"A King sat on his rocky throne
Which looked on sea-born Salamis,
And ships by thousands lay below
And men and nations;—all were his!
He counted them at break of day,—
And when the sun set, where were they?
And where are they—and where art thou,
My country? On thy voiceless shore
The statesman's tongue is silent now,
The heroic bosom beats no more!"
Let us hope that when we meet here on the 4th of July, 1868, Southern voices will again have been heard in the halls of Congress, and that millions of Southern hearts, as in former days, will be prepared to respond, "Liberty and Union, now and forever, one and inseparable."
I heard Governor Vance deliver his address on Swain, which I have called a sketch, at the Chapel Hill Commencement of 1877. I well remember the low melancholy and the effortless pathos of his voice.
Governor Swain was his friend, and fortunate is he indeed to have had such a kind and able hand to sketch his life.
The foregoing estimate of Swain's character and methods does not receive the unanimous endorsement of all who knew him. He was thought by some to have been guilty of favoritism, to have lacked nerve for discipline, and to have shown too great partiality for families of wealth and influence. But he rendered a service to the State in writing and preserving some memorials of her history. He held the most important position she could bestow for many years, and until his death; and his regime illustrated the defects of a system which prevented the University from being directly and entirely dependent on the people for its support.
Vance put him among the distinguished men of North Carolina, and for this, if for no other reason, I could afford to put him in this book. Posterity will not lightly overrule the verdict of its greatest commoner, even though rendered in the partiality of affection.
Although no sketch of Vance is in this book (his life, in a more extended form, having been lately written), yet Bryan's estimate of him, spoken in the House of Representatives, February 25, 1895, is not an inappropriate introduction of the man who has contributed to history the foregoing sketch of Swain—if indeed there be any part of the Union where he needs an introduction, even from the lips of one who has canvassed the whole country. Besides, it would be offensive to North Carolinians if I should even begin a list of our distinguished dead without according to Vance his well-won place among the foremost.