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 Union sentiment in North Carolina 
 
 by Mary 3. Smith 
 
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Series 9 
 
 November, 1915 
 
 Number 1 
 
 Meredith College 
 
 Quarterly Bulletin 
 
 1915-1916 
 
 
 Published by Meredith College in November, January, March and May 
 
 Entered as second-class matter, January 13, 1908, at the post-office at Raleigh, N. C. 
 under the act of Congress of July 16, 1894 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2013 
 
 http://archive.org/details/unionsentimentinOOsmit 
 
MEREDITH COLLEGE 
 
 NOVEMBER, 1915 
 
 Union Sentiment in North Carolina During the 
 Civil War 
 
 Mary Shannon Smith, 
 
 Department of History, Meredith College. 
 
 (One of a group of papers read at the Sixteenth Annual Session of the State Literary 
 and Historical Association at a meeting in tne Hall of tne House of Representatives in 
 commemoration of tne Semi-Centennial of tne close of tne Civil War, November ninth, 
 1915.) 
 
 Since the beginning of the great European War, we have 
 realized anew how difficult it is to get at the real truth of 
 history, and that most events that bring about profound changes 
 have various elements which are almost impossible to analyze. 
 Facts may be recorded, but motives, causes, purposes — the un- 
 seen forces of thought which lie back of all the rest — these are 
 more elusive. 
 
 In any country under stress where there is continued una- 
 nimity of action it would appear to come from strong social con- 
 trol of thought and conduct, indifference, ignorance, or some 
 colossal danger. An alert and thinking people are in time 
 bound to differ. 
 
 As North Carolina has always stood for individualism, and 
 as there was much divergence of thought down to the war, it 
 would be most unusual if the outward Act of Secession in April, 
 1861, would for long make the minds of all the people run in the 
 same channel, although the sudden shock or social control 
 might for a time, at least, make them appear to do so. One 
 learns to make allowances on both sides for expressions of par- 
 tisanship and to realize that usually the real conditions are some- 
 what different from the strongly emotional contentions of either 
 side. For, as in the present great war, any divergence of feel- 
 ing North or South would have been kept as far as possible 
 within the lines and those in control would try to minimize the 
 divergence. 
 
4 Meredith College Bulletin. 
 
 The horrible blunders of Congress in the administration of the 
 South during the period of reconstruction, which compelled 
 all elements of the people to unite, have largely made us over- 
 look the different state of mind during the war itself. 
 
 This paper is based largely on the files of the Fayetteville 
 Observer from July, 1853, through December, 1864, and on three 
 large bound volumes of "Hale Papers" from 1850 to 1865. The 
 Observer until the outbreak of the war was Whig and strongly 
 Union ; during the war it was unfailingly loyal to the Southern 
 cause, and from the election of Governor Vance in 1862 to the 
 close of the war it particularly represented his administration. 
 The paper was one of the ablest in the State and of command- 
 ing influence. The private papers comprise a large number of 
 personal letters, many of them confidential, from the most promi- 
 nent men in the State. So far as known they have never before 
 been read except by the Hale family and at the office of the 
 State Historical Commission. Such material should reflect 
 most unconsciously and therefore accurately the prevailing senti- 
 ment of the State. It is an interesting experience in studying 
 a momentous period in history to forget the present and live 
 again with those who are recording and interpreting the events, 
 especially with one who in personality and training looks at life 
 in a large way. Such an interpreter was Edward J. Hale, in 
 the pages of whose paper the past of North Carolina, our coun- 
 try, and the world live again. While going through the files 
 of these papers, the writer most unexpectedly had the pleasure 
 of meeting Mr. Edward J. Hale 2d, of Fayetteville, now 
 United States Minister to Costa Rica. He said that the Ob- 
 server continued to be printed until Johnston's army marched 
 through the town. It was then for a time suspended and the 
 files of the paper hurriedly buried. The private papers have 
 at different times been through fire, water and smoke, so that 
 numbers of them are somewhat difficult to read and the edges 
 burned. 
 
 On April 15 of 1861 the Fayetteville Observer carried an ad- 
 vertisement from Greensboro — Prospectus of the "Stars and 
 Stripes." This was to be a three-months campaign paper for 
 
Meredith College Bulletin. 5 
 
 the Union, during which it was hoped to reach "the great public 
 ear of the State." 1 
 
 In the same issue there occurred in small type the headline 
 "Sensation Dispatches." Of these Mr. Hale says : "But the odd- 
 est part of the affair is that the [Petersburg^ Express should 
 publish this dispatch with such blood and thunder heading just 
 above the 'very latest/ showing that the story was an arrant 
 humbug." 2 
 
 But farther on we find, "The War Commenced ! !" "Bombard- 
 ment of Fort Sumter ! ! !" The statements at first are hardly 
 credited, then as more and more reports come, Mr. Hale says : 
 
 "This is dreadful news. War is a terrible evil. Civil war the worst 
 of all earthly evils. Nothing but dire necessity can justify it. We 
 are too imperfectly advised as yet of the causes to pronounce de- 
 cidedly whether that necessity existed in this case. Let us wait 
 for something more definite and reliable than the telegraph fur- 
 nishes. * * * 
 
