Low Ebb
Surrounded by desola¬
tion. Vance was ready
to move to Australia in
1865.
Depressed by defeat and almost
without funds at the end of the War
Between the Stales, North Carolina's
governor, Zebulon Baird Vance, briefly
considered leaving the United States
and emigrating to Australia!
This is revealed in a letter written
by Vance to J. Evans Brown, a Bun¬
combe County native, who was living
in New South Wales, Australia, in
1865. Vance, however, soon recovered
his usual optimism and sense of humor
and started to recoup his fortune by
practicing law in Charlotte. He was
elected to a third term as governor in
1876 and later to four terms in the
U. S. Senate. He also returned to his
native mountains and built a summer
home. Gombroon, near Black Moun¬
tain, where he spent some of the hap¬
piest times of the last years of his life.
Vance’s letter to Brown describes
conditions in North Carolina at the end
of the war and at the start of the
difficult days of the Reconstruction.
Here are excerpts from that letter:
"Of course I cannot give you much
criticism upon the war. or the causes
of our failure; nor can I attempt to do
justice to the heroism of our troops
or of the great men developed by the
contest. This is the business of the his¬
torian and when he traces the lines
which arc to render immortal the deeds
of this revolution, if truth and candor
guide his pen. neither our generals nor
our soldiers will be found inferior to
any who have fought and bled within
a century.
"When all of our troops had laid
down their arms, then was immediately
seen the results which I had prophe¬
sied. Slavery was declared abolished,
two thousand millions of properly gone
from the South at one blow, leaving
four million freed vagabonds among us
THE STATE. November 25. 1961
- outnumbering in several states the
whites — to hang as an incubus upon
us and re-enact from time to time
the horrors of Haiti and St. Domingo.
This alone was a blow from which the
South will not with reasonable indus¬
try recover in one hundred years.
Then. too. the States have been re¬
duced to the condition of territory, their
Executive and Judicial (and all other)
officers appointed by the Federal Gov¬
ernment, and are denied all law ex¬
cept that of the military.
"Our currency, of course, is gone
and with it went the banks and bonds
of the State, and with them went to
ruin thousands of widows, orphans, and
helpless persons whose funds were in¬
vested therein. Their railroads de¬
stroyed. towns and villages burned to
ashes, fields and farms laid desolate,
homes and homesteads, palaces and
cabins only marked to the owner’s eye
by the blackened chimneys looming
out on the landscape like the mile
marks on the great highway of deso¬
lation as it swept over the blooming
plains and happy valleys of our once-
prosperous land. The stock all driven
off and destroyed, mills and agricul-
cultural implements specially ruined;
many wealthy farmers making with
their own hands a small and scanty
crop with old artillery horses turned
out by the troops to die. This is but
a faint picture of the ruin of the coun¬
try which years ago you left blooming
like the garden of Eden, abounding
in plenty and filled with a population
whose condition was the praise and
the envy of all the earth. Alas, alas!
"To travel from New Bern to Bun¬
combe now would cause you many
tears. John, unless your heart is harder
than I think it is. But thank God.
though witchcraft and poverty doth
abound, yet charily and brotherly love
doth much abound. A feeling of com¬
mon suffering has united the hearts of
our people and they help one another.
Our people do not uselessly repine over
their ruined hopes. They have gone
to work with amazing alacrity and
spirit. Major Generals. Brigadiers.
C ongressmen and high functionaries
hold the plough and sweat for their
bread. Trade begins to resume its
channels and a beam of hope begins
again to reanimate our long tried and
suffering people.
"Our loss in men was very great.
Seven tenths of the spirited, educated
young men of N. C. fell in this strug¬
gle. Many old families arc almost cx-
ZfB VANCE
tincl in the male line. All are reduced
to the most abject poverty.
"But I have dwelt long enough per¬
haps on this and future. After the sur¬
render. I came to this place (States¬
ville). where Mrs. Vance had fled when
Raleigh was evacuated, and sat down.
In a few' days. I was arrested, sent to
Washington City and lodged in prison.
I remained there only two months
when Mr. President permitted me to
return home on parole. So I am here,
a prisoner still.
"There are indications that the radi¬
cal abolitionists — the South being ex¬
cluded from representatives in Con¬
gress — intend to force perfect Negro
equality upon us. The right to vote,
hold office, testify in courts and sit
upon juries arc the privileges claimed
for them. Should this be done, and
there is nothing to prevent it. it will
revive an already half formed determi¬
nation in me to leave the U. S. for¬
ever.
"Where 'hall I go? Many thoughts
have I directed towards the distant
Orient where you are. The idea is so
possible at the least that I would be
thankful to you for any information
germain to the matter. Climate, soil,
water courses. Government, popula¬
tion, etc., arc all eagerly enquired after
here. What would it cost me and how
would I gel there? What could I do
there? Either in Australia or New Zea¬
land? As a lawyer, grazier, merchant.
(Continued on page JV)
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