THE LIBRARY OF THE
UNIVERSITY OF
NORTH CAROLINA

THE COLLECTION

OF

NORTH CAROLINIANA
PRESENTED

Mary

BY

Winder Osborne

OpB
A82b

 SAMUEL A'COURT ASHE OF NORTH CAROLINA

ADDRESS BY GEORGE GORDON BATTLE
AT THE UNVEILING OF THE MEMORIAL TABLET
TO SMAUEL A'COURT ASHE
AT THE CAPITOL SQUARE IN RALEIGH
ON SEPTEMBER 13, 1940.

Samuel A'Court Ashe - born in North Carolina, September
13, 1840 - lived in North Carolina - died in North Carolina
We have met here today to honor this great

August 31, 1938.

son of North Carolina, who throughout his long life devoted
his talents and his energies to the service of his mother State.
We, the sons and daughters of that State, delight to pay him
this tribute.

To me, as a North Carolinian, born and bred,

it is a source of pride and gratification to participate in
these ceremonies.

Speaking for those of us who for one reason

or another have passed our lives beyond the borders of our
native State, I am sure that the memories of our homeland are
all the more vivid and our love all the warmer because of that
And as the shadOWS lengthen and our faces turn

absence.

toward the West these feelings grow still stronger and more
poignant.

We appreciate and sympathize with the words of

Robert Louis Stevenson when, during his last days in the faroff island of Samoa, he said, in thinking of Scotland, the land
of his birth:
"Be it given to me to behold thee again in dying,
Oh, hills of homel
And to hear again the call,
To hear about the graves of the martyrs, the
peewees crying
And hear no more at all."

 2

And in addition to my sentiment as a North Carolinian,
I had the strongest personal admiration, respect and affection
for Captain Ashe.

He was an old and valued friend both of my

fathep and of my mother.

More than once, in his travels

through the State he spent the night at our home of Cool Spring
down on the Tar River in Edgecombe.

And indeed, I detect in

all the words that have been spoken here and in the atmosphere
of this occasion a sense of deep personal affection and bereavement.

We all feel that we have lost a friend whose memory we

can never forget.
such as these.

This is not always the case on occasions
There are many good men and women whose

virtues we recognize and whose loss we regret, but without
this keen emotion.

I think that the source of this sentiment

which we all share this afternoon is our realization that we
are mourning not only one who truly loved his friends but one
who had a deep sympathy with all humanity, who was anxious to
help everyone whom he met in his Journey through life.

Captain

Ashe followed consistently the admonition of the old Quaker who
said in noble and memorable words:
"I expect to pass through this world but once.

Any

good therefore that I can do or any kindness that I
can show to any fellow creature let me do it now.

j

Let me not defer it or neglect it, for I shall not

~

pass this way again. II

~
~

Captain Ashe ne~er deferred nor neglected to do any good or to
show any kindness in his power to any fellow creature and so
the memory of his path through life is fragrant with good

 3

thoughts and good deeds.
It is truly a fitting time and an appropriate plaoe for
these ceremonies in his honor.

Just one hundred years today

he was born near Wilmington on Wrightsville Sound in New Hanover
County.

So we are commemorating the centennial of his birth.

It is also peculiarly significant and interesting that these
exercises are held here in the yard of the Capitol Building of
our State which was first occupied by our Legislature in 1840,
the year of his birth.

This Capitol symbolizes the Government

of the State which was the object of his life-long devotion.
Therefore on this day and in this Capitol yard we can fittingly
dedicate this tablet to his memory.

His years extended prac-

tically over the span of a c~ntury and it may truly be said
that

the history of his life was the history of our State for

the past hundred years.

Many scholars and histor~ans have

expressed the belief that the history of a country can best be
studied in the lives of the leading men and women of that time.
It so happened this summer that I was fortunate enough to spend
severa1 weeks with Justice George R. Sutherland, formerly one
of the most distinguished members of our Supreme Court.

He

expr-e
saed this view saying that he had learned more of the
history of the Supreme Court by reading the life of John
Marshall by Senator Albert J. Beveridge than from any other
source.

There is no doubt that the life of General Robert E.

