BX9225.D2 J63 1903 Johnson, Thonias Gary, 1859-1930 Life and letters of Robert Lewis Dabney. ^^YCLy^C^y-y-Ui££^ "TjU^^-k^'^ , THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF Robert Lewis Dabney. BY THOMAS GARY JOHNSON. RICHMOND, VA. : The Presbyterian Committee of Publication. Copyrighted by The Presbyterian Committee of Publication R. E. Magill, Secretary 1903 Printed by Whittet & Shepperson Richmond, Va. TO Ibis Ximife, A TRUE helpmeet; TO XTbat /iDultituDe of Ibis ©l& Students WHO LOVED AND ADMIRED HIM; AND TLO Hll WHO HOLD IN REVERENCE FAITHFULNESS TO CONVICTIONS, UNSWERVING INTEGRITY, PATRIOTISM OF THE FIRST ORDER, HIGH AND PURE FAMILY AFFECTIONS, ABSOLUTE LOYALTY TO THE Word of God, and strenuous and persisting SERVICE TO THE LORD JeSUS ChRIST, THIS VOLUME IS RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED. PREFACE. An effort has been made to present, as nearly as possible, the genuine Robert Lewis Dabney in this book. He did not relish the thought of being trimmed to suit the notions of an author or an editor, and thus presented to the public. When his Collected Discussions were being brought out, there was some criticism of one of the articles to be presented in the first volume. The critic made the point that the article objected to would injure Dr. Dabney 's reputation if republished. The Doctor, on hearing this, turned somewhat sharply to us, and said: "What do you think of this? Do you like the plan of trimming a man, whose life and work you would perpetuate, to suit your notions, and then handing the resultant down as if it were real?" We made answer, that it seemed to us that, if a man's works and life were worthy of preservation through the medium of the press, they and he should be handed down as they were, warts and all. He replied emphatically, "The truth demands it, sir." The memory of this little conversation helps to explain the presence of some features of the book. He was so intensely honest that he would have abhorred any effort to present him sheared to the demands of current moral and religious tastes. A preliminary study of the materials gathered for the con- struction of Dr. Dabney's life convinced us that it was quite possible to bring out the story of his life largely in his own words, by the use of his letters, and to state the gist of most of his great contentions succinctly and clearly in his own words also. We resolved to do this, and thus to give the reader the comfortable feeling of certainty that he had before him the genuine history, and not simply our view of it. In addition to the feeling of certainty which this plan should give to the vi Preface. reader, it has many other obvious advantages, of which it is not necessary to speak. Epistolary Hterature, by strong and intelHgent men of the old school, writing generally without thought of publication, is about the most fascinating form of sober literature. On the ado,ption of this plan, it at once became necessary for the author to put the brakes on the running of his own pen. Indeed, it became his duty to say as little as was consistent with the clear presentation of the story. He has had, from time to time, to fill gaps, to bring the actors before the house, to explain somewhat the general situations, political, religious and social, etc., that some of the younger on-lookers might understand what Dr. Dabney and his contemporary friends, neighbors, foes, etc., were doing. As the work was to be a one volume octavo of not over six hundred pages, this was an imperative restraint on our pen. The student of theology and philosophy may find fault with the work on the ground that too little space is given to the exposition of Dr. Dabney 's theological and philosophical sys- tem. The general reader may find fault that too much space has been given to the treatment of these subjects. To the gen- eral reader we would say that a life of Dr. Dabney must have considerable space devoted to this part of his life's effort, in order to correspond to the reality. To the student of philosophy and theology it may be said that his published systems are to be had, and that nothing more could be attempted, in our limits, than to give a general view. The view given is believed to be accurate. Our friend, the Rev. D. K. Walthall, Ph. D., has prepared the index for the work. Dr. Dabney's sons and his venerable consort read the manuscript, and submitted valuable criticisms, which were carefully pondered and generally applied to the improvement of our manuscript before its submission to the publishers. Thanks are due, not only to these, but to a multi- tude of friends and old pupils for materials carefully preserved, industriously hunted up, and forwarded for our use. Preface. vii One word more : though very sensible of the honor done us in the asking of this work at our hands by his family and many of his friends, we never sought it; but, on the other hand, shrank from the responsibilities involved in the under- taking. We have never made the claim of fitness for the work. We have done the best we could under our limitations ; and we send the work forth with the prayer that it may be used of God to excite in many breasts a love for truth, for honesty, for things morally beautiful, for God, like that by which Robert Lewis Dabney was himself moved. T. C. J. Union Tlicological Seminary. Richmond. Va. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. Parentage and Birth. Page. Introduction. — The Dabneys. — Immediate ancestral lines. — His father's occupation, traits, character, standing in social, civil and ecclesiastical relations, and his early death. — His mother's lineage, characteristics and influence on her son Robert Lewis. — Brothers and sisters. — Product of ante-bellum Virginia civiliza- tion.— Boyhood home, I CHAPTER H. Early Boyhood. (March 5, 1820 — June i, 1836.) Modest circumstances. — His first teacher. — An old-field school. — His teachers in such schools. — His brother Charles William, Mr. Caleb Burnley, Mr. Thomas Meredith. — His text-books. — Mr. Charles Burnley. — His studies under the Rev. James Wharey. — His father's death, 26 CHAPTER HI. While Student at Hampden-Sidney College. (June I, 1836 — September 27, 1837.) Time spent af Hampden-Sidney. — Studies pursued to completion there. — Habits' of study. — Nervous feeling of obligation to do well from the start ; painstaking effort on every part of his course; writes his declamations. — Other habits there; respect for the rules of the College; not much given to social visiting; carefulness in regard to expenses ; neatness. — Views of the College; description of the professors. — Views of the stu- dents.— Shepperson. Hoge. — Views of the community. — Persons with whom he boarded while at College. — His letter-writing while there : his homesickness at first ; what sort of letters he desired from home; what he wrote about himself ; his affection for his family shown in his letters. — Reasons for discontinuing his studies at Hampden-Sidney. — View taken of him at Hamp- den-Sidney at the time. — His profession of his faith in Christ. — His first communion, 30 X Contents. CHAPTER IV. Early Efforts to Aid his Mother. (October, 1837 — December 9, 1839.) Working in quarry.— His first school.— The summer of 1838.— His second school— Visit to his aunt, Mrs. Reuben Lewis, of Albe- marle county in 1839. — The invitation of Mr. and Mrs. Lewis. — His correspondents the meanwhile, 44 CHAPTER V. Life at the University of Virginia. (December 9, 1839 — July 5, 1842.) The University of Virginia at the time. — Young Dabney's view of the University, of Professors Bonnycastle, Powers and Sylves- ter, Rodgers and Emmet. Tucker and Harrison. — His views of the student body, and the murder of Professor Davis. — Views of the community. — His painstaking efforts as a student, and his achievements in the several sessions. — Attempts at com- position. — Christian work in behalf of his fellow-students. — Member of a total abstinence society. — Beginning of his friend- ship with the Rev. William S. White. — Gives attention to poli- tics, slavery, to his mother's farming operations. — Teaches his brother Francis while at the University. — Interest in his sister Betty. — Some of his correspondents. — Funds with which he got through the University, 50 CHAPTER VI. The Interval Between his University and Seminary Life. (July 6, 1842 — October, 1844.) Mind made up to study for the ministry. — Reasons for not going to the Seminary at once. — Manner in which this interval was actually put in : managing the farm, teaching classical schools, getting means with which to go through the Seminary, reading and correspondence. — Other vocations offered.— Determined to the ministry, 76 CHAPTER VII. Student Life at U.n'ion Seminary. (November, 1844 — May, 1846.) Union Seminary in 1844. — Mr. Dabney's journey thither. — His room in Seminary building. — His boarding-place. — Impressions of the Contents. xi Page. Faculty; of his fellow-students ; of "The Hill" people; of the people of Prince Edward county. — Time he spent here as a student.— His energies in study.— Efforts to preach.— The criti- cisms. — Efforts to write. — Forms of exercise. — Forms of recreation.— His correspondence.— His licensure.— Completion of studies at the Seminary, 82 CHAPTER VIII. A Missionary in Louisa County. (June, 1846— June, 1847.) Disinclination to undertake the work.— Wanted by the people.— Pleasure in his work, and acceptance with his people.— Varied and extensive correspondence.— Continued ill-health.— Trip to the White Sulphur and to the Hot Springs.— Invitations to other fields.— The advice of Dr. Meredith, and the invitation to visit Tinkling Spring.— The call and decision to accept it, 96 CHAPTER IX. The Pastorate of Tinkling Spring. (July, 1847— August, 1853.) The beginning.— Laborious and successful pastorate.— A season of despondency.— Revival.— An honest, faithful, able pastor.— Home with Mr. Hugh Guthrie.— Marriage to Miss Margaret Lavinia Morrison.— Still at Mr. Guthrie's.— "Sleepy Hollow."— "Stone Cottage."— "Bobby" and "Jimmy."— Domestic trials and joys.— Still the best of brothers and sons.— Abundant in other labors also. — Preaching tours. — School-keeping.— Correspondence.— Farming.— Study on special lines.— Able contributions to papers and periodicals.— Condition of the Seminary at the time.— Diffi- culty in proper filling of the chairs.— An article on duty of prayer for conversion of our youth and increase of ministers.— His election in March, 1852.— General commendation of this act.— Receives title of D. D.— Goes to Hampden-Sidney, CHAPTER X. Professor of Ecclesiastical History and Polity. (August, 1853— May, 1859.) View of the importance of the chair.— Time during which he occu- pied this chair.— His inaugural.— Method of teaching.— Holds high ideals before the students.— Vigor and success of his work in this department.— Other labors for the Seminary: raising 108 xii Contents. Page. money ; drumming for a high order of students ; superintending improvements ; seeking professors ; teaching theology to the Senior Class, in iSsS-'sg. — Head man in the Seminary after 1854. — Dr. Sampson's death, in 1854, and loss to the Seminary. — Dr. B. M. Smith's election to fill the vacant chair, — Dr. William J. Hoge's election to fill the new professorship. — -Reorganization of the Seminary studies. — -Varying fortunes of the Institution in the period. — Mr. Dabney's devotion to the Institution, 138 CHAPTER XI. Professor of Ecclesiastical History and Polity. (Continued.) (August, 1853— May, 1859.) Literary labors : memoir of Sampson ; contributions to the Central Presbyterian, the Presbyterian Critie and the Southern Presby- terian Review. — Incidental labors as pulpit supply, as Professor of Mental and Moral Philosophy in Hampden-Sidney College, 1857-58. — Trips to New York. — Meanwhile a checkered home life: a devoted wife; other children born; deaths of Bobby and Jimmy. — His grief. — Effects on his preaching. — Sympathy shown. — Imperfect health. — A voluminous corre- spondence all the while.- — Much consulted. — Letters from his friends at Tinkling Spring. — Letter from Thomas J. Kirk- patrick.