amendment, and the Settle ordinance was passed by a weak

nega

viva voce vote, only a few voices being heard in the tive, though about a dozen delegates afterward signed a protest against the action of the Convention. The ordinance as passed is as follows: :

"Be it declared and ordained by the Delegates of the State of North Carolina in Convention assembled, and it is hereby declared and ordained, That it shall be the duty of the General Assembly of the State, so soon as is practicable, to provide for the payment of all debts and obligations created or incurred by the State, other than in aid of the late Rebellion.

"Be it further declared and ordained, That all debts and obligations created or incurred by the State in aid of the Rebellion, directly or indirectly, are void; and no General Assembly of this State shall have power to assume or provide for the payment of the same, or any portion thereof; nor shall any General Assembly of this State have power to assume or provide for the payment of any portion of the debts or obligations created and incurred, directly or indirectly, by the late so-called Confederate States, or by its agents, or under its authority."

XIX.

AFFAIRS IN CENTRAL NORTH CAROLINA.

GOLDSBORO, October 16, 1865.

T is the ambition of Provisional Governor Holden to be elected to the Governorship of the State by the people. The central counties will, however, pretty generally vote against him, I judge, in the coming canvass. He is intensely hated by the secession element, which will more readily accept almost any other man. The loyalty of the

State is in the western part, the discontent is in the centre, the submission is on the sea-coast.

Who will be put into the field against Governor Holden for the executive office cannot yet be certainly said. Efforts are making to bring out State Treasurer Jonathan Worth, and they promise to be successful. His record for Unionism is as good, at least, as Holden's; but he favors the payment of the Rebel war debt, and would be voted for by all the Secessionists, - not that they love him, but that they hate Holden. Mr. Worth is a small man, of moderate abilities, sterling honesty, and perfectly unassuming manners, whose integrity is an honorable by-word, but whose personal bearing would not particularly dignify the Governorship. The only thing to fear from his election will be that the Secessionists may control him, and so control State affairs. If he is strong enough to keep out of their hands after being elected by their votes, he will, I think, make a very fair Governor.

I had a long talk this morning with a Smithfield man. He said Holden was hated by one class of people and feared by the other. He did n't believe in electing such men to office. He himself was just as loyal as anybody now, but last winter he was as big a Rebel as there was in Johnston County. He did n't take no 'count of these men who were sich good Union men all to once. He meant to mind the laws now, and was willin' to ask Andy Johnson's pardon; but he did n't pretend that he was any better 'n anybody else. He reckoned he'd got to eat dirt some; but if he knew himself right well, he should eat it in the easiest way he could, and that would n't be by voting for Holden.

A Fayetteville merchant whom I met told me that he should have no hope of the future if the Black Republicans carried the day in the forthcoming Northern elections. He considered it essential that they should be overthrown now and forever. They forced the South into the war, and the

South would hardly believe the North wished peace unless they were beaten at the ballot-box.

.

I asked him if it seemed necessary that the North should consult the will of the South in respect to its own State officers.

Well, he thought it was the duty of the North to show that she really desired the South to come back into the Union, and he was certain that the election to office of men avowedly hostile to the South would not indicate any such desire.

But, I said, what would you have? What general policy does it appear to you we of the North should adopt?

He would n't dictate, he answered; but the North ought to rise above passion and elect conservative men.

The conversation reminded me of a little speech made last week in the Convention at Raleigh. During the debate on the secession ordinance, Honorable Bedford Brown, once in Congress from this State, introduced a resolution declaring that the war had forever settled that a State has no Constitutional right to secede. After that ordinance had been declared null and void, he urged the passage of his resolution as an appropriate sequel to the action on the other question, and said he thought it would much help the chances of the State before Congress next winter. He called attention to the fact that the idea of the resolution is in General Slocum's opening speech to the New York Democracy, and remarked that he believed it would furnish a common ground of brotherhood for all conservative men. He indorsed General Slocum as eminently national and soundly conservative, and expressed the hope that he might be elected, as that would be a triumph of conservative views full of promise for the South. His resolution went to the table, however, as being needless; and the great conservative party lost the benefit of its passage.

Two gentlemen of this town favored me with their views

at some length last evening in regard to the duty of the South and the duty of the nation in the present emergency. They were clearly of the opinion that the Southern representatives should be admitted to their seats at the assembling of Congress; that the President should revoke the twenty thousand dollar clause in his amnesty proclamation; and that the South should be relieved for at least five years from the payment of any national taxes. They thought it very cruel in the North to doubt the word of the South when she said, on her honor, that she accepted the results of the war, and would in good faith abide by them, and hinted that the South might wish she had not so readily given up the position she could have taken at the close of the war.

I asked the landlord of my hotel if there were many Northern men in this section of the State. "Not many," he said, "outside the large towns."

"Is there any feeling of hostility to them that would make it dangerous for them to try to live here?"

"O no, they can live in Goldsboro well enough, and we should like to have a hundred on 'em come in here at once."

"But how about living in the country?"

"Well, there are some towns where they could live; but the planters don't like 'em very well, I reckon."

I asked him if the leading men of the various counties could n't see that it would be for the interest of the State to encourage the influx of Northern spirit and labor and capital.

Yes, he thought all the best men saw that, and he did n't know as there was any trouble about such men. But the common classes was another thing, and they were n't fond of the Yankees. He believed any Northern man would get along well enough if 't was knowed that he was befriended by the best men in his neighborhood, how

ever.

I am certain that there can be no lower class of people than the North Carolina "clay-eaters," this being the local name for the poor whites. I have looked into the cabins of not a few of them, and have made inquiries concerning them of a considerable number of persons.. I state a deliberate conclusion when I say that the average negroes are superior in force and intellect to the great majority of these clay-eaters. Many of them all of those not married -must be simply called vagabonds. They are generally without fixed home and without definite occupation. They are always thinly clad, their habitations are mere hovels, they are entirely uneducated, and many of them are hardly above beasts in their habits. Very few families have fifty dollars' worth of property of any kind. The men live most of the time in the woods, and generally keep one or two dogs and own a cheap rifle. The women are slatternly and utterly without any idea of decency or propriety; they cultivate a little corn, and sometimes a little patch of cow-peas, collards, or sweet potatoes. The whole class is bigoted and superstitious to the last degree; they generally believe in evil spirits, but rarely in a Divine Father. They are lazy and thriftless, mostly choose to live by begging or pilfering, and are more unreliable as farm hands than the worst of the negroes.

I find here as everywhere the complaint that the free negro will not work. There seems considerable demand for labor, yet, strange as it may seem, the people are warm colonizationists. They talk much about importing white labor, which, of course, they can't get till they put it on such footing as it commands in the North. The idea of everybody is that labor must be kept out of good society; and so I hear much assertion to the effect that German laborers can be imported who will work for about ten or twelve dollars per month, and occupy the cabins which the negroes have vacated.