Original documents to tell the story of the President of the Convention

This is the second in a series of essays about the North Carolina Constitutional Convention of 1868.  Please see the October 15, 2010 blog for the beginning of this series.

I left the last blog with the following question: was Calvin Cowles – the president of the 1868 N.C. Constitutional Convention – merely a puppet of the “carpetbaggers” or a part of a coalition to promote change?  Before answering this question, I am going to take a detour to delve more into Cowles’ story that is told through original documents available at the North Carolina Department of Archives and History.

As a starting point, I used a number of books, articles, and web sources for the research that was the basis for my story in the last blog.  I was out of town, however, and not able to investigate original documents.  After returning, I spent a couple of days at the State Archives.  Culling through collections of original documents can be both exciting and daunting.  No doubt there are historians out there who could tell you more about the research process, but here’s what happened on this trip. 

I knew from some of my other research that the State Archives had a collection of Calvin Cowles’ papers.  I had no idea how big the collection was until I reviewed the Archives’ description found in a well-aged 3-ring binder.  It explains that the collection consists of 23,000 items contained in 24 manuscript boxes and 24 tissue letterpress books.   If you tend to imagine that frequent communication began with email or text messages, it is rather amazing that the collection holds approximately 18,000 letters written by Calvin Cowles between November 1850 and February 1877.

All of his letters are handwritten and are difficult to read. Cowles’ cursive is very swooopy:  his “s” looks like a “p” or an “l”.  Deciphering is made more difficult by the use of words and phrasing now uncommon and the physical aging of the letters. Reading letters on fragile tissue in the letterpress books is even more challenging.   With these books, Cowles would write on the tissue with a piece of carbon paper behind it to make a copy on stationery. He then would send the stationery copy and the tissue version remained in the letterpress book.

Without some idea of what to look for, it would be extremely time-consuming to read through entire letterpress books.  In this case, I was helped by an excellent “finding-aid” prepared by staff of the Archives.  It mentions a letter written to another postmaster about the conflict Cowles felt in working for the federal government as postmaster in a seceded state.  In the story I created in the last blog, I tell about how Cowles is forced to resign from his postmaster responsibilities because of his allegiance to the Union.  This letter to postmaster A. Hamilton Horton at Elkville shares an ambivalence not clear in Cowles’ later recounting of his forced resignation.  Here’s an excerpt:

Wilkesboro, N.C. Aprl 26/61

My dear sir

…

You and I and thousands of others are in a pretty fix – Federal offices in a seceded state –not yet seceded but will be as soon as the forms can be gone through with --- what are we to do?  Our oaths bind us to support a Constitution that is ignored.  For my part I wish I had not accepted office. I intend to try to guard myself against perjury & to do that I can not raise my hand (nor voice) against the Federal government.  For my dear Hamilton these are the days that will try our pluck – our sworn duty one side & impulse & feelings the others for section will be on is arrayed against section.  Who can refrain from sympathizing with his fellows – the fruit of the same soil.  Moral courage is greater than physical courage or more to be commended – we must do nothing to compromise our oaths of Office and therefore must remain neutral at least.

With a date range in mind, it is then easier to begin looking through the other files for related original documents.  A typed notice dated November 12, 1861, requires the postmaster to register all arrivals and departures of the mail from the office and make it available to the Inspection Office of the Post Office Department of the Confederate States of America.  Such a requirement would have aided the Confederacy in monitoring activities of potential Unionists.  Surely this must have caused Cowles some angst.  It may have even aided the Confederacy in intercepting the letter from Cowles that led to his forced resignation from his postmaster position.  But as can be the case in constructing stories from primary documents, the story stops short of giving us this answer.