— Letters to his wife. — His social life at Hampden- Sidney. — The Virginia Society he loved, 156 CHAPTER XH. First Years in the Chair of Theology: Trying to Stay the Coming OF "the Irrepressible Conflict.'^ (May, 1859— May, 1861.) The prosperity of the Seminary, i859-'6i. — Transferred to the Chair of Systematic and Polemic Theology. — Relations with Dr. Wil- son.— Method of conducting the course in theology. — Success in his new chair. — Other labors for the Seminary. — Labors as preacher and pastor. — Growth of his congregations. — Building of the present College Church. — Attempts made to move him North : to Fifth Avenue Presbyterian church ; to Princeton Seminary. — Labors as a Christian minister to stop the rising rancor between the sections. — "Christians, pray for your coun- try."— "Christians' Best Motive for Patriotism," and other efforts. — Views his efforts as fruitless. — Continues them in the "Pacific Appeal to Christians." — View of the proper attitude of the minister as such toward political questions. — His ministerial Contents. >^iii Page. work of this kind much commended.— His own poHtical views.— His wide correspondence on the state of the country.— Protest against northern aggression: "On the State of the Country."— Caught in the current of the prevaihng enthusiasm.— Other literary labors.— Continued devotion to his mother and other members of her family, ^94 CHAPTER XIII. In the War Time. (Alay, 1861— May, 1865.) His appreciation of the blunder in the Southern mode of pro- cedure.—Four months as chaplain of the Eighteenth Virginia Volunteers, Colonel Withers.— Acquaintance with General Jack- son renewed. — Organization of the Southern Presbyterian Church.— Seminary session of 1861-62.— Dissatisfied with the conduct of the war.— Mrs. Stonewall Jackson his guest in spring of 1862.— Tendered office of chief of staff to General Jackson.— Service on Jackson's staff. — Resignation, September, 1862.— Slow recovery.— Death of "Tommy."— Seminary session of 1862-63.— Literary labors during this session : Defense of Vir- ginia, ct al. — Correspondence during this and the following months.— Writing Life of Stonezvall Jackson, 1863-64.— Semi- nary session 1863-64.— Incidental occupations in the late sum- mer of 1864.— Feelings with which he now watched the war. — Sees his labors in behalf of the Synod of the South with his church succeed.— Seminary session i864-'65.— Looking out for meat.— Missionary to the army, 1865.— The surrender.— Queries, 235 CHAPTER XIV. Period of Desire to Emigrate. (May, 1865— May, 1869.) A new start in life.— The state of the country during this period.— Dr. Dabney's fears for the future of state and church.— His desire to emigrate, and agitation of the subject.— Hence, his girl-school.— Prospects of the Seminary at the beginning of this period.— Plans for the conduct of the session 1865-66.— Im- proved condition of the Seminary after 1866.— Deterioration of its environment.— Dr. Dabney's thought of leaving the Seminary for a pastorate.— Severe labors for the institution, neverthe- less.—His labors as pastor in the College Church.— His literary labors in this period, and ecclesiastical services. — Quits keeping house in 1866.— The stay of his mother's family, and many xiv Contents. Page. Others. — His care for his mother. — TTie iron in his soul. — Too hopeless of his country and church. — Great exponent of the old South of the period. — Saved by the grace of God and his own simple and great manhood for further service, 299 CHAPTER XV. Settled in Virginia as Teacher, Writer, Man and Pastor. (June, 1869-1874.) Purchasing a home for his family. — Picture of his life at the time.- — Labors as teacher. — Influence on students. — Labors as writer. — His Sacred Rhetoric. — Syllabus and Notes of the Course of Sys- tematic and Polemic Theology. — Review articles on religious themes. — Controversy with Dr. Woodrow. — Political writings. — Ecclesiastical services. — Moderator of the Assembly, 1870. — Great speech against fusion with Northern Church. — Refutation of Dr. Van Dyke's attempt to justify the fusion of the New and Old School North. — Friendly toward the movement for closer relations between the Dutch Reformed Church and the Southern Church. — Labors incidental to his position as teacher and writer. — For deserving objects of benevolence. — The ad- viser and stay of his mother's family. — Lossi of his mother. — Work for Hampden-Sidney College. — Discontinuance of his relations as pastor of the College Church. — His home life. — Happiness in his sons, 328 CHAPTER XVI. Last Stadium of his Course in Union Seminary. (1874-1883.) Plans to lighten his labors. — No slackening of mental labors nor literary productiveness. — 'Work in his chair and outside in the Seminary's behalf, and the condition of the institution. — Second edition of his Syllabus. — "Sensualistic Philosophy of the Nineteenth Century Considered." — Writings against movements in the church : Against fusion with the Northern Presbyterians ; against the Pan-Presbyterian Alliance movement. — Controversy with Dr. A. T. Bledsoe and "other" pelagians. — Writings on sundry theological subjects. — Inductive logic. — Controversy with Dr. William H. Rufifner over the free-school system im- posed by the Underwood Constitution. — Writings on political topics. — Editorial work on the Southern Presbyterian Review. — Thought of founding a review in Virginia. — Endeavor to re- move the Southern Prcsbvtcriaii Rcviciv to Richmond, then to Contents. xv Page. Charleston, S. C, and to increase its circulation. — Interested in everything. — Consulted about many movements and questions. — Feels his partial isolation, nevertheless. — Happiness in his own family, and in the students, and in neighbors, 367 CHAPTER XVII. Last Stadium of his Course in Union Seminary. (Continued.) (1874-1883.) Trip to Europe. — Correspondence. — Declining health. — Election to the Chair of Mental and Moral Philosophy in the University of Texas. — Wide-spread regret at his severance of his relations with the Seminary. — He leaves Hampden-Sidney and Virginia for Texas 413 CHAPTER XVIII. In Connection with the University of Texas. (1883-1894.) Austin : the society there and Dr. Dabney's friends. — The kind of home he enjoyed there. — His great work for the University of Texas : by class-room work and life ; by his writings, philo- sophical, sociological and political, theological and ecclesiastical, literary. — Testimony of Mr. Gregory and of Mr. Wooldridge. — View of the relation of the University of Texas to the De- nominational colleges of the State. — The Austin School of Theology and his post therein. — Services in behalf of the church at large. — Occasional preaching. — Increasing physical infirmi- ties; severe illness in 1890; total blindness. — Severance from the University. — Universal interests. — Voluminous correspond- ence.— Sons already prominent and successful men, 443 CHAPTER XIX. Last Strokes on his Life's Work. • (June, 1894 — January, i8g8.) The summer of 1894. — Lectures in Louisville Seminary in the autumn of 1894. — The rest at Victoria. — The last teaching in the Austin School of Theology.- — His continued interest in the reestablishment of the School. — His large views as to the need of more Presbyterian education in Texas. — Letter from his old students in the Dallas Assembly, and his reply thereto. — The summer of 1895. — Reminiscent moods. — Letter from the Synod xvi Contents. Page. of Texas of 1895, and his answer. — The autumn, winter and spring of 1895-96. — Tlie summer of 1896. — The winter of i896-'97. — In the Assembly at Charlotte in 1897. — Summering in North CaroHna. — Lectures in Davidson College and at Co- lumbia Seminary in autumn of 1897. — Again in Victoria, De- cember, 1897, to January, i8g8. — Writings during this period. — Letter to his children to be read after his death, 495 CHAPTER XX. Death, Burial, Eulogies and Tributes, 524 CHAPTER XXI. Summary View of the Man and his Services. Primal traits. — Energy and power of his faculties of mind and heart. — Sense of responsibility.— Christian character. — Sanctified common-sense. — In his several functions : as preacher ; teacher ; theologian; philosopher; political economist; statesman; pa- triot; friend; servant of God; the great conservative 541 Appendix, 571 Index, 577 THE LIFE AND LETTERS Robert Lewis Dabney, d. d., ll. d. CHAPTER I. PARENTAGE AND BIRTH. Introduction. — The Dabneys. — Immediate Ancestral Lines. — His Father's Occupation, Traits, Character, Standing in Social, Civil and Ecclesiastical Relations, and his Early Death. — His Mother's Lineage, Characteristics and Influence on her Son, Robert Lewis. — Brothers and Sisters. — Product of Ante-Bellum Virginia Civilization. — Boyhood Home. UNDER the forms of a republican government, and in an age of advanced civilization, every man ought to be tested by his own personal merits, and with little reference to the character and the reputation of his ancestors. The readers of this biography are, accordingly, invited to test its subject by what he was and did, and not by the lines of which he sprang. Nevertheless, being mindful of the facts of heredity, and that the beginning of what he was and did was made far back of the time when his individual existence began, we must give a brief account of his parentage. Without ofifending against a just theory of republican equality, Robert Lewis Dabney could cherish an honest pride in the character of his ancestry. That ancestry had not been marked by great riches, nor by preferment, which, because they -are so often acquired by crooked and indirect means, are equivocal evidences of merit at best, but it had been marked by very much the same moral and religious traits that appeared in him. The Rev. John Blair Dabney, a second cousin to our subject, said to his sons, "Among your numerous connections you can count but few, if any, of the great ones of earth, but you may boast of many who were exemplary in all the relations of private life — honored and respected in their generations, beloved by their friends and kindred, useful to their fellow-men, 2 Life and Letters of Robert Lewis Dabnev. and active in discharging all the obligations pertaining to the social and domestic circle. " 'Along the cool, sequestered vale of life, They kept the noiseless tenor of their way,' undisturbed by the anxious dreams of ambition, and uncor- rupted by the angry strife and multiplied temptations of a public career." ^ This is a very modest, but just estimate put upon their fore- bears. The stock from which Robert Lewis, along with John Blair Dabney derived their origin was such as to invest them with the obligation to act well their part in life, "so as to avoid the reproach of degeneracy." That stock made it incumbent on them to manifest kind and noble dispositions, to exhibit staunch and unyielding regard for principle, energy of action, and extraordinary steadfastness of character, and to maintani an honorable course of conduct. Such ancestors as they had were, and should always be, a spur to high endeavor, and a demand for it. This was capital for the proper use of which they were responsible. The Dabneys are numerous in Alassachusetts, in Mrginia^ and in the Mississippi Valley. It is coiumonly believed amonst them that they are all related, and it is prevalently held amongst them that their origin, on this side the Atlantic, was in three brothers — Robert Dabney, or d'Aubigne, who came to Boston a short time previous to 1717, and John and Cornelius Dabney. or d'Aubigne, who came to Virginia between 171 5, perhaps, and 1720. It is also their prevalent belief that these brothers came to this country from England ; that the family had fled thither from France on occasion of the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. Finally, many in all branches of this widespread family claim descent from the old confessor, Theodore Agrippa d'Aubigne. Whatever may be said of this claim of descent from the old Huguenot historian, warrior, wit and poet, and trusted friend of Henry IV., it will be readily conceded that many of the Dabneys possess traits of mind, heart and will similar to those ' Quoted from page 7 of Dr. C. W. Dal)ney's copy of "The John Blair Dahney Manuscript, Written out with his own hand for his Chil- dren, A. D. 1850." Copied under the supervision of Charles W. Dahney, Knoxville. Tcnn. "January-February, igoi." Parentage and Birth. 