USA > North Carolina > History of North Carolina: The Federal Period 1783-1860, Volume II > Part 22
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public office, that recovery for fraud extended to games of chance, and that corporate franchises cannot be sold under execution. By these and other decisions not only did the Supreme Court refine the law and make justice more equi- table; it also won distinction and leadership in American juris- prudence.
CHAPTER XIV THE WHIG REGIME; POLITICS, STATE AND FEDERAL, 1836-1847
Having traced the origins of the whig and democratic parties and the domestic progress under whig leadership, it now remains to review the course of party politics, federal and state, during the same period.
Although the Convention of 1835, by relieving the stress of local sectionalism, made possible the development of state issues, national policies continued to be the center of interest for over a decade. Wrote an anonymous correspondent : "There is no subject connected with the operation of the General Government which does not enlist the zeal of our public and command the attention of those who have leisure to discuss it; whilst the more immediate concerns of the people of North Carolina are widely disregarded, or else noticed in a manner that is even stronger proof of indiffer- ence than absolute silence." 1 Yet this unbalanced political interest was not without some benefit. The national issues of the 'thirties and 'forties were vital, involving the dispo- sition of the public domain, the establishment of a fiscal sys- tem, the acquisition of new territory, and the extension of slavery. On such questions as these attention was riveted, party division being very close. A new type of leadership ap- peared, in ability and vision of the country's needs compar- able only to that of federalism before 1800. Popular under- standing of national issues, if judged by local meetings and addresses to the people, was not only more extensive but more intelligent than has been known before or since.
In the presidential election of 1836 Van Buren carried the state by a majority of over 9,000. Apparently the tide had
1 "Mentor," North Carolina Standard, Dec. 6, 1837.
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turned against the whigs. But conditions during his admin- istration were such as to give that party a renewal of strength. In 1837 a financial panic struck the country, forcing the banks of North Carolina to suspend specie payment, and a second wave of depression began in 1839. Van Buren's remedy for the demoralization was the sub-treasury instead of deposits in state banks, the policy of Jackson, or the establishment of a central federal bank, advocated by the whigs. To secure the support of the western states he was willing to grant more liberal terms in the purchase and preemption of public lands. However, bills providing for a sub-treasury and also new terms of land sales were defeated in the spring of 1837.
The policy of the administration came before the people of North Carolina in the congressional election of 1837. The whigs emphasized the land issue, holding that any disposal of the public domain except the distribution of the proceeds of the sales among the states to be unjust. Typical was the opinion of James Graham, candidate in the twelfth district:
During the last year (1836) the sales amounted to the enormous sum of upward twenty million dollars, more than one-half of all the revenue of the United States. *
* Is there a man who has a North Carolina head on his shoulders, or a native North Carolinian's heart in his bosom, who can betray his mother earth, and see her people robbed and plundered annually of her just and equitable share of twenty-four millions of dollars ? Shall our venerable parents be stripped of their own property to soothe and to satisfy the mur- muring and avaricious wants of their spoiled children? Shall the people of the old states be continually taxed to provide comfortable and sumptuous living for the settler and speculator of the new states ? Why did you tax yourselves last fall with the labor of plowing and sowing your grain? Because you expected then and hoped now, in due season, to reap a rich harvest. I verily believe you are as much entitled to your share of the money arising from the sale of the public lands, as you are entitled to the crop now growing which you sowed last autumn.2
On the other hand the democrats, realizing the interest of the state in distribution, laid much stress on the financial issue, advocating control of the nation's money by the people through the sub-treasury rather than the banks, the creatures