Another part of the story I tell in the blog is that “the Confederate Calvary also made its way through, wiping out families’ paltry provisions.  The actions of the Calvary appalled Calvin Cowles and in April of 1864 he wrote to complain to Governor Zebulon Vance.”[1] This was important as a part of the story for showing the dissatisfaction with the Civil War in Wilkes County and Cowles’ position as a prominent local businessman.   Using the cite listed in my footnote, I was able to retrieve the letter.   However, it was not in Cowles’ letterpress book:  instead the original is in the collection of papers for Governor Vance.  Holding the letter in your hands (carefully), you can see how the brown ink spreads across the paper. The red wax seal Governor Vance broke to read the letter remains in the two pieces on the back of the letter.

From this letter, we get a fuller description of what occurred when the Confederate Calvary came through.  It is admittedly much more interesting than my summary statement:

Wilkesboro N.C. Aprl 4^th 1864

Gov. Vance

My dear sir

Longstreets men are here pressing cattle & corn – they are making clean work of it too… Yesterday 40 wagons with long teams came down the river hunting corn – 6 of them being loaded turned across the river toward Jefferson – the others have gone on down the river.  They called here & left a rept [receipt] for 49 Bus. [bushels] Corn which they found on my farm in Caldwell Co. & took – took it though it was all I had there & my tenant not enough to do him and I with less than – 2 bbls [handwriting not clear] in my cribs here and a farm – a grazing farm in Ashe to supply.  It is generally known that the Hokes Geo. Cavalry turned their horses on to my growing crop last fall to eat it up which I had hoped would have given me an immunity from this visit…what can the hundreds of our farmers do toward making a crop this season when deprived of the grain to feed their work horses as they have been & are being?  … What are the poor day laborers to do for bread when every crib in the land is depleted to the lowest possible standard – just enough left for the family & stock?  I see a dark way ahead for the poor sons of toil and in face for us all unless some unforeseen good luck should happen.  Why were these men sent here instead of S.C. or elsewhere where Grain is plenty – it would be better to have Corn sent up to Statesville for them if it can not reach them over the Va RR. .. I throw out the suggestion hoping you will feel significant interest in the subject to propose the adoption of the plan to the secretary of war or others having the control of such matters…

In the next blog, I’ll return to the story line.  This blog is a chance to pause to think about the process of discovery available to all of us at the State Archives and other repositories of original documents.  It is becoming more common in collections such as at the Library of Congress to make available only microfilm copies.  There is no touching or handling, just squinting and hitting the forward button.  But even that is much better than relying solely on textbooks or other secondary sources.  These original documents bring a richness to our understanding of events important in our lives as North Carolinians.

Primary Sources:

C. J. Cowles to A. Hamilton Horton, Apr. 24, 1861, Calvin Cowles Papers, NC Department of Archives and History, Box 111.30, letterpress book December 1859-October-1862.

Confederate States of America, Post Office Department, Inspectio Office, Richmond , VA., Nov. 12, 1861, Calvin Cowles Papers, NC Department of Archives and History, Box 111.5, Folder Correspondence 1860-61.

C.J. Cowles to Z.B. Vance, Apr. 4, 1864, Z. B. Vance Papers NC Department of Archives and History G.P. 175, Correspondence Folder Apr 1-6, 1864.

Other useful resource:

For more information about the State Archives, go to: http://www.archives.ncdcr.gov/

Ann McColl

Constitutionaltales.org

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[1] C.J. Cowles to Z.B. Vance, Apr. 4, 1864, Z. B. Vance Papers NC Department of Archives and History, cited in Barrett, John G., The Civil War in North Carolina, p. 241 (Chapel Hill, N.C.: The University of North Carolina Press 1963)

The unexpected choice in President of the 1868 Constitutional Convention

This is the first in a series of essays about the North Carolina Constitutional Convention of 1868.  North Carolina has been governed by three constitutions known by their dates of 1776, 1868, and 1971.  The 1868 Constitution is created at a constitutional convention.  This essay begins the exploration of the leadership and coalitions important at the convention in creating this constitution.

Calvin Cowles was as surprised as anyone by his nomination to be president of the North Carolina Constitutional Convention of 1868.  The band of reformers behind his nomination made a tactical decision that this political neophyte was the right person to lead the convention.  But it was a gamble.

