THE LIBRARY OF THE 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF 
 
 NORTH CAROLINA 
 
 THE COLLECTION OF 
 NORTH CAROLINIANA 
 
 G378 
 
 UK3 
 
 1878V 
 
UNIVERSITY OF N.C. AT CHAPEL HILL 
 
 00039136611 
 
 This book must not 
 be taken from the 
 Library building. 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 
 in 2010 with funding from 
 
 University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/lifecharacterofhOOvanc 
 
LIFE AND CHARACTER 
 
 OF 
 
 11^ 
 
 LATE PEESIMNT OF THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA. 
 
 BY 
 
 GOV. ZEBULON B. VANCE, 
 
 DELIVERED IN GERARD HALL, 
 
 ON 
 COMMENCEMENT DAY, JUNE 7, 1877, 
 
 AT THE REQUEST OF 
 
 THE TKUSTEES AND FACULTY OF THE UNIVEESITY. 
 
 DURHAM, N. C: 
 
 W. T. BLACKWELL & CO.'S STEAM PRESSES, 
 
 1878. 
 
MEMORIAL ORATION, 
 
 PUBLISHED IX COMPLIANCE WITH THE FOLLOWING LETTER: 
 
 Ealeigh, N. C, January 20t]i, 1878. 
 
 Sir: — At the lastregtilar meetiug of the Board of Trustees of the 
 University of North Carolina, held in this city on the 16th of the 
 month, it was unanimousl}' 
 
 "Bewlved, That the thaiiks of this Board are hereby tendered to 
 His Excellency Governor Vance, for his able, eloquent and instruc- 
 tive oration oil the life and character of the late Hon. David L. 
 Swain, delivered at the last annual commencement; that the 
 Excellency the Governor be requested to furnish a copy of the 
 oration for publication, and that the Secretary of the Board be 
 instructed to notify him of the adoption of this resolution." 
 
 In accordance with the instructions of the Board I have the 
 honor herewith to notify your Excellency of the unanimous adop- 
 tion of the foregoing resolution. Very respectfully, 
 
 W. L. Saundees, Sec'y Board Trustees. 
 To the Excellencij Qovernor Z. B. Vance, Baleigh, N. G. 
 
 THE OEATION. 
 
 That great range of mountains, extending fi-om the St. Law- 
 rence to the plauis of Alabama, called by De Soto Apalachian, and 
 by the Indian tribes Alleghanies, which, in their tongue, signifies 
 the Ei)dles.<, attains its greatest elevation in the Black Mountain 
 group, in the AVestern part of this State. 
 
 Tliis group lies pai'tly within the counties of Yancey, McDowell 
 and Buncombe; and the tallest peak of the cluster, and of all the 
 peaks east of the Rocky Mountains, is Mt. Mitchell. From its 
 dominatmg summit there is thrown off a ridge which runs west, 
 south, and southwest, in a zigzag shape, idternated -odth deep gaps, 
 tall simimits and fi-ightful precipices, until it melts away in the pe- 
 ninsiila of plain which is enclosed by the waters of the Swanuanoa 
 .and the French Broad in the county of Buncombe. 
 
 In this range, about seven miles from where these waters meet, 
 there is a httle gorge-Hke valley scooped out of its western slope, 
 which spreads its narrow bosom precisely in the face of the setting 
 sun. The tall dome of Mt. Mitchell hteraUy casts its shadow over 
 this mountain-cradled vale, as the sun first comes up from the 
 Eastern sea. 
 
 Great ridges hem it in on either side, gradually melting on the 
 tr^ south into tlie sloping hills on which stands the town of Ashe^dlle. 
 
 ^ 
 
A bold fresli brook from springs liigb up in the lieai-t of the moun- 
 tain, rijjples through tlie bottom of this vale, rehiforced by a hun- 
 di-ed smaller streams pouring from the ravines on the right and 
 left, and empties its bright fresh floods mto the French Broad, five 
 miles below the county seat. Near the very head of this valle]- is 
 a charming little- homestead, consisting of fertile bits of meadow 
 on the brook-side, above which are open fields swelling upwards 
 to the skirts of the mountain forests. In the midst of these fields, 
 where the gi'ound slopes gently towards the brook, there stood, 
 about the beginning of this century, an old-fashioned log-house of 
 the kind familiarly known to our mountain j^eople as a " double- 
 cabin." An orchard of a growth and fruitful luxiu'iance peculiar 
 to that region, surrounded the house and curtilage, imparting that 
 afr of rustic beauty and abundance which constitutes a sjjecial 
 charm in sunple country homes. 
 
 This spot at the period indicated, was the home of an honest, 
 \ipright and intelligent man, whose name was George Swain; and 
 here, on the 4:th day of January, 1801, was bom the child who 
 became the man to whose memory we desire to do honor this day. 
 
 David Lowrds Swain was the second son and child of George aiid 
 Carohue Swain. His father was of English descent, and was born 
 in Roxboro, Massachusetts, in 1763. He came South and settled 
 in Wilkes, now Oglethorpe county, in Georgia, sei-ved in the Leg- 
 islature of that State five years, and was a member of the conven- 
 tion that revised the Constitution of Georgia, His health faihng, 
 he removed to Buncombe county, N. C, in 1795, and was one of 
 its earliest settlers. He was for many years Postmaster at Ashe- 
 ville, and until within two years of his death; becoming insane a 
 year or two previous to that event. Soon after his settlement in 
 Buncombe, he was married to Caroline Lowrie, a widow, whose 
 maiden name was Lane, a sister of Joel Lane, the founder of the 
 city of Kaleigh, and of Jesse Lane, the father of Gen. Joe Lane, 
 late U. S. Senator from Oregon, and Democratic candidate for 
 Vice-President on the ticket with Gen. Breckinridge m 1860. This 
 lady had three children by her first husband, one of whom, the 
 late Col. James Lowrie, of Buncombe county, lived and died a 
 citizen of most excellent repute. By her last husband she had 
 seven children. AU of these are now dead. 
 
 George Swain was by trade a hatter, but hke all the thrifty men 
 of his daj', he combined farming with his shop, and was a success- 
 ful man in both, as success was then measui-ed. Whilst his hats 
 were famous all the county over, his httle farm on Beaver Dam, 
 the name of the stream on which it was located, was considered a 
 pattern in that period of nide agriculture. His apple-trees, under 
 the shade of which young David was born and reared, were the 
 product of cuttings brought aU the way from INIassachusetts — a 
 great and tedious journey then — and some of the varieties which 
 he thus imported stiU remain in that region by the names which 
 he gfave them. 
 
He was a man of some learning and much intelligence, mixed 
 ■with a considerable degl-ee of eccentricity. Like all New Eng- 
 landers he believed much in education, and struggled constantly 
 to impart it to his children. He was possessed of a most wonder- 
 ful memory, and I have heaa'd it said hj a lady who, as a gii'l, was 
 intimate in his house, that he often entertained her and other 
 visitors for hours together with the recitation of poems, without 
 book or manuscript. 
 
 In this humble but instructive home, secluded from anything 
 that could be termed fashionable society, but trained to industry, 
 and instructed in the ways of integrity, young David Swain's 
 early youth was passed. I cannot subscribe to the phi-ase so 
 usually employed in describing such biographical beginnings as 
 this, when it is said that the subject of the memoir was "without 
 the advantages of birth." In fact, for a child to be born amid such 
 surroundings, and with such blood in his veins as coursed through 
 those of young Swain, constitute the very highest advantages 
 which could surround the birth and bringing up of a young man 
 who was to fight his way in a country like oiu's. 
 
