550 



NORTH CAROLINA. 



The assets above mentioned consist of stocks 

 and bonds of railroads, which promise to be- 

 come productive under a revival of trade and 

 transportation. Taxation to meet the interest 

 and expenditures was urged by the Governor 

 upon the Legislature, more especially for the 

 latter purpose. The value of the real and per- 

 sonal property of the people was estimated by 

 the treasurer at $250,000,000. To meet the por- 

 tion of the debt due and becoming due in 1866, 

 the Legislature at this session authorized the 

 treasurer to prepare and sell at par 6 per cent, 

 bonds, to the amount of three and a half mil- 

 lions of dollars, payable after thirty-four years. 

 An act was also passed relative to negroes and 

 persons of color. It defines the latter in these 

 words : " Negroes and their issue, even where 

 one ancestor in each succeeding generation to 

 the fourth inclusive is white, shall be deemed 

 persons of color." The act confers upon those 

 persons the same privileges as are enjoyed by 

 whites in all courts of law and equity. It re- 

 moves all distinction of color in the application 

 of the word apprentice ; it ratifies the cohabi- 

 tation of all former slaves into a state of mar- 

 riage, and requires them to acknowledge the 

 cohabitation before a justice of the peace or 

 county clerk ; makes all contracts, in which one 

 of the parties is a person of color, and the con- 

 sideration ten dollars or more, void, unless put 

 in writing and witnessed by a white who can 

 read ; makes all marriages between whites 

 and persons of color void; persons of color not 

 otherwise incompetent, are made capable of 

 bearing evidence in all controversies at law and 

 in equity, where the rights of persons of color 

 are at issue, and also in pleas of the State where 

 the violence, fraud, or injury alleged shall be 

 charged to have been done by or to persons 

 of color. In all other cases the consent of 

 parties is necessary to make the testimony ad- 

 missible. A proviso suspends the operation of 

 the section until jurisdiction in matters relat- 

 ing to freedmen is restored to the courts of the 

 State. The criminal laws of the State affect- 

 ing whites are extended to persons of color, ex- 

 cept in cases otherwise provided. All acts re- 

 lating to slaves and slave labor are repealed. 



The reports of the banks of the State pre- 

 vious to the beginning of 1865, showed $800,- 

 000 in specie in their possession, and that they 

 owed to holders of their notes and depositors 

 $8,550,000, and that there was due to them 

 for discounts, before the war, about $3,000,000, 

 and, since the close of the war, about $3,000,000. 

 The University and the Board of Literature had 

 large amounts in the two principal banks. By 

 an assignment, or pro rata distribution, the note- 

 holders and depositors would receive about ten 

 cents on the dollar in specie. A joint com- 

 mittee on banks, in the Legislature, reported 

 that their coin was the basis of their contracts, 

 and to interfere with it would be a violation of 

 contract. They further said that, after investi- 

 gating the subject, they were of opinion that 

 all, or nearly all, of the corporations of the 



State had ceased as corporations to exist, as a 

 legal consequence of the revolution and the 

 complete conquest of the State. They further 

 sustained this opinion by the following argu- 

 ment : 



It is a well-settled principle of international law 

 (so well settled it is unnecessary to refer to author- 

 ities), that in a conquered country all laws and 

 all rights of persons and property cease to exist, ex- 

 cept such laws and such rights as the conqueror 

 chooses to decree. No one will deny that the South 

 was conquered, and surrendered without terms. No 

 one can doubt that, in the opinion of President John- 

 son, we were a conquered people, and that he, as 

 commander-in-chief of the armies of the conquering 

 power, had a right to decree such laws as to him 

 seemed best. He refused to accept the terms offered 

 by General Sherman to recognize North Carolina as a 

 de facto government. He proceeded, in a manner un- 

 known to our laws, to appoint a provisional gov- 

 ernor. Without the forms of law he deprives the peo- 

 ple of the State of twp-thirds of their property with- 

 out "just compensation." He declares in his pro- 

 clamation, not that a part of the civil laws were at an 

 end, but that " all civil government" was at an end in 

 North Carolina. He provided for a call of a conven- 

 tion, not in accordance with our constitution, pre- 

 scribing qualifications for delegates and voters in a 

 manner unknown to our laws. In obedience to the 

 will of the President, the provisional governor de- 

 clares all civil offices in the State vacant, and pro- 

 ceeds to fill the same, prescribing officers for corpo- 

 rations, and qualifications for stockholders in said 

 corporations as voters, or proxies ; regulates our 

 courts, when and where to be held, ana what sub- 

 jects shall be cognizable before them. In obedience 

 to the proclamation of the Governor, a convention 

 assembled, which convention, by its acts, accepts of 

 and recognizes the fact that it was called by the au- 

 thority of the President as a conqueror, and pro- 

 ceeded to act according to the said terms, receiving 

 messages and dispatches from the President control- 

 ling the action of the convention in matters of vital 

 importance to the people of the State, abolishing 

 slavery, removing all civil officers, and declaring by 

 ordinance, that " Whereas, doubts may arise from 

 the late attempt of North Carolina to secede from the 

 United States, whether any and what laws have been 

 and now are in force," etc., and ordaining by said, 

 ordinance all laws not inconsistent with the consti- 

 tution of the United States, etc. The Convention 

 gives legality to the principle that it was decreed by 

 the President as conqueror ; otherwise, we have had 

 no convention. There is now no civil government, 

 no legislature, as all owe their existence to the per- 

 mission of the President, and not to constitutional 

 forms. This idea of the supreme power of the Pres- 

 ident has been acquiesced in by the people, by the 

 convention, and is now recognized by the Legislature 

 enacting such laws as are decreed by the President, 

 he not only recommending, but demanding such and 

 such measures as a condition precedent to civil gov- 

 ernment. Measures at variance with what we deem 

 to be our best interest, and repugnant to all of our 

 feelings, have been, and are continually being enact- 

 ed, simply because it was so decreed by the Pres- 

 ident. It is our interest io continue to conform to 

 the decrees of the President. 



"What, they ask, is the legal effect of the ordi- 

 nance declaring what laws are in force on corpo- 

 rations, it being admitted by the whole theory 

 of the government, and impliedly in said ordi- 

 nance, that during the revolution charters of 

 corporations with all other laws ceased to exist. 

 "With the consent of the President, the conven- 

 tion could ordain charters for corporations. "bu< 



