Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 24.djvu/11

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Sin-h was the strugide through which the l>e>t men of North Caro- lina were failed to pass in those' lateful years between iX6oand 1875. These were the years on which the fate of the future in a lar^e measure depended. Well did the brave men of that generation come to the succor of the foundering ship of State, and nobly did they rescue her from the rule of her motley crew. The best men of North Carolina were engaged in this work, and among them, most frequently as leaders, were many alumni of the University of North Carolina.

II. UNIVERSITY MEN IN PUBLIC LIFE.

Before beginning to trace the career of the alumni of the Univer- sity of North Carolina in the Civil War, it will be of interest for us to review briefly the influence of that institution on the nation as a whole. Before 1861 the University of North Carolina had furnished one President of the United States, James K. Polk; one Vice Presi- dent, William R. King; two Presidents of the United States Senate, Willie P. Mangum and William R. King; seven Cabinet officers, John H. Eaton, (War), John Branch (Navy), John Y. Mason (Navy and Attorney General), William A. Graham (Navy), James C. Dob- bin (Navy), Jacob Thompson (Interior), and Aaron V. Brown (P. M. G. ) She had had two foreign ministers of the first rank, Wil- liam R. King and John Y. Mason; (both to France), and three of the second rank, Daniel M. Barringer, John H. Eaton and Romulus M. Saunders, (all to Spain). She had furnished three Governors to Flor- ida, John Branch, (Ter.), John H. Eaton, (Ter. ), and W. D. Mose- ley; two to Tennessee, A. O. P. Nicholson and James K. Polk; and one to New Mexico, Abram Rencher. Of United States Senators, she had had Branch, Brown, Graham, Haywood and Mangum of North Carolina; A. O. P. Nicholson of Tennessee; Thomas H. Ben- ton of Missouri, and William R. King of Alabama. Benton served for thirty years in succession; King served twenty-nine years in all, and these two records are still among the first in point of service. The University had furnished forty-one members of the House of Representatives, and included in the number James K. Polk as speaker. She had given two justices to the Supreme Court of North Carolina; two Chancellors to Tennessee; a Chief Justice to Florida; a Chief Justice to Alabama, and five bishops to the Protestant Epis- copal church (Davis, Green, C. S. Hawks, Otey, Polk); besides a number of college presidents, professors in colleges and leaders in other walks of life.