"At 3 o'clock the company sat down to an excellent dinner prepared by Mr. Casso at the State-house, at which Colonel Polk and Judge Potter presided. Seventeen appropriate toasts were drunk, among which we notice the following: 'The President of the United States, may his administration close as it has commenced, with the applause and general approbation of the people.' "'George Washington, the hero, patriot, statesman, friend and father of his country, the memory of his inestimable worth and service will never cease to be revered by the American people.' "'Literature, the arts and sciences, the precursors of national greatness and universal happiness.' "'The University of North Carolina, may the people see and fully understand the great interest they have in this institution, and before it is too late duly foster and endow it.' "'The Constitution of North Carolina, the happy, wise and revered work of our ancestors, long may it remain sacred and inviolate.' "'The social circles of life, may no discordant interests or variant opinions be suffered to destroy their harmony.' "The Supreme Court of the State being in session, the celebration was honored with the presence of the judges, gentlemen of the bar and many other characters of respectability from almost every part of the State. "In the evening a ball was given to the ladies." Of all the joyous throng that crowded these streets at that national jubilee fifty-eight years ago, whose bosoms thrilled responsive to the patriotic sentiments of the orator of the day, or who gathered round the festive board--of all the gallant men and beautiful women who united in the exultant song or chased the flying hours in that evening's dance, there is probably not one present now, not one to contrast the spectacle then presented of a great, free, united, and happy people, with their discordant, dissevered relations in 1867! "A King sat on his rocky throne Which looked on sea-born Salamis, And ships by thousands lay below And men and nations;--all were his! He counted them at break of day,-- And when the sun set, where were they? And where are they--and where art thou, My country? On thy voiceless shore The statesman's tongue is silent now, The heroic bosom beats no more!" Let us hope that when we meet here on the 4th of July, 1868, Southern voices will again have been heard in the halls of Congress, and that millions of Southern hearts, as in former days, will be prepared to respond, "Liberty and Union, now and forever, one and inseparable." * * * * * I heard Governor Vance deliver his address on Swain, which I have called a sketch, at the Chapel Hill Commencement of 1877. I well remember the low melancholy and the effortless pathos of his voice. Governor Swain was his friend, and fortunate is he indeed to have had such a kind and able hand to sketch his life.