Alfred Moore Waddell, Enlightened Wilmingtonian

Bernhard Thuersam, Executive Director

Cape Fear Historical Institute

Cape Fear Historical Institute Papers

Colonel Alfred Moore Waddell

Early life at “Moorefields.”

“My earliest recollections are of an old plantation in

“the back country,” as the region of middle North Carolina

was called by the people of the sea coast. It had been the

summer residence of my ancestor, Alfred Moore, a Justice of

the Supreme Court of the United States, and the old mulberry

tree under which tradition said he used to read law after his

admission to the bar, was still standing in my youth.

At the time of which I write it (Moorefields) was the summer

residence of his son, of the same name, my grandfather, who was

a rice planter on the lower Cape Fear, and a man of extraordinary gifts as a conversationalist, an orator and bell-lettres scholar,

who was for many years a member and speaker of the House

of Commons of the State.

On this plantation Thomas Hart Benton, Senator from Missouri,

was born and passed his early years, his grandfather, Thomas Hart, Sheriff of the county, having owned part of it in the Colonial period, and it was the scene of several incidents during the Revolution,

among which may be mentioned the hurried trip of Colonel

David Fanning, the Tory leader, when, on a raid he captured Governor Burke and his suite at Hillsborough in September, 1781

and took them through the plantation on his way to Deep River

and thence to Fayetteville and Wilmington….”

"As I look back and recall the happy days spent on that old place

they seem to be seperated from me by a hundred years and are wrapped in a tender mist of indescribable memories."

Alfred Moore Waddell, 1908

Statesman, Jurist and Scholar of the Cape Fear

Early Life, Marriage and Career:
Colonel Waddell was born in Hillsborough, North Carolina on 16 September 1834, the son of Hugh and Susan Moore Waddell,

“both of distinguished Lower Cape Fear lineage.” Waddell was the

great-grandson of three of North Carolina’s greatest Revolutionary

leaders, General Hugh Waddell, Chief Justice of the US Supreme

Court Alfred Moore, Colonel J.P. Williams, and General Francis Nash. The latter was killed at Germantown, Pennsylvania on October 4, 1777 and the city of Nashville, Tennessee is named for him. Waddell’s

father’s mother was the only child of General Nash.

Waddell was educated as a young man at Bingham’s School and the Caldwell Institute in Hillsborough, and graduated from the University of North Carolina in 1853. He then studied law “with such distinguished

jurists as John L. Bailey, William H. Battle, Frederick Nash and Samuel

H. Phillips,” and was admitted to the North Carolina bar in 1855. He

then moved to Wilmington which was the home of his forebears and

began his practice of law. He married Elizabeth Savage in1857, who

gave birth to Elizabeth Savage Waddell and Alfred M., Jr. After the

death of his wife, Waddell married her sister Ellen Savage in 1878.

He married a third time in 1896 to Gabrielle de Rossett.

The newly-opened Thalian Hall at Third and Princess Streets held its grand opening on "Friday, December 3rd, 1857 presenting "The Invisible Prince or The Island of Tranquil Delights, described as a "musical fairy extravaganza in four acts," (and the) leading role of Don Leander was played by Alfred Moore Waddell."

Waddell first entered public office in 1858 as Clerk of the Court of

Equity in New Hanover County, a position he held until 1861. A

devoted Conservative and Unionist in political philosophy, be

supported the American Party ticket in 1856 and the Constitutional

Union Party in 1860. He served as a North Carolina alternative delegate

to the Constitutional Union Party convention in 1860.

North Carolina Unionist:
As he strongly opposed the growing secessionist movement in the South, he purchased the Wilmington Herald as a platform for his views, editing this unionist newspaper from 1860 to 1861. As he and other unionist North Carolinians learned in early 1861, a continued relationship with radical and revolutionary Northern politicians was not practical after Lincoln called for North Carolina troops to invade South Carolina and violate the United States Constitution. Though a unionist, Waddell knew well that the Constitution delegated no power to the federal agent to coerce a sovereign State, a view held by President James Buchanan as well.

Waddell offered his services in defense of North Carolina first as an Adjutant, and later as Lt. Colonel of the North Carolina Third Cavalry in 1863 and 1864. This unit was later designated the Forty-First North Carolina Regiment, from which he resigned in 1864 due to poor health.