3 which made this old hero conspicuous, and that the claim that the name Dabney is a modification of d'Aubigne is a claim demanding- respect as one based upon a good deal of solid evidence. It may be admitted .as practically certain that the family was a Huguenot one, and that the name went through various changes after the family left France; that, as it has been asserted, "It was variously written de Boney, de Beny, de Bonis, Daubenay, Daubney, Dabnee, Dabney." - ' Sketch of the Dabneys of J'irginia, zvith some Family Records. Collected and Arranged by William H. Dabney, of Boston. Chicago : Press of S. D. Child & Co. 1888. Robert Lewis Dabney is quoted, how- ever in this work, p. 24, as follows : "The tradition which I heard from my parents was that the stock from which we are sprung emigrated to the banks of the York river, Virginia, from somewhere about Cam- bridgeshire or Norfolk, England, and that they were of the same lineage as the Daubeneys, still to be heard of there. This, however, is only a tradition." He does not seem to have made anything of his connection with the Huguenots. One thing not generally known may be mentioned of the Dabneys in Virginia : There were Dabneys in Virginia prior to 1715, when John and Cornelius d'Aubigne are supposed to have come. In the books of patents, grants and surveys, kept in the Capitol in Richmond, Va., may be seen grants as follows: one to Cornelius de Bonis, de Boney, or de Baney, of 200 acres in New Kent county, on September 27, 1664; one to (the same) Cornelius Dabeney, of 640 acres, on Tottopotomoyes creek, York river, on June 7, 1666; one in March, 1678, to the same Cornelius Dabeney, of 300 acres, in New Kent county, south side York river, above Tottopotomoyes creek ; one to James Dabney, in 1701, of 204 acres, in King and Queen county, north of the Pamunkey river, and within St. John's parish ; one to George Dabney, in the same year of our Lord. 1701, of 293 acres, also in St. John's parioh, in King and Queen county; one to Sarah Dabney, sister to James Dabney, just mentioned, and perhaps to George, on April 25, 1701, of 179 acres, lying also on the Pamunkey river, in King and Queen county : and one to James Dabney, in the year 1704, of 1,000 acres in Pamunkey Neck, in King and Queen county, and among the branches of Mahixon creek. Now, how related these seventeenth century Dabneys were to John and Cornelius d'Aubigne, to whom modern Dabneys point as their ancestors ; whether these earlier Dabneys left any descendants ; whether the George Dabney just named as having received a grant in 1701 of land on the Pamunkey, in King and Queen, is the same with "Capt. George Dabney. of King William county," who received a grant of 400 acres of land "lying and being on both sides of Cub creek, in Hanover county," in the year 1724, which does not seem improbable, since King 4 Life and Letters of Robert Lewis Dabney, The Dabney family in Virginia is supposed to fall into three classes, viz. : .First, that constituted of descendants from the elder brother, John d'Aubigne ; second, that of the descendants from George Dabney, the Englishman, as he is sometimes called, the son of Cornelius d'Aubigne by his first wife, born in England, and already grown to manhood when he came with his parents to Virginia, and third, that of the descendants of Cornelius d'Aubigne and his second wife (previously his house- keeper), Sarah Jennings, or Jennens. Robert Lewis Dabney was of the line of George Dabney, son of Cornelius and his first wife. Of Cornelius Dabney, the first of this line, wc know but little, save that he was recently from England in 172 1 ; that his wife having died, he married Sarah Jennings, or Jennens, and that he thus gave great offence to George, the son by his first wife.^ George Dabney, the son of Cornelius, was born in England or Wales, and seems to have been grown to man's estate when he came to this country. He married in this country soon after coming, and before his father had made his marriage with Sarah Jennings. He lived till after the beginning of the Revo- lutionary War, though he was at that time an old man. He had at least two sons and several daughters. William Dabney, one of these sons, was born between 1725 and 1730, probably. He married a Miss Barrett, a daughter of a "Rev. Mr. Barrett, a member of the faculty of William and Mary College." His property lay in the upper part of Hanover and the lower part of Louisa counties."* He must have been a man of fine business capacity and staunch integrity, for he was made, by the will of William Morris, the elder, the trustee of the estates devised by that will to the children of Sylvanus Morris, an office of great responsibility. His choice to this position clearly shows the esteem in which he was held by Mr. Morris, who gave evidence of being himself a sagacious business man. That he was not mistaken as to the character of Col. Dabney is evidenced by the satisfaction evinced through- out their lives by the devisees to these estates, of which there William, with the Pamunkey basin, had been cut off from King and Queen in the latter part of 1701 ; or whether this "Capt. George Dabney, of King William," was the son of Cornelius d'Aubigne — all these ques- tions must be settled by the genealogists of the Dabneys. " The Dabneys of Virgiuiaj pp. 93, 94. ■* Ibid, p. 102. Parentage and Birth, 5 is record. The general and commanding esteem in which he was held as a man on whose word all reliance might be placed might be illustrated at length.^ Col. William Dabney and his wife were both dead before the Revolutionary War commenced, although his father was still living. Their offspring were six children, viz., George, Charles, Samuel, Robert, Elizabeth and Susannah. The greatest of these children was Charles, the second son. He developed into a very remarkable, man, and as he never married, he was free to give himself without reserve to his country in the emergencies of his age. "In his early youth he marched from Hanover in that gallant band, which, in the commencement of our troubles, extorted from the reluctant Dunmore the surrender of the public powder, which that arbi- trary governor had removed from the magazine at Williams- burg, with the view of depriving the insurgent colonists of the means of resisting his tyranny." The same patriotic enthusiasm which prompted Col. Dabney in the enterprise just alluded to "impelled him soon afterwards into our Revolutionary struggle." He was appointed a captain in the Virginia line, not long" after the commencement of the war, and was ultimately promoted to the rank of colonel in the same service. After remaining with his command one or two years in his native State, where, to his great chagrin, no mili- tary operations imposed on him any active service, he was transferred to the Northern army shortly before the battle of Monmouth. He was present at that indecisive action. "Col. Dabney continued to share the fortunes of the Northern army until that glorious consummation of their trials, the capitulation of Yorktown. He took part under the command of General Wayne, in that brilliant exploit, the storming of Stony Point, one of the most daring and hazardous enterprises undertaken during the war." He bore a somewhat conspicuous part in the seige of Yorktown. After the surrender of Cornwallis, "the American army was broken into detach- ments and distributed in dififerent parts of the country. Col. Dabney was stationed at Hampton, and was charged with the command of the Virginia line, which command he continued to hold until shortly before the ratification of the treaty of peace, when the troops- were disbanded by the order of the Governor, and then returned home after having toiled and suffered for seven eventful years in the public cause. 'See the John Blair Dabney Manuscript (as before), pp. 11, 12. 6 Life and Letters of Roukkt Lewis Dap.xey. "Though he took a lively interest in public affairs, and had very decided opinions, politically, he was never known to seek advancement, and scrupulously shunned the broils, the intrigues and the debasing scenes which disgraced our popular elections. He was prompt to obey the call of duty in the crisis of his countrj^'s peril, but he never coveted distinction in the halcyon days of peace. He disdained to court public favor, either for the gratification of personal vanity or the promotion of his private interests. . . . "Prior to the Revolution the means of intellectual cultivation were scanty in this country, and none of our citizens, except those whose abundant resources enabled them to visit the literary institutions of the old world, could aspire to the reputation of finished scholars. In point of education, he, like most of his contemporaries, enjoyed very moderate advantages, but his natural understanding was excellent, and he enriched his mind with a large stock of valuable knowledge, derived from his own observation and intercourse with intelligent men. His opinions on all subjects indicated sound practical sense, and as his moral perceptions were unperverted by any vicious habits, his judgments in matters of conscience were rarely erroneous ; hence, he was frequently consulted as an impartial and enlightened adviser on questions of right and expediency, not only by his own relations, but by his acquaintances generally. His counsels were always freely and kindly given, and uni- formly pointed to the path of duty and honor. Those who acted on his instructions never had any reason to repent compliance therewith, for they were equally prudent and sagacious, evincing alike upright principles and a thorough knowledge of human nature. "That Colonel Dabney's natural capacity was of a high order, and would have made him conspicuous in any sphere where he chose to exert it, must have been obvious to all who had the honor of his acquaintance; but I prefer to dwell upon those moral excellences, those admirable qualities of heart and disposition which reflect the brightest and purest lustre on his well-spent life. He was the most generous and charitable of men ; in his personal habits he was economical almost to parsimony, but this extreme frugality was practiced by him on principle, and not from any love of filthy lucre. He saved that he might have wherewithal to give, and I hazard little in affirming that during his long life he gave more money than any man in Virginia of much larger resources. His brothers, sisters, nephews and nieces were the constant subjects of his liberality, and he annually supplied many of his poor neighbors with the necessaries of life, but there was nothing ostentatious in this perennial stream of benevolence ; so far from vaunting his good deeds, he was never known to allude to them. . . . His benefactions were not only hidden from the public eye. but were administered with the most refined delicacy, so that he miglit produce no painful mortification in the effects of his bounty. "No man was ever more sincerely and unaffectedly pious than Col. Parentage and Birth. 