In March 1864, William Holden and Zebulon Vance were engaged in a hotly contested gubernatorial race. Holden wanted North Carolina to make a separate peace with the North. Vance, on the other hand, demanded that independence for the other Southern states be a condition for North Carolina reentering the Union. The election hinged mostly on this one issue.
On March 25 General Clingman penned a letter to the Daily Confederate, debunking any rumors that he might enter the race. He endorsed Governor Vance’s candidacy and went on to list the reasons why the South could never submit to the North. Clingman’s point of view was certainly influenced by the behavior of Yankee troops in eastern North Carolina.
Our reasons for continuing the war are a thousand fold stronger than they were for embarking in it originally. The State seceded because of apprehension that our rights might be invaded, and because Lincoln, by proclamation called for a few hundred men to assist him in his war against the Gulf States. Now in such portions of our State as his armies occupy, he forces into his ranks by conscription, every man, white and black. Not only does he arm the slaves against us, but his Government has, by a series of acts of Congress, confiscated for its use, all our property, both real and personal. Should we be subjugated and our personal property seized, and our lands divided among his soldiers, both black and white, our entire population, men, women and children, must either perish from starvation, or become the slaves of our conquerors, and labor for a subsistence on such terms as they might grant. Yankee masters were always notorious for avarice and cruelty, but the atrocities which they have committed within the last three years have caused humanity to stand aghast with horror….
I know of no variety of the human race whom we ought not to prefer as masters to the yankees, whose leading traits are avarice and hypocrisy; for to the duplicity and cunning of the fox, they add the rapacity of the wolf and the venom of the serpent. To protect us from such enemies, to save our women from becoming cooks and house servants, we have nothing to rely on but the favor of God and the valor of our armies. If those armies be properly sustained by the country and wisely directed by our government, they will in the end give us independence, peace, safety and honor. Unless these are obtained, I hold that the war should continue as long as there is one brave man surviving, and one true Southern woman left to fight for.
Very respectfully, yours, &c.,
T. L. Clingman.
[Western Democrat, 5 Apr. 1864]
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