•^^v . 
 
 l\ 
 
 LIFE AND CHARACTER 
 
 HON. WILLIAM A. GRAHAM 
 
 A MEMORIAL ORATION, 
 
 BY 
 
 MONTFORD McGEHEE, ESQ., 
 
 DELIVEKED 
 
 BEFORE THE BENCH AND BAR OF THE SUPREME COURT, IN 
 
 THE HALL OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, IN 
 
 RALEIGH, JUNE 8, 187G. 
 
Digitized by tine Internet Arciiive 
 
 in 2011 witii funding from 
 
 University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/lifecharacterofh71mcge 
 
"^^ ^^ 
 
LIFE AND CHARACTER 
 
 HON. WILLIAM A. GRAHAM 
 
 A MEMORIAL ORATIOX, 
 
 MONTFORD McGEIIEE, ESQ. 
 
 DELIVEKED 
 
 BEFORE THE BENCH AND BAR OF T[IE SUPREME COURT, TM 
 
 THE HALL OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, IN 
 
 RALEIGH, JUNE 8, 187G. 
 
 RALEIGH: 
 
 NEWS JOB OFFICE AND BOOK BINDERY. 
 
 1877. 
 
ORATION. 
 
 Gentlemen of the Judiciary and Bar: 
 
 Wlien I learned that, under a resolution adopted by the 
 Bench and Bar of the Supreme Court, I had been appointed 
 to deliver an "Address on the Life and Character of the 
 Hon. William A. Graham," I stayed not to question my own 
 i^ufficienc}^ for the duty to which you assigned me. Coming 
 from such a source, the appointment had to me somewhat 
 the force of a command. JSTo commajid, hovrever, could 
 have been more grateful, since it had for its object to do 
 lionor to one for whom I have ever cherished a veneration 
 and aiicctiou which hardly knew a limit. 
 
 One word will bo permitted me as to the manner in Avhich 
 this duty lias been performed. It will be seen that my sole 
 object has been to present a faithful sketch of the life of this 
 illustrious man, together w'ith such reflections as naturally 
 arose out of a study of his career — such as were suggested 
 b}' a consideratioii of his labors, his motives and his aims. 
 
 I have adopted this course from a profound conviction that 
 the truest narrative of his life would be his best monument; 
 that the highest eulogy that could be pronounced upon him 
 ■would bo to present him just as he was. 
 
 In the execution of this design I have been led to touch, 
 
 at' One point, ujion that period of our own history when the 
 
 existing political parties of the day had their origin, and when 
 
 ■ i^olitical feeling Avas very much embittered; at another, to a 
 
 = somewhat extended examination of a statement contained! in 
 
 a recent address published' in Oar Living an<J Our De<uL 
 
(4) 
 
 In the former will be seen, I trust, no trace of partisam 
 feeling; in the latter no purpose other than to elucidate the- 
 truth of history. 
 
 William Alexander Graham was born on the 5th day of 
 September, 1804, in the county of Lincoln. lie was for- 
 tunate alike in the race from which he sprang and in his own 
 ancestry. The race was that which, by a change of residence- 
 from Scotland to Ireland, anterior to its immigration to this, 
 country, acquired, as it were, a double nationality and name^ 
 to-\vit: Scotch-Irisb. It was a people of marked character- 
 istics. By their residence among the Irish they seemed to 
 have added somewhat of the fervor of mind and feeling- 
 which distinguishes that race, to the clear intelligence, strong- 
 will and shrewd sagacity of their mother country. They^ 
 were noted for their unconquerable attachment to the great 
 princii>les of liberty. They speculated Avith the coolness 
 and sagacity of the Scotchman upon the functions and limit- 
 ations of government, and, like the Irishman, they kindled 
 into flame upon any invasion of their rights. They were 
 Presbyterian in their tenets, and devoted to that form of 
 worship. Wherever they went the minister went with 
 them; amid all the chances and change? of life he was there- 
 to instruct, to encourage and console. The polity of that 
 church demanded a learned ministry, and the minister was. 
 almost always a secular as well as sacred teacher ; hence,, 
 wherever they established themselves, liberal education was 
 fostered and classical learning taught. In Mecklenburg and 
 the neighboring counties they earnestly sought, while ]S"orth 
 Carolina was yet a colony, to found a college. Twice was a, 
 charter granted by the Legislature, and twice disallowed by 
 the King. Charters were granted to institutions, the instruc- 
 tors of which were members of the Church of England ; they 
 were denied where the instructors were of the Presbyterian 
 faith. " The faith of Calvin," says Bancroft, " has ever been* 
 feared as the creed of- Republicanism." 
 
(5) 
 
 Earlj'in our colonial history they signalized their zeal for 
 •civil and political liberty. The political disturbances an- 
 terior to the Revolution, which issued in the Mecklenburg 
 Declaration of Independence, were the outgrowth of this 
 .spirit. This spirit was not the offspring of a vague enthu- 
 isiasin. No people ever had clearer conceptions of the objects 
 they sought to compass. " The genuine sense of America at 
 that moment," said the elder Adams, speaking of the Meck- 
 lenburg Declaration, " was never so well expressed before 
 jnor since." 
 
 The ancestry of Mr. Graham were deeply imbued with the 
 :spirit of this people. His maternal grandfather. Major John 
 Davidson, was one of the signers of the Mecklenburg 
 Declaration, and acted a conspicuous jiart in the Eovolution. 
 The name of his father, General Jose^ih Graham, is one of 
 the best known in our Eevolutionary annals. The bio- 
 graphical sketch incorporated into Wheeler's History is a 
 brief but noble record. He entered the army at nineteen 
 _}'ears of age. At the end of two years of arduous and respon- 
 sible service he was stricken down by a severe and lingering 
 illness, but returning health found him again in the field. 
 When the war invaded his own section, and the army under 
 General Greene withdrew towards Yiro-inia, to him was 
 assigned the command of those troops which sustained the 
 rear-guard under General Davie. For many miles he was 
 confronted with the troops of Tarloton, the best body of 
 ■cavalry in the British service. The obstinate resistance 
 which he opposed to their intrepid advance had nearly closed 
 his career. After many gallant but ineffectual attempts to 
 drive back the enemy, he at length fell, literally covered 
 with wounds. When his wounds were healed he again took 
 the field. The service which now fell to his lot was one of 
 peculiar privation, suffering and sacrifice : commissary stores, 
 liis command often had none; nay, were sometimes under 
 the necessity of suppljnng their own horses and purchasing 
 their own equipments. But his patriotism was entire and 
 
uncalc'ulatiiig ; he rocked not of means, health or lite "itself in 
 the caiLse to which he had devoted himself. Suffice it that 
 he continued in the field as lon^- as there was in the country 
 an enemy under arms ; and though he had, when peace was 
 declared, but entered on the threshold of manhood, he had 
 commanded in fifteen difl:erent eno-aji-eraents. 
 
 In civil life he was scarcely less distinguished ; the many 
 important positions filled by him att'ord the highest testi- 
 mony to his capacit}^ and character. It is to be regretted 
 that we have no extended biography of one who so well 
 illustrated the character of the soldier and the citizen. 
 
 His mother was distinguished for her personal beauty^ — 
 distinguished as well for her sense, piet}^ and many amiable 
 virtues. But death deprived him of her fostering care 
 before he had attained his fourth year, and he was then con- 
 signed to the care of an elder sister. The tender aftection 
 and respect with which he always referred to this sister, 
 attests how fully she discharged a mother's duty. 
 
 lie received the rudiments of his education in the coni- 
 mon schools of the country. He commenced liis classical 
 education in the Academy at Statesville, then under the care 
 of the Rev. Dr. jNIuchat, a scholar of good repute. Mv. Gra- 
 ham verified the apparent pai'adox of Wordsworth, 
 
 " The child is father of the man." 
 
 He was noted, from his earliest years, for his industry, his 
 thirst for knovvdedge and his aptitude to learn. One who 
 knew him well* testifies that from his childhood he was no 
 less remarkable for his high sense of truth and honor than 
 for his exemption from the levities and vices common to 
 youth. At this Academy he applied himself to his studies 
 with the most exemplary diligence. A classmate f at that 
 time says of him, "he was the only boy I ever knew who 
 
 'Kov R H. ^lorrison. t Judge Brevard. 
 
(7) 
 
 would spend his Saturdays in reviewing the studies of the 
 week/' 
 
 An incident wliich occurred about this time aftbrds a 
 striking proof of liis early force of character. Gen. Graham 
 was a pioneer in a branch of industry, yet but little devel- 
 oped in this State — the manufacture of iron. Upon his 
 removal to Lincoln he established a furnace and forge, which, 
 at the time now spoken of, had become quite extensive. 
 From some cause the works were left without a superinten- 
 dent. The General installed his son William, though then 
 but a boy, and wholly without experience, at the head of 
 the establishment ; and the energy and judgment with 
 which he conducted it, obtained his father's entire approval. 
 
 He was next sent to the Academy at Hillsboro. This in- 
 stitution, subsequently under Mr. Bingham, acquired a re- 
 nown in the South and -Southwest, not inferior to the re- 
 nown of Rugby, in Englau;!, under Dr. Arnold. It was 
 then under the direction of Mr. Rodgers. He had been edu- 
 cated for the Catholic Priesthood, and for accurate scholar- 
 ship and capacity as a teacher, had few superiors. Here Mr. 
 Graham \yas prepared for College. 
 
 From this Academy he went to the University of the 
 State, where he was matriculated in the summer of 182). . ^, 
 His course throughout his college life was admirable in ev-Uji-W*^ 
 ery Avay. He appreciated the scheme of study there estab- 
 lished, not only as the best discipline of the intellect, but as 
 the best foundation for knowledge in its widest sense. He 
 mastered his lessons so perfectly, that each lesson became a 
 permanent addition to his stock of knowledge. The pro- 
 fessors rarely failed to testify by a smile, or some other to- 
 ken, their approval of his proficiency. On one occasion, a 
 ])rofessor,:j; who has achieved a world-wide reputation in the 
 lield of science, remarked to one of his classmates§ that his 
 
 IProfossor Olmsteilfl; ^Joti:) W. Xorwood, Esq. 
 
(8) 
 
 lecture on Chemistry came back as perfectly from Mr. Gra- 
 ham as he had uttered it on the previous day. 
 
 Some thirty years after, the same professor in a letter to 
 Mr. Graham, (then Secretary of the Navy,) uses this lan- 
 guage : " It has often been a source of pleasing reflection to 
 me, that I was permitted to bear some part in fitting you, in 
 early life, for that elevated post of honor and usefulness to 
 which Providence has conducted you." 
 
 His high sense of duty was manifested in his conscientious 
 deportment under the peculiar form of government to which 
 be was then subject. His observance of every law and 
 usage of the College was punctilious ; while, to the faculty, 
 lie was ever scrupulously and conspicuously respectful. 
 
 His extraordinary proficiency was purchased by no labo- 
 rious drudgery. The secret of it was to be found in the pre- 
 cept which he acted upon, through life : " Whatsoever thy 
 Lund findeth to do, do it with thy might. "' His powers of 
 concentration were great, his perceptions quick, his memory 
 powerful, prompt and assiduously improved. By the joint 
 force of such faculties, he could accomplish much in little 
 time. Hence, notwithstanding his exemplary attention to 
 his College studies, he devoted much time to general read- 
 ing. It was at this time, no doubt, that he laid up much of 
 that large and varied stock of information upon which he 
 drew at pleasure, in after life. 
 
 Intent upon availing himself to the full, of every advant- 
 age atibrded him, he applied himself assiduously to the du- 
 ties of the Literary Society of ^^■hich he was a member. He 
 participated regularly in the debates and other exercises of 
 that body. For all such he prepared himself with care ; and 
 it is asserted by the same authority,! to which I have al- 
 ready referred — a most competent judge — that his composi- 
 tions Avcre of such excellence that, in a literary point of 
 
 JiMr. Norwood. 
 
^ 
 
 (9) 
 
 view, tliey would have challeuged comparison with anything 
 done by him in afterlife, ' 
 
 His eno-ao-ins; manners brouojht him into pleasant relations ^"(f^^ 
 with all his fellow students. lie lived with them upon terms ^ J^ 
 of the frankest and most familiar intercourse. In their 0^\^' 
 most athletic sports he never participated, but he was a 
 pleased spectator, and evinced by his manner a hearty sym- 
 pathy with their enjoyments. His favorite exercise was 
 walking, and those who knew him well will recollect that 
 this continued to be his favorite recreation while health was 
 spared him. With his friends and chosen companions he 
 was cordial and easy, and always the life of the circle when 
 met together. 
 
 The class of which he was a member was graduated in 
 1824. It was the largest up to that time ; and, for capacity 
 iind proficiency, esteemed the best. It was declared by 
 Professors Olmstead and Mitchell, that Yale might well have 
 been proud of such a class. It embraced many who after- 
 ward won high distinction in political and professional life. 
 One, who divided the highest honors of the class with Mr. 
 Graham, attained the highest judicial station in the State — 
 a seat upon the Supreme Court bench. f 
 
 jSTo one could have availed himself to a greater extent 
 than Mr. Graham did, of the opportunities presented in lii.s 
 collegiate career " His college life, in all its duties and ob- 
 ligations," says the gentleman before quoted, f " was an 
 epitome of his career upon the stage of the world." He 
 adds that on the day when he received his diploma, he could, ( 
 with his usual habits of study, have filled any chair with 
 honor to himself and acceptance to his class. Such is the 
 emphatic testimony of one who himself graduated with high 
 distinction in the same class. Might we not subjoin, build- 
 ing upon the above remark, that his career in after life was, 
 
 f^'' 
 
 Hon. M. E. Manly. + Mi'- Ntrwood. 
 
(10) 
 
 ill great part, the logical result of the diseipline au;l train- 
 ing to which he submitted himself, so couscieutiously, in his 
 college life ? 
 
 After graduation he made an excursion to some of the 
 Western States, which occupied a few months. While at 
 Lexington, he heard Mr. Crittenden address the jury in a 
 great slander or libel case. Of all intellectual displays there 
 are none so dazzling as those of the great orator or advocate ; 
 there are none the triumphs of which are so palpable and 
 so intoxicating ; none so calculated to excite the enthusiasm 
 of a young and ingenuous mind. The speech, which was 
 worthy of the great advocate's fame, made a profound im- 
 pression upon Mr. Granam. It may have had some intluence 
 in determining his choice of a profession, or in fixing it, if 
 already made. We shall see in the sequel that to the youth 
 wlio,. unknown to him, listened with such admiration to his 
 speech that day, Mr. Crittenden many years after appealed 
 for the use of his name, and the weight of his influence, at a 
 crisis of great peril to their common country. From this 
 tour he returned in 1824, and entered upon the study of the 
 law in the office of Judge lluffin. 
 
 The opinion of Judge Ruflin, as to the course proper to be 
 pursued with a student of the law, was somewhat peculiar. 
 He held that he should have little assistance beyond that of 
 having his course of study prescribed. He must, as it were, 
 scale the heiglit alone — by his own strength and courage ; 
 availing himself of a guide only at points otherwise inacces- 
 sible. His brother, the Hon. .Fames Graham, in a letter 
 written at this period, made mention of this opinion, and 
 urged him to adopt the expedient resorted to by himself: 
 " When he would not examine me, I took," said he, " the 
 liberty of questioning him very frequently, and by drawing 
 him into conversation on legal subjects, my own ideas were 
 rendered more clear, correct and lasting." It is not likely 
 that counsel so judicious, and from such a source, was neg- 
 lected. 
 
(U) 
 
 lie obtained his County Court license in the summer of n ^' 
 182G. At August term of the Court he appeared at the ^ 
 Orange Bar. The rule then required, between the admission 
 to practice in the County Court and the admission to prac- 
 tice in the Superior Court a novitiate of one year. This 
 period he spent in Ilillsboro, that he, might continue to 
 profit by the instruction of his learned preceptor. At the 
 end of the year he received his Superior Court' license. It 
 was now a question where he should establish himself for the 
 practice of his profession. The counties of Mecklenburg,, 
 Cabarrus and Lincoln were tilled with his blood relations, 
 connections and friends. They were among the most distin- 
 guished for their wealth, intelligence and Revolutionary 
 fame. Their combined influence would give him command 
 of all the important business of those counties, and place him 
 at the outset in the position of a leader of the Bar. The 
 prospect in Orange and the adjoining counties was widely 
 diiferent. In these latter counties he would have no adven- fuJr' 
 titious advantages. The business of these counties, more-^ ^^ 
 over, Avas. engrossed by an able and a numerous Bar. At I 
 the first court which he attended after he obtained his Su- 
 perior Court license they mustered to the number of twenty- 
 six, A large proportionof these were young man recently ad- 
 mitted to practice; but after deducting these, and many 
 more of longer standing and respectable position, there still / 
 remained a Bar which for learning, abilities and eloquence 
 was never surpassed in this State. Of resident lawyers there 
 were Thomas Ruffin, Archibald D. Murphy, AVillie P. Man- 
 gum, Francis L. Hawkes and Frederick Nash ; of lawyers- 
 attending the court, from other counties, there were George 
 E. Budo-er, AVilliam II. Haywood and Bartlett Yancey. 
 What recollections of renown connected w ith the forum, the 
 Seuate and the church Hood the mind as we recall these 
 names ! Fain would I pause to contemplate the career of 
 these illustrious men, by which the character of North Caro- 
 lina was so nmch elevated in the consideration of the world,. 
 
(12) 
 
 rand so mucli of honor brought to the State. But other sub- 
 jects press upon me — subjects of more immediate interest. 
 
 ^Notwithstanding this formidable competition — a compe- 
 tition which might well dismay one at the outset of profes- 
 tfiional life — Mr. Graham resolved to fix his residence at Hills- 
 boro. Two reasons were assigned by him for this conclu- 
 .-sion : first, an unwillingness to relinquish the foot-hold he 
 had gained in the county courts of Orange, Granville and 
 ■Guilford ; second, a reluctance to sever the associations 
 ^formed with his professional brethren at those courts. An- 
 other reason, quite as potent, probably, ^^as a well-grounded 
 -"Confidence in his own abilities, and in his knowledge of his 
 jprofession. Against such men he entered the lists, and 
 •sigainst such he had to contend ; not indeed all at the same 
 time, but all within a period of two years. It may be men- 
 tioned as an instance of the vicissitudes of human life, that 
 ■five years from the August of that year — 1827 — not one of 
 those illustrious men remained at that Bar. 
 
 Ilis first case of importance in the Superior Court was one 
 ^vhich, from peculiar causes, excited great local interest. It 
 involved an intricate question of title to land. On the day 
 'Of trial, the court room was crowded and the Bar fully 
 occupied by lawyers — many of them men of the highest pro- 
 fessional eminence. When he came to address the jury, he 
 «poke with modesty, but with ease and self-possession. His 
 preparation of the ease had been thorough, and the argu- 
 .Tuent which he delivered is described as admirable, both as 
 -to matter and manner. AVlien he closed, the lion. William 
 H. Haywood, who had then risen to a high position at the 
 Bar, turned to a distinguished gentleman, still living, of the 
 -same profession, and inquired who had prepared the argu- 
 :incnt which Mr. Graham had so handsomelj' delivered. The 
 answer was, " It is all his own ;" to which Mr. Haywood 
 .replied with the observation, "William Gaston could have 
 i^one it no better." 
 
 Mr. Graham knew 'nor.e of that weary probation which 
 
(13) 
 
 has been the lot of so many able men. His argument in the'; 
 case just mentioned at once gave him a position of promi- 
 nence. It was not long before he attained a place in the- 
 front rank of his profession. Here, with the large stores of 
 professional knowledge which he had laid up, it was easy to 
 sustain himself His high mental qualifications, his habits, 
 of study, his perseverance, his unalterable faith in his cause,, 
 brought to him a constantly increasing business, and a con- 
 stantly widening reputation. He was early, for so young a 
 man, retained in the most important causes in the courts in 
 which he practiced, and his associate counsel geneially gave 
 him the leading position in the trial. 
 