 "Let us wait. And let us wait long before we unite our destinies 
 with those of a people who have ignored us, our interests, feelings, 
 and honor, from first to last. If we should be impelled to separate 
 from the Union, let us take care of ourselves." 3 
 
 In the issue seven days later we are shown the instantaneous 
 and thrilling effect of Lincoln's proclamation calling for seventy- 
 five thousand troops and asking North Carolina to send her 
 quota. To this Governor Ellis replied : "You can get no troops 
 from North Carolina." Mr. Hale in an editorial says : "Will 
 she do it? Ought she to do it? Wo. No. Not a man can leave 
 her borders upon such an errand, who has not made up his 
 mind to war upon his own home and all that he holds dear in 
 that home. For ourselves we are Southern men and North 
 Carolinians, and at war with those who are at war with the 
 South and North Carolina." 4 
 
 Governor John W. Ellis had on the 17th called a special 
 session of the Legislature to meet on May first; ordered seized 
 the coast forts and the United States arsenal at Fayetteville ; 
 and called for volunteers. 5 
 
 . 
 
 1 Fayetteville Observer, April 15, 1861, p. 2. 
 
 Whirl., p. 3. 
 
 *Ibid., p. 3. 
 
 mid., April 23, 1861. 
 
 6 Hill, Young People's History of North Carolina, p. 271. 
 
6 Meredith College Bulletin. 
 
 The Observer quotes an article from the Raleigh Standard 
 which shows that the "Unionists" of North Carolina will all 
 stand by the South when it is attacked. This is particularly 
 to be noticed as in February the people had voted against call- 
 ing a Convention to consider the relations of the State to the 
 Federal Union 47,333 to 46,672 and at the same time had elected 
 eighty-three (83) Union delegates to thirty-seven (37) Dis- 
 union delegates in case a Convention was held. 6 
 
 The Legislature on May 1 passed an act providing for an 
 election on May 17 of delegates to a Convention to meet on 
 May 20. The Legislature also voted various measures in prepa- 
 ration for war. 7 
 
 "When the Convention met in the Commons Hall at the capi- 
 tolj one hundred and sixteen delegates were present and four 
 absent. It had as members many of the most influential men in 
 the State. 
 
 While a preliminary vote seemed to show forty-nine for the 
 Badger theory of revolution and sixty-six for the Secession 
 ordinance of Craige, the Craige ordinance was finally unani- 
 mously adopted. s One of the members years afterward wrote: 
 "I remember well that when the act of Secession was consum- 
 mated the body looked like a sea partly in storm, partly calm, the 
 Secessionists shouting and throwing up their hats and rejoicing, 
 the Conservatives sitting quietly, calm, and depressed." 9 A week 
 later North Carolina joined the Confederacy. Yet even during 
 these early days we find slight references to individual uncer- 
 tainty or difference of opinion. 10 
 
 While these things were happening in the South, the North, 
 equally thrilled by the firing on Fort Sumter, was for the time 
 seemingly fused into one party and ready to crush, if possible, 
 all opposition to the policy of the government. 
 
 This seeming unanimity of opinion North and South, we must 
 remember, was at the beginning of the struggle, when few on 
 either side realized what the actual conflict would mean. That 
 
 'North Carolina Manual, 1913, pp. 1013-1015, 1018, Note 10. 
 ''Senate and House Journals, 18P0-1861. 
 
 * Journal of the State Contention, 1861, pp. 3-17, also Fayetteville Observer, May 27, 1861, p. 1. 
 9 HoHen, Memoirs, p. 17. 
 
 ™Fayetteville Observer, Jan. 20, 1862, pp. 2-3; Jan. 27, 1862; Feb. 3, 1862, pp. 2-3; Feb. 10, 
 1862, p. 3. 
 
Meredith College Bulletin. 7 
 
 there was later much divergence in the North is well known; 
 that there would also be honest difference of opinion in the 
 South was also to be expected. These differences were more or 
 less unorganized during the first year or two of the war, though 
 the newspapers by 1862 reflect the tendency to criticism. The 
 independence of the press and its freedom from arrest under 
 both the State and Confederate Constitutions is an important 
 fact to remember. 
 
 An example of the conditions developing in the State is shown 
 in a private letter from William J. Yates, editor of the Char- 
 lotte Democrat, to Mr. Hale, dated August 18, 1862, discussing 
 conditions in Forsyth, in the ccurse of which he says : 
 
 "I think, though, it is not best to make some things known to the 
 public at this time; therefore I have refrained from giving informa- 
 tion of disaffection in certain localities through my paper. I have 
 not published one-sixteentb part of what I have heard, because I dis- 
 like for the public outside of the State to know that we have any 
 tories in the State * * * a large portion of our population is dis- 
 affected. The conscript law has cooled the patriotism of many 
 alarmingly, and I know of some who were very patriotic in words 
 before that law went into operation, but who now manifest anything 
 else but the right spirit — they are tired of the war and say they are 
 willing for anything to stop it." 
 
 In the summer of 1862 came the biennial election for Gov- 
 ernor, the first since the war. There were no regular conven- 
 tions held and no platforms adopted, but leading newspapers 
 suggested candidates and some county meetings were held. Col. 
 William Johnston, President of the Charlotte and South Caro- 
 lina Railroad, was the candidate of the Democratic papers, 
 while Col. Zebulon Baird Vance, who had been brought forward 
 by Holden of the Standard and supported by the Observer and 
 other leading papers, opposed Johnston and was elected by over 
 30,000 majority. 
 
