From Murphy to Manteo:
Zebulon Baird Vance
Keynote address to the NC Grand Lodge September 23, 2005
Out of nowhere Jody Howard, teenage son of an Asheville past master, was on the phone.

He was writing a high school thesis about three unusual Charlotte men of the past: a Presbyterian minister, a Jewish merchant and a mountain lawyer. Jody had read articles in The Scottish Rite Journal. Through his Dad and his inquisitive ways Jody had discovered Vance to be a Mason. He immediately shared his proof: smoking-gun documents from Mount Hermon 118 and Asheville Citizen stories of Vance’s burial with 120 Masons attending.

Jody was not yet a Mason but, like Zeb Vance, he was driven to become one. He worked for many months on his thesis and on an article done for The Scottish Rite Journal. He was a seminary student in Suwanee, Tennessee, and dedicated to the wonderful things he was learning about Zeb Vance as a Mason.

Zeb was a genius who hid his brilliance behind jokes and plain speaking. He mastered 500 classic books willed him by his uncle killed in a duel. He knew his Latin and named Excelsior Lodge when he organized it in 1867. But he didn’t want anyone to know what a scholar he was until he was in court. There he slaughtered the opposition.

His profession was law. He borrowed tuition from UNC President David Swain, a leading Mason, and spent one sensational year at Chapel Hill for his complete college law education.

His mother and father came from eminent civic and Masonic families. Famed leaders visited his home when he was still a child. He stunned them with his wit and wisdom. When he was 12 he told a young friend he knew in his heart he would become governor of North Carolina. He did just that three times.

What about his Masonry? When he was 23 he petitioned Mount Hermon 118. Within five months he was a Master Mason serving as Junior Deacon protem. Six months later he raised his brother Bob and represented his lodge before the Grand Lodge. By 1855 he was affiliated with York Rite Royal Arch Chapter 25. Lodge records show that for four years he was “absent only a few times.” The next year he was Junior Deacon revising the bylaws. That same year he made a speech at the Republican National Convention in Salisbury that led US Senator George Badger to shout that Vance was “the greatest stump speaking there ever was!”

The year 1858 saw Zeb as Senior Deacon of Mount Hermon, the highest Masonic office he ever held. Meanwhile his brother Bob was on his way to becoming NC Grand Master of Masons.

Zeb remained active and committed to the fraternity as he rose to become governor, Confederate colonel and US senator. He was asked to represent minor and major interests of various NC lodges in state and national governing bodies. He championed appropriations for Oxford Home and repayment of Civil War damages to St. John’s 3 in New Bern.

Perhaps the climax of Zeb’s Masonic career came August 3, 1881, when he was the guest speaker at the unveiling of a monument to Governor Richard Caswell in Kinston. Zeb was there as a Mason to honor another Mason and the whole world knew it. How many people came to little Kinston to see and hear him? Twelve thousand! That was a major portion of the state’s population in 1881.

How did it happen that Zeb Vance’s Masonry was lost in time? For one thing, not one of his many biographers was a Mason. All but one of them skipped over his fraternal affiliation when they researched their books. In time, Vance schools, Vance streets, Vance buildings were torn down and replaced by structures with new names.

But when he was living, Vance was magic. When he attended lodge, crowds of Masons packed the hall. When he stood to speak, he made history. When he was in court in Charlotte, all businesses closed so the population could witness Zeb in action. Hundreds of watermelons were consumed in the Charlotte courthouse when Zeb tried a case.

Here is a direct quote from Tar Heels Track the Century by Pocohontas Wight Edmunds that will illustrate Vance’s power when he spoke. “When the US Senate was considering an appropriation for his own French Broad River, the stream of his boyhood, which rises near the South Carolina border and meanders northward and westward, cleaving through high mountains on either side and bounding over boulders…Zeb became annoyed at yankee criticism. The obstacle to the dredging appropriation was a senator from Rhode Island, who made the mistake of belittling the beautiful French Broad, the pride of every western North Carolinian. It was a small stream indeed alongside such navigable rivers as the Hudson and the Delaware, but scarcely the trickle the New Englander claimed when he said he could stand on one bank and spit halfway across it. Vance in truth had not favored the appropriation, or others of the pork barrel type. It had been introduced in the US House by his own brother Bob, a congressman representing the western North Carolina district. But Zeb was unwilling to have his beloved French Broad degraded by anyone and went to its defense. He rose half in drollery, but with a touch of irritation, to take advantage of the opening.

“The gentleman who makes that remark about the French Broad comes from the puny state of Rhode Island. Why I could stand on one border of Rhode Island and piss halfway across the state.”

“Order! Order!” shouted the presiding officer between resounding raps of his gavel. “The gentleman from North Carolina is out of order!”

“Yes,” Vance blandly continued, “and if I wasn’t out of order, I could piss clear across his whole damned state!”

