8. How did the men of the South feel concerning the laws of Congress?
9. How are the events of this period considered?
CHAPTER LXV.
GOVERNOR WORTH AND PRESIDENT JOHNSON.
A. D. 1867 TO 1868.
President Andrew Johnson, as has already been stated, was born and reared in the city of Raleigh. He went to Tennessee after reaching manhood, and, though blessed with small advantages as to early culture, devoted himself to political life. He is said to have mastered the rudiments of education with his wife's help. His native ability soon gave him position as a politician and eventually great popularity and control over the Tennessee people.
2. He soon relaxed in the severity of his feelings toward the late Confederates, and thereby incurred the resentment of the leaders in the party which had elected him Vice-President. In the bitterness of the mutual recriminations, between him and his late friends in Congress, there was, unhappily, evil to result to North Carolina and the South; for to the old resentments against the South was added a desire in many men to thwart the President who had become their ally.
3. Governor Worth had ever been marked as a public man by the utmost devotion to the Federal Union. He had constantly opposed the doctrine and necessity of secession. He was now to show his wisdom and attachment for the State of his birth. As Governor, he was continually pressed to secure legal protection for the people against the interference of military commanders and courts-martial, which were constantly intruding upon the jurisdiction of the State courts.
4. The whole system of education in the common schools had perished in the loss of the Literary Fund. The University still continued its ministrations, but with a diminished faculty and patronage. The colleges, male and female, belonging to the different religious denominations, were re-opened and generally were slowly regaining their former efficiency.
5. Among the first enactments by the Legislature after the war, was the law allowing negroes to testify against or for white parties in courts of justice. This was a great change in our law, but was now necessary for their protection, as they no longer had masters to care for them.