Ivan W. Nicholson. EDUARD JONES HALE AID THE FAYETTEVILLE OBSERVER.
1860-1865. (Under the direction of Dr. Charles L. Price) Department
of History, East Carolina University, Fay 1971.
The purpose of this study is to examine a five year period in
the career of newspaper editor Eduard -Tones Hale and the influence that
he exerted through his newspaper, the Fayetteville Observer, and through
his personality upon the events of that period. The selected period
encompasses the tine from January of 1360 to March of 1865. During
those years, Hale and his Observer reached the apex of their influence
within North Carolina. The defeat of the South abruptly ended Hale’s
influence and his career as editor of the Observer.
Hale began his career as a newspaper editor with the Observer
at the age of twenty-three in 1825 when he bought the paper. By i860
the Fayetteville Observer was forty-four years old, and Kale had served
as its editor for thirty-five years. For the early part of those years,
Hale supported Andrew Jackson and the Democratic party, However, with
the establishment of the Whig party in Forth Carolina during the 1330’s,
Hale transferred his political allegiance. Thus, he campaigned for Whig
policies throughout the years in which the party was a viable opposition
. to the Democratic party, and he continued to support the Whig party even
when it entered its period of decline and finally its demise as a
national party during the 1o50's.
As a loyal member of the Whig party, Hale decried secession
and believed deeply in the United States government and the Constitution,
that is, until the firing on Fort Sumter. with the commencement of the
Civil War, Hale did an about face in Ills attitude toward secession and
became one of the strongest advocators of the Confederacy until the last
days of the war.
During the war years, Hale’s success as an important editor
received assistance from several factors. First, the people elected
Zebulcn B. Vance, a former Whig, as governor in 1862 and again in 1364.
Vance acknowledged that he owed his victories in part to Hale and that
he considered Hale as one of his closest advisers. Also, other former
Whigs sat on the North Carolina Supreme Court and occupied other
positions of power within the state. Therefore, in the highest offices
of the state, men of the Whig political persuasion looked to the Observer
as the paper which reflected their views and to Hale as their spokesman.
Second, when William W. Holden brought his Raleigh North Carolina
Standard to the peace movement in 1863-1364, the Democratic party chose
not to run a candidate in 1864 against Vance. The Democratic papers
nominally supported Vance against Holden, and in effect they fell into
step politically with Hale.
When the war began to go badly for the South in the latter part
of 1864, Hale refused to recant from the position that the South must
fight until it achieved independence. In Narch of 1865 when Sherman
marched north from South Carolina, Hale still refused to soften his
stand against the Federal government. His attitude resulted in the
destruction of the Observer and in disillusionment of Hale with the
people of North Carolina.
Hale left North Carolina in 1366 and spent the remainder of
his life in New York City as the owner of a publishing company. It seems
odd that such an enthusiastic Confederate supporter would move to the
North after the war, but Hale had friends there and he felt that New
York offered the best opportunity for him and his family. Hale never
published a newspaper again, and only after his death did the Fayetteville
Observer resume publication under the management of his son Edward.
While Hale edited the Observer from 1825 to 1365, he made it
one of the leading newspapers in North Carolina and carved for himself a
niche in North Carolina history as one of the state’s most dedicated,
successful, and indomitable newspaper editors, The Civil War was a
national tragedy for the United States and a personal tragedy for Hale.
After giving all that he had to a losing cause, be left both the South
?and his profession for the rest of his life. However, a study of the
last five years that Hale spent in the South as an editor presents an
opportunity to reassess the influential role of a leader of the Civil
War era whose true significance has never been fully appreciated.
EDWARD JONES KALE
AED THE
FAYETTEVILLE OBSERVER. 1360-1365
A Thesis
Presented to
the Faculty of the Department of History
East Carolina University
In Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements for the Degree
Master of Arts in History
by
Ivan V. Nicholson
May, 1971
EDUARD JONES HALE
AID THE
FAYETTEVILLE OBSERVER. 1860-1865
by
Ivan W. Nicholson
APHIOVED BY:
SUPERVISOR OF THESIS L
CHAIRMAN OF THE DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY
dean of the graduate school
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT FAC-E
Special recognition is offered to Dr. Charles L. Price of
the East Carolina University History Department for his invaluable assist-
ance in the preparation of this thesis, His untiring interest in the
welfare of his students made the initiation of this thesis possible,
while his patient guidance and constructive criticism made possible its
completion.
TABLE CF CONTENTS
CHAPTER PACE
I. CAREER WHIG JOURNALIST 1
II. DEFENDER OF THE UNION 19
in. defender of the confederacy 37
IV. POLITICAL ADVISER TO GOVERNOR VANCE 61
V. ARDENT REVOLUTIONIST 101
BIBLIOGRAPHY.. 112
CHAPTER I
A CAREER WHIG JOURNALIST
The first quarter of the nineteenth century saw the estab-
lishment of several newspapers in North Carolina that survived from the
"Era of Good Feeling” to the holocaust of the Civil War. Among those
newspapers were the Fayetteville Observer. established in 1316; the Hills-
borough Recorder, established in 1320; and the Tarboro Southerner, estab—
lished in 1324* By i860 the Fayetteville Observer was second only to the
Raleigh Register, established in 1799, in longevity of journalistic ser-
vice to North Carolina, and by 1364 it was second to none.
From 1825 until 1365 Edward Jones Hale edited the Fayetteville
Observer. For the first thirty-five years of that period, he gradually
built the Observer into an influential political newspaper of the Whig
party. Through the Observer. Hale’s journalistic policy emphasized fervid
and polemic editorials, Those editorials combined with a variety of news
reports and a number of advertisements helped the Observer to have a sub-
stantial list; of subscribers in Fayetteville and throughout the state,
particularly in the East and in the Piedmont. Although Hale made himself
an important editor in North Carolina before i860, he did not reach his
zenith of importance until after the decade of the 1860's began.
During i860 and for the first three years of the Civil War,
Hale wielded an Increasing amount of journalistic power that only one
other newspaper editor approached, William Woods Holden of the North
Carolina Standard? After February of 1864, when Holden suspended publi-
cation of the Standard. until March of 1365, when General William T.
Sherman destroyed the Observer, no one editor rivaled the influence with
2
the people, the governor, and other state politicians as Edv/ard Jones
Hale. The war years were his last years as a newspaper editor, but they
represent a culmination in the career of Hale and the Observer.
Like Dennis Heartt of the Hillsborough Recorder and Joseph
Gales of the Raleigh Register, as well as the more prominent Thomas
Ritchie of the Richmond Enquirer and Horace Greely of the New York Trib¬
une. Hale represents a period in United States history, "when newspapers
had souls and demanded respect and were read for their opinion, quoted
and treated with deference, and were treasured and stored +o be read and
re-read." 1 During that period of history the editor and his newspaper
were synonymous terms. If the great age of the editor and the editorial
dates from about 1330 to about 1S90,~ then Hale's career as editor of the
Observer encompasses nearly two-thirds of that age, and perhaps had it
not been for his extremism in defense of the Confederate cause and sub¬
sequent destruction of his press by Sherman's army, his career with the
Observer might have encompassed all but a few years at the end of the
entire "great age". However, any attempt to understand Hale's career
must begin with an analysis of his early life.
Eduard Jones Hale was born in Randolph County, North Carolina,
on October 21, 1802. Joseph Hale and his wife Dorothy had a plantation
1Robert N. Elliott, The Raleigh Register, 1799-1S63. The James
Sprunt Studies in History and Political Science, XXXVi (1955), 124, here-
Inaft'er cited as Elliott, The Raleigh Register.
^Lucy M. Salmon, The Newseeoer and the Historian (1923), p. 251 .
^This date was used in a memorial paper by Judge MacRae that
was incorporated in an address of Colonel Broadfoot on April 15, 1917,
and used in William Holden's address to the Press Association of North
Carolina in 1831. However, the obituary in the New York Times of Jan-
uary 3, 1833, reported October 26, 1802, and Samuel Ashe's Biographical
History of North Carolina states that Hale was torn in Chatham County,
North Carolina,on September 9, 1802.
3
and a mill in Chatham County until 1801 when they moved to Randolph
County. The first five children of their marriage were born in Chatham
County, but the next five, including Edward, were born in Randolph. In
1807 Joseph Hale died only to be followed late the next year by his wife.
Thus, at the age of six, Edward Hale was an orphan.^- However, before her
death, Dorothy Hale wrote in her will that each of her children would have
a guardian, and for Edward she said, "It is ray desire that my friend Edward
Jones shall have the raising of my son Edward. n 5
In 1809 Edward Hale went to live with the man for whom he was
^
named. There at Rock Rest in Chatham County, young Hsle received some
schooling before he was placed in 1812 with Joseph Gales of the Raleigh
7
Register as an apprentice. For the next twelve years Hale learned the
printer's trade under the careful supervision of Gales. In 1824 He went
to the Rational Intelligencer in Washington, T). C. In 1825 John Secies
£
and John McRae invited Hale to Fayetteville to publish a newspaper.
He became editor and pert owner of the Carolina Observer in January, 1825*
^Edward J. Hsle v. Thoms loring. Cumberland County Miscellaneous
Papers, 1754-1367, State Department of Archives and History, Raleigh,
hereinafter cited as Hele v. loring.
^Randolph County Record of Wills, 1809, State Department of
Archives and History, Raleigh.
^Colonel Edward Jones served as State Solicitor General of North
Carolina in 1814, and on the Board of Trustees at the University of North
Carolina from 1304 to 1841 .
^William Woods Holden, "On the History of Journalism in North
Carolina" (Rough draft of an address delivered before the Press Association
of North Carolina, Winston, North Carolina, 1S31), William Woods Holden
Papers, Manuscript Department, Duke University Library, Durham, North
Carolina, p. 34.
%olden, "On the History of Journalism in North Carolina," p. 34.
4
? 9
and by the next year, he owned the paper.'
The Caroline Observer had its beginning in 1816. Francis Waldo
founded the paper in that year, but the next year Alexander H. Dismukes
owned and edited it. By 1823 Dismukes expended the name of the paper to
Carolina Observer and Fayetteville Gazette. Also in the spring of that year,
John McRae obtained control of the paper. However, Lemuel Bingham bought
the paper in October of 1823 and changed the name back to Carolina Observer.
He edited the paper until September of 1824 when Edwin Brewer became owner.
Brewer’s association with the paper lasted until January 1825.
Fayetteville offered advantages to a young man, such as Hale,
who wanted to become involved in publishing a newspaper. The most import-
ant advantage was its location. Fayetteville served as the market town
for the country xrest of Raleigh, By 1318 steamboats plied the Cape Fear
River between Wilmington and Fayetteville bringing news from the port city
with them. Charleston, South Carolina, provided a further source of
foreign news. With those two suppliers of news, a Fayetteville newspaper
received important information in advance of other state papers. In ad-
dition to the links with Wilmington and Charleston, Fayetteville formed a
hub from which roads spread in all directions. later some of these roads
10
were plank roads. Thus, in 1825 Hale found an opportunity to put his
newspaper experience to good service in a growing community that needed a
reliable news source, and that provided the essential foreign and national
^Guion G. Johnson, Ante-Bellum North Carolina. A Social History
(1937), p. 763, hereinafter cited as Johnson, Ante-Bellum Worth Carolina.
1*“beorge W. Paschall, A History of Printing in Worth C-rolina
(1946), p. 35. For general background material pertaining to LTerth Car-
olina I have relied upon Hugh T?Image Lefler and Albert Ray Newsome,
North Carolina. The History of a Southern State. Revised edition (1963).
5
news which constituted the heart of ante-bellum newspapers.
Hale began his endeavor to mold a forceful and exemplary
editorial personality on January 13, 1325. On that day he published an
editorial stating two aims. First, he stated that he would not engage
in "violent party contests"* Considering the vituperative language
used by Hale in later political campaigns, and the lawsuits and the
challenges to duels stemming from politics, he did not adhere to his good
intention of 1825. Second, Hale stated that he hoped to make the paper
"useful and profitable. „12 In that regard, Hale succeeded for forty years.
In particular, Hale made the Observer a financial success. Curing this
early period he was "often referred to as the only printer in North Car-
olina who made money from his shop t.13• • • • Many of his editorials reflected
his desire to operate at a profit by imploring his subscribers to pay their
due3 or he would have to sell the paper. Later in his career Hale pioneered
the idea of subscribers paying the subscription rate in advance. However,
on occasions Hale retreated from his policy of financial tenacity to
extend a generous hand. In February of 1842 he reduced the subscription
rate of a subscriber from 03*50 to 03.00 a year because of the character
and circumstances of the man. In giving his reasons for his action, Hale
said, "I do not mean this as an example of what I will do with other
people, but purely because I am not willing to be hard on a poor and in-
dustrious and honest man.nU
11Fayetteville Observer. January 13, 1325.
^Fayetteville Observer. January 13, 1325.
13Johnson, Ante--BeHum Herts Carolina, p. SC6.
1^Edward Hale co Duncan Me Lour in, February 4, 1342, Duncan
McLaurin Papers, Manuscript Department, Duke University Library, Durham,
North Carolina.
6
In 1828 Andrew Jackson counted Kale among his avid supporters.
Hale called for Jackson not just to be elected President but to be elected
15
by an overwhelming majority. However, by the election of 1832, Hale
disagreed with Jackson's policies. One disagreement stemmed from Hale's
support of distribution of proceeds from sale of public land. Jackson did
not support the idea, and in March of 1833 he vetoed a resolution to
16
appoint a committee of inquiry. A second disagreement stemmed from
Jackson's dislike of the national bank. Hale defended the bank on the basis
that it offered more advantages than local banks, and that a recharter of
the bank in the best interest of the United 17was States. Hale believed in
federal aid to the states and. championed a national bank. Thus, Hale re-
luctantly supported Andrew Jackson and Phillip Barbour on the Republican
ticket in the fell of 1832 since he felt that he could not honestly favor
Jackson and Van Buren on the Democratic ticket, and he was not yet a Henry
18
Clay supporter.
By 1833 Jackson alienated Hale even further by the bank veto and
by the removal of deposits to pet banks, even though Hale enthusiastically
supported Jackson's nullification stand. Meanwhile, Hale admired Clay for
his tariff of 1833. With the formation of the Whig party in 1834, Hale
emerged as a leading critic of Jacksonian Democracy. Under the leadership
of George Badger, Edward Dudley, Willie Mangura, William A. Graham, and Hale,
^Fayetteville Observer. November 6, 1828.
^Herbert D. Pegg, "The Whig Party in North Carolina, 1834-1861"
(unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of North Carolina, 1932),
pp. 21-22, hereinafter cited as Pegg, "The Whig Party".
17
Fayetteville Observer. July 24, 1832.
"^Fayetteville Observer. October 2, 1832.
7
the Whigs made a good showing in the state elections of 1834* On May
18, 1835, the Whig party in North Carolina was organized on a state wide
19
basis.
Hale proved himself to be a good Whig, although at tines too
eager to besmirch the Democrats. In 1836 he declared through the Observer
(Fayetteville Observer as of January of 1333) that Colonel Richard M.
Johnson, Van Suren's running mate, had reared a family of mulatto chil-
20
dren. He vigorously campaigned against Van Buren and Johnson until the
election. Earlier in 1837 the Raleigh Register said that the Observer
Mis exceeded by none in the State in point of usefulness and respectabil-
ity. t.21 Also, Hale was elected to the vestry of St. John’s Episcopal
22
Church in Fayetteville. It is impossible to gauge the effect that those
two events and the election attack on Johnson had on Hale, but the purpose
of a convention that Hale proposed in 1337 was to form a code of ethics
for editors in order to curtail their use of personality assassination and
of unbecoming language. Only thirteen of the twenty-five papers in the
state sent representatives. A call from the Observer for a second meet-
23
ing. in 1833 had no response so the idea languished and died. The lack
of a witten code gave Hale the opportunity to act in clear conscience during
the next two and a half decades, during which time he aimed editorial
barbs at Democrats and other foes, often in ungentlemanly terms.
**9pegg, "The Whig Party", p. 33.
^Fayetteville Observer. July 23, 1336.
2lHaleigh Register, January 17, 1337.
^Raleigh Hews a no Observer. January 6, 1833.
^Johnson, Ante-Bellum Worth Carolina. p. 793 •
8
With the Whigs in control of the state and of the leading
newspapers, Hale had no particular journalistic enemy until William
Holden switched allegiance to the Democratic party in 1843 in return for
the opportunity to edit the North Carolina Standard. a Democratic news-
paper in Raleigh, Before the year was over, Holden accizsed Hale of
borrowing $10,000 from the Literary Board of North Carolina. Hale coun-
tered that he had only signed a bond of the person who had made the loan.
But his primary defense was that Holden had acted distastefully by print-
ing Hale's private financial affairs for all to read in a newspaper.
Accordingly, no one ever accused Holden of the tactic of invasion of pri-
24
vacy again. However, the editorial exchange between Holden and Hale in
1843 signaled the first of many exchanges between them via their respective
papers. In April of 1845, Hale lashed Holden with one of his most vicious
editorials. He said that "no man of any party here ^Fayetteville7
regards or respects him. Those he acts with constantly fear him—they
know not how soon in the very thickest of the fight he may turn his wea-
ponsj while uncharitable Whigs actually loathe him, as being diseased
with a vile moral leprosy „25• • • • Despite the severity of Hale's attack,
he displayed remarkable insight to Holden's vacillation of loyalty that
broke a war-forged alliance between them in 1863.
With the establishment of the Wilmington Journal in 1844 as a
Democratic paper, Hale had two targets of attack. He took upon himself
the task to keep the Journal and the Standard informed of their political
2+Edgar Estes Folk, "U. W. Holden and the North Carolina Stand-
srd, 1343-1348: A Study in Political Journalism," North Carolina
Historical Review. XIX (January, 1942), 32.
^Fayetteville Observer, Anril 23, 1845.
9
ineptitude. But Hale did not limit his forays into the polemical
arena just to two newspapers or to two editors. Kale did not hesitate
to cross pens with anyone. However, when it appeared that a quarrel
would turn into a personal feud, Hale stopped the argument with the
charge of conduct unbecoming a gentleman and moved to drop the offending
26
newspaper from the exchange list, If that move was not enough to end
the controversy, Hale would bring a lawsuit, as he did in 1849 against
Thomas Loring of the Wilmington Commercial. Loring remarked that Hale did
not have a father, and in the ensuing testimony before a judge in Ran-
27
dolph County in November of 1850, witnesses testified to the contrary.
Thus, Hale won the lawsuit, and Loring printed a public apology.
Throughout the 1840's Hale exemplified the Whig political phil-
osophy. As he had earlier advocated distribution, uniform currency, and
a national bank, he continued to advocate economic and financial regula-
tion by a central government. Hale's support of those policies were led in
part by his desire to protect his growing investment in the Observer and
his growing diversification of investment, notably as an incorporator
pg
of the Rock Fish Manufacturing Company, With regard to national
political issues, Hale opposed the annexation of Texas. Early in 1845
he considered the joint resolution for annexation a violation of the
Constitution.29 Even after the annexation was ratified, Hale criticized
the action and contended that the only reason Southerners supported the
26Johnson, Ante-Bellum North Carolina, p. 789.
^Hale v. Loring.
^Richard L. Zuber, .Jonathan '.forth. A Biography of a Southern
Unionist (1965), p. 34.
^^Fayetteville Cbsorvcr. March 5, 1845.
10
30
annexation was to prepare for a Southern Confederacy. The nexb year
31
he condemned the Mexican War as unnecessary and unconstitutional.
On the home political front, the control of state politics by the Whigs
had been steadily reduced by 1848. In that year the Democratic challen-
ger for governor, David Reid, made a serious attempt to wrestle control
of the state house away from the Whigs. Hale, as a member of the Central
Whig Committee^ and as editor of a leading Whig paper, attempted to
divert Reid’s main thrust of making free suffrage an issue. Hale con-
tended that Reid, as a member of the General Assembly, had not favored
33
free suffrage. ^ Although they were able to win the election in 1848,
the Whigs were divided. The divisive issue was secession. Six Whig
papers supported Congressman Thomas Clingman, who believed secession
was a tool of resistance to Northern dominance, while the other Whig
papers including the Observer supported George Eadger. Badger believed
that a state could not secede from the Union because a state had no con-
stitutional right to do 34so. The split in the party over the secession
issue hglped to reduce the power of the Whig party both in the state and
in the nation during the 1850’s. It also helped drive Clingman into the
Democratic party in 1850.
With the success of the Democratic party in the state and in
the nation in 1850, the Raleigh Register began a decline along with the
^^Fayetteville Observer. September 17, 1845.
31Fayetteville Observer. May 26, 1846.
32a Circular Letter of the Central Whig Committee of North Car-
olina, November, 1848, Henry Thomas Shanks (ed.), The Facers of Willie
Person Mangum (1950-1956), 7, 119-121 .
33Clarence Norton, The Democratic Party in Ante-Bellum North
Carolina . 1825-1S61 (1930), p. 223, hereinafter cited as Norton, The
Democratic Party.
^Raleigh North Carolina Standard. November 21, 1838, herein-
after cited as North Carolina Standard.
