Editing Zebulon Vance (section)

=== North Carolina Senate ===
After canvassing for [[Whig Party (United States)|Whig]] presidential candidate [[Winfield Scott]] in 1852, Vance became interested in his entry into politics.<ref name=":9" /> In 1853, he was a delegate representing Buncombe County at a railroad convention in [[Cumberland Gap, Tennessee]].<ref name=":36" /> The goal of the convention was to convince the [[Charleston and Cincinnati Railroad]] to build a route through the mountains in [[Western North Carolina]].<ref name=":36" />

Next, Vance ran as a Whig candidate for the North Carolina Senate, winning with a term starting in December 1854.<ref name=":9" /> Vance was a Whig in the mode of [[Henry Clay]].<ref name=":9" /> He wrote, "I was raised in the Whig faith, and taught to revere the names of Clay, [[Daniel Webster|Webster]], and other great leaders of that party."<ref name=":9" /> Whig policies were more beneficial to Western North Carolina and its smaller farms where Vance was from, while the [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic Party]] of that era tended to advocate for the owners of large slave plantations found in [[Eastern North Carolina]].<ref name=":9" />

While in the legislature, Vance worked on issues related to transportation in Western North Carolina, including introducing a bill for a public road in [[Yancey County, North Carolina|Yancey County]] and another bill to authorize subscriptions to fund the [[French Broad and Greenville Railroad]].<ref name=":36" /> He also supported extending the [[Western North Carolina Railroad]] into the state's mountain counties, favoring a route that would take the tracks to [[Knoxville, Tennessee]] by way of Asheville, North Carolina.<ref name=":36" />

When the Whig Party collapsed over the issue of slavery in 1854, Vance refused to join the primarily Southern Democratic Party or the anti-slavery Republicans, ultimately settling on the American Party or [[Know Nothing|Know-Nothings]].<ref name=":9" /><ref name=":39" /> However, Vance lost his campaign for reelection to the North Carolina Senate in 1856 to David Coleman.<ref name=":9" />