After the War Between the States:
When the war ended, he advocated peaceful readjustment with the

North as well as Conservative political initiatives for the South as

homes and industry were rebuilt.
On July 26th, 1865, he was asked by leading black citizens to address

“the colored people…at the Wilmington Theatre (Thalian Hall). There

he “denounced taxation without representation and advocated the future extension of the suffrage to those of the Negroes that were qualified for

the privilege” (Wilmington Sentinel, August 8, 1865). Waddell

supported voting rights for black citizens who like their white counterparts, met intelligence and property requirements. At the same time, Wilmington had a garrison of black occupation troops which brought great unrest to

the black population. Waddell wrote to Reconstruction Governor

Holden that “outrages by the (Negro) troops were of daily occurrence

and that the effect of the colored troops on the Negro population was

very dangerous.” As great latitude was given to the occupation troops

and their hostile behavior toward white citizens, and there was little

redress of citizen complaints. A black riot was feared after a demand

was made “that they should have some city offices and made threats when they were refused.” Waddell’s concern caused the Governor to promise

swift punishment of rioters, and he began mustering out black troops

in September 1865.

With the restoration of home rule in 1870, he was elected to the

Forty-Second Congress in for four terms as a Conservative-Democrat. While serving in Congress, Waddell appointed Edwin A. Alexander to

the US Naval Academy in 1878, and he graduated in 1882.

Alexander won the Congressional Medal of Honor twice for extraordinary heroism during the Spanish War, and at Veracruz in 1915.

Waddell Quells Race Riot:
Waddell was called upon again to restrain racial hostility in the early 1870’s, when according to the memoirs of Wilmingtonian and US Congressman John D. Bellamy,

“Wilmington and New Hanover County were absolutely under

the control of a large Negro population, which had drifted there

from South Carolina and other parts of the country, attracted by

the Freedmen's Bureau, a national institution that gave rations

and clothing to the newly emancipated slaves; a howling mob

of Negroes, being led by a notorious white man by the name of

James Heaton, seized and took possession of the town; several thousands of the mob smashing windows, ruining property, and

were about to set fire to the town.

“The weak and puny carpetbagger government, which even the Negroes did not respect, could not quell the riot. Alfred Moore Waddell, calling together a handful---hardly more than one

hundred---of brave and fearless men, with a gun in his hand, led

a charge on the large mob of Negroes, put it to flight, and in less

than an hour drove the rioters to their homes and restored order.

The weak and pusillanimous government continued to function

once more in peace.
Colonel Waddell, at the time, was a writer, who dropped his

books and responded to the appeal to have order restored.”

Bellamy wrote of Waddell’s high character and described him as

“a member of Congress (who) made a national reputation as an orator and campaigner…a man of courage, and in trying

times was a leader.”

An Acclaimed Orator in Demand:
On June 15, 1875, the cornerstone of the Temple Israel was laid with impressive ceremonies. Colonel A.M. Waddell an address and the

Masons laid the stone. The Temple would later by led by Rabbi Samuel Mendelsohn, who began services in February 1876.

His retirement from political office allowed him an opportunity to write

and speak, and his oratorical abilities were widely respected. With

the latter, “His polished eloquence and commanding stage presence brought to him a continuous flood of requests throughout the State

and elsewhere to deliver addresses of all kinds---commencement,

patriotic and historical.” Waddell delivered political campaign speeches

as far away as Maine and New York in 1880 in behalf of the

Democratic ticket.

A highly respected and accomplished Wilmingtonian, it is not uncommon to hear him described thusly: “Colonel Waddell’s

superior talents, remarkable power of speech, pleasing personality and his courteous address were known to all men.”

Scholar and Author in Retirement:
Waddell’s literary accomplishments of considerable merit are found in the publication of three books, A Colonial Officer and His Times, 1754-1773, General Hugh Waddell (1890); Some Memories of My Life (1908); and

A History of New Hanover County and the Lower Cape Fear Region, 1723-1800 (1909). Waddell’s abilities as an author are underscored

by noted Cape Fear historian James Sprunt who comments “that

he had not read a sea-tale “comparable to Colonel Waddell’s thrilling

story “Pilots in a Storm.” Its descriptive, dramatic strength reminds one

of Victor Hugo’s weird “Story of a Gun’; but Colonel Waddell’s story

is true in all its details, as it tells of a tragedy in which five devoted

Cape Fear pilots went down to death.”

