The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1911-01-17
BUST OF SENATOR RANSOM
UNVEILED AND PRESENTED
CONTINUED from Page SeVen.)

in the Senator's life when ne refused
to sign the Alliance ana toId
them an anecdOte OF his grandfather
a brother of Nat Macon. some part1es
in Warren county were uncertain as
70 which was the most desirable
virtue. n the Senator's grandfather
settled the dispute by stating that
courage was the most desirable or all
virtues
When less than thirty, Ransom de-
Iivered an address at the University.
opposing secession, in which he de-
cIared that the SeceSSiOnists would
draw a line across the repub-
tic although it passed over the grave
Of Washington and divided the ashes
Of the great father of our country,
and thai disunion would cover the
American name with dlshOnOr as lone
as the earth remained.
But for President Lincoln's un-
fortunate call for troops, North Caro-
lima would not have joined the Con-
federacy. AS one of the three peace
commissioners to Montgomery, in Feb
ruary, 1861. Matt Ransom did all in
his power to avert civil war. When
Lincoln's call for troops was issued
and Sumter was fired on, Vance was
speaking at Wilkesboro for the Union
and the Old Flag. 4 telegram was
as Vance afterwards remarked, when
his hands fell they fell by the side of
a secessionist.
When little more than a boy, Ran
som was elected Acknowledgement by
a Democratic Legislature, although
he himself was a Wing. Ransom soon
left the Whig party because it went
into acknowledgment and anti-Catho-
licis1n. Ransom was the most Catholic
of mortals, and loved the Union with
an intense passion. He despised
TOombs and Yancey and Rhett equally
with Chandler, Wende Phillips and
Garrison. The former would nave
dissolved the Union to rid the North
ern half of this disnembered
try of slavery; the latter would have
dissolved the Union to retain slavery
in he. Southern half. With sue as
these, whether Roderigo killed Cas-
sio or Cassie Killed Roderigo, twas
their gain. The attitude of Ransom
towards slavery, which he opposed,
and his conduct in the war which
followed, marked him as a distinct
type of the Southern man, true to his
convictions, yet truer to his ~neighbors.
his friends and his people. With men
of this kind. blood is ever thicker han
water. Although he thought the war
was useless and q crime and that it
ought to be ayerted, and although
he knew fully the horrors of civil
war and the uselessness Of endeavOring
to fight against the North, backed by
the moral and financial support Of the
entire world, yet he went to the front
without murmering. When Governor
Ellis made his cali for 10000 volun-
teers, Ransom left these legislative
halls, he then being a membe of the
House from Northampton, and went
forth to defend his native State, and
from the time he buckled on his
sword on the sth of May, 1861, as a
1ieutenant-colonel until he surrendered
at Appomattox, wherever duty called
or danger was the thickest this brave
man could always be found. He par
ticipated in more than a dozen bloody
battles. He was rapidly promoted un-
til at the end his commission as
major-general was won. His two
brigades were commended by General
sOmely." He and General Hoke were
thanked by the Confederate Congress
and our Legislature for the capture
of Plymouth. He was n at
Malvern Hill, and desperately wounded
at Drewry's Bluff. He was presented
q sword by his old command when
he was first promoted.
Judge Win2ton described with much
graphicness the battle of Five Forks.
One horse had been killed under Gen
erai Ransom. The ines were break
ing away. He conceived. it his duty
to go to the front. Bareheaded, he
waves his sword above his head and
III las hidSiHh1OHl oIdillOH, 1Ou, ne
leads his men in battle. h smoke
rolls away. and rider and horse are
discovered prone upon the ground.
Captain johnson of the 35th and Cap
tain Sheriff. of the goth Regiments
rush forward and extricate him from
his horse which has fallen dead upon
the general. The small Confederate
forces, with revolvers in hand, force
their way to a place of safety.
When General Ransom surrendered
at ~Appomattox, it was a complete s1,r-
render, with no mental reservations.
After the war it Is not invidious ia
say Of General Ransom that North
Carolina turned to him with as much
confidence as to any of her noble
sons. and she turned not in vain.
The beautiful story of the release