Part 27 (2/2)

In 1872, in the portion of Illinois in which I live, there was an earnest desire on the part of conservative Democrats and liberal Republicans, to elect the Hon David Davis to the Presidency

He had been a Whig in early life, brought up in the school of Webster and Clay, and was later the devoted personal and political friend of Mr Lincoln An earnest Unionthe war, he had at its close favored the prohts under the Constitution As a judge of the Supreme Court, he had rendered a decision in which human life was involved, in which he had declared the supremacy of the Federal Constitution _in war as well as in peace_ Believing that he would prove an acceptable candidate, I had gladly joined the movement to secure his nomination at the now historic convention which met at Cincinnati in May, 1872 Forof that convention, there was little talked of in central Illinois but the no, noon, and night, ”Davis, Davis, Davis,” was the burden of our song

He did not, as is well known, receive the nouished Democratic statesman of New York

Two or three days before I was to leave my home for the Cincinnati convention, an old De county came into my office He was an old-timer in very truth He was born in Tennessee, had when a a, Tallapoosa, and New Orleans, had voted for him three times for the Presidency, and expected to join hi snow,” and his party loyalty was a proverb

As I shook hands with his, stood his rifle in the corner, took off his blanket overcoat, and seating himself by the fire, inquired howsatisfactory, and the fact ascertained by me that his own ”folks” ell, he asked

”Mr Stevenson, who are you fur fur President?”

Unhesitatingly and earnestly I replied, ”Davis”

A shade, as of disappointment, appeared for ahiive him the usual majority in our precinct, but don't you think, Mr Stevenson, _it is a leetle airly to bring old Jeff out?”_

XXVI A STATESMAN OF A PAST ERA

ZEBULON B VANCE, THE IDOLIZED GOVERNOR OF NORTH CAROLINA--HIS LEARNING AND HIS HUMOR--HE RECALLS MEN AND MATTERS OF THE OLDEN TIME--HE SUITS HIS CREED TO HIS AUDIENCE--HIS SPEECH IN FAVOR OF HORACE GREELEY

A name to conjure with in the old North State is Zeb Vance What Lee was to Virginia, Hendricks to Indiana, Clay to Kentucky, and Lincoln to Illinois, Zebulon B Vance was for a lifetime to North Carolina

He was seldom spoken of as Governor, or Senator, but alike in piny woods and in the mountains, he was familiarly called ”Zeb Vance”

He was the idol of all classes and conditions A decade has gone since he passed to the grave, but his rateful people have erected a monument to commemorate his public services, while from the French Broad to the Atlantic, alike in humble cabin and stately home, his name is a household word

”He had kept the whiteness of his soul, And thus iven to Ben Jonson, ht with equal propriety be applied to Senator Vance Deeply read in classic lore, a profound lawyer, and an indefatigable student froovernment, he was the fit associate of the -room or the Senate None the less, with the homely topics of everyday life for discussion, he was equally at houest at the hearthstone of the hulen of his native State

Of all the men I have ever known, Vance was _par excellence_ the possessor of the wondrous gift of hu He once told eneration, at least, was secure, inasmuch as one-half of the freckled-faced boys and two-thirds of the ”yaller” dogs in North Carolina had been named in his honor

Upon one occasion in the Senate, a bill he had introduced was bitterly antagonized by athe sincerity of Vance, to extol his own honesty of purpose In replying to the vaunt of superior honesty by his opponent, Vance quoted the old Southland doggerel:

”De darky in de ole cawine to rob a hen-roost Befo' de week a the later years of his life was in his native county of Buncombe, about twenty uest,the cars at the nearest station and following the trail for a dozen ly ensconced in his comfortable ho ”down in the settlero ed,_ as he assuredthe incunity

The first inquiry from Vance as, drenched with rain, I entered his abode and approached a blazing fire, was, ”Are you _dry?”_ It would only gratify an idle curiosity to tell how the first moments of this memorable visit passed Suffice it to say that old-time Southern hospitality was at its best, and so continued till theof the fifth day, when I descended in company with my host to the accustos passed with Vance at the cheerful fireside of his mountain home still live in my memory He literally ”unfolded himself,” and it was indeed worth while to listen to his description of the quaint tio, to hear of the men he had known and of the stormy events of which he had been a part

His public life reached back to a tiress when its Representatives assembled in the Old Hall, now the ”Valhalla” of the nation Events once of deep significance were recalled fro past; e and then gone out with the tide were ht with deep consequence but now relegated to the by-paths of history, were again in visible presence, as if touched by the enchanter's wand

The scenes, of which he was the sad and silent witness, attendant upon the withdrawal of his colleagues and associates from both chambers of the Capitol, and the appeal to the sword--precursors of the chapter of blood yet to be written--were never ue

I distinctly recall, even at this lapse of time, some of the incidents he related When first he was a candidate for Congress, far back in the fifties, his district ee portion of the territory of the entire western part of his State Fully to appreciate what follows, it must be remembered that at that time there was in the backwoods country, and in the out-of-the-way places, far off froonisious denominations At times much of the sermons of the rural preachers consisted of denunciations of other churches

By a perusal of the autobiography of the Rev Peter Cartwright, it will be seen that western North Carolina was only in line with other portions of the great moral vineyard The doctrines peculiar to the particular denoreat earnestness and power ”Blest be the tie that binds our hearts in Christian love,” was too seldoations In too many, indeed, Christian charity, even in a modified form, was an unknown quantity

Under the conditions mentioned, to say that seekers of public place obeyed the Apostolic injunction to be ”all things to all men” is only to say that they were--_candidates_