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[CIVIL WAR].
Archive of materials relating to the administering of loyalty oaths in North Carolina after the Civil War during presidential Reconstruction. 1865-1866.
Inventory #21814
Price: $4,500
21814.01. William H. Bagley, Autograph Letter Signed, as private secretary of Governor William Holden, to William Barrow, John Odom, and others. Raleigh, N.C., July 10, 1865, 1 p. quarto, on State of North Carolina, Executive Department lettersheet.
Excerpt
“Your Memorial ... has been received at this office, and the Governor directs me to say, in reply, that the matter therein referred to, will be attended to at the earliest possible moment. This, however, cannot be done until the Enrolling Boards shall have accomplished their work in the different counties, in administering the oath of amnesty to the people - separating the loyal from the disloyal. In the meantime the preservations of the Public peace will devolve upon the Justices of the Peace in the several counties, who have the right, on all occasions to control the Local Police, and posses the power to increase the same to such a number as they may deem necessary to meet any emergency which may arise, in which, they may think, is likely to arise ...”
21814.02 W.W. Holden, Printed Letter Signed in Type, as Provisional Governor, to Col. David A. Barnes, with matching cover addressed “To the Clerk of the County Court of Northampton County, Jackson, N.C.” Entitled, “Directions for Qualifying Magistrates and Organizing the County Courts.” Raleigh, N.C., July 8, 1865, 1 p. quarto, on State of North Carolina, Executive Department lettersheet.
Excerpt
“...If necessary, you will call on the officers of the Local Police to notify the Justices to meet at the Courthouse, on a day to be appointed by you. And said officers are hereby commanded to aid you in notifying the Justices to attend. When the Justices shall have assembled you will administer to them, first, the oath of amnesty; secondly, the oath to be found in the Revised Code, chapter 76, page 434, to maintain the Constitution of the State not inconsistent with the Constitution of the United States; thirdly, the oath of office, to be found in Revised Code, chapter 76, page 441.... No Justice or other officer who is included in any of the fourteen excluded classes of the President's amnesty proclamation, will be permitted to take the oaths prescribed, or enter on the performance of duty, until a pardon shall have been received by him from the President. And the oath of amnesty is not to be administered to any one who is not disposed to take it willingly and cheerfully. If any Justice named in the commission hesitates to take the oath, it will be your duty to withhold it from him .... The Clerk will make a full and complete record on his books of the proceedings of the Justices, a copy of which you will at once transmit to this office...”
21814.03 W.W. Holden, Printed Letter Signed in Type, as Provisional Governor. September 15, 1865, 1 p. quarto, on State of North Carolina, Executive Department lettersheet.
Excerpt
“You are hereby directed to retain the Amnesty Oath books until further orders, as they will be kept open to allow the people to take said oath up to the time of voting for Governor, members of Congress & c...”
21814.04 Manuscript Document, Oath. Northampton County, N.C., August 15, 1865. 1 p.
21814.05 Printed Document, Oath of Allegiance, 1865, unissued. 1 p.
21814.06 W.W. Holden, Partly Printed Document Signed, appointing twenty-two men (2 of whom are identified as dead) as Justices of the Peace. Raleigh, N.C., June 19, 1865. 1 p.
Excerpt
“WE, in order to promote the speedy restoration of CIVIL AUTHORITY in the State of North-Carolina, and ensure the perpetuation of a REPUBLICAN FORM OF GOVERNMENT, and reposing special trust and confidence in your prudence, integrity and zeal for the preservation of peace and good order, do hereby appoint you JUSTICES OF THE PEACE for the County of Northampton as long as a Provisional Governor shall continue in this State, and no longer; and do invest you with all the rights, privileges, powers and authorities, useful and necessary to the just and proper discharge of your duties, under the laws in being prior to the twentieth of May, eighteen hundred and sixty-one, and in pursuance of such other instructions as may from time to time be issued by us. In Witness whereof, His Excellency, WILLIAM W. HOLDEN, Provisional Governor for the State of North-Carolina by appointment of ANDREW JOHNSON, President of the United States of America, hath signed with his hand these presents...”
21814.07 Manuscript Document. North Carolina. Ca. 1866. Signed in Type by Secretary of State R.W. Best, House Speaker S.F. Phillips, and Senate Speaker Thomas Settle. “An Act to empower the Provisional Clerks of the County Courts or the Clerks of the Superior Courts to administer oaths.”
