North Carolina Governor

Tarheel Whig.

The background of Zebulon Vance shares many features with the emergence of Abraham Lincoln and that of their mutual hero, Henry Clay. Vance's home in western North Carolina was similar to Kentucky and Illinois, and he, too, was a self-made man (a phrase coined to describe Clay) who had achieved success as a lawyer after a spotty formal education. Like Clay and Lincoln he had considerable charisma and a striking personal appearance —his photograph was selected for inclusion in an elementary geography textbook as the ideal of the Caucasian race. He also possessed an excellent sense of humor that not infrequently overstepped contemporary standards of good taste. Like Clay and Lincoln, Vance was a devout believer in the Whig Party; his chief political mentor would become William A. Graham, the state party leader who served at various times as North Carolina governor, U...