- Title
- North Carolina historical review [1955 : October]
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- Date
- October 1955
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-
- Place
- ["North Carolina, United States"]
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North Carolina historical review [1955 : October]
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BEDFORD BROWN: STATE RIGHTS UNIONIST
By Houston G. Jones
Part II: The Conciliator
In June, 1840, Senators Bedford Brown and Robert Strange
carried out their promises and sent their resignations to
Governor E. B. Dudley with the understanding that the
effective date would be upon the convening of the General
Assembly in November. As a result of this action, the August
elections were of utmost importance to both parties— the
next General Assembly would select two United States Sen¬
ators. No holds were barred during the campaign, and, while
local issues played a decisive role in the elections, the records
of Brown and Strange constituted the major statewide issue.
Jacksonian democracy had lost its ascendancy in North
Carolina by 1840 because of a complex internal political
situation which resulted in the Western portions of the State
turning Whig during the 1830’s. In consequence of the de¬
velopment of issues, such as internal improvement, educa¬
tion, and the financial distress, the Whigs made a clean
sweep in the August elections in 1840, choosing John M.
Morehead of Guilford as governor and sending a thirty-odd
seat majority to the Assembly.
The rebuke was unmistakable. Old Hickory had for a time
become the idol of the people and had led the masses to
participation in political activity, but when he sided with
the conservatives of the East on the issues of state rights
and opposition to federally financed internal improvements,
the people of the back-country, flexing their newly-won poli¬
tical muscles, turned to the Whig forces.
President Van Buren, shocked by the Democratic defeat
in the legislative elections, rushed a “strictly confidential”
letter to Brown, urging him not to despair but to give re¬
newed vigor to saving North Carolina from the “Old Fed¬
eralism” in the November presidential election. He said,
. . . I write to one who has through his whole life stood ready
to sink himself for the advancement of the cause he espouses
[ 483 ]
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