2 Raleigh Register, May 2, 1837, Cf. Address of A. Rencher, April 11. and of Lewis Williams, March 28.
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of the money power. Sound reasoning was frequently dis- placed by an appeal to class prejudice. "No sooner does one of our neighbors turn a bank whig," says an address to the people of Wake County, "than his whole nature becomes transformed-the courtesies and charities of life are fre- quently sacrificed in blind idolatry to the bank and he deals out curses and insults to the friends of the administration as if he supposed the time had already arrived when none but the followers of the banks had liberty left." 3
The election resulted in a whig victory, the party carrying eight of the thirteen congressional districts. The following year the popularity of the legislative policy of 1836 toward internal improvements brought a decisive supremacy in the state elections, Dudley being re-elected governor by more than fourteen thousand majority and both houses of the assembly having safe whig majorities. Thus entrenched, party retal- iation was taken for the instruction of Senator Mangum in 1834. Legislative resolutions were adopted, addressed to the democratic senators, Brown and Strange, which con- demned the expunging resolutions and urged that they be rescinded, denounced the proposed sub-treasury, and declared the distribution of the proceeds of land sales among the states to be the proper use of the public domain. However, the whigs were careful not to use the terms instruct or instruc- tion, these being a democratic weapon which they had resented and criticized in 1834. The pertinent resolution simply read : "Resolved, That our senators in Congress will represent the wishes of a large majority of the people of this state by voting to carry the foregoing resolutions." 4
The attitude of Senators Brown and Strange was inter- esting. They pointed out the absence of the term instruct and held that instruction was the traditional method of bend- ing the will of senators to that of the legislature; that there was no evidence that the will of the people, formerly expressed in favor of expunging in 1832, had changed, or else an instruc- tion would have been offered; finally, they asked the legis- lature whether an instruction was intended, but received an
3 North Carolina Standard, Aug. 9, 1837.
4 Laws of N. C., 1838, p. 81.
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impertinent and indefinite reply. Thereupon they refused to resign until public opinion could be tested at the next meeting of the legislature.3 Apparently popular sentiment favored the senators, for in 1839 the democrats carried seven of the thirteen congressional districts and in one of these. the fourth, Charles Shepard was re-elected although he had left the whig party.
This threat at the local whig supremacy, as well as its national significance, gave the election of 1840 unusual inter- est. In fact the campaign of that year marks a distinct epoch in party methods and tactics. The nominating convention for the selection of state candidates and the formulation of issues was introduced. The whigs were the first in the field. In August 1839, a call was issued by a committee appointed by a caucus of the preceding legislature for a convention which met on November 12th at Raleigh, ten months before the state, and twelve before the federal, elections. It was attended by delegates from twenty western and fourteen eastern coun- ties. John M. Morehead was nominated for governor, pref- erence was expressed for Clay and Tallmadge as candidates for president and vice-president, and two delegates at large were chosen for the national convention of the party. The statement of principles was left to a central committee and its report, written and issued after the convention adjourned, endorsed a federal bank, distribution of the proceeds of land sales among the states, public education, and a strict inter- pretation of the Constitution; it also strongly condemned the spoils system, the sub-treasury, the protective tariff and fed- eral interference with slavery.6 The democrats likewise re- sorted to a convention, which met on January 8, 1840 and had a larger representation from the eastern than from the western counties. Romulus M. Saunders was nominated for governor, Van Buren was approved for the presidency, and resolutions were adopted denouncing the bank and endorsing the sub- treasury. A few days after the convention adjourned the North Carolina Standard came out for Polk for the vice- presidency.
5 Cong. Globe, 25th Cong., 3rd Sess., VII, 116.
6 Hamilton, Party Politics in North Carolina, p. 56.
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The ensuing campaign was undoubtedly the most exciting of any since that of 1824. Saunders was an experienced pol- itician, having served three terms in Congress, five years as attorney-general of the state, and the same number on the Superior Court Bench. Morehead was just entering the prime of life, an heir of Murphey's ideals for economic and social progress, identified also with the nascent interest in manu- factures. The candidates toured the state from March to August, engaging in many joint discussions. Public meetings, parades, and festivities abounded, in which the whigs had a shade the advantage. Not only did their local leaders show better skill in organization, but the emblems of their national campaign, the log cabin and hard cider, made a distinct appeal to the masses. Illustrative were resolutions of the Tippe- canoe Club of Raleigh :
"Resolved, That the late attempts of some of the Van Buren delegates to throw contempt upon the humble walks of life, by sneering at William Henry Harrison as the log cabin and hard cider candidate, deserve the condemnation of the people;
"Resolved, That we view with contempt and indignation the efforts which some of the demagogues of the administra- tion are making to induce the people of this and adjoining counties to believe, that the cabin in which we are now assem- bled was erected in disrespect of the poor, and we do now pronounce such a charge to be wholly false;
"Resolved, That as poor men assisted to build this cabin- as they are not ashamed to claim it as typical of the prin- ciples of the poor men who go for the good of the whole peo- ple-as it is intended to be an expression of contempt for the sneers of the office holders thrown upon the homes of the poor, we will defend it to the utmost of our ability, and we call upon our fellow citizens everywhere to come to the rescue of the rights of the poor men whose wages and property are to be brought down under the administration to the stand of European despotism." 7