 This election was interpreted by some as unfavorable to the 
 Confederate Government, as Colonel Johnston was a Democrat, 
 while before the war Vance had been a Union man. Some of 
 the Northern papers misinterpreted the election in this way, 
 as some historians have since, 11 but Vance had been in the army 
 
 ll Fayetteville Observer, Sept. 1, 1862; Dodd, Jefferson Davis, p. 283. 
 
8 Meredith College Bulletin. 
 
 from the outbreak of the war and was to show as Governor 
 his loyalty to the State of North Carolina and the South. 
 
 All through the following winter the Observer reflects the con- 
 flicting reports of conditions in the State. In an editorial on 
 the interference of the Richmond Enquirer in the affairs of 
 North Carolina Mr. Hale says: 
 
 "And yet forsooth these Virginians lecture her upon loyalty and 
 duty; falsely charge her with entertaining a 'plot' to overthrow the 
 government, and insinuate that she has a lurking hope of a restora- 
 tion or reconstruction of the defunct and despised Union. And one 
 of the high officers of the Confederate Government, whose duties 
 bring him in contact with thousands of North Carolinians, both 
 civilians and soldiers, insolently and falsely calls her 'a damned 
 nest of traitors,' for which, if President Davis has a proper idea of 
 what is due himself and to an insulted State, he will pitch the slan- 
 derer out of the office he disgraces." 13 
 
 In the next issue there is an editorial showing how certain 
 newspapers in Virginia, as the Richmond Enquirer, and in 
 South Carolina, slander the State, though Mr. Hale admits 
 that they are moved by certain journals in North Carolina it- 
 self, "which," as he says, "have no State feeling." Twice dur- 
 ing March the Observer appeals to the press for the sake of the 
 cause to stop wrangling and making charges of unfaithfulness 
 which are calculated to encourage the enemy as much as a great 
 victory. 13 
 
 We are approaching the summer of 1863, when the discontent 
 was to be organized and find a leader in the editor of the 
 Raleigh Standard, W. W. Holden, who had been a power in the 
 political history of the State since about 1850 and had brought 
 forward Vance as a candidate for Governor in 1862. 
 
 The history of the State through the war was so largely 
 moulded by these two leaders that their attitude toward the 
 State, the Confederacy and the war should be most carefully 
 studied. 
 
 In the biography of Jefferson Davis, written by a brilliant 
 native of North Carolina, the idea is given that Vance and 
 
 12 Fayetteville Observer, January 12, 1863, p. 3. 
 ™Ibid., March 5, 1863, p. 3; March 26, 1863, p. 3. 
 
Meredith College Bulletin. 9 
 
 Holden worked together in opposing the Confederacy and for 
 peace. 14 As the book was published in 1907 Mr. Dodd's sources 
 were, I assume, the Official Records of the War of the Rebellion 
 which contain only Governor Vance's controversies with Presi- 
 dent Davis. The Vance and the Hale papers had not then been 
 made available for historical purposes. In these sources, many 
 of which were confidential letters written in the stress of the 
 times, the evidence seems irrefutable that Vance and Holden 
 broke with each other in the summer of 1863 over the issue 
 of the Peace meetings, Governor Vance continuing to work for 
 the Southern cause throughout the war. 
 
 Before discussing the "Peace Movement" it may be well to 
 say a word about Jefferson Davis and the Confederacy. In a 
 most interesting paper on "A Theory of Jefferson Davis" in the 
 American Historical Review for October, 1915, Mr. W. W. 
 Stephenson of Charleston, South Carolina, writing of the central 
 fact of Davis's youth, says : 
 
 «* * * n e wag a boy without a country * * * his was a 
 migratory growth, frequently transplanted 15 * * * The army 
 must to a considerable extent have been his country * * * Long 
 afterward, in his final crisis, Davis failed to appreciate a certain type 
 of man. It was a type in which love of one's community had be- 
 come a passion. To that type he appeared, in those stern days, to be 
 a monster. To him, apparently, the crushing of that type seemed a 
 matter of course." 18 
 
 Again Mr. Stephenson says : 
 
 "Davis at the outset of his career accepted the political theories, 
 the political phraseology, of the States' rights party * * * For 
 fifteen years he had talked one thing while he meant another, 
 talked the constitutional rights of the individual States while what 
 he really meant was the economic interests of a consolidated South. 
 * * * He clung to the phraseology of States' rights as stubbornly 
 even as Rhett, or Stephens, who genuinely believed it. And yet 
 when occasion finally tested him, behind his words, striking through 
 his words, appears something quite different — the Southern National- 
 ist. 17 * * * The internal history of the Confederacy is largely the 
 battle of these irreconcilable ideals 18 * * * His States' rights 
 
 "William E. Dodd, Jefferson Davis, pp. 283, 301, 337-340. 
 
 * 6 W W. Stephenson, "A Theory of Jefferson Davis," in American Historical Review, Vol. 
 XXI, pp. 73-74. 
 ™Ibid., p. 75. 
 "Ibid., pp. 83-84. 
 ™Ibid., p. 87. 
 
