The Civil Rights
Debate oi 1835
Equality for women an«l blacks was
scarcely an issue in those flays.
By ALICE
К. ИЛИМОМ»
It's not often an author can do much
research from his living room, but
Moffitt Sinclair Henderson of Salisbury
simply reached toward the family book
shelf to find resource material for one
of the highlights of her novel, A Long,
Long Day for November. The book is
based on the life of Samuel Price Car-
son.
Mrs. Henderson believes she is one
of few private citizens owning a copy
of Proceedings
«£
Debates of the Con¬
vention of North Carolina Called to
Amend the Constitution of the State,
which was published in 1836 by Gales
& Seaton of Raleigh. The volume came
to her from her maternal grandfather,
a brother of Samuel Price Carson, and
it contains an eye-witness account of
what may have been the first civil
rights debate in North Carolina’s his¬
tory. Certainly, it was one of the most
fiery.
In 1835 delegates from throughout
the state met in Raleigh to amend
the original North Carolina Constitu¬
tion. Almost immediately they found
themselves embroiled in an equal rights
debate, not concerning Blacks or
women, of course — that would have
to wait for the Twentieth Century.
Roman Catholics and Jews were the
subject of argument in 1 835.
The 32nd Article of the original
Constitution stated. "No person who
shall deny the being of God or the
truth of the Protestant religion or the
Divine authority of the Old and New
Testament, or shall hold religious prin¬
ciples incompatible with the Freedom
and Safety of the State, shall be capa¬
ble of holding any office of public
trust or profit in the Civil department
within this State."
The emotion surrounding this
"Catholics and Jews Need Not Apply"
article probably came as a surprise to a
good many of the delegates, since it had
been ignored repeatedly. For instance,
William Gaston, a devout Catholic, was
sitting on the Superior Court bench
in 1835 and was one of the delegates
to the Convention. (This, in fact, was
an argument against striking the arti¬
cle. The theory seemed to be that
since no attention was paid it. anyway,
there was no reason to change it, prov¬
ing that tortured logic is not an ultra¬
modern invention.)
Scmuel Carton— be loler pled in .oin for the
right of l8>fcar oldt to vote.
It was Sam Carson, the delegate
from Burke and the hero of Mrs. Hen¬
derson's novel, who made the most im¬
passioned plea for striking the amend¬
ment. North Carolina’s own unofficial
orator - laureate, Senator Sam Ervin,
once termed this speech of Carson’s,
"magnificent."
"Who can interpose between my
conscience and its Almighty Maker?"
Carson asked the convention at one
point. "No man should presume to dic¬
tate to me as to what church 1 should
attach myself. ... It might be that at
some day I would wish to attach my¬
self to the Catholic Church; if so. and
there should be anything in the Con¬
stitution of the state which gave me
birth, and in some degree has honored
me. that would prevent me from as¬
piring to office. I would indeed think
it hard. But I protest again and again
against the right of any man to inter¬
pose between me and my Maker."
In spite of such arguments by Car-
son and the efforts of a few other
delegates, notably former Governor
John Branch, the article was merely
amended. The word "Protestant" was
changed to "Christian." thus giving full
citizenship to Catholics. Jews would
not be given such rights until the pres¬
ent North Carolina Constitution was
written in 1868. North Carolina was
the last slate to strike such religious
restraints.
Samuel Carson, who had served
North Carolina in the U. S. Congress
and in the General Assembly, left the
stale soon after the 1835 Convention
to follow his friend Sam Houston to
Texas, where he had a hand in forming
that new Republic. He became its first
Secretary of State.
As a delegate to the first Constitu¬
tional Convention of the Republic of
Texas he fought another losing battle
for which the Nineteenth Century
wasn't quite ready. Sam Carson pled
in vain with his fellow Texans for the
right to vote for 1 8-year-olds. J J
EDITORIALS BY OTHERS
Uncle Sam’s reputation . , . for play¬
ing Uncle Sap to a disdainful and con¬
temptuous world seems in no danger
of eclipse or change. We re¬
cently granted a military aid credit of
S10 million to Chile. It made no dif¬
ference that the Chilean government
is pro-communist and anti-U. S. It
made no difference that the Chilean
government has seized without com¬
pensation several large American hold¬
ings in Chile. Uncle Sap was just being
himself, always most generous to his
mortal enemies. — Oregon Voter Digest
THE STATE, APRIL 1973
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