "A vast majority were resolved to support the 
 Union in good faith, and were satisfied that the re- 
 sults of the war were providential and for the best, 
 but, unhappily, this was not so understood by Thad- 
 deus Stevens and the men who controlled legisla- 
 tion at Washington. They were impressed with the 
 belief that only hostile sentiments actuated Southern 
 white men, and, therefore, the proper policy left to 
 Congress was to confer political power upon the ne- 
 groes, and in that way establish a new system of 
 rule and social life in the States lately in revolt. 
 This was a great and cruel mistake in policy. It was 
 not only impossible in execution, but was to entail 
 trouble and suffering on both races thus put in antag- 
 onism. It could not be expected that the white peo- 
 ple living in the same region with colored rulers 
 would quietly submit to their domination, even if 
 such rulers had been equally intelligent and socially 
 respected.'' 
 
 The people of North (Carolina had rejected Pres- 
 ident Johnson's plan of reconstruction on the white 
 basis. They had also rejected the Howard amend- 
 ment, under which they could have returned to the 
 Union, as Tennessee did. !N^early three years from 
 the close of hostilities had elapsed, and we were still 
 under provisional forms, with the national military 
 paramount. What was to be done ? In a conversa- 
 tion had with Thaddeus Stevens, in December, 
 
Memoirs of W. W. Holden 85 
 
 1866, he told me he thought it would be best for the 
 South to remain ten years longer under military rule, 
 and that during this time we would have Territorial 
 Governors, with Territorial Legislatures, and the 
 government at Washington would pay our general 
 expenses as territories, and educate our children, 
 w^hite and colored. I did not want that state of 
 things in ]^orth Carolina. I did not want to run the 
 risk of a practical confiscation of our property to 
 pay the expenses which would have been entailed 
 upon us by these military governments. I did not 
 want !N^orth Carolina to cease to exist as a State. I 
 confess I feared confiscation of property to a greater 
 or less extent, especially as President Johnson had 
 said to me in May, 1865, ''I intend to confiscate the 
 lands of these rich men whom I have excluded from 
 pardon by my proclamation, and divide the proceeds 
 thereof among the families of the wool hat boys, the 
 Confederate soldiers, Avhom these men forced into 
 battle to protect their property in slaves." 
 
 Besides, the colored people were free by the act 
 of God. They were men like ourselves. Could we 
 have reconstructed the shattered Union on a basis of 
 justice and peace, and left them under our feet, peons 
 and surfs ? What shadow even of political or judi- 
 cial or civil justice would they have received, if they 
 had been refused the right of suffrage, and had been 
 excluded as witnesses from the courts ? 
 
 So far as the "social" aspect of the matter is con- 
 cerned, that settles itself. I have never advocated 
 "social equality," as it is called, among either the 
 whites or the blacks, or between the two races. There 
 
86 Memoirs of W. W. Holden 
 
 * is no equality of a social character among the whites, 
 and there is no equality of a social character among 
 
 t the colored people. Each race has its own dis- 
 tinct and separate society. There is no trace of 
 '^social" or "negro equality" in things purely social 
 in the reconstruction acts or in the Federal consti- 
 
 I tution. If the white people of ISTorth Carolina are 
 suffering "socially" because the white man and the 
 colored man stand on the same footing politically and 
 civilly, the fault is w^ith themselves. The colored 
 people will not seek to place themselves on the same 
 footing socially with the white people unless they 
 are encouraged by the latter so to do. Therefore, 
 political and civil equality constitute one thing, and 
 social equality another. 
 
 Maj. Moore complains of "a great and cruel mis- 
 take in policy" in reconstructing the Southern 
 States. Allow me to say that up to 1860 the South 
 had full control of the Federal government. Let us 
 suppose, that, during this period, the eastern or north- 
 ern States had seceded or revolted, and the South, 
 having possession of the common government, had 
 subjugated or conquered them, would the South have 
 ' allowed them to return to the Union on their owti 
 
 * terms? Would we not have been a little hard on 
 them ? 
 
 On page 255 Maj. Moore, referring to the arrests 
 made by my order, in 1870, says: 
 
 " In some instances persons thus seized were hung 
 up by the neck, or otherwise treated with great bru- 
 tality." 
 
 The above statement is calculated to produce the 
 
Memoirs of W. W. Holden 87 
 
 impression on the rising generation and on others 
 that this ^^hanging" and this ''brutality" resulted 
 from my orders as commander-in-chief. It is due 
 to the history of the State, as well as to myself, that 
 I should state the facts, which are as follows: Two 
 cases of this kind were brought to my attention. I 
 was as much surj^rised at this ''hanging up," and as 
 indignant at it as anyone could have been. All my 
 orders, verbal and written, were that all persons 
 should be treated humanely and protected from in- 
 sult and injury. One of my officers, in order to ex- 
 tort confession from supposed Ku Klux, had put a 
 rope around the necks of two men, one a Mr. Patton, 
 of Alamance, and one a young man whose name I 
 will not mention. I sent for Mr. Patton. He at once 
 reported himself to me at Kaleigh. I directed him 
 to stop at the J^ational Hotel, which he did, remain- 
 ing a day or two, I paying his bill out of my private 
 pocket. He told me all about it. He was much 
 frightened but not hurt in his person. I did not 
 see the young man above referred to until he ap- 
 peared as a witness against me in the impeachment 
 trial. He denied positively that he was a Ku Klux, 
 and told the story of his "hanging" with such partic- 
 ularity and pathos that the hearers were moved to 
 pity for him and indignation towards myself. It 
 turned out, about one year after this, civil law having 
 been restored to Alamance, by my action, that the 
 grand jury of that county, consisting of thirteen Ee- 
 publicans and -^ve Democrats, found a bill against 
 him and fourteen others for the murder of Wyatt 
 Outlaw. He fled to Tennessee. In the autumn of 
 
88 Memoirs of W. W. Holdex 
 
 1873 I was in Hillsborough, and united with the 
 Hon. Thomas Ruffin, now of the Supreme Court, 
 and James E. Boyd, Esq., in a correspondence, which 
 was published in the newspapers, and led to the am- 
 nesty act soon after passed by the Legislature. One 
 of the grounds of appeal to me to join in the corres- 
 pondence was, that the father of this young man was 
 on his death-bed, and desired to see his son before he 
 died. The young man returned and may be now a 
 citizen of Alamance. 
 
 And what of the officer who did this "hanging" 
 without a shadow of authority from me ? I ordered 
 him to report to me in my office in Raleigh on the 
 6th of August, 1870. I had meanwhile stationed 
 Captain Hancock, of l^ewbern, with a file of men in 
 an adjoining room, and, as soon as the officer referred 
 to was seated, I called for Captain Hancock and said 
 to him : '' This man has violated my orders. Take 
 him to camp, and confine him in a tent under guard, 
 and deny him the privileges usually accorded to 
 officers." And then, addressing the officer himself, I 
 said : " There are grave charges against you. I have 
 directed the Adjutant-General to prefer charges." 
 You will be tried, and cashiered from the service. 
 A few days afterwards the Marshal of the United 
 States demanded him on a civil writ. I yielded to 
 the civil power, and he was taken and confined in 
 Wake County jail until released by Judge Bond. 
 
 I beg leave to repeat what I have heretofore said, 
 that I have no doubt I made blunders and mistakes 
 in my military movement in 1870. But there is 
 truth in the old adage, "Desperate diseases require •^ 
 
Memoirs of W. W. Holden 89 
 
 desperate remedies." And I again declare that all 
 I did in that movement was done with a purpose to 
 protect the weak and unoffending of both races, to 
 maintain and restore the majesty of the civil law, 
 and not to gratify personal feeling on my part, or 
 to promote party interests or party ascendancy. 
 
 I have now done with my brief comments on Maj. 
 Moore's history. I think I have written in a kind 
 and considerate spirit. I have not sought to depre- 
 cate the book itself, or its gifted author. On the con- 
 trary, I would commend him for his industry and 
 zeal, and would trust, as I do, that he will grow in 
 knowledge and wisdom as he grows in years. I be- 
 lieve neither in Union nor in Confederate histories. 
 True history is many-sided, but, after all, is there 
 any history really true in all respects save the Bible ? 
 Very respectfully, 
 
 W. W. HOLDEN. 
 
 It will be seen in the first letter that Major Moore 
 says Mr. Holden had advocated North Carolina's 
 Avithdrawal from the (Confederacy, and the making 
 of separate terms with the powers a,t Washington. 
 This is a mistake. The Standard nowhere contained 
 the proposition to withdraw from the Confederacy, 
 but to endeavor to make terms for peace with the 
 powers at Washington. The foundation stone of the 
 Confederacy was the right of secession and after 
 July, 1863, I urged this State alone and with other 
 Southern States should negotiate for peace, on hon- 
 orable terms with the general government. I never 
 proposed at any time to submit to the general gov- 
 
90 Memoirs of W. W. Holden 
 
 ernment imconditionallj. The result was, as I stated 
 in my first letter, ''both classes fought to the last." 
 
 The distinguished ex-member of the Confederate 
 Congress from this State referred to in my letter 
 dated ]S"ovember 29th, 1881, was Hon. E. R. Bridg- 
 ers, now deceased. In the letter dated December 
 6th, 1881, allusion is made by Maj. Moore to the 
 case of Lt. Col. Bergen, to my arrest of him on the 
 6th of August, 1870, and what I said to him in my 
 office. 
 
 Before organizing my troops in 1870 under the 
 Shoffner Act, I had tendered the command of the 
 Second (2nd) Regiment to Maj. W. W. Rollins, of 
 Madison County. He declined to accept the position, 
 and replied advising the appointment of Col. George 
 W. Kirk. They had both been in the service of the 
 United States, Kirk as Colonel, and Rollins as Lt. 
 Colonel. Towards the close of the Avar they entered 
 Asheville, N^. C, and had control of the town. Col. 
 Rollins, who is still living, in Madison County, 
 knew Col. Kirk well as a soldier, and as a man, and 
 endorsed him to me. Col. Kirk, when he appeared in 
 Raleigh was accompanied by Mr. Bergen, an ex- 
 officer of the Army of the United States, and at Col. 
 Kirk's request I appointed him Lt. Col. 
 
 Col. Wm. J. Clarke, who commanded the First 
 (1st) Regiment, was stationed in Raleigh, and Col. 
 Kirk in Yanceyville, in command of the Second 
 (2nd) Regiment. Col. Kirk, on account of his 
 ''name of terror" was sent to the two counties de- 
 clared in a state of insurrection. My great desire 
 was to avoid a conflict, and Kirk himself called on 
 
Memoirs of W. W. Holden 91 
 
 me after the work was done and said to me, " Gen- 
 eral, I am glad your orders have been executed in 
 Caswell and Alamance Counties, without firing a 
 gun, or shedding blood." I told him he had done well, 
 and I was also glad that no one had been hurt or in- 
 jured. 
 
 .Col. Bergen, as I have already said, was under 
 arrest on a civil writ, and was confined in Wake 
 County jail until released by Judge Bond. The 
 morning on which he was released from jail he 
 called at my house and begged me to loan him money 
 to pay his expenses to Washington City, where his 
 family was. While in jail he sent for me to come 
 and see him. I had declined to do so. I also de- 
 clined to loan him money. I said to him : "Col. Ber- 
 gen, I am sorry for you, but I cannot aid you, as I 
 hear other prescripts are out for you, and I am Gov- 
 ernor of the State, and cannot aid you in escaping 
 from them by loaning you funds." James H. Jones, 
 a respectable colored man, was with Col. Bergen, 
 and urged me to loan him money. I replied, "I do 
 not mind the money, but I ought not to aid anyone in 
 escaping from the hands of the law." After this, 
 when in Washington City, I heard that President 
 Grant had nominated Col. Bergen to the Senate for 
 Consul at Pernambuco. I sent the President word 
 by a friend who Col. Bergen was, and he withdrew 
 the nomination. 
 
 Col. Kirk was also arrested on a writ issued under 
 the United States, and the Marshal, Col. Carrow, in- 
 stead of putting him in jail as he dfd Bergen, allowed 
 him to remain at the residence on Hargett street of 
 
92 Memoirs of W. W. Holden 
 
 Mr. John H. Renfrew. They were both held in cus- 
 tody until released by Judge Bond. I called to see 
 Col. Kirk several times. He told me he had drawn 
 funds from the State to pay for his officers and men, 
 and that neglecting his own interests he suddenly 
 found the appropriation of $10,000 exhausted, and 
 the State in debt to him $500.00 (five hundred). 
 His wife and his two little boys were with him. I 
 gave him $140.00 from my o^\m pocket to carry them 
 to Freedom, Tenn. He left at midnight on the day 
 he was released, walked twelve miles to a depot for 
 personal safety, and there took the cars. I might 
 have dra\vn $500.00 to pay him what was due him, 
 but did not do it. It had been with great difficulty 
 that I had succeeded in paying the troops what they 
 had justly earned. 
 
 James E. Boyd, esq., was arrested at Graham 
 by my orders. He was a Democratic candidate for 
 the House of Commons from Alamance. I requested 
 him to report to me at Raleigh. I told him I did not 
 wish him to criminate himself. I accorded to him 
 all his legal and constitutional rights, and told him 
 I wished him to aid me in exposing and exploding the 
 secret political organization. I desired to punish no 
 one myself, but simply to expose and break up the 
 organization. Mr. Boyd acted throughout the part 
 of an honorable man. 
 
 Jasper !N^. Wood was also arrested and ordered to 
 Raleigh by me. He denied at first that he was a Ku- 
 Klux. The next day he confessed that he was. His 
 confession was written out by Colonel Clarke and 
 signed by him with Clarke and Douglas as witnesses. 
 
Memoirs of W. W. Holden 93 
 
 Mr. Wood was released and allowed to return home 
 to his family. After he had reached home, his wife 
 wrote me a letter tendering her thanks for the kind 
 manner in which I had treated him. I paid his 
 board at the E'ational Hotel from my own pocket. 
 This letter addressed to me by Mrs. Wood was handed 
 in 1870 to Capt. Tom Evans, of the Hillsboro or 
 Milton Chronicle, to be published, but it has not yet 
 appeared. 
 
CHAPTEE IV. 
 GOVERNOR UNDER THE RECONSTRUCTION ACTS 
 
 REMINISEXCES OF EARLY LIFE PROTEST OF GOV- 
 ERNOR WORTH PROCLAMATIONS REGARDING THE 
 
 KU KLUX THE SHOFFNER ACT CORRESPOND* 
 
 ENCE WITH CAPTAIN PRIDE JONES EXAMPLES 
 
 OF EXECUTIVE CLEMENCY. 
 
 I am now an old man. I have passed my limit of 
 manly life, three score years and ten. I came to 
 Raleigh in the year 1836, a lad, not quite eighteen 
 years of age, and began work in the old Raleigh Star 
 , office, still standing, as a typesetter, or compositor. 
 I was not a regular journeyman printer, for I had not 
 learned to lock up forms or do job printing. I was 
 only a very swift compositor. I remained in the 
 Star office, boarding in the family of the Editor, the 
 Rev. Thomas J. Lemay, for more than four years. I 
 was a close, hard student of books and men. During 
 the period I re ad l aw, mainly at night after the la- 
 bors of the day were over, and on the 1st day of 
 January, 1841, I obtained license in the County 
 Courts, the Supreme Court consisting then of Chief 
 Justice Ruffin and Judges Gaston and Daniel. 
 
 Mr. Henry Watkins Miller, a young lawyer, loaned 
 me the law books and told me what to read. Mr. 
 Hugh McQueen, of Chatham County, was employed 
 by Mr. Lemay as Editor of the Star. They were 
 
Memoirs of W. W. Holden 95 
 
 both kind friends to me, and encouraged me very 
 much in my studies. I had no time to have the ben- 
 efit of an examination at their hands. I was poor 
 and unknown and very ambitious. Indeed, I seemed 
 to consume Blackstone. In the class in which I 
 passed before the judges were Messrs. Calvin H. 
 Wiley, deceased, Robert W. Lassiter, of Granville, 
 and George Davis, of ISTew Hanover, now living. 
 There were twenty in the class, now nearly all dead. 
 The day we passed examination was Saturday. The 
 next Monday morning I met an old friend. Captain 
 Thomas G. Scott, then Postmaster here. He was 
 boarding at Mrs. Taylor's, and so was Judge Gaston. 
 He stopped me and said, ''Young man, I heard just 
 now at the breakfast table, from Judge Gaston, a 
 good word for you." I said, ''Captain Scott, what 
 was it?" He said, "The Judge said the class of stu- 
 dents who on Saturday last applied for license was 
 a good class, and the printer was among the fore- 
 most." This remark of Judge Gaston did me good 
 for years. I went to the bar in Raleigh, and, as was 
 the custom, I was invited by Mr. George Washington 
 Haywood, who was County Attorney, to address the 
 Grand Jury at that term. Of course, I was a(diffi- 
 den^ young man, and had had no training as a public 
 speaker, and the County Court was then a very 
 imposing body, and had a strong bar. I stood up and 
 talked off my speech, which I had carefully written, 
 and which was full of laAv terms, with such self- 
 possession and acquracy as to avoid a failure. Mr. 
 William H. Hayivood, Jr., who seemed to hear me 
 attentively, said afterward to Mr. James B. Shepard, 
 
96 jMe:moiks of W. W. Holdex 
 
 who said to me, '^ Holden, Mr. Haywood says you are 
 a clever young man.'' I did not perceive the full 
 meaning of the word ^'clever/' when Mr. Shepard 
 added, '^Oh, he meant this, that you are a young 
 man of promise, using the word clever as it is used 
 in England." This also greatly encouraged me. 
 Hence I have always been a friend to young men 
 and helped them whenever I could. 
 
 The very best charge to a grand jury which I have 
 heard from a member of the bar was that by Mr. 
 Kemp P. Battle subsequently in the same court. 
 
 At the June term of Granville County Court of 
 the same year, I repeated my charge to the Grand 
 Jury of Granville County. 
 
 On the second day of April, 1882, nearly eight 
 years since, I was paralyzed. By the blessing 
 of God I had so far recovered as to be able to write 
 clearly and legibly for four years, and since that 
 time my physical weakness from paralysis has so 
 grown upon me that what I write cannot be read, 
 consequently I dictate this paper, and my daughter 
 writes it down. I state this that the reader may be 
 aware of my difficulty, owing to my infirmity. 
 But I thank God that my mind is as strong as ever. 
 
 On the first day of June, 1843, I became the 
 owner and Editor of the North Carolina Standard. 
 I was still poor. I went in debt for the purchase of 
 that paper, $2,000. The Democratic Party was not 
 more than eight thousand in number. In a social 
 sense the Deinocrats of the State were regarded as 
 no better than the scala\vags of modern times. The 
 Whigs were mainly in the towns and villages, and it 
 
Memoirs of W. W. Holden 97 
 
 was claimed that they possessed a large portion of 
 all the ''intelligence and all the decency/' while the 
 great bulk of the Democrats were, in the eye of soci- 
 ety, ignorant and awk_ward. The Democrats, too, 
 were understood to be opposed to common schools and 
 internal improvements, while the Whigs were the 
 liberals and in favor of both. Since the remodeling 
 of the Constitution in 1835 the State had been Whig, 
 and the prospect of success by the Democratic Party 
 was dim and uncertain. My subscription list at the 
 time was eight hundred, and my advertising patron- 
 age about two columns. The circulation of the paper 
 was greatly reduced, and business men, especially the 
 Whigs, did not wish to support the organ of the 
 Democratic Party. For six months the subscription 
 list stood still, neither advancing or receding. Mean- 
 while I had engaged several very able writers who 
 wrote anonymously for the paper, and I had also 
 written the numbers for the paper known as the 
 "Mysteries of Coondom Eevealed," which were de- 
 signed, as they did, to set forward in a ridiculous 
 light the l eade rs of the Whig Party. It is true I 
 was comparatively a stranger to my readers and to 
 the people of the State, but at the end of the six 
 months referred to I perceived a sudden and great 
 quickening in my subscription. I realized the fact 
 that the Democratic Party trusted me thoroughly 
 and fully. Within seven years after I had taken 
 charge of the Standard I had paid my debt of $2,000, 
 mentioned heretofore. I had paid for my house and 
 lot, $1,350 ; bought a new outfit for my paper which 
 presented the finest appearance of any sheet in ^N'orth 
 
98 Memoirs of W. W. Holder 
 
 Carolina ; and had on deposit in the Cape Fear Bank 
 $5,000 with which to build my present residence. 
 After this, under Reid and Bragg and Vance, I had 
 the public printing, and my office cleared between 
 1850 and 1860 $8,000 per annum. I was thus won- 
 derfully prospered and blessed. 
 
 The Democratic Party of the State with Reid as 
 Governor was greatly advanced, and prospered. This 
 continued w^hile Whi^ggery declined. By 1857, be- 
 cause of the sectional contest for the presidency in 
 1856 between Fremont and Buchanan, a marked 
 change in politics, especially in the South, was ap- 
 parent, and the Democratic Party was thought 
 to be truer to slavery than the Whig Party, and the 
 result was that the Democratic Party constantly in- 
 creased in numbers, until at last it evinced its 
 ascendancy over all opposition by the action of the 
 Charleston and Baltimore conventions. It had had 
 the Union of the States in especial charge and keep- 
 ing, but by its action just mentioned it paved the 
 way for its temporary destruction. 
 
 In 1868 under the Reconstruction Acts, I was 
 elected Governor for four years by the following vote : 
 Holden, 92,235; Thomas S. Ashe, of Anson County, 
 73,594; Holden's majority, 18,641. I did not seek 
 the nomination. It came to me freely and unan- 
 imously. 
 
