PUBLICATIONS
OF THE

NORTH CAROLINA HISTORICAL COMMISSION

BULLETIN No. 10

ADDRESSES

THE UNVEILING OF THE BUST

MATT W. RANSOM

JANUARY II, 1911

 
A people who have not the pride to record
their history will not long have the virtue to
make history that is worth recording.

 
ADDRESSES

THE UNVEILING OF THE BUST

MATT W. RANSOM

‘ORTH CAROLINA HISTORICAL COMMISSION

THE ROTUNDA OF THE STATE CAPITOL
AT RALEIGH

Delivered in the Hall of the House of Representatives

JANUARY I], 1911

RALEIGBR
EDWARDS & BROUGHTON PRINTING CO
1911

 
The North Carolina Historical Commission

J. Beyan Grimes, Chairman,

Raleigh.

W. J. PEELE, Raleigh. M. C. 8. Noste, Chapel Hill.

D, Hus, Raleigh. THoMAs W. Biount, Roper.

R. D.. W. Connor, Secretary,
Raleigh.

The Ransom Bust.

On March 5, 1910, the North Carolina Historical Com-
mission received the following communication from Hon.

R. W. Winston, of the Raleigh Bar:
March 4, 1910.

The North Carolina Historical Commission, Raleigh, N. C.

GENTLEMEN:—I am pleased to announce that I have in hand, or
definitely promised, at least $900.00, and possibly $1,000.00, for the
Ransom bust. You are, therefore, at liberty to contract for the same
at this time.

For the guidance of the artist, I wish to say that General Ransom’s
hat measure was 7% inches on the inside. He was 6 feet tall, and
weighed 180 pounds. The marked characteristic of General Ransom
was dignity and courtliness. He dressed in an exquisite fashion. He
studied the life and character of the old Roman senators. He was a
classic scholar. He was as brave as a lion and yet as tender as a woman.
Indeed, with women and children he was always a prime favorite.
While he was a Confederate General, and a fighting one at that, he laid
down his arms at Appomattox forever. After that time, he became a
citizen of the entire Union. I think that the artist will be interested
in knowing that Genera] Ransom was a Union Whig before the war,
and opposed to the war, but that when hostilities began, he was an
active participant on behalf of the South. General Ransom was per-
haps as handsome a man as ever sat in the Senate. There was an
atmosphere about him which all people felt. He was the center of
every group. He was chary of his presence. He stayed away from the
multitude except when in action. His friends were the great men of
the Union, and included Republicans as well as Democrats. He voted
to pension General Grant’s widow. He was an intimate friend of Presi-
dent Cleveland, and Mrs, Cleveland was exceedingly fond of him. On
the whole, if I as an artist had the power to reproduce Senator Ransom
in marble, I should select the grandest Roman senator that ever adorned
the Forum, and would place Ransom’s head on his body. Dignity,
serenity, majesty and courtliness were his attributes.

Trusting that the above sketch may serve the artist,

Yours truly, R. W. WINSTON.

At a meeting of the Historical Commission, held in the office
of the Secretary of State at Raleigh, N. C., March 10, 1910,
the above letter was read, and the fund offered for the erection
of a bust to Senator Ransom was accepted. The contract for

 
4
Nort Carotrma Hisrorioan Commission.

the erection of the bust was accordingly made with Mr.
Frederick Wellington Ruckstuhl, at that time in Paris. The
bust was delivered, and set up in its niche in December,
1910, and formally unveiled and presented to the State Jan-
uary 11, 1911, in the Hall of the House of Representatives
at Raleigh, in the presence of the General Assembly of
North Carolina, the members of Senator Ransom’s family
and a large audience. The ceremonies of the occasion sl
sisted of the addresses printed in this bulletin.

: R. D. W. Connor,
Secretary of the North Carolina Historical Commission.

Tur Ransom Bust.

Introductory Address.

BY J. BRYAN GRIMES

Chairman of the North Carolina Historical Commission.

Ladies and Gentlemen:

The State Historical Commission has invited you to join
in celebrating an important event in the historical activities
of the State.

It has long been a reproach to North Carolinians that we
have been careless of the memories of our great men. As a
State, we have always been poor, but we have been rich in
men—high-minded men, who knew how to do and die if nee-
essary, in the crises that confronted them.

We have been proud of our State, proud of her achieve-
ments and her traditions. We have gloried in hearth-stone
tales of former generations, only to forget them in the busy
struggles of life. We have written little and preserved even
less, largely because we had no depositories for the safe keep-
ing of our records. We are the beneficiaries of the con-
structive statesmanship of the past, but in many cases the
bodies of those devoted spirits whose deeds should be a
glorious heritage to our people lie in unknown graves, their
fame consigned to oblivion, their services unrecorded.

We, in our generation, have been following the example
of past generations who have forgotten, to be in turn forgot-
ten. But a change is now coming over the spirit of our
people.

The State is beginning to realize that conserving the fair
renown of her own great sons is her sacred duty.

The North Carolina Historical Commission was created
in 1903, and its duties and powers greatly enlarged in 1907.
The work of the Historical Commission has not been confined
to the duties required of it by the law creating it, but in the
last two years its activities have been varied. It has classified,

 
rn 1
North Carouma Historicat Commission.

arranged and filed the executive letters of thirty governors,
beginning with Governor Caswell in 1777, and ending with
Governor Vance in 1879. There are 14,754 of these letters
and documents, and now, for the first time, these manuscripts
are available to students of North Carolina history.

The Historical Commission has also secured & the past
two years ten fine private collections of valuable manuscripts
embracing nearly 12,000 documents of the highest value sind
importance,

it has had many items concerning North Carolina’s colo-
nial history copied from newspapers of other States.

It has issued ten publications, which have been in great
demand in many of the States of the Union.

It has, through the enterprise of its Secretary, secured as
Skt of Chal Racttsea Soe eee
i setae nae S § Piss ington, made from
t ginal model in the Canova Museum at Possagno,

se! It will be remembered that the original was made by
anova for the State in 1820 and was destroyed when the
capitol was burned in 1831. The replica can be seen in the

rorandE. It is hoped that the General Assembly will soon
have this statue reproduced in marble,

A notable feature of the work of the Historic
sion has been the information about North C

al Commis-

er arolina fur-
nis i i i
hed to visiting historians, students and original investi-

gators from nearly half the States of the Union and some
foreign countries. |

The growth of interest in North 0

nae by the people of the State, even in the past two years

! 3 ’

a been remarkable and probably the greatest work of the

ears Commission has been done in the thousands of let-
ers of correspondence with our own i

eople about the hist

of the State. fis 20 SEO

¢ The Secretary of the Historical Commission has prepared

oe publications for the aid of teachers of North Carolina

istory in the annual celebration of North Carolina Day in

arolina historical mat-

Tnx Ransom Bust.

the public schools, and thousands of these have been used in
the schools of the State.

The State is now not only preserving the records of her
great deeds, but is, though tardily, following the example of
other States and great peoples, by placing in our capitol
marble busts that posterity may become familiar with the
features of our great men. We have been slow, proverbially
slow to move, but the movement has begun, and there is now
no uncertainty as to results.

One year ago we gathered here to inaugurate a new move-
ment in North Carolina, and invited you to witness the un-
veiling of a marble bust to that great Carolinian, William A.
Graham. Since that time the Historical Commission has
been assured of the presentation to the State in the near
future of busts of Governor Samuel Johnston, Chief Justice
Thomas Ruffin, Calvin H. Wiley, and another which we are

yet unauthorized to announce.
This evening we have met to unveil a bust of Matt W.

Ransom, carved by that talented artist, F. W. Ruckstuhl.
Among those most responsible for the erection of this bust
is Robert W. Winston. Judge Winston is himself an able
jurist, scholar and orator, and his subject is an inspiration
to all ambitious, patriotic North Carolinians. He will
speak to you of the “Life and Character of Matt W. Ran-
som.” He brings to his task an ability and scholarship wor-

thy of his theme. Let us hear him.

 
Norra Caroztma Historicat Commission.

Matt Whitaker Ransom

BY ROBERT W. WINSTON,

(

your life.”

These words of Plutarch made an abiding impression
upon Ransom when he was but a youth, and they found
abundant fruitage in his subsequent life and conduct. In
1892 when a committee from that all-powerful organization,
the Farmers’ Alliance, waited upon the Senator with a re-
quest to sign the “Alliance Demands,” embracing Free Sil-
ver at the ratio of 16 to 1 and warehouse receipts for cotton,
corn and tobacco as a medium of exchange, his reply took
this form: said he, “Once upon a time, a dispute arose in
Warren County as to which was the most desirable of all
virtues, and the disputants, being unable to agree, decided
to submit the question to my grandfather, and his answer
was this: ‘The most desirable of all virtues is courage, cour-
age without which no other virtue can be fully exercised,
and with which every other virtue can be fostered.” This
courageous refusal of Senator Ransom to yield to the de-
mands of the Farmers’ Alliance may or may not have been
one cause of the downfall of his party and the consequent
loss of his seat in the Senate, but it assuredly gave Senator
Ransom a secure place among civil heroes.

The people of North Carolina are fond of associating
together the names of her great contemporary Senators,
Vance and Ransom, and yet no two men were more dis-
imi Vance was a democrat. Ransom was an aristo-

The name of Vance brings before our
War Governor—a Moses,

through the

mind’s eye a
if you please, leading his people
horrors of war and the wilderness of reconstruc-

/icero, consulting the god at Delphi how he should attain
the most glory, the Pythoness answered, “By making your
own genius and not the opinion of the people the guide of

: 9
Tur Ransom Bust.

tion, with vast crowds of people applauding his pases
anecdote and his ridicule—Vance foremost in the meen
of his people. With the name of Ransom we anaeie} ad
torial dignity and the very best exponent of a i esti
try. Ransom was without doubt the moat arly ” io “
Democrat that has crossed the Potomac since 1860 to occupy
a seat in the United States Senate. With him love of the
Union was a consuming passion. When not yet thirty years
of age, delivering the literary address at the University i
North Carolina, and choosing as his theme “Dismembermen
of the Union,” he poured out his heart for the cause of the
Union and in denunciation of Secession in these burning
words: “Dismemberment would overthrow the Union and
leave nothing but shame above its ruins; it would draw a
ruthless line across the Republic, although it passed uae
Sa AS dss

the grave of Washington and divided the ashes of the aren
Father of our country. With what plea can yr yn wr:
pear before the bar of this world, or the Sbrone of reel
It proposes as a remedy for evils, an evil before whic a :
others sink into insignificance; it suggests as a measure 0
honor an act which would cover the American name with
dishonor as long as the earth remains—it holds up before us
the bloody mantle of liberty, pierced with a thousand deadly
wounds, and tells us that is the way to preserve treeson=
it shows us the temple of self-government wrapped in flames,
and all that is valuable burning in the conflagration, and
does not, and can not, point to one benefit conferred, one
grievance redressed, one right restored by the awful eee
it is that spirit which would have the beautiful heavens with
their rolling worlds of light, and the great central sun,
around which all in harmony revolve, hurled into chaos and
darkness because the little planet of Vesta, or some ae
gling comet happened to wander from its sphere.

