Man Who Started a War
North Carolina's first Republican Gover¬
nor presided over Iteconst ruction at its
worst.
By FRED HARDESTY
Jim Holshouser is North Carolina’s
fifth Republican Governor. The first.
William W. Holden, holds a unique
distinction: He was impeached.
The 1871 General Assembly ousted
Holden after a trial that lasted from
Feb. 2 to March 23. Former Governor
Zcb. Vance said. "It was the longest
hunt after the poorest hide I ever saw."
Aside from his impeachment,
Holden is best known to history for
the so-called Kirk - Holden War. which
took place in 1870 when he declared
Caswell and Alamance counties in a
state of insurrection, placed them under
martial law, and sent an army of rough¬
necks there to seize and jail citizens.
A climax of hatreds engendered by
Reconstruction rule, the Kirk-Holden
affair was predestined in 1868 when
the Republicans elected former Raleigh
newspaper editor Holden as Governor.
Embittered by a one-sided defeat
when he ran for the governorship on a
peace ticket against incumbent Vance
in 1864. and defeated again in 1865
after having served a few months as
provisional governor by appointment
of President Andrew Johnson, the
newly elected Holden strove to force
his fellow” Tar Heels into the paths
of righteousness prescribed by the oc¬
cupying Federals. One of his moves
was to make himself president of the
Union League, organized by the occu¬
piers ‘‘to educate the Negro to the
Republican party.”
The
К
Ian Retaliates
Many lawless acts were committed
by the league under the protection of
Northern troops then in the state. Its
brother organization was the Heroes
of America, composed chiefly of freed
slaves being taught to hate their white
neighbors. The whites countered with
the Ku Klux Klan.
Conditions were described by H. H.
Helper, a staunch Republican, when
he wrote in 1870:
"One of the greatest evils affecting
North Carolina may justly be set down
to the incompetent and worthless state
and Federal officials now in power
here. Reconstruction for North Caro¬
lina as carried out by Congress and the
villainous state and Federal officials
has proved a total failure. When the
historian writes the history of these
evil times, truth will impel him to de¬
clare that the Ku Klux business of
today grew out of things complained
of in these statements."
In March. 1870, a Republican Ne¬
gro office holder was killed by the Klan
in Alamance County. Two months later
John W. Stephens, a state senator and
one of Holden's detectives, was killed
in Caswell County by Klansmcn who
accused him of bam burning.
On June 6. 1870. by authority of the
newly enacted Shoffner Act. which em¬
powered the Governor to protect life
and property by the use of martial
law. Holden declared Alamance and
Caswell under such law. He said local
officers and courts had shirked their
duty.
The Governor entrusted the enforce¬
ment of his edict to Col. George W.
Governor Williom W. Holden
Kirk, a despised Tennessee commander
of a regiment of North Carolina volun¬
teers in the Union Army during the
Civil War. For his new mission, Kirk
raised a force of 670 men, 200 of them
from other states. Most were from the
worst elements of the mountain popula¬
tion of North Carolina and Tennessee.
Many were criminals.
Over 100 Arrests
In July Kirk led his troops into
Alamance and Caswell, took over the
courthouses at Graham and Yanccy-
villc. made himself military dictator of
the two counties, and arrested and
imprisoned more than 100 persons.
Cool-headed leaders had urged the
people not to resist.
Holden threatened to make similar
arrests in Orange, Chatham, and other
nearby counties where the Klan was
active.
On Aug. 3 Josiah Turner Jr.. Orange
County native and editor of the Raleigh
Senline!, declared in his newspaper:
"Governor Holden: You say you
will handle me in due time. You white-
livered miscreant. You dared me to re¬
sist you; but I dare you to arrest me.
You villain, come and arrest a man,
and order your secret clubs not to
molest women and children. Yours with
contempt and defiance. Habeas corpus
or no habeas corpus."
Holden wired Kirk to arrest Turner,
who was seized in Hillsborough and
imprisoned in Yanccyvillc.
The "War" Ended
By this time, friends and relatives
of the prisoners had begun to take legal
action for their release. When Holden
and Kirk refused to free them on bond,
application was made to North Caro¬
lina Chief Justice R. M. Pearson for a
writ of habeas corpus, which was
granted. But when the papers were
served on Kirk, he tore them up and
THE STATE. February 1973
11
