Hillsborough Recorder
Sept. 11, 1861
Page 3
DEATH
OF HON. W. P. MANGUM
Died, at his
residence, near Red
Mountain, Orange county,
on the 7th inst., the Honorable William P. Mangum, aged near seventy
years.
The demise of so
eminent a citizen demands of us some brief memorial of a life, connected for
near a third of the past century, with only occasional interruptions, with the
public history of the country.
Commencing his career as an advocate at the bar of the 4th
circuit, in the period of its highest renown, he was thrice a member of the
State Legislature, for his native county of Orange—at three different times
appointed Judge of the Superior Courts of Law and Equity—twice elected to the
House of Representatives in the Congress of the United States—for three full
terms he represented North Carolina if the Senate of the Union, and for the
latter half of the term of Mr. Tyler in the Presidency, from 1842 to 1845, he
was the President of the Senate, (succeeding upon the death of the Hon. Samuel
L. Southard of New Jersey,) and though in times of high party excitement,
acquitted himself to the general approbation of that August assembly. In 1830 he received the vote of South Carolina for the Presidency of the United States,
in opposition to Mr. Van Buren.
Mr. Mangum was a
native of the county
of Orange, and born, we
believe, in 1792. His preparatory studies,
prior to his entrance at the University of the State, were pursued in his own
neighborhood, and at a later stage under the Reverend Doctor McPheeters in the
Raleigh Academy. He was some time also,
an assistant teacher in this Institution, and was perhaps indebted to this
employment, for that neat penmanship and exact observance of the rules of
elegant composition which characterized all his writings. He received his first degree at the
University in 1815, studied the Law in the office of the late Honorable Duncan
Cameron, then a Judge of the Superior Courts, and a neighbor of his
father. Under his admission to the bar,
he at once acquired a practice which gave him both profit and reputation,
insomuch that within five years he was elected to the bench. This he quitted the year following, and
resumed his practice until 1823, when he was returned to the House of
Representatives of the United
States.
From this time, although he was twice afterwards a Judge, and for two or
three years at the bar, his attention was mainly devoted to politics. His powers as a public speaker, his intimate
acquaintance with the motives and habits of thought of the people, and an elegant
person and address, gave him high distinction as an advocate, and general
acceptance as a Judge. But it was in the
deliberative and popular assembly, the congregations of the masses of men, and
above all, in the social intercourse, and conversations of public men, that his
talents, his inclinations, his habits and tastes, eminently fitted him to
shine. In the House of Representatives,
with Clay, Randolph, McLane, McDuffie, Storrs, Buchanan and
other leading spirits, in 1823 and 1825, he took a conspicuous part in the
debates, and well sustained the character of the State, in the public
counsels. After his election to the
Senate, which he first entered in 1830, he made few elaborate efforts, but
partook in the running debates, and was recognized as one of its distinguished
members, when Clay, Calhoun, Webster, Wright, Forsythe, Clayton, Benton, Leigh,
and a galaxy of Parliamentary talent, not seen in this country before or since,
were members of that body. In popular
eloquence, such as is addressed to the people in their primary assemblies, Mr.
Magnum has had but few equals in our country, and it may well be doubted,
whether Clay, Crittenden, Corwin or Preston, would have borne from him the palm
in that field of oratory. His tall and
commanding figure, always becomingly dressed, his rich and melodious voice, his
flowing periods, his splendid Imagery, often gorgeous and not in the best taste
of the rhetorical critic, but apposite, and dazzling to the less acute, his
sympathetic nature, and perfect acquaintance with all the springs and motives
of human action, gave him an almost mesmeric sway over the multitudes. This, with a native genius and sagacity, and
a natural command over men, gave him weight in the consultations of his
associates, and in the deliberations of the Senate; for his habits were far
from studious, and as he advanced in life he seemed to avoid elaborate
discussions. In the fiercest strifes of
party, his generous bearing and fine manners preserved to him cordial relations
with political opponents, and to Randolph or Clay, Benton or Preston, Webster,
King or Wright, he was alike an agreeable talker and listener. For several years past, Mr. Mangum had been
prostrated by paralysis, and greatly afflicted by disease, which deprived him
of the power of speech. He retained,
however, his mental faculties, and took a deep interest in the current events,
of the struggle in which the country is engaged, until the fall of his only
son, a Lieutenant in the North Carolina State Troops (named in honor of the
cherished friend of his premier days, William Preston, of South Carolina,) from
a wound received in the gallant discharge of duty, in the triumphant battle of
Manassas plains on the 21st of July.
Overwhelmed by this distressing bereavement, he seemed to surrender his
hold on the things of this life, and welcome the grave. A widow and three daughters, whose grief is
shared by all his neighbors, and a wide circle of friends and admirer
throughout the country, survive him.
[Transcribed
by Sharon Strout]