Disunion will be the tomb in which all, all are buried, a
tomb of ashes and infamy, ‘in which dismal vaults in black

 
10 Norta Carona Histortcat Commissron.
succession open’ on ‘sights of woe,
shades—without end.’ ”
These are brave words,
the sentiment of a gre
Carolina till Mr.

regions of horror, doleful

and they accurately expressed
at majority of the people of North
Lincoln made his eall for troops. What

course such men as Ransom would have pursued had Presi-

dent Lincoln not made this call one can but conjecture.

Union men in the South have ever been of the opinion that
this action of the President was a great blunder, and that
it solidified the entire South, driving Virginia and North
Carolina into the new Confederacy. No doubt it did, but
what other course could President Lincoln have pursued and
preserved the Union? Had he waited for the minds of men

to grow calm, his waiting would have been in vain and the

Southern Confederacy unmolested—and grown into a de

facto government and an accomplished fact—England, no
doubt, would have recognized the new nation. Be this as it
may, the fall of Fort Sumter and the call for North Carolina

to furnish her quota of troops to invade South Carolina
totally changed the aspect of affairs. All over the State

courageous and patriotic men had been loudly pleading the
cause of the Union.

At that very time a union and peace
assemb]

age had gathered in Wilkesboro and earnest men were
making stirring appeals for the old flag. Vance, now fast
growing to be the popular idol, was in the very act of im-
ploring the God of Nations to avert the awful catastrophe of
civil war, and had beth hands uplifted to High Heaven, when
suddenly some one in the crowd read the telegram an-
nouncing the capture of Fort Sumter and Mr. Lincoln’s call
for troops. In describing the scene thereafter, Governor

Vance said, “When these hands of mine were lowered, they
fell by the side of a secessionist.”

Matt Whitaker Ransom was
North Carolina, October 6, 1826

eight years of age to the very da
On his father’s side he ¢

born in Warren County,
, and lived to be seventy-
y, dying October 6, 1904.
ame of good English stock, and on

Ture Ransom Bust. Tt

his mother’s side he was connected with thie as
thought and with the strong men of Eastern ee pe
grand-uncle, Nathaniel Macon, as was the custom ste th
piring young men of that day, had been educated athe ¥
ton, but our own University, under the wise manage ig
Caldwell and Swain, was now beginning to take its p ace
securely among the first colleges of the country, a anti
January, 1844, young Matt Ransom, an mba betee = :
of eighteen years, with no fortune save a brave — é =
noble ambition, entered our University at Chapel Hi } aca
college career was highly distinguished, indeed i “s
able to him. He was not only a leader among the stuc = 5
but he deserved to lead them, for he was temperate in o
habits, diligent in his studies, and the most prompt re
faithful young man in the institution. One incident eth
college life emphasizes his faithfulness to sponte Sate
Henry Clay, that idol of the Whig party, made his fa come
address in Raleigh, and people from far and near, especiall)
loyal and enthusiastic Whigs, gathered to do one oe
Young Ransom, a student at Chapel Hill, - rma te
dashing young Whig, remained away because a _ Sn
afford to neglect a single duty. Dr. Battle informs us -
Ransom was the only member of his class who, during t .
entire college course, punctually attended the required von
thousand exercises, consisting of prayers in the chapel,
church on Sunday, and recitations during the week.

Mr. Ransom had as his rival in college a man whose splen-
did presence, noble ancestry, cultured mind, lofty = 8
trained ambition, and whose early and tragic death has ir .
carnated him in the minds and hearts of true emerge as
one of our heroes and martyrs—General James phase oii “
tigrew, who gave up his life at Falling Waters. pei: at
excelled Ransom in mathematics. In all other studies cc
som was his equal. When these young rivals renege
James K. Polk, President of the United States, and gone
a graduate of the University, honored the occasion with his

 
12 Nortry CAROLINA Historica CommMISsION.

presence,

Reporters of the New York Herald and other
papers, after hearing the y

the rostrum, accorded the h
sion to young

arious addresses delivered from
onors of the commencement occa-
Matt Ransom, whose salutatory address is said

n one of the best ever heard from a college student.
A few years afterwards when Ransom, then Attorney-General

of North Carolina, and the youngest man who has filled the

Position, returned to his University to make the commence-
ment address, he expressed his sense of gratitude to one of
the literary societies which had made his education possible,
furnishing him the means of defraying his college expenses.

After graduating, young Ransom returned to
County and began the practice of the law.
lawyer w

as almost instantaneous, and as an advocate, espe-
cially when the issue w

as one of life or death, he was quite
without a peer. - I. Moore, the Nestor of the

to have bee

Warren
His success as a

great strength and cle

arness, and
himself to the

study of the law,
As a college student he had
Roman classics, and had

orations of Cicero and De
by referring to the deeds
osophers and statesmen.

ster was his model. Ther
sistible sweep about W

that if he would but apply
no man would be his fellow.
appreciated the Greek and
sought to model his style after the

mosthenes, enriching

his discourses
and the sayings of the early phil-

Among moden
e is a dignity
ebster’s style th

Its influence upon
ay be seen in every line he

It is little wonder that
the confidence of the peop]
boy he was named as a

1 orators, Mr. Web-
» 4 majesty, an irre
at must always impress

Senator Ransom’s ora-
spoke or wrote.

awyer, Ransom would
did not deter him.

13
Ture Ransom Bust.

- by
the unjust attacks of King George, ms sca the ae
friends that his line of defense ee do tis duty by his
dom, he replied that he would continue to ie a Red a
client, and his full duty, even if thereby re eduais
Great Britain was destroyed. This is the ‘ype : b Men
of man that young Matt Ransom was ati Be het ie
may differ as to his place in pemgaat ripe sig Sey
, rer loyal to his friends, his clients ¢ .
ptrerdag Sn not spare himself or count the cost when their
interests were at stake.
Seuedtaiee his canvass as a Whig elector, he a nen
by a Democratic Legislature, although he baron diie,
Whig, Attorney-General of the State of rasa ae
No doubt his record as a student and his ve 4 tes law
vass were the causes of this early Promcnwe = a He
was irksome to him, and far too yes ea eae
loved to till the soil and CcumEpune pete are t vm larger
ington and Jefferson and Nathaniel Macon, ‘ 1, and dealt
view of things than the life of a lawyer affor e pre
with mankind as a whole, mankind gti + thedes of
towards liberty and light. Like ae has mind, but
thought, he studied law for the training 0 . a eT HEL
practically abandoned it as a web of tangle pene
Whatever his views, he shortly resigned the — : - ’s estate
General of North Carolina and removed to his wife’s
in Northampton County. mee ¢
in be ‘< Union, hating secession, and re
improvements, ee OE eee vig militant
Whig party, the party of his ancestors. : sg ih Gr ithe
old party was fast nearing its end. ee da sai. poe
Know-nothingism and Anti-Catholessm s 1 and sectional.
its high estate, and was now becoming oh 7 it no longer.
A ae of the type of Matt Ransom could Ov or ahs cit
He was himself the most catholic of morta : a small affair.
things in the large. With him a State ne abi genin
It was the nation, the united, indissoluble nation,

 
14 Norra Carona Hisrorrcat Commission.

from Maine to Mexico and from the Atlantic to the Pa-
cific—the hope of the oppressed of the entire universe, the
country which was working out the problem of self-govern-
ment and making an abiding place for liberty, this it was
that engaged his best thought and animated his soul. Thou-
sands of other true men remained loyal to the Whig party
until it was crushed to death between the upper and nether
millstones of fiery and unyielding Democracy—secession, on
the one side, if you will, and the persistent and fanatical
Abolition party on the other. Such men as Graham, and
Badger, and Morehead, and Vance were of this number, and
they voted till the very last for Bell and Everett, dreading
and sincerely dreading that the Democratic party under,
Toombs and Yancey and Rhett would join hands with the
Abolitionists of the North and precipitate war. With such
as these, whether Roderigo killed Cassio or Cassio killed

Roderigo, ’twas their gain. In 1852, for the reasons above
assigned, Mr. Ransom severed his connection with the Whig
party and became a Democrat, but not a War Democrat.
Far from it. We delight to contemplate this young Caro-
linian during the period from 1850 to 1860. On January
19, 1853, he was happily married to Martha E. Exum, and
an interesting family of children was growing up about him.
He was honored and respected by the people of North Caro-
lina. Twice he served Northampton County in the General
Assembly. He was pulsating with high ambition and an
earnest desire to serve his country and keep her in the paths
of peace, and withal, he was as contented a man as one of
his temperament could be. But Mr. Ransom was never a
social man, nor a jovial man. He did not keep open house,
and his Northampton home was modest almost to plainness.
He had few friends. When in Washington he lived alone,
his family remaining in North Carolina, his apartments at
the old Metropolitan being simple yet dignified. He rather
tolerated than loved the populace, and he knew that they

1 15
Tur Ransom Bust.

did not love him. He cracked no jokes with them. _
in a crowd he was manifestly restless and nervous and di
all the talking himself. To mingle with the people pa -
effort to him, but he was cordial, polite, majestic in peg? ~
Chesterfield surely not more so. Ransom indeed had -
same characteristic with Jefferson, seriousness of puryaee-
“Great minds,” says Aristotle, “are always of a nature aia
nally melancholy.” Ransom was in a sense a presi ng
A few strong friends in each town in North Carolina -
grappled to his heart with hoops of steel. These - 7
loved and trusted, and called affectionately by their Chris-
tian names. All night long he would talk with them, and
advise them, and encourage them. But as for the average
man, he counted but little in Ransom’s affections. oA
Vast problems confronted the Southern man in the : _
slavery, secession, the compromise measures, war. t a”
said on one side, “This republic can not endure half ~
and half free,” and on the other side it was said, “I iP -
the roll of my slaves from Bunker Hill pmawreed a
Clay thought that he had settled the question of slavery : -
all time by his Missouri Compromise, and if Mr. C lay 1ad
never sought the Presidency, it is within the range of reason
that he madd in his fertile brain have found a way out, but
when Mr. Clay stood for the Presidency he must trim his
sails to meet the requirements of the campaign, and it -
dangerous for him to advocate even gradual abolition 5 -
so the slavery question was one which would not ead pues
The escape of fugitive slaves to free territory, their cap . :
and return, the admission of new States into the Raton “7
whether their constitution should be “free” or “slave, rigid
conflicts in Congress and personal encounters nape .
champions of these contending forces, “Uncle Tom s : 9a
and other excitable fiction, the Dred Scott Decision anc a :
eating speeches and editorials pro and con, were constan

. irritati is home near the
and increasing sources of irritation. At his h

irri assing in
banks of the Roanoke, these stirring events were passing

 
16 Norto Carorima Historicat Commisston.

panoramic review before Mr. Ransom’s eye. In his heart
he despised the extremists of both sides. The appeal to a
higher law than the Constitution to abolish slavery smote on
his ear like a fire bell in the night. The assertion that the
Constitution of our country was’ a league with the devil
and a covenant with hell he resented with all the bitterness
of his nature, but he likewise knew that you could not repeal
the great compromise measures affecting slavery and open up
the new States to the admission of slaves without a great
struggle, ending perhaps in civil war and running counter
to the moral sense of the world, and above all Ransom and
other old line Whigs, and some Democrats as well, knew
that sooner or later slavery had to go. The civilized world
was against it. England had gotten rid of her last slave ter-
ritory, and no civilized nation sanctioned slavery in its con-
stitution.