 For forty years and more he maintained his high pre- 
 eminence in his profession. His name appears in the Reports,. 
 in nearly all the apjDeals from his own circuit, and in many 
 of the important cases from the other circuits of the State.. 
 It would be impossible, in the compass of this Address, to- 
 present ?ny view, however brief, of the nature. and variety 
 of .the causes in which he was employed. They will be- 
 found to embrace nearly every principle known to the com- 
 mon law and to ecpiity jurisprudence, applicable under our 
 system of government and to our changed condition of" 
 society. To his clear, penetrating, masculine intellect, both 
 systems were alike adapted ; but the system of Equity 
 seemed to me, to offer to him the most congenial field. 
 Thoroughly versed in the learning of this branch of juris- 
 prudence, his fine, natural sense of right had led him to the 
 study of the best ethical writers. He had thus rendered still 
 more subtle his native perception of those more recondite- 
 princij^les of justice which it is the object of that science to 
 administer. And though the system of equity has for a 
 long time been little less circumscribed by known rules and. 
 precedents than the s^^stem of law, yet his mind found aa, 
 grateful occupation in tracing those rules and precedents^ 
 back to the great principles from which they were deduced., 
 and vindicating their authority upon the ground of reason.^ 
 
(14) 
 
 Not, however, in courts of Et|nity did he establish his 
 great reputation in liis profession. The fame acquired in 
 this hrancli of practice is limited almost entirely to the 
 Bench and Bar. It admits of none of those intellectual dis- 
 plays for which the trial by jury is so Avell adapted. It is 
 to the Law side of the court that we must repair, if we 
 Avould see him in that sphere, in which, professionally, he 
 was best known, and where his most signal triumphs were 
 won. But of his distinguishing characteristics as a lawyer, 
 I projiose, hereafter, to speak. 
 
 J^ In 1833 he was elected a member of the General Assen-i- 
 
 Uua bly from the town of Ilillsboro. His first appearance on the 
 
 ^^^ floor has an interest from the relations subscquentl}' existing 
 
 between him and the distinguished man to Avliom the mo- 
 tion suljmittcd liy him had rol'ercn(,'e. He rose to move the 
 sending of a message to the Senate to])roceed to the election 
 of a Governor of the State, and to put in nomination Gov. 
 Swain. A tlay ov \\\o after, he had the satisfaction of re- 
 porting that that gentleman — who was ever afterward united 
 to him in the closest bonds of friendshi} — had received a 
 majority of votes, and of being named as first on the com- 
 mittee to inform him of his election. He took, from tlie be- 
 ginning, an active part in the business of the House relating 
 to Banks, Law Amendments and Education. A lew days 
 after the session connnenced, he Avas apyiointed chairman of 
 a, special committee, and submitted an adverse report upon 
 the petition of certain citizens of Franco, praying that they 
 m.ight hold and transfer real estate. Xear the end c^f the 
 session he was the chairman of another special commit- 
 tee, to which was referred a rpiestion then much discussed. 
 The question was, whether a person holding an ofhce of 
 profit or trust under tlie State government could, during his 
 term, hold a like office under the goverjunent of the United 
 States. The question arose under the Constitution of 177(), 
 and is of no practical value now. But it was a question of in- 
 terest at the time, and possesses an interest for us, as the 
 
(15) 
 
 liivst work oi'any kind (L>;io l)y Mr. Graliaiu wliii-li lipscome 
 down to us. llo disposed of the question iu a report eiear 
 and well reasoned, and marked with great precision of lan- 
 g 11 age. 
 
 He was a member from the tame town in 1834, during 
 wh.ch session he appears to have discharged the duties of 
 the chairman of the committee of which he was a member, 
 the Committee on the -Tudiciar}'. A ^^^ 
 
 I record an incident which attests the high consideration'^'^' 
 which he had already acquired in the country, and the im- ■" ^^^ 
 portance attached to his opinion. Judge Gaston had been ^ \. 
 electe<l in lc33 to a seat on the Supremo Court Bench by a ^kA^ 
 majority of two-thirds of the General Assembly. He had ^' 
 
 been brought up in the Konian Catholic faith — the faith of t/V*- ^ 
 liis fathers — the faith in which he died. The thirty-second f\X^^ 
 section of the old constitution declared incapable of holding 
 office all those who "deny the truth of the Protestant relig- 
 ion." Some dissatisfaction had been expressed at his accep- 
 ting a judicial office under a constitution containing this 
 clause, which in the opinion of some, excluded him. For 
 some time he did not deem it necessar}" to advert to tlie 
 matter. In 1834 — Xtn'. 12 — he addressed a letter to Mr. 
 Graham, enclosing a written paper, in which he stated suc- 
 cinctly, but with great clearness and irresistible force, the 
 reasoning by A\liich his acceptance had been determined. In 
 the conclusion of his letter he referred it to Mr. Graham's 
 judgment, to determine what degree of publicity should be 
 given to the pa[ier. Whether it was ever published ^ve do 
 not know ; but when we consider Judge Gaston's high sta- 
 tion and great name in the country, and that the purit}' of 
 that name was in a measure at stake, the incident must be 
 regarded as a singular tribute to the character v/hicli Mr. 
 Graham had thus early established. It is well known how 
 Judge Gaston availed himself of his place in the convention 
 of 1S35 to set I'orth to tlie world the reasons by which his 
 decision had been influenced — reasons so coo-ent and conclu- 
 
(16) 
 
 give as to satisfy every mind. It is known, too, that the ob- 
 ject of the great speech delivered by him then — an object 
 happily accomplished — was to bring about such a moditica- 
 tion of the obnoxious clause as to deprive it of all sectarian 
 intolerance 
 
 Mr. Graham was again a member from Ilillsboro in the 
 year 1835. In the organization of the committees the post 
 of Chairman of the Committee on the Judiciary" was assign- 
 ed to him, and the journals bear testimony to the diligence 
 with which its duties were discharged. It was through him, 
 in his capacity of chairman, that the various reports of the 
 commissioners to revise the Statute Laws of the State — the 
 Revised Code being then in progress — were submitted to 
 the House. 
 
 From the abilities displayed and the high position held by 
 him in the Legislature, we should naturall}' expect to find 
 him in the Constitutional Convention of 1835. It has been 
 well said that the county of Orange has been to North Caro- 
 lina, what Virginia has been to the Union, the mother of 
 statesmen f On this occasion, by one of those caprices 
 which sometimes seize upon communities as well as individ- 
 uals, the noble old county seemed to care little for her an- 
 cient renown. There seems to have been no action by the 
 county to secure delegates worthy of her former reputation. 
 We learn from the remarks of one of the delegates:}: in the 
 Convention, that there were ten candidates in the field, and 
 that the successful candidates were returned hy so small a 
 vote as to call forth a taunt from a member of the Conven- 
 tion. In such a contest Mr. Graham liad no desire to enter 
 the field ; indeed, whenever he offered himself for the suf- 
 frages of his countrjaiicn, it was as the chosen champion of 
 the principles of a great party. 
 ^ He again represented the county of Orange in the Legis- 
 latures of 1838 and 1840, in both of which he was elected 
 
 tMaj. Gales" sketch of Gov. Graham, in "Illustrated Age."' {Dr. Smith, "De- 
 bates," p. 3)7. 
 
(IT) 
 
 ppeakei'. This withdri' \' liiui iV.)in tin- uiviia of dehuto, and 
 we learn little more of him from the journals of those j^es- 
 Lslons than the unifui'm punctuality and universal acceptabili- 
 ty with which he disehai-ged the duties of that high trust. 
 
 We take leave fur the present of ?i[r. (iitdiam's legislative 
 career. His talents wci'c soon to he exerted on national suh- 
 Jects, and. on a grander stage. It neo(Lsl)ut a cursoi-y glance 
 <over the journals during the time he was a mendxT to ol)- 
 «erve the extent of his labors. The bills introduced, and the 
 reports submitted by him embrace every great interest of 
 the State. They embrace the subjects of l)anks, hnance, ed- 
 ucation, internal improvement, and measures relatino- to 
 amendment and repeal of statutes. Here will be seen the 
 causes of his pre-eminence among, the statesmen of JSorth 
 Carolina. Tliat pre-eminence was the fruit of a careful 
 study of the State in all lier resources and in all her inter- 
 •ests 
 
 A revolution in the politics of the State brought about a - 
 vacancy, in 1S40, in the representation from Xorth Carolina 
 in the Senate of the United States. Mr. Strange, nnder in-- 
 .^tructions, had resigned his seat ; the term of the other Sen- 
 .ator was near its end. There were thus two terms to be fill- 
 ed b\' the Legislature of 184].^ Mr. Mangum Avas elected 
 toi- the full term, Mr. Graham for the unexpired term. This 
 ■election was considered by Mr. Graham as the most eniphat- 
 ic testimonial of the confidence and favor of the State which x- 
 he received during his life. Mr. ^Nfanguni and he were resi- ^ 
 dents of the same county, and of the many aide men who 
 might justly advance chiims to the other seat Mr. Graham 
 was the youngest. Certainly an election under such circum- 
 stances constituted a tribute of peculiar significance and 
 value. 
 
 lie was among tlie youngest members of the Senate when 
 lie took his seat ; but he soon commanded the esteem and 
 respect of the entij-e body. That, it has been truly said, was 
 pre-eminently the age of great men in American parliamea- 
 
(18) 
 
 tary liistory, and of such he was regarded as the worthy 
 compeer. "Ke never rose to speak,*' says a distinguished, 
 gentleman,* who was himself a member of Congress at that. 
 time, '' that he did not receive the most respectful attention.. 
 When the Senate went into Committee of the Whole he was: 
 usually called upon to preside. Reports from him as chair- 
 man of a committee almost invariably secured tlie favorable 
 consideration of the Senate." From the same authority we- 
 learn that the relations existing between him and Mr. Clay 
 •were of the most kindl}' and intimate character, and that 
 Mr. Clay " regarded him as a most superior man, socially and. 
 intellectually." 
 
 Tlie [leriod during which Mr. Graham was in the Senate 
 was one of the most stormy in our political annals. The 
 Whig party had just achieved a great victory, and Harrison 
 and Tyler had l)een elected by an immeiue majority. That 
 party reckoned confidently, that it would now l»(j able to carry 
 out those great principles of government, for whi<di it had 
 so long contended, and which had been so signally ap[)rove<l 
 in the recent election. In the midst of these ])atriotic anti- 
 cipations, General Harrison died, and islr. Tyler succeeded 
 to the Presidential chair. Mr. Tyler had adopted the i)lat- 
 form of the Whig party, and in his address, upon assuming 
 the duties of his high ofhce, he did not intimate the least 
 change of policy from that which his predeces.scr had an- 
 nounced in his inaugural, lie had, moreover, retained the- 
 same constitutional advisers. The statesmen of the Whig; 
 party now set to work to redeem the pledges which had. 
 been made to the country. A great financial measure was. 
 passed ; this was vetoed by the President. A second meas- 
 ure of the same kind, framed in conformity to the views in- 
 dicated in liis veto message, was passed, which was vetoed in* 
 like manner. A taritf bill was passed, but this shared the^ 
 same fate. Efforts were made to pass these bills over the-. 
 
 *IIon. Keniu'tli Rayner. 
 
(19) 
 
 President's veto, but in every instance the veto was sustained 
 by tlic opposite party. The result of tliese repeated disap- 
 pointn)ents was, that all hoi)e oi' united and efficient action 
 in carrying out the g-roat priiH'iples of tlie AVliig party was 
 finally abandoned. 
 
 The udniinistration of Mi'. A'an Bureii had largely exeeedeA 
 the revenues. Pnn'ision tor itiis deficiency had to be made- 
 by the incoming adniinistratidii. To meet an emergency so- 
 pressing, a bill was introduced, known as the " Loan Bill." 
 It was strongly o^iposed, among others, by Mr. Calhoun, in a. 
 speech of characteristic force and compass. ^So far as tho 
 Whigs were concerned it was an ajipeal by the administra- 
 tion for aid, to a part}^ which it had betrayed. Mr. Graham 
 only recollected that the good of the country was involved.^ 
 and gave it his support. "I will not," said he, "step the 
 action of the government l)y denying it the means of going- 
 on, no matter who may be in power." The speech which he 
 delivered on this bill was eminently able and statesmanlike. 
 Me demonstrated the necessity of the measure; he traced 
 out the cause of the deficiencj^ and pointed out the remedy. 
 The subject has little interest to the general reader at this 
 day, yet in that speech there ai'e passages of such profound 
 reflection and philosophic scojie as will give it a value to 
 the political student at all times. Cf the three pro}»ositionf5 
 which he laid down as applicable to the emergency then ex- 
 isting, the two latter comprehend the highest wisdom in our 
 own day: "Reduce the expenditures to the lowest point 
 consistent witli an efficient public service ;" "Levy such du- 
 ties as are necessary for an economical administration of the 
 government, and nt.> more." 
 
 When the Ap[)ortionment Bill in 1842 was under consid-l^,i..^ 
 eration, very strong opposition, headed b}^ Mr. Bucharian, of r.| .1 
 Pennsylvania, and Mr. Wright, of New York, v/as made to V^-^ 
 the Districting clause. Mr. Graham, on June the od, ad- 
 dressed the Senate in support of tlie clause. In a calm, con- 
 densed, weighty and conclusive argument, he demonstrated 
 
(20) 
 
 that the District system of eieciiiii: Re[>resentativcs to Coii- 
 ^re-!S, was m cauformity t.) the true theory ofHepresentative 
 <^oveniment, and was the one contemplated and expected l>y 
 the tVamers of the o:overnment ; that it >vas sanctioned l)y 
 ii-asi'e ahn ist unaulmons in the old Srate-^. and by the usage 
 of two-thirds wf the new ; th.it the general ticket system was 
 iVanght v/ith evils, })nblic and private; nay. ^\■ith dangers to 
 the Union. There was a [»assage in that debate Avhich so 
 forcibly illustrates the high moral [ilane upon which he dis- 
 cusscl [>uMic atf.iirs, that I cannot })ass it l)y. It was ob- 
 jected by Mr. Woodbury, of Xew Hani'pshire. that if the Act 
 "were passe 1 by '( ongress, it had no means of enforcing it. 
 3Ie A\'ished to know whether an armed foive or a wv\t of 
 laandamus vrould be sent to the State hegislaturcs to compel 
 them to lay oif the Districls. In rei-lx- Mr. Graham chowed 
 that if, notwithstanding the lav/, a State should return 
 xneml)ers according to general ticket, the House of Kcjire- 
 sentatives. as jiulge of the eieu'tion of its membei's, couhl 
 j)ronounce such election a nullity. •• ijut the duties of the 
 States under our Constitution," said he. "are not to be de- 
 termined l)y tlieir liiibility to punishment, luit by the coven- 
 suits into which they entered by that instrument. It is 
 faith, honor, conscience, and not tli.- -hang-man's \vhi[i,' on 
 ■?kvhich, at last rest the blessings of tliis noblest hunutn insti- 
 tution which has ever i^een (h^vised for the security, ihe 
 Tivelfare audhap'piurss of man.'" In this exclamation, he un- 
 consciously announced those great prinei[>les by which his 
 <nvn conduct thr>)Ugh life was regulated, and to v.hose 
 slio'htest behest he ever ^-ielded an urdiesitating obedience. 
 
 A sh;)rt time after— July 25, 1S42— he received the fol- 
 lowing letter fr^nu Chancellor Kent : '' I thank you for your 
 speech ou the Districting clau.se of the Apportionment Bill. 
 I have read it carefully, and I deem it in every respect logi- 
 cal, conclusive, and a vindicati(.)]i of the | ov>er assumed by 
 the Bill, in language clear and specidc, tempered v.ith due 
 
(21) 
 
 moderation aiul tinniiess. The Distiict Svsteni is cs.st'utial 
 to clieck and contrd the eiinning niacliineiy of Faction." 
 
 After tlie expiration of his term— Mareh 3, 1843— Mr. 
 Graham resumed ine practice of his profession. ■ ;') 
 
 In 1844 he was nominafed by the Whig party of Xorth ^-^J^ 
 Carolina for the office of Governor. lie had not soiio-ht the 
 nomination ; nay, would have declined it if he could have^ 
 done so consistently with his high conceptions of the duty 
 of a citizen. In 1S3(; he had married the daughter of the 
 late John AV^ashington, Es(p, of Kewbern, a lady of rare 
 beauty and accomplishments— a union which brought to him 
 as much of happiness as it is the lot of man to know. From 
 this union a young and growing family was gatherino- around 
 him. His patrimony had not been large, and the reciuire- 
 ments of his family demanded his constant professional exer- 
 tions. He was now at the summit of his profession, and his 
 emoluments would be limited only by the nature of the 
 business in an agricultural State, where comuierce existed 
 to only a small extent, and manufactures were in their 
 infancy.- His attention had been much withdrawn from hi* 
 profession during his Senatorial career, and besides the ex- 
 pense and loss of time in a State canvass, he would, if elected, 
 be entirely precluded from the exercise of his protessio.; 
 during his term of office. The salary of the office was small, 
 and a residence in the capital as Chief Magistrate would 
 render necessary an increased scale of expense. On the other 
 hand, were considei-ations of great Aveight. Letters came to 
 him from many gentlemen of high standing in various parts 
 of the State, pressing his acceptance l;»y eveiy consideration " 
 that could be addressed to an elevated mind. Moreover he 
 was not unmindful of the honors which had been conferred 
 upon him, and not ungrateful. He held, too, that the cir- 
 cumstances must be very exceptional, which could justify a 
 citizen in withholding his services when called to a public, 
 station by the general voice of the people. To determine 
 his duty cost him much anxious retiection ; but the latter 
 
(22) 
 
 ■consideration proved decisive. The derision once made, he 
 sicted with his accustomed energy. 
 
 His nomination was hailed with satisfaction throughont 
 the Union. Among other letters which he then received, 
 giving expression to this feeling, was one from Mr. Clay. 
 In conclusion he thus expressed himselt: " Still, I should 
 have preferred that you were in another situation, where the 
 whole Union would have benefitted by 3'our services." 
 . V His opponent was Colonel ]SIike Hoke. He was born in 
 
 '^ the same county with Mr. Graham, find was nearly of the 
 same age. He was a gentleman of tine person, of tine ad- 
 dress, of considerable Legislative experience, and of high 
 position at the Bar. The e-anvass was well contested on both 
 sides; on the part of .Mr. Graham it was conducted with 
 surpassing ability. When it came to the vote he led his 
 competitor by several thousand majority. ^ 
 ; .rile was inaugurated on the 1st of January, 1845, the oaths 
 
 * .,v^ of office being administered by Chief Justice RutHn. The 
 ilaleigh Register of that date remarks, that " the audience 
 which witnessed the ceremony, for everything that could 
 make the occasion imposing, has never been surpassed within 
 our recollection. The lobbies au'l galleries were crowded 
 with strano;ers and citizens, and a brilliant assemblasie of 
 ladies." 
 Ji The Inaugural Address Avas worthy uf the speaker. It is 
 
 v^ full of lofty thoughts and wise suggestions. It is pervaded 
 throughout hy that philosophic tone which belonged to 
 
 14,*- whatever he wrote or spoke. The earlier part contains poli- 
 tical reflections of such weight and value, that I would 
 gladly present them if they could l)e condensed into a less 
 space. In this address, as always, he held up the State as 
 the worthy object of our best affections. His glance at the 
 working of our State government since its organization^ was 
 calculated to exalt to the highest degree the popular esti- 
 mate of the Constitution. Some of the noblest institutions 
 of our State had practically their inception in the recom- 
 
 "^ /itCw/r.. 5 
 
 OOn er U. O a A 
 
(23) 
 
 inendations of that Inaugural — as the Asylum for the insane 
 and the Asylum for the deaf and dumb:^' Here, too, prac- 
 tically dates the origin of that great measure of scientific 
 progress — the Geological Survey, by which North Carolina 
 ■stands so enviably distinguished among her sister States 
 immediately around her. He gives just prominence in this 
 address to the Common School System, which then had been 
 just introduced. The University, which alwa\'S commanded 
 the entire homage of his heart, has its due place here. In 
 the latter half he takes a survey of the State — her physical 
 condition and her needs — and suggests from the resources of 
 political economy, the true principles of her future progress' 
 lie dwells, toward the conclusion, with just exultation upon 
 the high character which our people enjoyed for hcnesty and 
 fidelity. " Thus far," said he, " our escutcheon is unstained — 
 the public faith has been kept ; the public honor inviolate." 
 History will record that it was always so, while North Caro- 
 linians had the control of their State. The last sentence is 
 characteristic of the man ; it breathes a devout invocation 
 that pijr beloved State should not outstrip her sister States 
 in the career of ambition and of glory, but " that she may 
 be permitted to ' walk in her integrity,' the object of our 
 loyalty and pride, as she is the home of our hearts and affec- 
 tions." I have dwelt upon this address because it epitomises 
 the measures, and exhibits the spirit of his administration. 
 It would be impossible to present here any view of the pro- 
 gress of the State during his administration. His first term 
 was so acceptable that he was elected for the second by a 
 largely-increased vote. His tw^o terms embrace that period 
 during which North Carolina made the greatest progress in 
 :all her interests.* The messages of his very al)]e predecessor, 
 
 * ''hi' A<-.t loi- the charter of the Iiistittitiim for tlie "Deaf. Dninl) and Biind' ' 
 was p!is.seil in ISlti. In lv4S were passed Act.s for the charters of the North faro- 
 •liiia Railroad, the Fa.v^'tteville and Western Plank Head, the Slacknatfr Na- i- 
 f^ation of tlie ('a]>e Kea-- and Deep Rivers, and, pi-osiiectively, of the Yadkin, 
 with a portage railroad connected with Deep River. Tlie Leiri.slatnre also made 
 • an appropri:itioii for the erection of a Lunatic Asylum. The Act authoriziiia: a 
 Oeological Survey was passed in l-i.50— the year after the e.xpii'ation oi his term— 
 ibut ilie Act was mainly dne to the influence e.\erted Ly his Inausiural and Mes- 
 :9ag-es. 
 