 On the fourth day of July, 1868, I delivered my 
 inaugural speech to a vast audience in Capitol 
 Square. In this, among other things, I said : ^ 
 
 '^ The Constitution provides for organizing and 
 arming the militia to ^ execute the law, suppress 
 
Memoirs of W. W. Holden 99 
 
 riots or insurrections and repel invasions.' The 
 opinion of Washington, uttered in 1790, that a ^ free - 
 people ought not only to be armed, but disciplined/ 
 and that a well organized mijitia is certainly an 
 object of primary importance, whether viewed in 
 reference to the national security, to the satisfaction 
 of the community, or to the preservation of order.' 
 is not less weighty or important now than it was then. 
 The militia should be organized at once. It is the 
 duty of the Executive to see that the laws are faith- 
 fully executed and to preserve peace among the peo- 
 ple. This duty will be performed promptly, fear- 
 lessly and firmly. Every citizen must submit to 
 lawful authority, or refusing to do so, must expect 
 the penalties of the violated law. In the language 
 of our great General, second only to him who was 
 'first in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of 
 his countrymen,' — ' Let us have Peace !' The 
 sword, which would not have been drawn but for the 
 criminal folly of the recently insurgent States, 
 should never again be wielded by Americans against 
 Americans. Every interest that is dear to us, and 
 every hope that we may indulge for the future, is 
 indissolubly bound up with peace and tranquility 
 among ourselves. But there can be no peace without 
 law, and there can be no efficacy in law without obedi- 
 ence. The law is over all. The poor and the humble 
 should be protected to as full an extent as others. 
 They need more than others this protection. Every 
 one must be free to use what is his own, not trespass- 
 ing on the rights of others ; to follow his particular 
 calling or employment; to labor, and to enjoy the 
 
100 Memoirs of W. W. Holdex 
 
 fruits of his labor; to speak freely his sentiments 
 and to vote as he pleases, and not to be injured or 
 questioned by any one for doing any of these things. 
 The people of ^orth Carolina are proverbial for 
 their law-abiding disposition. It is not apprehended 
 that disturbances will arise, or that combinations 
 will be formed to resist the laws ; yet it is known that 
 many hold the opinion that the reconstruction laws 
 of the United States are unconstitutional, and there- 
 fore null and void ; and it may be that this may lead, 
 if not to open resistance, to a forcible denial in some 
 localities of the rights guaranteed by the Constitution 
 of the State, formed and adopted in pursuance of 
 said laws. It is also known that a disposition exists, 
 among no inconsiderable portion of our population, 
 to oppress the poor whites and the colored race on 
 account of their political opinions. The magistrates 
 and the courts will be sustained by the whole power 
 of the State, in such action as may be deemed neces- 
 sary to m'otect those who may be thus wronged or 
 oppressed; and the magistrates and the courts will 
 be sustained by the whole power of the State in giv- 
 ing effect to the Constitution itself, as having been 
 fairly, justly and properly adopted, and as binding 
 in all respects on every citizen until changed or 
 modified in the mode prescribed in the instrument 
 itself. Differences in political sentiment are to be 
 expected, and are not calculated in themselves to en- 
 danger the State; but a purpose to subvert the Gov- 
 ernment, on the assumption that it is not properly 
 derived, has not been constitutionally adopted, and 
 is illegitimate and not binding, should be narrowly 
 
Memoirs of W. W. Holden 101 
 
 watched and promptly checked on the first manifesta- 
 tion of any overt act on the part of those cherishing 
 such purpose. The Constitution of this State is, 
 under the Constitution of the United States, the 
 supreme organic law. The Government which it es- 
 tablishes, and the laws passed in pursuance of it, will 
 be maintained and enforced. To render resistence, 
 therefore, impracticable, if not impossible, and to 
 maintain the peace by executing the laws in a spirit 
 of justice to all, it is deemed essential that a portion 
 of the militia should be well disciplined and armed, 
 and should be thus ready at any moment, under the 
 
 orders of the commander-in-chief, for active duty. 
 
 ***** "^ 
 
 '^ Fellow-citizens, let us come out of the caverns of 
 the past, and forgetting whatever is not worthy to be 
 remembered, let us resolve to do our duty in our day 
 and time, as North iCarolinians, as Americans. In 
 a climate and with a soil for which Providence has 
 done so much, let us resolve to do something for our- 
 selves and our children. Let us devote ourselves to 
 the arts of peace. Let us improve this great inherit- 
 ance. Let our children and our children's children, 
 when they shall come to take our places, say of us, 
 ' Our ancestors remembered and did what was wise, 
 and what was good for us. Behold, the beautiful 
 country they have left to us ! the just and equal laws 
 that are over us, and the hope that their work has 
 made strong in us that we can do even more for our 
 children than they have done for us.' Let us at least 
 unite upon the one great object of improving and 
 building up the State. Let us welcome capital and 
 
102 Memoirs of W. W. IToldex 
 
 immigration, furnishing as thej will the indispens- 
 able means to our progress and prosperity. Preju- 
 dices growing out of nativity, or out of the rebellion, 
 are not worthy to be cherished. Let us discard such 
 prejudices. We are once more Americans — all. 
 Let us receive with courtesy and kindness every cit- 
 izen of the Xorthern or Eastern States who may cast 
 his lot among us, and measure him as we measure 
 others, according to his personal and moral worth. 
 We cannot hope to improve our condition if we repel 
 capital and immigration, either by so acting as to 
 produce the belief that it is not safe to settle among 
 us on account of the want of law and order, or un- 
 pleasant, because of rude or uncivil treatment to the 
 immigrant. It should be remembered that our an- 
 cestors were, originally, as much 'adventurers' as 
 others. Of the three signers of the Declaration of 
 Independence for this State, neither was a native. 
 Richard Caswell, one of our greatest Governors, and 
 sometimes called the Washington of North Caro- 
 lina, was not a native; nor was Joseph Caldwell, 
 who built up our University and led the way with 
 Murphy, Yancey, Stanly, Saunders and others in 
 internal improvements and public instruction. 
 
 ''We want the best people from Europe, and from 
 all parts of the United States to settle among us. 
 It is men that make a State. Let them come, with 
 their enterprise and money, their muscle and intelli- 
 gence ; and when they get here let the rivalry be as 
 to who shall do the most for the good and the glory 
 of our beloved State. 
 
 "The government of the United States, in the pros- 
 
Memoirs of W. W. Holdeis- 103 
 
 ecution of the war to suppress the rebellion, and in 
 the measures it has adopted to reconstruct the Union, 
 has exhibited extraordinary clemency and magna- 
 nimity. It has taken no vengeance for the past, but 
 has required only security for the future. It has 
 deprived no man of his property save for war pur- 
 poses during the progress of the war; it has exiled 
 no man; it has punished no man for the crime of 
 rebellion. It has simply required that those who 
 have been in rebellion should renew their allegiance, 
 and that such guards should be placed in the organic 
 laws of the States and the nation as to prevent future 
 rebellion. Instead of defining or restricting suffrage 
 permanently, it has left it with the respective States 
 to be determined and settled as they may choose ; and 
 this State, following in full measure the example of 
 the national government, has made suffrage free to all. 
 ^'But the war to suppress the rebellion has, in its 
 results, necessarily changed as it has settled the 
 theory of construction previously held by a large 
 portion of the people. Our liberties have been con- 
 solidated, and the Union can, in no event, be dis- 
 solved. It has to endure always. It must increase, 
 but never decrease. For all great national purposes 
 the Government of the United States is over the 
 States, and paramount to the States, and the allegi- 
 ance of the citizen is first due to it. There is no ap- 
 peal from the will of the nation, expressed by a ma- 
 jority. Armed resistance to the national authority, 
 whether by individuals of their own accord, or by 
 individuals acting under supposed State authority 
 or command, is treason, and must be so held and 
 
104 Memoirs of W. "W. Holdex 
 
 treated. The doctrine of State's riohts, as held bv 
 Mr. Calhoun and his followers, has ceased to have 
 validity or vitality; and the teachings and doctrines 
 of Washington, Hamilton, Webster, Jackson, Clay 
 and Lincoln now constitute the true, and the only 
 safe theory, of construction. This has been settled, 
 under Providence, by the result of a solemn appeal 
 to arms among brethren ; and he Avho would unsettle 
 this theory, thereby rendering it possible that seces- 
 sion should ever again be attempted, is no friend to 
 his species, his State, or to the general government 
 of his country. The government of the United States 
 is no longer a feeble hmiinary, receiving and dispens- 
 ing light to surrounding planets ; but it is a full sun, 
 burning with superior splendor, pervading and hold- 
 ing up to itself the entire system, and kindling new 
 planets into life and motion. How beneficent, how 
 glorious, how far-reaching will be the light it will 
 dispense when it reaches its meridian, we shall not 
 live to see, but the generations that come after us 
 will walk in that light, and be contented, prosperous 
 and happy. In the fullness of their gratitude they 
 will thank God, as we do, that the government of the 
 United States, delivered from the perils of rebellion, 
 and reconstructed on the basis of the equal rights of 
 all, is as indestructible as the earth itself, and as se- 
 cure in its position and in the exercise of all its great 
 
 powers, as 
 
 * The iS'ortliern star. 
 Of whose true, fixed and resting quality, 
 There is no fellow in the firmament.' 
 
 ^' I have thus, fellow citizens, stated briefly and 
 
Memoirs of W. W. Holden 105 
 
 plainly tlie great principles contained in our State 
 Constitution, and have frankly announced the policy 
 which will characterize my administration. Cherish- 
 ing neither malice nor resentment for anything 
 which has occurred in the past, I shall endeavor to 
 do my duty. I shall keep constantly in view the wel- 
 fare of Is^orth Carolina. I love the Union because 
 it is the first, the last, the only hope of my State ; and 
 I love my State, because her people have been good 
 and kind to me, and because her sky is above my 
 home, as it will be above my grave. If I have ene- 
 mies, that does not make me an enemy to my State, 
 nor move me to a course of action based on resent- 
 ment or revenge. I follow the principles of Wash- 
 ixGTOx, who founded, and of Lincoln^ who saved 
 the Republic ; and when these principles cease to 
 lead, I shall cease to follow. May the God of our 
 fathers have us in His holy keeping ; may He govern, 
 and not we ; and may the future of our beloved State 
 be as bright and glorious as the last seven years have 
 been disastrous and unhappy." 
 
 It will be seen, that although at that time I had not 
 read Gov. Worth's paper, I had characterized it in ap- 
 propriate terms. I had ^^arned the people against the 
 absurd assumption of Gov. Worth, that the naw State 
 government was notjegal or. binding. 
 
 Having thus given my views and the principles on 
 which I proposed to conduct the state government, I 
 also, in my message to the two houses of the Legis- 
 lature under date of November 18th, 1869, used the 
 following language looking to the relief by Congress 
 
106 Memoirs of W. W. Holdex 
 
 of all persons laboring under disabilities. It will be 
 seen that my language covers all from the loftiest, 
 that is Jefferson Davis, to the most obscure constable 
 or Justice of the Peace. 
 
 " By the fourteenth amendment to the Constitu- 
 tion of the United States certain persons in the re- 
 cently insurgent States are debarred the privilege 
 of holding office at the hands of their fellow citizens ; 
 but the Congress may, at pleasure, remove such dis- 
 ability. There are many citizens of States which did 
 not engage in rebellion, who are technically exempt 
 from this disability, but who were not more loyal to 
 the government, and are not now more loyal than 
 many citizens of this State who are only technically 
 excluded from holding office. I am not able to per- 
 cieve that a citizen of a State that did not engage in 
 rebellion who s;yinpathized with the pretended Con- 
 federacy, and did all he could to discourage volunteer- 
 ing and to paralyze the national arms, is more loyal 
 or more deserving of consideration than the Southern 
 Unionist who occupied some small office, not with a 
 view to aid the rebellion, but merely to escape con- 
 scription. There are several thousands of persons in 
 this State of the latter class, who were at one time su- 
 premely attached to the national government, and who 
 endeavored in every conceivable way to avoid fighting 
 against the government of the United States, but 
 who are now soured and distressed, because, by the 
 fourteenth amendment the very means they adopted 
 to avoid doing violence to their judgment and con- 
 sciences have been used to exclude them from office. 
 
Memoirs of W. W. Holden 107 
 
 Every citizen of this class, and every loyal citizen, is 
 entitled to be at once relieved by the Congress. There 
 are several thousands of others in the State, who are 
 either indifferent to the government or opposed to 
 the acts of Congress by which the State was recon- 
 structed. These persons have been sorely punished 
 for their acts of rebellion. Even if disposed to 
 thwart the action of the Federal or State govern- 
 ments, they are powerless to do so. They are chafed 
 by the reflection that their former slaves can hold 
 office, while they are excluded, and their reflection 
 is magnified in their minds into the belief that the 
 national government is disposed to pursue and pun- 
 ish them, simply because they had taken an oath to 
 support the Constitution of the United States before 
 they engaged in rebellion, while the obligation to 
 support that instrument was equally binding upon 
 all, and thousands upon thousands who never took 
 that oath, but who were as deeply and as bitterly 
 immersed in the rebellion as they were, are not 
 banned or excluded. The nation can afford to be 
 magnanimous. After nine years of rebellion, and 
 strife, and civil discord, and social disruption and 
 bitterness, a very large majority of the people of 
 E'orth Carolina long for peace, and harmony, and 
 good will, and security of life and property. But 
 this matter is in the hands of Congress. The States 
 have no control over it. Let the Nation show its 
 power everywhere to maintain the laws, to punish 
 those who may resist its authority, and to sustain the 
 reconstructed States in securing to their citizens as 
 thorough freedom and as profound peace and quiet 
 
108 Memoirs of W. W. Holdex 
 
 as exist in other States ; but it at the same time 
 exhibits that magnanimity and mercy towards all, 
 which, after nine years of conflict and strife and ill 
 will would so admirably grace the freest, the proud- 
 est and the greatest people on the face of the earth. 
 
 " In conclusion, Gentlemen, allow me to say that I 
 trust your deliberations will result in good to the 
 whole people of the State. Let our trust be in God, 
 who governs absolutely in the affairs of nations, that 
 He will overrule all our councils for good, and that 
 He will shower his choicest blessings on our beloved 
 State." 
 
 On the 4th day of July, 1868, after the delivery 
 of my Inaugural, and after the remarks of Lieut. 
 Gov. Caldwell and Judge Reade, of the Supreme 
 Court, I repaired alone to the Executive office 
 to receive from Gov. Worth the keys of the 
 office. I found him in the office with his 
 private Secretary, Wm. II. Bagley, and one of 
 his pages, Mr. Johnson Busbee. He received me 
 politely but curtly, and offered me the folloAv- 
 ing paper which he asked to be recorded in the 
 Governor's book. He had ceased then to be Gov- 
 ernor, and had therefore no right to have the paper 
 recorded. I treated him courteously and gently, 
 because of his advanced age, and because he had been 
 the Governor of the State. He said to me, ''You have 
 no right here as Governor, your election is not valid, 
 and I would resist you if I had the power, but as I 
 have not, I surrender the office to you under military 
 duress." I told him of course I would not argue the 
 
Memoies of W. W. Holden 109 
 
 question, because it was settled already by the action 
 of Congress and tlie federal government. He then 
 said, ^' You have treated me rudely." I replied : 
 ^' Governor, I have had no intention to treat you 
 rudely or unkindly. I have not been to your office 
 simply because I was not invited." ^^ Well sir," said 
 he, ^'you have called me a liar." I replied : ^' I am 
 sorry to hear you say so, and I think you must be mis- 
 taken. Your age and your position render it very 
 unlikely that I would insult you." I said to him at 
 last : '' Governor Worth, if you are correct in your 
 assumption that I have called you a liar I think I can 
 so refresh your memory that you will percieve that 
 you called me a liar first. Do you recollect. Sir, in 
 April, 1867, after the passage of the Keconstruction 
 Act by Congress and the Military Bill designed to 
 put those acts in execution, you and Mr. Pell and 
 Mr. Gales, and Mr. Eichard H. Battle called a 
 meeting at the northern front of the Capitol, and that 
 all of you addressed it ? It was understood, though 
 it was not said in so many words, that you were 
 there to carry out the act of Congress. I was pres- 
 ent but silent, because it was your meeting. You 
 had a copy of my paper in your hand and read from 
 it and said, ' The editor knew when he penned that, 
 that it was a falsehool.' " To this he made no answer. 
 He then spoke of certain measures that were pending 
 and said he would be glad to call and consult with me 
 about them. I told him I would be glad to see him 
 and consult with him on public affairs. He then 
 arose to go. He looked for his pony in the yard, and 
 said, " They have taken my pony, too." I said, " 'Eo, 
 
110 Memoiks of W. W. Holden 
 
 Governor, your pony is just beyond the statue of 
 Washington." I walked out with him beyond the 
 statue and shook hands, and he mounted and rode 
 home. 
 
 I now give the paper Avhich he asked to be re- 
 corded : 
 
 ^^ State of !N"orth Carolina, Executive Department, 
 
 " Ealeigh, July 1, 1868. 
 Gov. W. W. Holden, Raleigh, N. C: 
 
 '^SiR : — Yesterday morning I was verbally notified 
 by Chief Justice Pearson that in obedience to a tel- 
 egram from General Canby, he would to-day, at 10 
 a. m., administer to you the oath required prelim- 
 inary to your entering upon the discharge of the 
 duties of Civil Governor of the State; and that, 
 therefore, you would demand possession of my office. 
 
 ^' I intimated to the Judge my opinion that such 
 proceeding was premature, even under the Recon- 
 struction legislation of Congress, and that I should 
 probably decline to surrender the office to you. 
 
 "At sundo^vn, yesterday evening, I received from 
 Colonel Williams, Commandant of this Military 
 Post, an extract from the General Order l^o. 120, of 
 General Canby, as follows: 
 
 ^ Headquarters Second Military District, 
 
 Charleston, S. C, June 30, 1868. 
 
 ' General Order No. 120. 
 
 [extract.] 
 ^ To facilitate the organization of the new State 
 governments, the following appointments are made: 
 
Memoirs of W. W. Holden 111 
 
 To be Governor of ^orth Carolina, W. W. Holden 
 vice Jonathan Worth, removed ; to be Lieutenant- 
 Governor of N^orth 'Carolina, Tod. R. Caldwell, Lieu- 
 tenant-Governor elect, to fill an original vacancy — 
 to take effect July 1, 1868, on the meeting of the 
 General Assembly of x^orth Carolina.' 
 
 '' I do not recognize the validity of the last election, 
 under which you and those co-operating with you 
 claim to be invested with the civil government of the 
 State. You have no evidence of your election save 
 the certii/cate of a Major General of the United 
 States army. I regard all of you as, in effect, ap- 
 pointees of the military of the United States, and not 
 as 'deriving your powers from the consent of those 
 you claim to govern.' Knowing, however, that you 
 are backed up by military force here, which I could 
 not resist if I would, I do not deem it necessary to 
 offer a futile opposition, but vacate the office without 
 the ceremony of actual eviction, offering no further 
 oppositon than this, my protest. I would submit to 
 actual expulsion in order to bring before the Supreme 
 Court of the United States the question as to the con- 
 stitutionality of the legislation under which you claim 
 to be the rightful governor of the State, if the past 
 action of that tribunal furnished any hope of a 
 speedy trial. I surrender the office to you under 
 what I deem military duress, without stopping, as 
 the occasion would justify, to comment upon the 
 singular coincidence that the present State Govern- 
 ment is surrendered as without legality to him whose 
 
112 Memoies of W. W. Holden 
 
 own official sanction, but three years ago, declared it 
 valid. 
 
 ^' I am, very respectfully, 
 
 Jonathan Wokth^ 
 Governor of Xortli Carolina." 
 
 I had known Jonathan Worth a long time. After 
 I had taken grounds for the Union in 1860 Mr. 
 Worth and myself were political friends. During 
 the War, towards its close, I invited him to my 
 house one night to meet B. F. Moore, and Joseph S. 
 Cannon, Esqs., to advise me as friends whether I 
 should continue my newspaper or suspend it for a 
 while. They all concurred in the advice to suspend, 
 and I did so for a month or two. I was induced to 
 do so by apprehension of the effect produced on the 
 Confederate government at Richmond by the mis- 
 representations of certain persons in ]Srorth Carolina 
 as to the course of the Standard. The friends whose 
 advice I had thus asked feared that I could not con- 
 tinue my paper as an independent journal without 
 being in danger of arrest. 
 
 Mr. Worth had been my former Treasurer, and 
 I was surprised to find him at the end of that year 
 opposing me for Governor. Our rooms were oppo- 
 site, and I saw him every day, and yet we had no 
 conversation on the subject. He had been a useful 
 and faithful public officer. 
 
 I had been Provisional Governor for seven months. 
 On the 29th day of December, 1865, President John- 
 son retired me from the office, and accepted Jonathan 
 Worth, chosen by the people in my place. Under 
 
Memoirs of W. W. Holden 113 
 
 both myself in 1865 and Governor Worth in 1866 
 and 1867, and for six months in 1868, the people of 
 I^orth Carolina had had a government. At the end 
 of that time President Johnson gave place cheerfully 
 to a government established by the Congress. Pro- 
 visional, or temporary government had passed away, 
 and the government for the future was to be a per- 
 manent one as before the war and was to endure 
 forever. ]^orth Carolina was about to enter upon 
 a career as a self-governing State, as the equal of 
 ^ew York or Massachusetts. 
 
