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8 Ne term CNR

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AN

ANNUAL PUBLICATION

OF

historical Papers

Published by the Historical Society of Trinity College,

DURHAM, N.C.

SERIES VI.

UNDER THE SUPERVISION OF THE DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY.
1906.

PRICE, FIFTY CEATS.

 

 
CONTENTS.

ot

Pack
1. WHat Our Society May Do For NortH Caro.ina History—John
sora Ee Es 8 SE eRe SSR op ge TO CE PO he Se 1
2. EDITORIAL FROM THE TRINTIY ARCHIVE, November, 1904................ LL
3. THE MANUFACTURE OF TosBacco IN NorTH CaroLina—A. B. Brad-
Cae re ee eee ry ere errr ee 12
cee AIOn WA, GORAB AM —Ural Homann, . 5.26... cccsccscanctecevarscescctsesonenes 22
5. OLp DuRHAM TRaDITIONS—John Spencer Bassett............:::sc0ssseeeeeeees
6. GENERAL SLADE’S JOURNAL OF A TRIP TO TENNESSEE—John Spencer
J BICC Tol a eee earners carer’ Wen er ee ER Ty Te 37
7. SOME UNPUBLISHED LETTERS OF NATHANIEL Macon—John Spencer
TREC a eRe rere renee heer ye ee ot
8. SELECTIONS FROM THE CORRESPONDENCE OF BEDFORD Brown—I.,
B= t BOO W URE HC. Ty oii is Seed edewen cn catedscendonsndince's 66
9. RicH SguaRE MEETING—Miss Juliana Peele..................cssececssnesceeeeees 93
10. THREE LETTERS RELATING TO EASTERN CAROLINA DURING THE
MO We BR VE ee Ba Gos 5 saves ds sss ade it wok we ves ccd 99

ccc ig teeter ng a Ne om tne i mnt nm mt

sy

 

eitbinemnmminennniicnminniiistile

en

 

 

 
 

 

Historical Papers.

SERIES: 6.

WHAT OUR SOCIETY MAY DO FOR NORTH CAROLINA
HISTORY.*

BY JOHN SPENCER BASSETT.

It is more than twelve years since the Trinity College
Historical Society was established for the purpose of aiding
in the development of North Carolina, and general Ameri-
can, history. It took in the beginning the general purpose
of supplementing at this institution the department of
history in the creation of a spirit for historical study. Its
specific objects have been to collect historical materials, to
preserve and display interesting relics of the past, to make
and publish researches into our history, and in any other
possible way to kindle a spirit for history among the men
and women who come within the influence of this training-
house of culture. How well it has done these things is not
for us to say. But atthe beginning of another year it is
well for us to go over our own purposes in our own minds
and to ask ourselves if there are not some ways in which
we can improve the service which we are giving to the
common cause.

And in the first place what is the nature of the common
cause? [answer it isa cause of devotion. Weare enlisted
in the work of making clear the cause of truth. We are
to roll back darkness, first in our minds and then in those
of other people. We are set to cause others to see, by the
common obligation of all men of mind, namely, the obliga-

 

 

*An address before the Trinity College Historical Society, October 13, 1904.

112805

sedan Sai enna tit tomtom eeet Seon Sone ete tenn ir etn eted ese deena aamsoainccaremnsnnannenemeseat tt =

 

 

 

 

 
<i ee ea een Once teenie eee ee

er a ea

 

2 NortH CAROLINA HIsTorRY.

tion to pass on to others the torches which we have been
fortunate enough to receive. The task given us is nota
matter of our own profit. We shall never see the bread
which we cast on the waters come back to us in the form of
dollars, or in the shape of dignity or position. At the best
we shall never have for any trouble that we may take any
other reward than the consciousness that we have stood as
men in the places in which we have been placed, and, per-
chance, that we have placed our own bodies in the breach
so that those who come after us may see further into the
distance by standing upon them. And yet this is all that
we have a right to Sere It isa glorious thing to fill the
place into which one’s life is put.

But my purpose is not to lay down principles. I want
to speak of particulars. I want to discuss the means by
which this Society may lay its hands to the task which
confronts it.

In the first place, we must recognize our common basis
of sympathy and purpose. Not every man at college is,
will be, or ever can be, a historian. This is because cer-
tain tastes and mental inclinations are embraced in the |
make-up of a historian. But there are always in our |
student-body certain men who do have a tendency toward
history, just as there are men who lean toward science, and
others who lean toward languages, and others who lean
toward mathematics. These men who are thus marked out
by their natures for the guardians of historical knowledge
have it in their power to organize and act together in the
most sensible way for the promotion of the best aims of
this society. It isto them that appeal. As for those who
do not come within this number—and they will know best
of all whether or not they come within it—I have only a
sincere godspeed for them in the sphere in which they
are more properly called. It is for us others, who are
touched with the mania which afflicted Scott’s Old Mor-
tality, that I have reserved my appeal. To such ones I

 

 

 

 

 

 
Ob ee tomee cee og oo 20 te ne Ome te totem Ate ene Ne a1 ON OO TREO OO OE Ne OS ene seme ney ee nyny-cipear mmm ges eget wot en TRE Re eR RS a ne cet ag ee ES NG ce scat

HISTORICAL PAPERS. 3

say, Let us reason together. What may we do for the
history of our State, and for history in general?

I answer, we can love North Carolina history. It is
certainly not the greatest part of history. I should tend
to delude you if I told you that we are the greatest people
in the union, or in the world. We are certainly a virtuous
people, an honest people, kind, generous and true; we
make life pleasant for ourselves and for the strangers
within our gates. But other people, I think, have had a
greater influence on the development of our common
country than we. If, therefore, the choice had to be made
between the history of the nation and the history of our
State, it would be foolishness for me to say take North
Carolina history. Fortunately, the choice does not have
to be made. There is room enough for all. And when
you are reasonably familiar with the history of the nation
it is the time for you to go rather deeply into the history
of your own State.

Moreover, it is not necessary for ours to be the greatest
history for us to love it. We do not love our mother
because she is rich, or beautiful, or crowned with the
dignity of the world; but because she is our mother.
Also, we do not love the history of North Carolina because
she is the richest or the most influential of States, but
because she is North Carolina. We know, and all the
world knows, that she has enough of virtue and enough of
achievement to warrant the love of anyone. She has, also,
enough of good sense not to demand, or to like, the flat-
tery of her sons. Furthermore, it is no breach of filial
respect for us to venture in the spirit of true sonship to
tell her the truth.

In the second place, we must be willing to sacrifice for
history. We must be willing to sacrifice time, comfort,
and money. Results will not come of themselves, let us
love never so well. We must have a willingness to put
our shoulders under the burden till they pain us from its

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ee en ee Ce ee 5 meget essty “S=>
abe : ann orth nn ttn nec tt tnt atonement AR eee repeNG eres oe
eRe REN RR RR STO TR IE ans SETTER ANI IT A RA COCO NC LD I NO re NS

 

4. NortH CAROLINA HIsTory.

heaviness. If there were one hundred men in North Caro-
lina who would agree to give their best and sole charitable /
efforts to placing the writing of North Carolina history on |
| a proper footing, it would not be ten years before no State in
the union should exceed us in this department of our
thinking. But they would have to be men of devotion.
| They would have to be grimly in earnest in their under-
taking. They would have to be willing to undergo as
frequently as was necessary the expenses of common meet-
ings, the expenses of publication, and the inconveniences
of the loss of much time. They would have to give up a
notion common to many good people that history is a kind
of mania for antiquities, an amusement fit for harmless old
men and unmated old women.
People often ask why there is not a vigorous North
Carolina Historical Society, like, let us say, the Historical
Society of Pennsylvania. I think it is because we have,
as a people, never been willing to sacrifice ourselves to the
necessary extent. We have been willing to have other
people do it: we have been willing to try to get the State
to do it: but how often have we been willing to tax our-
selves tor the common burden. If we had in this State a
society the members of which must pay an annual fee of
not less than five dollars, and if twenty or a hundred men
were willing to join on that basis, it would be an indica-
tion that there was enough sacrifice in the movement to
insure success. In saying this much, I have no intention
to underestimate the good intentions of those worthy peo-
ple who have launched movements for such societies in the
past. They have done, no doubt, what. was wisest in view
of the conditions which confronted them. I merely give
this statement as an illustration of what I have in my
mind when I seek to impress on your minds the kind of
sacrifice which is necessary to build up the great State
society which we all must desire to see established.
It is this kind of devotion which we must have if we are

 

 

D> aieecrectegtne gag bn ca Sentence pce nstn Sten

 
- etna

HIsToricaL PAPERS. 5

going to make this society the best possible servant of our
State. Ido not think that it is an impossibility for us at
Trinity to set on foot efforts like these in building up our
own Society. We are not rich enough to tax ourselves to
the extent indicated. It would be a fair test of our sense
of sacrifice to put our annual required contribution at one
dollar, leaving members to go beyond that as they were
able in a voluntary manner. This we ought to do as our
absolute duty; but it would be strange if, when we had
thus given our own best efforts to the cause, there should
not be others who should be willing to share our burdens.
But whether there were such persons or not, the task would
not be impossible through our own efforts. We are not a
weak aggregation of men. We are young, it is true, and
most of us poor. But some day we are going to be rich.
It would be a strange thing indeed if, out of all the accu-
mulating of wealth which is going to happen in North
Carolina in the next twenty-five years, none of it should
find its way into the pockets of Trinity men. It is true,
also, that when you are out in the world of action you are
going to give away various sums of money to objects which
appeal to you. It ought not to be too much to hope that
in that happy day you will turn back to this hour and
remember the needs of this Society. I have faith that if
the Society does its duty by North Carolina, you will have
the penetration to discover the fact, and discovering it,
you will have enough of the old spirit of Trinity to put
your gifts here. And if you forget us, then for myself and
for those who shall come after you, I will say that we will
toil on, in the faith that there is somewhere in the good
providence of God the aid which is necessary to give
efficiency to our zeal and our hopes.

I should like to give you briefly the story of a certain
historical society. It was founded long ago, before the
American revolution. It was founded by men who had an
abiding faith in themselves as the chosen of God. They

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Aan aati
eee easement ean ernest ninth nena stint nets -+e nani tennain an geis ee unmmnetetgeseie tr =
- es
ost ann TT oe ecmnemenitmeanninibinn vaadar sed eaes talib iiieimemmendt deni mane aiaem nat an aa me =

 

6 NortH Carouina Hisrory.

put many small efforts into their work. They brought
their gifts as they could. They thriftily husbanded their
resources. At last there came a day when the perils of
| youth had been passed. Then the Massachusetts Histor-
| ical Society stood as an influential and financially indepen-
vt dent institution. They were able to charge no annual fees
at all and from their vested funds to have a competent
income. They support a generous publication fund; they
have a handsome building of their own; and there are not
many proper demands on their resources which they are
not able to meet without inconvenience. All their success
has come out of their willingness to sacrifice for the com-
mon object. Not many members of that organization
today would be willing to appear at the pearly gates with
the consciousness that they had not put the Historical
Society into their wills. It is equally true that there are
not many historians in America who would not consider it
one of the greatest honors which could befall them to be
asked to join this society. What this great organization
has done in Boston during the past century I see no reason
why we should not do in North Carolina, but perhaps on
a smaller scale, in the next century.

You will observe that I have spoken several times of a
publication fund. It seems to me that no historical society
ever more than half lives till it has a publication of histor-
ical papers and documents. It is then brought into a vital
relation with the general public; for it brings the truth
which it may be able to discover to the attention of the
world. It makes itself a servant of the hundreds of
students in every part of the country who are trying to
reconstruct historical truth. It aids also very vitally the
life of the very society which conducts the publication ;
for how better can one stimulate the writing of history
than by offering to persons who have it in them to write
the inducement of ready and respectable vehicles of reach-
ing the reading world. The ‘itch for publication’’ has

 

 

 

 
HISTORICAL PAPERS. tL

been responsible, no doubt, for the appearance of much
formless and heavy historical literature; but it has stimu-
lated to authorship far more persons who would not other-
wise have begun to write than it has wearied of the class
who read. And for the reader who does not desire to
peruse such books there is always the ready relief of not
reading them.

Next to historical workers our Society needs, I think, a
fund the proceeds of which shall be irrevocably fixed for
purposes of publication. If it ever fulfils its best purposes
it must have that fund. As to how to get it, that isa
matter of careful consideration. At present it seems safe
to say that a fund of $2,000 well invested would give us
the desired results. It might well be larger; but if we
could raise that much we should make a creditable begin-
ning. How long do you think it ought to take us to raise
that much among ourselves? Would it take five years or
ten years? Ido not know; but I think I know this, that
it is absolutely necessary that we raise it. I mean that as
a society we cannot afford to be without at least this much.
And if we do not raise it within five years, we shall have
to raise it within ten, and if not within ten then it must
come within fifteen—or we must fall short of our opportu-
nity. What shall we do? We have already decided to
raise thesum. We shall begin this year; for if we do not
begin this year we shall have to begin next year. We
shall raise as much as we can now. But what we raise we
shall save with the greed of a miser. Next year we shall
raise some more. Some day we shall have the required
amount. It may come after you and I shall have been
gathered to the dust of our fathers, but we will put such
a spirit of sacrifice into this Society that it can never
forget our hopes till they are fully realized. We shall live
in our successors; and as for ourselves, we shall be so full
of the spirit that we are creating that wherever we go we
shall remember to send back to the old mother of our

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ana se, “Se
CE ATEN Ae re ne NN lon ert tines eit = Ce i
fe OLENA OLR ICEL YELLE TIES Ht OSE GLO IE LE LIE LLL ELL LIA LO OOO AA AO NL tH I a

 

ul 8 NortH Caro.uina History.

historical aspirations as liberal contributions as our means
will allow. We shall say to the constant importunity of
charity—and it will always importune us—‘‘No, I have
another cause in which I am enlisted, I and a band of
devoted ones, and my gifts are reserved for it. Go you to

those who are not so engaged.’’
Our Historical Society ought to be a life affair with most
of us. We are going to various places in life’s struggle.
We ought to carry with us a thread of affection which will
always bind us to this work. Our best work for North
Carolina history cannot be done in college. Here we can
only hope to form a taste for research, or to discover a
liking for it. As we get more mature we shall see more
certainly the call to each of us to write something. Happy
shall we be if we shall have cultivated through the inter-
vening time that first impulse which came to us at college.
There are a hundred phases of our history which need to
be written, if the men of sufficient earnestness and capac-
| ity should present themselves to undertake the tasks. Will
you get ready to undertake some of them? Train your-
| selves well now. Make historians of yourselves gradually
and without discouragement. It is the work of an
aristocrat in the sphere of the mind. It will bring you
rich rewards in the approval of your own conscience.
There will be those in the future who seek out the good
deeds of this generation, and in their reckoning up of
things you will not be forgotten. We historians, if I may
class myself where I want to be, have an advantage over
all other people. We get the last word at everybody.
And we are a clannish set. We love to preserve the
memories of our brethren. Would you like to join the
ranks, and insure that our successors will write you down
among the immortals? You need not hesitate. I assure
you that men of less worth than any of you are there writ
down, and will continue to be so till the end of historical

research.

 

 
HISTORICAL PAPERS. 9

In 1710 there was in North Carolina a man named John
Lawson. He was not the most brilliant man who met
around the boards of the magnates of the shores of the
Albemarle. Other men were as witty, others were as well
dressed, others were as well liked for companionship. We
know not if he had his peculiarities; but I should not
wonder if he had them and if there were not men in that
region at that day who sneered at the queer things that
Lawson did. They sneer at such men as he today. But
Lawson had his innings. He wrote a book. Many men
were in the colony who could have written it; but he alone
wrote it. Today he has a permanent place in the memory
of all North Carolinians; and the bodies of the venison.
stuffed scoffers who spoke loftily of ‘‘poor old Lawson’’
have long ago been transformed into green grass, which in
turn has passed into piney-woods steer, and from there the
Lord only knows where they have gone. So far as the
world knows they were as important in the form of green
grass or brindled steer as in the form in which they passed
their contemptuous judgments about the peculiarities of
Lawson, the historian. What will be known of you a
hundred years from today when the stone at your grave
shall have crumbled and your own body shall have been
resolved into chemical elements in which it existed before
the food you ate for breakfast this morning had passed
into beef, and wheat, and breakfast-food? Your fate is to
be as you wish.

To sum up what I have said; this is my conception of
the duty of this society to North Carolina history. It is
to love it, to sacrifice for it, to organize for it, to build a
publication fund for it,—rapidly if we can, slowly if we
must,—and finally to write for it. Some of us may do all
of these, all of us may do most of them. May we not hope
that out of the large number of young men who pass from
these halls every year to fields of labor in this State there
will be found a tithe which shall pay their vows at the

 

 

 

 
 

 

 

sac mcnennsninapinpmamvicnnmarniniye ann i enapaatain ian anes een SnOH tantra ae ee Neen TO mb ae Meera

a a Sean messes ceneniebiimeioninibiinn aiadencie-aens ieiieiiimemnent dank meee ae

10 NortH CaRo.uina History.

shrine of our State’s history? May we not hope that they
will form a Trinity group of historians who shall be known
for their good work and their pride of allegiance to the
society in which their aspirations had birth? Such a group
I would have you become, generous and fair in regard to
other groups, but loyal with the old Trinity loyalty in
regard to ourselves. If you should become this, whatever
else you may become, you cannot fail to create the strong-
est positive force for our historical uplift that, in my
judgment, has ever existed in this State.

 

 

 

 

 
HISTORICAL PAPERS. 11

AN EDITORIAL FROM THE TRINITY COLLEGE ARCHIVE
NOVEMBER, 1904.

All historical minded people should read with interest the
paper by Dr. Bassett in thisnumber. Attention is especially
called to the purpose of the Trinity College Historical Society
to establish a publication fund, as mentioned in the article.
The Historical Society has in its possession a large number:
of documents and papers which, if printed, could be used by
students of history elsewhere and would be of great value to
them. It desires to publish these documents and others that
it is continually receiving, and appeals to all who are inter-
ested in the history of North Carolina to contribute to the
establishment of a fund which shall be used perpetually for
this purpose. Below is an extract from the society’s consti-
tution which will show under what conditions the fund will
be raised and managed.

“ARTICLE IV. SECTION 1. The Society shall create and
build up a Publication Fund the interest on which shall be
used for no other purpose than historical publication. This
fund shall be invested under the supervision of the authorities
of Trinity College. It shall be allowed to accumulate until
such time as the Society shall deem proper for beginning a
publication.

“Sec 2. All funds received from the membership fees of
non-resident members shall go to the publication fund, and
at least half of the amount received from the membership
fees of resident members shall go to the said publication
fund.

“Sec. 3. Any person who contributes as much as ten dol-
lars at one time shall be made a life-member of the Society
with no further dues to pay.

“Sec. 4. The Society shall appoint a responsible person
who shall act as Agent for the Publication Fund.”

Dr. J. C. Kilgo, president of Trinity College, Durham, N.C.,
has been designated as agent, to whom contributions may
be sent.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 

 

i Wet cee ia te etc te AOE OSES

 

12 MANUFACTURE OF TOBACCO IN NORTH CAROLINA.

THE MANUFACTURE OF TOBACCO IN NORTH CAROLINA.

BY A. B. BRADSHER.

The markets for the bright leaf tobacco are nearly always
in the near-by city or town. Warehouses are erected in
the centers of large tobacco-growing districts. There is
much strife among the towns to get the location of the
warehouses, because the daily sale of large quantities of
leaf turns much money loose and the town’s general
business is thereby benefited. Many towns in North Car-
olina owe their very existence to that of the warehouses
therein. A quotation from a writer on the subject will
give some idea of the commercial importance of these :

‘‘Within the past ten years eight markets for the sale
of tobacco have been established in as many different towns
in the ten counties constituting the ‘new golden leaf belt’
of North Carolina. These towns contain twenty ware-
houses of spacious size. Upon the floor of each of these
may be seen daily from 15,000 to 50,000 tbs. of bright
tobacco.”’

The ordinary warehouse is constructed with plenty of
floor space and plenty of light from above and on all sides.
Many warehouse concerns use the number of square feet of
skylights in their advertisements. Attached to the sides
is a driveway, covered with some kind of roof, arranged so
that wagons can easily be unloaded to the floor and may
also be loaded from it. The floor of this driveway is some-
what lower (something like three feet) than the main floor.

The tobacco is taken from the wagons, placed on a broad
truck, in a round pile, with the heads outward and the
tails toward the center. This is wheeled upon the scales,
where it is weighed. Here a tag bearing the weight of the
pile and the name of the planter is placed in a cleft stick
and the stick in turn placed in the top of the tobacco.

 

For a treatment of Tobacce Culture in North Carolina by the same author see
The Trinity Archive, April, 1905.