 The surest elements of success are commonly found in the 
 absence of indulgences in youth, and the most successful warriors 
 against fate are those who are taught by stern necessity to fight 
 early. 
 
 Gov. Swaui was fond of recurring to the scenes and influences of 
 his early life, and always felt that he had been fortunate in jdos- 
 sessing a father to whom he could look with respect and confidence. 
 He maintained a close and confidential correspondence with hun 
 from the time he left his roof to make his own way, and often re- 
 ferred to it as having had a most beneficial influence uj)on him. 
 
 In the summer vacation of 1852, he visited Buncombe, and I 
 accompanied him out to Beaver Dam to see once more the place 
 of his birth, then and now in the possession of the Rev. Thomas 
 Stradly. On a spot not very far from the house, he stopped and 
 told me that near this place Avas the first time he ever saw a wagon. 
 This wondrous vehicle, he said, belonged to Zebulon and Bedent 
 Baird, the grandfather and great uncle of your sj)eaker; 
 Scotchmen by bii'th, who came to North Carolina some time pre- 
 vious to 1790, by way of New Jersey. 
 
 There being no road for such vehicles, this wagon had ap- 
 proached the house of Mr. George Swain, he said, in the washed out 
 channel of the creek, and the futui'e Governor of North Carolina 
 stood in the orchard waiting its approach with wonder and awe, 
 and finally, as its thunder reverberated in his ears, as it rolled 
 over the rocky channel of the creek, he incontinently took to his 
 heels, and orAj rallied when safely entrenched behind his father's 
 house. He enjoyed the relation of this to me exquisitely. As a 
 palliation of his childish ignorance, however, he added that this 
 was the first wasfon which had crossed the Blue Ridge. 
 
With healthful labor at home, and healthful instiaiction by the 
 fireside, the days of his early childhood passed, till he attainetl the 
 age at which his careful father thought he should be placed under 
 other instructors. At the age of 1 5 he was accordingly sent to the 
 school near AshevUle, called the Newton Academy. Its founder 
 and first teacher was the Rev. George Newton, a Presbji^eiian 
 clergyman of good repute, who was succeeded by Rev. Mr. Porter, 
 another Presbyterian clergyman, and then by the late Wm. Smith, 
 of Georgia, familiarly known as "long Billy." This Academy was 
 justly famous in that region, and educated in whole or in part 
 many of the prominent citizens of that country beyond the Blue 
 Ridge, and elsewhere. Gov. B. F. Perry and Hon. Waddy Thomp- 
 son, of South Carolina, M. Patton, R. B. Vance, James W. Patton, 
 James Ei-win, and man}^ others of North Carolina, were classmates 
 of young Swain at that school. A lady v/ho is now Uving and was 
 also a schoolmate of his there, tells me he was a niost exemplary 
 boy and diligent student, soon and clearly outstripping all his asso- 
 ciates in the acquisition of knowledge. This superiority was 
 doubtless due to the aid of an exceedingly strong and tenacious 
 memory which he inherited from his father, and which character- 
 ized him through life. Mr. M. Patton informs me that young 
 Swain taught Latin in the same school for several months. 
 
 I am not aware that he attended any other school till he came 
 to the University in 1821; in that year he entered the Junior class, 
 but only remained some four months. Want of means most prob- 
 ably prevented him from graduating. In 1822 he entered upon 
 the study of the law in the office of Chief Justice Taylor, in 
 Raleigh. He obtained license to practise in December, 1822 ; and 
 referring to that event in his address at the opening of Tucker 
 HaU, August, 1867, forty-five years afterwards, he gives a most 
 entertaining picture of the Supreme Coiu-t which granted his 
 license, and of the great North Carolina lawyers who at that time 
 were practicing before its bar. 
 
 Returning to the mountains, with his license in his pocket and 
 a sweetheart in his eye, he went hopefuUy to work, and became 
 almost immediately in possession of a lucrative practice. The good 
 people of his native county were quick to perceive his talents and 
 integrity, and in 1824 he was elected a meml^er of the House of 
 Commons from Buncombe. So great was the satisfaction which 
 his conduct in that capacity gave to his constituents, that they con- 
 tinued him as their member by sviccessive elections until 1829. 
 
 In his cliaracter as Legislator he was most distinguished for his 
 industry and attention to details, especially in the department of 
 statistics and taxation, in which he soon became the highest 
 authority in the body of wliich he was a member. He was promi- 
 nent in getting the biU passed for the building of the French 
 Broad Tm-npike, a measvu-e wliich revolutionized the intercourse 
 between Tennessee, Kentucky and South Carolina, bringing an 
 immense stream of emigration, travel and trade throuerh western 
 
North Carolina, and adding greatly to his own iDopiilarity among 
 the people of that region. 
 
 In 1829_he was elected by the Legislature SoKcitor of the 
 Edenton Circuit, a circumstance remarkable in our legal annals, 
 both on account of his extreme youth at the time of his election to 
 so important an office, and because the Edenton Circuit was in the 
 most distant part of the State from his residence, and it had been 
 the custom to select for that office a lawyer residing in the district 
 for which he was elected. This compHment to his learning and 
 ability was conferred upon him without sohcitation, under the fol- 
 lowing circumstances: 
 
 A bitter contest had sprung up between two candidates for that 
 position, one of whom was the notorious Robert Potter, and the 
 fiiends of neither consenting to give way, by common consent both 
 sides agreed to take young Swain. 
 
 He rode only one circuit, when the next Legislature elected him 
 a Judge of the Superior Court over Judge Seawell, then an able and 
 eminent practitioner at the Raleigh bar. Swain waijkat that time 
 the youngest man ever elevated to the Bench in this State, except 
 Judge Badger, who was elected at the age of twenty-six, He had 
 ridden four circuits as Judge vnth great acceptance, when in 1832 
 he was elected by the Legislature to be Governor of the State over 
 several competitors, and was inaugurated on the 1st day of Jan- 
 uary, 1832. Under the Constitution of 1776 the term of the Gov- 
 ernor was only one year, and Gov. Swain was re-elected in 1833 
 and 1834 successively. Just previous to the close of his official 
 term in 1835 he was elected President of the State University, 
 under the following circumstances: 
 
 It is said that he would have continued in pohtics if the wav had 
 then been clear for him to go to the U. S. Senate; or that he would 
 have continued in the law, could he then have returned to the 
 bench. But the way to neither being at that time open to him, he 
 had no desire to return to the j^ractice of law, or to continue fur- 
 ther in State politics, in which he had already attained the highest 
 honors which his State had to bestow. Under these circumstances, 
 he turned his eyes towards the Presidency of the University, va- 
 cant smce January, 1835, by the death of the venerable and la- 
 mented Dr Joseph Caldwell. But great as Avas his reputation as 
 lawyer and pohtician, his character as a scholar was by no means 
 so established, nor had pubhc attention been directed to him as a 
 fit person to take charge of an institution of learning. He one day 
 called his friend, Judge Nash, into the Executive office and told him 
 frankly that he desired to be made President of the University; 
 and seeing that the Judge did not express much approbation of the 
 project, he asked him to consult with Judge Cameron, and if they 
 two did not approve of it, he would abandon the idea. Nash 
 promised to do so, and on meeting Judge Cameron, gave him hir 
 opinion that Swain would not do for the place. Cameron, however, 
 dissented at once, saying that Swain was the verv man; that though 
 
it was true lie was not a scholar, yet he had all the other necessary- 
 elements of success; and that the man who had shown he knew so 
 well how to manage men, could not fail to know how to manage 
 boys. So, at the next meeting of the Board of Trustees, Jiidge 
 Cameron nominated him and secured his election to the Presi- 
 dency. This closed his political and judicial career. 
 