 And now I ask the reader to examine carefully 
 again the protest of Governor Worth. He had taken 
 my place in December 1865 just as cheerfully and as 
 promptly as I had retired from it. Suppose, for ex- 
 ample, the Hon. Thomas S. Ashe had been elected 
 Governor in my place, would not Gov. Worth have 
 yielded to him at once ? Would not his Democratic 
 friends have required it of him ? But instead of this, 
 he took a position in his protest that rather than 
 have a Governor chosen by the Republican vote, he 
 would have no Governor at all. Suppose I and all 
 those chosen with me under the Reconstruction Acts 
 had heeded his protest and had done what he held was 
 right, what would have been the result ? There 
 would have been no Executive in l^orth Carolina ; no 
 Judicial and no Legislative departments; no law 
 and no order ; no society ; no people indeed, but 
 only natural law and the rule of the strongest and 
 the worst. Did Gov. Worth and his friends desire 
 this awful condition of things ? Most certainly not. 
 His protest was hailed and approved throughout the 
 
114 Memoies of W. W. Holden 
 
 State bj his partisan friends, and to this day there 
 has been no condemnation of it in so many words. 
 But no such state of things as this would have 
 been permitted one moment by the federal gov- 
 ernment. Hon. Thaddeus Stevens had proposed 
 to me that while I was laboring to reconstruct 
 the State on the white basis, to consent to 
 agree with him to hold this State and all 
 out-lying States under military rule for ten years. 
 During this period, he said, the negroes, who had 
 never taken part in self-government, would be in- 
 structed and fitted for citizenship; the people of 
 the out-lying States would have territorial govern- 
 ments and would be provided for by Congress as the 
 Territories are, and at the end of the ten years re- 
 ferred to frame their constitutions as States and 
 thus be admitted into the Union. I objected to this 
 most strenuously. He said : '^ Well, I will present 
 your bills, but they will not pass. I am generally 
 twelve months ahead of my friends. The Senate has 
 already voted on l^egro suffrage, and there were only 
 seven Senators recorded for it. In my county in 
 Pennsylvania there are fifteen hundred escaped 
 slaves. If they are the specimens of the negroes of 
 the South they are not qualified to vote. Twelve 
 months hence you will have reconstruction acts with 
 l^egro suffrage." * 
 
 1 According to David R. Goodloe Mr. Holdon and John Pool went 
 to Washington in tho winter of 1866-67 and advocated the recon- 
 struction of North Carolina without negro suffrage, but with the 
 disfranchisement of all whites who could not swear they were for 
 the Union within 100 da.vs after Lincoln's Amnesty Proclamation 
 of 1868. A plan of organization on this basis was authorized by 
 them in a bill. This account of Mr. Goodloe fits in with the re- 
 marks of Stevens given by Gov. Holden. See Biographical History 
 of N. C. Vol. 1 , p. 197. (Ed.) 
 
Memoirs of W. W. Holden 115 
 
 Within three months after my inauguration, I 
 deemed it prudent and proper to issue the following 
 proclamation : 
 
 A PROCLAMATION^ 
 
 BY HIS EXCELLENCY^ THE GOVERNOR OF 
 
 NORTH CAROLINA. 
 
 " Executive Department, 
 '' Ealeigh, October 12th, 1868. 
 
 ^' Information has been received at this department 
 that military weapons, such as repeating rifles of 
 various kinds, have been imported into this Sta^e, 
 and have been distributed with ammunition and 
 equipments to citizens in several localities. It is 
 believed that boxes containing arms, ammunition and 
 equipments are concealed in divers places, ready to 
 be distributed as opportunity may offer. 
 
 ^^ The object of the persons thus engaged must be 
 either to subvert the government, to resist the consti- 
 tuted authorities, or to prevent a free election in this 
 State on the third day of next month. 
 
 '' The government of l^orth Carolina has been law- 
 fully and constitutionally established. This govern- 
 ment has been freely and voluntarily formed by a 
 majority of the citizens in pursuance of acts 
 constitutionally passed by the Congress, under 
 which my immediate predecessor held office 
 from the 2d day of March, 1867, to the first 
 day of July, 1868. The constitutionality of 
 these acts, if questioned during this period, were 
 nevertheless subscribed to and maintained by him, 
 and by every department of the government, from the 
 
116 Memoirs of W. W. Holden 
 
 said 2d day of March, 1867, to the said 1st day of 
 July, 1868; and now that they have been executed 
 by the common consent of the whole people voting 
 under them at the polls for members of a Convention, 
 for the new Constitution, and for members of Con- 
 gress and State officers, the result which has been 
 effected closes the discussion in relation to them, and 
 renders the present Constitution of government as 
 valid and binding as were the Constitutions of 1776 
 and 1835. 
 
 ^' This government will be maintained for the fol- 
 lowing, among other reasons: 
 
 "^ 1st. It has been lawfully and constitutionally es- 
 tablished by the whole people of the State. It is 
 operating smoothly and harmoniously. Under it the 
 people are quiet and peaceable, and are just entering 
 anew on a career of prosperity. It must not be upset 
 or even assailed, because the colored people have been 
 allowed to vote; or because they will vote with a 
 certain party; or because a few public men are out 
 of office and a few are in. 
 
 " 2d. Senators and Representatives have been ad- 
 mitted by the Congress to seats in that body. The 
 State is, therefore, of as well as in the Union. It is 
 as much of the Union as Xew York or any other 
 a State out, or sever its relations with the common 
 government. If Congress should, therefore, do what 
 is exceedingly improbable, repeal the reconstruction 
 acts, such repeal would have no more effect than a 
 repeal of the act admitting Texas or Kansas to 
 representation. The reconstruction acts have been 
 
Memoiks of W. W. Holden 117 
 
 executed, and are, therefore, beyond the reach of 
 Congress. 
 
 ^' 3d. The Supreme Court has no jurisdiction of the 
 subject. Its powers are expressly defined by the Con- 
 stitution to be ''judicial/' and not political. It has 
 already decided that the question of admission to rep- 
 resentation is a political question, and that when de- 
 termined by Congress, as it has been in relation to 
 E^orth Carolina, the court will not interfere. 
 
 '' 4th. The President would have no more power to 
 declare the reconstruction acts null and void, with 
 a view to the extinguishment of the government of 
 this State, than I would have to declare that a cer- 
 tain County or Counties in this State should cease to 
 exist. 
 
 '' The government of ^N'orth Carolina is, therefore, 
 as firmly established as that of any other State. It 
 has the same control of the right of suffrage, and of 
 its own internal affairs, as the other States have; 
 and it possesses equal power with the other States to 
 protect and perpetuate itself. 
 
 '' The right of the people to have arms in their ^ 
 houses, and to ^' bear '' them under the authority of 
 law, is not questioned. On the contrary, it is claimed 
 as a constitutional right sacred to freemen. The use 
 of arms by the male population, for peaceable and 
 lawful purposes, should rather be encouraged than 
 otherwise; but when, in time of peace, weapons 
 of an extraordinary character are imported into the " 
 State by political organizations, and deposited and 
 distributed in a secret manner among persons whose 
 spokesmen deny the authority of the existing gov- 
 
118 Memoirs of W. "W. Holdex 
 
 ernment, and who publicly declare that all govern- 
 ment, to be authoritative and binding, must proceed 
 alone from one race of our people, a state of affairs 
 is at once constituted which renders it the duty of 
 every officer and every citizen to be more than usually 
 vigilant. It cannot be pretended that these arms are 
 intended for hunting or sporting purposes. It cannot 
 be justly assumed that they are necessary for the pro- 
 tection of those who have them, since the whole power 
 of the State and general governments is pledged to 
 protect the peaceable and the law-abiding, whoever 
 and wherever they may be. 
 
 '' If it be the purpose of any portion of the people 
 in any event to resist the laws or to subvert the gov- 
 ernment, they should bear in mind that treason is 
 the highest crime that can be committed; that they 
 are liable to arrest and punishment under the ''Act 
 to punish conspiracy, sedition and rebellion," which 
 will be enforced, if necessary, with a firm hand ; and 
 they should reflect that the magnanimity of the gov- 
 ernment, which spared the lives and estates of those 
 who engaged in the late rebellion, may not be ex- 
 tended a second time to save them from the conse- 
 quences of their crimes. 
 
 '' If it be the purpose of any portion of the people, 
 by the use of arms, or by threats, or intimidation, to 
 prevent the people from going to the polls and voting 
 as they may choose to vote on the third day of next 
 month, it is my duty to inform them that force will 
 be met with force, and that every person who may 
 thus violate the law will be punished. Every race of 
 men in this State is free. The colored citizen is 
 
Memoirs of W. W. Holden 119 
 
 t 
 
 equally entitled with the white citizen to the right of 
 suffrage. The poor and the humble must be pro- 
 tected in this right equally with the affluent and the 
 exalted. The election must be absolutely free. 
 
 " In view, therefore, of this condition of affairs, I 
 have deemed it my duty to issue this Proclamation, 
 admonishing the people to avoid undue excitement, 
 to be peaceable and orderly, and to exercise the right 
 of suffrage firmly and calmly, without violence or 
 force of any kind. Every good citizen is gratified 
 that ^orth Carolina is at present as quiet and peace- 
 able as any State of the Union. Let us maintain this 
 good name for our State. Let us frown indignantly 
 on the use of brute force, or bribes, or threats, to 
 control the election; and let every officer of the 
 State, civil and military, be prepared to check in- 
 stantly any incipient step to sedition, rebellion or 
 treason. 
 
 '^ The flag of the United States waves for the pro- 
 tection of all. Every star upon it shines down with 
 vital fire into every spot, howsoever remote or sol- 
 itary, to consume those who may resist the authority 
 of the government, or who oppress the defenceless 
 and the innocent. The State government will be -^ 
 maintained; the laws will be enforced; every cit- 
 izen, whatever his political sentiments, will be pro- 
 tected in his rights; the unlawful use of arms will 
 be prevented, if possible, and if not prevented, will 
 be punished; and conspiracy, sedition and treason 
 will raise their heads only to be immediately subdued 
 by the strong hand of military power. The General 
 commanding this department has instructed the dis- 
 
120 Memoirs of W. W. Holdex 
 
 trict and post commanders to "act in aid and 
 co-operation, and in subordination to the civil author- 
 ities," in maintaining the peace and in securing a 
 free election. The power of both governments is 
 thus pledged to peace, order and tranquility. 
 
 '' It is specially enjoined on all officers of the 
 Detailed Militia to observe the ''act to organize a 
 militia of Korth Carolina," and to act in strict sub- 
 ordination to the civil power. And all Magistrates, 
 Sheriifs and other peace officers are also specially en- 
 joined to be vigilant, impartial, faithful and firm in 
 the discharge of their duties, magnifying and enforc- 
 ing the law, ferreting out offenders, protecting the 
 weak against the strong who may attempt to deprive 
 them of their rights ; to the end that the wicked may 
 be restrained, the peace of society preserved, the goud 
 name of the State maintained, and the governm.ent 
 perpetuated on the basis of Freedom and Justice 
 to all. 
 
 '' Done at our city of Raleigh, on the 12th 
 [l. s.] day of October, in the year of our Lord one 
 thousand eight hundred and sixty-eight, and 
 in the ninety-third year of our Independence. 
 
 W. W. HOLDEX, Governor, 
 By the Governor: 
 
 Robert M. Douglas^ Private Secretary/' 
 
 In addition to this I issued four other proclama- 
 tions do^vTi to June 6, 1870, urging and beseeching 
 the people without respect to party or color, to respect 
 and venerate the law, to protect and preserve human 
 life and to demean themselves as good citizens. 
 
Memoirs of W. W. Holden 121 
 
 By the Constitution of this State I was empowered 
 to be commander-in-chief to call out the militia, to 
 execute the law, suppress riots and insurrections, and 
 to repel invasion. On the 16th day of December 1869 
 I sent the following message to the Legislature : 
 
 '^ Executive Department^ Raleigh, 
 
 December 16, 1869. 
 
 To the Honorable, the General Assembly of North 
 Carolina. 
 
 " Gentlemen : — Allow me respectfully and earnestly 
 to call your attention to the necessity which exists 
 for such amendments to the militia law as will enable 
 the executive to suppress violence and disorder in 
 certain localities of this State, and to protect the 
 persons of citizens, their lives and their property. 
 
 " Since my last annual message, dated N^ov. 16th, 
 1869, numerous outrages of the most flagrant char- 
 acter have been committed upon peaceable and law- 
 abiding citizens, by persons masked and armed, who 
 rode at night, and who have thus far escaped the 
 civil law. I have adopted such measures as were in 
 my power to ferret out and bring to justice all break- 
 ers of the law, without reference to their color or to 
 the political party or parties to which they belong, 
 and I am satisfied that Judge and solicitors in the 
 various circuits have been prompt, energetic and im- 
 partial in the discharge of their duties. I^otwith- 
 standing this, Gentlemen, the outrages referred to 
 seem to be rather on the increase in certain localities 
 in so much that many good citizens are in a constant 
 
122 Memoirs of W. W. Holder 
 
 state of terror and society in said localities is in a 
 deplorable condition. It is for your honorable body 
 to apply the remedy by so strengthening the arm of 
 the executive as to enable him to repress these out- 
 rages and restore peace and order. I have confidence 
 in your wisdom, in your regard for law, and in the 
 disposition which I feel sure exists in every mem- 
 ber of your honorable body to adopt such measures 
 as will speedily put an end to the evils complained of. 
 ^' I have the honor to be, Gentlemen, with great 
 respect, 
 
 ^^ Your obedient servant, 
 
 W. W. HoLDEN^ Governor/* 
 
 -V This message of the Governor, of the 16th of 
 
 December, 1869, led to the enactment of what is 
 ^ called the Shoffner law. This law authorized the 
 Governor to declare certain counties in insurrection. 
 That is, it suspended civil law and authorized the 
 arrest of suspected persons. The reader will perceive 
 that at last my duty required me to do this, as this 
 message states. The violation of law and the out- 
 rages referred to, seemed to be rather on the increase 
 in certain localities, and left me therefore no alter- 
 native, but to proclaim Alamance and .Caswell in a 
 state of insurrection. The gist or substance of the 
 Shoffner act was to authorize me to suspend the civil 
 law when in my judgment it was necessary to do so. 
 I was fully aware of the great responsibility, but 
 human life was above all price. As I said to Mr. 
 Albright of Alamance, I did not care how the elec- 
 tions of 1870 went if by what I did I saved one 
 
Memoirs of W. W. Holden 123 
 
 human life. The civil and military are alike consti- 
 tutional powers ; the civil to protect life and property 
 when it can, and the military only when the former 
 has failed. 
 
 Dr. Pride Jones had said, ^'Mj candid opinion is 
 that the Ku Klux cannot be put down by force, with- 
 out a dreadful amount of blood-shed and crime." 
 
 I authorized the formation of two regiments of 
 militia, or troops, one to be commanded by Col. Wm. 
 J. Clarke, and the other by Col. George W. Kirk. 
 Both of these officers were men of large experience. 
 Col. Clarke was an old and well-tried veteran of two 
 wars. He had fought and won distinction in the 
 War with Mexico, and in the war between the United 
 States and the Confederate Government. Col. Clarke 
 was ridiculed a good deal by the '^penny a liners'' but 
 his character could not be impaired by any of the 
 fault-finders. Col. Kirk was fiercely, and roundly, 
 and unjustly assailed by his enemies, mainly because 
 he was a native, loyal man. He had raised three 
 regiments of J^orth Carolineans and Tennesseans 
 for the federal government and had been a faithful 
 soldier of the Union. He was employed by me in 
 good faith in accordance with law, and E'orth Caro- 
 lina still owes him a part of his salary. His com- 
 mand consisted mainly of loyal men who fought un- 
 der him for the Union. After the War, when peace 
 was made, all but those who were especially malig- 
 nant, regarded with equal respect all brave men 
 whether they had fought for the South or for the 
 Union, no matter where they came from. One strong 
 evidence of his fitness and worthiness to command 
 
124 Memoirs of W. W. Holdex 
 
 is, when he came into Asheville with his regiment 
 he was stationed in that town by the General, and the 
 people of that to^vn were well pleased with him. It 
 was stated in some of the evidence (sic) (in the im- 
 peachment proceedings) that he had said that if he 
 were attacked at his place in the Court House 
 at Yanceyville, that he would resist and burn the 
 town and murder the women and children. There 
 is no foundation whatever for this story, and there 
 is less foundation if possible for the further state- 
 ment that the Governor had so told him to do. As 
 to the men who composed his command, they were 
 nearly all ^N^orth Carolinians. What odds did it 
 make that some of them were Tennesseans ? Col. 
 Kirk knew them all well and they were sworn sol- 
 diers, as he was, of North Carolina. And then 
 the counsel for the State (sic) (in the impeach- 
 ment proceedings) made a great ado over Col. 
 Kirk's address issued to his old soldiers to induce 
 them to join his regiment. Mr. Cornelius B. Ed- 
 wards and his brother were in danger of being ar- 
 rested for contempt, for a very little thing, which I 
 myself could have settled at once, if I had been called 
 upon. I did not write, but simply copied what Col. 
 Kirk had written. I simply saw the paper lying on 
 my desk. I thought Col. Kirk ought to be allowed to 
 make his own speech or to frame his own address, 
 but it was ungrammatical. I simply copied it and 
 put it in good shape, and added nothing to it as a 
 printer. That was all, and yet these young men were 
 in danger of being arrested because they did not take 
 
Memoirs of W. W. Holden 125 
 
 from the office and bring to the Senate as they had 
 
 no right to do, the copy of the address referred to. 
 
 Xor is it true that any persons arrested were 
 
 / cruelly treated by my orders, and with my knowl- 
 
 Vedge. I gave the strictest orders to the officers both 
 
 verbally and in writing to treat all persons humanely, 
 
 and to be very careful of human life, ^or is it true 
 
 that I sent Col. Kirk to Alamance and Caswell as a 
 
 scourge to the people of those counties. 
 
 I spared no means and no labor for the space of 
 two years. 
 
 In the year 1869 there were disturbances and vio- 
 lations of the law in the Counties of Jones, Craven 
 and Lenoir. In accordance with law, at the call of 
 the judges of the judicial circuits, I sent a company 
 of white men consisting of twenty-five (25), as De- 
 tailed Militia, to the County of Lenoir, and arrested 
 eighteen men, and held them under orders in jail in 
 Xewbern until the judge of the circuit could return 
 from ^ew York, whither he had gone on a visit, and 
 to give them a hearing. They were bailed in large 
 amounts, but inasmuch as the disorders ceased, and 
 the people generally were active in supporting what 
 I had done, I ordered the release of all under arrest 
 without trial. This action on my part was not dis- 
 approved by the community, but was, on the contrary, 
 approved. I wrote to the honorable M. E. Manley 
 of ]^ew Bern, offering him $500.00 as a fee to ap- 
 pear for the State in these cases, but he declined the 
 fee, giving as his reason that he had ceased to appear 
 in criminal cases. 
 
 In the early part of 1870 I employed in Chatham 
 
126 Memoiks of W. W. Holden 
 
 County Capt. 'N. A. Ramsey, and in Orange, Capt. 
 Pride Jones, both belonging to the political party 
 opposed to my administration, to aid in suppressing 
 the Ku Klux, and in composing the trouble in those 
 counties. They performed this duty in a manner 
 which entitled them to the thanks of every friend of 
 law and order. Dr. Jones was appointed at the re- 
 quest of John W. Xorwood, George Laws, James 
 Webb, Henry K. Nash, Henry IST. Brown, and O. 
 Hooker. I give below the following correspondence 
 between myself and Dr. Pride Jones. 
 
 " Hillsborough, :N'. C, March 1st, 1870. 
 
 " Sir: On the 3d inst., I had a long conversation 
 with Mr. John W. jSTorwood in reference to an inter- 
 view that he has recently had with your Excellency. 
 He urged me to accept of a commission from you, for 
 the purpose of attempting to disband the secret organ- 
 ization in this County, kno^\m as ^' Ku Klux," and 
 restoring the laws to their supremacy. 
 
 " This is a consummation heartily to be desired by 
 all good citizens ; and though more averse than ever 
 to any position in the service of the public, I feel con- 
 strained, by a sense of duty, to give my best exer- 
 tions, however feeble they may be, in aiding the 
 restoration of peace and order, and, should you deem 
 me qualified for the position, I will accept of it. 
 
 ^' I feel certain that in this County I can further 
 your views, and I believe that if my commission is 
 extended to Alamance, I can exercise considerable 
 influence there also. 
 
Memoirs of W. W. Holden 127 
 
 '^ But if, as is rumored here today, your Excellency 
 has, in obedience to the dictates of your duty, ordered > 
 troops to that County, you must pardon me for say- 
 ing that I look with apprehension to the result ; and 
 my candid opinion is that the '^Ku Klux" cannot 
 be put down by force without a dreadful amount of 
 bloodshed and crime, and that the wise course 
 adopted by you in Chatham would be much more 
 effective here also. If troops have gone there, of 
 course they cannot be recalled at once ; but I consider 
 it of vital importance, should you consider it expedi- 
 ent to extend my commission to that County, for you 
 to give me some authority in the premises, and enable 
 me to say that upon such and such things being done, 
 that you will recall the troops. 
 
 " I would further suggest that your instructions 
 upon the subject of oblivion and pardon of the past 
 be explicit and clear, or my labors may be unavailing. 
 
 " It may be proper to add that I am not a member 
 of the "Ku Klux" or any other secret political organ- 
 ization whatever. 
 
 " Very respectfully, 
 
 ^' Your obedient servant. 
 
