Iv. Union sentiment in North Carolina in 1861.
North Carolina was the last to enter the Confederacy, and her slowness was due, beyond question to the paramount influence exercised by the conservative views of the alumni of the University. Willie P. Mangum, who had been the personal friend of the abolition Senator, William H. Seward, when the latter first entered the United States Senate, had said in the Senate long before, when the nullification of South Carolina was the topic of the day: ‘If I could coin my heart into gold, and it were lawful in the sight of Heaven, I would pray God to give me firmness to do it, to save the Union from the fearful, the dreadful shock which I verily believe impends.’ His feelings were not changed by time, and in 1860 he said to his nephew who had been taught in the school of Calhoun and Yancey, and now talked loudly of secession, that if he were an emperor the nephew should be hanged for treason. The Union sentiments of Governor Graham, Governor Morehead, of Governor Vance, and General Barringer, were just as pronounced as were those of Judge Mangum. All of the old line Whigs opposed the war, while some of the Democrats, like Bedford Brown, denied the right to secede.
