First elected to the
North Carolina House of Commons in 1838 as a
Jacksonian Democrat, Brogden was its youngest member at age 22. He became known as the "Eloquent Plowboy from Wayne" and served in the House until 1851 where he was the longtime chairman of the House Finance Committee. In 1838, he was also elected as
Wayne County Justice of the Peace, a position he held for 20 consecutive years. Brogden studied
law and was admitted to the
bar in 1845 but never seriously undertook the practice of law. In 1852, Brogden was elected to the
North Carolina Senate, where he served until 1857. That year he was elected by the
General Assembly as State
Comptroller, a post he held for ten years. He briefly left the Senate in 1867 after being elected to represent Wayne County at a state constitutional convention. In 1868 he was elected to the State Senate as a Republican, serving for three terms. He also was a member of the
Electoral College supporting Republican,
Ulysses S. Grant. In 1870 he was appointed as a U.S. Collector of Internal Revenue. In 1876, Governor Brogden represented North Carolina at the
Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. While serving as governor, Brogden was elected in 1876 as a Republican to the
United States House of Representatives from
North Carolina's 2nd congressional district, which was a predominately black Republican stronghold in the Piedmont area. In Congress. He worked to gain internal improvements for his state and reduced internal revenue taxes. He also advocated direct presidential elections and pensions for
Mexican War veterans. His vote with the Democratic majority for the U.S. Army reorganization bill was unpopular with his Republican constituents. Brogden served one term and was not re-nominated in 1878, a year of intense rivalry among second district Republicans. Amid charges of fraud, the Democrats narrowly elected their nominee,
William H. Kitchin. Two years later, Brogden tried to regain his seat in Congress. After many Republicans disputed the outcome of the turbulent convention, he issued a broadside declaring himself an independent candidate against the convention nominee, Northern immigrant
Orlando Hubbs. Brogden called for reduction in the tariff and other taxes and accused Hubbs of not representing the interests of the South. But his efforts collapsed when Republicans closed ranks in response to the entry of a third Democratic candidate into the race. Wayne County was redistricted to the
Third Congressional District before Brogden’s next campaign for Congress. In 1884, Brogden was nominated, only to be defeated in the general election by
Wharton J. Green, a Democrat.
Later political career After losing the congressional election in 1884, Brogden essentially retired from public life with the exception of a single term, in 1887, representing Wayne County in the
North Carolina House of Representatives. In a House controlled by Republicans and independents, he spoke in favor of changing the centralized, indirect system of county government the Democrats had instituted ten years before in order to “save” Eastern North Carolina from “Negro rule.” The House passed a bill changing the system, but the Senate rejected it. Brogden was not re-elected in 1888. By then one of the largest landowners in Wayne County, Brogden devoted himself to farming. Brogden's goal of establishing a college for blacks was finally realized more than a decade after he left the governor's office. On March 7, 1887, The North Carolina General Assembly founded
North Carolina State University as a
land-grant college under the name "North Carolina College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts." In the segregated system, it was open only to white students. Under terms of the
Second Morrill Act, in 1890 states were required to have colleges available to all races of students. In order to qualify for the land grants, North Carolina in 1891 established qualifying programs at what became
North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, a
historically black college, first as part of Shaw Collegiate Institute in Raleigh. Brogden, a lifelong
bachelor, died on January 5, 1901, in his hometown of
Goldsboro, North Carolina and is buried there in Willowdale Cemetery. ==Family==