USA > North Carolina > History of North Carolina: North Carolina since 1860, Volume III > Part 9
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lieutenant-governor, superintendent of public works, and au- ditor. The latter replaced the office of comptroller which had been created by act of the General Assembly. The election of these officers, with that of the other state officers, which had formerly been in the hands of the General Assembly, was put into the hands of the people. The property qualification for governor was abolished, and his term of office, together with that of the other state officers, was increased from two to four years. Only two years' previous residence in the state, instead of five, was required for the governor. He was given power to commute sentences in addition to the pardoning power. All nominations of the governor had to be confirmed by the Senate. Provision was made for a bureau of statistics, agriculture, and immigration.
In the judicial department, the most complete change was made. All distinctions between actions at law and suits in equity and the forms of such actions were abolished. Only one form of action, the civil suit, could be brought in the state. Feigned issues were abolished, and it was provided that the fact at issue should be tried by order of court before a jury. The county courts were abolished and a large part of their powers and duties were given to the clerks of the Superior courts. The number of the Supreme Court jus- tices was increased from three to five, and that of the Supe- rior Court judges from eight to twelve. Their election and also that of the solicitors was taken from the General As- sembly and given to the people. The term of office of judges was changed from life or good behavior and made eight years. The election of clerks, sheriffs, and coroners was taken from the county courts and put in the hands of the people.
Regarding taxation, the constitution provided that the proceeds of the capitation tax should be applied to education and the support of the poor. Provision was made for the payment of the interest on the public debt and for the cre- ation, after 1880, of a sinking fund for the payment of the principal. The General Assembly was prohibited from in- curring any indebtedness until the bonds of the state should be at par, except to supply a casual deficiency or to suppress insurrection, unless there should be inserted in the same bill
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a provision for the levying of a special tax to pay the interest annually. The General Assembly was also forbidden to lend the credit of the state, except to railroads which were in the process of construction at the time of the ratification of the constitution or to those in which the state had a financial in- terest, unless the question was submitted to the direct vote of the people. It was also provided that every act levying a tax should state its object and the proceeds could be applied to no other purpose.
The constitution provided for universal suffrage. No one could register without taking an oath to support the Consti- tution of the United States, and every officer had to take an oath of allegiance to the United States. All persons who de- nied the being of Almighty God, who had been convicted of treason, perjury, or any other infamous crime since becoming citizens of the United States, or who had been convicted of corruption or malpractice in office and had not been legally restored to the rights of citizenship, were disqualified for hold- ing office. Taking any part in a duel also disqualified for holding any office under the state.
County government was put in the hands of five commis- sioners in each county elected by the people to exercise a gen- eral supervision and control of county affairs. It was also provided that the people of each county should elect a treas- urer and a register of deeds. The commissioners were di- rected to divide the counties into townships, and the people of each township were biennially to elect two justices of the peace. No counties or other municipal corporations could contract a debt without the consent of a majority of the voters, and all the counties were forbidden to pay any debt contracted to aid in rebellion.
The General Assembly was directed to provide a general system of public schools, and the executive officers of the state were formed into a board of education to succeed to all the powers and duties of the literary board. The state Univer- sity was declared to be forever inseparable from the public school system, and the General Assembly was directed to es- tablish, in connection with the University, departments of agriculture, mechanics, mining, and normal instruction.
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Provision was made for a homestead exemption of $500, and it was provided that the real and personal property of a married woman should remain her separate estate and prop- erty, and in no way liable for the debts of her husband. These provisions were not new to the state, both having been in- corporated in the law in 1866.
Punishments for crime were provided as follows: death, imprisonment, with or without hard labor, fines, removal from office, and disqualification to hold any office under the state. Four crimes were punishable by death: murder, arson, burg- lary, and rape. Provision was made for a penitentiary, and the General Assembly was directed to provide for the care of orphans, idiots, inebriates, deaf mutes, and the insane, and authorized to provide houses of refuge and correction for the punishment and instruction of certain classes of criminals, whenever it might seem necessary.
These were the more important changes. There were others of less interest and importance, but they are far too numerous to mention. A comparison of the two constitutions shows a very wide difference, and brings out very clearly the part played by the Northern members of the convention.