One of the finest spectacles this world has seen, or will
see, is the conduct of Robert E. Lee, Matt W. Ransom, and
other men who loved the Union with all the intensity of their
nature, when the time for fighting was at hand. It was not
their war. They were against it. Governor Graham had
raised his all-powerful voice throughout this State for the
Union and the old flag. “Tet’s fight out our rights within
the Union” was their plea. But not so with the extremists.
T make little doubt that Chandler, Wendell Phillips and Gar-
rison were as much pleased when war was upon us as were
Toombs, Yancey and Rhett. The former would have dis-
solved the Union to rid the northern half of this dismem-
bered country of slavery ; the latter would have dissolved the
Union to retain slavery in the southern half. But when war
actually came, Ransom and other peace men went to the
front, fought bravely and made no complaints. “If we must
fight,” said they, “we will fight strangers. We will not
fight our brothers and neighbors.” Such conduct is an at-
tribute of very high virtue, and it is the foundation stone
upon which the men of the South are this day laying broad

PT 17
Tue Ransom Bust. i

. »
izati tive § suduring. Ran
and deep a civilization most attractive and enduring

. its ore al abolition.
som was opposed to slavery and favored its gradual “
: -anteed slavery in its eve
Our Constitution might have guaranteed porn ro
i . ave prev 1 its downtall.
line, but this would not have prevented it

" never mean the ( > y o snoul have, hold,
was e € t A ne human being sk l 1

ry

It

own and possess another human being, and when y
that the negro is a human being, the case against slaver,
is made out. ee
The attitude of Matt W. Ransom towards slavery and 11
conduct in the war which followed, mark him as a distinct
type of the Southern man of his day. Disinterested, ged
fish, brave, true to his convictions, and yet truer to his neigh-
bors, his friends and his people—with men of this sort blood
is ever thicker than water. He thought that the war was use-
less and a crime. He thought that it could be averted, and
like other men whose reasons were not dethroned by their
hates and passions, he knew that the South, brave ya ered
ageous though she was, could not stand up and fig at the
North, backed by the moral and financial support of -
entire world. WVainly he hoped to avert civil war and its
horrors. A student of Roman history, he knew what it
meant for brother to contend against brother in mortal -_
bat. He knew the unhappy condition of every country
afflicted with civil war. He knew the story of Marius and
Sulla, of Pompey and Cesar, of Charles I and —
and therefore, as a member of the Legislature from Nort 1-
ampton County in 1861, he was most active in gg =
passage of a bill creating a Peace Commission, with pik 8
tions to repair to the capital of the new Confederacy and to

i >) Union.
restore the relations of the seceding States to the cr
North Carolinians constitutec

Three distinguished om
The Chairman 0 ve

Montgomery Peace Commission. 5 cas Seka
x ; . : 23] our r-
Commission was David L. Swain, President of ot £ North
. ans ot JINorto-

sity, the other members being Matt W. Ransom,

i 3, 2 Edgecombe. Governor
ampton, and John L. Bridgers, of Edg

Ww [ while © 3ridgers
i , while Colonel Brid;
Swain was a pronounced Union man

4

 
Q AT — 1 °
18 Norra CAROLINA HisToRIcAL CoMMISSION.

was a War Democrat.

ut their tas]

pervading. Abram W. Venable was going to wipe up all the

blood spilt in the war with his silk handkerchief

- Ohne in-
fatuated Southern man was thoroughly convinced that he
could whir

p a dozen Yankees, and in the early battles of the
war some of our boys actually cautioned their comrades to
“walk easy” or they would “scare the Yankees away before
they could get a shot.” Our North Carolina Peace Com-

mission found the new capital of the Confederacy aflame
with martial]

music, with marching troops, with officers in
bearing new epaulettes, and with the
of thoughtless but beautiful women, and the
whole scene dominated by that high, unconquerable spirit of
the man of the South who counts not the odds. What could
withstand these? But their glitter little moved Matt W.
Ransom. He was a peace man in Raleigh and he was

sorgeous uniforms,
flashing eyes

a
peace man in Montgomery. Sadly he wrote his wife from
this latter city that the war spirit was running high, that

men had lost their reason, and, he added, that his own

associates were doing little to assist him to check the rapid
march to destruction. The mission proved a failure, and
on the 11th of February, 1861, the Commission made its
report to the Legislature of North Carolina, declaring that
nothing could be accomplished. Events followed each other
with great rapidity. On the 14th of April, 1861, Fort Sum-
ter fell. On the 15th of April, 1861, President Lincoln

made his eall for troops. Governor Ellis firmly and dis-
dainfully replied that North Carolina would furnish no

troops to coerce her Southern brethren, and at once called

the General Assembly to meet in extraordinary

the city of Raleigh on May 1, 1861.
the Legis]

Session in
Pursuant to the eall,
ature convened upon the appointed day and issued

a call for a convention of the people and for the assembling
of 20,000 volunteers.

These men at once repaired to Mont-
ance of the resolution of the General Assem-
< was a vain one. The war spirit was all-

| 19
Tur Ransom Bust.

ade when
This call for volunteers had scarcely been mad

U ty
M ne Northampton County,
Matt W. Ransom, the member from N I

resigned his seat, volunteered as . net segeslnyic 9
ranks, bade farewell to these historic ser at a he was
to defend his native State. On the 8th of May, oi . eH of
commissioned Lieutenant-Colonel of the Say —— oa
Infantry, and from this date until April 9, iieagg o8
Appomattox put an end to Southern hopes, sere ies
called, or danger was the thickest, this brave man cot
always be found. '

OF General Ransom as a soldier I shall say but little.
His record is too well known to require any extended com-
ment. Suffice it to say that he rose by merit from ng 3
tenant-Colonel to Major-General in Lee’s army; sm
participated in the battles of Seven Pines, gs ae
Sharpsburg, Boone’s Mill, Suffolk, Ph aueed re slp
Bluff, Fort Steadman, Five Forks, and other — ae
Petersburg; that he was wounded at Malvern oo = xd
perately wounded at Drewry’s Bluff; that when ap ith
moted to be Colonel of the Thirty-fifth Regiment, the ‘ ]
of his old command presented him with a oe $y a
as a token of their love and admiration; that a ee
was often commended for bravery in the reports of his 45-4
ing officers; that the Legislature of North Carolina cg 7
Oca tedeessa Congress each passed votes of thanks to "
mander Cook, of the Ram “Albemarle,” and to General a %
and General Ransom and the officers and men of thei a
spective commands for the brilliant victory a aga
and that more precious than all else, Ransom’s —
conducted themselves in battle and under the eye 7 3 sie
E. Lee, a man greater in defeat than oe: aera ae two
tors, as to secure his coveted meed of praise— Maat Ge
brigades behaved most handsomely,” Lee 4 pi m f Cia
when the curtain fell on this four years’ _— : 1 Popa
at Appomattox Ransom surrendered 41 ii wat ouch
listed men. General Ransom could never have mac ed
a soldier as Stonewall Jackson. To attain supreme exce

 
Tur Ransom Bust.
i Norru Canora Histortcat Commissron.

lence in any department of human endeavor, one must know
and love every detail of his work. To be a great soldier one

i »e under Warren. Gen-
0’clock before the Union forces advance u aren. ine

i : ay of his subordinate ¢
eral Sheridan complains of the delay of his su

Must appreciate the value of the drill. Indeed, it is an
absolute necessity. He must understand that an army must
be trained until it moves with one will, with one purpose,
and almost as one man. Stonewall Jackson knew this. In
the cold winter of 1862, in the bleak mountains of North-
ern Virginia, at Romney, Jackson trained and drilled his
men till they all but froze and mutinied, when the stern
Puritan, sore and hurt by their conduct, promptly tendered
his resignation.

At Aquia Creek, in 1891, General Ransom wrote to
his wife that “the stupid drill was very irksome, and that
such things engaged small minds very anxiously, and that
he did not take the field for this.” The strength and the
weakness of the average Southern army consisted in the
individual valor and initiative of each officer and each pri-
vate, while little attention was paid to the training and mili-
tary manceuvres of companies, regiments and brigades.
Colonel Henderson, of the English Army, in his life of
Stonewall Jackson, often refers to this fact, The result
was practically an army of “stars”—a Mettus Curtius and
an Horatius without number could be found enlisted under
the “Stars and Bars,” and Ransom was one of them. Ob-
serve him at Five Forks, We can see him now, superb of
figure, six feet tall, handsome as a prince, proud as Lucifer,
picturesque as J. E. B. Stuart, brave as Jubal Early, splen-
didly attired, astride his thoroughbred stallion—his favorite

charger, “Ion.” The battle is on. Philip H. Sheridan is

commanding 25,000 well-equipped men and stands for the

cause of the North. George Pickett is commanding 7,000
half-rageed and half-starved Confederates, and he, together
with his division commanders, Fitz. Lee and Matt W. Ran-
som, stand for the cause of the South. General Sheridan

executes a flank movement to cut off the Confederates from

their army at Petersburg. Tt is between four and five

relieves him of his command. Warren’s corps ee
vances through the undefended lines on the motobeie pe
federates, getting completely in their ee " ta. dB
gins his attack with Ayers’ Division on Ransom’s m i
left, held by the Twenty-fourth Regiment. At an WS
enemy are resisted and several distinct charges are rae
Si finally Griffin’s Federal Division appears on the Fee
and it is pa Rakes by Crawford’s. The thin gray line a x
Confederacy is swept away, and the Fifty-sixth, prey e
Forty-ninth and Thirty-fifth Regiments are driven from t *
works. They form from time to time new lines of batt *
entirely ignorant that the enemy have flanked them igs %
attacking Pickett in the rear with an overwhelming pe
General Ransom conceives it his duty to make select
charge to break through the enveloping lines. One nl ha:
been killed under him. Calling on his brigade to follow him,

is brigade for the last time in
bareheaded, Ransom leads his brigade fc ‘
He emerges from the woods

¢

a charge against the enemy. Sh
and ig front of his advancing line; the enemy APER PER
BRR ae. a away and rider and horse are discov =
prone upon the ground. The ery runs down the yan 18

the General is shot and anen.rosh to eave Bin from cap et
igh hagecsii8 repeated in the Federal Army that pa ie
been killed, and a message to this effect is wired } ye
General Thomas, a kinsman of General Ransom. pad a
Captain Johnson, of the Thirty-fifth, and Captain eg
of the Twenty-ninth Regiments, rush forward and papas
eral Ransom pinioned under his horse and in danger ' “
crushed in the dying struggles of the noble ss ; Pits
enemy has now closed in on both flanks and A hau
and there is no hope of assistance, and yet there dee 4:
of suitender.  Yadep the dada ots approac srl A
General Ransom and the remnant of es at a - ade
through the small loop-hole left, emptying into the enemy’

 
22 Norra Carotma Hisrorrcan Commission.
face their last cartridge. During the night, General Ransom
with his remaining troops unites with General Anderson’s
corps, and together with Fitzhugh Lee and Barringer’s bri-
gade, heroically oppose the enemy’s advance and slowly fall
back within their own lines.*

When General Ransom surrendered at Appomattox it was
a complete surrender with no mental reservations. He had
made a good fight and had not won, but he could at least de-
serve success. Noble were our Southern boys on the field
of battle, but how much nobler in defeat! Lee showed us
our duty, and Ransom followed the leadership of the great
chieftain. Our duty was to remain quietly at home, obey
the laws of the United States Government, and preserve an
Anglo-Saxon civilization. After Appomattox came poverty,
desolated farms, and decimated families, the Freedman’s
Bureau, carpet-baggers, the Thirteenth, Fourteenth and
Fifteenth Amendments, many of our wise leaders disfran-

chised, and the ballot in the hands of our late slaves. To
these great changes we of the South had to conform our

civilization. How well we have done let even our former

enemies now attest. During these exciting scenes, during
the process of readjustment and rehabilitation, of becoming
a portion of the Union once more,
of General Ransom that North Carolina turned to him with
as much confidence as to any of her noble sons, and she turned
not in vain. What was accomplished by the conservative

advisers and leaders after the Civil War has made possible
the almost uniform reign of |]

it is not invidious to say

aw, order and good feeling
which has since prevailed in North C

varolina, giving her the
deserved reputation of being perhaps the most law-abiding
State south of the Potomac.

