The Civil War in North Carolina



Reminiscences and Memoirs of North Carolina and Eminent North Carolinians

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the people. His reasons were, as stated in Niles' Register, (vol. vii., 163,) that "these measures had led to division among ourselves, and to bankruptcy and ruin to the nation." The embargo, a measure strongly recommended by the President, had passed the House. It was rejected in the Senate by two votes only, and one of them was Governor Stone's. He also voted against a bill to raise by direct tax revenue to support the war. He complained, personally, that to a call for information from the Committee of Ways and Means, the reply was that "there was not time to furnish the desired information."

        In this course he differed from his colleague, Governor Turner, of the Senate, and from Willis Alston, Peter Forney, John Culpepper, Meshack Franklin, William R. King, Nathaniel Macon, William H. Murfree, Israel Pickens, Richard Stanford, and Bartlett Yancey. His course called down the censure of the Legislature.

        In December, 1814, Mr. Branch, afterwards Governor, as chairman of the special committee upon the subject, reported a resolution that "the conduct of David Stone had been in opposition to his professions, and had jeopardized the safety and interest of the country, and had incurred the disapprobation of this General Assembly."

        This passed, 40 to 18, and Governor Stone forthwith resigned his seat in the Senate. This closed his distinguished and eventful public life, and four years afterward he died, in the 48th year of his age.

        Governor Stone was in person tall and commanding; of reddish hair, which he wore, as was then the fashion, in a queue.

        Willie Blount, Governor of Tennessee, was born in Bertie County 1768; died 1835.

        He was the son of Jacob Blount, already referred to in a sketch of the Blounts of Beaufort. He was the brother of Governor William Blount, the first Governor of Tennessee, (see Craven County,) and was his private secretary.

        He was a lawyer by profession, and so highly esteemed that, at the age of 28, he was elected Judge of the Supreme Court of Tennessee.

        He was the Governor of Tennessee from 1809 to 1815. This long period of public service, in so elevated a position, proves the wisdom and prudence of his conduct and his acceptable service. It was his fortune to be Governor in a most exciting period of our history--during the war with England--and he gave to the administration his cordial and constant support. He tendered to President Madison 2,500 troops, and placed them under command of Andrew Jackson, who won for his country the glorious victory at New Orleans.

        He was equally active in the Creek war, raising 2,000 volunteers and $300,000.

        He married Lucinda, daughter of John and Anne Norfleet Baker, of Bertie County.

        He died at the residence of Wylie Johnson, near Nashville, in 1835. A monument was erected by order of the Legislature unto his memory at Clarksville. He left several children, among them Mrs. J. T. Dabney; Mrs. Dortch, whose son, Willie B. Dortch, married a daughter of Governor A. V. Brown.

        The names of Cherry and Outlaw are preserved by a patriotic and talented race full of generous feeling and kindly dispositions.

        George Outlaw was born, lived and died in Bertie County. He was distinguished, says Mr. Moore in his History of North Carolina, for the blandness of his manners, and was as noted for his usefulness in the Church, as for his talents as a statesman. He entered public life as a member of the House of Commons in 1796 and in 1799, and a member of the Senate from 1806 to 1822, with some intermissions, of which body he was Speaker in 1812, '13, and '14, and elected a member of the 18th Congress, 1823-'25, to supply a vacancy occasioned
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