 Pride Jones. 
 
 "His Excellency, W. W. Holden, Raleigh. 
 
 " Hillsborough^ March 5, 1870. 
 
 To His Excellency J W. W, Holden, Governor of N.C, 
 
 " Sir : The undersigned, citizens of Orange County, 
 
 respectfully recommend Dr. Pride Jones, of Hills- 
 
 boro, as a suitable person to receive a Captain's 
 
128 Memoirs of W. W. Holdex 
 
 ^^ Commission for Orange County. We believe his 
 appointment would give entire satisfaction to our 
 citizens, and would go far towards establishing, on a 
 firm basis, good order throughout the County. 
 
 ^' Very respectfully, 
 
 (Signed) J. W. Xorwood^ 
 
 Geo. Laws^ 
 James Webb^ 
 Henry K. Xask, 
 Henry X. Brown, 
 O. Hooker. 
 
 '' STATE OF XOETH CAROLINA, 
 Executive Department, 
 Raleigh, March 7th, 1870. 
 
 ^' To Capt. Pride Jones : 
 
 ^' Sir : Please find enclosed a Captain's Commission 
 in the 45th Regiment Orange Militia. You will ob- 
 serve by the papers that I have been constrained to 
 declare the County of Alamance in a state of insur- 
 rection. I have done this with reluctance and re- 
 gret. The civil law is silent and powerless in that 
 County. Many of the people of that County feel that 
 they are entirely insecure in their persons and prop- 
 erty, and their only hope is in such protection as the 
 military can afford them. Federal troops, com- 
 manded by States officers, will be employed. The 
 innocent and the law-abiding will be in no danger; 
 but it is indispensable to bring the guilty to punish- 
 ment. I agree with you that the Klan of Ku Klux is 
 very formidable and warlike, but I fear it will grow 
 
Memoirs of W. W. Holden 129 
 
 with indulgence, and that if vigorous measures he 
 postponed it will ultimately occasion much civil 
 strife and bloodshed. I am most anxious to preserve 
 Orange, Chatham and other Counties surrounding 
 Alamance from the infection of insurrection in the 
 latter County. Capt. Ramsey is doing good work in 
 Chatham. The civil officers of the County of Orange 
 are the friends of law and order, and are performing 
 their duties like patriots. I wish you, sir, to take 
 command in Orange. I believe you can thus perform 
 efficient and valuable service for your State. 
 
 If you should accept this position, I should rely in 
 a great degree upon your firmness, moderation and 
 discretion, and therefore, at present, give no special 
 instructions as to the manner in which you will dis- 
 charge your duty. Your pay, while on duty, will be 
 that of a Captain in the Eegular army of the United 
 States. I would be glad to hear from you at an early 
 date. 
 
 Very respectfully, 
 
 W. W. HoLDEN^ Governor/' 
 
 " Hillsborough, K C, March 9, 1870. 
 
 His Excellency, W. W. Holden : 
 
 " Sir : Your favor of the 7th instant reached me 
 this morning with accompanying documents. 
 
 ^^ I accept the commission and have already com- 
 menced the discharge of its duties. On yesterday I 
 went eight miles in the country, believing that there 
 was no time to be lost if my commission was to result 
 beneficially, and was much gratified to find the par- 
 
130 Memoirs of W. W. Holden 
 
 ties appealed (to) earnestly responding to my 
 wishes. 
 
 ^' From the facts stated to me by Mr. Norwood, I 
 represented that the past would be overlooked, pro- 
 vided there was a disbanding of the klans, and no 
 further infraction of the law; and I sincerely hope 
 that your Excellency in your special instructions, for 
 which I respectfully ask at your earliest convenience, 
 will sustain me in the. position assumed; for with 
 such instructions I feel perfectly assured that I can 
 restore the laws to their just supremacy, and this I 
 take to be at this time the main object of my commis- 
 sion. 
 
 " I am, sir, 
 
 " Very respectfully, 
 
 ^' Your ob't servant. 
 
 Pride Jones.^^ 
 
 ^' X. B. I omitted to suggest that if the ''Leaguers" 
 Avere embraced in my instructions it would facilitate 
 matters very materially. P. J." 
 
 " Ealeigh, March 17, 1870. 
 
 " To Captaix Pride Jones : 
 
 " Sir: Yours of the 9th was duly received, and 
 would have been answered sooner but for the pressure 
 of other business. 
 
 '' I am gratified at your acceptance of the commis- 
 sion, and trust that your efforts will result benefi- 
 cially to society. 
 
 '' It will readily occur to you that as the Executive 
 I have no power to proclaim amnesty. The Solicitor 
 
Memoirs of W. W. Holden 131 
 
 may enter a nol. pros., or he may not, and the Judge 
 may then sentence, and then the power of commuta- 
 tion, or pardon, is with the executive. I am ready to 
 do all that I can under the Constitution and laws 
 to compose troubles. It is not my purpose to pros- 
 ecute or to take vengeance on any. What we want is 
 submission to the laws, and peace in all the neighbor- 
 hoods in the County. Public opinion can effect this 
 more certainly and on a more permanent basis than 
 the ministers of the law can, under present circum- 
 stances. It is an important part of the duty assigned 
 you to embody and direct this public opinion. In 
 doing this, much must be necessarily left to your own 
 discretion. You are thoroughly acquainted with the 
 people of the County. You know their peculiar tem- 
 peraments, their habits and their modes of thought. 
 Their prejudices, even, should be respected. 
 
 ^' But the object of all this is to restore peace and 
 good order. 
 
 '^ Every citizen, no matter of what color, or how 
 poor or humble, has a right to labor for a living with- 
 out being molested ; to express his political opinions 
 without let or hindrance; and to be absolutely at 
 peace in his own house. Every citizen has a right to 
 attach himself to a secret political organization ; and 
 these organizations are harmless, so long as they re- 
 spect the rights of persons and property. But, though 
 lawful, they are not expedient. The time has passed 
 when they were even expedient. They can effect 
 no special good at present, but they may be the cloak 
 or the occasion for mischief. Especially are they 
 so w^hen the members disguise themselves, and take 
 
132 Memoirs of W. W. Holden 
 
 arms and ride through neighborhoods breaking the 
 peace and terrifying the inhabitants. You will, there- 
 fore, mildly but firmly discountenance and discourage 
 all secret j^olitical organizations, and especially those 
 that put on disguises and carry arms. It is a mis- 
 demeanor to go thus disguised with intent to terrify, 
 and it is felony thus to commit any act of violence. 
 
 " The authority with which you are Invested is to 
 exercise a strict subordination to the civil power. 
 
 *' I take it for granted the sheriff of Orange can ex- 
 ecute any process that may be placed in his hands. 
 But, if resisted, you are authorized to take men to 
 his aid as posse comitatus, to insure the arrest of 
 criminals. And if criminals enter Orange from Ala- 
 mance they should be arrested and held for trial. 
 
 " Your attention is directed to the Acts published in 
 the Standard, Sentinel, and Eecorder immediately 
 after my proclamation of the 7th of March. Also 
 to the ''act making the act of going masked, disguised 
 or painted a felony," laws of 1868-69, chapter 267, 
 page 613. 
 
 '' I Avould be glad to hear from you frequently as to 
 the progress you are making in maintaining law and 
 order in Orange. 
 
 Very respectfully, 
 
 " W. W. HoLDEN^ Governor, 
 
 I^or was I wanting at any time or any way in gen- 
 erosity or kindness to the people, or to my opponents. 
 I was careful never to intrude myself on conven- 
 tions or Legislatures called or chosen by myself. I 
 had too much respect for such bodies to present even 
 
Memoies of W. W. Holden 133 
 
 an appearance of arbitrary power. I never attended 
 even the convention called in 1865, or either House 
 of the Legislature of the same year. But in 1868 
 while the Legislature was in session, walking in the 
 rotunda of the Capitol, I heard someone say, " They 
 are having high times upstairs." I replied, ^What's 
 the matter ?" I was told that they were about to expel 
 Kobbins. I then went upstairs for the first time into 
 the Senate chamber. Mr. Senator Eobbins, of David- 
 son County, was defending himself against a charge 
 of bribery. The house was Kepublican by two-thirds 
 vote. I asked what the charge was. I was told it was 
 for receiving $20 for making a speech in the Senate 
 for paying Mr. John W. Stephens mileage. I said, 
 ''That is not so, it cannot be true." I then saw Mr. 
 Senator Lassiter and other Senators, and Mr. Steph- 
 ens himself, and asked them to work with me and dis- 
 suade them from passing the resolution of expulsion. 
 The result was, we saved him by three majority in 
 a body two-thirds Eepublican. I refused to join my 
 party friends in their persecution of a worthy man 
 because he was a Democrat. I afterwards forbade 
 the use in the Standard of ''twenty-dollar Eobbins." 
 
 On another occasion in Ealeigh, between the times 
 when I was Provisional Governor and when I was 
 regular civil Governor, I interposed to save a friend, 
 a Democrat, who was in trouble. It was Major D. G. 
 McEae, of Fayetteville. He was in military prison 
 on the site of the old fair grounds in East Ealeigh. 
 I called on the officer in command and asked to see 
 D. G. McEae, and to know the charge on which he 
 was held. He sent for him, and he was brought in. 
 
134 Me^ioirs of W. W. Holdex 
 
 The officer said : '' Mr. McRae is held to be tried be- 
 cause he said after he had tried a negro man for rape, 
 'Damn him, kill him.' " I said to the officer, ''I hope 
 you will release Maj. McRae at once, he is very far 
 from being such a man as that, it is simply impossi- 
 ble that he should have said that; I beg you, Sir, to 
 release him and let him go home," Avhich he did at 
 once. Col. James F. Taylor had gone with me to the 
 prison to see Maj. McRae. I had myself appointed 
 Maj. McRae magistrate, and knew him well. 
 
 And there was Captain Tolar, of Fayetteville, who 
 was tried for the murder of this same negro, and 
 convicted by a court martial and sentenced to hard 
 labor on the fort at Beaufort, X. C. That was in 
 1867. I wrote to President Johnson stating the 
 facts, and asked for his pardon. He was pardoned. 
 Another case was that of a young man, the eldest 
 son of Governor Bragg, who was engaged in a diffi- 
 culty with another young man, and shot him in the 
 groin. Young Bragg was in serious peril. Mr. 
 Fowle (now Gov. Fowle) appeared for him. Young 
 Bragg, knowing my friendship for, and influence 
 with the young man whom he had shot, and with his 
 father and mother, called to see me, and asked me if 
 possible to settle the matter and relieve him from the 
 indictment then pending in the court. I went at 
 once to see the young man who had been shot, and his 
 mother. The matter was promptly arranged and set- 
 tled on young Bragg paying certain expenses. It is 
 more than probable that no one else than myself could 
 have settled it. Young Bragg was the oldest son of 
 my prosecutor, Ex-Gov. Bragg, who was then dead. 
 
Memoirs of W. W. Holder 135 
 
 Gov. Fowle and Pulaski Cowper, Esq., will bear tes- 
 timony that these things are so. 
 
 On the 22nd of :N'ovember, 1870, I sent my third 
 and last message to the General Assembly. In this 
 message I used the following language : 
 
 '' The present government of North-Carolina com- 
 menced its operations on the 4th day of July, 1868. 
 This government is based on the political and civil 
 equality of all men, and it was lawfully and constitu- 
 tionally established by the whole people of the State. 
 The State had just emerged from a protracted and 
 desperate conflict with the government of our common 
 country, in which many valuable lives and a vast 
 amount of property had been sacrificed. It was hoped 
 and expected that the government thus established, 
 after so much suffering and so many calamities, would 
 be allowed to move quietly forward, protecting all 
 alike, dispensing its equal benefits with an equal hand, 
 and preparing the way for a realization of that pros- 
 perity which the State had formery enjoyed. But the 
 validity of the Eeconstruction Acts was questioned, 
 and the authority of the State was represented as hav- 
 ing been derived in such a manner as to render it 
 binding on the people onlyi^^ST an opportunity 
 should be offered to throw it off. Combinations were 
 formed in various parts of the State, of a secret char- 
 acter, the object of which was to render practically 
 null and void the Reconstruction Acts, and to set at 
 naught those provisions of the Federal and State Con- 
 stitutions which secure political and civil equality to 
 the whole body of our people. My attention was first 
 called to these combinations in October, 1868, and I 
 
136 Memoirs of W. W. Holdex 
 
 then deemed it my duty to issue a proclamation, set- 
 ting forth the nature of our government, the manner 
 in which it had been established, vindicating its au- 
 thority as a government, not merely de facto, but de 
 jure, and giving warning of the consequences that 
 must follow, if any attempt should be made to sul> 
 vert the government, or to assail by force the right of 
 suffrage as guaranteed to any portion of our citizens. 
 In that proclamation I said : ' Every race of men in 
 this State is free. The colored citizen is equally en- 
 titled with the white citizen to the right of suffrage. 
 The poor and the humble must be protected in this 
 right equally w4th the affluent and the exalted." It was 
 also enjoined upon ''all magistrates. Sheriffs and 
 other peace officers to be vigilant, impartial, faithful 
 and firm in the discharge of their duties, magnifying 
 and enforcing the law, ferreting out offenders, pro- 
 tecting the weak against the strong who may attempt 
 to deprive them of their rights ; to the end that the 
 wicked may he restrained, the peace of society pre- 
 served, the good name of the State maintained, and 
 the government perpetuated on the basis of Freedom 
 and Justice to all.' ^ 
 
 "And in April, (18/9, after the General Assembly, 
 had passed ''An Act making the act of going masked, 
 disguised or painted, a felony," I issued another proc- 
 lamation setting forth this Act, and giving notice that 
 ' bands of men who go masked and armed at night, 
 causing alarm and terror in neighborhoods, and com- 
 mitting acts of violence on the inoffensive and de- 
 fenceless,' and ' depredators and robbers, who lived 
 
Memoirs of W. W. Holden 137 
 
 on the honest earnings of others,' would be followed 
 and made to feel the penalty due to their crimes. 
 
 ^^And in October, 1869, 1 deemed it my duty to issue 
 another proclamation, setting forth the fact that in 
 the Counties of Lenoir, Jones, Orange and .Chatham, 
 ^'there is, and has been for some months past, a feel- 
 ing of insubordination and insurrection, insomuch 
 that many good citizens are put in terror for their 
 lives and property, and it is difficult, if not impossi- 
 ble, to secure a full and fair enforcement of the law.'' 
 I gave notice in this proclamation that violations of 
 law and outrages in the aforesaid Counties must 
 cease; otherwise I would ^proclaim those Counties 
 in a state of insurrection,' and would ^exert the 
 whole power of the State to enforce the law, to pro- 
 tect those who are assailed or injured, and to bring 
 criminals to justice.' 
 
 ''And in March, 1870, I was forced by a sense of 
 duty to 'proclaim and declare that the County of 
 Alamance is in a state of insurrection.' 
 
 "And in June, 1870, 1 issued another proclamation, 
 in which, on account of ten murders mentioned, com- 
 mitted in four Counties, and other acts of violence, 
 such as whipping, and the driving a State Senator 
 from the State, I offered rewards for the arrest and 
 conviction of murderers, amounting in the aggregate 
 to a large sum. In this proclamation I denounced the 
 outrages, such as murders and scourgings, by the 
 Kuklux Klan, and also retaliation by others, such as 
 the burning of stables, mills and dwelling houses ; 
 and I urged all officers, both civil and military, to 
 
138 Memoirs of "W. W. Holdex 
 
 aid in bringing offenders to justice and restoring 
 peace and good order to those portions of the State. 
 
 ^'And in July, 1870, 1 was forced by a sense of duty 
 to declare the County of .Caswell in a state of insur- 
 rection.' 
 
 " These proclamations are printed in the ^Appen- 
 dix' to this document, and I trust every member of 
 your honorable body will give them a careful perusal. 
 
 '^ In addition to these proclamations I addressed 
 letters to various civil and military officers, and to 
 citizens, urging the necessity of repressing these out- 
 rages and of enforcing the law. For the space of 
 twelve months, while the laws were thus being set at 
 naught, and while grand juries were failing to find 
 bills, or, if they were found, petit juries refused to 
 convict, I was almost constantly importuned by let- 
 ters, and in person, by many of the victims of these 
 outrages, and was urged to adopt some means of pro- 
 tection to society, and especially to the victims of the 
 secret combinations referred to. 
 
 '' These combinations were at first purely political 
 in their character, and many good citizens were in- 
 duced to join them. But gradually, under the lead- 
 ership of ambitious and discontented politicians, and 
 under the pretext that society needed to be regulated 
 by some authority outside or above the law, their 
 character was changed, and these secret Klans began 
 to commit murder, to rob, whip, scourge and mutilate 
 unoffending citizens. These organizations or these 
 combinations Avere called the Ku Klux Klan, and 
 were revealed to the public, as the result of the meas- 
 ures which I adopted, as '^The Constiiutional Union 
 
Memoirs of W. W. Holden 139 
 
 Guards," ''The White Brotherhood," and ''The Invis- 
 ible Empire." Unlike other secret political associa- 
 tions, they authorized the use of force, with deadly 
 weapons, to influence the elections. The members 
 were united by oaths which ignored or repudiated the 
 ordinary oaths or obligations resting upon all other 
 citizens to respect the laws and to uphold the 
 government; these oaths inculcated hatred by the 
 white race against the colored race; the members of 
 the Klan, as above stated, were hostile to the princi- 
 ples on which the government of the State had been 
 reconstructed, and, in many respects, hostile to the 
 government of the United States. They met in se* 
 cret, in disguise, with arms, in a dress of a certain 
 kind intended to conceal their persons and their 
 horses, and to terrify those whom they menaced or 
 assaulted. They held their camps, and under their 
 leaders they decreed judgment against their peace^ 
 able fellow-citizens, from mere intimidation to 
 scourgings, mutilations, the burning of churches, 
 school-houses, mills, and in many cases to murder. 
 This organization, under different names, but 
 cemented by a common purpose, is believed to have 
 embraced not less than forty thousand voters in 
 IN^orth Carolina. It was governed by rules more or 
 less military in their character, and it struck its vic- 
 tims with such secrecy, swiftness and certainty as to 
 leave them little hope either for escape or mercy. 
 The members were sworn to obey the orders of their 
 camps even to assassination and murder. They were 
 taught to regard oaths administered before magis- 
 trates and in Courts of Justice, as in no degree bind- 
 
140 Memoirs of W. W. Holden 
 
 ing when they were called upon to give testimony 
 against their confederates. They were sworn to keep 
 the secrets of the order — to obey the commands of the 
 Chief — to go to the rescue of a member at all haz- 
 ards, and to swear for him as a witness and acquit 
 him as a juror. Consequently, Grand Juries in many 
 Counties frequently refused to find bills against the 
 members of this Klan for the gravest and most fla- 
 grant violations of law; and w^hen bills were found, 
 and the parties were arraigned for trial, witnesses, 
 members of the order, would in nearly every case 
 come forward, and, taking an oath before the Court 
 on the Holy Evangelists to tell the truth, the whole 
 truth, and nothing but the truth, would swear falsely, 
 and would thus defeat the ends of justice. There are, 
 at least, four Judges and four Solicitors in the State 
 who will bear witness to the fact, from their own ex- 
 perience, that it was very difficult, if not impossible, 
 to convice members of this Klan of crimes and mis* 
 demeanors. I have information of not less than 
 twenty-five murders committed by members of this 
 Klan, in various Counties of the State, and of hun- 
 dreds of cases of scourging and whipping. Very few, 
 if any, convictions have followed in these cases. The 
 civil law was powerless. One State Senator was 
 murdered in the open day in a County Court-house, 
 and another State Senator was driven from the State, 
 solely on account of their political opinions. In 
 neither case was a bill found by a Grand Jury. A 
 respectable and unoffending colored man was taken 
 from his bed at night, and hanged by the neck until 
 he was dead, within a short distance of a County 
 
Memoirs of W. W. Holden 141 
 
 Court-house. Another colored man was drowned, 
 because he spoke publicly of persons who aided in 
 the commission of this crime, ^o bills were found in 
 these cases. A crippled white man, a native of Ver- 
 mont, was cruelly whipped because he was teaching a 
 colored school. 'No bill was found in this case. The 
 Sheriff of a County was waylaid, shot and killed on 
 a public highway, and the Colonel of a County was 
 shot and killed in the open day, while engaged in his 
 usual business. A County jail was broken open, and 
 five men taken out and their throats cut. Another 
 jail was broken open, and men taken out and shot, 
 one of whom died of his wound. Another jail was 
 broken open and a United States prisoner released. 
 !N'o punishments followed in these cases. The mem- 
 bers of this Klan, under the orders of their Chiefs, 
 had ridden through many neighborhoods at night, 
 and had punished free citizens on account of their 
 political opinions, and had so terrified many of them 
 by threats of future visitations of vengeance that they 
 fled from their houses, took refuge in the woods, and 
 did not dare to appear in public to exercise their right 
 of suffrage. Some of these victims were shot, some 
 of them were whipped, some of them were hanged, 
 some of them were dro^vned, some of them were tor- 
 tured, some had their mouths lacerated with gags, 
 one of them had his ear cropped, and others, of both 
 sexes, were subjected to indignities which were dis- 
 graceful not merely to civilization but to humanity 
 itself. The members of this Klan, under orders of 
 their Chiefs, had ridden, defiantly and unmolested 
 through the towns of Hillsborough, Chapel Hill, 
 
142 Me^ioies of W. W. Holdex 
 
 Pittsborougli and Graham, committing crimes, defy- 
 ing the lawful authorities, and causing real 
 alarm to all really good people. In fine, gen- 
 tlemen, there was no remedy for these evils 
 through the civil law^, and but for the use 
 of the military arm, to which I was compelled to 
 resort, the whole fabric of society in the State would 
 have been undermined and destroyed, and a reign of 
 lawlessness and anarchy w^ould have been established. 
 The present State government would thus have failed 
 in the great purpose for which it was created, to-wit : 
 the protection of life and property under equal laws ; 
 and, necessarily, the national government would have 
 interfered, and, in all probability would have placed 
 us again and for an indefinite period under military 
 rule. 
 