After the close of the war, General Ransom again took up
the thread of life, engaging both in the practice of the law
and the tilling of the soil. During the next few years he
mingled but little in politics, but he was not leading a use-

* Description of Battle of Fi

ve Forks, taken largely from Col. W. H. S. Burgwyn’s Ad-
ress on Gen. Ransom.

Tue Ransom Bust.

less or self-sufficient life. Eighteen hundred and “ase
eight, sixty-nine and seventy were dark days for North
Carolina. This was the embryo state of her ae
under the:-new order of things. What should North _
lina be and what could she do? Unwise schoolma’ms
from the North, over-zealous Abolitionists, and carpet-
bageers were putting strange and wrong notions in the heads
of our late slaves. The Legislature was dominated by the
worst element of both whites and blacks, and bankrupted the
State. Many of our best men, who had participated in the
late war, were not allowed to vote. Petty stealings wo
burnings were frequent ; the courts, now presided over for -
most part by incompetent judges, either in sympathy i
hegro criminals or hostile to the old-time white man, refused
to punish crime at all or punished it inadequately. In the
Eastern counties the polls were literally surrounded by ne-
groes, so that often many decent white men who eould vote
were unwilling to make the effort, women were yee
and chaos was imminent. The white people organized
regulate matters, and the Ku-Klux Klan came into ee

Governor Holden retaliated by proclaiming martial law in
the counties of Alamance and Caswell. Adolphus G. Moore,
Esq., was arrested by Colonel George W. Kirk aia -
charge of belonging to the Ku-Klux Klan and for complicity
in the murder at J. W. Stevens, of Yanceyville. The pris-
oner’s attorneys, A. S. Merrimon and E. S. Parker, sued out
a writ of habeas corpus before Chief Justice P »arson. To the
demand of the officer of the law for the delivery of the wt
oner under the great writ of the State, Colonel Kirk made this
reply, “Tell your judge that such things have played out.
My orders conte from the Governor, and I will obey aE
others.” Upon reading the return of the officer, Judge and
son directs the Marshal of the Supreme Court to exhibit the
writ to Governor Holden and to say to him oe he had no
power to disobey the writ of habeas corpus. The pity ote
is that our great Chief Justice further added that if the

 
24 Jorr \ 3 ansom Bust.
24. North Carouma Historica Commissron. Tus R

Executive does disobey the writ,
is exhausted
nor.

the power of the Judiciary
and the responsibility must rest with the Gover-
Holden refuses to honor the writ, and sets forth his
reasons for so doing at great length.
but the trial of Mr. Moore by

ee » Ran-
and took his seat on April 23, 1872. When Senator ty
som had taken the oath of office, Senator Thurman, Fate -
place in the Senate, arose and said: “I take the gatyise
expressing the satisfaction that I am sure all on ae - ly is
now, for the first time since 1861, every seat in this body

Nothing now remains
a drum-head court martial ;

but not so.

and his two sons, Kemp P. and Richard H
ence in the city of Raleigh to consider this we
The minds of all of them instinctively
Ransom on his Northampton farm.
to come to Raleigh. A conference is held
gests that the rights of the

Fourteenth Amendme

nt to the Constitution of the United
States

» Which had but lately been ratified. Armed with the
petition for the writ of habeas corpus, signed by Josiah Tur-
ner, and also with a copy of this new
stitution, which assuredly
for the purposes to whie

amendment to the Con-
had not been intentionally passed
h it was now to be put, Ransom has-
home of George W. Brooks, Dis-

States. For several days and

tens to Elizabeth City, the
trict Judge of the United

ee ; ‘
nights General Ransom and Judge Brooks discuss the matter

and construe the new amendment. The writ is finally

granted and is made returnable at Salisbury. The court
convenes. The prisoner js brought into

court by military
escort under the comm

and of Colonel Kirk. The brave
judge looks up from the bench

» and observing these minions
of a tyrannical and

self-sufficient government in his court of
justice, indignantly orders them out, discharges the
and taxes the costs of the entire proceeding against George
W. Kirk. This brave act of Judge Brooks will be handed
down in story and in song till the latest syllable of recorded
time. He was not a profound judge, but he was an incor-
ruptible one, and he was as firm as he was honest,

In 1870 Z. B. Vance was elected to the 1
Senate. He was refused his seat by th
was chosen by the succeeding I.

prisoner,

Jnited States
at body. Ransom
egislature to fill the position,

Graham, Badger, B. F. Moore and Judge Battle,

-, hold a confer-
ighty matter.
turn to General
They telegraph him
» and Ransom sug-
prisoner are protected by the

filled, every State is represented. I think it is a matter thes
the country and the Senate may congratulate itself upon. 1
We baw considered Matt W. Ransom as a lawyer an¢
soldier, and somewhat as an orator, but we have not yet -
sidered him in that forum which he graced and adorned “
So great a length of time, and where he did his best - ,
as a Senator of the United States. During a seein 7 :
century, save two years, he was North Carolina's senior
Senator, and no State ever had a more faithful 1
public ser rant. The first words spoken by him in a cP
speech in that august assemblage furnished tho: key to a
after life and conduct. It was February ba, sejesinen ss
South and its attitude to and treatment of the negro tine
under consideration. Feeling was running high in the mee
ate when General Ransom arose and said: ong x * “
years I have sat silently in this chamber, with the satis £3
by pursuing a course, as I thought, of impartial ee
duty toward all and every part of the country, T might .
Some influence in satisfying Northern Senators: that =
South desired peace with the North and a restored ea ae
ternal Union of all the States of the Republic. He had ci
in the Senate three years silent. He had heard his a
and his section of our country abused unjustly. He co
remain silent no longer, and his great speech made its -
press upon our distracted nation and enriched the literature
of the times. ; hed sdopted—
He continued to pursue the course which he had ¢ Te
one of silence—on all occasions, except now and ther

I . me aea Sena ¥ r u ter a few sen-
) L tribute to sO d pen tor, 0 0 sen
H Ww full wel at an

ces ar unning debate. e kne l th

i ry : It rekindled
acrimonious debate defeated its very purpose.

 
9@a T om Y
26 Nort CAROLINA HistTortoan Commission.

fires of sectional hate.

It convinced no one, and it proved
nothing.
g

Even when the great Ben Hill made his famous
reply to Mr. Blaine’s attack, can any one declare that at
the time more good than harm was thereby accomplished ?
And so Senator Ransom continued in his
do his full duty, upon the committees and around the
conference table. When it was proposed that Mrs. Grant,
widow of General Grant, receive a pension, Ransom voted
for the measure and against his party associates. When
General Burnside passed away, General Ransom paid a hand-
some tribute to his memory. His relations with the great
Senators of our entire country,
always kind, and with m

quiet way to

of both political parties,
were

1any of them cordial and affec-
Edmunds and Thurman, Conk]

and Lamar and Bayard were his close fr
These Senators had heard his earnest
and his devout prayer that all
try should bury their anger,

tionate. ing» and Gorman,

iends and admirers.

appeal for the South,
sections of our common coun-

that speech of so much sin-

cerity, worth and earnestness from which I have just quoted.
They had scen him

at the conclusion of that great speech of
eight hours duration, carried bodily from the Senate cham-
ber, exhausted by the exertions which h
each and all knew that there was not a Senator in that cham-
ber who would risk more or go further

quiet once more to our distracted country.

And the supreme test often e
1876.

States.

e had undergone, and

to give peace and

ame to Ransom. It came in
Tilden had been elected President of the United

Nearly all candid men conceded it. The South de-
manded that he be seated at all h

another fratricid
Saw it otherwise.
tions.

azards, even at the price of
al strife if need be. But Senator Ransom

He rarely made mistakes upon gre
He had a cool head, a
and an intuitive knowledge of the right and w
matters. He and other conser
mined, therefore, to settle
and not by force.

at ques-
great fund of common sense,
rong of weighty
vative men of the South deter-
this vexed question by arbitration
And Senator Ransom concluded to do this

 

Tur Ransom Bust.

4 : ant Senate.
though, doubtless, it would cost him his seat 7 nagar
None knew better than Senator Ransom that 63s A e in the
would never forgive the man who ran up the oe 2 ver
face of the ntielbe no matter how imminent - aa
Under a resolution of Proctor Knott, a DerREAET OP : ail
appointed, who, in conjunction with paginas from : writ re
Should consider the whole question of the oe ee - te
tion and of the disputed votes in the Electoral Co pfs
who should recommend to Congress a course to be “2 ne
The Senate committee consisted of Edmunds o P rae fe
Morton of Indiana, Conkling of New York, se le ee
New Jersey, Thurman of Ohio, Bayard of Delaware,
Ransom of North Carolina. sagt ak te
The labors of this commission were very wed é nists of
ridicule heaped upon the entire scheme by the pate rit
both sections was even greater. Their labors bu ae fae
many weeks and they were called upon to a ao
conceivable device for choosing the a at A At one
this matter should finally be left for a peed
time it was suggested that the Supreme Court o ee
States be requested to pass upon - eprepr et yces
question at issue was who should constitute “ate e Jowell that
and cast the deciding vote. It was seriously area the
he be chosen by lot. It was at one time ag gee RE:
fifteenth arbitrator be called from some other cc ai
in Canada, was
Lord Dufferin, who then happened to be in ' pe
humorously suggested. The bravery of this thing ra”?
in this, that Ransom and his Democratic paca pea get
South, even after they feared that they were me at tala
a square deal in selecting the board of peizagronond a
not back, but continued until the sete ers ‘ id himself
man is willing to lose when in losing he ee IE and
and thereby saves his country. Such men egos “ iannmih
Bayard and Thurman. And well they pec tis esi
civil war, following hard on the heels of the a “i Riles
have been one too many. As finally constituted, the &

 
28 Nortn Carouma Historican Commission.

toral Commission consisted of five on the part of the Senate,
five on the part of the House, and five Judges from the
Supreme Court, Judge David Davis was to have been the
fifteenth man, but he was unfortunately called from the Su-
Preme Court Bench to the United States Senate and was
thereby rendered ineligible. As a last resort, Justice Brad-
ley, of New York, was chosen to fill the unenviable position
of the fifteenth man ; he whose vote always made eight count
one more than seven. Senator Ransom lost his President,
but he helped to save his country.

