Hats off to Rob Christensen of the News & Observer for a fascinating and balanced story on former Gov. William Holden, the Reconstruction-era chief executive who was the nation’s first governor to be impeached, convicted, and removed from office. It’s timely, because today, the state Senate is expected to vote on a proposal to pardon Holden. The session is being held in the old state Capitol on the 135th anniversary of the Halifax Resolves.

It seemed a simple story line: Now that the Republicans had regained control of the state legislature for the first time since the 1800s, a historical wrong would be righted, and a governor driven from office for cracking down on the Klan would be pardoned.

But [Wake County GOP Sen. Neal] Hunt had not counted on long family memories, passed down from generation to generation. And in those stories, Holden was not a brave governor who stood up to the Klan but an opportunistic scalawag.

Christensen does a fine job recounting Holden’s history, the forces of racism and brutality his administration confronted, and the festering wounds of the post-Civil War era. Read the whole thing.