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STEPHEN BEAUREGARD WEEKS
!N North Carolina there was an intermittent
interest in the State's history during the greater
part of the last century, confined generally to
a few individuals or small groups. The earlier
period produced Burkitt and Reade's "History
of the Kehukee Association" (1803), William-
son's "History of North Carolina" (1812), and Martin's "History
of North Carolina" (1829).
The middle period was more prolific, and furnished a group
of able men, who made extensive additions to the literature of the
subject. Judge Murphey, Governor Swain, Doctor Hawks,
Colonel Wheeler, Jo Seawell Jones, Governor Graham, Judge
Battle, Mr. George Davis, Professor Hubbard, Doctor Foote,
Doctor Caruthers, Purifoy, Reichel, McRee and others would have
brought about a genuine historical awakening but for the Civil
War. As it was, they produced Jones's "Defence" and "Memo-
rials," Foote's "Sketches," Purifoy's "Sandy Creek," Reichel's
"Moravians," Caruther's "Caldwell" and "Old North State in
1776" (series one and two), the "Revolutionary History of North
Carolina," McRee's "Life of Iredell," the brilliant series of papers
in the old University Magazine, and many addresses, pamphlets
and newspaper articles.
The Civil War period yielded one pamphlet, "Nathaniel Macon,"
bv Weldon N. Edwards.
NORTH CAROLINA
The later period was characterized by a body of bright and
gifted writers, including Mrs. Cornelia Phillips Spencer, Major
Sloan, Doctor Battle, Doctor Huffham, Doctor Kingsbury, Colonel
Saunders, Judge Schenck, Major Moore, Doctor Bernheim,
Colonel Waddell, Captain Ashe, Bishop Cheshire, Chief Justice
Clark, Colonel Creecy, Major Graham, Doctor Vass, Doctor
Taylor, Doctor Clewell and others worthy of high mention. In
this enumeration the younger writers have been purposely omitted,
because it is conceived that they represent a distinct class and a
new departure in this field of literature. It is to be noted that
none of those named were trained to historical investigation, and
none of them except the venerable Doctor Battle have followed
it as a profession. The seminary method did not characterize their
work, and there were times when it was difficult to discover
whether the statements of some rested on authority or tradition.
They had liberty, and sometimes used it with much freedom.
Their culture was broad and their view was large. They were
frequently weak on fact, but strong on interpretation. They
understood the bearing of things, and translated dry details into
living pictures of real life.
Near the close of the century a new school of historical writers
came to the front, composed of the younger men, who were
trained in the science of historical investigation, principally at
Johns Hopkins University, which they adopted as a profession.
The old school sought such details as were needed for the picture
in hand. The new school was not picturesque. It sought to
complete the record by giving all the facts and noting the authority
for every statement. The one was strong in its generalization
and its interpretation, the other in its investigation and complete-
ness of detail. It is not intended to discredit the accuracy of the
one nor the understanding of the other, but to note the existence
of the two, and to show the trend and emphasis of each. Among
the leaders of the new school are Stephen B. Weeks, Charles Lee
Smith, J. S. Bassett, E. W. Sikes, C. L. Raper, W. E. Dodd and
M. De L. Haywood.
Stephen Beauregard Weeks is second of these in point of time
5, (h. (AT**
STEPHEN BEAUREGARD WEEKS
and first in the extent of his writing-. He was born in lower
Pasquotank County, North Carolina, February 2, 1865, of English
and Huguenot ancestry.
The Weeks family was of Devonshire, England, extraction, and
appeared in North Carolina as early as 1727, when Thomas
Weekes settled in Perquimans County, where he died in 1762,
leaving five sons and a daughter. He was a large landowner,
and is mentioned in the old records as "gentleman" and "school-
teacher." He appears to have possessed considerable education
and to have occupied a position of influence and leadership.; He
was sheriff of the county, representative in the Assembly and
for many years one of the justices of the county. In the fourth
generation from Thomas Weekes, James Elliott Weeks, . father
of the subject of our sketch, was born. The same sturdy qualities
that marked the career of his earliest known ancestor characterized
his life. He was without political ambition, and his only office was
in the militia. He was a Methodist, with the industrious habits
of those excellent people, and was looked up to as a leader. He
died when Stephen was eighteen months old, leaving him a fair
estate for the times.
Doctor Weeks's mother was Mary Louisa Mullen (formerly
Moullin), and his earliest known maternal ancestor in this country,
was Abraham Moullin, of Huguenot family, who came from Vir-
ginia and settled in Perquimans County prior to March, 1732.
Through his mother's mother, who was a McDonald, he claims
descent from Bryan McDonald, who was slain at Glencoe.
Upon his mother's death, when he was three years old, he was
cared for by an aunt, Mrs. Robertson Jackson, of Pasquotank
County, who with her husband reared him as their own .child. He
was required to work on the farm, and was well grounded in
habits of industry, economy and sobriety. He pays this high
tribute to the faithfulness and affection of these foster parents :
"I knew no other home. ... I became to them as a son. They
were most surely all that parents could have been. . . . God
never made a nobler man than Robertson Jackson, quiet, peace-
able, unambitious, unassuming, uneducated, but withal one of
NORTH CAROLINA
nature's noblemen, to whom all his neighbors looked up for com-
fort, advice and help of any sort that was needed — one of the
gentlest of men."
Young Weeks attended the rather poor country schools of his
neighborhood until he reached the age of fifteen years, when he
left the farm and entered the school of T. J. and W. D. Horner,
at Henderson, North Carolina, where he was prepared for en-
trance to the State University, at Chapel Hill. This school justly
ranked as one of the best preparatory schools of the State, and
was noted for the thoroughness of its work. Both principals
were men of fine scholarship and studious habits, and the younger
was a graduate of the University of North Carolina. The senior,
Reverend T. J. Horner, was a Baptist preacher, who ministered
principally to churches in Granville County. He was a younger
brother of the late James H. Horner, of Oxford, with whom he
was associated in teaching for many years. He was distinguished
for his scholarship and fine teaching ability, and was very highly
esteemed in his community. His age and failing health and the
bad health of his son and associate, Mr. W. D. Horner, led to a
suspension of the school about the year 1886. He has been dead
several years. The son yet lives in Henderson, highly esteemed
by his neighbors. Doctor Weeks writes of the father : "His influ-
ence was elevating and ennobling, and inspired and encouraged
me, as did that of Herbert B. Adams, of the Johns Hopkins."
This association of these two names is a high but just tribute to
Mr. Horner, who gave to Doctor Weeks his first real intellectual
impulse.
From Henderson young Weeks went to the University of North
Carolina, where he took the degree of A.B. in 1886. During
two years of post-graduate work there in English language and
literature, German and Latin, he took A.M. in 1887 and Ph.D. in
1888. He says: "These two years were among the most valuable
of my life in giving me ideals and ability to write, and acquaintance
with the masters." The three following years, 1888-91, were
spent as honorary Hopkins scholar at Johns Hopkins University
in the study of history, English language, political science and
STEPHEN BEAUREGARD WEEKS
political economy. These latter studies were more emphasized at
first; later, by force of what he calls "invincible attraction," he
turned to history, and made that his life work. From this Uni-
versity he received the Ph.D. degree in 1891.
At the close of his student work at the University of North
Carolina, he was on June 12, 1888, united in marriage with
Miss Mary Lee Martin, daughter of Reverend Joseph Bonaparte
Martin of the North Carolina Conference, Methodist Episcopal
Church, South, from 1844 until his death in 1897. Mr. Martin
was a grandson of General Joseph Martin, pioneer, Indian fighter,
Indian agent, early settler of Tennessee and legislator in Virginia
and North Carolina ; he was a man of marvelous devotion to his
work, and more pleased with its fruitage than concerned for its
emoluments. Mrs. Weeks died May 19, 1891 ; two children were
born of this marriage, and one, Robertson Jackson Weeks, a youth
of seventeen years, survives his mother.
His second marriage was with Miss Sallie Mangum Leach, at
Trinity College, North Carolina, June 28, 1893. She is the
daughter of Colonel Martin W. Leach of Randolph County, North
Carolina, and niece of General J. Madison Leach, member of
Congress, who is yet remembered as one of the most remarkable
and versatile political campaigners in the State. She is grand-
daughter of Honorable Willie P. Mangum, representative and
senator from North Carolina in the Congress of the United States,
and president of the United States Senate, 1842-45, whose career
was highly distinguished and altogether honorable to the State.
She is also a descendant of the Cain and Alston families. There
have been four children of this marriage, of whom two are now
living.
The active career of Doctor Weeks began with his entrance upon
the professorship of history and political science at Trinity Col-
lege (old Trinity, Randolph County), in September, 1891. He
continued with the college during the first year after its removal
to Durham, and successfully organized its Department of
History, established the Trinity College Historical Society,
created an interest among the students in historical work, and or-
NORTH CAROLINA
ganized the college library, which has since grown into such
splendid proportions under intelligent administration and the lib-
eral gifts of the Messrs. Duke. He resigned in June, 1893, owing
to differences between President Crowell and members of the
faculty and spent the Summer lecturing in Philadelphia, and in
historical investigations in Wisconsin. In the Fall he returned
to Baltimore and spent the following year as a fellow by courtesy
in Johns Hopkins University, giving a portion of his time to the
study of Roman law and comparative jurisprudence, and the re-
mainder to original investigations along historical lines.