( 24 ) 
 
 Governor Morehead, followed up by liis own, drew the 
 attention of the whole State to the subject of Internal Iin- 
 provcnients, and a powerful impulse was given to that great 
 interest. Space vrould fail rne for a separate notice of each 
 of the great interests of the Slate. To sum up in brief, 
 whatever could tend to her material or intellectual progress- 
 Avas duly fostered and enci)uraged. 
 
 iJjiJttA llis messages were regarded as among the best State- 
 '•' papers of his day. Of this I could cite many proofs ; I must 
 content myself Avith one. In a letter, Mr. AVebster Avrite* 
 as follows : •• The tone which your Message holds, in regard 
 to the relations between the State Governnjent and the Gen- 
 eral Government isjnst, i)roper, digniiied and constitutional, 
 and the views which it j)resents on questions of internal 
 policv, the development of resources, the improvement of 
 markets, and the gradual advancement of industry and 
 Avealth, are such as belong to the age, and are important to 
 our country in all its parts." His earnest recommendation 
 of a Geological Survey elicited from Prof Olmstead, a letter 
 commending his A'iews expressed in that regard, in which 
 lie said : " There is no State in the Union Avhich Avoukl 
 better rcAvard the labor and ex[)ense of a Geological Survey 
 than North Carolina. " 
 ;,, In 1849 li<^ delivered the Address before the Literary 
 
 '^'^ I Societies at Chapel Hill. His sul»ject Avas a cursory A'ieAv of 
 the objects of liberal education. This Address stands out 
 in Avide contrast to those Avhich have been customary on 
 such occasions, and is solid, sterling;, practical. It is a A-in- 
 dication of the University ^curriculum. Subjects of highest 
 interest are discussed, and with all due attractions of style.. 
 It concludes with brief, but Aveighty suggestions to the 
 graduating class, calculated to stimulate to high aims in 
 Airtue, knowledge and patriotism. 
 
 Public honors have been coy to mo>!t men ; it Avas tho 
 reverse in his case. They Avaited around him Avitli perpetual 
 solicitations. In 1849,. Mr. Mangum one of the confidential 
 
 W^ 
 
(25) 
 
 advisors of the I^rcsidoat, wrote to ]\Ir. Graham that he 
 might make his election between the Mission to Russia and 
 the Mission to Spaifi. Suhsequently tlie Mission to Spain 
 was tendered to, and declined by liim. ^ f 
 
 Upon the accession of Mr. Fillmore to the Presidency, a *^*^ 
 seat in the Cabinet was tendered to Mr, Graham. In the t\ . 
 letter addressed to him b}- the President, informing him of n 
 his appointment, he said: "I trust that you will accept the -"^ 
 office, and enter upon the discharge of its duties at the 
 earliest day. I am sure that tlie appointment will be highly 
 acceptable to the country, as I can assure you, your accept- 
 ance will be gratifying to me,"' In a letter couched in proper 
 terms, dated July 25, he communicated his acceptance. 
 
 His first report as Secretar\' of the Navy is dated the SOtii 
 of November, 1850. His diligence, during the two months 
 which had elapsed from the time when he assumed oflice, is 
 attested by the comprehensive nature of that report. It 
 embraced a review of the whole Xaval establishment, accom- 
 panied b}^ recommendations, which, in many particulars, 
 went to the extent of a re-organization of the Xavy. The 
 recommendations involved, especially, great changes in the 
 2)ersonnel of the jSTavy : such as the retirement of ofiicers^ 
 promotions on a new" system, and other changes equally 
 great, and it is with pleasure we ol)serve the spirit ( f equity 
 and the sense of delicacy wdiich pervade these recommenda- 
 tions — equity in providing compensation for retiring ofiicere ; 
 delicacy in the manner in wdiich the changes are to be car- 
 ried into ettecr. The subject matter of this, and subsequent 
 reports, lies beyond the domain of our observation. I therev 
 fore subjoin a few testimonials from many at hand, to assist 
 our judgment of this part of his career. 
 
 A distinguished Senator of great experience and wide 
 national reputation wrote as follows of his first report : 
 *' You had a new field opened to you and well and ably have , 
 
 you occupied every portion of it. The report is to be prop- 
 erly characterized by a bold originality of conception, and 
 
(26) 
 
 a fearlessness of responsibility, too rare in that class of State 
 papers. 
 
 "You bave had to grapple with a system built up by a 
 series of abuses, and to use the knife — that fearful and un- 
 popular instrument — somewhat unsparingly. 
 
 " If I do not greatly err, it will give you more reputation 
 in the country than anything you have hitherto produced 
 "before the public." 
 
 In a letter dated the 10th of February, 1851, Mr. Benton 
 wrote as follows: "I have just read a second time, your 
 report on the Coast Survey Subject. I consider it one of the 
 most perfect reports I ever read — a model of a business 
 report, and one which should carry conviction to every can- 
 did, inquiring mind. T deem it one of the largest reforms, 
 both in an economical and administrative jioint of view, 
 which the state of our affairs admits of."" 
 
 His administration of the Navy Department was signalized 
 hy an enterprise, which, for the completeness of the success 
 with which it was crowned, was one of the most remarkable 
 of the age — the Japan expedition. A brief retrospect will 
 assist us to appreciate its difhculties and triumphs. In the 
 year 1G37 was consumated a revolution in the Empire of 
 Japan, which resulted in the banishment of the Portugese, 
 the only European people who had free access to that Em- 
 pire, and who appeared to have firmly fixed themselves 
 there. While the merchants of that nation succeeded in 
 possessing themselves of nearly the whole foreign trade of 
 the country, its missionaries had exerted not less activity in 
 the conversion of the natives to the faith of Rome. The 
 secular rulers, with most of the I'rinces, had accepted the 
 Christian religion : it was reckoned that, about that period, 
 one-half of the inha1>itants were Christians- The now revo- 
 lution re-established the ancient religion. In the forty years'" 
 persecution which succeeded, many millions of lives were 
 sacrificed, and the Christiari religion, it was supposed, ex- 
 tinsuished there forever. 
 
(27) 
 
 In consequence of this revolution all trade and intercouree 
 with civilized nations were cut off, except with the Dutch, 
 and as to them, was limited in amount, and circumscribedHo 
 one place. This concession, moreover, was purchased by the 
 most abject submission, and was attended with the greatest 
 humiliation. A very limited trade was likewise permitted 
 to China. With these exceptions the Japanese had with- 
 drawn from the world. The settled feeling of the people 
 was one of unmixed hostility to all nations professing the 
 christian religion ; the settled policy of the government, one 
 of non-intercourse with such nations, diplomatic or commer- 
 cial. Within the centur}' preceding that expedition, the 
 English had made many efforts, as had also the Russians 
 since 1792, to establish intercourse with a country abound- 
 ing with so many objects of desire to civilized man. All of 
 these efforts had failed in turn. In 1846 an attempt to ac- 
 complish the same object was made by the United States. 
 A fleet was sent under Commodore Biddle, which came to 
 anchor at Jeddo. in July of thatj^ear. It remained ten days, 
 but no one was peimitted to land, and nothing was accom- 
 plished. In 1849 the Preble, under Commodore Glynn, was 
 sent out to Ja})an to demand the release of sixteen American 
 vsailors who had been wrecked on one of the islands, and who 
 had been detained in prison many months — an imprisonment, 
 the hardship of which was aggravated by great cruelty and 
 inhumanity. Alter various resorts, intended apparently to 
 test the temper of the Commander and the government 
 which he represented ; after various delays, occasioned by 
 the evasive diplonuicy of Japanese oflicials, the prisoners 
 were, at length, delivered up and brought home. The duty 
 of giving adequate })rotection to American citizens, thus 
 added another motive foroj»eningup intercourse with Japan. 
 In the mind of Mr. Graham the obligation of this duty was 
 supreme. A government which failed to give protection to 
 its citizens on every part of the earth's surface, and among 
 every people was, in his opinion, a government but in name. 
 
(28) 
 
 IIo therefore resolvcfl, iu ^>vhieli resolution he was strongly 
 supported bj^ the. President, to send an expedition to Japan 
 and bring that em[)ire within the pale and comit}^ of civil- 
 ized nations. The eonimand was assigned to Commodore 
 Perry. The event shovvcd Avhat statesmanlike sagacity Avas 
 exercised in planning the expedition and in the selection of 
 its leader. Everything that was contemplated was accom- 
 plished. The success of that ex[>edition constitutes one of 
 the I'rincipal claims of Mr. Filmore's administration to the 
 admiration of the country and of posterity. Its success con- 
 stitutes, indeed, an era in the history of the world. Its re- 
 sults have been great an<l canuut but be enduring. It has 
 placed our relations with Jai)an upon a just and honorable 
 basis It has given a new direction to much ©f the commerce 
 of the VN-oi'ld — ]K)nring its fertilizing tide through the heart 
 of the American continent. Its etfects upon .Jaitan are but 
 beginning to be seen ; yet already they exceed what would 
 have been brought about in tlie ordinary course of atfairs in 
 a thousand years Xo people have ever availed themselves 
 of the light of a superior civilization as the Japanese have. 
 In that light they have seen the unlitness of many of their 
 old institutions and liave abandoned them ; they have seen 
 the unlitness of their language for foreign intercourse, and 
 are preparing to substitute the English language. Tlie 
 changes thus made are harbingers of progress which will 
 justify the most lively anticipations for the future. The 
 friends of humanity and religion, especially, hail the pros- 
 pect with delight. They see in what has been already done, 
 the prospect of an entire change in the institutions of that 
 land. They hope, at no distant day, to see liberal institu- 
 tions introduced there. They hope to see a universal recog- 
 nition of ])Opular rights, vrhere the bonds of caste have been 
 so inexoj'able ; to see equal law's take the place of a des[)ot'3 
 will, and to see the Christian religion again introduced, 
 ^^^lever more to be disturbed in its peaceful reign. 
 
 Another expediticni was sent out in 1851 under the tlirec- 
 
tioii of tlie Xa\\v Poparttiient. The oltiuet was the explora- 
 tion of the A'alley of the Auiazoii in the interest- of coin- 
 nu'i'ee. The instriu-tiou.s to Lieutenant Ilei'ndon. — -to whose 
 charge the exjicdition was eonti'leil — ^contained in the letter 
 of Mr. Graliani, of Febraary l.ltii, were fnH and particular. 
 They embraced the position of the country — the navigabili- 
 ty of its streams— its c;ipacities for tj-ade and coninierce — 
 and its future prospects. In Fe()ruary, 185-1, tlie rejicirt was 
 liublished l)y order of Coiiu-ress. It i-outains the most ample 
 information ujion all the ])oints embniced in the instructions. 
 In the London " \\'estmiiister Review" of that year, it was 
 noticed witlj just credit to the author, and due reco^rnitioii 
 of the enlightened policy which projected the expedition. 
 
 in the year I80O, were passed those great measures of na- (X.\) ^U'^^ 
 tional liealing, known as the Compromise Measures. These "^ ^'K 
 constituted a jiart of a series of measures resorted to at short fN, - ,^-^' 
 intervals in our historv. to ^\\q iieace to the ever recuri'iu^T '^' 
 agitation on the subject of slavery. This question had l)eeti 
 a disturbing one from tiie commencement of our national 
 existence. It liad presented a f()rmidable lian'ier to the for- 
 mation of our federal constitution; this was removed by an 
 adjustment, based upon suffrage. It obtruded itself upon 
 Congress in 171*0, in a ['etition for the abolition of slaverv, 
 headed by Dr. Lrankiin ; this was |>at at rest foi- a time by 
 a resolution of that body, disclaiming any authority to inter- 
 fere in the emancipation of slaves, or with their treatment 
 in an_\' of the states. It emerged again in 1820. in a more 
 menacing form tlian before, startlin.g the country, as Mr. 
 Jefferson expressed it, 'like a fire-bell in the night ;" it was 
 now quieted by the Missouri compromise — long res^iirded as 
 a ""solemn compact and covenant" upon the l:>asis of a fair 
 division of the public domain between the fi'ee and slave 
 States. The question was put at i-est for a long time, and it 
 was hoped that the rest was final. It sprung up again in 
 1S40, in connection ^vith the vast territory acquired b}' the 
 conquest of Mexico, to vhich it was proposed to apply the 
 
(30) 
 
 ** Wilmot Proviso," which restricted slavery in any newly 
 acquired territory without regard to the Missouri compro- 
 mise line. The old settlement being thus repudiated, the 
 country was given up to agitation, in which every turbulent 
 passion seemed let loose. This agitation raged with increas- 
 ing violence througn every session down to the administra- 
 tion of General Taylor and of his successor, Mr. I'^illmorCs 
 With the progress of the discussion the sessions grew longer 
 and the jiassious of men more stormy. It was a time of pro- 
 found anxiety and apprehension. The imminence of the 
 danger brought back Mr. Clay to the Senate ; liis great com- 
 peers, Mr. Calhoun and Mr. Webster, were already there. 
 To Mr. Clay, more than any other, the eyes of the country 
 were turned at this crisis, lie had once before (piictcd the 
 storm which threatened the country from the same ((uarter; 
 it was believed that all men would listen to him now It 
 was believed that the winds and waves of iacti-.n would stiU 
 obey his v(Mce. He Avas in the fulness of his lame, lu 
 abilities he had no superior, in eloquence he had no peer; in, 
 patriotism he ranked with the Revolutionary sires. The 
 country did not look to him in vain. 
 
 On the 29th of January he brought forwai'd his celebrated 
 measures of conciliation and adjustment. They encountered 
 great opposition. In their progress they were altered in 
 form; but in substance they were finally passed. These 
 measures were approved everywhere, and gave satisfaction 
 to an overwhelming majority of the country. 
 
 We, standing amid the wrecks and ruins, in which that 
 agitation finally resulted ; taught, alas ! by the most mourn- 
 ful of all wisdom, that which comes after the fact accom- 
 plished, know that this healing was but a delusion. We 
 know^ that this slavery question was a cancer, which, though 
 it might Ileal over and wear the external appearance of 
 health, struck deeper in with each specific, to re-appear with. 
 increased virulence. Yet it was for a time a miracle of 
 healing. The measures themselves were eminentlv wise: 
 
(31) 
 
 nay, the utmost that human wisdom could do. They gave- 
 peace to the country— a profound peace of many years. A 
 part of that triumph belongs to Xorth Crrolina. Iler fa\'orite 
 statesman was then in the eahinet, and shared in the coun- 
 sels by which these results were brought about. During the 
 progress of these measures he was in constant conference 
 with their author, and to the opinion of none did their c 
 author pay greater defereiice. {v ^ [ i^ 
 
 His labors as Secretary of the Xavy were brought to a ' 
 sudden termination. The Whig party met in convention on 
 the 16th of June, 1852, and put in nomination for the Presi- 
 dencj' General Scott, and for the Vice-Presidency Mr. Gra- 
 ham. Mr. Graham's preference for the 1 'residency was in 
 favor of Mr. Fillmore, and without a distinct declaration of 
 principles, and an approval of the course of his administra- 
 tion, he would not have permitted his name to be placed on 
 any other ticket. This declaration was made, and in terms, 
 as explicit as he could wish ; with that declaration, it be- 
 came a mere calculation of chiinces which was the candidate 
 the most acceptable to the country. Under these circum- 
 stances he "accepted the nomination. Immediately on his 
 acceptance, with a view as he expressed it, -'to relieve the 
 admi'iistration of any possible criticism or embarrassment 
 on his account in the approaching canvass,'" he tendered his 
 resignation. Tlie President "appreciating the high sense of 
 delicacy and propriety"' which prompted this act, accepted 
 his resignation with expressions of "unfeigned regret." 
 
 In Mr. Stephen's History of the United States, it is said 
 tliat in accepting the nomination tendered him by tlie 
 Whigs, General Scott "cautiously avoided endorsing that 
 portion of the Wliig platform which pledged the party to- 
 an acceptance of, and acquiescence in the measures of 1850." 
 If avoidance there was, it was because lie deemed it unneces- 
 sary to pledge his faith to measures with which lie was so 
 intimately identiiied. lie was acting Secretary of War dur- 
 ing the pendency of these measures. "No one," says ^Ir.. 
 
Oraliain in a letter to a friend, "more deeply felt the im- 
 portance of the crisis, or co-operated with us more eiRciently 
 in procuring the passage of the Compromise Measure, or 
 rejoiced more heartily in the settlement thereby made." 
 With a soldier's sentiment of honor, General Scott rested /n 
 lii.s record, which was open to all the world. But the charge 
 of unfaithfulness to those measures was made against him, 
 inid ui-ged with fatal eft'ect. And so it came to pass that 
 the two caiididates who had exerted all their abilities, and 
 used all their inttuence, oiticial and other, to secure the pas- 
 sage of the Compromise Measures, were beaten upon the 
 charge alleged ao-ainst one of them of unf^iithfulness to those 
 measures 
 ,' , After his retirement from the cabinet, and in the same 
 
 \ vear- — 18o2— he delivered the sixth lecture in the course, 
 'j^'" "before the Historical Society of New York, in Metropolitan 
 \ I. Hall, in the city of Xew York. ' ''The attendance," we are 
 fc*^\ told in the '" Evening Post'" of that date, "was exeeedmgly 
 -^ numerous." Ever anxious to exalt his S'^ate, and set her 
 
 liefore the A\orld in her true glory, his subject was taken 
 iVom the history of Xc;rrh Carolina. It was the Ihntish in- 
 vasion of Xorth Carolina in 1780 and "SI. 
 