When the national democratic convention failed to nom-
7 Raleigh Register, July 28, 1840.
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inate a candidate for the vice-presidency, a second state con- vention met in Raleigh on July 9th and nominated Richard M. Johnston. The whigs, not to be outdone, held a second convention in October, characterized by the martial organ- ization of delegates, a powerful speech in defense of Harrison by George E. Badger, and the publication of Gaston's "Caro- lina," which soon became the song of state patriotism. Throughout the campaign the personal records of the candi- dates, as well as extraneous issues which appealed to the prej- udices of the people, were unduly emphasized. The question of abolition was introduced. Morehead was taken to task for favoring a limited negro suffrage in the convention of 1835 and was charged with submitting an anti-slavery memo- rial in the legislature of 1838, which had been actually intro- duced by his brother, James Morehead. Harrison, the whig presidential nominee, was also charged with signing a law, when governor of Indiana Territory, which made possible the sale of white men to negro masters. In retaliation the whigs dug up anti-slavery memorials submitted to Congress by Saunders in 1824 on behalf of his Quaker constituents, and pointed out that the Indiana law explicitly prohibited an In- dian, negro or mulatto from purchasing a servant except one of his own color, and that Van Buren had refused to reopen the case of a naval officer convicted by negro testimony. Notable also was the habit of the gubernatorial candidates to pitch their language to the standard of the country-side. Tradition relates that Saunders once challenged Morehead thus: "Whar, sir, does the gentleman git his authority for that thar statement? I ask him whar?". Morehead replied by lifting up two books and saying: "In them thar dokiments, sir. That's whar." The appeal to prejudice reached its climax when Charles Manly, in debate with Saunders, made three vital charges against Van Buren,-riding in a splendid carriage, sending to the post office for his mail instead of walking for it, and wearing silk stockings.8 Local conditions favored the whigs, for in the spring of 1840 the Wilmington and Weldon Railroad was completed and in June the Raleigh
8 Hamilton, Party Politics in North Carolina, 1835-1860 (James Sprunt Hist. Publication), pp. 61-63.
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and Gaston; both of these, constructed with state aid, seemed to vindicate whig policies, and meetings in celebration of their construction were held in Raleigh and Wilmington, in which whig influences predominated. Perhaps realizing that the tide was turning in favor of the whigs, Brown and Strange on June 30th sent their resignations to Governor Dudley, so injecting the issue of instruction into the campaign. The state elections, which came in August, gave a large whig vic-
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tory, Morehead carrying forty-one of the sixty-six counties with a majority of more than 8,000, and in November Har- rison and Tyler carried the state by a majority of 13,141.
The whigs proceeded to consolidate their power. Parti- san use of the state patronage, begun in 1836, was continued. Two democratic solicitors were replaced by whigs, a whig attorney general, Hugh McQuean, was elected, and also two circuit judges; thus the entire judicial machinery of the state was whig. The unexpired terms of Strange and Brown were filled by Mangum and William A. Graham, the former being also elected to serve a full term. Nor were the national
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councillors of the party unmindful of the redemption of the state from Jackson-Van Buren influence. George E. Badger was appointed Secretary of the Navy and when Mr. Southard of New Jersey resigned from the Senate in 1842, Mangum was chosen president pro tem of that body in his stead. Graham also was elected chairman of the Senate Committee on Claims, a distinct honor for a first term and for a man of thirty-eight years. When Mangum became presiding officer of the Senate, . Graham also took his place on the finance committee. In 1841 the whigs carried eight of the thirteen congressional dis- tricts.
