492 



NORTH CAROLINA. 



offer to serve his fellow-partisan, he will yield 

 to the temptation, and the ' wavering balance ' 

 will shake. 



"It is a natural weakness in man, that he 

 who warmly and publicly identifies himself 

 with a political party, will be tempted to up- 

 hold the party which upholds him; and all 

 experience teaches us that a partisan judge 

 cannot be safely trusted to settle the great 

 principles of a political constitution, while he 

 reads and studies the book of its laws under 

 the banners of a party." 



This attack upon the honor and dignity of 

 the highest judicial tribunal of the State was re- 

 garded as having a pernicious influence, and as 

 tending to " impair the respect due to the au- 

 thority of the court," and an order promptly 

 issued from the Supreme Court disabling the 

 offending members from appearing as attorneys 

 before the court unless they should appear on a 

 specified day and show cause to the contrary. 

 A. number of the proscribed attorneys filed 

 answers denying the authority and jurisdic- 

 tion of the court in the premises. 



The case of B. F. Moore, whose name headed 

 the list of protestants, was first called, and 

 argued on behalf of that respondent by a 

 number of gentlemen distinguished for their 

 legal attainments, and the satisfactory adjust- 

 ment of this case suggested a happy solution 

 for the entire difficulty. Among other de- 

 fences set up in his answer, Mr. Moore not 

 only disavowed, " in signing and publishing said 

 paper, any intention of committing a contempt 

 of the Supreme Court, or of impairing the re- 

 spect due to its authority, but, on the contrary, 

 he avows his motive to have been to preserve 

 the purity which had ever distinguished the 

 administration of justice by the courts of the 

 State." 



The court, moved by these sentiments, as- 

 serted that this frank avowal removed the only 

 obstacle preventing a restoration of the most 

 friendly relations between the court and the 

 eminent gentlemen of the bar, and that the 

 order would be withdrawn on the payment of 

 costs by the respondent. That gentleman was 

 gratified at the clemency of the court. Where- 

 upon the court was moved to say : " We con- 

 cur with his counsel in according to Mr. Moore 

 high encomium for his ability, legal learning, 

 integrity, devotion to the Constitution, un- 

 wavering love of the Union, and hitherto a 

 most consistent and influential supporter of 

 the judicial tribunals of his country." 

 ^ The privilege was extended to all those who 

 signed the protest, of regaining their rights by 

 a similar disavowal. 



The good order and peace of the community 

 a-ve been much disturbed during the past 

 year by deeds of violence, committed by law- 

 less men, against whose outrages the civil au- 

 thorities failed to afford complete protection to 

 peaceful citizens. These disturbances, how- 

 ever, were confined chiefly to four counties 

 Lenoir, Jones, Orange, and Chatham each of 



which contained about an equal number of 

 white and colored citizens. These localities 

 were made the scenes of many bloody acts, 

 committed by a secret organization of men in 

 disguise, who inflicted outrages upon peaceful 

 citizens, and in many instances wrested colored 

 criminals from the custody of the civil authori- 

 ties and subjected them to the most summary 

 and cruel punishment. As these evils contin- 

 ued, despite the efforts of the civil authorities 

 for their suppression, Governor Holden, on the 

 20th of October, issued a proclamation of " ad- 

 monition and warning to all the people of the 

 counties mentioned," calling upon them "to 

 aid the civil power in a fearless enforcement 

 of the laws." The condition of affairs in the 

 disorderly districts was set forth in the procla- 

 mation as follows : 



Notwithstanding the existence of peace and good 

 order in other portions of the State, I regard it as my 

 duty to announce that in four counties, to wit, Le- 

 noir, Jones, Orange, and Chatham, there is, and has 

 been for some months past, a feeling of insubordi- 

 nation and insurrection, insomuch that many good 

 citizens are put in terror for their lives and property, 

 and it is difficult, if not impossible, to secure a full 

 and fair enforcement of the law. Information has 

 reached, and continues to reach the Executive, that 

 in the above counties a state of feeling exists which 

 is totally incompatible with the free^exercise, by the 

 friends of the Government, of 'that independent ex- 

 pression of opinion, and that freedom of action, 

 which is the birthright of every American. In Le- 

 noir and Jones, various thefts and. murders have 

 been committed ; jails have been forcibly opened, and 

 the prisoners taken thence have been murdered ; an 

 officer of the law has been waylaid and slain on the 

 public highway, and another officer of the law has 

 been slain in the open day while engaged in his 

 ordinary avocations. Private dwellings nave been 

 entered and the occupants terrified, and some of them 

 whipped or murdered ; others have been shot, or 

 hanged, or cruelly beaten ; and the result is, that 

 thus far the civil law, though firmly asserted and 

 maintained, has not been adequate to bring the in- 

 subordinate and the wicked to condign punishment. 

 In Chatham the jail has been forcibly opened, and a 

 prisoner, confined under sentence of a court of the 

 United States, has been liberated, and is now at 

 large. In Orange the jail has been forcibly opened, 

 and -two prisoners (colored men) taken out and shot, 

 one of whom has died of his wounds. Three other 

 colored men have been hanged until they were dead, 

 one has been cruellv mutilated, and others have been 

 whipped. White citizens have been injured, insulted, 

 and terrified. The university of the State, sacred to 

 the cause of learning, has been repeatedly invaded 

 by bands of armed men in disguise on horseback, 

 and acts of violence have been there perpetrated on 

 unoffending citizens and officers of the law. Many 

 of the colored people in these counties, and no in- 

 considerable portion of the white people, though obe- 

 dient to the law and good citizens, are living under 

 constant apprehensions that they^ may fall victims at 

 any moment to the malice of their enemies. 



Before closing the proclamation, the Execu- 

 tive announced the course which he would pur- 

 sue in case his admonition should be unheeded : 



I now give notice in the most solemn manner, that 

 these violations of law, and these outrages in the 

 aforesaid counties, must cease ; otherwise, I will pro- 

 claim those counties in a state of insurrection, and 

 will exert the whole power of the State to _ enforce 

 the law, to protect those who are assailed or injured, 

 and to bring criminals to justice. In a matter like 