Early in January the conservative executive committee called a convention of the constitutional union party which met February 6th. The controlling element were former whigs but a large number of democrats were present. Here re-appeared in politics many who had been prominent before and during the war. An organization was perfected and a series of resolutions outlining party policy adopted. They declared devotion to the United States Constitution, protested against the reconstruction acts as a violation of it, and de- clared negro suffrage to be the great political issue of the state, registering their opposition to it while avowing their purpose to protect the negro in the enjoyment of civil rights and of such privileges as were not inconsistent with the wel- fare of both races. After endorsing the President and ex- pressing their distrust of the "organization controlling Con- gress," they waived all former party feeling and prejudice and invited the people of the state to co-operate with the democratic party and elected delegates to the democratic na-
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tional convention. Enthusiastic speeches were made, the most notable by Vance who urged activity and fearlessness of the result of opposition to the radicals, saying "When free speech, a free press and a free ballot are restored, the wrath and indignation of an outraged people will damn them forever. It will be better for them that a mill stone were hanged about their necks and that they were drowned in the depths of the sea." Later the committee nominated Vance for governor and upon his declining chose Thomas S. Ashe, a former mem- ber of the Confederate Congress who had been a senator-elect when the war ended. He was of course under disabilities as were most of the other nominees. Nearly all had been whigs.
The republicans met the same day and nominated Holden for governor with a full ticket upon which were three carpet- baggers. Both parties nominated Chief Justice Pearson, and Associate Justice E. G. Reade, and several nominations for Superior Court judges coincided.
When the congressional nominations came three carpet- baggers were chosen. One of them, J. T. Deweese, was de- feated for the nomination by James H. Harris, the negro member of the convention from Wake County, who then sold the nomination to him for $1,000.
The campaign was conducted with great activity and en- thusiasm. The Union League with Holden as president and James H. Harris as vice president, and the Heroes of Amer- ica, were both brought into service. The republicans made their campaign largely on matters relating to the war which would rouse antagonism and bitter feeling. The conserva- tives made their fight on the question of ratifying the con- stitution with resulting negro equality and the loss of pro- tection for person and property. They received unexpected allies in Daniel R. Goodloe and H. H. Helper, the former say- ing that because Holden's name was "a synonym for what- ever is harsh, proscriptive, and hateful to nine-tenths of the whole people of the State," he could not support him, while Helper, attacking Holden, urged the election of Goodloe. The republicans lost others they might normally have counted on because of the radical changes in the constitution and their
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violent and proscriptive tendencies. Notable among these was B. F. Moore.
The first recorded Ku Klux notice in the state appeared in this campaign. It was:
"K. K. K.
Attention! First Hour! In the Mist! At the Flash! Come. Come. Come !!!
Retribution is impatient! The grave yawns!
The sceptre bones rattle ! Let the doomed quake !"
The convention had provided for the submission of the question of ratification of the constitution to the voters quali- fied under the reconstruction acts. The state officers were to be chosen by the voters qualified under the new constitution, which meant manhood suffrage. But the voting on ratifica- tion of the constitution and the election of state and county officers took place at the same time, and, by order of General Canby, on the same ballot. By this piece of entirely unjus- tifiable partisan politics, which was entirely characteristic of reconstruction methods and morals, all who had been dis- franchised by the reconstruction acts were prevented from voting, and the validity of the acts of the legislature thus elected is therefore open to question. A new registration had been made, and the number registered was increased consid- erably. The figures were:
Whites
117,428
Blacks
79,444
Total 196,872
The election was held on April 21st, 22d, and 23d, and re- sulted in a complete republican victory. The vote on the rati- fication of the constitution was:
For constitution 93,084
Against constitution 74,015
Not voting 29,773
The vote for governor was:
Holden
92,235
Ashe
73,594
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The conservatives elected only one member of Congress, one judge, of those whom the republicans had not endorsed, and one solicitor. Of the eighty-nine counties, the republi- cans carried fifty-eight. It was conceded that the republicans polled almost their full strength. Thus it is seen that a large number of conservatives, qualified to vote, failed to do so. This was, in part, the result of the general belief, that, if the conservatives were successful, Congress would set aside the election, or refuse to remove the disabilities of those conservatives who were elected to office. And doubtless, such would have been the case.
Fraud was common all over the state. By an amendatory act of Congress, passed March 11, 1868, voting upon affidavit instead of registration, was authorized, and ten days was set as the period of required prior residence. This gave room for illegal voting, and, consequently, many voted in different counties on different days.
The constitution still needed the approval of Congress and in addition a majority of the newly-elected officers were under disabilities. When Canby announced that all officers installed prior to the formal restoration of the state would have to take the "iron-clad oath" there was consternation among the "loy- al" and Congress was urged to help. Finally an act was passed approving the constitution and providing that repre- sentatives should be admitted as soon as the Fourteenth Amendment was ratified. But the admission was upon the express condition that the constitution should never be so changed as to deprive of the right to vote any citizen or class of citizens who were then entitled to suffrage. General Canby construed this act to remove the necessity of taking the test oath.
