Volume XI
Number 28
December 1 1
1943
THE STATE
A Weekly Survey of North Carolina
Enured m •econdcUu miller. June I, 1933. si the PoMo«ci it ILIeifh, North Cirolmi. onder Iho All of March 3, IS1V
Ten Outstanding Losers
They were severely criticised during their
lifetime, but in llu> mnjority of instnnces
future developments proved them to be
right.
IX every conflict, whether on tile
field of war or of peace, there is
of necessity a victor ami
и
van¬
quished. It is quite true that “the race
is not always to the swift nor the but¬
tle to the strong”; for often the appar¬
ent loser may eventually prove to !*•
the winner. Galileo was forced to
recant his statement that the world
moved around the sun. but this did
not prevent the ultimate triumph of
the truth. Martin Luther proved the
victor, although excommunicated,
when he stood before the Roman Hier¬
archy at the Diet of Worms, after
nailing his ninety-nine thesis to the
church door at Wittenburg ami boldly
said:
“Кого
I stand; God helping me
I can do no other" Nathan Hale eon-
founded his enemies as he stood with
the halter around his neck ami calmly
said : "I regret that I have but one
life to give for my country." General
Robert K. Lee was so much the inoral
victor at Appomattox that after he
had surrendered his ragged and starv¬
ing army and was taking his depar¬
ture, every Federal officer from Gen¬
eral Grant down stood to attention
and saluted the gallant hero of n
I-o&t Cause-
Hero in Carolina there have been
those who fought a good fight for a
cause in which they believed, and while
we acclaim the victors let us take a
cursory glance back through history
and consider the names of ten pri¬
mates on the field of the loser* :
JOHN SEVIER, of Tennessee:
At the time of its establishment, our
,'tato extended to the Mississippi,
although settlements beyond the blue
Ridge were few and much of the
territory wild and unexplored. Of
By
П.
C. LAWRENCE
course there wore no railroads, no
public highways, and it took a long
time for the inhabitants of the fron¬
tier to communicate with the authori¬
ties of the newly established state at
Raleigh, and naturally there was much
lawlessness and disorder in the wild
wilderness along the frontier. Under
such conditions John Sevier took the
load in proclaiming the independence
of his section and the establishment
of tlm State of Franklin. Chaotic con¬
ditions followed, resulting in the dis¬
patching of troop* to the scene bv
Governor Caswell and in the final
arrest of Sevier who was carried in
irons to Morganton and there placed
on trial for treason. Hut so great was
the personal popularity of Sevier that
he was soon released and returned in
triumph to his native mountains. It
was not a great while before the day
came when our state authorities real¬
ized that Sevier was right ; wo ceded
hack to the Union what is now Ten¬
nessee; and soon a new state came
into being, one of whose counties
bears the honored name of Sevier.
THOMAS PERSON, of Person
County: Independence having been
won, it became an acute question
whether the Revolution had resulted
in the formation of a Union of thir¬
teen colonies, or in the establishment
of thirteen free and independent
states. There was a largo body of pub¬
lic opinion, of which Thomas Person
was one of the leading exponents,
which favored setting up our state as
a free and independent country, and
which bitterly opposed union with the
other colonies and ratification of the
proposed Federal Constitution. In¬
deed this view was so prevalent that
our people at first refused by an over¬
whelming majority to ratify the pro¬
posed constitution, and our state be¬
came the last of the colonies to ratify,
with the exception of Rhode Island.
In the Constitutional Convention
at Hillsboro, Thomas Person was a
leader of the majority faction oppo*-
ing ratification, and he boldly de¬
nounced Washington as a “damned
scoundrel and a traitor for advocat¬
ing the adoption of so infamous an
instrument.” Successful for the nonce,
his cause lost the following year; and
he was retired from public life. None¬
theless lie remained a stoat-hearted
patriot, and when our University was
about to close its doors for lack of an
appropriation sufficient to keen it
open, he stepped forward and without
security loaned it $20.000— a large
sum for that day. Today there i* a
building on its campus which bear*
bis name; and his fame is perpetuat¬
ed in the Carolina County which also
hears his honored name.
ARCHIBALD D. MURPHEY, of
Orange County: Murphey was one
of the greatest lawyers our state hn»
produced; a jurist of distinction; a
legislator of renown. As chairman of
the Son uto Committee on Education
in 1810 ho wrote perhaps the most
famous document ever prepared by a
Carolinian— n report recommending
the establishment of a system of pub¬
lic schools. Murphey wrote to Thomas
Ruffin who in later years was to be¬
come the greatest of our Chief Jus-
