preferment. In 1840, he was elected an elector, and in the electoral college of that year, cast the vote of North Carolina for William H. Harrison and John Tyler. In 1844, he was defeated as senator for Wake, but he filled various other offices of confidence and trust with great credit to himself, and satisfaction to the state. Among these positions were director of the state bank, a commissioner to sell and collect the proceeds of the sale of Cherokee lands in the western part of the state, and treasurer of the university.
In the campaign for governor in 1848, the election being by popular suffrage, he canvassed the whole state with great satisfaction to his friends, and with the respect of his opponents. He was elected by a handsome majority; inaugurated governor on January 1st, 1849, and served the constitutional term of two years. In 1850, he was again nominated by the whig convention was again opposed by that able and astute statesman, David S. Reid, and was defeated. Afterwards he retired to private life. With him, "the sceptre departed" from the whig party for a long time, for after Governor Reid, came Governors Bragg, Ellis, Clark and Vance.
Governor Manly married in 1817, Charity, daughter of William H. Haywood, senior. By this marriage he became the brother-in-law of the late William H. Haywood, junior; senator in congress, (1843,) as also of E. B. Dudley, the first governor of the state under the amended constitution of 1835.
As might naturally be supposed, the prominent positions he had held, especially his long connection with the young and rising generation at the university, and with those in active life in the legislature, as its principal clerk, and as governor, that he was extensively known to every man of prominence and distinction, especially those in the South. He was universally respected wherever known, and became a great favorite with his genial manners, and magnetic humor. No one was a better conversationalist, or more abounded in anecdote and reminiscences of men and times. His keen sense of the ridiculous, and his inimitable manner of narration, made him a welcome guest, and "his flashes of merriment were wont to set the table on a roar;" his wit was never used to wound, and left no sting behind. Fond of society, his house was the resort of friends who partook of his unstinted hospitality. To the call of misfortune his hand was ever open. As a counsellor he was an honest and safe one. Zealous in the interest of his client, and fair in argument, respectful to the bench, and kind and considerate to the members of the bar, especially to his younger brethren. But with all his other admirable traits of character, and above all, he was a christian gentleman. He was for years in full communion and membership of the Episcopal church; an admirer of its tenets, and a follower of its precepts.
Such was Charles Manly. His latter days were darkened by the cloud of civil war, and the hand of disease. His substance was dispoiled, his farms ravaged by hostile hands, and his health prostrated. He died at Raleigh on May 1st, 1871. Like Wolsey
"-- Full of
repentance,
Continued meditations, tears, and
sorrows.
He gave his honors to the world
again
His blessed part to Heaven, and slept in peace."
Christopher Gale resided in Edenton and did such service in the defense of the colony that his name should be preserved.
We regret that neither tradition or record affords much information as to his acts and services, and that the dust of time is fast obscuring the little information we possess, yet this should encourage others to rescue from oblivion his life and character.
He was a native of England, born in Yorkshire, son of Miles Gale, rector of a church in Yorkshire. He came to America, and in 1709 was appointed receiver general, and in 1723 was appointed one of the council of Governor
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