The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1909-07-13

Editor of Colonial Records
Lawyer, Journalist, Historian.
1t is in accord with the fitness OF
things that the University should thus
n his for it is
hardly too much OF say hat to
him and a few others she owe
her very existence. AS an editor and
as a citizen he was constant, even per-
sistent in advocacy of the legislation
necessary for her redemption. When
became one of her trustees, and as
such, from 1876 until his death, as
secretary and treasurer of the board,
was ~unsparing in his work.
But no other memorial attests the
virtues and services Of this son Of
North Carolina. Even his grave is
unmarked. But now the widow of
his brother, who was himself a gall
liant soldier Of the lost cause, from her
own slender means, is placing a stone
at his head to mark where he rests.
Yet it needs not the partially of
friendship to justify the assertion that
never has a State borne on her rolls
of soldiers or citizens, one who rem
dered her more devoted and valuable
service than Col. w. L. Saunders to
North Carolina.
Colonel Saunders was born in Raj
eigh in 1885. He was prepared for
college at the Lovejoy school, entered
SI1apS LII o1IU 1 "
or in 1854. He had begun the prac-
tice of law at Salisbury when the call
to arms was sounded. He at nee
enlisted and although twice desperate
ly wounded, as it's Colonel. surrender
ed at Appomattox the remnant OF the
46th Regiment, having won his every
promotion by meritOrious service. In
the predatory notes to the last volume
of the COlonial Records, he tells how
North Carolina "rallying one more
to the struggle for Constitutional
Government, enlisted for the war of
Reconstruction, fought it out to the
end, finally wrestling glorious victory
from the very jaws of disastrous de-
feat" He might we'll have applied
these sentences to himself, for he IN
deed enlisted for this fight, n at the
risk, even of death, beat back the
black tide which seemed destined to
overwhelm everything the South held
sacred.
It is hard for those who have come
upon the scene Of action within the
twenty years to realize the stress
Of storm under which the State Ia
bored during the Reconstruction pc
Rod. The passions engendered by
four years Of strife were still at fever
heat. The whole State government
debauched. The sessions OF the
General Assembly were satufnalla OF
riot and corruption. Inc executive OIL
6cers sworn to uphold the dignity Of
the State were themselves the
leaders in h raids upon the
treasury and viOlatOrs of the
and liberties of her cit
liens. The judiciary was exhausted
and crimes of rapine and violence
unchecked and even unre-
buked. The guilty went unpunished-
the innocent unprotected. Every man
susceptible to bribery w; corrupted,
every mar subject to fear was intim-
idated into silence. It was at this
i1lncture that Colonel unde laid
he foundation of the power which in
after years was to render him capable
Of giving the invaluable services which
keep his emo green. The crisis
for a man, and the man was
fit and ready for the crisis. Laws
were silent and the only hope for the
restoration Of peace and safety lay IN
~appeals to the higher law, the -od-
law Of self-protection. The
rare blending of conflicting qualities
which made up the personality OF
Saunders gave him peculiar lit
ness for such conjunction. He was ten
der as a woman When tenderness was
allowable, but as relentless as granite
when severity became a duty. He
saw that only n remedy existed Tor