 ^' In June, 1869, about twelve months before I de- 
 clared the Counties of Alamance and CasAvell in a 
 state of insurrection, I caused eighteen men, murder- 
 ers and robbers, to be arrested in Lenoir and Jones. 
 They w^ere examined before Judge Thomas. Five 
 of them turned State's evidence, and exposed the 
 secrets of the Klan and the crimes of their confeder- 
 ates. None of them have been convicted. Yet, the 
 result of these arrests was, that peace and order were 
 almost immediately re-established in those Counties. 
 
 "In the early part of 1870 I employed, in Chatham, 
 Capt. I^. A. Kamsey, and in Orange iCapt. Pride 
 Jones, both belonging to the political party opposed 
 to my administration, to aid in repressing the Ku 
 Klux and in composing the troubles in those Coun- 
 ties. Tlic}^ performed their duty in a manner which 
 
Memoirs of W. W. Holden 143 
 
 entitles them to the thanks of every friend of law and 
 order. 
 
 ^' In July, of the present year, I deemed it my duty 
 to embody a portion of the militia, and to make a 
 number of arrests of suspected persons in the Coun- 
 ties of Alamance and Caswell. I exercised this 
 power by virtue of the State Constitution, which de- 
 clares that '^the Governor shall be Commander-in- 
 Chief, and have power to call out the militia to exe- 
 cute the law, suppress riots or insurrection, and to 
 repel invasion." And also by virtue of an Act of the 
 General Assembly, passed at the session of 1869-'70, 
 which provides that the '^Governor is hereby author- 
 ized and empowered, whenever in his judgment the 
 civil authorities in any County are unable to protect 
 its citizens in the enjoyment of life and property, to 
 declare such County to be in a state of insurrection, 
 and to call into active service the militia of the State 
 to such an extent as may become necessary to suppress 
 such insurrection; and in such case the Governor is 
 further authorized to call upon the President for such 
 assistance, if any, as in his judgment may be neces- 
 sary to enforce the law." 
 
 '^ This was my authority, gentlemen, for the course 
 which I adopted in this grave emergency. It was my 
 sworn duty, as Chief Magistrate of the State, to ''ex- 
 ecute justice and maintain truth." I was satisfied 
 that the civil authorities in the Counties referred to 
 were not able to protect their citizens in the enjoy- 
 ment of life and property ; and, after much forbear- 
 ance, and many remonstrances, and when patience waa 
 exhausted, I could adopt no other course which prom- 
 
144 Memoiks of W. W. Holden 
 
 ised to restore civil law and to re-establish peace and 
 order in these iCounties. 
 
 " Many of the persons thus arrested Avere examined 
 before the Chief Justice and two of the Associate Jus- 
 tices of the Supreme Court, in this citv, and forty- 
 nine of them were bound over to appear and answer 
 to the Superior Courts of Caswell and Alamance. It 
 is supposed that not less than twenty or thirty of the 
 worst characters in Caswell and Alamance and other 
 Counties, have fled the State, to escape arrest and 
 punishment for their numerous crimes. 
 
 "" The correspondence between the Chief Justice 
 and myself in relation to these matters, and all the 
 material evidence elicited in the cases, are given in 
 the Appendix to this document, to which I invite your 
 attention. 
 
 ^' I did not proceed to final action in this matter 
 until I had consulted the President of the United 
 States, which I did in person in July last. It will be 
 seen, by his letter published in the Appendix, that he 
 sustained me in my action. The federal troops in the 
 State at that time were re-inforced by his order, and 
 every precaution was taken to prevent resistance to 
 the steps w^hich I deemed absolutely indispensable to 
 the restoration of the civil law and the re-establish- 
 ment of peace and order. 
 
 '^ The report of the Adjutant General, which will be 
 laid before you, will contain information as to the 
 operations of the militia in Alamance and Caswell, 
 and statements of the expenses of the same. Any 
 information on this or other subjects which the Gen- 
 
Memoirs of W. W. Holden 145 
 
 eral Assembly may desire, will be promptly and 
 cheerfully furnished. 
 
 ^' The result of this action on the part of the Execu- 
 tive, in pursuance of the Constitution and the laws, 
 has been in the highest degree fortunate and benfi- 
 cial. The power of the State government to protect, 
 maintain, and perpetuate itself has been tested and 
 demonstrated. The secret organization which dis- 
 turbed the peace of society, which was sapping the 
 foundations of the government, setting the law at 
 defiance, and inflicting manifold wrongs on a large 
 portion of our people, has been exposed and broken 
 up. Well meaning, honest men, who had been decoyed 
 into this organization, have availed themselves of this 
 opportunity to escape from it, and will henceforth 
 bear their testimony against it as wholly evil in its 
 principles and its modes of operation. A score or 
 more of wicked men have been driven from the State, 
 while those of the same character who remain have 
 been made to tremble before the avenging hand of 
 power. The majesty of the law has been vindicated. 
 The poor and the humble now sleep unmolested in 
 their houses, and are no longer scourged or murdered 
 on account of their political opinions. Peace and 
 good order have been restored to all parts of the State, 
 with the exeception of the (County of Robeson, in 
 which some murderers and robbers are still at large, 
 but it is expected they will speedily be arrested and 
 brought to punishment. In view of this altered and 
 gratifying condition of things I issued another proc- 
 lamation on the 10th of this month, revoking former 
 proclamations which placed Alamance and Caswell in 
 
 10 
 
146 Memoirs of W. W. Holdex 
 
 a state of insurrection. Allow me, gentlemen, to say 
 to you in the language of this proclamation of the 
 10th instant, that I trust that peace and good order 
 may continue; that partisan rancor and bitterness 
 may abate ; that our people of all classes and condi- 
 tions may cultivate harmony and good will among 
 themselves; and that the whole people of the State, 
 without resj^ect to party, may unite fraternally and 
 cordially to build up North Carolina, and to elevate 
 her to the proud eminence which she once occupied as 
 a member of the American Union. 
 
 *^ It will afford me pleasure, gentlemen, to co-oper- 
 ate with you in such measures as may be considered 
 best calculated to promote the prosperity and happi- 
 ness of our people. 
 
 ^^ I have the honor to be, with great respect, 
 " Your obedient servant, 
 
 W. W. HOLDEX." 
 
CHAPTEK V. 
 
 IMPEACHMENT 
 
 CHIEF JUSTICE PEARSON LETTER OF GOVERNOR 
 
 BROGDEN ATTITUDE TOWARD THE REMOVAL OF 
 
 DISABILITIES LAST LETTER TO THE PUBLIC. 
 
 " The Trial of William W. Holden, Governor of 
 Xorth Carolina, on Impeachment by the House of 
 Eepresentatives, for High Crimes and Misdemean- 
 ors. Published by order of the Senate." These vol- 
 umes thus entitled contain three thousajid five hun- 
 dred pages (3,500). I have waded through them all, a 
 heavy task. The number printed is very small, only 
 about three hundred. I would there had been three 
 thousand (3,000). Let those who can, obtain a 
 copy and read for themselves. The whole proceeding 
 on the part of the State against the respondent was 
 thoroughly partisan. The counsel for the State 
 pressed the charges against me with as much partic- 
 ularity and vehemency as they would have done had 
 I been arraigned for murder. I have read all their 
 speeches, all their remarks throughout the whole pro- 
 ceedings, all their examination of the witnesses ; and 
 I here and now declare with the utmost solemnity, 
 that I am not guilty of the charges preferred against 
 me, and ought to have been acquitted on all of the 
 eight as I was on the first two. There is no person 
 so well qualified to say I am not guilty as myself. I 
 htiow I am not guilty. 
 
148 Memoirs of W. W. Holden 
 
 The impeacliment was moved and sustained in 
 the House of Representatives by Mr. Frederick 
 Strudwick, of Orange County, on December 9, 
 1870. It was reported on by the Judiciary Com- 
 mittee of the House on the 14th of December, 
 1870, and approved by the House on the same date. 
 On the 19th of December, Mr. Strudwick, in the 
 chair of the House, the eight ( 8 ) articles of impeach- _ 
 ment were read on motion of Mr. Welch, and \, 
 were adopted. Messrs. Sparrow, Gregory, Dunham, ^ 
 Scott, Welch, Broadfoot and Johnston, of Buncombe, 
 were appointed managers, — all Democrats — mem- 
 bers of the House of Representatives, to conduct the 
 impeachment before the bar of the Senate, also Dem- 
 ocratic by two-thirds, and they were authorized to 
 associate with them other counsel learned in law. 
 
 The trial was commenced on the 23rd of Decem- 
 ber, 1870, by a Court of Impeachment, consisting of 
 the Senate, and thirty-six (36) Senators were sworn 
 as constituting an organized court of impeachment, 
 as announced by the Chief Justice. Richard C. Bad- 
 ger, Esq., one of my counsel, appeared before the 
 court and announced niy purpose to appear by coun- 
 sel. The Chief Justice, who was presiding, then an- 
 nounced that the whole matter would stand for trial 
 on the 23rd day of January, 1871. Thirteen (13) 
 Senators in addition were added on that day of Jan- 
 uary, 1871, making the whole number of the Court 
 forty-nine (49). 
 
 On the first (1) day of February, 1871, the Hon- 
 orable L. C. Edwards presented himself and asked 
 to be sworn as Senator, and as a member of the 
 
Memoirs of W. W. Holden 149 
 
 Court from the County of Granville. My counsel 
 protested against Mr. Edwards being added to the 
 Court. There was no vote taken by the Court, but 
 the Chief Justice, as Presiding Officer, allowed him 
 to be sworn and take his seat, thus making a court of 
 fifty (50), when really and truly the Court as organ- 
 ized consisted of only forty-nine members. 
 
 If the respondent was as clearly guilty of the 
 charges preferred against him as the counsel for the 
 State assumed he was, why were three of the ablest 
 lawyers of the State associated with them, to wit : Ex- 
 Governors Graham and Bragg, and Hon. A. S. Mer- 
 riman, at one thousand each as fees? This obliged 
 me in my defense, out of my own pocket, to employ 
 Hon. W. ]Sr. H. Smith, Hon. ^Nathaniel Boyden, 
 Hon. Edward Conigland, J. M. McCorckle, and 
 Kichard C. Badger, Esq., and to pay Mr. Smith and 
 Mr. Conigland $1,000.00 each, and Mr. McCorckle 
 $500.00. Seven managers on part of the House, 
 aided by an able young lawyer. Sparrow, and three 
 eminent men, two of them Ex-Governors of the State 
 and both of them very hostile to me, and all Demo- 
 crats, and I not on speaking terms with either of 
 them, because I offended them politically! 
 
 Messrs. Sparrow, Welch, Graham, Bragg, Smith, 
 Conigland, Boyden, McCorckle, Badger, and Pear- 
 son, who presided at the trial are all dead, and 
 Judge Merriman only survives of the counsel em- 
 ployed. 
 
 W. P. Welch, a young lawyer from Hay^vood 
 County, was selected to open the preliminary pro- 
 ceedings against me in the Senate, on the 15th day 
 
150 Memoirs of W. W. Holden 
 
 of December, 1870. I find his remarks in the first 
 volume of the impeachment trial. Whether he is liv- 
 ing or dead I know not. I hope he is still living. He 
 seemed profoundly impressed with the awful respon- 
 sibilities of the situation. He said he had found a 
 cause and found a criminal whose crimes were so 
 great that such iniquity had never been laid to the 
 charge of anyone. He said among other things, "We 
 impeach him in the name of human nature itself, 
 w^hich he has cruelly outraged, injured and op- 
 pressed; and in conclusion the House of Represen- 
 tatives through us most heartily prays that God, the 
 God of Eternal Justice, will protect the right.''' 
 
 The Senate was resolved into a court, and the 
 Chief Justice presided as required by the State Con- 
 stitution. He had been invited to do so. He ac- 
 quitted himself in this position ^vith honesty and 
 ability. He was only required in this position not 
 to express any opinion as to the guilt or innocence 
 of the accused, but only to conduct the proceedings 
 of the court in accordance with the well-known and 
 
 1 On the night of the 7th of October, 1836, I left Hillsborough, 
 a lad not quite 18 years of age, on the stage coach from Greens- 
 borough with several young men, students of Caldwell Institute. 
 Among them was (sic) Thomas Sparrow and William J. Clarke. 
 I was destined to Governor of the State and Sparrow to be man- 
 ager for my impeachment, and Clarke to command my troops. 
 
 In 1874 I was Postmaster in Raleigh. Mr. Sparrow called 
 to see me. We had a long and pleasant conversation. Col. 
 Clarke had meanwhile reminded him of what occurred 34 
 years before. He told me that he had been moved when a 
 young man to preach the gospel, but had declined to do so. 
 He said he had therefore all his life had what men call bad luck. 
 He graduated at Princeton, read law with Judge Gaston, and 
 entered on the practice well equipped and with bright hopes. He 
 had not succeeded as he had expected he would. He knew that his 
 party would impeach me, and without any personal dislike to me, 
 he desired as a lawyer to have the reputation of appearing against 
 me. He died a year or two ago. His son, a promising young law- 
 yer at Beaufort, has recently left the profession of law and entered 
 the ministry. 
 
Memoirs of W. W. Holden 151 
 
 well settled principles of Parliamentary law. I had no 
 intercourse with him after the trial commenced. I 
 was disposed to protect him in his then situation by 
 abstaining from seeing him at all. But I had the 
 best reasons for believing afterwards that he regarded 
 me as innocent, and that the writ of habeas corpus 
 did not run in the counties of Alamance and Caswell. 
 Mr. Boyden told me in my house in Washington City, 
 in 1871, that Chief Justice Pearson had told him 
 that I had the right, as Governor, to put those two 
 counties in a state of insurrection, and therefore the 
 writ did not run in those counties. ''And," said Mr. \ 
 Boyden, '' he gave me points during your trial on 
 which to defend you." On my return from Washing- 
 ton City I told Mr. Badger what Mr. Boyden had 
 said. Mr. Badger said, " Why, he has told me the 
 same thing. He has said to me I ought to have held 
 your four points. I held but three. If I had held 
 your fourth point the writ would not have run in 
 those three counties."^ Mr. feathery, my former 
 Private Secretary, was interrogated at length, and 
 with much particularity, as to what occurred be- 
 tween Judge Pearson and himself at the time he was 
 sent by me to see the Judge. He was sent by me 
 because the time had arrived for a hearing in the 
 habeas corpus cases. I had not refused habeas cor- \ 
 pus, but had simply postponed it — as I had a right 
 to do. I said in my letter to Judge Pearson, dated 
 August 15, ''I assure your Honor, that as soon as 
 the safety of the State should justify it, I would 
 
 1 The four points of Mr. Badger, I think, were made in his argu- 
 ment in the Habeas Corpus proceedings, case of A. G. Moore, July 
 16, 1870. But his speech has not been preserved. [Ed.] 
 
152 Memoirs of W. TT. Holdex 
 
 cheerfully restore the civil power, and cause the said 
 parties to be brought before you, together with the 
 cause of their capture and detention." Judge Pear- 
 son prepared some ten or twelve years ago a reply to 
 certain charges which had been preferred against 
 him, to be laid before the General Assembly of Xorth 
 Carolina. It was never laid before that body, but 
 was published in the Keivs and Observer, The copy 
 of the defense was first deposited with Major Bag- 
 ley, the Clerk of the Supreme Court. Judge Bagley, 
 who w^as my friend, very kindly showed me the doc- 
 ument, and allowed me to make a copy of it. He 
 (Pearson) was charged with being a ^^tool of the 
 Governor" and in complicity with him in defeating 
 the ends of justice.^ 
 
 I quote as follows from this document : " Writs 
 were issued by me in July, to which the same reply 
 was made. I left Raleigh under the impression, but 
 without any communication with the Governor, that 
 he would at a future day make return of the bodies, 
 and the associate justices were requested by me to 
 attend when notified of the time and aid in the ex- 
 amination of the question of probable causes. Ac- 
 cordingly, on an official notice that the Governor 
 was ready to return the bodies, I came to Raleigh, 
 as did Justices Dick and Settle, and the return was 
 made." This showed beyond question, that I had 
 not refused, but had only postponed habeas corpus. 
 
 I have not the space to publish all the correspon- 
 dence between Judge Pearson and myself, but I give 
 
 * I have searched in vain to find a copy of Judge Pearson's 
 Defense. It was not publislied in the Veir.s and Observer as Gov. 
 Ilolden thinks. Some who claim to have seen it say it was pub- 
 lished In the newspapers ; others that it appeared in pamphlet 
 form, t Ed. ] 
 
Memoirs of W. W. Holden 153 
 
 below my letter dated Raleigli, July 26, and another 
 letter to Judge Pearson, dated Raleigh, August 15, 
 and another letter from Judge Pearson to me, dated 
 August 18, 1870. 
 
 ^' Executive Department, 
 
 '' Raleigh, July 26, 1870. 
 
 To the Hon. R. M. Pearson^ 
 
 Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of N, C. : 
 
 " Sir : — I have had the honr to receive, by the 
 hands of the Marshal of the Supreme Court, a copy of 
 your opinion in the matter of A. G. Moore ; and the 
 Marshal has informed me of the writ in his hands for 
 the body of said Moore^ now in the custody of my 
 subordinate officer. Col. George W. Kirk. 
 
 ''I have declared the counties of Alamance and Cas- 
 well in a state of insurrection, and have taken mili- 
 tary possession of them. This your Honor admits I 
 had the power to do "under the Constitution and 
 laws." And not only this, " but to do all things nec- 
 essary to suppress the insurrection," including the 
 power to " arrest all suspected persons " in the above- 
 mentioned Counties. 
 
 ''Your Honor has thought proper also to declare 
 that the citizens of Alamance and Caswell are insur- 
 gents, as the result of the Constitutional and lawful 
 action of the Executive, and that therefore, you will 
 not issue the w^it for the production of the body of 
 Moore to any of the men of the said Counties ; that 
 '' the posse comitatus must come from the County 
 where the writ is to be executed," and that any other 
 means would be illegal. 
 
 "I have official and reliable information that in the 
 
154 Memoirs of W. W. Holdex 
 
 Counties above named, during the last twelve months, 
 not less than one hundred persons, '' in the peace of 
 God and the State," have been taken from their homes 
 and scourged, mainly if not entirely on account of 
 their political opinions ; that eight murders have 
 been committed, including that of a State Senator, 
 on the same account ; that another State Senator 
 has been compelled from fear for his life to make 
 his escape to a distant State. I have reason to believe 
 that the governments of the said Counties have been 
 mainly if not entirely in the hands of men who be- 
 long to the Kuklux Klan, whose members have per- 
 petrated the atrocities referred to; and that the 
 County governments have not merely omitted to fer- 
 ret out and bring to justice those of this Klan who 
 have thus violated the law, but that they have actu- 
 ally shielded them from arrest and punishment. The 
 State judicial power in the said Counties, though in 
 the hands of energetic, learned and upright men, 
 has not been able to bring criminals to justice: in- 
 deed, it is my opinion, based on facts that have come 
 to my knowledge, that the life of the Judge whose 
 duty it is to ride the circuit to which the said Coun- 
 ties belong, has not been safe, on account of the 
 hatred entertained towards him by the Klan referred 
 to, because of his wish and purpose to bring said crim- 
 inals to justice. For be it known to your Honor that 
 there is a widespread and formidable secret organiza- 
 tion in this State, partly political and partly social 
 in its objects; that this organization is kno^\^l, first, 
 as "The Constitutional Union Guard," — secondly, 
 as "The White Brotherhood," — thirdly, as "The In- 
 visible Empire:" — that the members of this organiza- 
 
Memoirs of W. W. Holden 155 
 
 tion are united by oaths which ignore or repudiate 
 the ordinary oaths or obligations that rest upon all 
 other citizens to respect the laws and to uphold the 
 government ; that these oaths inculcate hatred by the 
 white against the colored j)eople of the State; that 
 the members of this Klan are irreconcilably hostile 
 to the great principle of political and civil equality, 
 on which the government of this State has been re- 
 constructed; that these Klans meet in secret, in dis- 
 guise, with arms, in uniform of a certain kind in- 
 tended to conceal their persons and their horses, and 
 to terrify those whom they assault or among whom 
 they move; that they hold their camps in secret 
 places, and decree judgment against their peaceable 
 fellow-citizens, from mere intimidations to scourg- 
 ings, mutilations and murder, and that certain per- 
 sons of the Klan are deputed to execute these judg- 
 ments; that when the members of this Klan are ar- 
 rested for violations of the law, it is most difficult to 
 obtain bills of indictment against them, and still 
 more difficult to convict them, first, because some of 
 the members or their sympathizers are almost always 
 on the grand and petit juries, and secondly, because 
 witnesses who are members or sympathizers unblush- 
 ingly commit perjury to screen their confederates 
 and associates in crime; that this Klan, thus con- 
 stituted and having in view the objects referred to, 
 is very powerful in at least twenty-five Counties of 
 the State, and has had absolute control for the last 
 twelve months of the Counties of Alamance and Cas- 
 well. 
 