Even before this time Doctor Weeks had become interested in
North Carolina history, and a collector of the historical materials
of the State. His first impulse in that direction came from his
appointment, 1884-87, by the Philanthropic Society of the Uni-
versity of North Carolina, to edit its register of members. He
writes : "By my study of the old register I became acquainted
with the great men of the University; they became my familiar
friends, and I knew them as perhaps no one else has known them ;
from these, through Wheeler's Reminiscences, I branched out into
the general history and biography of the State and the work was
done." He became an untiring collector of everything pertaining
to North Carolina. It has been a hobby in which he has surpassed
all others. He now has more than 3300 books, pamphlets and
magazines dealing in whole or in part with that State. It is prob-
ably the most complete collection of books on North Carolina;
certainly, outside of newspapers and State publications, it is better
than any owned by the State. To a collector a most interesting
feature of this collection is one in which Doctor Weeks himself
takes great pride and for which he makes this claim :
"I have beyond question one of the finest collections of North Caro-
lina autographs in existence, including the greater part of the corre-
spondence of Calvin H. Wiley, that of Daniel R. Goodloe, the extensive
and varied correspondence of Willie P. Mangum and a part of that of
Willie P. Mangum, Jr. Speaking roughly, I have perhaps 3000 letters and
autographs from men who have been prominent in North Carolina from
the Lords Proprietors to the present day."
STEPHEN BEAUREGARD WEEKS
During his educational period of which we have spoken,
Doctor Weeks had already given to the public the first fruits of
his studies in the following monographs : "History of Young
Men's Christian Association Movement in North Carolina,
1857-88" (Raleigh, 1888) ; "The Press of North Carolina in the
Eighteenth Century" (Brooklyn, 1891) ; "The Lost Colony of
Roanoke; its Fate and Survival" (New York, 1891) ; "The Re-
ligious Development in the Province of North Carolina" (Balti-
more, 1892) ; "Church and State in North Carolina" (Baltimore,
1893) ; "The History of Negro Suffrage in the South" (Boston,
1894) ; "General Joseph Martin and the War of the Revolution
in the West" (Washington, 1894).
Of these, the two dealing with religious conditions in North
Carolina touched upon controverted questions, and from the fact
that they did not give entire satisfaction to any of the parties to
such controversies it may be fairly inferred that he acted with
independence in his study. At any rate, a student must accept
these books as able, thoughtful and painstaking contributions to
the subjects with which they deal, and as a distinct advance upon
any previous work of like character.
In July, 1894, Doctor Weeks accepted a position with the United
States Bureau of Education, nominally as confidential clerk of
the commissioner. In reality he became associate editor of the
commissioner's reports, passing upon everything that went into
them and making such editorial changes and emendations as
seemed well. He was also a contributor of monographs to these
reports from year to year until 1899. It was a position that gave
him opportunity for indulging his taste for historical investiga-
tion. Indeed, much of his official employment was along that line,
and he issued the following additional contributions :
"A Bibliography of the Historical Literature of North Carolina"
(Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1895) ; "Libraries and Literature in
North Carolina in the Eighteenth Century" (Washington, 1896) ;
"Address on the University of North Carolina in the Civil War"
(Richmond, 1896) ; "Southern Quakers and Slavery" (Balti-
more, 1896) ; "Preliminary List of American Learned and Edu-
NORTH CAROLINA
cational Societies" (Washington, 1896) ; "On the Promotion of
Historical Studies in the South" (Washington, 1897) ; "Anti-
Slavery Sentiment in the South" (Washington, 1898) ; "Begin-
nings of the Common School System in the South; or, Calvin
Henderson Wiley and the Organization of Common Schools in
North Carolina" (Washington, 1898).
This last of his publications in book form is probably the most
complete and exhaustive work yet undertaken by any one upon any
phase of North Carolina history. Indeed one will hardly read
any of his monographs without an impression of his wonderful
diligence and capacity in gathering and using materials.
In April, 1896, during his connection with the Bureau of Edu-
cation, he assisted in the organization of the Southern History
Association, in co-operation with Doctor Colyer Meriwether, of
South Carolina; Doctor Thomas M. Owen, of Alabama; Doctor
K. P. Battle, of the University of North Carolina ; Doctor J. L. M.
Curry, General M. C. Butler, Thomas Nelson Page and a number
of other distinguished Southerners. He has been since its or-
ganization a member of its Administrative Council and of its Pub-
lication Committee. The Publications of the association, of which
some ten volumes have been issued, are of high historical value
and importance. Doctor Weeks has been a frequent contributor
to these papers, and has also written for the Magazine of American
History, the Yale Review, the "Papers and Reports of the Ameri-
can Historical Association," the "Studies in Historical and Politi-
cal Science of the Johns Hopkins University," the American His-
torical Review, the "Bibliographical Contributions of Harvard
University," and the "Papers of the Southern Historical Society."
He is an active member of the American Historical Association,
honorary life member of the Southern History Association, cor-
responding member of the Wisconsin Historical Society and the
Maryland Historical Society.
The Fall of 1899 witnessed another turn in the tide of
Doctor Weeks's affairs. His health became so seriously affected
that he was compelled to change his residence and employment.
He obtained a transfer to the Indian service of the National Gov-
STEPHEN BEAUREGARD WEEKS
ernment and was stationed at Santa Fe, New Mexico, as principal
teacher in an Indian school. He was made assistant superintend-
ent of the school in July, 1903, and the same month was transferred
to Arizona, as superintendent of the San Carlos Agency School
on the San Carlos Apache reservation, where he is surrounded by
the Apaches, who a few years ago were going on the warpath and
killing every man in reach. At Santa Fe he was brought in daily
contact with Pueblos, Navajoes, West Shoshones, Utes, Pimas,
Papagos, Uklahs, Puyallups, Wascos, Osages and other Indians
of the Southwest. He finds great interest in observing the work
of civilization among them, and speaks hopefully of their progress.
This enforced severance from his chosen work and from asso-
ciation with scholars of like tastes and interests has been extremely
trying to Doctor Weeks. But it has meant life to him. His health
has been restored. Friends continue to remember him in his far-
away home and demand the services of his pen. Wake Forest Col-
lege recognized his services by conferring upon him the degree
of LL.D. in 1902, and he still has his books and his work. He
yet follows the ruling passion and is engaged in the preparation of
an Index to the North Carolina Census Records for 1790, an In-
dex to the State and Colonial Records of North Carolina, a Bib-
liography of North Carolina, a History of Education in the South-
ern States during the Civil War, and a Life of Willie P. Mangum.
These would be a fair life's work for many men, but no one can
foresee what the active mind, the persistent curiosity and the rest-
less energy of this frail student of our history may yet search out
and spread before his fellows. He offers only one word to
searchers after success, "work."
Thomas M. Pittman.
WILLIE PERSON MANGUM
ORTH CAROLINA has produced three men
who have attained the Presidency. Jackson,
Polk and Johnson were all her sons; but the
avenue of promotion lay through Tennessee.
The balance of power has long since crossed
the Alieghanies and is now crossing the
Mississippir~It long ago proved that geographical location is the
predominant factor in the making of Presidents and not inherent
ability, and so confirms Mr. Bryce's thesis that we do not elect
our greatest men to that office. It is to the doubtful States that
parties go for candidates; to the centers of wealth and popula-
tion. The rural community is no longer a factor in making nomina-
tions. Then, too, during the period of Mangum's active career
North Carolina was almost as solidly Whig as it is now Demo-
cratic. The change came in the fifties, just as he was retiring from
public life, and as a result the Whigs found their candidate for
Vice-President in 1852 in William A. Graham. In that year North
Carolinian was pitted against North Carolinian for the second
place and again it was given to the son who had migrated to win
the prize. Hence, while North Carolina produced three men who
filled the Presidency and one the Vice-Presidency, none were
elected to those offices as North Carolinians. But the State can
claim for herself what was at that time the third, and after the
death of the President or Vice-President the second, office in rank
■
■
WILLIE PERSON MANGUM n
— the Presidency of the Senate. A President pro tempore of the
Senate is chosen by its members in each Congress. His duties are
nominal only, but upon the death or promotion of the Vice-Presi-
dent he became, before a recent law changed the order of succes-
sion, the heir apparent to the Presidency.
It follows then that while Willie P. Mangum was President of
the Senate, 1842-45, and was next in succession after Tyler to the
Presidency, he filled the highest post under this Government ever
attained by a North Carolinian as such.
Willie Person Mangum, lawyer, legislator, judge, Congress-
man, United States Senator and President pro tempore of the
United States Senate, was born in Orange, now Durham, County,
North Carolina, May 10, 1792 (not December 29, 1 791, as is some-
times stated). His birthplace was near but not at the site of his
later home, the present Umbra post office, known to the family
as Walnut Hall, and during his life as Red Mountain (not near
the present town of Durham, as is also said).