In the life of Washington City, Senator
prime factor ;
the wives ¢

Ransom was a
not that he went into Washington society, but
and daughters and families of Senators who spent
their winters at the capital, and such women as Mrs. Cleve-

land, and others, were quite overcome

by the elegance of his
manner

r and the graciousness of his demeanor.
indeed that Mrs. Cleveland could not be
when she heard that Senator Ransom

It was said
lieve her ears
was not supporting

She little knew
Violent opposition to him in North Carolina at that

time, and how good men were actually charging that
President Cleveland had been purchased, literally bought,
by the gold syndicate. Mrs. Cleveland doubtless thought
better of our State when in June, 1908,
that greatest of Democratic State Cony
telegram of love
husband. The n
after the cony

her husband, in 1892, for the Presidency.
the

she received from
entions in Charlotte a
and confidence on the death of her great
ext time Ransom met President Cleveland
ention of 1892, at which North Carolina had
deserted the “Old Man” for David B. Hill, and his likes, he

remarked, “Mr. President, I made two mistakes last fall.
My first mistake was in holding my cotton too long, and my
second mistake was in voting against you.”

Tn keeping with his duty to the whole nation, Senator Ran-
som early conceived the idea that the capital of our country
ought to be greatly improved, that the Potomae flats should

be reclaimed and new parks provided, and he determined

 

Tue Ransom Bust. 29
that Washington City should have further assistance at the
hands of the national government in its beautification and
adornment. To this end, on the 13th day of December,
1881, he offered a resolution raising a select committee on
the condition of the Potomac River front. Senator Ransom
was appointed chairman of this committee, a duty which
was well qualified to discharge. In the first place, he hac
Spent most of his life near the Roanoke River, and he
knew something about the Roanoke bottoms, and ut may
safely be said that any man who is capable of handling the
Roanoke bottoms will find the Potomac flats an easy prob-
lem. In the next place, Senator Ransom fully appreciated
the value of a great and magnificent capital, either to State
or Nation. He knew what Paris had done for France, what
London had done for England, what Berlin had done for
Germany, and he knew that a people who would grow and
Prosper and command the respect and admiration of the
world should not begrudge the money which is expended in
the beautifying and adornment of their first political city, -
their seat of government ; in a word, Senator Ransom ney
the value of a great and all-pervading national pride. The
appreciation which the citizens of Washington City showed to
our senior Senator for this action of his was most gratifying
to him. In a familiar letter written July 17, 1882, to his
life-long friend, Colonel Wm. L. Saunders, he referred to his
work on this select committee. “In Washington,” he wrote,
“T have made a big thing on the Potomac flats. I have cap-
tured all Washington beyond question. I can not well tell
you how I have taken the city.”

Senator Ransom was never deflected from his course in
the Senate as a messenger of peace and reconciliation. It
was his influence and his vote in the Senate that eegernse
Stanley Matthews as a Justice of the Supreme Court. But
this action of the Senator brought down on his head bene male-
dictions of many good men at home. Was it not Stanley
Matthews who had been sent by Hayes in 1876 as a visiting

 
30 Nortu Caroztmna Hisrorroar Commission.

statesman to New Orleans, and was he not responsible in
part for the defeat of Mr. Tilden in the memorable contest
of 18762 Did he not devise ways and means whereby the
returns from Louisiana were lost to the Democrats? JRan-
som examined into these matters and found the appointment
to be a good one, and again defied public sentiment at home
by his vote to confirm. The next year after Justice Mat-
thews took his seat on the bench, the great case of United

States v. Lee came up for decision. The question involved
was the title to “Arlington,” the home of General R. E. Lee.

he Court was badly divided. Four J ustices, including the

Chief Justice, were against the claim of General Lee’s chil-
dren, but five of the Court were with them, and Stanley Mat-
thews’ vote restored “Arlington,” or its value, to the Lee
heirs. We may well imagine that even Senator Ransom’s
critics now recognized the work of a master.

For a great many years Senator Ransom was Democratic
National Committeeman from North Carolina. He was
also Chairman of the important Senate Committee on Com-
merce. Perhaps the most useful services that he rendered
his State, along commercial lines, were by virtue of this
position. He secured large appropriations for our rivers
and harbors, and he contributed very greatly to the commer-
cial supremacy of our chief seaport, Wilmington, by deepen-
ing the channel of the Cape Fear River. Step by step he
rose in the council chambers of the nation, until finally the
greatest honor*in the gift of the Senate—an honor attained
by no other Southern man since 1861—was accorded to him ;
he was chosen President pro tempore of the Senate and act-
ing Vice-President. Another vote of Senator Ransom showed
his character and his independence. In 1893 a fierce panic
was raging in the United States. Two remedies for the evil
were suggested. They were diametrically opposed. One
remedy looked to the free coinage of silver at the rate of 16 to
1, irrespective of the act and conduct of any other nation on
this subject. The other remedy looked to the placing of our

 

Tur Ransom Bust. 31

country upon the gold standard, along with England, Ger-
many and France. Something must be done at once. The
credit of the country was imperiled. An acute panic of enor-
mous proportions was prevailing. Expert financiers declared
that the Silver Purchase Clause of the Sherman Act must be
repealed at once or the result to our country would be most
disastrous and the United States would become Mexicanized.
Senator Ransom took his political life in his hand and voted
to repeal the Silver Purchase Clause of the Sherman Act, and
thereby estranged thousands of friends in his native State.
Doubtless this intrepid conduct of our senior Senator again
ingratiated him with the Sphinx of the White House, Grover
Cleveland.

[t is said that Senator Ransom proposed to Senator Vance
about this time that they should cach take the stump against
the Farmers’ Alliance, stand boldly by the policy of Mr.
Cleveland, and patiently await the result at the ballot box.
It is said that Senator Vance, being a consistent believer in
the white metal, declined so to do. We know that Walthall
and George pursued this course in Mississippi, and that they
remained in the Senate until they died. It is interesting to
speculate upon the probable result if Vance and Ransom
had pursued the course above indicated. :

In all the great councils of his party, Ransom tock a high
place. In the naming of its candidates for President and
Vice-President, and in formulating the party creed, he might
always be found on the side of conservatism and material
Progress. The great property interests of the country came
to look upon him as one of the safest men at Washington.
His friendship for Mr. Bayard, and his earnest desire to sce
him President of the United States, is well known. After
the adjournment of the Senate each election year, Ransom
would return to North Carolina and participate actively in
the canvass, speaking from every stump assigned him by the
chairman of his party, not selecting the large towns, but
going into the remote sections and sometimes addressing

 
Norra Carortra Hisroricat Commission.

small audiences. The length of his speeches was usually
about three hours, but no man ever quit the meeting while
Ransom was speaking. He was so earnest and dignified, so
courteous withal, that men were irresistibly drawn to him;
and as for the old soldiers who had fought under him, they
came too, to a man, and grasped his hand and brushed away
the unbidden tear. In his speeches, even on the stump, he
was never known to indulge in personalities. He spoke
courteously of his opponents, even those residing in remote
States, but in fierce and burning words he would arraign the
conduct of the opposing party, and he would bring to bear
upon the matters in dispute so many classic references, such
praise of the deeds of our ancestors, such hope for his State
and his country if his countrymen would but continue to
follow in the paths of virtue and of truth, that even his po-
litical opponents were dazed by his utterances, captivated by
his loftiness and flattered by his attentions. Biennially the
great Senator would lay by 100 bales of good middling cot-
ton and send the proceeds to the accredited officials for cam-
paign purposes.

Senator Ransom was the most temperate of men. He ab-
solutely eschewed whiskey and tobacco in every form, and
his daily life at Washington was one round of service and of
self-abnegation; an orange, a cer val, and a cup of coffee for
breakfast: a slight lunch at noon, milk toast and a soft egg
at supper sufficed for him, and yet his appearance was so
rich, his demeanor so elegant and luxurious, and his views
so liberal, that many North Carolinians adjudged him over-
indulgent in these things.

Senator Ransom’s course in the Senate on more than one
occasion had its influence on legislation hostile to tke South.
Senators and Congressmen of extreme political views had
concluded that the new amendments were in the South a
nullity and that they must ‘be given effect by means of Fed-
eral troops or marshals to guard the polls and enable the
freedmen to vote as they chose. When General Hayes was
inaugurated President, United States troops had been finally

Tur Ransom Bust. 33

withdrawn from the South, but bitter and acrimonious de-
bates in Congress continued, and it was openly charged that
colored men were cheated of their rights or intimidated and
had no voice in public matters. Among other remedies sug-
gested was one to reduce representation in Congress to the
basis of the votes actually cast and announced. To all
charges of fraud and force Southern Senators and Congress-
men had replied that the colored man was ignorant and was
not qualified to vote, but that as soon as he was educated and
fit for citizenship he should be allowed to vote, and that the
white people of the South were then engaged in the duty of
educating the colored man for citizenship, and that the whole
question was one for adjustment in each individual com-
munity. This statement of Southern Senators and Congress-
men was, for a long time, taken at its par value and seemed
to put the question somewhat at rest, at least so long as the
Republicans continued to hold the Presidency. But finally
two things occurred which changed the aspect of affairs. In
1884, largely by means of a solid South, the Democrats for
the first time since the war elected a Democratic President
of the United States, and thereupon Southern men of par-
tisan and extreme views grew bolder in their utterances,
declaring that the negro should never vote even if he were
educated and qualified, and that the issue was one of race
and not of fitness. In 1888 General Harrison defeated Mr.
Cleveland for the Presidency, and the Republican party
came into power again, and now under the leadership of
Senator Hoar, it would make sure that the Democrats would
not again elect their president by fraudulent electoral votes
from the South! They would remove the handicap of nearly
150 electoral votes from the South going solidly in every
election against the Grand Old Party, and this they would
accomplish under the guidance of Senator Hoar by means
of a Force Bill. I quote from Senator Hoar’s Autobiography
of Seventy Years: “In December, 1889, the Republican party

succeeded to the legislative power in the country for the first
3

 
34 Nort Carorma Histrortcat Commission.

time in fourteen years. Since 1873 there had been a Demo-
cratic President for four years, and a Democratic House or
Senate or both for the rest of the time. There was a general
belief on the part of the Republicans that the House of
Representatives, as constituted for fourteen years of that
time, and that the Presidency itself when occupied by Mr.
Cleveland, represented nothing but usurpation, by which,
in large districts of the country, the will of the people had
been defeated. There were some faint denials at the time
when these claims were made in either House of Congress
as to elections in the Southern States. But nobody seems to
deny now, that the charges were true. Mr. Senator Tillman,
of South Carolina, stated in my hearing in the Senate:
We stuffed ballot boxes.
We shot them. We are not ashamed of it. The Senator
from Wisconsin would have done the same thing. I see it
in his eye right now. He would have done it. With that
system—force, tissue ballots, ete.,—we got tired ourselves.

