Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 24.djvu/13

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and William M. Rodman, were alumni. This list of the public offi- cials will show conclusively that the large majority of the more important positions in the St. He were filled by the alumni of tin- University. They were the men who controlled the destinies of tin- State in 1X61.

IV. UNION SENTIMENT IN NORTH CAROLINA IN 1x61.

North Carolina was the last to enter the Confederacy, and her slowness was due, beyond question, to the paramount influence ex- ercised by the conservative views of the alumni of the University. Willie P. Mangum, who had been the personal friend of the aboli- tion Senator, William H. Seward, when the latter first entered the United States Senate, had said in the Senate long before, when the nullification of South Carolina was the topic of the day: " If I could coin my heart into gold, and it were lawful in the sight of Heaven, I would pray God to give me firmness to do it, to save the Union from the fearful, the dreadful shock which I verily believe impends." His feelings were not changed by time, and in 1860 he said to his nephew who had been taught in the school of Calhoun and Yancey, and now talked loudly of secession, that if he were an emperor the nephew should be hanged for treason. The Union sentiments of Governor i iraham, Governor Morehead, of Governor Vance, and General Harringer, were just as pronounced as were those of Judge Mangum. All of the old line Whigs opposed the war, while some of the Demo- crats, like Bedford Brown, denied the right to secede.

V. ACTION OF NORTH CAROLINA ASSEMBLY, i86o-'6i.

With such sentiments as these from her leading men it is hardly a matter of surprise that North Carolina moved slowly in the consider- ation of this great question. On the other hand, Judge S. J. Per- son, the leader of the secession forces in North Carolina, was also a University man, and on December zoth, 1860, as Chairman of the Committee on Federal Relations, made a report to the General As- sembly, in which it was recommended that a convention be elected on February yth, 1861, to meet on the i8th, to consider the grave situation. A minority report was signed by three members of the committee, Giles Mebane, Col. David Outlaw, and Nathan Newby, all University men, in which they opposed the calling of a conven- tion, on the ground that it was " premature and unnecessary." The conservatives carried their point and no convention was called.