Lee, the stainless leader of the Lost Cause, gives a most vivid
picture of the history of his time.

Indeed, the study of the

career of a leader gives a reality to the events in which he

 4

figures which cannot be attained in any other way.

It was the

good fortune of our State that Captain Ashe was active in its
affairs during the most trying and critical period of its history.

If we follow him from his youth to his last years we

will have an accurate and lively record of the progress of the
State during that period.

And, while he was a patriotic

citizen of his country, the love and devotion of his heart were
given to his State.

From the earliest days of North Carolina

his family had been prominent and distinguished.

John Baptista

Ashe was Speakev of the Assembly before the Revolutton.

He took

up arms at the beginning of that war, became a major general and
died in 1781, as a result of wounds received and illness contracted in the service.

Another ancestor, Samuel Ashe, was

probably the last survivor of the North Carolina Continentals.
There were governors and jUdges, there were legislators, both
federal and state, and always in time of war there were in
North Carolina soldiers of the race and name of Ashe.

Captain

Samuel A'Court Ashe was the last surviving commissioned officer
of the Confederate forces.

And so, sprung from such North

Carolina stock, he played well his part in every phase of the
history of his State.
of effort;

He was active in many and varied fiel~s

and he touched nothing which he did not adorn.

figured in great and notable events;
to the occasion.
memorable scene."

He

and he was always equal

"He nothing common did, or mean, upon that
If therefore we consider our State history

during the different periods of his long life, we will find
that the activities of Captain Ashe during each period reflected

 5

the history of his State.

Following this procedure we will

first note the course of eVents in our State during his youth;
and we will find that his energies and activities in those years
coincided with and formed a part of the history of the State.
From the time of his birth in 1840 to the outbreak of
the War in 1860, North Carolina was seething with activity and
unrest.

On the one hand there was going forward the great

national development in which North Carolina shared.

We were

bUilding railroads and establishing steamship lines.

The

cotton gin had been invented and our planters were raising each
year a greater quantity of that staple.
most part of material prosperity.

It was a time for the

But there was a notable

feeling of unrest arising from the fateful problems then pending, which culminated in the War between the States.

North

Carolina had her full share in the anxieties of the time.

It

was a book written by a North Carolinian, The Impending Crisis,
which although unjust and unfair, had a very marked effect on
public opinion.

The irresistible tide of events was carrying

all the States into the vortex of war;
deeply disturbed and concerned.

and North Carolina was

Captain Ashe from very early

years felt the effects of these forces.

He was taught at home

by private tutors and then attended the Rugby Academy in the
District of Columbia.

His father, William Sheppard Ashe, was

a Congressman at the time;

and the son met many of the leading

statesmen of that critical time.

Thus he early learned to

stuay the Vital questions that then confronted his country and
his State.

After his course at Rugby he entered the Naval

 6

Academy at Annapolis when he was fifteen years of age.

He

stood high in his classes and acquired an excellent technioal
education.

He became a skilful engineer, a fact which greatly

influenced his subsequent career.
upon

the practice of law;

He determined however to enter

and he resigned from the Naval

Academy after having passed three successful years in that
institution.

He then returned to his horneat Rocky Point on

the Cape Fear River, where he engaged in the study of law.

At

the same time he continued his interest in the social and
political problems of the day.

He studied them carefully and

thus prepared himself for the impending struggle.

In addition

to his education in engineering, it is to be noted that his
father was the first president of the Wilmington & Weldon Railroad and was an expert in questions of transportation.
son shared in these interests of the father.

The

It will be seen

therefore that Captain Ashe was qualified and prepared to do
his part in the great material enterprises of transportation,
manufacture, and of industry which were beginning to be an
essential part of the economy of his State.

Also he was

trained and prepared to take an active and a leading part in
the social and industrial problems that were so rapidly corning
to a fearful crisis.

And so in his youthful activities he

participated in and reflected the current events in his State.
The next phase of his life embraced those four years of
his early manhood during which North Carolina was engaged in
the War Between the States.

It is unnecessary to repeat to

the sons and daughters of the Old North State the familiar story

 7

of that time.

