Vance, Zebulon Baird

Bennet, Daniel K.  The Chronology of North 
Carolina  New York:  J. M. Edney, 1858.

Sondley, Forster A.  Asheville and Buncombe County.  Asheville, NC:  The Citizen Co., 1922

Arthur, John Preston. Western North Carolina, a History,(1914).  p.259.

"The house in which Hon. Zebulon Baird Vance, the great War Governor and statesman of the Old North State lived for many years is on Reems Creek in Buncombe county.  It consisted of a single large room below and a garret or loft above, reached by rude stairs, almost a ladder, running up in one corner near the chimney.  There was also a shed room attached to the read of this house." (1914. Arthur, John. Western North Carolina,... p.259.)

"...young Vance, in the Summer of 1851, applied to ex-Gov. Swain, President of the University, for a loan to enable him to enter the Law School and take some of the studies of the Senior Class in that State institution. President Swain was so struck by the manly tone of the application, that with his proverbial partiality for the mountain boys, and knowing young Vance's people, he at once acceded to the request; and a friendship was then cemented between them that ended only with the life of the patron in 1868....But he availed himself with avidity of the opportunities of improvement afforded him, and President Swain and others of the Faculty and student body saw beneath all this solid ability, earnest purpose, and a power to influence others, which made them predict for him leadership in the future....(1907. Ashe, Samuel. Biographical History of North Carolina..., Vol. VI, p.478.)

"At Raleigh in December 1851, young Vance obtained his County Court license, and at the Morganton term in August, 1853, his license to practise [sic] in the Superior Courts.  Having completed the course at Chapel Hill he had prescribed for himself, in May 1852, he returned home, opened an office in Asheville and threw himself into life's battle in earnest. (1907. Ashe, Samuel. Biographical History of North Carolina..., Vol. VI, p.479.)

"The popularity of young Vance and his natural bent soon took him into politics, and he became a candidate of the Whig Party for a seat in the House of Commons of the State Legislature in the summer of 1854, when he was 24 years of age....The Democratic majority in the district was considerable, but that was only a stimulus to Vance's zeal and activity; and though defeated on election day...his opponent went in with a diminished majority and the laurels of the contest were fairly divided between them. (1907. Ashe, Samuel. Biographical History of North Carolina..., Vol. VI, pp. 479, 480.)

"In 1858 Thomas Clingman, long the member of Congress from the large mountain district of 15 counties, having been appointed by Gov. Bragg to a vacancy in the U. S. Senate, resigned his seat, and W. W. Avery of Burke, to whom he had transferred his mantle, and David Coleman, both Democrats, were candidates for the succession.  Young Vance leaped into the arena....In one way or another, by election day Vance had..."set the mountains on fire," and he confounded the Democratic leaders by carrying the district by 2049 majority. (1907. Ashe, Samuel. Biographical History of North Carolina..., Vol. VI, p. 480.)

"He was then but twenty-eight years of age and the youngest member of Congress, and he always knew when to speak and when to keep silent. (1907. Ashe, Samuel. Biographical History of North Carolina..., Vol. VI, p.481.)

"In 1861, he had refused to be a candidate for the Confederate Congress, and he did not seek the office of governor; but being assured by both former Whigs and Democrats that he could best serve the Confederate cause as governor...he was elected by a large majority. His popularity in the army was attested by the fact that he received every vote in his regiment, while the rank and file of other commands voted the same way.  Indeed he was generally regarded as the 'soldier candidate'; and he so executed his great office that he became known as the 'war governor of the south."...For nearly three years, from Sept. 8, 1862 to the evening he left Raleigh, April 12, 1865, to avoid capture by Sherman, he did all that vigilance, zeal, and energy could do to have and keep every man to whom Lee, Johnston, and others were entitled as soldiers at the front....In the winter of 1863-64, in view of the disasters of Gettysburg and Vicksburg the summer before, desertion was depleting Lee's ranks and despondency was settling like a pall over the army and over the country.  Gov. Vance saw that the good name of his State and its soldiers was imperiled, and he was moved to leave his office at Raleigh, visit the army and make to brigades and divisions in which there were North Carolina troops those wonderful speeches whereby hope was substituted for despondency, and our battered regiments from other States as well as this were nerved again with the courage and resolve to do or to die.  It is reported that Gen. Lee said that this visit and these speeches were worth as much to him as 50,000 recruits; and that after hearing some of those speeches, Gen. J.E.B. Stewart...asserted that if oratory was measured by its effects, Gov. Vance was the greatest that ever lived. [Vance] foresaw the desolation of the State if the cause of the South should fail, and he imagined unexampled horrors as the result of the sudden emancipation of four million slaves.  The wish of his heart was that the honor of North Carolina should be maintained to the utmost. (1907. Ashe, Samuel.  Biographical History of North Carolina..., Vol. VI, pp. 484, 485.)

