William W. Holden
| William Woods Holden | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| 38th and 40th Governor of North Carolina | |
|
In office July 1, 1868 – March 22, 1871 |
|
| Lieutenant | Tod R. Caldwell |
| Preceded by | Jonathan Worth |
| Succeeded by | Tod R. Caldwell |
|
In office May 29, 1865 – December 15, 1865 |
|
| Appointed by | Andrew Johnson |
| Preceded by | Zebulon B. Vance |
| Succeeded by | Jonathan Worth |
| Member of the North Carolina Senate | |
|
In office 1846–1848 |
|
| Personal details | |
| Born |
November 24, 1818 Orange County, North Carolina |
| Died | March 1, 1892 (aged 73) Raleigh, North Carolina |
| Nationality | United States |
| Political party |
Republican (1866 onward) National Unionist (1865–1866) Democratic (1843–1865) Whig (1841–1843) |
| Occupation | Lawyer, Journalist |
William Woods Holden (November 24, 1818 – March 1, 1892) was the 38th and 40th Governor of North Carolina, who was appointed by President Andrew Johnson in 1865 for a brief term, and then elected in 1868, serving until 1871. He was the leader of the state's Republican Party during the Reconstruction Era.
Holden was the second governor in American history to be impeached, and the first to be removed from office. He is the only North Carolina governor to have been impeached. In 2011, Holden was posthumously pardoned by the North Carolina Senate.
Holden was born and raised near what is now Eno River State Park in present-day Orange County, North Carolina. At age of 10, he began a six-year apprenticeship with Dennis Heartt at the Hillsborough Recorder newspaper (in Hillsborough, North Carolina). By age 19, Holden was working as a printer and writer at the Raleigh Star, in Raleigh, North Carolina. He then studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1841, and became a member of the Whig party.
In 1843, he became owner and editor of the North Carolina Standard, changing its party affiliation to the Democratic party. When Holden took over the newspaper, it was struggling financially. Under his leadership, it became one of the most widely read newspapers in the state.
In December 1843, Holden became a delegate to the Democratic state party convention, where he was elected to the North Carolina Democratic Party state executive committee. In 1846, Holden was elected by Wake County voters to the North Carolina House of Commons. He did not run for re-election after serving one term. As the "eloquent propagandist" of the Democratic Party, Holden was a key contributor to his party's successes in 1850, which ended years of Whig dominance in the state. By 1858, he was chairman of the party. That year, he unsuccessfully attempted to gain the Democratic gubernatorial nomination (losing to John W. Ellis), and then his party passed him over for a U.S. Senate seat.
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