 

 

 

 
HISTORICAL PAPERS. a3

The pile is then put in the place allotted it in the long
rows of pileson the floor. A farmer puts all of his tobacco
together in one row. This accomplished, the tobacco is
ready for the auction, and the owner, should the bid not
be satisfactory, has the right to reject it and may sell
again as he wishes,

The charges for handling loose tobacco in this character
are not burdensome. For weighing each pile the fee is
ten or fifteen cents. The auction fee is ten or fifteen cents
per hundred pounds, and if more than a hundred pounds
the fee is set at twenty-five cents. Then in addition there
is a commission of 23 per cent. on the amount of the sale,
which is the warehouse charge.

On auction day the floor is crowded with buyers, farm-
ers, and others who have the sale less in concern. The
auctioneer is the center of attraction. He starts off ina
whoop and holds out remarkably well, uttering not a single.
word that is audible to an unpracticed ear. In the mean-
time buyers are pulling out bundles from the piles,
examining them and bidding (the latter mostly by signs).
As fastas a pile is sold a clerk takes down the price and
the buyer’s name, and marks the grade for the buyer
according to his direction. Following the sale is a crowd
of hands for each buyer, taking up the tobacco in large
square baskets, four feet long and wide and something
like six inches deep. These filled, they are hauled to
various prize houses, redrying plants, and factories. An
auction sale of tobacco is one of hustleand motion. Often
150 sales will be made in an hour. In a town of some
size, where there is more than one warehouse, one sale
follows another. The warehouses have a regulated system
by which they sell, one having first sale one day, another
the next, and soon. A certain hour is fixed at which the
bids must be castied. Failure to comply with this rule
puts the buyer on the black list and his purchasing power
is at an end. The farmer goes to the office in the building,

 

 

 

 
fren ennaerae pivebien maveramen meme

sysname nce tes — nc acnumnssinaninnnaiename ninety gna anesiaipiee antes pune Dalen tutny
ee ee esunecmnsmpemenntemeamnenionine. caadnrses-nene tebe montinince mee sissies anseasneaiiaies iain aid eee

 

14. MANUFACTURE OF ToBacco IN NortTH CAROLINA.

gets his money, less the handling and selling commission,
and goes his way.

The following are the principal markets of North Caro-
tt. lina in their relative importance, with an approximate
amount sold annually by each :*

 

 

Winston: i247 5.ce. 22,500,000 WilsOils nc. 22,000,000

KIASEOR. cece: 18,000,000 _Greenville.................... 12,000,000
Rocky: Moant.............. 10;000,000 Durhaim.2.24-:............ 7,000,000
OxlOrd: ores 6,500,000 MHenderson................... 5,500,000
Reidswille eae: 5-000;000 — Louisburg... :...2......5-< 4,500,000
GOlISHOLO asics 4.000000 Srtivhelt. 2... cc..cccus-. 3,500,000
GTeenSNOrG. 5... 3,000,000 — Mts Ary iii 3,000,000
Roxboro: 33... 3,000,000 Robersonville.............. 3,000,000
AGHPOle 2 eet. 3,000,000". Lumberton <.....:........ 2,500,000

 

There are many more markets scattered over the State
of less importance, which, on account of lack of import-
ance, are omitted.

From the warehouse the tobacco is taken either to a
redrying plant, or to a prize house where it is packed in
hogsheads and shipped to one. The redrying machines are
comparatively modern inventions and are one of the great-
| est time, labor and money savers in the business. Before
ve these machines came into use the tobacco was either hung
: in frames in prize houses and there dried by the air, or was

thrown, heads and tails, in large heaps upon the floor
and dried by a continual shaking up with pitchforks.
Both took much time, labor and space. But now the
tobacco is practically all dried by machinery. This dry-
ing machine consists of a series of rooms in which are
placed coils of steam pipes with valves attached to regulate
the heat, and through which passes either a broad belt or
| a stick chain. This belt is made of galvanized wire net
| and it is upon this that the tobacco to be dried is
placed. It is placed across the belt in regular order,
with the heads pointing forward. Two negroes are usually

 

 

 

*These estimates kindly furnished by Mr. J. S. Cobb.

 

 

ieee ntgitan ecient ts aR rs een na

 
HisToRICAL PAPERs. 15

employed in putting the tobacco on this belt. The belt
takes it directly into a highly heated chamber, and
then it goes from one to the other until some three or
four are passed, all of which are heated at from 150 to
170 degrees. When it passes from the last hot room (and
by this time it is thoroughly dry) it goes into a cooling
room and thence into an ordering room, where it receives
enough moisture from steam to make it capable of being
handled. In each of the sections of the drier there isa
fan, circular in shape, some six or eight feet in diameter,
which revolves with great rapidity, giving a uniform heat
and circulation in each section.

From the steaming room the tobacco passes out of the
machine and is taken off the apron (belt) and packed in
hogsheads by either screws or hydraulic presses. The
hogsheads are then nailed up and numbered, and the
grade, year of crop, and weights stenciled upon the ends.
The hogsheads are next placed in storage, where they
remain for some one, two, or three years, new tobacco
being very little used in manufacturing. The hogsheads
are packed in storage, two, three and four deep. Thus
with about 1,000 pounds in each hogshead, a great amount
of tobacco can be stored in a comparatively small space.
Tobacco is redried in four cities in North Carolina, namely,
Greenville, Kinston, Winston and Durham. The drier in
Durham, which contains four machines of large capacity,
is the largest of its kind in the world. The machines
which have the belts can dry from 17,000 to 22,000 pounds
per day. The stick machines, which use the same heating
apparatus, but have the tobacco hung on sticks, can dry
from 40,000 to 50,000 pounds per day, and there are two
of each kind in the establishment spoken of.

The tobacco improves with age in color and sweetness,
and when it is taken out it goes with little delay to the
consumer.

The tobaccos manufactured in North Carolina, as arule,

 

 

a et tn mantener etm amines eene aes,
 

16 MANUFACTURE OF ToBACCO IN NoRTH CAROLINA.

find their final form in either chewing or smoking tobacco,
snuff or cigarettes. Some cigars are made also, but few.
Of these I shall treat of the plug, or chewing, tobaccos
first.

The tobacco is first picked, bundle by bundle. These
are then sprinkled with water and when they are high in
order the bundles are untied and picked leaf by leaf,
assorted and separated into the different grades suitable
for the different brands manufactured.

These leaves are then steamed, and when thoroughly
moist are stemmed (a process of removing the midrib.)
Following this process is the ‘‘casing,’’ or flavoring pro-
cess. These flavorings are cooked in large cisterns and
are sprinkled on the tobacco uniformly. The flavoring is
composed of alcoholic liquors, licorice, etc. This is the
secret of all manufacturers, and much of the popularity of
the brands depends upon this part of the manufacture.
These flavored strips are then passed over a series of heated
rollers, which presses the surplus flavoring out, and thor-
oughly dried, but are re-ordered and packed in bulk until
needed. The next step is to weigh the tobacco, enough at
a time to make a plug, when it isin turn placed ina shaper,
which gives the desired size and form to the brand. These
plugs are then wrapped by experienced men. The wrap-
pers of the plugs are carefully selected as to color and
character of leaf so that all plugs of the same brand will
look alike. These plugs are then dried and packed in iron
boxes, where they are pressed and creased. Hydraulic
pressure is used, and while they are under pressure they
are put in gums and allowed to sweat or ferment—some
slightly, others under a longer process. After the fermen-
tation process they are taken out, carefully inspected and
the perfect ones tagged and packed in boxes. When the
boxes are filled, enough pressure to put the heads in is
used. When this is done they are branded with name,
size of plug and the gross and net weights on each box.

 

 

 

 
HisToricaAL PAPERS. 17

A groove is placed on each box, in which the government
stamp must be placed, varnished and canceled. The boxes
are strapped four or five together and are then ready for
shipment.

Snuff is the second article the manufacture of which I
shall take up. There are five kinds made in the United
States, but of only two shall I speak, since only these are
either used or made in North Carolina. These two are
‘“‘Scotch’’ and sweet snuff, both of which are the dipping
variety. The two are very much alikein manufacture, the
one exception being that the sweet snuff is flavored with
some preparation of licorice before the tobacco is ground.

‘The material used for making Scotch snuff consists of
a heavy, dark tobacco of medium grade and good ‘fatty
lugs.’ It is before use stored away for at least two years.
It is then taken out bundle by bundle and passed through
a cutter, stems and all, which yields a coarsely cut product.
It is then packed in hogsheads and made to go through
three states of fermentation, requiring on an average about
six weeks. Through each state it is arrested by exposure
to air, After this, the tobacco is thoroughly dried and
then passed into the pulverizing machines, which are a
series of mills, each of which has three heavy iron rollers
rubbing against a concave face of a hemispherical iron
vessel, the pulverized tobacco being discharged at an open-
ing in the bottom. From these machines it is passed upon
a bolting cloth not unlike that in a flour mill. Thence it
is passed into a machine, where it is packed automatically
in packages ready for custom trade.”

The granulated tobacco plays the leading role in the
manufacture in North Carolina. The tobacco which goes
into the make-up of a brand of smoking tobacco is of
several grades. The hogsheads of the different grades are
taken to the cutting room and stripped. Here the tobacco
is fed into the cutters and is coarsely cut. It is then
flavored and passed into a granulator. When it passes from

 

 

 

 

2

 

 

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EE LN oO TA ATE ICE I REO TOTES rs TSI TEE IE A EN IF ORR ae NTN EN Nenana one bet Oe any mie we

 

ah 18 MANUFACTURE OF Tospacco IN NorTH CAROLINA.

the granulator it is sieved and redried and then is ready to
be packed for sale. The casing used is composed of larka-
beau sugar, alcoholic liquors, etc.

This is an interesting process. The tobacco is fed into |
the hoppers above the machine room and comes down
: through pipes, is automatically weighed, packed, stamped
and labeled. Three hands are employed on each machine.

One puts the cotton sacks on the shape which receives the
tobacco, another ties the sacks, and one has general man-
agement of the machine. The ease and rapidity with
which these sacks are tied is marvelous. These machines
turn out from fourteen to twenty sacks per minute, or from
ten to fifteen hundred per day. From these machines the
sacks are packed in cartoons, and they, in turn, in wooden
cases, usually of twenty-five peunds each, but sometimes
of fifty, and less often in hundred pound cases.

The manufacture of cigarettes requires more judgment,
skill and experience than any line heretofore mentioned.
All tobacco used in cigarette-making has to be stemmed.
The stripsare run througha ‘‘casing,’’ or flavoring, machine,
and then are run directly into the cutters. The machines
are so constructed that the tobacco, which is very high in
order, is cut in long shreds. The tobacco is run under a

i blade in the form of a hard ‘‘cheese,’’ which is made by

the compression of two metal chain belts which run
together as they approach the blade. The blade has a ver-
tical motion and cuts a shaving from the cheese with each
downward stroke. From this machine the tobacco is run
through a revolving drier and thence through a cylin-
drical dresser, which separates the shreds, and is then
stored away until needed in the machine room.

In the cigarette machine the finished product is made.
The tobacco is spread uniformly upon asmall canvass belt
to the machine and this feeds the tobacco evenly into the
continuous stream of paper which goes through the
machine. The tobacco is rolled into shape, pasted, cut off
the right length, and comes out ready for packing. This

 

 

 

 
HISTORICAL PAPERS. 19

machine also stamps the name of the brand of tobacco on
the cigarette. These machines turn out from 200 to 250
cigarettes per minute. These are inspected and the perfect
ones packed in pasteboard boxes, some brands twenty, but
mostly ten, ina box. These small boxes are packed in
larger pasteboard boxes, fifty and above to the box, and
these in turn packed in wooden cases for shipment.

There are some few cigars made in North Carolina, but
not in large enough quantities to have any large or well-
equipped establishment. They are made by hand, as a
rule, and of a tobacco not grown hereabouts.

The manufacture of strips is a process which is growing
in North Carolina on account of the export trade. Espe-
cially is this true of the British-American stemmery at
Durham. Here tobacco is stemmed for both domestic and
foreign trade. ‘This process is the taking of a large portion
of the midrib from the tobacco leaf. The tobacco is steamed
to a high state of moisture, which makes the stems easily
selectable from the leaf. It is stemmed leaf by leaf and
the strips are passed through the drier and then packed
in hogsheads. ‘The tobacco is packed dry, especially that
for export trade, owing to the import duty on tobacco,
for the tax on water is the same as that on the tobacco.
This is also one reason why the tobacco is stemmed in this
country. It is packed in hogsheads, from 850 to 1,000
pounds per hogshead.

The tobacco manufacturing towns in North Carolina are
Durham, Winston-Salem, Wilson, Reidsville, Mt. Airy
and Statesville.

In Durham are situated the cigarette factory of the
Export Branch of the American Tobacco Co.; the two
smoking tobaccco concerns, W. Duke, Sons & Co., and
Blackwell’s Durham Tobacco Co., of the American Tobacco
Company; the stemmeries of the British-American Tobacco
Company, and the Carrington Cigar Co.

In Winston-Salem are the R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Co.,
Brown & Williamson, Liipfert, Scales & Co., Bailey Bros.,

 

 

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SE TT TT LT YT I TT ATES OCR Seo te If SRE eR ON RON tna nes Sein et Rpt itoeny tn es ence

 

20 MANUFACTURE OF Topacco IN NortH CAROLINA.

Taylor Bros., Ogburn, Hill & Co., Whitaker-Harvey Co.,
EB. a. Pou, A. H. Bodenhamer, M. L. Ogburn & Co.,
S. A. Ogburn, F. M. Bohannon, Kerner Bros., and others.
These factories put up plug, chewing and stinking tobacco.
The city of Winston leads in the output of plug and comes
second in the total number of pounds of tobacco manufac-
tured in North Carolina.

Some little plug tobacco is manufacfured in Mt. Airy
and Reidsville. The manufacturers in Mt. Airy are
the Prather & Whitlock Co. and the Hadley-Smith Co.,
with one or two others. Those of Reidsville are the F. R.
Penn Tobacco Co., Robt. Harris & Bro., A. H. Motley
Tobacco Co., and D. F. King.

Wilson, ihe newest tobacco manufacturing town in the
State, confines its manufactures to smoking tobacco and
cigarettes. The principal concern there is the Wells-
Whitehead Co.

Statesville also manufactures some little tobacco, but
has in the past few years declined in output and import-
ance, and is still on that plane. Leaksville, too, is among
the minor manufacturing towns of the State.

The cigar factories are scattered all over the State, the
most important being ‘the branch of the American ee
Co. at Greensboro. There are two small ones at Charlotte,
one in Elizabeth City, and some three or four in Winston.

The following tables taken from the 1900 census will
| show the comparative output of North Caroilna with other
States in the Union in different lines:

 

 

 

State Smoking State Plug
North Garohna. 3..:.... 4 E209, SOT MSR O TET «sion cacendecncasee 72,423,982
| New VOrk os... PB0G 138 - Kentucky.....ccccccccccccoese 72,423,982
ny fog | os Sas ee pees 10,399,748 North Carolina............ 24,144,270 |
State Pounds Tobacco Cigars Cigarettes
North Carolina............ 306,464. 17,370,874
North Carolina............ 2,064,831 649,314,810
NG@W VOLK cscs pessiees oe 20,871,600 17,421,167,950

Virginia... n oc... 3,565,975 7,429,133,030

 

 

 
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HISTORICAL PAPERS. ZA

A total of 43,804,731 pounds manufactured in North
Carolina.

Owing to the inability to secure statistics it is impos-
sible to give the output by cities, but Durham is the
largest smoking tobacco town in the world.

The total valuation for the output of North Carolina
for the year 1900 was $16,751,383. When one looks at
this and realizes that this much wealth is produced from
the soil and enterprise of the Old North State, it dawns
upon him that tobacco has done no little thing for this
State. Credit may be given to tobacco for the existence
and maintenance of some of North Carolina’s most thriving
cities. So, looking at the tobacco industry from the com-
mercial point of view, we have a continuous shower of
blessings.

 

 

 

 

 

  
  

At aR a erie hen eat annotate cet een ed = on wascabttin, “Se
 

 

 

22 Major W. A. Grawam.

MAJOR W. A. GRAHAM.
BY URAL HOFFMAN.

In the Old North State there are a number of men who,
while they rise head and shoulders above their fellow men in
their immediate community, are not known as they should
be throughout the State. They may never climb very high
on the ladder of fame, but the services which they are giving
their commonwealth should not be overlooked.

One such person is Major William Alexander Graham, of
Lincoln County, a leader and promoter of every worthy
undertaking of his county. He belongs to the very distin-
guished family of Scotch-Irish Grahams whose civil and
political services have been so valuable to North Carolina.
His grandfather was General Joseph Graham who served so
brilliantly in the Revolutionary War and in the War of 1812
and who, subsequent to the Revolution, took an energetic
part in the politicalenactments of theState. His father was
the Hon. W. A. Graham, who was United States Senator
from North Carolina from 1840 to 1843, Governor of the
State from 1845 to 1849, Secretary of the Navy under Presi-
dent Fillmore, and who is esteemed by some as “‘the greatest
man produced by North Carolina.”’

Major Graham was born at what was then the small vil-
lage of Hillsborough, in Orange County, December 26, 1839.
His youthful days gave promise of a bright future and he
was given a thorough preparation for college at schools in
Hillsboro, Raleigh and Washington, D. C., and at the early
age of seventeen he registered at the University of North
Carolina. Here he remained for three years, at the end of
which time he left to continue his studies at Princeton. He
was graduated there in 1860, and spent the following year
teaching. It was at this time that he removed from his old
home at Hillsboro to his grandfather’s old colonial mansion
in Lincoln County where he resides at present in a fine
country residence, which was built in 1894 to replace his
grandfather’s home which was destroyed by fire.

 

 
HISTORICAL PAPERS. 238

But his stay in his new home wasshort, for as soon as the
war between the States broke out he returned to Hillsboro
and enlisted in the Orange County Cavalry, Company K,
ond N. C. Cavalry. He was immediately elected first lieu-
tenant, and afterwards succeeded Josiah Turner as captain.
His first service was in eastern North Carolina, on the Neuse
river. From here he was soon transferred to Virginia, and
in the spring of 1863 he joined the cavalry division of the
army of northern Virginia. With it he served till the battle
of Gettysburg where, on July 3, he was disabled by a wound
received while leading his regiment. As soon as he had
sufficiently recovered, Governor Vance appointed him major
and assistant adjutant-general of North Carolina, which
position he held to the close of the war.

Though short, Mr. Graham’s military career was notable.
On May 13, in what is known as Foscue’s Skirmish, in Jones
County, this State, with only forty Confederate soldiers, he
defeated a brigade of the enemy composed of three thousand
men. For the bravery displayed in this action, he was com-
plimented in general orders from district headquarters. He
also won distinction because of the successful charge he led
against the Union forces at Brandy Station.

North Carolina holds the honor of being “First at Bethel,
farthest to the front at Gettysburg and Chicamauga, and last
at Appomattox,” and Mr. Graham has the honorable,
unique and enviable distinction of being the last North
Carolinian to give up his position of service to the Southern
Confederacy.

As he made himself conspicuous in military affairs, so he
has done in politics. But this distinction has notcome from
his being a scheming manipulator or “boss,” but rather
from the firm stand he has always taken against just such
men. His conservatism has been the cause of his defeat
several times. In 1867 he was nominated by the Conserva-
tives as their candidate to the Reconstruction Convention,
but failed of election. In this campaign he was strongly

ee

ntthdnmtnehannenthnndideenmmenit 2 6A Pie
Ant ems enna ae es os ESP LOE OS

 

 

 

 

 
 

 

 

24 Major W. A. GRAHAM.

opposed to the enfranchisement of the negro, and though
the negro did obtain possession of the ballot, opposition to
such still smouldered in his breast, blazing out again in 1900,
when he was an earnest worker in the campaign for white
supremacy.

In 1874, and again in ’78, he was nominated and unani-
mously elected State Senator from his district, comprising
Lincoln and Gaston counties, In the Senate chamber he
went actively into the proceedings, and through his advo-
cacy a number of bills of great benefit to the farmers were
passed. One such measure was the law prohibiting the de-
duction of two pounds from each bale of cotton—a law that
has saved millions of dollars to the farmers. Another im-
portant bill passed through hisinstrumentality was the law
allowing verbal contracts. Furthermore, it was on his
motion that the act for the sale of the Western North Caro-
lina Railroad was so amended as to secure for the convict
labor furnished by the State to the purchasers the $500,-
000 which paid the State tax in 1885.

For upwards of twenty years Mr. Graham has been active
in the democratic council chamber, always ready to do all
in his power for his party. When Lieutenant-Governor
Jarvis was elevated to the governorship by the election of
Vance to the United States Senate, Major Graham lacked
only two votes in the democratic caucus of being made
president of the State Senate. The latest honor at his
party’s hands is his election to the House of Representatives
from Lincoln County.