10 Meredith College Bulletin. 
 
 phraseology and his long series of centralizing measures appeared to 
 them irreconcilable. 19 * * * He became the prisoner of an illu- 
 sion." 20 
 
 The able paper on the "Relations Between the Confederate 
 States Government and the Government of North Carolina/' 
 given by Judge Montgomery before this Association in 1913, 
 reveals cleaily this element in the situation. 21 
 
 Mr. Dodd in writing of the general condition of the Southern 
 Government at the beginning of 1863, says : "The commanders 
 of the troops were at loggerheads ; parties and cliques had grown 
 up ; and the President was not implicitly trusted by the peo- 
 ple." 22 
 
 Between these two forces of the State and the Confederacy 
 stood Vance. On the one side he must safeguard the rights of 
 the Sovereign State of JSTorth Carolina which he thought were 
 being threatened, and, on the other, he must hold the State loyal 
 to the Confederacy to which she had pledged her faith. 
 
 On June 10th he wrote a private letter to Mr. Hale asking 
 him to come to Raleigh. This is thought to be the beginning 
 of the association of Governor Vance and Mr. Hale, although 
 they knew each other before. In this letter Governor Vance 
 says: 
 
 "I wish to talk with you about some matters seriously affecting 
 the status of the party which elevated me to office and perhaps the 
 good of the Confederate cause itself, and I hardly wish to put any- 
 thing I desire to s?y on paper. I make this request of you, as being 
 more nearly of my precise stripe politically — past and present — than 
 any other editor in the State; and as the undisputed organ of th.3 
 war element of the old Whigs. 
 
 "Things are moving here in a manner calculated to give such 
 a Whig uneasiness and I desire advice and consultation. I hope to 
 see Mr. Graham this week." 
 
 In a letter from Dr. Kemp P. Battle from Raleigh to Mr. 
 Hale, July 3, 1863, he adds this confidential note: 
 
 "I am afraid there is growing a split in the Conservative party; 
 e. g. Vance and yourself on one side and on the other those who love 
 to thwart and carp at the Confederate Government and the war." 
 
 1 'Stephenson, Jefferson Davis, pp. 87-88. 
 
 20 /6iW., pp. S7-S3. 
 
 21 Walter A. Montgomery, "Relations Between the Confederate States Government 
 and the Goverameit of North Carolina," Proceedings North Carolina Literary and His- 
 torical Assoc'ntion, 1313, po. 33-55. 
 
 "William E. Dodd, Jefferson Davis, p. 299. 
 
Meredith College Bulletin. 11 
 
 In a confidential letter dated July 26, 1863, from Governor 
 Vance to Mr. Hale he says : 
 
 "I assure you I am deep'y concerned at the turn things have taken. 
 I asked Mr. Graham, Governor Swain and others to talk to Holden, 
 but it has done little good- — he pretends and maybe really is of 
 opinion that four-fifths of the people are ready for reconstruction, 
 and says he is only following the people not leading them — This is 
 not true in fact — he is responsible for half this feeling at least, 
 if it exists; of course the driver sits behind the team and yet may 
 be said to follow his horses. 
 
 "I had a long talk with him yesterday — and requested him to say 
 in his paper that he was not my organ on this matter and did not 
 speak my sentiments. He promised to do so. I think it all im- 
 portant that the people should know my sentiments so that should 
 there be a split, he may not be committing to him any persons 
 under the idea that he was my friend, which I think likely ac- 
 counts for much of his popularity." 
 
 During August the letters to Mr. Hale are numerous ; 
 practically all of them discuss the growing dissatisfaction in the 
 State. Quotations follow from those of Governor Vance, and 
 a few others. 
 
 In a long, closely written letter from P. W. Stanback, Little 
 Mills, August, 1863, he says : 
 
 "Times, as you may agree with me, look exceedingly gloomy for 
 us * * * our late reverses seem to have emboldened a few bad 
 spirits among us, they have seized the opportune moment to en- 
 courage the disaffection that they know to have existed among the 
 lower classes of our rural' popu'ation, who (very many at least) have 
 long entertained prejudices against the property holder especially 
 against slave owners, they persistingly regard this war as gotten up 
 for their exclusive benefit that they have no part or interest in it, 
 that the burdens fall unduly heavy upon them, they therefore be- 
 came greatly dissatisfied with both the exemption and conscription 
 laws especially so with the former as givirg to the s^ve owner im- 
 munities and advantages over them on account of their property, this 
 being the case I have held * * * that the [ ] means should 
 
 have pursued towards them a ccnciMatory couree to lend them as far 
 as practicable a helping hand and this from principle no less than 
 policy." 
 
 A letter from Thomas S. Ashe, member of Confederate Con- 
 gress 1862-1864, Supreme Court Judge 1879-87, dated August 
 
12 Meredith College Bulletin. 
 
 5, 1863, Wadesboro, to Mr. Hale, in which he mentions that he 
 is again to run for Congress and needs advice, and also says : 
 
 " * * * but I am really fearful that if we had an armistice we 
 should never be able to get our people to fight again, and that re- 
 union would be the result. * * * But I tell you my dear Sir that 
 I believe that there is a purpose (now latent) on the part of the 
 leaders of the peace movement to carry our State back into the 
 United States. They are just now cautiously feeling their way 
 through these meetings but if our reverses continue, it will not be 
 long before an organized party in the State advocating that measure 
 will assume shape and form, and will be headed by prominent men." 
 