11
Whig party. Although the paper continued to endorse Whig policies,
35
"leadership was gradually taken over by the Fayetteville Observer.11
As the emerging leader of Whig newspapers, Hale resolutely attacked the
Hashville Convention. He charged that the convention was a plot of John
G. Calhoun "to demand impracticable and impossible consessions, and with
a purpose and declaration, if not granted, the South would secede. „36
When the Compromise of 1850 was passed, Hale along with most of his
fellow party members accepted it completely, The Whigs hoped the com-
37
promise measures would settle slavery and sectional issues, Secession
continued to be an issue, however, in the Worth Carolina congressional
campaign of 1851. The Democratic newspapers contended a state had the
right to secede although they were divided over the time of implementa-
taon. Both the Standard and the Wilmington Journal upheld the right of
secession, but the Journal opposed secession as an immediate goal. Even
the Whig papers were divided. The Wilmington Commercial and the Milton
Chronicle favored secession, but the majority of the Whig papers, led by
38
the Observer and the Register, opposed the doctrine. Hale said the
39
doctrine must be completely destroyed. To Hale, the Federal govern-
40
rent could only be destroyed by revolution. He went so far as to
declare that when a state seceded, the other states had the constitution-
^Elliott, The Rplei~h Register, p. 97.
36‘r,a;yetteville Observer. March 20, 1850.
^'Horton, The Democratic Forty, p. 114.
^Joseph Carlyle Sitterson, The Secession Movement in North
Carolina, The James 3"runt Studies in History and political Science.
XXIII, no. 2 (1939), 95, hereinafter cited as Sitterson, The Secession
Movement.
^^Fayetteville Observer. May 20, 1851 .
^^Fayetteville Ohserver. July 22, 1851.
12
41
el power to coerce it back' into the Union.
Amid such political turmoil, 1351 marked a milestone for the
Observer. On July 3 Hale began a semiweekly edition of the paper. The
Raleigh Register had been a semiweekly for years and even the Wilmington
Commercial had been a triweekly since 1846. By the time the Observer
appeared as a semiweekly, both the Register and Journal were attempting
42
to circulate a daily paper. Hale never attempted to publish the
Observer es a daily paper, but he continued to publish it as a weekly
and as a semiweekly until 1865.
The election of 1852 marked the end of the Whig party as a
moving force on the American political scene. In North Carolina as well
as in the entire South, most Whigs opposed the nomination of Winfield
Scott for President. The Northern Whigs decided to nominate him in spite
of the fact that the Southern faction of the party favored Millard Fill-
more. Edward Stanly of North Carolina pictured Scott as a supporter of
the Compromise of 1850 and, therefore, could not see why Southern Whigs
would be suspicious of Scott merely because he was supported by the
43
Northern, anti-slavery wing of the party. Scott's nomination also
found favor with Senator Willie Mangum. He ma.de a speech in the Senate
in favor of Scott. Scott was not popular with many North Carolina Whigs,
and the state convention had endorsed Fillmore instead of Scott. When
Hale learned of Mangum's speech in support of Scott, he wrote William A.
Graham that he felt that Mangum was drunk when he began the speech and
41
Fayetteville Observer. July 29, 1851.
^Elliott, The Rnleiyh Register, p. 124«
42
Sittersen, The Secession Movement, p. 95.
13
was very drunk by the time that he finished it, even though Graham was
44
Scott’s Vice-Presidential candidate. Hale’s remarks about Mangum give
some indication of Hale’s irascible nature. However, fellow Whig Paul
Cameron said more accurately of Hale, ’’You sometimes hit a little hard
those who do not always think with you.
While the Whig party disintegrated after the defeat of Scott,
the Know-Nothing party materialized. First organized, in New York in
March of 1852, it appeared in North Carolina after the gubernatorial
election of 1354. Organized by September in North Carolina, it attracted
many Whigs, and within six months the Whig party no longer functioned in
the sta te.46 Despite its anti-foreigner and anti-Catholic platforms,
which did not have much application in the South, many Whig editors
joined or supported the Know-Nothing party.
Although Hale never joined the party, he did support its
47
cause. When Weston Gales of the Register joined the party, Hale de-
dined an offer from several leading Whigs in the state to move the Ob-
48
server to Raleigh, Even though he did not join the party, Hale could
not disregard the only party that opposed his traditional enemies, the
Democrats. With Whig support, the Know-Nothing party elected three Con-
gressmen in 1855. In 1856 the eyes of the party were on the governor’s
mansion. At the state convention in Greensboro in April of 1856, John
^Edward Hale to William A. Graham, April 21, 1352, Joseph
Gregoire de P.oulhac Hamilton (ed.), The Faper s of William Alexander
Graham, (1957-196l), IV, 292.
Paul Cameron to Edward Hale, May 21, 1857, Edward Jones
Eale Papers, State Department of Archives and History, Raleigh, herein-
after cited as Hale Papers.
^Fegg, ’’The Whig Party,” p. 233.
47Psgg, "The Whig Party,” p. 293.
^Fayetteville Cbserver. March 5, 1355.
14
A. Gilmer of Guilford County, a former Whig, accepted the nomination
49
for governor. In the ensuing August election for governor, the
Observer did not support Gilmer. Neither did the Observer support
Fillmore for President on the Know-Nothing party's national ticket.
Hale may have favored the party, but he would not let his views appear
in the Observer.
As the election of 1352 marked the end of the Whig party in
national politics, so the election of 1856 marked the end of the Know-
Nothing party. The national council adjourned sine die on June 3} never
50
to meet again. That fall, John Gilmer went to Washington,. D. C., as
the only member of the Know-Nothing party in Congress from North Carolina
as well as from Virginia, Alabama, and South Carolina. From all of the
states, the House of Representatives only had fourteen men that were of
51
the party. With the demise of the Know-Nothing party and all of its
'Whig newspaper supporters, the Observer emerged as the leading if not
the only safe and representative paper of the old Whig party in North
52
Carolina, and it received the endorsement of old Whigs to that effect.
But with no Whig or Know-Nothing party to oppose the Democrats, old
Whigs had to form or join some group to express their political ideology.
For the gubernatorial election of 1353, they joined former Whigs, Know-
Nothings, and any one else that they could gather away from the Demo-
crats in a conglomeration called the Opposition party. However,
^Norton, The Democratic Party, p. 223.
5^Thonas H. Leath, "The Know-Nothing Party in North Carolina,"
(unpublished master's thesis, University of North Carolina, 1929)} p. 47,
hereinafter cited as Leath, "The Know-Nothing Farty."
^Leath, ,The Know-Nothing Party," pp. 43-49.
^F. B. Satterthwaite to Hale, September 21, 1357, Hale Fapers.
15
Democrat John Ellis defeated their candidate Duncan McRae by 16,247
53
votes. Beaten on the Know-Nothing party ticket and the Opposition
ticket, the Whigs directed their wills to the formation of a new Whig
party. The Whig party reorganized in the winter of 1859, and in the
fall four Whigs were sent to Congress from North Carolina, including
and John Gilmer.54Zebulon Vance
When Gilmer ran for governor in 1856 on the Know-Nothing party
ticket, the Raleigh Register supported him. As previously indicated, the
activity of Weston Gales in 'the Know-Nothing party had caused some Whig
leaders in 1356 to approach Hale and to ask him that he move the Observer
to Raleigh. Although the Register had been a leading paper in the state
for nearly sixty years and the most prominent Whig paper for the last
thirty-two years, it had teen slipping downward in importance since 1848
when Weston Gales had become editor. Finally in December of 1856,
56
Weston Gales sold the paper to John 3yme for $5,100. Within six months
Hale discontinued the exchange with the Register, threatened Syme with a
libel suit, and declined a challenge from Syme to fight a duel. Hale and
his son Peter, who as associate editor of the Observer had been challen-
57
ged, declined the offer because they were opposed to dueling. In three
^^Leath, "The Know-Nothing Party," p. 52.
^I^E-Lellaiotht, t,"The Know-Nothing Party," p. 53.The Raleigh Register. p. 102.
^^Elliott, The Raleigh Register. p. 100.
^Elliott, The Raleigh Register. p. 102. Peter operated the
Observer with his father from July, 1350,until March, 1365. After the
war, Hale praised Peter by saying, "And most of the praise which I have
had for the later years of my Editorial life, is really his. I am
sorry the world does not know it, for it is emphatically true." Peter
did not associate himself with another newspaper until 1876 when he
went to Raleigh and joined with William Saunders to publish the Raleigh
Observer and Hale*s Weekly. Hale's other son Edward joined with Hale in
the operation of the Fayetteville Cbs?rvar in November, i860, but his
16
years Whig leaders offered Sytne $6,000 for his paper in order to place
58
it in the hands of a more efficient editor. Syne refused to sell,
and the Whig leaders discussed establishing another paper in Raleigh.
They rejected the plan, and on the "advice of /jonathary Worth they
attempted to heal the breach vith Syme, but extended their chief aid
59
to the Fayetteville Observer." One reason why the Whig leaders wished
to rid the Register of Syme is illustrated by his statements in 1S59 con-
cerning John Brown's raid. After the raid, the Register said that the
election of a Republican to the Presidency would be a signal for seces-
^
sion. That statement did not reflect the feelings of many Whigs in
North Carolina. By the end of 1859, Whig leaders like Worth turned to
the Observer as the Whig paper of the state.
Worth even stopped his subscription to the Register. He felt
that it had little influence, but he feared that putting another Whig
paper in Raleigh might cause a breach between it and the Register. As
for the newspapers that Worth read, he said, "The Fayetteville Observer
is the most efficient." In that sentiment Worth only echoed the words
of Whig leader Charles ?hnly, who had written Hale back in late winter of
•^(Cont'd.) military duty after April, l36l,did not allow him
to be actively associated vith the Observer during the war years, 3d-
ward re-established the Cbserincr in Fayetteville in February, 1883, and
edited it until 1885 when he became Consul to Manchester. He returned
to the r.Vrv.-rtrp- in 1892 and edited the paper for four more years until
he turned it over to his son Edward.
Jonathan Worth to Hale, February 13, 1859, Hale Papers.
59Elliott, The Raleigh Register, p. 102.
^fe.aleirrh Register. November 23 > 1859.
^Jonathan Worth to George Little, November 26, 1859, Joseph
Gregoire de Roulhac Hamilton (ed.), The Corresnor.der.ee of Jonathan
Worth (1909), I, 83-84.
17
1859, "I consider yours the best newspaper in the State politically,
editorially and gentlemanly, „62 Even in comparison to Democratic ed-
itor William Holden, whom most historians consider the leading North
Carolina editor of the period, Hale contends for the accolade of having
£3
an unsurpassed editorial influence.
If the Observer was not the best, it certainly has to be con-
sidered as one of the best newspapers in North Carolina and the motivet-
xng force behind the paper was Kale. In addition to editing the Observer.
Hale also operated a print shop which published books. Among the books
Rale printed were the Georgia Supreme Court Reports and Francis Hawks'
History of North Caroline. 64 Although Hale lost money In the latter
project,°5 the combined efforts of newspaper publishing and book print-
Ing earned him about $12,000 to $20,000 per year between 1840 and
66
i860. Hale's financial success in part led A. 3. Barnes and Company
of New York to offer him a job as manager in 1857, and the New York
in
World to offer him a position as editor in 1858. Thus, Hale's forte
as a newspaper editor was recognized beyond the borders of North Carolina.
Although Hale aligned himself politically with the Whigs, he
^Charles Manly to Hale, February 12, 1859, Hale Papers.
63Horace Wilson Paper, ’’William Woods Holden: A Political Bic-
graphy" (unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of North Carolina,
1951), p. iv, hereinafter cited as Paper, "Holden: A Political Biography."
64lJew York Times. January 3, 1833.
^Hale to David Lowery Swain, November 26, 1853, David Lowery
Swain Papers, State Department of Archives and History, Raleigh.
66samuel A. Ashe and Others (eds.), Biographical History of
North Carolina; From Colonial Tines to the Present (l9C5-1917). VIII, 181.
6?A.ghe, Giomrmhi.c~l History, VIII, p. 1S1. Hale apparently was
the Southern distributor for Barnes and Company of New York. Correspondence
in the Hale Fapers indicate a long and friendly association between Hale
and the Barnes family.
18
realized that patriots existed in both the '.Pnig and the Democratic parties
63
of North Carolina. For above everything else, Hale was a North Carolin-
ian. As Professor Charles Phillips of the University of North Carolina
said to Kale, "One thing I have always admired in your course—promptly
as you may at times keep people from treading on your toes—and that is
what you praise in 'the Standard1'—a hearty and whole souled North
Carolinaism. *69 Sven Holden and the Standard. bitter political enemies
70
of Hale, received Hale's respect for their public spirit, Therefore,
by i860 Kale had established himself as a leading Nhig, editor, and
patriot of North Carolina, and the Fayetteville Observer was an important
extension of his personality. Together, they entered the fretful year of
1360.
^Eale to Henry Miller, May 10, 1859, Hale Papers.
^Charles Phillips to Hale, June 30, 1359, Hale Papers.
^^Fayetteville 0Vserver. July 2, 1359.
CHAPTER II
DEFENDER OF THE UNION
For Hale, i860 began a period of five years of unparalleled
political activity and commentary. Occupying a critical position in the
editorial ranks of the newspapers of the state, Hale brought thirty-five
years of journalistic sagacity and experience into a year that began with
tie reaction to John Brora’s trial and ended with the reaction to the
secession of South Carolina, The national events of the year overshadowed
trie state events, and thus Hale concentrated his efforts upon the most
important area. Setting for himself the task of helping to preserve his
beloved Union in the face of the most severe threat to its existence
during Hale’s life, his pursuance of that task continued until April of
1361, when the realities of war broke Hale’s bonds to the Stars and
Stripes. However, while pursuing the task of preserving the Union,
Hale did not divorce himself from the political struggles within North
Carolina nor the political struggles of his fellow Whigs, both nationally
and locally.
Since the Whigs of North Carolina had just reorganized in 1859,
they had the ambition to have their elected representatives to the thirty-
sixth Congress, which convened in December of 1859, make their presence
known within Congress and throughout the nation. Hale recognized that
the Whig party had an excellent opportunity to do that when John Gilmer
became involved in the struggle for the powerful position of Speaker of
the House. Eecsuse Gilmer was a political friend of Hale and a member of
a small minority of Whigs in Congress, Hale was anxious to see Gilmer
gain the job of Speaker, so much so that he dedicated his editorial
20
efforts to obtaining that end from December of 1S59 through January of
i860. Even when the fight for Speaker was lost by Gilmer, Hale did not
withdraw from the field without releasing a barrage of verbal spears.
In brief, Gilmer moved to amend a Democratic resolution aimed
at John Sherman of Ohio, the Republican choice for Speaker, the state-
ment suggesting that anyone who had endorsed Hinton Helper’s The Impend-
ing Crisis was not fit to be Speaker. He thus lost the support of
Democrats who otherwise could have elected him Speaker, Neither Democrats
nor Republicans could elect a Speaker without a break in their ranks or
the support of the twenty-six Whigs and Know-Nothings in Congress. Gilmer
was not particularly loved by North Carolina Democrats because he had
voted against the Lecompton Constitution and because his election as
2
Speaker would increase the Whig party in North Carolina.
Hale rushed to Gilmer’s defense when the Democrats of North
Carolina refused to support him. Hale charged primarily that the Demo-
cratic papers of North Carolina had made libelous statements about Gilmer
and Helper's book. They claimed that Gilmer had a cony of the book, but
Gilmer denied the charges. His denial vas not published. The Wilmington
Journal vent so far as to charge that Gilmer voted for a Republican for
3
Speaker. Hale replied, ’’Such is not the purpose of the newspaper press.
It is a degradation from its noblest ends. Instead of informing, it mis-
4
leads the public—knowingly, wilfully misleads.” The Wilmington Journal
1Henry !•!. Wagstaff, "State Rights and Political Parties in
North Carolina, 1776-1861,” Johns Hopkins University Studies in Historical
and Political Science. XXIV (Janusry-February, 1906), 551, hereinafter
cited as Wagstaff, "States Rights”.
^Wagstaff, "States Rights,” p. 552.
^Fayetteville Observer, January 5, i860.
^Fayetteville Observer. January 5, 1360.
21
was not the only Democratic paper which received Hale’s wrath. He
criticized the Standard for saying it published a denial by Gilmer when
it did not, and for saying it did not even publish charges against
5
Gilmer. However, Hale acted quickly to recognize a Democratic apology
like the one published by the Charlotte western Democrat. It disclaimed
having sought to injure Gilmer by publishing charges of his having a
copy of Helper’s book. Kale felt the disclaimer was a credit to the
Western Democrat and a rebuke to those who did publish the charges.^
As the month of January waned, Hale continued to fume over the
fact that the Southern Democrats had not voted for Gilmer. As he had
argued against the charge that Gilmer was innocent of any sympathy with
Helper, he also argued that Gilmer had opposed the Lecompton Constitu-
7
tion along with many other Southerners and Democrats. Gilmer recog-
nized the debts that he owed Hale for his defense, but acknowledged that
8
he would never be able to pay them. Later Gilmer paid respect to Hale's
political acuity in his assertion of what transpired in the fight for
Speaker Gilmer wrote Hale that the Democratic delegation from North
Carolina led by' Warren Winslow induced other Democrats not to support him
for Speaker. Instead, the Democrats supported for Speaker, W. N. H. Smith,
another of the Whig Congressmen from North Carolina, but Gilmer claimed
that they had no idea of electing him.^ ^ However, on the thirty-ninth
^Fayetteville Observer. January' 12, i860.
^Fayetteville Observer. January 19, i860.
^Fayetteville Observer, January' 26, 1360.
^John Gilmer to Hale, January 29, i860, Hale Papers.
^C-ilmer to Hale, February 4, i860, Kale Papers.
**°Gilner to Hale, February 4, i860, Hale Papers.
22
ballot Smith did get more votes for Speaker than Sherman, and Sherman
withdrew from the contest. William Pennington of Mew Jersey, who had
not endorsed The Impending Crisis, received the nomination from the Re-
publicans and was elected with the support of enough Whigs to win over
11
the Democratic candidate.
At best the Whigs had demonstrated their ability to create a
compromise in national affairs. To Hale, the election for Speaker rep-
resented a threat by the Democrats to stifle the truth. In a specific
reference to his favorite journalistic target, the Wilmington Journal, he
railed that the Democratic papers were determined that the people would
12
not see the truth. Of course, Hale as the editor of the most prominent
Whig political journal could not argue otherwise if he entertained
thoughts of a serious challenge to Democratic rule in the fall elections.
However, the Wilmington Journal dismissed Hale's charges as being un~
founded. It concluded that Hale based his information on the Charleston
tiercury which the Journal claimed "recognizes no allegiance to the Demo-
cratic Party, and is recognised as an organ by no regular Democrat. «13
Although Hale spent most of his editorial effort in January of
1S60 defending Gilmer, he occasionally wrote on other topics, but these,
too, were of a political nature of national concern. For example, he
argued against mob or lynch law because it was dangerous to the South.
His inspiration for the editorial was Daniel Worth, accused of circulat-
ing abolitionist material in Worth Carolina. Hale was against mob law
11Uagstaff, "States Rights," p. 552.
"^Fayetteville Observer. February 6, i860.
"^Wilmington Journal. February 9, i860.
23
14
but he was in favor of Worth's arrest and legal punishment. Another
editorial called for Southern economic independence from the North. He
15
wanted Southern dollars to be spent in the South. In February Hale
turned his attention wholly to two subjects that engrossed him for the
next ten months. They were the organization of the Whig party in state
politics end the organization of the Constitutional Union party in
national politics.
Cn February 13 Kale announced that the Opposition or Whig
State Convention would meet on February 22 to select a candidate for
16
governor. The hope of Hale and others opposed to the Democratic control
of the state was to form, a viable Whig party that would incorporate Whigs,
Know-Nothings (generally former Whigs), and any other Democratic critics
into one movement. Both Hale and his eldest son Peter attended the con-
vention 17at Raleigh. As a leader behind the Whigs, Hale declared that
they would not join the Democrats or the Republicans since they viewed
18
both parties as opponents upon whom they would war. The issue chosen
to challenge the Democrats was ad valorem taxation, and the man selected
to contest the Democratic nominee for governor was John Pool. Hale
launched the attack in a. two-pronged assault. First, he charged the
Democratic party with inconsistency on the tax issue. He stated that
14Fayetteville Observer. January 9, i860.
^Fayetteville Observer. February 9, i860.
1 ^Fayetteville Observer. February 13, 1360.
"^Fayetteville Observer, February 23, i860.
"^Fayetteville Observer. February 23, i860.
24
it nmust be in a terrible state of trepidation when it cannot venture,
with a majority heretofore of 12,594 votes, to take ground for or
against a measure of such importance r,1Q• • • • He did not hesitate to cite
the Standard as an example of inconsistency. He claimed that in 1359
20
the Standard was for ad valorem taxation, but now it was against it.
Second, Hale defended his stand on the issue, He claimed that he did not
oppose equal taxation before the Whig convention met. Hale's initial
argument contained a certain amount of irrationality. He contended that
he considered the Negro as property but also considered him as a
21
person.
The results of the Whig convention were hailed by Whigs in
different parts of the state as a step to regaining state power. E. K.
Liles of Anson County wrote Hale that he had not seen for many years the
Whigs in Ms county so enthusiastic about victory. At the same time, he
spoke for many friends of the Observer in praise of it for its course of
22
action. In the second week of March the Democrats completed the stage
for a bitter struggle. The Democratic convention defeated a proposal to
23
endorse ad valorem taxation by a three to one margin. Without any
surprise the Democrats nominated Governor John Ellis to run for a second
tern. Since both the Democrats and the Opposition now had their respec-
tive candidates and had their respective stands on equal taxation, the
parties launched their campaign for governor in the latter part of March
with zeal and confidence.
"^Fayetteville Observer. March 1, 1360.
^^Fayetteville Observer. March 1, 1360.
21Fayetteville Observer. March 5, 1360.
22s. R. Liles to Hale, March 27, i860, Kale Papers.
23Fayetteville Observer, March 12, i860.