Cowles was a delegate from Wilkes County.  Situated in the northwestern mountains, Wilkes lies just below Ashe and Alleghany Counties, which extend to the Virginia border. Wilkes County was formed in 1777 and named in honor of John Wilkes, a rebel defender of popular rights who was not allowed to take his elected seat in England’s Parliament in retaliation for his politics.[1]

Wilkes County continued to have a rebellious character. During the Civil War, the state’s “interior war” played out here. Residents resented the harsh and disproportionate effects of conscription on those without wealth or privilege; they suffered from the requirement that farmer’s hand over one-tenth of all their produce to the Confederacy, and were outraged by the Confederate army’s right to seize personal property – paying only whatever the Army thought appropriate.[2]   Dissatisfaction grew as poverty descended on the region.  By the summer of 1863, over 500 deserters hid in Wilkes County.[3] The Confederate Calvary also made its way through, wiping out families’ paltry provisions.

The actions of the Calvary appalled Calvin Cowles and in April of 1864 he wrote to complain to Governor Zebulon Vance.[4]  His letter likely garnered attention as Cowles was a well-known merchant and owned a store in Wilkesboro.  He exported roots and herbs to the North and England and had deep connections in the community, including with those that eked out a living “yarbin’ it” – collecting roots and herbs for sale.[5]  He was respected and prosperous.

He also was a Unionist.  For this he was arrested and spent time in jail.  It also cost him his position as postmaster.  This happened one day when he returned to his home, a “clapboarded residence” with a “graceful portico”[6], and found the vigilance committee waiting for him.  They had in their possession an intercepted letter Cowles had written and charged that he had said that he would not hold office under the Confederacy.  As Cowles recounted, “There was a home guard parade that day, and the rabble were clamoring in the street. They told me it was too serious a matter to be trifled with. They had hung a negro a day or so before on my lot. So I consulted with my wife, and a loyal friend, who told me that I would be hung unless submitted [to resigning from postmaster]”.[7]

Other than postmaster, Cowles had never held any office.  But he was clear in his opinions and conversed with leaders across the state.  During the War, he sided with those seeking a broad peace movement, which placed him at odds with North Carolina Senator Andrew Cowles, his half brother.[8]  In 1864, newspaper editor William W. Holden shared with Cowles his desire to run a gubernatorial campaign that focused on ceasing hostilities and beginning negotiations.[9]  Holden was unsuccessful in this campaign, but directly after the Civil War, he was appointed as provisional Governor.  Holden also would become Cowles’ father-in-law.

Besides the appointment of Governor Holden, little changed in who held power from before the Civil War to the initial years afterward, and thus, little changed in antebellum practices.  It took intervention by Congress.  In order to be readmitted to the Union, Congress required Confederate states to revise their constitutions to establish and protect specified rights, including the right of males to vote without regard to race. Federal law enfranchised black men and disenfranchised men loyal to the confederate cause in voting for holding a constitutional convention and in electing delegates. Under these conditions, the Republican party – the reform party – won 107 of 120 seats to North Carolina’s constitutional convention. 

This was an extraordinary opportunity to reform the system.  It would be important for the cohesiveness of the party to all stand behind one nominee for president. On the second day of the convention, January 15, 1868, Cowles won the presidency, receiving 101 of 109 votes cast.[10]  “My friends had run me for the Convention,” Cowles later explained. “I had done all I could then, and was returned with the highest vote on the ticket. Coming here to take a back seat, I had been elevated to the Presidency much to my astonishment.”[11]

An historian’s account of the election is similar.  Professor J.D. de Roulhac Hamilton wrote,  “The election of Cowles caused general surprise in the State, as it was supposed that General Abbott and Heaton both desired the position and that one of them would be elected… Cowles was a sincere man of unimpeachable honesty, of only fair ability, and of no political experience”.[12] 

And indeed Abbott and Heaton were both better versed in politics and had legislative experience.  Joseph Abbott, delegate for the coastal county of New Hanover, had been a U.S. senator for New Hampshire, editor, lawyer, and Union general.  David Heaton, delegate for another coastal community, Craven County, had been a U.S. representative as well as a state senator in Ohio and Minnesota.[13] He had been a Union colonel, serving as a special agent of the treasury department in New Bern during the War.