 A letter from Governor Vance August 11, 1863, in which he 
 reports a successful visit to President Davis, where they dis- 
 cussed North Carolina affairs and Davis gave Vance authority 
 to do certain things. He then adds : 
 
 "I believe however the split with Holden is decreed of the gods — 
 I have made up my mind to it * * * He is for submission, re- 
 construction or anything else that will put him back under Lincoln 
 and stop the war — and I might add — punish his old friends and co- 
 laborers. 
 
 "Pitch into them — cry aloud and spare not — my life, popularity and 
 everything shall go into this contest." 
 
 A long confidential eight-page letter from Morganton, August 
 29, 1863,* reports at length the disloyalty in the mountain sec- 
 tion of the State, and says: 
 
 "I know not how it is elsewhere but this part of the State is in a 
 deplorable condition — on the very edge, indeed, of civil strife and 
 butchery. The mountains are full of deserters, who are banded 
 together and emboldened by a disloyal public opinion, which is daily 
 finding expression in popular assemblages and otherwise. All per- 
 sons are beginning to feel that sense of insecurity which at is once 
 the cause and the effect of internal commotion, and presages a 
 speedy appeal to arms, unless arrested. The root of the whole matter 
 is a deadly hostility to our cause and our government, notwithstand- 
 ing the specious pretext under which it is sought to be covered up. 
 [Illegible from effects of fire, smoke and water.] 
 
 "It is pretended, again, that North Carolina has been put upon and 
 slighted — but how comes it that when the Confederate Government 
 backs down and almost gets on its knees to apologize, these men still 
 
 "Only the initials V. C. remain of the signature to this letter, but by comparing it with 
 other letters in the collection it seems to have been written by V. C. Barringer, of Concord. 
 
Meredith College Bulletin. 13 
 
 feel affronted and will accept no satisfaction * * * If the 
 grounds of complaint alluded to did not exist, they would find others. 
 Now it seems to me that before we can take the first step toward a 
 cure, we must understand something of the nature of the disease. 
 We must boldly recognize the fact that there are in North Carolina 
 and have been from the start, a considerable body of men — many 
 of them influential — who have been secretly and desperately opposed 
 to our whole movement — who acquiesced in the incipient stages of 
 the revolution only because they could not help themselves — and who 
 today prefer the old Union to the Confederacy. [Illegible from effects 
 of fire and water] last a mass and strength of popular feeling setting 
 in against the Confederacy which is as certain to entail upon us 
 civil war in North Carolina as that the sun is in the heaven — " [He 
 then explains they expect to follow forms of law and elect as many 
 peace men as possible to Congress and also get control of the State 
 Government.] 
 
 "The whole thing is managed with a skill and an energy that show 
 the hand of a master schemer." 
 
 The writer expresses the opinion that ISTorth Carolina is more 
 liable to change and "to he played upon by sophists and calcula- 
 tors than any of the Confederate States proper except Tennes- 
 see." 
 
 As remedies he suggests: 
 
 1. The loyal press must discuss the whole question fully before 
 the people. 
 
 "Unfortunately we got divided — hotly divided about the Secession 
 of the State in the winter of '61 — one side lauding the Old Union 
 and the other side the new Confederacy, when Lincoln's proclama- 
 tion, like a clap of thunder, startled and united both sides. But it 
 was not, I affirm, a Union based upon any intelligent and heartfelt 
 popular conviction of the truth [Illegible from effects of fire and 
 water]. Attachment to the Union unshaken [Illegible] hear the 
 Confederate Government denounced as we see it daily denounced, 
 is it any wonder that they should feel those attachments rather 
 strengthened and that they have been led into a causeless rebellion? 
 I speak what I know when I say that many persons believe that the 
 Davis government is a more galling tyranny than Lincoln's. I do 
 not mean, of course, that we should give Davis unmixed praise. 
 [Explains that the right of separation should be explained to the 
 people]. Crime and the guilt of crime is associated in the common 
 mind with the hateful names of rebel and traitor. Our people, indeed, 
 no people can sustain long the weight of the conviction that they are 
 incurring every day the punishment due to the darkest deeds 
 known in the catalogue of human crimes. We ought, if we cannot do 
 
14 Meredith College Bulletin. 
 
 better, at least, take the ground assumed by Washington in the con- 
 test between England and the colonies, that we are fighting under the 
 de facto government of the State, and as such are not guilty, even in 
 the view of the English law of treason. Until something is done to 
 remove this fatal impression, I cannot hope for any permanent good 
 among our people. Let them feel that they are right in morals and in 
 law, and we may hope all things, come though disasters may as 
 thick as blackberries. 
 
 2. "But secondly and chiefly, a line ought to be drawn between the 
 friends of Governor Vance and Holden. No true man doubts the 
 integrity or the loyalty of the former — every true man must doubt 
 that of the latter * * * You have no idea of the extent of his 
 circulation. I have found his paper in every nook and corner of the 
 mountains. Now with such a man you cannot mince matters. True 
 wisdom dictates that the sooner you break with him the better — 
 and I believe that if the friends of Governor Vance will boldly and 
 at once shake him off, the State may be saved. Otherwise, unless 
 we have a successful peace, he will wind the State around his fingers 
 as he pleases and snap them in Governor Vance's face. 
 