7 Dabney. His religion, while it pervaded his whole life and conversation, had no tincture of sourness or austerity. Though an Episcopalian from education and early predilection, his Catholic spirit embraced in the circle of brotherly love every denomination of sincere Christians. He was careless about forms, where he found the essentials of religion, and no word of censure or derision was ever heard to pass his lips to the prejudice of any devout association of men who held their faith in the purity of life; yet for cant, hypocrisy or bigotry, wherever mani- fested, he had no toleration. In his devotion he was uniformly regular, without being obtrusive ; he made no ostentatious parade of his piety, although it breathed unconsciously in every act of his life, and dif- fused an odor of sanctity, a celestial benignity through his whole char- acter. Such is the faint outline of his moral qualities. In stature, he was upward of six feet, with a body straight and athletic, and well- proportioned. His carriage was dignified and commanding, and his gait slow and measured, like that of a soldier on parade, a remnant ol his military habits. Accustomed from his youth to active pursuits and violent exercise, enured to hardship and exposure by the rough trade of war and hunting, to which he was passionately addicted, tem- perate and regular in his habits, his physical powers attained uncommon vigor, and secured to his declining years a remarkable exemption from the infirmities of old age. His visage was massive and well defined, with a serene expression, betokening sound sense, firmness and benevo- lence. There was something in his whole appearance which deterred the most thoughtless and audacious from venturing on too familiar approach to so imposing a personage, and yet his deportment was so liearty and cordial and unaffected that no one, young or old. felt any ■disagreeable constraint in his presence. . . . He died about the year 1830, at the advanced age of eighty-five years, at his house, in the county of Hanover, in which his father had lived." " This man may be considered to be a good type of the Dabneys of his generation. In the portraiture given of him may be seen many of the features of his great-nephew, Robert Lewis Dab- ney; and it is clear, from a letter of Mr. C. W. Dabney, dated April I, 1852, to Robert L.. that each of these brothers thought much about their father's uncle. Col. Charles, agitated the subject of writing his life, and entertained for his memory extraordinary veneration. " This account of Col. Charles Dabney is given in the words of the John Blair Dabney Manuscript, as far as possible. See Dr. Charles W. Dabney's copy, pp. 15-54. His account carries its own evidences of being just. A reduction of it is found in the Dabneys of Virginia, pp. 1 18-123. 8 Life and Letters of Robert Lewis Dabney. Samuel Dabney, the third son of Col. William Dabney, and a brother of Col. Charles Dabney, resided in Louisa county, Va> His wife, Miss Jane Meriwether, of Albemarle county, Va.,. was an aunt of Capt. Meriwether Lewis, who, with Col. Clark, conducted the expedition to the mouth of the Columbia River in the years 1804 to 1806. Samuel Dabney seems to have been an honorable and upright man, but too fond of hunting and sports, and of court-house company, and to have been a poor man of business. There is ground for supposing that he alscv served in the Revolutionary army. His wife, Jane Meri- wether, was a woman of extraordinary character, for whom her children and grandchildren, Robert Lewis Dabney amongst them, entertained profound respect. To Samuel Dabney and his wife, Jane Meriwether, were born thirteen children. Amongst these were Samuel (who became a doctor), Charles, Francis (who became a lawyer), William, Richard, Robert, Edmund, George (who served as an officer in the war of 1812), John, Elizabeth, Mildred, and Mary Jane. Mr. Samuel Dabney had died while these children were young; his estate was not large, and his widow had much difficulty in maintaining her numerous family ; but she re- ceived generous assistance in the effort from Col. Charles. Dabney. The sixth of these sons of Mr. Samuel Dabney, Richard, was a poet and a man of genius. He was possessed of extraordinary acquisitive powers in language and literature, and in his earlier years gave promise of powerful work as a writer; but he fell into dissolute habits, wasted his later years, and died unmarried before reaching forty. '^ The third son was Charles Dabney, Jr., who became the father of Robert Lewis Dabney. "He resided many years with his uncle Charles (Col. Charles Dabney), assisting him in the management of his estates. When he married Miss Elizabeth Price, in 1808, he left his uncle's house," and established him- self at his "mill-place" on the South Anna River, in Louisa county, Va.^ He subsequently removed to his farm on Cub ^The reader will find a sketch of Richard Dabney in Duyckink's. Cyclopadia of American Literature, and also an estimate of his work. His volume was entitled Poems, Original and Translated. ' "This 'mill-place,' " says Mr. S. B. Dabney, of Victoria, Texas, "was a plantation on which certain mills were situated. As I recollect it, there were two mills — a saw-mill on one side of the river, and the Parentage and Birth. 9 Creek, his father's home place, and there Hved, till his death, the usual life of a Virginia planter of moderate means, super- intending in person the usual operations of the farm, and when necessary putting his hand to manual labor. ''Col. Charles ^Dabney, at his death, made him his residuary legatee. ... No man was ever more worthy of the gifts of fortune, for he had excellent sense and most amiable manners, was irreproachable in all the relations of life, and of unquestion- able integrity. Possessed of such sterling qualities of mind and heart, he was the idol of his own family, and universally respected of all his acquaintances. He was indeed a worthy successor to his most excellent uncle." ^ He is reputed to have been one of the first, if not the first man, in his county in his day. He served in the war of 1812. in post duty on the Virginia coast. He was thereafter Colonel of the Militia of Louisa County, and was elected to the Legis- lature at a time when this office was still usually given to the leading men of the country. This office he never filled, as he "died soou after his election. He had sat as a magistrate and member of the county court. The office was not a paid one at flour and corn-mill on the other side, the same dam serving both. The homestead was entirely removed from the mills. I have been there when a child, when the plac- was occupied by my Aunt Ann (Mrs. G. Woodson Payne). It was a plain, old-fashioned house, with a large yard, sloping down to the public road." Dr. Charles W. Dabney, of Knoxville, Tenn., adds : "My father loaned his sister Anne the money to rebuild the old mill, about twenty years ago, and took very great interest in planning and directing the work. Modern machinery and methods for milling corn and wheat were introduced, but the country was rapidly deserted, and the mill proved largely a failure." 'See pp. 55, 56, John Blair Dabney Manuscript, as copied under supervision of Charles W. Dabney. See, also, The Dabneys of Virginia, p. 128. Robert L. Dabney was wont to dwell much on his fathers sweetness of disposition. As illustrative of this, he used to recall having seen his father much depressed because of having been compelled to punish one of his negroes. He remembered his father, also, as a man of firmness, and as teaching him in his early boyhood that if he under- took a thing he must carry it through. They were once walking together. Robert proposed to carry a great load of lightwood home. The father remonstrated; but the little boy was headstrong, and per- sisted in carrying a burdensome load, but, soon getting tired, threw it down. Then the father said, "You undertook to carry it home, and now you must do what you undertook." lo Life and Letters of Robert Lewis Dabney. the time. It was one of honor. He was a ruUng elder in the Presbyterian Church, and was a representative of his Presby- tery, West Hanover, in the General Assembly of the Presbyte- rian Church in the LInited States of America^, sitting in Phila- delphia in 1832. It is interesting to note that amongst the novelties which engaged his attentive observation, while in Philadelphia on this occasion, were the arrangements for dis- tributing water over the city by means of pipes leading from a common source of supply. He was not only an intelligent and honored officer, but carried his religion into his daily life. Robert L. Dabney writes on the 8th of February, 1885, to his son. Dr. Charles W. Dabney, of his parents' religious life as follows : "When I recall what the position of Christian meant, as occupied, for instance, by my parents, it seems to me as if that type of Chris- tianity must have been in another sphere, and before the fall of man almost! With what careful seriousness, self-examination and prayer did they take their religious vows ! How regular, deliberate and solemn were family prayers ! How did the scriptural instruction of us children take the precedence of all the day, and of all other duties, lessons and amusements. How sacredly was the Sabbath improved ! My father went about making the best of the sacred day just as seriously and systematically as any wise business man planning to put in the best work possible on some favorable day in the middle of harvest. He evidently acted on this clear, rational and conscientious conviction, 'I have a great and urgent work to do for my own soul and others' ; the one day in seven which a kind Heavenly Father has endeavored to secure for me, for this task, is none too much, if improved to the best. So I must make the most of it.' I well remember his deliberate and careful preparation of himself in advance of communion days. It began about Friday, by reducing his concern with farm matters to a uiiiiiiiiurii; spending the most of the two week-days in a private room, shut up with his Bible, Flavel's Sacramental Meditations, and such like books. One may know well hozv much the Lord's Supper meant to him, and what impulse and nourishment it was to his soul. "So, for young Christians to presume to get on in a religious pro- fession without a strict punctuality in private Bible-reading and prayer, and, in addition, in stated seasons of self-examination, 'taking stock,' so to speak, of their religious principles and progress, was considered out of the question, a neglect so indecent as to give reasonable evidence of coming apostasy. "Which standard of Christian living does my father now think the right one, in the light of eternity? There can be no doubt of the answer to that." Parentage and Birth. ii In the latter part of August, 1833, Mr. Dabney was taken with a violent, inflammatory congestive fever, which did its work in about a week. In the prime of life, being in the forty- ninth year of his age, he died on the 6th of September. In his high character he left a noble inheritance, for the proper use of which Robert Lewis Dabney was responsible ; nor did he receive such an inheritance from his father alone. Mr. Charles Dabney had married, as we have seen. Miss Elizabeth Price. She was a woman of fine mind and character, and of gracious and pleasing manners. Mr. John Blair Dabney says of his grandmother, Elizabeth Price, who was the wife of George Dabney, brother of Col. Charles Dabney, that she was the "daughter of a Miss Ran- dolph, one of the numerous and distinguished family of that name"; that the father of this Elizabeth IVice was "a carpen- ter" ; that the marriage of one of their race with a mechanic inflicted a deep wound on the pride of the Randolphs, who claimed to rank among the aristocracy" ; that "the true secret of this unequal wedlock . . . was that the gentleman was handsome, and the lady not very richly endowed with personal attractions" ; but that whatever his occupation was, "the alliance reflected no discredit on Miss Randolph's taste and judgment, and proved more fruitful of happiness in the end than a more ambitious connection." ^° Amongst the children of this marriage of choice was Thomas '" Charles W. Dabney's copy of the John Blair Dabney Manuscript, pp. 86, 87. Dr. Robert L. Dabney's version of this story was that John Price was a carpenter and contractor, who had been employed to work on the Randolph homestead ; that he was genteel in behavior, and was invited into the house and to the family table, whereupon he fell in love with Elizabeth Randolph. They ran off and were married. The old Randolph father disinherited his daughter. But Price was a good man and prospered ; he became well-to-do. These Randolphs of Wilton, above Richmond, were fast people ; the men raced horses and hunted foxes, and ran through their property. In their old age the old Ran- dolph parents became reconciled to their Price daughter, and came to live and die in John Price's comfortable home, their other children being less able to care for them. Dr. Charles W. Dabney, of