 " Under these circumstances I would have been 
 
156 Memoirs of W. W. Holdex 
 
 recreant to my duty and faithless to my oath, if I 
 had not exercised the power in the several Counties 
 which your Honor has been pleased to say I have 
 exercised Constitutionally and lawfully; especially 
 as, since October, 1868, I have repeatedly, by procla- 
 mations and by letters, invoked public opinion to re- 
 press these evils, and warned criminals and offenders 
 against the laws of the fate that must in the end 
 overtake them, if, under the auspices of the Klan re- 
 ferred to, they should persist in their course. 
 
 '^I beg to assure your Honor that no one subscribes 
 more thoroughly than I do to the great principles of 
 habeas corpus and trial by jury. Except in extreme 
 cases, in which beyond all question '' the safety of 
 the State is the supreme law,'' these privileges of 
 habeas corpus and trial by jury should be maintained. 
 
 ''I have already declared that, in my judgment, 
 your Honor and all the other civil and judicial 
 authorities are unable at this time to deal with the 
 insurgents. The civil and the military are alike Con- 
 stitutional powers — ^the civil to protect life and prop- 
 erty when it can, and the military only when the 
 former has failed. As the Chief Executive I seek 
 to restore, not to subvert, the judicial power. Your 
 Honor has done your duty, and in perfect harmony 
 with you I seek to do mine. 
 
 "It is not I nor the military power that has sup- 
 planted the civil authority; that has been done by 
 the insurrection in the Counties referred to. I do 
 not see how I can restore the civil authority until I 
 " suppress the insurrection," which your Honor de- 
 clares I have the power to do ; and I do not see how 
 
Memoies of W. W. Holden 157 
 
 I can surrender the insurgents to the civil authority 
 until that authority is restored. It would be a mock- 
 ery in me to declare that the civil authority was un- 
 able to protect the citizens against the insurgents, and 
 then turn the insurgents over to the civil authority. 
 My oath to support the Constitution makes it imper- 
 ative on me to ^' suppress the insurrection " and 
 restore the civil authority in the Counties referred 
 to, and this I must do. In doing this I renew to your 
 Honor expressions of my profound respect for the 
 civil authority, and my earnest wish that this author- 
 ity may soon be restored to every County and neigh- 
 borhood in the State. 
 
 " I have the honor to be, with great respect. 
 Your obedient servant, 
 
 W. W. Holden, Governor/* 
 
 ^^ State of x^orth Carolina^ Executive Depart- 
 ment^ Raleigh^ 
 
 Aug. 15th, 1870. 
 ''To the Hon. E. M. Pearson, 
 
 Chief Justice Supreme Court of N. C: 
 
 " Dear Sir : In my answer to the notices served 
 upon me by the Marshall of the Supreme Court, in 
 the matter of Adolphus G. Moore and others, ex- 
 parte, I stated to your Honor that at that time the 
 public interests forbade me to permit Col. George W. 
 Kirk to bring before your Honor the said parties ; at 
 the same time I assured your Honor that as soon as 
 the safety of the State should justify it, I would 
 cheerfully restore the civil power, and cause the said 
 
7 
 
 158 Memoirs of W. W. Holdex 
 
 parties to be brought before you, together with the 
 cause of their caption and detention. 
 
 ^^ That time has arrived, and I have ordered Col. 
 George W. Kirk to obey the writs of habeas corpus 
 issued by your Honor. As the number of prisoners 
 and witnesses is considerable, I would suggest to your 
 Honor that it would be more convenient to make re- 
 turn to the writs at the capitol in Raleigh. Col. Kirk 
 is prepared to make such return as soon as your 
 Honor shall arrive in Raleigh. 
 With great respect, 
 
 Your obedient servant, 
 
 W. W. HoLDEjj^^ Governor/^ 
 
 " Raleigh, August 18, 1870. 
 
 "To His Excellency GovER^'OR Holdex: 
 
 "Dear Sir: Your communication of the 15th inst. 
 w^as handed to me by Mr. ]^eathery. 
 
 "I will be in the Supreme Court room at 10 o'clock 
 A. M., 19th inst., to receive the return by Col. Kirk, 
 of the bodies of A. G. Moore and others, (in whose 
 behalf Writs of Habeas Corpus have heretofore been 
 issued by me,) together Avith the cause of their arrest 
 and detention. 
 
 '' Receiving the return after the delay to which you 
 allude of several weeks, is not to be taken as con- 
 curring, on my part, in the necessity for the delay, 
 or as assuming any portion of the responsibility in 
 regard to it. The entire responsibility rests on you. 
 
Memoirs of W. W. Holden 159 
 
 I was unwilling to plunge the State into a civil war, 
 upon a mere question of time. 
 With great respect, 
 
 Your obedient servant, 
 
 R M. Pearson, /. S. C/' 
 
 One morning, during the spring of 1870, Chief 
 Justice Pearson called to see me at my house. We 
 conversed a good while. Among other things, he 
 said, ^^ The Senate of this State had been chosen for 
 four years." He said it was chosen for four years 
 and he could prove it beyond question. He said he 
 hoped I would confer with him, and that I would aid 
 him in a case to be made up by the Supreme Court. 
 I was surprised at the suggestion. The proposition 
 was to me a new one. I had not thought of it. But 
 I said to him: ^^ Judge, the people in voting for the 
 Constitution no doubt believed they were voting for 
 two years for the Senate, and not four years. And 
 besides it is written the different departments of gov- 
 ernment shall be kept always separate and distinct. 
 According to this rule I could not beforehand confer 
 with the court." He seemed to be, as he no doubt 
 was, profoundly in earnest. The Senate at that time 
 was by two-thirds Republican. It was the first Sen- 
 ate under the new Constitution. I did not think of 
 the matter any more until I was impeached.^ 
 
 ^ This account of Judge Pearson's opinion of the term of the 
 Legislature of 1869-70 is of interest. In December, 1869, the 
 Legislature adopted a resolution asking the opinion of the Supreme 
 Court of North Carolina regarding the term for which it was 
 elected. The reply of the court was made in January, 1870. Judge 
 Pearson held that the term was two years, and Judge Dick con- 
 curred. The other Judges (Reade, Rodman, and Settle) refused 
 to give an opinion, holding that the question was of a political 
 nature. (Leg. Doc. 1869-70.) From these facts the conversation 
 between Judge Pearson and Governor Holden must have taken 
 place in the spring of 1869, not 1870. [Ed.] 
 
160 Memoirs of W. W. Holder 
 
 Again, the Honorable Xathaniel Boyden, one of 
 my counsel, told me in Washington City, after my 
 conviction, that Chief Justice Pearson, who presided 
 over the court, did not believe me guilty, and gave 
 him points to use in my defense. He said the Chief 
 Justice said to him I had the right to refuse the writ 
 in Alamance and Caswell; in other words, the writ 
 did not run in those Counties. On my return from 
 Washington City I repeated this to Mr. R. C. Bad- 
 ger, also one of my counsel. He said the Chief Jus- 
 tice had so told him. 
 
 Mr. Boyden was very anxious for my acquittal. 
 He evinced deep feeling in the matter. He said to 
 me one day : ^' Governor, I am authorized to say, and 
 I do say to you, that if you would use your influence 
 in the Legislature to call a convention, the impeach- 
 ment proceeding will be stopped." I said : '' Mr. 
 Boyden, I am the first Governor under the new Con- 
 stitution. I cannot support a convention to amend 
 the Constitution at this time. The Constitution has 
 hardly yet been tried. I am committed against the 
 convention. I could not do evil that good might 
 come." He seemed perplexed and troubled and said : 
 " Why not ? are you afraid to trust the people ? I 
 am disposed to think well of the Constitution gener- 
 ally, but it ought to be amended, and you are too 
 careful and squeamish for your own good." I went 
 over that day to the lobby of the House of Represen- 
 tatives and met Dr. Thomas W. Young, my brother- 
 in-law, and a member of the House of Representa- 
 tives, who said : '' Governor, we want to call a con- 
 vention and lack but eight or ten votes of doing so. 
 
Memoirs of W. W. Holden 161 
 
 What do you say ?" I answered, '' Dr. I cannot 
 agree to the arrangement to call a convention on my 
 account/' This showed that the matter had been 
 talked about. To what extent, I know not. He 
 added, ^' We can do it in both Houses, if you will 
 agree to it.'' I said, " 'No, I cannot do it." 
 
 Chief Justice Pearson's defense of himself, 
 heretofore referred to, and not sent to the House, but 
 only published in the News and Observer ^ dwelt at 
 length on the gross injustice done to him by my 
 enemies in charging him that he was my tool. The 
 fact that he was thus assailed and maligned afforded 
 the best proof that he was my friend. If I had con- 
 curred with him, and made up the case for the Su- 
 preme Court, I could not have been impeached, for 
 the reason either that the case would have been pend- 
 ing, or it would have been decided in my favor, for 
 the Senate, as heretofore stated, was by two-thirds a 
 Republican body, and if I had consented to Mr. 
 Boyden's proposition, the proceedings of the impeach- 
 ment court would have ceased. 
 
 It was rumored during my impeachment that ar- 
 ticles of impeachment had been prepared against 
 (Chief Justice Pearson for acting as my tool in regard 
 to habeas corpus. Whether this is so or not, I know 
 not. If so, the intention was to have a victim, either 
 myself or Pearson. In my own case it was calcu- 
 lated and believed that if I could be impeached and 
 
 1 On Feb. 8th, 1871, a bill authorizing a convention was passed. 
 But Tod R. Caldwell, Lieutenant Governor and acting executive 
 during the impeachment, refused to order the election, holding 
 that the convention bill was unconstitutional. In this view he 
 was supported by an opinion of Judge Pearson. This makes Gov- 
 ernor Holden's account of an offer to compromise the impeachment 
 for his support of the convention all the more Interesting. [Ed.] 
 
 11 
 
162 Memoirs of W. W. Holden 
 
 silenced the Republican Party in jSTorth Carolina 
 would gradually and surely cease to exist. I know 
 nothing about the motives of others, and I impeach 
 no one as to their purposes ; I simply state the naked 
 facts, and leave the public to draw tlieir own infer- 
 ence. I was certainly impeached by party man- 
 agers and party counsel, by a party House of Rep- 
 resentatives, and by a party Senate. And to show 
 their fear of me as a party man I was declared unfit 
 to hold office in my native State. This was the 
 '^most unkindest cut of all." I submitted to it all 
 quietly. Suppose, for example, Chief Justice Pear- 
 son had said to the Senate : '^ Gentlemen, on calmly 
 reviewing this entire case, I am obliged to say, as I 
 have said already to Messrs. Boyden and Badger, the 
 writ of habeas corpus does not run in the counties of 
 Alamance and Caswell. By the authority given by 
 the law, to-wit, by the Shoffner Act, the Governor 
 had the right that whenever in his judgment it should 
 be done, and he had done it already in both counties, 
 all civil law is suspended, and the writ cannot be 
 enforced. Therefore the Governor is innocent, and 
 should be discharged." What would have occurred ? 
 He did not dare do that. If he had done so the 
 Senate would in all probability have declared his seat 
 as Chief Justice vacant, and would have filled the 
 vacancy and proceeded with a new Chief Justice. 
 In this they would probably have failed to command 
 a two-thirds vote, and the Governor would therefore 
 have been acquitted. I was solicited anxiously by 
 many friends to run again for Governor. IsTo doubt 
 Caldwell, who succeeded me, would have given place 
 
Memoirs of W. W. Holden 163 
 
 to me and so would have Settle, who ran against 
 Vance. ^-^ 
 
 The seven managers of the impeachment appointed 
 by the House, to-wit: Messrs. Sparrow, Gregory, 
 Dunham, Welch, Johnson, of Buncombe, Scott and 
 Broadfoot, and Ex-Governor Bragg, Ev-Governor 
 Graham, and Judge A. S. Merrimon, as counsel, rep- 
 resented the State, and Messrs. W. ]^. H. Smith, ISTa- 
 thaniel Boyden, J. M. McCorckle, Edward Conig- 
 land, and R. C Badger represented the respondent, 
 Holden. The articles of impeachment, or the bill of 
 indictment, consisted of eight articles. The respond- 
 ent was acquitted by a two-thirds vote on the first and 
 second articles. These two articles both contain the 
 following words : " That by the Constitution of the 
 State of E'orth Carolina, the Governor of said State 
 has power to call out the militia thereof to execute 
 the laws, suppress riots or insurrections, and to repel 
 invasion, whenever the execution of the law shall be 
 resisted, or there shall exist any riot, insurrection or 
 invasion ; but not otherwise. That William W. Hol- 
 den, Governor of said State, unmindful of the high 
 duties of his ofiSce, the obligation of his solemn oath 
 of office, and the Constitution and laws of said State, 
 and intending to stir up civil war, and pervert per- 
 sonal and public liberty and the Constitution and 
 laws of said State, and of the United States, and con- 
 tinuing and intending to humiliate and degrade the 
 said State, and the people thereof, and to provoke the 
 people to wrath, and violence, did, under color of his 
 said office, on the seventh (7) day of March in the 
 year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and 
 
164 Me:moirs of W. W. Holden 
 
 seventy, in said State, of his own false, corrupt, and 
 wicked mind and purpose, proclaim and declare that 
 the county of Alamance in said State was in insur- 
 rection, and did, after the days and time last afore- 
 said, send bodies of armed, desperate and lawdess 
 men, organized and set on foot without authority of 
 law," etc. 
 
 The vote on this first article was thirty (30) to 
 convict, to acquit nineteen (19). Leaving out Mr. 
 Edwards and Mr. James A. Graham of Alamance 
 who occupied the seat formerly occupied by Mr. 
 Shoff ner — who had fled the State from fear for his 
 life — and the vote would have been twenty-eight 
 (28) instead of thirty (30) for conviction. On the 
 second (2nd) article the vote was thirty-two (32) 
 for conviction and seventeen (17) for acquital; 
 omitting Graham and Edwards, the vote for convic- 
 tion would have been thirty (30). Counting both 
 names for acquital, as in justice and right should 
 have been done, in the first case it w^ould have been 
 twenty-one (21) ; in the second, nineteen (19). The 
 third article charging me with having incited and 
 procured one John Hunnicutt to arrest Josiah Tur- 
 ner, Jr., had no foundation in fact, as I never gave 
 Hunnicutt any such orders. This passed by four 
 (4) majority over the required two-thirds. The 
 fourth (4) article passed by thirty-three (33) to 
 sixteen (16). It barely passed the two-thirds ma- 
 jority. The fifth article passed by forty (40) to 
 nine (9). The sixth article passed by forty-one (41) 
 to eight (8). The eighth article by thirty-six (36) 
 to thirteen (13). On motion of Mr. Senator Gra- 
 
Memoirs of W. W. Holden 165 
 
 ham, of Orange, the judgment of the court was then 
 prayed on the respondent in the third, fourth, fifth, 
 sixth, seventh and eighth articles, and he was re- 
 moved from the office of Governor, and disqualified 
 to hold any office of trust or honor under the State 
 of North (Carolina. Mr. Moore of Craven, said: 
 -^ Before the vote is taken, with the permission of the 
 court, I would like to make a statement in regard to 
 the vote I am about to cast. I would not object to the 
 order offered by the Senator from Orange, Mr. Gra- 
 ham, if it merely pronounced a judgment removing 
 the respondent from his office. I think that under 
 the evidence which has been elicited in the case the 
 penalty providing for disqualification of the respond- 
 ent to ever hold office in this State is severe. Be- 
 cause that feature is included in the judgment I shall 
 be compelled to vote against the order." Mr. Senator 
 Cowles also said : '^ Mr. Chief Justice, I desire before 
 the iCourt shall finally adjourn, to say that I regret 
 that the court did not take a day to mature and con- 
 sider its judgment. I am by no means satisfied with 
 the propriety of the disqualifying clause contained 
 in the order of judgment adopted. I simply desire 
 to make this statement and ask that it appear in the 
 published proceedings." The vote was then taken 
 on Mr. Senator Graham's motion and resulted, yeas 
 thirty-six 36, nays 13. The Senate as a court of 
 impeachment then adjourned, sine die, 
 
 I attended every day, very promptly, the im- 
 peachment trial up to the eighteenth day. On that 
 day Josiah Turner, Jr., was a witness. I quote from 
 the nine hundred and sixth (906) page of the " Im- 
 
166 Memoirs of W. W. Holden 
 
 peachmeiit Trial of Governor W. W. Holden." 
 
 Q. What are jour personal feelings towards the ac- 
 cused? Are they friendly? A. I suppose as good 
 as they ever were. 
 
 Q. That is not exactly answering my question — 
 What are they now? A. They are just what they 
 ought to be between a good and a bad man. 
 
 The Respondent. Mr. Chief Justice, I will not 
 submit to this language. I am not going to be in- 
 sulted here. 
 
 Senator Edwards^ Mr. Chief Justice, I rise to a 
 question of order. The Respondent can only be 
 heard through his counsel. 
 
 The Chief Justice, Are you on good or bad terms 
 with him? A. There are no terms between us. I 
 have never passed a dozen words with him in my life. 
 I never had any social relations with him. I never 
 passed a dozen words with him in my life — hardly 
 a good morning. 
 
 Of course I retired. Mr. Turner said in his evi- 
 dence that he had never passed a dozen words with 
 me in his life. Mr. Turner, when in Raleigh during 
 his canvassing for the Confederate Congress, talked 
 with me for some time and he and I adjourned to 
 Mr. Lougee's restaurant on Fayetteville Street, and 
 took a drink together of Lougee's whiskey. My 
 paper. The Standard, was for him for Congress, and 
 really elected him over Mr. Arrington. Mr. Turner 
 was forgetful, as I am myself. 
 
 In a few days I left for Washington City. In the 
 course of a day or two I called in to see President 
 
Memoirs of W. W. Holden 167 
 
 Grant. He asked me if I knew that a number of my 
 triers, members of the Senate, were Ku Klux. I 
 told him I supposed thej were, but that was a matter 
 for his Attorney-General and my two Senators. I 
 had heard soon after my impeachment from a Demo- 
 crat of character that the Dens had decreed my im- 
 peachment. In regard to my power as Commander- 
 in-chief of the Militia of the State, I relied for 
 power to pursue the course I did on the act known as 
 the Shoffner Act, which passed in January, 1870. 
 This act provided in express terms that the Governor 
 "when in his judgment it was proper to do so, could 
 proclaim counties in insurrection, thereby suspend- 
 ing the operation of the civil law.'' I had never 
 heard the constitutionality of this act questioned. 
 Leading men in the Democratic party who had de- 
 termined in advance on my impeachment had quietly 
 and sedulously produced the impression that this act 
 was unconstitutional. I have before me a letter 
 dated, Goldsboro, August 31, 1883, from William A. 
 Allen, a Senator from Duplin and Wayne at the 
 session when I was impeached, and who voted against 
 me. In this letter he says : " I also want to say to 
 you that I have had, and while you were on trial in 
 your impeachment, I said to Governor Bragg that I 
 had some difficulty about as a lawyer in the question 
 of your guilt, and asked him to discuss it, which he 
 did not, and that was, as to whether you could justify 
 under the Shoffner act, an unconstitutional act of 
 the Legislature. It was the difficulty of the case 
 with me. I have wanted to say this to you sev- 
 eral times but a favorable opportunity has never 
 
168 Memoirs of W. W. Holder 
 
 presented itself. Governor Bragg declined to express 
 himself to me on the subject, and sedulously avoided 
 it in his discussion." 
 
 Mr. Allen was a special personal friend of mine, 
 and an honest man. It will be seen that he speaks 
 of the Shoffner act as unconstitutional. Who told 
 him so ? Had the Supreme Court said so ? Ko. 
 Had the Chief Justice said so ? No. Mr. Allen him- 
 self was a good lawyer, but not of the order of law- 
 yers of which I have just spoken, who seriously in- 
 culcated an opinion which they failed to boldly and 
 frankly assert. Shoffner, poor man, was driven from 
 the State. His life was threatened and his name 
 blotted out as far as the impeachers could do it, and 
 the impression prevails generally among my enemies 
 that the Shoffner act was unconstitutional. ISTo good 
 lawyer of any party will say so now. Mr. Shoffner 
 left this State in September, 1870, and I have before 
 me a letter from him dated Pittsboro, Indiana, Oc- 
 tober 12, 1870. I did not reply to the letter, and 
 have not heard from him since. Whether he is liv- 
 ing or dead I do not know. But one thing I do know, 
 and that is, the State of North (Carolina, which 
 allowed him without cause to be driven from the 
 State ought to reimburse him for his losses incurred 
 in being broken up and driven out. His only offense 
 was that he was the author of the act which passed 
 the Senate and the House authorizing the Governor 
 to declare counties in insurrection, to put do\vn the 
 Ku-Klux, and against lynch or mob law. ^^His 
 offence hath this extent, no more." Whether living 
 or dead, wherever he is, he is a true man and a 
 
Memoies of W. W. Holden 169 
 
 worthy citizen. He represented Guilford and Ala- 
 mance in the Senate. 
 
 Ex-Governor Curtis H. Brogden is now like my- 
 self, an old man. I saw him first in 1838, a member 
 of the House of Commons from the County of 
 Wajne. He is a man of unquestioned integrity and 
 veracity. He has been in public life nearly all his 
 life, and as they used to say in olden times, speaking 
 of men, "his word is always as good as his bond." It 
 is a pleasure to have such a man for a friend. He 
 sat in the Senate patiently throughout the whole 
 trial. I have lately written him for the facts in the 
 trial and for his impressions. It is now twenty 
 (20) years since it took place and I would like to 
 be sustained in my recollections 
 
 *At my Country Home^ neae Goldsboeo^ ^. C, 
 
 Feb. 12, 1890. 
 **Gov. W. W. Hoeden: 
 
 *<My Esteemed Friend: — I was pleased to receive 
 your kind letter but was very sorry to hear of your 
 bodily affliction. 
 
