"Did anybody ever hear of any great thing or great man coming out of Bladen County?" was the thoughtless question asked 25 years ago by an uninformed resident of a new rich city in North Carolina.

     It created somewhat of a sensation, almost as much as the big Bi-Centennial celebration of Bladen county held at Elizabethtown last week. The gentleman had permitted his contemplation of history to rest too much upon the new industrial day which produced new captains of industry whose wealth and distinction tended to obscure the lights of ancient days. Soon the unfortunate gentleman was deluged with information which convinced him that he had "over or under-spoke himself." He was given the history of the great men in peace and war which Bladen county had furnished to the state and country, headed by Gen. James J. McKay, a distinguished son of Bladen county, who was chariman of the Ways and Means Committee in 1844, in a time when that position carried leadership and distinction, as it always does in every congress.

     At the close of that Congress Mr. McKay issued an address to the people of the United States, explaining the schedules and giving reasons for the changes from those carried in the tariff of 1842. On that address the Democrats carried the country, elected a majority of the House, a Democratic President came into power, and the next Congress enacted a tariff law on the McKay lines, known as the Walker tariff because Robert J. Walker, who enforced its provisions, was at that time Secretary of the Treasury. It was the best tariff act ever drafted in the United States. General Mc Kay was chairman of the committee that secured its passage. The rates were low and had no taint of protection to private interests. It was so satisfactory that Mr. Blaine said no party made any serious attempt to change it until the War Between the States. It is interesting to note that it was this model Democratic tariff which Senator William H. Haywood declined to support. Rather than vote against the policy of his party he resigned his seat in the United Stated Senate. The Senate passed the McKay-Walker tariff by one majority. Senator Haywood was bitterly assailed but later, when it was seen that he acted on conscientious conviction, the criticism ceased. He resigned knowing his action would not affect the fate of the bill the McKay committee had drafted.

     The list of Bladen county celebrities printed then included other men who won fame in church and state. By the time the uninformed gentleman had learned a little of Bladen county history, he threw up his hands, apologized for his lack of knowledge, and promised never to speak again of North Carolina counties to their discredit and his discomfiture. If that gentleman and others unfamiliar with the history of that modest and patriotic county had been at Elizabethtown on Friday they would have learned that not only was Bladen a county worthy to be honored, but that in fact it had a somewhat similar distinction to Virginia as the mother of Presidents in that it is "the mother of counties."

     Correspondent Upchurch's story of the Bladen Bi-Centennial in yesterday's News and Observer discloses that it claims parenthood to no less than 55 of North Carolina's 100 counties. If all the children and grandchildren of that bouncing family had been present Bladen's hospitality--generous and inexhaustible--would have been almost strained.

     Friday's celebration was worthy of "the mother of counties."--Raleigh News and Observer.

Reprinted in:
THE BLADEN JOURNAL
???day, Month?? ??, 19??

(It seems that this Bi-Centennial was when Ehringhaus was Governor of North Carolina, most likely in 1934. --Site Ed.)
(John Christoph Blucher Ehringhaus. Governor, 1933-37)
(Just for the record, it took about 2 hours and 20 minutes to type up this and the
newspaper style version for the NCMcKay Web Page.--Bob Melvin)