George Edmund Badger: the Soul of North Carolina Unionism
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GEORGE EDMUND BADGER: THE SOUL OF NORTH CAROLINA UNIONISM A thesis by Alex Wetherington Submitted to the Graduate School at Appalachian State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the for to degree of MASTERS OF ARTS December 2020 Department of History GEORGE EDMUND BADGER: THE SOUL OF NORTH CAROLINA UNIONISM A Thesis By Alex Wetherington December 2020 APPROVED BY: ____________________________________________ Judkin Browning, PhD. Chairperson, Thesis Committee ____________________________________________ Anthony Carey, PhD. Thesis Committee ____________________________________________ Karl Campbell, PhD. Thesis Committee ____________________________________________ James Goff, PhD. Chairperson, Department of History ____________________________________________ Michael McKenzie, PhD. Dean, Cratis D. Williams School of Graduate Studies Copyright by Alex Wetherington 2020 All Rights Reserved Abstract GEORGE EDMUND BADGER: THE SOUL OF NORTH CAROLINA UNIONISM Alex Wetherington B.A., Appalachian State University M.A., Appalachian State University Chairperson: Judkin Browning The most transformative period of American history, the antebellum era, saw the rise and fall of numerous political parties, countless debates about the nature of the union, and the descent of the nation into Civil War. This thesis focuses on George Edmund Badger, a staunchly constructionist Whig Senator from New Bern, North Carolina – the final state to secede from the Union – who served from 1846 to 1855. Focusing on Badger allows this work to be both a biography and an examination of how Whig politics influenced the level of Unionism in North Carolina. Through the use of speeches delivered by Badger during his time in the Senate and newspaper articles published in North Carolina, this study delves into what Badger and his constituents in the Tar Heel state thought about the key pieces of legislation from the antebellum era. It also highlights the secession crisis in North Carolina, Badger’s role in it, and what eventually influenced the Old North state to favor the Confederacy. iv Dedication To my Fiancée Courtney without whom I would be hopelessly lost and All of those whose continued support I can never fully repay: My mentor Judkin Browning, my Dad Kliff Wetherington, my Stepmom Jenn Squires, my Grandmother Shelby Howard, and my Grandfather Hardy Howard v Table of Contents Abstract………………………………………………………………………………….…iv Dedication……………………………………….……………………………………….…v Introduction…………………………………………………………………………….…...1 Chapter 1. Conception, 1795-1841………………………………………………………….7 Chapter 2. Compromise, 1841-1850………………………………………...………………26 Chapter 3. Catalyst, 1850-1861…………………………………………………..………….50 Epilogue………………………………………………………………………………..…….71 Bibliography……………………………………………………………………..…………..81 Vita…………………………………………………………………………………...………87 vi Introduction On May 20, 1861, North Carolina became the eleventh and final state to secede from the union. Despite being the last to secede, North Carolina had a larger ratio of slaves to whites than four of its Confederate brethren and a higher ratio of slaveowners to non- slaveowners than three of the other Confederate states.1 With its high slave population and ownership, one might think the decision to secede an easy one for the Old North State, but this was not the case. An active state-level Whig Party contributed greatly to North Carolina’s prolonged support of the Union. However, one of the most prominent and influential Whigs in antebellum North Carolina politics, George Edmund Badger, has, according to one historian, “almost been forgotten by the people of North Carolina,” and the nation.2 Badger’s political career mirrored that of North Carolina’s Whig Party, from its rise to state dominance in the late 1830s to its continued existence following the death of the national Whig Party in 1852. An outspoken defender of the Constitution, Badger favored a strict constructionist interpretation, adhering to what he believed was its explicit intentions even when it went against his personal beliefs and interests. A competitive state-level Whig Party with a strong sense of unionism helped hold the Old North State in the Union until the very end. Badger’s role as a leader and elder statesman of the North Carolina Whig Party cannot be overlooked when discussing antebellum politics in the state or the United States. 1 For every white person that lived in North Carolina in 1860, there were .53 enslaved people, and for every non-slave owning household there were .28 slaveholding ones. Hudson Meadwell and Lawrence M. Anderson, “Sequence and Strategy in the Secession of the American South, Theory and Society 37, no. 3 (2008), 208. 