The Mangums were seated in Sussex and adjoining sections of
Virginia early in the eighteenth century, and seem to have been
caught by the last waves of the great stream of migration that
swept over the southern border of that State into North Carolina
for a hundred years. Tradition has it that the family is Welch
in origin and that the original form of the name was Manghamis ;
we know that the Irish branch still spells the name Mangham. It
is believed that the subject of this sketch is descended from the
Mangums, who about 1730 to 1750 were located in Albemarle
Parish, Sussex County, Virginia. There were three heads of fam-
ilies there at that time with this surname, William, James, John —
presumably brothers. William Mangum and his wife Mary had
four sons: James, born January 2, 1734; William, born May 16,
1736; Henry, born January 24, 1773 (sic, error for I737"38?) J
Arthur, born May 2, 1743. James Mangum, the elder, had two
sons, William and James, and a daughter, Lucy; John had a
daughter, Rebeckah (Va. Mag. of Hist, and Biog., July, 1894,
p. 108).
We are not certain as to the exact time that Arthur Mangum,
12 NORTH CAROLINA
grandfather of Willie P. Mangum, and believed to be identical
with the one named above, came into North Carolina ; but he seems
to have come by way of Warren County, and perhaps stopped in
Granville, for there was a Mangum family in that county as early
as 1757. That an Arthur Mangum was in North Carolina in
1763 we learn from a manuscript note made by Thomas Person?
"Bought of Arthur Mangum 1 Barrel corn @ 9/6 Cash he Dr.
to 2/6 for Writeing his Deed to Orange Co. next in May, Tuesday,
6 Apr." (1763.) And again: "Paid Jos. Langston to be given
to Arthur Mangum on acct. of a Barrel of Corn 10/. Cash
26 Ap."
The first land entries by Arthur Mangum, the grandfather
of Judge Mangum, so far as Orange County records seem to show,
date from 1760. Some of the lands taken up by him during
the next few years remained in the family till February, 1902.
Arthur Mangum married Lucy Person. She was a niece of
Colonel William Person, of Granville (1700-78) and as such a
cousin of General Thomas Person. I have not found the name
of her father. She was probably the daughter of that Mary Person
whose will was probated in Granville County Court August 11,
1761. Arthur Mangum died between March 12 and 24, 1789; his
wife remained a widow for forty years and died about 1829, aged
about ninety-two. They had children as follows, order uncertain :
(1) William Person Mangum, father of Willie Person Mangum;
(2) Arthur, who married Dicey Carrington, daughter of John Car-
rington ; he died about 1813, aged about forty, and left "a house
full" of children, who migrated to Georgia, Mississippi and Miss-
ouri; (3) Willie, who was very handsome and a merchant, died
young and unmarried ; (4) Sally married Sion Bobbitt and went to
Tennessee; (5) Holly, who married Cozart ; one of her sons,
William, was a large merchant in Columbus, Mississippi ; another,
Herbert, was a merchant in Georgia ; another, James, was a planter
in Granville; (6) Chaney married Mangum, and was the
mother of Colonel Ellison Mangum and grandmother of Captain
Addison Mangum and of Professor A. W. Mangum; (7) Clary
(or Clara) married David Parker, a farmer of Granville; Colonel
WILLIE PERSON MANGUM 13
Abner Parker, merchant ; Harrison Parker, planter ; and David
Parker, later of Edgecombe, were their sons. She left also a
daughter, who married William Horner, father of James H. and
Thomas J. Horner, the distinguished teachers.
William Person Mangum, who is thought to have been the old-
est child of Arthur Mangum, was born about 1762. He married
Catharine (Kate) Davis, who was born on the Schuylkill River
in Pennsylvania. Her father migrated to Orange County, North
Carolina, when she was about four years old and there he died.
William Person Mangum was a farmer and merchant and spent all
his life in Orange, where he died in 1837, aged seventy-five. His
wife had died in March, 1825. This couple had only three sons:
Willie Person, the oldest and subject of this sketch; (2)
Priestley Hinton, noticed in the sketch of his son, W. P. Mangum,
Jr. ; (3) Walter Alvis, born in Orange County, January 28, 1798;
married Miss Eliza P. Bullock, daughter of Doctor Benjamin Bul-
lock, of Granville; removed to Mississippi in 1832 and became a
planter; removed to Louisiana in 1856 and in 1863 to Texas as a
refugee ; after the war returned to Louisiana and died there Janu-
ary 20, 1868. He left a large family, some of whom have at-
tained distinction ; numerous descendants are still living in
Texas.
It would seem that Willie Person Mangum came to his feeling
for statecraft from his grandmother's family, and that the political
mantel of his distinguished relative, Thomas Person, rested on his
shoulders, for his father's family were merchants and planters and
had not been before his day in public life. He received his pre-
liminary education in part at the hands of Thomas M. Flint, a
strolling pedagogue; in part at the Fayetteville Academy under
Reverend Colin Mclver, and in part in the Raleigh Academy under
Reverend Doctor McPheeters. He spent some time also as a clerk
in his father's store and was graduated at the University of North
Carolina in 1815.
He began to study law with Honorable Duncan Cameron ; acted
as tutor to his son, the late Honorable Paul C. Cameron, and was
licensed to practice January 10, 1817. It is evident that
i4 NORTH CAROLINA
he was successful from the start. He writes to his brother
April 26, 1819:
"I have made a good deal of money this Spring, say upward of $1900
in actual receipts and nearly that sum in good bonds and accounts. My
prospects in the practice continue to grow more flattering.
"You know that I have made a considerable purchase in Haywood. I
think I have made more by that than all the rest of the labors of my
life. ... In one case of Mrs. Patty Taylor, I have secured a fee at
six months of one thousand dollars . . . and an equal share with
the first in the other business of that court which is profitable."
But even then he was dreaming dreams of political preferment.
"That I could go to Congress without difficulty I entertain no doubt,"
he writes in the same letter. "The dangerous diadem has flittered before
my vision and ambition frequently lingers with delight in tracing the out-
line of the delusion, but interest, and in my opinion sound judgment, for-
bid the thought."
But even then he was in politics. He was a member of the
House of Commons in 1818 and 1819 from Orange County;
served on the judiciary and education committees; strongly ad-
vocated the organization of a distinct Supreme Court and favored
calling a Constitutional Convention, one of the burning questions
of that day. By the Legislature of 18 19 he was elected
(December 22, 1819) a Judge of the Superior Court of Law and
Equity to succeed Judge Toomer, resigned. There is a story that
he was the candidate of his old instructor, Judge Cameron, then a
member of the State Senate from Orange. John Stanly had
boasted that he would give the vacant judgship to his young kins-
man, George E. Badger. Cameron's first candidate was
William Norwood, of Hillsboro. Finding that he could not beat
Stanly with Norwood, young Mangum was brought out and
elected. He rode one of the eastern circuits, but the climate did
not agree with him, and after a year of work on the bench he re-
signed, November, 1820, and returned to the practice of law.
In 1823 he became a candidate for the 18th Congress
(1823-25) from what was then the eighth district, composed of
Orange, Person and Wake. His opponent was General Daniel L.
WILLIE PERSON MANGUM 15
Barringer, a resident of Raleigh. The election was held in August,
1823, for until 1861 Congressional elections were held in the odd
years and after the term of service had begun in March. The
candidates fought it out on their legislative records and on State
issues. The main questions were the proposed amendment to the
Constitution making the representation of the two sections equal — ■
the old fight between the sections. Mangum favored such an
amendment and Barringer avoided it; he also favored the bill
which required the banks to pay specie for their notes while Bar-
ringer voted on both sides. Mangum received 2523 votes ; Bar-
ringer, 1729.
Mangum went to Congress as a Republican, and in the Presi-
dential campaign of 1824 was a strong supporter of Crawford.
He writes Seth Jones, of Wake, on January 3, 1825 : "I feel it my
duty to vote for Mr. Crawford as long as he has the remotest
prospect of success." The North Carolina Assembly had nom-
inated Crawford, but the State in 1824 cast her vote for Jackson.
When the election came up in the House of Representatives Man-
gum voted for Crawford and so did the State, as a whole, for
Adams received but a single vote and Jackson but two. The fol-
lowers of Adams called themselves national Republicans. They
contended for the largest latitude in the construction of the Con-
stitution, favored internal improvements and encouraged immigra-
tion, advocated protection, gave fishing bounties and passed navi-
gation acts. This was the "American system" and its advocates
formed the nucleus of the Whig Party. On the other hand North
Carolina in general favored the strict construction views of Craw-
ford, Jackson and the Jefferson Party. It is believed that Man-
gum's vote for Crawford instead of Jackson made him unpopular
at home. I am told by Major William A. Graham, who, of course,
had it from his father, that strong effort was necessary to defeat
his opponent for the 19th Congress, 1825-27, in August,
1825. This opponent was Josiah Crudup, a skilful and versatile
Baptist preacher. Mangum is credited with saying that Crudup
was the most formidable candidate he ever met and that an op-
portune rain which prevented Crudup from preaching on a certain
16 NORTH CAROLINA
occasion was all that saved him. He won by a bare majority of
fifty-six votes.
