PUBLICATIONS
OF THE
NORTH CAROLINA HISTORICAL COMMISSION
BULLETIN No. 7
ADDRESSES
AT
THE UNVEILING OF THE BUST
OF
WILLIAM A. GRAHAM
JANUARY 12. 1910
BUST OF WILLIAM A. GRAHAM
ADDRESSES
AT
THE UNVEILING OF THE BUST
OF
William A. Graham
BY THE
NORTH CAROLINA HISTORICAL COMMISSION
IN
THE ROTUNDA OF THE STATE CAPITOL
Delivered in the Hall of the House of
Representatives, January 12, 1910
RALEIGH
EDWARDS & BROUGHTON PRINTING CO.
1910
The spirit of a people is the history of a people
impersonated in the life of a people. If there is
no history of a people, there is no spirit of a
people. — Thomas W. Mason.
The North Carolina Historical Commission
J. BRYAN GRIMES, Chairman
RALEIGH
W. J. PEELE, Raleigh M. C. S. NOBLE, Chapel Hill
D. H. HILL, Raleigh THOMAS W. BLOUNT, Roper
R. D. W. CONNOR, Secretary
RALEIGH
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THE GRAHAM BUST
In the rotunda of the Capitol of North Carolina are eight
niches, designed to hold the busts and statues of eight of the
eminent sons of the State. Completed nearly three-quarters
of a century ago, these niches remained empty until 1910,
silently protesting against the failure of the State to perform
one of her highest and most important duties, the preserva-
tion of the memories of the founders and builders of the
Commonwealth.
Convinced that the State was unconsciously doing herself
a serious injustice by her negligence, the North Carolina
Historical Commission, charged with the duty of preserving
the history of the State, on October 23, 1907, adopted the
following resolution :
"Resolved, That the sum of one thousand dollars be set
aside out of the funds of the Commission, to be expended
for a marble bust of William A. Graham, to be set up in one
of the niches in the rotunda of the State Capitol, and that the
Secretary be. instructed to have the bust executed in the best
manner by some reputable sculptor, as soon as possible."
In accordance with this resolution a contract was made
with Mr. Frederick W. Ruckstuhl, of New York, who exe-
cuted the bust and delivered it to the North Carolina His-
torical Commission in December, 1909. Upon the invita-
tion of the Historical Commission, Messrs. Frank Nash and
Thomas W. Mason consented to deliver addresses upon the
occasion of the unveiling. On the evening of January 12,
1910, in the Hall of the House of Representatives, in the
presence of the Governor of North Carolina, the members
of the State Historical Commission, the members of the Gra-
ham family, the Grand Lodge of Masons of North Carolina,
and a large audience, the bust was set up in the northwestern
niche of the rotunda on the first floor of the Capitol, and
unveiled by Master William A. Graham, Junior, the Fourth.
The ceremonies of the occasion consisted in the delivery of
the addresses printed in this bulletin.
INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS
BY J. BEYAN GEIMES
Chairman of the North Carolina Historical Commission
Ladies and Gentlemen:
North Carolinians have been careless in preserving their
history, and that we have been neglected, and in some cases
have been misrepresented by historians of the country, has
been largely our own fault. We must remember that to
receive proper credits we must keep our own accounts. We
have been lacking in self-appreciation and wanting in a
proper State pride, which is to some extent due to the fact
that we were ignorant of the accomplishments and heroic
deeds of our own people.
The North Carolina Historical Commission is collecting
from every available source data and records pertaining to
the history of North Carolina, and stimulating and encour-
aging historical investigation and research in every way in
its power, and now our history is being more thoroughly
studied and written than ever before. The State Historical
Commission believes that one of the most powerful stimu-
lants in arousing State pride and proper appreciation of our
own great men is to be found, not merely in recording their
great deeds, but also in preserving their forms and features
in marble and in bronze. Inaugurating this movement,
therefore, the State Historical Commission will unveil this
evening a marble bust of one of the greatest of Carolinians —
William A. Graham.
Accordingly the Commission has invited a scholar and his-
torian, Mr. Frank Nash, to address you upon the life and
services of Governor Graham, and Capt. Thomas W. Mason,
who, as soldier, statesman and orator, is known and beloved
by all North Carolinians, to speak upon the "Value of His-
torical Memorials Among a Democratic People."
WILLIAM ALEXANDER GRAHAM
BY FKANK NASH
INTRODUCTION
" Office is the most natural and proper sphere of a public man's ambi-
tion, as that in which he can most freely use his powers for the common
good of his country." — Lord Palmerston.
Ill recent years it has been the endeavor of some writers to
strain the facts of history a little in order that JSTorth Caro-
lina may appear to have been first in some great political,
or other, movement. This not only makes our State motto
an hypocrisy, but it has no sound moral basis, is untrue in
fact, and is foolish from the standpoint of philosophy. That
she was first at Bethel was an accident ; that she was farthest
at Gettysburg and last at Appomattox, means daring, but
steady, courage and staunch unfailing fidelity. Indeed the
things in which she was last have done her more credit than
those in which she was first. I do not like to think of her
as a meretricious, volatile, impulsive figure, but as a noble,
steadfast one, unadorned (certainly by gewgaws and jim-
cracks), and like the Mother of the Gracchi pointing to her
sons as her jewels. Certainly she has a right to be proud of
them, for, at no time from the days of Glasgow to the days
of the Carpetbagger and from the days of the Carpetbagger
to the present, did any of these sons prey upon her. Pecula-
tion and fraud in public life may have existed elsewhere,
but not in North Carolina.
In this paper I try to depict one of those sons as the most
prominent figure amid the scenes in which he lived and
worked, and in the company of those who lived and worked
with him. I want, too, to show what he was and what he
stood for, as well as what he did, for it is not so much the
material as it is the spiritual, that gives to men real power
and renders them immortal. iRot that activity and energy
8 North Carolina Historical Commission.
are to be contemned, far from it — slothful in business can
never be predicated of the truly great and good — but because
it is the subtle and silent, but pervading, influence of char-
acter, only, that gives action, force and efficiency for good.
The story of William A. Graham's life is well worth the
telling for what he did, but much more for what he was.
The writer is very conscious that it has not been told ade-
quately in the following pages. The final word about him
can not be said until his literary remains are collected and
published with his correspondence.
MIS ANTECEDENTS
William A. Graham was no less fortunate in the race from
which he sprang than in his immediate ancestry. The Scotch
Presbyterians, located in Ireland by James I, and the Eng-
lish by Cromwell, made that composite race which has been
for some time known to history as the Scotch-Irish. During
three or four generations they lived in Ireland among a people
hostile in faith and differing in language, in ideals, in aims
and in temperament. The Saxon was the representative of a
stern, unyielding, but essentially uplifting Calvinism, while
the Celt was the representative of all the superstition and
ignorance of an unenlightened Romanism. The one had a
faith so clear, so earnest, so vital that, in his worship he dis-
carded nearly all symbol, while the other's faith was so
obscured by false conceptions that only a sensuous and sym-
bolic worship could appeal to his inferior nature ; the one,
even in his superstitions, dealing only with things supernal,
while the other made to himself gi-aven images, likenesses of
things in heaven above and in the earth beneath, and bowed
down to them and worshiped them ; the one industrious and
thrifty, doing with all his might what his hands found to do,
the other thriftless, industrious only by fits and starts, con-
tent, in the midst of degrading poverty, to live among swine
and fowls ; the one sensitive about his rights, and ready in the
fear of God to defend them with a calm, cool, unflinching
William A. Guaham, 9
courage ; the other, a serf to his lord, a child to his priest, a
willing servant to his friend and a savage to his foe, his emo-
tions a sensitive harp that responded to every wind of passion,^
What wonder that the contact of two such races should
result only in an antagonism which manifested itself, on
occasions, in murders, in riots and in relentless warfare !
But all this was to the Saxon a tonic, stimulating his intel-
lectual, moral and physical development, making him the
bolder, the more watchful, the more self-reliant. He was a
minority of the people of Ireland, but it was a militant and
dominant minority. So little brought in contact with the
English government was he, that he was fast becoming repub-
lican in his political ideals. Kings and governors were kings
and governors to him only so long as they obeyed the laws
and were faithful to the rights of the people. Otherwise he
cared nothing for them. His liberty consisted in laws made
by the consent of the people, and the due execution of those
laws. He was free not from the law but by the law. So
these English and Scotch Protestants in Ireland, these Sax-
ons in Celt -land, were, in their dealings wdth the Irish uncon-
sciously fitting themselves for their greater work in America.
It was, so to say, a forty years sojourn in the walderness in
preparation for the land of Canaan, and they entered that
land strong; in the holv confidence that, ''the Lord, He it is
that doth go before thee ; He will be with thee ; He will not
fail thee, neither forsake thee ; fear not, neither be dismayed."
Of this sturdy and virile race w^as James Graham, who at
the age of nineteen years, in 1733, migrated from County
Down, Ireland, to Berks County, Pennsylvania. He was
twice married, his second wife being the widow Mary Bar-
ber, and died in 1763. By the last marriage there were five
children. In 1768 Mrs. Graham, wdth her children, coming
by sea to Charleston, S. C, thence across country, located in
Mecklenburg County, N". C. In 1771 she purchased a tract
lit must be remembered that the Irish of the 17th century had only reached a stage of
racial development, through which their Saxon foes had passed 200 years before. So this
parallel has to do only with such developments, and not at all with racial capabilities.
10 NoETH Carolina Historical Commission.
of land containing two hundred acres within three miles of
the then little harnlet of Charlotte. Most of these Scotch-
Irish, and there were many of them, migrated from Penn-
sylvania south in search of fertile lands in a milder climate.
It is probable that this was Mrs. Graham's motive, induced
thereto also by the fact that many of her neighbors and
friends had preceded her. She must have been a woman of
remarkable courage and strength of character to undertake
this long, tedious and dangerous journey with six young
children, the youngest scarcely more than four years of age.
!No doubt she selected the actual location with a view to the
religious and educational privileges convenient to it. John
Frohock, Abraham Alexander and Thomas Polk had already
laid off the town of Charlotte into 360 half-acre lots, and on
some of these good, habitable houses had been erected. Eighty
lots had been sold and must be built upon within three years,
under pain of forfeiture.^ So with the court-house, prison and
stocks there, with tradesmen and artisans plying their trades,
and lawyers locating to practice their profession, Charlotte at
the time of its incorporation, ]!!^ovember, 1768, must have
been attracting some attention as a place with a future.
Many of the settlements about the county, too, were fertile,
fruitful, well tended farms. The rule, however, was here, as
it was in all these Scotch-Irish communities, the man to the
plow, the woman to the distaff and the child to the school,
Mrs. Graham, though of limited means, after giving her chil-
dren such instruction as she was capable of doing, sent most
of them to the best school in this section. Queen's Museum,
afterwards Liberty Hall. She instilled into all of them a
love for learning and a desire to acquire knowledge. Her
sons were among the most prominent men of their time, and
probably came into public notice at an earlier age than any
other youths of the county. Her daughters were the heads of
families whose descendants are known for their virtue and
intelligence, and have ever been prominent in the communi-
• State Records of North Carolina, XXIII, 772-3.
William A. Graham. 11
ties in which they lived on account of their worth and public
spirit. She was, herself a faithful Presbyterian, member of
Sugar Creek church, and her children were noted not only
for their intelligence and activity in worldly matters, but
were also earnest supporters of morality and religion.^
Her third son, Joseph Graham, was born in Chester
County, Pennsylvania, October 13th, 1759. He assisted in
cultivating his mother's farm and attended school in Char-
lotte. He was distinguished among his fellow-students for
talents, industry and manly bearing. The mere schooling,
though, was not the most valuable training that he had at that
period. In the political ferment of the time, 1768-1776, the
minds of men were expanding. At every church gathering, at
every county court, they discussed the power of parliament,
the rights of the colonies, and how best to preserve those
rights. These discussions were going on throughout all the
colonies, making every intelligent man a politician, and caus-
ing the patriots in the face of threatened danger to draw
closer together in sympathy, thus paving the way for future
organization. Patrick Henry, in Virginia, was but giving
eloquent utterance to the aspirations and hopes and ambitions
of the people, unexpressed, or inadequately expressed, by
themselves. He was, in other words, but the mouthpiece of,
and interpreter for, the people. The intelligent boy or
youth, standing about in these crowds listening to these dis-
cussions among his elders, was having his own ideas enlarged,
his patriotism aroused and his mind trained for his future
work. Joseph Graham was interested in all these discus-
sions and attended many of these public meetings. He, as
a boy in the 16th year of his age, was present at the adoption
of the Mecklenburg Resolves of May, 1775. Pifty-five years
later he gives an account of this meeting and testifies that it
was held on May 20th. At this distance of time, without
any contemporary record to verify his memory, there are
errors in his statement which subsequently-discovered records
1 Graham : Revolutionary Papers of General Joseph Graham, 16.
12 North Carolina Historical Commission.
show. In several instances, he mistakes the time of events
that he undertakes to narrate, but he and others have so com-
pletely identified May 20th as the date upon which some
resolutions were adopted, that, in the absence of better evi-
dence we may assume that a meeting was held on that day,
in order to take some action upon the news of the Battle of
Lexington, which, we know, arrived that week, the 20th occur-
ring on Saturday. And it makes no difference whether they
met on Friday the 19th and continued the meeting over until
2 a. m. of the 20th, or met on Saturday morning the 20th,
so far as the essential fact is concerned, that a meeting was
held at that time and that certain resolutions were adopted.
Confining the issue to this essential fact, I have seen nothing
that contradicts the testimony of the many eye-witnesses on
that point. We can imagine the excitement and anger
among these descendants of the bold defenders of London-
derry and Enniskillen at the news of Lexington, how they
would hold a public meeting as soon as the crowd could
gather, how in the anger and excitement of the moment they
should adopt resolutions, which on calm second thought they
would realize were premature and unwise. That there were
two meetings, at least, is perfectly apparent from the fact
that the papers of which J. McKnitt x\.lexander had the cus-
tody were resolutions adopted at a public meeting of which
he was secretary, whereas those of the 31st were adopted at
a committee meeting, Ephraim Brevard being the secretary
of that committee. The resolutions of the 31st, too, neces-
sarily presupposes a previous meeting, or meetings. They
are not the product of a day or of a week. They were not
devised by one mind or written by one hand. They show
calm deliberation, and not emotional excitement or sudden
anger, such as that provoked by news of the Battle of Lexing-
ton. It seems to me, with deference, that the modern his-
torians have taken issue on immaterial facts and have
obtained a verdict on those issues alone. Captain Jack did
not take the resolutions of the 20th to Philadelphia ; he did
William A. Gkaham. 1&
take those of the 31st. Admitted, because proven. Gover-
nor Martin sent those of the 31st, and not those of the 20th,
to London. Admitted, because proven. There was no con-
temporary record, or allusion to those of the 20th ; there were
both to those of the 31st. True, also, so far as discovered.
The resolutions written down from memory by J. McKnitt
Alexander in 1800, show in their verbiage the influence of
the Declaration of July 4th, 1776. This, too, is probably
true. We have been mistaken heretofore in regard to these
matters, it is true, yet after all, none of them is essential to
the determination of the true issue — was there a meeting held
on the 20th with resolutions which amounted to a Declaration
of Independence adopted ? And to this there are a cloud of
witnesses. The writer, when not more than half as old as
was General Graham at this time, was told of General Lee's
surrender by a lady, while we were near an osage orange
hedge, and while she was talking a raccoon came from under
the hedge. If he should live a thousand years he will never
forget the fact of the coon, the expression of his countenance,
and his connection with General Lee's surrender, i^ow, the
news of the Battle of Lexington was to Joseph Graham what
this coon was to myself — a fact indelibly engraved upon his
memory. It seems, therefore, reasonably certain, though
there are many conflicts in the testimony of the various wit-
nesses, that the resolutions of the 20th were real, but having
been adopted in a moment of anger and excitement, the sober
sense of the people prevailed in those of the 31st, and the
latter were published, while the former were permitted to
slumber undisturbed, in the possession of Alexander, as a
folly to be regretted rather than a matter of supreme
importance.
It was amid scenes such as these, among men such as these,
that young Graham worked and studied and thought, his
character under the control and guidance of a wise mother,
developing into an almost perfect type of the noble race to
which he belonged — bold, self-reliant, earnest. God-fearing.
14 North Carolina Historical Commission.
He was eighteen years of age when he took up arms for his
country and fought valiantly, successfully and faithfully,
until his services were no longer needed. He was just twenty-
two years of age at the close of the Revolutionary War. "He
entered the army as a private, passed through the grades of
orderly sergeant, quartermaster sergeant, quartermaster,
adjutant, captain, and major. * * * He commanded in fif-
teen engagements with wisdom, calmness, courage and success
to a degree perhaps surpassed by no other officer of the same
rank. Hundreds who served under his command have tes-
tified to the upright, faithful, prudent and undaunted man-
ner in which he discharged the duties of his responsible sta-
tions. Never was he known to shrink from any toil, however
painful, or quail before any dangers, however threatening, or
avoid any privation or sacrifice which might promote his
country's cause."^
The very qualities that made him successful as a soldier —
courage, alertness, intelligence — made him successful in civil
life, as legislator, as member of two Constitutional Conven-
tions, as iron miner and founder. I may not pause over the
stirring incidents of the military service of this excellent man
and soldier, nor can I tell more fully of his great usefulness
to church and state in the quieter w^alks of his civil career.
Suffice it to say that he loved and served his state and church
faithfully and well, that in all that concerned their welfare, he
was not only interested, but active, not only intelligent but
wise. "His life was a bright and illustrious pattern of domes-
tic, social and public virtues. Modest, amiable, upright and
pious, he lived a noble ornament to his country, a faithful
friend to the church and a rich blessing to his family." In
1787 he married Miss Isabella Davidson, a daughter of Maj.
John Davidson, and of a family distinguished alike for intelli-
gence and patriotism. It was in consequence of this marriage,
that, forming a business connection with his father-in-law, he
moved to Lincoln County in 1792, and became an iron founder
I Revolutionary papers of General Joseph Graham.
William A. Gkaiiam. 15
and monger. Mrs. Graham is said to have been the most beau-
tiful of Major Davidson's handsome daughters, and her char-
acter corresponded in loveliness and goodness to her personal
appearance. It was from her that the subject of this sketch
derived so much of the manly beauty that was one of his
distinguishing characteristics during his long life. At the
residence of his father near Vesuvius Furnace in Lincoln
County, he was born, September 5th, 1804.