On June 8, 1864, he was married to Miss Julia B. Lane, of
Amelia County, Virginia. This union was the culmination
of one of the many romances of the war between the States
by which a large number of the fair daughters of the Old
Dominion were transferred to other States. To them have
been born nine daughters and two sons. Their companion-
ship has been, as it were, an unbroken chain of happiness,
and their home is noted for its open-hearted hospitality and
welcome—a happy survival of ante-bellum days.

 

 

 
HISTORICAL PAPERS. 25

Though a born soldier and legislator Mr. Graham is an
all-round good farmer—one of the few who keep abreast of
the times. He owned the first double-footed plow used in
the county; the first cotton gin, with condenser, west of the
Catawba river, and the first separator. During the exist-
ence, in this State, of the Grange, an association devoted to
the promotion of agricultural interests, he was an active
member. In 1888 he united with the Farmers’ Alliance and
still retains his membership. He steadfastly refused to fol-
low some of the leaders in the prostitution of the order to
partisan political purposes, but with a few others held it to
the purposes for which it wasoriginally organized. He was
the formulator and inaugurator of the plan of the Business
Agency of the North Carolina Farmers’ Alliance, which is
still in operation, being the only practical business affair
developed from the Alliance movement in the entire United
States. Of thisagency’s fund, which guarantees the contracts
of the agency, he was elected trustee. At the expiration of
his present term he will have held this position for twenty
years.

Mr. Graham is also anauthor of nomean repute. As such
he has made some very valuable contributions toward the
recording of North Carolina history. His greatest work is
entitled, ‘‘General Joseph Graham and his Revolutionary
Papers.’’ Not only does it cover the life and labors of his
renowned ancestor but it gives a very full account of numer-
ous Revolutionary events in this State that no other histor-
ian has been able to investigate so well. Without doubt the
most complete and trustworthy record of the battle of
Ransour’s Mill is a paper from his pen, which was published
in the second number of the fourth volume of the North
Carolina Booklet. In addition to these two works he has
written the history of the 2nd North Carolina Cavalry, and
of the South Fork Association of the Baptist Church.

In religion the Major is a Baptist, and is an active partici-
pant in all the work of his church. For more than thirty

3

 

 

 

 

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- R= en tnt eta see a STONE AI
 

26 Mayor W. A. Grawam.

years he has been connected with the mission board of the
South Fork Association, and has served as its Moderator
since its organization in 1878. Mr. Graham has also pre-
sided over several sessions of the North Carolina Baptist
Conventions and is regarded as a presiding officer of unusual
capacity.

Personally Mr. Graham presents a very prepossessing
appearance. He stands six feet high and is very corpulent,
weighing two hundred and seventy-eight pounds. His face
always beams with characteristic Irish humor, and his blue
eyes sparkle with genial wit. His soft, musical chuckle is
very contagious, and his joke or reminiscence of the war is
invariably enjoyed by the hearer. Though nearing the three
score and ten mark, he is still hale and happy and strong.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
HISTORICAL PAPERS. ae

OLD DURHAM TRADITIONS.

EDITED BY JOHN SPENCER BASSETT.

Durham county is of recent origin, but the remarkably
rapid development of its population, both as to numbers
and as to changes in manner of living, serves to remove
to a long distance from the present the customs and tra-
ditions of the region in the days when the county had
not been thought of. Most of the people who remember
the former days are now old, and it is but natural to
expect that they will soon pass out of the world. It
would, therefore, be proper if some one who has the
true history of the community at heart would concern
himself to gather up all the facts and interesting stories
of the by-gone days and put them in printed and accessi-
ble form for the use and delectation of posterity. It is
in something of this spirit that some of the members
of the Trinity College Historical Society have under-
taken to gather what they may of the general nature
indicated, and in this number of THE ARCHIVE they give
some of the results of their labors. Other results, it is
hoped, may follow this group of stories, till the whole
nature of Durham’s past may be brought vividly before
the present and future denizen of the place.

 

THE PEELERS.

On the newly macadamized road which runs from Dur-
ham westward past the Erwin Cotton Mill, at a spot two
hundred yards or more below the point at which the
county road passes under the railroad, is a place which
has a certain weird interest for those people who like to
know the legends of the past. It is known as the Red-
mond Place, and because of a fine spring of clear water
it is frequently visited by some Durham people who
have never heard of the dark traditions concerning it
which have come down in the minds of old people in the

 

Senin

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teeteeeteniaiee meena ete ateeeret ete

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28 OLp DurRHAM TRADITIONS.

community. Seventy years and more ago this place
belonged to a family by the name of Peeler. They were
people of poor social standing, and many dark stories
were told to the discredit of its members, both male and
female. They pretended to keep an inn and sold gpirit-
uous liquor, as was the custom in most inns of the day,
and uproarious times were often witnessed in the small
house which has long since fallen into decay. At that
time the road ran close to the house, and traces of the
old roadway are still to be seen.

Mr. H. A. Neal, who lives less than a half mile from
the place, has collected the facts about the Peelers. He
Says:

“When my grandmother moved into the neighborhood
about fifty or more years ago, there were some old
Rhodes women near the place who had known the
Peelers. They told her that Ben. Peeler took in travel-
ers and very often killed them. They said that more
than one had been known to go there and had never been
seen afterwards. Tradition asserts that he disposed of
the bodies of his victims in an old well which people
now living have pointed out. He had a pasture on a
creek southwest of his house in which he always kept
several horses. He often carried horses to Raleigh
for sale, and the supposition was that he killed his
guests in order to get their mounts. There were two
girls and the family was very wild.

“The grandson of one of the old ladies (Mrs. Bhedcs)
says that she has heard his grandmother speak of the
Peelers, but only remembers that there were two boys,
and one of them was called ‘Pet-Tich-Eye,’ the other
‘Red- Wine.’

“An old gentleman, Alvis Neal, says that Ben. Peeler
had a wife, and the family left the Redmond Place when
he was small. He had never heard of their killing

 

 
HISTORICAL PAPERS. 29

people, but: they had the reputation of being a very bad
family.

“Another old gentleman, Turner Browning, says there
were two families of Peelers. Ben. Peeler lived at the
Redmond Place, and took in travelers, the other family
lived about half a mile further down the road near a
cross-roads. This place is now sometimes called Peel-
er’s Cross-roads.”

History is not concerned with proving whether or not
Ben. Peeler really did kill travelers for their horses, or
whether or not he or his family were really bad people;
but it does like to know what fancies of the horrible or
the fearful hung around the beautiful Redmond Spring
of the present day in the minds of the people of this
neighborhood seventy-five years ago. Perhaps some
poet of the future, or some writer of romance, may be
able to give us in a form true to the spirit of the day the
story of the adventures of “Pet-Tich-Eye” and his up-
roarious brother who boasted the name of “Red-Wine.”

THE CORNWALLIS ROAD.

To the people of North Carolina from 1776 till the
recent Civil War, the most striking incident in the his-
tory of the State was the coming of Cornwallis in 1780
and 1781. Other events were probably more important,
but here was a genuine adventure. It came with the
glare of war, it swept over the whole breadth of the
State, it settled to a large extent the fate of the revolu-
tion, and it brought into the bounds of North Carolina
one of the few world figures who ever visited it. In
the numerous traditions which have come down from
this visit it is clear that the people did not treasure any
hard feelings for his coming or his going. Stories are
found in abundance which relate some kindly action of
the British commander.

One of the commonest traditions of Cornwallis’s

 

 

 

 

ae er eee

 

Se
 

 

 

 

30 OLD DURHAM TRADITIONS.

march is to point out some road which he is locally be-
lieved to have traveled. There are, perhaps, few coun-
ties in the State which have not such a road. I have
heard of such a tradition in the neighborhood of Ral-
eigh, and in the northern part of Granville, and in Dur-
ham county there is a road which is generally believed
to have been used by Cornwallis. Yet the route by
which he came is minutely described in his own letters
and in the account which his lieutenant, Tarleton, wrote
and published, with a large detailed map of his journey-
ing. In the light of such evidence it is possible to say
that the British general visited neither of the three
localities named.

The road in Durham county which tradition calls
“the Cornwallis Road” is found about four miles south
of Durham and runs in a northwesterly direction to
Hillsboro. It is now unused in most of its parts. When
I first saw it my companion called my attention to the
fact that it was an old military road, built after the
ancient fashion which took no notice of grades. It was,
in fact, not till the year 1800 that Telford convinced
English people that in building roads it was better to
go around a hill than to climb over it, and all the earlier
English military roads were built on the principle that
the shortest distance between points is a straight line.
Now it happens that there is recorded evidence that
in another campaign, and one nearly as famous as that
of Cornwallis, a road was built through this very region
—a military road, too—and there is not much doubt
that it is this road which popular tradition has ascribed
to Lord Cornwallis.

In 1771, when Gov. Tryon determined to restore order
and obedience to law in the region inhabited by the Reg-
ulators, he marched with an army from New Bern to
Hillsboro. He proceeded up the Neuse to Johnston
Court House, where he halted for a few days. Thence

 

 
HISTORICAL PAPERS. ol

he proceeded to Hunter’s Lodge in the forest of the
newly formed county of Wake, about four miles south of
the site of Raleigh, and here he halted again, calling the
reluctant Wake militia to rally around his standard.
A respectable number of them came, some willingly
and some unwillingly, and the governor moved on
toward Hillsboro. Till that time no good road had been
made through the unsettled wilderness to the westward.
Only a bridle path marked the way and this was not
practicable for the artillery and the baggage wagons.
Tryon, therefore, cut a new road straight to the neigh-
borhood of Hillsboro, calling it “Ramsgate Road.” The
name survives in the vicinity to this day, but the popular
mind has modified it into “Rameat,” and a part of this
“Rameat Road” is still in use. The road which Dur-
ham tradition points out as Cornwallis’s is probably
that laid out by Tryon. It ought to be called Tryon’s
road, or—to follow his own preference—“The Rams-
gate Road.”

Another historic road in Durham county is a part
of the old Trading Path, which ran from the James
river at Bermuda Hundred to the Catawba Indians,
near Charlotte. It was the first route of travel through
this part of the country, so far as we know, and it was
in use as early as the middle of the 17th century, that
is to say at the time when the first settlers were finding
homes on the shores of the Albemarle Sound. Possibly
it was established along a line first marked out by the
Indians in their tribal wanderings. At this time it was
used frequently by the traders who went out to the
Indians for Colonel Thomas Stegg the elder. He was
a man of means, and the business he built up fell to
his grandson, the first William Byrd, who continued it
in the old manner. Byrd’s son, William Byrd the
second, has given us a definite account of the Trading
Path. It crossed the Roanoke river at Moniseep Ford,

 

 

 

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32 OLp DuRHAM TRADITIONS.

 

about a mile west of the point at which the river crosses
the North Carolina boundary line, curved southward
through Granville county, passing westward through
le what is now Durham county to the town of Hillsboro,
Le thence across the Haw by what is known as the Haw Old
Fields, thence by the site of Graham, across Alamance
river at the famous battlefield, to the Yadkin at Trading
Ford—nearly north of Salisbury—thence south to the
Catawba Indians on the Catawba river. The route is
clearly traced on the map in Tarleton’s Campaign where
the old pioneer’s path though now a great highway, was
still called in certain places the Trading Path.

That part which passed through Durham county en-
| tered it at a point opposite the little station of Green’s,
| i on the O. & C. Railroad, passed westward near Williards-
i ville on the railroad to Roxboro and thence to Hillsboro.
It was long a favored road between Granville county
and Hillsboro and was used as the regular means of
lea wagoning to Petersburg, Va., till the R. & G. Railway
: was built. It traversed that part of the country which
iad lies about ten miles north of Durham. Will not some
: d local antiquarian take upon himself the task of locating
4 this old road exactly? And that done, will not some

funds be raised for erecting memorials along its course
| by which men who pass may understand that this was
i the artery through which pulsated the first blood of |
: civilization in these parts?

THE PINHOOK SETTLEMENT

BY W. S. LOCKHART

The student of history has long ago learned that the |
situation of a country and the nature of the soil are
large factors in determining the character of a people.
He This is especially true of the section in which Durham
a is situated. The city is built on a low ridge which
serves aS a watershed between the Eno and the Neuse

 

 

 

 

 

Reece saci e os i ten at RSS NNN em n Sie

 
HISTORICAL PAPERS. 33

on the north, and New Hope creek, which is a tributary
of the Cape Fear, on the south. As might be expected
the soil is poor and unsuited to the cultivation of most
crops that a pioneer would be likely to raise. So a
student is likely to conclude that in the early settlement
of the country this section would not be taken up by
the first settlers. The more fertile tracts along the
New Hope on the south and the Eno and Neuse on the
west and north attracted the new home-seekers and the
land lying between them was for some time left vacant.
Later on, when the settlements became more thickly pop-
ulated, the shiftless were pushed out of the fertile acres
and came into this poor section of country and built
themselves homes. As all know, the shiftless and poor
are liable to give way to the less refined forms of vice
and we find the people of this section no exception to the
rule. Also it is likely that the vicious element from
adjacent sections drifted into such places as this, being
spurned by the more wealthy communities. As proof
of the poverty of these people one only has to drive out
along the country roads in any direction from Durham.
He will have to go almost a dozen miles before he finds
a house of any consequence that was built before the
Civil War.

The foregoing, I think, accounts largely for the strait-
ened condition and low morality of a large number of
the old inhabitants of this section, for almost any old
citizen can, if he chooses, tell you interesting tales con-
cerning the exploits of certain characters who used to
live here. These people generally lived in little com-
munities, each of which had a distinctive name. One
of these places which was in what is now the suburbs
of the city of Durham was called Pinhook.

Pinhook was near the place where the West Durham
Cotton Mill has been erected. The house stood about a
hundred yards southwest of the southwest corner of the

 

 

 

 

 

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34. OLD DURHAM TRADITIONS.

 

mill. Some questionable characters kept a resort there,
and near by there was a grog shop. Why the place was
called Pinhook is not known, but it certainly went by
that name for a number of years before the Civil War.
Ve Near this place was a camping ground where wagon-
| 4 ers stopped on their way to Raleigh and other eastern
towns before the time of railroads. The campers got
water from the Pinhook well and made use of the grove
near by, where they tied their horses and were protected
somewhat by the trees from the weather. It is said that
a man, who later was a citizen of Durham and became
quite rich, was a pale, sallow-looking boy at the time
Pinhook was experiencing its balmiest days. He car-
ried watermelons out to the old camp ground, piled
‘A them up in the fence corners, and sold them to the
a wagoners who doubtless found them refreshing after
their long draughts of fiery corn liquor which they
bought from the Pinhook grog shop. In this way he
started a fortune which became quite considerable be-
fore his death.

| Besides being a favorite stopping-place for the wagon-
i ers, Pinhook was known for miles around. Its fame
| spread as far as twelve or fifteen miles northwest, as
may to this day be learned from the old inhabitants
of the country communities, and even the students of
the University at Chapel Hill had the habit of coming
over when they wished to go off on a lark. It was
known as a place of brawls and rough-and-tumble fights,
iG drinking, gambling and other forms of amusement,
: i where the natives and visitors met to have a rough, roar-
: ing, and, to them, glorious time.

a Pinhook was the best known of a number of houses
UE of rather shady reputation around West Durham and a
little west of it. The section from this settlement as
far east as the wye near East Durham was, in the lan-
guage of a citizen of Durham, “a roaring old place”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
HISTORICAL PAPERS. 35

before and for a while after the war. Down near the
wye a man named Vickers kept a liquor shop, and just
west of him one William Pratt, who was quite a wealthy
man for this time, also dispensed “the universal pan-
acea.” It may be added that at various times liquor
was sold at several other places in what is now the city
of Durham.

An amusing incident is told of an old man of the
neighborhood, now many years dead, who, not to men-
tion a rather ordinary cognomen, gloried in the pre-
nomen, “Wash.” He was a notorious rowdy, a man who
drank and was known far and wide for his boisterous
carousing. When the North Carolina Railroad was in
process of construction, it was announced that on a
certain day a train would approach within a few miles
of the place where Durham is now situated. Many of
the people of the community collected at the appointed
time to see the new wonder.. Among these were the
aforementioned “Wash” and his wife. Like almost all
trains, ancient and modern, this train was late and after
waiting some time “Wash” announced that he was
thirsty. So with much fussing and in spite of the pro-
testations of his wife he declared that he was going to
Vickers’s tavern to get him some liquor. The good lady
objected in a most strenuous manner, urging the great
danger from the expected train, but “Wash” was obdu-
rate. He, therefore, secured a bushel of corn, a gallon
jug and a blind horse and set out. It was not more than
a mile to the tavern and it so happened that the ever
watchful Mrs. “Wash” spied the train approaching from
one direction and her husband from the other at the
Same time. Screaming at the top of her voice and with
outstretched arms she ran to meet her beloved spouse.
Before she reached him the train passed and the blind
horse, frightened by the unusual noise, threw the
doughty tippler and broke his jug. Immediately Mrs.

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36 OLp DURHAM TRADITIONS.

“Wash’s” fear was turned into joy and she ran back to
her friends, clapping her hands and shouting: “Glory
to God! ‘Wash’ is safe and his jug of liquor’s broke!”

With the growth of the city of Durham these old in-
habitants learned new ways and many of their descend-
ents are now regarded as the city’s most valuable citi-
zens. Indeed, with new conditions, the old have almost
been forgotten and it will be only a few years till you
cannot find a man who ever heard of Pinhook. Thus the
old is being continually swallowed up by the new.

 

 

 
 

HISTORICAL PAPERS. 37

GENERAL SLADE’S JOURNAL OF A TRIP TO
TENNESSEE

The following journal was found among the Slade
Papers in the handwriting of General Jeremiah Slade,
of Martin county, N. C., and although there is nothing
in it which directly attributes it to his authorship, it
seems undoubtedly to have been his composition. It
is the view of a broad-minded man, a shrewd observer,
and an intelligent North Carolinian made at a time
when there were few people in the State putting down
on paper their impressions of the things which they saw
around them. It is copied here with faithfulness, the
editor taking no other liberty than now and then to
write out an abbreviation or other expression which
otherwise would obscure the sense and to reduce to mod-
ern form the author’s capitalization. The beauties of
nature deeply impressed the diarist, and his descriptions
of the mountains are almost good literature. It has
required some self-restraint to keep the editor from
improving them in some essential points. J. 8.6,

A Journal of a Journey from Williamston, Martin
County, N. C., to Nashville, Tennessee, commenced on
the 27th day of June, 1819.

Dined at John Griffin’s, stopped at Wilson Sherrod’s,

fed and rested my horse, bill 25cs., and arrived at Tar-,

boro that evening.
28.

After arranging some private business and visiting my
friends with whom I had some agreeable conversation
on the subject of my journey, set out about 10 o’clock,
bill Mrs. Gregory $1.50, McWilliam $1.20. By 121%
arrived at Mr. W. Parker’s to dinner, spent about 2
hours in very agreeable conversation with him and his
amiable lady; bill 50cs. Set out at 3 o’clock, stoppd.

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38 GENERAL SLADE’sS JOURNAL.

at Daniels a few minutes to have my horse watered and
get some grog, went on, met very unexpectedly an old
acquaintance, Mr. James Blount, from Georgia. After
usual ceremonies went on and arrived at sundown at
the well known stand in Nash County, Mr. J. T’s,
where I put up the night. Went to bed supperless.
Saw there all the features of uncivilized life and that
Mr. T ’s daughters though unmarried all had sep-
arate names, as Polly H Ann B &e.

 

 

 

 

29.

Set off from T ’s before sunrise. Bill 50cs. Memo.
a lame man with a blind horse staid last night at T 5
who had been eight days traveling from Raleigh there,
only thirty-five miles. Arrived at Majr. Alford’s to
Breakfast, where I met with every attention, and treated
very hospitably, Bill 50cs. Arrived at Raleigh at 12
o’clock, at Col. Cooke’s. After dinner having dressed
strolled out to stroll up and down the principal streets
without appearing to notice one of the puffed little great
men of the city, being resolved to observe as little
ceremony towards them as they are usually in the habit
of shewing to all strangers, and after visiting my cousins
at Mrs. Pullum’s, conversing with them for a while, I
returned to my lodgings. In course of the day had occa-
sion to call on the deputy clerk of the Federal court on
business, was ushered into his office with all the haut-
tuer of a French exciseman, and treated with every
mark of supercillious pride and haughty arrogance and
finally dismissed with contempt. After supper I retired
to my room where I was visited by J. B. Slade, my rela-
tion, who staid with me all night & we pass the time
much more agreeable than I had done during the day.

30th.

