Resolved that we favor a proposition of peace to the enemy upon such terms as will guarantee to us all our rights upon an equality with the North.
—Raleigh North Carolina Standard, August 5, 1863
Political leader and newspaper editor William Woods Holden changed from a unionist to a secessionist after the fighting at Fort Sumter and Lincoln's call for troops in April 1861. Soon, however, he became a vocal critic of both Confederate policies and North Carolina's Democratic government. In 1863-1864 he used his Raleigh newspaper, the North Carolina Standard, to advocate peace negotiations. Largely because of Holden's dissent, some outsiders believed that North Carolina did not support the Confederacy. In September 1863, angry Georgia troops sacked the office of the Standard as they passed through Raleigh. In 1864 Holden ran for governor on a peace platform against Governor Zebulon B. Vance and was soundly defeated.
Print this