CHILDHOOD, YOUTH AND YOUNG MANHOOD
William Alexander Graham was the eleventh child and
youngest son of General Joseph Graham and Isabella David-
son Graham, his wife. Mrs. Graham died January 15th,
1808. The eldest sister, Sophia, who afterwards married
Dr. John Witherspoon, of South Carolina, but was then only
seventeen years of age, assumed the care of the younger chil-
dren of the family. She performed the duties with faithful-
ness, consideration and affection. She was regarded as a typi-
cal older sister and daughter and was remembered with great
love and pleasure by those to whom she had given her atten-
tion and love. Young William was, too, an object of especial
solicitude and care to his father. He made him his com-
panion by day and by night, and instilled into him lessons
of virtue, piety and patriotism. This constant association
with so excellent a man and so good a Christian as General
Graham was one of the strongest influences in shaping the
boy's life. For years he lived the happy, free life of the
country boy in a household where there was competence if
not wealth. When he was older he was sent to a neighbor-
hood school, very much against his will, for he hid under
a bed and had to be dragged out by the heels. There he ac-
quired the rudiments of learning. His first school away
from home was in Mecklenburg County, where he lived with
his mother's brother, Mr. Robin Davidson. The school-
house being three miles distant, he rode to it on horseback,
generally accompanied by James W. Osborne, of Charlotte,
who, being the younger, rode behind. His uncle became
16 North Carolina Historical Commissions^
very fond of the motherless lad, and the boy reciprocated so
heartily, that he later named one of his sons for this uncle.
From this country school he was sent to the Pleasant Re-
treat Academy at Lincolnton, of which his father was one of
the trustees. His room-mate was his cousin, Theodore W.
Brevard, who afterwards became disting:uished in the State
of Florida, where he held several important offices. Next he
was sent to the classical school of the Rev. Dr. Muchat at
Statesville. He was noted for his industry, his thirst for
knowledge and his aptitude to learn. One who knew him
well, (Rev. Dr. R. H. Morrison), testified that from his
childhood he Avas no less remarkable for his high sense of
honor and truth, than for his exemption from the levities
and vices common to youth. At this academy he applied
himself to his studies with the most exemplary diligence.
Judge Brevard, a classmate, said of him : "He was the only
boy I ever knew, who would spend his Saturdays in reviewing
the studies of the week."^ This habit he kept up, too, during
his subsequent school and college course. When he was four-
teen or fifteen years of age, he, for a time, probably during
a vacation, superintended, on the advice of his brother John,
Spring Hill forge. General Graham was much pleased with
his work in this capacity, saying that it was one of the most
successful seasons in the history of the works. His final prep-
aration for college was obtained at the Hillsboro Academy,
an uncommonly good classical school. The Rev. John With-
erspoon had the general supervision of this school, but the
active teacher was Mr. John Rogers, who had distinguished
himself in his profession at Wilmington. President Cald-
well induced them to agi-ee that their institution should be
preparatory to the University. Members of the faculty could
participate in the periodical examinations of the pupils,
and those passing the examinations of the highest classes
had a right to enter the University on certificate of the faet.^
•McGehee: Memorial Oration on Life and Services of William A. Graham.
2 Battle: History of the University of North Carolina, 283.
William A, Geaham. 17
Mr. Rogers had been educated for the Catholic priesthood,
and for accurate scholarship and capacity as a teacher, had
few superiors.^
Young Graham matriculated at the University in the sum-
mer of 1820. Says Mr. McGehee in his very admirable
memorial oration:" "His course throughout his college life
was admirable in every way. He appreciated the scheme of
study there established, not only as the best discipline of the
intellect, but as the best foundation for knowledge in its
widest sense. He mastered his lessons so perfectly, that each
lesson became a permanent addition to his stock of knowledge.
The professors rarely failed to testify by a smile, or some
other token, their approval of his efficiency. On one occasion
a professor (Olmstead), who has attained a world-wide rep-
utation in the field of science, remarked to one of young
Graham's classmates (John W. Norwood) that his lecture
on chemistry came back as perfectly from Mr. Graham as he
had uttered it on the previous day. Some thirty years after,
the same professor in a letter to Mr. Graham, (then Secre-
tary of the 3Sravy) says : "It has often been a source of pleas-
ing reflection to me, that I have been permitted to bear some
part in fitting you, in early life, for that elevated post of
honor and usefulness to which Providence has conducted
you."
His high sense of duty was manifested in his conscien-
tious deportment under the peculiar form of government
to which he was then subject. His observance of every law
and usage of the college was punctilious, while to the fac-
ulty he was ever scrupulously and conspicuously respectful.
His extraordinary proficiency was purchased by no labori-
ous drudgery. The secret of it was to be found in the precept
which he acted upon through life — "whatsoever thy hand
findeth to do, do it with thy might." His powers of concen-
tration were great, his perceptions quick, his memory pow-
' McGehee: Memorial Oration. 2pages8-9.
2
18 i^ORTH CAKOLIiN^A HISTORICAL COMMISSION.
erf 111, prompt and assiduously improved. By the joint force
of such faculties, he could accomplish much in little time.
Hence, notwithstanding his exemplary attention to his college
duties, he devoted much time to general reading. He partic-
ipated regularly in the debates and other exercises of the
Literary Society. For all such he prepared himself with
care; and it is asserted upon the authority of Mr. John \V.
Norwood — a most competent judge — that his compositions
were of such excellence that, in a literary point of view, they
would have challenged comparison with anything done by
him in after life.
His engaging manners brought him into pleasant relations
with all his fellow students. He lived with them upon tenns
of the frankest and most familiar intercourse. In their most
athletic sports he never participated, but he was a pleased
spectator, and evinced by his manner a hearty sympathy
with their enjoyments. His favorite exercise was walking,
and those who knew him well will recollect that this con-
tinued to be his favorite recreation while health was spared
him. With friends and chosen companions he was cordial
and easy, and always the life of the circle when met to-
gether.
He graduated in the class of 1824, he being one of the
four first honor men, the others being Thomas Dews, after-
wards a very able lawyer, but dying early, Matthias Evans
Manly, afterwards state senator, judge of the Superior and
Supreme Courts, elected United States Senator in 1866, but
not allowed to take his seat, and Edwin D. Sims of Virginia,
afterwards tutor in the University, and professor in Ran-
dolph-Macon College and in the University of Alabama. To
young Graham was assigned the classical oration. It has been
the privilege of the writer to see this. It is a pleasant and
orderly resume of the history of the preservation of the clas-
sics, and an argument for their continued usefulness in the
training of the mind and their giving breadth to one's cul-
ture. His style at that early period had not become Individ-
William A. Graham. 19
iialistic, but was rather a reflection of his own training at the
University, so was a little stiff and formal. Other noted
graduates of 1824 were Daniel B. Baker, judge of the Supe-
rior Court of Florida ; John Bragg, member of Congress and
judge of the Superior Court of Alabama ; James W. Bryan,
strong lawyer, trustee of the University and state senator
from Craven ; A. J. DeRosset, physician and merchant of
Wilmington, treasurer of the Dioceses of North and East
Carolina and often deputy to the general conventions of the
Episcopal Church; Augustus Moore, judge of the Superior
Court ; John W. ISTorwood, able lawyer, member of the legis-
lature and senator from Orange; David Outlaw, member of
Congress, state solicitor, state senator and delegate to the
convention of 1836, and Bromfield L. Ridley, chancellor of
Tennesee.^
After his graduation he visited his sister, Mrs. Wither-
spoon, at Lexington, Ky., and while there he made the ac-
quaintance of John J. Crittenden, and had an opportunity
to hear him in a great slander case.
On his return from this tour he began the study of law in
the office of Judge Ruffin at Hillsboro. The opinion of Judge
Ruffin as to the proper course to be pursued with a student
of law was somewhat peculiar. He held that he should have
little assistance beyond that of having his course of studies
prescribed. He must, as it were, scale the height alone, by his
own strength and courage ; availing himself of a guide only
at points otherwise inaccessible. Young Graham's brother,
James Graham, in a letter written at this period, made men-
tion of this opinion, and urged him to adopt the expedient
resorted to by himself: "When he would not examine me I
took the liberty of questioning him very frequently, and
by drawing him into conversation on legal subjects, my own
ideas were rendered more clear, correct and lasting."'
We may be sure that the contact of two such minds — the
1 Battle: History of University, 296. ^McGehee, 10 and 12.
20 ]^ORTH Carolina Historical Commission.
one young, ardent and acquisitive — the other mature and vig-
orous, the mind of a master in his particular calling, could
result only in good to the younger, whatever the method of
instruction might be. As a matter of fact young Graham
came to the bar remarkably well prepared. The points he
made were substantial and well sustained, and six years
afterwards he was in the full tide of a successful practice.
He obtained his county court license at the December term,
1826, of the Supreme Court, and was sworn in before the
county court at Hillsboro in February, 1827. His first
litigated case in that court was at the August term, 1827,
Charles Allison v, Samuel Madden, Judge ^ash, who had
recently resigned from the Superior Court bench, appearing
with him for the plaintiff.^ At the ensuing j^ovember term
he had two other cases on the trial docket, and three on the
appearance. He obtained his Superior Court license at the
December term, 1827, of the Supreme Court, and took the
oaths at the March term, 1828, of the Superior Court of
Orange County. His first litigated case was at the same
term of that court — Doe and John Dunn, executor of William
Keeling, v. James Keeling; A. D. Murphey and Wiley P.
Mangum for plaintiff, and Frederick ]^ash and W. A. Gra-
ham for the defendant." His first case of importance in
the Superior Court," says Mr. McGehee, 'Svas one which
from peculiar causes, excited great local iziterest. It involved
an intricate question of title to land. On the day of trial,
the court-room was crowded and the bar fully occupied by
lawyers — many of them men of the highest professional
eminence. When he came to address the jury, he spoke with
modesty, but with ease and self-possession. His preparation
of the case had been thorough, and the argument which he
delivered is described as admirable, both as to matter and
manner. When he closed, the Hon. William H. Haywood,
who had then risen to a high position at the bar, turned to
• County Court Records. ' Superior Court Records.
William A. Graham. 21
a distinguished gentleman, still living, of the same profes-
sion, and inquired who had prepared the argument which
Mr. Graham had delivered so handsomely. The answer was,
'It is all his own,' to which Mr. Haywood replied, 'William
Gaston could have done it no better.' "
At the time he determined to locate at Hillsboro, young
Graham had already spent several years there ; first, as a stu-
dent at the Hillsboro Academy ; second, as a student of law
under Judge Ruffin, and third, as practitioner in the county
court. It was centrally located, convenient to the State capi-
tal. It was the county seat of a large county, with a popula-
tion of about 25,000, and there was much litigation. It was
then, as it had always been, the foster mother of great men.
There was no town in the State that contained so much that
was best of the public life of the State, though it had then only
about four hundred white inhabitants. There was Murphey,
perhaps the greatest genius in its history ; Ruffin, the greatest
lawyer and judge ; Mangum, one of its greatest popular ora-
tors and statesmen ; Norwood, the elder, able lawyer, and up-
right judge ;" ISTash, whose excellencies as an advocate, said
Mr. Abraham W. Venable, were equaled by few and surpassed
by none, attaining later the highest honors of his profession;
Dr. James Webb, distinguished physician and business man,
and others too numerous to mention, while Duncan Cameron,
George E. Badger, William H. Haywood and Bartlett
Yancey, were intimately associated with the place. Among
men of his own age, were Richard S. Clinton, Dr. Edmund
Strudwick and John W. Norwood, his college- and class-
mate. The pastor of the Presbyterian Church at that time
was the Rev. John Witherspoon, grandson of the signer, an
able man, and, though unequal, on occasion eloquent. He
was afterwards moderator of the Presbyterian General
Assembly. The rector of the Episcopal Church was the
Rev. William M. Green, afterwards Bishop of Mississippi
and chancellor of the University of the South. Mr. Dennis
Heartt was successfully editing and publishing the Hillsbora
22 NoKTH Carolina Historical Commission.
Recorder. The social advantages of the place, too, were very
great. It was full of cultivated men and women, none very
wealthy, but all having an abundance of the comforts of
life and many of its luxuries, and they were hospitable with-
out stint. This society, though somewhat formal, was wholly
delightful. !Nor was the competition at the bar so stringent
as appears on the surface. Judge Norwood was at that
time on the Superior Court bench, and so continued until
1836. Judge Ruffin was on the Superior Court bench, re-
signed that year, 1828, to accept the presidency of the State
Bank, and the following year was elevated to the Supreme
Court. Judge Mangum was elected to the Superior Court
in 1828, and to the United State Senate in 1830. Judge
Cameron lived out in the country, and presided occasionally
^over the county court. Judge Murphey's health was failing,
and he died in February, 1832. Of the visiting lawyers,
Bartlett Yancey, who did a large business in Orange, died
in 1828, and to the United States Senate in 1830. Judge
was left, and he returned to the bench in 1836. There
is no wonder then that so able a young lawyer as Mr. Gra-
ham should locate under these favorable conditions at Hills-
boro. N^or is it any wonder that he should be cordially re-
ceived there, and in a few years should be at the head of its
bar, a preeminence which he maintained for forty years.
Few young men have commenced the practice of the law
with greater natural and acquired qualifications than had he„
In him a remarkably handsome and dignified presence was
united to the highest character, excellent mental endowments,
untiring industry, kind, courteous and elegant, rather genial
manners and thorough conscientiousness. He was fully six
feet tall, very erect, and had hazel eyes, dark hair and clear-
cut features. His action in speaking was easy and graceful,
sometimes warming into energy and force when the subject
demanded it, and the tones of his voice were mellow, har-
monious and well modulated. He was ambitious and self-
reliant, so all that was best in him came at his demand.
William A. Graham. 23
Success and complete success to such a character was only
a matter of time, and one could predict it for him with
absolute confidence at the outset of his career.
LEGISLATOR, 1833 TO 1841
Hillsboro, enfranchised by Governor Tryon in 17Y0, con-
tinued to be one of the borough towns of the State under
the Constitution of 1776, and until borough representation
v/as abolished by the Convention of 1835. The qualifications
for voters in these towns w^ere: First, possession of a free-
hold in the town, whether the proposed voter v/as a resident
or not; second, freedom, coupled with residence in the town
for twelve months, next before and at the day of election,
and payment of public taxes. The elections for borough
members were annual. Mr. Graham represented Hillsboro
the last three years of its existence. At that time there were
about 85 qualified voters in the town, and the elections were
generally close, and conducted amid great excitement with
the "free use of intoxicants. Though William Norwood,
Thomas Ruffin, John Scott and Frederick ISTash had at inter-
vals of time represented it, its member was often some tavern-
keeper, or one of the lesser lights of its citizens. At Mr.
Graham's first election he was vigorously opposed. He was
thereafter, however, elected with little opposition.
At the time he entered public life, i^Torth Carolina was
on the whole retrogi-ading. Its soil, moderately fertile,
yielded remunerative returns only to intelligent and per-
sistent labor. It contained a great variety of minerals ; gen-
erally enough in a single locality to attract the adventurous
prospector, not enough to prevent disappointment to his
hopes. There was vast wealth in its forests, but there was
little capital to exploit it, and no accessible market for it.
Away from the cotton section, in its midland and west, it
was a country of small farmers, a majority of whom had
their material wants well supplied from the products of
their farms, but again there was no adequate market for
24 JSToRTH Carolina Historical Commission.
any excess. Without this market, there was no hope that
they could improve their condition, and without this hope,
they toiled on, generation after generation, quite often the
laborious father being followed by the shiftless son. In
consequence of this occasional retrogression in families,
there were whole communities, not numerous, or large in
themselves, scattered here and there throughout this section,
plague spots upon the body politic, in which the men were
without God and without hope in the world, and the women
were without decency and quite frequently without virtue —
communities, whose fragmentary remains are with us to
this day, fast disappearing, thank God, under more hopeful
conditions. The opening of the West, too, with its inviting
opportunities for the adventurous and bold, was carrying
away more and more the brawn and sinew of the State.
Those who owned slaves might, year by year and generation
after generation, tend their ancestral acres on or within reach
of the navigable streams of the East, and live in ease and
comfort while they educated their children, but to the small
farmer of the West was lacking that contact with the world
which brings enlightenment and hope, and stimulates am-
bition and effort. What wonder then that N^orth Carolina
was retrograding and that the pall of ignorance, instead of
receding, was extending wider and wider over its people !
It is natural that under such narrow conditions the people
themselves should become narrow, and should think that
the whole science of government must expend itself on a
pennywise pound foolish economy, and that the two great
evils in the world were death and taxation. There are two
remedies for such a condition that are perfectly obvious to
us and were no less obvious to the gi*eat men of that period :
First, bring the people in contact with the world by opening
highways of trade and commerce through their borders ;
second, place a free school within reach of every child in
the State. That was Murphey's program, that was Graham's
program, that was the program of nearly all the Whigs of
William A. Graham, 25
the period. Some talk nowadays of the ante-bellum aris-
tocracy standing in the way of the people's enlightenment,
of their progi'ess. Not so. The aristocrats (if I may use
so false a term to desigiiate the better educated class) were
the progressives ; the reactionaries, with a few exceptions,
were the neighborhood political bosses, whose principal stock
in trade was an attack upon the kid-gloved aristocracy, as
they dubbed the Whigs of the towns. These Whigs, with
some notable exceptions, built the railroads of the State.
They, again with some notable exceptions, 'laid the founda-
tions of our public school system. In both these enterprises,
Mr. Graham was a leader. His temperament peculiarly
fitted him to be a pioneer in this great work. The influence
and training of his father, and of Dr. Joseph Caldwell, sup-
plemented by association with Judge Murphey, made internal
improvements, the education of the people and the preserva-
tion of the history of the State the three great ends that he set
himself to secure in his public life. With him it was a calm,
set purpose, to be worked out through the means and instru-
mentalities -which the times provided. Those means were
small, and the instrumentalities often perverse and blind
and stupid, yet with a self-reliance that came from self-
knowledge as well as knowledge of the subject, with a self-
control that prevented any irritation, he pursued his
ends with a placid, but firm persistence, which was not
checked by any rebuff nor daunted by any defeat. Through-
out his legislative career, during his incumbency of the
gubernatorial ofRce, he wa.s constantly stimulating the
ambition and State pride of the people by telling them
of the great deeds of their sires, constantly in season and
out of season, striving to enlighten them by diffusing the
blessings of education among them and to arouse them to
effort and industry by bringing the highways of commerce
to their doors. Early in life he learned the great lesson,
that in a democracy, where so many adverse minds are to
be convinced, the progress of any great reform is necessarily
26 North Carolina Historical Commission.
slow, that often it is the work of more than one generation,
that he and his contemporaries must be content with line
upon line and precept upon precept, here a little and there
a little, leaving to the future the fruition of their hopes.
Very, very, often the ideals and aspirations of the great
men of the past have been realized in the everyday life
of the commonalty of the present. To them the days that
were to come are the wisest witnesses.
In the Legislature of 1833-4 he was placed upon the
Judiciary Committee and the Committee on Education.^
The House of that body was of average ability, its ablest
members, David Outlaw, D. M. Barringer, W. H. Battle,
Charles B. Shepard, J. R. J. Daniel, James Seawell, Charles
Fisher, Daniel W. Courts, and the Speaker, William J.