They all know that our State during these tragic

but noble years devoted all its energies to this great adventure.
The blood of the best men of North Carolina was poured out like
water in support of the cause which, though lost, is sacred
forever in the memories of those by whom it was sustained and
in the memories of their descendants.

From Bethel to Appomattox

the soldiers of our State held high the flag of its honor.

Both

on land and on sea the men of North Carolina continued the contest
to its bloody end.

The last charge at Appomattox was made by the

brigade of General William Ruffin Cox.

The Commander of the

Shenandoah, the sister ship in the Confederate Navy with the
Alabama, was James Iredell Waddell of North Carolina.

He car-

ried the Southern flag throughout the seven seas with success.
Being abroad on the ocean he did not learn of the termination of
the War until August 1865.

He then proceeded to England and

gave up the ship to the British Government.

The record of

North Carolina through these four years of tragedy and of glory
is known of all men.

In this stupendous conflict Samuel AICourt

Ashe, from the beginning to the end, devoted himself to the cause
of his State and of the Confederacy with superb courage and
unswerving loyalty.
teered his services.
lieutenant;

Upon the fall of Fort Sumter, he volunHe at once received a commission as

and because of his knowledge and skill as an

engineer, was assigned to work on the fortifications at Fort
Caswell and Fort Fisher.

Before the Confederate Army was

formed, John W. Ellis, then Governor of the State, appointed
him in the Corps of Engineers and Artillery Officers.

Later

 8

on, when the troops under the command of the Governor of North
Carolina took their place in the Confederate forces, he was
commissioned by President Davis and was made Captain and Chief
of Staff of General William D. Pender of North Carolina.

r

He

served in the Army of Northern Virginia with great distinction,
receiving honorable mention for his conduct at the battles of
Cedar Run and of Second Manassas.

At the latter conflict he

was captured and after a month was exchanged and next served on
the staff of General Thomas L. Clingman of North Carolina.

He

was made ordnance officer at Fort Wagner and served throughout
the bloody siege of that fortress.

He was -then sent as an

artillery expert to the arsenal at Fayetteville, one of the
chief sources of munitions for the Southern Armies;
remained there until the close of the War.

and he

He served with

notable distinction throughout this four years of war, showing
the same gallantry, the same resourcefulness, and the same
humanity that marked his entire career.

The story of his

military experience is a part of the war history of his State.
The next years of his life cover ~hat has well been
called the Tragic Era of our country.

Captain Ashe was

I

twenty-five years of age at the time of the Surrender at
Appomattox in 1865.

For the next eleven years - until 1876 -

our State was plunged in the horrors of Reconstruction - far
more disastrous and hurtful than those of the war itself.
There was, I believe, no Southern state that suffered so much
from the crimes and evils of Reconstruction as did North
Carolina.

It is familiar history that President Johnson

 9

desired and intendeu to receive the State back into the Union.
There was at that time every prospect of an early reconciliation
which would soon serve to heal the wounds of war.

Indeed, the

officers and the men who had fought in the field were almost
unanimously in favor of a just and generous policy towards the
South, but unhappily the unfair and wicked counsels of the
group of irreconcilables, headed by Thaddeus Stevens in the
Federal Congress, prevailed.

It was enacted into law against

the opposition of President Johnson that North Carolina and
other states could not be received back into the Union with
the privileges and dignities of statehood, but must be reduced
to the status of military districts controlled by armed forces.
Then there followed the worst days in the history of oup State.
North and South Carolina were declared to be no longer states
but disordered territories.

They were thrown together into a

military district under martial law, the white voters were in
great part disfranchised and the State passed under the rule of
the ignorant and inexperienced negroes led by unscrupulous and
frequently criminal white men, some from North Carolina and some
from other states.

Crime and vice were rampant;

government was permeated by shocking corruption;

the State
state bonds

to the amount of millions of dollars, admittedly illegal and
fraudulent, were issued.

The University was closed.