Knoxville, says his father "used to tell this story with much glee whenever people got to bragging of their aristocratic ancestry, and yet no one was prouder than he of his worthy ancestors." It may be further remarked here that Dr. Dabney seemed to take special pleasure in having the stock of John Price and of the Meriwethers in him. 12 Life and Letters of Robert Lewis Dabney. Price, who came to be known as Capt. Thomas Price, of Cool Water. In his youth he marched with the volunteers from Hanover to recover the powder from Dunmore. In the course of his life, he accumulated, by his energy and industry, a con- siderable estate. "He was generally esteemed by his acquaint- ances as a man honorable in his dealings and judicious in the management of his affairs." He was a friend of John Marshall, and named a son after him. He married Miss Barbara Win- ston, and from this union came numerous children. The child of Capt. Thomas Price and Miss Barbara Winston with whom we are most concerned was Elizabeth Price, who became the wife of Mr. Clmrles Dabney. Her distinguished son has him- self described her in describing a Virginia Matron. She was first of all a Christian matron, whose hidden devotional life was beautifully reflected in her daily walk and conversation. "In her was seen, more than heard, the cheerful, gentle Christian. She was probably less conscious than any of her household or visitors, of the influence that all felt and so highly prized." She was a lady of unusual native refinement, of a sweet and noble, unaffected and dignified grace of manner. She had read ami conversed much and to good purpose. She was also a careful, industrious, and successful housekeeper, and head of a family. In a word, she was a fit consort for her husband, and a worthy mother to all her children. This will be made abundantly clear in the course of this work. The oldest son of Charles and Elizabeth Dabney was Charles William. He was proud of the name Charles, the name of his beloved father and of his much-admired great uncle, but he is commonly spoken of by his friends as Mr. William Dabney. of Hanover, to distinguish him from the many Charles William Dabneys in the several branches of the Dabneys. He was a man of rare gifts for conversation and with the pen, he was a much-respected lawyer in his time, and a scientific and success- ful planter in the ante helium days. This brother exerted a large, generous and wholesome influence on Robert Lewis Dabney. His own character is indicated, in part, by advice which he gave his brc ther Robert, by letter, dated June 5, 183^). He writes : "I have seen your letters. I like the style in which you write, but would venture to suggest (if you will receive such a suggestion from the writer of this scrawl) that you endeavor to acquire a more graceful and easy handwriting. You write from the promptings of your heart. Parentage and Birth. 13 That is the way to write, to act and to behave. Take care that your judgment is well informed, that is, that you know truly the circum- stances in which you stand, and then act from the plain and unsophisti- cated dictates of your mind and your heart. Half the ridiculous and contemptible acts in the world, and all the ridiculous behavior almost, arises from the sole disposition to appear different from what we really are. I would also suggest, in relation to your letters, that you give us an honest foolscap, as I have done, in which you can set down your sentiments, your observations, your course of study and reading, your college adventures, and any other matter deemed pertinent by yourself. You have much t^o perform. You have a mind to enlarge and adorn, a heart to expand and purify, and a person and manners to improve and beautify. These duties will admit of no waste of time. Your whole time should be devoted to the one or the other of these objects, and any impediment that may stand in the way of your progress must be boldly and determinedly disregarded." He was one of the ptirest and noblest of men, and for years (.xerted a moulding influence on Robert, between whom and himself life-long devotion existed. The second child, Mary Jane, married Mv. P. Johnson. The third child, Ann Eliza, married Mr. G. Woodson Payne. She was a very bright and vivacious lady to the end of her days. Robert Lewis was the next child. Then came George Francis. He dropped his first name, and is known generally as Francis. He suffered from an impediment in his speech, but "his perceptions were quick and oftentimes humorous, and his conversation, which was brief and pithy, and occasionally satiri- cal, reflected the original turn of his mind, and made him a very interesting companion." The manners of the youngest daughter "Betty" were pecu- liarly.gentle and attractive. She was candid and unaffected. Her intellect was of a high order. She became learned for her years, and proficient in solid accomplishments, but died early. The whole family was closely knit in affection. Peculiarly strong tics existed between Robert and his mother, between him and his brother William, and between him and his sister Betty. He served them well, and received from them that helpful and sympathetic appreciation which is at once the strongest incentive, and aid to noble endeavor, that can be given to a generous and aspiring, but modest youth. He was not only sprung from a pure and noble stock, and thus weighted with responsibility, Robert Lewis Dabney was the product of a phase of our Southern civilization peculiarly 14 Life and Letters of Robert Lewis Dacnev. fitted for the development of many-sided and great men. Many forces g"o into the making of a great man besides those coming through his own ancestral Hnes. One of the greatest of these is the pecuhar civilization amidst which he is born and grows up. It was no accident that Washington was the preeminent man of Revolutionary times in military talent, nor that the Colony of Virginia furnished so many of the civil leaders of distinguished prowess in the same period ; nor was it an acci- dent that \^irginia furnished the three military men of the first rank during the war between the sections. Lee, Jackson and Thomas grew up in an environment which was favorable to their highest development. LTlrich Zwingli could only have been produced amidst some such scenes and civilization as obtained in the Swiss cantons in his day. Martin Luther must needs have been born and brought up in the middle Germany of his age, else he had been somewhat different from what he was, with the strength of the north and the poetry of the Swabian hills in his blood. Similarly Robert Lewis Dabney could hardly have been made save in the best Virginia society of old Louisa county. That was a society dominated by plain, homespun gentlemen and ladies, living in modest Iiomes, uncor- rupted by wealth, marked for their hospitality, for their stress on kinship, and for the intelligent and kindly direction of and care over the dependent class ; marked for its truly aristocratic type of representative government, and for its high spirit, and keen sense of honor ; rarely educated in the essentials, and religiously trained — marked, too, for its fidelity to conviction in matters of principle. If we look at the white population of Louisa county in 1820, we shall see that, like the population of the rest of Eastern Virginia, it is homogeneous ; that it is of English origin for the most part. Into the Colony of Virginia Englishmen had poured from the South of the island. Some of these had been of the gentry in England, some of them of the yeomanry, and a few had been convicts. "A few Scotch merchants, and a consider- able number of Huguenot families, widely scattered, enlivened the English stock." Naturally English ideals held sway. The organization of the colony, as afterwards of the State, was aristocratic. The scions of the English gentry developed into gentry of Virginia. Nor can it be doubted that ver}' many of the best families of Virginia sprang from the ancient yeomanry that had come over from Southern England, where their free- Parentage and Birth. 15 holds were being absorbed by the greater landholders, and "from merchants, middle-class men, and mechanics, who rise so rapidly in a new country." The Huguenots, who were generally of the middle class, tended everywhere to the top. Socially beneath this class, but often climbing up into it, w^as a large population of freeholders often owning a few slaves, "well-to-do farmers," overseers, and mechanics, who had, in the little county-seats and villages, cabinet and carriage-making establishments and wood-working shops, or shops for iron- working of a size and importance now no longer to be found in rural communities, owing to the increase of machine-made articles, and the means for their distribution. These artisans were numerous, for the society was living as yet largely on its own local productions. There was, also, a much poorer white population on the very thin lands. Here and there these con- stituted their own neighborhoods. In some cases these people were the descendants of redemptioners, or of convicts who had been transported to the colony. Finally, there was the very large population of negro slaves, who had been inflicted upon \'irginia by the slave-trading interests of New England and the extreme Southern States until 1808. Amongst these slaves were also social grades. The dominating class in the society was that composed of the gentry. A few of them were rich, and lived lavishly in barn- like mansions ; but the majority of them were of moderate means, and lived in houses of modest comfort. The traveller on the public highways in old Louisa county, between 1820 and 1840. saw. at intervals of a mile or so. plain houses, set far back from the public road, sometimes with long avenues of trees in front. These were the residences of the planters. They were more often frame than brick. Many of them were cottages, a story and a half, the upper half story having no fire-place, but supposed to be good enough to serve as sleeping-rooms for the boys and young men. Many were of two stories, some were heavy and square in plan ; others had the general shape of the letter '"H," that is, one house was situated beside the other, and they were connected by a two-storied hallway. The architecture was very plain, the kind, however, that is now classed as Colo- nial. The furniture within the houses was simple — a solid ma- hogany table in the hallway, with a solid silver water pitcher thereon, ready with its cooling contents for the thirstv guest, and perhaps a strip of carpet on the well-waxed floor. In the i6 Life and Letters of Robert Lewis Dabney. parlor were sofas and chairs of mahogany and horse hair, with a "whatnot" in the corner for the curiosities, and a family por- trait or so, and a sampler worked by some ancestress famed for her needle. In the bedroom were rag carpets, or none at all. The furniture in most constant use was such as the country mechanic could make out of the native walnut, chestnut, cherry and poplar. Such interiors, to our more sensuous and luxurious age, would appear cold and uncomfortable. Behind the dwell- ing stood the kitchen with its broad hearths, ovens, spits and spiders, its wide-mouthed chimney with crooks, cranes and swaying kettles. The smoke-house and the weavers' house were hard by, and in the rear of these the cabins of the servants. In a corner of the front yard was the office, where the planter kept his books of accounts, his fishing and hunting outfit, and into which young men were crowded when the house over- flowed with guests. At a distance to the rear, again, and right or left, stood the stables, barns and other offices. The lawns were neatly kept, were often large and studded with oaks or locusts. In Scotland, by the standard of wealth, these country gentle- men would often have been ranked as mere "bonnet lairds." Many of them, with their sons, on occasion, took part in the toil of the fields. Col. Charles Dabney, the father of Robert Lewis, had two rather small plantations, his mills, and between twenty and thirty negroes. To supply the needs of his family and servants from a poor soil, and to perform his multi- tudinous duties to the public, it behooved him to be a man of industry and economy : and his was a typical case. It has been very generally represented that Southern gentlemen in these years were corrupted by wealth and idleness. Whatever may have been true on large plantations in the South, and in excep- tional cases, the gentlemen of Eastern Virginia were not gen- erally so corrupted. Of the very numerous small gentry in Col. Charles Dabney's county, there were a number of larger property and a number of smaller property than himself. Amongst these latter was the father of Dr. John B. Minor, of Huguenot family, who became the foremost legal light in the South. Hospitality was one of the cardinal virtues. At the planter's home any respectable gentleman was welcome, and, in the absence of the master, mistress and family, the butler received the guest with the air of a quiet, well-bred gentleman, Parentage and Birth. 