Alexander. It was in session fifty-five days including Sun-
days, enacted 184 laws, only twenty-four of which were pub-
lic. Nineteen academies or schools, including the predeces-
sors of Wake Forest College, Guilford College and St. Mary's
at Raleigh, two libraries, three gold mining companies, one
manufacturing association and twelve railroad companies
were incorporated. This indicates the drift of public senti-
ment at that time. The Bank of the Cape Fear was rechart-
ered, and the Bank of the State of North Carolina, the Mer-
chants Bank of New Bern and the Albemarle Bank of Eden-
ton, were chartered. Mr. Graham was the author of a bill,
afterwards enacted into a law, which corrected a gross in-
equality in the criminal laws as then administered, making
one guilty of grand larceny as infamous upon conviction as
one convicted of petty larceny.^ He was on a committee
to inquire into the right of Romulus M. Saunders to con-
tinue as Attorney-General of the State after having accepted
a commissionership from the Federal Government on the
French spoliation claims. He wrote the report in favor of
Mr, Saunders's right. ^ His argument is based on the word-
ing of the Constitution of 1776 — "No person in the State
'House Journal, 142. 2 House Journal, 182. ' House Journal, 252.
William A. Graham. 27
shall hold more than one lucrative office at any one time,"
and also upon the fact that the offices were not inconsistent.
The constitutional prohibition seems upon its face to apply
only to State offices. Especially is this true when it is re-
membered that the Federal Government was not in exist-
ence when the State Constitution was adopted. The Legis-
lature of 1833-4 adopted the report thus made by Mr. Gra-
ham, but that of 1834-5, repudiating that view, passed a
joint resolution that the office of Attorney-General had been
vacated by Mr. Saunders's acceptance of the Federal Com-
missionership, and Mr. Saunders, to avoid controversy, but
protesting against the accuracy of this legal conclusion, re-
signed as Attorney-General. Mr. Graham adhered to his
opinion and voted against the resolution.
He was sent again as representative from Hillsboro to the
Legislature of 1834-5. By that time the demand for an
amendment of the Constitution of 1776 had become so in-
sistent that it could no longer be disregarded with safety
to the peace and welfare of the State. Mr. Graham sup-
ported the "convention bill very heartily. During its con-
sideration he voted against the provision allowing the con-
vention to submit the election of governor to the free white
vote of the State,^ though he afterwards voted for the bill
with this provision in it. This vote was afterwards remem-
bered to plague him in his canvass with Mr. Hoke for the
gubernatorial office in 1844. He explained that he was never
opposed to the provision, but voted against it while the
House was considering the bill, section by section, because
he was informed by Mr. Outlaw of Bertie that the easter3i
members, without whose vote the bill could not become a
law, would not vote for it with that provision in it, so he
voted against that to save the bill itself, but afterwards
finding that the bill could be passed with that provision in
it, he followed what was his inclination all the time by
voting for it. To show the attitude of some members of the
1 House Journal , 1834-5, 220.
28 NoKTH Carolina Historical Commission.
House on this provision and others, at first its advocates
could muster but thirty-five votes, while there were ninety-
four against it/ On the proposition to submit the election
of Supreme and Superior Court Judges to the popular vote,
there were twenty-two ayes to one hundred and three nays.^
On the proposition to debar lawyers, pleading under a license,
from membership in the Legislature, the vote was twenty
ayes to one hundred and ten nays.^ At this session Mr.
Graham was again on the Judiciary Committee and was
Chairman of the Education Committee, In the latter
capacity he made a report January 3, 1835, on the resources
of the Literary Fund, and the best means of improving the
same, and accompanied the same by a bill to authorize the
Literary Board to sell certain portions of the swamp lands
belonging to it.* This bill passed the House, but failed in
the Senate. Mr. Hugh McQueen, of Chatham, at this ses-
sion also introduced a bill in the Senate, to provide a fund
for the establishment of free schools. This passed its first
reading, and was then laid on the table. By joint resolution
of the General Assembly, however, it was afterwards ordered
to be appended to, and published with, the laws of the ses-
sion. The Literary Fund amounted to about $180,000, with
the hope that it would enlarge at the rate of $15,000 or
$20,000 per annum, through the sale of swamp lands and
the receipt of dividends from investment of its capital. This
sum was wholly inadequate to establish any general system
of public schools, so the efforts of legislators were directed,
for the present, wholly toward increasing it. In the state
of public sentiment, thoy did not dare levy additional taxes.
Indeed conditions among the people were so wholly adverse
to increased taxation, that a plan that involved such increase
would have proven utterly futile.
On December 29, 1834, Mr. Graham was elected by the
Legislature a trustee of the Universitv,^ and he continued
I House Journal, 220. 2 Ibid., 221. 'Ibid., 221.
<Coon: Public Education in North Carolina: A Documentary History, 1790-1840,
II., 683 et seq.
'House Journal, 223.
William A. Graham. 29
until Ifts death to be actively interested in all of the affairs
of that institution. An interesting political event occurred
at this session. Judge Wiley P. Mangum and Bedford Brown
v^^ere the senators from the State in the Federal Congress.
Mangum voted for the resolution of censure on Jackson for
removing the deposits, passed March 28, 1834, and refused to
vote for Benton's resolution to expunge the censure. The
Legislature of 1834-5 was Democratic, or pro- Jackson, and
hence opposed to Mangum. It instructed Mangum and Brown
to vote for the expunging resolution. While the House was
considering these instructions, Mr. Graham delivered a
speech of remarkable power against them. He had just
passed his thirtieth birthday, yet this speech made him a
leader of his party, the Whig, only second to Mr. Mangum
in influence and power. It had so great an effect upon his
fortunes and is so characteristic, that these alone would
justify my giving it in full, if space permitted. It, too,
gives a remarkably clear and just view of the conditions
as they were in North Carolina at that period, and of the
political issues that confronted the people.
Mr. Graham was again member of the House of Commons
from Hillsboro in the Legislature of 1835-6. Among the
other able members of that Legislature, were Matthias E.
Manly, Kenneth Rayner, Thomas L. Clingman and Michael
Hoke, the first three being Whigs, and the latter a Democrat.
Mr. Graham was his party's candidate for speaker, but was
defeated by William H. Haywood, the vote being fifty-four to
sixty-eight. He was again on the Committee on Education,
and was chairman of the Judiciary Committee. He intro-
duced a bill incorporating the Raleigh and Gaston Railroad,
and defended it during all the stages of its enactment into a
law against a vigorous opposition. It was the first railroad
built in the State. There was much discussion of the division
of the proceeds of the sale of public lands by the Federal
Government among the states, and a resolution was adopted
1 House Journal, 97.
30 ISToRTH Carolina Histokical Commission.
by the Legislature that they ought to be so divided, the vote
being seventy ayes to fifty-four nays, the division being not
along party lines, Mr. Graham voting aye. Judge Martin,
having resigned as one of the judges of the Superior Court,
Romulus M. Saunders was elected by a vote of ninety-seven
to succeed him. On the last ballot Mr. Graham received
sixty votes, and the Register of ]Srovember 22, 1835, com-
menting on this, says : ''It is due to Mr. Graham to state,
that though strongly solicited, he refused to suffer his name
to be put in nomination. Had he consented, he is so de-
servedly a favorite, that the contest would have been a very
doubtful one. Mr. Graham is a young man, and the flattering
vote which he received, under the peculiar circumstances of
the case, is conclusive evidence of his elevated standing in
the State."
The new Constitution, having gone into effect on January
1, 1836, and boroughs having been thus abolished, Mr. Gra-
ham was a candidate before the people of Orange County
in the summer of 1836, to represent that county in the
Legislature of 1836-7. He, for the first time, canvassed the
county for internal improvements and for the distribution of
the land proceeds. He was triumphantly elected, carrying
with him also, two out of the other Whig candidates for the
House, Orange being entitled under the new Constitution,
to four representatives. He, however, ran one hundred and
twenty-one ahead of his ticket.
The House was again Democratic by a small majority;
Haywood received sixty votes for speaker and Graham fifty-
three.^ He was on the same standing committees as at the
last session, and was again chairman of the Committee on
Judiciary.^ He was also chairman of the Committee on the
Ee^dsed Statutes, which were then to be enacted into a law,
and looked carefully, painstakingly and ably after their
progress through the House. He was also chairman of a
joint committee of both houses on the funds to be received
» House Journal, 243-4. 2 House Journal, 268.
William A. Gkaham. 31
under the Deposit Act of Congress, and as chairman pro tern,
of the committee made an able and lucid report upon the dis-
position of that fund, accompanied bj bills to carry the sug-
gestions of the committee into effect/ In pursuance of the
act for the distribution of the surplus revenue, nearly $28,-
000,000 were deposited with the states, by three equal pay-
ments in January, April and July of 1837. North Caro-
lina's share was $1,433,757.39. The Graham report con-
templated an equal division of this fund into two : one, to
constitute a fund for common schools, and the other, a fund
for internal improvements. It very strongly reprehended
the diversion of any portion of this fund to meet ordinary
State liabilities. The legislation, however, did not follov/
this report in its entirety. $100,000 were diverted to the
payment of the civil contingent expenses of the State Gov-
ernment, $600,000 were used in purchasing bank stock,
$200,000 were appropriated to draining swamp lands, and
$533,757.39 purchased stock in the Wilming-ton and Ualeigh
Railroad.
The General Assembly of 1835-6 had enacted a law to
regulate the mode of passing private acts. After the enact-
ment of this law, the Constitution of 1835 went into effect.
A new provision was incorporated therein that the General
Assembly shall not pass any private law, unless it shall be
made to appear that thirty days notice of application to
pass such law, shall have been given under such directions
and in such manner as shall be provided by law. Upon this
state of things two questions were submitted by the Assem-
bly of 1836-7 to its Judiciary Committee, of which Mr.
Graham was Chairman: First, was the Act of 1835 super-
seded by the Constitution, which went into effect January
1, 1836, in such way as to render it inoperative upon the
present and future assemblies, without its reenactment ; sec-
ond, what is the line of demarkation between public and
private acts? Mr. Graham replied to these questions in a
1 Legislative Documents, 1S35-9, No. 15.
32 North Carolina Historical Commission.
very able and luminous report. Except as restricted by the
State and Federal constitutions, the authority of the General
Assembly to legislate is plenary, and its legislation binds
its successors until altered or repealed by them. The Act
of 1835 was obnoxious to no provision of the Constitution
of 1776, and being in entire accord with the provision of
the new Constitution, quoted above, it is still in full force
and effect. Upon this point, among other things, he said :
''The convention has not only not taken away the power to
enact such a law, but virtually ordained that it should be
passed. It is supposed that the right to pass it is derived
from the amendment, and it could only be passed by a
Legislature convened under the new Constitution. It must
be observed, however, that the paragraph of the amendment
now under discussion, confers no new power on the General
Assembly, but forbids the exercise of an old one, except on
certain conditions.. The legislative power of the General
Assembly extends not merely to the present time and events,
but may prospectively embrace any future contingencies.
The law in question might have provided that in the event of
the adoption of the amendments to the Constitution, advertise-
ment of application for private acts should be made for thirty
days, much more, when it was authoritatively announced that
the amendments had been adopted, might it provide to give
them practical operation. A wise lawgiver will endeavor as
well to prevent grievances as to administer remedies for
them. To have enacted no law in reference to private acts
at the last session of the Legislature, would have been to
exclude any private bill from consideration for at least the
first thirty days of this session. Your committee, therefore,
deem the passage of the said act to have been both consti-
tutional and expedient."
In answer to the second question he said: "On the one
hand your committee have felt that by a too strict interpre-
tation of the term, private law, much useful legislation
might have been prevented at the present session, whilst on
William A. Gkaham. 33
the contrary the salutary operation of this section of the Con-
stitution would be wholly abrogated and annulled, unless the
General Assembly shall affix a proper construction to this
term, and insist on its enforcement in every instance. It
can hardly be supposed that the judiciary branch of the
government will have either the disposition or authority to
look beyond the enactments of the Legislature, to ascertain
whether they were passed with or without legal notice of
their introduction. This clause of the amended Constitution
is binding therefore only on the conscience of the legislator,
and is dependent upon this alone for its observance. Its
true meaning is for that reason to be sought with greater
diligence and adhered to with more vigor. * * * In some
statutes special clauses have been inserted declaring that those
statutes shall be held and deemed public acts, but this, as your
committee believe, has been properly construed not to change
the character of the acts, but merely to determine the manner
in which they shall be alleged and proved in courts of justice.
Whether a statute be public or private must depend on its
nature and object. If those be private, the statute itself can
not be public, notwithstanding the declaration of the Legis-
lature to the contrary; nor should the evasion be allowed of
inserting provisions of a public kind for the mere purpose of
dispensing with the necessity of advertising, where they do
not belong to the general scope of the particular bill. The
general description of public acts is, that they relate to the
interests of the public at large ; and private, that they relate
to individuals and their interests only. This vague descrip-
tion which pervades all the elementary books and has by
many been mistaken as a definition, aifords but an uncertain
test for discrimination. Your committee believe that the
following points are settled by adjudication or by common
consent, to wit, that all acts are public:
"1. Which concern all persons generally.
"2. Which affect the sovereign in any of his rights of
34 North Carolina IIistoeical Commission.
sovereignty or property. Hence any act which gives a penalty
or fine to the State is, on that acconnt, public.
^'3. Which concern the officers of the State, whether civil
or military.
"4. Which concern the Legislature.
"5. Which relate to trade in general, or the public high-
ways or navigable rivers.
"And of the^'^e some are termed public local acts, and
others public general acts, according to their respective
spheres of operation. The foregoing summary may not
embrace all acts of a public nature, but is supported by
authority so far as it extends, and may be useful in drawing
the line of distinction. Private acts embrace all those not
falling within any of the descriptions aforesaid. An attempt
to define them more particularly is unnecessary. Your com-
mittee are aware that the precise boundary between public
and private acts can not in every instance be determined
by the rules here furnished, but they are gi-atified by the
reflection that in a great majority of bills there can be no
question as to their character, and in any particular case
where difficulty may arise, the foregoing classification may
be found useful if not decisive. To the wisdom of the
House it will belong to apply them -with proper discrimi-
nation, in each case in which the application becomes
necessary."
I reproduce this long exti'act, not so much because it is an
admirable statement of the legal principles involved, as be-
cause it throws light upon the stage of mental development
at which he had arrived when he was only thirty-two years of
age, and also upon his character. This constant sense of the
eternal fitness of things, this assumption that because power
is irresponsible, it is the more incumbent upon those who
exercise it, to exercise it with the utmost circumspection and
caution, characterized all his utterances and actions through-
out his whole career.
While on his way to one of his courts, in 1836, he was
so injured by an unruly horse, that he was compelled to go
William A. Gkaham. 35
North for treatment in the summer of 1837. Before the
accident, it was understood that he or Judge Mangum
was to have been the Whig candidate for the Federal
House of Representatives. Judge Mangum, however, posi-
tively declined, and insisted that Mr. Graham should be
nominated, and he was nominated without a dissenting voice.
He was absent at the Worth until a few days before the
election. He could make no canvass. Instead he addressed
an open letter to the voters of the district, in which he dis-
cussed the issues of the day and offered himself as a candi-
date for their suffrages. Martin Van Buren had been Presi-
dent only a few months, and the country was in the throes
of a severe panic, largely induced by the arbitrary measures
of his predecessor, General Jackson. Mr. Graham, in this
letter, thus rapidly describes conditions as they then were :
"Our public moneys amounting to many million dollars
have been paid into banks which are unable or unwilling to
repay the government, and much it is feared will never be re-
paid at all. Bank notes which constitute by far the largest
portion of our currency are no longer convertible into specie.
Exchanges are destroyed, so that it is difficult, if not impossi-
ble, to make remittances from one part of our country to an-
other, to carry on the necessary commerce between it and for-
eign nations. Many of our merchants and other citizens, both
the judicious and prudent as well as the reckless and specu-
lating, have suddenly and unexpectedly, both to themselves
and others, become insolvent. Pecuniary confidence between
man and man has been greatly abridged, and in many places
destroyed. The gTeat staple productions of the country
have fallen in price, and agricultural as well as mechanical
labor meets with insufficient reward. Our immediate sec-
tion of the country irom. its interior position, as well as
other causes, is happily exempt in a gTeat measure from the
calamities which oppress others ; but no section can long
escape unless a remedy is speedily applied. Every section
is interested in the safe-keeping of the public moneys, the
36 NoETH Carolina Historical Commission.
soundness of the circulating medium, the facilities of do-
mestic trade and the prosperity of our foreign commerce."
His remedy was a national bank, such as that which was
chartered during the Washington and Madison administra-
tions. "I believe," said he, "that Congress has the consti-
tutional power to establish such bank, and I, at present per-
ceive no measure better calculated to relieve our distresses.
I am aware of the danger of moneyed power, and if such
a corporation can not be so restricted as to be incapable of
wanton injury, either to the public or individuals, it should
not be allowed. But the legislative power must be lamentably
impotent if it can not fashion the creation of its own hands
that it shall be accountable to the law for its conduct and
thus prevent its abuses."
And he concludes thus : "It is known to many of you that
I did not concur in the election of the present chief magis-
trate, and should a. competitor be presented whom I prefer,
I probably shall not do so at the next election. I will en-
deavor, nevertheless, whether in public or private life, to
do justice to his measures, and should deem myself altogether
unworthy of your confidence, were I capable of opposing
or supporting any measure on account of the sources from
which it springs. My first wish is that the country should
be well governed, rather that it should be governed by any
particular set of men."
The Raleigh Register had the following on his candidacy,
issue of July 17, 1837: "We do not believe there lives a
man who can with truth allege aught against the character
of Mr. Graham. We say of our own knowledge, that he is
as pure a public man as we ever saw, and if elected, will add
greatly to the learning, talent and eloquence of the House
of which he is a member," In the issue of July 31, 1837,
he is designated as follows : "A man whom even his political
foes respect for his acquirements, and honor for the irre-
proachable purity of his private character."
William A. Graham. 37
The Standard of July 19, 1837, took a somewhat dif-
ferent view : '^In him the bank Whigs and Wall street brokers
will have as warm a friend and as ardent a champion as
they desire. * * * ^\s to Mr. Graham's private char-
acter we know nothing and have heard nothing against it.
He is a man of talents, but he can never be great among
great men, ^' * * Thongh he may be looked npon as
estimable as a man, he is dangerous as a politician."
At almost exactly the same time and in England another
newspaper writer wrote of Mr. Gladstone: "He is a man of
very considerable talent, but has nothing approaching to
genius. His abilities are much more the result of an ex-
cellent education, and of mature study, than of any prodi-
gality on the part of nature in the distribution of her mental
gifts. I have no idea he will ever acquire the reputation
of a great statesman.^"
Mr. William Montgomery was elected by 191 majority,
the only instance in Mr. Graham's long public life in which
he was defeated in an election before the people of North
Carolina.
He was again a commoner from Orange County in the
Legislature of 1838-9, the only Whig elected in that county,
all his colleagues being Democrats. The House, however,
was Whig, and he was elected speaker over Michael Hoke,
the vote being sixty-one to forty-nine. This General Assem-
bly is distinguished by its enactment of the first comprehen-
sive school law. Says Mr. Coon" : ''Early in the session of the
Assembly of 1838-9, Mr. Dockery repeated his resolution
relative to the establishment of public schools. H. G. Spruill
presented a resolution and a plan which contemplated divid-
ing the counties into school districts and holding an election
in each district on the question of school or no school. The
district was to be empowered to levy a tax to pay one-half the
teacher's salary, the other to be paid out of the income of the
•British Senate, Vol. II, 54. 2 Coon: Public Education in N. C, I, xliii.