25
Hale led the Whig attack for ad valorem taxation. He pub¬
lished a table showing the tax paid on real estate compared with tax on
slaves compiled from the Comptroller’s Report. Hale commented that he
was prepared to advocate equal taxation a3 being right and fair ’’whether
the proposition should bring defeat or success to our party, or higher or
lower taxes to ourselves. ft 24 He argued that Whigs wanted to equalize
the tax burden for landowners and slaveholders. The table from the
Comptroller's Report supported Hale’s argument of an imbalance between
slaveholders and landowners by concluding that $180,000,000 of slave
property yielded $113,000 in taxes while $98,072,993 of real estate
yielded $191,960.96 in taxes.^
For the next several months, Hale hammered at the issue of ad
valorem taxation, the issue upon which the election would be won or lost.
Of course, he attacked Ellis and glorified Pool, but the thrust of his
attack was ad valorem taxation. He refuted the charge of the New Bern
Enquirer that Eastern North Carolina would have to pay nine-tenths of the
state's taxes instead of the present four-fifths if ad valorem taxation
26
were approved. Rather, Hale believed that the state had a right to
27
require that each man's share of taxes should be proportional to his means.
In response to Hale's constant insistence on ad valorem taxation and to
his constant attack on Democratic papers, the Wilmington Journal dis-
missed Hale and the Observer from its columns for the rest of the campaign
with the statement that the abuse of the Observer was like the noise of
24Fayetteville Observer. March 22, i860.
25Fayetteville Observer. March 22, i860.
^^Fayetteville Observer. 'Larch 29, i860.
^Fayetteville Cvyryer, April 9, i860.
26
28
their printing press, "both matters of course and eg us 11?/' harmless.1*
Amid reports from Whigs across the state that the prospects
for defeating Ellis were good, Rale continued his crusade for Pool on
the equal taxation issue. In Way, besides claiming that Democratic
papers were not printing correct statements and views of Pool, and that
they were giving one account of Ellis* speeches in the East and another
in the West, Hale began to reprint articles on taxation first printed in
the Observer during March and April. As the campaign began to ’wind down
in July, Hale printed a lucid explanation of the ad valorem issue, In
simple terms he explained that the constitution of Worth Carolina forbade
the taxing of slaves under twelve and over fifty. All other slaves were
taxed as high os white men'between the age of twenty-one and forty-five.
The clinching argument was that all states in the South except North
29
Carolina had the power to tax all slaves. To Rale, it did not make
sense for so much possible revenue to go uncollected in North Carolina
while her sister states of the South used the tax money to benefit
themselves.
Until election day in the first week of August, Hale called for
Whigs to work. Re believed until the votes were tabulated that Pool
would he elected and that, the General Assembly would vote for an ad
30
valorem taxation bill in November. That type of stubborn behavior char-
acterized Hale during his years as an editor. He simply refused to recog-
nize defeat, both privately and publicly, until all hope was gone, That
attitude was part of his nature. His faith in the election results was
28
Wilmington .Journal. April 19, i860.
^Fayetteville Cl server. July 12, i860.
-^Fayetteville €bserver. July 30, i860.
27
not vindicated. As the Democratic political experts predicted, Ellis
wen the election, but his margin of 6,024 votes gave Hale confidence for
31
future elections. In a post election editorial, he ebulliently printed
32
that he would campaign for Pool in 1362.
Hale’s efforts in opposition to the Democrats did not go un-
recognized. As the eminent Professor Samuel Phillips of Chapel Hill in-
formed Hale and his son Peter, "You have conducted your share in the
campaign with extreme credit to yourselves, n33 Other leading Whigs of
the state joined in their praise of Hale’s effort to elect Pool ana gain
shate control from the Democrats. Perhaps the most laudatory of those
voices of praise came from Oliver Dockery. In speaking of Hale, he
said that even Pool agreed that Hale had done more for the cause than any
other editor in the state.34 Thus, in the gubernatorial election of
I860, Hale demonstrated his single purpose of mind to a cause. ’When the
cause became secession, he acted no differently.
For most of i860 Hale was not so concerned about the problem
of secession, as he would be in the latter days of 1360 and the early
months of 1361, as he was about the election of John Bell of Tennessee
to the Presidency on the Constitutional Union ticket. Because the Whig
party no longer functioned on the national level, Hale had to seek another
political affiliation for the Presidential election if he were to be a
participant rather than an observer. He did not wish to be identified
with either the Democrats or the Republicans. He said that the country
-^Fayetteville Observer. August 30, i860.
^Fayetteville Observer, August 6, 1360.
^Samuel Phillips to Hale, July 19, 1360, Hale Fapers.
^Gliver Dockery to Hale, August 11, i860, Hale Papers.
23
35
had reason to be discontented with both parties. Instead, Hale urged
36
what the country needed vas a Constitutional Union party, In publish-
ing the address of the National Executive Committee of the Constitutional
Union party, Hale called the address ’’eloquent," and he praised the
people of the committee as "some of the purest men and patriots and
soundest intellects, which have adorned the annals of our country at any
period of its existence. .,37
Old-line Whigs and Know-Nothings of North Carolina rallied to
the Constitutional Union party because they saw in it a positive approach
to preserving the Union from proven Democratic antics and untried Repub-
lican tactics. After the Democratic party adjourned on May 3 amid the
chaos of an aborted attempt to nominate a candidate, the Constitutional
Union party convened in Baltimore on May 9 to choose its candidate. Hale
attended the convention, and when he returned to Fayetteville, he in-
formed his reading public that he was "ready to do our duty against all
comers, in favor of BELL and EVERETT, of the CONSTITUTION, the UNION, and
the ENFORCEMENT of the LAMS—in favor of Peace in the land, and against
corruption in the government. «38
Hale dismissed the nomination of Lincoln in the latter part of
J%y with little comment. His immediate concern and target was his old
enemy, the Democratic party. He criticized the Democratic party for its
"monstrous corruption," and reasoned that the leaders of the party were
too committed to 39preserving the present order to agree to any changes.
-3^5Fayetteville Observer. February 16, i860.
36
Fayetteville Observer. February 20, i860.
^Fayetteville Observer. February 27, i860.
^“Fayetteville Observer, May 14, i860.
39
-''Fayetteville Observer. June 4, i860.
29
Thus, with some measure of glee Hale announced after the second Demo-
erratic Convention in late June, "The Democratic party is fallen to
pieces I The boycott by the Southern delegates of the Baltimore Con-
mention meant that the Democrats would have two candidates for President.
In late June the seceders held a convention in Richmond and nominated
John Breckinridge. Hale felt now that the strongest challenge for the
Presidency would come from the Republican party. Therefore, he directed
his appeal for Bell on the basis that conservative men of all parties of
both sections of the country had the opportunity of defeating the Repub-
licans if they united behind Bell. Unfortunately for Hale, his hope of
saving the country from the Democrats and Republicans and of restoring
peace did not attain reality.
In early August Hale went North for two months, as he had done
for the previous twenty-five years, in order to evade a fever that beset
him if he remained in Fayetteville in late summer and early autumn
His travels took him to Saratoga, New York, where he paid his respects
42
?to ex-President Fillmore, and to Hartford, Connecticut. From Hartford
he wrote home that support for Bell was not strong and there seemed no
43
hope of fusion between any two of the three parties opposing Lincoln.
The letters to the Observer by Kale demonstrated his genuine concern for
the safety of the country. Hale had friends in Hartford and in other
cities of the North. He perceived that between the fanaticism of the
Republicans and the folly of the Democrats his friends might one day
^Fayetteville Coserver. June 25, 1S60.
^Fayetteville Observer. September 6, i860.
^Fayetteville Observer. August 16, i860.
^Fayetteville Observer. September 6, i860.
30
become his enemies. He appealed to Heaven to prevent such an occur-
44
ence. But Hale wrote undauntedly in his campaign for Bell with the
belief that the fate of the Union rested on his shoulders.
To Hale, the argument was basically simple—the Republicans
were for exclusion of slaves in the territories and the Breckinridge
/ C
Democrats were for protection of slaves. From the nomination of
Breckinridge to the election, he argued that Breckinridge was for dis-
46
union, end he pointed to William L. Yancey in his ranks as proof.
As for Stephen Douglas, the regular Democratic nominee, Hale felt that
47
he end Bell represented the parties in favor of the Union, Despite all
that Hale could do or say, the people of the United States and even of
North Carolina rejected Bell. Lincoln won the election in the nation
and Breckinridge won the majority of votes in North Carolina, Eale and
the South had to face the reality of the inauguration of a "Black Repub¬
lican" President.
Although the reaction of many Southerners to the election of
Lincoln was to dissolve the Union, Hale represented the traditional Whig
thought of maintaining the Union despite Lincoln’s election. Back in
January of i860 he had stated his views on the subject. In an editorial
he theorized that the time to dissolve the Union was before the election,
but if the other parties and the South agreed to enter the election and
were fairly beaten, then they had no alternative but to abide by the
results For Hale it was a matter of honor to the Union to abide by
^Fayetteville Observer, September 6, i860.
45Fayetteville Cbserver, September 13, i860.
^Fayetteville Observer, June to November, i860.
^Fayetteville Observer. September 13, i860.
^Fayetteville Observer. January 19, i860.
31
the election results. However, he opened the possibility of disunion if
there developed a cause for resistance, but he did not believe a constitu-
49
tional election of any man justified that cause.
Hale advocated even before the election a policy of waiting
to see if Lincoln would violate the rights of the South before any action
should be taken. T-Tith regard to the action that should occur, Hale dis-
missed peaceable secession as Daniel Webster had dismissed it on the
50
grounds that it was impossible, Secession would produce a war that in
fact would be a revolution. Leading Whigs of North Carolina had long
adopted the same view. Both William A. Graham and George Badger denied
any right of secession, and neither one saw a necessity for revolution
51
if Lincoln were elected President. Hale felt, however, that the Repub-
licsns did not realize the precarious state of the Union. He predicted
that South Carolina and Alabama might adont some extreme measure if
Lincoln were elected, and that it was possible other states would be
forced into the 52same action. He also feared that the election of
Lincoln might touch off an abolition foray, as Brown's raid had at
Harper's Ferry, against the arsenal at Fayetteville. Thus, before the
election Hale affixed his name to a petition presented by the mayor of
Fayetteville to the Secretary of War requesting additional troops to
53
guard the arsenal. The request was granted.
^Fayetteville Cbserver, September 13, i860.
50payetteville Observer. October 25, i860.
-^Sitterson, The Secession Movement, p. 178.
^Fayetteville Observer. November 1, i860.
^Adjutant General George Cooper to General Winfield Scott,
November 1,1 S60, The 'War of the Rebellion; A Compilation of the Official
Records of the Union ar.d Confederate Armies Tl 380-1901), Series I, I,
484, hereinafter cited as Official Records (Army).
32
After the election of Lincoln Hale called for reason, not
passion, to govern men's minds. Since revolution was the only means
of redress of grievances against the Union, that tine had either passed
or had not arrived. For Hale and other Whigs, a state had no legal
right to secede but neither did the Federal government have the right
to coerce a state back into the Union. If that attempt was made, then
55
there would be trouble. In November, all of the thoughts of coercion
were mere speculation. But, the election had the effect of tearing the
fabric of political cloth into Union and Disunion factions rather than
Whig and Democratic factions. Immediately many of the Democratic papers,
such as the Wilmington Journal, increased their radical stand for dis-
union. They were joined in late November by the radical State Journal.
a newly established Democratic organ in Raleigh. Its purpose was to
replace the North Carolina Standard since Holden had fallen from good
standing with the Democratic Party largely controlled by the more radi-
cal elements, including Governor Ellis. When the North Carolina General
Assembly convened in Raleigh on November 19, the Democratic majority of
both Houses split into conservatives and radicals because Governor Ellis
recommended a convention to consider 56secession. With Union Whigs, led
by editors such as Hale, and conservative Democrats, led by editors such
as Holden, fighting to suppress the secessionist urge ignited by
Lincoln's election, North Carolina did not go hand in hand with South
Carolina down the road of secession even though the two states later met
in the abyss of the Civil War.
^Fayetteville Observer. November 3, i860.
^Kemp F. Battle, "The Secession Convention of 1S61," North
Carolina Booklet. XV (April, 1916), 173.
^Wagstaff, "States Rights," p. 567.
33
As South Carolina prepared to withdraw from the Union in
December, Hale reported that the Republican papers were changing tone,
57
and with patience the result could be an avoidance of civil war. He
received encouragement from Francis Hawks in New York who informed Hale
that a reaction ha.d begun in the North. Hawks told Hale that if the
58
election were to be held in December, Lincoln would lose, Cptimis-
tically Hawks wrote Hale another letter stating that if Republican atti¬
tudes did not change toward the South, the non-seceding states could form
59
a border confederacy including some Northern states. Hale agreed with
that plan. Ee felt that if the Union were dissolved, North Carolina had
60
more attachment to New York or Pennsylvania than South Carolina. Thus,
Hale advocated, in case of disunion, that North Carolina cast her fate
with a Central or Border Confederacy rather than to a Southern Confeder-
61
acy. However, Hale was not one to concede anything, particularly the
dissolution of the Union. He encouraged his readers to accept Lincoln
as President of the country. He pleaded with them that Lincoln’s election
was ’’not sufficient cause for a dissolution of the Union, or for resis-
tance to the laws or to the inauguration of the new administration. ,,62
Echoing the Standard he implored the people of North Carolina to "Watch
and Wait."63
Although Hale felt that the work of the Committee of Thirty-
three indicated the Union feeling of both the North and the South, he
-^Fayetteville Observer, December 3, i860.
^°Francis Hawks to Hale, December 4, 1360, Hale Papers.
59Eewks to Hale, December 6, i860, Hale Papers.
^Fayetteville Observer. December 10, 1S60.
61Fayetteville Observer. December 10, i860.
62Fayetteville Observer, December 12, i860.
63Fsyetteville Observer, December 12, i860.
34
once again clarified his position on secession. Kale accepted the doc-
trine of revolution against a tyrannous government, but he denied the
doctrine of secession as being unconstitutional. Not believing in the
right of secession but the right of revolution, he did not feel that
the time for revolution had come, even though he had to concede that he
64
feared that it was coming. Hale admitted to believing in the right of
revolution, but he did not favor the exercising of that right until
every avenue leading toward peace had been explored. After the secession
of South Carolina, Hale declared that North Carolina had the duty to
stand where she was and not to commit herself 65to South Carolina. With
all the talk of secession and revolution, on the last day of December
Hale offered a public prayer to God that He would overrule the madness
66
in the country and restore it to its former state.
As 1361 began, Hale brought all the pressure that his influence
could garner against the forces of secession within the state. The news-
papers of the state were about evenly divided over the issue with the
Observer along with the powerful Standard. the Register. the Carolina
Watchman of Salisbury, and the Hillsborough Recorder for the Union while
the State Journal and the Wilmington Journal led the papers favorable to
67
secession. Although the people of the state were divided over seces-
sion, most people, Hale included, were opposed to any attempt to coerce
South Carolina hack into the Union.
As a means of preparing the state against an attempt by the
United States to coerce South Carolina back into the Union, the General
^Fayetteville Observer. December 19, 1-360.
^Fayetteville Observer. December 24, i860.
66yayetteville Observer. December 31, i860.
67Sitterson, The Secession .bvement. pp. 211-213.
35
Assembly passed an arms bill on January 3 which appropriated 0300,000
to buy arms and munitions and set up a military commission to advise the
68
governor. To prepare for war was one thing, but to encourage it was
another matter. Hale called the seizures of Fort Johnston and Fort
Caswell on January 10 by North Carolina insurgents treason, and he
labeled the firing on the Star of the Nest at Charleston an ‘"Outrageous
Act of War. *69
Besides the arms bill, another important bill passed by the
General Assembly was a bill authorizing the people to vote for or against
a convention and to select 120 delegates in case a convention were to be
held. The bill passed on January 29 with the election date set for
70
February 28. If the people favored a convention, it would convene at
71
Governor Ellisr call not egrlier than March 11 . Hale favored the con-
vention so that the people of the state through their delegates might
have the opportunity to demonstrate their support for the Union by soundly
defeating any attempt to have North Carolina secede. Hale campaigned hard
to have Union men in the majority at the convention. He believed that
every North Carolinian would unite to overthrow an oppressor if the
Federal government became that, but he agreed that the people of North
Carolina should do all in their power to save the Union, stressing that
72
there was no reason why the Union could not be saved, When the conven-
tion votes were counted, the people rejected it 47,323 votes to 46,672,
^Richard W. Iobst, "North Carolina Mobilizes: Nine Crucial
Months, December, 1360-August, 1361" (unpublished doctoral dissertation,
University of North Carolina, 1968), p. 17.
^Fayetteville Observer. January 1, 1361.
^Csitterson, The Secession Movement, p. 2CS.
7'•Sitterson, The Secession Movement, p. 203.
"^Fayetteville Observer, February 14, i860.
36
but nore importantly of the 120 delegates chosen for the convention,
73
seventy-eight were Unionists and only forty-'two were Secessionists,
The inauguration of Lincoln on March 4 induced Hale to comment
that he saw no coercion in the message. Rather, Hale felt that the
message had some remarkable passages and for that reason he printed it
in full.74 Later in the week Hale commented that war was an evil but
civil war was ”an awful scourge! „75 Even as late as April 8, he scorned
76
the idea that coercion would be used against South Carolina. Within a
week South Carolina troops attacked Fort Sumter and Lincoln responded
with a request on April 15 for 75,000 men. The call for men by the
United States government to be used against South Carolina quieted the
Union newspapers within North Carolina. Together they joined the
secession papers in a united front. Thus, on April 16 Hale found himself
on the side of secession in a civil war that he had feared would come,
but in a war that he had worked and prayed to prevent, For the next
four years he turned his pen and mind awTay from a defense of the per-
petuation of the United States to a defense of the establishment of the
Confederate States of America.
73Sitterson, The Secession Movement. p. 223.
"^-Fayetteville Observer. 'larch 7, 1S61.
75Fayetteville Observer, 'larch 11, 1S61.
76yapetteville Observer. April 8, 1861.
CHAPTER III
DEFENDER OF THE CONFEDERACY
The firing on Fort Sumter and Lincoln's call for troops left
the Union men in North Carolina little choice in determining whether
they would continue to support the United States, or whether they would
begin to support the Confederate States of America. With few exceptions
they turned their full attention and gave their full energy to the
support of the Confederacy e*ran before North Carolina officially joined
with the other Southern states. The secessionist and Union newspapers
ceased their quarrel and united in their support for the convention in
May which swept North Carolina into the Confederacy. During the exciting
and emotional days of April and May, 1861, few men realized the ultimate
consequences of the decision to become entangled in a civil war. Indeed,
few men realized how severely strained their commitment to war would
become as the days lengthened into months and the months dragged into
years.
From Fayetteville, Hale gave little indication that the course
of events caused any feeling of remorse. Soon after the call for troops,
he limited his editorial space because he was anxious to give details of
1
military news and he had little time to write editorials. When the
convention had completed its work on May 21, the dissolution of the ties
with the Union pleased him for he felt the preamble of the United States
Constitution had been "perverted to an agent of intolerable injustice n2• • •
With this attitude, Hale completely severed the ties with the government
Fayetteville Observer. April 22, 1861.
2Fayettevillo Observer. May 23, 1361.
38
that he had supported for over fort/ years, His attention now focused on
making the Observer a primary advocator of Confederate propaganda and an
undaunted friend of the Confederate government more than a disseminator
of war news and a reliable critic. However, he did publish war news and
reprints from other papers, and one or two columns in each edition con-
cerning news from Europe.
Hale filled the Observer with editorials about the military
despotism that Lincoln had instituted in the North. He offered as evidence
Lincoln’s war measures, such as withdrawing the privilege of habeas
3
corpus and implementing a naval blockade. In addition, Hale appealed
to the patriotic and brave men of the South with good character to vol-
untaer to fight against the Federal government.^ But, he continued to
keep his editorial space limited because he claimed that the public demand
5
wes for news and he desired to supply the demand. Perhaps the reduction
in editorial space should not be emphasized as much as the reduction in
editorial content. At this embryonic stage of the war, Hale’s editor-
ials noticeably lacked the usual vitriolic language and party spirit which
had characterized his editorials for four decades. That state of affairs
did not remain in effect throughout the war despite Hale’s moderate
efforts to curtail unnecessarily harsh language end his best efforts to
neutralize party politics.
When the Greensboro Patriot, an avid Whig paper in the Whig
and Quaker area of Guilford County, spoke kindly of President Jefferson
Fayetteville Observer. June 3, 1861.
^Fayetteville Observer, June 17, 1361.
^Fayetteville Cbserver. June 24,1361.
39
Davi3 in a July editorial, Hale responded that the Patriot also spoke
his sentiments, since Hale felt that Davis had overcome Hale's prejudice
against him as a Democrat and a Secessionist and that Davis even caraman-
6
ded his respect. That statement by Kale illustrates how far he was
willing to bend in order for the South to present a united front to the
North. The death of Governor Ellis in July provided Hale an opportunity
to lend even more unanimity to the cause, but Hale just reported the
7
event without ary comments good or bad.
If Hale could not find any complimentary words to publish
about Ellis, he showed his intention to fight as hard for victory as any
Secessionist or Democrat before Fort Sumter, and he was willing to pay
the price. ’•Then the Confederate Congress passed a tax bill in August of
1S61, many people became alarmed. Hale urged that the measure was a
necessity. According to Hale, if the people did not give a part, even a
large part, of their money for support of the government, the North would
8
take it all. He constantly admonished the people that the war had to
be sustained and that they should not grumble about taxes. Considering
Hale's taxable property in Fayetteville and his parsimonious inclinations,
his endorsement of higher taxes underscored his commitment to the Confel-
erate cause.
