The Mangum

Family

Portrait done by William Garl Browne (1823-1894); Oil on Canvas; 47-1/4"x39-1/4"(120x100cm); Restoration done 1943; Part of Dialectic Society Collection located in Di Hall

Willie Person Mangum: Portrait and Biography

This section is excerpted from The Dialectic and Philanthropic Societies Portraits: an Honors Essay by Joseph K. L. Reckford (1981). Sources for this information can be found within the essay itself along with more information on other Societal portraits and alumni.

Upon graduating from UNC in 1815, William Mangum would study law and be admitted to the Bar by 1817. He was quickly elected to the House of Commons and then made a Superior Court judge in 1819. He held this position until 1823. He then moved from state to national politics, being elected to Congress for one and a half terms. He eventually resigned to return to the Superior Court. In 1831 he was elected to the U.S. Senate where he stayed until he was recalled by Democratic legislatures in 1837. Upon the founding of the UNC law school in 1845, Mangum was granted an honorary degree along with James K. Polk and John Y. Mason. He was also elected to be the Di commencement speaker in 1829 but he declined the offer on March 20th for unknown reasons. He also declined another commencement opportunity in 1838. Increased Whig influence in North Carolina following the 1840 election caused Mangum- a Democratic senator- to be recalled. He decided to return to Washington and serve there. He was often regarded as an excellent orator comparable to Daniel Webster. This proved incredibly useful in an era where oration has much more highly valued. Upon John Tyler's ascension to the White House, Mangum became President of the Senate "Pro-Tempore".

After a career deeply embedded within the political climate of the time, Mangum decided to retire from public life after the 1852 election. His absence from the Whig Party was one of the factors that informed their eventual decline in U.S. politics. There are no surviving records of the resolution to commission Mangum's portrait. Although Mangum did receive a letter on January 21st, 1859, regarding the portrait, it has unfortunately been lost to time. While the time or location of the portrait's painting is not certain, it was likely done in the Spring of 1859 at Raleigh or Mangum's house. A potential receipt was found for the portrait dated June 6th, granting William Garle Browne $202.00 for the portrait. Another letter confirms this interpretation and on November 9th, an agent involved with the portrait wrote that "we have received two new portraits into the library hall, Mr. Mangum's and Dr. Phillips', one of which together with the frames of both have been already paid for".

In 1877, members of the Mangum family founded the Willie P. Mangum Medal for Oratory which was an annual award for the winner of an oratory competition between seniors. The competition has continued into the modern day, being sponsored by Diphi and organized by their Historian.

Document from the Mangum Family Cemetery in Durham that details the births and deaths of various notable figures within the Mangum family. This makes it clear that the Mangum family reigned most prominently in the late 1800s.

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