Conservative Party (North Carolina)

Following secession, North Carolina's party system, dominated by the Whig Party and the Democratic Party, broke down.^[1] During the 1861 Confederate States presidential election, dissatisfied Whigs in North Carolina attempted to run a ticket against Jefferson Davis, who was ultimately successful.^[2] Early fractures in North Carolina's political leadership emerged over Davis' appointments, with dissenters feeling that North Carolinians were underrepresented in the Confederate civil and military leadership.^[3][4] Under the Davis administration, the Confederacy adopted centralized and controlling measures to support its war effort, including martial law, impressment of slaves for labor, military seizure of key ports and transportation routes, and the imposition of higher taxes. These actions engendered outrage among some North Carolinians, especially those concerned about states' rights.^[3] The adoption of the Conscription Act of 1862 also proved deeply controversial in North Carolina,^[4] especially provisions that allowed men with enough wealth to hire substitutes to serve in their place and exempted men with significant slave holdings from the draft.^[5]

William Woods Holden, a Democratic newspaper editor dissatisfied with Confederate policies and the early conduct of the war—particularly federal incursions into North Carolina's weakly-defended coast, worked to consolidate a new political organization opposed to the incumbent state administration, led by Governor Henry Toole Clark.^[6] By 1862, with the help of erstwhile Unionists, Holden had created the Conservative Party.^[4] The new grouping was predominated by former Whigs, including William Alexander Graham, George E. Badger, and Jonathan Worth.^[1] Holden and Graham served as the party's leading figures.^[2] Lower-class white voters concerned with Confederate conscription policies offered the grouping popular support.^[7] Under this new emerging political system, the faction of the Democratic Party associated with the incumbent administration and occupied by the more ardent secessionists became known as the "Confederate Party".^[2][3][a]

In 1862, the Confederates initially proposed suspending North Carolina's anticipated gubernatorial election, arguing that it was in the interest of the Confederate war effort to avoid arousing political disputes and potentially changing the incumbent administration by holding such a contest. The Conservative faction argued this was antidemocratic and its viewpoint eventually prevailed, with the Secession Convention voting to allow the election to proceed and requiring that the victor be inaugurated in September 1862.^[8]

The Confederate Party decided against nominating Governor Clark, owing to his unpopularity and perceived lack of political skill, and instead endorsed William Johnston, a secessionist former Whig. The Conservative Party initially sought to back Graham but, after he declined to run, decided to support a candidacy by Colonel Zebulon Vance. Vance participated little in the actual campaign, with most of the effort being conducted by Holden and fellow newspaper editor Edward J. Hale.^[9] Through his newspaper, the Standard, Holden attacked Johnston and the incumbent forces as corrupt and inept and criticized the Conscription Act as inequitable.^[10] Vance easily won the election,^[5] securing 55,282 votes to Johnston's 20,813.^[1] Following the 1862 election, the Confederate Party quickly dwindled in significance and offered few candidates for public office.^[2] Conservatives also secured a majority of the seats in the General Assembly.^[11]

Following the electoral success, Holden created a plan adopted by the General Assembly to replace all non-Conservative state officials. He and Vance initially enjoyed a close relationship, with Vance consulting him on major political issues, while Holden's newspaper, the Standard, supported the governor's administration. Owing to Vance's influence, Holden was appointed state printer in November 1862.^[11] By 1863, their relationship had soured over differing opinions on pursuing peace. Holden believed North Carolina should advocate for an end to the war both as a means of curtailing a destructive conflict and securing favorable terms with the federal government as well as securing more favorable treatment from the Confederate government. This included threatening secession from the Confederacy. Vance only believed in pursuing peace with the cooperation of other secessionist states, and Holden's attempts as the Conservative Party leader to influence him proved futile.^[12]

Buoyed by a growing peace movement in North Carolina, Holden decided to break from the Conservatives and challenge Vance in the 1864 gubernatorial election on an independent peace ticket.^[13] Vance secured re-election, winning 43,579 votes to Holden's 28,982.^[14]

Governor Vance's capture by federal troops in May 1865 and the concurrent collapse of the Confederacy weakened the Conservative Party.^[1][15]

Under President Andrew Johnson, a policy of Presidential Reconstruction was adopted in the Southern states, and Holden was appointed provisional governor of North Carolina by Johnson on May 29, 1865.^[1][16] He was shortly thereafter replaced by Worth, who was backed by a Conservative-led coalition.^[1][17] Conservative-dominated constitutional conventions in October 1865 and 1866 produced a constitution which nullified secession, abolished slavery, and repudiated debt in service of the Confederate war effort, but the document was not ratified due to lack of popular support.^[1]

