In respectful consideration of Wyatt Outlaw, John Stephens, and many unnamed citizens who were murdered, maimed, or otherwise prevented from enjoying the rights of the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution during the Reconstruction Era, I encourage the 2011 General Assembly to support efforts to repeal the impeachment and removal of Gov. W.W. Holden.
Some opponents to the proposed repeal will mention the limitations on the writ of habeas corpus in two counties. However, I appreciate the political dilemma that Gov. Holden faced when citizens were being openly assassinated and abused on town squares and in courthouses by racist vigilantes.
Should the Governor have permitted open lawlessness or should he have enforced legal avenues to quell the violence?
The current legislative proposal goes a long way to correct the grave injustices that were inflicted upon citizens and upon Gov. Holden. I hope that historians whose goal was to "redeem" the Confederacy will not be the major influence on the current legislators.
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Lawmakers need to hear the
full story on Governor Holden
March 23, 2011 11:50 PM
This past weekend’s story about the proposed pardon of Gov. William W. Holden should be accompanied by certain facts that may be of interest to your readers. Since the three misguided legislators that are spearheading this resolution are doing so by recasting this dark figure as a peaceful misunderstood victim, more of the truth should be told.
According to “The Union League in North Carolina,” by J.G. de Roulac Hamilton, Holden’s opposition to the Ku Klux Klan was because he himself was the head of another rival secret society called the Union League. Many of the same heinous tactics of terrorism, intimidation, and vandalism against blacks and whites alike were practiced by the Union League even before the Ku Klux Klan made them even more prevalent.
Holden was president of the State Council of the North Carolina Union League. In Wilmington, the Union League once terrorized and whipped a black man that crossed the local leaders of the Republican regime. A similar event also occurred in Edgecombe County. In Franklin County in 1868, a white farmer was attacked by a deputation of the Union League because he advised one of his employees against joining the organization after he was sought for advice. The Union League was also responsible for countless cases of barn-burning throughout the state during the Reconstruction Era.
Holden repeatedly touted his influence over the Union League while he was governor and his official correspondence records letters he received for new charters even up until his last full year as governor. Holden pardoned 175 people during his short two years as governor and many of these recipients were members of the Union League. They were pardoned for crimes that ranged from theft to attempted rape. Twenty-one of these pardons were even extended to convicted murderers.
William W. Holden was guilty of a vast number of other abuses of power. Many of these can be researched at the University of North Carolina’s Southern Historical Collection. Those that supported the popular move to impeach Holden were aware of these facts. The attempt by present legislators to lift the execration justly associated with Holden’s reign of terror cannot be understood as anything other than a denial of this ugly period of our history.
JASON M. CRAWFORD
Elon
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