 I have written more than I intended. I am really alarmed for 
 the first time during the war as to the fate of North Carolina. I 
 am ashamed of the figure she is made to cut before her friends and 
 her enemies." 
 
 A most interesting letter from Aldert Smedes, St. Mary's 
 School, Raleigh, August 31, 1863, in which he thanks Mr. Hale 
 for his article replying to the Standard, and then says : 
 
 "But it seems to me that such heavy ordnance as you have used 
 against him is directed at game too small. Holden is not really at the 
 bottom of the disaffection in this State. He is merely the mouthpiece 
 of the discontented, or the vane which shows the direction of the 
 ai:gry currents of popular feeling. 
 
 "The principal cause of our present troubles in this State is to be 
 found in the stomach rather than in the heads and hearts of our 
 people. Gent'emen, the great majority of our people cannot buy 
 the necessaries of life at the present enormous prices! Starvation not 
 only stares them in the face, but actually begins to work within 
 them, and we know what a depressing [Illegible] influence upon the 
 temper and views of men, enforced hunger produces. People who 
 cannot get enough to eat are in a mood to grumble at everything. 
 What wonder then that they should vent their speen upon the war, 
 which is the immediate cause of their suffering. 
 
 "I confess I do not wonder that the patriotism of some waxes cold, 
 and their wrath hot when they look at the state of things around 
 them." 
 
Meredith College Bulletin. 15 
 
 Dr. Smedes then goes on to speak of the rich men who by high 
 prices are extorting money from the poor, and says that they 
 and not Mr. Holden are the worst enemies of the country. 
 
 Realizing the alarming condition of affairs, Mr. Hale 
 changes the policy of attack and from minimizing the diver- 
 gence, in a series of strong editorials beginning August 17th, 
 boldly faces the issue in the open. He says : 
 
 "It can no longer be doubted or denied that there is a division in 
 public sentiment in North Carolina — on the one hand a determina- 
 tion to resist subjugation by the Yankee government, and to achieve 
 the independence of the Confederacy; on the other a peace party, as 
 it is falsely called, that would be willing to have independence, but 
 clamors for peace with or without independence." 
 
 He says the first are led by Governor Yance and the latter by 
 the Raleigh Standard, though it is not so radical as some of its 
 followers. 23 
 
 As these editorials continue Mr. Hale is in receipt of various 
 letters reporting the good effects they are having throughout the 
 State and enclosing new subscriptions to the paper. 
 
 That the conditions in the State were critical is shown by a 
 most important "Address of the army to the people of North 
 Carolina" that appeared in the same issue of the Observer 
 signed by seven officers, among whom were Colonel Thomas 
 Garrett of Bertie County and Colonel Bryan Grimes of Pitt 
 County. This was an appeal to the people to resist any effort 
 toward factions; it discusses the questions at issue and explains 
 why they should stand together. The appeal goes on to show 
 the danger to the State of these tendencies and that they might 
 lead to civil conflict within the State, as in Maryland, Kentucky 
 and Missouri. 24 
 
 The following independent accounts of a conference between 
 Governor Vance, Governor Graham, Mr. Satterthwaite a mem- 
 ber of the Governor's Council and Mr. Holden are especially 
 important as showing the opposite positions held by Vance and 
 Holden : 
 
 A letter from Governor Vance to Mr. Hale, September 7, 1863, 
 
 23 Fayetteville Observer, August 17, 1863, p. 3. 
 2i Ibid., September 7, 1363, p. 4. 
 
16 Meredith College Bulletin. 
 
 from Kaleigh, in which he refers to a conference which Mr. Hale 
 could not attend, but Governor Graham and Mr. Satterthwaite 
 did. He read them letters from about thirty leading Whigs of 
 the State, "all concurring in my views of duty." 
 
 "We sent for Holden and Governor Graham, talked to him earnest- 
 ly for three hours. It would do no good — he would agree to nothing 
 and insisted that the meetings should go on and I nor no one else 
 should say a word! Modest proposition truly. I offered to keep 
 silent if he would discourage the meetings — would not agree to it. 
 Governor Graham was clear that I should issue a proclamation, but 
 insisted it should be very mild and cautious. I have accordingly 
 written one which will appear toworrow, but I do assure you it is 
 not the document my judgment would have dictated, but I yielded to 
 Mr. Graham's better advice. I do not know that I will publish 
 [burnt] unless my friends should think it of sufficient importance. 
 I had prepared a lengthy letter going into the argument of the case 
 fully, but it was thought best to adopt another mode. 
 
 "From my many letters and my own knowledge of the men hold- 
 ing these meetings, the metal is very small — I expect the peace men 
 really have a majority to start with but the brains are largely with 
 us * * * I am very hopeful of the contest. [He then suggests 
 the policy Mr. Hale is to pursue toward Holden in his paper.] 
 
 "Don't let him deceive you — he is for reconstruction out and out — 
 Write me often — 
 
 Many years later Mr. Holden wrote the following account of 
 the conference : 
 
 "A short time after this, Governor Graham was invited to Raleigh 
 and I was sent for to come down and meet him at the Governor's 
 mansion. I went down in company with F. E. Satterthwaite, Es- 
 quire, of Washington, N. C. Mr. Satterthwaite agreed with me, but 
 took no part in the conversation. Governor 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. Governor Vance was opposed to them. I told 
 him the people had a right to assemble and express their opinions 
 and petition for redress of grievances, but I did not approve of 
 propositions to return to the Union unconditionally; yet the people 
 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. 25 * * * * 
 
 "This was the beginning of the wide separation between Gov- 
 
 "Holden, Memoirs, p. 24, also pp. 76-77. 
 
