State

General Tho I I as Clfngman lie uas a truly great man and serv«4l Iiis stale* and nation well in the halls of Con¬ gress. In addition, he was one of the out¬ standing builders of western North Carolina. ALTHOUGH General Clingman was born in Surry County. / \most of his career was passed at Asheville, and it is with the county of Buncombe that his fame is associated. Easily first among the primates of Buncombe stands Zebulon Baird Vance, war Governor and United States Senator; second among such primates is David L. Swain. Governor and for many years President of the University; and the third name in such a list would be that of General Clingman. My subject's paternal grand¬ father served during the Revolu¬ tion and was captured when the British took Charleston; and an¬ other grandfather was Colonel Robert Lanier, who was killed during the Revolution. The Gen¬ eral's father moved from Pennsyl¬ vania to Cabarrus County, and shortly thereafter to Surry, where his son Thomas Lanier Clingman was born July 27, 1812, at Hunts¬ ville. Attended the University The General attended the Uni¬ versity, from which he was grad¬ uated in 1832, in the class of which Secretary of the Navy James C. Dobbin was a member. This com¬ mencement was made memorable by two events : The commencement orator was Judge William Gaston, who devoted his address to a de¬ nunciation of slavery and to the development of his theorem that slavery was both morally wrong and economically unsound. When Thomas Lanier Clingman delivered the valedictory, his address was on the same subject, and he took the same ground. This, mind you, was in North Carolina, nearly thirty years prior to the Civil War. He read law at Hillsboro, bor¬ rowing the necessary' books from Governor William A. Graham, but shortly after his admission to the bar he moved back to his native county of Surry, from which he was sent to the House of Commons in 1835. In 1836, a charter had been issued By R. C. LAWRENCE for a railroad which Clingman be¬ lieved would link western North Carolina by rail with both Charles¬ ton and Cincinnati, and bring about an era of great development of our western section. Clingman there¬ fore moved to Asheville, and be¬ came an ardent advocate of the establishment of such a railroad. He was a member of the convention which met at Asheville in Septem¬ ber. 1836. and where the construc¬ tion of the proposed line along a route which would take it far west of Asheville, was advocated by certain stockholders headed by Charles G. Memminger of South Carolina who later became Secre¬ tary of the Confederate States Treasury. He had a summer home at Flat Rock in Henderson County, and is buried there. The movement for this far west¬ ern route was opposed by Col. Robert T. Hayne, who was then president of the company, and by General Clingman. The proposed line was never built along either of the proposed routes, and it was not until nearly fifty years later that Asheville was to have a rail connection with Charleston and Cincinnati. In the State Senate In 1840 Clingman was elected to the State Senate as a Whig. In 1843 his outstanding ability caused his election to Congress over his op¬ ponent James Graham, a brother of Governor William A. Graham. In subsequent elections Clingman was elected over John Grey By¬ num, Burgess S. Gaither and Col. L. Carmichael; and Clingman re¬ mained in Congress until his ap¬ pointment to the United States Senate. His prominence as a mem¬ ber of the House may be seen from the statement that he was Chair¬ man of the Committee on Foreign Relations. In 1845 party feeling flamed high; the Code Duello was in much favor for the settlement of nice questions of honor arising be¬ tween gentlemen. Such a question arose between General Clingman and the distinguished William L. Yancey of Alabama, then n mem¬ ber of Congress, but who later became a Confederate Commis¬ sioner in Europe; and who was one of the three Peace Commissioners named by President Davis to meet President Lincoln at the famous conference held at Hampton Roads. When Davis was inaugurated as Confederate President, it was Yancey who introduced the Presi¬ dent-elect to his audience. The Clingman-Yancey Duel Yancey took exception to certain remarks made by Clingman which Yancey considered a reflection upon all Southern Democrats; whereupon Yancey made a few remarks which Clingman con¬ sidered as a reflection upon him personally. Thereupon a coldly polite correspondence ensued be¬ tween the two parties, and as neither would retract anything there was nothing Clingman could do and meet the requirements of the age in which he lived, but send Yancey a challenge to a duel and this he did. The selected sec¬ onds for the two principals reached an agreement on the following points: 1. The weapons should be smooth bore pistols. 2. The distance should be thirty feet. 3. The pistols should be held perpendicularly — either up or down. 4. The word should be given in a clear, distinct and loud tone. 5. Wind and sun were to be equally divided. 6. Giving the word and choice of position were to be determined by tossing a coin. 7. The weapons were to be loaded in the presence of the principals. 8. Each party had the right to be attended by a surgeon and three friends, all of whom must be un¬ armed.