38 ]!^OKTH Carolina IIistoeical Commission.
literary fund. A notable feature of this plan was the sugges-
tion that every district refusing to establish schools should be
required to vote on the question every year until they were
established. The plan submitted by the Literary Board
recommended the division of the State into 1250 districts,
estimating the average school population for each district of
108 children between the ages of five and fifteen; the estab-
lishment of normal schools after the fashion advocated by
President Caldwell some years before ; the holding of an elec-
tion ill each county to determine whether it was willing to levy
a tax for schools in amount to twice the sum expected from
the literary fund ; and the appointment of a state superin-
tendent of public schools. It was estimated by the board that
the income of the school fund was then about $100,000.
This amount, added to $200,000 proposed to be raised by
county taxation, would pay the 1250 teachers each a salary
of $240 a year. The suggestions of the board were received
with considerable interest. Bills to carry out its plans were
introduced in the Senate by William W. Cherry, and in the
House by Frederick J. Hill. Mr. Cherry's bill did not con-
template establishing schools until another meeting of the
Assembly ; Mr. Hill's bill provided for their immediate
establishment. * * * The net results of the education ef-
forts of the Assembly of 1838-9 was the passage, on January
Y, 1839, of a law submitting the question of schools or no
schools to a vote of the i^eople of several counties in August,
1839. A favorable vote meant a county tax levy of one
dollar for each two dollars to be received from the income
of the literary fund. The schools established were to be
under the control of five to ten county superintlendents ;
the whole territory of the county was to be divided into no
more districts than one for each thirty-six square miles, and
the first term of the schools in each district was to be con-
ducted on $20 of county taxation and $40 income from the
literary fund."
No member of the Assemblv to(ik a more active interest
William A. Graham. 39
in the enactment of this law, than did the speaker, Mr. Gra-
ham. Fonr out of the nine sections of the original Honse
bill were in his handwriting, and two of the bills finally
adopted by the Conference Committee were also in his hand-
writing.^ It is said to have been adapted from the New
York law^ on the same subject.
Mr. Coon very finely says of this act": ''While the school
law of 1839 was not a very satisfactory measure, it marked
the beginning of a new era. Individualism was now gradu-
ally to give way to community spirit ; selfishness and in-
tolerance, which only desired to be undisturbed, must now
needs give place to measures devoted to the welfare and up-
lift of the people ; hatred of taxation for schools must now
begin to disappear before the davsming of that wiser policy
that no taxation is oppressive which is used in giving equal
educational opportunities to all."
Mr. Graham was reelected a member of the House of Com-
mons from Orange in 1840. He was accompanied by two
Whig colleagues to, and Mr. Wiley P. Mangum was senator
in, the General Assembly of 1840-1. So fair and impartial
as speaker was he the preceding session that he was reelected
unanimously at this. The meeting of the Legislature was
immediately after the triumphant election of Harrison and
Tyler. The State, falling in line, had given the Whig ticket
a large majority. The Democratic Legislature of 1835-6
had instructed the then senators in CongTess, Bedford Brown
and Wiley P. Mangum, to vote for Benton's expunging reso-
lution. Mangum, denying the authority of the Legislature to
instruct him how to vote, voted against that resolution, and
refused to resign. In the campaign of 1836 he and Brown,
who took the affirmative of the right of the Legislature to
instruct, discussed the matter largely before the people of
the State. The General Assembly, elected that year, was
Democratic by a very small majority, and Mangum inter-
preting this as a rebuke of his own course, by the people
iPub. Ed. in N. C, II, 881 and 890. 2 Ibid, I, xlvii.
40 North Carolina Historical CoMiMissioisr.
themselves, resigned and was succeeded by Robert Strange,
a Democrat. In 1838-9 conditions were reversed. The Ben-
ton resolution was passed by the Senate January 16, 1837,
both Brown and Strange voting for it. The General As-
sembly of 1838-9 was Whig by a substantial majority. Ken-
neth Rayner, on December 4, 1838, introduced in the House
of Commons a series of resolutions that in the aggTcgate
amounted to a condensed but definite statement of the Whig
faith, the first resolution containing a simple allegation that
the present senators had not truly represented the people of
the State in voting for Benton's expunging resolution, and
the last, being as follows: '^That our senators in CongTess
will represent the wishes of a majority of the people of the
State by voting to carry out the foregoing resolutions." There
is no doubt that these resolutions were drawn up at a confer-
ence of the Whig leaders, for the Register, in its issue of
N'ovember 26, 1838, said: ''That course is not to instruct
them as their party instructed Mangum to do a particular
act or resign, but to give so decided and unequivocal an ex-
pression of the opinions of their constituents, that they can
not disregard it, unless they are determined to set at naught
the popular will and practically assert their independence
of it." So every amendment in the House and in the Senate
was voted down, and the resolution passed the former body,
without dotting an i or crossing a t, December 25th, and the
latter, December 27, 1838, in each instance by a strict party
vote, so far as their essential features were concerned. Sena-
tors Brown and Strange, protesting that when positive in-
structions were given them they would either vote as the
General Assembly commanded them, or resign, by a letter
to that body, dated December 31, 1838, asked for more au-
thoritative instructions. These the Legislature never gave.
Messrs Brown and Strange, still treating these resolutions
as an expression of opinion on the part of the Legislature,
which did not concern them, refused to resign until June
William A. Graham. 41
30, 1840. Their resignations were accompanied by long
ex2:)lanations, the gist of which may be found in the follow-
ing: "My resignation is not prompted by a belief that the
resolutions imposed on me any such obligation, but from an
anxious desire to submit my public course to the decision
of the people of the State, which would have been done
sooner, if an election had sooner intervened." As I have
already said, the General Assembly, elected the second Thurs-
day in August, 1840, was Whig by a large majority. These
vacancies were to be filled by it at its coming ISTovember ses-
sion. Bedford Brown's term was to expire March 4, 1841,
Wiley P. Mangum was elected to fill the unexpired term,
and also for a full term commencing at that date. Robert
Strange's term was to expire on March 4, 1843, and William
A. Graham was, on ISTovember 24, 1840, elected to fill this
by a vote of ninety-eight for himself and sixty-four for
Strange. Both candidates were selected by the Whigs
in . caucus, out of some five or six names. Mr. Mangum
was at the time the leader of the Whig party in the
State. By general consent of the Whigs at large he was
to be Mr. Brown's successor, and he was unanimously
so named by the caucus. It was a very gTcat and un-
usual honor that the Whigs conferred on so young a man
as Mr. Graham to choose him out of five candidates as
United States Senator, when he was a resident of the same
county as Mr. Mangum. It is, too, the strongest testi-
mony to his ability and his private and public worth. His
selection was received with great satisfaction by the Whigs.
Said the Register of November 27, 1840: "He is a states-
man of high order, is a powerful debater, and combined with
these qualifications has indefatigable application. His vir-
tues and amiable qualities endear him to all who know him."
The Democratic comment, however, was rather caustic, on
his age, his lack of experience and his geographical situation.
42 NoKTH Carolixa Historical Commission.
UNITED STATES SENATOR
It was the second session of the Twenty-sixth Congress
that the new senators first attended. Mr. Mangiim wa»
sworn in on December 9th, and Mr. Graham, December 10,
1840.^ That Congi'ess was Democratic, both in the House
and in the Senate. The Senate was composed, then, of the
ablest men in pnblic life throughout the country. From
Alabama there were AVilliam R. King and Clement C. Clay ;
from Delaware, Thomas Clayton ; from New Jersey, Samuel
L. Southard ; from Kentucky, Henry Clay and John J.
Crittenden ; from Missouri, Thomas Benton ; from Georgia,
Wilson Lumpkin ; from New York, Silas Wright and Na-
thaniel P. Tallmadge ; from Massachusetts, Daniel Webster
and John Davis ; from South Carolina, John C. Calhoun
and William C. Preston ; from New Hampshire, Franklin
Pierce ; from Vermont, Samuel Prentiss, and from Virginia,
William H. Roane. ■ Martin Van Buren's term as president
was expiring, and his last annual message was a defense of the
policy of his administration.^ Especially did he congi*atu-
late the country that in the midst of the very trying con-
ditions which confronted it at the outstart, a panic and the
stoppage of specie payments by the banks and the consequent
loss of revenue from such a condition, complicated by large
expenditures in the removal of the eastern Indians, appro-
priations for which had already been made, every demand
upon it at home or abroad, had been promptly met. "This
has been done not only without creating a permanent debt,
or resort to additional taxation in any form, but in the
midst of a steadily progressing reduction of existing burdens
upon the people, leaving still a considerable balance of avail-
able funds which will remain in the treasury at the end
of the year. * * * The policy of the Federal Government,
in extinguishing as rapidly as possible the national debt, and
subsequently in resisting every temptation to create a new
one, deserves to be regarded in the same favorable light.
1 Senate Journal, 1840-1, 22. 2 Senate Journal, 6, et seq.
William A. Graham. 43
Coming into office the declared enemy of both (a national
debt and a national bank), I have earnestly endeavored to
prevent a resort to either." Mr. Graham was placed on the
Standing Committee on Revolutionary Claims at this ses-
sion.^ From that committee, on January 13, 1841, he re-
ported a bill to cause monuments to be erected in honor of
Brigadier-Generals Francis Nash and William Davidson,
favorably.^ He accompanied the bill with a special report
which was ordered printed. It being his first attendance,
and at a short session when the Democrats had a majority, he
does not appear to have taken any part in the larger debates,
contenting himself with a constant attendance, voting gen-
erally with his party.
The Senate of the Twenty-seventh Congress, at the call
of the President, met in special session on March 4, 1841.
Mr. Webster, having been nominated as Secretary of State
by Mr-. Harrison, had resigned and was succeeded by Rufus
Choate. Levi Woodbury, who had been Secretary of the
Treasury under Van Buren, appeared as one of the senators
from Verinont. John J. Crittenden, who had been appointed
Attorney-General, was succeeded by James T. Morehead.
John McPhersou Berrien appeared from Georgia, and Rich-
ard H. Bayard from Delaware. The leaders of the Demo-
crats were Thomas H. Benton, William R. King, James
Buchanan, Silas Wright and Levi Woodbury ; of the Whigs,
Henry Clay, Thomas Clayton, Samuel Prentiss, William C.
Rives and Wiley P. Mangum. The AYhigs had a majority of
seven. This, however, was merely an executive session to
confirm the nominations of the new president, Harrison.
The new cabinet was : Daniel Webster, Secretary of State ;
Thomas Ewing, Secretary of the Treasury ; John Bell, Secre-
tary of War ; George E. Badger, Secretary of the ISTavy ;
John J. Crittenden, Attorney-General, and Caleb Grainger,
Postmaster-General — a very able company of counselors.
At Mr. Clav's sua:gestion. President Harrison called the
1 Senate Journal, 23. = ggnate Journal, 101.
44 IToRTH Carolina Historical Commission.
Twenty-seventh CongTess to meet in extra session on May
31, 1841. Unfortunately for the country and fatally for
the Whig party, Mr. Harrison died, after a short illness,
on April 4, 1841, and was succeeded by John Tyler, the
Vice-President, a Democrat, misplaced in the Whig party, to
the confusion and dismay of all who wished it well. The
extra session began at the time appointed, the House being
also Whig by nearly fifty majority. The progTam of the
Whigs as announced by their leader, Mr. Clay, was:^
1. The repeal of the sub-treasury law.
2. The incorporation of a bank ada])ted to the wants of
the people.
3. The provision of an adequate revenue (there was a
deficit at the time, estimated, of $14,000,000), by the impo-
sition of tariif duties, and a temporary loan.
4. The passage of the necessary appropriations.
5. The prospective distribution of the proceeds of public
land sales.
6. Some modification of the banking system of the Dis-
trict of Columbia.
Of the general legislation involved in this program, all
was frustrated by the veto of President Tyler, except the
repeal of the sub-treasury law and the temporary loan.
The chairmen of the standing committees of the Senate
were chosen by the ballot of the senators. Mr. Graham was
elected chairman of the Committee on Claims,^ a very im-
portant position for so new and so young a senator. He
was also a member of the Committee on Revolutionary
Claims,^ and was appointed a member of a select com-
mittee on so much of the President's message as related to
a uniform currency, and a suitable fiscal agent, by Mr. South-
ard, president pro tem. of the Senate.* Remembering that
one of the greatest evils of the times was the wholly inade-
quate currency system, this was one of the most important
> Senate Journal, 1841, 24. * Senate Journal, 18. ' Senate Journal, 20. «Senate
Journal, 20.
William A. Gkaham. 45
committees of the Congress, and it was composed of very
able senators, — Mr. Clay, chairman ; Mr. Choate, Mr.
Wright, Mr. Berrien, Mr. King, Mr. Talhnadge, Mr. Bay-
ard, Mr. Graham and Mr. Huntington. As above said, how-
ever, all the measures of this committee were made futile by
the veto of the President.
At the second session of the Twenty-seventh Congress,
Mr. Graham was continued as chairman of the Committee
on Claims, but was transferred from the Committee on
Revolutionary Claims to that on Pensions.^ He presided
over the Senate as president pro tempore on February lY,
1842." He was appointed second on the special Committee
on Retrenchment, on February 28th.^ On March 31st* Mr.
Clay retired from the Senate, and was succeeded by his
friend and follower, John J. Crittenden, who, with all the
rest of the original cabinet except Mr. Webster, had resigned
the preceding September. ''I want rest," wrote Mr. Clay,
'^aijd my private affairs want attention. jSTevertheless I would
make any personal sacrifice, if by remaining here I could
do any good ; but my belief is, I can effect nothing, and per-
haps my absence may remove an obstacle to something being
done by others."
As I have said, the administration of Mr. Van Buren had
left to the administration of Mr. Tyler an inheritance of
debt, and the compromise tariff measure of 1833, working
automatically, had reduced the revenues below the necessary
expenses of the government. There was an annually increas-
ing deficit. The special session of 1841 had authorized a
temporary loan of $12,000,000, to tide over immediate
embarrassments. Coupled with that measure was one re-
quiring the distribution of the proceeds of the sale of public
lands among the states, this distribution, however, to be sus-
pended whenever the necessities of the treasury required an
increase of the tariff duties above the twenty per cent fixed
by the compromise of 1833. To raise the duties above this
1 Senate Journal, 1841-2, 22. 2 Senate Journal, 173. 3 Senate Journal, 188. « Senate
Journal, 262.
46 XoETH Cakolina Historical Commission.
twenty per cent level was absolutely necessary to secure an
adequate revenue for the expenses of the government. Thus
any further distribution of these funds among the states
could not be made. Indeed such was the condition of the
treasury, that Congress was compelled at the ensuing session
to extend the loan of 1841 and add $5,000,000 thereto. The
Democrats wished to devote the proceeds of the sale of the
public lands to the gradual liquidation of this temporary
loan. This the Whigs opposed, and, having a majority, de-
feated. It was while the bill authorizing this loan was pend-
ing that Mr. Graham made his first set speech, April 13,
1842. He first shows that during the four years of the Van
Buren administration, the expenses of the government ex-
ceeded its revenue by $31,000,000 ; that this deficit was re-
duced to $5,500,000, by the application of $26,000,000 of
extraordinary funds, $17,000,000 of surplus at the begin-
ning of the administration, $9,000,000 of which should have
been the fourth installment of the deposit ■of land pro-
ceeds with the states, and $9,000,000 were received from
debts due the United States, principally for the sale of its
stock in the late Bank of the United States ; that they not
only diverted this capital to the payment of the ordinary
expenses of the government, but they were compelled to
borrow $5,500,000 more by the issue of treasury notes to
meet their extravagant expenditures, and this legacy of debt
they have left to the Tyler administration. ''To meet this
deficiency, what have we ? Instead of surplus, we have debt.
Instead of extraordinary means falling in, we have a daily
increasing charge of interest. Instead of a tariff of forty
per cent, we have one nearly approaching 20 per cent, and
that upon little more than half the imports. What then is
to be done? * * * Mr. President, our whole duty in
this emergency seems to be comprehended in three propo-
sitions :
"1. Borrow such sum, upon the best terms we can obtain.
William A. Graham. 47
as will relieve our present necessities, and save the public
honor from disgrace.
"2. Reduce our expenses to the lowest point which is con-
sistent with an efficient public service.
"3. Levy such duties upon imports as are necessary for an
economical administration of the government, and no more."
The Democrats had suggested that the Tyler administra-
tion could relieve itself of all its financial difficulties by de-
manding the return of the $28,000,000 of land proceeds al-
ready distributed among the states. Mr. Graham proceeds
in a calm, courteous and well-reasoned argument to show-
that such extraordinary funds were not to be devoted to the
ordinary expenses of the government, according to the scheme
of the Constitution itself, even if thev could surmount the
impracticableness and injustice of the scheme of taking back
from the states the money w^hich had been so recently de-
posited with them. "I have said, Mr. President, that the
authors of the Constitution did not rely upon the public
lands as a means for the ordinary maintenance of govern-
ment, and, in my humble opinion, to eifectuate their design
to make this a government of limited powx^rs, confined to
comparatively few objects, it ought to be restricted to those
modes of supply pointed out in the Constitution. All history
will verify the fact, that those nations have been most re-
markable for purity and correctness of administration, for
the strictest accountability of public agents, and have longest
preserved their liberties, who have kept their ruling powers
constantly dependent upon the contributions, direct or in-
direct, annually levied upon the people. As a certain writer
has remarked, 'They who would trample on their rights are
restrained by the want of their money.' This general truth
applies with tenfold force to a government like that of the
United States, far distant from the great mass of the people
whom it aifects, and so complicated in its structure and so
diversified in its operations, that, to keep up a minute know!-
48 North Carolina Historical CoMMissioi«r.
edge of its details of administration, federal politics must
be made, to a great extent, an exclusive profession. That
period of our history, when peculation and embezzlement
were most rife, when the responsibility of pul)lic officers was
least rigid, when salaries were unregulated and the gains
in many offices were almost what their holders desired, and
when appropriations were most extravagant, was the period
which I have reviewed in the first part of these remarks
(Van Buren's administration), when revenue was not re-
dundant but grossly deficient, but there were surpluses and
extraordinary means in your coffers, which the administra-
tion had nothing to do with, but to expand. Think you,
sir, that in any other state of the treasury, a district attorney
would have been allowed to receive emoluments gi'eater, by
more than one-half, than the salary of the President of the
United States— greater according to his own declaration
when about to leave office, 'than any citizen of a free re-
public ought to receive' ; that marshals, collectors of customs
and postmasters, would have been permitted, like Roman
proconsuls, to enrich themselves to immense fortunes out
of the offices created for public benefit alone, and oftentimes,
by like instances of official abuses — abuses to which no cor-
rective was applied until the third of March, 1841, the very
last day of the late administration, when a clause was in-
serted in the appropriation bill — a kind of bequest to pious
uses upon the deathbed repentance, spoken of by the sena-
tor from South Carolina (Mr. Preston), restraining the com-
pensation of these functionaries to $0,000 per annum, for
the future."
