State

Ten Primates in Public Service Mr. Lawrence submit* a list of ten North Carolinians who have dis¬ tinguished themselves by holding the highest public offices in the nation. »;/ R. C. LAWRENCE I AM listing below the names of the ten Carolinians who have held the highest public offices on the field of the nation. This list does not include Presidents Jackson. Polk and Johnson be¬ cause. although they were natives of our State, they were residents of other States when elected to the presidency; and for the same reason vice president William Rufus King and Ambassadors Walter Hines Page. Robert Worth Bingham and Walter E. Dodd are not included. James Iredell. Sr., of Chowan, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, for whom Iredell County was named. Resident of Edenton, he was easily the ablest lawyer of his generation, and he led the fight in the Hills¬ boro Convention for the ratifica¬ tion of the Federal Constitution. This may account for the fact that in 1790. without his knowledge, he was appointed to our highest court by President Washington, who was an ardent advocate of the ratification of the instrument declared by the great English statesman Gladstone to have been “the greatest instrument ever struck off by the hand of man." Iredell’s name will be forever as¬ sociated with that historic docu¬ ment for it was his famous dissent¬ ing opinion in Chisholm v. Georgia which led to the adoption of the eleventh amendment, which pro¬ vides that a State cannot be sued without its consent. He was the father of James Iredell. Jr., con¬ sidered by some historians as a greater lawyer than his father, who carved out quite a career for him¬ self. serving as Judge, Speaker of the Commons. Governor and United States Senator. The con¬ nection of the elder Iredell with the Constitution should serve to recall the fact that only one other Carolinian’s name has been con¬ nected with that document. Fed¬ eral Judge Yates Webb being the original author of the eighteenth amendment. Alfred Moore, of Brunswick. As¬ sociate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, for whom Moore County and Moore Square in Raleigh were named. He came of a distinguished family, served as an officer during the Revolution, and rapidly rose to eminence at the Carolina Bar, serving as Attorney General. He followed the famous Iredell upon the bench of our highest court, and was our last representative there¬ on. He served only a few years and wrote but few opinions, as in those early years there was little litigation to occupy the time of the court, and the day of John Marshall was not yet at hand when he established the power of the court to set aside an act of Con¬ gress as unconstitutional. Several early members of the court re¬ signed to accept offices now con¬ sidered as of inferior dignity, such as Justice Rutledge, who resigned to accept appointment as a Justice of the Supreme Court of South Carolina, and Justice Harrison who resigned tp accept appointment as Comptroller of New Jersey. Only two other Carolinians have ever had any connection with our highest court, Judge George E. Badger, whose career is listed be¬ low; and Circuit Judge John J. Parker, who was nominated to that high office but who failed of confirmation by the narrow margin of just one vote. And how he would have graced that bench! John Branch, of Halifax. Secre¬ tary of the Navy. When President Andrew Jackson rose to political power, he recognized the State of his nativity by naming this emi¬ nent Carolinian and outstanding Congressman as a member of his Cabinet, the first Carolinian to be thus honored; and the precedent thus established has been adhered to ever since, as the only Cabinet post to be held by a Carolinian has been that of Secretory of the Navy, which premier position has been held by five of our sons. Branch was not happy in his high office, as he soon found himself at odds with “Old Hickory” over a ques¬ tion not of political but of social importance. One of Jackson's cabi¬ net. Secretary Eaton, had married pretty Peggy O’Neill, daughter of a Washington tavern keeper, and official Washington society de¬ clined to receive or accept her socially. Our gallant, if plebeian born President promptly declared that Pretty Peggy must be accorded official and social recognition: and as a protest against this action several members of the cabinet re¬ signed. including Secretary Branch. This protest had not the least ef¬ fect upon Old Hickory, who stood by pretty Peggy to the end and retained her husband as a member of his official family. His own Rachael had been talked about herself by the elite of society! James C. Dobbin, of Cumber¬ land, Secretary of the Navy, ap¬ pointed in 1852. Dobbin was Speaker of the House of Commons at the time Dorothea Dix came to our State to try to induce the legislature to establish a hospital for the care of those mentally af¬ flicted, but the measure which she championed, and which received the support of Governor Graham, was defeated by an overwhelming vote. A few days later the wife of Speaker Dobbin was seized with what proved a fatal illness, during which she was tenderly nursed by Miss Dix. and just before she died Mrs. Dobbin extracted a promise from her husband that he would exhaust his efforts to get the bill espoused by Miss Dix enacted into law. Two days after her death. Speaker Dobbin moved reconsider¬ ation of the vote by which her bill had been defeated; and he supported his motion by a speech of such moving eloquence and pathos that the House reversed its action by a vote of 91 to 10— one of the most amazing reversals in legislative history; and moreover the speech had such a profound ef¬ fect that when the bill got over in ( Continued on page 20)