So why Cowles? Why did the reformers not elect someone already well known as a leader who was versed in parliamentary procedures? And why would Abbott and Heaton give up the opportunity for the prominence of being the president of convention?  Hamilton speculated:  “Each was ambitious, but probably each concluded that more reputation and influence could be gained on the floor of the convention than as its residing officer.  Hamilton further speculated, “[Cowles] was entirely favorable to reconstruction and, accepting the carpetbaggers as leaders, was thoroughly under their influence.  Their support, combined with the fact that he was a close connection of Holden’s by marriage, procured his election.”[14]

Professor Hamilton’s assessment of Abbott’s and Heaton’s interests might be correct; however, his view of Cowles and the tyranny of northern whites is perhaps too harsh.  Hamilton’s scholarship, while often cited as authoritative, also has been widely criticized by later historians for sanctioning white supremacy and promoting an understanding of history that glorified the established elite and denigrated the contributions of blacks, northerners, and local whites who sought reform. And in this case, at least one of his facts important to his conclusions is wrong:  Cowles did not marry Ida Holden until four months after the convention was over.[15] 

The question remains:  was Cowles merely a puppet of the “carpetbaggers” or a part of a  coalition to promote change?  That’s the subject for the next blog.

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[1] Corbitt, David L., The Formation of the North Carolina Counties 1663-1943, p. 227 (Raleigh, N.C.: North Carolina Division of Archives and History 1950); Federal Writers' Project (N.C.), North Carolina, a guide to the old north State, p. 408-09 (Chapel Hill, N.C.:  The University of North Carolina Press, American Guide Series 1939)

[2] Barrett, John G., The Civil War in North Carolina (Chapel Hill, N.C.: The University of North Carolina Press 1963)

[3] Escott, Paul D., Many Excellent People: Power and Privilege in North Carolina, 1850-1900, p. 47 (Chapel Hill, N.C.: University of North Carolina Press 1985).

[4] C.J. Cowles to Z.B. Vance, Apr. 4, 1864, Z. B. Vance Papers NC Department of Archives and History, cited in Barrett, John G., The Civil War in North Carolina, p. 241 (Chapel Hill, N.C.: The University of North Carolina Press 1963)

[5] Federal Writers' Project (N.C.), North Carolina, a guide to the old north State, p. 408 (Chapel Hill, N.C.:  The University of North Carolina Press, American Guide Series 1939)

[6] North Carolina Guide, p. 409.

[7] Ferrell, Joseph, ed., Compilation of the Official Report of the Proceedings of the Convention, March 9, p. 545 (Chapel Hill, N.C.:  unpublished manuscript 2007).  This document compiles the official Report of the Proceedings of the Convention published each day in the Daily Standard by Joseph Holden, the official reporter of the Convention. The editor has expanded Holden's report by adding material from the Daily Sentinel, the newspaper followed by Conservatives, when the Sentinel reported remarks or occurrences omitted from Holden's report, and inserted material from the Journal of the Convention (the record of official actions) to fully identify the action being taken.  In Holden’s report speeches were changed from first to third person accounts.  I have changed these pronouns back to what the speaker likely said, such as changing “he” to “I” or “his” to “my.” I added the bracketed language as this is an excerpt from his account.

[8] A.C. Cowles to Calvin Cowles, 18 Aug. 1863, in Calvin J. Cowles Papers, NCDAH, cited in Escott, Paul D., Many Excellent People: Power and Privilege in North Carolina, 1850-1900, p. 47, fn. 47.