On May 31, 1842, Mr. Mangum was elected president
pro tern, of the Senate in the place of Mr. Southard, of
ISTew Jersey, who had resigned, thus making a vacancy on
the Finance Committee.^ Mr. Graham was appointed to
fill this vacancy.^ A question about which there was much
discussion at this session was the redistricting of the country
1 Senate Journal, 1841-2, 366. 2 Ibid, 377.
William A. Graham. 49
according to the census of 1840. The Democrats were in
favor of leaving the matter of electing members of the House
of Representatives by districts or by a general ticket to the
legislatures of the various states. Mr. Graham v^as in favor
of Congress determining this question for itself and of its re-
quiring the legislatures to lay off contiguous districts con-
taining a certain number (70,680) of voters, thus in effect
prohibiting the election of representatives by general ticket.
On June 3, 1842, he made a very able speech sustaining this
view. He discusses it, first, from the standpoint of expedi-
ency and, second, from the standpoint of its constitutionality.
In concluding the latter branch of the discussion, he said:
''But we are told we have no power to pass this law, because
we can not enforce its execution by penal sanctions ; and an
urgent appeal is made to us by the senator from Kew Hamp-
shire (Mr. Woodbury) to know whether an armed force or
a writ of mandamus is to be sent to the state legislatures to
compel them to lay off the districts. ISTo, sir, neither. ]N^o
one ever conceived the idea of compelling a free legislative
assembly to do, or not to do, anything by physical force,
or the precept of a court of justice. The crime of omission
or commission in their constitutional duty, like that of
parenticide among the Athenians, is provided with no legal
sanction, but left to the oaths and consciences of men, to an
accountability to public opinion, and to that constituency
whose rights have been outraged or neglected. The preserv-
ation of this government greatly depends on the faithful
fulfillment of the duties imposed by the Constitution on the
state legislatures. If a majority of them shall fail to elect
senators (as one has done), if five or six of those in the
largest states shall fail to make regulations for choosing
electors of president and vice-president, in conformity to the
laws of Congress, the IJuion would be as effectually dissolved
as if we who are sent to the legislative halls of the capitol
should obstinately refuse to attend in our places and pass
50 XoKTH Cakolixa Histoeical Commission.
the laws annually necessary for the support of the govern-
ment. It is faith, honor, conscience, and not the hangman's
whip, on which at last rest the blessings of this noblest human
institution which has ever been devised for the security, the
welfare and the happiness of man. The duties of the states,
under our Constitution, are not to be determined by their
liability to punishment, but by the covenants into which they
entered by that instrument."
At this session of Congress a tariff bill was passed.^ It
represented fairly the Whig idea of a tariff, i. e. for revenue
with incidental protection. The President had already stated
his objection to a bilP that contained a provision continuing
the distribution of the public land sales. Mr. Graham was
with the Democrats in nearly all the reductions proposed
by them during the consideration of the bill, and voted
against it on its third and final reading. He was very
earnestly in favor of continuing the distribution of the pro-
ceeds of the sale of public lands, and this bill being a sur-
render to the President on this subject, he could not vote for
it without stultifying his o^vn record. Compared with the
present it was an exceedingly moderate protection measure,
not averaging more than thirty per cent. Moderate, however,
as protection was at that period, he, being a southerner, was
even more moderate. He said himself in his letter accept-
ing the Whig nomination for governor, December 18, 1843:
''I have no hesitation in saying, that whilst I think the govern-
ment should collect the least amount of money, which may be
necessary for an efficient public service, in laying duties to
raise such sum, I would incidentally afford protection to
American interests, w^hen they were deemed of sufficient im-
portance to deserve it, as well as counteract the effects of
restrictive regulations on our trade by foreign nations
wherever it should appear expedient to do so. * * * I
did not vote for the tariff now existing. Some of its duties
were higher than I approved, but in the vacant condition of
'Senate Journal, 1841, 251. 2 Ibid, 643.
William A. Gkaham. 51
the treasury, I would not have withheld from it my support
had an amendment which I offered, proposing a distribution
of the proceeds of the public lands among the states, been
incorporated in the bill."
At the third session of the Twenty-seventh Congress,
1842-3, he was again Chairman of the Committee on Claims,
second on the Committee on Finance, and second on the
Special Committee on Retrenchment.
When it is remembered that Mr, Graham w^as only thirty-
eight years and five months old when his term as United
States Senator expired in March, 1843, and consider the
influential position he had taken in that august body, we
need no stronger evidence of his ability, his faithfulness
and his industry. The functions of the chairman of the
Committee on Claims, at that time when there was no court
of claims, were very much like that of a chancellor presid-
ing over a court of equity. Many important matters were
presented to that committee while Mr. Graham was chair-
man, matters which involved the reading and digesting of a
great mass" of written evidence, the application of the prin-
ciples of law and of justice to the case under consideration,
and finally the rendering of the written opinion in such form
as to carry conviction to the minds of the great lawyers and
eminent statesmen, who constituted the body to which the
report was made. ISTone of his reports was perfunctory, and
some of them show such industrious mastery of detail, such
capacity for sifting out the strong from the weak, the true
from the false, from a great mass of conflicting, or obscure,
or false testimony, such clearness in statement of conclu-
sions of fact and enunciation of legal and constitutional
principles applicable to them, that we are convinced he would
have made a great chancellor as well as a great senator, if
fair opportunity had presented itself.^
The Legislature elected in North Carolina, in 1842, was
largely Democratic in both branches. Mr. Romulus M.
1 See his Report, Harris-Farrow Claim, 3 Senate Doc, 27th Con., 3d Session, No. 157.
52 KoRTH Carolina Historical Commission.
Saunders and Mr. Bedford Brown, both Democrats, were
candidates to succeed Mr. Graham, and divided the votes of
that party between them, while the Whigs voted to a man
for Mr. Graham. On December 20, 1842, Mr. Graham's
name was withdrawn from the ballotting, and the next day
Mr. William H. Haywood, Jr., was elected senator. Says
the Raleigh Register of December 23, 1842 : "The elevation
of this gentleman over the head of all of the leaders of the
genuine Democracy is a strong exhibition of political leger-
demain, in which, however, we believe he, himself, had no
hand. (As a matter of fact he was not in Raleigh at the
time.) * * * At the beginning of the session, Judge
Saunders was taken up as a representative of the Calhoun
wing of the party, while the Hon. Bedford Brown, being
the beau ideal of pure locofocoism, was the nucleus about
which the elements of Van Burenism rallied. It was in vain
that caucus after caucus was held. The friends of Saunders,
regarding his success as a matter of vital importance to Mr.
Calhoun, would not give way, though in a minority. On the
other hand, many of Brown's friends at an early period de-
clared that they would prefer Mr. Graham to Judge Saunders,
and some of them affirmed that in no event could they be
brought to the support of any man tainted with nullification."
After Mr. Graham's withdrawal on the 19th, the Whigs
had no candidate, but voted, some for Saunders, and others,
scattering. When the Democrats, however, centered upon
Mr. Haywood, they again voted as a body for him, the final
ballot standing Haywood ninety-five and Graham sixty-nine,
with two scattering.
FIRST TERM AS GOVERNOR
At the end of his term of service in the United States
Senate, Mr. Graham returned to the practice of the law at
Hillsboro. But the people of jSTorth Carolina were not ml-
ling that he should remain long out of their service.
The Whigs throughout the State, while they were intensely
William A. Graham. 53
indiguaiit at what they regarded as Mr. Tyler's treason to
their party, were not discouraged by it. They turned as
one man to Mr. Clay, as their candidate for the presi-
dency in 1844, and to Mr. Graham as their candidate for
governor. The Whig State Convention was held in Raleigh
December 7, 1843, and Mr. Graham was unanimously and
with great enthusiasm chosen as its candidate for governor.
It was with some sacrifice of his financial interests that he
accepted this nomination. He said in his letter of accept-
ance, December 18, 1843: "But, however gratifying to an
honorable pride, your communication awakens feelings also
of a different character. It breaks in upon my plans of
life, my professional and agricultural pursuits, and demands
a sacrifice of interests which can not well be spared from my
family. I had therefore most earnestly and anxiously hoped
that the choice of the convention would have fallen on some
one of those able and virtuous citizens, whose names have
been connected with this subject and whose disinterestedness
and zeal in the Whig cause, is only equaled by their devotion
to its principles. Nevertheless, with my conceptions of duty
(however much I had wished it otherwise) I have no alter-
native but to accept the nomination. Without stronger rea-
sons than any I have to urge, I could not hold any other per-
son justified in refusing a call from such a source, to lend
his name and his efforts to the support of principles, which,
I verily believe, lie at the foundation of the enduring pros-
perity and happiness of the country."^
Mr. Graham's opponent was a personal friend and fellow
county-man, Michael Hoke, of Lincoln. Mr. Hoke was
young (only thirty-four years of age), ardent and able. He
was considered the most promising of the younger Democrats
of the State, had great personal magnetism, was a fine de-
bater and universally popular. He was a man of irreproach-
able character and had a great deal of humor, but it was a
1 Note. — He was urged very strongly by Senator Mangum and Mr. James W. Osborne
not to accept this nomination, that his proper place was in the U. S. Senate, and this
would prevent his being considered for that place.
54 North Carolina Historical Commission.
kindly, genial humor that left little sting behind it. His
death, on September 9, 1844, from a fever contracted in the
eastern part of the State during this campaign, was a gTeat
loss to the State, and it was deplored scarcely less by his
political opponents than by his party associates. The cam-
paign was arduous, the candidates occasionally meeting in
joint discussion. Graham, more learned, more experienced,
calmer, more dignified and impressive ; Hoke, more nimble,
quicker, brighter and more entertaining. The Graham-Hoke
campaign was long spoken of in the State in very much the
same terms that we speak of the Vance-Settle campaign of
1876, as one of the most remarkable in the history of the
State. Mr. Graham was elected by 3,153 majority.
Here is a contemporary estimate of Mr. Graham which I
give. It is that of a political follower, but allowing some-
thing for natural partiality and exaggeration, its essential
features present him very near as he was: '^Governor Gra-
ham dignifies and adorns everything he touches. Such grace,
such elegance, such ease, such candor and so much placid
eloquence, were never seen before concentrated in one man.
He can not fail to acquire the attention of his audience, and
when acquired, he keeps it chained with a magic spell. We
have seen speakers who seemed as if they snatched the very
lightnings and thunders of heaven to assist them in over-
powering the senses and arousing the passions of their
hearers ; we have seen those who appeared to make the very
walls laugh with ancedote and the air boisterous with mirth ;
we have seen those whose plain, matter-of-fact statements fell
with convincing force upon the judgTiient, but in so cold and
formal a manner that, although we were compelled to ac-
knowledge the force of the argument and the solidity of the
facts, we could not forget the repulsive manner of the
speaker ; but never have we seen so due a degree of the excel-
lences of a public speaker united in one man as in Governor
Graham. He is possessed of a lofty dignity without haughti-
ness, ease without affectation, talent without vanitv, and
William A. GKAHA:\r. ■ 55
principles which have the respect of even those who enter-
tain others." Of course the tone of this is exaggerated, but
after all it is simply truth somewhat colored. Governor
Graham had a very fine and noble presence. He was at this
time the handsomest man in public life in North Carolina.
The tones of his voice were mellow and harmonious, and,
though not strong, well modulated. His action was free,
easy and graceful, on occasion warming into energy. His
matter was carefully arranged so as to give his argument
the effect of cumulation. He was fair in statement, and
perfectly honest and sincere in the positions he took. His
public addresses, though always orderly arranged, are never
closely reasoned. He knew the danger of the logical short
cut in dealing with public questions. Its beauty and force
could be appreciated only by the initiated, and such were
not his fellow-citizens whom he was addressing. He very
seldom dealt in sophistry. Indeed so practical a mind as his
could rarely do so. In short the matter of his public speeches
was interesting and instructive, while his manner was always
attractive;
On January 1, 1845, he was installed as governor, the
oaths of office being administered by the Chief Justice,
Ruffin, in the Commons Hall, in the presence of both houses.
He then delivered his inaugural address. After a merely
cursory glance at the relations of the State to the Federal
Government, in which he condemned the practice of devoting
so much of our public discussions to Federal topics, he con-
fines himself to the problems which were to confront him in
his coming administration. ''That these important concerns
of the nation should be objects of constant observation and
active vigilance is to be expected and desired; but that they
should be so to the exclusion of those immediate interests
which come to our homes and our firesides, and which are
wisely retained under state jurisdiction, is a misfortune to
be deprecated. If we glory in the name of American citizens,
it should be with feelings akin to filial afi^cction and ffrati-
56 ISToKTH Carolina Histokical Commission.
tude, that we remember we are North Carolinians ; and that
the preservation and prosperity of our system and its ability
to secure the permanent and habitual attachment of the
people, depend quite as much, nay much more, upon an en-
lightened policy and a correct administration in the state
governments than in that of the union. * - * ]^orth
Carolina, possessing a soil, upon the average not above the
medium grade of fertility, but yielding fruitful returns to
patient toil in our generally salubrious climate ; excluded by
the nature of our sea coast from any enlarged share in the
commerce of the world, her people have been inured to self-
reliance, industry and economy. The natural fruits of this
situation have been personal independence, unostentatious
self-respect, habits in general of morality, obedience to the
law, fidelity to engagements, public and private, frugality
in expenditures and loyalty to the government, the offspring
of the simple manners and honest and manly character of its
citizens." He then proceeds to show the necessity for con-
tinued efforts to provide an adequate common school system,
and the means for creating an adequate market for the pro-
ducts of the people: ''If we can not, without too great a
loss of profits, send our staples to existing markets, we must
endeavor to bring a market nearer to them, by inducing
capital to come to the State, by utilizing local capital in the
establishment of various industries for which the State could
provide so much raw material, by the building of more rail-
roads and better local highways. Our country must be made
to hold out the hope and expectation of acquiring the means
of comfortable livelihood and a reasonable accumulation, or
its population can not be expected to remain, nor its resources
to increase. While labor is the true foundation of national
wealth, it may be, much aided in its efforts by the kind and
upholding hand of government." He concludes thus: "In
our past history we have gained a high character for the
virtues of honesty and fidelity. Thus far our escutcheon
is unstained, the public faith has been kept, the public honor
William A. Gkaham. 57
is inviolate. And whatever tests may await us in the future,
let us fervently unite our invocations to that good Providence.
who has so signally upheld and preserved us heretofore, that
our beloved North Carolina may still be permitted to walk
in her integrity, the object of our loyalty and pride, as she
is the home of our hearts and affections."
The Register of January 8, 1845, commented on this ad-
dress as follows: "We have never seen a larger or more
intelligent assemblage on a similar occasion in our State ;
and we can say without disparagement to others that the ad-
dress of Governor Graham on the occasion was decidedly the
best inaugural we have ever heard, or have ever seen from
any of the state executives of the union. It speaks the words
of truth and soberness to our sister states and counsels our
own in a language of the soundest wisdom."
One of the iirst problems with which Governor Graham
had to deal was the foreclosure of the State's mortgage on the
Raleigh & Gaston Railroad. The building of railroads was,
of course, a new thing in ITorth Carolina. The lack of ex-
perience in such work, as usual, wrought its own penalty.
It cost more than it should, and was operated badly — ex-
pensively and inefficiently. The State had made itself liable
as surety on $787,000 of its bonds. The company had failed
to pay even the annual interest on these bonds, and the
State was forced to pay both interest and a part of the prin-
cipal. Legal proceedings were instituted for the foreclosure
of all the mortgages on all of the property of that company
at the Spring term, 1845, of the Wake County Court of
Equity. But owing to the resistance made by the company,
and the decision of the Superior Court in their favor, an
appeal was rendered necessary to the Supreme Court, and
the decree of foreclosure was postponed to the fall term of
that year. The cost of the road was $1,500,000, and it
brought at the foreclosure sale, on the bid of the State,
through Governor Graham, $363,000.
The Le2,"islature of 1844-5, also, made it the dutv of the
58 NoETH Carolina Histosical Co:mmission'.
Governor to collect the memorials of the Revolutionary his-
tory of the State. In pursuance of this, Governor Graham
wrote to Judge Francis Xavier Martin, of Louisiana, on
February 8, 1845: "Presuming that your researches when
engaged in writing the history of the State put you in pos-
session of many of the letters of these early governors (Cas-
well, Nash and Burke), as well as other documents of great
interest to our people, I have to request as a special favor
to I^orth Carolina that you will be kind enough to communi-
cate to me any of our public documents of the description
desired, which may be under your control ; or that you will
inform me as early as your convenience will permit, where
copies of them may be procured." But Judge Martin, as he
wrote Governor Graham on March 29, 1845, had collected
no material so late as the administrations of early governors.
He corresponded also with Miss Mary Burke, the only sur-
viving child of Governor Burke, and it was by her consent
that the Burke papers, then in the possession of Dr. James
Webb, of Hillsboro, were turned over to Governor Swain.
On March 5, 1845, he issued a circular letter to the people
of the State, reciting the resolution of the Legislature and
giving in detail the public documents already discovered in
the capitol and describing those missing and desired, and
requesting them to cooperate with him in the preservation of
the memorials of the Revolutionary period. The early part
of his first administration, too, was much occupied with the
preliminaries to the establishment of a school in Raleigh for
the deaf, dumb and blind.
He met his first Legislature in I^ovember, 184G, with an
elaborate and very able message, dealing largely with the
finances of the State. The average expenditure for the ordi-
nary support of the government at that time was $67,500
per annum. At the same time the income from ordinary
sources of revenue averaged $83,000, the excess of which,
over and above ordinary expenses, was devoted to the account
of rebuildino" the capitol. interest on the State's debt until
William A. Graham, 59
it was liquidated in full and to liabilities of the railroad
companies. After showing that the income could be largely
increased by an adequate assessment of the lands and polls
in the State (there had been no reassessment of lands in ten
years), he proceeds: '^l^o valuation can continue to be a
just criterion of worth for any considerable period, and a
reassessment should be provided for once at least in five
years, if it be not annually. By adopting these measures of
fairness and justice, to collect what is now imposed without
increase of taxes, it may reasonably be expected that the
public revenue from present sources, now equal to about
$86,000, may be raised to $100,000 per annum." He then
recommends a specific tax upon pleasure carriages, gold
watches kept for use and other articles of luxury, to go into
operation at once, and to continue in force until the ex-
piration of the next session of the General Assembly. ''In
advising therefore but a temporary provision for extra tax-
ation, I am influenced by the consideration, that possibly
it may not longer be required, rather than a fear of any
aversion of our constituents to contribute whatever may be
needed to redeem the public obligations, however incautiously
or unfortunately entered into. The odious doctrine that a
State may refuse or postpone the fulfillment of contracts
guaranteed by her public faith and sovereign honor, has no
resting place in all our borders, and I am yet to hear of a
single exception to the unanimity of our people upon this
subject."
There were at the time many railroad schemes. Among
others were two proposed railroads into South Carolina, one
from Wilmington, which was by this Legislature incorpo-
rated as the Wilmington and Manchester, and one from
Fayetteville. Governor Graham, while not opposing these
projects, was very much in favor of a railroad from Fay-
etteville to Salisbury or Charlotte, and thence into South
Carolina. And the Legislature did grant a charter to the
Charlotte and South Carolina Railroad.