 

 

Left Raleigh at Sunrise, Bill $2.00 with a perfect con-
firmation of former opinion “that the citizens are a per-

 

 

 
HISTORICAL PAPERS. 39

fect set of blood suckers who prey upon the vitals of the
State and wallow in luxuriant indolence.” Arrive at
Jones’ to brkft,; bill 60cs. Arrived at Chapell that even-
ing in a severe shower of Rain (which tho’ not so agree-
able to my situation was most acceptable to visitors to
that part of the country, as it was and had been for some
time so dry as to endanger the crops of corn in all the
upper country. Wheat crops uncommonly good, price
25cs per bus. & little or no demand for it at that or even
any price). At Mrs. Mitchell’s Hotel was met and
greeted aS soon as arrived by cousin Jeremiah and
Thomas B. Slade, dined, after the shower was over went
with Cousin Thomas to Mr. Mooring’s Hotel, was intro-
duced to several collegiates of respectability & to Mr.
Mark Henderson, attorney at law, whom I found par-
ticularly agreeable, polite and attentive, & as we
returned to Mr. Mitchell’s invited us to his father’s,
Pleasant Henderson’s Esqr. to sup & spend the evening,
which we accepted, (Cousin Thomas from an inclina-
tion to be with the young ladies of the family & I for the
gratification of an acquaintance of so respectable a
family). On entering the house I was introduced by
Cousin Thomas to a Miss Kittrell & to Miss Eliza Hen-
derson, only daughter of Mr. P. H., who, take her all
in all (tho’ not a Venus di Medici in form & feature) is
as pretty, agreeable, and desirable as is rarely to be met
with. She was easy in her manners, gracefull in her
actions & movements, condescending and affible in con-
versation, still modest and unassuming. We spent the
evening till late bed-time in very agreeable conversation,
when we retired to Mrs. Mitchell’s & rested for the night.

Thursday, July 1st.

After breakft. visited college which appeared almost
deserted, except now and then a solitary Bachelor
silently gliding across the long passages. The Dialectic

 

 

 

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40 GENERAL SLADE’S JOURNAL.

Hall appeared much improved since my last visit, the
library has received a large acquisition of books to the
amt. of five hundred dollars within the last year. Met
there Mr. Thomas Green, of Va., late of the senr. class.
He appeared very much reserved, and tho’ we had been
formerly acquainted he seemed not disposd to renew it.
Returned to Mrs. Mitchell’s to dinner and shortly after
set out for Hillsboro, accompanied by Cousin Thos. Bill
with Mrs. Mitchell $2.00. We arrived at Thompson’s
Inn in Hillsboro at sunset, disappointed in our expecta-
tions of meeting Mrs. Doctr. Pugh & others on their
way to Louisiana, nor did they arrive during my stay in

4 Hillsboro.

i 2nd.

” Left Hillsboro after Breakft, Bill $1.80. Crossed
Troliner’s Bridge about 12 o’clock: had a smart words
with Mrs. Troliner about the toll, paid 20cs and parted

il in friendship. Dined at Mr. Cook’s, found him to have

been a red coater, dinner & horse feed 50cts. Went on

to Mr. James Dicks, stopped, claimed acquaintance, and
took some good whiskey, paid 10cts. Arrived at Greens-
boro at sunset, put up at the sign of the Three Ships
under Sail; looked more like nine stack-poles with

Sprouts grown out round them. Suppd. and staid that

night, bill $1.00 cts.

3rd.

Next morning eight o’clock found me at friend Stock-
ton’s where it was difficult for me to determine whether
my appearance was a greater source of satisfaction to
the good family or myself. The truth is that I received
every mark of attention and respect, as well as every |
demonstration of unalloyed friendship and almost rela- |
tive affection. The overflowing of their spontaneous |
good wishes was almost overwhelming, as they entered
into the circumstances of our first acquaintance and re-

 

 

 
 

 

HISTORICAL PAPERS. 41

lated all the occurrences of our earliest knowledge of
each other, with every exaggeration of my actions and
imputing to me many credits to which I thought myself
unentitled to, and all before genlmn. & ladies of the first
standing, who happened to be present to my consider-
able discomfiture. I Breakftd. & dined with them, and
in the evening went to Salem, paid bill for Brkft. &
Dinr. & H fd. 80cts. At Salem after some ceremonious
obsevances I obtained the pleasure of the girls’ company
at my room in the evening.* They suppd. with me &
staid till dark when I escorted them to their homes, and
parted with them loaded with their good wishes. Re-
turned to my lodgings for the night.

4th.

Rose & wrote a letter to Capt Edwd. Yellowly, placed
it in the p. office, paid my bill, $2.80 cts. & set out on my
journey, Dined at Hauser town, pd. bill 50cts. Set out for
Mr. Sheppard’s but past there and reached at dusk Mr.
Unthank’s, ten miles beyond the Pilot Mountain, whose
granduer & sublimity exceeded my most sanguine expec-
tation. Its summit appears like a Hat Crown above the
brim, as the mountain rises like an obtuse cone from its
base to an enormous height: there it is capped by a
vertical column of rock for the height (from the distance
I was from it) of from one to two hundred feet perpen-
dicular, the rock bare and inaccessible for even human
exertion, except only on one side, where with great diffi-
culty it may be surmounted. The top is the form of a
dome and elegantly crowned with trees and shrubbery.

5th.

Left Unthank’s at sunrise, bill 65cts. Arrived at the
foot of the Blue Rdge to breakfast at Mr. Mankin’s,
where while brkft. was preparing I indulged in all the

 

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42 GENERAL SLADE’S JOURNAL.

surrounding sublimity of the mighty ridge stretching
from N. to S. that seemed almost to war with Heaven
and to place a final bar to the northwest winds. Set
out from Nankin’s at eleven o’clock (bill 65cts.) to
ascend the mountains. Drove up to the first level but
found it too much for my horse. At the second rise dis-
mounted, laid off my coat & walked up, driving my horse
before me. On reaching the second level, at the half-
way spring, I fell in with a young gentn. resting, who
afterwards turned out to be Mr. Wm. McKenny, of Surry,
N. Cr., who had ascended the mountain just before -
me. After partaking of a copious draught of the de-
i lightful crystaline water that trickled from an impend-
| ing rock, we set out in company, and after winding some
4 time between impending cliffs in a winding and circuit-
ous direction we came to the third rest, which happened
to be the top of a knob, bare and open to all the country
below and commanded the view of all the country to the
i! southward & eastward; and I am certain my mind was
never more delighted and astonished at the same time.
‘ The hills and valleys beneath pictured to me at once
the ocean after a severe gale of wind. The hills next
the ridge resembled waves when sinking and bobbing
about, while the Sorrowtown [Saura-Town] Mountain to
the east and the Pilot to the So., with its top like a
combing swell, seemed moving on apace as if intended to
Sweep over the intermediated space and try‘their force
against the mighty Ridge. We proceeded then to the
Summit, which seemed to overlook the world. After
resting a few minutes we descended a hill to a branch,
: the head of the Ohio River. Then proceeding up a glen :
a for a quarter of a mile we came to an excellent spring :
: and partook freely of the water and rested a while. |
Went on through the mountains, a very bad road for
about three miles to Mr. Mckenny’s brother’s, where we
stopped, had our horses fed, and dined. After dinner I

 

 

 

 

 

 
  
   

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HISTORICAL PAPERS. 43

went on alone, Mr. McK. not going farther (bill 35cts.) ;
and at dark I arrived at a Mr. Betts’, five miles below
the Poplar Camp, where I put up for the night.

6th.

Left Betts’ early (bill 50.) Descended Iron Moun-
tain about eight o’clock, where I could but stop a few
moments and admire the stupendous height of the sur-
rounding cliffs & knobs, where it would seem that nature
had frolicked & sported with her daughter earth & tried
into what grotesque contortions she could throw her; for
such a beautiful contrast of acclivity and declivity never \t
before had presented itself to my view. After crossing t
at the bottom a small rivulet, my way wound along :
on the edge of a declivity hewn out of the rotten rock er
(of which these mountains seem to be composed), just |
sufficiently wide for a waggon to pass, which reminded al
me of Capt. Riley’s “Jew’s leap along the Atlas,” where want
for half a mile had I have met a waggon, one of us must
have inevitably have tumbled down the precipice into:
the river below, that was dammed & deep. My curiosity
had to give way to my necessity in stopping to examine
the iron-works at Poplar Camp furnace, as my time
would not admit of any delay. I passed on over hills &
valleys and narrow ravines to Jackson’s Ferry across
New River, the main prong of the source of the Ohio.
It was about a hundred yards wide & twenty five
feet deep at the ferry, apparently still, lympid, and as
clear as crystal (ferriage 25). Crossed to Mr. Saun-
ders’ immediately on the opposite bank where I break-
fasted (bill 3714). Proceeded up along the bank of the
river for about two miles where the eye could not possi-
bly be more engaged & delighted than with so diversified
a scene of impending rocks, stupendous cliffs, and tum-
bling roaring cascades, that rolled over the ledge of
rocks that stretched athwart its current in every direc-

 

 

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44. GENERAL SLADE’S JOURNAL.

tion. The road struck off at right angles with the river
along a rivulet to the north and through valleys of ap-
pearance, that seemed in many places to be threatened
with overwhelming destruction from the impending
hills, until I came into the main stage road from the
eastern to the western country, a few miles below the
town of Wythe, in Va., where I soon arrived, passing
along a valley in a high state of cultivation, with a neat
house and farm for every quarter of a mile. Houses
chiefly built of hewn logs with chinks left large, plas-
tered & whitewashed outside, that gives them quite an
agreeable & neat appearance. Wythe, like most inland
towns, has but one street, which is the main stage road
that runs through it from east to west, which is filled on
each side with neat buildings, chiefly of wood in the
manner before described, however, with some exceptions
of elegant brick & stone. The court house is large
but built of wood and in a very ordinary manner, &
much out of repair, and stands in the middle of the
street, which gives it a still more disagreeable appear-
ance. Its situation, however, is pleasant & agreeable,
standing on a plain just under the Blue Ridge that over-
hangs it & seems to frown on it with supercilious grand-
ure. I stopped at the Wythe Hotel, striking for its
large sign & superfluous emblematic paintings, which
time at present won’t permit me—had I an inclination—
to describe. In the evening set out for Mr. Drury’s [?]
a Stage house, 14 miles from Wythe (bill 60). Passed
along a valley equally striking for elegance and high
state of cultivation as thickly inhabited as usual to the
stage house, where I came at dark. Found it much
crowded with travellers, supped and some desultory con-
versation, retired for the night.

 

7th.

Set out at five o’clock for Abington, forty five miles
distant, where I arrived after stopping at 8 o. at an old

 

 

 

 
 

 

HISTORICAL PAPERS. 45

Dutchman’s house, a stage house, for brkft. (bill 42),
who related several anecdotes of the Revolutionary War
—“all of which he saw and part of which he was.” Passed
along the valley of Holston River, which I crossed many
times, the road running nearly straight and intersecting
the meandering of the Holston. Passing over the nolls &
knobs of the hills, that project to it on either side, coy-
ered with fragments. Knobs of limestone rock, left
bare & projecting out of the ground in every direction,
so that it is impossible to pass without tumbling over
them, form for about ten miles the most disagreeable
road I ever travelled, and would not risk my head in a
public stage on any considerations, as they go thunder-
ing over the rock at half speed in a four horse stage
with very frequently a drunken driver; and a striking
result is that you will scarcely pass a stage house with-
out seeing two or three wrecked stages.

I dined at a miserable tavern about 17 miles below
Abington (bill 4214), stopped at a very decent brick
tavern about 8 miles from A., rested & took some refresh-
ment (paid 15). The valley of the Holston so far is
very fertile and in a high state of cultivation, the coun-
try becoming more level as I progress down the river
which runs west.

Abington, or Abingdon, is something larger than
Wythe, but not so handsomely situated, being more
broken. The buildings are principally wood, but a
greater proportion of brick with an elegant brick C. H.
the town has not still the neatness of appearance that
Wythe has: has but one tavern which, tho’, is a good one
& well furnished & attended. It is more a manufactur-
ing than a commercial, & in consequence of the salt
works in its vicinity is a place of considerable resort of,
and importance to, all the western country. Salt sells
at the works at $1.75 per 52 lb. & that very damp.

 

Peay ae
ze Fi Cage

ogee ogee a ee get Tae ae

ee ee

 

aa een antennas otis nanannnaiciauenmnegatesesastt

 
aE i a ee ec era a te ee Eo

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

46 GENERAL SLADE’S JOURNAL.

8th.

Left Abington after brkft. (bill $2.), the road very
muddy & slippery in consequence of a rain the night be-
fore. Dined at Mr. Goodson’s (bill 50c). The country,
as I descended along the Holston was more fertile in
appearance, but in a worse state of cultivation than
below Abington. The inhabitants seemed more like the
lessees of some large proprietor than the real possessors
of the soil, which I afterwards ascertained to be the fact;
for as I passed, once in about every three or four miles,
I could see an attempt at style and grandure, but en-
tirely void of taste or elegance (notwithstanding they
seemed to have spared neither labor or expence), and
still the outward appearances as far exceeds the house-
wifery as ours does theirs. I proceeded on to Mrs.
Nicely’s, where I arrived at sundown, where Mr. Mush-
row, of Va., who had traveled with me from Mr. Good-
son’s, & I were compelled to become our own hostler,
the widow’s servant being gone to a neighbor’s reaping.
Mrs. N. lived about three miles within the Tennessee
line, so that this was my first essay into that State,
where altho’ so near the Va. line, still I thought that
I perceived a striking difference in the manners and
habits, which afterwards as I progressed into the State
developed themselves still more forcibly—which assimi-
lated more to the manners of our State in the less refined
part.

9th.

Set off from Mrs. Nicely’s at sunrise (bill 50). Came
to Mr. J. L. Gains to brkft. who was a distant relative
of Mr. Mushrow’s and nephew to Genl. E. P. Gains, of
the U. S. Army, who treated us with much attention
(bill 40.). We passed some smelting mills across a
branch of the Holston. They were at work and seemed
to be new & in fine order. About a half mile below is

 

 
HIsToRICAL PAPERS. 47

the head of navigation of the Holston, which is princi-
pally carried on by rafts in times of freshets. However,
they navigate the river also with keeled bateaux, built
very sharp from 60 to 70 feet long and 8 or ten feet
beam, with a companionway extending nearly two thirds
of their length, raised to the height of six feet above
their gunnels, with space left on each to pass from stem
to stern; & this companionway is shingled over and
bears a striking resemblance to an old fashioned hip-
roofed house. These boats are used to take down salt
which is waggoned from the factory near Abington to
the Mussle Shoals and below; but these boats seldom
ever attempt to ascend the river, in consequence of the
obstructive rocks and shoals and the extreme distance,
which is 750 miles from the Mussle Shoals. This land-
ing is called the Boat Yard & appears to be a place of
business as there are stores and shops. One mile still
down the Holston, which is an hundred yards wide with
many beautiful islands in it, is a new toll bridge across
the north fork of the Holston, which is also 100 yards
wide at its junction, built upon stone pillars in very neat
and workmanlike manner, & for strength and elegance
excels anything of the kind I have ever seen (toll 25).
Dined at Mr. Vaughan’s (bill 50), proceeded on to Sur-
goinsville, a new town on the Holston ten miles above
Rogersville, which as yet is neither conspicuous for ele-
gance, neatness, or design, and appears more like the
result of mad speculation than for beneficial design,
for publick utility, accomodation miserable for both
horse & man.

 

 

 

 

10th.

Set out from Surgoinsville after sunrise (bill $1.00),
left Mr. Mushrow complaining of the headache as usual,
arrived at Rogersville to brkft. (bill 75). Rogersville,
the county seat of Hawkins County, is a considerable
place for an inland country town. Built chiefly of

 

 

 

 

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EE ON ER I NIE SEN ones SRE UTED EE SATS NEMS SOON LRN EN eNO eS Oe ee me tenet aeee Tenet tee en memerent st

 

Pee kere cs sears

48 GENERAL SLADE’S JOURNAL.

brick, has considerable trade, and is much resorted, being
the half way stage from Abington to Knoxville. It
is situated in the valley of the Holston but not imme-
diately on the river: the land of an inferior quality to
the eastern part of the valley and less improved, the
inhabitants consequently less wealthy. Left Rogers-
ville at 12 0., went on alone still along the valley of
Holston, which is bounded on the N. & W. by the Clinch
mountain, and on the east by the Blue Ridge. The
valley is intersected by innumerable streamlets of pure
limestone water of crystalline clearness, across many
of which are grist & saw mills that seem to have been
profitable, as near most of them the mud-plastered log
huts are contrasted with huge brick houses, built at
| much expence apparently, but entirely destitute of taste
ae or elegance. My horse nearly exhausted, scarcely able
to get him along. Was overtaken by Mr. Mushrow &
Mr. Sims, of Nashville, & we proceeded in company to
Mr. Nall’s where we dined (bill 50). Here the valley
appeared much narrower than I had seen it, seemingly

| an not more than a mile wide and more fertile. We all set
aa out in company, passed along the river bank for some
| ee distance, then turning a little more to the west the val-

a ley widened and became much more level than I had seen

3 since I crossed the Ridge & of inferior quality, more
ia _ thinly inhabited and the habitations more miserable
aM than before. We passed Bean’s Station at sundown,
ae where Mr. Mushrow stopped, but Mr. Sims & myself

went on to the Widow Copeland’s, two miles further,
where we stopped for the night.

11th.

We set out before sunrise from Mrs. Copeland’s (bill
75), passed through much such country as we had done
the latter part of the day before seventeen miles to Mr.
Juornegain’s to brkft., rested three hours (bill 75),

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
HISTORICAL PAPERS. 4.9

Proceeded to Knoxville thro’ a still poorer soil, the
mountains having disappeared on both sides and the
country become quite a level piney woods. In my way
to Knoxville I passed the town of Rutledge, which is the
county seat of Sevier Co’ty. It is a very inconsiderable
place of a most miserable appearance, built chiefly of
log-houses, with a very indifferent court house, which is
rather singular in this State, as their chief pride seems
to be displayed in building fine brick court houses and
jails. Such a display of large daubed signs I never
before witnessed. It would seem from their magnitude
and the glaringness of the representations attempted to
be painted on them that the people were only susceptible
to occular demonstration. One at a miserable looking
log inn more particularly attracted my attention: it
was nearly of the size of a large barn door, (with a coun-
terscarp suspended to the bottom about eight inches on
which the inn-keeper’s name was inscribed in capitals),
on which I am certain that the venerable Father of his
Coutry was never so basely caracatured. He was rep-
resented on horseback, his horse white with a neck that
bore about the same proportion to his body that a
heron’s does; and indeed the whole representation was
equally absurd & ridiculous.

 

 

 

 

KNOXVILLE.

Is situated on the west bank of the Holston on a very
broken hilly place, intersected by a creek that runs
nearly through the centre of the town, across which are
several mills, besides tanneries and whiskey distilleries
which gives it quite an unpleasant scent along those
streets most contiguous to it. The town has, however, a
very neat and agreeable appearance, a place of extensive
trade for an inland town, and of much resort, having
been the seat of government of the State for some time,
has apparently very respectable society and considerable

 

 

et et enn cna eC lN eee BN EERIE COAT ACERT ern lteter etnies nits etetiiaeteninse ataimasaciimnagetn =
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

50 GENERAL SLADE’S JOURNAL.

refinement. The town is about the size of Raleigh, N.
Ca. but more thickly built, mostly of brick but not in so
zood taste.

12th.

Left Knoxville by sunrise; on thro’ a much leveller
country than I met with on this side of the Blue Ridge.
Land of an inferior quality & much.thinlier inhabited
and more in style of N. Ca. Stopped at Campbell’s Sta-
tion for brakft. but could not be accommodated, pro-
ceeded five miles further to Mr. Meredith’s, where we
breakfted. & rested till afternoon; proceeded at 4 0.; my
horse taken sick on the road shortly after I was left by
Mr. Sims, he not knowing my situation. However, rest-
ing my horse occasionally and walking by his side en-
couragin him and he getting better, I proceeded at a
Slow rate over a very poor, barren, hilly country. At
length descended a valley that was overhung by very
high hills on both sides, at the bottom of which stands
the little town of Kingston; but it being in the night and
so dark, I was not able to see anything distinctly, so as
to form any opinion relative to its situation or extent. I
arrived at South West Point at Mr. Clark’s ferry, where
I found Mr. Sims, who appeared much rejoiced to see me
come up, it then being ten o. and he prepared to go to
bed, having given me out.

13th.