So we called a Constitutional Convention, and we eliminated,

‘We took the Government away.

as I said, all of the colored people whom we could under the
fourteenth and fifteenth amendments. I want to call your
attention to the remarkable change that has come over the
spirit of the dream of the Republicans; to remind you,
gentlemen of the North, that your slogans of the past—
brotherhood of man and fatherhood of God—have gone
glimmering down the ages. The brotherhood of man exists
no longer, because you shoot negroes in Illinois, when they
come in competition with your labor, and we shoot them in
South Carolina when they come in competition with us in
the matter of elections. You do not love them any better
than we do. You used to pretend that you did; but you no
longer pretend except to get their votes. You deal with the
Filipinos just as you deal with the negroes, only you treat
them a heap worse.’ No Democrat rose to deny his statement,
and, as far as I know, no Democratic paper contradicted it.
The Republicans, who had elected President Harrison and

Tue Ransom Bust. 35

a Republican House in 1888, were agieed, with very few
exceptions, as to the duty of providing a remedy for this
great wrong.”

Senator Hoar actively set about to purge and purify the
Southern ballot box! In true New England fashion he
consulted not only his associates in the Senate, taking special
counsel of Senator Spooner, of Wisconsin, but also conferred
freely with friends in the other House. Meantime, the
House of Representatives had appointed a select committee
to consider and report a bill on this subject. The work of
the committee was speedily accomplished. The bill was rap-

idly put through the House and was sent over to the Senate.

It had passed the House. It had the active support of a

militant and great party, and it must now become a law.
Senator Hoar declared that “it was a very simple measure,”

and Senator Hoar would make no slip, no mistake this time.
He would go himself and see every Republican Senator, and
obtain his opinion upon this question in advance. And go

he did. And got their opinion, and it was favorable to his
simple little bill. And the agreement which they all with
one accord—this majority of the entire Senate—did sign
with their hands and the original of which Senator Hoar had
in his possession up to the day of his death, provided that

Mr. Hoar’s Federal election law should be taken up the very

first day of the next session, and be pressed to the exclusion

of all other business. Pursuant to this agreement, Senator
Hoar’s bill had the right of way at the December session.
Day after day, and night after night it was debated. Par-
liamentary tactics were resorted to. The hope of the South
rose and fell. It seemed almost certain that this measure
would become a law, and in its train would follow bloodshed,
disorder, and demoralization at the South. A motion was
finally made to lay it aside for other business, and, strange
to relate, the motion prevailed by a bare majority. Senator
Hoar could not understand how it all came about. How

those Republican Senators who had promised him in writing

 
 

a:
36 Nortu Carourma Hisrorrcan Commissron.

to vote for the bill, should have finally voted against it. “I
never have known by what process of reasoning they recon-
ciled their action with their word,” Senator Hoar sadly re-
marks on page 156 of his book.

I think I can enlighten Senator Hoar upon this question.
This bill was defeated by Matt W. Ransom, and other consery-
ative men in the Senate. He had waited years and years for
just such an oceasion to serve his people. His votes had often
been censured. He had often been misunderstood at home.
Often-times he had been accused of truckling to the North,
and not standing by the South. He had voted for pensioning
the Northern soldiers. He had praised the great Northern
dead, as they had passed away. He had mingled in social in-
tercourse freely with the great Senators and their families of
the opposite political party. He had declared on Memorial
Day, in Raleigh, in May, 1870, “I thank God there are flowers
enough in this beautiful land of the South to strew upon the
graves of those who fell alike in the Gray and the Blue, and
there are hearts pure and large enough and hands gentle and
Senerous enough to perform the kindly duty.” And men of
the North and men of the West knew that Ransom meant
every word that he had said on this subject. And so when
the critical time had arrived, and Ransom made his appeal
to these men not to pass this iniquitous bill, not to strike
down the people of the South, but to leave this matter to
them for final settlement, trusting to their honor and trusting
to their fairness, his appeal was not made in vain, and the
Senators rallied around him, and the bill was defeated. Gor-
man, of Maryland, was the Democratic leader in the great
fight against the enactment of the Force Bill. A few years
after all danger had passed, Senator Gorman was at a ban-
quet in New York, when the question of the Force Bill was
being discussed in a friendly fashion. It was then that Sen-
ator Gorman said that more credit for the defeat of the Force
Bill was due to Senator Ransom than to himself and all the
other Senators combined. He declared that Senator Ran-

 

Tue Ransom Bust. 37

som could not be induced to leave the Senate Chamber either
night or day during the pendency of the bill, that he was
unwilling to relax his watchfulness for one minute, that he
exercised all his powers of argument, persuasion, defiance
and threats, to secure votes in opposition to the bill, and
prevent the support of it, that he was most resourceful and
tactful in arguments, appeals, and parliamentary expedients
to prevent the passage of the bill. “Often times during these
days,” said Senator Gorman, “myself and others felt de-
pressed—almost hopeless—but Ransom never lost faith or
At every suggestion of friend or foe of amend-
ment, or amelioration of the provisions of the bill, Senator
Ransom refused to listen, insisting that the bill was eternally
and intrinsically wrong in principle, and cruel and unjust
to his people, and that it must be defeated at all hazards.”
Senator Gorman likewise declared that but for Ransom, he
verily believed that the Force Bill could not have been de-
feated, that he was the most popular man at the time in the
Senate, and that he secured in opposition to the bill some
Senators whom none other, perhaps, could have influenced,
and induced other Senators to remain neutral who, but for
him would have espoused the passage of the bill; when
urged to take some rest and admonished that the nervous
strain was too great for him, Senator Ransom turned a deaf
ear to all appeals, and declared that he would die at his post
in opposition to this bill rather than to permit such an in-
famous measure to be fastened upon his people.”

courage.

“Hie labor, hoc opus est.”

One shudders as he thinks of the results that would have
followed in the train of such a Force Bill. If Federal troops
had taken part in Southern elections, violence and bloodshed
would have ensued. Southern folk are much too hot-blooded
So thoroughly did Senator Ransom and
his colleagues do the work of opposition, that the Force Bill,
and all like bills are, we trust, dead and buried forever.

Of Senator Ransom as a statesman, Goldwin Smith de

for such restraints.

 
 

88 Nortu Carorima Histrorroat Commission.

clared that his value to the Southern States was beyond
computation, and even Mr. Blaine saw in Ransom such
moderation of views and agreeableness of manner, as to give
him great influence in the United States Senate.

The fall elections of 1894 were disastrous to the Demo
cratic party. This result was accomplished by a combination
of the Republicans and Populists, and Senator Ransom was
retired from the Senate in March, 1895. Shortly there-
after he was appointed by President Cleveland Ambassador
to Mexico, which position he filled for about two years, resign-
ing on account of the unfavorable climate and of a longing
for the Old North State. Returning to the simple pleasures
of his country life, he brought with him not only the large
salary, which the position of Ambassador to Mexico carries,
but also a handsome stipend, greater than his entire salary, as
arbitrator in a matter of much consequence. With these
large sums of money, and with the proceeds of the sale of
several abundant crops, and of timber cut from his bottom
lands, he paid his debts, added to his estates, and placed him-
self in a position of comfort and affluence for the remainder
of his days.

Perhaps no citizen of the State was ever more highly es-
teemed, almost venerated, than was Senator Ransom, from
the time he returned from Mexico to the day of his death.
Wherever he went admiring throngs followed him, and he was
ever spoken of as the Grand Old Roman. Senator Ransom
was devotedly attached to his wife and children. He did not
connect himself with any church, though he had a sustaining
faith in God, and wrote earnest and frequent letters to Mrs.
Ransom from the fields of battle, manifesting a desire and
intent to enter the communion of the Protestant Episcopal
Church.

Senator Ransom was a man of superb figure. He was full
six feet tall, his weight was about two hundred pounds, his
hair and beard, when he was a young man, were very dark.
He had a prominent nose, his countenance was noble, and

Tue Ransom Bust.

his eye betokened the worth of the man. His head was much

above the average in size. His conversation was clean and
chaste.
tions and anecdotes were classic, and truly may it be said of
him that his canvass of our State elevated and ennobled. her

citizenship.

His speeches were lofty and elevated. His illustra-

Senator Ransom was no such trained lawyer
as Senator Badger. He was not a student and a scholar like
Senator Graham. He had not the technical knowledge of
Senator Haywood, nor was he a popular idol like Senator
Vance. But in his influence with the President of the United
States, with the Departments, and with his colleagues in the
Senate, and in the services which his peculiar talents en-
abled him to render to the South, he was superior to them all.
In fine, Ransom was the Senator—every inch of him. When
he took his seat in that august body, he made a fixed resolve,
so to conduct himself in his high office that the best thought
of the world would approve his conduct, and that no critic
could point to North Carolina as a narrow or provincial
State.

Senator Ransom was no less fortunate in his death than in
his long and brilliant career as orator, soldier, statesman.
When Sir Walter Scott had gazed for the last time upon the
beautiful Tweed and the hills beyond he turned to his son-
in-law, Lockhart, and said: “Be a good man, Lockhart, be

a good man,” and instantly passed away. Ransom’s death
was not unlike Scott’s. For some months the venerable Sen-
ator had not appeared to be in robust health, But it was
the way with those heroic men not to complain. So his
friends were not apprehensive. His devoted wife and
daughter had not returned from their accustomed summer
trip to Blowing Rock. Three of his sons were about the
quiet country home. A beautiful October day was drawing
to its close. The noble Senator had remained indoors dur-
ing the day, and was sitting on the side of the bed, conversing
with his sons when, suddenly, the swift messenger came to

him, and the fearless old man, with a bright eye and sus-

 
 

40 Nortu Carona Hisrortcat Commission.
taining courage, turned to his boys and said, ‘Do right, boys,
always do right. God bless your mother. I am going.”
And in an instant, he was indeed gone to his reward.

The day after his death, Joseph P. Caldwell, the Senator’s
friend and champion, under the editorial caption, “Dead,
My Lords and Gentlemen,” declared in broken accents that
the greatest of North Carolinians had answered the final
summons. And Josephus Daniels, who had not always
agreed with the Senator, said, editorially, that in many re-
spects, he attained greater reputation than any other citizen
who has represented this State in the Federal Congress.
Can we, men of Carolina, measure up to this national stand-
ard? Shall we, as Ransom did, stand for large and great
things? Can we catch the lesson of his life: No man shall
advocate principles simply because they are popular. No
man shall resort to the cheap tricks of the demagogue to in-
gratiate himself with the people. No public servant shall
vote for a measure, simply because it is popular, but he shall,

in accordance with his best judgment, espouse only those
equal measures which the mature thought of the world ap-

proves, and he shall do all these things quietly, deliberately
and unafraid.

“For him, who in a hundred battles stood
Scorning the cannon’s mouth,
Grimy with flame and red with foeman’s blood,
For thy sweet sake, O South;

Who, wise as brave, yielded his conquered sword
At a vain war’s surcease,

And spoke, thy champion still, the statesman’s word
In the calm halls of peace;

Who pressed the ruddy wine to thy faint lips,
Where thy torn body lay,

And saw afar time’s white in-sailing ships
Bringing a happier day.

Oh, mourn for him, dear land that gave him birth!
Bow low thy sorrowing head!

Let thy seared leaves fall silent on the earth
Whereunder he lies dead!

