Zebulon Baird Vance, a native ofBuncombe County, N.C., was governor of North Carolina, 1862-1865 and 1877-1879, andUnited States senator, 1879-1894. The collection is chiefly political correspondence,1877-1894, concerning state and national politics, Democratic Party actions, andconstituent affairs. Topics include political patronage; railroad matters,especially of the Atlantic and North Carolina Railroad and the Western NorthCarolina Railroad; state institutions; tariff and internal revenue laws; theDanville, Va., race riot of 1883; the Blair education bills of 1886 and 1888;presidential elections; the rise of the North Carolina Farmers' Alliance; and theremonetization of silver. There are also business papers related to Vance's realestate, nickel mining, and lumber interests in Buncombe and Mecklenburg counties,N.C. Scattered Civil War items pertain to the secession crisis, Vance's briefservice as a colonel of the 26th North Carolina Infantry Regiment, and hisgubernatorial activities. After 1894, materials are chiefly of the business andpersonal correspondence of Vance's oldest son, Charles N. Vance, especiallyconcerning his business interests in the Jellico Mining Company. Some 1895 lettersrelate to Kemp P. Battle's attempt at writing a biography of Zebulon Vance.Additions to the collection include chiefly correspondence of Zebulon Baird Vanceand his son Charles N. Vance, photographs of the Vance family, and various legalpapers and land deeds. Correspondence concerns constituent affairs, politicalappointments, and other political issues of the 1890s. Letters from Vance's secondwife, Florence S. Vance, to Charles N. Vance (1894) concern Zebulon's declininghealth, and additional correspondence and legal papers relate to an inheritancedispute between Charles and his stepmother Florence. Also included is a 28 July 1863letter from Confederate soldier William T. Dickinson to Governor Vance describingcasualties suffered by the 11th North Carolina Infantry at Gettysburg; morecorrespondence with Kemp P. Battle; letters and other items relating to NorthCarolina governor and senator Thomas Jordan Jarvis; and a 27 December 1862 letterwritten by Vance to South Carolina Governor Milledge L. Bonham asking him to send aletter from Colonel J.W. Hayne that was accidentally omitted from previouscorrespondence and congratulating Bonham on his recent promotion.