 I have omitted to mention, however, in its chronological order, 
 a most important part of that career. In 1835, whilst Governor, 
 he was elected a delegate from the county of Buncombe to the 
 Convention of that year which amended the Constitution. Per- 
 haps no portion of his political seiwice was of greater importance 
 to the State than that which he rendered as a member of that 
 Convention. His sagacity, liberality, and profound acquaintance 
 with the statistics of the State, and with the history of the Consti- 
 tutional principles of Government contributed very largely to the 
 formation of that admirable instrument, the Constitution of 1885, 
 a more excellent one than which, our surroundings considered, was 
 never framed by any English speaking people. Few men in our 
 annals have fisen in life more rapidly than he, or sooner attained 
 the highest honors in every branch of the Government, Legislative, 
 Judicial and Executive. In making an estimate of his character 
 and capacity in these offices, we shall be compelled, beyond doubt, 
 to conclude that it required very substantial abilities to enable him 
 thus to reach and sustain liimself creditably in them all. 
 
 His practice as a lawyer was a veiy lucrative one to have been 
 acquired at so early an age. As an evidence of the esteem in which 
 his abilities and learning were held, he was, at the age of twenty- 
 seven, when he had been a lawyer but four years, retained as 
 counsel for the State of North Carolina with Geo. E. Badger, in a 
 most complicated mass of litigation, involving the title to more 
 land than was ever sued for under one title in our State (except 
 perhaps, that instituted by the heirs of Lord GmnviLle in 1804.) 
 Several hundred thousand acres of land had been granted to 
 Wniiam Cathcart, Huldeman, and Elseman, citizens of Pennsylvania, 
 l}dng in the counties of Burke, Buncombe, Haywood, and Macon. 
 Subsequently, these same lands in great part were sold in smaller 
 lots to settler citizens by the State, under the belief that when 
 patented originally by Cathcart and others, they were not subject 
 to entry, for the reason that they were within the boundaries which 
 had been reserved to the Indians by various treaties. One hundred 
 suits in ejectment were brought against these settlers in the Circuit 
 Court of the United States by the heirs of Cathcart. All these 
 actions were dependent on similar facts, and each one involved the 
 vaUdity, accuracy and definite character of vaiious sui-veys made at 
 sundry different times during a period of nearly half a century 
 previous thereto, under treaties between the State and the Cherokee 
 Indians, and between the United States and the same Indian tribe. 
 The State resolved to defend the titles it had given to its citizens, 
 and employed Badger and Swain to contend with Mr. Gaston who 
 
was for tlie jDlaintiffs — a very high comphment to both of them. 
 Here was a lield wherein Gov. Swain had no superior, and where 
 liis pecuHar talents came specially into play. A complicated maze 
 of long forgotten facts was to be resurrected from buried docu- 
 ments, dimly traced sum-eyors' hnes and corners through hundreds 
 of miles of tangled mountain forests were to be established, 
 pai-tly by the evidence of old grey -haired woodmen, and partly by 
 the fading outhnes of the rude maps and indistinct field-notes of 
 the survej'ors of that day; and old treaties and musty statutes were 
 to be brought out of the dust and made to speak in behalf of the 
 rights of our jjeople. 
 
 In such a work his soul dehghted, and to his faithful labors and 
 indefatigable energy must the iinal success of the State be mainly 
 attributed. For though he was j)ut on the bench, and from the 
 bench was made Governor before the test case was tried in 1832 
 and the victory won, he never ceased his labors in this behalf, and 
 his oliicial letter-book of that j^eriod is filled with evidences of his 
 zeal and research. Judge Badger, who was as generous as he was 
 great, and who followed the case up to the Supreme Court of the 
 United States, where he was assisted by Mr. Webster, frankly 
 acknowledged tiiat the cause was won mainly by the careful 
 preparation of Swain. Another circumstance connected with this 
 litigation, worth the mention in these days is, that notwithstanding 
 the vast amount of valuable work he had done already, yet because 
 the cases wer.e not concluded when he was made a judge, Gov. 
 Swain voluntarily returned half of his retainer into the Treasury. 
 All of wliich goes to show that in selecting liim out of so many able 
 and older lawyers to assist Mr. Badger, the State had chosen wisely 
 indeed. There were giants in those days, and the giants were 
 honest. 
 
 During his service in the Legislature no great or exciting issues 
 were before the people, and his career there displays no extraordi- 
 narj- effort in any dii-ection. He soon accjuired, however, a high 
 reputation for learning and industry in dealing with the practical 
 questions of the day, among which then was the very vexed one 
 of the ratio of representation in the Legislature between the East, 
 where were many slaves, and the West, where there were few. 
 This finally forced the calling of the Convention in 1835. It was, 
 however, an era of great political importance, viewed in the hght 
 of subseqiient events. The great poHtical jDarties — W^hig and 
 Democratic — which have shaped the destinies of these United 
 States for full half a century, were then crystallizing from the 
 confused and crude opinions of our early American pohtics. AU 
 thinking men began about this period to range themselves with 
 one or the other of the schools which undertook to construe the 
 Constitution of the United States, to ascertain its meaning and its 
 powers, and to define its relations with the States. A gigantic, 
 and as it would seem, an endless task indeed. Swain sided with 
 Adams, Clay and Webster, whose followers began to be called 
 
8 
 
 Whigs. Of tlie j)rominent men of that day, who ap:reed with him, 
 or with whom he agreed, were Gaston, Morehead, Badger, Man- 
 gtim, Cherry, Graham, Stanly, Moore, Miller, Outlaw, Raj^ner, and 
 many others. Of those who adhered to the school of Jefferson and 
 Calhovm, were the venerable Macon, Ruffin, Haywood, Saunders, 
 Branch, Edwards, Seawell, Shepherd, Donnell, Fisher, Craige, 
 Venable, and many more of equal talents. It is not practicable to 
 enumerate aU the mighty men of that day, who controlled our 
 affairs, and gave tone and character to our society. No State in 
 the Union had a larger list of very able citizens, and we can pay 
 no higher compliment to Gov. Swain than to say that he rose up 
 among such, and was the peer of them all. 
 