Crossed Clinch River at sunrise which at this place is
about one hundred and fifty yards wide, carrying 14 feet’
water, the water as clear as crystal and moving on with
a still but majestic current, the valley of the river on
the west side narrow but very fertile. The country here
becomes very hilly & broken and thinly inhabited in con-
sequence of sterility. Arrived at the stage house, Mr.
Brown’s at the foot of the Cumberland Mountain to
breakft, my horse much recruited. Rested and then set

 

 
HISTORICAL PAPERS. 51

out to climb the impending cliffs of the mountain, I
walked & drove my horse the whole way up, 2 miles.
The heat was intense, it being then about noon. Passed
on about ten miles thro’ a most broken, unpleasant
country to the Crab Orchard, during which I passed the
celebrated Spencer’s Hill (which is said to be turnpiked,
toll 3714, but is a perfect burlesque on the name of turn-
pike). One & a half miles up & two down, most part of
the way at an angle of 90 degrees and that way scarcely
wide enough between the impending rocks, that seem
tottering on their summits—many of them—, some one
or two hundred feet high, & threatening to tumble down
& crush the astonished traveler into atoms: to pass with
a single gig or carriage [was impossible]. We dined at
Crab Orchard and proceeded on to the stage house on
“the Barrens,” as they are very appropriately called,
through the most miserably poor country I have ever
seen, mostly level, covered with grass & shrubbery of
dwarf chestnut & black-jack, very few of which attain
the height of ten feet, with now and then a solitary hut
or hunting camp. And let me remark here, for the first
time I took a distaste to venison, which is the chief diet
in this part of the country. This stage house is kept by
a Mr. Devon, and a most miserable hovel it is. We
arrived there after night, could scarcely get anything for
our horses, much more ourselves, to eat. Shortly after-
wards two stages arrived and kept so much noise we
scarcely slept any during the night.

14th.

Set out at sunrise, had dispute with the bar-keeper
(if he might be so termed) about the bill, as he wanted
Mr. Sims to pay for supper when he had eaten none.
Passed thro’ much the same kind of country as before
described since crossing the hills to Mr. Bradley, who
keeps a toll gate for a bridge across My Mamma’s Creek,

 

 

 

 
 

 

 

 

 

 

52 GENERAL SLADE’S JOURNAL.

that cost perhaps twenty dollars; took a nap of sleep
while they were preparing breakft. after resting our
horses set off again, cross the bridge, and ascended
Primrose Hill, where, had I a fortune sufficient to sup-
port myself in ease, I would choose to live in preference
to any place in all Tennessee. The soil on the top of
the hill is sandy a little intermixed with rocks, perfectly
dry and agreeable, commanding a view of all the cir-
cumjacent country, the growth principally chesnut of
the loftiest kind. It is about a mile across the top. Its
extent otherwise I was not able to ascertain. Descended
it and passed along a quite sandy road interspersed with
hills and valleys for some distance, until I descried
thro’ the foliage of the trees the blue ethereal sky below
me, when on a sudden after taking a short turn around a
knob we began to descend the Cumberland mountain,
which went off at an angle of 45 degrees for about two
miles when we descended into a very uneven country
resembling the waves of the sea when subsiding after a
smart gale. We seemed to pass on the pinacle of a
wave, which sunk into huge ampitheatres of 40 or 50
feet depth, representing the state of the ocean after a
storm had just subsided, and then wound along in
meandering form in a westerly direction covered with a
luxuriant growth of poplar, chesnut, and oak to Sparta,
the coty. seat of White, where we stopped, fed our
horses, and proceeded for Col. Smiths thro’ a level coun-
try, mostly prarie and level, where we arrived at dark.
Col. Smith informed us that his house was full, & that
we must proceed to a Mr. Clark’s about four miles far-
ther. The road being very stumpy & narrow & it
quite dark, it was with difficulty that I could drive a gig
thro’ it without getting upset. However at a late hour of
the night we arrived at Mr. Clark’s, which was a miser-
able hut, and after much entreaty were to have food for
our horses and a bed to lie upon, but no supper ;—& hay-

mebietietaececeseiom ee

 

 

 

 

 

 
HISTORICAL PAPERS. 58

ing had no dinner that day, it went particularly hard
on Us.
15th.

Set off at sunrise, proceeded through a tolerably level
country to Mr. Shaw’s where we brkftd. Set out after
breakft, traveled along immediately upon the top of a
seeming wave whose base seemed to be at the centre of
gravity; for notwithstanding below grew the most lux-
uriant forests of poplar, walnut, sugar maple, chesnut,
beach &c, we were passing above their tops, whose gloom
prevented our seeing the depths of the valleys beneath.
The top of the wave, for I can compare it to nothing
besides, was literally inlaid with broken fragments of
free stone, the most disagreeable road I ever saw. Our
horses having lost some of their shoes could scarcely get
along. At 1:10 we arrived at W. A. Muck’s, where we
made them get us coffee at that time of the day. We
then set off again and proceeded along a like wave or
ridge, for four or five miles, when we descended a most
intolerable rocky road, which is ironically called
“Feather-Bed Hill,” into the valley of the Caney Fork
of Cumberland river, which runs about northwest to the
ford. This river is about one hundred yards wide: was
quite shallow at this time, being very low. The country
on the west side of it surpasses any I have before seen in
the western country in the fertility of its soil and is
much less broken than the valley of the Holston, or its
branches. Proceeded about twenty miles thro’ a country
of the greatest fertility I have ever seen, except Roanoke
low-grounds, which surpasses it only in its durability.
This being in many places rolling is subject to wash
away as soon as cleared & put into a state of com-
plete cultivation. The most fertile part I think I
passed was what is called “The Cedar Bottoms,” which
in point of fertility excells any land I ever saw; but then
there lies at the bottom of every branch or bottom

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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54. GENERAL SLADE’S JOURNAL.

exposed a sheet of limestone rock that pervades this
country at a certain depth, & indeed in most places huge
piles & sheets of it lie piled & spread over the face of the
earth in every direction. We arrived at Mrs. Carteret’s
in Wilson County, and after some persuasion gained per-
mission of the negroes to stay all night, Mrs. C. being
absent at meeting. However we got something to eat &
retired for the night.

16th.

Set out at sunrise from Mrs. Carteret’s and passing
thro’ the same kind of country as the preceding evening
rather in a higher state of cultivation, the farms teeming
with the luxuriant crops of corn; but notwithstanding
the fertility of the soil still the people live in the most
miserable, dirty looking huts I ever beheld in any coun-
try. Arrived at Lebanon to brkft., where I stopped to
make arrangements about my business in Tenn. until
the next day, while Mr. Sims went on twenty five miles
farther to his mother’s in Davidson County, who before
he set out introduced me to Genl. Saml. Houston, a law-
yer of Lebanon, whose attentions, politeness, and assist-
ance in my business were of very essential service to me
in the prosecution of my business. Visited Mr. Isaac
Kennedy & delivered him a letter after a recognition on
his part of me. Treated me with every mark of atten-
tion he possessed, offering me his house, bed & board
gratis, which I declined. He then gave me every infor-
mation about my business I deserved and furnished me
with names of what gentlemen to call on for testimonial
information. Returned to Lebanon and wrote to the jus-
tices and to the gentlemen whose depositions I wished to
take requesting them to meet me on Thursday next at
Lebanon.

Lebanon is the county seat of Wilson, is situated on
each side of a small creek that runs thro’ a large cedar

 

 

 

 

 
ne ee

HISTORICAL PAPERS. 55

valley. Is eligible only for a large spring of limestone
water that spouts up in a cave near the centre of the
town, that makes up from the creek, that furnishes an
ample supply of that indispensible for the whole town &
would for one of ten times its size. The town is only built
on two streets as yet, which intersect each other at right
angles, in the centre of the intersection of which streets
stands a very elegant two story brick court house with
a cupola which instead of embellishing detracts from the
elegance of the building, as it is awkwardly formed and
disproportionate, its spire being taller than the base and
ornamental parts of the cupola, and all the way of the
Same size, passing thro’ balls of the same size in a num-
ber of places. On its top is placed a gilt eagle volant
that seems to be holding on to the point of the spire with
great exertion, striving against every passing breeze.
Fronting the court house diagonally are a large brick
jail and a stone clerk’s & sheriff’s office. The chief
buildings of the town are of brick, there being no timber
immediately in its vicinity to build wooden houses of, ex-
cept cedar, which never grows large: hence it took the
name of Lebanon. It has five or six stores, which seem
to do a tolerable business, and three publick houses, less
fantastic in their signs than I have seen anywhere in the
State. In winter the streets are remarkably muddy,
and in summer equally dusty in consequence of the flat-
ness of its situation & the stiffness of its soil.

17th.

Set out for Nashville after brkft. Passed thro’ cedar
glades of barren rock for about three miles when the
land became more rolling and less rocky. Saw some
excellent fields of corn & tobacco. Arrived at Mr. I. F.
Davis’ to dinner, the most pleasant situation I have seen
in West Tennessee (bill 50). Passed on thro’ a still roll-
ing country in very good state of culture of corn &

ci dai gilaetetceadinaiitsaatesiesasditiilarmaiscaitiarc auntie od penceatgnenaatiatcialee.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
Se nnn ne aemesmncnenenrmneitine nn maaan aa-ens mee en aaa eae

 

 

 

 

 

 

56 GENERAL SLADE’S JOURNAL.

tobacco to Stone’s River, which at the ford is about one
hundred yards wide at common tide, but was extremely
low then, being nearly dry over. On the other side was
a level, extending along the river of the width of a quar-
ter of a mile, the quality of the Roanoke low-lands, of
rather a darker hue, called “The Clover Bottoms.” The
country from there to Nashville is more rolling than on
the north side of Stone’s River and equally fertile and
far superior in point of cultivation to any part of West
Tennessee, the farms being laid out in some taste and
good brick buildings on the principal ones, built many
in taste & style. The lands mostly cleared & very thickly
settled. I arrived at Nashville in the evening and put
up at the inn, a hotel kept in as much pomp and style
as the Tontine Coffee House in New York, or Renshaw’s
Hotel in Philadelphia. -I was ushered into the bar in
great pomp, presented with the coffee-house book, and
pen & ink, to write my name and place of residence.

 

 

 

 
   
   

sen te ane a Re Se Rey CE NY eA CRS one Senet Ne nynp epee nme seme Nomad nem enrnnnteneene nian eee mension emma nema mgt mathe EDA See pme A

—— ee

HISTORICAL PAPERS. 57

SOME UNPUBLISHED LETTERS OF NATHANIEL
MACON

The following letters from Macon to Andrew Jackson
are preserved in Macon’s handwriting in the Jackson
Manuscripts, which were donated to the Library of Con-
gress by the children of the late Montgomery Blair, of
Montgomery county, Maryland. They are now pub-
lished, through the courtesy of the library authorities,
because they help to complete the picture of the life of
this influential North Carolinian.

 

J. S. BASSETT.

JACKSON MSS.

PHILA. 17th Jany., 1796.

Sir

I enclose you a copy of the report of the Committee
Claims on your petition, and sincerely wished that it
accorded more with my ideas of right. I attended the
Committee while they had the petition under considera-
tion, explained the nature of the claim and shewed the
laws & resolutions under which it originated, together
with a letter from the Treasurer of North Carolina on
the subject, But to no purpose

Congress have not yet passed a single act this session,
none of the Committees to whom important subjects were
committed have reported, Every thing contained in the
speech of the President is before some Committee, as well
as a bankrupt system and plan for establishing offices i
for the sale of land in the territories of the United States, |
A motion has been made on the subject of a navigation i
act, and not yet acted on

You will see by the papers that a Robert Randall and
Charles Whitney had an easy plan for obtaining land,
however they were disappointed,

The last accounts from Europe are very vague and

5

 

 

 

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saan ee EE ee
-
SR NN RR ET NAOT IE Sore REET SEO Cage Ae GAT I Sem ee ae RN EN A RN ee eS oS OE Ba ts ate aea em ete Heese mem RG

i
a
bi

 

58 LETTERS OF NATHANIEL Macon.

 

contradictory, It is I believe certain that General Jour-
dan has retreated, but every thing else is too uncertain
to trouble with °
I am sir
Yr most obt. Servt.
NATHL. MACON.

2 PHILADELPHIA 13 Feb 1800
Sir
I was last evening pleased with the reception of your
very agreeable favor of the 9 ultimo, and will certainly
give my aid towards establishing the post road you men-

 

ea tion, As you recollect well, you know that it is a general |
£ rule with me to vote for every post road that may be
¢ deemed useful, and I have no doubt, but that from Jones-

borough will be very much so.
Believing that Mr. Claiborne gives you all the Con-

ae gressional proceedings, you will excuse me from saying
| ¢, a word about them, especially when I tell you that
a scarcely anything has been done worth communicating ;
Ca there is however one subject of the first importance, to
a which every true Republican ought early & seriously to
+6 turn his attention, I mean the election of President &
a Vice President, I am induced to mention this, because I
tl have some reason to believe that your acquaintance

I oe Parker of Virginia has written to the govr of Tennessee
wi on this subject, & not in the most favorable terms, of the

ah man that is certainly best qualified to fill the office of

President, in fact, he is not in favor of Mr. Jefferson, of
whose character & talents it would be useless to praise,
because they are known to all, I have mentioned this cir-
cumstance, to inform you of the industry of the men, who
do not wish Mr. J. to be President. I have not heard of
the sentiments of your governor You will consider this
letter as confidential, because I am not at liberty to tell

Sepia

 

 

 

 

 

 
 

HISTORICAL PAPERS. 59

you how I got the information of Parkers having writ-
ten, but of the fact I have no doubt.
I enclosed you some time past a pamphlet, have you
received it. Believe me to be
Sir yrs sincerely and truly,
NATHL MACON.

 

 

WASHINGTON 12 Jan, 1801
Sir
I only write to let you know that I have not forgotten
you, Claiborne who continues to deserve well of his coun-
try I know gives you all the information which this new

ne sas onainy neta

Se STIS!

ae

   

 

city affords—I answered my former letters or at least a
one of them; But on this point my friendship gets the ‘|
better of your forgetfulness, you see I will not say neg- "
lect because I know you are incable [sic] of that. i

Congress have passed an act this session which is to Hl
authorize the Delegate from the North Western Terri- i
tory to receive pay & to frank letters, The house of 7

Representatives have passed a bill to erect a Mausoleum,
which is now in the Senate

A bill to alter the Judiciary system of the U. S. is now
before the H— of R— It is nearly like the last that was
before the H— at their last session. It is apprehended
that the bill will pass—The treaty drags heavily on, &
will not I expect be ratified without annexing some con-
ditions, The Sen [mutilated] it is said have voted
against the 2 & 3 articles but what they will do, when
they come to the final vote is considered doubtfull

Jefferson & Burr have an equal number of votes, & I
incline to think that J. will be easily elected by the H.
of R.

Remember me respectfully to all my old acquaint-
ances, especially to those who lately removed from the
District which I represent—I am

Sir yrs. truly & sincerely
NATHL MACON.

 

 

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sediietieahestneaeianen seeeaeeeannatiaemmetn “
— sn acteatietere eel ee ~aciens oe pooner ae eerie ee a a TE

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

60 LETTERS OF NATHANIEL Macon.

Buck SPRINGS 26 August 1833

Sir

I have this minute received your letter of the 17,*
instant, and answer it with all the friendly feelings with
which I believe it was written. Before I do this, permit
me, to say, that I have no documents, having given all
mine away, not even the proceedings of South Carolina
relative to Nullification nor the proclamation

The governments of the United States and of the
States are governments of opinion and not of force, this
opinion was held when the Hartford convention was in
session and has not changed and that a conquered State,
was not in the Union nor could not be without an act
of Congress to admit her; sovereign power cannot com-
mit treason or rebellion or be subject to the laws relat-
ing to either; hence a State being sovereign to a certain
extent, as well as the United States, cannot commit
either; The people alone in our country possess unlim-
ited sovereign power, and they delegate it to their gov-
ernments as they please

Force applied to a State government, as well as I recol-
lect is not hinted at in the Constitution of the United
States, because she cannot commit treason or rebellion,
It goes on the ground that every State will perform her
duty. The case of South Carolina, was not like the in-
surrection in Pennsylvania, the people of South Carolina
acted under State authority, and the people of Pennsyl-
vania under no legal authority.

If South Carolina would not permit the laws of the

 

*August 17 Jackson wrote to Macon from The Rip Raps, where he was then
staying, discussing a letter from Macon to Carson, which letter was just before
this published in a Norfolk, Virginia, paper. He wrote at length in defense of
the proclamation against the Nullifiers, basing his communication on the
friendship which had long snbsisted between him and his venerable friend. The
letter is preserved in draft in Jackson’s own hand in the Jackson Manuscripts
in the Library of Congress. The Carson to whom Macon wrote was doubtless
Samuel P. Carson, of Pleasant Garden, N.C., who served in the National House
of Representatives from December, 1825, till December, 1833, Later he mo ved
to Arkansas, where he died in 1840.

 

 

 
HISTORICAL PAPERS. 61

United States to be enforced within her limits, she was
out of the Union and ought to have been treated as a
foreign power; The Union is a matter of choice and inter-
est; without this it cannot be lasting, but if the federal
government be justly and wisely managed, it will be as
lasting as the Atlantic, the Allegany or Mississippi

No confederation or league can last long after the
States which form it begin to fight, people are never sat-
isfied by being beaten, and freemen whenever conquered,
loose their energy and boldness

The history of Religion, proves that force cannot
change opinion, and in this country political opinion
would be as difficult to change, as that of Religion: You
will perceive that I do not approve the enforcing act,
though I have not seen it, the contents have been stated
to me, I take no newspaper, of course know but little
of anything from home

Permit me to say, I have no recollection of the law
you mention nor of my vote, though no doubt, is enter-
tained, but that they are correctly and truly stated and
it may be that both Mr. Jefferson and myself, may have
done wrong, in the very hot times, in which we acted;
I however never approved of construing the Constitu-
tion by precedent, and have constantly tho’t, that every
department of the government, had always the same
right to construe it, as those had, who were before them
and that each ought to correct the errors of the former,
if any were made

Last wednesday for the first time, I heard, that my
letter was published; I believe it was an answer, to one
received, but I am become so forgetful, that I cannot
say positively, since I quit public life, my rule has been
only to acknowledge letters, except to one person

The ratifications of the Constitution by the States are
all I believe different from each other; I do not recollect
enough of them, to say much about them; but none of

id

4 i
Hi
at
i

ni
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ai
aie

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

erence SARE neon Nate = nen nena euiniabiinai ~ a al
 

 

 

 

  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
  
  

 

 

62 LETTERS OF NATHANIEL Macon.

them, I imagine gave up the right to secede, and this
right is the only one that can prevent bargaining legisla-
tion, whenever that shall become common liberty must
be nearly gone If law could have controlled opinion Mr.
Jefferson would never have been president.

That the Constitution of the United States must de-
pend on opinion, the following facts will demonstrate, a
few of the large States perhaps a half dozen, can put an
end to it, by not passing laws to elect representatives or
not passing them to elect electors of the President and
Vice President, and thirteen of the smallest, can do the
same, by not electing Senators

Whenever a State becomes uneasy under federal legis-
lation, the act which causes the uneasiness, ought to be
reviewed with the greatest care, and if it contains the
least injustice it ought to be altered. As far as I have
heard, Virginia acted with great propriety and great
dignity toward South Carolina, her doings no doubt had
some good effect

I never wrote a letter, expecting it to be published,
in one case, I was not so attentive as I might or ought
to have been; to one received, in which a modest request
was made for an answer to be published; the request
escaped my observation. Perhaps it might not be amiss
to say, that I never tho’t General Washington had
authority to issue his proclamation declaring the neutral
situation of the country, that seemed to me, belonged to
Congress

If it should ever happen, which God forbid, that the
United States and a State be at war, the Constitution of
the Union may [be] considered as gone, as dead, since
1824 I have tho’t that by construction it had become
almost unlimited; no one disapproves of the tariff more
than I do; and my hope has been, that Congress know-
ing its unjust operation would relieve those who suf-
fered; In truth since 1824 I have considered it dead

 

 

 

 

 
oie Ring ng neetine tet eneet amma ne te AES we Se eNeD NE NNR eR ES One mney Rips ny pee eens at ant ee et se RC RN ne en tomy RS DS St i aes

HISTORICAL PAPERS. 63

and a new one made by construction. It has been my
lot to differ in some things with every administration ;
but I hope never for the mere sake [of] opposition
The fame of the administration, which has paid the
public debt and adjusted the claims of the people on for-
eign governments for wrongs done them, will be as last-
ing as the fame acquired by the battles of New Orleans,
though it may have committed some errors in the opinion
of a part of those who have generally and sincerely sup-
ported it, to err is common to man, and who knows, when
men differ in opinion, which is right
Accept my best wishes for your health and happiness,
and believe me to be very truly and sincerely your friend ‘
NATH MACON. 1

 

 

Ps

     
   
     
   

de eevee A Ras ee

Sena Sowa ee

eae

 

ses ears

3
5

SP

See

2 ees
pp ME rR TS

if
N. B. On reading over this letter, I believe, I have I
made a mistake, in saying, that the legislatures of a few i
great States, could put an end to the federal government, i
by not passing laws to elect representatives, I now a :
think that Congress may pass a law for that purpose #
but if the people of such States should refuse to elect, 4

then the case would happen. a SM oH

Buck SPRINGS 25 September 1833 al
Sir a

Your letter of the 2d instant* was received on the 20, 1h
and would have been answered sooner, but company pre- h :
vented. I have read it and the documents enclosed over ay
and over again, they have not changed my opinion as to
the right of a State to secede, if this opinion be errone-
ous, it is of long standing and will probably go with me
to the grave, that South Carolina ought to have pur-
sued a different course, is never doubted, but her doings,
‘annot take away the right of other States, or destroy

 

*For Jackson to Macon, Sept. 2. 1833, see Jackson Mss.; also Am Hist. Rev.
Vir, 111.