However there were clouds in the political sky. The east- ern whigs were disgruntled because the two senators should be from the west, in fact from the same county, Orange. Far and wide there was discontent over the election of Graham, one of the younger party leaders, as yet comparatively un- known. Mangum also had been on both sides of nearly every national issue. The fact is, there were two well defined wings of the party; the federal whigs, allies of Henry Clay, led by Gaston, Badger, Lewis Williams and Graham-and republi- can whigs, led by Mangum, William B. Shepard, John Owen and Governor Dudley, who were openly opportunists regard- ing Clay's American System. In the senatorial election the issue of the national bank was a cause of division. The leg- islature, however, adopted a resolution declaring that a na- tional bank was constitutional and favoring the organization of such an institution. But whig security was short lived. In Congress Clay's program met the determined opposition of Tyler. Two bills chartering the Fiscal Bank of the United States, which received the undivided support of the whig delegation from North Carolina, were vetoed in the summer of 1841. Thereupon Badger, like all the cabinet officers except Webster, resigned on the ground that the President had placed him in a false position by approving the second bill and so leading him to solicit influence for it.ยบ Tyler's action was taken up in a whig caucus in which resolutions censuring his course, introduced by Mangum, were adopted.
9 Raleigh Star, Sept. 29, 1841.
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In the matter of national revenue there was also a party division. The compromise tariff of 1833, which provided for an automatic reduction of duties, had by 1841 reduced revenue below expenditures. Hence a loan was authorized, the be- ginning of the modern bonded debt of the United States, and also a distribution law, providing that the proceeds of land sales should not be distributed whenever the needs of the treasury required an increase of the tariff above twenty per- cent. The tariff met with the approval of Mangum and Graham and of five of the whig congressmen. However, when a permanent tariff was enacted in 1842 the vote of the North Carolina senators and congressmen was reversed, not so much from a change in principle but because Tyler forced the ex- clusion of distribution from the tariff act. In fact Graham certainly would, and Mangum might have, voted for the measure if their votes had been necessary for its passage. Behind the policy of the whigs was a new sentiment favorable to protection, due to a nascent industrialism in the state and also a feeling that foreign cotton might invade the American market. Governor Morehead in his address to the legislature of 1842 voiced the protectionist sentiment as follows :
All agree that duties may be imposed to raise Revenue, but some contend that they can be imposed for no other object. If this latter doctrine be true, then are we shorn of some of the most important prerogatives of a sovereign people-then may we be subjected to the most abject commercial slavery. If it be admitted that Europe can pour into our country the excessive productions of her pauper labor, whenever she chooses, and can exclude our productions from her markets, or tax them so high as to be ruinous to us, and that we have no power to protect ourselves against the influx of the one, or, to counteract the oppressive exclusions, or, heavy exactions of the other -then, indeed, we are in a helpless condition.
That the General Government has power to impose duties for the protection of American industry, against European industry, and to counteract foreign legislation hostile to our interests, I think cannot admit of a doubt. When the states became independent, they had the power unquestionably. All their powers to impose duties they transferred to the General Government by the adoption of the Con- stitution. Then they ceased to have the power and if the General Government has it not, then the power is extinct. Is there an Ameri- can willing to admit this ?
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While these matters engaged Congress, the state elections of 1842 occurred. Local as well as national issues were in- volved. The trustees of the Literary Fund had gone to the aid of the Raleigh and Gaston Railway when the road was unable to pay interest on its bonds, and this action it was believed was really in the interest of the banks, which held the bonds. The proscriptive policy of Morehead's administration was held up in contrast to the liberal attitude toward democrats by Dudley. The democratic state convention, which held one session in Raleigh in January, 1842, and another in Salisbury on May 20, condemned the recent measures of Congress, charged gross extravagance, notably the funeral expenses for President Harrison, denounced the state banks for not re- suming specie payments and for declaring dividends when suspension was in force, and nominated Louis D. Henry of Cumberland County for governor. The whig convention, which met in April, renominated Morehead for governor, re- pudiated Tyler, and declared Henry Clay the choice of the party for the presidential nomination in 1844. The campaign was somewhat similar to that of 1840, lacking, however, the stress of the presidential issue and the intensive organization of the whigs so evident in that campaign. Henry and More- head began a series of joint debates which made a great im- pression, for both were skilled in the kind of oratory and the type of argument which appealed to the masses. Notable was their opening debate in Cumberland County. The policy of the state banks being one of the subjects under discussion, Mr. Henry charged Governor Morehead with being largely interested in the banks and being heavily indebted to them. These points he drove home with bitter invective, denuncia- tion, and eloquence. When Morehead rose to reply, his friends thought that all was lost, for the Governor "reviewed the history of the banks; spoke, at length, of the independence of one who was so fortunate as to be largely interested in them; depicted the horrible and woeful condition of one so vastly indebted to them as he was represented to be by his competi- tors; as he advanced and culminated in drawing this dreadful picture, his friends, believing that his condition, were more deeply depressed and looked like they desired to slink away to
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hiding places-but when he reached the climax of his friends' despair and his enemies' joy, seeming to rise higher than was his wont, pausing-it was an awful pause-and casting his eyes around upon his whole audience, he proudly -- as none but he could-and defiantly explained: 'I have not a single dollar's interest in the Banks-I owe them not one copper cent!' What a change in the crowd! His friends looked as joyously as a mother to whom a babe has been restored un- harmed. He then carried everything .before him. Henry and his friends never rallied, nor did he over that dis- cussion during the campaign." 10
On account of poor health Henry dropped out of the cam- paign in May but the North Carolina Standard filled its col- umns with pertinent arguments in a style more virile than had been known. Morehead was re-elected, but the democrats car- ried the legislature.