 As before stated, he rode but four circuits as Judge. From all 
 his decisions during that time, there came up but eighteen appeals. 
 Of these, thirteen w^ere sustained by the Supreme Court, consist- 
 ing of Ruffin, Henderson and HaU, and in one other he was 
 sustained by the dissenting opinion of Chief Jiistice Ruffin, leaving 
 but four in which he was unanimously overruled. This, says Mr. 
 Moore, who is now our highest living authority in matters relating 
 to the law, is an evidence of judicial ability more satisfactory than 
 could elsewhere have been furnished among our Judges, and no 
 higher compliment could have been paid him. Mr. Moore also 
 informs me that Swain was very pojDular as a Judge, even in those 
 days when the only road to popularity in that office was the honest 
 and able discharge of its exalted duties. In the contest for Judge, 
 when he was elected over Judge Seawell, he first acqtiu'ed a nick- 
 name which stuck to him till after he retired from politics. Re- 
 peated attempts with various candidates had been made to defeat 
 Seawell, who was obnoxious to tlie party to which Swain belonged, 
 but all these efforts had failed until his name was brought forward. 
 "Then," said an enthusiastic member from Iredell, "we took up old 
 'warping bars' from Buncombe, and warped him out." Aft^i" the 
 Governor became President of the University he lost this humorous 
 and not ill-fitting sobriquet, and acquired from the College wits the 
 geographical descriptio personae, "Old Bunk," which adhered to him 
 through life. 
 
 The official letter-book of Gov. Swain dviring his administration 
 shows that his time and labors were j)rincipally devoted to the 
 questions of constitutional reform; the coast defences of North 
 CaroHna; the claims of the State against the general government; 
 the removal and settlement of the Cherokee Indians; the adjust- 
 ment of land titles in the West, and other matters of domestic 
 concern. 
 
 During this time, however, many letters of literary and historic 
 importance were written by him. There is found on those pages 
 a letter written by Mr. Jno. C. Hamilton, of New York, son of 
 Alexander Hamilton, pi-oj^ounding eleven inquiries relating to the 
 History of North CaroHna; more particularly with regard to the 
 system of her Colonial and early State taxation; and the reasons of 
 
9 
 
 certain action of her (Convention in regard to the adoption of the 
 Federal Constitution, and kindred topics. Gov. Swain's repHes to 
 these queries show a wonderful amount of information and re- 
 search into the minuter sources of our early history; clearly indi- 
 cating that he was possessed in a high degree of those pecuUar 
 talents which constitute the true historian. Most of his hterary 
 labor throughout his hfe was in this department, and his collec- 
 tions were especially rich in the early history of North Carolina. 
 "Who is there left now in our State able to use the material for its 
 History which he had been accumulating through so many years ? 
 To this great work he had intended to devote the closing years of 
 his life. What stores of information perished with him ! He was 
 the special vindicator of that much-abused and much-misunder- 
 stood class of men, the Regulators of our colonial times. No man 
 in the State has done so much to clear their fame — few have been 
 so competent. The papers contributed by him to the N. C. Univer- 
 sity Magazine on the subject, would form a volume if collected, and 
 theii" great value is indicated by the numerous inquiries instituted 
 for them by men in various States of the Union. His lectiire before 
 the Historical Society in 18.52, may be said to have settled the 
 question of the merits of the Regulators, and their service to hberty. 
 
 It was during his administration that the only white woman was 
 executed who ever suffered the extreme penalty of the law in 
 North Carolina. This was a Mrs. Silvers, of Burke county, hung 
 for the murder of her husband. So far as my knowledge extends, 
 but one other, a colored woman, has ever been hung in this State. 
 As Governor of the State, in 1833, he laid the corner stone of the 
 present capitol amid imposing ceremonies; a building designed 
 with perhaj)s as j)ure and simple taste as any in America, and as 
 soHd and enduring as an}^ in the world. 
 
 On the 12th of Januar}^ 1826, he was married to Miss Eleanor ■ 
 H. AATiite, daughter of Wm. White, Secretary of State, and grand- | 
 daughter of Gov. Caswell, a union productive of great domestic 
 happiness to a man so fitted as he by nature, and by a life of 
 unsulhed purity to appreciate the ties of home, and the love of 
 wdfe and children. B}' this lady there were born to him several 
 children, of whom but three, two daughters and a son, ever reached 
 maturity. His oldest son, David, who died in childhood, was a 
 boy of great promise. His eldest child and daughter, Anne, died 
 unmarried in 1867. The second daughter, and now only sui-viving 
 child, Eleanor Hope, married Gen. S. D. Atkins, of Freeport, Ilh- 
 nois, where she now resides. The son, Richard Caswell, was killed 
 a few years since, near his home in Bhnois, being crushed to death 
 by falling between two railroad cars while in motion. There is 
 now no male representative of the name surviving. 
 
 From the time that Gov. Swain entered upon his duties as 
 
 President of the University, his career is marked by few notable 
 
 events of which his biographer can make mention. Although the 
 
 "work he did here was undoubtedly the great work of his hfe, it is 
 
 2 
 
10 
 
 impossible for us to compute it. As with the silent forces of nature 
 whicli we know to be the greatest that are exerted in this world, 
 but which yet elude the grasp of our senses; so is it impossible for 
 us to measru'e the power of the able and faithful teacher. The 
 connections between moral cause and effect are much more di£&- 
 cult to trace than those between physical cause and ^ffect, but 
 althoiigh in either case the lines are diia the wise do not fail to see 
 that they are there, and that the results are powerful. It is con- 
 ceded that the imperceptible and benign force of light and heat 
 which hfts the mighty oak out of the earth, and spreads its branches 
 to the skies, is iafinitely greater than that of the noisy whirlwind 
 which prostrates it in the dust. 
 
 Says Mr. Herbert Spencer: "In every series of dependent 
 changes, a small initial difference often works a marked dSerence 
 in the results. The mode in which a particular breaker bursts on 
 the beach may determine whether the seed of some foreign plant 
 which it bears, is or is not stranded, may cause the presence or 
 absence of this plant from the Flora of the land, and may so affect 
 for millions of years in countless ways, the Hving creatures through- 
 out the earth. The whole tenor of a hfe may be changed by a 
 single word of advice, or a glance may determine an action which 
 alters thoughts, feelings and deeds throughout a long series of 
 years." 
 
 We know that the moral tone of a community is the maia-spring 
 of its glory or its shame; that that tone is to a great extent im- 
 parted by its educated men; we know, too, that no man has ever 
 lived in North Carolina whose opportunities for thus influencing 
 those who control her destinies have been greater than Gov. 
 Swain's were ; and I am quite sure that no man ever more diligently 
 and earnestly improved those opportunities. There is this too, fur- 
 ther and better to be said, that in the whole course of his contact with 
 the young men of North CaroUna and of the South at this Univer- 
 sity for a third of a century, the whole weight of every particle of 
 influence which he possessed was exerted in behalf of good morals, 
 good government, patriotism and rehgion. The sparks of good 
 which he ehcited, the trains of generous ambition which he set on 
 fire, the number of young Hves which his teachings have directed 
 into the j)aths of vu'tue and knowledge, and colored with the hues 
 of heaven, who but God shall teU? If we could see events and 
 analyse destinies as only the Most High can, how wondrous would 
 appear the hai'vest of David L. Swain's sowing ! How many great 
 thoughts worked out in the still watches of the night; how many 
 noble orations in the Forum stirring the hearts of men; how many 
 eloquent and momentous discourses in the pulj)it; how many bold 
 strokes of patriotic statesmanship; how many daring deeds and 
 sublime deaths on bloody fields of battle; how many good and 
 generous and honest things done in secret; how many evil things 
 and sore temptations resisted; in short, how much of that which 
 constitutes the public and private virtue of our people, the pros- 
 
11 
 
 perity, the honor, and the glory of our State might not be traced 
 to the initial inspiration of ^)a^'id L. Swain ! Say what you Avill for 
 the mighty things done by the mighty ones of earth, but here is 
 the truest honor and renown. 
 