 It is known what scant justice has been done to our State 
 ]»y the early historians of the country. This injustice Mr. 
 Graham, as far as a lecture would admit, undertook to re- 
 dress. 'J hough his subject confined him to the events of less 
 than two years, and took up the story five years after the 
 first l;)lood had been she<i at Lexington, and four years after 
 tlie Declaration of Independence, he presents a rapid and 
 grapliic sketch of what was done in Xorth Carolina down to 
 the year ]78i"). He depicts the advanced state of opinion in 
 Xorth Carolina before the war: he recounts the military 
 expeditions sent out by her in support of the common cause; 
 5113(1 shows that '-from Xew York to Florida, inclusive, there 
 ^■erc few liattle-fields on whicli a portion of the troo])S en- 
 giiged in defense of the liberties of the country were not 
 
( •>-> ) 
 
 liers." Tie then places before ns in .sti'oii«; colors, tlio period 
 just ])efore Lord Cornwall is conunenccd his famous march — 
 that period so justly designated as the dark days of the 
 Revolution ; when (Tooriria and South Carolina had hecn 
 ^ /er-rnn and subjugated ; when the army of the South had 
 been nearly annihilated by the disastrous l^attle of Camden 
 and the catastrophe of Fishing Creek, lie relates the bold 
 fffieasures — measures which call to mind those of Rome, at 
 similar crises of peril — with which the State of North Caro 
 lina prepared to meet the impending shock. He then enters 
 upon a narrative of the different operations of the American 
 ^nd British armies under their respective commanders, 
 Oreene and Cornwallis, and a finer narrative it would be 
 •difficult to point out. A bare recital of the incidents of that 
 campaign could not want interest in the hands of the driest 
 Jbistorian, but in this narrative it is brought before us in 
 vivid colors. By his brief but striking delineation of the 
 principal actors ; by his rapid touches in which the relative 
 st^to of the Whig and Tory population of that day is brought 
 to view ; by his sketches of the scenery of the Piedmont 
 <rou!itry-^the theater of that campaign ; by his notices of 
 individual adventure; above all, by his masterly recital of 
 the incidents of the retreat of General Greene and the pur- 
 suit of Lord Cornwallis — a retreat in which the hand of 
 Providence seemed from time to time, so visibly interposed 
 — the grand procession of events pass before us with the 
 interest of an acted drama. We experience a feeling of deep 
 relief, when at length, the army of Greene is placed in safety. 
 After taking breath, which we had held as it were, durintr 
 the quick succession of events in that celebrated retreat, we 
 retrace our steps and the interest culminates in the battle of 
 Guilford. "The philosophy of history," says Mr. Benton in 
 3iis ' Thirty Year's View,' has not yet laid hold of the battle 
 of Guilford ; its consequences and events. That battle made 
 the capture of Yorktow^i. The events are told in history, 
 the connections and dependence in none." The future his- 
 
(34) 
 
 toi-iaii will find the task done to liis hand in this Lecture^ 
 Its decisive character is there appreciated and set forth. 
 
 In the remainder of the Lecture he glances at the minor 
 invasion of Colonel Craig, and the operations under his com- 
 mand from the valley of the Nense to the highlands of 
 Chatham, and at the romantic career of the vile hut intrepid 
 Fanning. He gives us a sketch of Governor Burke, his cap- 
 ture and escape. lie presents a brief view of tlie ex})editioit 
 of General Rutherford against the British post at Wilming- 
 ton, who, after man}- skirmishes, drove and kept the British 
 and Lo^-alists within the lines of the garrison, until the 
 evacuation of the town, and the I'etreat of the enemy to 
 Charleston, lie sets out the forces sent forth by North Caro- 
 lina, under General Sumter, which forces formed a conspic- 
 uous part of Greene's line at Eutaw, and followed the tlag of 
 the Union until the disapjiearance of the enemy's sails off" 
 the Harbor of Charleston. 
 
 The Lecture closes with some reflections on the " Act of 
 }»ardon and Oblivion"' i)assed by the Legislature, alter the- 
 proclamation of peace, at it.s first session in 17bo. "An Act,'"'" 
 says Ml". Graham, "of grace and magnanimity, worthy of the- 
 heroic, but Christian awd forbearing spirit which ha«l tri- 
 umphed in the struggle just ended." The words have a. 
 peculiar and melancholy significance t) us, who recollect 
 how long after the war, he stood among us as an alien and a. 
 stranger, deprived of the commonest right of citizenship ;; 
 and how by mistaken party spirit he was debarred the enjoy- 
 ment of those Senatorial honors, Avith which a grateful peo- 
 ple would have clieered and crowned the evening of his; 
 life. 
 
 This Lecture will, I think, be regarded as the maturest ot* 
 his literary efforts. It presents the events of the time of 
 which it treats in new condjinations, and sheds iipcn them 
 new lights from original investigations. The style is alwaj's- 
 clear, forcible and harmonious. Classic ornament is intro- 
 duced to an extent rare for him ; for though he retained his; 
 
(35) 
 
 classicil learning to the end of his life, his sense of fitness 
 led him to employ very sparingly, .what any one might be 
 disposed to attribute to ostentation. Altogether it is the 
 most valuable contribution 3-et made to the history of North 
 Carolina at that era. It sets the State in a jnster light than 
 anything on record. It particularly commends itself to all 
 who cherish in their hearts the sacred llame of State-love 
 and State-pride ; to all who hold in honor the renown of their 
 ancestry ; to all who would catch 
 
 "Ennobling imiuilse fi'dm Ihe i)ast." 
 
 Mr. Graham was agam a membci- of the Legislature iu '* 
 
 Ibo-i-'o. The great question of that session was what was \ C 
 
 pop\darly known as "Free Sutfrage." Its object was to . 
 
 al)olish tlie property (pialificatioii for the Senate, and extend \ 
 
 to every voter the same right of suffrage, whether i')v the 
 
 Senate or the House. To this extensiou of sutfrage per se he 
 
 made no objection. He contended, however, that the con- ' 
 
 stitution was based upon carefully ^adjusted compi-omiscs of 
 
 contUctins; interests, and that an amendment of the consti- «\ 
 
 , . . . . . 4 ^■ 
 
 tution confined to this single point — as it mnst necessaril/ 
 
 be if carried out by the Legislative method — -would disturb tV 
 
 those compromises and thus destroy or greatly impair the 
 
 harmony of that instrument. He, therefore, julvocated the 
 
 calling of a convention, that all the questions embraced in 
 
 these conq:»romises might l>e tluly considered, and other parts 
 
 re-adjusted to suit those which might be changed. These 
 
 views were presented in a speech, memorable for its ability. 
 
 In the former part he discusses the question at issue, and 
 
 here will be found some of the finest examples of his skill as 
 
 a dialectician ; in the latter part he gave an exposition of 
 
 the subject in all its constitutional bearings — an exposition 
 
 learned, lucid and conclusive. 
 
 The administration of Mr. Luchanan drew to its close (/"^ 
 
 amidst signs ominous for the future tranquility' of the coun- y ' 
 
(36) 
 
 try. These signa a^Yakened the fears of all who loved and 
 valued the Union, and the trusted statesmen of the country 
 made arrangements to meet for conference, and to give ex- 
 pression to their views. The Executive Committee of the 
 •Constitutional Union party determined early in January, 
 1860, to issue an address to the peo])le of the United States 
 iipon the grave exigencies in national [jolitics. A committee 
 of seven, all men of the highest national distinction, among 
 whom was Mr Graham, was appointed to prepare the 
 address. Mr. Crittenden notitied him of his appointment in 
 a letter of January 2!tli, and urged his attendance at the 
 meeting of the committee. In his answer, Mr. Graham had 
 left it doubtful whether the pressure of his engagements 
 TV^ould permit his attendancj, and recpiested that another 
 might be appointed in his place Accordingly Governoi- 
 Morehead was appointed. But Mr. (/rittenden wrote again, 
 and to show the importance attached to his judgment and 
 action, I subjoin an extract from his letter: 'The crisis is 
 important, and fills the public mind with expectation and 
 anxiety. It is earnestly' to be desired that the chai'acter of 
 our convention should be conspicuous and equal to tht^ oeea- 
 eion. We have good reason to feel assured of the attendance 
 of many of the most eminent men of the country, and it is 
 by the great weight of the moral and public character of its 
 members that the convention must hope to obtain for its 
 acts or counsels, whatever they may be, respect and influence 
 with the people. We cannot do without yoiwassistavcr and 
 name. All the members of the committee, who Avere present 
 when your letter was read, united in wishing me to write 
 and to urge your coming to the convention. Your absence 
 will be a positive iveight against us." 
 
 A number of eminent statesmen, among whom was Mr. 
 Graham, met in W^ashington City, in February, to consult 
 together upon the dangers which menaced the country. The 
 xesult was the convention which nominated the Constitutional 
 "Union ticket for the Presidency, in behalf of which he can- 
 
(37) 
 
 vassed the State. Upon the election of Mr. Lincohi he made 
 IMiblic addresses, and exhorted the people to yield due obe- 
 dience to his office. 
 
 Bnt tbo tempest liad long been gathering, and was now S' 
 ready to burst. No human i)0vver could avert it. The people ' 
 of South Carolina, and of the other States of the far South,, C 
 had been educated in tlie doctrine of secession, and there- 
 were few m those States who did not hold that doctrine as ^^ 
 an undeniable article of political faith. The time was come • 
 wlien this doctrine was to be tested. The election of Mr. 
 Lincoln constituted the cause in the minds of the people of 
 South Carolina. On the 20th of December, 1860, that State- 
 held a convention, and declared her connection with the 
 United States dissolved, and proceeded to put herself in an 
 attitude to make good her declaration. In this action she- 
 was followed by States to the south of lier, and on similar- 
 grounds. 
 
 The doctrine of secession met with little favor in Xorth- C( ' ' 
 Carolina. As a right deduced from the Constitution, and to ; 
 be exercised under its authority, it was believed by Mr. '^^"" 
 Graham, and the scliool of statesmen to which he belono-ed, iU( 
 to be Avithout foundation. The Legislature of Xorth Caro- 
 lina directed the question of a convention to be submitted to- ^.I 
 the people. The question wfs discussed, in the light of re- ^ 
 cent events, by the Press of the State, and numerous meetings 
 of the people were held in every jjart. These meetings were 
 addressed by our ablest men. Amongst these a monster 
 meeting was held at Salisbury, which was addressed by 
 (Governor Morehead, Mr. Badger and Mr. Graham, who, as. 
 well for the exalted positions they had held as for their com^ 
 manding abilities, were looked to for counsel in this emer- 
 gency. The peo[.le at the polls pronounced with great 
 unanimity against a convention. 
 
 But events were marching on with rapid strides. On theS^*^ 
 loth of April, 1861, Sumter surrendered to Confederate guns, r ^ 
 On the loth, Mr. Lincoln issued his call for 75,000 troops. "'.^ 
 
^t*^ 
 
 (38) 
 
 This call was made without authority, and was the first of 
 that series of public measures culminating in the unauthor- 
 ized suspension of the Habeas Corpus Act on the 10th of 
 May, under the shock of which the public liljerties of the 
 -North for a time went down. 
 
 •By these events the aspect of things was wholly changed. 
 The question of secession as a right, whether the election of 
 Mr. Lincoln was a just cause for the exercise of the right, 
 had drifted out of sight. War was inevitable. Virginia 
 had followed the example of the Southern States, and North 
 Carolina was now girdled with seceded States. All that was 
 3eft her was a choice of sides. The language of Mr. Graham 
 at this crisis was the language of all thoughtful men ; nay, 
 it w^as the language of the human heart. And looking back 
 upon all that we have suflered — and there are none, even in 
 the Northern States, but say we have suffered enough— if a 
 similar conjuncture were to arise, the heart would speak out 
 the same language again. Speaking the voice of the ])eople 
 of North Carolina, as he, from the high trusts confided to 
 him in his past life, and from the confidence always reposed 
 in him, was more than any other commissioned to do, in a 
 public address at Ilillsboro, in March, 1861, he expressed 
 liimself as follows : 
 
 '' Ardent in their attachment to the Constitution and the 
 Union, they had condemned separate State secession as rash 
 iind precipitate, and wanting in respect to the sister 
 States of identical interests ; and as long as there was hope 
 of an adjustment of sectional differences, they were unwilling 
 to part with the Goverimient, and give success to the move- 
 ment for its overthrow^ which appeared on the part of some, 
 ^t least, to be but the revelation of a long cherished design. 
 13ut the President gives to the question new alternatives. 
 These are, on the one hand, to join with him in a war of 
 conquest, for it is nothing less, against our brethren of the 
 .seceding States — or, on the other, resistance to and throwing 
 off the oblio-ations of the Federal Constitution. Of the two. 
 
(39) 
 
 we do not hesitate to accei>t the latter. Blood is thicker 
 than water. How widely we have dittcred from, and freely 
 criticized the course taken by these States, they are much 
 mol-e closely united with us, by the ties of kindred, atfection, 
 :and a i)eculiar interest, which is denounced and warred upon 
 at the ISTorth, without reference to any localiti/ in our own 
 section, than to any of the Northern States.'"' 
 
 Under the influence of these counsels, so wisely and tem- 
 perately expressed, a convention of the people of jSTorth Caro- 
 lina was called. On the 20th of May, a day memorable in 
 the annals of the State and of the world, the convention / 
 passed the ordinance of secession. [l 
 
 For this ordinance the vote was unanimous. But though t 
 the vote indicated an entire unanimity among the members fl P 
 it was unanimity only as to the end to be accomplished. 
 The views of Mr. Graham, and the statesmen with whom he 
 .acted, had, in regard to secession as a Constitntional remedy, 
 underg-one no chano;e. To set forth their views, Mr. Badger 
 •pifered a series of resolutions in the nature of a protestation 
 — an exclusion of a conclusion. These resohitions asserted 
 the right of revolution, and based the action of the conven- 
 tion on that ground ; but the minds of men had been wrought 
 to such a pitch of excitement that the distinction was un- 
 heeded, and the resolutions failed. /O 
 
 On the 20th of June tne convention passed the ordinance /' 
 by which the State of North Carolina became a member of . ,, \j 
 the Confederacy. To this measure Mr. Graham otlered a -'^ 
 strong but fruitless opposition. In the perilous career upon 
 which we were about to enter he was unwilling to surrenc^er 
 the sovereignty of the State into the hands of those whose 
 rash counsels had, in the judgment of the people of North 
 Carolina, precipitated the war. lie wished the State to hold 
 her destinies in her own hands, that she might act as ex- 
 igencies might require. Those who realize the delusive 
 views under which the government at Kichmond acted dur- 
 
( -io ) 
 
 ing tlie last months of the war will tec in this o})iiiio» 
 anotlier proof of his wise foresight. 
 
 The progress of the war which now broke out with such 
 fury demonstrated that there were here, as at the Xorth, 
 those w^ho conceived that the public peril liad merged the 
 constitution and the laws. Early in the session "an ordi- 
 nauce to define and punish sedition and to prevent the dan- 
 gers which may arise from persons disaiFected to the State," 
 was introduced. 
 
 On the 7th of December Mr. Graham addressed the con- 
 vention in opposition to this ordinance. Tlie speech which 
 he delivered on this occasion was, perhajis, the noblest effort 
 oi his life. It breathes the true spirit of American freedom. 
 It is the product of a mind deejdy injbued with the great 
 principles of civil liberty, and Avhich had devoutly meditated 
 upon all those safeguards which the wisdom of successive 
 generations had thrown around it. His wide acquaintance 
 with history had made him familiar Avith every device by 
 which liberty may be sapped and undermined ; his exalted 
 estimate of its value and dignity had developed this ac- 
 (piaintance into a special sense by which he could detect any 
 design hostile to it, under any i)retence or subterfuge, how- 
 ever specious or skillful. This special faculty is strikingly 
 exhibited in this speech in tracing and laying bare the dan- 
 gerous tendencies which everywdiere lurked under this ordi- 
 nance. It abounds with historical illustrations and allu- 
 sions. It contains passages of graphic eloquence — that, 
 among others, in which he sketches the settlement of the 
 Society of Friends in this State, and with a few touches de- 
 picts the genius of that sect. It is pervaded by a warmth 
 and animation unwonted in his speeches, sometimes, indeed, 
 bordering upon enthusiasm. In none of his parliamentary- 
 efforts does he seem to have yielded so freely to his native 
 impulses and feelings. It is strictly logical in its structure 
 and advances by regular progression. In its style it is nerv- 
 ous and idomatic, and fhe thoughts are often expressed wdtk 
 
(41) 
 
 tlie liighest degree ot" energy and terseness. Like all great 
 leaders he had the power of clothing jwpular thoughts iq 
 brief, pithy expressions, which at once become current like- 
 stamped coin. One such, uttered by him on that occasion^ 
 was worthy many speeches : " We are resolved to be inde- 
 pendent and free, not only in the end, but in the ineans"' 
 From the commencement to the conclusion of this speech he- 
 moves with equal freedom, grace and power. (1 6 [a 
 From the beginning of the war the current of power set f^-'^-^^^ 
 steadily from the Confederate States to the Confederate ^^ 
 government ; and with each year of the war, the current '■■■ 
 flowed on with increasing tide. Within its just bounds, no Cjjv^ 
 man yielded a heartier allegiance to tliat government than. 
 Mr. Graham ; but on the other hand, no man stood ready to 
 oppose a firmer resistance when that government overstepped 
 those bounds. The war had been begun ajid was then prose- 
 cuted for the maintenance of great principles, and it wasbis 
 fixed purpose that civil liberty should not, at the South as at 
 the Korth, be engulfed in its progress. In the year 1862 a- 
 minister of the gospel — a man of learning and of irreproach- 
 able character — was arrested in the count}^ of Orange, under 
 a military order, sent to Richmond and cast into prison^ 
 He was not in the military service of the Confederate 
 States, and therefore not amenable to military law. As a^ 
 proceeding against a citizen, such an arrest, without charge-^ 
 made on oath and without warrant, was in violation of alb 
 law ; while his deportation beyond the limits of the State^ 
 for trial by military tribunal, was in contempt of the dig- 
 nity and sovereignty of the State. Mr. Graham, being then.. 
 Senator from Orange, introduced a resolution demanding a^ 
 return of the prisoner to the State, which was passed at 
 once. On introducing the resolution, he expressed the opin- 
 ion that the proceeding was without the sanction of the 
 Confederate Executive, or of the Secretary of War. The- 
 sequel proved this supposition to be correct ; the prisoner 
 was sent back with a disavowal of any knowledge of the- 
 
(42) 
 
 proceeding on the part of the President or the Secretary, 
 mntil the confinement of the prisoner in the military prison 
 ;at Richmond. The Secretary frankly admitted the errone- 
 •vons nature of the arrest and imprisonment, and disclaimed 
 nil intention to interfere with the rightful jurisdiction of 
 the Stat«. On the 22d of January, 1863 — upon the incom- 
 ing of the message Avith the accompanying documents, 
 touching the case — Mr. Graham paid a merited tribute to 
 the enlightened comprehension of the relations existing be- 
 tween tlie Confederate government and the States, evinced 
 ihy these sentiments, and in the further remarks submitted 
 ^hj him, he took occasion to re-state the great principles of 
 jporeonal liberty — daily more and more endangered in the 
 'ooarse of the war — and to impress them upon the public 
 miind by apt comments upon the case to which the public at- 
 tention was then so strongly directed. This was the first, 
 and is believed to have been the last case, in which military 
 power was used to override civil law. 
 jhj^^ III December, 1863, Mr. Graham was elected to the Con- 
 ^ r.,^federate Senate by a majority of two-thirds of the Legislature. 
 ^It*-*^ He took his seat in May, 1S64. There was then need of the 
 best counsel. The brilliant successes "which had crowned 
 -our arms in the early years of the war, had been replaced by 
 a succession of disasters. The battle of Gettysburg and the 
 fall of Vicksburg had brought us apparently to the brink of 
 fate. As the year 1864 rolled on, the prospect became 
 -darker and darker, and at the end of the year the situation 
 Avas to the last degree critical. Our territory had been cut 
 in twain, and we were beleaguered by land and by sea. 
 Within the area which acknowledged the Confederate Gov- 
 ernment, there was great exhaustion of all kinds of military 
 supplies, and a like exhaustion of all the elements for the 
 support of human life. General Lee was only able to oppose 
 the front of General Grant by extending his line until it was 
 ready to snap from excessive tension. To strengthen his 
 force from the white'race was impossible ; conscription there 
 
(43) 
 
 had reached its liniit. General Sherman had swept through 
 Oeorffia, and tlic hroad track of desolation which he left 
 uehind him too truly told the story of our helplessness. It was 
 known that each Confederate soldier was opposed by as many 
 as five Federal soldiers ; the former scantily fed, clothed and 
 shod; the latter supplied with every comfort and many 
 luxuries.* It Avas plain there was no longer an}- hope of a 
 successful prosecution of the war. In the midst of a dense 
 gloom which shro'uded the country on every side, a ray of 
 light dawned in the proposed peace conference at Hampton 
 Koads. Mr. Graham had endeavored to reach this form of 
 intercourse from the commencement of the session. He was 
 not without hope of a peaceful termination of hostilities ; 
 not so much from his estimate of the statesmanship of Presi- 
 dent Davis and his Cabinet, as from the extremity of the 
 case which left no other alternative. The conference took 
 place on the 3rd of February, ]8G5. The terms offered by 
 Mr. Lincoln were, that the seceded States should return to 
 the Union under ihe Constitution, in the existing state of 
 affairs, with slavery as it was, but liable to be abolished by 
 an amendment to the Constitution. lie pledged himself to 
 the utmost exercise of the Executive })Owers in behalf of the 
 South. The demand of the Commissioners was for indepen- 
 dence. There could be no middle ground, and the confer- 
 ence ended. Upon the return of the Commissioners, !Mr. 
 Davis and Mr. Benjamin made public speeches in Richmond, 
 to fire the Southern heart anew ; but the event proved how 
 little sagacity they brought to the direction of affairs at that 
 supreme hour. The speeches fell still-born. 
 
