NASH COUNTY, NORTH CAROLINA: PETITIONS BY MEN FOR PRESIDENTIAL PARDONS, 1865 – 1868
Researched and Submitted by: Earl P. Bell, Jr.
Posted: 26 May 2010
In May, 1865, President Johnson granted amnesty as well as the return of property to Southerners who would take an oath of allegiance to the United States of America. This offer was not open to men who had been either representatives or officials in the Confederate government; officers with the rank of colonel or above in the Confederate Army; officers with the rank of lieutenant or above in the Confederate Navy and Southerners who owned land valued at $20,000 or above. These groups of Southerners were required to apply for individual pardons.
In December, 1868, unconditional amnesty to all Southerners who participated in the war was extended by President Johnson except the military and civil officials listed above. Finally, in May, 1872, the Congressional Amnesty Act granted the right to hold public office to Southerners that had been excluded by the provisions of the 14th amendment.
For the above reasons the general amnesty did not apply to certain Nash County men. From 1865 through 1868, the following Nash men applied for Presidential Pardons for their support and participation in the rebellion against the government of the United States of America. The process used in North Carolina, by President Andrew Johnson, was to screen all pardon applicants through the Governor, the first being the Provisional Governor W. W. Holden [May through December 1865]. His brief time as Provisional Governor was consumed by reading pardon applications. In his memoir he states that only two men were rejected and that two other men had sufficient personal power to avoid the application process to the governor and took their appeals directly to President Johnson. Of course, the applicants were men of the same social class and lofty positions as Governor Holden and most of them had served together as representatives, judges and state officers. Archibald Hunter Arrington, a representative from Nash County at the May, 1861 Secession Convention became an elected representative to the Confederate Congress.
Before the Civil War, most of the men, listed below, would have been part of Nash County’s most powerful, economic and political elite. At the end of the war and in the early days of reconstruction, President Johnson was threatening to confiscate the land and possessions of the South’s wealthiest families. As these threats were being made and Immediately after the war, W. W. Holden and several other North Carolinians, most of them of moderate or Union sympathies prior to the war, met with President Johnson in Washington and were alarmed at his irresponsible and repeated threats at their social class. According to the memoirs of W. W. Holden, they were all begged him not take such extreme measures. At the heart of their reasoning was the certainty of the bitterness such action would create in North Carolina’s richest families against a reunified Federal Union.
Andrew Johnson’s political background was acquired in the rough and tumble politics of Tennessee. Also, his life had been one of fighting and scratching, initially from the bottom of the social class structure, for everything that he enjoyed and, after the war, he proved to be no match for the South’s wealthiest men and their powerful families. By 1866, due in large measure to his own inept actions, he lost most of his power to the Republicans, who ran Washington and the Congress. In fact, Johnson was narrowly able to survive as President when, the newly elected Congress passed the Tenure of Office Act designed to remove him from office. After a bitter trial, the effort failed by a single vote. A Congressman from Kansas sacrificed his political career and voted “No.” He knew that President Johnson should not be removed from office and recognize the danger to the United States if impeachment became available as a way to remove Presidents. While he survived impeachment, Andrew Johnson was a compromised president. He became a friend and protector of the South’s wealthiest families. The Republican Party took controlled Congress and directed “Reconstruction.”
During Reconstruction, 1867 to 1876, Congressional Representative Thaddeus Stevens from Pennsylvania, was the most powerful, relentless enemy of the Southern planter class. He advocated confiscation and redistribution of their land. In his own words, “the property of the chief rebels should be seized.” His primary target was the 70,000 richest planters in the South, who, in his view, made the decision to go to war and then, once started, they were the ones most responsible for its continuance. They, and they alone, should pay for this bloody, expensive war. He did not blame Southerners outside of the planter class. He often said, 9/10s of the Southern people should not be blamed or punished for their actions. He viewed them as pawns manipulated by a planter elite who held absolute power over all decisions in the several Southern states. Only the 1/9 of the South, that small group with the largest landholdings and the most slaves, in his view, bore responsibility for the war and should pay for it and be punished. These ideas never gain currency in Washington or the country, however, he was a major player in the creation of the military districts and the administration that followed.
W. W. Holden was appointed by President Johnson as North Carolina’s Provisional Governor, a post he held from May to December, 1865. A moral and dedicated public servant, he devoted a huge amount of this time to carefully reading the petitions, mostly from wealthy North Carolinians and high ranking officers, requesting pardons. In his recommendations, he only advised President Johnson not to pardon two men. Also, in his memoirs he complains that two men from the state were so powerful that they ignored him and went straight to President Johnson to secure a pardon. I have been unable to find the names of these four men. If any readers know their names please send them to me and I will post them.
In terms of participation in the fighting during the Civil War, wealthy men could: [1] pay for substitutes; [2] apply for an exemption from military service under the controversial twenty slave exception (not widely used due to reason number one and the law’s unpopularity); and [3] if they did fight, could use their wealth and position to negotiate for a higher rank as an officer. Also, in abstracting the regiments primarily from Nash County, I noticed that a number of them resigned their officer posts early in the war, an option not available to regular servicemen from Nash County.
NASH COUNTY MEN APPLYING FOR AND RECEIVING PARDONS, 1865 THROUGH 1868, FROM ANDREW JOHNSON, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, FOR THEIR SUPPORT OF THE CONFEDERACY. Also, all of them took the Oath of Allegiance to the United States of America.
ARRINGTON, Archibald Hunter – 50 year old farmer [1860] – Nash Representative of the 1861 Secession Convention in Raleigh, NC; also, served in the Confederate Congress; politically speaking, at the outset of the Civil War, he was the best known man from the county outside of its borders.
