In 1862 he was elected governor of the State and was so active and enterprising in getting aid by sea for the cause that he was called the “War Governor of the South.” He was in favor of considering the negotiations for peace in 1863, but he neglected no measures to insure the success of the Confederacy. In 1865 he was held a prisoner of war for a few weeks in Washington.
State Capitol of North Carolina.
His political disabilities were not removed till 1872; in 1876 he was elected governor of North Carolina, and in 1879, United States Senator, having been elected and his seat refused him in 1870. His death occurred in Washington City, and he is buried in Asheville. His State is now preparing to erect a monument expressing her honor and devotion to her illustrious son.
WORKS.
Speeches: (in Congress and on Public Occasions.)
CHANGES WROUGHT BY THE WAR.
(From All About it—an address before the young men of Raleigh, N. C.; published in “Land We Love” January, 1867.)
Virginia to the north of us was settled by English Cavaliers; South Carolina, mainly by French Huguenots, both among the noblest stocks of Western Europe. North Carolina, with but a slight infusion of each, was settled by a sturdier—and in some respects—a better race than either. She was emphatically the offspring of religious and political persecution, and the vital stream of her infant life was of Scotch-Irish origin. A cross of those two noble races has produced a breed of men as renowned for great deeds and modest worth as perhaps any other in this world. Two instances will suffice for this. Perhaps the most manly and glorious feat of arms in modern times was the defence of Londonderry, as the boldest and most remarkable state paper was the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence. Both were the work mainly of men such as settled North Carolina.