Like the “Louisiana plan,” the order appointing Mr. Holden was based on that clause of the Federal Constitution which guarantees “to every State in this Union a republican form of government.” It was in his character of Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy, as well as Executive, that he assumed to appoint a provisional governor. The Rebellion, which in its progress had “deprived the people of the State of North Carolina of all civil government,” he described as having been “almost entirely overcome.” This condition rendered it necessary to fulfill the Federal obligation to secure to the people of that State a republican form of government. The order being self-explanatory, it only remains to observe that none but “loyal people” were to participate in electing delegates to the convention, which it was made the duty of the Governor to convoke. The term “loyal people” included all who would take the oath and receive the pardon provided for in the proclamation. These were required to be qualified voters under the laws in force immediately before the act of secession. By this provision the negroes of the State were excluded from the electoral people, and the work of reconstruction left entirely in the hands of the whites. The convention chosen by these citizens, or the Legislature that might be thereafter assembled, was authorized to “prescribe the qualifications of electors, and the eligibility of persons to hold office under the constitution and laws of the State, a power,” added the order, which “the people of the several States composing the Federal Union have rightfully exercised from the origin of the Government to the present time.”
Governor Holden in a proclamation of June 12, 1865, announced his appointment and declared his purpose to order an election of delegates to a State convention, the object of calling which was briefly noticed. He also made known his intention to commission justices of the peace for the purpose of administering the oath of allegiance and opening the polls. He urged the people to resume their accustomed pursuits; refugees were encouraged by an offer of protection to return to the State, and freedmen were instructed in the duties peculiar to their altered circumstances.
By a second proclamation, dated August 8, the choice of delegates to the proposed convention was fixed for September 21 succeeding. Some delay in appointing a date for holding the election was occasioned by a desire to afford the people an opportunity of enrolling their names and obtaining the required certificates.
By such voters as were not included in any of the excepted classes, together with the few who had been able to procure the Presidential pardon, full delegations were chosen in all but three counties. The details of this election accessible to the writer are exceedingly meagre. Owing much to the timely publication and the admirable character of the orders of General Schofield, who had exercised the functions of military governor until superseded by Mr. Holden, the contest appears to have been free from unusual violence, though newspaper correspondents, it is true, reported disturbances at several polling places and mention rumors of rioting.
The convention, which assembled at Raleigh on October 2, was composed for the most part of members who had either openly opposed or reluctantly joined the secession movement. There were few, however, who had not given aid and comfort to the enemy. In other words, they were Whigs and conservative Democrats. Every representative readily took the oath to support the Constitution of the United States. The convention organized by electing Edwin G. Reade, an ex-member of the Thirty-fifth Congress, as president. On taking his seat Mr. Reade made an appropriate and conciliatory address.
The Provisional Governor also submitted to the members of the convention a brief message in which he observed that their duties were too plain to require any suggestions from him. North Carolina, he said, attempted in May, 1861, to separate herself from the Union. That attempt involved her in protracted and disastrous war. She entered the rebellion a slaveholding and emerged from it a non-slaveholding State. “In other respects,” he declared, “so far as her existence as a State and her rights as a State are concerned, she has undergone no change.”[[468]] He assumed that the convention would insert in the organic law a provision forever prohibiting involuntary servitude in North Carolina. The language abolishing that institution, the form of the resolution abrogating the ordinance of secession and the nature of the action to be taken on the war debt were the most important questions before the convention.
On October 7 the repealing ordinance was passed unanimously in the following terms:
The ordinance of the convention of the State of North Carolina, ratified on the 21st day of November, 1789, which adopted and ratified the Constitution of the United States, and also all acts and parts of acts of the General Assembly ratifying and adopting amendments to the said Constitution, are now, and at all times since the adoption and ratification thereof, have been, in full force and effect, notwithstanding the supposed ordinance of the 20th of May, 1861, declaring the same to be repealed, rescinded, and abrogated; and the said supposed ordinance is now, and at all times hath been, null and void.[[469]]
The resolution abolishing slavery, reported on the following day, was adopted on the 9th of October, and is as follows:
Be it declared and ordained by the delegates of the people of the State of North Carolina in convention assembled, and it is hereby declared and ordained, That slavery and involuntary servitude, otherwise than for crimes, whereof the parties shall have been duly convicted, shall be, and is hereby, forever prohibited within the State.[[470]]