Bartholomew Figures Moore

Background

Bartholomew Figures Moore was born on January 29, 1801, in Halifax County, North Carolina. He was the son of James Moore, a native of Virginia, and Sally Lowe Lewis of Edgecombe County, North Carolina.

Education

Entering the sophomore class of the University of North Carolina, Moore was graduated in 1820. He then studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1823, and began practice at Nashville, Nash Countywhere for twelve years he barely made a living. Employing these lean years in close study, he became, while still a young man, a very learned lawyer, well versed in statute law, and profound in his knowledge of the common law.

Career

In 1835, Moore returned to Halifax County and finally won professional success. Also in a modest way he entered politics. He had been a Crawford Republican, but he disliked intensely Jacksonian Democracy and cast his lot with Clay. In 1836, and again in 1840, 1842, and 1844, he was a member of the House of Commons where he was an active champion of internal improvements, public schools, and the establishment of asylums and hospitals for the unfortunate. From 1848 to 1851, he was attorney-general, resigning upon his selection as one of the commissioners to revise the statute law of the state. The Revised Code of North Carolina 1854 (1855) is a monument to his legal learning. He achieved his first wide reputation as a lawyer by his brief in State vs. Will, a case in which the court upheld him in affirming the right of a slave to protect himself by force from unlawful violence, even from his master. This marked a notable lessening of the rigor of the slave code. All of his cases were admirably prepared and forcibly presented, but without a trace of oratory or eloquence.

As the Civil War approached, Moore found himself out of sympathy with the trend of Southern sentiment. While he believed that the South was justly aggrieved, he denied the right of secession and never changed his opinion. He refused to be a candidate for the secession convention, and his only concession to the Confederate cause was his acceptance of a place on the state board of claims. He refused to take the oath of allegiance to the Confederacy, although he was thereby debarred from practice in the Confederate courts, and, while he took no part in any peace movement, he made no secret of his love for the Union and his wish for its restoration. When the war closed, PresidentJohnson summoned him to Washington for advice on North Carolina affairs, and on May 22, 1865, explained his plan of restoration in detail and showed him the amnesty and North Carolina proclamations which were ready to be issued. Moore vehemently opposed the whole plan, denying its constitutionality, and urged the President to employ the existing legislatures to summon conventions and thus preserve legal continuity. He was, however, a member of the convention of 1865 and its outstanding leader.

He served on the commission to suggest such changes in the laws as were made necessary by emancipation, and wrote the report, later adopted by the legislature, which recognized the citizenship of the freedmen and granted them substantial equality before the law. In the second session of the convention in 1866, Moore drew up the new constitution, induced the convention to adopt it and submit it to the people, and, in a powerful argument, unsuccessfully urged its ratification. He had little sympathy with the conservatives who were in power in the state from 1866 to 1868, and even less with the radicals.

Achievements

• Moore's practice in the United States Supreme Court was large and successful. After the war Moore practiced for the most part in the federal courts. His U. S. Supreme Court practice was extensive. In 1871 he and his son-in-law, John Thomas Gatling, established a law firm in Raleigh.

Works

More photos

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  • Revised Code of North Carolina, Enacted by the General Assembly at the Session of 1854: Together With Other Acts of a Public and General Nature, ... the Constitution of the United States, Etc

    (Excerpt from Revised Code of North Carolina, Enacted by t...)

  • AN ADDRESS on the LIFE, CHARACTER and PUBLIC SERVICES of HENRY CLAY, Delivered on the ___ day of August, A.D. 1852, at Weldon, North Carolina, upon Invitation

Religion

Bartholomew was a member of both the Masonic order and Christ Church.

Politics

Moore opposed congressional reconstruction because he believed it unconstitutional and because he foresaw its evil results, but he saw no hope of immediate relief and took no active part in politics. In 1869, however, when certain justices of the supreme court and other judges took an active part in a political demonstration in behalf of the Republican party, he drew up a solemn protest which was signed by 107 other lawyers and published. The supreme court at its succeeding session ordered the signers disabled from appearing until they could show cause to the contrary, and served the rule upon Moore and two others. Upon their disavowal of intent to bring the court into contempt, the court, which found itself in an awkward position, discharged the rule. Moore continued in active practice, chiefly in the federal courts, until his death.

Views

Moore drew the ordinance declaring the ordinance of secession null and void from the beginning, and favored vacating all offices, but he bitterly resented the President's insistence upon the repudiation of the war debt and voted against the ordinance.

Personality

In appearance and manner, Moore was austere, and, utterly frank, he was frequently impetuous and irascible in speech. Johnson was friendly but firm, and when he invited Moore to participate in the selection of a provisional governor, the latter declined to have any part in it.

Quotes from others about the person

• "Ripe in years, full of honors, rich in the confidence and regard of his fellow citizens everywhere, he has ended a long career of unremitting and signally successful labor without a taint upon his honor or a blot upon his escutcheon. "

Connections

Moore was twice married: on December 2, 1828, to Louisa, the daughterof George Boddie, of Nash County, North Carolina, who died in 1829, and on April 19, 1835, to her sister Lucy.

Father:

James Moore

Mother:

Sally Lowe Lewis

Wife:

Lucy Williams Boddie Moore

29 April 1816 - 3 January 1887

Wife:

Louisa Boddie Moore

5 February 1809 - 4 November 1829

Daughter:

Ellen Douglas Moore Leach

25 June 1850 - 24 May 1923

Daughter:

Lucy Catherine Moore Capehart

30 December 1839 - 1 January 1908

Daughter:

Annie M. Moore Parker

24 October 1845 - 30 May 1915

Daughter:

Sarah Louisa Moore Gatling

2 March 1844 - 3 February 1891

Daughter:

Mary Louisa Moore

13 May 1836 - 14 December 1843

Son:

Ben Malton Moore

4 March 1853 - 17 November 1913

Son:

Bartholomew Figures Moore, Jr

18 February 1838 - 8 November 1890

Son:

Van Boddie Moore

29 September 1855 - 29 April 1917

Son:

George B Moore

24 December 1841 - 16 March 1895

Son:

James Moore

28 January 1858 - 16 August 1938

References

• Reminiscences and Memoirs of North Carolina and Eminent North Carolinians (#6280)