[9] W.W. Holden to C.J. Cowles, 18 Mar. 1864 in W.W. Holden Papers, NCDAH, cited in Escott, Paul D., Many Excellent People: Power and Privilege in North Carolina, 1850-1900, p. 47, fn. 48.

[10] North Carolina, Journal of the Constitutional Convention of the State of North-Carolina, at its Session 1868, p. 11 (Raleigh, N.C.: J.W. Holden, convention printer 1868); transcribed with online access by same title (Documenting the American South, University Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Electronic ed. 2002) available at http://docsouth.unc.edu/nc/conv1868/conv1868.html.

[11] Ferrell, Joseph, ed., Compilation of the Official Report of the Proceedings of the Convention, March 9, p. 545.

[12] Hamilton, J.D. de Roulhac, Reconstruction in North Carolina, p. 255 (Gloucester, Mass.: Peter Smith 1964).

[13] Hamilton, J.D. de Roulhac, Reconstruction in North Carolina, p. 253; Hume, Richard L. & Gough, Jerry B., Blacks, Carpetbaggers, and Scalawags: The Constitutional Conventions of Radical Reconstruction, Appendix C (no page number) (Baton Rouge, LA: Louisiana State University Press 2008)

[14] Hamilton, J.D. de Roulhac, Reconstruction in North Carolina, p. 255

[15] Daily Sentinel of Raleigh, July 24, 1868, retrieved by Steve Case, Librarian, Government and Heritage Library of the State Library of North Carolina: “Married:  On the morning of the 23^rd inst., at the residence of the bride’s father, by the Rev. Dr. Mason, C.J. Cowles of Wilkes Co., and  Ida A., daughter of Gov. W. H. Holden.” 

What would Albion Tourgée think of the Wake County School Board?

Note:  this is in a series of essays that I will be using to form the written version of the Tales.  Some are ideas and themes I am exploring -- others may be rough drafts of portions of the Tales.  --Ann McColl

Last night a new majority was formed among Wake County School Board members based on a shared frustration with the process used by the other board members for dismantling the student assignment policy.  They said the other four members moved too quickly and shut out board members and the public from the deliberative process.  (See News and Observer, 10/6/2010) In searching for the broader context, I cannot help but wonder, what would Albion Tourgée think of all of this? 

Albion Tourgée was one of the most prominent public intellectuals of the nineteenth century, writing and speaking extensively about race relations and the process of social reform.  As an elected delegate to the 1868 constitutional convention, Tourgée shaped North Carolina’s Constitution.  (For more background see today’s companion blog, “the problem with ‘re’ words”.)  Given his concerns about equality, I suspect he would be troubled by plans to eliminate factors that provide for diversity in the schools.  But that is speculation.  We can know what he thinks about processes of reform.  First, he places confidence in “the people,” not elected leaders:

“If I were to write any political creed it would be Lincoln’s favorite aphorism.  ‘A government of the people, by the people and for the people,’ including in the term ‘people’ the entire population of the United States.  You know, for we have often talked freely of these matters, how broad and deep the foundations of my faith in the people lie.  I have no faith in politicians, aristocrats, or classes of any sort.”  (Letter to E. S. Parker, 1875, p. 54.)

Second, he calls for giving adequate time to the process.  Even though he fully supported the objectives of equality in reconstruction-era reforms sought by Congress and the Republican party, he finds fault in the impatience for change:

“We have no faith in time!  Milton wrote that the railroad and telegraph have annihilated time and space!  Milton wrote that on of the attributes of Hell was the power to compress eternity into an hour.  The Republican Party and Congress got an idea that they also had this power.  Hence this ‘serious error.’  You remember somebody’s idea that if a Yankee had the contract of creation he would have finished it all up in five days and gone fishing on Saturday?  It was so with our Republican Congress at the close of the war.  They wanted to do the work of a generation in a day.” (Letter to E. S. Parker, 1875, p. 56.)