2 Lawrence Foushee London, “George Edmund Badger in the United States Senate, 1846-1849,” North Carolina Historical Review 15, no. 1 (1938), 1. 1 As a senator from 1846-1855, Badger contributed to the debates surrounding several key pieces of legislation, including the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo, the Compromise of 1850, and the Kansas-Nebraska Act. Despite Badger’s importance, no dedicated work has been published about him, and he only receives passing mention by the most extensive studies of the antebellum era and politics, namely Michael Holt’s The Rise and Fall of the American Whig Party, William Freehling’s two-volume work The Road to Disunion, and David Potter’s The Impending Crisis.3 The person who wrote the most on Badger, historian Lawrence Foushee London, did so in three articles published in the North Carolina Historical Review in 1938. These articles focused solely on Badger’s time as a senator, with very little additional information included, and were far from extensive.4 In his 1966 article, “For the Want of a Scribe,” historian Glenn Tucker lamented that historians overlooked Badger’s contributions to antebellum politics: “ten biographies have been written of Charles Sumner and nine of Thaddeus Stevens, while George E. Badger, an abler, more balanced, and certainly more attractive personality in many respects that either…has had none.”5 Tucker’s panegyric failed to rally any historian to write a biography of Badger. Numerous scholarly works provide an in-depth analysis of the many important developments that occurred during the antebellum era, allowing for a fuller understanding of the world that Badger inhabited. A tremendous guide to the antebellum era, Daniel Walker 3 Michael Holt, The Rise and Fall of the American Whig Party: Jacksonian Politics and the Onset of the Civil War (New York: Oxford University Press, 2003); David Potter, The Impending Crisis, 1848-1861 (New York: Harper and Row, 1976); William Freehling, The Road to Disunion, Vol. 1: Secessionists at Bay, 1776-1854 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1991); William Freehling, The Road to Disunion, Vol. 2: Secessionists Triumphant, 1854-1862 (New York: Oxford University Press, 2007). 4 London, “George Edmund Badger in the United States Senate, 1846-1849;” Lawrence Foushee London, “George Edmund Badger and the Compromise of 1850,” North Carolina Historical Review 15, no. 2 (1938); Lawrence Foushee London, “George Edmund Badger, His Last Years in the United States Senate, 1851- 1855,” North Carolina Historical Review 15, no. 3 (1938). 5 Glenn Tucker, “For the Want of a Scribe,” North Carolina Historical Review 43, no. 2 (1966), 175-6. 2 Howe’s What Hath God Wrought (2007), details every major event that shaped America from 1815 to 1848. The sequel to Howe’s book in the Oxford History of the United States series, James McPherson’s Battle Cry of Freedom (1988), picks up where Howe left off and discusses how America became a house divided, as well as the terrible Civil War that came from that division. A brief but brilliant overview of America’s descent into disunion, Michael Holt’s The Fate of Their Country (2004) is an informative look at politics in the antebellum era.6 Several key works stand out about antebellum North Carolina politics. James Boykin’s North Carolina in 1861 (1961) discusses the causes and outcome of the secession movement in North Carolina and provides a good overview of why the leaders of the Old North State eventually favored secession. Perhaps still the two most important works on antebellum North Carolina politics, Marc Kruman’s Parties and Politics in North Carolina (1983) and Thomas Jeffrey’s State Parties and National Politics (1989), offer differing views on what influenced the Tarheel state’s politics the most. Jeffrey argues that state and local governments impacted the lives of antebellum Americans more than did the national government, and therefore the issues important to those governments were more important to antebellum Americans than the issues plaguing the federal government. Kruman, on the other hand, focuses more on how national debates influenced those in North Carolina, though he also includes a fair amount of information on local and state issues. Lastly, Daniel Crofts 6 Daniel Walker Howe, What Hath God Wrought: The Transformation of America, 1815-1848 (New York: Oxford University Press, 2007); James McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era (New York: Oxford University Press, 1988); Michael Holt, The Fate of Their Country: Politicians, Slavery Extension, and the Coming of the Civil War (New York: Hill and Wang, 2004). 3 details, in Reluctant Confederates (1989), the unionist struggle and ultimate failure to keep the Upper South from seceding.7 Additionally, there are several articles that help expand one’s knowledge of the many events that occurred during the antebellum