60 IJ^ORTH Carolina Histokical Commission.
At that time our common school system was in its infancy,
only $95,578 being distributed by the State for its support.
Governor Graham recommended that the office of Commis-
sioner of Common Schools be created, and that it be filled
by one charged with the superintendence of the system
throughout the State, and devoting his whole time and at-
tention in imparting to it vigor and usefulness. ''The sub-
ject is of sufficient weight, especially in the infantile stage
of these institutions, to engage the best talents and most
exalted patriotism of the country."
In May, 1840, the President, Polk, called for one regi-
ment of volunteer infantry, to be enrolled and held in readi-
ness to aid in the prosecution of the existing war with the
Republic of Mexico. Governor Graham, in response, issued
his proclamation, and with a most commendable prompti-
tude, said he, more than three times the number required
tendered thieir service. Capt. S. L. Fremont, the army of-
ficer appointed by the Federal Government to muster this
regiment into service, wrote, after he had performed this
service and was leaving the State: "Public men may differ
about the justice of the war, but the good people of the Old
ISTorth State have shown that in a foreign war, they know
no party but their country, and no country but their own."
Governor Graham's attitude toward the Mexican War was
that held by most of the leading Whigs of the period, i. e.
it was unnecessary, if not criminal, and was brought on not
by the annexation of Texas, but by President Polk's pre-
cipitancy in sending General Taylor to take possession of the
territory in dispute between the State of Texas and the
Republic of Mexico. War being flagrant, however, every-
thing must be done to make the arms of the United States
successful.
To some degree Mr. Graham's first term as governor was
devoted to carrying out the plans of the previous adminis-
tration (Morehead's) or that had been inaugurated by the
General Assembly of 1844-5, such as, for instance, saving
William A. Geaham. 61
the State harmless from the bankruptcy of the Raleigh and
Gaston Railroad and the Clubfoot and Harlows Creek Canal,
and directing the settlement of the accounts between the
State and insolvent purchasers of the Cherokee lauds and
their bondsmen. In all these matters he demonstrated his
very superior ability as an administrator. Especially was
this the case in his management of the Raleigh and Gaston
Railroad. Had it not been for a fire in February, 1848, by
which the machine shops and engine house were destroyed
and its stationary engine and four locomotives were seriously
damaged, it would in the course of a few years have been
made a profitable investment. There had been occasional
discussions of amendment to our penal code which would
moderate in harshness and provide a penitentiary for a cer-
tain class of offenders from 1791 on, notably so in 1817 and
in 1822, but nothing definite had been done until the Gen-
eral Assembly of 1841-5. The governor was directed to
secure statistics from states in which the penitentiary system
then prevailed and submit the same to the people before an
election to be held under the Act. Governor Graham,
through an extensive correspondence, did collect the data
desired and published the same in the newspapers of the
State in the early summer of 1846. Under the act, the
question of a penitentiary or no penitentiary was submitted
to the joeople at the time of the election for goveruor in
August of that year. The election seems to have gone by
default against any change, the vote for it being very small.
So satisfactory to his own party and to the people of the
State was his first term as governor, that in January, 1846,
Governor Graham w^as nominated for a second, by a largely
attended and very enthusiastic Whig convention, and the
following August was reelected by a great majority (7,850),
over his Democratic opponent, James B. Shepard. Mr.
Shepard was a man of fine ability and w^as a good speaker,
but he had inherited wealth, so was disinclined to the drudg-
ery of politics and of the bar. His candidacy and canvass
62 NoETH Carolina Historical Commission.
against so popular and efficient a governor as Mr. Graham
was, of course, a forlorn hope. Mr. Graham, had, by this
time, become unquestionably the leader of the Whig party
in the State. He practically dictated the policy of that
party. I do not use the term dictate in an offensive sense,
for he was too courteous a gentleman and too wise a public
man ever to assume a dictatorial manner. His knowledge
of the people was so extensive and so accurate, that his party
associates had the utmost confidence in the soundness of his
judgment in all matters of policy, and so almost invariably
adopted his views after a conference, or if on rare occasions
they overruled him, had cause to regret it, as subsequent
events showed their wisdom. As a party leader, it is quite
probable that he was never excelled by any man in the his-
tory of the State.
In the General Assembly of 1848-9, the two parties were
tied in both House and Senate, so a compromise was made
by which R. B. Gilliam, Whig, was elected Speaker of the
House and Calvin Graves, Democrat, was elected Speaker of
the Senate. The principal subjects for consideration by this
Legislature were the establishment of a State Hospital for
the Insane at Raleigh, the disposition of the Raleigh and
Gaston Railroad and the charter of the I^orth Carolina Rail-
road. Governor Graham gives his views at large on all these
topics in his last biennial message. He concludes his recom-
mendation of a State Hospital as follows "A distinguished
person of the gentler sex,^ who has devoted much of her life
to the pious duty of pleading the cause of the lunatic before
States and communities, has recently traversed a considerable
part of this State in search of information respecting these
unfortunates among us, and will probably ask leave to pre-
sent their cause to you at an early day. I can not too ear-
nestly commend the cause itself, or the disinterested benevo-
lence of its advocate."
There is no more dramatic incident in the history of the
State than Miss Dix's appeal to this Legislature, Mr, Dob-
1 Dorothea L. Dix.
William A. Gkaha.m. 63
bins's great speech, and the passage of the act on January
29th, 1849, but it is without the scope of this paper.
Governor Graham's views in regard to the disposition of
the Raleigh and Gaston Railroad were so interwoven with
those on the charter of the North Carolina Railroad, that I
discuss them together. He said in his message that there
were only three modes of disposing of the former road: 1st,
a resale to existing stockholders by compromise of the suits
now pending, if suitable terms be offered ; 2d, retain it as a
permanent property of the State after repairing it in the best
manner ; and, 3d, to unite it with another work through the
interior of the State. The last was the plan which he
urged very forcibly upon the Legislature in his regular mes-
sage and in two special messages sent to the Senate. His
idea was to fill in the missing link between Raleigh and
Columbia, S. C, in the great chain of railways from I^ew
York to N'ew Orleans by incorporating and building a rail-
road to be called the I^orth Carolina Railroad, from Raleigh
to Salisbury, and thence on to Charlotte, where it would con-
nect with 'the Charlotte and Columbia road, already char-
tered and then being built. The details of his plan may be
summarized thus : Private individuals to subscribe $500,000.
As soon as the Board of Internal Improvements should be
satisfied that these subscriptions were in good faith and sol-
vent, the suits then pending against delinquent subscribers
to the stock of the Raleigh and Gaston road should abate, the
new corporation was to be formed and the State to convey that
road to it. He estimated that the cost of the new road would
be not more than $2,500,000, and of this the State was to
assume half, but the conveyance of the Raleigh and Gaston
road was to be in lieu of $500,000 of the State's subscrip-
tion. The $500,000, subscribed privately as above said, were
to be used first in putting the Raleigh and Gaston road in
thorough repair and good condition, and the balance was to
be expended in building the new road toward Salisbury from
Raleigh. He estimated that there would be about forty miles
64 North Carolina Historical Commission.
thus completed. After so much of the work should be done,
then the State was to advance such further sum as might be
necessary to complete the road, the amount paid by the State,
however, to be always in equal proportion to those paid by
private stockholders. His scheme also comprehended the
building later a railroad from Raleigh to Goldsboro and
one from some point east of the Yadkin to Fayetteville, and
still later one from Goldsboro to Beaufort. As is well known
this scheme was not adopted in its entirety. As a matter of
fact, it was only through many concessions and compromises
in the face of very determined opposition that the North
Carolina Railroad was chartered. The Democratic speaker
of the Senate, Calvin Graves, fully aware of the conse-
quences of his act, committed political suicide when he broke
the tie in the Senate in favor of the railroad. Governor
Graham supported this measure sincerely, though it was
some modification of his own. He is said to have drawn the
whole bill, which was introduced in the Senate by Mr. Wil-
liam S. Ashe, of New Hanover, and was certainly the author
of section 45 to the end of the act. (Laws 1849-9, chapter
82.) If any one could be said to have been the father of the
North Carolina Railroad, where there were so many taking
an active and efficient part in its inception, certainly it was
Governor Graham. Ground was broken for the new railroad
by Calvin Graves in the presence of a large crowd at Greens-
boro, on July 11th, 1851. Governor Graham was then in
Washington City, as Secretary of the Navy, so could not
attend this meeting, but he wrote a letter, which was read to
the assembly and from which I extract the following: "To
the friends of this enterprise, with whom I have been proud
to cooperate in the darkest hours of its fate, as well as to all
the good citizens of the State, who shall participate in the
celebration of its happy commencement, I offer my hearty
congratulations and good wishes. * * * I look forward to
the day of its final completion, as a time of deliverance not
merely from the shackles of commercial bondage, but from
William A. Graham, 65
the domiuioii of prejudice and error, which, however hon-
estly entertained, have been the bane of our prosperity."
There were three measures that he repeatedly urged upon
both of his Legislatures, but in vain : 1st, the appointment
of a state commissioner of education ; 2d, the abolition of
the jurisdiction of county courts over pleas ; and, 3d, a more
modern and more efficient system for the maintenance of
public roads.
This summary of the leading events and measures of Gov-
ernor Graham's two administrations shows how wise and
practical he was in dealing with the affairs of the State.
Adopting a phrase of his own, ''he devoted himself to those
noble studies, by which States are made prosperous and their
people happy," and the knowledge thus acquired he applied
wisely to the service of his native State. His messages,
addresses and other state papers were systematically ar-
ranged, businesslike and practical, indicating hard, intelli-
gent, apprehending and appreciative labor. Their style was
pellucid, flowing and attractive, yet dignified and impressive
In the weight of their matter, in the orderliness of its
arrangement and in the attractiveness of their vehicle, they
compare well with the state papers of any man at any period.
TO THE CIVIL WAR
At the end of his last term as Governor, in January, 1849,
Mr. Graham returned to the practice of his profession at
Hillsboro and in the adjoining counties.
General Taylor was inaugurated as President in March of
that year. The end of the Mexican War, with the cession of
a vast territory to the United States, presented many serious
problems to the Taylor administration. That, however,
which assumed an exceedingly threatening aspect and ab-
sorbed most painfully the attention of the whole country, was
what was and should l>e the legal and constitutional status
of slavery in the newly acquired territory. The i^orth,
speaking generally, was determined that there should be no
5
66 j^oRTH Carolij^a Historical Commission.
extension of slave territory, while the South, standing npon
its clear rights under the Constitution, was equally deter-
mined that the new territory should be open to settlement by
slaveholders if they so desired, without any interference
with their slave property. iNTever in the history of this
country has there appeared in the Senate of the United
States so splendid an array of talent, of statesmanship and
ardent patriotism as in the Senate of the Thirty-first Congress
at its first session, yet never was there so plain an illustration
of the futility of all the wisdom of the wisest of men when set
in opposition to that march of events, which is controlled only
by the infinite wisdom of Providence. These wise men could
bring about a compromise which could postpone for a
moment the final catastrophe, — that is all.
Mr. Graham was a very much interested and sympathetic
observer of all the events which led up to Mr. Clay's famous
compromise, and was in frequent communication with the
senators from I^orth Carolina, Messrs. Badger and Mangmm.
He, himself, supported that measure without reserve. In
the summer of 1849, President Taylor offered him his choice
of the missions to Russia and to Spain. Fortunately for his
State and country, he had no inclination to a foreign appoint-
ment. On July 4th, 1850, the President was much exposed
to a hot sun, and contracted a fever from which he died on
the 9th. The Vice-President, Millard Fillmore, qualified
the next day as President. It has been the habit to speak
of Mr. Fillmore as a man of only moderate ability, domi-
nated and controlled by his very able and experienced cabi-
net. The truth is, he had already as chairman of the Ways
and Means (then also Appropriations) Committee of the
Twenty-seventh CongTess, shown his unusual ability as a
practical, conservative, laborious legislator. Without being at
all brilliant, he had in full measure the capacity for labor, for
calm, sane, unimpassioned investigation, and for firm, con-
sistent action, when once his course of action had been deter-
mined upon. He was a man of high character and indubi-
William A. Graham. 6Y
table patriotism. Had not the majority of both Houses of
Congress been adverse to him during the less than three years
of his administration, that administration would have been
noted for its constructive statesmanship. Many useful and
salutary measures advocated by him were disregarded by
CongTess, but his administration has to its credit cheap post-
age, the extension of the Capitol, the Perry Expedition, the
exploration of the Amazon and, to some extent, (he and his
advisers being in sympathy with it, whereas General Taylor
was lukewarm, if not opposed to it), the compromise of 1850.
Soon after General Taylor's death his cabinet resigned.
Mr. Fillmore selected as their successors : Daniel Webster,
Secretary of State ; Thomas Corwin, Secretary of the Treas-
ury; Charles M. Conrad, Secretary of War; William A.
Graham, Secretary of the iJ^avy ; James A. Pearce, Secretary
of the Interior ; i^Tathan K. Hall, Postmaster-General, and
John J. Crittenden, Attorney-General.
To this important office, Mr, Graham, though compara-
tively a young man, only 46 years of age, came in the full
maturity of his powers. His diligence in mastering detail,
his capacity for labor, his accessibility and courtesy to com-
petent advisers and his sound and well-balanced judgment,
soon made him an exceptionally efficient secretary. The
measures with which he was especially identified were four :
1st. Reorganization of the coast survey, making it more
practical and useful.
2d. Reorganization of the personnel of the navy, providing
for the retirement of officers, etc.
3d. The exploration of the Amazon.
4th. The expedition to Japan.
On the first of these measures Mr. Benton commented as
follows in a letter to him, dated Pebruary 19th, 1851: "T
have just read a second time your report on the coast survey
subject. I consider it one of the most perfect reports I ever
read — a model of a business report, and one which should
carry conviction to every candid, inquiring mind. I deem
68 !N^OKTH Cakolina Historical Commission.
it one of the largest reforms, both in an economical and
administrative point of view, which the state of our affairs
admits of."^
A gentleman, still living and who has a very accurate
memory, reports a conversation had with Com. M. F. Maury
long after this period, in which he spoke in the highest terms
of Secretary Graham's efficiency, and his own sense of grati-
tude to him for giving him opportunities to set out on his
own distinguished career.
On the second of these measures, Mr. McGehee, (Memorial
Oration, pages 25-6) quotes a letter of another distinguished
senator : "You had a new field opened to you, and well and
ably have you occupied every portion of it. The report is
to be properly characterized by a bold originality of con-
ception and a fearlessness of responsibility too rare in that
class of state papers. You have had to grapple with a sys-
tem built up by a series of abuses, and to use the knife — that
fearful and unpopular instrument — somewhat unsparingly.
If I do not greatly err, it will give you more reputation in
the country than anything you have heretofore produced
before the public." The third great measure of his secre-
taryship was the exploration of the valley of the Amazon by
Lieutenants Herndon and Gibbon. This was suggested by
Lieut. M. F. Maury. Seeing the importance of this venture,
both as adding to the world's knowledge of that remote and
little kno^vn country, as well as the possibilities for trade
with its inhabitants, Secretary Graham readily adopted the
suggestion. His letter of instruction to Lieutenant Hern-
don, February 15th, 1851, is characterized by that famil-
iarity with the details of the project and that clearness as
well as largeness of view which are found in all his impor-
tant papers.
Of all the great measures with which he was identified as
cabinet official, that which was most fruitful in results was
the Perry Expedition to Japan. There had been many dis-
J McGehee, 26.
William A. Graham. 69
asters among the fishing vessels of the United States on the
uncharted, or insufficiently charted, seas of the northeast
coast of Asia. A fishing vessel had been cast away on the
coast of Formosa, and all its survivors had been massacred.
Another vessel had been wrecked off the coast of Japan, and
the fifteen survivors had been cast into prison and treated
with great cruelty. The settlement of the Oregon boundary
dispute, the cession of California by Mexico, the discovery
of gold there and the completion of the Panama Railroad,
had aroused the people of the United States to the promising
aspect of trade on the Pacific coast and to the far East.
Japan was at that period one of the hermit nations of the
world. As early as December, 1850, Commodore Perry
suggested to Secretary Graham the project of an expedition
to Japan. Mr. Graham, at once impressed with the hope-
fulness of the scheme and its far-reaching consequences if
successful, encouraged the commodore to confer confiden-
tially with Mr. Aspinwall, of iTew York, who had experience
in trade to the East and had recently completed the Panama
Railroad, and certain mariners in Boston, and collect such
facts and statistics as might throw light upon the subject,
and report to him. At this time the discussion was kept
from the public, because it was feared that England or
Erance might forestall this country, if information of these
proposals should reach either of those powers. Mr. Graham,
upon receipt of the information desired, seems to have laid
the matter before the cabinet, but without their coming to
any definite conclusion at that time. Soon after it was the
fortune of an American vessel to rescue a number of Jap-
anese in the Pacific about six hundred miles from Japan, and
to bring them into the port of San Erancisco. The admin-
istration, upon hearing of this, quickly realized its import-
ance as giving an opportunity to establish friendly relations
with Japan. Preparations were immediately made to return
these Japanese to their home on a man-of-war, which, leaving
San Erancisco, was to join the Eastern Squadron at Macao
70 North Carolina Historical Commission.
or Hong Kong. Meantime Com. John H. Aulick was dis-
patched, with additional vessels, to take command of the
Eastern Squadron, bearing with him from President Fill-
more a letter to the Emperor of Japan. The instructions to
Aulick, May 31st, 1851, drawn by Secretary Graham, do
not on their face contemplate a special mission to Japan.
When the shipwrecked Japanese reached their home escorted
by the American war vessels, the natives refused to permit
them to land, or to supply the American vessels with food or
water. Early in the year 1852, no doubt under the urging
of Commodore Perry and Mr. Graham, the plans of the
administration underwent a change. It was then deter-
mined that Perry should be given the command of the East-
ern Squadron and that he should go with very considerable
reenforcement of vessels upon a special mission to Japan.
He was commissioned on March 21th, 1852, preparations
were begam immediately to fit out his squadron, and he
sailed on ISTovember 24th, 1852, Aulick having in the mean-
time, July 10th, been relieved of the command of the East-
ern Squadron. The results of this expedition are before the
world. There can be no doubt that Governor Graham was
the prime mover, in the cabinet, of this epoch-making
adventure.
His services as Secretary of the Xavy showed the country
that lie was a fine administrator as well as an able statesman,
as much master of detail, as he was capable of taking whole
views of great public questions. The Whig l^ational Con-
vention met in June, 1852. President Fillmore, who was
supported very earnestly by Mr. Graham and who, accord-
ing to all the rules of the game, should have been nominated,
led on the first ballot, but Mr. Clay, who was still all-
powerful, threw his influence to General Scott, and nomi-
nated him. Mr. Graham was nominated for the Vice-
Presidency on the second ballot, receiving 232 votes against
52 for Bates, of Missouri.
ISTever was a weaker nomination made for an exalted office
William A. Gkaham. 71
by any party than that of General Scott by the Whigs. He
was an able and virtuous man, but many of the salient fea-
tures of his character approached so near being ridiculous in
themselves and lent themselves so readily to caricature, that
his candidacy, though a tragedy to the Whig party, became
a comedy to a large majority of his fellow-citizens. There
was defection, too, among the Whigs of the South, because
he was thought to be tainted with frec-soilism, and among the
Whigs of the North, because he was thought to be under
Southern influence. The result, of course, was foredoomed.