1850 US Census
Real Estate Value: $12,000
Slaves: 34
1860 US Census [Collins Twp., Post Office: Hilliardston]
Real Estate Value: $121,375
Personal Estate Value: $194,850
Also, he had two brothers who were wealthy planters in Georgia and Alabama. His brother Joseph Arrington from Montgomery, Alabama was a colonel in the Confederate Army and was killed during the conflict.
SLAVES: 85
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BARNES, A. B. – 52 year old farmer [1860]
1860 US Census [Winstead’s Twp., PO: Joyner’s Depot]
Real Estate Value: $4500
Personal Estate Value: $18,955
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BIGGS, Kader [only one BIGGs listed in 1860 & two in 1870; Harmon/H.H.]
1860 US Census [HIlliards Twp., PO: Stanhope]
Real Estate Value: $400
Personal Estate Value: $350
[while Biggs is an old Nash County surname, dating back to a John Biggs who signed the 1777 petition to the NC General Assembly requesting the creation of Nash County out of western Edgecombe, no “Kader Biggs’ appears in either the 1860 or 1870
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BLOUNT, Benjamin – Merchant-age 55 [1860]
1860 US Census [Collins Twp., PO: Castalia]
Real Estate Value: $3000
Personal Estate Value: $12,000
SLAVES: 16
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BODDIE, Nicholas [NICHOLAS W. BODDIE] – 34 year old farmer
1860 US Census [Collins Twp., PO: Castalia]
Real Estate Value: $15,400
Personal Estate Value: $50,240
SLAVES: 27
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BODDIE, W. W. [WILLIAM W. BODDIE] – 38 year old farmer
1860 US Census [Collins Twp., PO: Castalia]
Real Estate Value: $5000
Personal Estate Value: $29,739
SLAVES: 21
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CARTER, Robert E. [no Robert E. Carter, listed in Nash; there is a William Carter in 1860 & William R. Carter in 1870]
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COOPER, N. W. – 39 year old Sheriff of Nash County, NC
1860 US Census – [Arringtons Twp., PO: Hilliardston]
Real Estate Value: $2000
Personal Estate Value: $30,000
SLAVES: 27
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COOPER, T. J. A. [THOMAS J. A. COOPER] – 44 year old farmer
1860 US Census – [Collins Twp., PO: Castalia]
Real Estate Value: $4000
Personal Estate Value: $26,698
Also, his wife: Nancy Bunn Cooper has a Personal Estate Value of $2200
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DEANS, J. E. [JOHN E. DEANS] – 43 year old farmer
1860 US Census [Coopers Twp., PO: Nashville]
Real Estate Value: $2600
Personal Estate Value: $20,000
SLAVES: 19
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HARPER, Wm J. B. [WILLIAM JOHN BATCHELOR HARPER, JR.] – 44 year old farmer [my gg grandfather]
1860 US Census [Dorches Twp., PO: Nashville]. In 1867, he owns a grist and a saw mill as well as a country store in Nashville and in the 1875 Tax List owns 1500 acres of land.
Real Estate Value: $5895
Personal Estate Value: $28,116
SLAVES: 21
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HARRISON, John A. – 37 year old merchant
1860 US Census [Collins Twp., PO: Castalia]
Real Estate Value: $9600
Personal Estate Value: $49,985
SLAVES: 23 – [JOHN HARRISON, same twp., – SLAVES: 27]
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LEWIS, Kenelon H. – 44 year old farmer
1860 US Census [Arringtons Twp., PO: Battleboro]
Real Estate Value: $100,000
Personal Estate Value: $130,000
SLAVES: 23
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LINDSEY, John E. – 43 year old farmer
1860 US Census [Dorches Twp., PO: Rocky Mount]
Real Esate Value: $1900
Personal Estate Value: $10,100
SLAVES: 6
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MATTHEWS, James D. – 50 year old physician
1860 US Census [Mannings Twp., PO: Spring Hope]
Real Estate Value: $1000
Personal Property Value: $7030
SLAVES: 6
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ROWLAND, W. F. [WILLIS F. ROWLAND] – 34 year old merchant]
1860 US Census [Collins Twp., PO: Hilliardston]
Real Estate Value: 0
Personal Estate Value: $14,255
Lieutenant in 12 NC Infantry, Company H
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ROWLAND, W. H. – 37 year old merchant
1860 US Census [Collins Twp., PO: Hilliardston]
Real Estate Value: 0
Personal Estate Value: $16,175
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SHORT, H. B. [in 1860 no “H. B. Short;” there is a Richard Short, 60 year old physician; there is a B. H. SHORT in Moore County with Real Estate valued at: $1500; Personal Estate Valued at: $1000.
1860 US Census for Richard Short [Collins Twp., PO: Joyner’s Depot]
Real Estate Value: $2616
Personal Estate Value: $50,210
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STRICKLAND, C. B. – 32 year old farmer
1860 US Census [Sullivants Twp., PO: Stanhope}
Real Estate Value: $1500
Personal Estate Value: $4500
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STRICKLAND, Noah – 25 year old medical student
1860 US Census [ Winsteads Twp., PO: Stanhope]
Real Estate Value: 0
Personal Estate Value: $125
His Father: Edward Strickland
Real Estate Value: $9060
Personal Estate Value: $35,367
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WILLIFORD, B. B. 1860 Census lists a R. B. Williford, a 41 year old merchant.
1860 US Census [Arringtons Twp., PO: Battleboro]
Real Estate Value: $2000
Personal Estate Value: $8000
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