 

omen ethene NEAR an ore ren atten nine telnet nee et coasters cogent

 
 

ee I TE ELE IIL TI - = ret agree = nnn eee
= Pe aE RET WT ET ATS: ae? asa eer
eel

 

 

 

 

 

 

64 LETTERS OF NATHANIEL MACON.

her own, The first convention of North Carolina rejected
the Constitution, the legislature called a second, which
ratified, she had the same right to have called a third
and that might if it tho’t proper have rejected it again;
South Carolina could not have been in the Union
under the operation of her acts, she would have been,
what North Carolina was before she adopted the Consti-
tution, a foreign power; The same feeling which caused
North Carolina to adopt, would have operated on South
Carolina not to leave the union: The word Union is a
force more powerful than fleets and armies

Nine States, as well as I recollect, might have carried
the federal constitution into operation, leaving four
under the confederation, if they tho’t proper, to continue
under it, yet the confederation was not to be altered
without the consent of every State, The union will not
be weakened by the rights to secede, it is one that will
not be abused because it cannot be the interest of one
to abuse it, but if unjust legislation should force a State
to secede, that would not be an abuse, but if a State
should secede with or without cause, she can not get into
it again by her own act

If a territory would not be a State, she could not be
forced to be one, she could not be forced to be a member
of the union as a State, without her consent, so that
force cannot be used to bring a territory into the union
or keep a State in it.

When the federal and the State governments differ,
the people must decide, which they will obey, without
being guilty of treason, without this they must commit it
against one or the other, a horrid choice, whether to be
hung by the sheriff or the marshall. A conquered coun-
try is at the mercy of the conquerer, no rights but what
he pleases to give, The conquest of South Carolina
would put her out of the union, and she would not bea
Territory, with the right to come into it.

Permit me, to observe, that I have constantly tho’t and

 

 

 
 

HISTORICAL PAPERS. - -65

often said, that the proclamation and nullification, ought
to be laid by, as unfit for use in United States: to nullify
and be in the union and to be conquered and be in the
Union, seem to be impossible. x

I never kept a copy, but of one letter I ever wrote,
that was a private one, not connected with public affairs,
of course I have no copy of the answer to Mr. Car-
son’s letter, nor have I seen it in print, though I have
been told that it was in his circular to his constituents,
it contained my opinion when wrote. In speaking of the
proclamation, I mean that part which relates to States
rights Sate

The opinion, that a State cannot secede, seems to me,
like the old British doctrine, once a subject always a
subject, and that a conquered State would not be unlike
Ireland; one of the most excellent and happy parts of
our form of government is that either State or individ- |
ual may leave it, when they please, our double govern- af
ments cannot be kept together by force, if they can the 1
condition of unhappy Ireland must be the fate of a con-
quered State

I live 12 miles from Warrenton, I mention this, to
account for the delay in the receipt of your letters, and
scarcely ever go or send there, You will perceive that I
have endeavored not to repeat the contents of my former
letter. I do not yet recollect enough of the Massachu-
setts case, to say a word about it

That your life may be as happy and contented as it
has been prosperous and brilliant is the sincere wish of
sir

 

 

 

 

: SSS

KI
oa
is

—

see

=m

i BH

at
fi
‘ fi

 

Your friend and Hble Servt
NatH MAcoNn*

 

*Indorsed in Jaekson’s handwriting: ‘‘It is evidence of weakness—his votes
and speeches in 1808 and ’9 in support of the laws to enforce the embargo, he
voted for the bloody bill then—it is treason to resist the laws by force—it is
treason to secede—preserve this for history.—A. J.”

6

 

sneha tn i enn tannin inn qt ni Sone name nee anther estates anne ae

 
‘ ane ea ene ee . ah
ee ee ee semen aibninn “tain ies-peie. ted endede ce aee ae cere er eaetes coe TEE Eee etc mte e

 

 

 

 

 

 

66 CORRESPONDENCE OF BEDFORD BROWN.

 

SELECTIONS FROM THE CORRESPONDENCE OF
BEDFORD BROWN-I., 1832-1856.

In the spring of 1906 Mr. F. W. Brown, of Yanceyville,
placed in the keeping of the Trinity Historical Society a
number of letters written to his grandfather, Hon. Bedford
Brown, sometime United States Senator from North Caro-
lina, a man very prominent in the political history of the
State. They cover a number of years, from 1832 to 1868.
The writers include men of national as well as State reputa-
tion. Among them are Martin Van Buren, who writes six
letters; James Buchanan, who writes two; George M. Dallas,
two; F. P. Blair, one; D. S. Dickinson, one; and Weldon N.
Edwards two, R. J. Powell and Matthew W. Ransom each
one. To these have been added copies of two letters written
by Mr. Brown; one to Martin Van Buren, whose original is
in the Library of Congress, Van Buren MSS, transcribed by
Dr. John S. Bassett, recently Professor of History in Trin-

ity College; the other, written to James Buchanan, whose '

original is in the collections of the Pennsylvania Historical
Society, copied and presented by Dr. John W. Jordan,
Librarian of that society. Believing that these letters may
be of value to those interested in the political history of
North Carolina and of the nation, they are now made public,
published in two installments, the second installment to |
appear in the next issue.
Witi1am K. Boyn, President,
Trinity Historical Society.

Van Buren to Brown. {

(No date.)

My dear Sir

I have awaited so long, under the impression that S. W. S.
might write me, as you thought he would, until it is too late
to send my letter to Raleigh. It is of course not agreeable
to be drawn into such matters, but such things can not always

 

 

 

 
a ae eee wom nSeprntan ee ats ne ieny ad ee ens nae Hemp ee nines npn aipeanepmpnsinnn mnt enti pcnensinmeemsennmin i aaernenienn me TSN Ma ete ee RT RB en gs asa

HISTORICAL PAPERS. 67

be avoided, and a man who like you always means right can
scarcely do wrong. When you see or communicate with that
unadulterated relic of Nathaniel Macon Democracy, the :
purest that ever existed, Mr. N. Edwards, remember me
kindly to him. Do the same to Mrs B and your family and '
believe me to be
Very truly yours ee
M Van Buren Hl
Mr Brown. | in|

George M. Dallas to Brown.*
My dear Brown, |

 

 

It is not improbable that you became, during the last ses- a
sion, so completely tired of me, and have been so much in the
habit of associating myself with the remembrance of a very
tedious and uncomfortable and protracted absence from your
better half, that the sight of my name may produce any thing.
but agreeable impressions. ait

The sooner, however, this first repugnance is worn off the
better: for I am obstinately determined not to be forgotten
by one of whom I think often and much. Make up your
mind, therefore, with as much philosophy as you can muster,
to write and be written to.

What are you at in North Carolina? Do the pioneers of
independence keep steady and onward for the President?
And what are the hopes and dangers of your Vice-Presiden-
tial favorite? Has Mangum proved the better prophet, or is
Phil Barbour’s prospect less promising than heretofore? I
conclude that, like some of your friends, you have thrown
yourself “in medias res;”’ and I rely upon your telling me,
not what you wish, (for that I know already), but what is
actual fact or fair calculation.

You may possibly have noticed by the “Globe,” that I
carried my threats of political action into effect almost as

 

 

*This letter is unsigned and undated, but the penmanship is that of Dallas.
and it seems to have been written before the autumn of 1832.—W. K. B.

 

i ia et arin casi cits icine, ugar atalllng.

 
LE TE IO ss SEC EH SR GN I So PRN NOE Nae eS! te OO Ene er en engeiseemanien teecsen mene erhseT)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

68 CORRESPONDENCE OF BEDFORD BROWN.

soon as I got home. A few days satisfied me that my friend,
The Bank, was, either with or without its own consent and
connivance, taking a somewhat too ostensible part in the
political canvass. The institution, as an useful agent of
government, is one thing:—its directors or managers, or
partizans, are quite another thing:—both united are not
worth the cause which depends on. the re-election of Jack-
som, On the very day of my arrival, I passed by a large Town-
meeting convened to denounce the Veto and uphold the bank:
—and the sight of it roused me into an immediate effort to
procure a counteracting assemblage on the same spot, that
day week. Some very kind friends strove to throw cold
water upon my ardor by hinting that my votes and speeches
in the Senate were recent and well remembered :—that my
position would be awkward, if I did not fall into the ranks
of those who at least condemned the Veto ete. I took coun-
sel of my own conscience and judgment:—and being per-
fectly self-convinced that I might be both a true and constant
friend of the Institution, and at the same time an unflinch-
ing adherent to Democracy and the re-election of Jackson, I
attended the meeting—made my speech—and felt instantly
relieved from what seemed to me, before, might be thought
an undecided or equivocal attitude. The truth is, as you
know, that altho solicitous to save the corporation by a re-
charter, I never conceived it to be of the immense and essen-
tial importance described by my Senatorial neighbor on the
left and in the rear:—I was always for the sentiment which
is now hoisted most high—Jackson, bank or no bank.

We have, I think, quite weathered the gale which at first
threatened all sorts of mischief. Our opponents, by excessive
indiscretion, vapouring, and slander, have helped us as is
their usual practise. The Veto has perhaps driven from our
ranks about as many as it has attracted to them. Certainly, it
has produced very little dangerous effect. Had its marrow
been compressed into one twentieth of its length ;—had it for-
borne to go into those mooted fields of doctrine about which

 

rE

 

 

 
~ ae
Ste ee nae rae Seg Renee ce ee gd ae tp mee eny Rene mpi epee mtemene tances ent we

HISTORICAL PAPERS. 69

every third or fourth man entertains different opinions—it
would have been one of the most victorious and standard
papers ever issued by the Executive. As it is, I do not
believe that it has done more harm than is involved in shak-
ing the rotten leaves from the hickory tree. In this City we
shall lose strength:—there is a discontented body of Irish
who seize the opportunity to resent the execution of Porter
and pardon of Wilson, and who are led on by disappointed
gentlemen of some talent, great industry, and considerable
influence among their countrymen. But beyond the limits
of the City, we are strong as heretofore, perhaps stronger.
The State may not give quite as large a majority as it did in
1828 :—but her majority will still be overwhelming.

You notice that we still hold on to Wilkins. The policy
of doing so is obvious to every one. Mr. Van Buren has no
foothold upon which reliance could be placed:—and had he,
so much must be done in order regularly and effectually to
undo the existing arrangements of the party in the State, that
sufficient time is not left. The strongest consideration, how-
ever, is this:—Our electoral elections take place in Novem-
ber: our State or Governor’s election in October. Now the
result of the October struggle may powerfully if not vitally
affect the struggle in November:—if the tide sets in one
way, there may be no arresting it. We are all, therefore,
bent upon carrying Wolf as triumphantly as possible. But
to do this, we must destroy the power of the Anti-Masonry in
our populous western counties; and we have nothing to
oppose this monster half so efficacious as the personal popu-
larity of Wilkins. His name is a tower of strength in that
section. To drop it would endanger the whole campaign. I
believe I judge this subject impartially and fairly. My
friendly feelings towards Mr Van Buren cannot be ques-
tioned. No one dreams that Wilkins can be elected; but
every body perceives that to shift the attitude of the state
under present circumstances would be pernicious in the ex-
treme to the main object, upon which everything depends.

 

 

 
 

oo Ceo peer en ene nena — anerenenyp eae
ere ements ~eatens dens Deane dee ans tedden meee ton et et at en os

 

 

1

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Cid

8 ae Bey

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: ;

 

 

 

 

70 CORRESPONDENCE OF BEDFORD BROWN.

How fares nullification? Calhoun, Hayne, and M’ Duffie
seem determined to play the game out. Forsyth, Drayton,
and Cheves have acted the parts of true patriots, and if the
South were to rally upon their principles and pursue their
recommendations, the Tariff might gradually be offered as a
voluntary sacrifice upon the altar of general goodwill and
patriotism. Dreadfully as I fear Free Trade would operate
throughout the eastern and middle states, and, indeed upon
the vigor, independance, and happiness of the whole country,
I cannot think it would be half as bad as the dissolution of
the Union, or the shortest possible civil war. We are in this
quarter, however, like Jack Falstafi—averse to giving or
doing anything “upon compulsion:’—and really the per-
petual sling of intimidation to which the South Carolina
nullifiers have resorted and still resort, may well excuse our
stickling upon the point of honour.

The course of Wilkins and myself, as to the report of the
Committee of Conference, has met public and almost univer-
sal sanction. Some furious Clay men now and then attack
Wilkins: but they obviously do it merely because of the alter-
cation between himself and Clay, and because of his continu-
ing a resolute Jacksonman.

George M. Dallas to Brown.
(Dec. 8, 1833.)

Dear Brown,

I have never had courage enough to express to you the
sincerity with which both Mrs Dallas and I condoled with
yourself and Mrs Brown upon the melancholy event that
compelled you so suddenly to quit Washington for home last
winter. None, out of your family circle, could have felt
more sensibly the affliction by which you were visited. I
trust, however, that time has had its healing effect, and that
your excellent wife bore the calamity without inflicting upon
her already delicate health a permanent depression.

The present session of Congress promises more of excite-

 

 

 

 
eee we 2 a weep teen anne Hee a es me te ey Ripe np ap ae gn Ace ent wend cenit ee arene enn mem ema tern han mgt rma nS ERB St aocneien ="

HISTORICAL PAPERS. 71

ment than of real interest. The great questions which threat-
ened the peace of the country are at rest:—and none but
mere agitators will be disposed to disturb them anew. The
coming Presidential canvass may probably soon produce
fresh phases of party, and strange combinations of men: but
I do not think that we shall be convulsed as we have been on
fundamental and universal principles or systems. If you
perceive any thing which holds out a different prospect, let
me know of it, and indulge my appetite for political disqui-
sition by communicating your own views and calculations.

The topic on which I anticipate most congressional heat is
that of the Bank. It may be well, indeed, to take it up as a
sort of safety valve, through which all the wordy ammunition wt
of the opposition may be expended, and all our own fever let :
off, without any danger to the country, the government, the
constitution, or the laws. The Bank is a fine target:—in
its present impudent position he must be a bad marksman
that cannot hit it hard and sure:—and no blow can be too |
severe for the brazen political managers by whom it is di-
rected. Pennsylvania is sadly changed on this subject, and
I shall not be surprised to find her legislature passing resolu-
tions to quicken the downfall of an institution which, a few
months ago, she was so anxious to uphold.

I shall feel curious to know how my late friends of the
Senate stand affected towards each other. Can you say what
attitude he of Massachusetts occupies in reference to him of
Kentucky? Is there no hope of such a division among the
foe, as will give the administration a chance of getting along?
Is Mr. Taney to be immolated as was Mr Van Buren:—
that is, to be rejected by the Senate, in order to be shouldered
by the people? Will the majority of your body use their
power with forbearance, or are they disposed to drive matters
to extremities:—to arrest the progress of government or to
force it into measures which, however high handed they may
seem, will be triumphantly borne out by the people against a
factious Senate ?

 

 

Aaa ae ccm Jastindsansmet cna nioenessinliteniertteetap

Sreesanth tnt nents natant nina teseit
 

aa 5 Te eee a ns Dis cantina oe peak nr inten eager eae remem emma emanate
nfl

hi lette

 

 

 

 

Aan em a ten

ta CORRESPONDENCE OF BEDFORD BRowN.

I wish you would kindly remember me to Col. Benton,
Col. King, Mr. Mangum, and Mr. Rives,
Ever very truly, Dr. Sir,
G. M. Dallas
Honble Bedford Brown. 8 Dec. 1833
Senate.

Bedford Brown to Martin Van Buren.*

Caswell County, N. C. 24th Sept, 1834.
My dear Sir:

I was very happy, to receive your letter, of the 7th inst.,
an answer to which, has been delayed, until this time, in
consequence of the absence, contemplated by you, on a tour
in the western part of New York.

The result of our elections, for the State Legislature is, as
you suppose, decidedly favorable, to the administration. I
have no doubt, but the majority, for the administration will
be, from twenty to thirty, on joint ballot, in our Legislature.
The coalition presses here, as is their custom, in other States,
affect a triumph, for the double purpose, of effect abroad, and
to keep the spirits of their party up, in this State, in the
hope, that they may be able, to produce a division, among
the friends of the administration. To accomplish this end,
every artifice, has already been, and will continue to be, put
in requisition by them. Unfortunately, their ability, to do
mischief, in this way, is increased, by having two opposition
presses, at their command, in the City of Raleigh while our
cause, is without any aid, of that kind, at that important
point. So firmly fixed however, is public Sentiment, in this
State, in favour of the President of the United States, that I
am thoroughly convinced, that every effort, to shake it, will
prove unavailing. Indeed, if any change, takes places, in
public opinion, between this and the assembling of our Leg-
islature, I am satisfied, it will be, favourable, to the adminis-
tration. The entire failure of the Bank, and its faithful

 

*Van Buren MSS, Library of Congress.

 

 

 
HISTORICAL PAPERS.. io

allies, to produce the mischief and the widespread ruin,
throughout the country, which were so vociferously pro-
claimed, by the leaders of the opposition, from the Capitol,
has become a standing topick, of derision and ridicule, even
among the most illiterate classes, of our Citizens. Added
to this, is the unusual state of prosperity which is at this
time prevailing, throughout our country. I am quite sure,
that the people in N. Carolina, are at this time, enjoying
more solid and substantial prosperity, than at any period,
since my recollection. This of course, will powerfully aid,
the good cause.

As regards my re-election, to which you so kindly allude,
I entertain great confidence of success, unless some of our
party, should imprudently, bring forward, another adminis-
tration candidate, and thus by dividing the party, accomplish
the wishes of the opposition. I do not believe, this will be <
done, as I have not heard of a single individual, who is
elected a Member of our Legislature, and who can be relied
upon, as a friend of the administration, that has expressed.
any opposition, to my re-election. On the contrary, very
many of the Jackson candidates (and indeed all of that
party, who expressed their opinion, as to the election of Sen-
ator, so far I have been informed) declared themselves in the
popular assemblies, in favour of my re-election. Believing
that you feel an interest, in my success, is my apology, for
troubling you, with the details, above given.

I cannot, My dear sir, conclude this letter, without re-
curring for a moment, to the scenes, of the last eventful ses-
sion of Congress. It was indeed well calculated, to test the
firmness and resolution of those, who were participants in
them. To no friend, of the administration, is more due, the
meed of public approbation, for fixed and unalterable pur-
pose to sustain it, at its period of greatest difficulty, than
yourself. When others, of our friends, seemed almost to de-
spair, I often heard you express, your entire belief, of the
triumphant results, which are rapidly developing themselves,

 

 

 

 

 
enone Con Reger a en ernanen:
eee sattemenniininh ~itient edt eins Detlikttentini oat aa ate aces cham rcmeren deme ememmeenemeenemmmtammemeneeeent mete aemeee ei

 

 

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74: CORRESPONDENCE OF BEDFORD BROWN.

in the elections that are taking place, in the different States.
This course cannot fail, (as I know it has already), to add
greatly to the favour which you before enjoyed, among the
republican party in this, and in other States.

The contest in your State, will no doubt, be a severe one,
but I have great faith, in the democracy of New York, and
cannot permit myself to doubt, that the result, will be, the
complete overthrow, of the combined forces, and that your
State, will again add another claim, to the gratitude of re-
publicans. I remain your friend.

B. Brown.

W. C. Rives to Brown.

Castle Hill Nov 28 1834
My dear sir,

Permit me first and foremost to congratulate you as I do
with all my heart, on your proud triumph, and that of the
great Republican cause which has just been so gloriously
achieved in your person by the fine and noble Democracy of
your state. No person, I assure you, can have enjoyed this
splendid triumph with more heartfelt pleasure than I do, as
well from sentiments of personal friendship, as from devo-
tion to the public cause with which you are identified.—after
this outpouring of the spirit on an occasion so joyful to all
true disciples of Republicanism, I beg leave to ask you kind
remembrance of my friend, Mr. Hatch, who was your chap-
lain during the last session, and will be a candidate for the
same appointment, again.—He was, for many years, our pas-
tor here and I know him to be a most excellent and worthy
man. He gave, I believe, entire satisfaction in the discharge
of his duties, the last session, and I shall be very much grati-
fied to learn that the favour of the Senate has been extended
to him again. :

Mrs. Rives desires me to offer you her congratulations,

 

 

 

 

 
~ 2 apr eey ote a eageey ee ne PS ana pnp nigra iny a -sipaeninpeipnasino a get ones a ec NS aig eC TTR

HISTORICAL PAPERS. 15

and I remain, my dear sir, with sentiments of cordial esteem
and respect yours
very truly
W C Rives
Honl B. Brown,
Senator of U. S.