He received only 42 out of a total of 296 electoral votes.
Whatever expression of dissatisfaction there may have
been at the head of the ticket, there was none at the nomina-
tion of Governor Graham. His personal worth, his ability
and his usefulness were freely admitted by every one. In
Pennsylvania, however, party capital was made against him
on account of his votes on the Whig tariff bill of 1842. He
generally voted with the Democrats for lower rates when the
measure was up in the Senate and against the bill, when com-
pleted, because provision for the distribution of the proceeds
of the sales of public lands was omitted. Notwithstanding
the evident failure of the Scott campaigii, Pierce and King
carried the State of North Carolina by only 603 majority.
This, under the discouraging conditions for that party then
existing in the State, was a Whig victory, or rather a Gra-
ham victory, for it was his popularity and influence only
that reduced the Democratic majority of a few months before
of 5,564 to 603. The disintegration of the Whig party, the
symptoms of which were very marked in most of the other
States, had also begim in North Carolina. David S. Eeid,
Democrat, had been elected Governor in 1850. Renomi-
nated by his party in 1852, he and the very eloquent and
accomplished John Kerr, the candidate of the Whigs, had
canvassed the State on Governor Reid's proposition to
remove the freehold qualification from voters for State Sena-
tors, and in August of that vear Governor Peid had been
72 North Carolina Historical Commission.
reelected by the largely increased majority stated above.
This free suffrage program was not alone in nndermining
the Whig strength in the State, for voters were coming more
and more to realize that the only safety for slavery was the
continued ascendancy of the Democratic party in national
affairs.
Governor Graham seems to have had no substantial objec-
tion to the extension of the suffrage. He was so much absent
from the State after the subject was introduced in the Gen-
eral Assembly of 1850, that he gave the matter only casual
consideration until 1853. Then he was opposed, not so much
to the policy as to the method of incorporating it in our
fundamental law. "A constitution of government for a
free people," said he, ''is a complicated machine, like a steam
engine or the human frame. It consists of various parts
adjusted to one harmonious whole. * * * In other and
more familiar language, it is a system of checks and bal-
ances, one article of which would not have been inserted
without another on kindred subjects, and one of which can
not be removed without carrying with it others, or deranging
and destroying the balance of the whole." He happily illus-
trated this idea, as follows : "It might be supposed by a
superficial observer that the human hand would be improved
by cutting off the lingers to equal lengths, and the operation
would be so simple that any child who could handle an ax
could perform it. And yet we know that the curtailment of
an extremity would wound nerves and blood vessels connect-
ing with the brain and heart, the very vitals of the system."
The freehold qualification for voters for Senators was incor-
porated in the Constitution of 1776 and retained in that of
1835, as a measure of protection to the landed interest against
those who owned no land, yet as free men voted for members
of the House of Commons and so were represented there.
Land was much the more valuable part of the possessions of
the citizens of the State who lived in its midland and its
west, whereas slaves constituted a large part of the wealth of
William A. Gkaham. 73
the east. By a compromise between these conflicting inter-
ests, the land was given this measure of protection in return
for that given slave property by forbidding any other taxa-
tion than the poll tax, (the same as that of the whites), on all
slaves between twelve and fifty years of age, — much less than
this property would yield if taxed ad valorem, as land was.
Yet the Democrats proposed to strike down the protection to
land, while leaving slave property still protected, and pay-
ing an inadequate tax. He, then, met the plan to enact the
suffrage amendment only, by a bill to submit to the people
the question of a convention to amend the Constitution, not
only in this regard, but in others where it required amend-
ment.^ As a sort of forlorn hope that he might stem the
tide setting so strongly against the Whig party, he was
elected to the Senate from Orange County in 185-i. On
December 14th of that year he made a very able speech in
the Senate elaborating the above ideas. That the Democrats,
themselves, split a few years later on the question of ad
valorem taxation of slaves, and were finally forced to adopt
it as a party measure, is very strong evidence of Governor
Graham's political acumen.
The immediate effect upon the South of the compromise of
1850, was quieting. The love of the Union, that had been
weakened by the agitation which induced that measure,
became once more an active principle in that section. The
failure of some States in the Korth to enforce, or permit
to be enforced, in their borders, the fugitive slave law,
(the only thing which they yielded in the so-called com-
promise), in good faith, the Kansas-!N"ebraska agitation and
the Dred Scott decision, however, soon aroused both Xorth
and South as they had never been aroused before. It
became daily more and more evident that Mr. Seward's
irrepressible conflict was not an oratorical exaggeration, but
a stern reality. Men, wise men, patriotic men, continued
in the midst of the turmoil to cry peace, when there was no
peace and could be no peace. We, from the vantage ground
> Senate Journal, 1834, 70.
74 NoKTH Carolina Historical CoMiiissiox.
of the present looking back upon the past, can only M^onder
that the final catastrophe was postponed so long. That it
was, is due in large degree to the wisdom and moderation and
patriotism of the dwindling band of "Whig leaders in the
South and of their sympathizers in the ISTorth. There is
something very admirable in the character and pathetic in
the history of the Old Line Whigs of the South. In politics
they were conservative, but in all that concerned the indus-
trial interests of the country they were progressives. They
were as incorruptible as a Roman senator in the palmiest
days of Rome. Their public life was as clean and immacu-
late and as far above suspicion as Csesar would have had his
wife. To them patriotism was more than a sentiment, it
was almost a passion. To them the Federal Constitution
was not a compact, but the great charter of an indestructible
Union, the repository of the political wisdom of the ages, by
which America was to be made great and kept great through-
out all time. Patriotism to them, then, assumed a twofold
aspect — love for their native State and love for the Union.
This blinded them to that fact of facts, which is written all
across the history of the period immediately preceding the
Civil War, namely, that it was either slavery or the Union.
There was no other alternative. If slavery was to continue,
then the Union must go ; if the Union was to continue, then
slavery must go. The vision of the secessionist was clearer.
He saw that he could not long hold on to his slave property
in the Union, so he prepared himself to hold on to it out of
the Union. To him, to use the sharp and cutting charac-
terization of Henry A. W^ise, there were only three parties —
the Whites, the Blacks and the Mulattoes: the Whites, the
secessionists ; the Blacks, the Republican party ISTorth ; and
the Mulattoes, the union men of the South. It was the day
of the extremist. Events moved too rapidly for the moder-
ates. They could not stem the tide ; they must move with it
or be overwhelmed. It was a choice between loves, and, in
agony of soul, they chose the greater, their homes, their fire-
William A. Graham. 75
sides and their neighbors, and ever after their faces were to
the foe. Governor Graham was one of the wisest and noblest
of the moderates. He loved the Union scarcely less than he
did his native State. He thought the southern agitator only
less to blame than the northern abolitionist. He condemned
secession with all the earnestness of his nature, not only as a
political heresy, but as essentially suicidal to the best inter-
ests of the South. So strong was his position before the
country at large, so great was the confidence in his ability,
his moderation, his probity and his patriotism that he was
supported by ITorth CaroJina, Georgia and several district
delegates for the nomination for the presidency by the Con-
stitutional Union party in 1860, and after the popular elec-
tion of Mr. Lincoln in the fall of that year, the ISTew York
and Pennsylvania electors were strongly urged to cast their
ballots for him in the electoral college, as the only means
to avert the impending dissolution of the Union.
Even after the secession of South Carolina and the Gulf
States, Union sentiment in North Carolina continued very
strong. Governor Graham could see no reason for secession,
(or revolution, as he preferred to call it), in the bare fact
of Mr. Lincoln's election. He regarded the strong expres-
sions of the campaign used by Mr. Lincoln, Mr. Seward and
others, (i. e., that the government could not endure half slave
and half free, that the question was whether freemen should
cultivate the fields of the ISTorth or slaves those of the South,
etc.), as mere oratorical exaggeration, rhetoric of the hustings
on which they were convassing for free-soil votes. He, there-
fore, very consistently opposed the calling of a convention
in February, 1861, and his course therein was sustained
by a majority of the people of the State. After Mr. Lin-
coln's inauguration, he hoped that he might let the seven
"erring sisters go in peace," that he would convene Congress
in extra session, acknowledge the independence of these
States, grant guarantees to the other slave States, which had
adhered to the Union, that slaverv would not be interfered
76 I^OKTH Caroli]N"a Historical Commission.
with within their borders, and thus miaintain a happy and
contented Union of twenty-seven States, instead of precipi-
tating the country into a bloody and destructive civil war.
This seems to have been Mr. Lincoln's program at the time he
offered a seat in his Cabinet to Mr. John A. Gilmer, but
later, his views no doubt modified as well by the current of
events as by the urging of more bloody-minded advisers, he
adopted what historians now call the bolder policy; he called
for troops to crush the rebellion, as he called it. Thencefor-
ward Governor Graham saw clearly that there was no other
alternative but civil war, and that l^orth Carolina must take
part with the other Southern States. He had no illusions
about its extent. He knew that it was to be long drawn
out, destructive and agonizing, with the South's only hope a
desire for peace at the Korth, or interference from abroad.
He was sent as a delegate from Orange County to the seces-
sion convention of May, 1861, and after strenuous efforts to
change its phraseology so as to make it an appeal to the ulti-
mate right of revolution, instead of to the constitutional
theory of secession, he, with all other members, signed the
secession ordinance, after it had been adopted by the
convention.
THE CIVIL WAR AND AFTER
Governor Graham's training, his temperament and his
habit of thought, would necessarily make him a moderate in
any acute crisis, so though he sincerely desired the success
of the arms of the Confederacy, (he devoted five of his seven
sons to the cause, all that were old enough to bear arms), he
was in opposition to its government. In the State Legisla-
ture, in 1863-4, when he was Senator from Orange, in the
State Convention and in the Senate of the Confederate
States, he uniformly opposed all propositions to abridge the
freedom of the press or of speech, to suspend the privilege of
the writ of habeas corpus, to substitute military for civil
tribunals, or otherwise impair the common rights of the
people. The disastrous defeats of Vicksburg and Gettys-
William A. Geaham. 77
burg, and the consequent declension of the fortunes of the
Confederacy, made the people of North Carolina turn more
and more to the original union men. Governor Graham
was elected to the Confederate States Senate by a more than
three-fourths majority in February, 1864, and took his seat
in May of that year. At this session he, in conjunction with
other members of CongTess, labored to procure the opening
of negotiations looking to peace, but unsuccessfully. For
the same object he labored at the ensuing session, and the
Hampton Roads Conference was, to some extent, due to his
counsels. After the failure of that conference, he insisted
that a new commission should be sent without limitation of
powers ; for the independence of the Southern States it was
evident was not attainable, and if the administration scrupled
to treat on the basis of the annihilation of their o^vn govern-
ment, that commission might, nevertheless, ascertain what
terms would be yielded by the United States to the States
concerned, and communicate the same to them for their
action ; but his exertions in this behalf were of none effect.
When he became satisfied that it was the fixed purpose of
the administration to make the recognition of independence
the basis of any peace, he lost no time in counseling the Gov-
ernor of ISTorth Carolina (Vance) to interpose promtly for
the termination of the war. The rapidity of military opera-
tions on the part of the troops of the United States did not
allow adequate time to render such interposition effective,
had Governor Vance been complaisant, as he was not,
and it is perhaps fortunate that such was the fact and that
the war closed when and in the manner it did. Had the
State intervened at this, or some former period, the disaster
to the cause would have been imputed solely to that reason,
and ill blood and angry feeling, crimination and recrimina-
tion, would have been the consequence. As it is all are con-
vinced that the result is to be ascribed to the exhausted
resources of the country and its entire inability longer to
maintain the struggle against such fearful odds. There was
78 North Carolina Historical, Commission.
left, therefore, no jealousy or controversy among States or
individuals, but a general disposition to submit as to a decree
of fate. This is, substantially, Governor Graham's own
account of these transactions in his petition to Andrew John-
son for pardon, dated Kaleigh, July 25th, 1865/ His
course shows his calm, unimpassioned wisdom in the midst
of the most exciting circumstances in a very remarkable
light. If his course at the end of the war, set out above,
was erroneous, it was a virtuous error, founded upon the
highest of motives, the desire to stop the further eifusion
of blood and to save the people of his own State from the
horrors which marked the course of General Sherman's army
through the other states of the South ; this too when there
was not the slightest hope for a successful issue to the con-
test.
He was elected to the United States Senate by the Gen-
eral Assembly of 1866, but was not allowed to take his seat.
For the remainder of his life he was a loved and trusted
adviser and leader of the people, without being allowed to
serve them in any public office, for rancorous politicians in
J^orth Carolina prevented the removal of his disabilities
before his health had failed — a very marked instance of the
small things of this world confounding the great.
In 1867 George Peabody established a fund of $2,100,000,
increased in 1869 to $3,500,000, to be devoted to education
in the Southern states. This fund was placed under the
control of fifteen trustees, of whom Robert C. Winthrop of
Massachusetts was chairman, and they were to meet annually.
At the suggestion of Mr. Winthrop, Governor Graham was
selected by Mr. Peabody as one of the original trustees.
Among his associates in the management of this fund were,
besides Mr. Winthrop, Hamilton Fish, General Grant, Ad-
miral Farragut, Bishop Mcllvaine, of Ohio, W. M. Evarts
and William C. Rives, and later, to fill vacancies. Bishop
Whipple, A. H. H. Stuart and Chief Justice Waite.
1 See also hia letters in Spencer's "Last Ninety Days of the War in North Carolina,"
pp. 112-120.
WiLLiAj.1 A. Gkaham. 79
Governor Graham was wholly in sympathy with the at-
tempt to reorganize as a political force the better element
among the white voters of the State, regardless of their
former political affiliations. He was one of the fathers of
the Conservative-Democratic party — a flexible and convenient
designation, which could be reversed in Democratic com-
munities, while it remained steadfast in Whig. He presided
over the political convention that met in Raleigh, February
6, 1868, and made a notable speech defining his position,
and later canvassed the State for Ashe against Holden.
He recognized fully the brutal folly, if not criminality,
of the reconstruction program of Congress ; he was opposed
to negro suffrage, because he knew the negro was not fitted
for the ballot, yet he believed in strict obedience to the law
and a patient biding the time when the extent of the evil
should, itself, work its owii remedy in the awakening of
the public conscience l^orth, and the arousing of the people
of the South to the necessity for firm, consistent, united
action against the vandals and corruptionists who were prey-
ing upon them. He condemned the Ku Klux organization,
not only as unwise, but as criminal, as a resort to extra-legal
remedies, that could be justified by no concatenation of cir-
cumstances. Applying Bacon's definition of revenge, a
species of wild justice, to their deeds, he did not hesitate
in his great speech as leading counsel for the managers in
the impeachment trial of Governor Holden, to describe the
hanging of Wyatt Outlaw "as an atrocious act of assassina-
tion." It is difficult, if not impossible, for human wisdom to
devise a formula beforehand, that will fit abnormal and un-
foreseen conditions, which may arise in the future. In this
assertion. Governor Graham was applying this formula in all
its damning quality, disregarding the abnormal conditions
which rendered it not strictly applicable. But this illustrates
his remarkable moral courage. ISTever in his long public life
did he hesitate to do or say anything, which he thought wise
or true, on account of any supposed bad consequences to
himself.
80 x^ORTH Carolina Historical Commission.
His health commenced to fail the latter part of 1872, and
ill 1873 it was apparent to his physicians that he was suffer-
ing from a heart disease that might end his life at any time.
In 1874 he was selected by Virginia as one of the arbitrators
between that State and Maryland. He concurred fully with
the public sentiment in Korth Carolina, which enabled the
Legislature of 1874-5 to call a convention to amend the Con-
stitution of 1868. He thought that Constitution too cumber-
some, too minute in its provisions and too restrictive upon
the Legislature while placing too much patronage in the
hands of the governor. Orange County elected him its dele-
gate to the convention of 1875, but on August 11, 1875,
while at Saratoga Springs, New York, in the performance
of his duty as one of the arbitrators of the boundary dispute,
he expired in the 71st year of his age.
"The intelligence of his death was transmitted by tele-
graph to every part of the country. All the great journals
responded with leading articles expressive of the national
bereavement."^ In Xorth Carolina all the people grieved
at the death of its greatest and most honored citizen. At
the border of the State his remains were met by many of its
prominent men, and escorted to Raleigh where they lay in
state in the rotunda of the Capitol, guarded by state and
national troops, for hours as they were viewed by crowds.
Late that afternoon they were conveyed to Hillsboro, attended
by the militia and special g-uards of honor from the towns
of the State, where they lay in state at his own house until
the noon of Sunday, August 15th, when funeral services
were held over them at the Presbyterian Church, and in the
presence of an enormous concourse, collected from many
counties. They were interred in the graveyard of that church.
There has lived in N^orth Carolina no public man, whose
life was a greater force for good than was that of Governor
Graham. It was, and is, an exemplification of all the vir-
tues that a public man should have — intelligence, industry,
iMcGehee, 75.
William A. Geaham. 81
courage, unselfisliiiess, devotion to the public welfare and to
duty. Ingrained into his nature too was that respect for
religion, without which no man can be good, as well as a
definite faith in Christ, not only as a great moral teacher,
but as the Redeemer of mankind. He was a Presbyterian
by inheritance and by choice, though for reasons satisfactory
to himself, he did not enroll himself as a member of that
church. During the last few years of his life (the writer,
as a boy had personal knowledge of this), no one in the com-
munity in which he lived, ever spoke of him without the
very tones and inflection of his voice showing the deep
respect and admiration and regard he had for him. The
feeling with which a ISTorth Carolina Episcopalian thirty
years ago spoke of Bishop Atkinson, more nearly expresses
the regard of the people of Hillsboro and Orange County
for Governor Graham, at that period, than anything else.
He was endowed by nature with an excellent mind, and a
noble and very handsome presence. His mind was assidu-
ously cultivated and trained. He had the religious and
moral instincts by inheritance, and these gTcw and strength-
ened in the environment in which his life was placed. He
had no bad habits as a boy, none as a youth and none as a
man. Instead the habits of thrift, of industry and thorough-
ness became a second nature to him. He was ambitious, but
it was with a guided and controlled ambition, which sought
place and power for larger spheres of usefulness. All these
when he came to face the world enabled him to conquer a
place for himself second to no JSTorth Carolinian. Judge
Murphey was a gi-eater genius, but he was not so practical ;
Judge Badger had greater intellectual endowments, but he
was not so industrious ; Judge Mangum was a greater popular
orator, but he was self indulgent ; Judge Ruffin was a greater
lawyer, but his life ran in a narrower channel ; Judge Gas-
ton was a greater lawyer and orator, and as pure in heart
and life and conduct as he, but he was not ambitious.
82 JiToKTH Carolina Histoeical Commission.
Yet if the capacity for taking pains should be the test for
one's gi'eatness, Governor Graham was greater than any of
these. He was many sided, and a gTeat deal of his work
remains, and there is none of it that is not far above the
average. He is entitled to very high rank as a lawyer, as a
public speaker, as a statesman and as a writer, and the high-
est rank as a faithful, as a thorough and as a conscientious
public official. There was never a more diligent and faith-
ful legislator, never a more diligent and faithful governor.