17 and served him from cellar and pantry. Never have any people exercised freer, more gracious, or more charming hospitality. Good servants, and plenty wherewith to make comfortable the guest, stripped entertaining of any appreciable element of sacri- fice on the part of the host, while his isolation and 'his desire for intercourse with his fellows made him positively crave the presence of guests. He was actually obliged by the sojourn of any agreeable guest, and if a passing traveller, stopping for the night, proved to be a man of cultivated intelligence, and an informing conversationalist, his visit was regarded as a bene- faction. They were people devoted to serious conversation on politics, agriculture, county interests and many other topics. It was a great means of education, this conversational debate hctween strong, intelligent men. Kinship was also, and in part for similar reasons, much made of. The planters longed for social converse. This society was remarkable for the intelligent and kindly >\ f^^^^~^ — ^=^^=^^^^^^=^^^=.^=^^^ '• "Juwa. ana Eiuabtth Randolph Price. Hia imraedku ancnti i Co«Kn^iiri DANfin of EagUoa. -^^^ — ^ Nancy Dabavy. t*ba mar: WlllUni and Mory'coS™. may be ccmveaiently set fiirth Iv the lue of the A>Uowiiig dtasnm i urvi vin^TaaOHA .itt Parentage and Birth. 25 was about three miles south of the main road leading from I.ouisa'Court-house to Richmond. Here in this modest home ^- his parents lived in the old Virginia way. Here Robert grew up. ^' The house was a very modest one, a story and a half, with dormer windows. There was a basement underneath. There were two large rooms on the main floor, and two bed-rooms above. Adjoining one of the rooms on the main floor there was a "shed bed-room." After 1850, Mrs. Dabney added a two-story addition to her house. The kitchen was at a distance of several yards from the house. There was a considerable yard or lawn, and in it at least two fine old trees, an oak and a walnut. There was a fine terraced garden, planted "in all kinds of shrubbery and flowers," and beautifully kept. There was an orchard near by, which was made to serve as a vegetable garden as well. The stables and barns stood at some distance. CHAPTER 11. EARLY BOYHOOD. (March 5, 1820-Jiine i, 1836.) Modest Circumstances. — His First Teacher. — An Old - Field School. — His Te.\chers in such Schools, his Brother Ch.\rles William, Mr. Caleb Burnley, Mr. Thomas Meredith. — His Text-Books. — Mr. Charles Burnley. — His Studies under the Rev. James Wh.\rey. — His Father's Death. IT has been seen in the foregoing chapter that Robert Lewis Dabney was born in a family of modest comfort; that his parents were neither poor nor rich. His father was a planter of moderate means, who needed to use frugal thrift in order to educate his children, and to give them comfortable starts in life. The father died early, and the mother had her hands more than full to do for her children what together they had hoped to do. There was constant need for industry and economy, which, however was an advantage rather than a disadvantage. He could never have done the great work of his mature years without both industry and economy, and it was well, accord- ingly^ that he should have these qualities developed in his boy- hood days. An important part of his boyhood was spent, as we might expect, in primary schools. He was entered at a country school, for the first time, when seven years old. His mother had pre- viously taught him to spell. His first school teacher was his oldest brother, Charles William. He was not only a young man of amiable disposition, excellent manners, and ideals much above the average, but had been taught in the best private schools of the country, and possessed "an excellent and thor- ough knowledge of Latin (Cicero, Virgil, Tacitus and Livy), of arithmetic, algebra, geometry and surveying, and was well read in old English literature. On the whole, he must have been well qualified to do his work as teacher in the neigh- borhood school. After Robert Lewis Dabney had become eminent, Mr. Charles William would sometimes laughingly say, Early Boyhood. 27 *I i^ave Robert his start. I prepared him in Latin.' He taught this school for three years. It was held in a log-house near the Dabney home, on the South Anna River." About 1830, Mr. Charles Dabney removed from the place on the South Anna to his farm on Cub Creek; and in 1831 he. and his neighbors employed as teacher Mr. Caleb Burnley, an excellent young man of the neighborhood. Mr. Dabney pro- vided the house in which the school was held. It was built on his land — a log-house, with a clap-board roof, log chimney, and one glass window. In his old days, Dr. Robert Lewis Dabney described this house as we have done, and then added that this was the style of building in. which the sons of the planters in Virginia in that day were taught, having "always good teachers and plenty of birch — the teachers being very strict about our manners." During the next three years, he went to a similar school, which was held on the farm of a neighbor, Dr. Meredith. This school was taught by Dr. Meredith's son, Tom. A feature of the school which impressed itself very clearly on the mind of >"oung Dabney was the old-fashioned way of spelling, twenty or thirty thrown into a class in the afternoon toward the close of the session, and "trapping." By trapping is meant the system which provided for the good speller's working his way to the head of the class by going above those who had missed a word which he himself spelled correctly when it came to him. The "turning down," or "going up," produced a rivalry which resulted in good spellers. At this school he studied the following text-books : Pike's Arithmetic, Madam Willard's Astronomical Geography. The New Testament was his reading book. He also studied Latin and Greek. In Latin he studied Ruddiman's "Institutes of Latin Grammar," Ainsworth's Latin Dictionary, Colloquia Scholastica, by Corderius, Caesar, Sallust and Virgil, in which he read an extensive course, the whole of Horace and Cicero's Orations ; in Greek he studied Bullion's Greek Grammar, Schrevelius' Lexicon Manuale Grsecorum Latinum (a Greek dictionary in which the Greek words are defined in the Latin language), a part of the New Testament in Greek, Xenophon's Anabasis, and a compilation in two volumes, octavo, called Grasca Minora and Grseca Majora, containing some simple Greek fables and extracts from Xenophon, Herodotus, Plato, 28 Life and Letters of Roi!frt Lewis Dabney. Homer, Anacreon, and so forth. "We 'parsed' extensively, an excellent way, now out of fashion." ^ It is worthy of remark in passing- that his studies at this period of his life seem to have covered no great numher of topics, but that they were extensive in the classics. Two advan- tages naturally followed from this : concentration of energies along a few lines enabled him to put more force out along those lines, and accomplish relatively great things in those studies ; he was also preserved from falling into the habit of skimming over the surface of things. In his modest way, he tells us here that he had. prior to entering college, accomplished more work in the classics than is now required of a candidate for the degree of Bachelor of Arts, in order to his graduation in one of our modern colleges. Dr. William G. T. Shedd, in one of his valuable books, criticizes the contemporary college curricula as having suffered from "fatty degeneration." Our academies have done the same thing. Our age would do well to study one of those old-field schools. During 1835 ^^^ went to a similar school taught by Mr. Charles Burnley, who was a young Baptist preacher, and an excellent man. From January, 1836, to June. 1836, he studied under the Rev. James Whary, his mother's pastor. The gentleman, the father of Rev. Thomas Wharey and the Rev. James Wharey. was a saint and a scholar. In his old days Dr. Dabney was wont to speak of him as "a saintly man and well educated." He has the repute of having been a good pastor, and a solid and instructive preacher. He was the author of a Church History, published by the Presbyterian Board of Publication, in Phila- delphia— "one of its standard works, which, being condensed and suitable for general use. has had a wide circulation." Young Dabney rode seven miles on a colt once a week, and spent the day with Mr. Wharey, who, with great care, prepared him for college, pressing him on especially in his algebra and geometry. His text books at this time were Day's Algebra and Simpson's Euclid. Meanwhile a heavy blow had fallen on the family of which Robert Lewis Dabney was a member — the death of the father. ^ From manuscript Memoranda of his Life, dictated by Robert L. Dabney, and in the possession of his son, Dr. Charles W. Dabney, Kno\- ville, Tenn., pp. 2, 3. Early Boyhood. 29 The character of Mr. Charles Dabney has already been set forth as space allowed. As man sees things, the death of such a father is an irreparable loss to any family, but he who is "a father of the fatherless and a judge of the widows" knows what is for the good of his own. In September, 1833, when only forty-eight years of age, Mr. Dabney sickened and died of fever. His death inflicted a sense of loss on his community and on his entire county. The court and bar of Louisa county gave the following expression to their sense of loss : "At a Court of Monthly Session, held for the county of Louisa, at the Court-house, on Monday, the 9th day of September, 1833 • "It is represented to the court that Col. Charles Dabney, a member of this court, and Representative-elect for the county of Louisa in the next Legislature, departed this life on Friday, the 6th day of the present month, after a short illness of only seven days ; "Resolved, therefore, by the Court and Bar of Louisa, That the death of such a man as Col. Dabney is greatly to be deplored, as a loss to his countrj', not only for his public services, but for his private virtues, his charity, his benevolence, and kind disposition towards all persons, so well known to the county. "Resolved, That in token of sorrow for the loss of a friend and fellow-citizen, so beloved and esteemed, the members and officers of the court, the members of the bar, and the citizens here assembled, will wear the usual badge of mourning for thirty days. "Resolved, That a copy of these proceedings be sent to the Rich- mond and Charlottesville papers for publication. "Afterwards, on motion — "Resolved, That a copy of the foregoing proceedings be sent to Mrs. Elizabeth Dabney, the consort of the deceased, as a token of the sympathy with her, felt by many of her fellow-citizens, at this afflicting bereavement. "And then the court adjourned. "A copy — Teste : "John Hunter, C. C. L.'' CHAPTER TIT. irillLE STUDENT AT HAMPDEN -SIDNEY COLLEGE. (June I, 1836-September 27, 1837.) Time Spent at Hampden-Siuney. — Studies Pursued to Completion There. — Habits of Study; Nervous Feeling of Obligation to do Well from the Start; Painstaking Effort on Every Part of HIS Course; Writes his Declamations. — Other Habits There; Respect for the Rules of the College; Not Much Given to Social Visiting; Carefulness in Regard to Expenses; Neat- ness.