The foregoing estimate of Swain's character and methods does not receive the unanimous endorsement of all who knew him. He was thought by some to have been guilty of favoritism, to have lacked nerve for discipline, and to have shown too great partiality for families of wealth and influence. But he rendered a service to the State in writing and preserving some memorials of her history. He held the most important position she could bestow for many years, and until his death; and his regime illustrated the defects of a system which prevented the University from being directly and entirely dependent on the people for its support. Vance put him among the distinguished men of North Carolina, and for this, if for no other reason, I could afford to put him in this book. Posterity will not lightly overrule the verdict of its greatest commoner, even though rendered in the partiality of affection. Although no sketch of Vance is in this book (his life, in a more extended form, having been lately written), yet Bryan's estimate of him, spoken in the House of Representatives, February 25, 1895, is not an inappropriate introduction of the man who has contributed to history the foregoing sketch of Swain--if indeed there be any part of the Union where he needs an introduction, even from the lips of one who has canvassed the whole country. Besides, it would be offensive to North Carolinians if I should even begin a list of our distinguished dead without according to Vance his well-won place among the foremost. W. J. BRYAN'S ESTIMATE OF VANCE. MR. SPEAKER: We are called upon on these occasions to speak of the virtues of many different types of men. Sometimes one is taken from us who has spent the most of his days in private business and has come to these halls to crown with public honors a busy life. Sometimes we are called to mourn a man taken from us in the very beginning of his career, and consider what he might have accomplished had he lived. But it is seldom that, in either of these halls, we find a man whose life was so completely given to public service as was the life of Senator Vance. He began his public career when a young man barely of age, and he has been a public servant from that time, almost without pause, until his earthly life was ended. In the history of our country I think we shall find few men as remarkable. When a man is elected once or twice and disappears, we may attribute his success to circumstances; but when he begins, as Mr. Vance began, a young man, and retains the confidence of those whom he served for a generation, we must conclude that his success is due to something more than a chance or accident.