In field and hall, in valor and in grace,
In wisdom’s livery,

Gentle and brave, he moved with knightly pace
A worthy son of thee!” 1

1Matt W. Ransom. By John Charles MeNeill. In “ Poems, Merry and Sad.”’

Tur Ransom Bust.

A Personal Tribute

BY A. H. BOYDEN

State Senator from the Twenty-sixth District

Mr. Chairman:

Matt W. Ransom was a patriot, an orator, a soldier and
astatesman. He was all that, and he was also a God-fearing,
Christian gentleman. I am proud to say that he om ion
warm personal friend, and I am glad this opportunity 1s
afforded me to pay an humble tribute to his honored mem-
ory.

I have seen him amid the shock of battle as undaunted,
cool and intrepid he sat upon his horse while amid the storm
of bullets and plunging iron from the fiery cannon’s mouth
he led his cheering men to a glorious victory. ’

I have seen his magnificent presence upon the hustings
when for hours he held the listening multitude entranced
with his matchless oratory, as with his eloquent tongue he
pleaded with his people for the integrity of his State one
for Anglo-Saxon supremacy. %

I have seen him upon the floor of the United States Senate
where for twenty-four years he served his State and coun-
try with such conspicuous ability, and where he was recog:
nized as one of the great leaders in that greatest deliberative
body on earth. There I have heard his voice in eloquent
tones pleading for his stricken Southland, which he loved
so much. E

His place in history is among the State’s immortals,
and his friends, and the people of the State honor themselves
and honor the State in placing this splendid bust of him =
the Capitol among the State’s dead statesmen, mpene it will
be an inspiration to the youth of our land to stimulate ee
ambition to serve their State with love and fidelity as he did.

General Ransom loved his friends, and no man had truer,

 
42 Nortu Carouina Hisrorican Commission.

more loyal and devoted friends. His soldiers loved him and
followed him wherever he led. The people loved him, and
honored him with the highest position within the gift of the
State. His devotion to North Carolina was unbounded, and
there never was a time when he was not ready to make any
sacrifice for her honor.

He was an honest man, and his integrity and uprightness
in both public and private life, his splendid manners, but
simple life, are a glorious heritage to his family and his
friends.

Whether in war or in peace, in adversity or pr

osperity,
for nearly half a century he was a leader,

. a defender and
deliverer of our people. He had been with them on the

march, at the campfire, in the lurid flames of battle, in fam-
ine and pestilence. He suffered with them amid the pangs

és oD
of cold and hunger.

As he led and guided them then, so when the terrible con-
flict was over, amid the cruel, sorrowful days of reconstruc-
tion, he guided and led them through a wilderness of woes
back to freedom and peace, to a government of the people
by the people and for the people.

While he may have had deep and powerful impulses and

resentments at times, his great heart always beat in tender
sympathy and charity for the poor, the downtrodden and
oppressed.

His magnanimity and sense of justice were deep and
strong, and his kindly nature as sweet and tender as a
woman’s.

If I could only do this great, good man, my friend, jus-
tice; if I could only portray, as his eloquent tongue could,
his life and character and his virtues, it would give me su-
preme joy.

But his great deeds, his life and his virtues are enshrined
in the hearts of a brave and affectionate people.

“When he died he left a lofty name,
A light, a landmark on the cliffs of fame.”

Tue Ransom Bust.

Senator Ransom as a Private Citizen

BY B. 8S. GAY

Representative from Northampton County

Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen:

As the representative here of the good people of North-
ampton County, the home of General Ransom, and as a
member of the House of Representatives, I thank the His-
torical Commission for the splendid bust of the soldier, states-
man, and devoted patriot, which is an expression of your
own public spirited patriotism, your appreciation of his
great qualities of mind and soul, and of his noble deeds in
war and in peace, and of your love of the “True, the Beau-
tiful and the Good.” I shall ever remember with pride that
I was so honored as to participate, although so feebly, with
the statesmen and orators who have met here to do honor to
him, who, while living, “crowned himself with living bays.”

You have been told in eloquent words, as only the scholar
and orator could tell, of his heroic deeds in times that
tried men’s souls; of his bravery and moral courage in
times of peace no less than in times of war; and of his de-
votion to duty, which nerved him to advocate the interests of
his people, as he saw them, against their opinions some-
times, unawed by impending political and financial ruin. It
has been recited to you how he concentrated all his powers
of mind and soul, while United States Senator, to the bring-
ing about of a reconciliation between the lately hostile sec-
tions for the salvation of his own loved Southland, and
the glory of the whole country. You have been told how,
by his wisdom, his tact, and his magnetic influence he, as
no other man could have done, prevented the enactment of
the Force Bill, which would probably have precipitated an-
other war between the States, and would certainly have pro-
longed the horrors of sectional discord for generations. You

 
 

44. Nortu Caroxirva Hisrorrcat Commission.

have been told how, when the best men of the State were
incarcerated, and were to be convicted without law, by the
infamous Kirk, and the writ of habeas corpus was power-
less, and the State “Judiciary was exhausted” in fact, the
wisest and best lawyers and statesmen looked to Ransom as
the only Moses who could solve the seemingly insolvable prob-
lem, and how he, as ever, measured up to the great occasion,
and with the persuasive powers, the persistency, and the mag-
netism which he only possessed, influenced Judge Brooks, of
the Federal Court, to have the writ enforced, and thereby es-
tablished the authority of law and civil government in North
Carolina, and drove the gamblers and money changers out
of the temple of government. Neither is it in my province
to relate to you that, on another occasion, in 1902, when the
revenues of the State were inadequate to the appropriations
made for the public schools, and when there was no au-
thority from the Legislature to supply the deficiency, and
it seemed that the public schools must be closed, how that
most unselfish of patriots, the superb Aycock, then gov-
ernor of the State, whose magnificent powers of soul and
mind were consecrated to the uplift of his people, called to-
gether the wise men of the State to see if some way could
not be devised whereby the honor of the State might be pre-
served, and the doors of the public schools might be kept
open to the children of the State. I say it is not my part
to tell you that the noble Ransom came then again to the
rescue of the State, and proposed to be one of fifty to give
$250,000 to keep the schools open; and when that could not
be, how he authorized the Governor to draw on him for
$5,000 for that purpose, declaring that the schools should
not close,—yet these are facts! These themes were for
stronger men, and you know how well they have done their
part in your hearing to-night.

It becomes me to tell you of General Ransom as the peo-
ple at his home knew him, and as I knew him. In the few
minutes which have been kindly allotted to me, I can but

Tue Ransom Bust. 45

touch upon some few of his acts, but I hope these will show
you the underlying principles which guided and controlled
his life.

While he yet resided in his native county of Warren, he
had wooed and won Miss Pattie Exum, one of the most fa-
mous belles of Northampton, a county still noted for her
beautiful and splendid women. She was cultured, modest,
pure—a model Southern young woman—and no other civili-
zation has produced such. They were married in 1853,
while he was living in Warren, his native county. In 1856
they moved to Northampton County, and lived on her mag-
nificent Roanoke farm “Verona,” five miles from Jackson.
Mrs. Ransom was the owner of broad acres of Roanoke lands,
and a large number of negroes, and of teams, ete., which she
had inherited. Besides the staple crops of cotton and corn,
to which these fertile lands were so well adapted, they had
great pastures of clover and grasses on which roamed brood
mares and colts, Jersey cows and calves, and sheep and frisk-
ing lambs. Mrs. Ransom had a drove of one hundred tur-
keys, and was a model housekeeper. Is it strange that they
loved this spot so well? It is now hallowed ground, for in it
was buried General Ransom, beside his brilliant and noble
son, Thomas R. Ransom, who was only permitted to view
the Canaan of Fame, and who died a few years before his
father, between whom was a most beautiful attachment.
Here too, was buried their first born, a beautiful little girl,
about whom he used to write so sweetly from the camp in the
tender letters to Mrs. Ransom. These letters are models,
breathing tenderest love, noblest ambition, and deepest grati-
tude and strongest trust in God.

Mrs. Ransom was in entire sympathy with her noble hus-
band, and throughout their married life there was a mutual
devotion and unity of purpose. General Ransom was always
gallant, gentle, and devoted to her, even up to his death. Dr.
H. W. Lewis, of Jackson, their family physician, who was
frequently in their home, and others, have often told me

 
 

 

46 Norts Carortina HistoricaL ComMMISSION.

of this beautiful relationship. They both loved the country,
and the home life. They were both devoted to their children,
and desired them educated at the home schools and at Hor-
ner’s, and at the State University. For these reasons (and
for a long time their financial condition would have pre-
vented it) Mrs. Ransom never lived in Washington.

In 1867 he was farming very largely. While labor at that
time was cheap, all the other expenses were very great.
Corn sold for $7 or $8 per barrel; flour for $15, and Western
meat for 20 cents per pound; and Peruvian guano, the only
kind used then, sold for $80 per ton. Horses were also pro-
portionately high. General Ransom expected to make 500
bales of lint cotton; on account of the extremely wet June and
July and August, and the unusually early frosts, he did not
make 50 bales. His was the experience of many other Roa-
The result was that he lost nearly everything

noke farmers.
but Mrs. Ransom’s land. Mrs. Ransom told me a few days

ago that they had to deny themselves sugar and coffee the
whole winter of 1867. Nothing daunted, he rented a home
in Garysburg, moved his family there, and opened a law
office across the Roanoke River at Weldon, where he estab-
lished a lucrative practice which he retained so long as he

could attend to it, for two or three years. But the home on
the farm, and farm life were irresistibly attractive to him,
and he wld not but divide his time there. Born and reared
on his father’s farm, near the famous Shocco Springs, in
Warren County, where the sweetest waters gushed from
shaded springs at the foot of the rich, red clay hills, over-
flowing into the murmuring brooklets, where man and beast
were refreshed; where the hillsides were carpeted with blos-
soming clover and green pastures, on which horses and cows
and sheep grazed and colts and calves and lambs gamboled ;
where the gentle breezes rolled the golden wheat fields into
graceful ocean-like waves; where giant oaks bravely stood
guard over the yet unconquered forests; where the air was

fragrant with the perfume of wild honeysuckle, and yellow

 

Tue Ransom Bust. 47

jessamine and apple blossoms; where the mocking bird sang
So sweetly, and the “cock’s shrill clarion,” and deep bass of
the big bullfrog, and the bob-white’s tenor, and merry whistle
and song of the happy plowboy made a grand chorus of
melody; and where, later on, the lovely blossoms developed
into blushing peaches, golden apples, luscious grapes and the
fleecy cotton and “the full corn in the ear,” as the reward of
labor and skill, and the barns were filled with corn and
wheat—it was amid such scenes and surroundings as these,
where surely the “land flowed with milk and honey” that
Matt W. Ransom grew up from infancy to manhood. Is it
any wonder that he always thereafter so loved the simple
home-life on the farm? Is it any wonder that the teeming
ground, the generous Roanoke lands, were so attractive to
him? These memories never faded, and, as in all cases,

Time but the impression deeper makes,
As streams their channel deeper wear.”

*Here he communed with nature and imbibed that deep
reference for nature’s God. Amid such scenes, drinking
the health-giving waters and inhaling the pure air was de-
veloped that kingly form, that masterful intellect and
breadth of soul which sympathized with all creatures that
could love and suffer. Here he learned from the majestic
and silent oaks to brave all assaults, whether, as he believed,
from mistaken friends or bitter foes, and keep silent, await-
ing vindication by time and cooler reason, having supreme
faith in the justice of his cause.

