Well, I think I did, and I don't think it was such a conscious
code; it was just build in, as a part of the value system I had, again,
going back to my youth here in the rural community, with the white
Anglo-Saxon Protestant upbringing. The work ethic was strong. I expected
a person to be as good as their word, and those things that were
instilled into me by my parents, mostly by example, some by instruction,
by my church and by my community and my teachers. So, yeah, I had that.
You know, I didn't weigh every decision. I'm sure
those values were in play, but I wasn't conscious of them.
Page 48
I had an interesting experience one time in the governor's
office. This was in the early days, when I was beginning to make
appointments. And by the way, back then, I think it's still
true to some extent today, the governor takes office early in January,
and of course his immediate focus is getting ready for the inauguration,
the inaugural address, and then when the legislature convenes, the State
of the State message to the legislature. And the staff, what they were
working on was this appointments business. So a lot of people are
coming, saying, "I would like to be appointed this,"
or somebody would be coming on their behalf. And I had this man who was
an active supporter of mine, contributed, I don't know, not a
huge amount of money, but—, and was a respected
businessperson. And came to me, and—in fact, during the
campaign, he was very interested in the highway commission. He had a
master plan for highway development in North Carolina, it was a concept
he had, as somewhat like—what is it they call it today? The
highway plan is the five-year plan or the ten-year plan that they have
today. Well, he had one in his mind, and his idea was major corridors
here and there [unclear] . And he had
talked to me about that during the campaign, trying to get me to
incorporate the idea into my speeches.
After I was elected, he came to talk to me, and I was never so shocked in
all my life, that this individual offered me five thousand dollars,
cash, if I would appoint him to the highway commission. Now,
I'm convinced to this day that he did not do this for
personal gain. He lived in the city, and as far as I knew most of his
money was in stocks and bonds. But he was
Page 49 really
hung up on this plan he had, and he thought it was the greatest thing
since sliced bread. And what he wanted to do was be in a position to
implement that plan. He made that offer to me in the
governor's office. And I could hardly even respond to the
man, I was so surprised and shocked. And I told him that, well, he
didn't have to offer me, I was either going to do it or not
do it, and I had not made up my mind on who the members of my highway
commission were going to be, and I appreciated his interest and
understood he was interested in highways in the state and so forth. But
when he did that, I knew I did not want him. He sealed his fate right
then and there.
Now, I'm not saying that to make me look good and all that,
but those kinds of things—I abhor anybody who uses a position
of power and influence, or who will try to buy that power and influence,
for their own good. I fuss at somebody, they can make a wrong judgement
about a lot of things, but if they misuse the powers of their office, I
don't have much use for them. Also, when a person tells me
something, I expect them to try as best they can to fulfill that, even
though they may not actually be able to for reasons they
can't control. Good faith. And loyalty, I put a lot of stock
in loyalty.
Going back to your previous question about my appointees, of course,
every governor goes through the business of getting a lame duck, at some
point in time, and of course in my case that came in my fourth year. And
I could sense the pulling away, even by my cabinet people that I had
appointed. It got so bad that, I think it was in November or December
before my term of office
Page 50 ended, that I called them
all together, over in the auditorium of the state library, and closed
the doors, and laid the law down to them, if you will, and said that I
was going to be governor until my successor took the oath of office,
they'd better understand that, and since they served at my
pleasure, I didn't care if it was two days before I went out
of office, I would replace them. That was in some ways a threat. But I
wanted to remind them of that. Loyalty, to me, is very, very important.
There have been some who have, in some ways, criticized my
administration a little bit, friends who said, "You were loyal
to a fault. You were loyal to your people." Well, you do
something for me, I'll be loyal to you. I don't
mean to sound sanctimonious about all that. That's part of my
feeling. And it goes back to this thing about the values and ethics.
Hard work—I was instilled with the work ethic, and I brought
that to my office. My wife, honestly, in [pause]
—no, I guess this was when I was head of the community
colleges, later on. She got the staff, unknown to me, together and told
them to make room for me to have some rest, some
[unclear] , stop running me… They said,
"But he's the one—!"