During these two terms in Congress Mangum served on the
committee on commerce, and on that on the services and sacrifices
of LaFayette. He resigned March 18, 1826, and was succeeded
by Daniel L. Barringer, Democrat, who took his seat December 4,
1826.
Mangum was on August 18, 1826, appointed by Governor Bur-
ton to fill an unexpired term as judge of the Superior Court of
Law and Equity. The term for which he was appointed expired
the same year and his failure of re-election by the Assembly of
that year called out expressions of regret from Nat Macon and
others. In 1828 he was an elector on the Jackson-Calhoun Ticket,
showing that he had not as yet accepted the principles of Adams,
whose re-election was advocated in North Carolina by Gaston
and others. Jackson electors were chosen in North Carolina
(November 13, 1828). Mangum was again chosen without op-
position a judge of the Superior Court (December 10, 1828), to
succeed Ruffin. He served in this capacity through 1829 and
into the Spring of 1830 (later than April 3, 1830), when he re-
signed, presumably to enter the race for Senator.
The first intimations we have of senatorial aspirations is in
a letter from his lifelong friend, Thomas J. Green, who writes
him May 24, 1828 :
"If you could have a desire to return to the Federal city in a higher char-
acter than when you left it, go to our next Legislature a member. A word
to the wise is sufficient."
There was then no vacancy in the Senate, for Macon did not
resign till November 14, 1828, but there is no doubt that Green's
letter was in anticipation of such an event, which was probably
expected. Mangum withdrew, however, in favor of Iredell, who
received the appointment, as is seen from the following letter of
General Edward Ward, dated Raleigh, November 30, 1830:
"The friends of Judge Donnel [sic ] are very desirous to know from
you whether you are to be a candidate at the present session of the Gen-
WILLIE PERSON MANGUM 17
eral Assembly for a seat in the Senate of the next Congress of the United
States.
"They are by no means disposed to jeopardize the interests of the Re-
publican Party, by starting, or having two candidates of the same party to
run, when in all probability the opposite party will start a candidate to
defeat their object; your declining to run two years ago, when the Eastern
Republicans were anxious to start you, was the cause of Judge Donnel's
being brought forward at the last session, and many of his friends are
anxious to run him again, but they are, however, anxious to have a friendly
understanding with you upon the subject."
Iredell had been elected to fill out Macon's term, which expired
March 3, 183 1. In 1830 Mangum was a candidate for the full
term, as were also Governor Owen, Judge Donnell, R. D. Spaight
and Governor Stokes. Mangum was thought to be the most avail-
able candidate against what was characterized as the "Spaight
faction," composed of R. D. Spaight, Charles Fisher, R. M.
Saunders and Joseph H. Bryan as leaders, followed by Stokes,
Montgomery, O'Brien, Steadman, Bynum and others. It was
thought that Donnell would prevail over Owen in the race for
Senator and that Spaight would beat him for Governor (letter of
W. M. Sneed, November 18, 1830).
December 2, 1830, Charles L. Hinton writes Mangum:
"There was no general concert, there was a rebellion on the part of the
friends of Owen, Donnel [sic], Fisher and Jesse Spaight with a hope of
bringing each on the turf. . . . Your angry feelings toward Governor
Owen I know can never be allayed. I regret the occurrence. If, as you
say, he has ever been your enemy he has deceived me, for during the sum-
mer he frequently expressed his preference for you and unwillingness to
be in your way."
The fight turned more and more on the defeat of Owen. On
December 3d Romulus M. Saunders gives further news of the
battle :
"Your letter directing the withdrawal of your name was not received
until Owen's nomination and two ballots, having you tied at 89. Yesterday
Owen had 97, you 86, 14 blanks. . . . The intention is if you wish
to decline a further ballot and Donnel [sic] or some other person cannot
succeed to postpone until the next session. . . . Both your sayings and
your letters have been misrepresented. The letter you wrote to Governor
18 NORTH CAROLINA
Owen has been used as a menace or challenge, and he has not thought
proper to call either for General Ward's letter or Colonel Hinton's . . .
Donnel and friends are prepared to co-operate in whatever shall be deemed
advisable. Fisher . . . feels confident your presence and nothing else
can save us from Owen's election. I view his success under existing cir-
cumstances as fatal to our future prospects."
It seems that Owen was finally induced to withdraw in favor
of Mangum, and the latter was chosen Senator. I have not learned
with exactness the reason for his anger with Owen save that it
grew out of the bitterness of this campaign. But on December ist,
in letters to General Ward and Charles L. Hinton, Mangum took
occasion to implicate Owen's "political principles in the strongest
and most unequivocal manner," and with that open frankness and
chivalrous disregard of personal consequences that characterized
him all his life he at once notified Owen of his letters and avowed
his willingness to give him the satisfaction then usual among gen-
tlemen. Owen considered this a challenge and accepted. Louis D.
Henry was his second, while W. M. Sneed, State Senator from
Granville, acted for Mangum ; but through the mediation of
D. F. Caldwell arid an intelligence as sensible as unusual, the sec-
onds appeased the wrath of the principals, and later they became
political friends.
It will be seen that Mangum was elected as a Republican or
Democrat, or follower of Jackson. He had been a Jackson elector
in 1828, and this contest for Senator seems to have been a sort of
friendly squabble among the leaders of the Republican Party.
Mangum had as yet developed few of those tendencies which after-
ward led him into the Whig Party.
His first important speech on the floor of the Senate seems to
have been that on the Tariff of 1832. His sympathies were with
the South on that question, and he was by no means in love with
Jackson's constitutional views, as announced in his famous proc-
lamation to the people of South Carolina ; but while his sympathies
drew him in that direction he was not a nullifier, although often
so charged by his enemies. In January, 1832, Mr. Clay proposed
the removal of all duties from articles which did not come in com-
WILLIE PERSON MANGUM 19
petition with similar articles produced in this country. The effect,
and the purpose, was to make necessary higher rates of duty upon
the articles which could be or were produced by our people.
Mangum said in part:
"Sir, the State from which I come regards this struggle with deep solici-
tude, and the most patriotic anxiety. . . . She deprecates the pres-
ent system of taxation as especially sectional and selfish, and as gradu-
ally undermining the fabric of our noble institutions. She has hitherto
acquiesced in this policy with a dignified moderation, looking to the
extinguishment of the public debt as a period favorable to the alleviation
of her burdens, and as a rectification of the systems. . . . What is the
effect of the resolution upon the table? It is to aggravate the evil. It is
to tax the necessaries of the poor man, while the rich man may revel in
luxuries as free from taxation as the air he breathes. . . . The only
feature of mitigation is to be found in the reduction of revenue. This,
however, is more than counterbalanced by the increased inequality in the
action of the system."
He controverted the claim of constitutional authority to tax
imported foreign goods for purposes of protection. This right was
claimed under the clause "to regulate commerce with foreign na-
tions," and under this clause they assumed the right to annihilate
commerce by the imposition of prohibitory duties. He also dis-
sented from the position taken by Jackson in his annual message
in December, 1830, in which it was claimed that as the States be-
fore the Constitution was adopted had absolute control of the sub-
ject, and as the whole authority to regulate commerce was trans-
ferred to the general government by that instrument, Congress
therefore possessed all the power over the subject which the States
had formerly possessed.
After pointing out the inequalities in the working of the tariff
and its disastrous effects on the South in piling up money in the
hands of manufacturers at the North, he concludes :
"It is money — money — give me money or — sir, if I could coin my heart
into gold, and it were lawful in the sight of Heaven, I would pray God
to give me firmness to do it, to save this Union from the fearful — the
dreadful shock which I verily believe impends."
Of this speech Mangum writes to his wife (February nth) :
20 NORTH CAROLINA
"I was not exactly pleased with my own effort, yet I have reason to be-
lieve that the almost universal opinion of the Senate is that it was elo-
quent and powerful."
Mangum was now leaning away from Jackson, but he was not
one of those who voted against the confirmation of Van Buren as
Minister to England. He spoke on the bill, commonly called the
Force Bill, or bill to collect the revenue in South Carolina, on
January 22d, and writes his wife February 2, 1833:
"We are deeply engaged in the Senate upon South Carolina affairs. I
fear we shall make war upon her. I am opposed to all harsh measures."
