Governor John W.
lit* was Governor of .\ortli Carolina a I the
outbreak of (lie Civil War. and liis patriotic
service in connection willi I lie Cause of (lie
Soulli will never lie forgotten.
MANY |x>liticul conventions
have been held in Carolina
which have had far-reaching
consequences, but in my judgment
the one which had the most in¬
fluence in determining the future
of the commonwealth was that
held in the 'fifties of the last cen¬
tury which gave the Democratic
nomination for Governor to John
W. Ellis of Rowan instead of to
William W. Holden of Wake.
Holden was a battle-scarred vet¬
eran of many political wars,, and
had been the leader in overthrow¬
ing the Whig dynasty and in in¬
stalling the Democratic party in
the scat of power. His paper, the
Raleigh Standard, had long been
the official organ of his party, and
in its editorial columns its editor
boasted, and with truth, that his
paper possessed the power to kill
or make alive politically. Naturally
there came a time when the editor
aspired to become Governor, and
historians agree that in point of
party service he should have re¬
ceived the nomination.
Bnt after a hot contest in a hectic
convention. John W. Ellis won the
nomination, and this so embittered
Holden that he gradually became
estranged from the party he had
done so much to serve. When the
Civil War drew on, Holden at first
gave but lukewarm support to the
Confederate cause, finally becom¬
ing so bitter in his criticisms of the
Confederate authorities that his
newspaper plant was wrecked by
Benning's Georgia brigade when
it passed through Raleigh in 1864.
Lost to Jonathan Worth
Appomattox found Holden at
utter variance with his former po¬
litical allies. Again he sought the
Gubernatorial nomination, but lost
to Jonathan Worth. When the fed¬
eral authorities refused to recog¬
nize the State Government and
erected our State into a Military
Department. Holden was tendered
and accepted an appointment as
Provisional Governor, and soon
piunged the State into another
civil war by declaring three coun¬
ties in a state of insurrection and
sending troops into these counties.
THE STATE. NOVCMBC* 30. 1946
By i*. c. L\wm;\( i:
Their commander arrested numer¬
ous prominent Democrats and re¬
fused to obey writs of habeas cor¬
pus issued by the Chief Justice-
acts which caused his impeachment
when the Democrats again secured
control of the state government.
If Holden had been nominated
for Governor, there would have
been no great war Governor in the
person of Zebulon B. Vance, and,
in the absence of the reputation
which he acquired as war Gover¬
nor. Vance might never have gone
to the United States Senate. It is
possible that had Holden been
nominated, his statue and not that
of Vance would now face the East
on Capitol Square, and he might
have been the first representative
of our state in the National Hall
of Fame at Washington. Such are
the possible far-flung consequences
had there been the change of just
a few votes in this momentous
nominating convention!
Governor Ellis was born in
Rowan County in 1820, in that
part of the county which bordered
the banks of the Yadkin and which
is now embraced in the county of
Davidson. There was a high school
in this section located near Beat¬
tie's Ford, where the British troops
crossed the river under Lord Corn¬
wallis during the Revolution, and
it was here that young Ellis re¬
ceived his preliminary education.
After spending several years at
this academy, he attended Ran-
dolph-Macon College, later return¬
ing to our University where he
took his degree with the class of
1841.
Studied Under Pearson
A sister of Governor Ellis mar¬
ried a brother of Chief Justice Rich¬
mond Pearson, and not only on this
account, but also due to the further
fact that the celebrated Chief Jus¬
tice had the most famous law school
in the State, young Ellis studied
law under the Chief Justice at
Richmond Hill." located near Rock¬
ford. the old county seat of Surry
County. Completing his legal edu¬
cation here, he was admitted to the
Bar and immediately opened his
office at Salisbury which hence¬
forth became the scene of his life's
labors.
Ellis was a man of great natural
ability and brilliant parts, and he
soon attained an enviable reputa¬
tion. not only as a lawyer, but as
an orator and as a wise and saga¬
cious political leader. He had been
a member of the bar but a short
time when he was elected as a
member of the legislature, and he
continued to represent Rowan until
1848, when he was elected as a
Judge of the Superior Court when
only twenty-eight years of age.
This position he filled with great
ability for nine years, and during
this time he attracted such atten¬
tion that he received the Demo¬
cratic nomination for Governor.
But a Democratic nomination
was not then equivalent to elec¬
tion. and a battle royal followed in
the ensuing campaign between
Ellis and John Pool of Pasquotank
who had been nominated by the
Whigs. The issue involved in the
campaign was principally the ques¬
tion of ad valorem taxation, but
Ellis was elected and was serving
as chief executive at the time of
his death. It may be recalled that
after the war John Pool became a
Republican and was elected as
United States Senator by a Recon¬
struction legislature, and he is com¬
monly reputed to have been the
"evil genius" behind the adminis¬
tration of Governor Holden. Pool
had his brother. Solomon Pool,
elected as President of the Uni¬
versity. This act caused the stu¬
dents to refuse to attend classes
and forced a suspension of all
collegiate activities, a student
writing on the blackboard just
prior to his departure, said: "this
old University has done busted
and gone to hell today.”
Governor Ellis was an able ad¬
ministrator. and he gave the State
an able administration. He occu¬
pied the seat of power when the
firing of the Confederate batter¬
ies on Fort Sumter ushered in the
Civil War in 1861. President Lin-
iContimied on page 21)
ii
