GOVERNOR JOHN MOTLEY MOREHEAD. 
(Portrait on Page 7) 
The subject of this brief sketch was born in Pittsylvania County, Va., 
on the 4th day of July, 1796. At a very early stage of his infancy, his 
parents, John Morehead, Esquire, and Obedience Motley Morehead, na¬ 
tive Virginians, removed to North Carolina, settling upon the waters 
of the Dan, in Rockingham County. While Virginia, shares in the re¬ 
flected honor from the career of this remarkable man, yet in a peculiar 
sense was he the son of North Carolina, the State of his adoption and 
nurture. 
Graduating with distinction from the university of his State in 1817, 
he was two years thereafter licensed, and came to the bar at Rockingham, 
where he soon obtained a competent practice, and rapidly rose to be 
master of the first position. As a lawyer, he thoroughly mastered the 
general principles of law, and his mind was of such a practical cast that 
he was one of the best counsellors in the State. No client was ever 
heard to complain of having been misled by his advice. But it was as 
an advocate that he shone with peculiar splendor. His personal pres¬ 
ence was imposing, his face beamed with kindness, and such was his 
peculiar power in addressing the court and jury that in his long legal 
career, he never lost a capital case. In 1822, he was elected to repre¬ 
sent Rockingham in the Legislature, and soon thereafter removed to 
Guilford County, where he quickly became the “ foremost man of all.” 
In 1827, he represented Guilford in the Legislature, being frequently 
returned as its honored representative until 1840, when he was placed 
at the head of the Whig party in the State as its candidate for governor, 
having for his competitor, the Hon. Romulus M. Saunders, the able 
champion of the Democratic party. The close of this, perhaps the most 
memorable political campaign in our annals, resulted in his election 
by a large majority. He was re-elected governor in 1842, his competi¬ 
tor being Louis D. Henry, a man of rare speaking talents. In these 
memorable campaigns, he demonstrated his invincible power upon the 
hustings. Such was his clearness of argument, coupled with a peculiar 
magnetic force, that he was never defeated for any office, for which he 
was a candidate. 
While in the office of governor, he busied himself with plans for the 
welfare of the people of the State. The lunatic aslyum, at Raleigh, was 
built in pursuance of a recommendation in one of his messages to the 
Legislature. The imposing edifices for the comfort of the deaf, dumb and 
blind were projected by his genius and erected under his supervision. In 
1848 Governor Morehead was President of the great Convention in Phila¬ 
delphia which nominated General Taylor for the Presidency. In office 
Governor Morehead was eminently firm and patriotic in the discharge 
of his duties, wielding all his influence for the public good alone, disre¬ 
gardful of the motives of personal ambition. He was a member of the 
Peace Congress which convened in Washington early in 1861, in the hope 
of averting civil war. Later, as a member of the Confederate Congress, 
he displayed such diligence, sagacity and wisdom as to win the highest 
respect and confidence of President Davis, who tendered him the office of 
Secretary of the Treasury of the Confederate States, which proffer he 
declined. 
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