It was thus that Mangum's alienation from the old Jacksonian
republicanism was developed: 1. He was hostile to Jackson's
tariff system, and also to that of Clay. He believed in a tariff
for revenue only ; and indeed Clay at that time was forced by
stress of circumstances to abandon protection and come round to
his position. In his anxiety to prevent impending war between
the sections, Clay, after a conference with Calhoun, drew a bill
which his friends first put through the House of Representatives
and which he had no difficulty in putting through the Senate,
which by a gradual process, running through nine years, com-
pletely abandoned protection and brought the duties down to the
revenue standard of 20 per cent, ad valorem. As agreed, Cal-
houn voted for this bill, and it became a law March 2, 1833, and
it settled the sectional troubles of that day. 2. He opposed Jack-
son's policy of coercing South Carolina, while himself opposed
nullification. 3. In 1834 came up the question of the United
States Bank, its recharter, the removal of the deposits, the cen-
sure on Jackson and Benton's Expunging resolution. He had
long seen the drift in the matter of the bank and had proclaimed
his hostility to Jackson as early as January 19, 1832, in a letter to
William Gaston :
"I think it is to be very much regretted that the United States Bank has
come before Congress at this session. I regard the continuance of that in-
stitution as of almost indispensable necessity.
"By deferring its application to next session I have no doubt, with but
slight modification (to save appearances), it would have met with the Ex-
WILLIE PERSON MANGUM 21
ecutive favor. It is now more than doubtful whether it will — and the whole
may ultimately take the appearance of a trial of strength between General
Jackson and the bank. In that case the bank will go down. For General
Jackson's popularity is of a sort not to be shaken at present. I hope for
the best results from the wise and patriotic counsels of Mr. McLane."
4. In the State there was also bitter warfare over the question
of instruction of Senators. This principle Mangum denied, while
Bedford Brown, his colleague in the Senate (who had succeeded
John Branch), accepted. In fact, these two Senators came more
and more to represent the two wings into which the old Republi-
can Party was splitting in North Carolina as elsewhere. In 1834
they canvassed the State on the subject of instruction. They
aroused great interest and some excitement. The partizans of
each vied with their opponents in giving the biggest public din-
ners and forming the largest processions. Brown stood for the
strict construction idea, which supported Jackson and developed
into the modern Democratic Party. As we have seen, Mangum
was more of a latitudinarian, anti-Jackson, pro-bank, and later
came to support Clay. Out of this latter class grew the Whig
Party. Besides Clay and Mangum, it numbered among its adher-
ents Preston and McDuffie of South Carolina ; Poindexter of Mis-
sissippi, Berrien of Georgia, Bell of Tennessee and others. In
North Carolina it claimed Badger, Graham, Gaston, the Galeses
and others. Hugh L. White, representing the hostility to Van
Buren, Jackson's political heir, was the candidate of this still unor-
ganized party for President in 1836, and Mangum was freely
talked of as his running mate.
The tendency to party cleavage in Mangum's career was
accentuated and confirmed by the bank struggle. The Whig
Party, of which we may now begin to speak, with the help of
Calhoun, concentrated their forces in opposition to Jackson. The
United States Bank was selected as the subject over which the
trial of strength should be. The bank had never been popular in
North Carolina, but under the leadership of Mangum, Gaston and
others it gained ground, and branch banks were established. In
fact, Iredell writes Mangum February 4, 1832: "Whether right
22 NORTH CAROLINA
or wrong, that bank is at this time very popular in our State; I
believe, indeed I know, it has done us vast good, and as yet we
have felt no evils from it." Calhoun allied himself with Benjamin
Watkins Leigh in Virginia and Mangum in North Carolina, not
only because they were representatives of the pro-bank idea, but
also because they represented the opposition to receiving instruc-
tions from the Assembly, and the party in those States which stood
out against the tyranny and extra-constitutional assumptions of
Jackson. 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 North
Carolina Legislature of 1834-35 was Democratic or pro- Jackson,
and hence opposed to Mangum. It availed itself of the oppor-
tunity offered and instructed him to vote for the Expunging reso-
lution (North Carolina acts, 1834-35, p. 95). These instructions,
with a bitter arraignment of the party in power, Mangum refused
to obey. He said that in reference to the instructions he would
avail himself of the occasion barely to say that he should not con-
form to them. He should vote against the Expunging resolution.
The Legislature had no right to require him to become the instru-
ment of his own personal degradation. He repelled the exercise
of so vindictive a power ; and when applied to himself he repelled
it with scorn and indignation. The members of the Legislature
were servants and representatives of the people. He was likewise
one. That they were disposed to guard with jealousy the honor
of the State, it was not his province to discuss or question. He,
likewise, felt it his duty to guard the honor of the State, and not
less to guard his own personal honor ; both, in his con-
ception, imperiously required him to disregard the resolutions ;
and, that point being settled in his mind, he trusted no one
who knew him would entertain a doubt as to his course on this
subject.
His course in the Senate was applauded by his political friends
in the State and denounced by his opponents (including Brown,
his colleague), but the weight of opinion in the State, so far at
least as it found expression in the form of memorials to Con-
WILLIE PERSON MANGUM 23
gress, seems to have been decidedly pro-bank and in favor of
Mangum.
In 1836 came up for consideration Jackson's scheme of specie
payments. Mangum seems to have been rather uncertain as to
the proper steps, but even then saw the growing danger from cor-
porations. He said on the specie payments matter: That the
measure contemplated an important change in the currency of
the country, and he preferred it should be left in charge of its
friends, who better understood it. He was perfectly ready to
vote for it, if it came recommended by the gentlemen from the
new States ; and he was willing to do so because he looked upon
it to be a remedy against speculation in the public lands; and
because it might possibly bring about a sounder state in the circu-
lating medium. They might be chimeras, but he believed that all
these wealthy corporate institutions were inimical to a spirit of
liberty, which he preferred to all the wealth and splendor of the
great cities. Banks, railroads, stock companies of every descrip-
tion, might be useful, but he was opposed to them all, because,
in his opinion, they were inconsistent with the true spirit of lib-
erty. On another occasion he opposed giving pre-emption rights
to squatters on the public domain in the West.
The campaign of 1836 was conducted in North Carolina on the
United States Bank, nullification and the instruction of Senators.
The Legislature chosen was at first Whig, but Muse of Pasquotank
resigned and was succeeded by a Democrat. This threw the Legis-
lature into the Democratic camp, and Mangum, interpreting this
as a condemnation of his course, resigned (last of November or
first of December, 1836) and was succeeded by Robert Strange,
a Democrat, who took his seat December 15, 1836.
In 1837 the eleven electoral votes of South Carolina, which
Calhoun was said to have carried "in his vest pocket," were given
to Mangum for President. This, in view of the fact that Mangum
had supported some of the policies of the great South Carolinian,
raised a howl in the Democratic papers that there had been a cor-
rupt bargain between the two. Of this there is no evidence.
There is in fact little evidence that the vote of South Carolina was
24 NORTH CAROLINA
due more to the action of Calhoun than of William C. Preston,
his Whig colleague in the Senate, a personal friend, and for whom
Mangum named his only son (cf. Dodd's Macon, 335-397).
After his resignation from the Senate in 1836 Mangum retired
to his plantation and returned to the law ; but politics was to him
as the breath of his nostrils. He was no less in public life, though
not in public office; in 1837 he declined to become a candidate
for the House of Representatives, though strong pressure was
brought to bear upon him; but in 1840 he was sent to the State
Senate from Orange County. He was chairman of the Commit-
tee on Education and assisted in drawing an act to provide public
schools for the State. Although since revised and altered, the
Act of 1840 is in reality the basis of the common school system of
North Carolina to-day (see Weeks's "Beginning of the Common
School System in the South" in Report United States Commis-
sioner of Education, 1896-97, p. 1422).
In the meantime the organization of the Whig Party was being
perfected. It was composed of men with many different shades
of political belief and with very different political antecedents, but
all were drawn together by the particular hope of defeating the
Locofos, as the Van Buren branch of the Democratic Party was
called. The name Whig, so Clay explained, was generic and was
expressly adopted to embrace men of all political opinions. In
1839 this newly formed party met in convention in Harrisburg to
nominate candidates for President and Vice-President. Mangum
was a member and went to the convention as a friend of Clay. It
was a time when both North and South had to be propitiated in
the matter of nominations ; when the nomination for President
went to Harrison, Clay's chances were gone. Mangum thought
that Clay had been unfairly treated and that his own acceptance
of the second place would prove him untrue to his friend, espe-
cially as he was also a member of the convention. This was his
reply in substance to a committee which asked him to accept the
second place. The committee went to him three times and urged
the place upon him, but their solicitations were unheeded. This
is the report that comes to me of the matter from his family, and
WILLIE PERSON MANGUM 25
I have found contemporary evidence in Niles's Register which
confirms this account. The family account says further that when
Mangum's name was under consideration Governor Owen, who
was president of the convention, remarked, "We have better things
in store for Mr. Mangum." This would imply that the North
Carolina delegation was not a unit in his support, which we learn
also from other sources, and this no doubt had its weight in
defeating any aspirations he may have cherished. On the other
hand, Dr. Lyon G. Tyler, son of President Tyler, claims that
his father was from the first the choice of the convention, while
Henry A. Wise, in his uncritical biography of Tyler, "Seven
Decades of the Union" (pp. 158, 161, 169), claims that Tyler's
nomination had been settled long in advance.