Martin Van Buren to Brown.

Utica (N. Y.) Sep 7 1836.
My dear Friend,—

Although the accounts are not so explicit as we would
desire, I think I cannot deceive myself in believing, that the
administration has succeeded in your election; and if so,
the re-appointment of one who has been so able, so useful, and
so disinterested a supporter of it must, I am sure, follow of
course. Believe me, my dear Sir, that you would not but
have been gratified to have witnessed the deep interest which
has been taken here in the N. Carolina elections on your ac-
count. It is with great sincerity that I say to you that the
more I have reflected on your course last winter the more I
have found to admire in it. We were, at the moment, so im-
mersed in trouble and anxiety that we could even not do our
friends the justice they deserved. I was however happy to,
find on my return that the people had not been at all neglect-
ful on this point. Yourself, Forsyth, Benton and Wright
have, I assure you, laid up a store of popularity which can
not fail to turn to account hereafter.

I am on my way to the western part of our State where I
propose to spend some weeks. We are to have a severe contest
this fall, but will certainly succeed. The artillery as well as
small arms of the bank, and of the aristocracy of all the
Union are to be turned upon us, but it will, I trust, be all in
vain.

I shall be happy to find a letter from you on my return,

 

 

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76 CORRESPONDENCE OF BEDFORD BROWN.

and wishing to be kindly remembered to your family, I am
Dr Sir Very truly Your friend,
M. Van Buren
To Bedford Brown Esq.

John K. Paulding to Brown.

Washington 11th Nov. 1839
Dear Sir,

I have just finished reading your address to the Students
of the University of North Carolina, which you were so kind
as to send me, and for which I beg you to accept my best
thanks.

It gratifies me to see our distinguished men occasionally
turning aside from Politics, to give lessons of wisdom, virtue
and patriotism to the youth of the country. It is a custom
highly becoming in a free country like ours, for never can
any man apply his faculties to higher purposes, than that of
stimulating the rising generation to the ardent pursuit of
learning, science, and love of their beauty. The higher the
station, the more impressive the lesson, and when the force
of example adds weight to the precepts, as in the present
case, they cannot fail in having a salutary effect on all who
hear them.

You will pardon me, for playing the critic, on one single
page the only one I can select for the purpose. You give
England the credit of having first crossed the Atlantic in
Steam Boats. Such is not however the case. The first Steam
Boat that ever crossed the Atlantic, was built in the United
States and was navigated by citizens of the United States.
I do not this moment recollect her name or that of her Com-
mander but assure you the fact is beyond doubt.

I look forward with pleasure to a renewal of our acquaint-
ance in the course of a few weeks, and am, Dear Sir

With great respect and regard
Your friend
J. K. Paulding.

Honble Bedford Brown.

 

 

 

 

 

 
 

HISTORICAL PAPERS. oe é

J. R. Poinsett to Brown.

Washington
Augt. 28 1840
My dear Sir
Our friends in the North State must not stay beaten: but
rally and fight the battle in the fall with renewed vigor and
a fine determination to conquer. Victory under such cir-
cumstances will be the more honorable. Can we aid you
from hence by furnishing your orators with facts and argue-
ments? It is in the field and not from the closet that the
battle must be fought and won. This appears to be the tac-
tics of the opposition and they must be met in the same way.
With great regard
I am Dear Sir at
yours truly |
J R Poinsett.
aif
Levi Woodbury to Brown. ie
(Private.)

Washington, 11th Sept. 1840.
Dear Sir:

Yours of the 7th inst. has just been received. I am happy
to state in reply, that the President named the case of your
brother to all the Cabinet not long since—and I have no
doubt the first suitable opportunity will be improved to
oblige him and you

We do not despair here of North Carolina or any other
Southern State because we believe your people to be intelli-
gent and capable of self government—and we know, that
being so they cannot hesitate to support Mr. Van Buren
rather than Gen. Harrison. They cannot commit suicide, by
voting for an abolitionist. They cannot abandon all their
long tried principles of democracy by voting for a man in
favor of the highest tariff, of a National Bank and the mild-
est schemes of Internal Improvement.

 

 

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My dear Sir,

78 CORRESPONDENCE OF BEDFORD BROWN.

But in order to prevent such a calamity pains must be
taken to enlighten them, when in error—to reclaim them
when misled. Every man who can speak or write should
take the field and disseminate correct information; or you
may rest assured the vessel of State will be driven by the
adverse gales of action and of Federation on the brakers.

Is there nobody in Graham’s district or Lewis Williams’
to talk or distribute light ?

Excuse my earnestness. For unless the South proves true
to her old principles and true interests, what can they expect
of the northern democracy fighting alone and single handed ?

Truly
Levi Woodbury

P. 8. I shall take the liberty to send you (a note) occa-
sionally. The defection of N. Car. has already done infinite
mischief. Had she elected Saunders the contest in Novem-
ber would have been more spirited.

Buchanan to Brown.

Washington, 30 July 1841.

I was most sincerely rejoiced at the receipt of your letter
of the 13th Instant. Knowing your aversion to write, I con-
sider a letter from you of eight pages as the highest evidence
of your regard: and I can assure you I have no friend with
whom I desire to stand higher than yourself. Your frank
and manly character has secured my warmest regard. When
Old Rip wakes up again to his true interest, you will again
be called into public life.

You doubtless take the Globe and therefore I need not in-
form you of passing events. All the confidential friends of
Tyler say that he will veto the Bank Bill: and of this I
entertain no doubt, should it remain unchanged as I believe
it will in every essential particular. What will be the char-
acter of his veto is the important question. If whilst vetoing

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
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HISTORICAL PAPERS. 79

Clay’s Bill, he endorses the Treasury project, he will sink
almost beneath contempt. Clay and his friends may then
take Tyler at his word and adopt Ewing’s “richetty thing.”
In that event the stock will not be taken and he will stand
disgraced before the world. I believe Tyler desires to set
up for himself; and yet he suffers the work of proscription
still to proceed. Ewing and Granger are filling all the offices
under them, it is said, with Clay’s friends. Should he come
out boldly and give us an Old Hickory veto, I shall stand by
it whilst there is a shot in the locker; but before I enlist, T
desire to see him manifest his faith by his works.

King orders me to command you to rouse yourself, to it
exert all your talents and energies in North Carolina and put "i
down the d—d Whigs. He wants to see you back here
again. The beauties of a fine foot and anchle and a luxuri-
ous form no longer make the same impression upon him as
formerly. He is sinking gracefully into the vale of years;
but his will be a green old age He often speaks of you with
great kindness.

I write in the midst of engagements to express my gratifi- All
cation at having opened an epistolary intercourse with a
friend whom I so much respect and esteem. When the ses-
sion is over I shall give you longer letters than I receive: at
present I know vou will be satisfied with the assurance of i
my warmest friendship and respect.

iat

iit

James Buchanan.

Hon. Bedford Brown.

ase cate ats ere ti

Van Buren to Brown.

Kindwhook Jany 14 1843
My dear Sir
I have received your kind letter in which you state that
you have received one from Genl Romulus M. Saunders,
requesting you to inform’him whether you had in conversa-
tion said as was reported in the Register, that I had told you

 

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80 CORRESPONDENCE OF BEDFORD BROWN.

“that I had long known him (Saunders) and that he thought
no man in N. Carolina capable of filling an office but him-
self.” You add, that in a moment of excitement occasioned
by the manner in which the Senatorial election was con-
ducted, you had to your regret, permitted yourself to use
my name, in conversation, in reference to Mr. Saunders’—
that the precise words employed by you are not recollected,
but that the idea intended to be conveyed was that I had
remarked that I considered Mr. Saunders as urging his
claims to office too much, to the exclusion of others in N.
Carolina and that he seemed to consider none others in N.
Carolina as capable of filling office, or entitled to fill office
but himself—that the communication occurred about the
time when the appointment of Mr. Saunders as Commis-
sioner under the French treaty expired and when his name
was presented to Gen] Jackson for the appointment of Comp-
troller or Minister to Spain.

Although you do not ask a reply, I can well concieve that
it will be agreeable to hear from me on the subject.

After the lapse of so many years, you will not, I am sure,
be surprised to learn that I have no recollection of the con-
versation to which you allude. But whilst this is so, I can
not look upon myself to gainsay a statement made by one,
in whose purity and love of truth I have such unqualified
confidence, as I have in yours, and whe was, for obvious
reasons more likely to bear the subject in mind. That I ever
seriously supposed, that Genl Saunders entertained the ex-
travagant opinion, that in the great and patriotic state of N.
Carolina there was no one capable of filling office but him-
self or designed to attribute such an opinion to him according
to the literal import of the expression in the Register, is not
at all probable. J remember the fact that Genl Saunders was
a candidate for the office of Comptroller upon the expiration
of that of Commissioner under the French treaty, but can
not call to mind the circumstances under which that applica-
tion was made or the particular feelings which.I entertained

gee EE a et

 

 

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HIsTORICAL PAPERS. 81

in respect to it, with sufficient certainty, to enable me to
speak with safety in respect to them, as to my own knowl-
edge. Your statement leaves me no room to doubt that I was
at that time impressed with the opinion and expressed it to
you that he was too desirous for office himself and too indif-
ferent to the claims of the rest of his fellow citizens. Of
the precise terms in which this opinion was expressed I can
not speak (They) may have been stronger (than the) occa-
sion called for, a (result) it is not always in the power (of
those) who are in any way (concerned with) the administra-
tion of (party) to avoid; but I can safely say (say) that in
forming it I was not influenced either by unfriendly feelings
toward Mr. Saunders (or) an indisposition to promote (his)
wishes in regard to office (or anything) that could be done
with what was due to the (party’s) service and without in-
justice (to him)

I am Dr Sir, very truly (your friend) and obedient ser-
vant

M. Van Buren.
Hon. Bedford Brown.

Van Buren to Brown.

Lindenwald
October 21st 1844
My dear Sir

Although (un)certain where to address my letter I cannot
omit, at least attempting to thank you for your interesting
and friendly letter. The sentiments it expresses are pre-
cisely those which a knowledge of your character taught me
to expect from you. I do not believe that you were ever duly
sensible of the estimation in which you have been held by
me, since opportunities were afforded me to become
thoroughly acquainted with you, and as no possible motive
for misconstruction can any longer exist there is no reason
why I should not speak my mind to you without reserve.

2

 

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82 CORRESPONDENCE OF BEDFORD BROWN.

Long before the Panick Session I held you in high respect
but the proceedings of that most extraordinary session and
your noble bearing in it, which was not excelled in any of
the great points of character by that of a single senator,
seemed to satisfy me that I had before fallen far short of
doing justice to your merits. From that period until I left
Washington, I never failed to bring your name before our
friends when they wanted candidates for Vice President
etc. J was thus furnished with opportunities for witnessing
how often modest merit has to give way to blustering pre-
tension. With the exception of Col Benton and Mr Wright
and Mr Blair I scarcely ever found any whose appreciation
of your merit corresponded with my own. Excuse me for
inflicting this much upon one so diffident and unpretending
as I know you to be. I could not omit it with justice to
myself.

I regret your leaving the old North State, for which I
cherish feelings of respect and regard, founded upon ancient
and honorable recollections, because I fear she can illy spare
such men. I have however not the slightest doubt that the
welfare of your family if not your own happiness, will be
essentially promoted by it. In no state in the union will
your merits be more justly appreciated than in that to which
you go. If they continue their past well doing, by sustain-
ing their great representative, they will deserve the thanks

oe ee eee ee ) respect of their political brethren through-
out the Union. That they will do this I cannot permit my-
self to doubt. (Unsigned).

Van Buren to Blair.

Lindenwald
August 16th 52
My dear Blair
Do me the favor to forward this to that best of men Bed-
ford Brown. Where are you and what are you about that I
do not hear from you. That promised visit from Mr(s)

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HISTORICAL PAPERS. 83

Blair and yourself must not be lost sight of. Choose your
own time but come if it should not be until late in the season.
You have I hope congratulated the Col. on his election. I(t)
has refreshed me much and was anticipated with confidence.
Present me kindly to your household and believe me

ever your friend

M. Van Buren.
Van Buren to Brown.

Lindenwald
August 16th 52.
My dear Mr. Brown

You will see by the enclosed what use my son Smith has
made of the speech you had the goodness to send him and for
which I beg you to accept my thanks. Your steady and dis-
interested friendship since we parted adds one more to the
many instances in which I have experienced that those I did
the least for whilst at the head of the Government have
proved the most reliable friends. In your case instead of
using the term least, I should say nothing, although I can
with truth say that there was not among my associates in
public life a single man in whose patriotism capacity and
honor I placed a higher confidence.

Where are you and what are you doing? I have heard of
you in Missouri and now again in Virginia. You are I hope
happy in all things as you certainly deserve to be. Be as-
sured that you are not likely to overrate either the warmth
or the respectful nature of my feelings towards you, feelings
which I have embraced every proper opportunity to express.
You ought to make me a visit. Nothing would afford me
more real pleasure. Do try todo so. Present me very kindly
to your Household and believe me

Your friend
M Van Buren

My friend Mr Blair through whom I forward this will
always be happy to accompany you to Lindenwald.

Bedford Brown Esq.

 

 
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84 CORRESPONDENCE OF BEDFORD BROWN.

Van Buren to Brown.

Lindenwald
Sep 17, 52.

 

My dear Mr. Brown,

I would have acknowledged the receipt of your kind letter
long before this but have had my son Col. Van Buren for a
long time dangerously sick at my house. He is now, thank
God, convalescent and I hope out of danger, but will I greatly
fear never entirely get over the deleterious effects of his Mexi-
can campaign.

I need not (say) my dear Sir, with what satisfaction I reed
the favourable account your letter gives me of your condition
in all essential particulars, and the gratification it affords
me to find the good old principles for which we battled to-
gether so firmly rooted in your heart and mind. This does
not surprise me in the least because I always knew you to be
a root and branch man. Such men may be silenced for a
season by the depravity of the times and the ascendency of
shiftless and unsound men but they never alter.

If we were to form a judgment from appearance we should
be bound to conclude that not only our Great State but almost
all the Northern and Western States will go for Pierce and
King. I do not allow myself to doubt that such will be in the
main the case. But the Whigs, and particularly those of the
north and west are a terrible set of fellows. They cannot,
apparently, get up the slightest enthusiasm, and yet are quite
confident of carrying some two of the three great States.
Too sharp sighted not to see that they can not have a hurrah
election they resort to the solids, and are attempting every
faction by the inducements they think most likely to catch
it, money being always a principal ingredient in their dish.
The abolitionists and anti renters are the two great separate
interests to which their atention is directed. If they could
by any possibility get the former to vote their ticket they
would wihout doubt carry this state. The candidate of that
party at the last Gov’r election has come out in favor of

 

 

 

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HIsToORICAL PAPERS. 85

Genl Scott under various and very (flimsy) pretences. But
I have not the slightest apprehension that they will be able
to do that. Their vote will undoubtedly be divided between
Hale and candidate of the ultra abolitionists. The Liberty
party divided our attention between these two and I think
them safe, that is the masses of them, agt the direct use of
money. One of the Whig judges has just decided that the
Rensselaer title to the manor is good for nothing and that all
the unimproved lands in the patent belong to the State. This
has of course produced considerable sensation but what its
precise effect on the election will be is a question not easy to
solve. My belief is that the anti rent party will at their
convention take the Whig State ticket and our electoral. If
they do it will have a very great effect. The Whig party in
New York is influenced by men who are to a great extent
themselves, and their friends still more so, deeply interested
in the nine million canal contracts which they still hope to
realize, notwithstanding the established unconstitutionality
of the cause and the equally well established rank corruption
of the contracts themselves. Anxious as they are to win the
Presidential election, they are still more so in regard to the
State Ticket and if they must take the one or the other it
will not be the last. So you see how difficult it is to tell with
any degree of certainty what the result will be of an election
into which such powerful and profligate interests will be
introduced. Upon a fair poll between Democrats and Whigs
the former would succeed by a tremendous majority and I
think they will anyhow.

So far as anything I can do may be regarded as a compli-
ment this letter may be so regarded, for with the exception of
an occasional hint to our incorruptible and stirling friend
Mr. Blair it is the first and will probably be the last private
letter I will write during the canvass. It would make me
nervous to (be) cited in the papers for anything I say and I
rely upon your discretion upon that point. My health and
spirits have not been half so good at any former period of

 

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86 CORRESPONDENCE OF BEDFORD BROWN.

my life and all I want to make me happy is a visit from
Blair and yourself.
Present me very kindly to your household and believe me
truly yours
M. Van Buren.
Bedford Brown Esq

Thomas H. Benton to Brown.

July, 6, 1853.
Dear Sir,

I want to write the chapter of the beginning of the slave
agitation, as talked of between us when I last saw you. I
wish you to call and see me the first time you come to Wash-
ington that I may have the benefit of your recollections.

Yours truly,
Thomas H. Benton.

F. P. Blair to Brown.
(Private.)
Silver Spring 30 Oct 55.

Hon Bedford Brown.

Dr Sir

you and I[ have so long agreed in our views of the public

good that I think we will probably be together again in our
efforts for it in the coming crisis. I believe that the feud
growing out of the repeal of the Missouri Compromise is
pregnant with much danger and that moderation and firm-
ness in the next chief Magistrate—somewhat akin to that
which distinguished our old Hero—can alone bring the
union safely through the trial. Compromise between the
extremes North and South is essential to the preservation of
peace.

In my late tour through the northern States I frequently
heard the name of Col Fremont mentioned by sagacious and
devoted friends of the Union as one that might be popular

 

 

 

 

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HISTORICAL PAPERS. 87

with the people for the presidency from the instances of his
principles which in his youth recommended him to the
patronage of Poinsett, then the leader of the Union party in
his native state—from his disinterested services to his coun-
try as a pioneer and explorer doing much for science and the
material interests of the public at his private expense—from
his incurring the most dangerous personal responsibility
under the secret orders of the Govt before he was to wrest
California from the meditated attempt of the British to seize
it which his prompt and bold conquest with a handful of
men was just in time to anticipate—and from his subsequent
military success in completing the annexation which was
accomplished by the surrender of the embodied force of the
enemy to his Battalion. The persecution he afterwards en-
dured from the enmity of Polk’s administration to Col Ben- i"
ton, ending with his dismission from the army is likely to |
give his claims a better requital; and the more readily as he
bore his wrongs with such patience and renewed his efforts ie
for his country in another capacity with such modest un-
pretending willingness. The fact that he is not identified
with any of the isms of the day—that he has not any tail or
clique of partizan followers to provide for,—that he has
never by any violent partizan course, offended either of the
great parties which made the old divisions is another strong
circumstance to recommend him to the present jumble of

sere oyna snp sane rate cern

parties. 4

Now if you are uncommitted I think with one and other
well wishers of the Union that it is worth the experiment to Hi
see how Fremont’s cause would take with the public. I wish
you would write him a letter to ascertain his views in rela- |
tion to politics generally and the present questions of dif-
ficulty especially. If they comported with yours and after
consultation with other leading men of your state you
should deem them worthy of consideration you might submit
them to the public without committal on your part If in
the end it should be found that he was taken up with any

 

 

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88 CORRESPONDENCE OF BEDFORD Brown.

prospect of success and you should lend him your counte-
nance it would avail him much in the South where you are
known as one of the truest and ablest of the old Democratic
union party. Govr Floyd of your state* thinks well of Fre-
mont as a candidate and some leading men of South Caro-
lina propose him. If you write do it at once and address
him here where he will be in a few days. I understand he is
now in New York where he is making preparations to bring
out the Journal of his Explorations and pioneer adventures

Yr friend ever truly
£2. Dla

P.S. Ido not wish you to let Fremont or indeed any one
know that I have written you this letter.

Bedford Brown to James Buchanan.}

Baltimore, Md.
September 21, 1856
My Dear Sir,

I left home a few days since on a visit of business, in the
Northern part of Virginia and having progressed that far, I
determined to extend my visit to Wheatland that I might pay
my respects to you in person and have the pleasure of taking
you by the hand. Perceiving, however, by the papers that
you were absent several days since, the uncertainty of find-
ing you at home induces me to relinquish my anticipated en-
joyment. Believe me, My Dear Sir, when I say, with unaf-
fected sincerity, as time passes onward, I value with added
regard, the noble band of patriots and friends with whom it
was a pride and pleasure to have been associated with in the
National Councils, in days gone by. No one was more grati-
fied at your safe return to America, than myself, and no
friend is more pleased at your having been placed in the posi-

 

*Not of N. C., but of Virginia.—W. K. B.