— Views of the College; Description of the Professors. — Views of the Students, Shepperson, Hoge. — Views of the Com- munity.— Persons with whom he Boarded while at College. — His Letter- Writing while there; His Homesickness at First; What Sort of Letters he Desired from Home ; What he Wrote About Himself; His Affection for his Family Shown in his Letters. — Reasons for Discontinuing his Studies at Hampden- Sidney. — View Taken of him at Hampden-Sidney at the Time. — His Profession of his Faith in Christ. — His First Communion. ON the first day of June, 1836. Robert Lewis Dabney entered Hampden-Sidney College as a student. He was then sixteen years and three months old — tall and slender, swarthy in complexion, with dark brown hair, and fine dark eyes, rather deeply set under a fine brow, and dominating a strong and attractive lower face, with firm mouth and strong- chin. He was somewhat wanting in ease of manner, and pos- sessed little grace of movement. He entered the sophomore class half advanced. At that time there were two sessions in the college year separated by vacations of about one month each — a session from November to April, inclusive, and a session from June to September, inclusive. Having passed through the summer session of 1836. he returned in November following for the winter session of 1836 to 1837, and then again for the summer session of 1837. During these sessions he completed the college courses of mathematics, physics. Latin and Greek, as arranged at that time. The courses in the departments of mathematics and physics were ably taught. The languages, on the other hand, seem to have been taught with less ability. m! ^f< While Student at Hampden-Sidney. 31 Young Dabney, as we learn repeatedly from his letters of the period, began his college career with aspiration to become a learned man. He tells his friends at home over and over again that he has "determined that study and attention shall not be wanting." He was nervous throughout the first session as to the reputation he should make that session. He felt the import- ance of doing well from the start. In a letter to his mother, of the date of August 20, 1836, he says, "It is said that a student is almost certain to stand throughout his whole course just as he stands the first session, and if he gets a bad name at first, it requires the greatest exertions to get rid of it ; and his habits of study will be very much the same as they were the first session, so that this is by far the most important part of my course." He seems to have put forth painstaking eflfort on every branch of his studies, and to have applied himself closely, and that, too, as a matter of conviction as to what was right in the circum- stances. He writes to his mother on November 6, 1836, "My room-mate is a very good sort of young man, and was very kind to me while I was unwell. I think we shall agree very well. He seems very anxious to study, but does not stay much in his own room. This is a bad symptom, for, however it may be in other matters, he who gads about does not study. It is very important for a student to make himself well acquainted with his own room." In the class-room he was so good a listener and so accurate a note-taker that his notes were widely copied by his fellow-students. Writing to his mother on the 3rd of June, 1837, with all the abandon of perfect filial confidence, about his career in the study of Dr. Draper's course, he says, "There is great skill required in taking these notes well, and mine last session were almost the only ones in the class. Many of them took exact copies of my note-book after I was done with it." He adds in a sportive vein, "This you would suppose to be almost as difficult as to take the notes from the lectures originally when you remember how bad a hand I write. I used frequently to threaten that I would write them so that they should be unintelligible to every one but myself. There is, however, amongst the students a most perfect spirit of gen- erosity in all such things as the loan of books and assistance in each other's studies. All our things are regarded pretty much as common stock amongst intimate acquaintances and neigh- bors." These added words may seem to some irrelevant while speaking of young Dabney's habits of study, but they serve to ;^^2 Life and Letters of Robert Lewis Dabney. emphasize further the careful and solid character of his work by showing the respect which the students had for it, while they also reveal a beautiful trait of his character, that of finding pleasure in giving any sort of aid to his fellows, and his mod- esty, since he can hardly refer to this eminence of his above his fellows without evident embarrassment. He was not only care- ful in the performance of everything that was required, his thirst for improvement led him to attempt somewhat beyond the pale of requirements, not only in private, but in his public exercise. For instance, he wrote, in his junior year, at least some of his own declamations. In the college in his day, the members of the lower classes were required to pronounce declamations once in each four weeks. They were expected to commit suitable extracts for these occasions. The members of the senior class were required to compose and deliver their own orations. Young Dabney looked on declamation as "doing no good except giving a man confidence," and accordingly resolved that he would do in his junior year that which was required of the seniors. On the 8th of September, 1836, he writes to his brother, Mr. William Dabney, "I intend to write some of mine next session. It will at least make me more familiar with com- position, and I think that I can speak my own productions with a great deal more spirit than some one's else." We learn from the letters of the following year that he carried his resolution into execution once, and with results so satisfactory that he proceeded to repeat the effort. Amongst his literary remains there are ten papers which were prepared during his days as student in Hampden-Sidney Col- lege, viz., five "compositions," two "forensics," one of them against Moses D. Hoge, and three "orations." They betray crudities, but also strong common sense, unusual intelligence and breadth of reading for a youth of sixteen or seventeen years of age. They show that he has already learned how to read history ; he says, "Do we read history merely to commit to memory a catalogue of facts and the opinion which some other man has formed concerning them ? Or do we not rather wish to store the mind with a series of events, whose causes and effects it may afterwards examine, and which it may compare both with each other, and with the incidents which are daily taking place?" Blind reliance on the judgment of others he condemned as well as the contemptuous treatment of their opinions. Privately also he wrought to improve himself outside While Student at Hampden-Sidnev. 33 prescribed duties. On the 19th of February, 1837, he writes to his mother, "I have nearly stopped reading novels lately; but I have a novel in my room now for the first time for several months. I have read Hume's History of England nearly up to the time of Cromwell. I thought it very dry when I first began, but I have now become acquainted with his style, and like it very well. I remember that you were very anxious that I should read it, and wished me to borrow it from Mr. Minor. Now I can read it without borrowing, which you know I never liked." He so behaved while at college that when about to leave, and looking forward to teaching school, he could say, "I feel some diffidence about whether I shall do justice to my scholars or not, but I know that I have done my best to prepare myself. Since I have been at college, I have always taken the highest mark for scholarship, and that at a time when no one else in college obtained it. I think you know me well enough to believe me when I say that I do not tell this out of any vanity, but only because it will be pleasing to you. But as every one else may not think with you and me on this point, you had better, for the sake of my good name, not repeat this." ^ He was cquall}' commendable in his other habits. The college was visited with epidemics of disorder during his resi- dence there. There was a good deal of gambling in the winter of i836-'37, and some expulsions and suspensions in conse- c[uence, penalties which the student body generally thought too severe. To show their displeasure at the decisions of the faculty about half the students organized themselves into a disorderly band of disturbers, and conducted a calithump extraordinary in all the annals of Hampden-Sidney College for its wildly con- temptuous behavior toward the professors. In consequence of this the faculty threatened to dismiss about twenty of the chief disturbers, but the matter was finally adjusted in a more ami- cable manner. The offenders were "called into the chapel, and there, before the whole college, they took a solemn promise to behave well thereafter, and so forth." - While disapproving of the faculty's management as indis- crete during these days of disorder, he kept free of disorder himself, and he expresses himself in terms of strong indignation ^ See letter of September i, 1837, to his mother. " Letter to his mother, dated February 3, 1837. 3 34 Life and Letters of Robert Lewis Dabney. against the violaters of the rules of an institution on which they were attending of free choice. So far as we have been able to* find, he complied habitually with all the requirements of college, unless we except an occasional absence from chapel, due to oversleeping, and an occasional absence from his assigned place in church on Sunday ; and in regard to these he explains to his mother that she is acquainted with his difficulty in waking at the proper hour, and that when absent from his place in church, it was owing to his having been escort to his "Aunt Dabney," then on the Hill, who sat in another part of the building. He was not much given to social visiting of the ladies. He felt the need of polish that comes of conversation with refined ladies, but he doubted whether, while being on the expense involved in a life in college, he should attempt to get that polish. He sought to cultivate the acquaintance only of the women of the highest type. He writes to his mother on the 3rd of June, 1837, "I sometimes doubt whether it is right in me to visit here. I do not believe that I lose much except in the time actually spent in the visits, for the images of the ladies do not trouble me in the retirement of my chamber ; but still the time occupied in dressing, and so forth, is something, and I doubt whether the improvement in manners compensates me for it. However, I shall continue my visits to Mrs. Powers and her guests. She is my example of a true old Virginia lady, such an one as does honor to her country." He knew the value of money ; knew to what efforts his mother was put to supply him with the neces- sary funds, and he was, therefore, careful as to all his expendi- tures. This appears often in his letters, as in the letter to his mother, dated July 23, 1836, in which he states that he will need a "few dollars" more than he has on hand, to pay his debts and his passage home at the end of September. He says, "There are a great many little expenses which no one would ever think of until he has been here, for I can say that I have not spent more than a dollar and a half in useless things since I have been here. I have set down every cent, and I will show }'OU my account \\hen I get home." He was also remarkable for neatness in his room and person. He h.ad the reputation for the ueatest room in college, and he seems to have been equally careful as to his dress ; he criticizes some of his fellows as too indifferent to dress, and one in particular, whom he ad- mired greatly in other respects. While Student at Hampden-Sidney. 