The

Governor finally determined to declare strict martial law
thrOUghout the State, to arrest many of the leading men in
the State and to try them for their lives before courts martial.
The result might well have been the wholesale execution under

 10

this monstrous procedure of some of the best men in the State.
The armed henchmen of the Governor under the leadership of the
infamous Kirk following these plans arrested a number of respectable and prominent citizens without any color of law.
Writs of habeas corpus were sworn out and were returnable
before the Chief Justice of our Supreme Court who refused to
act, declaring that the power of the Judiciary was exhausted
and that the responsibility must rest upon the Executive.
The State stood on the verge of bloody and terrible Civil War.
To his eternal honor, Judge George W. Brooks of the United
States District Court of North Carolina, although himself a
Republican and the appointee of a Republican President, came
to the rescue of the State.

He issued and sustained writs of

habeas corpus in these cases and discharged the prisoners, thus
preventing the terrible consequences that otherwise would have
followed.

For this great service the people of the State of

North Carolina owe to Judge Brooks and his associates an
inestimable debt of gratitude.

However, after the close of

this episode the disorders continued.

There were -many flagrant

acts of injustice, tyranny and oppression.

The general condi-

tions of the State were most deplorable and tragic.

However,

the responsible and respectable citizens were slowly regaining
power.

The Governor who had been chiefly cUlpable, was im-

peached and removed.
control.

The forces of order gradually resumed

Finally, in 1876, when those two great North Carolin-

ians, Zebulon Baird Vance and Thomas Jordan Jarvis were elected
Governor and Lieutenant Governor respectively, the State was

 11
redeemed and the monstrous regime of Reconstruction came to an
e~d.
During this period Captain Ashe was splendidly and most
efficiently active in his efforts to curb the malign forces of
oppression and tyranny and to help his State and its people.
After the War, he found himself ruined and destitute as was the
case with most Southern men at that time.

His father, who had

received the rank of Colonel and who had been put in charge by
President Davis of transportation between the Mississippi and
the Coast during the war, met his death through an unfortunate
railroad accident.

The future was indeed black.

However,

Captain Ashe showed that amazing courage which marked the conduct of the Southern people at this critical time.

He took

any honorable work that came to his hand to maintain himself
until he could complete his studies and obtain his license to
practice law.
1867.

He opened his office in Wilmington in January,

At once ~e took a prominent part in his efforts for the

people of his State.

In 1870 he was elected to the Legislature

and became Chairman of its Finance Committee.

He took a prom-

inent part in reforming the tax laws and in attempting to bring
about a settlement of the State debt.

He was one of the

leaders in pressing helpful legislation.

He removed his law

office to Raleigh, entering into a partnership with Senator
Merriman and Judge Thomas C. Fuller.

He also was the editor

of the Evening Crescent, a daily paper in Raleigh, which took
a great part in bringing about the redemption of the State.
Captain Ashe was one of the leaders of the Democratic Party

 12

during all this period.

In the final campaign of 1876, he was

most active together with General William R. Cox, who was
Chairman of the Campaign Committee;

and the success of the

forces of decency and honesty in 1876 were largely due to his
efforts.

As a citizen, as a legislator, as an editor, he

strove constantly and incessantly and most efficiently during
these terrible years to help and redeem his people.

It is

impossible to exaggerate the importance of his services to his
State during this time.

And the story of his actions in these

years reflects the history of the State.
After that eventful year of 1876, when the disorders of
the war and those of reconstruction, which were far worse, had
been concluded, the State of North Carolina followed its normal
course.

Gradually the injuries and wounds which were the re-

sult of those evil days were treated and healed.

The Univer-

sity was reopened and entered upon its great career of success
and usefulness to the State.

The public school system was

reconstructed and placed on a high plane under the leadership
of Governor Aycock and his associates.
finally and properly settled.

The State debt was

Then there came the vast

industrial revolution throughout the State.

Under the

leadership of such men as James B. Duke and Richard J. Reynolds
and others of like character, the tobacco industry grew into
gigantic proportions.

The members of the Holt, the Cannon and

the Fries families, with their colleagues, founded cotton textile
manufacturing enterprises throughout the State.

The vast water-

power resources of North Carolina were harnessed and used for

 13

innumerable beneficial purposes.

Many great mills have been

transplanted from New England and from other parts of the
country, so that North Carolina is now a center of the manufacturing industry of the whole country.