 For whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there 
 be tongues, they shaU cease ; whether there be knowledge, it shall 
 vanish away; but he that helps to shape an immortal soul, and fit 
 it for the senice of Heaven and humanity, verily his memory shall 
 endure until that which is perfect is come. 
 
 How well do I remember the many occasions during my sojourn 
 at the University, when he as my preceptor, esteeming such influ- 
 ences of greater importance to the class than the texts of the 
 lessons, would for the time give his whole soul to the stii'ring up 
 of these generous and emulous sentiments in the hearts of his 
 pupUs. The very first recitation in which I ever appeared before 
 him was one such. I shall never, never forget it. In 1851, I 
 entered the University, and joined the senior class as an irregular. 
 This first lesson was in Constitutional Law. A single general 
 question was asked and answered as to the subject in hand, and 
 then he began to discoui'se of Chancellor Kent, whose treatise we 
 were studying; from Kent he went to Story, fi'om Story to Mar- 
 shall, repeating anecdotes of the great Americans who had framed 
 and interpreted our organic law; and touching upon the debate 
 between Hayne and Webster. From these, he went back and 
 back to the men and the times when the great seminal principles 
 of Anglo-Saxon hberty were eliminated from feudal chaos, and 
 placed one by one as stones polished by the genius of the wise, 
 and cemented by the blood of the brave, in the walls of the temple 
 of Inmian freedom. He told us of the eloquence of Burke, of the 
 genius of Chatham; he took us into the prison of Eliott and went 
 with us to the death-bed of Hampden; into the closet with Coke 
 and Seargent Maynard; and to the Forum Avhere Somers sjjoke; 
 to the deck of the Brill where Wihiam, the deliverer, stood as he 
 gazed upon the shores of England; to the scaffolds of Sydney and 
 of our own glorious Raleigh. Warming as he went with the gioAving 
 theme, walking up and down tlie recitation room, which was then 
 the Library of the "old South," with long and awkward strides, 
 heaving those heavy passionate sighs, which were alwa^-s with him 
 the witnesses of deep emotion, he would now and then stop, reach 
 down fr-om its shelf a A'olume of some old Poet, and read -oath 
 trembling voice some grand and glowing words addressed to man's 
 truest ambition, that thrilled om- souls like a song of the chief 
 musician. A profound silence was evidence of the deej) attention 
 of the class, and the hour passed almost before we knew it had 
 began. 
 
 I afterwards learned that this lecture was intended for my ben- 
 •efit, as I was a stranger to the class and had entered it under some 
 disadvantages, and in his kindness of heart he supposed I needed 
 some eucoui-agement. But such were frequently given us. Nor 
 
12 
 
 were these digressions from the chief business of the hour always 
 of a seiious nature. The gayest wit and brightest humor often 
 illumined the moments when not content with putting forth his 
 own conceits, he exerted himself to draw forth those of the class, 
 and if he succeeded sometimes in biinging forth a repartee that 
 struck pat upon his own head, no one enjoyed it more than himself. 
 Like a true humorist aiid story teller he enjoyed the taking as well 
 as the giving, with the utmost good fellowship. 
 
 From the day that Gov. Swain became the chief officer of the 
 University his life was hterally devoted to its interests. The same 
 traits of character which had hithei-to seciu'ed liis success in life 
 were especitilly needed here. His pmdence, his cautious far 
 reaching policy, his constructive abiht}', his insight into chai-acter, 
 and remarkable faculty for suggesting valuable work to others and 
 setting them at it, his forbearance, charity, self-control— these were 
 all brought into play with marked resrdts. The reputation of the 
 Institution, and the number of its students steadily and continually 
 increased. In 1835, there were not over 90 in attendance. In 
 1860, there were nearly 500. 
 
 Gov. Swain was eminently a progressive man. He loved to 
 suggest, and to see his suggestions taken up and carried out. 
 What a number of improvements the record of his management 
 here shows that he inaugurated ! The excellent system of street- 
 draining in Chapel HUl, by stone culverts, the planting of elms, the 
 enclosing of the college grounds, and their improvement and 
 ornamentation with shrubbery; all these were planned by him, and 
 executed under Dr. Mitchell's superintendance. He first employed 
 a college gardener. He was the founder of the State Historical 
 Society. He established, and assisted largely to support the 
 University Magazine, and was himself one of its most regulai* and 
 valued contributors. He was one of the foremost friends of the 
 N. C. Central E. E., and offered to be one of a number to take the 
 whole stock at once. He first introduced the study of the Bible 
 into college, and of Constitutional and International Law. And he 
 was an earnest advocate for humanizing the coiu'se of study, 
 making science more popular and more prominent. 
 
 He was always deeply interested in the prosperity of the village 
 of Chapel Hill, beheving, and justly, that its welfare was identical 
 with that of the college. Circumstances since his death have amply 
 proved the truth of this. He had ever a kind word, and a chari- 
 table estimate for every man, woman and chUd in the place. 
 
 Thirty-three years of liis best days, and the sincerest labors of 
 his existence were spent here in the training of young men. As 
 yet, no monument has been erected in these grounds to commem- 
 orate his virtues and his labors. The valley of humihation — nay, 
 of the shadow of Death — through which our beloved Institution has 
 passed, in which she was despoiled of everything but her glorious 
 memories, and I trust, her gratitude, is the apology which can be 
 offered for this seeming, but not real, neglect. A simple tablet to 
 
13 
 
 his memory might well be inserted in any of these walls, and fitly 
 wiitten thereon might be the words found in the epitaph of Sir 
 Christopher Wren in the crypt of St. Paul's: 
 
 Lector, si monumentum requiris, 
 Circumspice ! 
 
 In very truth the University may be looked upon as his monu- 
 ment. It emerged from swaddling clothes under President 
 Caldwell; it passed through a vigorous youth into a splendid 
 manhood under President Swain. But whilst the stranger stands 
 upon the earth and beholds the monument of the great architect 
 in the magnificent pUe whose tall fane overtops the loftiest domes 
 and spires of the greatest city in the world, he who would fuUy 
 comprehend the great work of David Swain's hfe would have to 
 stand upon the battlements of heaven, and siuwey the moral world 
 with an angel's ken. 
 
