The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1900-08-23

AISn pIlHCIpueS WHICH ever SuluQeu LNI1ls
but at caused some unmerited criticism
majority of the General Assembly,
elected the November preceding, be-
ionged to the Farmers Alliance, which
was then thoroughly organized and at the
height of its influence. Its members
were generally friends of Senator Vance,
but they were resolved to elect mo one
TO the Senate who was opposed to their
leading political tenets. Senator Vance's
second term was to expire March 18th,
and he was candidate for reelection.
lie was the unanimous choice of his
party outside of the Alliance, and many
OF It's members earnestly desired his con-
tnuance IN his seat. In reply to a let
ter Prom 1ion. Elias Carr, then president
OF the Alliance, i'm December 1890, die
had admitted it to be the right of ones
constituents to instruct his as to their
wishes on public questions and that he
ought to obey, if the instruction did not
require what he thought to he morally
wrong; and If they did, he should resign
his seat. AT the opening of the session
in January the Alliance members held
a caucus, and resolved to instruct our
senators and representatives in Congress
''to vote for and use all honorable means
to secure the financial reform demanded
in the platform adopted at THE Ocala
meeting of the National Farmers AL
lance held i'm December. $780," Vance
was then in Raleigh, and he peremptoliIy
refused to accept an election under such
Instructions A special friend of HIS and
a member of the Alliance, Hon. Samuel
l.. Patterson, now our excellent Commits
sioner of Agriculture, to remove the OBJ
lection, after hard work secured an
amendment to the proposed resolution SO
that the instructions were, that orr Sem
atOrs and Representatives should use
their efforts to secure the objects of the
financial reform, contemplated by the
Ocala platform. As the objects contem-
plated were, in a general way, in the
line of the financial policy the Senator
had Heretofore advocated, he, himself
saw no objection to the resolutions as
amended, and such Staunch Democrats
as Governor Jarvis and others, whom he
knew to be his friends. were of the same
opinion. The resolution as amended
was passed, and he was reelected, every
Democrat voting for him. When it is
remembered that Vance ever recognized
the farmers of the State as his best
friends. that before the existence of the
Alliance in the State he had advised
them to organize for their own protec-
ton, and that they, as we'll as he, were
anxious that there should be no estrange-
ment between them, nobody could criti-
else him for making AN apparent cQnces-
sion TO such friends. But some Demo
Gratis, hostile to the Alliance, and not adj
verting to the lifelong friendship be-
tween him and the farmers. as a class,
wished him to set the Alliance at def
ance, rather than appear even TO make
any concessions; and they found fault
with him for taking more conservative
advice. Some of them were his personal
friends, and never before having had
anything but cordial approval of his con-
duct from friends, their criticism
wounded him deeply, and for months at
terward he suffered under the apprehen-
sion that, possibly, the loving confidence
of some whose regard he valued, was es-
tranged from him. He, and those who
best knew him, did not doubt that he
had done right; and when the hand OF
disease was laid upon him, and it began
to be whispered that his days might be
numbered, and anxious Inquiries were
being made about his health, surely he
realized that this was but a passing
breeze, and that he still stood, as he had
for a generation stood, the recognized
tribune of his people, and dearer to
them than ever, because of the fear that
they might soon have ITO give him up.
And, oh, if he could have foreseen the
grief of the, people; yes, his people,
when on the beautiful Sunday morning,
April 10, 1894, it was borne ON the
lightning's wings to every city, town,
and village of the State, that Vance was
dead. The whole State was as n house
of mourning as for a father or brother.
No event since the surrender of the Con-
federate armies had so moved all the
people. 1t was my sad privilege to serve
by the appointment of Governor Carr,
as a member of committee with Colonel
late, public treasurer, and Captain
Coke, secretary of state, to hasten to
Washington and urge the family of our
dead Senator to permit his body to be
brought to Raleigh for burial, on failing,
that to bring lit here ito lie in state in the
capitol, where he had done such glorious
work for his people. Arriving at
Washington in time to see his mortal
body lying in his home, with face serene
in death, with all signs of suffering gone,
we learned that he had, years before,
pointed out, to his oldest SON, "a beauti-
full spot near his old home at Asheville,
in view of his beloved mountains and the
French Broad river, for his grave; and
we bowed to his wishes. After witness
ing impressive ceremonies in the Senate
the scene of his forensic bat
ties and triumphs, an the presence of
both houses of Congress, the President
of the United States and his cabinet, the
Supreme Court and Foreign Ministers,
the services being conducted by the
chaplain of the Senate and that more
eloquent of divineS, Rev. DIR. Moses
and Representatives, some accompanied
by their wives we brought his body here;
and in the rotunda behind us on cata-
falque covered with flowers, ut lay in
state from 1870 "a. m. to APO D. III of
Tuesday, the 18th; and the face of our
dead tribune was viewed by thousands,
passing with bowed heads and bated
breath, in continuous procession. Then,
with escort augmented by other friends,
Eve took him ito Asheville for burial.
From Raleigh westward every station
was crowded by mourners of all ages, at
the towns an the hope of seeing his face
once more, and at other places, if only
to see the car in which his body lay.
On hillSideS, far from town or station,
bonfires were burning, and men stood
about them to the small hours of the
night, to catch but a glimpse of the
funeral train as it sped towards and
through the mountains. And then the
outpOuring of the people, in Asheville,
the scene of his early labors, from cove
and mountain side with delegations from
mountain towns, and Charlotte and other
distant places, the streets and roads for
two miles from the Presbyterian church,
where the body was placed, ON our arTl--
al In r1In dthTOn On6