During the Spanish

War of 1898 and the Great War of 1917-1918, North Carolina did
its full share, giving most generously of its resources and
sending its own men abroad to fight the battles of freedom.
There has been a notable advance in the fields of literature
and of art throughout the State.

Our government has been

placed on a high plane, there has been a generous and humane
treatment of the negro men and women in the State, so that the
relations between the races in North Carolina are now just and
happy.

In this connection it is peculiarly gratifying to

note the improvement which has been made in furnishing schools
and colleges for the education of our fellow citizens of negro
birth.
In these years since the nightmares of War and of
Reconstruction have passed, Captain Ashe continued his part
as one of the leaders of our State.

After 1876, he became

the editor of the News' and Observer;

and in that capacity

wielded a great influence in the State for many years.

l

Always

by word of mouth, by his pen, and by his other activities, he
stood for the best and the highest standards in the affairs of
our State.

He advocated constantly the best policies.

During

all this time he was in close touch with the State Administration.
Governor Jarvis, a great progressive governor, said of him,
"Captain Ashe was really a part of my public life, and I owe

 14

much to him for the success I had in the public work that fell
to my lot."

He held up the hands of all the great governors

of the State in their efforts for the good of the people.
During his later years he ceased to be active as an editor and
devoted himself largely to literary and historical work.

He

cooperated with Colonel William L. Saunders in the great enterprise of collecting and publishing the colonial records of
North Carolina.

He edited the eight-volume biographical

history of the State, which is an invaluable source of material
for the future.

He has written in two volumes a most interest-

ing and definitive history of the State, from the days of the
Lost Colony down through the year 1925.

This work is in every

public library and is most highly esteemed.

It is a master-

piece of historical erudition and accuracy.

And during these

years Captain Ashe was abreast of all the good work of every
kind in the State.

He was active in its charitable and

philanthropic enterprises.

He was one of the prominent and

distinguished members of the Protestant Episcopal Church.
His life has been a shining example to all the young men and
women of the State.

Throughout all his years, from his child-

hood to his last days, he served his State well and nobly.

He

consistently represented her best interest and her highest
standard.

It may truly be said of him that he rendered

inestimable service to his native State both in war and peace
and that he holds a high place in the hearts of his people.
No one could better deserve the great honor which has
been paid him by the Legislature of North Carolina in authorizing

 15

this memorial tablet here in the Capitol Square of our State.
It is most artistic and beautiful in its conception and execution.

When we look upon his high and noble face, with its

ineffable expression of humanity and kindness, as well as of
intelligence and courage, it recalls to us our friend who has
gone.

It is a common belief that when the human traveler is

passing from one stage of life to the next, when he

atands on

the verge of that mystery which we call Death, the events of
his past come up like a great panorama before his dying vision,
so that he may see the course of his life from beginning to end.
Assuredly, if Samuel A'Court Ashe had such an outlook upon his
century of life, he would have seen a constant record of high
and noble achievement and of unswerving devotion to the interests of the state of North Carolina, which he held so near his
heart.

Doubtless at that supreme moment his thoughts went

back to his early days along the Cape Fear, when he could hear
the call of the kildees along the river bottoms, and the swift
rush of the quail in the uplands, when he could see the wild
geese and the wild ducks following each other in single file
from one end of the horizon to the other, and when he could
observe the graceful and the majestic course of the buzzards
wheeling their way through the Southern sky.

Doubtless, he

could remember those plains of the Tidewater, the hills of the
Piedmont, and the lofty mountains of the West, that all go to
make up his native State.

He could recall the people of that

State whom he held and by whom he was held so dear.

He could

recall his long and noble service to that State and to his

 ·16

people, and as his eyes closed for his last sleep, he might
well realize that no one ever better deserved that familiar
but noblest of all accolades, "Well done, thou good and faithful
ser-vant.t

II

No one better deserved that sleep which God giveth

to his beloved.

And now his life is ended.

In the fullness

of'years and of achievement and of honor, he has passed from us
and has gone to his long reward.
deserved honor.

We are here to do him well-

May he rest in peace~
"Life's race well run,
Lifets work well done,
Life's victory won,
Now cometh rest."