 One principle had actuated Mr. Graham from the begin, 
 ning of the war ; to sustain the Government in its struggles 
 for independence until it should be demonstrated that our 
 
 * The odds were exactly seven to one. "The whole number of Confederates 
 sarrendereil, including I.ee's and all, amounted to about 150,(M)0 under arms 
 The whole number of Federals, then in the field, and afterwards mustered out 
 of service, as the records show, amounted, in round numbers, to 1,0.30,000.' — 
 Stephmis' Historj/ of the United Slafe.s, p. 46 i. 
 
e 
 
 resources were inadequate for that end ; and when that 
 should be seen and acknowledged, to seek, if possible, a 
 peaceful solution. How well he sustained it is matter of 
 history. He sustained it in every way in which his talents 
 and his means could be made available. He sustained it by 
 his counsels in the State and in thet'onfederate government. 
 He sustained it b}' blood more precious in liis eyes than his 
 own — all his sons, live in number, who had attained the age of 
 eighteen, entered the army, and were in the army to the end. 
 
 The inadequacy of our resources, particularly of the popu- 
 lation from which our soldiers were <lrawn, had now been 
 demonstrated. It was known to Congress; it was admitted 
 by General Lee m his pro^iosition to conseribe sUives; it was 
 proclaimed from tlie ste})S of the Ca[)itol by Mr. Benjamin: 
 *' Unless the slaves are armed,'" he said, '• the cause is lost." 
 Every expedient had been tried; the extremest measures had 
 been put in operation; "by means of conscription, impress- 
 ment laws, and the suspension of the habeas corpus, thcAvhole 
 population, and all the resources of the country, had long 
 before been placed at the command of the I'rcsident for pro- 
 secution of the war." All had been found unavailing. 
 
 One resource, in the opinion of some, remained — the con- 
 scription of negroes. A bill for this purpose was introduced 
 into Congress, Jt was opposed by Mr. Graham upon the 
 ground that it was imcoiistitutioual, as well as inexpedient 
 and dangerous. His sagacious mind saw that this was a 
 measure, not of safety, but a measure born of the wild prompt- 
 ings of despair. On the 21st of February it was indctinitely 
 postponed, though it was subsequently taken u[i and jiassed. 
 
 If ever negotiation was to be resorted to. it was clear the 
 time had come. We know but little of what passed in the 
 Confederate Congress at that time. Its proceedings were had 
 in secret session ; nor is it now known whether the journals 
 of the body escaped destruction. All that we know is de- 
 rived from what was published by the members after the fall 
 of the Confederate Government. Among these publications 
 is a paper contributed by Mr. Oldham, then Senator from 
 
■4 ) 
 
 Texas, to Di'Pxiw's l^cview. in 0<'iol)i'r, 1 8()r>, which gives us 
 some infonnatioii of tlic proceedings of the Senate at that 
 time. A few days after the conference at Ilamjiton Roads, 
 he informs us, a committee consisting of Messrs. Orr, Gra- 
 ham and Johnson, was ap[)ointed to confer with the Presi- 
 dent, and ascertain what he pro[)osed to do under the exist- 
 ing condition of affairs. In a few days tliey made a verbal 
 report through Mr. (iraham. "Among other things," I 
 quote Mr. Oldham's words, "' th^W stated that they had in- 
 quired of the President his views and opinions in regard to 
 proposing to the United States to negotiate for peace upon 
 the basis of the Confederacy returning to the Union, and 
 that he had answered that he had no power to negotiate a 
 treaty upon such a basis : that his authority to make treaties 
 was derived from the Constitution, which he had sworn to 
 support anil that sucli a treaty would operate as an abroga- 
 tion of the Constitution, and a dissolution of the govern- 
 ment ; that the States alone, each acting for itself, in its | 
 sovereign capacity, coulxl make such a treaty. Mr. Graham 
 said, he gave notice that he would, in a few days, introduce 
 a resolution in favor of opening negotiations with the United 
 States upon the basis of a return to the l^niou by the States 
 of the Confederacy ; that he did not give the notice at the 
 instance or under the insti'uction of the committee, but upon 
 his own responsibility. The notice was recei\'ed in such a 
 manner that he never offered his resolution.'' 
 
 r never saw the paper from which the foregoing quotation 
 is made, and was a stranger to tliis passage r)f Mr. Graham's 
 Hie until within the last forty days. I read it with a feel- 
 ing of profound relief T have ever regarded him from my 
 earliest years, with the warmest admiration and the most 
 affectionate respect; l)ut his faihire, as I thought, to take 
 some action looking to peace after the Hampton Roads con- 
 f<^rence — when the plainest dictates of humanity so clearly 
 demanded it — left upon my mind the painful impression 
 that lie had been wanting to himself in that, the most in:- 
 
(40) 
 
 portant, crisis of his life. There is a deep-seated conviction 
 that the blood which was shed after that conference might 
 have been saved. Tliat the waste of the fruits of past cen- 
 turies of toil — a waste which consigned so many of the 
 present and future generations to want and miserj^ — might 
 liave been avoided. It is with gratitude 1 rciiect that not a 
 tittle of responsibility for this Mood-shed and waste lay at 
 his door. And when the inevitable hour came to him, I 
 doubt not the thought that he had done what he could to. 
 arrest a war attended with such terrible and useless sacri- 
 fice, was one of the sweetest rejections of his whole life. 
 
 The position assumed by President Davis, that he had no 
 authority to mako a treaty upon the conditions proposed — 
 since that would amount to an abrogation of the gox'crnment 
 which he had sworn to su})port — had, no doubt, a great influ- 
 ence on his mind ; but it is clear that it did not ex|n-ess the 
 whole case. If the oath was binding upon him to tiiat ex- 
 tent, it was binding upon Congress to the same extent. Such 
 a construction abnegates one of the highest fimctions of gov- 
 ernment, the power of peace and war. It nullifies the 
 treaty making power ^ quoad hoc,'' and transfers it from the 
 council chamber to the field, from the Cabinet to the Gen- 
 eral. And if that oath bound him to hold out to the end, 
 unless the Confederate States prevailed, it equally bound 
 General Lee to continue the struggle as long as a company 
 could be brought into the field. A surrender by Gen. Lee 
 was tatamount in all its most di'eaded effects, to such a 
 treaty by the President, with none of the beneficent results 
 which might have been secured by treaty. There is no 
 principle upon which a General is justified in surrendering 
 an army to avoid destruction, which does not apply with 
 tenfold force to the surrender of a State to avoid destruc- 
 tion. Tnc State embraces, beside the army, all the helpless 
 population of both sexes, and by so much the case is the 
 stronger. 
 
 The difficulties connected with the abrogation of the 
 
(47) 
 
 Government, especially by those appointed to administer it,., 
 are undeniably great ; but they cannot be allowed to be con- 
 clusive against the interests of human life ; such a theory 
 cannot be maintained. If the condition of things be such 
 that the government or the people must be silcrilieed, there- 
 cannot be a doubt where the sacrifice must fall. All would 
 8ay that the government was made for the people, not the 
 people for the government. 
 
 The strongest reason for the action of Mr. Davis, at that 
 time, action so long an impenetrable mystery, is now made 
 clear from the most authoritative source. In a recent num- 
 ber of the " London Fortnightly Review," is a review, by 
 the first English military critic of the age, of the works of 
 General Johnson and General Sherman, giving the history 
 of their several campaigns. Speaking from information de- 
 rived from one '-who was daily in the Council chamber at 
 Richmond," he says that during the latter stages of the war, 
 Mr. Davis and his Cabinet acted under "thoroughly false 
 views of the military situation.'"' 'The Richmond Cabinet 
 was perfectly blinded," says he, "by certain successes of the 
 earlier part of the war ; and its military adviser lacked the 
 insight or the honesty to explain to it, that the dispropor- 
 tion of fighting power which had certainly at one time ex- 
 isted, whatever its cause, had passed away." The source 
 from which this information was derived could be no other 
 than a member of the Confederate Cabinet, for none other 
 could have had "daily access to the Council Chamber at 
 Richmond." This information, then, is to be regarded as- 
 entirely authentic . and it is fully sustained by the spirit and 
 tenor of the speeches made by :Mr. Davis and Mr. Benjamin, 
 at the time referred to above, and those made shortly after- 
 ward. The writer continues, "it"— the Cabinet at Rich- 
 mond— "could not realize the facts of the case." \Vith refer- 
 ence to General Sherman and his army, he says : "Sherman's 
 reputation, and the immense strength of the army he com- 
 manded, were well known at that era even on this side of 
 
(48) 
 
 tlie Atlantic, and ought not to have been ignored at Rich- 
 mond." Mr. Graham did realize the facts of the case. His 
 letters ])ublished in "The last ninety days of the War," show 
 with what clear vision he swept the horizon. Hence his 
 movement looking to negotiations, '• to ascertain lor the 
 States what terms would be 3delded, provided they con- 
 isented to re-adopt the Constitution of the United States." 
 «> Congress adjourned about the 16th day of March. Im- 
 ^^^ pressed with the imminence of the emergency, Mr, Graham 
 V<^*i^istopped but one da^^ at home — that day being the Sabbath — 
 """' iind on Monday proceeded to Raleigh to confer with the 
 Governor. The conference was long and earnest. Mr. Gra- 
 liam laid before the Governor the views of the President, 
 the state of the armies, and earnestly recommended that the 
 Legislature should be convened. He sustained his advice 
 by the opinion of General Leo, and that of many good 
 iind able men with whom he had been associated. He ended 
 hy telling liim that Richmond would fall in less than thirty 
 "days, and that event would be followed probably by a rout 
 -or di^persion of General Lee's army for want ot food, if for 
 110 other cause. The Governor was surprised by bis state- 
 ment of if\cts, and incredulous in some degree as to his con- 
 vcUisions. He agreed to consider rhe subject, and convened 
 the Council on that day week. Hearing nothing of their 
 action, in a few days Mr. Graham visited Raleigh again. 
 The Governor informed him that on the day appointed, a 
 bare quorum of the Council attended, and being equally 
 divided, he had not summoned the Legislature He said 
 that Mr. Gilmer, with whom Mr. Graham had advised him 
 to consult, had suggested to hini to solicit an interview with 
 'General Sherman on the subject of peace. Mr. Graham 
 ^remarked that if such an interview were held, ^Mr. Davis 
 >should be apprised of it. To this the Governor at once 
 .assented. Mr, Graham suggested further that if that course 
 / were taken, he (the Governor) should be in a condition to 
 ( 3ict independently of the President, and convene the Legis- 
 
 ^ 
 
(49) 
 
 lature. To this proposition the Governor manifested reluc- 
 tance ; but finally agreed to call the Council of State ai^^ain. 
 But while negotiation halted, the march of General Sher- 
 man's army decided events. In a few days no resource was 
 left but an unconditional surrender. With the part borne 
 bj' ]Mr. Graham at that trying time, a gifted authoress of 
 ]N^orth Carolina has made the public already familiar in the 
 •captivating pages of her work : "The Last Xiuetj^ Days- of 
 tthe War." 
 
 There is no part of Mr. Graham's life in which the calm 
 '^visdom, for which he was so distinguished, shone more con- 
 .^picuouslj' than in the closing months of the civil war. 
 A\ hen independence was demonstrated to be hopeless, he 
 -ought peace ; but even then, only in channels admitted to 
 be in accordance with the great principles of our Govern- 
 ment. 
 
 In his opinion, that peace ought to be sought by the State, 
 ^'ifter the failure of the conference at Hampton Roads ; he 
 was sustained by our entire delegation in Congress, and a 
 large proportionof the leading citizens of the State. Yet 
 so anxious was he not onlj' to avoid any appearance of con- 
 flict among the Confederate States, bu-t to conform to all 
 that the most punctilious deference for the Confederate Gov- 
 •ernment might require, that he did not move in the matter > 
 rantil after a conference Avith the President, and then only in 
 tlie track jiointed out by him. The President disclaimed all 
 |x>wcr of making a treaty, which would abrogate the Gov- 
 •ei'nment, and declared that the "States alone, each acting in 
 its sovereign capacity, could make such a treaty.'' In the 
 nine of action here indicated the State could not be [)Ut in a 
 false position ; nay, her honor would be put beyond all cavil. 
 It was known that we had no power to arrest General Sher- 
 anan's march. General Johnson confronted him, and all felt 
 •convinced that whatever his great military genius could ac- 
 •ttomplish would be done. But it was also known that his 
 gallant army was outnumbered six to one. A surrender in 
 4 
 
(50) 
 
 a few days would be inevitalde. Burning capitols, desola- 
 ted homes, famine and destruction of life, followed Sher- 
 man's march. Was it not worth the ctfort to put a stop to 
 f-uch frightful calamities'.' What Mr, Graham urged wa& 
 that the people might he allowed to determine their fate for 
 themselves. Such a course was in strict conformity to the 
 fundamental principles of our Government. A convention 
 of seven Governors, at Altoona, had precipitated the war 
 ^vhcn peace counsels seemed so be in the ascendant. Wa& 
 not Mr. Graham justified in the opinion that executive pow- 
 ers which had been so destructively exerted in the beginning,, 
 might be beneficently exerted in the end ? 
 
 In an address delivered by (Governor Vauce before the 
 4^lJ^ Southern Historical Society, at AVhite Sulphur Springs, 
 I West Virginia, August 18th, i875, occurs the following: 
 I n**^ statement : 
 
 " ie^/A'^ "-Soon after the failure of the Fortress Monroe or llamp- 
 '^ \ ton Roads conference, I was visited by Governor Graham 
 %^J^**^ (whose death we so recently deplore) who was then a Sena- 
 tor of the Confederate States. After giving all the particu- 
 lars of that conference which had not appeared in the pa- 
 pers, and the prevailing impressions of Congressional circles 
 about Richmond, &c., he informed me that a number of 
 leading gentlemen there, despairing of obtaining peace 
 throuWi Mr. Davis, and believing the end inevitable and 
 not distant, had requested him to visit me and urge me, as 
 Governor of Xorth Carolina, to take steps for making sepa- 
 rate peace with Mr. Lincoln, and thus inaugurate the con- 
 clusion ; that he agreed to lay their rerpiest before me Avith- 
 out promising to add his personal advice thereto. I asked 
 Avho those gentlemen were, and, with some reluctance, he 
 crave me their names, chietly Senators and Representatives 
 in the Confederate Congress. I asked why these gentlemen 
 did not begin negotiations in their own States with the 
 enemy, and if they would come out in the papers with this 
 lequest to me. He said they could not take the initiative. 
 
(51) 
 
 they were so surrounded at home, and so trannneled by pledg- 
 es, &c., as to render it impossible 1 I declined the proposi- 
 tion of course." I '^ { 
 
 It is with reluctance that I advert to this statement. Had H ■ 
 it been given to the press with a sponsor less entitled to con- ^ . ^ ' 
 aideration, I should have been disposed to let it float with \N^ 
 the tide. But it presents itself under imposing circum- 
 stances ; it proceeds from one who, at the time referred to, 
 was at the head of the government in is'orth Carolina ; it is 
 contained in an address made before a societj^ whose object 
 it is to preserve the memorials of that time. The statement 
 thus passes into histor3\ It will not be waived. It per- 
 emptorily challenges attention. 
 
 The address had for its object the vindication oi' 'North 
 Carolina, and the vindication was complete ujx)!! liie facts- 
 and figures presented. It was made in reply n(»t to any 
 recent strictures upon the State, but to strictures made dur- 
 ing the war. Ten years bad elapsed from the end of tho 
 war to the date of that address But the Matement was made 
 not in the way of vindication, but in the way of recrimina- 
 tion, and Mr. Graham's name was used as the instrument of 
 recrimination, ]^ow it will be regretted hy all who love 
 the State, and the fair fame of her statcsnicu, which form* 
 her highest glory, that such a use ot his naujc was not made 
 till the grave had closed upon him, and his voice was mute 
 forever. 
 
 Had this statement been delayed to make avail of facts 
 which came to light afterwards, the'cause of the delay would 
 he apparent; but every fact used in defence of the State was 
 as available at any time during those ten j'ears as it was on 
 the 18th of August when the address Avas delivered. The 
 effect of that statement was, in the judgment of a laro-e Dor- 
 tion of our people, to put Mr. Graham and the Senators and' 
 Representatives alluded to, m false relations to the Confed- 
 erate Government. It excited a deep feeling in this State 
 and called out acrimonious coirmients from the Southern, 
 
(52) 
 
 Press. Governor Yanee perceived at once tlie light in which 
 it would be regarded. Ilis language is emphatic, "I de- 
 clined the proposition of course" 
 
 There are some reflections Avhich arise, spoiitaneously, in 
 the mind of every one who reads this statement, and who 
 was acquainted with YxW Graham. 
 
 According to this statement, Mr. Graham came charged 
 with a momentous proposition from parties whose names, at 
 first, he did not disclose. It will he admitted by all that it 
 would be hard to conceive a situation more at variance with 
 the tenor of his life than that in which this statement places 
 him. He was a man of a loft}-, fearless and commanding 
 spirit. In action he was one of the most independent of 
 men. He opposed secession when fealty to the South was 
 measured by zeal for that doctrine. He opposed the extreme 
 measures of the Confederate Government wlieu the teniper 
 of the times scarcel}'. tolerated an}- dissent. He opposed the 
 Johnson Constitution ; he opposed the Reconstruction Con- 
 stitution. In the latter instances he brought himself into 
 conflict with tho.-c who wielded the powers of the Federal 
 Government, and that too when he was already under the 
 ban of that CJovernmerit, He had a just sense of his own 
 dignity. He had a just sense of his own weight in the 
 country. His conduct had always been so high and clear 
 that never, during a life of three score years and ten, was he 
 once called upon for an explanation. Xot a single lineament 
 of his character do avo recognize in the bearer of such a 
 proposition from nameless men. 
 
 We are told that, though the bearer of the proposition, lie 
 refused or declined to express any opinion in regard to it. 
 This reticence is unaccountable. On public aifairs ISIr. Gra- 
 ham had no concealments. His opinions as a private man 
 could he known by all who sought them ; as a public man he 
 never hesitated to proclaim them. There was no feature of 
 Lis character which impressed his opponents more than this. 
 
(53) 
 
 A di.stiiiguisljed rtepublicau," who know liim well, gave it 
 as one of his most characteristic traits, that "he had emin- 
 ently the courage of his opinions." Would such a one with- 
 hold his opinions when the fate of his country hung in the 
 balance, and when the high position which he occapied 
 made it his duty to express them ? 
 