"But more than for these material benefits provided for the people of North Carolina their great debt to him was the maintenance of the civil authority and the supremacy of law amid the clash of arms and his protection of the humblest citizen against illegal arrest. Alone of all the States of the United States, of the Confederate States...in North Carolina during those four long dark years of war, the writ of habeas corpus was never suspended. (1907. Ashe, Samuel. Biographical History of North Carolina..., Vol. VI. p. 487.)

"...He was soon afterward arrested by the order of the Secretary of War, carried to Washington and consigned to the "Old Capitol Prison."  By the Secretary's orders, the governor's letter-book had been sent to the War Office, and upon examination it was found that Vance had remonstrated during the war with the authorities at Richmond upon learning that Federal prisoners at Salisbury were insufficiently fed and clothed.  This mercy to Federal soldiers when in a prison in Vance's State aroused Stanton's sense of justice and he said, "Let the man be paroled and allowed to go home to his family." (1907. Ashe, Samuel. Biographical History of North Carolina..., Vol. VI, p.490.)

"While a paroled prisoner of the United States, Gov. Vance did not think it proper to take an active part in politics, but his advice was often sought and freely given to the leaders in the State.  He advised his fellow- citizens to accept the situation as cheerfully as possible and to proceed to mend their broken fortunes.(1907. Ashe, Samuel. Biographical History of North Carolina..., Vol. VI, p. 491.)

"...In 1876 the conservative Democratic people looked for somebody to lead them to victory.  The eyes of the masses turned toward Vance as their leader in the struggle.  Some thought it hardly prudent to nominate him because of his strenuous war record; but he was almost unanimously nominated as the candidate for governor, his Republican competitor being Hon. Thomas Settle, their ablest speaker and a very accomplished politician...The enthusiasm of the ex-Confederates and their sons was raised to the highest pitch by Vance's appeals to them to redeem the State, and he was elected by a majority of over 13,000 votes. (1907. Ashe, Samuel. Biographical History of North Carolina..., Vol. VI, pp. 491, 492.)

"Taking his seat for a third time as chief magistrate of the State in January 1877, he proceeded to do all that a patriot and statesman could do for its upbuilding....Increased facilities for the education of the people, normal schools for training of teachers of both colors, the employment of women as well as men in the public schools, and improvement in different ways in our charitable institutions, so as to enlarge their capacity for good, were urged generally and in detail. His recommendations were heeded by the General Assembly, and the State was fortunate in that his wise successor, Gov. Jarvis, concurred in and brought the plans [Vance] outlined to fruition. (1907. Ashe, Samuel. Biographical History of North Carolina..., Vol. VI, pp. 492, 493.)

"Elected to the United States Senate about the last of Nov. 1878, and re-elected Jan. 1885 and Jan. 1891, he served his State and country in that great field of labor from the day he was sworn in, March 1879, until...a short time before his death in April 1894....by incessant toil day and night, which caused...the loss of an eye and then shortened his days, he mastered the great questions of the tariff and finance and became the recognized leader of his party on those questions;...how by kindly, if bluff, courtesy and merry jest, in lobby and cloak room, he overcame the prejudice of Northern senators, and made personal friends of political opponents;...how his arguments were so interesting that the seats were better filled when he spoke than when others had the floor, and how crowded galleries hung upon his words;...how his solemn words, as he spoke for the  last time, Sept. 1, 1893, from his place in the Senate chamber, warning the people...against the encroachments of the money power and its allies, sounded through the land like the tones of a fire bell at night, are all part of the history of the times." (1907. Ashe, Samuel. Biographical History of North Carolina... Vol. VI,, p. 493.)

"While at Washington he occupied his private residence, and in vacation he lived in a home prepared in the mountains near his birthplace, which he called "Gombroon."  His leisure was devoted to study and reflection.... Gov. Vance was twice married." [From Aug. 1853 to Nov. 1878 to Harriet Espy; from 1880 until he died to Mrs. Florence Steele Martin from Kentucky.] (1907. Ashe, Samuel. Biographical History of North Carolina..., Vol. VI, p. 494.)