Return to the Political Arena:
The political upheavals of the 1890’s and ascent of opportunist

Daniel Russell to the governor’s office in 1896 brought Waddell out

of retirement in support of the Democratic ticket. Though referred to as

the “white supremacy” campaign of 1898, it was a predictable response

to the fusion of black Republican voters with disenchanted white Populists led by the corrupt Russell. The Democrats and most white citizens of the State feared a return to the corrupt and financially devastating rule of Republicans as had been experienced during reconstruction in the late 1860’s. Waddell led white Wilmingtonians in their effort to shut down

a racially-inflammatory black newspaper, and then became mayor of Wilmington after the unpopular Republican regime had resigned. As

mayor, “Waddell quickly restored sobriety and peace, demonstrating

his capacity to act with courage in critical times.” He continued in this

office until 1905, leading a responsible and honest government

unaffected by the racial turbulence of his predecessor.

Welcomes UDC Convention to Wilmington:
In November 1901 the annual convention of the United Daughters of

the Confederacy was held in Wilmington and as mayor, welcomed them

to this historic city. In his address, he said “As one who bore a humble

part in the service of the Confederacy I reverently salute you the wives, sisters, and daughters of my comrades, the noblest army of heroines

and patriots that ever trod the earth.” He went on to say that:

“Your organization is unique in human annals, as was the

struggle whose memories you seek to preserve. The dreamer and sentimentalist may fold his hands, and with a sigh exclaim that

history will do justice between the parties to that struggle; but experience has shown that history, like Providence, helps those

only who help themselves, and will honor only those who help

her to record the truth. You will readily admit that if the Southern people had remained silent, and had used no printer’s ink after

the war, they would have been pilloried in history as Rebels

and traitors who had, causelessly and without a shadow of

excuse, drenched the land with the blood of unoffending patriots.

But the Southern people did not remain silent; they published in

a thousand forms the truth, both as to the causes which impelled

them to assert their rights and as to the battles in which they maintained them, and have thus made a partial, unjust and one-sided history impossible. In this work the Memorial Association first,

and after them the United Daughters of the Confederacy, have

been the most heroic and devoted, and they may justly claim a

large share of the credit for successfully vindicating before the

world the causes which their Southern countrymen engaged, and

in which thousands of them sacrificed their lives.”

Colonel Waddell was ever mindful of the sacrifices made by

North Carolinians in defense of their State, and the oration above

displayed his expertise in verse, and sentimentality for those patriots

who fell. In a later oration delivered to the Alumni Association of the University of North Carolina on May 31, 1892, Waddell related an

experience on the sands of Fort Fisher at the mouth of the Cape Fear

River below Wilmington, as he remembered the Old North State

patriots who fought and perished there in defense of their families,

homes, State and fortunes:

“Recently I stood at night, on the narrow peninsula where

twenty-seven years ago fleet and fort proclaimed in thunder the

fame of Fort Fisher. To the eastward heaved the sea, on whose

rolling billows the rising moon poured a flood of silvery light,

while opposite, and hanging low above the shining river in

limitless depths of the western heavens, glowed the serene orb

of the evening planet, whose glories heightened as it

neared the horizon.

Between lay the long line of ragged mounds over which the tide of battle ebbed and flowed when the expiring hopes of a brave people were forever extinguished. Beneath wave and mound alike patriot bones were bleaching, mute witnesses of the horrors of civil strife

and of the emptiness of human ambition. Higher rose the goddess

of the night. Wider grew the sheen upon the waters, lower and

more luminous sank the star.

A solemn stillness, unbroken save by the voices of the night wind

and the sea, reigned supreme….As I watched that evening planet sinking to its rest a voice within me whispered,:

"So, too, to the patriot’s eye there is no vision more grateful

than the career of him who, forgetful of self, and mindful

only of the rights and liberties of his fellow men, gives his

life to their service, and with the luster of his virtues ever

brightening to the end, passes from their view.”

Alfred Moore Waddell died on March 17th, 1912 in Wilmington at the

age of 77, and was interred in Oakdale Cemetery.

About the Author
Bernhard Thuersam is the Executive Director of the Cape Fear Historical Institute in Wilmington. A native of Niagara Falls, New York, he has been a devoted student of world history since 1958, and is a former Chairman of the Cape Fear Museum Board of Trustees. Contact him at bernhard1848@att.net)

Bibliography:

Chronicles of the Cape Fear, James Sprunt, Broadfoot Publ'g, 1916/1992 North Carolina, A. Henderson, Lewis Publishing, 1941, page 656
Dictionary of North Carolina Biography, W. Powell, UNC Press, 1986
Memoirs of an Octogenarian, John D. Bellamy, Observer Printing, 1941
Confederate Veteran Magazine, November, 1901, page 485-486

Mission Statement:

Alfred Moore Waddell, Enlightened Wilmingtonian

Cape Fear Historical Institute Papers