The same day the disabilities of nearly seven hundred per- sons in the state, chiefly republicans, were removed, and this made possible the organization of the state government. The act of Congress authorized the governor-elect to summon the legislature and Holden called it to meet July 1st. General Canby instructed the chief-justice-elect to take the oaths of office before a United States commissioner, and then to admin- ister them to his associates and to the state officers. Chief Jus-
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tice Pearson notified Governor Worth that he would adminis- ter the oaths to the governor on July 1st. The same day, Governor Worth was removed from office by a military order from General Canby. The oaths were administered to Gov- ernor Holden the next day, and Governor Worth surrendered the office with a dignified and telling protest which stung Holden to the quick.
Holden delivered his inaugural on July 4th. It consisted of a defense of the new constitution with a declaration that the government must be administered by its friends. He de- fended the carpet-baggers, declared his opposition to mixed schools, promised a development of public education, and guaranteed protection of the right to vote to the negroes, threatening confiscation and the use of force if any attempt was made to deprive them of it.
In the meantime, the legislature met and ratified the Four- teenth Amendment and elected John Pool and Joseph C. Abbott to the United States Senate. They, with all the mem- bers of the lower house, were admitted by July 20th. North Carolina was thus restored to her place in the Union and, legally, Reconstruction was at an end. But from a social and economic standpoint, or from an internal political standpoint, it now began.
Vol. III-8
CHAPTER VII
THE REPUBLICAN REGIME
The governor's inaugural address in its declaration of ostracism of those who had opposed reconstruction, its threat of force, and its eulogy of the carpet-baggers was indeed pro- phetic of the character of his administration. It was partisan, sustained by force, and controlled largely by corrupt and greedy aliens who skillfully played upon the gnawing and patent ambition of the governor.
After filling the offices in his disposal, mainly magistrates and other county positions, many of them with ignorant and even with criminal negroes, he proceeded to the organization of the militia which he regarded as essential to success. An act authorizing this had already been passed by the legisla- ture in response to his demand. He had called attention to the fact that many people in the state did not acknowledge the validity of the state government, and announced that he proposed to overawe them. The bill was drawn by John Pool and was passed with difficulty since many republicans and all the conservatives were bitterly opposed to it. It provided for a maximum of nine regiments and a battery of artillery to be at the disposal of the governor. It was admirably adapted for the establishment of a military despotism and was intended for that, should the occasion arise. It was uncon- stitutional viewed from the standpoint of either the state or Federal Constitution and was in direct violation of a recent act of Congress. But Holden and his allies were entirely aware that their power could not endure longer than the first fair election and they deliberately planned terrorism and fraud. That the native North Carolinians were unaware of the inevitable result of such a policy shows how far removed they were from a normal mental grasp of existing conditions.
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If the carpet-baggers knew, they cared little, expecting, when the time of reckoning came to be living in comfortable retire- ment upon their ill-gotten gains, somewhere north of Mason and Dixon's line, and out of reach of a just retribution.
Arms were lacking for the militia and the adjutant-gen- eral, A. W. Fisher, a carpet-bagger, went North and borrowed secretly from the State of Vermont a thousand rifles. The news of his mission, however, reached North Carolina and did not add to the popularity of the republican administra- tion. Nor, be it said, did the militia. A failure from the beginning in any preservation of order, it served only to rouse antagonism.
The legislature, which had an overwhelming republican majority in each house, was, in the meantime, engaged in legislation and in a process of education in the possibilities of their position. In this latter activity they found in the carpet-baggers and in the lobby, a set of very able teachers. Of the members more than thirty were carpet-baggers and more than twenty were negroes. Judged by their capacity for evil, the latter were the more desirable legislators. Most of them and a large number of the white members were il- literate, and almost all were totally inexperienced. The con- servatives, in a hopeless minority and unable to carry any- thing, sought chiefly to oppose and to put the majority on record. All of the conservatives under disabilities or under suspicion were excluded, but no republicans were troubled.
Little constructive work was done. Most of the time was spent in discussing matters of small moment. The per diem was fixed at $7 with mileage at 20 cents and this failed to satisfy many of the members whose sole conception of public service bore a close relation to compensation therefor. They accordingly looked elsewhere for larger dividends upon their investment of time and effort and had little difficulty in find- ing them. Already plans of large financial operations to be conducted at state expense were being shaped by the group of schemers headed by General Littlefield who was maintain- ing a free bar, popularly called "the third house," in the capitol for the use of members and their friends.
