William Woods Holden (24 November 1818-1 March 1892) was Governor of North Carolina from 29 May to 15 December 1865 (succeeding Zebulon Baird Vance and preceding Jonathan Worth) and from 1 July 1868 to 22 March 1871 (succeeding Worth and preceding Tod Robinson Caldwell).
Biography[]
William Woods Holden was born in Orange County, North Carolina in 1818, and he worked as a journalist and lawyer before becoming owner of the North Carolina Standard in 1843, changing its party affiliation to the Democratic Party. In 1846, he was elected to the House of Commons, and, in 1850, he helped his party end Whig dominance in the state. During the 1840s and 1850s, he championed slavery and secession, but, by 1860, he had shifted his position to support the Union. He spoke out against the Confederate government during the American Civil War and advocated for peace, and he was appointed Governor of North Carolina by President Andrew Johnson in 1865. He was defeated in a special election later that year, and he helped organize the state's Republican Party from 1866 to 1867. He went on to serve as Governor from 1868 to 1871, and, from 1869 to 1870, he hired two dozen detectives to combat the Ku Klux Klan. In 1870, he called up the militia against the KKK, imposed martial law in two counties, and suspended habeas corpus for Klan leaders. He lost popularity among white voters as a result, and he was impeached by a newly Democrat-dominated State House after the 1870 legislative elections. He went on to work on a Washington DC newspaper, and he served as Postmaster from 1873 to 1881. He died in Raleigh in 1892.