THE STATE
December 14, 1935
GOVERNORS OF NORTH CAROLINA
- No. 43— JOHN OWEN -
- By W. J. Sadler -
JOII.\ OWK\ of Rladen County, Gov¬
ernor of \ortli Carolina for two
terms, narrowly misseil becoming'
President of tlie Ini led States. Had
lie accepted a proffered offer of the
nomination for tlie vice presidency,
he would have succeeded President
William Henry Harrison, who died
after only a few weeks in office.
and good taste pre¬
vented John Owen
ulen County. Gov¬
ernor of North Carolina
from December 12. 1S28, to
December IS. 1S30 from be¬
coming President of the
United States.
Nine years after ho re¬
tired from the gubernatorial office in
Raleigh, Owen was selected to preside
over the national convention of the
Whig party in 1639. which was held in
llarri'burg. Pa. This convention
nominated William Henry Harrison
for president and John Tyler for vice
president. Doth later were elected,
Harrison dying after having held
office only a few weeks, and Tyler suc¬
ceeding him in the presidential chair.
How He Missed It
And that was how Owen missed the
opportunity of being the recipient of
the greatest gift it i' within the power
of the American people to bestow upon
any man in political life. During the
Whig convention at Harrisburg, he
had made
: such
а
profound impression
upon the
delegates whose deliberations
he guidet
tmte him 1
1 that they sought to notni-
:or the vice presidency. Owen.
however, declined the honor, asserting
that it would not be fitting and proper
for him to accept the nomination from
a convention over which he presided.
Had he done so. he, undoubtedly,
would have been elected vice president.
Declined Third Term
Dorn in 17S7, Owen received his
higher education at the University of
North Carolina, nud held his first po¬
litical office in 1612 when he was elected
* the lower branch of the state legis-
ature. He served two terms in that
body, .aid represented Bladen County
in the senate in 1S27. He was named
governor of the state by the Assembly
- leetcd for another
term the following year. He declined
the honor when it was tendered for
the third time, ami was succeeded by
Montfort Stokes of Wilke. Countv
Owen came to the gubernatorial
office following a one year term served
by Governor James Iredell of Chowan
County, who was elected to the I'nited
States Senate when he retired from the
governorship. There had been u great
industrial expansion during Iredell's
administration, particularly in the
textile field, n large number of cotton
mills being established in various sec¬
tions of the state. Forward-looking
plans for transportation, especially on
a number of rivers of the state, also
were inaugurated, and several steam¬
ship companies were organized to
operate on the Cape Fear and other
streams.
Fought for Schools
Governor Owen continued the fight
for a better system of public schools
which had been the subject of con¬
siderable agitation for a number of
years. In his first message to the
Assembly, he told the legislators that it
was false economy to deny the youth
of the state proper educational facili¬
ties, and cited what was being done in
that direction in a number of Northern
and New England states. His efforts,
however, bore as little fruit as those
of several of his predecessors, although
several academies or public schools
were established by public-spirited
citizens.
The subject of health also was dealt
with in Owen's message to the legis¬
lature. He declared that the condi¬
tion of
пишу
swamps and rivers in the
eastern section of the state was a
menace to the lives of citizens of those
regions, and urged drainage of the
swamps and improvement of the rivers
as a means of abating this
danger.
Owen urged the Assembly
to provide funds for the
purpose of opening a pas-
sage from Albemarle Sound
into the ocean through Cur¬
rituck Inlet, and this idea
was given the approval of
that body. The work, how-
ever, was not started for some lime.
The legislature also appropriated the
sum of $23.000 to be used for the con¬
struction of locks for a canal at Weldon
leading into the Roanoke River.
Owen seems to have had many ideas
and plans for the improvement of
various existing conditions in the state
at the time he served as governor, but
as most of them required considerable
money, the economically-minded legis¬
lators approved few of them. lie re¬
tired from office on December 18, 1S30.
after having made a creditable record.
After relinquishing the governor¬
ship, Owen seems to have taken little
part in politics with the exception of
serving as presiding officer of the Whig
national convention. Death came to
him at Pittsboro on Oetober
У,
1841
eleven years following his retirement
from the gubernatorial chair.
Paid Splendid Tribute
A splendid tribute was paid to Owen
at the time of hi* death by the Raleigh
Register, which said, in part:
"He was not only one of our most
distinguished and valuable eitizeus,
but was one of the purest and best
men that ever lived; and his loss Ls
more forcibly expressed by the con¬
cern that Ls on the countenance of all
than words can portray it. He had so
much intelligence and good sense, de¬
cision of purpose blended with kindness
of heart, firmness of principle and sin¬
cerity of feeling, dignity of person and
gentleness of manners, equanimity of
disposition and delightful cheerful¬
ness, that he commanded respect ami
regard wherever he was known. . . .He
lived in the world as one of its mem¬
bers. and shared its cares, its anxieties,
its labors and its joys.”