Even though Hale strived to abolish outward manifestations
of party spirit, the fall elections in North Carolina for electors to
choose the President and Vice-President of the Confederacy, and for rep-
resentatives to Congress, provided an opportunity for party politics to
^Fayetteville Observer. July 8, 1S61.
"^Fayetteville Observer. July 11, 1861.
^Fayetteville Observer. August 11, 1361.
40
surface. Hale implored the Charlotte Western Democrat to silence the
Raleigh State Journal. and he in turn would answer for the Patriot.
Salisbury Carolina Watchman. and the old Whigs in an attempt to keep
9
party feelings muffled. He urged the people to support Davis and Alex-
ander Stephens and to vote for good and true men for Congress who would
10
support the Confederate Constitution. For Hale, maintaining the Con-
stitution was all important even if the job fell to former Democrats.
But the Wilmington Journal could not forget its past battles with Hale
end the Whigs to let the elections occur without adverse comment. It
complained that certain men on the electoral ticket which the Observer
published would have a hard time supporting Davis, but Hale refuted the
11
charge with the statement that he did not care who was on the ticket.
At the same time he showed that the feud between the Observer and the
Wilmington Journs,1 still simmered by claiming that the Journal helped
the Yankees by printing that the old Union men on the electoral ticket
12
were still for the Union.
As 1361 drew to a close, Hale looked back upon a year that
saw him and other Whigs stand by the Union until they could do so no
more. They had been joined by some Democrats to form a strong Union
force in North Carolina. Cne of these men, ,Tilliam 17. Holden, an old
political enemy, had become an ally. During the months after the call
for troops, the old Whig editor and the powerful Democratic editor called for
victory. From the pages cf the Standard. Holden equaled Kale or any
^Fayetteville Observer. September 26, 1361.
1 ^Fayetteville Observer. September 23, 1361 .
HFayetteville Observer. October 31, 1361.
^Fayetteville Observer. October 31, 1S61 •
41
secessionist paper in his pleas for the people to resist, He said, "He
that is not for the South in this contest is against it • • • There can be
no half-way ground now. «13 Later in the year, he said, *The South can-
not, will not, must not yield an iota, now that she has taken up the
svord, until her rights are fully vindicated." 14 Together with Holden
and Kale, other North Carolina newspapers supported a total war effort,
but the war was still new. Their mettle was yet to be fully tested. The
first full year of war, 1362, evidenced to all that the test would be a
torturous one.
Buring 1362 Hale established himself as a standard by which one
could compere whether or not he had the mettle to survive the war. Even
more impassionste than Holden's pleas of 1S61 for total commitment to
war, Hale drew upon the argument of possible annihilation of the South
by the North to spur the Southern people constantly, particularly the
people of North Carolina, to pledge themselves body and soul, materially
and spiritually, to winning the war at all costs. He argued, "Nothing
can be more plain than that if we permit ourselves to be conquered, we
lose all.*^
For fear of losing all, Kale generally prevented the Observer
from printing complaints about the state or Confederate government. He
vould print criticism reluctantly, but he did not like to complain about
the government himself or to print critical material from the exchange
16
papers. Military defeats seemed to inspire his loyalty rather than
^North Carolina Standard, July 24, 1S61.
^North Carolina Standard, October 30, 1361 .
?j^eFayetteville Observer. February 6, 1862.
1^Fayetteville Observer. January 2, 1362.
42
depress it. After the defeat of the Confederate forces at Fort
Donelson, Hale cried to the people, "Never despair I Never give up the
contest!" 17 When several papers of the Confederacy criticized the Con-
federate government for its manner of operations, Hale refused to consent.
Particularly annoying to some papers uas the defensive strategy of early
1862. Hale said that he did not concur with the papers in blaming the
18
government for following that policy. Thus, early in the war the
newspapers of the Confederacy established a division of opinion about
governmental and military operations that would deepen and widen as the
war progressed.
The Observer was not the only Whig or Union paper to support
the war after the initial period of journalistic unity in the spring and
summer of 1861. The Greenboro Patriot agreed with the philosophy of Hale
and other Whigs that North Carolina was in a justifiable revolution, The
Patriot announced that it supported the South against the North and "North
Carolina against the world. ,19 Other North Carolina newspapers of both
political factions published similar declarations. Even those papers
which criticized the strategy of the government were united in their
support for the war, but few if any exceeded the Observer in its re-
iteration and fervency for victory. From the Observer flowed the constant
"We have to fight our way to independence, at all hazards. tt20message,
To Hale, the victory was assured because God in his wisdom knew of "the
awful infidelity and ungodliness in the North," and that infidelity and
ungodliness "was doomed in this war to meet the judgment of an offended
"^Fayetteville Observer. February 20, 1862.
Fayetteville Observer. March 6, 1362.
^Greensboro Patriot. April 25, 1362.
2Fayetteville Observer, December 4, 1362.
43
God. rt21 Therefore, Hale felt no need to publish words of despondency
in the Observer, and he gladly gave the government and the war his total
22
physical and financial support.
Even though Hale supported the government and the war, he did
not acquiesce in everything that occurred in order to prevent Southern
disunity. In particular Hale showed occasional irritation toward the
neighboring states of Virginia and South Carolina. To Virginia, Hale
directed numerous defensive statements concerning the journalistic treat¬
ment of North Carolina troops at the hands of the Virginia newspapers.
He felt that the North Carolina troops were unnecessarily criticized for
their performance in the field and that they received little of their
23
deserved recognition from the Virginia papers, '.Then South Carolina
critics accused President Davis of having an incapacity to be President,
Hale defended Davis on the grounds that no one could satisfy everyone,
and that the effects of such charges were to weaken the government and
strengthen the 24enemy. However, Hale did not support Davis in all
matters. For example, Davis wanted to let paroled Southern prisoners of
war be allowed to break their oath not to fight against the North. Since
Kale considered himself an honorable man and lauded the concept of
honor, he did not agree with Davis. He 'wanted to have the soldiers pro-
25
perly exchanged for prisoners held by the South, Hale's point of
view prevailed.
One issue raised in 1362 which sparked controversy in the Con-
‘Fayetteville Observer. September 15, 1362.
^Fayetteville Observer, June 5, 1362.
23payetteville Observer. March 17, 1362; and June 12, 1362.
^Fayetteville Observer. October 30, 1362.
^Fayetteville Observer. March 24, 1362.
44
federacy for the remainder of the war x>?as conscription, For the first
year after Fort Sumter, the Confederacy relied on volunteers. After
April of 1362, the Confederate government enacted three conscription
laws to bolster the strength of the array. The first law, passed by
Congress on April 16, 1862, provided that all whites between eighteen
26
and twenty-five be drafted for three years. The second law, passed
September 27, 1862, raised the age limit to forty-five, and the third
27
law, passed February 17, 1364, raised the age limit to fifty, These
acts were first modified by exemption acts of April and October of 1362,
which exempted members of Congress, legislators of states, one editor
28
of each newspaper, and other classes of men. The exemption act of
October was not intended to let an editor under forty-five remain with
the paper when another editor connected with the paper was over the age
limit of conscription. However, Daniel Fowls of the Adjutant C-eneral's
Office informed Hale that his son Peter was exempt because his services
at the Observer were more valuable than if he were in the 29army. Ad-
ditional exemption acts were passed in 1363. Not only were certain
classes of people exempted, but until December of 1363, if a person could
afford the price of a substitute, he could avoid military service.
The idea of a forced military service on behalf of a central
government was not well accepted by most Southerners since the primary
^Clarence Douglas, ’’Conscription and the Writ of Habeas Corpus
in North .Carolina During the Civil War," Historical Pacers of the Trinity
Parer3 of the Trinity Colters Historical Society. XIV, (1922), 5, hereinafter
cited as Douglas, "Conscription and the Writ of Habeas Corpus". For
general background material pertaining to the Civil War, I have relied
upon J. G. Randall and David Donald, The Civil 'hr and Reconstruction.
Second edition (1966).
27Douglas, "Conscription and the Writ of Habeas Corpus," p. 6.
2oDougla3, "Conscription and the Writ of Habeas Corpus," pp. 6-7.
290sniel Fowle to Hale, June 25, 1363, Hale Papers.
45
emphasis of the secession movement was on the individual rights of
the states. Hale voiced his objection to conscription before Congress
passed the first act. He doubted the necessity of the law since more
men were volunteering for service than the army could use. He felt
that the men who volunteered for twelve months at the outbreak of hos-
30
tilities were having their rights to a discharge infringed upon.
Regardless, he expressed his confidence in President Davis and his ad-
visers After Congress passed the conscription law, Hale saw no need
to debate the issue further at that time. Instead, he addressed himself
to the people to defeat the enemy and then argue about what should or
32
should not have been done during the \-rar.
From the beginning of the war until April of 1362, the news-
paper business in North Carolina flourished on a near equal prewar basis.
Some papers were forced to close for one reason or another, but the re-
maining papers did business as usual. But along with the need to raise
troops in April came the need of some newspapers to raise the price of
subscription or reduce the size of the paper in order to combat inflation.
All newspapers operated under the handicap of a growing shortage of
quality materials. Hale commented in April that the paper on which he
printed the Observer was not as good as it had been for the past year,
and that the ink was of 33an inferior nature. Despite the inferior paper
and ink, Hale had no intention of raising prices because the number of
subscribers had increased by twenty per cent during the past year, and
all of the new subscribers as well as most of the old ones were having to
^Fayetteville Observer, April 7, 1362.
^Fayetteville Observer. April 7, 1362.
32payetteville Observer. April 17, 1362.
33Fayetteville Observer. April 17, 1862.
46
34
pay cash for the Observer rather than receive it on credit, Other
papers could not or would not refrain from raising their prices, For
example, in late May the Wilmington Journal raised the price of its
daily from 56.00 to $8.00 per year while the weekly remained at $2.50 per
33
year. Without raising his prices, Hale stated in July that the past
36
year was the most profitable in the history of the Observer, Even
without the increase in profit, he considered a reduction in the size of
37
the paper or an increase in the price to be steps backward. But the
success of the Observer based on prewar prices allowed Hale to speculate,
rtEverybody seems crazy with money greed. i*33
The financial success of the Observer was only one triumph for
Hale during 1862. Of far greater importance to Hale was the political
triumph of a Whig in the gubernatorial election. All during 1861, after
the war had begun, Hale admonished the people of the state to forget
party considerations and to work for the common interest of North Car-
olina and the Confederacy. Even in early 1862 Hale acknowledged a
comment in the Western Democrat, which recommended Democrat William
Johnston for governor, with the remark that he would be satisfied with
Johnston rtor any other *,39proper man. Regardless of the public thoughts
of Kale on party politics in North Carolina, he and other men throughout
the state were aware that party feelings existed and were intensifying as
the election spirit began to overshadow the avowed political unity of
34Payetteville Observer. April 17, 1362.
^Wilmington Journal, May 29, 1862.
36payetteville Cvserver. July 23, 1862.
37payetteville Observer. July 23, 1362.
3%ale to Thomas Pittman, November 25, 1362, Thomas Pittman
Papers, State Department of Archives and History, Raleigh.
^Fayetteville Observer, February 6, 1362.
47
wartime.
The Democratic party had been in power when the war began and
had remained in power thereafter. They relinquished the name "Democratic
party" in the spring of 1362 in favor of the "Confederate party”
because they hoped that the new name would encourage people to keep them
40
in office without having to stand for re-election. Because of its
political policies and because of Confederate defeats at Hatteras Inlet
in August of 1861, Roanoke Island in February of 1862, and Elizabeth
City and New Bern the following month, opposition to the Confederate
party formed. The opposition emerged under the label of "Conservative
. 41
party” in the spring of 1362. The Conservative party drew its support
from Whigs and Union Democrats, like Hale and Holden, who advocated win-
ning the war but not at the cost of destroying the Confederate Constitution
or losing the protection of personal freedom and state supremacy guaran-
teed in the Constitution. Cn the other hand, the Confederate party drew
its support from Democrats, like Governor Henry Clark, who favored giving
the central government more authority to conduct the war, both in military
/ p
and governmental operations, Both parties prepared themselves for the
gubernatorial campaign.
With party lines drawn and the Confederate party nominating
Johnston for governor, the Conservative party surveyed the field for the
best opponent for Johnston. They failed to persuade William A. Graham
40Richard E. Yates, "Zebulon B. Vance as War Governor of North
Carolina, 1362-1365," !ournal of Southern History. Ill (February, 1937),
46, hereinafter cited as Yates, "Vance as War Governor”.
41Horace W. Raper, "William W. Holden and the Peace Movement in
North Carolina,” North Carolina Historical Review. XXXI (October, 1954)
495, hereinafter cited as Raper, "Holden and the Peace Movement.”
^Frontis W. Johnston (ed.), The Fh tiers of Zebulon Baird Vance
(1963), I, xliii.
48
43
to run, but he endorsed John Pool. Hale remained uncommitted with
regard to his choice for governor, mentioning Zebulon Vance as one of
44
several possible candidates for the office. He was not to remain un-
committed for long. Augustus Merriman, a Whig leader from the western
part of the state, traveled to Fayetteville to elicit the support of
Hale for Vance. Merriman had been selected by a conference of Conser-
vative leaders for that purpose because they felt that Hale was Hthe
wisest head of the greatest influence in the party „45• • • • Merriman
succeeded in his mission.
On June 19, Hale published Vance’s letter of acceptance of the
46
nomination along with Hale's endorsement of Vance. Earlier in the
47
month Vance had received the endorsement of Holden. Now Vance had the
support of the two most powerful editors in the state, despite the fact
that Hale had declared that he had nothing against Johnston, As expected,
the Wilmington Journal endorsed Johnston. The Journal and the Observer
had not feuded as intently after Fort Sumter as before, but they con-
tinued to take turns verbally sparring with each other. Before Hale
announced his endorsement of Vance, the Journal had declared that the
Observer tended to everyone’s business as well as its own, and it reminded
/ g
the editors of the Journal of a strutting turkey cock. After Hale en-
dorsed Vance, the feud took on new political dimensions. The State
Journal and Raleigh Register. along with the Wilmington Journal, began a
^George Little to Hale, April 9, 1862, Hale Ffepers.
^"Fayetteville Observer, June 19, 1362.
45Ashe, Blorra abler-1 History. VlH} 133, quoting Walter Clark.
^Fayetteville Observer, June 19, 1862.
47p;orth Carolina. Standard. June 4, 1362.
^ ./ilminuton Journal. June 7, 1362.
49
campaign against Vance and his supporters. They accused then of pro-
noting a party feud and of making the election one of union versus
49
secession. Cf course, the Observer rejected that implication. But
the main election issue was just that. Those who supported Johnston
contended that the election of Vance would be viewed in the North as an
indication of weakness in the Confederacy on behalf of the war effort.
Despite the misgivings of the Johnston supporters, Hale and
Holden used the power of their combined circulation to put Vance’s name
before the voters of North Carolina. Hale and Holden had much to say
about what tactics would enhance the odds in Vance’s favor. -Although
neither Vance nor Johnston actively campaigned, Hale and Holden per-
suaded Vance to enter the election while stationed with his troops at
50
Kinston. In fact, it has been said that Vance’s campaign was managed
51
entirely by the two editors. For Hale’s part, he called Vance "honest,
capable and faithful" while he extolled the virtue that Vance was un¬
connected with a party and thus fit for the current times when there
52
should be no party. Holden, meanwhile, called to the people to vote
53
for Vance if they were opposed to party politics during the war. Why
Vance was not connected with a party when he was associated with the
Conservative party, neither Hale nor Holden effectively explained.
According to the directions of the convention, the gubernatar-
ial election was set for the first Thursday in August, but the soldiers
^Te.tes, '?Vance as Far Governor," p. 48.
^^Raper, "Holden: A Political Biography," p. 59.
51Racer, "Holder.: A Political Biography," p. 59.
^Fayetteville Observer, July 24> 1362.
53
North Carolina Standard. August 2, 1362.
50
54
could vote a week earlier. The new legislature would be elected at
the sane tine, and then the inauguration of the governor would take
55
place the second Monday in September, When the votes of the soldiers
56
were counted, Vance had won 11,683 to 3,691. When the official total
vote was tabulated, Vance had won by 33,975 votes out of a total vote
of 74,861, and he had received a majority in sixty-eight of the eighty
57
counties. After the election, Hale described the Journal1 s attacks
58
on the Observer in terms of a striking snake full of venom. Only
after the election did Hale admit that the election of Vance might give
some comfort to Lincoln. However, at the same time, Hale charged A. L.
Price and Joseph Pulton of the Journal with failing to print the pa-
59
triotic speeches of Vance. Thus, in the fall of 1362, the Journal and
the Observer were at diametrically opposed political points as they had
been before the war, regardless of the party label, and they engaged in
name calling contests that did justice to any prewar election or non-
election period.
As the gubernatorial election indicated, Hale had been on the
winning side for the first time in fourteen years, Hot only was he on
the winning side, although he would have been reluctant to declare a win-
ning or losing side, he assured himself of an influential position as
political confidant to Governor-elect Vance. Vance owed Hale and Holden
-^C-lenn Tucker, Zeb Vance: Champion of Personal Freedom (1965-'},
p. 145, hereinafter cited as Tucker, Zeb Vance.
^Tucker, Zeb Vance, o. 145.
5^Tucker, Zeb V~ncs. p. 154»
^Fayetteville Observer. September 1, 1362.
^“Fayetteville Observer, August 11, 1362.
59Fayetteville Observer. August 23, 1362.
51
for much of has success. The newspapers of the state had divided
about equally during the election, but Vance had Holden on his side,
and he had "the staunch support of Edward J. Hale and his Fayetteville
Observer As for Holden, Vance in his inaugural address indicated
that he would support the conscription law of which Holden disap-
61
proved. If that was a hint that the two men would disagree more
severely over policy at a later date, few people were able to ascertain
it. In November the General Assembly elected Holden state printer at
62
the insistence of Vance. When Holden wrote Hale about his election to
63
state printer, he offered his services to Hale if they were ever needed.
In November of 1362, Holden and Hale were together, strong allies against
a common foe. Nearly all the people and the press were together behind
Vance with each indicating that they would support him and the cause.
However, behind the appearances of solidarity, there brewed a turbulent
undercurrent of doubt, fear, and bewilderment.
Beginning In 1363 the course of the Confederacy and of North
Carolina as a member of the Confederacy entered a decisive period. The
period culminated in July with the military defeats at Gettysburg and
at Vicksburg, and with a widespread peace movement which divided the
people and hardened their attitudes toward peace or war. Eut during the
early months of 1363, not many men could foresee that the South was
reaching the apex of the rebellion, and would begin to lose the war before
the summer ended. For Kale, the beginning of defeat was never recog-
^Tucker, Zeb Vance, p. 150.
^Xates, "Vance as War Governor," p. 50.
^Raper, "Holden and the Peace Movement," p. 493.
%Jilli U. Holden to Hale, November 21, 1362, Kale Papers.
52
nized, or at least never publicly admitted. He was singled out by
state leaders, like D. M. Barringer, for his "support of the Confederate
cause under all circumstances." 64 He took pride in the fact that the
Observer was declared by North Carolinians as "the ablest and most dig-
nified journal of our state n65• • ? • When other papers became despondent
at Confederate setbacks, Hale stated that he saw no reason for the
66
people to be despondent, He often reiterated his belief that even if
he disagreed with the government and President Davis, he would wait until
67
the war was over to publicly voice his disagreement.
Not content to support the Confederate government and to crit-
icize the United States government, Rale heaped contempt upon "the off-
scourings of the foreign population of the Northern cities—those moral
pest-houses. n 63 When he felt that the morale of Southerners was ebbing
to a dangerous low after a battle, he sought to inspire them by inferring
that the Southern people were shoving a trait of character inferior to
Northern 69people. Hale praised and sometimes goaded the people and the
government, but he was always on their side. In return, the people
praised him, and state and community leaders sought his advice. No one
sought his advice more than Governor Vance who claimed that Hale was "mere
nearly of my urecise striae politically—past and present—than any other
editor in the state „70• • • • But, first and foremost Kale was a newspaper
editor. Vs an editor, he had to deal with two problems that directly
M. Earringer to Hale, January 8, 1363, Hale Papers.
65paul. Cameron to Hale, June 6, 1363, Hale Papers.
^Fayetteville Observer. July 2, 1863.
^Fayetteville Observer. March 30, 1863.
^Fayetteville Observer. May 28, 1863.
^Fayetteville Observer. July 30, 1863.
'^Zebulon Vance to Hale, June 10, 1363, Rale Papers.
53
affected the stability of the Observer—censorship and inflation.
In general the government did not interfere with the concept
71
of freedom of the press during the war. Rather, editors voluntarily
restrained from printing improper material like troop movements.
However, penalties were enforced against editors who violated the me-
striction of printing material concerning army movements or information
72
that tended to undermine the confidence in government officials. But,
the government relied more on the co-operation of editors than on
force to censor news. In that respect Hale co-operated to his fullest
measure. He stated that many things should not be published because
his purpose as an editor 'was to encourage the public mind and strengthen
73
the public heart. When deserters were raiding at will in Randolph
County, Hale informed Vance that he probably already knew of the events,
but he wanted to assure him that he was not going to publish anything
about the subject, ana he hoped that the matter would be kept out of all
74
the papers.
With regard to deserters, other editors in Worth Carolina acted
similarly to Hale. For example, William Yates of the Western Democrat
wrote Hale that he refused to print news of the disaffection in the
central part of the state, indicating that he did not publish one-half of
^James G. Randall, "The Newspaper Problem in Its Bearing Upon
Military Secrecy during the Civil War," American Historical Review, XXIII
(January, 1913), 323, hereinafter cited as Randall, "The Newspaper Problem."
^Randall, "The Newspaper Problem," p. 313*
73Fayetteville C~: server. March 26, 1S63.