Meredith College Bulletin. 17 
 
 ernor Vance and myself which resulted in my opposing him for 
 Governor in 1864, and here I may say, and do say in the most em- 
 phatic manner, that I have never questioned his integrity, nor his 
 honor, nor the sincerity of his devotion to his principles, or to the 
 people whose servant he was and is." 26 
 
 Just at this time Raleigh — with a population of between four 
 and five thousand — was thrown into great excitement by a mob 
 which broke up part of the office of the Raleigh Standard, while 
 the following morning another destroyed the office of the State 
 Journal. 27 
 
 Governor Vance took hold of the situation vigorously and the 
 excitement seemed in a few weeks to have largely subsided. Mr. 
 Holden in a letter to Mr. Hale, October 7th, writes that of 
 course after the mob he could not change his policy, but the 
 height of the excitement over the peace meetings seemed over 
 and in a letter dated October 26th Governor Vance writes: "I 
 receive continued evidence of a better state of feeling in the 
 State." But December 10th in another private letter he says : 
 "But the Holdenites are making every effort to raise a row again. 
 God help us. I fear we are on the eve of another revolution and 
 civil war in the State." 
 
 A letter from Governor Vance who has been ill and still not 
 well, dated December 21, 1863, in the course of which he says: 
 
 "What would you say to Congress app'g Commrs to treat for 
 peace? Would it do any good North or South? Their terms would 
 not be heard of course and it might help to put down the clamor 
 here. Many of our friends here think it the only way to save North 
 Carolina and I confess I have been somewhat moved by their argu- 
 ments but am fearful to yield my position on such without good 
 advice. Mr. Graham was much depressed whilst here on the subject, 
 for though we surpressed the resolutions in the caucus, yet there was 
 dissatisfaction among men of whom you would have thought better 
 things. Don't think me faint hearted — I have been sick and quite 
 gloomy." 
 
 But the contest was to assume a new form, that of a Con- 
 vention which was to be made the issue of the State campaign in 
 1864. To show that Governor Vance felt himself the servant of 
 
 26 Holden, Memoirs, p. 25. 
 
 fFayetteville Observer, September 14, 1863, p. 3. 
 
18 Meredith College Bulletin. 
 
 all the people and of the peace movement which he had fought in 
 the State itself, we have his letter to Mr. Hale dated December 
 30, 1863. 
 
 He had written Mr. Dortch as to the propriety of offering 
 terms of peace in Congress. "He saw the President, who was 
 not quite convinced of its propriety, but would consult about it." 
 Governor Vance inclines to think more than ever it could do 
 no harm "and would silence clamor of a certain few in North 
 Carolina or force them to take sides against their country, which 
 most of them are afraid to do while we still have two great 
 armies in the field." 
 
 He gives as another reason that the plans are all arranged 
 to advocate a Convention in the spring. This is to test Vance 
 and he is to be beaten if he opposes it. He says : "I want the 
 question narrowed down to Lincoln or no Lincoln, and don't in- 
 tend to fritter away my strength on any minor issue." 
 
 A long important letter dated January 16, 1864, from D. K. 
 McRae, who had just returned from discussing affairs at Rich- 
 mond, expresses the opinion that a party strong in numbers — 
 having an organ not unsuited to the position and determined 
 in purpose has entered upon a plan by which the State at no 
 distant day is to be carried out of the Confederacy." He reports 
 having discussed the matter plainly with President Davis. "I 
 recommended sharp and decisive measures, to wit, the suspen- 
 sion of the writ of Habeas Corpus and the declaration of 
 martial law, the arrest of the most guilty parties and the em- 
 ployment of a sufficient force to carry the laws of Congress into 
 thorough execution." 
 
 In a letter from Governor Vance to Mr. Hale, dated January 
 22, 1864, he writes that many good men are alarmed over the 
 talk, among the disaffected, about losing their liberties as 
 Habeas Corpus. He asks Mr. Hale to read some documents 
 sent him which tell of the overthrow of the ballot in Kentucky 
 and the conditions there, so that he may make use of it in his 
 paper to show the disaffected the conditions. 
 
 A letter from Governor Vance, February 11, 1864, after 
 discussing the issues, says: 
 
 "I make no doubt but the Convention issue will force everything 
 asunder and form a new party — two of them rather. I do not wish 
 
Meredith College Bulletin. 19 
 
 this rupture to be upon any minor issue * * * Let them [the 
 ultra conservatives] abuse Jeff Davis and the Secessionists to their 
 hearts' content, so they will oppose this Convention movement and 
 keep to their duty on the war question, and whilst I would disapprove 
 of all this as vexatious, I hold it would be bad policy to waste my 
 strength by quarreling with them." 
 