One of the most interesting and significant acts of the
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legislature was the passage of a resolution affirming the validity of the existing government. It was based upon President Johnson's contemptuous reference to Governor Holden as "the man who writes himself governor of North Carolina"-which the republicans held to be an incitement to insurrection; upon Governor Worth's letter of protest to Governor Holden, when he surrendered his office as governor to the latter; upon the democratic national platform of 1868, which declared the whole process of reconstruction uncon- stitutional; upon Frank P. Blair's Brodhead letter; and upon the North Carolina conservative platform of 1868, which was of like tenor with the other documents mentioned. These were declared calculated to produce civil war, and in order to re- store confidence, the state government was declared valid in every respect. The resolution was introduced by L. G. Estes and shows the fear of the republicans that the administration might be overturned. It also bears testimony to the deep- seated determination of the conservatives not to recognize the validity of the acts of the state government.
The debates showed the members to be, with a few excep- tions, far below the average in ability. Prejudice and parti- sanship were rampant on both sides and the majority treated the minority with utter contempt, thereby setting a precedent from which their party was to suffer for many years to come. Disorderly scenes and abusive language grew commonplace, and decent people drew all too soon a breath of relief when the legislature finally adjourned.
The adjournment saw the beginning of the presidential campaign. In this the conservatives entered with real hope, thinking that the conservative forces of the North would rebel against the radicalism rampant in Congress and elect the democratic candidates, and that Reconstruction would be overthrown. They felt too that in the state the chance of success was good, and thus began work with real enthusiasm.
The most notable event in the campaign was the publica- tion of an address to the conservative party written by Chief Justice Pearson, urging them to support Grant in order to prevent civil war. Denying any belief in the constitutionality of the reconstruction acts, he pronounced them extra-consti-
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a
tutional and declared that a subjugated people had no right to protest. He stated that two other members of the Supreme Court agreed with him. The letter was received with anger and contempt by the conservatives who declared with entire truth that North Carolina had not been accustomed to poli- tical activity on the part of its judges. The republicans, however, enthusiastically, and with considerable truth, claimed that all of the justices of the Supreme Court were active re- publican partisans, and published fifty thousand copies of Judge Pearson's letter as a campaign document.
Another campaign document of note was an address, writ- ten by John Pool and Judge Reade, which was signed by eighty-eight republican members of the legislature at the time of adjournment. Directed against the conservative party, it was the most incendiary document ever published in North Carolina. It was full of threats and was calculated and intended to inflame the negroes and alarm the conserva- tives. Its publication was a deliberate step in the policy of terror which the republican party adopted.
Both parties held conventions, that of the republicans be- ing notable for the bitterness of the speakers, the presence of an immense throng of negroes, and the fact of the previous announcement that Justices Reade, Dick, and Settle and Judge Tourgee would take prominent parts in the demonstration. So bitter was the comment that the justices absented them- selves. Not so, Judge Tourgee who, although able, was en- tirely shameless. Not content with acting as chief marshal at the convention, he also served on the republican executive committee and, with his eye on a nomination for Congress, converted the bench into a stump for the period of the cam- paign.
In the campaign once more appeared the Union League and the Heroes of America, the latter making its final ap- pearance. The press, of course, was active and the Standard, owned actually by Littlefield but nominally by N. Paige, an- other carpet-baggers and its editor, after a series of bitter ar- ticles intended to incite the negroes to violence, published an editorial entitled, "Work," containing such a villainous re-
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flection upon the womanhood of the state, that only the prompt and final departure from town of Paige prevented a lynching.
In spite of the activity of the conservative leaders, the people were apathetic. They had not yet come to know what radical misrule would mean and above all they wanted peace and quiet. Governor Holden, however, was fearful of the result of the election and appealed to General Meade to au- thorize General Miles to station troops wherever he [the gov- ernor ] might think necessary, "to inspire a salutary terror." General Meade properly refused and the governor then issued a proclamation in which he stated falsely that the conserva- tives were bringing great quantities of arms to the state for use on election day. He then appealed to the Federal Gov- ernment for arms and the halls of Congress were full of the clamor of carefully manufactured recitals of "rebel out- rages." The governor ordered the organization of the de- tailed militia, but when this was brought to General Meade's attention, the order was suspended. The regular militia was sent to several counties as a threat, but accomplished nothing. Indeed the state was so quiet that not even the presence of the militia could cause disorder.
A few days before the election, General Miles issued an order forbidding officers and men to fraternize with political parties. By an accompanying declaration that the campaign had been conducted with creditable quiet, he emphatically gave the lie to the reports which the governor and his associates had been so sedulously circulating. In company with many of the officers and men of his command, he promptly, in vio- lation of the state law, registered and voted.
The election was quiet and resulted in a sweeping repub- lican victory, Grant carrying the state by more than twelve thousand, and five republicans securing seats in Congress. Plato Durham was one of the conservatives elected, but Men- ninger, the carpet-bag secretary of state, held up the returns for three months and then with the governor's knowledge and approval gave A. H. Jones, the republican candidate, the cer- tificate.
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