Like the noble old Roman, Nathaniel Macon, his grand-
uncle, he loved the soil, the simple life of the farm, and he
loved fine cattle and had a great weakness for splendid horses.
When he did not have one cent to spare, he could not resist
the purchase of the famous stallion “Red Dick,” for $1,200.
And Mrs. Ransom, with clearer judgment on such matters,

uncomplainingly yielded to the gratification of this weak-
ness,

 
 

 

 

48 Nortu Caroiina HisroricaAL CoMMISSION.

You have been told about his having been elected to the
United States Senate to fill the term for which Governor
Vance had been elected, but which his unremoved disabili-
ties prevented him from serving, but you have not been told
that General Ransom equally divided with Governor Vance
the salary of $5,000 allowed and paid him the first year of
this term. Yet such was the fact, and Govenor Vance, soon
after his inauguration as Governor, when it was suggested
that influence would be exerted to have him elected United
States Senator by the Legislature, to succeed General Ran-
som, answered that he would not oppose Ransom, that he was
his friend; that Ransom had been paid the salary for the
first year of the term, and equally divided it with him at a
time when it amounted to something to him, and that Ran-
som did this without solicitation. They were both poor men
then. Very few people ever knew of this generous act. His
sympathies were broad as his thoughts were lofty. An in-
cident, related by his friend and kinsman, Dr. L. J. Picot,
(and incorporated in the valuable and splendid memorial
address of Colonel W. H. S. Burgwyn), illustrates this
phase:

He rode upon a file of soldiers taking a prisoner to be shot.
He inquired the cause, and finding that, upon being refused
a furlough to spend one night with his wife and children,
only a short distance from the camp, the soldier had deter-
mined to see them once more, and return in time for duty;
but his absence was detected, and he was forthwith captured,
convicted of desertion and sentenced to be shot therefor.
General Ransom’s sympathies were enlisted. He told the
escort not to execute the order until his return. Spurring
his horse, in a few minutes he had returned from General
Lee’s headquarters, his horse in full gallop, waving the par-
don which he had obtained. As Colonel Burgwyn remarks,
“it is of pathetic interest to know that, on the next day that
soldier was killed in the forefront of battle by a bullet piere-

ing his heart.’ Is it any wonder that his soldiers loved and

Tue Ransom Bust. 49

almost worshipped him? I have met many of his soldiers at
home and in the far western part of the State, but I have
never seen one of them that was not devoted to him. He
shared with them all the hardships of war and camp life,
and took a personal interest in each of them. He opened his
bosom to his soldiers and bared his breast to the enemy. He
exposed himself and led them in the thickest of the fight.

In the battle of Plymouth, pontoon bridges had been ar-
ranged for the crossing of Conley Creek by his infantry, in
the attack, and he was riding horse-back. His horse got
stuck in the mud in the creek while he was leading the charge.
He immediately jumped over the horse’s head, pulled him-
self across the creek—he couldn’t swim—and led the charge
on foot, and carried the position. The great victory did not
cause him to forget his faithful but unfortunate steed, and,
so soon as he could he had a squad of men to prize him out
of the mud alive, and afterwards returned him to the friend
who had loaned him to him, Mr. Day, of Halifax, the
father of the brilliant Captain W. H. Day. This incident
was also told me by Dr. Picot. General Ransom was a true
North Carolinian of the old school—he did not parade his
gallant or generous acts, and only those very near him ever
earned of them from him.

"Twas the same in times of peace. On one occasion,

about 1868, in Weldon, seven hundred men, many of them

clad in second-hand Federal uniforms, and with banners and
some sabers, led by negroes who had served in the Union
army, were parading the streets, over-awing the people, and
inflaming the negroes generally. The situation was serious
and the white people dreaded the outcome. When the ne-
groes were at the height of their orgies, General Ransom
came up and the white men crowded around him for counsel
and leadership. He soon took matters in charge, and with
only two men went up to the leader, some considerable dis-
tance off. His commanding figure and utter disregard of
4

 
50 Nortru Carotina HistorrcaL ComMISsION.

their arms, organization and numbers carried consternation
and in a few minutes they had disbanded and scattered and
felt relieved that he was so lenient to them.

I do not believe, after reviewing his record in the United
States Senate and on all occasions, seeing how he had, in
the most trying crises and against obstacles insurmountable
to all others, he achieved his object by ways impossible to
any but himself, that the world has ever produced a greater
diplomat. He knew and respected himself—that gave him
poise and made him a leader. He knew and respected and
sympathized with others—that made him a democrat.

But I have digressed. Let us come back to Northamp-
ton and to his life as a private citizen and farmer, the largest
and most successful farmer—cotton raiser, at least, in North
Carolina.

I am sure he loaned or gave a hundred horses and mules
to poor deserving farmers in Northampton County at dif-
ferent times during many years, even when he himself had
not much else but horses. I have learned of scores of such
cases—but not ever directly or indirectly from him. He
never denied a worthy Confederate soldier or poor neighbor.
I have learned from others that he would give from $10 to
$50 to relieve the sufferings of old, dependent friends, or to
promote the worthy children of friends. His heart and his
purse were in quick sympathy with worthy objects of charity,
and institutions devoted to the elevation of the youth of the
land.

On the Roanoke farms there were from 500 to 1,000 souls,
mostly negroes, but he knew them all, and in their sickness
he would send or carry to them comforts, and provided his
own family physician to attend them, with directions to call
upon him for such things as they might need for comfort or
cure. He was as truly a patriarch as was Abraham. His
magnetism and tact were displayed here and were as effective
in controlling his overseers and laborers and tenants as in
leading men in the higher walks of life. They knew that if

Tue Ransom Bust. 51

they did reasonably well their part that “Mars General”
would provide the physician in sickness and the lawyer when
necessary to defend them in the courts. He made from
1,000 to 1,500 bales of cotton each year, and made great
profits from his farming. He borrowed money and invested
in Roanoke farms, whenever they were sold, and those lands
greatly enhanced in value, and when he died he owned, per-
haps, more than 25,000 acres of magnificent Roanoke lands.

It required a genius for affairs to profitably manage these
lands with such laborers and tenants as were available; yet,
with the aid of his sons, who inherited many of his fine
qualities, he made a great success.

I was at his funeral at his home where he had lived for
half a century. There were gathered there scores of dis-
tinguished men from all parts of the State, and from other
States, and hundreds of his neighbors and friends and ad-
mirers, and hundreds of the negroes from his plantations—
all subdued by the solemnity of the occasion, sorrow ex-
pressed in every countenance. It was hard for many to
realize that he could be taken off and still the world go on its
normal way. They had lost a friend who never failed them,
a leader whom they could always trust. The sight was pa-
thetic. The end had come. His kingly form will never
more be seen—that wonderful voice which so often called the
people to duty, that unsurpassed art of the diplomat and that
magnetism will nevermore be heard or seen or felt. A
grand equestrian statue of him, clad in his Confederate uni-
form and mounted on his magnificent stallion, Ion, and
placed on these Capitol grounds, and a life size statue, carved
by the most cunning sculptor and placed in Statuary Hall

in the group with the immortal Lee and the great educator
and statesman, J. L. M. Curry, with whom he wrought and
whose admiration he had won, and beside that other grandest
of men, Zebulon B. Vance, would be a fitting expression of a
grateful people for his brave deeds and unselfish sacrifices
for his loved State and Southland, and would do honor to

 
Norra Carortina Historica Commission.

the State, and would perpetuate the memory of the superb
form and manly features of him who was a king among men.
North Carolina can not do too much for him who did so much
for her. But the marble will crumble into dust before the
influence of his brave life shall have ended.

Before closing, let me call your attention to his last words.
When he knew that his mission had ended, and he had re-
ceived a sudden dispatch to report to the Heavenly Father,
his lips were forever closed after uttering, “Do right, boys,
always do right!” And then his prayer for the partner in
all his ambitions, sorrows and triumphs—“God bless your
mother. I am going.” It was so natural. In all supreme
moments he forgot himself, and lived for those he loved so
well—his State and his people.

Tue Ransom Bust.

Address of Presentation

BY J. BRYAN GRIMES

Chairman of,the North Carolina Historical Commission.

Your Excellency:

This evening we lift the veil and look upon the face of him
whom all Carolinians knew and loved. It is the image of
the scholar, the orator, the soldier, the statesman, the patriot
who loved the South as he loved his life, and loved North
Carolina even more than the South—the peerless Ransom!

Ransom, a name written by fame’s crimsoned pen upon
many a field made sacred to us by Carolina valor and laved
in Carolina blood.

Ransom, a name that towered as the Gibraltar of courage
and right when weaklings cowered and hope had fled, when
the “Old Mother State” lay prostrate, violated by the alien
and betrayed by degenerate sons.

Ransom, a name made great as the defender of the South
when the raging seas of hate, sectionalism, destruction and
reconstruction, beating with relentless fury, threatened to en-
gulf and destroy our civilization.

fansom, a name that for twenty-five years was acclaimed
by all the people of all this country as that of the great
American who stood for the Constitution and for the inalien-
able rights of a stricken people.

Ransom, a name that brings to mind the best traditions of
the scholarship and chivalry of the old South.

In his early manhood, Matt W. Ransom consecrated him-
self to the welfare of his people, and for half a century the

virtues, talents and abilities of this great man shone, con-

spicuous and resplendent, in the service of his State and the
Southland.

It is peculiarly fitting that his admiring fellow-countrymen
should attest their love for him by erecting this beautiful and

 
Z \E r
54 Nortu Carortina Historitcat Commission.

grateful tribute to his worth, and representing them and the
North Carolina Historical Commission, I have the honor to
tender to you for the State of North Carolina this heroic bust
of that heroic man.

Tur Ransom Bust.

Address of Acceptance

BY HON. W. W. KITOCHIN

Governor of North Carolina.

Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen:

In behalf of the people of North Carolina who loved him
so well and honored him so greatly, I am glad to accept from
the State Historical Commission this marble bust of the late
Matt Whitaker Ransom.

Of his services in war and in peace, at the bar, on the field
of battle, on the hustings, in the United States Senate, of his
great ability, his wise statesmanship, his intrepid courage,
his unsurpassed eloquence, his excellent diplomacy, his far-
reaching patriotism, his handsome personality, it is not for
me to speak, for well-selected orators have with striking
ability portrayed all these splendid qualities to you. The

lawyer, the soldier, the planter, the public official, the patriot,
find in his life the type of American citizenship to be
revered and emulated. He added dignity, wisdom and lus-
ter to the greatest deliberative body of the world, in which
sat Blaine, Conkling, Hoar, Ingalls, Carpenter, Bayard,

Thurman, Vest, Vance, Voorhees, Lamar, Garland, Daniel,

and others of that galaxy of senatorial giants. North Caro-
lina is justly proud of him. His bust will adorn the ro-
tunda of this Capitol, where his admiring countrymen shall

be forever reminded of his virtues and his triumphs.

 
 
No man is fit to be entrusted with control
of the Present who is ignorant of the Past;
and no people who are indifferent to their

Past need hope to make their Future great.