 I know of no man of his day who was sxu'rounded by so many 
 inducements to return to the paths leading to highest distraction 
 in active public hfe, who so completely put them all away, and 
 adhered so strictly to the work which he had accepted here. As 
 we have seen, his career as a pohtician and a lawyer had been 
 remarkably successful while he was yet at a very early age, and if 
 he had desired further honors he had aU the qualities which are 
 supposed to fit men for the attainment of these objects. Had he 
 been pessessed of a passion to accumulate wealth, almost any other 
 course in life wovdd have fed this desire more than the Presidency 
 of the University. From aU these fields of distinction and of 
 wealth, the public sentiment of his time desu-ed that the officers, 
 and especiaUy the chief officers of the University should be isolated. 
 This expectation Grov. Swain filled, and more than filled. For the 
 good of the Institution, he not only laid aside whatever of ambition 
 he may have had in the directions usually chosen by able men, but 
 he subordinated many cherished convictions, and refrained fi-om 
 the doing many things which he no doubt most ardently desii-ed 
 to do. In the nature of things, this course, so essential to the suc- 
 cess of an Institution entirely dependent on popular favor, begot 
 many misconceptions of his character. It has been said that he 
 was undecided in his opinions, and timid in the expression and 
 maintenance of them. I beheve such an impression does his 
 memory great injustice. His nature was essentially gentle, his 
 manners were mild, his temper was cautious; but I cannot beheve 
 that he was either timid or undecided. I had the honor — and I 
 consider it both an honor and a happy fortune — to be on terms of 
 confidential intimacy with him from my first entrance into the 
 University until his death. "We were in the utmost accord on aU 
 questions pertaining to Chiu-ch and State, and during my subse- 
 quent career — especially in those troublous years of war — I con- 
 sulted him more frequently perhaps than any other man in the 
 State, except Gov. Graham. So affectionately Vas his interest in 
 
14 
 
 my welfare always manifested, that many people supposed we were 
 relatives, and I 'have frequently been asked if such were not the 
 fact. 
 
 This state of our relations gave me ample oj^portunity to know 
 him weU, and I beUeve I can say with entire truth that whilst his 
 course of life and surroundings necessarily made him tolerant and 
 even liberal towards those who disagreed with him, he was as 
 positive in his opinions, religious and political, and as firm in his 
 adherence to them, as any man of my acquaintance. The unpopu- 
 larity of which he was afraid, and which produced that cautious 
 habit which some men mistook for timidity, pertained to the 
 Institution which he had in charge, and not to himseK. And as 
 the State reaped the benefit of his prudence in the increased 
 prosperity of the University, the injustice of charging this to a 
 defect of character becomes all the more ajDparent. 
 
 The remarkable character of his memory served him in good 
 stead in many ways through life. As a law}'er it had been inval- 
 uable, not only enabling him to cite cases with great readiness to 
 the court, but in trials before juries, without taking notes he could 
 repeat the testimony of aU the witnesses examined, no matter how 
 many, nor how long the trial continued. 
 
 Perhaps he was more thoroughly versed in biography than any 
 man who has ever hved in America; certainly North Carohna never 
 produced his equal in this respect. His wonderful memory, com- 
 bined with gi-eat industry, was stimulated by a genuine love of 
 genealogical studies. Almost the first question he would ask a 
 student on meeting him, if indeed he did not akeady know, was, 
 "Who is your father ?" On being told, by a few quick questions 
 he would possess himself of the boy's lineage, and would never 
 forget it. G-eneraUy, however, the boys woiild be utterly astounded 
 on presenting themselves, to find that the Governor knew more of 
 them and their famihes than they did themselves. It was equally 
 so ^dth all strangers with whom he met, and fi-equently ludicrous 
 scenes resulted from his insatiable desire to trace pedigree. 
 Whilst a delegate fi'om this State to the Montgomery Convention, 
 which organized the Confederacy in 18G1, he was introduced to a 
 distinguished gentleman, and without letting go his hand which he 
 took to shake, he stopped in the midst of the flow of ceremonious 
 speech, and to the no smaU amusement of the bystanders asked 
 him : "Su-, was not your mother's maiden name Jones ?" I doubt 
 if there is a single family on the Atlantic coast, whose members 
 have borne any prominent i)art in the affairs of the country, in 
 regard to which he did not have more or less of information, and 
 could have told all about its leading representatives at least. With 
 a very Httle help indeed he could have supplied a "Doomsday 
 Book" of North Carohna, by far more accui-ate than that of the 
 Conqueror. It was generally understood at Chapel Hill that if you 
 wanted to know lohat anything was, you went to Dr. IVIitcheU; if you 
 wanted to know who anybody was, you went to Gov. Swain. 
 
15 
 
 And as he never forgot face, or name, or lineage of the man once 
 known to bim, so lie never forgot a kindness or a favor once done 
 to him or his, and loved to continue such memories, and extend the 
 chain of friendship to second and third generations. "Thine own, 
 and thy father's fnend forsake not," was one of his favorite maxims. 
 He was utterly incapable of resisting an appeal for mercy, or a tale 
 of distress. This was, I believe, the only objection urged against 
 his conduct on the bench — his leniency to criminals. It was an 
 objection to his honor, if his mercy was at aU. tempered with discre- 
 tion, as I doubt not it was. So too arose the only serious trouble 
 he ever had with the Trustees of the University. •/ 
 
 Stringent measures had been resolved upon by the Board towards^- 
 dissipation and iiisubordination among the students, which regula- 
 tions were not rigidly enforced by Gov. Swain. So great was his 
 forbearance with the' hot blood of youth, and so strong his faith 
 that time would cure these early folHes, and enable the better 
 natures of the young men to assert themselves, that he suffered the 
 Draconian code of the Trustees to he dormant, whilst he lectm-ed, 
 reproved, and exhorted. He shrank fi'om branding the opening 
 years of a young life with sentence of dismission or expulsion, and 
 would condescend to an en-ing boy while there remained the last 
 hope of reform. In such cases liis judgment not unfrequently came 
 into conflict with the opinions of other members of the Faculty, and 
 finally so ii-ritated the Trustees that they passed a resolution of 
 censure upon him, which was pubhcly read from the platform of 
 the Chapel by no less a personage than Gov. IredeU. Quite a scene 
 was excited on this occasion, and when Gov. Swain arose and 
 rephed in his own vindication, it was with much emotion, not 
 tmmingled with indignation; "More," says Mr. Cameron, who was 
 present, "than I ever knew him to exhibit on any occasion, before 
 or since." 
 
 The lapse of time has shown this pohcy to have been the best and 
 wisest not only for the young men themselves, but for the Institu- 
 tion, and for his own fame. Who of all the hundi-eds to wliom he 
 thus stood in the attitude of a father, kind, and long-suffering, and 
 hopeful, but now recalls him with affection and gratitude; how 
 many a one remembers his college life at Chapel Hill as the turn- fc 
 ing point of his life where he was won by undeserved kindness to 
 paths of honor, not repelled by judicial severity, and feels in his 
 heart that under God he owes aU that he has of fortune, friends or 
 fame to this Institution and its wise head ! 
 
 While the Governor remained in pohtical life his extraordinary 
 memoiy of persons, and names and events gave him a wonderful 
 advantage. There is no more successful way of making ones self 
 agreeable to the multitude than by knowing men when you meet 
 them, and calhng them by name. Not to recognize a man who has 
 stood your friend, and fought your battles at the polls, is always an 
 omission of evil omen in his eyes, and a bad memory for names wiU 
 not always apologize for what seems to be neglect. Many and 
 
16 
 
 many are the sMfts of the politician to avoid this fatal predicament. 
 But I venture to say that Gov. Swain veas never caught in such a 
 way. Once being introduced, he never forgot his man, nor his 
 family connections. After the surrender of Gen. Lee in 1865, when 
 Gen. Sherman had begun his march upon Raleigh, at the earnest 
 request of Mr. B. F. Moore and Mr. Kenneth Rayner, I sent an 
 embassy to meet the Federal Commander, and obtain what terms 
 were possible for the suiTender of the Capital of the State. 
 