^•Hale to Vance, January 13, 1363, Zebulon B. Vance Governors’
Papers, State Department of Archives and History, Raleigh, hereinafter
cited as Vance Governors’ Papers. Hale wrote Vance several letters in
August, September, and October of 1363 on the same topic of deserters
and conscripts raiding North Carolina counties.
54
75
what he had heard. Thus, North Carolina editors, and Southern editors
as a whole, exercised discretion in the publishing of news that apparent-
76
ly exceeded the discretion of their Northern counterparts. Certainly
no one could have been more watchful about selecting what news to print
than Hale. When other editors found the need to criticize the government,
Hale declared that to silence the unfounded criticism, he would print no
77
point against the Confederacy. At the same time, he did not pretend
78
not to realize that the Observer was useful to the cause. Therefore,
like most Confederate editors, he was one of a group of men who felt
that they had done more to support the war than any other group in the
79
Confederacy with the exception of the army.
In doing his share for the cause, Kale also fought inflation
by keeping the price of the Observer at prewar prices until he could
bear the financial strain no longer. Late winter and early spring of
1363 saw North Carolina newspapers reluctantly raise their subscription
rates and/or reduce the size of the paper, The general rate of increase
was a collar per year for the semiweekly end a collar per year for the
weekly. The Standard raised its prices from $4.00 to *5.00 for the semi-
weekly and from *2.00 to 33.CO 80for the weekly in early February. The
Observer vent from *2.00 to *3.00 for the weekly and from 33.00 to 34»0Q
for the semiweekly in early March, if the subscription rates were paid
^William Yates to Hale, August 13, 1362, Hale Papers.
7°Randall, "The Newspaper Problem," p. 316.
77Hsle to Vance, June 27, 1363, Zebulon B. Vance Papers, State
Department of Archives and History, Pvleigh, hereinafter cited as Vance
Papers.
^Kale to Vance, June 27, 1363, Vance Papers.
73Jamas V. Silver, "Propaganda in the Confederacy," Journs 1 of
Southern History. XI (November, 1945), 497.
^/North C-rolina Standard. February 3, 1363•
55
Si <
in advance. Similar increases in the subscription rates followed in
82
the Greensboro Patriot. In the space of a month, the Wilmington Journal
raised the price of the weekly twice, from $2.50 to $3.00 and from $3.00
to $4.00, and the price of the daily once, from $3.00 to $10.00 per
822
year. Even Hale was forced to raise the subscription rate of the
Observer, both the weekly and the semi'weekly, a dollar per year on the
g /
first of June. No wonder Hale could honestly refuse the offer of Vance
to be the Director of the Board of Internal Improvements on the grounds
op
that he had a busy schedule. The operation of the paper consumed a
great deal of his time and energy, The problems of inflation and censor-
ship were not the only issues that occupied Hale’s mind during this
period. He became involved with other issues of greater importance to
the survival of the Confederacy than inflation or censorship.
The effect of the proclamations of the Confederate government
which instituted conscription in 1862 still reverberated in North Car-
olina in the spring of 1863. Once again, the controversy raged between
the authority of the state and the authority of the central government
with respect to furnishing troops. For the most part the issuie was
^Fayetteville Observer. March 5, 1363.
82Greensboro Patriot. March 12, 1863.
83Wilmington Journal. March 26, April 23, April 30, 1863.
84Fayetteville Observer, June 1, 1863. Despite all that he
could do, Hale could not stop inflation, and he had to raise the price
of the Observer according to the value of Confederate money. In January
of 1364 Kale raised the price of the 'weekly to $6.00 and the semiweekly
to $10.00. In July of the same year, the price rose to $10.00 for the
weekly and to $15.00 for the semiveekly. The following December the
price of the weekly climbed to $15.00 per year and the semiveekly to
$20.00 per year. By January 26, 1865, Hale charged $15.00 per six months
for the weekly and $20.00 per six months for the semiweekly.
85Hale to Vance, January 10, 1363, Zebulon B. Vance Governors'
Letter Books, 1862-1365, State Department of Archives and History, Raleigh,
hereinafter cited as Vance Governors' Books.
56
settled in 1563, but conscription left a bitter taste in the souths of
many Southerners, soldiers end civilians alike. Although seemingly
simple, the issue was complex with several sources of agitation.
In early January, Colonel T. F. August of Virginia was appointed
86
commander of conscripts in North Carolina, The fact that a Virginian
was in charge of gathering conscripts from North Carolina for the Confed-
erate Army irritated many people. This factor was eliminated when
Colonel Feter Mallett, who was in charge of conscripts In North Carolina
before Colonel August, relieved Colonel August after he had recovered from
, 37
his wounds suffered at Kinston in December, 1862. Because desertion
rates were running high among North Carolina troops, Vance published a
proclamation on January 26 which gave deserters until February 10 to get
88
back to their commands. Vance extended the date and later issued two
more proclamations 89giving deserters tine to return to their units.
Many people felt that the problem of deserters stemmed from
the very existence of conscription with an assist by the judicial inter-
pretetions of Justice Richmond Pearson, Chief Justice of the North
Carolina Supreme Court. The particular case that caused a great comno-
tion in North Carolina was the John N. Irwin case. In brief, Irwin fur-
nished a substitute who was subsequently drafted under the provisions of
the second conscription act. The Confederate War Department declared
that he was no longer protected from the draft and he was arrested by
North Carolina militia officers. When Irwin was brought before Chief
86
Tucker, Zeb Vance. r>. 249.
87
Tucker, Feb Vgnce, p. 249.
^Tucker, Zeb Vance, p. 315.
^Tucker, Zeb Vance, p. 313.
57
Justice Pearson, he ruled that the original contract should he upheld
and issued a writ of habeas corpus releasing Irwin. In effect, Chief
Justice Pearson declared the law unconstitutional. Irwin was rearrested
which led Vance to exchange letters with Secretary of War Seddon
stating that he was hound by the decision of the North Carolina courts
and judges. As a result of all this, Vance issued a proclamation on
May 11 directing that the militia officers were not to arrest any man
as a deserter or conscript who had been released by a writ of habeas
90
corpus from a North Carolina judge.
The conflict between the Confederate and North Carolina govern-
meats placed Eale in a difficult position. As a friend of Vance, he
knew that Vance felt that Justice Pearson was "corrupt and unfit to hold
91
his position on the bench!11 As a supporter of the Confederate cause,
he had refrained from making critical statements about the government.
Thus, he had the opportunity to launch a stinging attack upon Justice
Pearson. However, another matter of importance was at stake. Sven
though Vance nay not have appreciated Justice Pearson, he felt that the
civil lew of North Carolina had to be upheld, and that the law was
decided by the North Carolina courts. Hale held the same belief. As a
Whig he had strong feelings about constitutional government. As a Con-
servetive he disagreed with the Confederates on the limits of central
authority. Therefore, Hale defended the actions of Chief Justice
Pearson. He declared that if the decision could be shown to be wrong,
let it be done, but to belittle Chief Justice Pearson in vile language
90m
Tucker, Zeb Vance, pp. 291-293.
91Vance to Kale, January 1, 1863, Hale Papers.
58
Jf
92
uas not worthy of the space in any decent newspaper. Hale declared,
"There is higher lav; in this State than the decisions of the highest
92
Judicial officers. •t As Hale saw the situation, Vance had the duty to
uphold the civil law in North Carolina in order to prevent military
94
force.
Despite the claims by many that Pearson’s ruling had encouraged
the desertion rate among North Carolina troops, the North Carolina
Supreme Court in the June term of 1863 affirmed the ruling in the Irvin
case with a majority decision in the Ex Parte Bryan case, and thus Irvin
95
was released. The basis for the decision was that the War Department
had too much discretionary authority in interpreting the conscription
laws. Since the Confederacy had no Supreme Court, the North Carolina
Supreme Court felt that it was in their jurisdiction to interpret the
law according to the Confederate Constitution. Thus, the Court decided
that it had the power to discharge any man on a writ of habeas corpus
when it appeared that he had been unlawfully arrested.
In the end the Confederate government acquiesced in letting
North Carolina judicial authority remain Intact. It agreed that the
courts of North Carolina shared concurrent jurisdiction with the Con-
96
federate courts in issuing writs of habeas corpus. The crux of the
issue, the use of the North Carolina militia to enforce Confederate law,
was not settled until the legislature authorized Vance to use the
92Fayetteville Observer, Nay 21,1363•
^Fayetteville Observer, May 25, 1363.
^Fayetteville Observer. May 23, 1863.
^Douglas, 'Conscription and the Writ of Habeas Corpus," p. 34.
^Albert Burton Moore, Censor 1 -tion ar.d Conflict in the Confed-
g-racy. (1924), pp. 172-174.
59
militia to arrest deserters and conscripts. However, because the name
of the militia was then changed to '’Guard for Home Defense,” Justice
Fearson continued to issue writs. He said that Vance could not use the
Home Guards because the legislature had given him. the authority to use
the militia only. The legislature acted to correct the error end the
97
Home Guards were allowed to enforce the conscript lav;.
The arguments between North Carolina and the Confederate
government over conscripts was compounded by the exemption acts of 1363
in addition to the ones of 1362. The act of April affected, mail
carriers, and the one in hfey allowed Governor Vance to exempt state
officers whom he claimed that he needed to administer the state govern-
93
intent. As a result, Vance certified for exemption petty officers of all
99
kinds in the state and local governments.
The many problems created in North Carolina during the war
years only served to emphasize the pleas of Hale for unity during the
war and for debate after the peace, Hale commented on the problems when
lae felt comments were necessary, but he consistently strove to impress
the Southern people that the most vital issue at stake was complete
victory far the South. Thus, Hale did not embroil himself or the
Observer in the wartime problems to the extent that some of his fellow
editors embroiled themselves.
There was, however, one issue to which Hale totally directed
Ms efforts from the summer of 1S63 to the fall of 1864. That issue was
"the peace movement. That movement, in any form, represented a threat
9'Yates, ”Vance as bar Governor,” pp. 57-53.
9°Dcuglas, '’Conscription and the T'rit of Habeas Corpus,”, pp. 7-8.
9%)cuglss, ”Conscription and the Nrit of Habeas Corpus,”, p. 27.
60
to his crusade for complete victory. Therefore, Hale could not rest
until he had used every resource and influence at his command to elin-
Inate every vestige of that movement.
CHAPTER IV
POLITICAL ADVISER TO GOVERNOR VANCE
Of all the issues of the war years in which Hale acted
either as a commentator or participator, none threatened the very foun-
citations of the Confederate cause in North Carolina to the extent that
the peace mo\renent did. To Hale, the Confederate cause could overcome
"taxation, inflation, conscription, desertion, and the other problems that
the war spawned, but the cause could not survive a weakness of the
spirit to survive and to win, especially if that weakness were encour-
&,ged and nourished by the advocates of a peace on grounds other than
complete independence of North Carolina and the other Confederate states.
Because of the strong Union sentiment in North Carolina before
the war, one would have to assume that the Union sentiment would manifest
itself in some form or another if the South did not achieve its goal with-
in a relatively short tine after the war began. That sentiment did man-
ifest itself in the form of a peace movement within a year after Lincoln’s
call for troops. In mid-March of 1862 a meeting was held near Asheboro
at which a ’white flag was raised and the people offered prayers for
1
peace. If that meeting initiated the peace movement, it did not cause
an immediate turmoil in the state. However, by the end of 1862 two
factors were evident. First, William Holden through the Standard began
"to create the impression in the minds of some people of giving comfort
to the North.^ Second, Hale began to be concerned about the tone of
the Standard and its effect on the character of the people of North Car-
1A. Sellev Roberts, "The Peace Movement in North Carolina,"
'Mississippi Valiev Historical Review. XI (September, 1924), 195.
^Tucker, Zeb Vance, p. 356.
62
olina. Although he wanted to write Holden, he wrote a letter to
William A. Graham instead, explaining that he feared that the Standard
was doing harm "by making too much of party in these times, and unin-
3
tentionally encouraging disaffection." Hale sensed that his ally in
the promotion of the Vance campaign was using his power to encourage
"a great and growing evil."^ Despite his uneasiness about Holden’s
politics, Hale found little fault with Holden's declaration that the
only way to peace was through war, and its accompanying blood and
5
suffering. Graham assured Hale in his reply that the Standard was only
opposing the intolerance of the Confederate party to anyone who disagreed
with it about the conduct of the war. In questioning the policies of
the government, Graham told Hale that Holden only reflected the senti-
ment of the people.^ Hale turned his attention to other issues, but
not for long.
In early April of 1863 J. L. Pennington of the Raleigh
Progress stated in an article that he desired peace even if it were ob¬
7
tained on terms which conceded the rights and honor of the Confederacy.
That did not elicit a response in Hale, but 5n June when the Standard
8
published a communication in favor of reconstruction, Hale grieved.
^Hale to William A.. Graham, December 5, 1862, William Alexan-
der Graham Fapers, Southern Historical Collection, University of North
Carolina at Chapel Hill, hereinafter cited as Graham Papers. The type-
script copies of the Graham Papers were used for this study.
^"Hale to Graham, December 5, 1362, Graham Papers.
5North Carolina Standard« February 27, 1863.
^Graham to Hade, April 6, 1863, Graham Papers.
"^Richard E. Yates, "Governor Vance and the Peace Movement,"
North Carolina Historical Review, XVII (January, 1940), 4, hereinafter
cited as Yates, "Vance and the Peace Movement," Part I,
®John Young to Hale, July 3, 1863, Hale Papers.
63
He did not have long to grieve for the floodgates of the peace and re-
construction feelings opened during the warm days of June, and on top
cf the crest of the movement rode Holden. Some people damned him and
9
the Standard for doing the state more damage than an invading army.
That fact did not discourage Holden. He plunged ahead, advocating peace
10
on honorable terms and the need for immediate negotiations, By ad-
vocating negotiations with the North and peace meetings by the people,
Holden fell out of step with the Conservatives, including Vance and
Hale, which led Holden to weaken his ties with the Conservative party in
late June.^
During July the break in the Conservative ranks became a major
problem for the morale of North Carolina and other Southern states.
Justice Battle of the North Carolina Supreme Court, a prewar Whig and a
wartime Conservative, took time to write Hale a letter praising the "moral,
patriotic, common sense. humane and Christian course" of the Observer,
but more importantly he confided in Hale that ho feared a split in the
Conservative party between Vance and Hale, and those who wanted to end
the 12war, implying Holden. He hoped that Lee would be victorious in
his coming engagements and, thus, step the growing tendency toward
13
dissension. Unfortunately, not all old_line Whigs and wartime Con-
servatives sided with Hale against Holden. Jonathan Worth, later State
Treasurer under Vance, encouraged his friends to help the peace movement.
^?a3retteville Observer, June 4, 1863.
1 filorth Carolina Standard. June 19, 1963.
^Edgar Estes Folk, "W. 'I. Holden, Political Journalist, Editor
of North Cjrolina Standard, 1343-1365," (unpublished doctoral disserta-
tion, George Peabody College for Teachers, 1934), p. 568.
"l^Kemp Battle to Hale, July 3, 1863, Hale Papers.
13Battle to Hale, July 3, 1863, Hale Papers.
64
But he dared not incur the wrath of Hale. In a response to Hale's dis-
approval of some of his actions, Worth diplomatically informed Hale that
14
he had confidence in Hale's "impartial independence."
The Confederate defeats at Vicksburg and Gettysburg only
added fuel to the fire that Justice Battle had hoped would have been
quenched by Confederate victories. Holden stated in mid-July that the
people wanted the fighting stopped and negotiations begun, In addition,
he claimed that the South could not beat the North. Thus, he appealed
to reason in face of the fact that peace could not be attained by fight-
15
ing. That argument only induced factions of the Conservative and Con-
federate parties to unite in the common goal of chastizing Holden. The
State Journal, the Confederate party organ at Raleigh, already had
16
attacked Holden's personal character. After Holden's statements con-
cerning negotiations, the Wilmington Journal reprinted an editorial
from the Observer about peace, with the comments that it took pleasure
in copying the editorial and endorsed every word of it. Further, the
Journal stated that the editorial in the Observer contrasted pleasantly
with the "traitorous expression* of the Standard. with the reminder that
the editorial was from the Observer and not a "Democrat" or "Destructive"
17
paper. To the editors of the Journal, the peace movement reduced
party considerations or political disagreements. They said, "In the
presence of this issue we waive all former disagreements, or more recent
squabbles. .18
^Jonathan Worth to Hale, July 6, 1863, Joseph Gregoire de
Roulhac Hamilton (ed.), The Correspondence of Jon--.than North (1909), I, 244*
^North Carolina Standard. July 17, 1863.
1 ^Raleigh State Journal. July 3, 1363.
1Wilmington Journal. July 8, 1363.
1Wilmington Journal., July 8, 1363.
65
Although the opposition to Holden and the peace movement
mounted from all quarters, for political reasons Vance seemed reluctant
to sever the ties with Holden and to condemn him. Hale advised Vance
that by openly opposing the Standard. he merely confirmed its hositlity.
According to Hale, both the State Journal and the Raleigh Register should
have been silenced because their attacks on Holden had caused much of
the trouble. Hale wanted Vance to initiate a truce period "so all parties
could have time to come to their senses.J9 In his reply to Hale, Vance
contended that he did not see how a split could be avoided despite the
20
assertions by Holden that he would not make it. In the meantime, Hale
was being urged to thwart the evil that Holden represented with regard
21
not only to the peace movement, but to a possible counter revolution.
He received letters of encouragement from North Carolina civilians and
22
from North Carolina soldiers at the front.
By August the situation had deteriorated rapidly. Hale vigor-
ously maintained that there should be no party movement and that there
should be no quarreling between the people until independence was
23
achieved. But the split within the Conservative party was growing, and
Holden's faction within the Conservative party was increasing. Jonathan
Worth concluded that the masses and many intelligent people of the state
sympathized with Holden, and he felt that Holden understood "the popular
19Hale to Vance, July 24, 1863, Vance Papers.
^^Vance to Hale, July 26, 1363, Hale Papers.
^Frederick Fitzgerald to Hale, July 24, 1863, Kale Papers,
22 to Hale, August 6, 1863, Hale Papers.
27
^Fayetteville Observer. August 3, 1S63-
66
mind better than anybody else ,,24• • • • Although Worth was careful to
keep his views to himself, or at least in the family, other prominent
Conservatives of a differing view openly let Kale know their opinions.
Thomas Ruffin expressed the view of most Conservatives of North Carolina
when he wrote Hale a letter in which he stated that he deplored the war
from the beginning. However, unlike Worth, Ruffin felt that peace was
not to be gained by internal division. He felt that Holden's efforts at
peace were unpatriotic, and by the same token he praised Hale for being
patriotic. Expressing the views of a majority of the Conservative party,
he said, "I-fy great hope for the peace and v.reil being of North Carolina
rests in my confidence in the patriotic principles and feelings of our
worthy Governor Vance and yourself
Those "patriotic principles" led Vance to decide that a split
with Holden, and thus of the Conservative party, was a necessity. He
informed Hale that he had made up his mind to split with Holden, and
urged Hale to attack Holden, and to spare nothing because he was prepared
? A
to throw his life and reputation into the fight. However, Kale con-
tinued to attempt to salvage the situation in order to keep the contro-
versy from affecting the war effort as little as possible. He admitted
to a division in public sentiment and to a division between Vance and
Holden, but he earnestly appealed to Holden to denounce the peace
meetings and not to give way to the attacks of its enemies, that is,
^Jonathan Worth to John M. Worth, August 9, 1363, Hamilton,
The Correspondence of Jonathan ' orth. I, 253.
25Thomas Ruffin to Edward Hale, August 11, 1363, Joseph
C-regoire de Roulhac Hamilton (ed.), The Fhoers of Thomas Ruffin (191S-
1920), III, 327-329.
^°7ance to Hale, August 11, 1363, Hale Papers.
67
27
the Raleigh Register and the State Journal, Hale sincerely believed
that Holden wanted to calm the situation but that the ungent1emanly and
28
unpatriotic conduct of those two papers prevented him from doing it.
Hale received little support in his persistent efforts to mend
the break. Because his opinions carried so much weight in the public
mind, Kale wanted William A. Graham to express his views publicly about
the situation, but Graham acted cautiously. Meantime, Vance prepared
an open letter to the public explaining his position and declaring a
29
split between Holden and himself. Before he published the letter, he
showed it to Holden and asked his opinion. Holden advised Vance not to
30
publish it. Then Vance sent the letter to Graham who advised Vance
31
also not to publish it. With the lettex* unpublished, Hale still hoped
that the issue would subside at this juncture, but hi3 hopes were dashed
by an editorial reply by Holden to Hale's appeal to resolve the differen¬
ces and to support the cause.
Holden announced that the United States would not recognize
the Confederacy. He stated that if the choice came between defeat by the
North and reconstruction, then he was for reconstruction, As for the
peace meetings, he avowed that neither he nor the Standard was responsible
for the people who attended them. lastly, he accused the Observer of
poor leadership by grouping one portion of people under Vance and
?7
Fayetteville Observer. August 17, 1863.
2®Hale to Ruffin, August 17, 1863, Hamilton, The Papers of
Thomas Ruffin. Ill, 332.
29Vance to John Haughton, August 17, 1863, Vance Ihpers.
^William Woods Holden, The Memoirs of W. U. Holden. The John
Lawson Monographs of the Trinity College, XI (1911), 23-24*
31
William A. Graham to Vince, August 21, 1863, Vance Papers.
68
32
another tinder Holden. Thus, Holden showed no inclination to recant.
Rather, he argued that as long as the issues were discussed on their
33
merits, there was no danger of ill feeling. He was mistaken.