The question of instruction of Senators had now received a
new turn in North Carolina. Mangum had been instructed in
1834 to vote for Benton's Expunging resolution and had refused
to do so or to resign, and this had brought him into sharp conflict
with Bedford Brown, his colleague, as we have seen. After his
resignation, Brown and Strange, his successor, voted for Benton's
resolution (passed January 16, 1837). The North Carolina
Assembly of 1838 was Whig. It censured Brown and Strange
for voting for the Expunging resolution and then instructed them
to oppose Van Buren's sub-treasury system, to advocate a division
of the proceeds from the sale of public lands among the States
according to population, and to endeavor to secure reform in the
public expenditures and a reduction of taxes (December 8, 1838).
The Senators were both Democrats, and in a letter, dated Decem-
ber 31, 1838, claimed not to understand the purport of the cen-
sure and resolutions of the Assembly. Their resignations were
finally forwarded during the Harrison- Van Buren campaign in
1840 and caused considerable excitement.
In that year the State went with the Whigs. Mangum was
re-elected to the Senate as a Whig to succeed Brown, and took
his seat December 9, 1840; William A. Graham, also a Whig, suc-
ceeded Strange and took his seat December 10. As Brown's term
expired March 4, 1841, Mangum was chosen to fill the full term
26 NORTH CAROLINA
beginning on that date, and so served continuously by re-elections
from December 9, 1840, to March 3, 1853. During his senatorial
terms he served on the committees on roads and canals, pensions,
foreign relations, judiciary, militia, District of Columbia, finance
and as chairman of the committee on naval affairs in 184 1. In
general he advocated the policies of the Whig Party. The Whigs
repealed Van Buren's Independent Treasury or sub-treasury
and passed an act establishing a new Bank of the United States,
which was vetoed by Tyler. They then passed an act for a fiscal
corporation which was to have the functions of a bank, and the
draft of which had been submitted to Tyler. This act he also
vetoed ; he was then read out of the Whig Party. After these
failures Mangum favored depositing the public money in State
banks, regulated by law, and said that not one Whig in five thou-
sand in North Carolina was opposed to a national bank. He
opposed the Exchequer Board scheme, devised by the Secretary
of the Treasury. This Board was to consist of three men who
were to have charge of the finances. It was denounced with great
severity by Mangum and others and defeated. He regarded it as
placing the public purse as well as the sword in the hands of the
President.
On Tyler's accession to the Presidency, Samuel L. Southard
of New Jersey, who had been previously chosen President of the
Senate pro tempore, became its regular presiding officer and as
such acting Vice-President. Southard resigned May 3, 1842,
and on May 31st Mangum was chosen his successor. He continued
to occupy this position till March 4, 1845 > ft was he who that day
inaugurated the practice of turning back the hands of the clock in
order to lengthen the official day.
In 1844 the Whigs opposed the immediate annexation of Texas
and rejected Tyler's treaty on that subject; in 1846 Mangum
strongly opposed the attitude of the country on the Oregon Ques-
tion, which threatened to involve us in a war with England ; he
also opposed the war with Mexico. In 1847 he was offered the
nomination for President by the executive committee of the Native
American Party of Pennsylvania; in 1848 he was much talked of
WILLIE PERSON MANGUM 27
as a running mate to Judge McLean of Ohio, who was being con-
sidered for the Presidency; again in 1852 he could have had the
Whig nomination for Vice-President, but because of the temper
of the people in North Carolina declined.
It will be noted that at the time of Mangum's election to the
highest office in the gift of the Senate, and what was at that par-
ticular time but one remove from the Presidency, he had had less
than seven years of senatorial life in all and had been returned to
the Senate less than two years before. He had been chairman of
the Senate Committee on Naval Affairs in 1841 ; it is evident that
he had rapidly forged ahead and had in a very short time taken
high rank among the leaders of his day. This position of leader-
ship he continued to hold. He was not a frequent speaker. He
did his work outside the Senate chamber in settling disputes,
shaping policies and keeping the running gear of the party in
good order. He was such an astute political manager that his
political enemies were even inclined to regard him as a Machia-
velli. Clay was perhaps his warmest personal friend, although he
was hardly less intimate with Webster. The secret of his power
seems to have been in his masterful intellect, his dignity and
character. He never neglected his duty ; was a thorough parlia-
mentarian and was never uninformed as to anything pertaining
to his station. The Senate ranked him higher than his own
people.
We have a contemporary estimate of him as a presiding officer.
Caleb Atwater of Ohio, in his "Mysteries of Washington City"
(Washington, 1844), says:
"He presides in the Senate and occupies the Vice-President's room in
the Capitol. He is a man above the common size, of fair complexion and
commanding air, rather grave in his manners, but very agreeable and ap-
pears to be kind-hearted. His voice is clear, sufficiently loud and distinct to
be heard all over the Senate chamber and its gallery. On the whole, he is,
taking him all in all, the best presiding officer that I ever saw in any legis-
lative assembly. He is always at his ease, always dignified and always
agreeable. His appearance is that of a man about forty years old. He is
a Whig, unwavering and unflinching, yet, like the Kentucky Senators, not
a persecuting Whig, often voting to confirm men in offices who are not
28 NORTH CAROLINA
Whigs or anything else — long. He appears to look more to the interests
of his country than his party." (Page 131.)
Alexander H. Stephens said he had great influence in the
Senate ; that he spoke with clearness, conciseness, terseness and
power and dealt very little in the flowers of rhetoric or the orna-
ments of oratory. Hannibal Hamlin called him one of the ablest
men of his time. In fact, it has been said that he had more
influence in the Senate than any other Southern man of his
day.
The whole of Judge Mangum's life was spent in the service of
his State. For thirty-five years, 1818 to 1853, when his health
had already failed, to be followed soon after by a disease of the
spinal column, he was almost constantly in the public service. He
was so passionately devoted to the Union and to the interests of
his State that his private affairs, had it not been for the business
capacity of his wife and daughter, would have been seriously
impaired. As a campaigner he has seldom had an equal in the
State, for he was subtile and persuasive and skilful as a dialecti-
cian. His superior among North Carolina speakers has never
appeared. In the day of great orators in the Senate he held his
own, and I am told that traditions of his fame in oratory still
linger in the Senate chamber like a sweet aroma of a long-
vanished past ; the reputation of an orator, however, does not con-
sist in the things that men remember but in the memory of the
effects produced, and it is impossible for the historian to transfer
to writing the persuasiveness of his compelling periods.
He was for many years a trustee of the University of North
Carolina; received the degree of A.B. in 1815, A.M. in 1818, and
LL.D. in 1845. He was often in demand as a commencement
orator, but seems to have carefully avoided such engagements.
He was a Mason and an Odd Fellow ; in personal appearance was
large, being over six feet in height and well proportioned ; full
of dignity and courtesy, his stateliness was noticeable and com-
manding. He was successful as a lawyer and judge, and, while
a man of splendid accomplishment, was still more remarkable for
the suggestiveness of his thought (see Tourgee's "A Royal
WILLIE PERSON MANGUM 29
Gentleman," for a pregnant paragraph on this phase of Southern
character).
On the more personal and human side Mangum was the life
and soul of a dinner party, and his stories were full of pith and
point. The charm of his conversation was extraordinary, his
sincerity, his mellifluous voice, the grace and dignity of his per-
sonal carriage, his affability and kindness, his love of nature in
general and birds in particular, his unbounded charity — were
winning qualities which made him honored, respected and loved.
Of his kindness in particular Judge Edwin G. Reade wrote in
1865 that he "was always interested in the young and in the
friendless. It was characteristic of him ; whenever he could, he
made them his companions and advised them and praised them,
and when need was defended them." Of his powers as a popular
orator, he says : "He was almost all his life in the public coun-
cils, and no man of his day was esteemed wiser. But his most
interesting exhibitions were before his own people as a popular
orator. It was then that his commanding person, his rich, flowing
language, his clarion voice, his graceful gesticulation and his
genial humor, made him almost irresistible. No one ever tired of
listening to him. He never let himself down, was never afraid of
overshooting his audience."
And in more recent years the late Daniel R. Goodloe wrote :
"As presiding officer he discharged its duties with distinguished ability
and courtesy, and received the unanimous thanks of the body. He be-
came an ardent friend of Mr. Clay, and in 1852 took an active part in
bringing out General Scott to succeed General Taylor.
"Mr. Mangum was an admirable conversationalist. My friend, John
B. Fry, who is a devoted admirer of Mr. Clay, whom he knew intimately,
as he did Mr. Mangum, thinks the latter excelled the great Kentuckian in
this accomplishment. I knew him well, and I have never met his equal
in this regard, taking him all in all ; for he never forgot to listen, as well
as to talk, which most superior men who are good talkers are apt to do.
"Judge Mangum was my best friend, to whom I am greatly indebted for
kindness. I came here in 1844 in search of employment. He found it for
me as associate editor of a daily Whig paper, The Whig Standard. ... At
the end of the campaign in November, I owed him nearly fifty dollars;
and when I was able to repay him, two years later, he was unwilling to
30 NORTH CAROLINA
admit that I owed him anything. When I told him the exact amount, and
insisted on paying, he urged me to go and buy me a suit of clothes. How-
ever, I persisted in forcing the money on him, and he at length received
it. It is my pleasure, and my duty, to record this fact, illustrative of the
generous nature of one of North Carolina's greatest men."