 Having confidence in their fii-mness and discretion, I selected 
 Govs. Swain and Graham, who left in a few moments after their 
 appointment, on a special train, accompanied by Dr. Edward War- 
 ren, Surgeon General of the State. I remarked after their dejDar- 
 ture with my letter, as one reason for selecting him, that I had no 
 doubt Gov. Swain would find plenty of acquaintances in the enemy's 
 cam J), or at least would prove that he knew the fathers of many of 
 the officers. And so it was; on his arrival at headquarters, he not 
 only claimed Gen. Sherman as an old correspondent, and fellow- 
 college-president, but immediately seized upon two or three 
 members of the staff whose parents and pedigree he knew, and 
 was soon at home among them. 
 
 And here perhaps it is not improper in me to cori-ect a statement 
 made by Gen. Sherman in his memoirs, in relation to this embassy. 
 Referring to it, that General says : "They had come wdth a flag of 
 truce, to which they were not entitled; still, in the interests of 
 peace, I respected it, and permitted them to return to Raleigh with 
 their locomotive to assure the Governor (of the State) and the 
 people, that the war was substantially over, and that I wanted the 
 civil authorities to remain in the execution of their office till the 
 pleasure of the- President could be ascertained. On reaching 
 Raleigh, I found these same gentlemen with Messrs. Bragg, Badger, 
 Holden and others, but Gov. Vance had fled, and could not be 
 prevailed on to return, because he feared aiTcst and imprisonment." 
 
 This statement is uncandid, not to say untruthful, by implication 
 x/' at least. These gentlemen had a right to the flag of truce, for it 
 ^ was sent with the consent, and by permission of Gen. Hardee, 
 commanding the Confederate forces in the absence of Gen. John- 
 ston, and should not have been permitted to enter the enemy's 
 hnes if the bearers were not entitled to carry it. It was 7wt 
 ^ respected, for it was fired upon by Kilpatrick's men, and "captured" 
 as they claimed, and the gentlemen composing the embassy were 
 promptly and skillfully robbed of their surplus personalty, and 
 ^ were conducted as "prisoners" to Gen. Sherman's headquarters. 
 ^ They were not permitted promptly, as the statement implies, to 
 return with their locomotive, with assurances of peace and protec- 
 tion, but were detained there the entire day and night after their 
 X, arrival within Sherman's lines, until he no doubt knew that Raleigh 
 was entirely uncovered by Johnston's troops. Of course, all the 
 officers of the State government who did not wish to surrender at 
 discretion, left with the Confederate troops, for, the embassy not 
 
17 
 
 returning and no news of its fate, except that it had been captured, 
 and no reply to my letter being received, they had no assurance of 
 protection. Gov. Swain states in his address at the opening of 
 Tucker Hall, that on the return of the embassy that memorable 
 morning, but- a few minutes in advance of the Federal troops, the 
 city was shrouded in silence and gloom, except for the presence of 
 a few marauding stragglers fx'om Wheeler's cavalry, showing con- 
 clusively that the city was uncovered when he arrived with 
 Sherman's message. It was some days afterwards, and at Hills- 
 boro, when I learned from Gov. Graham the result of his mission, 
 and it was then far too late for me, consistently with other duties, 
 to accept of Sherman's offer of protection, had any one convinced 
 me that it was best to do so, which indeed no one did. My 
 inclinations, I confess, were to be with that little army, fully one- 
 third of whom were North Carolinians, until they laid down their 
 arms. I am happy to reflect that I shared their fate to the last. X^ 
 
 This much to vindicate the truth of History. Throughout this 
 whole transaction, as many gentlemen have testified to me, Gov. 
 Swain's bearing was, in the highest degree, courageous, discreet 
 and manly. 
 
 During the war his efforts had mainly been directed to keeping 
 the college alive, for such was the impetuosity with which the call 
 to arms was obeyed, that of the eighty members of which the 
 Freshman class consisted in 1860, but one (in delicate health) 
 remained to pursue his studies. (Of the senior class of that date 
 not one had remained out of the army, and fully one-foiu'th of them 
 fell in battle.) Seven members of the Faculty volunteered, and of 
 them five returned no more. 
 
 Gov. Swain appealed to the Confederate government more than 
 once to prevent the handful of college boys left, from being drafted. 
 President Davis himself seconded these efforts in the earlier years 
 of the war, declaring that "the seed-corn should not be ground up." 
 But as the exigencies of the country increased, this wisdom was 
 lost sight of, the collegians were again and again called upon, till 
 at the time of Lee's surrender, there were but about a dozen here 
 still keeping up the name and forms of a college. But even while 
 the village and University were occupied by four thousand Michigan 
 fcavalry, the old bell was rung daily, prayers were held, and the 
 University was kept going. The Governor took a pride in this, and 
 hoped that he was to tell it many years after. But this long and 
 useful life, devoted to the best interests of his country and his age, 
 was nearing its close. Only three years yet remained to him, and 
 these were devoted by him to earnest, unceasing endeavors to 
 reinstate the University pecuniarily, and to recall its former 
 patronage, Dai'ker days, however, were in store for it, which he in 
 the good Providence of God was not to be permitted to see. 
 
 In the summer of 1868, the State passing under a new Constitu- 
 tion, and an entire change of Government, the University also fell 
 into new hands, whose first action was to request the resignation 
 
18 
 
 of the President and Faculty, most of whom had grown grey in 
 service to the State. A guard of negroes were sent to take posses- 
 sion, and these halls were closed. Gov. Swain was then preparing 
 for a visit to Buncombe. On the 11th day of August, while driving 
 in the neighborhood of Chapel Hill with Prof. Fetter, he was thrown 
 from the buggy, and brought home painfully, but as was then sup- 
 posed, not seriously injured. Confined to his bed for about two 
 weeks, he appeared to be recovering, when on the morning of the 
 27th he suddenly fainted, and expired without pain. 
 
 He was in the full possession of all his faculties up to the last 
 moment^ and died at peace with all the world; a fitting close to a 
 life of beneficence and integrity. The manner of his death afforded 
 a melancholy coincidence taken with those of his two oldest friends 
 and co-laborers in the Faculty who had preceded hun over the 
 river, and were "resting under the shade of the trees." Dr. Elisha 
 Mitchell perished by falling down a precipice in the cataracts of 
 the Black Mountain, June 27, 1857. Dr. James Phillips sank down 
 suddenly on this rostrum while in the act of conducting morning 
 prayers, and died without a struggle, March 14th, 18G7. Thus all 
 of these eminent men, worthy servants of Christianity and civiliza- 
 tion died with some degree of suddeness, or violence. 
 
 A just estimate of the talents and character of Gov. Swain, for 
 reasons already indicated, is not easily made plain to popular 
 apprehension. By the world the term "great" is variously applied 
 and misapplied. It is often withheld when it is most richly 
 deserved; not, because of the injustice of cotemporaries, for 
 personal prejudice rarely outlives a generation, but because men 
 rarely appreciate the full extent and character of the labors of a 
 lifetime. And especially is this true when that life has been mainly 
 spent in the planting of moral seeds below the surface, which per- 
 haps for years make no great show of the harvest" which is sure to 
 come. Generations are sometimes required to elapse before the 
 world can see the golden sheaves which cover and adorn the land- 
 scape, the result of that patient and judicious planting. 
 