Factionalism at once appeared among the ranks of the dem- ocrats. The cause was the choice of a senator to succeed the unexpired term which Graham had filled since 1841. Bedford Brown, desiring vindication on account of his resignation in 1840, was the stronger candidate, but Saunders desired re- ward for his race against Morehead. The personal rivalry was complicated by the question of national leadership. Brown favored Van Buren for the presidential nomination in 1844 and letters in his interest were sent to the state by Jackson, Silas Wright, and Thomas H. Benton, while Saunders leaned toward Calhoun. A legislative caucus was held in which Brown led on four ballots, but Saunders would not admit defeat. The rivalry was then carried into the formal election. The whigs, by voting for Graham, caused a dead- lock, but finally on the ninth ballot the names of Brown and Saunders were withdrawn and William H. Haywood, a dem- ocrat whose course was always marked by a degree of inde- pendence, was elected. To humble Mangum a series of resolu- tions were adopted which asserted the right of instructing sen- ators and the duty of senators to be guided thereby, denounced the tariff of 1842 as "unwise in policy, dangerous to public
10 W. L. Scott, In Memoriam, Hon. John M. Morehead, p. 54. Vol. II-18
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liberty, and a perversion of that constitutional government which was framed and adopted for the protection and security of all," demanded the repeal of the new federal bankruptcy law, and also the refunding of a fine imposed on Andrew Jackson by Judge Hall during the war of 1812.11 The census of 1840 having made a new apportionment necessary, new con- gressional and electoral districts were erected. Concerning these the whigs charged a gerrymander. In the congressional election of 1843 the democrats carried five of the nine districts.
For economic and social progress, the legislature did noth- ing, although Governor Morehead made a number of recom- mendations. Instead it indulged very freely in criticism of whig policies. The committee on internal improvements con- demned state aid as it existed, but the trustees of the Literary Fund were allowed to invest $50,000 in redeeming the bonds of the Wilmington and Raleigh Railroad. An investigation of the loans made by the Literary Fund disclosed the fact that of $108,955 loaned, $97,469 were in the hands of forty-seven whig borrowers, the total number of borrowers being fifty-five. The banks came in for vigorous criticism. In May, 1837, they had been forced to a suspension of specie payments by similar action of institutions in other states. They resumed pay- ment in August, 1838, but again suspended specie payment in October, 1839, and finally resumed payment in 1842. Dur- ing this period of suspension loans were contracted and exchange was at a premium. In the legislature of 1840 Hoke, a democrat, started an investigation and a bill prohibiting banks to collect debts when specie was refused was barely de- feated. However, after resumption the banks contracted their note issues, so continuing the resentment of the debtor class. Moreover, among the twenty-one directors of the Bank of the State and the Bank of the Cape Fear, in which the state held stock, only one was a democrat. What an excellent chance for a partisan attack! Hence one of the democratic slogans on the hustings in the summer of 1842 was, "Down with the banks, up with the people." Naturally the democratic legislature was flooded with a series of bank bills. The trend of these was to
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