Charles Manly
Who was Charles Manly?
American politician (1795-1871)
Biographical data adapted from Wikipedia’s article on Charles Manly (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Biography
Charles Manly (May 13, 1795 – May 1, 1871) was an American lawyer, politician, and public figure who was the 31st governor of North Carolina from 1849 to 1851. Born in Chatham County, North Carolina, Manly worked as a lawyer and was active in public service, eventually becoming governor as a member of the Whig Party. He passed away in Raleigh, North Carolina, on May 1, 1871, having lived through the significant changes brought about by war and reconstruction.
Manly's time as governor is notable mainly because he was the last Whig to serve in that role in North Carolina. He was elected in 1848 after defeating Democrat David S. Reid in a close race. However, in the 1850 election, Reid defeated Manly, ending the Whig Party's control of the governorship in the state. Manly was the last sitting governor of North Carolina to lose a re-election bid until Pat McCrory did so in 2016, more than 160 years later.
After his time as governor, Manly remained a respected figure in North Carolina's legal and civic circles. His education at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill gave him the groundwork for a career in law and politics during one of the most challenging periods in American history. The national decline of the Whig Party in the early 1850s ended his chances of further statewide political roles, as the party disbanded after his governorship.
Manly came from a family with notable public ties. His brother, Matthias Evans Manly, was a justice on the North Carolina Supreme Court. He was also an ancestor of Alexander Manly, the African-American journalist and editor of the Wilmington Daily Record, whose editorial in 1898 played a part in the events of the Wilmington Massacre. Charles Manly's family history connects to some of the most heated issues in North Carolina's history, relating to race, press freedom, and political violence during and after Reconstruction.
Before Fame
Charles Manly was born on May 13, 1795, in Chatham County, North Carolina, a part of the Piedmont region where farmers, merchants, and professionals were becoming more numerous in the early years of the republic. In this environment, Manly pursued an education at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, one of the first public universities in the country, which was training many of the state’s future lawyers, politicians, and civic leaders.
After finishing his education, Manly became a lawyer, a common route for ambitious young men of his time who wanted to gain political power. In early nineteenth-century North Carolina, law and politics were closely linked, and Manly gained the reputation and connections he needed to eventually seek statewide office with the Whig Party, which in the 1840s was still an active force in Southern politics.
Key Achievements
- Served as the 31st Governor of North Carolina from 1849 to 1851
- Was the last member of the Whig Party to hold the governorship of North Carolina
- Graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, one of the nation's earliest public universities
- Built a sustained career in law and public administration in North Carolina spanning several decades
- Defeated incumbent-backed Democrat David S. Reid in the 1848 gubernatorial election in a closely contested race
Did You Know?
- 01.Manly was the last sitting governor of North Carolina to lose a re-election bid until Pat McCrory's defeat in 2016, a record that stood for more than 160 years.
- 02.He was the final Whig Party member ever to serve as governor of North Carolina, as the party collapsed nationally in the early 1850s.
- 03.His descendant Alexander Manly, an African-American editor, became a central figure in the 1898 Wilmington Massacre after publishing an editorial that inflamed white supremacist political groups.
- 04.Manly lost his 1850 re-election campaign to the same opponent, Democrat David S. Reid, whom he had defeated just two years earlier in 1848.
- 05.His brother Matthias Evans Manly served as an associate justice on the North Carolina Supreme Court, making the Manly family one of the more legally prominent families in mid-nineteenth-century North Carolina.