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 George 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 Granville in
1804). Several hundred thousand acres of land had been granted to
William Cathcart, Huldeman, and Elseman, citizens of Pennsylvania,
lying 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 validity, accuracy, and definite character of various
surveys 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 the plaintiffs--a very high compliment
to both of them. Here was a field wherein Governor Swain had no
superior, and where his peculiar talents came specially into play.
A complicated maze of long-forgotten facts was to be resurrected
from buried documents, dimly traced surveyors' lines and corners
through hundreds of miles of tangled mountain forests were to be
established, partly by the evidence of old grey-haired woodmen
and partly by the fading outlines of the rude maps and indistinct
field-notes of the surveyors 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 people. In such a work his soul
delighted, and to his faithful labors and indefatigable energy must
the final success of the State be mainly attributed. For though he
was put 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 official letter-book of
that period 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 that 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 were not concluded when he was made a
judge, Governor Swain voluntarily returned half of his retainer into
the treasury. All of which goes to show that in selecting him 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
extraordinary effort in any direction. He soon acquired, 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
light of subsequent events. The great political parties--Whig 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 politics. All 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 Whigs. Of the prominent
men of that day, who agreed with him, or with whom he agreed, were
Gaston, Morehead, Badger, Mangum, Cherry, Graham, Stanly, Moore,
Miller, Outlaw, and Rayner. Of those who adhered to the school of
Jefferson and Calhoun, were the venerable Macon, Ruffin, Haywood,
Saunders, Branch, Edwards, Seawell, Shepherd, Donnell, Fisher,
Craige, and Venable. It is not practicable to enumerate all 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 Governor
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 were sustained by the Supreme Court, consisting of
Ruffin, Henderson, and Hall, and in one other he was sustained by
the dissenting opinion of Chief Justice 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 popular 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
Seawell, he first acquired a nickname which stuck to him till after
he retired from politics. Repeated attempts with various candidates
had been made to defeat Seawell, who was obnoxious to the party to
which Swain belonged, but all these efforts had failed until Swain's
name was brought forward. "Then," said an enthusiastic member from
Iredell, "we took up old '_warping bars_' from Buncombe, and warped
him out." After 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 Governor Swain during his administration
shows that his time and labors were principally devoted to the
questions of constitutional reform; the coast defenses of North
Carolina; the claims of the State against the general government;
the removal and settlement of the Cherokee Indians, the adjustment
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. John C. Hamilton, of New York, son of
Alexander Hamilton, propounding eleven inquiries relating to the
history of North Carolina; more particularly with regard to the
system of her colonial and early State taxation; and the reasons
of the action of her convention in regard to the adoption of the
Federal Constitution, and kindred topics. Governor Swain's replies
to these queries show a wonderful amount of information and research
into the minuter sources of our early history, clearly indicating
that he was possessed in a high degree of those peculiar talents
which constitute the true historian. Most of his literary labor
throughout his life was in this department, and his collections 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-misunderstood 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 _University Magazine_ on the subject would form a volume,
if collected, and their great value is indicated by the numerous
inquiries instituted for them by men in various States of the Union.
His lecture before the Historical Society in 1852 may be said to
have settled the question of the merits of the Regulators and their
service to liberty.
As Governor of the State, in 1833, he laid the cornerstone of the
present capitol amid imposing ceremonies; a building designed with
perhaps as pure and simple taste as any in America, and as solid and
enduring as any in the world.
On the 12th of January, 1826, he was married to Miss Eleanor
H. White, daughter of William White, Secretary of State, and
granddaughter of Governor Caswell, a union productive of great
domestic happiness to a man so fitted as he, by nature and by a life
of unsullied purity, to appreciate the ties of home and the love
of wife and children. By 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 surviving child, Eleanor
Hope, married General S. D. Atkins, of Freeport, Illinois, where
she now resides. The son, Richard Caswell, was killed a few years
since, near his home in Illinois, 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 Governor 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 life, it
is impossible for us to compute it. As with the silent forces
of nature, which 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 measure the power of the able and faithful
teacher. The connections between moral cause and effect are much
more difficult to trace than those between physical cause and
effect, but although in either case the lines are dim the wise
do not fail to see that they are there, and that the results are
powerful. It is conceded that the imperceptible and benign force
of light and heat which lifts the mighty oak out of the earth, and
spreads its branches to the skies, is infinitely 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 difference 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 living creatures throughout the
earth. The whole tenor of a life 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 mainspring of its
glory or its shame; that that tone is to a great extent imparted 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 Governor Swain's were; and I am
quite sure that no man ever more diligently and earnestly improved
those opportunities. There is this, too, further and better to be
said, that in the whole course of his contact with the young men of
North Carolina and of the South at the University 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 religion. The sparks of good which he elicited,
the trains of generous ambition which he set on fire, the number
of young lives which his teachings have directed into the paths of
virtue and knowledge, and colored with the hues of heaven--who but
God shall tell? If we could see events and analyze destinies as only
the Most High can, how wondrous would appear the harvest 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 pulpit; 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 prosperity, the honor, and the glory of our State
might not be traced to the initial inspiration of David L. Swain!
