The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1900-08-24

DavidSOnS and GrahamS, her POlkS,
her Macon. and others scarcely less dis
tinguished in her early history, and her
CASTOR, her Badger, her Branch, her
Mangum, her Graham, her Morehead,
her Dobbin, her Bragg, and other great
and faithful sons, in the more recent
past, to none of them would she assign
the first place and hold him up for the
special admiration of world and of the
ages by a costly statue bearing his like
ness. And this was not because she was
unwilling to incur the expense of such
a monument for she was ahead of her
sister states in testifying her admira-
ton and love for Americas greatest
product, the Father of His Country,
and she sent an order across the seas
TO Antonio Canova, the leading sculptor
or MS time, and, at cost of $4,000,
erected q splendid statue Of the peer
less Washington in the rotunda of her
first state house.
And now, nearly a century and a
quarter after she adopted a constitu-
ton as a sovereign state, North Caro-
lima has discovered that one Of her own
sons, nourished at her breast, was, for
reasons satisfactory to her, worthy of
similar honor, and to be distinguished
from her other and good sons by like
testimonials in his memory. Today we
representatives a large portrait in oil,
opposite to that of Washington, and
this noble statue at the east front of
her capitol corresponding in position
to Washington, on the SOUTH both rep
resenting the figure, the face and the
pose of North Carolina's best beloved
son, Zebulon Baird Vance.
1 will be pardoned for personal al
N hor II tn1 70
address you on this interesting occa-
sion rather than an orator like Ran
som, Waddell, Jarvis, Bennett, Rob-
bins, or other eloquent men associated
with him in public life, because it was
known to those having the selection in
charge that L was more Intimately ac
quainted with Vance than any Of them,
and that 1 probably knew best the
thoughts of his heart and the motives
of his conduct. Such 1 believe to be the
fact. We were contemporaries at
Chapel Hill and members of the same
literary society.
I was his private secretary from the
day of his Inauguration as governor
September s, 1862, for two years, and
then, by his appointment, state audit
or, and often his legal counsel in ques-
tions and cases growing out of the
conscript law, until we left the capitol,
April u, 1865, the day before it's occu-
patton by Sherman. During these
three years, while his labors were
herculean and his anxieties intense,
was in daily association with him, and
/ had the best of opportunities to
hear what he said, to see what he did,
and to sound the depths Of his great
soul.
His father was David Vance, and his
No,
Zebulon Baird; and the Vances and the
Bairds, sturdy Scotch-Irish people,
from Kings mountain down, were pa
triOts and leading citizens. He inher-
| tied from such ancestors a spirit
| of independence, a love of freedom,
and a reverence for the true, the pure
| and the good, along with a strong
| mind and sound body. He inherited
| little else; for his father died when
! he was a boy, leaving a widow and
| eight children to be supported on a
| small farm, and besides q few slaves
| scarcely more personal property than
was necessary to pay his debts and
| funeral expenses. So Zebulon was a
| poor boy. who had to make his own
| years old, his father sent his across
| the mountains, on horseback, to enter
| as a pupil in a high school. known as
Washington college, in East Tennes-
| see; but he was soon called home by
| the mortal illness of hts father, whose
bedside he reached only in time to see
| him die. All the education, in schools
he thael had or acquired afterward:
| until he became of age, was obtained
| in little schools n the neighborhood oi
| his native home. That home was aboUt
| ten miles northwest of Asheville, II
the county of Buncombe, and but E
| few hundreds yards from the French
4 IN, n
shadows of the highest peaks of tht
Blue Ridge mountains, with NOUN
| Mitchell and Pisgah in full view from
the surrounding hills, and with thu
| music of the mountain streams an(
birds IN the air, the boy, endowed witt
| uncommon intelligence and an activ'
Imagination, was early inspired with
a love of his native land. while his sou
was attuned to the poetry of nature
|
Becoming of age, young Vance il
the summer of 1851 applied to ex-Gov
ernor Swain. president of the universi
ty for a loan to enable him to entel
the law school and take some of tn.
studies of the senior class in that stat'
institution. President Swain, though
| eminently prudent in business, was s.
struck by the manly tone of the ap
plication, that. with his proverbia
partiality for the mountain boys, ant
knowing young Vanee's people, a
once acceded to the request; and :
friendship was then cemented betweeI
them that ended only with the life o
Il the patron in 1868.
The popularity OF young Vance axs
! his natural bent soon took him int
politics. and he became a candidate &
| the Whig party for seat in the )ue
Of commocls of the state legislatur.
IN the the summer Of 1854 when h
was twenty-feur years of age HI
opponent, a man Of double his age an
OF high standing in the county, es
pected easily to distance the youthft
competitor. AT their first discussion
in the court house at Asheville. tn
senior who led OF, forgetful Of the his
tory of Goliath and David. made spol
| of the beardless youth, VINO wante
| his seat in the legislature. When Vanc
rose TO reply he assumed an air {
comic diffidenee. and said In hes.
tating manner: "Fellow citizens ad
init I am young; but it is not I'M
fault. NY parents did not consult m
as to the time when 7 should be bor1
All can do is to promise you TO try