The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1896-05-24
OUR WAR GOVERNOR
Personal RecolIections of Zeb-
ulon B. Vance.
BY HON RICHARD n. BATTLE
"reminiscences of His Early Po-
litical Career.
HIS COURSE DURING THE WAR
As Governor he Did All in His Power
to Feed and CIothe The Confederate
Soldiers and Protect
His People.
BY HON RICHARD n. BATTLE
HIS COURSE DURING THE WAR

offer ITO our readers a sketch of the re-
marks by r. III. Battle on the unwilling
of the portrait of Gov. Vance at the
Normal and Industrial School at
Greensboro on last Tuesday. We have
heretofore given to our readers his
analysis of Gov. Vance's character as
appearing in the portrait, which he
had reduced to writing and which was
read on the occasion. The greater
part of his speech was eXtempore and
has never been reduced to writing.
To show the appropriateness of the
handsome life-size portrait being the
first to adorn the walls of this institu-
ton or of any other similar institu
ton in the State, the speaker read eX-
tracts from Gov. Vance's message of
II and 70 in which Gov. Vance advo-
Gated warmly the establishment of
professorship for normal instruction
at the University, and similar pro-
fessorship somewhere in the State for
the education of the colored people,
The extract from the message of 10
approved warmly of what had been
done for normal instruction during
the past few years and advocated APP
preparations for the education of wo-
men, the first recommendation of this
kind made by the Governor of the
State In this connection the speaker
spoke with feeling of the patriotism
evinced in these messages and espe-
cially of Gov. Nance's great generosity
toward the colored people OF the State,
nine-tenths of whose voters, at least,
had opposed his election within a very
few months before he made the earnest
recommendation in their favor. That
this class of our citizens appreciated
his words and Iabors in their behalf
was shown by the respect universally
accorded to him, and by the naming
of the first colored military company
organized in or near Raleigh, the
Vance Guards" and was further test
fed by their evident grief when his
body was brought to the capital to lie
in state and carried thence to the
mountains for burial. They We'd
with the white friends of Gov. Vance
in testifying to their grief at our COM
mon loss.
The speaker claimed that he had
probably known Gov. Vance as long as
any person in the large audience be-
fore him, and he believed that he knew
him better than any living man, be-
cause a friendship beginning when
Gov Vance was a law student of his
fathers and his fellow student at the
University, was cemented by the clos
est intercourse during the two years
that he served as Gov. Vance's private
secretary during the war, and after
wards as Auditor by Gov. Nance's APP
pointment to the end of the war, and
further had never been interrupted
until death had tal<en- his friend.
When the speaker was a Sophomore
of fifteen at the University in the
summer of 1851, Gov. Vance, between
five and six years his senior, entered
the institution as a member of the
partial course, vulgarIy called "milish''
and as law student under Judge
Battle. Young Vance came to Chapel
Hill not unheralded as to his talents
and accomplishments. because the
first honor graduate of the year before
had assured one of the instructors
travelling in the mountains that next
| session Buncombe county would send
to the University, in the person of Zeb.
Vance. a youth who would make his
mark in the world. That while he had
but little scholastic education, he was
thoroughly yersed in the Bible, Shake
speare and Scott's novels, and was
gifted with great originality and wit
which enabled him to use his accom-
plishments to the best purpose.
His introduction of himself at the
University indicated his quick wit and
capacity to make himself at home
everywhere. There being then no rail-
road in North Carolina west of Raj
eigh, the $50 young men who assem-
bled there at the beginning of the col
lege year We're landed at the old hotel
from every kind of vehicle then known
from the four-horse stage to the sulky.
Gov. Vance arrived at the old hotel
without any acquaintance on the
ground The other students coming
from all the States south of the Potom-
ac and nearly all the counties of the
State, were joyous in meeting old
friends, shaking hands and almost en-
bracing each other. Young Vance wit
messed the scene for moment, and not
wishing to seem longer left in the cold
seized the hand of an old colored man
standing on the outskirts of the crowd
and shook it most warmly, and with
many protestations of friend
ship and delight at meeting
him again. The students took
in the situation at a glance. One
of them asked his name, begged to
take him to a room and become his
friend. From that hour young Vance
did not want for a friend among the
faculty, students, or villagers, because
he was a great fayorite with all and
soon Vance's bon mots were quoted
throughout the village. No young
man ever in one year made more
friends or a greater impression at the
University. He ~and the speaker were
members of the Dialectic Society and
on more than one occasion young
Vance availed himself of his wit to
add to the treasury of the society by
causing explosions of mirth, when
each audible smile was visited with
fine.
Gov. Vance's course at college can
not be cited as an example to young
men who spend their time in idleness
at school or college, because, while in
the senior class, of which he was a
member, there were young men of
do 4oIauf anJ lnnu +pairires