Say what you will 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 shall
cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away; but he
that helps to shape an immortal soul, and fit it for the service 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 influences of
greater importance to the class than the texts of the lessons,
would for the time give his whole soul to the stirring up of these
generous and emulous sentiments in the hearts of his pupils. The
very first recitation in which I ever appeared before him was one
such. I shall never forget it. In 1851 I entered the University,
and joined the senior class as an irregular. The 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 discourse
of Chancellor Kent, whose treatise we were studying; from Kent he
went to Story, from Story to Marshall, 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 liberty 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 human freedom. He told us of the eloquence of Burke, of
the genius of Chatham; he took us into the prison of Eliot and went
with us to the death-bed of Hampden; into the closet with Coke and
Sergeant Maynard; and to the forum, where Somers spoke; to the deck
of the _Brill_, where William, the deliverer, stood as he gazed
upon the shores of England; to the scaffolds of Sidney and of our
own glorious Raleigh. Warming as he went with the glowing theme,
walking up and down the recitation-room, which was then the library
of the "old South," with long and awkward strides, heaving those
heavy passionate sighs, which were always with him the witnesses of
deep emotion, he would now and then stop, take down from its shelf
a volume of some old poet, and read with trembling voice some grand
and glowing words addressed to man's truest ambition, that thrilled
our souls like a song of the chief musician. A profound silence was
evidence of the deep attention of the class, and the hour passed
almost before we knew it had begun.
I afterwards learned that this lecture was intended for my benefit,
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 encouragement. But such were frequently given us. Nor were
these digressions from the chief business of the hour always of a
serious 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 bringing forth a repartee that struck _pat_
upon his own head, no one enjoyed it more than himself. Like a true
humorist and story-teller, he enjoyed the taking as well as the
giving with the utmost good fellowship.
From the day that Governor Swain became the chief officer of the
University his life was literally devoted to its interests. The same
traits of character which had hitherto secured his success in life
were especially needed here. His prudence, his cautious far-reaching
policy, his constructive ability, his insight into character, 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 results. The reputation
of the institution, and the number of its students steadily and
continually increased. In 1835 there were not over ninety in
attendance. In 1860 there were nearly five hundred.
Governor 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 shows
that he inaugurated at the University! The excellent system of
street-draining in the village of Chapel Hill, 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 superintendence.
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 regular and valued contributors. He was one of the foremost
friends of the North Carolina Central Railroad, 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. He was always deeply interested in the prosperity
of the village of Chapel Hill, believing, 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 charitable estimate for every man, woman, and child in
the place.
Thirty-three years of his best days and the sincerest labors of his
existence were spent at our University in the training of young men.
As yet no monument has been erected in its grounds to commemorate
his virtues and his labors. The valley of humiliation--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 his
memory might well be inserted in any of its walls, and fitly written
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 monument. 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 pile whose tall
fane overtops the loftiest domes and spires of the greatest city in
the world, he who would fully comprehend the great work of David
Swain's life would have to stand upon the battlements of heaven and
survey the moral world with an angel's ken.
I know of no man of his day, surrounded by so many inducements to
return to the paths leading to highest distinction in active public
life, who so completely put them all away, and adhered so strictly
to his accepted work. As we have seen, his career as a politician
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 all
the qualities which are supposed to fit men for the attainment of
these objects. Had he been possessed of a passion to accumulate
wealth, almost any other course in life would have fed this desire
more than the presidency of the University. From all these fields
of distinction and of wealth, the public sentiment of his time
desired that the officers, and especially the chief officers, of
the University should be isolated. This expectation Governor 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 from doing many things which
he, no doubt, most ardently desired to do. In the nature of things,
this course, so essential to the success 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 believe
such an impression does his memory great injustice. His nature was
essentially gentle, his manners mild, his temper was cautious; but
I cannot believe 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 all
questions pertaining to church and state, and during my subsequent
career, especially in those troublous years of war, I consulted him
more frequently perhaps than any other man in the State, except
Governor Graham. So affectionately was his interest in 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 opportunity to know
him well, and I believe 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 unpopularity 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 himself. 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 apparent.
The remarkable character of his memory served him in good stead in
many ways through life. As a lawyer it had been invaluable, 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 all the witnesses examined, no matter how many, nor how
long the trial continued.