School History of North Carolina : from 1584 to the present time

by John W. Moore

3. Upon motion in the House of Representatives, the Legislature having assembled, a committee was appointed to inquire into the facts, and soon, articles of impeachment were presented to the Senate, charging the Governor of the State with the commission of "high crimes and misdemeanors."

1871.

4. By the terms of the State Constitution, this worked a disability in Governor Holden; and Tod R. Caldwell, of Burke, then Lieutenant-Governor, assumed control of the Executive Department.

5. In a court of impeachment in North Carolina, when the Governor is on trial, the Chief-Justice is the president of the body. The members of the Senate are triers and the House of Representatives act as prosecutors in behalf of the people, and a two-thirds vote is required to convict.

6. Thus, with Judge Pearson presiding, there was a long and deliberate examination as to the charges made against the Chief- Magistrate of North Carolina. After hearing the testimony presented both by the accusers and by the respondent, Governor Holden was convicted of the charges made against him, deprived of his office, and declared incapable of holding any further honor or dignity in the State.

7. Such a trial has been seen but in this single instance in all the history of the State, and it attracted considerable attention in its progress. It involved great and important issues, and was happily followed by peace and quiet in every portion of the State.

8. After eight years' absence, a delegation was again seen in the Federal capital representing the State of North Carolina in the Congress of the United States. For two years past her members of Congress had been allowed to participate in the national legislation, and thus an ignominious disability had at last been removed from her Federal relations. A mighty convulsion, that had stirred the nation to its depths, was being slowly hushed into calm by the adoption of wiser and more peaceful methods. A broader nationality was coming alike to the Northern and Southern people, and the wounds of the war were fast healing in the lapse of time.

9. The census of 1870 showed vast improvement in many departments of human industry. North Carolina, in the many alterations wrought by the war, was learning the wisdom of diversifying the pursuits of the people. Slowly public attention was being turned to the opening of new industries. The Western North Carolina, the Raleigh & Augusta and the Carolina Central Railroads were opening up a new era in the history of such interests in the Old North State.

10. With a greatly extended area of production in cotton, there was, besides, an enormous addition, of railroad profits from the increase both of travel and freights. As the railway lines lengthened to the west, it was found that they would repay the cost of construction, and each of the rival political parties pledged itself to the completion of the great Western Road which was to pierce the extreme mountain barriers and find outlets into Tennessee, both at Ducktown and the Warm Springs, in Madison county.

11. Slowly this great dream of the wise men of the past approaches the day of its accomplishment. A half century has gone by since Dr. Joseph Caldwell and Governor Dudley first impressed this scheme upon the public mind as a work of the future.