Storyline
How the 1840 presidential campaign played out in Orange County: the Whig and Democratic nominations, the August election that made Orange a Whig county, the Mangum and Brown debate, the Chapel Hill log cabin festival, the Harrison vote and Hillsborough’s funeral honors for Harrison.
In briefIn 1840 Orange County's Whigs and Democratic Republicans contested both the presidential race and the county's seats in the legislature. In August Orange elected Willie P. Mangum, William A. Graham and two other Whigs, with the Democratic Republican Cadwallader Jones Jr. taking the fourth seat, and the Recorder declared Orange a Whig county. In September Mangum and Democratic Senator Bedford Brown debated for two days at Hillsborough's Masonic Hall, and Chapel Hill held a Whig log cabin festival, though the University faculty asked the candidates not to speak there. In November the county gave Harrison a majority of 191 over Van Buren, and William A. Graham went on to the U.S. Senate.
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No works in the index are currently linked directly to this storyline. The works below provide background on Politics & Government.
On April 25, 1840 a Whig district convention at Red Mountain named Dr. James S. Smith elector for Harrison and Tyler. On May 26 the Orange Whigs at the Masonic Hall in Hillsborough nominated Willie P. Mangum for the state Senate and William A. Graham, Col. James Graham and two others for the House of Commons, then the lower house of the legislature. The next day the Democratic Republicans nominated Gen. Joseph Allison for the Senate and a full Commons ticket that included Cadwallader Jones Jr. In August Orange elected Mangum, William A. Graham and two other Whigs, with Jones taking the fourth seat, and the Recorder declared Orange a Whig county. On September 15 and 16 Mangum and Democratic Senator Bedford Brown debated for two days at the Masonic Hall, and on September 19 Smith spoke at a Whig log cabin festival in Chapel Hill. The University faculty asked the county candidates not to speak at Chapel Hill and forbade three students chosen to manage a Whig dinner there to serve. In November the county gave the Harrison ticket 1,639 votes, a majority of 191 over Van Buren's. William A. Graham went to the U.S. Senate, and a special election on December 3 filled his and Mangum's seats with Hugh Waddell and Col. James Graham. On April 24, 1841 Hillsborough held funeral honors for President Harrison, with William A. Graham giving the oration.
Events in this storyline, in date order. See these 11 dated events in the chronology →
Background reading on Politics & Government. These works cover the broader subject and may not discuss this storyline. Follow a link to find a copy or view the material.
Willis P. Whichard's biography of David Lowry Swain, governor of North Carolina from 1832 to 1835 and president of the University of North Carolina from 1835 until his death in 1868. The subtitle ties Swain, nineteenth-century North Carolina and the university together, and the book belongs with the lives of college presidents and governors. Published in 2022.
Stewart E. Dunaway's life of Edmund Fanning (1739-1818), the colonial officeholder in Hillsborough whom the Regulators singled out and who left North Carolina as a loyalist, together with the Fanning family's genealogy. Self-published through Lulu in 2011, 223 pages with illustrations, facsimiles, genealogical tables and maps. Topics include American loyalists and Hillsborough and Orange County biography and genealogy.
Howard E. Covington Jr.'s biography of Albert Coates (1896-1989), the law professor who founded the Institute of Government at the University of North Carolina and led it through its early years. Topics include Coates as a law teacher and the institute's history as a center for the study of public administration in Chapel Hill. Published in 2010 by the University Library at Chapel Hill, 322 pages with 32 pages of plates.
Howard N. Lee (born 1934) tells his own story, from a farm childhood in Lithonia, Georgia, through college, army service in Korea at Camp Casey and the move from Savannah that planted him in Chapel Hill, to his election as mayor of Chapel Hill in 1969 and his later run for Congress and years in the state legislature. Published by Cotton Patch Press of Chapel Hill in 2008, 199 pages with plates.
A longer Southern Oral History Program interview with Presbyterian minister Charles M. Jones (1906-1993), recorded November 8, 1976, by Joseph A. Herzenberg. Jones traces his civil rights work in Chapel Hill from the 1930s into the 1960s. He characterizes town and university leaders, Frank Porter Graham among them, as cautiously liberal on race, willing to allow a little integration at performances and student activities, and describes the church's place in the town's social conflicts. Published online in 2008 in Documenting the American South.
Seventh of nine Southern Oral History Program interviews with Daniel H. Pollitt, a professor at the UNC School of Law. Recorded April 5, 1991, by Ann McColl, this session of just under an hour is devoted to the Speaker Ban Law, the 1963 act of the General Assembly that barred Communists and certain other speakers from state campuses, and to the fight over it at Chapel Hill in the mid-1960s, in which Pollitt took part. Published online in 2008 in Documenting the American South.
Race, sports and student protest at UNC are the subjects of this fourth interview with law professor Daniel H. Pollitt, recorded February 15, 1991, by Ann McColl for the Southern Oral History Program. Pollitt discusses the integration of Carolina athletics, including basketball player Charlie Scott, the university's first Black scholarship athlete, the discrimination Black athletes met, student activism from the late 1950s through the 1960s, and the Campus Y. Published online in 2008 by the UNC-Chapel Hill Library in Documenting the American South.
Pat Cusick, a civil rights worker in Chapel Hill during the 1960s, was interviewed by Pamela Dean in June 1989. He explains how his schooling and military service changed his thinking about race, his frustration with campus liberalism at UNC, and his turn to civil disobedience as a student organizer in the town. Topics include civil rights workers, college student political activity and race relations in Chapel Hill. About two and a half hours; electronic edition issued by the UNC library in 2008 through Documenting the American South.
Quinton E. Baker, a Black gay man who took part in the Chapel Hill civil rights protests of the 1960s, was interviewed by Chris McGinnis in February 2002. He describes growing up under segregation with little contact with white people, an early awareness of his sexuality, and the way race and sexual identity together shaped his activism as a college student. About two and a half hours; electronic edition from the UNC library, 2008, through Documenting the American South.
Catalog of an exhibit mounted by the Manuscripts Department of Wilson Library from January 23 to May 31, 2007, on student protest in Chapel Hill during the 1960s. Topics include civil rights demonstrations, the Speaker Ban Law, the Black Student Movement, restaurant strikes and Vietnam War protests at the university. Compiled by Biff Hollingsworth, 59 pages with illustrations and facsimiles, published by the university library.
Second of two Southern Oral History Program interviews with Anne Queen (1911-2005), who came to Chapel Hill after years as an industrial worker and went on to direct the Campus YWCA-YMCA, a center of student activism. Recorded November 22, 1976, by Joseph Herzenberg, this hour-long conversation covers how Queen saw politics in the South and the nation change through the mid-twentieth century, and student political activity at UNC. Published online in 2007 by the UNC-Chapel Hill Library in Documenting the American South.
Ashley Davis, who entered UNC in 1968 and joined the Black Student Movement, recalls the 1969 strike by the university's cafeteria workers and the BSM's decision to stand with them when the workers asked. Recorded April 12, 1974, by Russell Rymer for the Southern Oral History Program, the hour-and-a-half interview touches on Chancellor J. Carlyle Sitterson, the Southern Student Organizing Committee and race relations among students on campus. Published online in 2007 by the UNC-Chapel Hill Library in Documenting the American South.
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