ASHEBORO, July 31, '61.
I know not your views in relation to the re-election of the superior Court. my nephew as Clk. of the Supr. Court. It seems to me it is a matter of public interest beyond the mere duties of the office. He has been in office a very short time and has proved himself so good an officer as to give complete satisfaction both to the Court, the bar and the public.—He was the first to raise a Company of volunteers and enter the service. It has been urged on the stump by Bulla, his only competitor having the slightest chance of success, that Shubal ought not to be elected because his competitors are poor while his father is well off and he is getting a salary of $108 as Captain—and that while in service hc would have to employ a deputy, whereby he would in effect appoint the clerk instead of the people. It would be impossible that such arguments should carry with them any weight, but, there being no one to reply to them, they have taken a hold on the minds of many, and I much fear Bulla may beat him, if intelligent men are not active on the day of the election. As soon as the people understand what every man of any information knows, that no officer in time of war, who is fit to command men, can save a dollar of his salary, and that he always spends more, if he can command it—and that Sam. Jackson volunteered without pay to act as his deputy, and was so appointed and has so acted since Shubal left, it at once strikes every mind that his non-election would wear the appearance of a rebuke on him for becoming it soldier. He would necessarily feel that our people, not under arms, do not duly appreciate the sacrifices of those who encounter the discomforts of the camp and the hazards of the field. It would wear the appearance of showing the indifference if not the disapproval of taking up arms, when in fact I doubt whether there is in any County more unanimous than ours that there is now nothing else to be thought of, but resistance to the death to our Northern foes.—It is pretty certain that we have but begun to raise troops. We should not discourage others by showing ingratitude to those who have volunteered.
My object is to suggest, if you concur in that course, that some effort be made, on the day of the election, to make the voters understand the matter.
I have heard repeatedly, but cannot credit it, that Capt. Gray and perhaps some of his friends had in some way got the impression that Shubal and his friends, in their zeal to get up Shubal's Company, had improperly thrown difficulties in Capt. G.'s way of getting volunteers. I a certain that Shubal and his relatives have not said or done anything of the kind, and that there is not the slightest ground for any such impression, and I trust none such exists. If he had any suspicion of the sort I am sure he would have given us the opportunity to exculpate ourselves. Ever since I made up my mind that war was inevitable, I have done my best to get volunteers under any leader they might be willing to follow.
SOURCE: J. G. de Roulhac Hamilton, Editor, The Correspondence of Jonathan Worth, Volume 1, p. 156-7
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