In 1867, the Republican-controlled U.S. Congress, dissatisfied with President Johnson's policies, passed the Reconstruction Acts. The North Carolina Republican Party was organized in support of Congressional Reconstruction, while the Conservatives rallied to oppose it.^[1][18] Conservatives were outraged by the rapid ascendance of poorer and more ordinary men to public office at the expense of the traditional wealthy elite.^[19] Their party morphed to include both prewar Unionist-leaning Whigs and former Democratic secessionists, though some found this situation uncomfortable, with William Henry Bagley, Worth's secretary, expressing "disgust" at feeling it necessary to join with his former political enemies to rally against Republican Reconstruction. President Johnson's pardon of numerous ex-Confederate leaders in the state in March 1867 furthered the redevelopment of the new party. Graham remained its unofficial leader, with Worth and Vance also serving as prominent figures.^[20] In an attempt to split off poorer white voters from the Republican Party, Conservatives appealed to white supremacy, arguing that the elevation of blacks to equal legal status to whites threatened all whites' social status.^[21]

Pursuant to the Reconstruction Acts, federal military authorities under General Edward Canby directed North Carolina to organize a new constitutional convention and host elections for delegates in November 1867. The Republicans conducted a campaign in favor of a new constitution, which the Conservatives were too disorganized to effectively counter.^[22] They divided into three camps on the issue: those in favor of a convention and seeking to win a majority of the delegates, those opposed in the belief that Congressional Reconstruction was wholly unconstitutional, and those opposed owing to the participation of blacks as voters.^[23] Of the 120 delegates elected to the convention, 107 were Republicans.^[22] The convention convened in Raleigh in January 1868.^[24] Plato Durham and John W. Graham, both Confederate veterans and the latter a son of William Graham, provided leadership to the small contingent of Conservative delegates.^[25] The Conservative delegates proved vociferous critics of the convention's proceedings, but ultimately had little influence on its produced work.^[26] They found some consensus with Republicans on matters of economic relief and shaped the passage of a stay ordinance for debt collection.^[27] The draft constitution provided for universal male suffrage, removed property requirements for office seekers, made state executive and county offices elective, supported a system of public education, and reformed the state judiciary.^[22] The Conservatives were particularly opposed to the provisions permitting black suffrage, the lack of property qualifications to vote for state senators, and the direct election of judges and executive officers.^[22] They mounted a campaign against the draft constitution's ratification,^[28] deriding it as "Canby's constitution" and the "black and tan constitution".^[22] Despite this, the document was ratified in a referendum.^[22]

On February 5–6, 1868, the Conservative Party held a convention^[29] under the chairmanship of Graham<name= faulkner1/> to assemble a party platform.^[29] Renaming their organization the Constitutional Union Party^[29] or Conservative Union Party,^[30] the delegates declared their recognition of the U.S. constitution but denounced the Reconstruction Acts.^[29] In anticipation of the upcoming gubernatorial contest, the party nominated Thomas Samuel Ashe as its candidate. The state Republican Party convention selected Holden as its gubernatorial nominee.^[30] In the ensuing general election campaign, the Conservative Unionists offered three main messages: opposition to the draft constitution, opposition to Holden's gubernatorial candidacy, and the lack of moral character in other Republican candidates.^[31] The Republicans scored a large victory in the general election^[32] and the constitution was ratified.^[33] Thereafter, the party supported repeal of the charter at the soonest available opportunity.^[34]

As the Ku Klux Klan and other militant white supremacist organizations gained strength in North Carolina, members confessed that their political objectives included supporting the Conservative Party.^[35]

Following the 1870 elections, the Senate had 33 Conservatives and 17 Republicans, while the House held 72 Conservatives, 45 Republicans, three independents. Following the consideration of disputed elections by the legislature, six Republicans had their victories invalidated.^[36] The Conservative-dominated body then quickly embarked on a program of dismantling the Republicans' Reconstruction efforts.^[37] It voted to call for a popular vote to consider calling a new constitutional convention, though the 1871 referendum resulted in a rejection of the proposal. Several specific amendments proposed by the assembly to reestablish legislative control over various spheres of government were approved by referendum in 1873.^[34]