 "I often think of your laborious, useful, and event- 
 ful life, and the vicissitudes through which you have 
 passed, and my warmest sympathies and best wishes 
 are for you. 
 
 "Although you have suffered great wrong and in- 
 justice by the malign influence of partisan animosity, 
 you will still live in history as one who has ^done 
 the State some service.' While the past is gone and 
 cannot be recalled but in memory, we should look 
 hopefully forward to the rewards of the true Chris- 
 
170 Memoies of W. W. Holden 
 
 tians in a fairer and better world, 'where the wicked 
 cease from troubling and the weary are at rest.' 
 
 " The 'sketch' to which you allude, especially to 
 the impeachment, is too important for me to do any- 
 thing like justice to without some time for prepa- 
 ration. I shall be glad to assist you if I can some 
 time hence when I have more time and better oppor- 
 tunity — I mean time to spare from my daily labors. 
 It seems that your greatest offense was in trying to 
 stop crime, while acting under the Constitution and 
 laws, because the laws then in existence fully author- 
 ised you to do what you did do. The whole history 
 of your administration as Governor shows that you 
 did all you could to maintain and preserve peace 
 and order among the people and to stop the many 
 t and abominable Ku Klux crimes. This is shown by 
 your proclamation and by your letters to Dr. Pride 
 Jones, a prominent democrat of Orange, T. A. Don- 
 oho, a prominent democrat of Caswell, and Capt. 
 1^. A. Ramsay, a prominent democrat of Chatham 
 County, earnestly requesting them to use their in- 
 fluences in their respective counties to stop lawless- 
 ness and crime, and suppress the violence and out- 
 rages of the Ku Klux Klan, when no one was safe at 
 night at home, who happened to come under the dis- 
 pleasure of those wicked bands. The civil authori- 
 ties were powerless to bring these offenders against 
 law and humanity to justice. They compelled Shoff- 
 ner, a Republican Senator, to leave his own home in 
 Alamance, sacrifice his property, and flee to another 
 State to avoid being murdered. 
 
 "The Legislature then passed an act to hold a spe- 
 
Memoirs of W. W. Holden 171 
 
 cial election to supply his place, on the 24th of De- 
 cember, 1870. They were in such hot haste to fill 
 his place that the act was only passed the l7th of 
 December, 1870. The Eepublicans were so dis- 
 heartened that they took no interest in the election; 
 indeed they were intimidated and afraid to try to 
 vote, and the democrats carried the election their 
 own way and elected James A. Graham. That was 
 a democrat in place of a Eepublican; but the dem- 
 ocratic Senators still thought that there might be 
 some doubt about their having sufficient strength in 
 the Senate to pass their impeachment resolutions, 
 so they went to work to unseat R. W. Lassiter, a 
 Eepublican, who was honestly and fairly elected, 
 and to put L. C. Edwards, a democrat, who was not 
 elected, in his place. They passed an act on the 
 6th of December, 1870, appointing W. A. Allen, 
 Senator from Duplin, ^a commissioner to take the 
 depositions of such witnesses as might be produced 
 before him at such times and places as he might des- 
 ignate.' The commissioner was given all the powers 
 of a judge of the Superior Court, and was to decide 
 upon the competency or relevancy of testimony. It 
 was a one-sided business, as the commissioner was 
 in the interest of the democratic party, and only al- 
 lowed such evidence as he wanted, and upon that 
 Lassiter was turned out and Edwards was put in 
 his place. 
 
 "It was then ascertained that Moore and Lehman, 
 two Eepublican Senators from Craven, would vote 
 with the democrats for the impeachment resolutions. 
 
172 Memoirs of W. W. Holden 
 
 and on that question they shamefully misrepresented 
 the party that elected them, 
 ^'It was by such means as these that (that) democrats 
 
 t got votes enough to pass their impeachment resolu- 
 tions in the Senate. On the day the final vote was 
 taken, two of their Senators, I mean Dargan and 
 Murphy, were brought in by the doorkeepers drunk, 
 but as to that, they had as well been drunk as sober, 
 as it had been decided in caucus to pass the resolu- 
 tions. 
 
 '^ Among the first acts passed by the democratic 
 Legislature of 1870-71 was an act to repeal ^an act 
 to secure the better protection of life and property.' 
 The repeal of that act only encouraged the Ku Klux 
 to continue their lawlessness and crime. They 
 thought they would be protected. 
 
 "The impeachment trial proved that the Ku Klux 
 were so numerous that no one could deny their ex- 
 istence. It was shoT\Ti in Alamance County a major- 
 
 . ity of the democratic voters belonged to the order, 
 and that Albert Murray, the Sheriff of the County, 
 was a member of it, and was chief of a Ku Klux 
 camp near his residence, and there were ten Ku 
 
 ^ Klux camps in Alamance County. 
 
 j^You were charged falsely with ^intending to stir 
 up civil war and subvert public and personal liberty, 
 and the Constitution and laws of N^orth Carolina, 
 and of the United States, and contriving and intend- 
 ing to humiliate and degrade the people.'J I believed 
 then, as I do now, that this charge was false, and 
 after you have suffered imder that and other false 
 charges for twenty years I think it is high time for 
 
Memoirs of W. W. Holden 173 
 
 the Legislature to do you justice, by restoring you to 
 the equal enjojTuent of all the rights and privileges 
 of a free citizen of ^orth Carolina. 
 
 "At the Ku Klux trials in Ealeigh, in 1871. whon 
 Shotwell and others were convicted and sent to the 
 Penitentiary for their crimes, it was ascertained that 
 there were so many of them in the State, and their 
 crimes were so numerous, that many good democrats 
 became alarmed about the future success of the 
 democratic party in the State, and some of the most 
 prominent democrats who attended the Court and 
 heard much of the evidence in regard to the Ku Klux 
 crimes addressed the following letter, dated Raleigh, 
 September 30, 1871, to Hon. H. L. Bond, Judge of 
 U. S. Circuit iCourt. 
 
 ^ Sir : We have the honor, in the interest of the 
 peace of the people of !N^orth Carolina, to address 
 you this note. The fact that a secret, unlawful or- 
 ganization, called '^the Ku Klux or Invisible Em- 
 pire,'' exists in certain parts of the State has been 
 manifested in the recent trials before the Court in 
 which you preside. We condemn without reservation 
 all such organizations. We denounce them as dan- 
 gerous to all good government, and we regard it as 
 the eminent duty of all good citizens to suppress 
 them. E'o right minded man in North Carolina can 
 palliate or deny the crimes committed by these organ- 
 izations. 
 
 ^ In presenting these considerations to your honor, 
 we declare that it is our duty and purpose to exert 
 all the influence we possess and all the means in our 
 power to absolutely suppress the organization and to 
 
174 Memoirs of W. W. Holden 
 
 secure a lasting and permanent peace to the State. 
 The laws of the country must and shall be vindicated. 
 We are satisfied, and give the assurance, that the 
 people of North Carolina will unite in averting, and 
 forever obliterating an evil which can bring nothing 
 but calamity to the State. In the name of a just and 
 honorable people, and by all the considerations which 
 appeal to good men, we solemnly protest that these 
 violations of law and public justice must and shall 
 cease. 
 
 We have the honor to be, etc., 
 
 (Signed) Thomas Bragg, Daniel F. Fowle, B. F. 
 Moore, M. W. Ransom, R. H. Battle, Jr., Geo. V. 
 Strong, Joseph B. Batchelor, Wm. M. Shipp, Will. 
 H. Battle, and D, M. Barringer.' 
 
 "Gov. Bragg was at that time Chairman of the 
 Democratic State Executive Committee, and after 
 his death D. M. Barringer took his place. I should 
 like to copy the whole letter if I had space, but I 
 have not. It was a strong appeal to Judge Bond for 
 clemency and mercy. Col. Wheeler published it in 
 his Reminiscences and Memoirs of North Carolina, 
 under the head of Warren County. 
 
 "When a large number of Ku Klux were to be tried 
 at Columbia, S. C, it was reported that Gen. Wade 
 Hampton, and other prominent democrats, employe"! 
 that eminent lawyer of Baltimore, Reverdy Johnson, 
 at a fee of $10,000, to go to Columbia to defend them. 
 He went, but after going into the trials and hearing 
 the evidence, the proof of their many atrocious crimes 
 was so strong and conclusive that he could not de- 
 fend them, and his speech was a powerful appeal for 
 
Memoirs of W. W. Holden 175 
 
 mercy and pardon. He admitted their crimes and 
 their guilt, and could only beg for mercy. 
 
 ''The Ku Klux trials in the U. S. Court at Raleigh, 
 in 1871, revealed the fact that many horrid outrages 
 and crimes had been committed by them in different 
 parts of the State. It was unknown how many of 
 these, if they were ever brought to trial, would have 
 to go to jail, to the penitentiary, or to the gallows, 
 and that was the reason why those leading democrats 
 desired the postponement of the matter, if possible, 
 it was thought, until the meeting of the Legislature, 
 so that they could then get an act passed granting 
 amnesty and pardon for all the Ku Klux. 
 
 '' When the Legislature met it did pass 'an act 
 for amnesty and pardon' for all the crimes com- 
 mitted or charged to have been committed previous 
 to the first day of September, 1871, and every Ku 
 Klux in the State was granted full and complete 
 'amnesty and pardon,' even for 'wilful murder, 
 arson and burglary.' They were all given the ben- 
 efit of this act. 
 
 " If the Legislature thought proper to pass 'an act 
 for amnesty and pardon' for all the crimes commit- 
 ted by the Ku Klux, or in their name, there can be no 
 good reason why the Legislature ought not to pass an 
 act to relieve or pardon the man who did the best he 
 could, while acting under the law, to stop the Ku 
 Klux crimes. It is absurd to say that a subsequent 
 Legislature cannot repeal, abrogate, or revoke any 
 act or resolution of a former Legislature. To assert 
 that one Legislature cannot alter or repeal any of 
 the acts of a former Legislature is to assert that any 
 
176 Memoirs of W. W. Holdex 
 
 of our lawSj however unjust and injurious tliey may 
 be, can never be altered, but remain as unchangeable 
 as the laws of the Modes and Persians. Such an 
 absurd heresy cannot be seriously entertained by any 
 man of common sense in Xorth Carolina. 
 
 "I must now close. I did not intend to write a polit- 
 ical letter, but I have been compelled to refer to the 
 democratic party in order to vindicate the truth of 
 history. I would not misrepresent anybody or any 
 party if I knew it. I have spoken from the record, 
 and I might speak a great deal more from the record 
 were it necessary. But let this suffice for the present. 
 
 ^'I am willing to confer with our friend Xeathery 
 in regard to carrying out your wishes, if we should 
 be the longest livers. But I hope you will live to 
 publish your Book in your lifetime and in your own 
 way. I have no doubt that it will be a valuable con- 
 tribution to our history. 
 
 ' 'Hoping that God's greatest blessings may rest 
 upon and abide with you always and that your days 
 on earth may still be many and happy, I remain, 
 with my highest regards and best wishes, 
 Your true and faithful friend, 
 
 C. H. Brogden.^ 
 
 ^ The views of Governor Brogden and the correspondence with 
 Thomas Goode Tucker, given on a later page, have convinced me of 
 the propriety of publishing the following letter written by Edward 
 Conigland to Thomas L. Clingman, during the constitutional con- 
 vention of 1875. [Ed.] 
 
 Halifax, N. C, September 21, 1875. 
 Gen. Thos. ly. Clingman, Raleigh, N. C. 
 
 Dkar Sir : It seems that an ordinance for the removal of Mr. 
 Holden's disability will be called up tomorrow, for the considera- 
 tion of the Convention, and that it is probable, it may meet with 
 your support. 
 
 Were I to attempt to discuss this question, I could not say any- 
 thing that will not be much better said by others. I write simply 
 
Memoirs of W. W. Holden 177 
 
 In regard to this act passed, granting amnesty and 
 pardon for all the Kii-Klux, including the forty-nine 
 (49) bound over by the Supreme Court for the mur- 
 der of John W. Stephens and Wyatt Outlaw, and 
 who were never tried because of this act, I may here 
 state that being in Hillsboro in the fall of 1872, I 
 was invited by Colonel Thomas Ruffin, deceased, to 
 his room, and there he appealed to me in most earnest 
 terms to agree to this act or rather not to oppose it. 
 I agreed not to oppose it, especially as he mentioned 
 
 to submit a view of the case which is very different from that en- 
 tertained by the pubUc generally. 
 
 Mr. Holden is regarded by the Conservatives of the ^5tate as the 
 prime mover in all the political crimes with which he was charged. 
 But the knowledge obtained by me, as one of his counsel in the im- 
 peachment trial, enables me to say that he was rarely, if at all, 
 the instigator of any of the measures for which he stood impeached, 
 so bitterly, and so justly, complained of. Men in public position 
 are but the exponents of the party in which they belong, and a 
 true analysis of Mr, Holden's conduct proves that he was no worse 
 than those who placed him in power, and was, in fact, made the 
 scape-goat for their sins. Of all the men who, when he was in 
 office, took an active part in the government of the State, he was, 
 in my opinion, in all respects the best. Yet many, if not most of 
 them, deserted him in his hour of need, although if he had not 
 been restrained by his sense of honor, he could easily nave proved, 
 on his trial, that he had often resisted their counsel, and that many 
 of the measures which he adopted and which brought his difficulties 
 upon him, were the result of their persistent urging. His errors 
 were of the head and not of the heart. 
 
 Mr. Holden had bitter enemies, and on his trial some seemed to 
 pursue him with a malignity born of hate. It is due to this, 
 that the penalty of disqualification from office was imposed upon 
 him. If any of his friends had made a 6owa fide effort to divide 
 the question, so as to have taken the sense of the Senate, first on 
 the removal from office, and secondly, on the disqualification to 
 hold office, the disability, in my opinion, would not have been im- 
 posed but, in fact, the matter was allowed to go by default. 
 
 Possibly I may have suggested a view of the case different from 
 that entertained by some members of your body, and therefore if 
 this letter can disabuse the mind of any of them of prejudices 
 against Mr. Holden, you will please use it in his behalf. Were I 
 a member of the Convention I should unhesitatingly vote for the 
 removal of Mr. Holden's disabilities, and I do not know an intelli- 
 gent Conservative in this nation, who would not do likewise. 
 
 With high regard. 
 
 Truly yrs, 
 
 Ed WD. CONIGLAND. 
 
 12 
 
178 Memoirs of W. W. Holden 
 
 the fact that a number of young men who had fled 
 the State were anxious to return, and lead different 
 lives; and he mentioned especially of that number 
 a young man who had been a witness in my impeach- 
 ment, and who had sworn in that trial that he was 
 never a Ku-Klux, and was hanged unjustly by Ber- 
 gen. It turned out at last that with seventeen oth- 
 ers he had been presented by the Grand Jury of 
 Alamance as a Ku-Klux, and one of the murderers 
 of Wyatt Outlaw. I at that time agreed to a corres- 
 pondence with Mr. Boyd at Colonel Ruffin's request, 
 which was published in the newspapers in which we 
 both assented to this amnesty bill. The act passed, 
 and became a law, and so all the Ku-Klux were par- 
 doned in advance. Xot a word was said in either 
 House by the Democrats about my pardon. My 
 friends were not inclined to ask for my pardon, be- 
 cause they said I had done nothing to be pardoned 
 for. 
 
 After this (my impeachment) I could not hold 
 office under the State government. I could only hold 
 Federal office. In 1873 President Grant offered me 
 the Raleigh post office. I accepted it, and held it 
 four years. In 1877, when my first term was out, I 
 wrote to President Hayes and asked to be retained. 
 He continued me for four years. And then under 
 General Garfield, who was President, I asked to be 
 continued for four years more, and he refused. I 
 had run the office eight years, on the sum allowed at 
 the beginning of the eight years. I worked very 
 hard, and so did my clerk, because the business of 
 the office had increased fifty per cent at least. At 
 
Memoirs of W. W. Holden 179 
 
 the beginning of General Garfield's administration, 
 in response to my urgent request, he increased the 
 sum to $550.00. With this I employed a ISTegro 
 man as clerk. Previously during the eight years re- 
 ferred to, I had paid out of my own pocket for two 
 years to a clerk who by law could get only four hun- 
 dred dollars ; that is my chief clerk and myself paid 
 him $150 per annum for two years; I paid (altogeth- 
 er) $150, and my chief clerk $50. The opposition 
 to my continuing in the post oflBce arose from the fact 
 that I didn't employ JSTegro clerks. I had been, and 
 still was, a Grant man against all comers. I went to 
 Washington to see about it. I saw the President by 
 appointment. He was very polite and kind, but said 
 he had promised the place to another. I told him 
 that was the only place I wanted, and he said, ^' Gov- 
 ernor, I know your history well, and I am every way 
 disposed to give you some place. Select any place I 
 have, and you shall have it, but not this one." I 
 might then have said, ''Mr. President, as you have 
 said any place you have is at my disposal, then give 
 me the collectorship of the Fourth Collector's Dis- 
 trict in E'orth Carolina." Of course he would have 
 done it, for he was so pledged. But I could not do 
 that ; for the office was occupied by Col. I. J. Young. 
 On leaving the White House I saw Mr. John Nichols, 
 and said to him : ''John, the President is going to ap- 
 point you." I was also opposed by Judge Tourgee, 
 a E'orthern man, and Colonel Shaifer, the present 
 postmaster, also a ITorthern man. 
 
 I publish the following correspondence that took 
 place in January, 1887, in relation to the removal of 
 
180 Memoirs of W. W. Holden 
 
 my disabilities imposed by the impeachment and con- 
 viction. Mr. Tucker is since dead. He was a fine 
 specimen of the old-time gentleman, and an Andrew 
 Jackson Democrat who never wavered. He had 
 taken my paper for years, and knew me well, and was 
 attached to me as a friend. 
 
 " South Gaston^ I^. C, 
 
 • ''January 8, 1887. 
 
 "Governor W. W. HoldejS". 
 
 My dear Sir : — You will probably be greatly sur- 
 prised at receiving this note and equally so at the sug- 
 gestion it contains. You must recollect that I have 
 been an attentive observer of political events of a local 
 as well as of a general nature. J^ow is the time for 
 action on your part to endeavor to obtain a removal 
 of your disabilities. I would suggest that the move 
 be made by an independent Democrat. I think that 
 Richmond Pearson would prove the most serviceable, 
 although I know nothing of him except what was 
 developed in the canvass for the Legislature. He 
 certainly has pertinacity of a useful character, and 
 this, when backed by good sense, moral worth, and 
 truth, is of great value in a political move such as is 
 here suggested. 
 
 " It is a matter of no moment whether success at- 
 tends the effort or not, so far as your political future 
 is involved. I presume you understand all that with- 
 out an explanation from me. 
 
 Respectfully, 
 
 Thomas Goode Tucker.^'' 
 
Memoirs of W. W. Holden 181 
 
 " Raleigh^ January 22, 1887. 
 
 " Thomas Goode Tuckek^ Esq. 
 
 My dear Sir : — Your kind letter has been received. 
 I am grateful to you for your suggestion in relation 
 to my disabilities, but I cannot myself take any action 
 on the subject. 
 
 "Two years ago Mr. Gudger, the Senator from Bun- 
 combe, interested himself in the matter, and showed 
 me a list of a majority of Senators who had pledged 
 to vote for my relief, but he said that one of the Sen- 
 ators, (now Judge Connor) had announced his pur- 
 pose to oppose it in debate.' I then told Mr. Gudger 
 he would bear witness that I had not asked for it; 
 that to be a gracious and friendly act it should be 
 voluntary; that I did not want the people to be ex- 
 cited and angry about it which would follow debate 
 in the two Houses ; and that he would please drop the 
 matter. This he did with much reluctance. 
 
 "What I did as Governor was done under oath be- 
 fore the world, from no other motive than to uphold 
 the Constitution and the law, and I was not at all 
 influenced by party feeding or policy. All my proc- 
 lamations running through a space of eighteen months 
 teemed with an appeal to the people of the State 
 without regard to party or color to rally to the sup- 
 port of the law, and thus avert the alternative forced 
 on me. I cannot beg for my pardon, and thus admit 
 my guilt any more than Mr. Davis can. If he should 
 do that, I should feel that I had lost part of my 
 respect for him. Only one thing touching the pro- 
 
 1 H. A. Gudger, of Buncombe, Democrat. H. G. Connor, Demo- 
 crat, was chairman of the Judiciary Committee of the Senate. [Ed.] 
 
182 Memoirs of W. W. Holden 
 
 ceedings against me gives me pain, and that is the 
 utterly unfounded charge that I acted corruptly and 
 "wickedly and in defiance of the Constitution and the 
 law. In all I did I had only in view the maintenance 
 of the law and the quiet and happiness of the people. 
 
 '^ I was glad to hear from you. I am glad to know 
 that you have been spared to a happy and serene old 
 age, and I sincerely trust that your last days may be 
 in all respects your very best. Your voice to me is 
 a consoling and cheering one from the domain of the 
 past, for I am still a devotee of what the Democratic 
 party was before the war. l^ow, I have no party, 
 but I do not regret that I gave the best years of my 
 life to build up that party before the War. War im- 
 plies desolation and change and new things. 
 