 They who in life are followed by the noisy plaudits of the crowd, 
 who fill the largest space in the eyes of their cotemporaries, anel 
 seem to tower far above their fellows are not always found to hav^ 
 their reputation built on the securest foundations,, nor to have left 
 their mark on the age in which they lived. Erasmus was esteemed 
 by his generation a much greater man than Luther. One of the 
 most remarkable men of his century, few indeed have equalled him 
 in keenness of intellect, and in depth and extent of learning. Yet 
 viewed now in the light of their labors, and the value and signifi- 
 cance of their impression on the world, what a veritable shadow he 
 was by the side of the plainer, less learned, but downright monk ! 
 Erasmus is known to the scholars who search for his name and 
 works in the cyclop Fedias; the name and the spirit of Luther per- 
 vade and affect the civilization of the whole world. 
 
19 
 
 On the Slst of February, 1677, there died in a small house in the 
 Hague a man whose greatness could not be measured, says his 
 biographer, until humanity had moved to the proper prospective 
 point at the distance of more than a century. The view enlarged 
 as time rolled on, as it does to men chmbing high mountains; in 
 1877, the world agrees to number him among the undoubted sons 
 of o-enius, and benefactors of mankind. His admirers erect a 
 monument to his memory just two hundred years after his death 
 in the same city where he was persecuted, excommunicated, and 
 his works destroyed. His name was Spinoza. Modest, and pure, 
 and upright, he had the misfortune to live two hundred years 
 before his age, and to put forth fruits of genius which his fellows 
 could not comprehend, and so they stamped him and them into 
 dust as being unorthodox. Two centuries of progress have brought 
 the world up to where Spinoza died, and it builds him a monument. 
 At last, his work is seen. 
 
 The Earl of Murray, Lord Regent of Scotland, was not esteemed 
 a o-reat man in his day. His behaviour was modest, his abihties 
 were apparently but moderate, and for more than two hundred 
 years he has figured in History as an ordinary man, overlaid by 
 the more violent and intriguing spirits of his time, and his char- 
 acter obscured and distorted by the glamour which surrounds the 
 name of his beauteous but abandoned sister and murderess. Queen 
 Mary. And yet when two centuries afterwards the spirit of 
 philosophic History comes to trace cause and effect, and to show 
 the result of his life's work upon Protestant Christianity and what 
 he contributed to the domination of the English-speaking races, we 
 agree at once with Mr. Froude that he was in truth one of the best 
 and greatest of men, a benefactor of mankind. 
 
 And so it may be said of Bunyan, of Wesley and of many more, 
 whose beginnings were esteemed but of small account, but whose 
 fame has continued to grow continually brighter and brighter, as 
 the world has been forced to see how wisely they builded. 
 
 In many senses of the term Gov, Swain was not a great man. 
 As an author, though a man of letters, he neither achieved nor 
 attempted anything lasting. As a politician, though he rose rapidly 
 to the highest honors of his native State, he did not strikingly 
 impress himself upon his times by any great speech, nor by any 
 grand stroke of policy. In this respect he was inferior to many of 
 his cotemporaries who constituted, perhaps, the brightest cluster 
 of names in our annals. As a lawyer and a judge, he occupied 
 comparatively about the same position; and as a scholar he was 
 not to be distinguished, being inferior to several of his co-laborers 
 in the University. 
 
 But in many things he was entitled to be called great, if we mean 
 by that term that he so used the faculties he possessed that he 
 raised himself beyond and above the great mass of his fellows. In 
 him there was a rounded fullness of the qualities, intellectual and 
 moral, which constitute the excellence of manhood, in a degree 
 
20 
 
 never excelled by any citizen of North Carolina whom I have personally 
 known, except by Wm. A. Graham. If there was in Swain no one grand 
 quality of intellect which lifted him out of comparison with any but the 
 demi-gods of our race, neither was there any element so wanting as to sink 
 him into or below the common mass. If there were in him no Himalayan 
 peaks of Genius piercing into the regions of everlasting frost and ice, neither 
 were there any yawning chasms or slimy pools below the tide waters of 
 mediocrity. He rose from the plain of his fellow men, like the Alleghanies 
 in whose bosom he was born, by regular and easy gradations, so easy that 
 you know not how high you are until you turn to gaze backward — every step 
 surrounded by beauty and fertility until he rested high over all the land. If 
 there be those who singly tower above him in gifts, or attainments, or dis- 
 tinctions, there are none whom as a whole we can contemplate with more 
 interest, affection and admiration, none whose work for North Carolina will 
 prove to be more valuable, or mors lasting, or more imijortant to future 
 generations; none to whom, at the great final review, the greeting may be 
 more heartily addressed: "Servant of God, icell done!" 
 
 No estimate of Gov. Swain's walk through life should omit the considera- 
 tion of his christian character. It was especially marked by catholicity of 
 feeling towards all good men of whatever name. He was accustomed to refer 
 this to the circumstances of his bringing up. He would say: "My father was 
 a Presbyterian Elder, and an Arminian, my mother was Methodist and a 
 Calvinist, who loved and studied Scotfs commentary. Their house was the 
 home for preachers of all sorts west of the Blue Eidge. Bishop Asbury 
 blessed me when a child. Mr. Newton, a Presbyterian, taught me when a 
 boy, and Humphrey Posey, a Baptist, used to pray for me when a youth. So 
 I love all who show that thej' are christians." 
 
 On his death-bed, he spoke often of "the communion of Saints" with one 
 another, and with their Head. 
 
 He was a decided Presbyterian, however; he admired what he called "the 
 sj'mmetry" of the ecclesiastical system of his church; he dwelt on its history 
 with great delight, and was accustomed to find support for his soul in times 
 of deep distress in its interpretations of the bible. He was a praying man, 
 and not ashamed to be known as such. He first introduced the practice of 
 opening the regular meetings of the Faculty with prayer. The night before 
 he died, he said of the Lord's prayer: "The oftener I use it the more precious 
 it is to me; it contains a whole body of divinity." 
 
 In private life he was most upright, kind, social and hospitable. An 
 excellent financier, he left a handsome estate, even "after the war." He had 
 a proper conception of the value of wealth, and all his life practised a judi- 
 cious economy, but he knew well both how to lend and how to give. His 
 conversation was delightfully interesting and instructive, replete with 
 anecdote, genial humor, histori^-al incident, or literary quotaiion. Few men 
 of his associates equalled him in these respects, even after the infirmity of 
 deafness had cut him off from much social enjoyment. 
 
 His remains lie buried in Oakwood Cemetery near Ealeigh, and close 
 beside the sleeping soldiers of the Confederacy, and the soil of our State 
 holds the dust of no son who loved her more, or seiwed her better. Peaceful 
 be his rest, as he waits for the clear breaking of the day over the brow of the 
 eternal hills. 
 
 The daisies prank thy grassy grave. 
 
 Above, the dark pine branches wave ; 
 Sleep on. 
 
 Below, the merry runnel sings, 
 
 And swallows sweep with glancing wings; 
 Sleep on, old friend, sleep on. 
 
 Calm as a summer sea at rest, 
 
 Thy meek hands folded on thy breast. 
 Sleep on. 
 
 Hushed into stillness life's sharp pain, 
 
 Naught but the pattering of the rain, 
 Sleep on, dear friend, sleep on.