 The alleged proposition involved the destruction of the 
 Confederate Government, and the transfer of the allegiance 
 of its citizens to the Federal Government. Could he have 
 so entirely lost that political sagacity, which made him a 
 light and a guide to the generation in which he lived, as to 
 suppose snch a proposition would be listened to, coming 
 from nameless men ? If such a course had been necessary 
 to escape ruin, otherwise inevitable, it could only have been 
 taken by the concerted action of those Vv'ho were strongest 
 in the confidence of the country. That, no one knew better 
 than he. Further, he knew that to secure for the proposi- 
 tion a favorable hearing, it must appear that it vras a move- 
 ment which enlisted able and patriotic men. To suppress 
 their names, then, argues a degree of simplicity which -would 
 be unaccountable in the weakest of men, and seems impos- 
 sible in one of the strongest. n 
 
 Mr. Graham has left on record, m a letter to GovernorU^- 
 Swain, a full and minute account of this interview. That 
 it was the same is proven by reference to the time. Gover- |]^t' 
 nor Vance says it was after the Hampton Roads Conference. ■ — 
 Mr. Graham, as we have seen, reached home from Richmond 
 on the 19th of March, and went to Raleigh on Monday the 
 20th. It is proved to be the same by the identity of topics 
 discussed or referred to, as far as those topics are alluded to 
 by Governor Vance. It is proven by the identity of words, 
 one of them used, not in its plain and obvious, but in its 
 remote and secondary sense. 
 
 The letter and the circumstances under which it was 
 written thus become of interest. On Saturday, the Sth of 
 
 * Hon S. R Phiir.p.S. 
 
(54) 
 
 J^pril, Governor Swain wrote to Mr. Graham urging that 
 lie would sfo with him to Raleigh to confer with Governor 
 "Vance upon the state of public affairs. lie i)ictured in strong 
 •colors the imminence of the dangers which beset the country. 
 He told him that the State looked to none of its citizens for 
 <;ounsel and guidance as it did to him. He told him the 
 Governor would give as favorable consideration to his sug- 
 gestions as he would yield to an}' citizen or functionary in 
 the Confederacy. To this letter Mr. Graham replied on the 
 same day at considerable length. He wrote that he left 
 Richmond thoroughly convinced : 1st. That independence 
 for the Southern Confederacy was perfectly hopeless. 2d. 
 That through the administration of Mr. Davis Ave could ex- 
 pect no peace. 3rd. That the State Government should 
 make a movement in behalf of peace. He then proceeded to 
 sive in detail what had occurred on the occasion of his visit 
 to Governor Yance. This account was written for the pur- 
 pose of putting Governor Swain in possession of what had 
 |)assed, no doubt Avith the expectation that it would be used 
 b}' him in the interview with Governor A'ance, and also to 
 shoAv how frankly he had expressed his views upon the state 
 of the country. On the ]Monday following, Governor Swain 
 went to Raleigh, and the conference between him and Gov. 
 Vance was long and full. It may, I think, be assumed as 
 certain, from the importance attached by Governor Swain to 
 the opinions of ^Ir. Graham, and from the weight which he 
 thought those opinions would have Avith Governor Vance, 
 that the contents of that letter Avere made knoAvn to GoA'er- 
 nor Vance, and formed the basis of their conference. An 
 account of the intervicAv Avas furnished by Governor SAvain 
 to the author of " The Last Ninety Days,'" together Avith the 
 letter in question. The inference is clear that Governor 
 SAvain understood that letter as containing a true narrative 
 of Avhat passed betAveen Mr. Graham and Governor Vance. 
 Further, the " Ninety Days" has been for years before the 
 world, and the correctness of that narrative has been un- 
 
(55) 
 
 •challenged. That narrative has thus the direct sanction of 
 Oovernor Swain, and by acquiescence during Mr. Graham's 
 life, it has the sanction also of Governor Vance. 
 
 Xow compare the narrative and note the dilference. In 
 Ixovernor Vance's version, Mr. Graham comes to him from 
 third persons, whose names were not disclosed ; in Mr. Gra- 
 ham's, he went unprompted by anybody ; unprompted save 
 by his own high sense of duty. In Governor Vance's ver- 
 rsion, he came the bearer of a proposition from others ; in 
 Mr. Graham's, he went to submit his own views. In Gover- 
 nor Vance's version, the proposition is to " make separate 
 terms with Mr. Lincoln ;" in Mr. Graham's, to call the 
 Assembl}'. In Governor Vance's version, he withholds his 
 advice ; in Mr. Graham's, he went for no other purpose than 
 to give his advice, and did give it at length. The only 
 reference in Mr. Graham's narrative to any third person is 
 'ivhen he reinforces his advice by the opinion of General Lee, 
 .and by the opinions of those considered by him as the wisest 
 and best men with whom he had conver.^ed. It is absolute!}^ 
 certain that what is alleged in the "statement" as having 
 ■occurred,- did not happen before the 20tli of March, because, 
 between the Hampton lioads Conference and that time, Mr. 
 ■Oraham had not been in Raleigh. It is morally certain that 
 it did not occur after that time ; because if Governor Vance 
 rejected Mr. Graham's advice to call the Legislature, and 
 thus allow the representatives of the people to decide their 
 •own fate, the latter would not have submitted a proposition 
 that the Governor should, at the instance of nameless men, 
 decide their fate for them. Whence, then, the irreconcilable 
 'discrepancy between the two versions ? The explanation 
 lies in the fact that JVIr. Graham's narrative was penned a 
 short time after the interview occurred, when the facts were 
 fresh in his mind ; while Governor Vance's was not written 
 until over ten years had passed away. 
 
 In a note appended to the address, in the November num- 
 ■ber of Our Living and Our Dead, Governor Vance says: 
 
(56) 
 
 " Since the synopsis of this was published I have received a 
 letter from an esteemed friend in Hillsboro, who says he had 
 a conversation with Governor Graham on the same subject^ 
 and that his recollection is that the proposition made to me 
 Avas, that I should take steps to withdraw the J^orth Caro_ 
 Una troops from General Lee's army, which would force him 
 to surrender and thus end the war. It may be that my 
 friend's recollection is correct." 
 
 The inference of the reader of this note would be that the 
 letter from Hillsboro sustains Governor Vance's recollection 
 in every particular, except the manner in which peace was 
 to be brought about ; the writer's understanding being, that 
 it was to be accomplished by Avithdrawing our troops. I 
 subjoin the clause of the letter of which the " note" is in- 
 tended as a summary. The author of the letter, in writing- 
 to Governor Vance about the statement in the White Sul- 
 phur Springs address, says : " You state that the purpose of 
 persons whose message Governor Graham delivered to you 
 was to make 'separate terms wdth Mr. Lincoln, and thus- 
 inaugurate the conclusion.' This announcement surprised 
 me, because Governor Graham stated the same thing to me, 
 and I understood the purpose to be that I^ortli Carolina 
 should withdraw^ her troops from General Lee's army, and 
 thus compel a surrender and end the war." 
 
 The letter midoubtedly bears the construction put upon it 
 by Governor Vance ; nay, I think it is the most obvious- 
 construction ; yet nothing was further from the intention of 
 the writer. Tire single point intended to be made by the 
 writer, as is shown in a subsequent letter, was as to " sepa- 
 rate terms." It was to the alleged proposition looking to 
 " separate terms" that he alluded when he wrote, this an- 
 nouncement '•' surprised me." Mr. Graham's position in 
 regard to peace was known to him, and it was to Mr. Gra- 
 ham's purpose to inaugurate a movement in favor of peace 
 that he alluded when he wrote, " JSIr. Graham stated the 
 same thino; to me-" The writer of the letter alluded to in 
 
(57) 
 
 the " note" had no thought either of confirming or contro- 
 verting Governor Vance's recollection of what transpired at 
 the interview between him and Mr. Graham, because he 
 had not heard from ]N[r. Graham that he had any interview 
 with Governor Vance. In the subserjuent letter, just refer- 
 red to, he says, "Mr. Graham made no mention" — i. e. in the 
 conversation alluded to — "of his having been charged with 
 any message or communication to Governor Vance about 
 ending the war ; indeed, he made no mention of his having 
 had any interview with Governor Vance on the subject." 
 
 It will be observed that the writer of the letter to Gover- 
 nor Vance, in speaking of withdrawing our troops, says 
 nothing of any communication made by Mr. Graham of such 
 a purpose ; his language is ''I understood the purpose to be ;" 
 it was a conclusion of the writer, deduced from what he 
 heard around him. 
 
 It is very apparent that this letter was thrown off in great 
 haste, and without a moment's thought as to the construc- 
 tion, which might be put upon it. Hence the erroneous im- 
 plication conveyed, and hence the erroneous construction ot 
 Governor Vance. 
 
 That letter changed the opinion of Governor Vance, and 
 left him in doubt as to what was the proposition submitted. 
 "It may be," says he, "that my friend's recollection is cor- 
 rect." Upon this point, no doubt, I think, can exist, if we 
 refer to Mr. Graham's recorded opinions. In his letters, 
 given at length in the "ISTinety Days," he lays open all his 
 thoughts without reserve to his life-long friend, Governor 
 Swain. In them is to be found no hint of any other meas- 
 ure than that of callino' the Leii'islature and allowing the 
 people to consult together for their common safety in this 
 unparalleled strait. These letters show further that he nev- 
 er contemplated separate action by the State of North Caro- 
 lina. "^ 
 
 After the Hampton Roads Conference he had no longer 
 any hope of a peaceful solution through the action of Presi- 
 
(58) 
 
 dent Davis ; from thenceforth he turned his thoughts to the 
 accomplishment of the same end through the action of the 
 States. The subject is often recurred to, but not an intima- 
 tion can be found of any plan, except that of the States act- 
 ing in conjunction. Very soon united action on the part of 
 all became an impossibility ; conquering armies had dismem- 
 bered the Confederacy — had left indeed but two States that 
 could act in concert. But his plan still embraced these two. 
 March 256th, he writes as follows t-o Governor Swain : "I 
 went to Raleigh to have an interview Avith the Governor on 
 the subject matter referred to in your letter. The result 
 Avas a convocation of the Council of State to assemble to- 
 morrow. The Legislature of Virginia has taken a recess 
 until the 29th instant, and I think it very important that 
 that of North Carolina should be in session as early as pos- 
 sible. The war is now nearly reduced to a contest between 
 these two States and the United States 1" In his letter of 
 the 8th of April, which contains, as I think has been shown, 
 the true account of the interview between Mr. Graham and 
 Governor Vance, Mr. Graham says : "I told him I should 
 attend the session of the General Assembly, and, if desired, 
 would address them in secret session ; that I had confiden- 
 tial conversations with a committee of the Virginia Legis- 
 lature, which had taken a recess for ten days, and that it 
 was important to act in concert with that bod}*."' 
 
 The surrender left the State under the control of the Fed- 
 eral Generals and under the military law. According to 
 the theory of the Administration, all civil government had 
 ceased ; all the offices were vacant. The government, for a 
 time, was such as a conquering army administers in a sub- 
 jugated country. At length to inaugurate a civil govern- 
 ment, the precedent for the admission of territories was par- 
 tially adopted. A provisional Governor was appointed with 
 power to call a convention. In execution of his powers the 
 Governor appointed to the vacant offices and issued a call 
 for a convention. Mr. Graham was nominated for the Con- 
 
 /i, 
 
 V^T A<^ CC<3^ A 
 

 (59) 
 
 ventioii ; but it being annonnced by the executive, that per- 
 sons unpardoned would not be allowed to take their seats, 
 lie Avithdrew from the canvass. 
 
 A Constitution — the old Constitution with some altera- 
 tions — was adopted. My. Graham opposed its ratification. 
 From his action at this time m.any of his best friends dis- 
 sented. They admitted with him that a convention called, 
 not by the people, but by a power ab extra and under limita- 
 tions of suttVage unknown to the Constitution, was an ano- 
 maly in American institutions. But certain changes were 
 regarded as inevitable after the war, and if the Administra- 
 tion, then wielding supreme power over us, should rest sat- 
 isfied with the changes thus made, it was conceived by them 
 to be the wiser course to raise no question as to the manner 
 in which the Convention was called. But in Mr. Graham's 
 view many of the ablest men in the State concurred, and 
 the Constitution was defeated. Certainly it seems more in 
 accordance with the spirit of a great patriot to make con- 
 tinual claim, even if inelFectual, in behalf of the principles 
 of government established b}^ our fathers. Any mitigation 
 which an abandonment of those principles might have ob- 
 tained would have been but temporary ; the principles them- ., p 
 selves were for all time. "\V^ 
 
 The Eeconstruction measures were now passed. The for- Kr^'^ 
 mer government was swept away. The whole power over 
 the question of suffrage, that question Avhich lies at the 
 foundation of all representative government, and which un- 
 der the old Constitution belonged to the States, save that 
 Congress might pass unform naturalization laws, was as- 
 sumed and exercised by Congress. Suffrage was adjusted 
 upon a new basis ; all the black race was enfranchised, and 
 a large portion of the white race was disfranchised. Under 
 this adjustment, a new convention was called, and a new 
 constitution adopted, the constitution under which Ave now ^ 
 
 These measures, so extreme in their nature, were regard- 'J''" ^ 
 
 ..«*^ 
 
(60) 
 
 ed while they were jct in progress by a large part of our 
 people witli a feeling little short of consternation. The Gov- 
 erment seemed wholly changed; the Constitution irrevocablj- 
 wreuched, if not destroyed. A profound apathy fell upon 
 the niinds of the people. A vast number ceased to take any 
 cognizance of public affairs. They seemed to regard them, 
 as removed forever beyond their control. In this state of 
 things a convention of the conservative party of Xorth Caro- 
 lina was called. It met on the 5th of February, I8G8, in 
 Tucker Hall, in the city of Ealeigh, and was presided over 
 by Mr. Graham. 
 
 Upon taking the chair he spoke at length upon the state 
 of the country. The scope of that speech is summed up in 
 the conclusion which I give in his own words : "I have de- 
 tained you thus long, but to be brief and state our case as it is, 
 against the thou.sand misrepresentations with which the ear 
 of authority is vexed, for the consideration of yourselves, of 
 our own people, 'of our fellow-citizens of the i^orth and West, 
 and the calm judgment of the world at large." It was thus 
 a broad appeal to the judgment of mankind, embracing in 
 its ample verge all the issues evolved by our situation ; and 
 I think whatever may be the party affinities of men at this 
 da}^ all will allow that it was worthy such an audience. He 
 placed himself at the very start upon the highest ground by 
 showing that the struggle in Avhich the party there repre- 
 sented was then engaged, w^as not the offspring of resent- 
 ment or contnmac}', but only for the preservation of the 
 rights of American citizens. A few strong sentences suffice 
 to paint the condition of the Southern count rj^ at the close 
 of the war. lie refers in eloquent terms to the civil vmVy 
 and to the profound submission then, three years after its 
 termination, everywhere manifested to the authority of the 
 United States. lie refers to the Eeconstruction measures 
 and sharply presents the spirit of those measures. He con- 
 trasts the spirit of English statesmanship at the era of the 
 Restoration, an era- analagous to our own after the eonclu- 
 
(01) 
 
 sioii of the war. lie showed that the evils under which we 
 were hiboring were the result of political enthusiasm. He 
 dwelt upon the truth im})resscd hy the great historian of the 
 Ke^toration, the feebleness of reason to op[)Ose this passion, 
 whether in religion or politics, and that there is but one 
 safeguard against its fatal consequences, "iu religion, never 
 to lose sight of morality ; in political speculation, never to 
 depart from the forms and maxims of the Constitution."' By 
 the forms and maxims of the American Constitution, and 
 by the precedents of our own history at its best cnis, and 
 under our Presidents the most renowned in peace and war, 
 lie proceeded to test the Reconstruction measures. The 
 framers of those measures admitted that the}" were "outside 
 of the Constitution." Mr. Graham demonstrated with 
 l)oundless wealth of learniiio;, and with resistless loo;ie, that 
 they were in conflict A^•ith the Constitution and with the 
 spirit of American liberty. There are many who differed in 
 opinion from him upon the topics proper to be discussed, 
 and tlie course of action recommended by him on tliat occa- 
 sion ; but, I think, even the_y would allow that, as he spoke 
 that day on the great doctrines of civil libert}-, so Somers 
 and Camden would have spoken; and that the constitutional 
 doctrines which he then laid down v/onld have received the 
 sanction of ^Madison and of ]\farshall. I have read that 
 speech recently and with care. I was irapresseil anew witli 
 its wide range, and its deep and mature learning ; with the 
 skill with which the topics are arranged and discussed ; with 
 the admirable temper ^^•hich he preserves on the most excit- 
 ing subjects ; with his familiarity vrith the wi'itingsof politi- 
 cal sages, whose weighty apothegms are scattered through 
 it: with the high finish of certain passages ; but above all 
 with the dauntless spirit with which he maintains what, in 
 his judgment, are the true principles of our Government. 
 
 The elfect of this speech cannot be estimated. It aroused 
 the people from their despondency ; it animated them to new 
 efforts ; it went further, it infused into them the spirit with 
 
(0-i) 
 
 which the speech itself was instinct. From that day the 
 Conservative-Democratic party dates its existence in this- 
 State as a regularly organized party ; within a short time 
 thereafter it gained possession of the Legislature and has 
 held it to the present time. 
 
 The Convention of 1865 had directed that the Legislature 
 should he convened. An election was accordingly held and 
 the Legislature met in the winter of that year. Mr. Gra- 
 ham was unanimoush' elected for the county of Orange, but, 
 being unpardoned he did not otter to take his seat. It was 
 the universal desire of the people that he should represent 
 the State in the Senate of the United States, when restored 
 to its old relations. It Avas felt that Xorth Carolina had no 
 one more competent to vindicate her action or represent her 
 interests. It was felt that she had no one who, by his- 
 bahmced judgment, his temperance of feeling, his urbane 
 bearinsr, would do. more to mitigate the asperities which had 
 been provoked by civil strife. He was elected by a large 
 majority. Upon his election he repaired to Washington and 
 presented his credentials. They were laid upon the table. 
 lie ]»resented to the Senate a manly and respectful memoi-ial; 
 but he was never permitted to take his seat. The spectacle 
 presented l!»y the exclusion from public aftairs of a man of 
 his antecedents, while so man\^ who had an active agency iu 
 bringino- on civil strife had been promoted to high station,, 
 arrested attention everywhere, Many of the most eminent 
 men in the Northern States used their best eftbrts for the 
 removal of his disabilities, without eft'ect. Political perse- 
 cution, set on foot l)y parties in his own State, pursued him 
 until it was placed beyond all human probability that he 
 should ever enjoy the honors for Avhich the State had des- 
 tined him. When that had become a certainty, to-wit, iu 
 1873, his disabilities were removed. What reflections arise, 
 as we recur to this passage of his life I Mr. Graham had 
 clung to the Constitution until the rising tide of secession 
 had llowed around and completely insulated his State ; to 
 
(63) 
 
 this ancient ark of our fathers he again ckmg when after the- 
 war the waves of political enthusiasm inundated the coun- 
 try and the Constitution. Yet he was left stranded, while 
 many of those who had fanned the tempests of both found 
 secure anchorage. But we look beyond to-da3\ The things 
 seen are temporal in more senses than one. The impartial 
 tribunal of posterity rise up before us. Then, when the 
 actors of to-day are weighed in even scales ; Avhen the influ- 
 ence of passion and prejudice is unknown, then will the con- 
 sistent devotion to principle, by which his conduct was- 
 always actuated, receive its due meed of admiration and 
 applause. 
 