In the latter part of August, Seaton Gales, former editor and
owner of the Raleigh Register, expressed the desire r,to tender to you
^Hale7 the right hand of friendship and good will n• • • • as a sign of
34
support in the struggle against the peace movement, Not even the
more pacific Greensboro Patriot concurred in the efforts of Holden toward
peace. It stated that it desired peace but only after freedom and in-
dependency. It was against continuing the war but even more against the
35
idea of submission. The Wilmington Journal emphasized its position
that it had ceased to fight with other papers or even to reply to attacks
upon it, which meant that the peace issue had transcended party alle-
36
giance and that it was ceasing its quarrel with the Observer. But most
important of all, Hale condemned Holden for saying that the people should
speak openly about issues, because Hale felt that tolerance would give
them the 37right to utter treason.
For all his many years as a nationalism and constitutionalist,
Hale would not allow personal freedoms to endanger a fight for survival.
To admit the personal right to discuss peace and to allow peace meetings
would be to undermine the cause, and if the cause were defeated, there
-^Nort'n C-rolinn Standard, August 25, 1363.
33North Carolina Standard. August 21, 1363.
34seaton Gales to Rale, August 16, 1863, Hale Papers.
^Greensboro Patriot. August 20, 1863.
36r, filming ton Journal, August 29, 1863.
^Fayetteville Observer, August 27, 1363.
69
would be no need to worry about personal rights because there would be
no rights at all. Thus, Hale reasoned that complete freedom to discuss
peace without victory or a separate peace would lead to treason, and
treason would destroy the heart of the Confederate effort. Peace had
to come to all the Confederate States with the realization of indepen-
dence. The fact was apparent to Hale that North Carolina was not a free
agent to deal with the North independently of the other Confederate
States. He stated strongly that North Carolina would not listen to the
38
idea of separating from the Confederacy. To Hale, Holden was wrong
even to hint at that possibility.
By the end of August, Hale had grown intemperate in the debate
between his position and that of Holden. His growing irritation re-
ceived support from many Conservatives, but it also led many Conserve-
tives to search their conscience for the right belief. Torn between the
Holden-North position and the Vance-Hale position, one man expressed the
conviction of many men when he wished Hale were as wise as he was true,
and when he said that he believed Holden was nearer right than Kale
39
but that he disagreed with the former as to timing. Therefore, as the
formal break with Holden neared, the Conservative ranks wavered behind
Vance and Hale, but the majority continued to push onward under the
Conservative banner.
In light of the extent to which the controversy within the
Conservative party had grown, Vance vainly endeavored to reach a solu-
•^Fayetteville Observer. August 31, 1863.
^Samuel F. Phillips to William A. Graham, August 28, 1863,
Graham Papers.
70
tion to the problem. As a gesture of reasonable debate and hopeful com-
promise, he summoned to Raleigh in early September his closest advisers.
He called a conference for September 2 in Raleigh at which he requested
40
the presence of Edwin Reade, John Gilmer, Holden, Graham,and Hale.
Gilmer could not attend, but he informed Graham that he wanted him to go
because Vance was in trouble and something was needed to quiet the public
41
mind. Graham informed Hale of the meeting and told Hale that he was
disturbed that he was being criticized in the Hestern Democrat for not
42
making an address to the people on the state of affairs. He urged
Hale to attend the meeting because Vance needed the counsel of friends
like Hale.^3 Hale did not attend the meeting along with Gilmer and
Reade. However, Hale wrote Vance a letter advising him that Holden was
growing stronger because Holden felt that he and Vance agreed on every-
44
thing except a minor point. Reade also wrote Vance a letter advising
45
him to keep relations with Holden. But in the absence of Gilmer,
Reade, and Hale, the burden fell to Vance and Graham to convince Holden
that his course was a destructive one.
After failing to convince Holden to discourage the peace
meetings, Graham advised Vance to issue a mild denunciatory proclams.-
46
tion against Holden, Thus, one resxi.lt of this meeting was that Holden
refused to abandon the movement or to alter his position. A second re-
^lates, "Vance and the Peace Movement,” Part I, p. 14.
^Jchn Gilmer to TALlliam A. Graham, August 29, 1363, Graham
Papers.
^William A. Graham to Hale, August 27, 1863, Graham Papers.
^Graham to Hale, August 27, 1363, Graham Papers.
^Hale to Vance, September 2, 1863, Vance Papers.
45vance to Hale, September 7, 1863, Hale Papers.
^^Raper, "Holden: A Political Biography," pp. 68-69.
71
suit was that Vance issued a cautious proclamation that failed to dis-
tinguish the difference between Holden and himself much less stating
that 47they had separated, For whatever reason Hale missed the con-
ference in Raleigh, he missed an opportunity to exert a dominating in-
fluence over Vance at a time when he seemed confused as to precisely
what course of action to take. Perhaps his presence was not necessary
for instead of criticizing Vance’s proclamation, he later informed
48
Vance that it pleased him. Instead of clearly breaking with Holden
as he wished, Vance listened to Hale’s advice to try to rectify the
differences between Holden and himself.
While still trying to get Holden back into the adninistra-
tion’s fold, Hale made it plain that Holden encouraged others to commit
treason. He pointed out the fine distinction between the revolutionary
rights of people and the constitutional rights of people in a public
meeting. People had the right to rebel against a government, but in-
dividuals did not have that right of rebellion, and to advocate that
they did was treason. Therefore, he argued, "When people assemble in
public meetings and resolve in favor of the destruction of the Government
of North Carolina ss established by The People, they are instigating
treason. „49 Not that Hale would have refused to report the public meet-
ings in the Observer. He would have done so if they had not advocated
50
treason or defied the law. In Hale's opinion a great many of the
meetings fell into that category.
47
Yates, "Vance and the Peace Movement," Part I, p. 16.
4-^Eale to Vance, September 9, 1863, Vance Papers.
49jayetteville Observer. September 7, 1863.
^^Fayetteville Observer. September 7, 1863.
72
In addition to advocating treason or defying the law, many
of the meetings favored reconstruction. Yet, the Standard said that it
was against that concept. The ambiguity in Holden's attitude confused
Hale. Considering Holden's earlier stand, from the call for troops in
May of 1861 until the summer of 1863, it would seem that he had dramati-
cally changed his mind. Certainly the people of the state had reason to
be discontented, frustrated, and resentful over conditions in North
Carolina and throughout the Confederacy. In that regard, Holden could
be considered no different. But, in his role as editor of a widely
circulated newspaper, his opinion had force, and Hale contended, that a
force for a disruptive cause only compounded the problems of the war.
Despite his misgivings about Holden's peace activities, Hale
51
denounced the mob destruction of the Standard on September 9. Un-
fortunately for Hale, he did not get the facts correct, and thus re-
ceived a sharp letter from Vance advising him to hold his temper against
the Raleigh papers and to correct his report that a fight had taken
place between Raleigh citizens and the Georgia soldiers who had formed
52
the mob. In retaliation for the destruction of the Standard. some of
Holden's friends destroyed the press of the State Journal, whose editor
53
had long called for a supression of Holden, Hale had always blamed
the State Journal as a source of agitation in the peace movement in that
he felt that its denunciation of the Standard had led Holden to become
more and nore defensive. In fact, Hale told Vance that he got the im-
^Fayetteville Observer. September 14, 1363.
^Vance to Hale, September 20, 1363, Hale Papers.
^Richard F.. Yates, The Confederacy and Z_eb Vance. Confederate
Seniannial Studies, VIII (195377*92.'
73
pression from people that they would be glad if all four papers in
54
Raleigh were defunct.
The destruction of the Standard initiated an exchange of
letters between Hale and Holden in which Holden declared how much he
appreciated Hale’s views and his friendship, while Hale declared that
he did not doubt that the Standard would appear again despite the out-
J
rage of the mob. Even though Hale wished publicly that the Standard
and the State Journal would turn over a new leaf and change their ways,
no doubt he would not have been too saddened had he never seen either one
of them again. As for Vance, the destruction of the Standard did not seem
to be as popular in Raleigh as he would have preferred even though he
56
informed Hale that the destruction of the press weakened Holden.
Therefore, the destruction of the Standard only aggravated feelings in
the state and between the old allies within the Conservative party and
did nothing toward reconciliation.
One man in the Conservative party to whom Hale wanted to
state his position was William A. Graham. More than ever, Hale felt
that Graham could do much to weaken Holden and the peace movement and to
strengthen the Conservative party and its principles by declaring his
beliefs. Hale told Graham that Thomas Ruffin had done Hale the honor of
classifying him with Graham and Vance as the three persons in North Car-
olina to whom Ruffin looked to save the state. Hale argued that since the
public had heard from Vance and himself, now it should hear from the
-^Kale to Vance, September 22, 1363, Vance Papers,
55Holden to Hale, September 14, 1363; Hale to Holden, Sep-
temter 22, 1363, Hale Papers.
5wance to Hale, September 2C, 1363, Hale Papers.
77,
57
greatest of the three—-William A. Graham. Of course, the Observer was
available to Graham as a medium of presentation.
Graham responded to Hale’s request by stating that he had an
aversion to writing for the public. But, he promised to prepare some-
thing, and because he had been the target of much criticism by the state
press, he decided that he should give more than lust a simple statement
58
of his views. On the last day of September, Graham forwarded to Hale
a paper presenting his arguments against reuniting with the North and
presenting his vievr of dealing mildly with the peace men in order to en-
59
courage them to reconsider their actions, After considering Graham's
paper, apparently Hale did not think the content would have the desired
effect and informed Graham of his opinion. Graham replied that he re-
Spected Hale’s opinion about the effect of the paper, and he asked
Hgle to return it because he would "rather suffer individual injustice
than add to the bitterness of the strife prevailing among parties in
60
the State.” In addition, Graham told Hale that he had mentioned to
some of his friends at Raleigh the existence of his position paper to
Hale, but he assured Hale that he would explain to them why it had not
61
appeared in the Observer.
When Graham's statement did not appear in the Observer. Vance
informed Hale that people were saying that it was against Hale and so
he had refused to publish it. Vance advised Hale that the best course
•^Eale to William A. Graham, September 16, 1863, Graham Papers.
-^Graham to Hale, September 21, 1863, Graham Papers.
^Graham to Hale, September 30, 1863, Graham Papers.
^Graham to Hale, October 11, 1863, Graham Papers.
"^Graham to Hale, October 11, 1863, Graham Papers.
75
vas to publish Graham's paper, He also advised him to say a good word
for Thomas Fuller for Congress.^2 Hale immediately replied to Vance that
Graham withdrew the letter because of possible harm to himself, but he
^
emphasized that he had been willing to publish it. Furthermore, Hale
resented the implication that he placed party politics above the good
of the Confederacy because he did not support Thomas Fuller for Congress.
He admitted that he hoped to be associated with the Whigs when the war
was over, but not before. Even though Fuller was a Conservative, that
did not mean that he was obligated to support him. He told Vance in
no uncertain language that he would support "no man, Conservative or not,
who is otherwise than true." 64
Vance was not long in sending Kale a letter apologizing to
Hale for displeasing him about the Graham letter, and accepting Hale's
65
reason for not coming out for Fuller. Despite the fact that Graham
supported the war effort and sought peace only through the appropriate
channels of President Davis and the Richmond government, Hale always re¬
gretted that Graham did not lift his voice or his pen against Holden.
To Hale, it seemed that Graham had the talent and the public confidence
to lift his voice or his pen and do effortlessly what other men consid-
66
ered a Herculean task.
^Vance to Hale, October 26, 1863, Hale Papers.
63Hale to Vance, October 27, 1S63, Vance Papers.
64-Hale to Vance, October 27, 1863, Vance Papers.
65Vance to Hale, November 9, 1863, Hale Papers.
66>Hsle to Cornelia Spencer, April 9, 1866, Cornelia Fhillips
Spencer Papers, Southern Historical Collection, University of North
Carolina at Chapel Hill, hereinafter cited as Spencer Papers. Typescript
copies of the Spencer Papers were used for this study.
76
Hale regretted that Graham did not speak against Holden, but
in the fell of 1863 he regretted that he had to speak against Holden.
They were allies and both were Conservatives. More importantly, both
wanted peace. Hale wanted peace, but he believed the only way that
peace could be negotiated was between the two governments. However,
since the North was unwilling to make peace except on terms of uncon-
ditional surrender, he maintained his philosophy that the war could
terminate only with a victory by the Confederate States resulting in
67
„
independence. But Holden also avowed that he was for independence.
What he opposed was indefinite fighting and the policies of President
Davis. In his opinion, those two factors did not impair his friendship
68
with Hale. Hale disagreed. He curtly informed Holden that he
supported Davis as much as possible, and he had confidence in him as
69
President. Hale also felt that Holden had strained their friendship by
pursuing a course in the Standard. which had resumed publication in Octo—
ber, that resulted in injustice to the Observer, while he simultaneously
maintained that the Observer had issued only friendly appeals to the
70
Standard. Thus, by the end of November, Hale and Kolden irrevocably
ended their three year sojourn as allies. While Holden charged that
Kale had gone over to the nDestructives,rt Hale held the Standard account¬
able for voting North Carolina into the war, and he labelled it the
life of the secession party before the war and in the fall of 1863, the
^Fayetteville Observer. September 24j 1863.
°®Holden to Hale, October 7, 1863, Hale Papers.
69
Hslb to Holden, October 8, 1863, Hale Papers.
70
Fayetteville Observer. November 16, 1863.
77
life of the peace party, or according to Hale, "the real secession
party. „71
To many people North Carolina entered her darkest hour of
the war during December of 1863. No one doubted that the Conservative
party had split into two factions—one behind Holden and the Standard
and the other behind Hale and the Observer. Despite its earlier claim
of endorsing no party, the Wilmington Journal represented the Con-
federate party in the absence of the defunct Stgte Journal and the re-
located Raleigh Register at Petersburg, Virginia. When North Carolina
and the Confederacy needed solidarity of action in the face of military
setbacks, North Carolina had three competing political parties, However,
the Confederate party press approached the political division with
peace gestures toward the Conservatives. The Wilmington Journal attacked
Holden and not the Conservative party, or even Hale. Old Democratic
enemies of Ha3.e extended their apologies and voiced their admiration and
72
respect for Hale. The major political gulf lay between the Conserve-
tive party and the Peace party, with the latter claiming itself to he
the true Conservative party. People expressed their opinion to Hale
that Holden's actions were giving a false impression to the North about
solidarity of North Carolinians, and they even appeared surprised that
73
Davis did not arrest Holden. Other people were of the same opinion
about Holden's injury to North Carolina, but they looked to Hale and his
71
Fayetteville Observer. November 30, 1863.
72Alfred Waddell wrote Hale, rtI owe you an apology for in-
suiting language used by me when editing the Wilmington Herald." See
Waddell to Hale, December 2, 1863, Hale Papers.
. A. Smith to Hale, December 17, 1863, Hale Papers.
73
74
"Holden Killer" to curtail Holden's activities.
The growing strength of the peace movement in December caused
Vance to despair over the conditions in the state. He told Hale that
matters were "gloomy in the extreme," and that he feared that North
Carolina was "on the eve of another revolution and civil war • • • •
From a determined position in August, Vance seemed confused as to vrhat
course of action to take in December. He even speculated to Hale that if
the Congress offered the State Legislature to treat for peace, would it
76
do any good? Vance sought Hale's advice and the advice of other loyal
Conservatives, but the decision had to be his decision. His advisers
offered him no clear course to follow. During the last several months
of confusion and hesitation in the Conservative ranks, Hale had attempted
to heal the wound between Holden and the other Conservatives, but on
Hale's terms and in his language. Since the conditions had not been met,
he did what he had advised Vance not to do earlier~split with Holden.
As governor, Vance had to act to gain any order out of chaos in the Con-
servative party and the state. As the old year ended and the new year
began, Vance did act.
In light of a proposal by the peace movement to call, for a con-
vention in May of 1364 to consider a peace treaty with the North, Vance
informed Hale that the only issue to be emphasized was Lincoln or no
77
Lincoln. He then informed Davis that if the Richmond government nego-
74James Johnson to Hale, December 5, 1363, Hale Papers.
^Vance to Hale, December 10, 1363, Hale Papers.
"^Vance to Hale, December 21, 1863, Hale Papers.
77iVance to Hale, December 20, 1363, Kale Papers.
79
tiated with the Washington government, and if the terms were rejected,
78
then the war feeling would be strengthened. By the time Davis re-
79
plied to Vance that he should abandon the policy of conciliation,
Vance had written Graham that he had decided to see the Conservative
party destroyed and Holden in hell before he would allow an action
such as a peace convention to dishonor North Carolina and the Confeder-
80
acy. Thus, after six months of vacillation on the part of Hale and
Vance as to the proper course to take against the peace movement, and
disagreement between themselves on where and when to attack, they were
ready to launch a drive that would bury Holden and the peace movement
for the course of the war.
Although Hale’s campaign against Holden and the peace move-
ment proceeded in January with the complete support of Vance, the cam-
paign encountered two problems that Hale felt reduced its effectiveness.
First, Hale received letters urging him to get Graham to speak against
81
the contemplated convention movement. In response to those urgings
and to his owti belief that Graham’s public support was needed once
again, Hale sent Graham a letter that he had received from "a gentleman
of position and influence” that criticized Graham for not speaking
against the convention movement, because his silence gave the movement
82
strength and conveyed sympathy with the movement. Graham replied to
^Zebulon Vance to Jefferson Davis, December 30, 1863, Official
Records, (Array), Series I, LI, Part II, 807.
"^Jefferson Davis to Zebulcn Vance, January 8, 1864, Official
Records, (Army). Series I, LI, Bart II, 808-810.
^lance to William A. Graham, January 1, 1864, Graham Fapers.
^R. 3. French to Hale, January 22, 1864, Hale Papers.
82
Hale to Graham, January 25, 1864, Graham Papers.
SO
Hale that the letter he had enclosed was from an excitable person,
83
probably an original secessionist. He felt that the person tended
to denounce anyone who did not use methods of an evil nature to control
8A?
events. As for himself, Graham said that he would communicate any-
85
thing to Hale if their opinion varied.
In his reply to Graham, Hale did not question the right to
hold a convention but only the purpose for which the convention was to
meet, "to enable North Carolina to take her own affairs into her own
hands, and to withdraw the key-stone from the arch. „86 He implored
Graham to give his opinion to the people against the convention with
the argument, "Be assured that it needs every effort to defeat it. „87
But once again, as in September of 1863, Hale had to be content without
Graham’s influential words to the public, although Graham told him in a
letter not for publication that he was against any movement leading to
38
the abandonment of rights and that he was against a convention.
A second problem that the campaign against the peace move-
ment encountered also involved Graham. Early in January, George Davis
of North Carolina resigned from the Confederate Senate to join Fresi-
dent Davis' cabinet in Richmond. Vance wanted Graham or David Swain to
replace Davis for the remainder of his term, and he asked Hale for his
39
suggestion. Hale also wanted Graham, but Graham refused the offer,
S3Graham to Hale, January 29, 1864, Graham Papers.
^Graham to Hale, January 29, 1364, Graham Papers.
85Graham to Hale, Janaury 29, 1864, Graham Papers.
8tdlale to Graham, February 5, 1364, Graham Papers.
'Hale to Graham, February 5, 1364, Graham Papers.
gO
Graham to Kale, January 29, 1864, Graham Papers.
^^Vance to Hale, January 7, 1864, Kale Papers.
81
90
much to Hale*s regret. In declining the position because of busi-
ness, Graham opened the door for Vance to extend an offer to Swain,
but he, too, refused. However, Swain recommended one of Vance's
91
closest friends, Edwin Reade, for the position. Vance accepted
Swain's advice and selected Reade. When Reade made a statement in a
Conservative caucus meeting to the effect that the North Carolina General
Assembly should issue some expression of readiness or desire for peace,
Graham did not agree with his sentiments, and he informed Hale that
92
"his views prevailed among friends^ Regardless of Reade's statement,
Graham still had confidence in Reade, and he informed Hale that he
93
assumed that Vance still had confidence in him.
The confidence in Reade by Vance and Graham did not placate
Hale. Re wrote Graham that he regretted even more that Graham did not
accept the Senate seat since Reade had made those comments in the caucus
meeting and had made a speech in the Senate that tended "to excuse or
94
justify action of the Standard and its party. T1 Hale stated his
respect for Reade personally and politically, hut he stated his doubts
that 95Reade was fit to represent the state. Reade's action so incensed
Hale that he refused to publish Reade's speech, but commented privately
96
on it in severe language. Vance smoothed Hale's ire by telling him
that he believed Reade was sound on the main issues, even though he felt
90
Eale to Graham, January 23, 1864, Hale Papers.
'"^Graham to Hale, January 29, 1864, Graham Papers.
^^Graham to Hale, January 29, 1364, Graham Papers.
9737Graham to Hale, January 29, 1864, Graham Papers.
q7 i‘‘_Hale to Graham, February 5, 1864, Graham Papers.
95Hale to Graham, February 5, 1864, Graham Papers.
9DSale to George Little, February 8, 1364, Hale Papers.
97
that Reade was timid about the convention. Hale apparently did not
say too much more about the matter either to Graham or Vance, He did
tell Swain, the man who had initially recommended Reade, that Reade's
98
appointment may have been good policy, but his speech was a mistake.
Hale did not have to regret for long that Graham had not accepted the
Senate offer from Vance because in the election for the Senate seat in
February, Graham won and took Reade's place in the Confederate Congress
in Kay.
If Reade’s comments and Graham's lack of comments hurt the
campaign against Holden and the peace movement, the establishment of
the Confederate in Raleigh helped it. Early in February Kale announced
in the Observer that the Confed erate had recently begun its operation in
99
Raleigh in place of the discontinued State .Journal. Alexander M.