Now let us roll up our sleeves and look at Brother Zeb at his worst. An old definition says that a statesman is simply a dead politician. Zeb was surely the ultimate politician in his time; his advocates and detractors agreed on that. Zeb’s chosen profession was law. He loved the law and respected it. But it’s no secret that it’s a struggle to make a living as a lawyer. It was true then as now. Vance was never wealthy; never wanted to be. But holding public office offered him power and influence, and that suited him just fine.

He held his first public office in Asheville when he was only 20. After that he never left political life. Opportunities to cash in were everywhere but Zeb would not touch them. He was scrupulously honest and everyone knew it.

Was he ambitious? For political office, absolutely. For high Masonic office? Never. For titles and praise in the church? Never. For improperly favoring his family? Not for a moment. He loved to win, but never gambled. He would not take a position against liquor, saying his conscience was dry but his stomach wet. Yet there is not one story about him drinking to excess.

Was he unfaithful? Never. He adored his Hattie in a long and happy marriage with five sons. After her death, Zeb was devoted to his second wife Florence.

Did he dirty the linen of political parties? Hardly. In his time he was Republican, Democrat, Whig, you name it. He didn’t follow parties, they followed him. And speaking of leadership, he kept ahead of the people of North Carolina throughout his 64 years.

Did he like being the center of attention? Bet on that. At lodge meetings he liked to smile with his brethren when the words were said, “Advance and communicate it.” He like being introduced, mainly because that opened doors to funny stories. Here is an authentic Vance favorite. Some US senators, their wives and other ladies went on an outing in Chesapeake Bay. They had to climb the ladder to board the vessel. Zeb happened to glance up just as the lady ahead of him looked down and saw that he had a view beneath her skirts. “Senator,” she admonished. “I can see that you are no gentleman.” Zeb shot back, “I beg your pardon, madam, but I see that you aren’t, either.”

Well, where are the black marks against Zebulon Baird Vance?

Black, indeed.

His relations with the black race were worse than his spelling. He was determined to connect his beloved mountains by railroad and finally did it, but only at the expense of many black men. He ordered prisoners by the hundreds to build that railroad. Hundreds died or lived in utter misery.

His remarks about black people in the state legislature were nothing short of disgusting. He told jokes about black people freely. It was known that he had been hand picked as Jefferson Davis’ successor as president of the Confederate States of America. So we know where he stood on slavery. He shamelessly gerrymandered blacks out of their voting power by creating a new county called Vance, which his critics called his “black baby.”

And yet…and yet…

Vance fought for and got a normal school for black teachers so North Carolina blacks could have equal educational opportunities, even to insisting that the head of that teachers college be black. He welcomed invitations to talk to black audiences and charged them with taking up leadership responsibilities and seeking ways to distinguish their race.

And when Zeb’s dead body was transported from Washington to Asheville, countless blacks assembled along the railroad tracks to sing spirituals and pray for the soul of their dead friend. Apparently the black people of the time thought Zeb Vance was not only the best thing they had going for them, but a decent human being who was, underneath it all, their friend.

Did you know Zeb Vance was buried three times, and not one time with Masonic rites? His second wife refused to allow the Masonic team to perform the rites they had rehearsed at Mount Hermon 118. Later she secretly had her husband exhumed and reburied in her Martin family’s plot nearby in Riverside Cemetery. When Zeb’s sons found out, they took their stepmother to court, got a judgment, had their Dad dug up again and reburied him where he started out. Brethren figure Zeb is still exploding with laughter at the thought that even in death he was a traveling man.

In the book, Brother Zeb, readers discover adventure and surprises, such as the several duels fought by famous North Carolina Masons. What happened to Zeb’s five sons. The identity of Vance’s seven heroes. The brother Mason who became Zeb’s enemy and died in disgrace. How Zeb’s mother and UNC President David Swain were once sweethearts.

After you have read Brother Zeb, you will surely understand the complete human being named Zeb Vance. You will finally appreciate how he used his sense of humanity to lead his people. You will see how he nobly championed North Carolina through its worst history—tremendous numbers of war dead and injured, poverty, hopelessness, ruin.

You will, in the end, ask yourself what kind of man would tell jokes to a divided America that had suffered almost 800 thousand casualties. How could Zebulon Baird Vance make a career of leading a poor agricultural state in the hardest of times and feed his hungry people funny stories?

You will find the answer within the very people he served. They dearly loved this man who could help them smile through their tears.

The memory of Zeb Vance should not, must not end. The most popular and beloved man in North Carolina history must not be forgotten. Let us honor him by naming that new road Vance road, this new school Vance school, that new lodge Vance lodge. Put his portrait back on the walls of public buildings. Ask teachers to challenge their students to write Zeb Vance biographies. Retell his great stories. Keep naming babies for him.

We are literally obligated to keep this great Mason alive. After all, we are his surviving brothers!

Produced by the public relations committee of the Grand Lodge AF&AM of Masons in North Carolina,
2921 Glenwood Avenue, Raleigh, NC 27628 MMVIII
Author/editor: Walter J. Klein wklein(at)carolina.rr.com