He labored, day and night, in little things,
ISTo less than large, for the loved country's sake.
With patient hands that plodded while others slept,
* * -x- * * * *
Doing each day the best he might, with vision
Firm fixed above, kept pure by pure intent.
His addresses on subjects connected with the history of
North Carolina, have the same qualities of accuracy and
thoroughness that all his work has, and his memorial orations
on Murphey, Badger and Ruffin are classics in their per-
fection of form and taste, and in their combination of ease
and grace with accuracy, strength and dignity.
On June 8, 1836, he married Susannah Sarah, daughter of
John Washington, Esq., of ]^ew Bern, and by her had ten
children. She was a lady of rare beauty and accomplish-
ments, and the union brought to him as much of happiness
as it is the lot of man to know. Mrs. Graham survived her
husband fifteen years, and their descendants, as well said
Governor Kitchin, "in the State to-day, represent the highest
type of culture, patriotism and citizenship in the records
of both their private and their public life, having the same
devotion to their country and fidelity to their country's call
as the illustrious William A. Graham."
As a fitting close to this paper, I give the estimates of
Governor Graham by others, most capable judges, residents
William A. Gkaham. 83
of other States and associates with him in the management
of the Peabody Fund. In the resolutions reported by Mr.
W. M. Evarts, and evidently written by him, occur the
following :
''The distinguished public character of Governor Graham,
and his strong hold upon the confidence of the people of the
North and of the South alike, have been of the greatest value
and importance to this board in securing the sympathy and
cooperation of men of credit and of influence in the country,
in furtherance of the beneficial system of education at the
South which Mr. Peabody's munificent endowment has so
greatly aided in developing. That our personal intercourse
with Governor Graham, in the discharge of our common
duties, has shown to us his admirable qualities of mind and
character ; and we lament his loss, as of a near friend
and associate, as well as an eminent public servant and
benefactor."
Hon. John H. Clifford, of Massachusetts, wrote : "I
should not.fail to bear my testimony to his thorough fidelity,
his manly frankness and his amiable temper, which had made
him one of the most agreeable, as he was one of the most
useful, members of the board."
Said the Hon. Robert C. Winthrop, of the same State:
"He has held, as you all know, many distinguished offices in
the service of his State and country. In all these relations
he had won for himself a widespread reputation and regard,
which any man, iS^orth or South, might have envied. I knew
him intimately, and have always cherished his friendship as
one of the privileges of my Washington life. * * * JSTo one
of us has been more punctual in his attendance on our meet-
ings, or has exhibited a more earnest and intelligent interest
in all our proceedings, while his digmified and genial presence
has given him a warm hold on all our hearts."
Said Mr. A. H. H. Stuart, of Virginia : "He possessed a
sound and vigorous intellect, which enabled him to grapple
with the most difficult questions ; and he was singularly free
84 NoETH Carolina Historical Commission.
from all those influences of passion and excitement, which too
often disturb the judgment. His views of every subject
were clear, calm and well considered. He possessed that
happy balance of the intellectual faculties, which is the
parent of wisdom. Although he has for more than forty
years occupied a prominent position in public life, and has
filled many important offices during times of high party
excitement, no man has ever ventured to question the integ-
rity of his motives or conduct ; and up to the hour of his
death he enjoyed the unlimited confidence of all who had the
happiness to know him. * * * I have rarely met a wiser
man, and never a better man, than William A. Graham."
THE VALUE OF HISTORICAL MEMORIALS IN A
DEMOCRATIC STATE
BY THOMAS W. MASON
Ladies and Gentlenwn:
Our Historical Commission presents to our beloved State
at this hour the marble form of William Alexander Graham,
that it may stand forever under the dome of our Capitol,
One who is worthy to speak of him, his townsman and his
peer,^ has just now told us of this servant of the people, with
the simplicity and beauty of unadorned truth, the story of his
life and service. JSTor does this story delight us less because
it is a familiar part of our later history. I^ot a few of us
have seen this majestic man moving among us and leading
us along the higher walks of life. We saw him as he came
out from the storm of war between the N^orth and the South,
serene, undaunted, pointing the way of peace and safety
and honor.
It all seems clear enough to us now. We look back along
the way we have come, and we do not see now how we could
have gone any other way. But we are forgetting how dark
it was. l^ever, in all history, did thicker darkness descend
upon a people, and so suddenly. A President had been slain ;
another, his successor, stood before us impeached, distrusted
and despised by those who had placed him in office. Our
State governments were dismantled and our States became
military provinces. Our leading citizens were in prison or
their rights of citizenship denied them. Our emancipated
slaves were appealing to us, as never before, to care for them
in their new relation to us. Our wasted fields and homes
remained to us, only to remind us of our former estate and
our wretched poverty. The soldiers of the blue and the gTay
looked into each other's faces, aghast at the ruin thev had
» Mr. Frank Nash, of Hillsboro.
86 I^ORTH Carolina Historical Commission.
wrought, willing and ready to be friends, while the founda-
tions of the Union shook beneath their feet with a tremor
more ominous than the shock of battle. One false step, and
the ruined South with blinded rage might pull down the
pillars of our government in the very strength of its agony.
We have called these dark days our era of reconstruction.
History will be true if it shall write above this chapter, as its
title, the words of Thomas de Celano's hymn of the judg-
ment, "Dies irse, dies ilia."
In these dark days, this servant of the people of whom we
are thinking now, with love and gratitude, was of those who
saved us and led us along the way we have come. He was
of those who have given their lives to the service of the
people. He was of those who loved the Union of these States,
and who gave to it its hold upon our hearts. He was of
those who led its navies into far distant seas and made its
flag, not the ensign of a world power of conquest, but a mis-
sion of peace and good will to men. He was of those who
sought always to compose the quarrel of the sections that its
angry contentions might not drive us apart, and he was of
those who loved our Old i>[orth State with an unspeakable
love, as the apple of his eye. Gaston's hymn of devotion
rang through his heart always. It was the refrain of his
life and the inheritance of his blood from Mecklenburg.
And so it was that when he heard the voice calling him which
he had heeded always as the voice of his own mother, not
doubting, he led his sons, one by one, to the altar of sacrifice,
and bowed his own good, gray head under the burdens that
were laid upon him.
Can we ever think unmoved of these men of the South
who turned, with sorrowing hearts, from the old flag to the
defense of their homes ? Is there a heart so hard that it does
not burn with sympathy, when Lee is bidding good-bye to his
old regiment and coming home to Virginia ? He had grown
old in the service which he adorned as few have done and
which honored him above all others. What power could
William A. Gkaham. 87
break the tics that bound him? We know that no political
creed, no party faction moved him. It was the spirit of the
South ; the voice of Virginia calling him to her, and he could
not disobey. Like him was he, whose lineaments the divin-
ity of art has now shaped for us, with unerring finger, and
whose heroic spirit speaks to us again from the heart of the
everlasting rock, lighted by the genius of the true artist^
whose soul it has inspired.
These men of the South differed in their political creeds
as the billows, but in their sense of duty, each to his own
State, they were one as the sea. They were pleading with
each other earnestly and anxiously for the cause of the Union
when the war burst upon them. In no school of politics had
they ever learned that a State could be coerced and the Union
maintained by force. They could not bear to see their neigh-
bors trampled under foot, and they took up arms. All party
lines were forgotten. They were no longer Whigs or Demo-
crats, but henceforth they were the men of the South. What
followed we know.
They suffered defeat in battle, but here and everywhere,
fair women and brave men listen with warm hearts to the
story of the part they acted under the stars and bars. ]^ot
the ISTorth only, but the world now knows the moral of their
endeavor. Their peerless captain has taken his place in our
Pantheon at Washington. The name of their honored Presi-
dent, who suffered in their stead as none other could suffer,
has been recarved upon our national tablets. In town and
village and neighborhood, the image of their brother in arms,
in stone, or bronze, with silent lips, invokes the homage of
him who passes by and gives assurance to his living comrades
that they shall never be forgotten. Their struggle has ended.
Let us believe and be thankful that in the providence of God
it has ended well and with honor and good to us all.
And so, too, has ended our era of reconstruction. We
have rebuilt our Union, and we pray that, when the rain
iMr. F. W. Ruckstuhl, sculptor, formerly of Alsace, Germany, present address: The
Arts Club, New York.
88 KoRTH CAROLiisrA Historical Commission.
descends, and the floods come, and the winds blow and beat
upon it, it may not fall, for it is founded upon a rock. Slav-
ery no longer mars our structure.
Once before, in our earlier history, we had our era of
reconstruction. It began four years after the treaty of Paris
of the 20th of January, 1783, which declared the thirteen
original States "to be free, sovereign and independent." It
lasted until our own State, last of them but one, entered the
Union, November 21st, 1789. It was then that the great
convention assembled at Philadelphia on May 25th, 1787,
which was presided over by Washington, and which, on Sep-
tember 17th, 1787, presented our first Constitution to these
thirteen States for their acceptance, declaring its purpose
"to form a more perfect Union, establish justice, insure
domestic tranquillity, provide for the common defense, pro-
mote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty
to ourselves and our posterity." It was then that Madison
and Hamilton and Jay put forth those wonderful arguments,
urging its acceptance, which have become a text-book of our
constitutional law. It was then that our people, assembled
in convention at Hillsboro, in the Presbyterian Church, on
July 21st, 1788, hesitated, halted and adjourned, without
accepting the Constitution, demanding further and fuller
safeguards of liberty. It was then that, in response to this
demand, these safeguards were given and the ten amendments
were written into our first Constitution. And it was then
that our people assembled again in convention, at Fayette-
ville, adopted the Constitution, entered the Union and our
first era of reconstruction ended.
This is all very famiilar learning. So, too, the air that
fills our lungs and gives us life is very familiar. But we
ought to repeat this familiar learning, because it expresses
that spirit of independence Avhich first declared itself in
Mecklenburg, in May, 1775, and again in Halifax, in April,
1776, and which has been always the inspiration of the
higher life of our people. We ought to repeat it, that he who
William A. Graham, 89
may write of us in the war between the North and South
may know us and our motives ; and how it was that these
men of the South, who loved the Union, yet sought to form
a Confederacy of their own ; and when they could not, have
striven, as never men strove before, to rebuild our walls and
to form again a more perfect Union of these States. It
ought to be repeated that he who writes of us may understand
how it is that these men of the South, who rejoice in the
growth and strength of our national government and who will
uphold the honor of our flag in peace and in war, are yet
sensitive to any encroachment of Federal power upon the
rights of the State ; and that this sensitive regard is a sen-
timent of political virtue and the safest guardian of our
form of government.
It is well for us that we have begTin a closer study of the
forces which have been moving and are still moving the life
of our people ; that in the midst of our industry, thrilling us
with the enthusiasm of its progress, our thoughts are turning
to the higher things of life ; that our women and men of let-
ters have associated themselves to re-read and re-write our
history ; that they have moved our General Assembly to
institute our Historical Commission, as a part of our higher
education ; that it may find and preserve the records which
mark our progress and point out to us those who have been
leading and are still leading us along the pathway of ser-
vice and of honor and whom we ought to follow. It is well
for us that our Historical Commission, in this high service,
has reminded us that the niches provided in our capitol for
our good and faithful servants who are worthy of them are
still empty ; and that in all our midst we, as a people, have
placed but one statue of our illustrious dead. It is well for
us to be reminded that in our educational progress, great as it
is, we have left far behind this school of higher learning.
Who of us, coming northward into our capitol grounds and
looking into the face of Washington, is not lifted up into a
higher realm of thought and patriotism ? Or who of us.
90 North Carolina Historical Commission.
coining westward and looking into the face of Vance, does
not love our State with a deeper love ? Or who of us, com-
ing eastward and looking into the face of the Confederate
soldier, does not feel that it is beautiful to die for one's
country ? Or who of us, looking into the face of our brave
sailor lad, Bagley, standing midway between the Father of
our Country and the soldier of the Confederacy, does not
rejoice that we, too, have reconsecrated the flag of the stars
and stripes ?
IsTor is this school of higher learning only a school of art,
or of ancestral worship, or of State pride, or of polite letters ;
nor will our Historical Commission be content only to sweep
the dust from our records and to clear away the moss that
has gathered upon our gravestones. This it will do, but
more. In its best service, it will minister to the spirit of our
people ; that which brought us together about our first shrines
of worship ; that which was ours when we were building these
States into the fabric of our Union ; that which drew us
together in the gTcat contest of the North and the South ;
and that which will be needed more and more as our minis-
try to the beauty and strength and worldwide beneficence of
our republic. It is not idle boast or foolish pride to say that
the South will grow great and strong in numbers and in
riches, and that the men of the South will yet take the places
which they ought to take in directing the course of our
National Government and in preserving the life of our
republic. Let us prepare ourselves for our ministry and our
duty. Let us be full-panoplied and armed with the sword
of the spirit of our people ; and let it be stainless like the
sword Excalibur of King Arthur ; aye, let it be stainless like
the sword of Robert E. Lee.
What is the spirit of a people ? May we not answer :
the spirit of a people is the history of a people impersonated
in the life of a people. If there is no history of a people,
there is no spirit of a people.
It has been asked, Can Africa be civilized ? Whv not ?
William A. Graham. 91
Because, in all that vast, dark continent, with rich soil and
teeming- millions, save along the shores of the Mediterranean,
there is neither history, nor tradition, nor a memorial stone
to tell where some gTeat deed was done. There is no his-
tory of the people and no spirit of the people upon which to
build their social structure. All effort in their behalf has
been in vain. They are still naked, and the lion of the
jungle is the ruler of their land. The spirit of England,
carrying her drum-beat around the world, is the story and
the song, not of Briton only, but of adventurous Saxon and
Dane, and Boman and ITorman ; the great composite race
fitted to sweep over every sea and to rule under every sky.
The spirit of China is the history of a people who have built
about themselves a wall, over which others must climb to be
their neighbors. The spirit of our people is the history of
a people from whose loins has sprung our ever widening
confederacy of States ; who have instituted forms of govern-
ment based upon the consent of the governed, kindly and
gentle and easy to be entreated, but firm and strong to pro-
vide for the common defense and to promote the general wel-
fare and fitted, as we believe, to become the final form and
pattern of all nations.
What saved us in our dark era of reconstruction ? It was
the memory of Moore's Creek Bridge, of Kings Mountain,
of Guilford Court House, and of later fields yet red with
blood ; it was the memory of those who had subdued our for-
ests and tilled our fields; of those who had written and
administered our laws ; of those who had founded and fos-
tered our schools ; of those who had built our churches and
kept alive our love of God and our neighbor ; these memories,
rekindling the spirit of our people, saved us. Our history
was still our own ; its light was still upon our pathway.
After the din of arms had ceased, our laws were no longer
silent ; the plow moved in the furrow ; we rebuilt our work-
shops and reopened our schools; we restored our fields and
homes and our altars of worship ; we took our emancipated
92 North Caeolina Historical Commission.
slave by the hand, and taught him his duty to the State, and
how to share with us our history and our spirit. And thus
we moved forward with our ministry and our duty, until the
world wonders how, from the ashes of war, we have grown
so great. We have won our victories of peace with the
sword of the spirit of our people.
And of such spirit was he who comes to his place in our
capitol to-day, first of his peers because he was their most
flawless type; because he was of the best in the life of our
older Union, and of our brave young Confederacy, and of
our later and more perfect Union ; because the history of our
people was impersonated in his full and rounded life. In all
the movement of that full life there was no false note to mar
its harmony. Among all her sons there is no clearer ideal
of our mother State than he whom we now lift up before us
that we may follow where he leads.
And they, too, will come apace and with cheerful accord
to their places at his side ; his co-workers, who have kept the
spirit of our people unbroken and unspoiled through bad for-
tune and good fortune alike.
Let them gather to our capitol, these good and faithful
servants of our people, seeing whom, enraptured with the
story of their lives, our children's children shall cry out
"We can make our lives sublime !"
PRESENTATION OF THE BUST ON BEHALF OF
THE NORTH CAROLINA HISTORICAL
COMMISSION
BY J. BRYAN GRIMES, CHAIRMAN
Your Excellency:
This evening marks a new departure in historical activi-
ties in North Carolina. The Historical Commission, in
addition to the work of collecting and preserving the histori-
cal records of North Carolina, is endeavoring to arouse our
people to the necessity of erecting memorials to great men
and great events in our history. To the traveler or visitor
here, there must be a feeling of disappointment when he
enters our capitol. There are nowhere visible reminders of
those men who have made our history and brought fame and
glory to North Carolina — our State builders. Among his-
torians, scholars and sight-seers accustomed to read the his-
tory and study the life of other States and nations in monu-
ments and" marble busts, the absence of such memorials inva-
riably provokes comment.
In this rotunda are eight empty niches that misrepresent
our State, as it leaves the impression that we have had no
sons sufficiently great to be commemorated in marble or
bronze.
Eealizing the injustice that the State does itself and appre-
ciating the importance of such memorials, the Historical
Commission, as agent for the State, has had executed a bust
of that great North Carolinian, who it believes most perfectly
typifies the highest ideals of democratic citizenship — William
A. Graham. And I have the honor to present to the State of
North Carolina this bust of that great Carolinian whose
character was as spotless and clean as the Carrara marble
from which this image is carved.
We trust this is but a beginning and that the people of
North Carolina will soon show enough appreciation of her
other great sons to fill the other seven niches in this rotunda.
94 North Carolina Historical Commission.
ACCEPTANCE BY THE GOVERNOR Of NORTH CAROLINA
Mr. Chairman:
With all others in this magnificent audience, I listened
with great interest to the appropriate addresses of the gifted
historian from Orange and the distinguished orator from
iSTorthampton, delivered in the Hall of the House of Repre-
sentatives, and we have now heard with pleasure your own
eloquent words of presentation.
I congratulate you and through you the Historical Com-
mission upon the excellence of your choice for the first bust
for this rotunda of our capitol. I share with you the hope
that other similar occasions shall soon follow when other busts
of our gi'eat Carolinians shall take their places in the other
niches.
If the sins of the fathers are visited upon the children to
the third and fourth generation, I am happy to believe that
there is truth in its counterpart, and that the virtues of the
fathers are likewise visited upon the children to the third
and fourth generation. No family in our commonwealth,
through so long a period, through so many generations, has
rendered the State more significant, faithful, honorable and
effective service than the Graham family. From the Revo-
lutionary period to this good day, its part in our military and
civil life has been nobly performed. Its members, repre-
senting the highest type of cultured and patriotic citizenship,
worthily exemplify in their records, in both public and pri-
vate life, Governor Graham's illustrious devotion to the State,
and with dignity rejoice in his useful and eminent career.
Their race is not yet run, and their pledges to fortune and
futurity are all that worthy veneration for ancestry, moral
integrity, intellectual strength, and love of right, purity and
country can suggest.
Mr. Chairman, it is with pleasure that in behalf of North
Carolina, I accept from the Historical Commission this mar-
ble bust of Governor William Alexander Graham. Permit
me to express the hope that the selections for the remaining
niches will be as wiselv and as fittinfflv made as this one.