 The State of Xortli Carolina was, in 1870, the scene of 
 events without parallel in American histor3\ The recon- 
 structed government had then been in existence for two 
 years ; and though it introduced many changes in the organ- 
 ic law, changes repugnant to the great body of the people,, 
 it was now in quiet operation. Its authority was every- 
 where acknowledged ; submission to it was universal. In 
 the counties of Alamance and Caswell acts of lawlessness, 
 startling and exceptional, had occurred ; but they nowhere 
 took the form of resistance to law ; they rather indicated 
 the temper of a people driven to phrenzy by actual or an- 
 ticipated outrage. These acts were deeply deplored by all 
 thoughtful men, who earnestly exerted themselves t® put an 
 end to them. At length, by their efforts, seconded by the 
 presence of a company of United States troops in each of 
 those counties, order and quiet were restored. It was now 
 that the Governor, under authoritj- of an act passed at the- 
 previous Legislature, declared by proclamation these coun- 
 ties in a state of insurrection, lie then proceeded to levy 
 troops, wdiich, when raised, were marched into those coun- 
 ties. Here arrests were made of leading citizens, without 
 charge and without process. When arrested most of them 
 were held in strict confinement ; some were thrown into close 
 jjrison. In some instances torture was resorted to, to extort 
 
(C4, 
 
 accusation against themselves. To crown all, measures were 
 being taken to organize courts-martial for the trial of the 
 citizens tlius arrested. To put a stop to proceedings so un- 
 exampled recourse was had to that great birthright of Eng- 
 lish speaking people, the writ of habeas corpus. Applica- 
 tion for tlie writ was made to the Chief Justice, who prompt- 
 ly ordered the writ to be issued; but owing to the action of 
 the Governor the benefit of the writ could not be obtahied. 
 A number of motions was submitted by the counsel for the 
 prisoners, but each in turn proved nugatory. Finally a mo- 
 tion was made for a precept to be directed to the Sherilf — 
 the precept to be executed by the power of the county. 
 This the Chief Justice declined to grant, stating that in the 
 then condition of things such a proceeding "would phmge 
 the country into civil war."' 
 
 Hopeless now of obtaining an^' relief from the courts of 
 the State recourse was had to tlie courts of the United 
 States. A petition for redress was made to His Honor 
 Judge Brooks of the District Court. The question of juris- 
 diction was argued by ]Mr. Graham, and other eminent coun- 
 sel. Ihe Judge, at length, ordered the writ to l)e issued. 
 The prisoners were brought up, and after the hearing were 
 discharged. It may be safeh' said tliat nothing has occurred 
 since the war which did more to rekindle the aflections of 
 the people of Is^ortli Carolina toward the Government of 
 their fathers than the action of Judge Brooksin these cases. 
 
 The events thus briefly referred to occurred in the midst 
 of a profound peace. The Courts held their regular sessions 
 at the appointed times in the counties of Alamance and 
 Caswell ; and the processes of law ran unobstructed to every 
 part of those counties. Political proscription, there was 
 none. The party of which the Governor was the head held 
 undisputed sway in those counties. The negroes voted at 
 pleasure for the object of their choice. The public mind 
 was profoundly moved by these proceedings. The sense of 
 injury was deep ; yet tliere was no open resistance — no tu- 
 
(65) 
 
 luultuary a^isembkiges, Tlie inborn reverence for law, which 
 has prevailed in this State since the Revolution — iince the 
 adoption ot* popular institutions — every where asserted itself. 
 The people waited to see what course two or three eminent 
 citizens, who had been honored and trusted by them, would 
 advise at this crisis. To Mr. Graham first and foremost 
 they instinctively turned, lie advised a resort to none but 
 constitutional remedies— first, an appeal t3 the people at the 
 ballot-box; secondly, an arraignment of the Executive at the 
 bar of the [teople. The success of such an appeal he did not 
 doubt. No statesman ever reposed greater confidence in the 
 capacity and patriotism of the people. The result vindica- 
 ted his judgment. The canvass of that summer turned upon 
 the usurpations and high-handed proceedings of the Gover- 
 nor. . The election resulted in the return to the Legislature 
 of a majority of two-thirds of the Conservative-Democratic 
 party. 
 
 The adoption of tlie second step A\'as more diflicult. AG \^ 
 vagn'o but deep-seated dread, growing out of a recent expe- ^ 
 rience of the power of the Federal Government, which had ^ 
 
 not returned to the old constitutional <,'hannels from which 
 it had been diverted by the war, pervaded the State. The 
 Reconstruction Government, which owed its origin to the ^^ 
 Federal Congress, had been recently established here. The 
 Republican party had established that government, and that 
 party swayed the powers of the Federal Government in 
 every department. Any action toward removing the high- 
 est official in the State might be construed by that p.irtv 
 into a menace against the Reconstruction Government, and 
 lead to a speedy and decisive interposition by the Federal 
 Government. ^Mr. Graham did not participate in these ap- 
 prehensions. His views are best expressed in his own words: 
 "I do not believe," he said, "the Congress of the United 
 States will depart from that Constitution under which we 
 are now living in harmony ; and that when the State of 
 i^ortli Carolina renewed her constitutional relations to the 
 
(66) 
 
 Federal Government, she came back with all the rights and 
 privileges of a sovereign State ; and that her State Senators 
 and Representatives, Avhen charged with dnties by the peo- 
 ple, are to perform their functions under the same responsi- 
 bilities that belong to the Senators and Representatives of 
 any State of the Union." These weighty views, in ^^■hich 
 there was a general concurrence among the ablest and most 
 trusted public men of the State, prevailed. On the 14th of 
 December, 1870, a resolution was adopted b}' the House of 
 Representatives of North Carolina, that the Governor of 
 N^orth Carolina be impeached of high crimes and misde- 
 meanors. On the 23d of December the Court of Impeach- 
 ment was duly organized, and sat forty days. The judg- 
 ment of the court was that the Governor be deposed from 
 office, and forever disqualified from holding any office of 
 profit or trust in this State. 
 
 Mr. Graham was the first counsel named amons; the emi- 
 iient gentlemen of the Bar selected to assist the managers 
 appointed by the House ; and he bore a principal part in the 
 management of the trial, and in the discussions of the vari- 
 ous qestions of evidence which arose in in its progress. It 
 was assigned to him to make the first of the speeches in the 
 final argument. In his exordium he used the language 
 quoted above — language which embodied the advice which 
 he had given to the members of the Assemblj' l:>y whom he 
 had been consulted when the impeachment resolution was 
 pending. The passage which follows, addressed to the Sena- 
 tors sitting in their judicial capacity, evidently lays down 
 the rule by which his own public life had been guided : 
 
 "For my own part, I have to say to every public man, in 
 re'^ard to his public life, what the great poet represents the 
 angel as having said to our first ancestor : 
 
 'Nor love thy life, nor hate ; but what thou livest 
 Live vrell, how long or short permit to heaven?' " 
 
 The feelings with which he approached this trial were in 
 
(67) 
 
 part those of an elder generation. He was born and brought 
 up among a people conspicuous for their gaUantr}' and sacri- 
 fices in the Revohitionary War. The section in which they 
 lived was singled out by the British historians as that which 
 ■%vas the most active and inveterate in its hostility. His own 
 iincestry in that section had given the best years of their 
 life — had olfered their means without limit — had shed their 
 tblood on many fields for the assertion of the great principles 
 <of liberty. The establishment of a free government was to 
 Mm the dearly bought acquisition of his patriotic sires, to 
 ibe transmitted to children's children. The great principles 
 <of liberty embodied in the Bill of Rights and in the Consti- 
 tution "were a part of his personal inheritance. Any usur- 
 pation of power by the government, au}^ encroachment upon 
 the rights of the people, he regarded as an invasion of his 
 own birth-right — as a personal wrong and grievance. 
 
 All such usurpations and encroachments he brought to a 
 rstandard, just, if severe. Political science had been one of 
 the favorite studies of his life. In the history of govern- 
 ment of every. kin^l he was well versed. He regarded a well 
 ordered State as the highest achievement of man. He kne%v 
 that two thousand years ago man had carried the arts and 
 many branches of science to the highest pitch of perfection. 
 He knew that no free government could boast an existence 
 of more than two hundred years. As well regulated liberty 
 was the latest gift of time, so its value was above all others 
 to be prized. It was that wdiich gave value to everj'thino- 
 else; since upon that the value of everything else depends. 
 A blow in this direction, involving all that men prize and 
 <cherish, w^as to be redressed by the heaviest and most last- 
 ing of civil penalties. 
 
 The speech of Mr. Graham in this trial was one of very 
 ."great ability. With the feelings to which I have referred, 
 it might have been anticipated that he would occasionally 
 launch out into denunciation and invective against one who 
 hj}A trodden under foot the Constitution and laws, and defied 
 
(G8) 
 
 the Chief Justice of the State. But amidst the intensity of 
 his feelings his wonted self-command did not for a moment 
 desert him. It was a trial of one who had been charged, 
 with the grossest violations of the highest of human rights ;. 
 and it was [ilainly his purpose that no sentence, phrase or 
 word of his should afford ground for the assertion that 
 political animosity or prejudice had aught to do with the 
 judgment which he believed would be pronounced by the high 
 court before which the Executive was arraigned. That j udg- 
 ment should be the irresistible dictate of reason, one ini 
 which the feelings should have no share. This occasion ad- 
 mits of no extended analysis of that speech ; but I cannot 
 refrain from saying that, for clear and masterly statement- 
 of the several charges embraced in the articles of impeach' 
 ment ; for skillful analysis of the testimony and of the spe-- 
 cious pretences urged in defence, which, combined ^vith a 
 dextrous array of facts and authorities, seemed to promise- 
 immunity to the accused ; for the force and jjovver withi 
 which all these Avere sifted, exposed and refuted ; above alB 
 for the constitutional and common law learning, so apposite^ 
 so conclusive, poured forth in the course of that speech, it 
 deserves a high place among the best efforts of that kind.- 
 So completely was every point of law and fact covered by 
 Mr. Graham that the eminent counsel who concluded oib 
 behalf of the managers confined himself to a re-statement of 
 the positions taken by hiin, and to such further discussion* 
 as was rendered necessarj- in reply. That speech will not 
 fail to be studied whenever the great })rinciples of govern- 
 ment then involved shall come to be again defended here. 
 
 As has been said, he Avas not permitted to take his seat iin 
 the Senate of the United States- But while he was debarred 
 tlie enjoyment of those honors which his State would haver 
 conferred upon him, he was the recipient of other honors oi* 
 the highest kind — honors which the higliest in earthly 
 estate misfht have envied. 
 
 Mr. Peabody, whose great heart had been moved by the 
 
(69) 
 
 --misfortunes of the Southern people, conceived the idea of 
 -employing some portion of the princely fortune with which 
 Providence had hlessed him for the permanent benefit of 
 that people. lie was a Xorthern ;iian by birth, and as such 
 had little sj-mpathy with the ends Avhich the South sought 
 to accomplish by the war. But he knew that our fathers 
 had fought for an idea in the war of independence, 
 and that the South had fought for an idea in the civil war ; 
 lie could not recognize that as guilt in us, which was a 
 source of pride and boast in our common ancestors. He con- 
 templated no mere eleemosynary institution ; a people who 
 had exhibited such constancy and valor as they had display- 
 •ed during the war — though great suffering among them was 
 inevitable — could not long want aid of that kind. But the 
 interest of education at the South had not kept pace with 
 the same interest at the Xorth, where the people were homo- 
 geneous, and where the eftbrts of all were directed to that 
 ■end. The apprehension felt — too surel}^ justified by the re- 
 sult — was that when the people of the South came to esti- 
 mate their losses by the war, the sense of these losses, 
 coupled with their poverty, would lead to still further neg- 
 lect of that most important interest. It was to the interest 
 of education, then, that the great philanthropist resolved to 
 iiddress his beneficence. His plan required the interposition 
 •of trustees, and it was necessary that tlie}^ should be men 
 .eminent for abilities and virtue and of national reputation. 
 Mr. Graham, in whom all these requisites met, was one of 
 the three or four trustees selected from the South. Through 
 ii common friend, the Hon. Mr. "Winthrop, of Massachu- 
 setts, Mr. Graham was invited to meet Mri Peabod}^ and two 
 .or three other gentlemen in Feb., 1867, in the city of Wash- 
 higton. The result is well known. The beneficent plan was 
 put operation, and now 3'ields its valuable fruits to thous- 
 ands of the children of our land. Mr. Graham entered 
 warmly into Mr. Peabody's views. He attended with great 
 regularity the meetings of the board of trustees, and partici- 
 
-^^ 
 
 (70) 
 
 pated in all its counsels. lie seconded the resolutions which 
 were adopted by the board upon the death of the great 
 philanthropist, and then gave expression in fit and eloquent 
 words to the sense of his loss here felt. The South has no 
 means to commemorate her gratitude to this illustrious man 
 in "statues, storied urns or animated busts," but his benefac- 
 tions have sunk deep into the hearts of our people, and the- 
 honor with which his name is everywhere mentioned among 
 us is, perhaps, the noblest monument to his fame. 
 
 Sometime after he received another marked testimonial 
 to the high esteem in which he was held by States as well 
 as individuals. The boundary line between the States of 
 Virginia and Maryland had long been undefined, and had 
 produced embarrassment in the administration of the laws- 
 M'ithin the disputed limits, and, in some conflicting interestSy 
 had nearly led to a collision between citizens of the two- 
 States. It was determined to adjust the matter by arbitra- 
 tion. The grand old Commonwealth of Virginia — grander" 
 in the virtues which she has displayed in her misfortunes^ 
 than those which she exhibited in her prosperity ; insomuch 
 that Ave check the current of compassion for her misfortunes-, 
 in the thought that the world will be the better for the ex- 
 ample which she has afl:brded under adversity — confided her 
 interests to Mr. Graham. Some meetings took place be- 
 tween him and the arbitrator selected by the State of Mary- 
 land ; but no award had been rendered at the date of his 
 death, and the matter was left unadjusted. 
 
 In the year 1875 — upon the 4th of February — he presided 
 over a meeting held in Charlotte to take steps for the prop- 
 er celebration of the Centennial of the Mecklenburg Decla- 
 ration of Independence. Some writers of ability had seized 
 upon that event, and in that spirit of historical skepticism! 
 so rife in our days, had undertaken, out of a few minor dis- 
 crepancies, to deny the genuineness of the Declaration, or 
 that any meeting was held on the 20th of May. Mr. Gra- 
 ham had been often- solicited to place that event upon its 
 
(71) 
 
 proper basis. lie had heard it often talked of at his father's 
 lire-side ; he knew all the traditions connected with it ; he 
 had known and talked with many of the subscribers of that 
 Declaration; he was well acquainted with public opinion re- 
 garding it, in that section where the event occurred, down 
 to the date of its publication in 1S20. For a long time mo- 
 tives of delicacy, growing out of his connection with some 
 of the principal actors, restrained him. But, at that time, 
 all the actors had passed away ; they could no longer be 
 heard ; and a just regard for their fame urged his acquies- 
 cence. He embodied his vindication in the form of an ad- 
 dress which he delivered on this occasion. Iso fair synopsis 
 of that address is possible ; it is a solid, compact argument 
 which would be greatly impaired by an}' attempt at abridg- 
 ment. Let it suffice to say tliat the evidence is arrayed in 
 the spirit of the philosophical historian, and with the skill 
 of a consummate lawyer. It will not put to silence the 
 mere caviller ; no amount of evidence will on this or any 
 other subject ; but the candid inquirer will rise from its pe- 
 rusal with the conviction that few events in history rest 
 upon a firmer foundation than the Mecklenburg Declaration 
 of Independence. 
 
 Mr. Graham left behind many literary essays, but none 
 which were prompted by mere desire for literarj^ distinction. 
 His efibrts of this kind were all the result of passing events ; 
 all the fruit of hours snatched from an absorbing profession. 
 Yet if collected together they would form a considerable 
 volume ; and if we consider their contents they give a high 
 idea of the intellect which could find its relaxation in such 
 labors. The dominant feeling of his life was loyalty to the 
 State and her institutions ; hence the subjects usually selec- 
 ted by him were drawn from her history. 
 
 Among these was a lecture delivered at Greensboro, in 
 1860. The citizens of that section of country, of which 
 Greensboro is the centre, contemplated the erection of a 
 monument to commemorate the services of General Greene 
 
(72) 
 
 ill the Revolutionary struggle. This lecture was delivered 
 in aid of the enterprise, and embraced a life of Greene and a 
 Listory of Revolutionary events in this State. A copy 
 was solicited for publication, but from some cause it was 
 never published. It remains in manuscript, full and entire, 
 ^s if prepared for the press. Here may be mentioned the 
 two Memorial Addresses — the one upon the life and charac- 
 ter of Hon. George E. Badger, and the other of Hon. Thomas 
 Ruffin. These line addresses, which have received the 
 commendations of many of the most competent judges, 
 ISTorlh and South, are too fresh in the recollection of all to 
 need any comment. 
 ^V- This record would be most imperfect did it fail to bring 
 ,. ^ into the most prominent relief the services of ]SIr. Graham 
 ^jU, in his office of trustee of the University. He regarded the 
 ' University as the best ornament of the State, and no one of 
 all its sons nursed it with a more devoted or wiser care. He 
 attended all its commencemenJ:s, and was most active in 
 watching over all its interests. No one labored with more 
 zeal for its restoration to the control of the true sons of the 
 State. For many years he was a member of the Executive 
 Committee, and at the time of his death he was the Chair- 
 man of that Committee. It was to him, finall}'', that Gov- 
 ernor Swain, in the last 3^ears of his successful administra- 
 tion, looked for direction and support in all its trials and 
 embarrassments. 
 
 "It is not unusual for men of eminence," said Judge 
 Story* "after having withdrawn from the Bar to find it dif- 
 ficult, if not not impracticable, to resume their former rank 
 ■^ in business." Mr. Graham experienced no such difficulty. 
 Though often called from his profession to jxiblic station, at 
 the first court at which he appeared after his term of office 
 expired, he was retained in all important causes, and busi- 
 
 * "Miscellaneous Writings" Sketch of Hon. Samuel Dexter. 
 
(73) 
 
 ness flowed in upon him thenceforth as if he had never been 
 absent. In common with all the people of the South, his 
 resources had been somewhat impaired by the war, and 
 when civil government was restored he resumed the prac- 
 tice of his profession with more than his w^onted ardor. lie 
 returned to all the courts of his former circuit ; the business 
 of which had greatly increased by the general settlement of 
 all previous transactions which took place after the war. 
 The business of the circuit and district courts — both of which 
 he regularly attended — had been greatly enlarged by the 
 new sj'stem of revenue laws and other changes introduced 
 by the war, but, above all, by the bankrupt laws then re- 
 cently enacted. These with appeals to the Supreme Court 
 of the State, and appeals to the Supreme Court of the United 
 States, increased his labors, protracted his absences from 
 home, and left him few intervals for repose. It was felt by 
 his friends that he was overtaxing his strength by these 
 great exertions, but there was no abatement of his energies 
 until about a year before his death. Symptoms then ap- 
 l^eared which inspired deep apprehensions. It seemed but 
 too certain that disease had fixed itself upon some of the 
 great organs of life. lie now gave up attendance upon 
 courts, but still watched over the progress of his causes, and 
 labored in the preparation of briefs — the causes themselves 
 being argued by his son, Maj. Graham. lie was pre-emin- 
 ently a worker and he continued to work to the end. At 
 length the symptoms became more distressing, and he re- 
 paired to Philadelphia to consult the eminent physicians of 
 that city. The result confirmed the opinion before enter- 
 tained that his malady was disease of the heart. Upon his 
 return home he continued his labors in his ofiice. It was 
 only under physical exertion that his malad}^ gave him 
 trouble ; when in repose he "was capable of as great mental 
 efforts as ever. 
 
 At this period of comparative inaction that fortunate des- 
 tiny which presided over his life was constant to him still. 
 
(74) 
 
 The pain, which was incident to liis malady, was only felt 
 at intervals, and then was not severe. Apart from this, 
 there was every possible compensation. Besides the depart- 
 ment of professional labor still left to him, he had the 
 boundless resources of literature, ancient and modern, which 
 in the busiest periods of his life he had always cultivated 
 and justly prized. Every day, moreover, brought to him in 
 the visits of friends, or through the mails, in news papers 
 and letters, some new testimonial of esteem and regard, pub- 
 lic or private. But above any and all of these, he could now 
 enjoy without interruption those pleasures, in which, amidst 
 his most brilliant successes, he ever found his chief happiness 
 the pleasures of home and its sweet endearments. 
 