 '^ Your cousin, my dear wife, desires to be kindly 
 remembered to you. We should be very glad to see 
 you in Raleigh during the session of the Legislature. 
 By all means come and stop with us. 
 
 '^ P. S. Please do not understand me as uttering 
 any language against my native State. I love my 
 mother State, no matter how she treats me. I am 
 satisfied with a sense of my own integrity. 
 
 W. W. HOLDEX. 
 
 But friends like Mr. Tucker have insisted that I 
 ask the General Assembly to lift the ban which is 
 upon me. I trust I am not foolishly proud, and that 
 while I am hurt but not angered, I feel acutely the 
 fact that I am pronounced by my mother State an 
 unfit person to hold office. I cherish no resenment 
 towards any person for what has occurred in the 
 
Memoirs of W. W. Holden 183 
 
 past. I am at peace, or would be, with all men. My 
 life has been a somewhat stormy one, but it is well 
 nigh over. I wish to die with no earthly or heavenly 
 ban on me, and I would that the world would accept 
 the Golden Rule of the Divine Master, " Do unto all 
 men as ye would they should do unto you." I am 
 now walking quietly and serenely on the shore of that 
 '^great ocean I must sail so soon." 
 
 This is most probably the last letter I shall ever 
 write to the public. 
 
 MY LAST LETTEE TO THE PUBLIC. 
 
 We live in altered and in new times. The events 
 of the past, and the condition of things in the present, 
 warn us of the paramount importance of Law and 
 Order. There is no safety to society save in the 
 reign of Law. I have always held this as a citizen 
 and as an officer. I hold it still, with added tenacity, 
 if possible. The paramount thought with all public 
 officers should be. What is my duty? Not what the 
 crowd, or the mobs, or bodies of friends desire or 
 advise, but what is right now, without regard to 
 party. George Washington himself warns us against 
 the fatal danger of party spirit. General Andrew 
 Jackson does the same. Their farewell addresses are < 
 invaluable. General Jackson once said to Col. Bed- 
 ford Brown, his personal political friend, " Colonel 
 Brown you will live to see a great civil war in this 
 country about slavery. I will not live to see it, but 
 I put you on your guard. The tariff has been pro- 
 claimed by Duff Green too weak to divide the Union, 
 but he says slavery is strong enough to do it. Mr. 
 
184 Memoirs of W. W. Holden 
 
 Calhoun and Mr. Preston make speeclies for the 
 South and against the x^orth, and the l^orth in turn 
 assails the South. One side cuts the wood and lays 
 it down and the other sets fire to it. If this sectional 
 feeling is continued I fear the worst." Jackson and 
 Washington were wise and forecasting. We now 
 have a restored Union. It is the strongest govern- 
 ment on the face of the earth. It really seems to 
 possess all power. The States are not very powerful, 
 and never will be. The rights of States are dead. 
 I simply state facts. I do not say who did this thing 
 or that thing. I speak only of results. 
 
 Mr. Webster said in one of his great speeches in 
 the Senate, that if the pillars of the Union should 
 fall "they would be raised not again." It is not the 
 same Union, and it never will be. 
 
 " Pass on, relentless world, I grieve 
 No more at all that thou hast riven. 
 Pass on in God's name, only leave 
 The things thou never yet hast given: — 
 A heart at ease, a mind at home. 
 Affections fixed above thy sway, 
 Faith, set upon a world to come 
 And patience through life's little day." 
 
 The public's most obedient servant, 
 
 W. W. HOLDEN. 
 
APPENDIX 
 
R. C. BADGER ON THE GENESIS OF THE 
 MILITARY MOVEMENT OF 1870 
 
 On March 23, 1871, the day after the Impeach- 
 ment proceedings were ended, Mr. Latham (Dem.), 
 member of the State Senate, introduced a resolution 
 raising a ^' Committee of Inquiry into the conduct of 
 John Pool, U. S. Senator." The resolution was 
 adopted by a vote of 30 to 8, and on March 30 Messrs. 
 Latham (Dem.), Jones (Dem.), and Moore (Rep.), 
 were appointed to make the investigation. The pro- 
 ceedings of the committee were not published in any 
 of the legislative documents but in the newspapers. 
 Those who testified were R. C. Badger, D. A. Jen- 
 kins, James H. Harris (col.), and I. J. Young. The 
 most important witness was R. C. Badger. His tes- 
 timony is here given because it brings out evidence 
 nowhere else available, and because the newspaper 
 files in which it was published have not been well 
 preserved. The following report is that which ap- 
 peared in the Daily Sentinel, April 8, 1871. 
 
 WM. K. BOYD. 
 
Appendix 
 
 SECRET HISTORY OF THE HOLDEN-KIRK WAR. 
 
 INVESTIGATION COMMITTEE— TESTIMONY OF R. C. BADGER, 
 ESQ.— SENATOR POOL's PROGRAMME. 
 
 We are enabled to lay before our readers this 
 morning a portion of the evidence taken before the 
 special committee of the General Assembly appointed 
 to investigate the conduct of Senator Pool in regard 
 to the late outrageous conduct of Gov. Holden in 
 his arbitrary arrests and imprisonments. We give 
 Mr. E. C. Badger's testimony in full, and will follow 
 it by that of other witnesses : 
 
 Eichard C. Badger being duly sworn, deposes and 
 says: 
 
 Question. Do you remember being present at a 
 meeting or consultation in the Executive office, in 
 the city of Ealeigh, between Gov. Holden, John Pool 
 and other members of the Eepublican party, on or 
 about the 8th of June, 1870? If so, state what oc- 
 curred, and particularly what was said and done by 
 Mr. Pool. 
 
 Answer. Some time during the last summer term 
 of the Supreme Court, and I think during the first 
 week. Pool was here in Ealeigh. As I heard from 
 him, and know from seeing him in the room, and 
 hearing him argue causes, he was at that time in at- 
 
188 Appendix 
 
 tendance upon the Court. Some time during that 
 week, I think, and if not, then certainly in the next 
 week, I was asked to go to Gov. Holden's office to 
 consult in regard to the outrages in Alamance, Cas- 
 well, and other portions of the State. It was stated 
 to me by the person who invited me that Mr. Pool and 
 several other leading Eepublicans would be present. 
 I cannot say positively at what time of the day the 
 meeting began, but my impression is about 3 o'clock. 
 It was very protracted. During the continuance of 
 the meeting several persons who were not there at 
 the beginning came in, and several who were at the 
 beginning went out. My recollection is not perfect 
 as regards all the persons who were present, but the 
 following, at least, were some of them, to wit: the 
 Governor, John Pool, Jas. H. Harris (col.), Isaac 
 J. Young, Gen. Willie D. Jones. I do not recollect 
 distinctly about Col. Clarke, but think he was, but 
 my impression is not very decided. My impression 
 as regards the presence of Mr. Treasurer Jenkins is 
 the same as that I have concerning Clarke, only one 
 more decided. I am not certain as to United States 
 Marshal Carrow or Auditor Adams. I think the 
 latter was present, and I think the same as to Hood 
 (col.) Assistant Superintendent of Public Instruc- 
 tion, and W. T. Henderson. 
 
 When I came in it was stated to me that the object 
 of the meeting was to take into consideration what 
 advice should be given Gov. Holden as to the course 
 he should pursue to suppress the outrages in Ala- 
 mance, Caswell and several other counties in the 
 
Appendix 189 
 
 State. There was a long discussion as to the condi- 
 tion of the State and the necessity of destroying what 
 we called the Ku Klux organization. It was con- 
 ceded by all present that the ordinary civil tribunals 
 had failed to accomplish that object, and that unless 
 some other force was brought to bear Eepublicans, 
 white and colored, could not live in certain parts of 
 !N"orth Carolina. There was, also, considerable dis- 
 cussion as to the remedy. In these discussions a 
 great many of those present took no part — some 
 were silent. I, myself, took an active part. It was 
 very gnerally agreed that the military power would 
 have to be used m some shape or other, and that this 
 military power should be that of 'North Carolina, 
 bcause the military force of the United States sent 
 to these parts had accomplished no good. 
 
 Gov. Holden, during most of the conference, ex- 
 cept those portions of it which referred to the bad 
 condition of things in the two counties, was a listener 
 and appeared to be anxious to hear suggestions. I 
 sat near him during the entire conference, and at 
 every suggestion made by any person he appealed to 
 me, either by look, gesture or word, for my opinion 
 in regard to it. 
 
 It was suggested to make a military occupation of 
 the two counties, and to arrest, detain and try such 
 persons as were suspected of complicity in the out- 
 rages said to have taken place there, by the military 
 power. This suggestion was made by Mr. John Pool, 
 in the first instance. I answered the Governor, who 
 seemed to appeal to me for my opinion in regard to 
 
190 Appendix 
 
 it, that the military occupation and arrest were right, 
 and, I thought, necessary, but the trial by military 
 court was too dangerous an experiment for him to un- 
 dertake; that he ought to send in conjunction with 
 the military a judicial officer to try in accordance 
 with our forms of law such persons as the military 
 should arrest. It was said by Mr. Pool that this 
 would not accomplish the object, and he, in this con- 
 nection, called to the Governor's attention what Gov. 
 Clayton, of Arkansas, had done under similar circum- 
 stances, which, in substance, was, according to his 
 statement, as follows : that Gov. Clayton, having the 
 same evils to contend with, had embodied his militia, 
 f taken military possession of disaffected counties, and 
 tried and executed large numbers of men by military 
 courts, and in that way had broken up the Ku Klux 
 in Arkansas. Upon that some discussion took place 
 between Gov. Holden and John Pool and myself, as 
 to what its effect would be upon Gov. Holden himself. 
 I insisted that all the consequences of a failure would 
 have to be borne by the Governor, and Mr. Pool 
 insisted that Gov. Clayton had made a success of it, 
 and there was no reason why such a success should 
 not result here. I then called attention to the differ- 
 ence in the conditions of the country — that what 
 Clayton had done was shortly after the military oc- 
 cupation of his State by the armies of the United 
 States, and that what was borne then would not be 
 borne now. I was referring in that conversation 
 mainly to trial by military court. 
 
 Mr. Pool and I then had a conversation in regard 
 
Appendix 191 
 
 to tlie same matter in the southwest corner of the 
 Governor's office, in the Capitol, the result of which 
 was that he agreed to the proposition originally made 
 by me, that it would be better to send a judicial 
 officer with the troops, and not, until that proc"ess had 
 failed, to try the more violent remedy of military 
 courts. I agreed with him that if the plan I had 
 suggested should fail to discover and break up these 
 organizations, that then the Governor should take 
 the more violent course. 
 
 The matter then of the difficulties of the writ of 
 habeas corpus, taking the arrested men out of the 
 hands of the military officers, was discussed, I think 
 nobody being a party to this conversation except the 
 Governor, Mr. Pool and myself. The proposition, 
 made by myself, was that the Governor should refuse 
 to obey the writ of habeas corpus in those counties 
 placed in a state of insurrection. Mr. Pool thought 
 that bad policy, and that it would not work, and 
 thought a better plan would be to answer the writ of 
 habeas corpus, produce the bodies, and if discharged 
 to arrest upon some new charge; that that was the 
 plan President Grant had suggested. 
 
 In regard to the organization of troops, the first 
 difficulty presented and discussed was the fact which 
 was very generally agreed upon, that if the military 
 was called out it would have to be white or colored, in 
 separate organizations, under our laws, or a detailed 
 militia, as provided for in the Act of 1868. It was 
 stated, I think by the Governor, that he had tried 
 the white detailed militia and found it utterly ineffi- 
 
192 Appendix 
 
 cient; that the class of men who would submit to 
 detail could not be relied on; that as regarded the 
 white militia, we all agreed, at least those of us who 
 took part in this discussion, that the Governor would 
 be embodying a militia mainly composed of ELu Klux 
 to put down Ku Klux; that as regards the colored 
 militia it was inexpedient and impolitic to use them, 
 owing to the prejudice in regard to race and color. 
 It was then suggested, by whom I do not recollect, 
 that it would be best to organize a regular force. 
 This, I think, was concurred in by all who joined in 
 that conversation. The persons present were grouped 
 in different parts of the room, and the same parties 
 did not always join in the conversation, nor were 
 they in position to hear what was said. At this time 
 many violent propositions were made, all of which 
 .1 do not recollect, the question under discussion being 
 where we could get whjie men suitable for the pur- 
 pose in view. Mr. Pool stated, at that time, that 
 there was a man in his county, or section of the State, 
 by the name of Mac Lindsay, and he mentioned to 
 me that I knew him, as he was a member of the State 
 Senate in 1864-65. I had forgotten him, but upon 
 this being sail I recollected him. Mr. Pool said he 
 was a man of undoubted courage and capable of any 
 desperate resolve, and by way of illustrating his 
 capacity mentioned some daring aci of_piracy, of 
 which I had not heard before, committed by the said 
 Mac Lindsay, either during the war or just after its 
 close, in the waters of eastern j^orth Carolina, and 
 that he, the said Mac Lindsay, had been indicted 
 
Appendix 193 
 
 therefor and only saved from punishment by his 
 (Pool's) influence; that he would guarantee that 
 this man, Mac Lindsay, would pick up from the 
 county where he lived, and which was between the 
 lines during the war, sixty or one hundred men 
 equally as daring and brave as himself; that this 
 man, Mac Lindsay, would give the Governor no 
 trouble — that if these men, arrested by him, under- 
 took any resistance he would kill them, or they would 
 be lost and never heard of again. I do not undertake 
 to state his exact words, but this was the substance 
 of his conversation. The Governor at this time was 
 sitting in his chair. He got up and walked nervously 
 up and down the room for a few minutes before any- 
 thing was said. I got up from the seat I occupied 
 on the sofa, in the southwest corner of the room, and 
 stated to the Governor, and it may have been in the 
 presence of some others of the company, that such a 
 proposition was infamous, and that if it resulted as 
 suggested the Governor would be damned in the) 
 memories of men for all time. Mr. Pool then said I 
 had misunderstood his meaning, that he did not 
 intend that result, he wanted to illustrate the deter- 
 mined character of Mac Lindsay, and he may have 
 qualified it in a good many other ways. He stated 
 in this connection that Clayton's troops gave no 
 trouble. At this time some other man who was pres- 
 ent, I do not recollect distinctly who it was, said that 
 he could furnish sixty or one hundred men of the 
 same description from his county, and mentioned 
 some wonderful exploits they had performed during 
 
194 Appexdix 
 
 the war. All of these propositions and suggestions 
 with regard to using such violent material were ob- 
 jected to by Gov. Holden. 
 
 At some time during this conversation, and when 
 the propriety of using military measures was under 
 discussion, and when Gov. Holden was, as I under- 
 stood it, objecting to the means proposed, and seemed 
 indisposed to undertake the movement, Mr. Pool 
 said, in substance about this : " Governor, you do not 
 know how they are talking about you in Washington. 
 .The Republicans there say you are a failure, and 
 Grant says you and Smith of Alabama were made 
 Governors of States by the Republican party under 
 the reconstruction acts, and that you are sitting still 
 and permitting these Ku Klux to take them away 
 from you, or cause them to slip away from you.'O 
 
 There was a meeting next day at which only the 
 Governor, John Pool and myself were present. Some- 
 body suggested the appointment of Col. .Clarke, who 
 was in the city. Col. Clarke was sent for, and after 
 persuasion, agreed to accept the command. I con- 
 curred. 
 
 Question. Who invited you to the conference in 
 the Executive office ? 
 
 Answer. I was invited by the Governor. 
 
 Question. iState, as near as you can, the relative 
 positions of the Governor, John Pool and yourself, 
 and any other persons you can recollect. 
 
 Answer. Just previous to the time when Mr. Pool 
 recommended his military plan, he had been stand- 
 ing, conversing with somebody, at the southeast win- 
 
Appendix 195 
 
 dow. The Governor was either in his chair or walk- 
 ing lip and down the room between where his chair 
 sat and the sub division between the southern win- 
 dows, and I was sitting on the sofa near the south- 
 western window, or near the Governor's chair. 
 
 Question. What was Mr. Pool's manner ? 
 
 Answer. My impression from his manner was 
 that Mr. Pool meant what he said until his proposi- 
 tion met with disfavor ; and then he varied his man- 
 ner so as to induce the belief that he was jesting. 
 
 Question. Please state what was jour inference, 
 from the language of Mr. Pool, before his plan met 
 with disfavor, of the character and antecedents of 
 Lindsay. 
 
 Answer. I thought Lindsay a determined villain, 
 capable of taking life at the instance of a superior 
 without question. I drew the inference from Mr. 
 Pool's statement, and that was my reason for de- 
 nouncing it as infamous. 
 
 Question. Did Mr. Pool suggest the arrest of any 
 parties, by name, or did he suggest the arrest of 
 prominent gentlemen of the Conservative party in 
 the State? 
 
 Answer. I cannot say, from my own recollection, 
 with absolute certainty, that he did, and I am disin- 
 clined to the belief that he did. I have some indis- 
 tinct idea of something of the kind, but I think it 
 must have come from the newspapers, which I con- 
 stantly read. 
 
 Question. Have you ever heard, until Mr. Pool 
 made the statement, of the particulars as to which 
 
196 Appendix 
 
 Mr. Pool said Gov. Clayton had performed in Ar- 
 kansas ? 
 
 Answer. I had not. I had a confused notion 
 from the telegraphic accounts of the newspapers, to 
 which I paid little attention, such things being com- 
 mon, that Gov. Clayton was undertaking a military 
 movement against certain portions of Arkansas. 
 
 Question. Did you understand Mr. Pool to ap- 
 prove and recommend to Gov. Holden the conduct of 
 Gov. Clayton? 
 
 Answer. I did. My understanding was that 
 when he related what Gov. iClayton had done he in- 
 tended that it should be followed by Gov. Holden. 
 
 Question. Did Mr. Pool, in that conversation, 
 give Gen. Grant's opinion of Clayton? 
 
 Answer. I am not certain that he did, but he did 
 use Grant's name in connection with Gov. Holden 
 and Gov. Smith of Alabama. 
 
 Question. Have you had any conversation or com- 
 munication w^ith the other parties who were present, 
 who corroborate your statements ? If so, who are the 
 parties ? 
 
 Answer. I have conversed with Col. W. J. Clarke 
 in regard to this matter, and he said, though he had 
 no distinct recollection of the specific conversation, 
 he did recollect that many violent propositions were 
 made, but none adopted. J. H. Harris told me, in 
 front of the Court House in this city, in the fall of 
 1870, that in that meeting Mr. John Pool made some 
 propositions, of which his recollection was not dis- 
 tinct, of a very violent character, and said something 
 
Appendix 197 
 
 about "losing men/' or that "he had a man who 
 would lose them." I have had a conversation with 
 D. A. Jenkins who denies being present at the time ; 
 also with I. J. Young, who agrees substantially with 
 the facts as I have stated them, and with Gov. Hol- 
 den, who also agrees with the facts as I have stated 
 them. 
 
 Question. When Senator Pool spoke of resistance, 
 did you understand it as relating solely to instances 
 of that kind, or rather that he would dispose of men 
 in such a way as to relieve Gov. Holden of the odium 
 and responsibility of such things ? 
 
 Answer. I thought both from the first suggestion 
 — that he, Lindsay, would do it in either case, and 
 render courts martial unnecessary. He afterwards 
 qualified it, but not until it had met with the disap- 
 proval of nearly every person present in that part of 
 the room. He then qualified it as I have stated it, in 
 my examination-in-chief. 
 
 Question. Did you infer from the conduct of the 
 Governor, when the proposition was made by Pool, 
 as stated, that his impression was the same as yours ? 
 
 Answer. I so inferred ; and further, that he dis- 
 approved of it. 
 
 Question. What is your best impression as to who 
 the man was who, after Pool had spoken of Lindsay, 
 said he could furnish sixty or one hundred men of 
 like calibre, and what were their remarkable exploits ? 
 
 Answer. My best impression is that D. A. Jen- 
 kins, the Treasurer, made the suggestion, and made 
 it in an excited manner. Indeed, I know that Jen- 
 
198 Appendix 
 
 kins made the remark^ and I am in doubt only as to 
 time, as he might have made it on some subsequent 
 occasion or meeting in the Executive office at which 
 the matter was alluded to. I have forgotten what 
 the exploits were, but a great deal of gasconade was 
 indulged in in the way of description. 
 
 Question. In any of the conversations between 
 Pool, Holden and yourself was any reference made 
 to the effect on the coming election ? 
 
 Answer. That was not the subject of conversation. 
 It related to the outrages, though the election may 
 have been alluded to incidentally, and I think it was 
 in connection with the matter. It was suggested that 
 unless the outrages were suppressed there could be 
 no fair election in those portions of !N'orth Carolina 
 where the Ku Klux were operating; and I think 
 prompt action, by whom I don't recollect, was urged 
 on that account. 
 
 Question. How many, in all, do you think were 
 present in the first meeting? 
 
 Answer. Thirteen. 
 
 Question. Did they constitute the ordinary and 
 legal counsel of the Governor ? 
 
 Answer. 'No, and were not so understood to be, 
 but a meeting of leading Republicans. 
 
 Question. When did the conversation between 
 yourself and James H. Harris occur, and where ? 
 
 Answer. Before the meeting of the Legislature, 
 some time last fall, and in front of the Court House, 
 in this city. 
 
Appendix 199 
 
 Question, What are your present party affilia- 
 tions ? 
 
 Answer, Republican of the straightest sect. My 
 theory is a government of the strongest kind — a cen- 
 tralized government. 
 
 Question. Were you of counsel for Gov. Holden 
 in the late impeachment trial ? 
 
 Answer. I was.