+The original of this letter is in the possession of the Pennsylvania Historical
Society. For a copy I am indebted to Dr. John W. Jordan, Librarian of the
Society.—W. K. B.

 

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HISTORICAL PAPERS. 89

tion which you now oreupy, in relation to the people of this |
republic. |

A few words now, explanatory of my own course with
respect to the presidential nomination. I returned to N.
Carolina last Autumn after an absence of many years and
purchased my ancestral possessions which I had sold on leav-
ing the State. After, all political relations had ceased for
so long a period between the people of the State and myself,
of course both delicacy and propriety dictated, that I should
make no effort, to direct public sentiment, as to the nomina-
tion. Before, the last annual Message of Genl Pierce and
that subsequently written on Kansas affairs, you, I believe,
would have been decidedly the choice of the democratic party | {
of N. Carolina. This, however, together, with the influence
from Washington occasioned a change in favor of the former.
In this state of things, my name was suggested as one of the
Delegates to be chosen by the General Democratic convention i}
of the State, to attend Cincinnati. i

I consented to be placed in nomination and to represent
the will of the convention, at Cincinnati—which I knew,
would be expressed for Genl. Pierce—with however the ex-
plicit declaration if he was not nominated at Cincinnati that
my vote should then be given to yourself. I did not believe
at any time, that he could be nominated and entertained the
opinion that the ultimate contest would be between yourself
and Mr Douglass. That you were, at least the second choice
then of N. Carolina, I scarcely have a doubt. That prefer-
ence was however rendered unavailing, and my vote in the
meeting of the delegation, preparatory, to casting its vote in
convention, nullified, by their decision to give the entire
vote of the State, to Mr. Douglass. Not only that vote, was,
as I believe, contrary to the wishes of the majority of the
party in N. Carolina, but the vote of our delegation to give
a largely ascendant vote to the Softs of New York—contrary
to my concurrence—was clearly violative of the wishes, of :
the party of the State. When it was manifest that the ulti-

 

 

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90 CORRESPONDENCE OF BEDFORD BROWN.

mate, contest, would be between yourself and Mr. Douglass,
I did not fail to use every honorable effort, to aid your cause
among my numerous friends and acquaintances from other
states, however unavailing among the fixed majority in my
own delegation. I was extremely mortified by the active ad-
ministration exertions at Washington, not only to aid the
nomination of Genl. Pierce but in the event of his failure to
dictate the next choice to the party. Never was there, a
more noble and honorable triumph of the popular will
achieved, than was by your nomination against these com-
bined influences.

Pardon this explanation which I consider due to a long
standing friendship and also to truth. The country is now
passing through the most portentous crisis which it has
encountered since the revolution. I trust, in God, that the
cause now so inseparably connected with its destiny, will
triumph as I sincerely believe it will. My own County will
vote the Democratic Ticket by eleven hundred majority.
The State, I think, by some fifteen or twenty thousand major-
ity. The entire South including Tennessee and Kentucky,
will I scarcely have a doubt vote the same way. The battle-

ground most anxiously looked to now is Pennsylvania and |

the State of Indiana. The first, I will not allow myself to
doubt, the last, Govr Bright with whom I conversed on yes-
terday and who is just from there, gives me very encouraging
accounts from. These two states with the vote of the entire
South would carry the cause. There are four or five other
Northern and Northwestern States that present good pros-
pects.

I was told, on yesterday, by a very influential old line
whig of Maryland, who lives in the Prince George District,
that a Democratic majority of 1600 is anticipated in the
Counties composing it. Heretofore, he informs me, it has
given about 1400 whig majority.

T have never known such intense excitement as there is in
N. Carolina, always before so moderate, as prevails with

 

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HISTORICAL PAPERS. 91

respect to the possible chances for Fremont’s election. Many
are prepared for separation in that event. Those are not,
however, my views believing that acquiescence in an election
constitutionally made, is both Democratic and proper, unless
followed by practical legislative aggression and then the case
is plain, however much to be deprecated.

Supposing you to be literally overwhelmed with the letters
of numerous correspondents, I request you not to trouble
yourself to answer this, however pleasing it would be under
different circumstances to receive a letter from you. If you
have any paper or Document at any time, that would be of
interest, I should be gratified to receive it. My Post Office
is Locust Hill, Caswell County, N. C.

With my best wishes for your health and happiness,

I remain, My Dear Sir,
truly your friend
Bedford Brown
Hon. James Buchanan.

Buchanan to Brown.

Wheatland, near Lancaster, Penna.
30 Sep: 56.
My dear sir

I sincerely regret that I have only time to acknowledge
the receipt of your kind and interesting letter of the 21st
Instant and to say that I cordially reciprocate all the friendly
sentiments which you have expressed towards myself. I
recollect, with peculiar pleasure, our intercourse in ‘the
auld lang syne” and have watched your wanderings from
your native soil with all the interest of warm personal and
political friendship. J am convinced that your own happi-
ness will be promoted by your return to the “Old North
State” in which I shall always feel much interest.

The shrewdest and most experienced Democratic politi-

 

 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

92 CORRESPONDENCE OF BEDFORD BROWN.

cians in this state firmly believe they will carry it in October
against all the “isms” now thoroughly fused and combined ;
but in November they entertain no doubt.
from your friend
very respectfully
James Buchanan.

Hon: Bedford Brown.

 

 

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HISTORICAL PAPERS. 93

THE FOUNDERS OF RICH SQUARE MEETING.*

BY JULIANA PEELE. ~

In the latter part of the seventeenth century there was a
large body of Friends in Southeastern Virginia. These came
mostly from the colonies of Pennsylvania and Jersey, with
some additions from the Mother Country.

The Friends in Northeastern North Carolina were at the
firs inh ; 16 ; Ire Their
natural increase drove them southward to seek new homes. 2
It may be well to note, however, that about the first seeds of
Quakerism in North Carolina were sown by William Ed- :
mundson and George Fox, who came on a religious visit to |
the Albemarle district in the year 1672. These Friends
were the first missionaries who travelled within what is now
North Carolina. Edmundson was the first to come, and he
found but one Quaker in all the province—Henry Phillips,

 

 

who had come hither in 1668. To this man’s house Ed- ‘
mundson immediately went; and there he held the first meet-
ings for Worship ever held in the State. Thus we see that 4
the peaceful Quaker was the first to proclaim the gospel of |

love within our borders. |

Edmundson seems to have found the inhabitants in an |
unsettled condition, with no sort of religious confirmation. j
“They came,” said he, “and sat down in the meetings smok- |
ing their pipes, and the Lord’s power broke forth among us |
and many were convinced.” The growth of Quakerism in
what is now Pasquotank and Perquimans counties was also
rapid, for the records show that from 1681 to 1685 they
were frequently setting up monthly and quarterly meetings,
and a yearly meeting was held among them in 1698. ,

The pioneer members of Rich Square Meeting were but
an extended and extending wing of the Virginia Quakers,

   

 

*This article was first published in the Roanoke Chowan Times. It is here
reprinted with a few changes and notes furnished by Mr. W. A. Bryan as the
introduction to a more comprehensive study of the records of the Friends in
Northampton county.—W. K. B.

 

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94. FouNDERS OF RICH SQUARE MEETING.

together with some additions from the more eastern meetings
of North Carolina. All along in and between the dates of
1730 and 1760, and even later, we find records of deeds to
lands bought by some of these in Bertie, Hertford, and North-
hampton counties (though Northampton was not formed till
1741). Two meetings for worship were regularly held in
private houses prior to the building of old Rich Square
Meeting House—one in Hertford, the other in Northamp-
ton.

However, in 1760 their numbers had so increased that
they builded a house for worship, and requested a monthly
meeting. This was granted by Eastern Quarterly Meeting
of Friends; and the first monthly meeting was held in the
new house the seventh of June, 1760. I believe the records
of this monthly meeting from its establishment nearly one
hundred and forty years ago to the present time have been
preserved intact.*

Upon the roll of members registered soon after the meet-
ing was settled we find the following names: Page, Hall,
Copeland, Gray, Peele, Jacobs, Parker, White, Ross, Pit-
man, Knox, Hollowell, Brown, Griffin, Elliott, Baughm,
Outland and others.+

Space permits that only a few of the prominent characters
be treated. John Copeland came from Perquimans county
and settled near what is now the village Ahoskie. A weekly

 

 

 

 

 

 

*I heard of these records just before the past Christmas holidays and made a
special trip to the home of the writer and looked over the records of this meet-
ing, which date back to 1760. They are in good condition and contain much
material which is of historical interest. Many of them relate to marriages
among the Friends, and to those who have never had the pleasure of seeing a
Quaker marriage they would be highly interesting. This society keeps a com-
plete record of all the marriages among its members, especial care being taken
that none marry outside the fold. I think members have been expelled for dis-
obeying in this respect, but the rules are not so stringent now as in the early
days. Possibly the part of these records which is of greatest historical interest
is that which relates to the Quaker in his relation to slavery. The slaves were
eatly freed and to these people is due in a great degree the early sentiments
against the evil of slavery. The writer takes this question up in another part
of this article.—W. A. B. ;

+Many of the Friends now living in the vicinity of Rich Square bear these
names, showing that they have lived true to the faith of their fathers.—W. A. B.

 

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HISTORICAL PAPERS. 95

meeting for worship was held at his house before Rich
Square meeting house was built. Thomas Knox came from
Isle-of-Wight county, Virginia, and settled near where
Thomas C. Peele now resides.* Knox was one of the first
overseers of the meeting, a man much used upon important
committees, and the one left to complete the meeting-house,
and have it properly registered. This he did and reported it
to the meeting second month, seventh day, 1761. Robert
Peele, Sr., came from Nansemond county, Virginia, about
1742 and settled most probably near the village Woodland.
When his son Robert took the home, a weekly meeting for
worship was also held at his house.

Moses Hall, Sr., was also much used in the early days of |
this meeting. Whence he came, the writer has no certain
knowledge, but it is believed upon good authority that he
settled not far from the home of the late Joseph Hall,+ and
that he owned a large body of land thereabout.

Richard Jordan stands out in bold relief among the early (
Friends of Rich Square. Though he came here from Isle-of-
Wight county, Virginia, eight years after the meeting-house a
was built and may not strictly be considered a founder, yet
his deep earnest christian life was a strong source of ingath-
ering during the last quarter of the eighteenth century. He
was a minister of the gospel with a large gift. We find this
entry in his journal, written in old age: “TI have now visited
many of the smaller meetings, and all the yearly meetings
for discipline in the world, some of them several times; and
have everywhere been treated with courteous consideration.”
Were the historian to search the early records of Rich Square
Monthly Meeting he would soon notice that the name of
John Peele is the one which appears most frequently upon
its pages. He came from Nansemond county, Virginia,
and settled probably about a mile from the old Peele home-

 

“This is the home of the writer, and is slightly over two miles west from Rich
Square.—W. A. B.

fAdjoining the land of T. C. Peele, referred to above.—W. A. B.

 

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96 FOUNDERS OF RIcH .SOUARE MEETING.

stead recently owned by William T. Peele. He, too, like
many others of the early settlers, was a large landholder.
Tradition says his plantation extended all the way from his
residence to the Roanoke River. He married a certain Mary
Nasworthy, only daughter of a wealthy Virginia planter,
and from them descended the Peeles of Northampton county.
He was a man of a fair education, for one of his time, wrote
a good hand, and endeavored to educate his children. One of
his sons became a medical doctor—John Peele, father of the
late Isaac Peele and grandfather of the Peele family of
Jackson, N. C. He, as well as other Friends, owned a large
number of slaves.

Rich Square Monthly Meeting was settled just about the
time when a few of North Carolina Friends were beginning
to feel that slavery was an evil from which the Lord was re-
quiring the Quakers to cleanse their hands. From 1758 to
about 1800 various concerns of the body and plans for the
amelioration or emancipation of their slaves are to be found
on record.

The course at last pursued by North Carolina Friends was
for the owners of the slaves to transfer them to trustees ap-
pointed by the meeting, whose duty it was to look after these
wards, hire them out to suitable parties, receive their wages,
and use the same for their benefit, and to provide means to
transport them either to a free state or to Liberia whenever
way opened for it. Among our old family papers the writer
has found a list of the names and dates of birth of sixty
negroes, born to her great-grandfather, John Peele, and trans-
ferred to two of his sons, Edmund and Thomas, and by
them, in 1809, to the trustees of the meeting. Another list
names fourteen negroes belonging to the same Edmund
Peele, that appear to have come to him by his wife, also
transferred upon the same date to the trustees of the Meeting.
Another list gives names and dates of birth of twenty Quaker
negroes, sent through the trustees to Indiana; another of
twenty-eight who were sent to Liberia in 1827, and still

 

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HISTORICAL PAPERS. 97

another of fifty-eight who doubtless were also sent to Liberia.
Doubtless, similar papers could be found in other Friends’
families. In this connection, it may be well to state that the
aged and infirm negroes generally remained with their
former master.

The Friends possessed true Southern hospitality, enjoyed
social gatherings and big weddings. After one of great-
grandfather John Peele’s daughters was married, in Rich
Square Meeting House, he got upon a stump in the grove,
and invited the entire meeting to go home with him and dine.
Tradition gives several other similar instances.

An old time Quaker marriage would be a novel thing
today. When two members intended marriage with each
other, they both appeared in a monthly meeting, the man
went into the women’s meeting, took the woman by the hand,
and led her into the men’s meeting. There they declared
their intention of marriage with each other, then they went
back into the women’s meeting, and again declared the same i
intention. After this was done the meeting usually ap- |
pointed a committee to ascertain whether they were clear of
other marriage engagements, and to obtain the consent of
the parents or guardians of such as were minors. At the |
next monthly meeting the parties re-appeared, and in the
same manner, expressed their continued intentions, and
asked liberty to marry. If the committee entrusted with
the case reported favorably, and the meeting was satisfied, |
they were left at liberty to marry. Wedding presents were
often given, but by the nearest connections only.

That the founders of Rich Square Meeting were alive in
their faith, is evident not only by their patient endurance of
losses and reproaches, both during the War of the Revolution
and in the work of freeing their slaves, but they were grow-
ing in numbers, for in 1768 they settled a new meeting in
Edgecombe county, and in 1794 a monthly meeting was
established in the upper part of this county, at a place called

 

 

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98 FOUNDERS OF RICH SQUARE MEETING.

Jack Swamp; while the membership in these parts was
scattered or spread over five counties.

By consulting the records one notices a pretty general
decline of the Quakers about the close of the 18th and the
beginning of the 19th centuries. The historian would natur-
ally ask, “What caused this decline?’ If he searches for
the answer to this question he will find that though there
were many minor reasons the one far more effective than any
or all others was slavery.

After the invention and introduction of the cotton gin,
cotton became a staple crop in North Carolina, and the
State at once determined to keep the negro. The Quaker
felt that she could not keep him and so thousands of them
emigrated to the new lands of the free middle West. In
some instances whole meetings went at one time. Jack
Swamp was almost an example of this. In the year 1810
the writer’s mother with her parents went with about forty
others from this immediate neighborhood to Mount Pleasant,

Ohio.

 

 

 
HISTORICAL PAPERS. 99

THREE LETTERS RELATING TO CONDITIONS IN
EASTERN CAROLINA IN 1864.

The originals of the following letters are in the possession
of the ‘Trinity College Historical Society. They illustrate
conditions in Eastern North Carolina during the last year of
the Civil War. General J. R. Stubbs, to whom they were
addressed, was a member of the State Senate and Chairman
of the Military Committee, and was then living in Raleigh.
Because the local history of Halifax and Martin counties
is unwritten, some desirable notes and references are
omitted; but just as they are, the letters may be of service
to him who shall in the future write that history, and if
reading them may lead:some one to investigate the life in
that section during the period of the war, their publication
will be more than justified.

Wituram K. Boyp.

Major Gilliam to Stubbs.

At Home Sunday night.*
My dear Stubbs:

Our people are somewhat exercised over a yankee raid
from below and I write to give you what news I have. Our
last is by Dick who left Shep’s before day this morning. On
Friday and yesterday Capt. Pitt fought them from Gardi-
ners Bridge to Foster’s Mill. Yesterday evening they pressed
him back from the latter place and they camped at Skewanky.
A few officers went to Williamston after night. All of our
soldiers except Pitt?’s Company and one piece and its men
of the alla. Battery had been sent to Weldon. Last night
four companies of infantry reached Spring Green to help
Pitt. The force of the enemy is variously estimated. Pitt
says there are 1200. Mathusbee saw their camp fires last
night and he thinks there is a brigade. They have but six

 

 

*Probably written from Halifax in December, 1864.

 

 

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100 LeErtrers RELATING TO EASTERN CAROLINA.

pieces of artillery. Our pickets this morning were at Newt
Allsbrooks. Nothing more is known. Their gunboats had
not reached Williamston. It is said one was blown up by a
torpedo. I do not think they will come above Williamston.
Whitford, at Tranter’s creek will be in their rear if they do
—and unless Pitt understates them his force is equal to
theirs. Of course they know his position and strength. If
they were strong and intended coming farther they would
not have consumed two days from Gardens Bridge to Wil-
liamston. We have quite a body of troops at Weldon and
they are no longer needed there and I presume others reached
Pitt this morning. Your folks were well on yesterday.
Mathusbee sent Adeline and Winney and their children down
into Shep’s negro quarters and has hid your horse and pro-
vided as well as he could for your hogs. Your Perry place
is probably safe, unless the negroes choose to run off. I
shall_go down in the morning with all who will join in.
Should have done so today but heard the yankees had gone
back from Fosters Mill. His mill was burnt—no other
burning up to this morning—though I fear Jo Biggs has one
cotton gin less. I will add to this what I may hear later in
the morning. I shall see the mail man from Hamilton. I
am of the opinion that they will not go as far as your family.
Shep, with Church, Mathusbee, Sylvester Hapell Ben Jew-
ett are now in camp, in the swamp. Major Magill has vam-
| | osed.

 

Monday Morning 2
Our last news was from Hamilton at 1 O. C. yesterday. The
Yankees were still at Skewanky. Fagan says from their
camp fires which he counted there are not more than 600 in
all of which 80 are cavalry and not more than 2 pieces of
artillery. We have reinforcements of infantry and artillery
—some regulars besides those first reported.

I think they have by this time gone back—they have not
put a picket this side of town. In my opinion you need not

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HISTORICAL PAPERS. meen nen 4

give yourself much concern—there are not enough of them
to scatter through the country and so your Perry place will
in all probability be treated with its past neglect. I trust
so. I will write again by next mail if no earlier opportunity
offers. It is as cold as hell. My wood is low and I am cer-
tainly better off than you. I have eggnog morning and night
—a barrel of good brandy helps as a convenience in house
keeping amazingly. Give my love to our friends. You
know them. I will come up in a few days. There are sev-
eral sales to come off soon when (pork?) is to be sold which
I must attend to buy for my sister. Nothing else keeps me
here. Most truly,
Gilliam.

Major Gilliam to General Stubbs.

Halifax 15 Dec 64
Dear Stubbs—

I tried to write you on yesterday but the mail left me. I
came from Hamilton on Tuesday—about a thousand yankees
went up crossed Curoh’s creek below Butler’s Bridge at an
old mill, flanked our little force at the bridge and ran them
off—remained six or eight hours at Jack Shmads and went
back. The fort had but 14 effective men, but was not at-
tacked. They did no damage there nor in the cont. They
came and went the Spring Green road and I am sure did not
interfere with you. They damaged Hassel I understand—
stole his wife’s clothes and his money. I could have gone
down to your place but Butler’s bridge was burned by them
when they left. I think they robbed Job Ewell for prisoners
taken by us were drunk, they said on his brandy. Jim
Hinton was picked up on a scout. Zillowhy in command
now—a good exchange for us. I'll write again by next mail.

Tl be with you next Wednesday and bring some rip.
Sorry to hear you are sick. Love to Daniel Carrie and all.

Truly
Gilliam.

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102 Letrers RELATING TO EASTERN CAROLINA.

F. W. Moore to Stubbs.

Tarboro Dec 20 64
Genl J R Stubbs
Dear Sir
Yours of the 17th is to hand and thought I would
write you a line or so if in time. I have written H. D. R.
today to send Weathersbee word to send for you. The Yan-
kees are in Winston and are on the road in force so I think it
doubtful about H. D. R. Sending word or Mr. Weathersbee
sending. 8 Gun Boats and 1500 land troops are at William-
ston and advancing. Genl Seventhrope will start them back
in short as he is after them. I must communicate bad news
to you though I regret to do so. The enemy took every
thing you had at the Perry place negroes Horses Mules Hogs
and burnt all the Houses barns ete as I understand from
G. M. Burros. Genl I live about Two Miles from Town
When you reach Tarboro come and stay with me until your
conveyance comes after you.
I am very Resply yours
F. W. Moore

PS I want you to be certain to come.

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