W illi a
T. Dortch
He u:iK a member of the Con¬
federate Senate from ftorf h Car¬
olina and also played an out¬
standing’ part in helping to enaet
into law many beneficial pieces
of legislation in this state.
Iff/ It. C. LAWRENCE
STATE SENATOR Hugh Dortch
of Wayne — or in the» days of
global warfare perhaps I should
say Lieutenant Colonel Hugh Dortch
— occupies the law office in Goldsboro
which his father and grandfather oc¬
cupied before him, dating hack to
1844. Until and unless 1 am corrected
by Pete Murphy, I claim this is a
record not only for Carolina, but
mebbe for the South !
I think I can epitomize and sum¬
marize the manner of man that he was
in one paragraph of narrow compass.
In 1875 he was a candidate for mem¬
bership in the Constitutional Conven¬
tion. It was a time of intense partisan
feeling, and it was known that the
election would be so close that the vote
of even one county might ho sufficient
to turn the tide — a situation which
caused Democratic State Chairman
General William R. Cox to send his
famous telegram to his county chair¬
man, Colonel William Foster French:
“As you love your State hold Robe¬
son.” When the votes in Wayne had
been counted, it was discovered that
on certain ballots there was a slight
mistako in the spelling of the name of
the Republican candidate, and Mr.
Dortch was informed that with his
consent these votes would l»c thrown
out and thus bring about his election.
But Dortch said no, that the people
intended to elect his competitor and
that ho should and would abide by the
result. Spoken like a man and a
statesman, one who never “gave up to
party what was meant for mankind.”
Had’ it not been for this action the
current of Carolina history might
have been changed, for as it eventuat¬
ed, the two parties wore evenly bal¬
anced in the convention, and the elec¬
tion of Mr. Dortch would have given
the Democrats a sure if slender ma¬
jority.
Born in the county of Nash in 1S24,
he took his education at the hands of
the famous headmaster, William
Bingham, the preceptor and mentor of
so many eminent Carolinians. He d:d
not take a collegiate degree, hut imme¬
diately entered upon the study of the
law under the tuition of Bartholomew
F. Moore, then the bond and front of
the Carolina Bar. That eminent bar¬
rister instilled into his diligent pupil
a thorough knowledge of his science,
-o that in 1S45 he was admitted to
practice before the Courts of Pleas
and Quarter Sessions, and one year
Inter, as provided by the rules of the
Court, lie received his license to prac¬
tice in all the courts of the state.
He passed the first three years of
his professional career at Nashville,
where lie was elected as County Attor¬
ney, but in 1848 ho removed to tho
young and rapidly growing town of
Goldsboro, then but lately made
the county seat of Wayne County.
Almost immediately lie was elected as
County Attorney, and soon attracted
a large clientele from the counties of
Wayne, Johnston, Lenoir, Greene,
Edgecombe and Nash, a practice
which widened until the lime of his
death, and it is not too much to say
that at the zenith of his great power
he exercised as much influence in
eastern Carolina as John C. Calhoun
did in South Carolina, or Henry Clay
in Kentucky.
He first entered the arena of public
life as a member of the House of
Commons in 1852 and again in 1854,
where he served as chairman of the
committee on the Judiciary.
He again represented his county in
the Commons of 1858 where he made
an heroic fight in favor of the con
struction of a line of railway from
Greensboro to Danville, a measure de¬
feated only by a strict party vote.
The passage of only a few short
years served lo demonstrate his wis¬
dom, for during the war this line was
constructed by the Confederate Gov¬
ernment as an imperative necessity.
Speaker of House of Commons
The House of Commons has seen
its Speaker’s sent occupied by great
men. Governor Abner Nash was the
first incumbent of that chair, and in
18G0 Mr. Dortch became the last, a*
the name was thereafter changed to
its present form — House of Repre¬
sentatives. In the chair of the Speaker
he enhanced an already great reputa¬
tion, so that when war drums throbbed
in the ’sixties and the state adopted
the Ordinance of Secession, he was,
along with George Davis of New Han¬
over, elected to the Confederate
States Senate, a position which he re¬
tained so long as the Confederate
Government existed, being the only
Carolinian to retain such position
throughout the entire war. for in 1804
Mr. Davis resigned his seat to accept
appointment as Attorney General in
the Davis cabinet. Ho rendered loyal
and consistent support to the Confed¬
erate Government, and handled with
great tact and diplomacy the numer¬
ous disputes between the State Gov¬
ernment, headed by Governor Vance,
and the central government at Rich¬
mond.
The conclusion of the “havoc of
{Continued on page twenty-six)
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