Gorman established the Confederate. and he employed Duncan McRae of
Fayetteville as editor. Before his association with the paper, McRae
demonstrated his extremism by writing Hale a letter in which he suggested
that he advise Vance to suspend the writ of habeas corpus and declare
100
martial law. In contrast to John Spelman, the editor of the State
Journal, Hale called McRae a political friend, and he agreed with his
vxew/s even though the Confederate occupied the same political position
as that of the State Journal. Hale recognized the advantage of a favor¬
able press in Raleigh, and he informed Vance that the Democrats were
^Vance to Hale, February 11, 1864, Hale Papers.
9%ale to David L. Swrain, February 16, 1864, David Lowery
Swain Papers, Southern Historical Collection, University of North Car-
oiina at Chapel Hill, hereinafter cited as Swrain Papers, Southern
Historical Collection.
99?ayetteville Observer. February 4, IS64.
lOQDuncan McRae to Hale, January 16, 1364, Hale Papers.
83
"
101
anxious to be of his party, Thus, by February Vance had former po-
litical enemies as allies against Holden and the peace movement, with the
Confederate attacking Holden more than defending Vance. Its influence
in Raleigh and its friendly relationship with Hale made it an impor-
"tant asset in Vance's favor.
Other events of February contributed to make that month a
•vital one in the war era. In addition to the attacks on Holden by the
Confederate and the Democratic newspapers, Hale continued to pour criti-
cisra upon the Standard, claiming that if Northern armies should sweep
102
across North Carolina, the blame lay at the door of the .Standard.
Similarly, he emphasized the inconsistency of the Standard by charging
that its "present favorites are men whom it was formerly in the constant
habit of denouncing, and those whom it now denounces are men who were
once its prime favorites. it 1°3 Hale did not have the Standard for a
target for long because on February 25 the Observer reported that Holden
had suspended publication of the Standard. but the report gave no reason
UK
for the action.
One reason connected with the suspension of the Standard in-
wolves the suspension of the writ of habeas corpus by an act of the Con-
federate Congress on February 15. The act provided for the writ to be
suspended for a period of five months, In general, the cases which the
suspension of the writ affected were "treason, resisting the authority
of the Confederacy or inciting others to abandon the cause, attempts to
101Hale to Vance, February 8, 1364-, Hale Papers.
102?oyetteviile Observer. February 1, 1864.
^-"'Fayetteville Observer, February 15? 1364.
1 ^Fayetteville Observer. February 25, 1364.
84
e.'sroid military service, and other offenses which might weaken the Con-
federate government in its fight for independency, „1°5 Specifically,
the act applied to thirteen cases in which the writ would be suspended.
Certainly Holden had reason to be alarmed that the act was aimed at
him, and he had reason to see the terms of the act as a threat to the
existence of the Standard by reducing its freedom if not, in fact,
shutting it down. Regardless of the effect that the act had upon
Holden's decision to suspend the Standard. a factor that did help Vance
in his campaign for re-election, the act suspending the writ of habeas
corpus caused other repercussions in North Carolina.
Eefore the act of suspension had been enacted, Hale wrote
Bmncan McRae that he felt that the suspension would be hazardous since
he could not say whether or not the circumstances in North Carolina jus-
tified the act. Although he expressed regret that the writ might be
suspended, he said, "I cannot determine what to suggest instead of
force." 106 After the act had become law, Kale commented in the Observer
on February 22 that he questioned the policy of suspension, but he did
not question the right of the Congress and the President to judge matters
affecting the policy and the necessity to implement it. Although h8
said that he hoped that the power would not be abused, he could not
kelp adding, for Holden's benefit, "True men had nothing to fear from
the suspension.n107 That bit of advice from Hale's pen conveniently
coincided with the launching of Vance's official campaign for governor
105
Yates, "Vance as War Governor," p. 57.
^nale to Duncan McRae, January 20, 1364, Hale Papers.
107
Fayetteville Observer. February 22, 1864.
85
108
by a speech in Wilkesboro condemning the peace movement.
While both Vance and Hale disliked the act suspending the
writ of habeas corpus, they were not prepared for the action taken by
Chief Justice Richmond Pearson of the North Carolina Supreme Court on
the day after the Wilkesboro speech. In the case of Edward Walton,
Pearson construed the act to apply only to criminals and not to con-
scription petitioners. His interpretation of the act was important
since the Confederate government had recently abolished substitution and
had made those men who had furnished substitutes liable for conscription,
Pearson ruled that Congress had no authority to violate a contract made
between a substitute and a principal. He issued a wit of habeas corpus
109
to Walton, and the immediate effect was Walton's release, However,
the long range effect was a division of the Supreme Court since Pearson
stood alone in his interpretation of the act and in his willingness to
release petitioners on a writ of habeas corpus in defiance of congres-
sional law. Hale reported on February 25 that both Justice Battle and
Justice Manly decided that they had no authority to issue writs in light
of the fact that Congress had srispended the writ of habeas corpus and
that the constitutionality of the act abolishing substitution had not
110
been tested in court. Until the June term of 1864, when the North
Carolina Supreme Court ruled two to one to overrule Pearson and to up-
hold the constitutionality of the act conscripting principals of sub-
10SRichsrd E. Yates, "Governor Vance and the Peace Movement,"
North Carolina Historical Review, XVII (April, 1940), 96, hereinafter
cited" as Yates, *Vance and the Peace Movement," Part II.
^^Yates, "Vance as War Governor," p. 60.
11 Op2yetteville Observer. February 25, I064.
86
stitutes, Fearson continued to issue writs of habeas corpus to prin-
cipals of substitutes, while Battle and Manly refused to issue writs on
the grounds that the suspension did apply to principals and that the
111
act of suspension of habeas corpus was constitutional.
While the controversy over the writ of habeas corpus absorbed
some of the attention of Vance and Hale, and they followed the issue
with interest -until the summer, their main concern during the last part
of February and the early part of March was the gubernatorial election.
An important step was taken by Vance on the last day of February when
112
he notified Hale that he felt that the convention movement was dead.
This statement evidenced a growing confidence that Vance had in his
position. Three days later on ihrch 3, Vance gave a speech calling the
convention movement unauthorized and stating the impossibility of re-
113
construction. Up to that time Vance had been running for re-election
without formal opposition. On that date, Holden officially announced
114
his candidacy for governor. Speaking for the Democrats, McRae in-
formed Hale that the Democrats would not put up a candidate because it
would remove support from Vance and they favored Vance over Holden,
115
even if they were not completely pleased with Vance. With the public
^Before the Supreme Court overruled Pearson's decision, the
General Assembly of North Carolina passed an act in June affirming the
legitimacy of the writ of habeas corpus. When the act suspending the
writ expired on August 1, 1864, the Confederate Congress refused to
renew it. Thus, from February to August of 1364, the writ of habeas
corpus was never fully suspended in North Carolina.
"*‘^¥ance to Hale, February 28, 1864, Hale Papers.
113
Fayetteville Observer, March 3, 1864,
^^Fayetteville Observer. March 7, 1864.
115p>uncan McRae to Hale, March 3, 1864, Hale Papers.
87
announcement by Holden that he would seek the office of governor, the
issue of the peace movement reduced itself to a power struggle between
Holden and Vance for control of state policies for the duration of the
war.
The suggestion by Vance to Hale to attack Holden and make him
"the daddy of secession in N. C.1.116 indicated the tack that the cam-
paign would take for the next five months, Vance decided to place the
onus of secession upon Holden for his secessionist activities of 1850
and for his vote for North Carolina to secede in the May convention of
1861. Vance did not want to alienate those voters who were growing
tired of the war so he offered no concessions to the Confederate party^
while be attempted to indicate to the supporters of peace the possible
117
dangers of Holden's plan. He could afford to more or less ignore
the Confederate party since he had the support of its principal organ,
the Confederate. and he had the assurance of Duncan McRae that the Den-
ocrats would not enter a candidate for governor. Vance wanted peace,
but he did not want peace on any terms that did not have the support of
the Confederate government at Richmond and its avowed policy of indepen-
dence. No doubt his campaign strategy reflected the advice that Hale
had accumulated in forty years of observing political campaigns.
Vance built his platform primarily for the moderates, who
formed a majority of the voters,while he largely ignored the extremists
of war and of peace. Since the extremists of war had no candidate in
the field, Vance ignored them more than the extremists of peace. In so
116
Vance to Hale, March 6, 1864, Hale Papers.
117.
Yates, The Confederacy end Zeb Vance. p. 103.
83
doing, he sought to take support away from Holden, who wanted to use
Vance's attitude of condemnation of the peace movement as a lever to
pull moderate and peace voters to himself. Basically, Holden desired
North Carolina to assert itself as a sovereign body and by special con-
118
vention obtain an early peace. Holden was a Union supporter in 1364
"because he saw the futility of the war and felt it would be far better
to make an honorable peace while possible, instead of being forced
later to accept unconditional surrender.
Of course, that peace policy which Holden enunciated during
the spring of 1364 could not have been more removed from the view that
Hale had of the war situation if it had been intentionally designed.
Hot only did Holden's policies differ from those of Hale, but his polit—
leal involvement differed also from that of Hale. During his years as
editor of the Observer. Hale limited his political involvement to cam-
paigning for other men, not for himself, Unlike Holden, if Hale had any
desire to seek and to hold any elected public office, he never let those
desires become manifest into overt action. However, on at least two
instances, Hale received encouragement to run for public office. Ironically,
one instance involved receiving encouragement from none other than Holden
himself.
In the summer of 1862, Holden attempted to persuade Hale to
run for the State Senate by saying of Hale, "He would suggest that we
know of no man who • • • is so justly entitled to the honor of a seat in the
"*"*%aper, "Holden: A Political Biography," p. 79.
119
Raper, "Holden and the Peace Movement," p. 494.
89
next Senate of North Carolina » 120• • • • Hale declined to run for the
office. The next summer Hale's name vas suggested for the Confederate
Congress. One ran at Fort Fisher, North Carolina, informed Hale, "With
the thousands of others in the 4th Congressional District who are
really anxious, and believe that you will consent to serve us in the en-
suing Congress of the Confederate States of America, are the members of
Co. "B", 36th N. C. Artillery. ,,121 Despite that endorsement and the
129
praise of the Greensboro Patriot for being a "true and honest man,"
Hale once again declined to run for public office.
To Hale, the Observer required enough of his energies vithout
trying to be a politician and a newspaper editor at the same time. The
absence of Hale from politics induced David L. Swain to lament to Hale
that he could render a great service to the state if he were in politics
123
at Raleigh. Hale did not let Swain's advice change his attitude to-
ward holding office even when the advice was coupled with the praise,
"Cur opinions have coincided so nearly during your editorial career of
forty years. 1,124 Perhaps the best reason for Hale's refusal to enter
politics came from Holden. The man who successfully combined the two
careers of politician and newspaper editor said of Hale in 1881, "Mr.
Hale has shown his good sense, in that he has never sought or held
125
public office." In the spring of 1864, Holden may have wished at
one time or another that he had had better sense than to run for public
"*^%orth Carolina Standard. July 12, 1862.
John M. Kelly to Hale, September 7, 1363, Hale Papers.
I^Greensboro Patriot. August 27, 1863.
"*^David L. Swain to Hale, December 30, 1863, Hale Papers.
124
Swain to Hale, December 30, 1863, Hale Pipers.
125
Holden, "On the History of Journalism in North Carolina," p. 38.
90
office against the formidable team of Vance and Hale.
Holden's efforts to win the election against that team were
dealt still another blow in April. Despite the establishment of the
Confederate in Raleigh curing February with its avowed pro-Vance edito-
rial policy, Vance informed Hale in March that he had to have a paper
in Raleigh. Since the Confederate came from Democratic origins, Vance
wanted a paper of his own party. He speculated that members of the Con-
servative party would buy the Spirit of the Ane and convert it into a
126
party organ. The result of Vance's desire was the establishment of
the Conservative on April 16. Although Vance wanted Hale to edit the
127
paper, Hale could not be persuaded to leave Fayetteville. Vance
then prevailed upon John D. Hyman, a lawyer from Yadkinville, to come
128
to Raleigh to edit the paper. The first issue of the Conservative
appeared on April 20. Within a week of its initial issue, the Conserva-
tive enumerated the *true conservative platform" which included repeal
of habeas corpus, continued fighting but negotiations for peace, and no
129
separate action by a convention. Thus, the Conservative indicated its
126Vance to Hale, March 20, 1864, Hale Fapers.
127perhaps one reason Hale was reluctant to leave Fayetteville
at this time was that the construction of a telegraph line to Fayette-
ville from Raleigh had finally begun, in early February. Hale had wanted
the line for at least two years, but the construction of the line had be-
come more important in the last six months, On September 14, 1863, Hale
had written Vance that the Observer had gained several hundred subscrib-
ers. Those subscribers took the Observer because it opposed the Standard.
Kale_had argued, "Now if we had a telegraph here, many more would take
it /the Observer/ for its news, and so the influence and circulation of
the Standard might be still further curtailed." Even though the Stan-
dard had ceased to be published in March, 1864, its suspension coupled
with the telegraph line to Fayetteville made Hale and the Observer more
influential than ever.
"*^%ates, "Vance and the Peace Movement," Part II, p. 107.
129
7Raleigh Conservative. April 25, 1364.
91
purpose of assisting Vance and the Conservative party with an effort to
attract supporters to Vance's ranks rather than to attack the position
of Holden.
With all the journalistic assistance from the Conservative
and the Confederate. Hale ceased to he as intense in his attacks upon
Holden. However, several days before the appearance of the Conservative.
Hale had lashed into Holden with a scathing editorial that called Holden
a "designing demogogue" who was pretending to sell peace by unlawful
and impractical methods for his own "personal preferment."^30 That
editorial condemning Holden was one of the few of that kind, and
apparently the most severe,which Hale published in April. But the z*e-
duction of his editorial attacks upon Holden did not reduce his role as
adviser to Vance.
Victor Barringer of Concord, an active member of the Censer-
vative party, believed that Hale occupied the position of chief adviser
to Vance. Barringer wrote, "I honestly believe it is the duty of those
who have influence with the Governor—among whom I am sure you are chief—
to advise him „131• • • • Certainly Hale was not a person to shirk his duty.
Whether or not Hale was Vance's chief adviser at this time is debatable.
What is evident is that he was a leading adviser. Men of the Confeder-
ate party also recognized Hale's prominent position of adviser to the
governor. Duncan McRae anxiously wrote Hale that Vance needed to be
advised that he should elicit support from those who opposed Holden
rather than winning over Holden's friends. McRae also pointed out that
130
Fayetteville Observer. April 11, 1864.
131Victor Barringer to Hale, April 18, 1864, Hale Papers.
92
132
Vance seemed too confident in his strength. Hale was aware of
Vance's confidence, at least since the latter part of March when Vance
had told him, "Things appear \'7onderfully well in all directions-—
better than I could have thought. Holden's friends say he is much dis-
appointed *">339 9 9 Perhaps McRae's fears were conveyed to Vance by Hale,
but apparently Vance decided not to change his campaign strategy.
At the same time that McRae expressed his fears about Vance's
confidence to Hale, he complimented Hale on behalf of the Confederate
by telling him, "We heartily and sincerely reciprocate for the Observer
the appreciations you express for the Confederate; and were it to fail
to reach us in due time (which it never does) we would miss it very
much." 134 Although the Conservative was the organ of the Conservative
party and the Confederate was the organ of the Confederate or Democratic
party, it seems that Hale remained more closely tied with the Confed-
erate.
A better indication of the ties between the Confederate and
Hale than the correspondence between McRae and Hale occurred in May.
Peter Mallett, the chief conscription officer in North Carolina, learned
that Hale was considering suspending publication of the Observer. He
told Hale that he could think of "no greater calamity except invasion
could befall our state and Confederacy than the stoppage of your Paper."^35
He could not offer any suggestions about the lack of supplies which had
carisea Rale to consider suspension, but he did inform Hale that he would
^Duncan McRae to Hale, April 26, 1364, Hale Papers.
^wance to Hale, March 20, 1364, Kale Papers.
?^Duncan McRae to Hale, April 26, 1864, Hale Papers.
US
JPeter Mallett to Hale, flay 14, 1864, Hale Papers.
93
136
do all in his power to furnish the Observer with workers.
Curiously the offer of assistance from Mallett to Kale in pub-
lishing the Observer nearly coincided with the return to circulation of
the Standard. Kale wrote in the Observer on Kay 16 that he had received
a copy of the Standard for May 13 in which Kolden said it would be
137
issued on a regular basis. Two days after the reappearance of the
Standard was noted in the Observer. Kale received a letter from George
Little of the Confederate. who had just learned that Hale needed printers
and materials. He expressed his determination to prevent the Observer
from suspending publication due to a lack of printers or materials. He
informed Hale that he had written a letter to a printer at Hillsborough
urging him to go tc Fayetteville, and that the Confederate had enough
paper that it could spare twenty or thirty reams. Little concluded his
letter by saying, "And if we have anything else you need, you have only
to let us know, to secure division with you. .,138 Whatever problem Hale
had in publishing the Observer, either by himself or with assistance
from other papers as the Confederate, he was able to publish the Observer
throughout the war without any period of suspension.
The crisis of mid-.-hy concerning the suspension of the Ob-
.server seemed to climax a period of several months in which Hale had
been involved in numerous issues and events relating to the political and
domestic stability of North Carolina. After the crisis had passed, Hale
became involved in only one issue for the next three months—the defeat
of Holden in the Aiigust election. The return of the Standard to circula-
136M?llett to Hale, May 14, 1864, Hale Papers.
137Fayetteville Observer, May 16, 1864.
13%eorge Little to Hale, May 13, 1364, Hale Papers.
94
tion brought adverse comments from Hale about the paper and its editor.
Hale reminded his readers that the North used the remarks of Holden and
the statements of the Standard as evidence that North Carolina wanted
139
to return to the Union. Hale continued to assault Holden and the
Standard for the remaining days of May and throughout the month of June.
Near the end of June, Hale noted in an editorial that the Conservative
was urging Holden to withdraw from the race for governor, Hale answered
the suggestion of the Conservative with a thundering "No!” Hale de-
dared, "We wish to have done now and forever, with the political aspira-
tions of 14*. W. V. Holden.11 140 If the Confederacy had won the war,
perhaps Hale's wish would have been fulfilled.
July provided Hale with the opportunity to bring to bear as
much pressure as possible upon Holden since it was the last month before
the election in early August. Hale's primary weapon against Holden was
the columns of the Observer. The basic element upon which he relied was
the emotional rather than the logical appeal to his readers. He attacked
Holden for wanting to make peace by means other than provided by the
constitution. According to Hale, those means were synonymous with "base
and cowardly submission." and submission meant "submission to Lincoln
and his abolition hordes—submission to the loss of Liberty and of all
the property of the people of the State, except possibly his own
/Holden*£3/,"^”*
Hale was not without allies in his journalistic condemnation of
Holden. In addition to other Conservative newspapers, the Democratic
^^Fayetteville Observer. May 23, 1364.
140Fayetteville Observer. June 27, 1864.
141Fayetteville Observer. July 27, 1864.
95
press led by the Confederate conducted an assault on Holden, Other
prominent Democratic papers such as the Wilmington Journal brought
their support to Vance and against Holden, although they were somewhat
reluctant to support their former political enemy, Since they had no
candidate of their own to support, Vance represented the lesser of two
evils. The Wilmington Journal expressed the feeling of the Democrats in
an editorial by the editors, Joseph Fulton and A. L. Price. Their feel-
ings were as follows:
We may deprecate Mr. Holden’s present candidacy and we do deprecate
it, but we do this from motives and for reasons far above party. Had
party considerations alone governed us, or those with whom ve concur
in opinion, ’.-re would have hailed with pleasure this split in the party
by which we have been most bitterly denounced and ruthlessly proscribed • • • i
We declined running a candidate of our ov/n before the split
rising out of !fr. Holden’s candidacy • • • ©
We declared ourselves at the first willing for the sake of
peace and hamony to waive opoosition to Governor Vance. Cur position
was so proclaimed and since been loyally adhered to • • • •
We have often before stated our grounds for withholding oppo-
sition to Governor Vance, and have defined the character and extent of
the support we are prepared to give him, which does not commit us to
his Political position and still less compromise him to ours.^2
With all the assistance that Vance was receiving throughout
the state from temporary political friends and from staunch political
friends, Hale had reason to tell David L. Swain, ”1 am glad to feel hope-
ful as to the condition and prospects both in our State anc the Confeder-
acy.n 143 In the same letter, Hale expressed his gratitude to Swain for his
nomination of his son Edward to be Vance’3 private secretary, and to
Vance for his offer to Edward of the position. But Hale had pride
^^Wilmington Journal. July 14, IS64.
^^Hale to David L. Swain, July 16, 1364, Swain Papers,
Southern Historical Collection.
96
in his son's accomplishments upon the battlefield as an officer of the
144
Confederacy. He told Swain that he was not at liberty to advise Edward.
In a letter three days later to Vance, Hale expressed his sentiments that
he would be glad for Edward not to be put in further danger of the war.
However, he refused to speak for his youngest son. He told Vance on
July 19, "I think it a matter to be decided alone by his own feelings
and judgment. it 145 The matter was not settled until the second week of
August when Hale wrote Vance that Edward had notified him that he did
not want to leave the field, and that Edward requested Vance to make
146
another appointment as his private secretary.
