William Woods Holden: Firebrand of North Carolina Politics (review)

BOOK REVIEWS349 Stephens, in openly opposing certain policies of the Richmond government after 1862, is portrayed as a true lover of liberty (for whites) who "did not harbor a traitor's heart" (p. 367). Schott concedes that Davis understood the nature of the Civil War far better than did Stephens, but faults the president for believing that Southern hearts could be won for the cause "by increasingly burdensome laws ever more capriciously executed" (p. 396), and for the foolishness of treating the politically influential Stephens like a cipher. Yet in the last analysis, Schott argues that Stephens put himself in an indefensible position by 1864: "Somehow in his excursions through the ethereal realms of truth Stephens had failed to understand what a shambles war always makes of morality, what an unreasoning activity it is, and what a pitiful weapon philosophy is to oppose the minions of Mars" (p. 414). Still hungry for vindication through political recognition and office after the war, Stephens eventually served again in the House of Representatives and finally, at the time ofhis death in 1882, as a governor ofhis state—one who was by then addled by alcohol and morphine. One might wish for some final conclusions concerning the long, important career of this strangely fascinating man, but they have to be found in the author's preface and scattered throughout the volume. "He was always trying to prove his manhood," Schott argues, "hiding his pain and loneliness under a mantle of self-righteous pride" (p. xvi). Craving recognition more than money (though he always had enough of the latter in his adulthood) or power, Stephens is interpreted as a conventional, unimaginative man who was not brilliant but who knew and loved the antebellum white man's world of Georgia with its alleged order, safety, and predictability and where honor was the supreme virtue. "Every day of his own life made a mockery of all of Stephens's glorious abstractions," Schott declares (p. xvii). Robert F. Durden Duke University William Woods Holden: Firebrand of North Carolina Politics. By William C. Harris. (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1987. Pp. xiv + 332. $35.00.) William C. Harris's biography of William Woods Holden, newspaper editor and politician, is the third to be published this decade. Who is this man who is now the focus of such a flurry of historical inquiry? He is certainly an enigma. Originally a Whig, Holden became editor of the Democratic North Carolina Standardin the 1840s. Although recognized as a key party leader, he failed to win his party's nomination for governor in 1958. Then during the Civil War, he deserted these secessionist Democrats to help organize the Conservative party, which won the governor- 350CIVIL WAR HISTORY ship for Zebulon Vance. Two years later, however, dissatisfied with Vance and his support of the war, he bolted, running unsuccessfully for governor as a peace candidate. Appointed as Andrew Johnson's first Southern provisional governor in 1865, he initially supported the president 's lenient Reconstruction policy. However, he was again thwarted in his quest for recognition by the electorate when the old Conservatives, led by Jonathan Worth, defeated him in the regular gubernatorial election . Within a year he switched parties again, becoming a staunch supporter of the Radicals. Finally, as a Republican, Holden fulfilled his long-cherished dream; he won election as governor of North Carolina. After a tumultuous term, however, the Conservatives returned to power and, in 1871, impeached Holden and removed him from office. Contemporaries and historians ofthe Dunning tradition tended to see Holden as an opportunist and a failure. More recent works, especially Horace Raper's 1985 study, present Holden in a much more favorable light. Many argue that he earnestly struggled for the advancement of the common man. However, in the end, they, too, believe Holden failed, blaming either his strong personal ambition or his flawed personality arising from his lower-class origins. Harris, while presenting perhaps the most balanced account of Holden's career, tends to support the conclusions of the recent scholarship. Harris stresses Holden's important influence in shaping state politics and, to some degree, national history from the 1840s through the Reconstruction era. He concludes that...