As the war came on Judge Mangum naturally sided with the
South, but he was never a secessionist ; in fact, he was a strong
Union man till the war became a reality. He then went with the
South and sent his only son to the front. The death of this son
caused a return of the paralysis with which he had been afflicted
for years, and he died at his country seat, Walnut Hall, then in
Orange, now in Durham County, North Carolina, September 7,
1 86 1 (not September 14th).
Judge Mangum married September 30, 1819, Charity Alston
Cain (1795- 1 873). She was the daughter of William Cain and
of Mrs. Sarah (Alston) Dudley. The Cains were Irish and set-
tled in Maryland. William Cain was born in Baltimore ; migrated
to Orange County, North Carolina ; became a prosperous merchant
and planter ; founded a large and well-known family, and at the
first meeting of the trustees of the University of North Carolina,
December 18, 1789, made to that body a larger donation than they
had up to that time received from any other source. Mrs. Man-
gum's mother was the daughter of James Alston (died 1761) of
Orange and granddaughter of John Alston (1673-1758), founder
of the North Carolina family of that name and a justice of the
colonial Supreme Court (q. v.). To Judge and Mrs. Mangum
were born five children: Sallie Alston (1824-96); Martha
Person (Pattie) (1828-1902) ; Catharine Davis, died in infancy;
Mary Sutherland (1832-1902) ; and William Preston (1837-61).
The son was educated at the University of North Carolina
and began the study of law, but delayed practice to attend his
father's plantation ; he volunteered as a private, became second
lieutenant in Company B, Sixth North Carolina Regiment, Colonel
Charles F. Fisher, C. S. A., and died July 28, 1861, from the
effects of wounds received at the first battle of Manassas.
Sallie Alston Mangum married in 185 1 Colonel Martin Wash-
WILLIE PERSON MANGUM 31
ington Leach (1806-69), an older brother of General James
Madison Leach (1815-91), and an extensive planter and capi-
talist of Randolph County, North Carolina. They had three chil-
dren to attain maturity and who are still living: Mrs. Julian A.
Turner of Greensboro, Mrs. Stephen B. Weeks and Miss Annie
Preston Leach of Randolph County, North Carolina. The third
generation is represented by three boys and six girls. None of
the other children of Judge Mangum ever married. Misses
Martha and Mary Mangum resided at Walnut Hall till their
death. During the war and for some years after its close they
conducted at their home a select school for young ladies, which
drew patrons from many sections of the State.
This brief sketch of the very active career of Judge Mangum
is based mainly on his correspondence and on family history. His
public career will be found in the journals of the Assembly and
of Congress, while the genealogy of his family will be found in
part in the supplement to Groves's "The Alstons and Allstons of
North Carolina and South Carolina." Short sketches of his career
have appeared in the various biographical works dealing with the
United States and North Carolina, but no suitable biography, no
worthy sketch even has hitherto appeared. There are at least four
oil portraits of Mangum, one in possession of Willie Mangum
Person, Esq., of Louisburg, North Carolina, one in the hall of
the Dialectic Society at Chapel Hill and two in possession of the
family, including the one from which the accompanying engrav-
ing is made. His correspondence, large in amount and varied in
character, is in my hands, and I have in preparation a volume on
his life and times which I hope to make definitive.
Stephen B. Weeks.
WILLIE PERSON MANGUM, JR.
'ILLIE PERSON MANGUM, JR., was the
second child and oldest son of Priestley Hinton
Mangum, brother of the distinguished judge
and senator, and of Rebecca Hilliard Sutherland
of Wake Forest, Wake County, North Carolina.
He was born in Wake County, May 7, 1827, and
was on his mother's side descended from Colonel Ransom Suther-
land, one of the patriots of the Revolution. His father was born
April 3, 1795, and, like his uncle, was educated at the University of
North Carolina, took the whole course in two years and received
the A.B. degree in 181 5 with first honor. He chose the law as a
profession, settled in Wake, but in February, 1830, removed to
Hillsboro, where he lived till his death, September 17, 1850.
Unlike his better known brother, he stuck closely to the law, had
a large practice in Wake, Granville and adjoining counties, and
accumulated what was a handsome estate for his day in negroes
and real estate. Besides the subject of this sketch there were
other children: Catharine (Kate), born 1825, who died soon after
her father ; Rebecca, who married John R. Williams of Arkansas ;
Mary L., who married J. J. James, for some years editor of the
Biblical Recorder; Priestley Hinton, Jr., who studied medicine but
devoted himself to farming; and Leonard Henderson, who was
graduated from Princeton, studied law and removed to Arkansas,
saw hard service in the Confederate Army, went into politics, be-
WILLIE PERSON MANGUM, Jr. 33
came a judge of one of the inferior courts in Arkansas and died
in Washington City, April, 1903.
In 1838 Willie P. Mangum, Jr., entered the Bingham School
and remained there till 1844, when he entered Wake Forest Col-
lege. He was there two years ; went to the University of North
Carolina in 1846 and was graduated in 1848, delivering an oration
on the character of Sir Walter Raleigh. He became a tutor in
Wake Forest College and remained one year, when he began the
study of law under his father; after his death he removed to
Washington City and took a position in the Census Office. In
1853 he returned to North Carolina and resumed the study of
law, this time in Raleigh, under Judge Badger, and later con-,
tinued his studies in New York City under Honorable E. W.
Stoughton, judge and later United States Minister to Russia. He
was admitted to the bar in New York State, in the District of
Columbia and to practice before the Supreme Court of the United
States, and the next few years were devoted to his profession.
Unlike the rest of his family in the civil struggle which was now
coming on, he sided with the North, and on March 27, 1861, was
commissioned by the State Department as United States Consul at
Ningpo, China. He arrived there December 11, 1861, two days
after its capture by the T'ai-p'ing rebels, under Fang. It soon be-
came necessary to take measures for the safety of the foreign com-
munity at Ningpo, and on January 12, 1862, proceedings were
taken to this end and for the government of the 75,000 Chinese
who had crowded for protection into the foreign quarter of the
city. This heavy duty fell upon the consuls of the treaty powers,
and as the French consul was practically incapacitated it was dis-
charged by the consuls of England and the United States,
Mr. Mangum and his colleague holding court on alternate weeks,
from January 12, to May 10, 1862, when power was restored to the
former authorities through a bombardment of the city by the
English and French. These judicial services were highly appreci-
ated by the people, who expressed their thanks in oriental fashion
by presenting to each of the consuls a large umbrella, like that
borne before mandarins of the first rank.
34 NORTH CAROLINA
In the Spring of 1864 Mangum was transferred to the consulate
at Chin-Kiang, on the Yang-tse, at the junction of the Grand
Canal with that river, but the confinement resulting from the dis-
turbances in Ningpo and the Chekiang province had undermined
his health and compelled his return to America, for which he
sailed April 29, 1864. The change of scene, the sea voyage, and
Winter restored his health, and on March 18, 1865, he was made
consul to Nagasaki, Japan ; he was reappointed by Johnson,
May 29, 1865, and there he remained till 1880.
He was detailed to take charge of the consulate general in
Shanghai, as Vice-Consul-General, February 1, 1867, to March 19,
1868, in the absence of George F. Seward, the Consul-General, and
in this connection was also United States postal agent ; he organ-
ized and started the first American mail service in China, their
first office being in the consulate general in Shanghai. After
resuming his duties at Nagasaki he continued his postal work till
arrangements were perfected by the Japanese Government for
taking over their mail service.
In December, 1868, along with Reverend Guido Verbeck, the
apostle of Japan, he spent some days, by invitation, in visiting the
Prince of Hizen in Saga, his capital. They were the first white
men to be seen in Saga, and this was one way taken by the Prince
to reconcile his people to the impending changes, for the clans
of Satsuma, Choshiu, Tosa, and Hizen were leaders in the strug-
gle then going on against the Shoguns (Tokugawa family), and
out of which came the restoration of the Mikado to supreme power
and the opening of Japan to the Western world. The Prince of
Hizen remained the firm friend of Mangum and presented him
many rare specimens of ceramics, which cannot now be duplicated.
Mangum sailed for America November 10, 1872, and his last
visit to North Carolina was in the spring of 1873. He reached
Japan on his return July 16, 1873, and resumed his duties at
Nagasaki. In the Spring of 1874 he was chosen sole arbitrator
in the case of the Takashima coal mines, a matter which involved
England, Holland and Japan in many intricate and opposing
views and had been long in the courts. No satisfactory conclusion
WILLIE PERSON MANGUM, Jr. 35
seeming possible, it was decided to submit the whole matter to
three arbitrators, one to be chosen by each nationality ; but, on
comparing the nominations, it was found that Mangum had been
chosen by each, a singular and remarkable proof of the esteem in
which he was held. His decision was rendered the following
summer and was acceptable to all.
