page_title: North Carolina General Assembly of 1860–1861
section_title: Senate
hierarchical_section_title: North Carolina General Assembly of 1860–1861 / Members / Senate
caption_attribution_description: English: Portrait of North Carolina Governor Jonathan Worth
context_page_description: The North Carolina General Assembly of 1860–1861 met in Raleigh, North Carolina in regular session from November 19, 1860 to February 25, 1861. They met in extra sessions from May 1, 1861 to May 13, 1861 and from August 15, 1861 to September 23, 1861. This General Assembly decided that each county should vote for special delegates who would decide whether North Carolina should secede from the Union. On May 20, 1861, those special delegates convened in Raleigh and voted unanimously that the state would no longer be a part of the United States of America.
context_section_description: Henry Toole Clark was elected Speaker or President of the Senate.  As such, he was first in line of succession to the Governor since there was no Lieutenant Governor until 1868.  When Governor John Willis Ellis died of tuberculosis on July 7, 1861, Senator Clark took over as Governor and remained in that position until September 8, 1862.  He was thrust into this leadership position just as the U.S. Civil War started.  Thirty-two of the Senators were Southern Democrats.
  The clerk of the Senate was J.W. Alspaugh.  Senator William Holland Thomas was an adopted chief of the Eastern Band of the Cherokee Nation and represented their interests as he served in the Senate from 1849 to 1861.   
  Senators William Waightstill Avery and John Motley Morehead served as delegates from North Carolina to the Provisional Congress of the Confederate States of America in the third through fifth sessions in 1861 and 1862.
  The following table lists the Senators from the 50 Districts in North Carolina.
caption: Sen. Jonathan Worth
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