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The Papers of William Woods Holden: Volume I,1841-1868. Edited by Horace W. Raper and Thornton W. Mitchell. (Raleigh: North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources, 2000. Pp. xlvii, 456. $40.00.)
William Woods Holden (1818-1892) was one of the most important and controversial figures in nineteenth-century North Carolina. As editor of the Raleigh Standard and chief strategist of the antebellum Democratic party, he distinguished himself as an outspoken advocate of Southern rights. Nonetheless, he broke with his party after the election of Abraham Lincoln and resisted disunion until the Confederate attack on Fort Sumter. Although he initially supported the war effort, he soon found himself at odds with both the Jefferson Davis administration in Richmond and the state administration in Raleigh. In 1862 he organized the former unionists into the Conservative party and secured the election of Zebulon B. Vance as governor. His growing disillusionment with the war and his advocacy of a negotiated settlement with the North led to a break...