Process is not all that matters, however. Tourgée is critical of a shift he saw from what “What is Right to What will Win” (“The Reaction,”1868,  p. 33.)  He asserts,

“Now and then comes a time when the question that is uppermost in all minds is not ‘How?’ but ‘What’ – when the question of method, the mere economy of administration, sinks into insignificance in the presence of some peril which threatens the very fact of existence.” (“Aaron’s Rod in Politics,” 1881, p.66.) 

The Wake County School Board has yet to agree on the “what.”  Perhaps by slowing down the process, this can begin to happen.  If they need more advice, I suggest that they read more of the writings of Tourgée.  Just published this year, Mark Elliot and John David Smith provide an excellent anthology of his works.  Check it out.

Source:

Elliot, Mark, & Smith, John David, eds., Undaunted Radical: The Selected Writings and Speeches of Albion Tourgée (Baton Rouge, LA: Louisiana State University Press 2010)

Other Useful Resource:

Elliott, Mark Emory, Color-blind Justice: Albion Tourgée and the Quest for Racial Equality from the Civil War to Plessy v. Ferguson (Oxford, N.Y.: Oxford University Press 2006).

The problem with "re" words

Note:  this is in a series of essays that I will be using to form the written version of the Tales.  Some are ideas and themes I am exploring -- others may be rough drafts of portions of the Tales.  --Ann McColl

Albion Tourgée is generally recognized as the most famous “carpetbagger” to participate in North Carolina politics after the Civil War.  He left a significant imprint on North Carolina in his role in state constitutional and statutory revisions and as a lawyer and judge.  At the national level, Tourgée had a prominent career that included serving as lead attorney for the plaintiff in Plessy v. Ferguson – a case he lost that established the constitutional principle of separate but equal.  He shared his views as a civil rights activist in both political writings and fiction, including his well-read novel, A Fool’s Errand, which draws on his experiences in North Carolina.  I will use blogs to share brief excerpts and quotes from Tourgée that relate to themes explored in Constitutional Tales. 

Tourgée is in North Carolina during Reconstruction and is an influential delegate to the 1868 N.C. Constitutional Convention.  While fully supportive of the agenda of Congress and the Republican party of securing political rights for blacks, he is critical of the approach, including the choice of term, “reconstruction.”

“The word itself was one of ill-omen, in that it rushed back into the past for the type and model of what was to be in the future.  By its very force it accustomed the people to the idea that the work which was to be done was but the patching up of an old garment; that it was an act of restoration rather than one of creation.”  (“Root, Hog, or Die,” 1876, p. 58.) 

It is an interesting commentary on the importance of terms.  And “re” words have hardly gone out of style.  We use them to endorse a prior act: we reaffirm (presumably meaning more than once), reapply, reauthorize, recommission, rededicate, and reestablish.  Perhaps Tourgée would not be concerned by this kind of intentional affirmation.  Other times, however, we use “re” words to describe a process of analysis: we reanalyze, reassess, recalibrate, recompute, reevaluate, reexamine, reformulate, revalidate, and revise.  Does the “re” limit the scope of inquiry?  Are we closer here to Tourgée’s concern that we begin an endeavor with a limited intention of patching it up?  And perhaps most problematic is the use of “re” words when we intend a new beginning:  we say we will reconceive, reconceptualize, reconfigure, rediscover, reenvision, reimagine, reorient, retheorize, and rethink.  Are these words of creation?  Or do they keep us from starting anew? 

A constitutional tale tells us something important about history.  But it also should tell something important about us. Tourgée was one of the most significant public intellectuals of the nineteenth century.  Perhaps he can still be of help.

Source:

Elliot, Mark, & Smith, John David, eds., Undaunted Radical: The Selected Writings and Speeches of Albion Tourgée (Baton Rouge, LA: Louisiana State University Press 2010)

Other Useful Resource:

Elliott, Mark Emory, Color-blind Justice: Albion Tourgée and the Quest for Racial Equality from the Civil War to Plessy v. Ferguson (Oxford, N.Y.: Oxford University Press 2006).