 Years afterward, in writing of this campaign, Mr. HolJen 
 says: 
 
 "As a 'peace' man, after July, 1863, I urged that this State alone, 
 or with other Southern States, should negotiate for peace on honor- 
 able 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 sub- 
 jugation was inevitable. In this I was sustained by a large majority 
 of our people, until Governor Vance's Wilkesboro speech on the 22d 
 day of February, 1864. " 2S 
 
 During the winter of 1864 various letters were exchanged be- 
 tween President Davis and Governor Vance, in the course of 
 which the Governor urged that peace negotiations be opened 
 with the Federals. President Davis shows the obstacles in the 
 way and also advises him to abandon his policy of conciliation 
 toward the promoters of discontent and set them at defiance. 
 Governor Vance's well known letter to President Davis on 
 Habeas Corpus strongly sets forth the discontent in the State, 
 but he says : "Where and when have our people failed you in 
 battle or withheld either their blood or their vast resources?" 29 
 
 As is well known, Holden ran for Governor in opposition to 
 Vance and the campaign was waged into the summer. The files 
 of the Observer are missing for some months, but from the offi- 
 cial record the vote for Governor was : Vance, 58,065 ; Holden, 
 14,471. 30 This strong endorsement of Vance showed that the 
 State would abide by his policies. The peace feeling, as will be 
 seen, continued through the last year of the war, but much of it 
 might be attributed to a realization of the final outcome rather 
 than to Union sentiment. 
 
 One more effort for peace was made in November of 1864, 
 when Mr. Poole of Bertie County offered peace resolutions in 
 
 S8 HoHen, Memoirs, pp. 71-72. 
 
 1 "Letter of January 8, 1864, quoted in Fayetteville Observer May 30, 1864, p. 2. 
 
 s °North Carolina Manual, 1913, p. 1000. 
 
20 Meredith College Bulletin. 
 
 the State Senate that five commissioners be elected by the 
 General Assembly to act with others from the other States of the 
 Confederacy as a medium for negotiating a peace with the 
 United States ; that they request of President Davis that 
 he arrange for a conference through the medium of these com- 
 missioners; that whenever five of the State so act the Governor 
 communicate officially with President Davis. 31 
 
 The Observer later has the following special dispatch in re- 
 gard to Mr. Poole's resolutions : 
 
 "The peace resolutions introduced by Mr. Poole of Bertie were 
 tabled in the Senate today 24 to 20. A motion to reconsider was de- 
 feated 23 to 22. " 32 
 
 Mr. Hale adds : "This result would have been more gratify- 
 ing if it had been arrived at with some approach to unanimity. 
 That such resolution should have been supported by twenty-two 
 senators is astonishing." 33 
 
 I cannot close without a word for the masterly way in which 
 the State affairs were managed during these years by Governor 
 Vance and his interpreter to the people, Mr. Edward J. Hale. 
 The more the actual conditions are understood the more amazed 
 one is at the marvelous skill these men showed in keeping the 
 outward organization so efficient. Both had been strong Union 
 men, both had continued so until Lincoln's call for troops. 
 Yet when they went with the South neither swerved in his 
 loyalty, but worked with tireless energy and gave all he had of 
 ability and skill to her cause. 
 
 tl FayetteviUe Observer, November 28, 1864, p. 3. 
 > 2 Ibid., December 5, 1864, p. 4; December 8, p. 1. 
 * s Ibid., December 19, 1864, p. 1. 
 
Meredith College Bulletin. 21 
 
 Conclusions 
 
 1. The vote on the matter of a Convention in February, 1861, 
 indicates that JSTorth Carolina was strongly Union down to Lin- 
 coln's call for troops, April 15, 1861. 
 
 2. The relations between the Confederacy and ISTorth Carolina 
 were not cordial; the people felt that the State was distrusted 
 and treated with suspicion. The feeling seemed especially 
 strong against many of the centralizing policies of Jefferson 
 Davis. The extremely complex conditions of affairs between 
 the Confederacy and the State frequently placed Governor 
 Vance in most delicate and trying situations which, with his 
 group of able advisers, he met with great tact, firmness and 
 ability. The evidence from his confidential correspondence 
 with Hale proves conclusively that he was unswervingly loyal 
 to the State and the cause of the South from the call for troops 
 to the close of the war. 
 
 3. Granted the right of secession from the Federal Govern- 
 ment, it would seem that a Southern State had an equal right to 
 secede from the Confederacy, or to treat separately for peace, 
 although whether it would have been wise to do so is, of course, 
 an open question. 
 
 4. That there was deep and widespread dissatisfaction with 
 the war is evident. That there was a strong undercurrent for the 
 Union seems probable. Either side may admire the consistent 
 course of action of one whose fundamental belief differs from 
 his, but who is loyal to the truth as he believes it. As with the 
 loyalists in the Revolutionary War, the Union element in the 
 Civil War may be accorded honesty of conviction and a right to 
 their opinion. Any other course would strike at the basis of 
 the glory of North Carolina's past, whose foundation is the 
 democratic doctrine of the right of the people to self-govern- 
 ment and to self-expression of thought. 
 
 5. Of a State with such an undercurrent of faction that 
 could subordinate personal feeling and with one hundred and 
 fifteen thousand voters send into the field one hundred and 
 twenty-five thousand (125,000) troops, one can only say, as 
 Daniel Webster did of his own State years ago : She needs no 
 encomium. There she is. Behold her, and judge for your- 
 selves. 
 
A 
 
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