He graduated and was admitted to the bar in 1847, practicing in his home city until serving in the North Carolina Senate in 1856 and 1858.

John W. Ellis in the 1860 election as head of the "Opposition Party," which consisted primarily of former Whigs, like himself.

With the war-weariness increasing in civilian parts of the Confederacy during 1863, pro-Union activities began to become organized as resistance.

The actual leader was John Pool, who spent some time in a jail in Richmond, and who traveled through western Virginia in 1864.

He was elected by the legislature to serve in the U.S. Senate as a Republican once North Carolina was readmitted in 1868.