My Great, Great Grandfather Bartholomew Figures Moore, Father of the NC Bar, On Governor Holden
"Holden's impeachment is demanded by a sense of public virtue and due regard to the honor of the state. He is an exceedingly corrupt man and ought to be placed before the people as a public example of a tyrant condemned and punished."
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After
the military overthrow of North Carolina’s government in 1865,
political opportunist William Woods Holden was appointed provisional
governor by Andrew Johnson. An organizer of the Republican party in the
State, he assumed the governor’s chair in 1868 through election
corruption and disenfranchisement of white North Carolina citizens.
Holden biographer William C. Harris wrote: “Most contemporaries
characterized Holden as a bitter, unscrupulous, and arrogant demagogue
who frequently changed his political stripes to advance his own
ambitions.”
Bernhard Thuersam, Chairman
North Carolina War Between the States Sesquicentennial Commission
"The Official Website of the North Carolina WBTS Sesquicentennial"
Governor Holden’s Corrupt Promised Land:
“Governor
Holden in his inaugural address laid down the doctrine that no part in
government should be played by those who had opposed reconstruction. He
then advocated and threatened the use of force by the State
administration. These two ideas, with his defense of the carpetbaggers,
were prophetic of the character of his administration, for it was
bitterly partisan throughout, force was employed to uphold it, and it
was entirely controlled by carpetbaggers.
With
the one exception of John Pool, who was, throughout his administration,
his evil genius, no one had any such upon him as was exerted by the
corrupt gang of aliens who infested the State and surrounded him. All
played on his ambition, and there lay his most fatal weakness. Into
their hands he committed his future, believing that high national honors
were soon to be his, and the result was not only disastrous to himself,
but well-nigh ruinous to the State.
The
first matter to receive the attention of the governor was, as was to be
expected, the filling of such offices as lay within his gift. [The]
governor busied himself with the appointments, keeping clearly in mind
their political value, and taking care that the Negroes obtained their
full share of these cheap honors.
The
office of magistrate in North Carolina had always been one of honor and
importance. It now became a by-word and a reproach. Governor Holden’s
appointments were notoriously poor and, in the main, the white men
appointed were not much more fitted to discharge the duties of the
office than were the Negroes. Hundreds of them could not read or write
and prisoners often had to make out the papers to which the justice
laboriously affixed his mark. Much of the later trouble in the
administration of justice was due to these ignorant and often corrupt
appointees of the governor.
The
towns next won the governor’s attention and, without any authority, he
commenced the appointment of mayors and commissioners of the various
towns of the State. The municipal officers of Raleigh refused to yield
to the new [city] administration which was headed by the governor’s
brother-in-law. The governor then telegraphed to General Canby for a
military force to seat his appointees. The next day he wired for the
necessary force to oust the sheriff of New Hanover who had also declined
to recognize an appointee of the governor. The sheriffs of Granville,
Randolph, and other counties refused to and in every case military force
was employed.
It
was not a favorable outlook for North Carolina, though the real evils
of Reconstruction were scarcely dreamed of. The leaders of [Holden’s
Republican] party were holding back until the presidential election
should be won, when they would be safe from unfriendly interference by
the national government. To that time they looked forward with more
eagerness than any slave had ever hoped for freedom and with more
longing than any weary Hebrew had ever felt for the Promised Land.”
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