Mangum's health was always more or less delicate, and with
the hope that a colder climate would restore him, he was trans-
ferred to Tien-Tsin, in North China, March 29, 1880. He left
Japan in September of that year, but the colder climate failed to
do what was hoped from it, and he died in Tien-Tsin, February 11,
1881. He was temporarily interred at that port, but was later
removed to America and reinterred in the Congressional cemetery
in Washington City.
He was long dean of the consular corps in Nagasaki and was
held in high esteem by his colleagues. He was of a pleasant,
courteous disposition, dignified, but genial and charming in con-
versation, and while energetic and business-like in important
affairs, in unessential things was disposed to the doctrine of
laissez faire. He was elected March 20, 1866, a non-resident mem-
ber of the North China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, and
on June 30, 1876, for long services rendered to his consulate, was
decorated by the King of Portugal with the Royal Portuguese
Military Order of Our Lord Jesus Christ. He was highly
esteemed by resident and visiting Americans and the Japanese
soon learned to consult with and trust him in many matters of im-
portance outside of his consular duties. Although long a non-
resident, Mr. Mangum never forgot the State of his nativity.
That he considered it his home to the last is shown by the filing
of his will for probate in Wake, the county of his birth.
Mr. Mangum married in Washington, D. C, on October 24,
1855, Miss Fannie Vaulx Ladd, daughter of Joseph Brown Ladd
and Harriet Vaulx Conway, widow of Major W. H. Nicoll,
U. S. A. No children were born to this marriage. Mrs. Mangum
was a woman of decided literary tastes ; she was an artist, and an
authority on ceramics and conchology and to some extent on
36
NORTH CAROLINA
numismatics. She gathered an extensive and costly library and
made a great collection of ceramics from China and Japan, many
of them being in costly patterns, gifts from distinguished person-
ages, which can no longer be procured or produced. She made
also a great and valuable collection of shells. Her collections were
in part destroyed by fire ; the remainder, after being somewhat aug-
mented by other selections from the East, were presented to the
University of North Carolina. She presided over the social life of
the foreign residents in Nagasaki, accompanied her husband in all
his travels, brought back his body to America, and spent her last
days in Washington City, where she died in 1901.
This sketch is made up from a sketch printed by Mrs. Mangum
in the North Carolina University Magazine in 1890, and from
materials in possession of the family.
Stephen B. Weeks.
........
\\\
t
C^lsls<3
PRIESTLEY HINTON MANGUM
RIESTLEY HINTON MANGUM, one of the
most progressive agriculturalists of the State,
was born on August 21, 1829, in Wake Forest
Township, Wake County. The Mangums are
of Welch extraction, the first of the name com-
ing to America being John Mangum, who emi-
grated to this country from Wales. The family early settled in
Orange County, where its members were highly esteemed for their
capacity and sterling worth. Mr. P. H. Mangum, Sr., graduated
in the same class as his brother, Willie P. Mangum, at the Uni-
versity of North Carolina in 1815, and studied law. He repre-
sented Orange County in the Legislature of 1832, but he was not
drawn into a public career like his more gifted brother, who
became one of the most distinguished of North Carolinians. Mr.
Willie Mangum was an orator of the first class and a jurist who
was an ornament to the bench, and a statesman who reflected
great honor on the people of North Carolina. He was elected to
the United States Senate in 1831, and again in 1841 and again
in 1847. In 1837 South Carolina cast all of her electoral votes
for him for President. And five years later, when Vice-President
Tyler had succeeded to the Presidency, Mr. Mangum, who was
esteemed as one of the most distinguished of the Senators, was by
the choice of his fellow-members elected President of the Senate
and continued to hold that position for three years ; and it has been
38 NORTH CAROLINA
well said of him that he was equal to every station he occupied.
He, Governor Graham, Mr. Macon and Judge Badger were the
most influential sons North Carolina has produced.
Mr. Priestley Mangum married Miss Rebecca Hilliard Suther-
land, whose father, Colonel Ransom Sutherland, was a Revolu-
tionary officer and served with high distinction during the war for
independence.
The influence of such parents and of such association in his early
life was not without its effect in forming the character of the sub-
ject of this sketch. His father was a man of fine judgment and
strong common sense, a man of high integrity, well educated and
a lawyer of great influence in his community ; but he was fond of
home life and preferred a residence on his farm, and as Mrs. Man-
gum unhappily died when her son was very young, he fell more
particularly under the directing care of his father than is usual
with children.
He was prepared for college by William J. Bingham, the second
of that name, and entering Wake Forest College, graduated at that
institution in 1851. Intending to devote himself to agriculture,
he immediately began the life of a farmer and located on the farm
where he was born two miles west of Wake Forest ; and there, on
December 16, 1856, he brought his bride, Miss Mary Thomas
Price, and six children, now surviving, blessed their union.
Agriculture has always been the most important industry of the
people of North Carolina, and it has employed the best talent of
the State. In the days of slavery the finest minds and strongest
men were engaged in this occupation, and they brought to it their
best intelligence, and it was esteemed the noblest employment for
a man's capabilities, as it was accompanied by a spirit of independ-
ence and of self-reliance and of noble manhood that was not so
thoroughly fostered by other vocations.
Since the abolition of slavery it has been attended with more
difficulties, and its successful practice has required even closer at-
tention and more strenuous endeavors ; but still it is a field for the
exercise of superior talent, and Mr. Mangum's career is a notable
illustration of this fact, for it has been said that "by his farm he
PRIESTLEY HINTON MANGUM 39
has reflected as much credit on the State as his uncle did by his
distinguished services in the Senate of the United States." The
very fields amid which he was born and reared have been the scene
of his exploits as a successful and intelligent farmer. His methods
have attracted wide attention, and his farm has been held up before
the agriculturalists of the State as an example. Indeed, one of the
foremost men of Mecklenburg County, which has always been
noted for its fine farms and improved methods, has been par-
ticularly pronounced in calling attention to the advantages of the
new methods introduced and used by Mr. Mangum ; and residents
of other parts of the State have recommended the adoption of the
system practiced on this model farm. In an article entitled
"A Model Farmer," a judicious and intelligent editor says:
"Mr. Mangum's wheat was just about ripening and the fields of golden
grain presented a most attractive scene. One field of thirty acres would
yield at least thirty bushels to the acre. In the same field was clover knee
high. In another large field was a good stand of cotton, which last year
averaged over a bale to the acre, there were several fields of clover and
other grasses, and there were stacks of last year's hay not yet used. The
cattle looked fat and sleek, the milch cows with distended bags, and many
of improved breeds. The hogs were kept in a clover field and literally
looked like they were 'living in clover/ so fat and healthy were they. The
barns and stables were commodious and conveniently arranged, and large
piles of barnyard manure showed that Mr. Mangum did not depend upon
bought fertilizers. We saw quite a number of the most improved labor-sav-
ing machines, which nowadays are necessary for profitable farming."
As eloquently as these facts speak of the successful results of
Mr. Mangum's farming operations, they are also evidence of the
judgment and intelligence which he brings to his aid in following
his business as an agriculturalist. Another illustration of his su-
perior merit is to be found in his progressiveness. He devised and
introduced the modified terrace and used them in his fields, doing
away entirely with hillside ditches. Under his system the land
is prevented from washing and it can be cultivated more easily
than under the system of ditches and without any waste. These
terraces are from one to two feet high and about ten feet wide and
carry off the water in a gently flowing current. In constructing
40 NORTH CAROLINA
them he utilized his old hillside ditches, plowing down the upper
bank several times, but allowing the low embankment to remain.
In front of this, where the ditch was, is a space of ten feet on a
dead level. This level drain has a fall of i| inches to 13 feet,
4 inches. The guide row is then staked off and horizontal furrows
run plowing through this level drain and the embankment just as
they chance to go. To run these terraces a spirit level set in a
light frame 13 feet, 4 inches wide is used, and of course much
judgment is needed to make them. Plowing down the hillside
across the ten-foot level drain and lightly over the embankment,
the water is distributed uniformly and slowly, and in the severest
rain will never overflow. Whatever sediment or soil washes down
is saved, the terrace gradually gaining more soil and becoming the
richest part of the field. General Barringer, in his account of this
fine farm, says :
"We saw land which was formerly ravines and gulleys presenting a
beautiful and uniform slope. The terrace system as devised by Mr. Man-
gum rids the field of grass. Every foot of land is under cultivation."
His system has attracted general attention and has found such
favor as to have been adopted by other progressive and intelligent
farmers in the hillside country with advantage. If he who has
made two blades of grass to grow where one grew before is to be
commended, the advantage to agriculture of the devices in-
augurated by Mr. Mangum are still more beneficial, and are yet
more worthy of high commendation.
In his political affiliations Mr. Mangum, like his illustrious uncle
and other members of his family, was a Whig before the Civil
War, but because of the issues evolved since that period, he has
affiliated with the Democratic Party.
He is a member of the Episcopal Church and his walk in life
has been consistent with his religious profession. A busy man,
earnest and active in his agricultural pursuits, he has had no time
for sports or amusements, and he finds sufficient exercise in horse-
back riding over his farm, every part of which is constantly under
his supervision. £ ^ Ash^
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