In his correspondence with Vance during this period, the fate
of Edward was not Hale's only concern. In the July 19 letter to Vance,
Hale told Vance that in regard to the August gubernatorial election, ”1
cannot see but that the results will be a Waterloo defeat of the miser-
able traitors. «147 The fate of North Carolina and the Confederacy de-
pended on a favorable outcome for Vance in the election. As for Holden
and his supporters being traitors, Hale wrote in the Observer that he
defied anyone to find any hostility to any government except that of the
143
Confederacy in the Standard. Hale's spirits were bolstered by reports
that even some of Holden's supporters were turning on him for his ex-
tremism. He reported that Holden was so unpopular that his friends
abused him as an "unscrupulous partizan and liar." 149 Hale gloated,
"*44Hale to Swain, July 16, 1864, Swain Papers, Southern His-
torical Collection.
^%ale to Vance, July 19, 1364, Vance Fapers.
146Hale to Vance, August 11, 1864, Vance Papers.
”*47^-20 -t0 Vance, July 19, 1364, Hale Papers.
^Fayetteville Observer. July 25, 1864.
^^Fayetteville Observer. July 23, 1864.
97
150
*The demagogue is getting his deserts.11 With regard to Holden, the
Wilmington Journal vent so far as to state on July 30, "Politically
speaking, he is defunct, and may hereafter be referred to as the late
Mr. Holden. „151 On that date the prediction vas accurate, but premature,
end the prediction applied only to the election of 1864.
Hale printed the first election results on August 4, and
those results indicated that Holden was indeed the 11 late Mr. Holden”
as far as the gubernatorial election was concerned. Hale reported that
the army balloting held on July 28 showed Vance with 16,604 votes and
152
Holden with 2,190 votes. Hale reported on August 8 that the civilian
balloting held on August 4 combined with the army balloting showed
Vance with 29,269 votes and Holden with 8,275 votes. With regard to
those election statistics, Fale said, "The election that has just occurred
in this State is in all its aspects the most remarkable political inci-
dent of the age. ,,153 When Hale wrote Vance a letter on August 11 regard-
img Edward's appointment to be Vance’s private secretary, Hale coramented
that he did not think Holden could have been "beaten out of sight. ,,154
Yet, as the election returns continued to be tabulated, the evidence point¬
ed to a disastrous defeat for Holden.
Hale reported on August 15 that the election figures showed
Vance with 43,525 votes and Holden with 11,334 votes, He commented that
bo his knowledge the margin of victory in a gubernatorial election had
15 OFr. ayetteville Observer. July 28, 1864.
151.Wilmington Journal. July 30, 1364.
1^^Fayetteville Observer. August 4, 1864.
^^Fayetteville Observer. August 8, 1864.
154
Hale to Vance, August 11, 1364, Vance Papers.
98
155
never previously exceeded 40,000 votes, The final figure for Vance
has been estimated at 57,873 votes and the final figure for Holden at
156
14,432 votes. The exact voting figures for each candidate are
difficult to determine, and are not essential to the issue. The sig-
nificant fact is that Vance won the election by a substantial majority.
Much of the credit for Vance’s success can be assigned to Hale. Thomas
Ruffin wrote Hale that he hoped that Hale had put Holden in a position
in which he would never bother the state again ’’with the protrusions of
his personal ambition «157• • • • No doubt many people across the state
had the same feeling that North Carolina owed to Hale and his Fayette-
ville Observer as much as anyone connected with the campaign, the pre¬
carious political position of Holden.
Of course, other factors contributed to Holden's defeat and
Vance’s victory besides Hale. For example, Holden depended on the pop-
ularity of the peace movement to win votes, but his support did not have
the 153strength that the newspapers indicated that it had. In fact,
Holden’s own Standard manufactured much of the support ascribed to
Holden's 159appeal. Only two papers besides the Standard were for Holden.
Those two papers, the Raleigh Progress and the Salem People's Press.
portrayed Holden as the true Conservative candidate while denouncing
Vance for being "Destructive." 160 In addition, Vance’s tactics of ad-
155
Fayetteville Observer. August 15, 1864.
I56yates, "Vance and the Feace Movement," Part II, p. 111.
^57<phomas Ruffin to Hale, August 16, 1864, Hamilton, The Parers
of Thomss Ruffin. Ill, 414-
"^°Raper , "Holden and the Peace Movement," p. 515.
^^Raper, "Holden: A Political Biography," p. 63.
^^lates, The Confederacy and Zeb Vs nee, p. 105.
99
vocating a continuation of the war while expressing a desire for peace
helped to divide the supporters of Holden. Both men regarded peace as
the primary objective of the times. However, Vance wanted peace by
victory or by negotiations between the Confederate government and the
United States government. Holden wanted peace by negotiations between
North Carolina and/or the Confederate government and the United States
government on any terms except reunion. On the issue of reunion, Hale
offered a lucid explanation a year after the war had ended. Hale said,
"Mr. H/olden/ was too true an index of popular feeling to have mistaken
it cn so momentous a point. He knew that the people wanted peace,
therefore he was a peace man. He knew that they did not want reunion;
therefore he professed uncompromising hostility to reunion. „161 Hale!s
evaluation of Holden after the war did not prevent him from accusing
Holden during the war of promoting reconstruction.
To the list of factors leading to Holden's defeat can be added
Vance's popularity with the masses of people in the state, and Holden's
connection with the Heroes of America, who professed the aim of reunit-
162
ing North Carolina with the Union. Thus, Holden had too much to
overcome in order to prevent Vance from securing a second term as
governor and to put himself in the position to alter the course of the
war from the governor's mansion, The results of the gubernatorial elec-
tion of I064 effectively crushed Holden and the peace movement, which had
increasingly menaced the war effort in North Carolina since the preceding
summer. The defeat of Holden and the peace movement was a gratifying
victory that Vance and Hale, and the other Conservatives of the state,
161Hale to Cornelia Spencer, April 21, 1366, Spencer Papers.
I6>2?.aper, "Holden and the Peace Movement," p. 515.
100
savored at a tine when victories of any kind, political or military,
became less and less frequent.
CHAPTER V
ARDENT REVOLUTIONIST
With the results of the gubernatorial election sufficiently
tabulated by irdd-August of 1864* Hale confidently saw that the masses
of the voting public were behind Vance end his policies, and were not
willing to jeopardize the fate of North Carolina by putting her into
the control of Holden and his policies. Hale accepted the compliments
of other Conservatives for his role in the defeat of Holder, and he
felt that he would not be honest to disclaim his role and that of the
1
Observer. Therefore, the defeat of Holden and the peace movement in
the August election marked a personal as well as political triumph fcr
Hale. Equally important, the defeat of Holden allowed Hale to turn
away from the fight against Holden, which had consumed so much of his
time for the past year, and to return to the fight against the real
enemy—the Yankees of the North.
Perhaps more adamant than any other Conservative about the
issue of peace, Hale focused his efforts of persuasion on the point
that he could not support any peace plan that included the prerequisite
2
of reunion in any form. He called reunion "a thing utterly impossible."
He recognised, three possibilities for peace. They were independence by
military victory, independence by negotiation, and defeat by military
"^Hale wrote to Ruffin, "We feel that we have been of some
service to the State in its late sore trial, and it gives us more plea-
sure so to feel, and to know that so many others of the good and great
of the State concur with you in that estimate of our service." See
Edward Hale to Thomas Ruffin, August 22, 1364, Hamilton, The Papers of
Thomas Ruffir... Ill, 415.
2
Fayetteville Observer. August 18, 1864.
1 02
subjugation. Ho presumed to speak for all Southerners by saying, "He
crust be independent of the despised and hated yankees, or their slaves.
There is no middle ground to stand upon."^ Of course, that attitude did
not facilitate any possibility of a negotiated peace that existed in
the minds of many northerners and Southerners who wanted to see the
bloody war ended as soon as possible.
Even more abrasive to the prospects for peace was Hale's atti-
tude toward retaliation. He stated, "He hope to see enemy violation of
the laws of war and the rights of our soldiers promptly met by retalia-
tion."4- Fired by the private euphoria of political victory and by the
public despondency of military defeat, Hale defiantly branded himself as
a Confederate chauvinist, an act that helped build the road that even¬
tually led to his own destruction.
Hale's uncompromising stand in part caused Chief Justice
Richmond Fearson to cancel his subscription to the Observer. Pearson in-
dicated 5that he had been receiving the Observer against his wishes.
Few things irritated Hale as much as the thought that someone received
the Observer when he did not want it. He explained his subscription
policy to another subscriber, who had canceled in January of 1064, in
these \Jords, "Years ago, when we were needy, we made it a rule, never de-
parted frcm, to ask no nan to subscribe for the Observer. and to send it
to no subscriber a day longer than he desired itThe same policy
^Fayetteville Observer. August 18, IS64.
^Fayetteville Observer. August 22, 1864.
^Kale to Richmond Pearson, August 25, 1864? Hale Papers.
%ale to Daniel Russell, January 16, 1864, Hale Papers.
tea
applied to Pearson in August of 1864, as well as to any other person
v5ao felt that Hale had become too intense in his dedication to Corrfed-
er-ate independence.
At the same time that Hale wrote Pearson to explain his sub-
seription policy, he wrote Vance to inquire about the exemption of
editors and printers. He did not want to claim any exemption for his
son Peter or for his printers, but if they had to go into the Home
Guards, Hale wanted to know so he could warn his readers that the Ob-
server might be suspended. But Hale added quickly that the cause came
f±rst, even before the Observer. He told Vance, "He must all go and
tbae papers stop. There is no help for it,"^ Thus, Hale reaffirmed
privately what he declared publicly, that he was willing to sacrifice
everything—his sons, his newspaper, and his well being—to continue the
war against the North.
If Hale seemed to move further away from the moderate ele-
merits of the Conservative party and more toward the radical elements of
tSie party, or even to the Confederate party itself, in the prosecution
of the war, he did not lose his position of confidant to Vance, nor did
Vance and Hale seem to be in disagreement over war policies. In October
?Vance called the Council of State together in order to consider his
proposal to convene the General Assembly for the purpose of allowing
North Carolina officers and the Home Guard to be sent to General Lee.
Vsnee wrote Hale that the Council refused to recommend a special
8
session of the legislature in order to authorise assistance to Lee.
7
Hale to Vance, August 26, 1364, Vance Governors’ Papers.
®Vunce to Hale, October 11, 1864, Hale Papers.
104
Ee told Hale that their decision against convening the General
Assembly made him feel that he should "cut loose from some of the old
9
rogies" and rely on ''men nearer my own age and notions of things."
Certainly Vance knew that Hale was one man that he could rely
upon to be nearer his "notions of things." Hale wrote Vance that he
advised him to send North Carolina troops to Virginia because he felt
that Petersburg and Richmond were now essential to the defense of
10
Ilorth Carolina. In addition Hale advised Vance that he was in favor
of a meeting of the governors of all the Confederate states. He asked
Vance to keep him informed if the meeting resulted in a concerted pol-
icy. To that end, Hale said, "The Observer will second any movement cal-
culated to promote the success of the great cause, «11 Even into No~
Vember,Hale told Vance that he supported the idea of troops to rein-
force Lee despite the unpopularity of the idea among state legislators.
Ee declared to Vance, "I have never allowed myself to be influenced by
12
a consideration of what others do. t! 1 ^ The General Assembly showed little
interest in the problems of Lee and the troops in Virginia, and it de-
clined to send North Carolina troops to the Virginia front.
While the General Assembly was refusing to concur with Vance
and Hale in the matter of troops for Virginia, the peace movement was
claiming that seven of its members were elected in the ten districts of
Horth Carolina during the Congressional elections. However, the ac-
"tivity of the peace movement and the inertness of the Council of State
9Vance to Hale, October 11, 1364, Hale Papers.
1®Rale to Vance, October 13, 1864, Vance Papers.
”11 Hale to Vance, October 13, IS64, Vance Papers.
"'-Hale to Vance, November 15, 1364, Kale Papers.
"^Yates, The Confederacy and Zeb Vance, p. 94.
105.
end the General Assembly did not deter Hale in his effort to spur the
morale of the people for the remainder of the year by urging retalia-
tion against the North while emphasizing faith in God. Primarily aimed
at the destruction that Sherman and Sheridan were wreaking to the South,
Hale felt that some Confederate troops were taking the right action by
doing some burning and devastation of their own to the North. Kale
cried with frenzy from the pages of the Observer. 11 Let them burn every
yankee city, town, village and dwelling upon all their borders, and let
every man, woman and child among them go to sleep at night under an
apprehension that the flames will burst out over his head before dawn. n14
In juxapositicn to Hale’s belief in retaliation was his belief
that God looked favorably upon the Confederacy. Two days before the
last year of the war began, Hale zealously declared, *>Ne know not how
the efficient help is to come—how we are to gain Independence and Peace
together—but we have never lost confidence, now or heretofore, that it
will come, and so come that we shall all see His hand and acknowledge His
15
goodness in it.11 The events of the next four months did not justify
Hale's faith in God's hand nor in His goodness to provide either in¬
dependence or peace for the South, regardless of how sincerely Hale had
espoused his belief in God's special relationship to the Confederacy.
Hale did not alter his convictions during January of 1865, even
when beseiged Fort Fisher fell to Union troops on January 15. He con-
tinued to confess his faith in God and in the Confederate army to win
the urar and to obtain independence for the South. Despite all of his
14Fayetteville Observer. November 7, 1364.
15
Fayetteville Observer, December 29? 1864.
106
efforts, despondency increased throughout North Carolina, as the
citizens pondered their fate at the hands of the advancing enemy, Al-
though pessimism in the state and in the entire Confederacy grew as
the defeats of January were followed by the defeats of February, Hale
was not alone in his belief that the South had to continue to fight and
that the cause was not yet hopeless. The same day that the people
evacuated Hilmington, February 22, the Hillsborough Recorder printed a
speech by Vgnce in which he said, nv.re must fight, my countrymen, to the
last extremity, or submit voluntarily to our own degradation. ,t16
Vance still believed that the South could win its independence if the
people would wholeheartedly support the army. From the Virginia front,
Lee wrote Vance on February 24, that ’’the cause is not hopeless; that
"the situation of affairs, though critical, is critical to the enemy as
well as ourselves; • • • .And that his successes are far less valuable in
fact than in appearance I! 17• • • • Thus, Hale's confidence in victory had
the support of two leaders of the Confederacy, even though Hale disagreed
with Lee and large slave owners that victory had to be bought with the
18
price of putting Negro slaves into the Confederate army.
By the first of March, Sherman's army had advanced through
Columbia, South Carolina, end was heading toward Fayetteville. In view
of all of the signs of impending defeat, Hale did not abate the stream
of epithets hurled from the pages of the Observer at the oncoming army.
He pleaded with the people not to submit to the North on their terms,
Hillsborough Recorder. February 22, 1865.
"^Robert E. Lee to Zebulon Vance, February 24, 1865, Official
Records (.Army). Series I, XLVII, Fart II, 1270.
18Fayetteville Observer. February 27, 1865.
1C7
and he argued with them /’There is but one xray to secure peace; and that
is, to conquer it. Let the Confederacy but establish its Independence,
and there will be indeed what we all pray for, fa lasting peace': not
otherwise. „19 On March 6 Hale urged the people to have faith and hope
in Lee's belief that Sherman could be defeated, even though Hale admitted
20
that he had no reliable news about Sherman. Hale's bubble of optimism
burst three days later. Hale printed the last issue of the Observer on
March 9 while the Confederate army retreated through Fayetteville before
Sherman's army.
The Union troops entered Fayetteville on March 11, and Mayor
Archibald McLean formally surrendered the city to Lt. Colonel William
E. Strong. Next McLean watched as the United States flag was raised
21
over the city. By March 15 Sherman continued his drive into North
Carolina, moving his army toward Goldsboro for the purpose of re-
establishing his supply lines. Before leaving Fayetteville, Sherman had
the Confederate arsenal located there destroyed. Later Sherman commented,
22
"Little other damage was done at Fayetteville. The damage done at
Fayetteville by Sharman did not exclude much of the property of Edward
Jones Hale, since a main objective of Sherman was to destroy newspaper
23
offices which he encountered on his route of march.
Hale did not witness the arrival of Sherman in Fayetteville,
hut if he had witnessed the event, he would have seen the building con-
^Fayetteville Observer. March 2, 1865.
^^Fayetteville Observer. March 6, 1365.
21 John Barrett, Sherman's March Throumh the Carolines (1956)
p. 133, hereinafter cited as Barrett, 3her-an1s March.
22,William T. Sherman, Memoirs of General Mllliem T, Sherman
(1957), p. 299.
23j. Cutler Andrews, The South Rerorts the Civil Mar (1970), p. 493.
106
taining the Observer burned to the ground, Hale left Fayetteville before
it fell to the Union forces, but he did not take the printing press and
other printing material and equipment with him. He buried the files and
records of the Observer at Colonel Thomas Hill's plantation in Chatham
24 25
County, and then he and his son Peter became refugees in Fittsboro.
While Hale was not in Fayetteville when Sherman arrived, his reputation
lingered there. Because he was such a strong supporter of the war, the
26
Northern soldiers had strong feelings about Hale and his paper. The
Wilmington Herald of the Union remarked on March 26 that the feeling
against Hale among the Union soldiers had such an intensity that if a
27
chicken coop had his name on it, it was not safe. Because the soldiers
did not find Hale in Fayetteville when they arrived, allegedly they
offered $10,000 for his body. Thus, Hale and the Observer received
an inordinate amount of attention from Sherman's men who considered
them enemies of the United States who should be eliminated.
While the Union troops were in Fayetteville, they vented their
rage against Hale by doing extensive damage to his property, '-lien
Thomas Fuller wrote William A. Graham from Fayetteville two weeks after
the surrender of the city, he told Graham that Hale's printing office
29
with all its fixtures, material, and furniture had been burned. Hale's
24Ashe, Bio=renhicr1 History. VIII, 133.
25s, s. Jackson to Jonathan Worth, March 16, 1365, Hamilton,
The Correspondence of Jonathan Worth, I, 370.
2^Barrett, Sherman* s larch, p. 139.
^Barrett, Sherman1s March, p. 139.
^Andrews, The South Reports the Civil War, p. 498.
^Thomas Fuller to "illiam A. Graham, March 24, 1365, Graham
Papers. Fuller also told Graham that the office of the Worth Caroilno
Presbyterian, a church newspaper in Fayetteville, had not been burned,
109
youngest son Edvard wrote General James H. Lane that his father's
property before the war could have been converted into specie, bringing
from $85,000 to $100,000, but after Sherman had finished with him, he
had no property that would bring income. Edward claimed that the
Observer office and everything in it was burned by General Slocum's
order, while the general sat on a verandah of a hotel across the street
drinking wine stolen from Hale's cellar and i/atching the flames leap
from the building. kith all of his investments made worthless by the
economic chaos of the Confederacy, Eale had nothing left but the ruins
of the Observer 30building, a few lots in Fayetteville, and his house.
Considering what Sherman's army did to Hale one can understand
why Hale angrily commented later that he had "jotted down a few of the
thousand incidents that might be written, and ought yet to be written,
of the doings of Sherman's army, that the world's scorn might finally and
forever settle upon it and condemn it to everlasting infamy. „31 Yet,
Hale had himself to blame for much of his fate at the hands of Sherman's
men. He did not acknowledge that fact, but rather he elected to blame
his enemies in Fayetteville for instigating the burning of his office.
With that conclusion in his mind, he decided soon after Sherman de-
stroyed the Observer to leave Fayetteville. He put his house up for sale
29(Cont'd.) but its type and press had been destroyed. Iron-
ically, the Observer and the Presbyterian were the only newspapers in
North Carolina that were not reduced to a half sheet during the war
years due to a lack of printing supplies.
3Qsdward Joseph Hale, Jr. to General James H. Lane, July 31,
1865, Edward Joseph Hale Jr., "'Sherman's Bummers' and Some of Their
Work," Southern Historical Society Facers. XII (Jenuary-December, 1884),
437.
3^Hale to Cornelia Spencer, January 11, 1866, Spencer Papers.
110
but with the understanding tlxt the house would be paid for after the
32
war in whatever money was then in use. He was determined to liqui-
date his remaining assets for every penny that he could obtain from
them.
Hale's desire to leave Fayetteville had other aspects besides
his feeling of betrayal by some people there. After the war ended,
Eale said that he felt that the people of North Carolina and the South
had supported the war for the first two years but had lacked persistence,
33
and that lack of persistence was a great defect in their character.
Hale blamed the defeat of the Confederacy upon "croakers” who had quit
the cause when the going had gotten rough, He believed that if the
people had buckled down in the early part of 1865, the South would have
the 34won war. In addition to the factors concerning popular support
of the war, the postwar restriction of mail facilities hampered the
35
newspaper business. However, Hale's primary reason for leaving Fay-
etteville was his disenchantment with the Southern support of the war
effort. No one in North Carolina believed, to the very day that the
Confederacy collapsed, with more conviction than Hale that the South
had to win and could win the war.
Within a month after the destruction of the Observer. the
Confederacy passed into history along with one of its staunchest de-
fenders, Edward Jones Hale. The destruction of the Observer ended
Hale's career as a newspaper editor. Although Vance, Graham and other
Conservatives survived the war and lived to contribute their energies
32Thomas Fuller to William A. Graham, ’larch 24, 1865.
33Hale to Cornelia Spencer, April 9, 1366, Spencer Fapers.
34-Spencer to Hale, May 4, 1366, Spencer Fapers.
35Hale to Spencer, April 9, 1866, Spencer Papers.
111
and their talents to North Carolina during Reconstruction, Hale elected
not to stay. He moved with his family in the fall of 1866 to New York
City, where he opened a publishing company with some assistance from
business friends whom he had known there for many years. He lived in
New York and operated his business until his death on January 2, 1883.
Even in death, Kale remained severed from his native soil, being buried
in New York. Thus, after 1865 Hale never contributed to North Carolina
again the energy and the talent that between i860 and 1865 had made him
one of the most influential editors and had made the Fayetteville Observer
one of the most important newspapers in the state, if not the entire
South.
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114
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