Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1889, volume 6).djvu/263

Rh surgery. When Bellevue hospital was organized in 1847 he was appointed one of the surgeons. In 1849 he became surgeon to St. Vincent hospital, and in 1852 he was elected to the chair of anatomy in New York university medical college. He was visiting surgeon to New York hospital from 1852 till 1868, and from the latter date consulting sur- geon. He was consulting surgeon also to Bellevue and Charity hospitals. He was one of the found- ers of the IT. S. sanitary commission in 1861, and served as the medical member of its executive com- mittee throughout the civil war, declining the ap- pointment of surgeon-general of the U. S. army. He resigned his professorship in the University medical college in 1866, on being elected professor of surgery for the newly established department of diseases of the genito-urinary system in Bellevue hospital medical college. In 1868 this chair was combined with that of principles and practice of surgery, and in 1871-'3 he acted as professor of clinical surgery also. He was vice-president of the New York academy of medicine, president of the New York pathological society, and a corre- ?onding member of the Paris surgical society. r ale conferred on him the degree of LL. D. in 1879. Dr. Van Buren performed amputation at the hip-joint, removed foreign bodies from the trachea, and tied the internal and external iliac and the subclavian arteries. In abscess of the breast, and often in cases of carbuncle, he was averse to the use of the knife, placing more reli- ance than surgeons commonly do in the repara- tive processes of nature. He gave much study to hereditary taints and constitutional tendencies, and in later life, though still famed for his skill in amputations and other operations of general surgery, principally devoted his attention to the specialty of diseases of the genito-urinary organs. Besides many medical papers, he published, with Dr. Charles E. Isaacs, a translation of " Bernard and Huette's Manual of Operative Surgery and Medical Anatomy " (New York, 1855) ; a transla- tion of Charles Morel's "Compendium of Human Histology " (New York and London, 1861) ; " Con- tributions to Practical Surgery " (Philadelphia, 1865) ; " Lectures on Diseases of the Rectum " (New York, 1870) ; and, with his pupil, Dr. Edward L. Keyes, " Text-book on Diseases of the Genito- urinary Organs, with Syphilis" (1874).

VANCE, Joseph, governor of Ohio, b. in Washington county, Pa., 21 March, 1786; d. near Urbana, Ohio, 24. Aug., 1852. When he was a child his father removed to Kentucky, and thence went to Urbana. The son became a successful merchant in that place, and afterward engaged extensively in farming and stock-raising. He was a member of the State constitutional convention of 1820, served in the legislature 1812-'16, and was elected to congress as a Democrat in 1822, and re-elected for five successive terms, serving till March, 1835. He was governor in 1836-'8. In 1842 he was re-elected to congress as a Whig, and served through two terms, during one of them as chairman of the committee on claims. In 1848 he was a delegate to the Whig national convention.

VANCE, Zebulon Baird, senator, b. in Bun- combe county, N. C, 13 May, 1830. He was edu- cated at Washington college, Tenn., and at the University of North Carolina, studied law, was ad- mitted to the bar in 1852, established himself at Asheville, N. C, was chosen county solicitor, and in 1854 was elected to the legislature. When Thomas L. Clingman entered the senate, Vance was elected to succeed him in the house of repre- sentatives, taking his seat on 7 Dec, 1858. He opposed the secession of North Carolina, yet after that step was taken he raised a company and was chosen captain, and soon afterward was appointed colonel of the 26th North Carolina regi- ment, which became one of the most fa- mous of the organi- zations of southern soldiers. In 1862 he was elected govern- or, while serving in the field. He soon saw the impossibili- ty of obtaining suffi- cient supplies for the troops of his state without recourse to foreign aid, and therefore sent agents abroad, and pur- chased a fine steam- ship in the Clyde, which successfully ran the blockade, not only supplying the state troops with clothing and arms, but furnishing also large stores for the use of the Confederate government and for the hospitals, and general supplies for the people of his state. As early as December, 1863, perceiving the desperate nature of the undertaking in which the south was engaged, he urged President Davis to neglect no opportunity of negotiation with the U. S. government, but at the same time he was so earnest and efficient in contributing men and mate- rial for the support of the cause that he was called the war governor of the south. He was also con- spicuous in his efforts to ameliorate the condition of Federal prisoners in his state. He was over- whelmingly re-elected for the next two years in 1864. When the National troops occupied North Carolina, Gov. Vance was arrested and taken to Washington, D. C, where he was confined in prison for several weeks. In November, 1870, he was elected U. S. senator by the legislature, but he was not allowed to take his seat, and resigned it in January, 1872. In the same year he was again a candidate for a senatorship, but was defeated by Augustus S. Merrimon, to whom the Republicans gave their votes. He received a pardon from Presi- dent Johnson in 1867, and his political disabilities were removed by congress in 1872. soon after he had been refused a seat in the U. S. senate by rea- son of those disabilities. He continued to practise law in Charlotte, taking no part in politics, except his conspicuous efforts as a private citizen to over- throw the reconstruction government in North Carolina. In 1876, after an animated canvass, he was elected governor by a large majority. He re- signed on being again elected U. S. senator, took his seat on 4 March, 1879, and by his wit and elo- quence soon acquired a high rank among the Democratic orators of the senate. In 1884 he was re-elected for the term ending on 4 March, 1891.

VAN CLEVE, Horatio Phillips, soldier, b. in Princeton, N. J., 23 Nov., 1809. He studied for two years at Princeton, then entered the U. S. military academy, was graduated in 1831, served at frontier posts in Michigan territory, was commissioned as 2d lieutenant of infantry on 31 Dec., 1831, and on 11 Sept., 1836, resigned and settled in Michigan. He taught in Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1840-'l, then engaged in farming near Ann Arbor, Mich., was an engineer in the service of the state of Michigan in 1855, then United States sur-