 Mr. Graham had been nominated by acclamation by the 
 people of Orange for the Constitutional Convention which 
 sat in September, 1875, but the state of his health rendered 
 it impossible for him to undergo the labors of the canvass. 
 This was not needed on his own account, but his absence 
 from the hustings was regretted on account of the Conven- 
 tion cause. lie published, however, a strong address to his 
 constituents ; which was widely circulated, and had an im- 
 portant influence on the result. 
 
 A meeting of the boundary Commissioners had been ar- 
 ranged to take place at Saratoga Springs, in the State of 
 New York, in the month of August, 1875. Thither Mr. 
 Graham accordingly went, accompanied by Mrs. Graham 
 and his youngest son. For many days he appeared to be in 
 his usual health ; but a great change was at hand. After an 
 evening spent W' ith his friends, whose society he enjoyed 
 with more than his w^onted zest, he retired a little beyond 
 his accustomed hour. Soon after the symptoms of his dis- 
 ease recurred in aggravated form. Physicians were sum- 
 moned who ministered promptly, but ineffectuall3\ Mean- 
 time the news of his situation spread, and messages of in- 
 quiry and offers of personal services testified to the general 
 and deep concern. But all that science and the most affec- 
 
 i 
 
(75) 
 
 tiouate solicitude could suggest proved unavailing. He ex- 
 pired at 6 o'clock on the morning of Wednesday, the lltb 
 of August, 1875. 
 
 It had long been believed, by those who knew him best, 
 that Mr. Graham was at heart a Christian. It is with inex- 
 pressible gratification, I am able to add, that when ap- 
 proached on this subject during the last daj^s of his life, he 
 freely expressed his hope of salvation through our crucified 
 Redeemer. 
 
 The intelligence of his death was transmitted by telegraph 
 to every part of the country. All the great journals responded 
 with leading articles expressive of the national bereavement. 
 Numerous meetings were held — meetins-s of the Bar, meet- 
 ings of citizens, meetings of political opponents, for political 
 enemies he had none — to give their estimate of the illustri- 
 ous deceased, and to speak their sense of his loss. The States 
 of Virginia and Maryland, with that high sense of delicacy 
 which marks all their public acts, took care that the remains 
 of 'one who had stood in such honored relations to each, 
 should be_ conveyed with due honor across their bounds. At 
 the borders of our State they Avere received by a committee 
 appointed by the Bar of Raleigh; by a committee appointed 
 by the Mayor and common council of that city, and by a 
 committee from Hillsborough, and conveyed by special train 
 to Raleigh. There they were received b}^ appointed 
 committees — by the Raleigh Light Infantry, by the 
 Raleigh Light Artillery, (of both of which companies 
 he was an honorary member), by the LTmted States 
 troops from Camp Russell, and accompanied by a 
 great concourse of the citizens, conveyed to the capitol. 
 There the remains were deposited in the rotunda, which was 
 draped in mourning for the occasion. Late in the afternoon 
 of the same day they were conveyed with similar ceremo- 
 nies to the Central Station. From thence, attended by the 
 Raleigh companies, and by special guards of honor, appointed 
 by cities and towns of the State, and by the family of the 
 
(76) 
 
 -deceased, they were conveyed by special train to the station 
 iit Hillsborough, From thence they were escorted, with the 
 addition of the whole population of the town, to his man- 
 sion, where they lay in state till the noon of Sunday, the 
 15th. At that hour they were conveyed to the Presbyte- 
 rian Church, and, after appropriate funeral services, were in- 
 terred with solemn ceremony, amid an immense concourse, 
 gathered from many counties, in the grave-yard of that 
 r^j church. 
 
 ^,..^f'^ The intellect of Mr. Graham was of a rare order. For the 
 CU^' business of life, public and private, it may be said to have 
 been perfect. Though in the endowments of genius — taking 
 that word in its extended sense — he assuredly Avas not want- 
 ing ; yet, like all who have accomplished much, he trusted 
 little to its unaided impulses and suggestions. Very seldom 
 did he call to his aid the powers of imagination in his 
 speeches or writings. The bent of his genius did not lead 
 him to indulge in vivid painting, glowing imagery or bold 
 contrasts. With this faculty so restrained we would not 
 seek in his speeches for passages of the highest oratorical 
 merit. In them will be found none of those hio-h-wrous-ht 
 appeals, invocations or adjurations in which the orator gives 
 utterance to excited feelings ; nothing which would show 
 the man possessed and transported by his theme ; nothing 
 of that passion which passes by electric communication from 
 the speaker to the hearer and bears him along by a force 
 that is irresistible. It was in the resources of a clear, capa- 
 cious and powerful understanding, sustained and enlarged 
 by a special and inborn capability for labor, that he centered 
 his strength. In him was seen, not one possessed by his 
 theme, but one who was master of himself and his theme ; 
 not one who would hurry his hearers along desi:)ite them- 
 selves, but one who by persuasion would lead, and who by 
 .argument would convmce his audience.* If, then, his hear- 
 
 *This was in strict observance of one of the rules enjoined by the severe taste 
 -of the Attic orators. "Tlie orator must always show that he was master of him- 
 
(77) 
 
 ers missed some of those more striking forms of thought iu) 
 which Imagination delights, they were more than compen- 
 sated by the freer play and wider scope tlius given to the 
 powers of reason. In this respect the demands of the judg- 
 ment were completely satisfied. In truth, for the purposes- 
 of the lawyer and the statesman, he was all the better foi" 
 this abstinent use of a faculty which, while it brightens and 
 adorns, too often misleads — too often presents truth through- 
 a colored and false medium. Truth took no color in his 
 mind from/alse lights, intellectual or moral. It was this 
 constitution of mind, this habitual ward and absolute con- 
 trol over every faculty that could mislead, which, united 
 with a singular equanimity of temper, gave him a power in- 
 which he was surpassed by no one ; the power of seeing 
 things in their true proportions — of seeing things precisely as 
 they are. It was this moral and mental equilibrium which 
 gave him a judgment which, in the affairs of life, seemed 
 never to err. Hence it was that he was the trusted coun- 
 sellor of every friend iu difficulty ; often of the Executive 
 and of the Leo;islature of the State in cases of doubt and 
 embarrassment ; always of the people in everj^ time of polit- 
 ical trouble. 
 
 The place which will be awarded him in the rank of ora- 
 tprs will not be the highest. Indeed at oratorical etiects, 
 purely as such, he never aimed. There is no doubt but that 
 he might have employed the resources of oratory, other than 
 the very highest, to a much greater extent than he did. All 
 who have heard him in capital trials, and on other occasions 
 when great interests were at stake, were persuaded that he 
 possessed reserved resources of this kind to which he did not 
 give play, and which he could have called into requisition 
 at will. That he refrained was matter of deliberate judg- 
 ment. He preferred to address himself to the understand- 
 
 seif, and never was run aw ly Miih hy the vehemence of the moment."— Lmxl 
 Brovghara' s Dissei talim on, Ihv Elnqusnce of (he Ancients. 
 
(78) 
 
 ing. He relied wholly upon argument, disdaining the ad- 
 juncts of mere rhetoric. He knew that the triumphs of rea- 
 son are more durable than those which are the offspring of 
 excited feeling. Reaction and change follow the latter ; the 
 former leave full, permanent conviction. 
 
 As a parliamentary speaker and as an advocate he stood 
 in the first rank. His style was that which iinds so much 
 favor among eminent English statesman, that style in which 
 the results of thought and research are given with the warmth 
 and ease of animated and unpremeditated conversation.* In 
 this style of speaking supreme excellence is more difficult 
 to attain than in any other. It demands a perfect mastery of 
 the subject, entire possession of all the faculties of the mind, 
 and a command of language copious, pure and idiomatic. 
 Such speakers address themselves professedly to the judg- 
 ment. They challenge criticism, and seek no protection 
 from those fervors of feeling which it is the object of the 
 orator to excite. In this style of speaking he was a model. 
 
 In addition to his high intellectual endowments, nature 
 had to him been profuse in external gifts. In person he was 
 the ideal of the patrician. His features, regular and classic 
 in their outline, would have satisfied a sculptor. The ha- 
 bitual expression of his face was one of blended thought, re- 
 finement and quiet will. His form was noble and com- 
 manding ; cast, indeed, in nature's finest mould. These 
 advantages were set off by a dress always scrupulously neat, 
 and sufficiently conformed to the prevailing mode to escape 
 observation. The advantages, thus slightly touched upon, 
 were singularly calculated to impress favorably the mind of 
 any audience. If we add that he appeared before every 
 audience with the prestige of a character, which calumny 
 
 *Sir James Molntosh remarked, that "the true light in which to consider 
 speaking in the House of Commons was as an animated conversation on public 
 business, and tliat it was rare for any speecli to succeed wliich was raised on 
 any other basis. Canning joined in this opinion "—iyOJidon Quarterly Revieiv, 
 April, IS-SS. 
 t 
 
('9) 
 
 itself would own to be without a blemish, the causes of his 
 uniform success are easy to discern. 
 
 In his discussions, whether of the Senate or of the Forum 
 no man was ever freer from any of those intellectual artifices 
 to which speakers sometimes resort. He approached his 
 adversary's stronghold by no circuitous lines ; he practiced 
 no feints to draw off attention from his own weak points. 
 Indirection of any kind was foreign to his nature. There 
 were no bold attacks, no sudden onsets. His speeches were 
 iihvays clear, strong, convincing ; on great occasions they 
 resembled a triumphal march — a quiet but imposing display 
 of strength. In intellectual conflicts his self-possession never 
 failed him. If his antagonist, in his assault upon his posi- 
 tion, chanced to carry any of his out-works, he referred 
 to it with an easy, careless indifference that impressed 
 all hearers with the idea that his opponent had misdirected 
 his attack and thrown away his strength. The effect of this 
 temporary advantage being thus weakened or destroyed, 
 he threw out some brief, pregnant suggestions, which served 
 to fortify anew the damaged point. At the Bar his case 
 was always pfesentad in its strongest aspect. The leading 
 principles of law were clearly enunciated ; his discussions of 
 them were clear, pointed and full. He then proceeded to 
 support the case from the testimony adduced. In this re- 
 spect he was unsurpassed. His mind had been subjecteil to 
 such thorough discipline that it worked with mechanical 
 ease and accuracy. The evidence, however multifarious, fell 
 at once into due order and compact array. His vast ac- 
 quaintance with the business of life, in every phase, enabled 
 him to see in facts a significance and bearing that would be 
 perceived by few, and to use and apply them in a way at ' 
 once ingenious, startling and legitimate. His insight into 
 character — originally keen, and so improved by contact with 
 men in every class of life that it had grown into an intuition — 
 was brought to bear with decisive effect in every case of 
 conflicting testimony. In such cases he reasoned upon the 
 
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 motives of men with almost irresistible force and power. 
 He clierished the highest idea of the dignity of his pro- 
 fession, and his practice of it was regulated l)y the moat 
 exalted principle. The rule of professional Ci^nduct laid 
 down by Lord Brougham, as counsel for (Jueen Caroline, it 
 will be remembered, was as follows : ^'An advocate, by the 
 sacred duty which he owes to his client, knows in the dis- 
 charge of that office but one person in the world, and none 
 other. To save that client by all expedient means — to pro- 
 tect that client at all hazards and cost to all others, and 
 among others to himself — is the highest and most unques- 
 tioned of his duties; and he must not regard the alarm, the 
 suffering, the torment, the destruction which he ma}' Ijring 
 upon any other."' This rule he coudenmod and repudiated. 
 His own conduct was conformed to the priuci[)les laid down 
 by Lord Langdale in Hutchinson vs. Stephens : "Xo counsel 
 supposes himself to be the mere advocate or agent of his- 
 client to gain a victory, if he can, on a particular occasion. 
 The zeal and arguments of every counsel, knowing what is- 
 due to himself and his honorable profession, are qualitied not 
 only by considerations atlecting his own character as :t man 
 of honor, experience and learning, but also b}' consideration!^ 
 aft'ecting the general interests of justice." Within the do- 
 main of the principles here announced, there never lived a 
 counsel who exceeded him in zeal, iidelity and constancy to 
 the interests of his client, or in untiagging hope in his final 
 triumph. 
 
 He possessed in many respects the temperament of a great 
 conimantler. As difficulties thickened around him his cour- 
 age seemed to rise, and his resources to develoj). Xo man- 
 ever fought a losing cause with more courage and constancy. 
 When in important cases the tide'of testimony unexpectedly 
 turned and flowed dead against him there was nothing in 
 his look or manner that betrayed the change. His 
 attention would be redoubled, but in all else tliere 
 was so much of calm composure that lookers-on, inat- 
 
(81) 
 
 tentive to tlie evidence, have left the Court House 
 under the impression that he would gahi the cause He 
 preserved, under all circumstances in the trial of causes, the 
 lofty tenor of his bearing. He was never betrajed^ into an 
 altercation with witnesses. It may be that awe of his char-' 
 acter, and a consciousness of his practiced sagacity and pen- 
 etration constrained witnesses, when in his hands, to an un- 
 wonted utterance of the truth. This impression may have 
 been assisted, and probably was, by the fairness and integri- 
 ty observable in his whole bearing. But whatever the cause, 
 it is certain he nev^er resorted to boisterous tones or a brow- 
 beating manner. Equally removed was his manner from all 
 the arts of cajolery. In his examination of the most refrac- 
 tory witness his mien was calm, his look observant and pen- 
 etrating, his voice never or but slightly raised above its or- 
 dinary tone. In such a contest, the contest between acute, 
 disciplined reason, and cunning or obstinate knavery, the 
 victory was always on the side of the former. 
 
 In his moral constitution he was complete on every side. 
 All his conduct in life was regulated not only by the hio-h 
 est sense of honor, but by the most scrupulous sense of duty. 
 This supreme sense of duty in every thing that he did, 
 whether great or small, was his distinguishing characteris- 
 tic. From his cradle to his grave not a shadow of a shade 
 ever rested upon him. Esteeming a stainless character as 
 the highest of all earthly possessions, he exercised the most 
 scrupulous caution in his judgment of athers. Pew men 
 were more often in the public arena. He took part in all 
 the political canvasses of his time ; in many of which parti- 
 san feeling was inflamed to the highest pitch. Yet he never 
 assailed the motives of his opponent and never left any feel- 
 ing of personal injury rankling in his bosom. He always 
 contended for principle, and disdained to use any argument 
 which reason would not sanction. 
 
 In debate he was a model of candor, and whoever might 
 be his opponent he would always accept Mr. Graham's state- 
 
(82) 
 
 iiient of his position. In all his intellectual conflicts, wheth- 
 er at the I'ar, on the hustings or in the Senate, under no 
 provocation was he ever excited to an unseemly exhibition 
 of temper. "Although ** said a gentleman of high distinc- 
 tion who knew him long and well :- " Although I have 
 been present at the Bar, and upon other public occasions 
 when he must have been greatly tried, I have never seen his 
 countenance degraded bj' an expression of passion. His 
 look may at times liave been stern and high, but at all times 
 it could with advantage have been committed to marble or 
 canvass." 
 
 It was the ojtinion of that eminent lawyer, Archibald 
 Henderson, that public men should mingle much with the 
 people — that there is to be found the true .school of common 
 sense. Either because he held the same opinion, but more 
 probably from inclination, his intercourse with the people 
 was constant and cordial. When in attendance on his courts 
 it was his custom when the day was fine to repair, after the 
 adjournment of court, to the portico of his hotel, or the >awn 
 in front of it, and sit for an hour or two. This was often 
 his custom after the evening meal, usually served in his 
 circuit at hours primitively early. Here he became the 
 centre of a group of citizens all of whom he received with 
 courtesy. The talk on such occasions was free and general : 
 and v/hatever the topic he listened to their views with at- 
 tention, and in turn frankly gave his own. Thus his in- 
 formation in regard to all matters of general interest was 
 minute and particular. It was thus, too, that he became in- 
 formed as to the current opinion in regard to public men and 
 public measures. This intimate knowledge of the people 
 was one of the great sources of his strength; it rendered his 
 judgment of the probable fate of State and National ques- 
 tions of great value. His judgment upon such matters, in 
 the counties in which his circuit lay, was almost infallible. 
 
 *Hoii. S. F. I'hillips. 
 
(83) 
 
 In bis social relations Mr. Graham was one of the most 
 attractive of men. Few had so wide a circle of friends,, or 
 friends so attached. His manner to all men was urbane ; to 
 his friends cordial and sincere. There was, except to a verj- 
 few, and at times even to them, a shade of reserve in his 
 manners ; but there was nothing of pride; nothing expressive 
 of conscious superiority. There was great dignity, tempered 
 by unfailing courtesy. Perhaps this tinge of reserve made 
 his subsequent unbending the more agreeable. In his social 
 hours, in the long winter evenings at court, with the circle 
 gathered around the blazing hearth — it is as he was then 
 seen that his friends love best to recall him. For many 
 years there met together at one of his courts a number of 
 gentlemen of high intellectual gifts and attainments. These 
 were the lion. Robert Gilliam, the Hon. Abram W. Venable, 
 the present Judge of the 7th circuit and others less known. 
 With such men there was no need that any limitations 
 should be imposed on the conversation. Except in the field 
 of exact science they were very much at home in all. The 
 conversation ranged wide, law, cases in court, history, 
 biography," politics — largely interspersed with anecdotes — 
 formed the topics. But rich as the repast was in all respects, 
 the part which possessed the highest interest was that which 
 was individual to each ; the Avit which flashed and faded 
 aA\-ay ; the humor which played so felicitously in its legiti- 
 mate sphere ; reminiscences of personal incidents, reminis- 
 cences of celebrated persons and events — the latter so in- 
 valuable to the historian and biographer. Of the latter kind 
 the contributions made by Mr. Graham were of pre-eminent 
 interest and value, since his theatre of action had been higher 
 and wider. Had those conversations been taken down as 
 they occurred they would have formed a work, which, be- 
 side the exquisite charms of wit and humor, for the light 
 which it would have thrown on life and manners, for shrewd 
 observation of character, for striking remarks upon subjects, 
 moral, social and political, would have been surpassed by 
 few in English literature. 
 
(84) 
 
 I have thus placed before you a brief and imperfect' sketch 
 of this illustri«^us man — how imperfect no one knows better 
 than myself. It is a sketch of one eminently favored of 
 nature in his personal and intellectual gifts ; of one upon 
 whom fortune delighted to bestow lier choicest favors. He 
 was the recipient of every honor, except those voluntarily 
 declined, which his State could confer. He received high 
 honors from the National Government, and was designated 
 by all but a majority of his countrymen for the place second 
 in rank in that Government. He was one of the few selected 
 out of forty millions of people to carry out the most com- 
 prehensive scheme of benevolence that individual philan- 
 thropy ever framed for the human race. And when a con- 
 troversy arose between two great States, second in lustre to 
 none in the Union, it was to his arbitrament, and that ot two 
 others, that this quasi-national question was submitted. To 
 few of the sons of men have been allotted so splendid a 
 
 reer. There is enough here, and more than enough, to 
 satisfy the aspirations of the loftiest ambition. But in the 
 contet Nation of that life he must be blind indeed who does 
 not ser- that the moral rises high over the intellectual gran- 
 deui The moral dignity of man never received a higher 
 illustration than in the life before us. We admire the pure 
 Patriot in whose thoughts the State — her weal and her 
 glory — was ever uppermost ; the learned Jurist who from his 
 ample stores informed and moulded the laws of his own 
 commonwealth ; the eloquent Advocate who stood always 
 ready to redress the wrong, whether of the individual or the 
 community at large ; the wise Statesman who swayed the 
 destinies of his State more than any of his generation. But 
 we render the unfeigned homage of the heart to him, who 
 by the majesty of his moral nature, passed pure and unsul- 
 lied through the wide circle of trials and conflicts embra<?ed 
 in his life ; and who, in his death, has left a fame that will 
 be an incentive and a standard to the generous youth of 
 North Carolina through all the ages that are to come.