35 He entertained very independent views as to the character of Hampden-Sidney College in his days there. He tells his mother, and his brother in particular, of the noble work it had done in the past, in turning out learned men, of its struggles with poverty, having at the time interest-bearing funds amount- ing to "only $17,000," of its frequent loss of its more promising professors, and of its liability to continue subject to such losses. On the 13th of August, 1836, he writes. "I think it is paying rather dear for learning, especially if we have no better teachers than we have at home. I do not think that I learn any more of Latin or Greek than I could learn by myself, for our professor of languages is so indiiterent that he does not teach us anything. The only object, then, in coming here is the study of mathe- matics and chemistry, in both of which departments we have very good professors ; but as we are about to lose our professor of chemistry, I think that the college will be a very poor place, and the only reason why I should come here in preference to some other college, is your predilection for it." In a letter to his brother William, August 5, 1836, he had already sketched, with a vigorous hand, the professors severally. After some preliminary remarks of an introductory nature, he began : "I will now proceed to make you acquainted with some of our pro- fessors, and first with the president. He is a nice, active man, a little telow the middle size, and is a great hand to run after the students when they get into mischief. He follows the fashion about as much as you do, wears small whiskers, and combs his hair in a very classical manner. He is quite handsome, and has quite an intelligent countenance and a very fine eye. He is a very fine speaker, and in a whole sermon he will not have a single word or gesture wrong. Indeed, I think that he has rather too large a portion of outside, but he is. nevertheless, a very wise man, and well qualified for his office. Our next best is the Professor of Chemistry. He is an Englishman, and quite celebrated for several important discoveries. He is a little lower than our friend, John Fox, and much such a looking man. having a highly-colored face, as if he had been raised on Thompsonian physic. Notwithstanding his appearance, he is an excellent chemist and a very agreeable lecturer. The next is the most remarkable looking man I ever saw. He is about six feet high, but does not weigh more than 120 pounds, I should think from his appearance ; his face is about the color of a dead oak leaf, though not so dark, and he wears a little pair of whiskers, each of which contains about a hundred spires of beard. He is Professor of Mathematics, and although young, he is an excellent scholar, one of the best that ever came from the Universitv. The last in order is the 36 Life and Letters of Rohert Lewis Darxev. Professor of — . He is about the size of Charles Burnley, and not so good a teacher. I think that there is some resemblance between them; he is not a better looking man, though somewhat more fash- ionable. But I have forgotten to give you their names, so I will give them to you now in all form. Daniel L. Carrol, D. D., Professor of Metaphysics and Moral Philosophy; John William Draper, M. D., Professor of Natyral Philosophy and Chemistry; Zebulon Montgomer}^ Pike Powers, Professor of Mathematics, and , Professor of Ancient Languages and Literature. . . . The lectures in mathematics are conducted thus : the Professor calls upon some one of the students, generally one whom he suspects has not been studying very hard, and makes him explain or prove any proposition as it is done in the book, if he can, and then goes over it himself, explains it fully, and tells us- its applications or use in subsequent calculations. If the student is not able to explain it, he calls on some one else, and he will thus try every one in the class in a few days. In language, we get a lesson in the ordinary manner, and read it over in the lecture-room ; the professor then asks questions and explains the constructions, and ought to give us a description of all the persons and places mentioned in the book, but this is very rarely done. All my studies are comprehended in these two branches. . . . Their mode of detecting mischief is to run up on the mischief-makers so that they may get close enough to recognize them ; but this they rarely do, and they sometimes have most ludicrous races." He found many men amongst the students between whom and himself there could be little congeniality. Some were idlers, some were wanting in the bearing of a gentleman. He ex- pressed himself in terms of fierce condemnation of such ; but he found some noble spirits amongst his fellow-students at Hampden-Sidney, for whom he conceived a high and generous admiration. One of these was Mr. John G. Shepperson, and another was Moses Drury Hoge. Of Mr. Shepperson he wrote to his brother on the 8th of July, 1836, "He is negligent of his dress to a fault, has a very awkward person and address, and cares not for the ridicule of any person living when he thinks that he is right ; insomuch that he often does things that are ridiculous, I believe, only to show that he is independent. l>ut yet he is esteemed by every one, and I believe that there is no person living who has anything against him." Between himself and Moses Drury Hoge there was formed at this time a friend- ship that was to grow strong and endure every strain till Dr. Hoge should help to bury him. his old and very honored friend, at Hami:)dcn-Sidnev, in the \-eav i8()8. While Student at Hampdex-Sidxev. 37 Amongst his college-mates were also Tliomas S. Bocock, who was to become Speaker of the Confederate Congress ; V. Cole- man, J. H. Fitzgerald, and William T. Richardson, for a long time the editor of the Central Presbyterian; Francis D. Irving, Charles S. Carrington. J. A'ernon Cosby, J. W. Clapp, Samuel Branch, Willis Wilson, William H. Anderson, William B. Shepard, and John A. Lancaster. Some of these were his close friends throughout life. During the first months of his sojourn in the college he seems to h.ave felt that the people in the community were inaccessible ; but as the months passed he was received into home after home, and grew to think Prince Edward remarkable for its hospitality. He animadverts, however, on the efifort at show, "especially among the ladies" ; and makes many satirical com- ments on their poor carriages and ill-fed beasts. He advances the opinion that it would really be more genteel to turn such horses out to graze, and to walk instead of driving to church and elsewhere. He lived, while at college, in the college dormitories, but took his meals for a time at Dr. Carrol's, then at Mr. Vernon's; during the winter session, i836-'37. he took them, with six other fine fellows, at the home of Mrs. John Holt Rice. This was his happiest boarding place. Mrs. Rice, the venerable widow of Dr. John Holt Rice, the founder of Union Seminary, Avas like a mother to him, nursing him through a brief illness with great tenderness and skill. During his last summer term the college authorities required all the students "to board at the college refectory. This was greatly to his dissatisfaction, as Avell as to that of others, particularly ]\'Irs. Rice's boarders. He was a great letter-writer in those early years. His cor- respondents were, for the most part, members of his own im- mediate family. His mother seems to have laid a command upon him to write to herself or some one else of the home folks at least once a week, that she might be kept constantly informed of his condition. But stronger even than his respect for this command was the demand of his own heart for communion with his own family. He was of a most afifectionate temper toward his mother, brothers and sisters, and never forgot, down to his old age, his homesickness during his first weeks in college. As he could not be at home he wanted to hear from them by letter often, and to pour himself out through his pen-point in writing to them. He remonstrates, argues and threatens, all in 38 Life and Letters of Robert Lewis Dabney. order to get more letters and fuller letters. In his letter of June 14, 1836, he writes: "I feel very lonely sometimes, although there are so many people- about, and I often wish I had a room-mate. You are now, I suppose, at Woodson's (Mr. Payne's, a son's-in-law), and Betty is following^ Nanny about, and Francis is out with him in the new ground. I seem to see you now as plainly as if I were with you, and feel a sort of satisfaction in picturing to myself the situations of you all at this time. Therefore, when you write to me, tell me all of your plans, that I may follow you in my mind in all of your movements, and almost think myself with you." In a letter of August 20th, the same year, he writes : "I hope that you have a good crop of tobacco. I fancy sometimes that I can see all of that lot by the corn-house, green and fine, and old imcle Harry and Jack pulling off the worms. I assure you that I very often think of every living thing, both man and beast, on our plantation, and that the sight of Betty's kitten playing with the spool would give me the greatest pleasure ; but I suppose that she has grown so large that she plays with rats now." These are but samples. Throughout his college course he begs and pleads to be informed of everything that occurs in his neighborhood, things of moment and trifling things — he wishes to be told them all. As for his own letters, proof has already been furnished that he wrote on a g4"eat variety of topics. But he drew his materials from many more sources than we have hitherto indicated. He adjusted himself to his correspondents. With his brother William he gave much space to the discussion of principles of behavior and to argument. With other members of his family he uses his sp.ace in descriptions of his surroundings and life. With his mother he is at his best, always tender, and respectful to the verge of reverence in manner, and dealing with conditions and principles in a way that she will most certainly approve. A few quotations will show us at once somewhat of that which he found to write of, and enable us to see some things worth seeing through his youthful eyes. He wrote to his sister Mary, on the 23rd of July, of the place and college : "This place is not very remarkable for anything at all except povert}-, for the College stands in the middle of an old field full of gullies and weeds, and the cows of the neighborhood come up to the very windows While Student at Hampden-Sidney. 39 with their bells, making such a noise that I cannot study. . . . The college is a great brick building, four stories high. It has forty-eight rooms in it besides the public rooms, making fifty-three in all. The rooms are large enough to accommodate three persons each." We must remember that he is speaking- of the campus as it was in 1836. The campus is now an unusually beautiful one, well grassed and adorned with magnificent oaks. At that period the Fourth of July was celebrated with as much patriotism as it is to-day, and the Fourth of July, 1837. is described as follows, in a letter to his brother William, writ- ten on the sixth : "The celebration began with one or two orations from each of the literary societies, and you must feel enough sympathy for me to rejoice that, in the opinion of the ladies at least, our speakers were the best. [He was a member of the Philanthropic Society.] We then had a dinner, to which the Faculty and all those persons in the neighborhood who were once members of college were invited. We employed our- selves some time in drinking patriotic, witty and Whiggish toasts. The Faculty took a very popular course. They mixed with the students, and considered themselves on an equality with them. To show you the freedom which prevailed, I will give you two toasts which were pre- sented by the same student, and were taken in very good part by the Faculty. The first was, 'Mr. Powers, Professor of Mathematics : may his character prove as impervious to the shafts of calumny as the differential calculus is to the minds of the Junior Class.' The differential calculus is a study in the junior year, which it is almost impossible to understand. The second toast was, 'The size is nothing important if the head and heart are right, as is exemplified in the present members of the Faculty.' Now, you must know that all the professors are mere pigmies, except Dr. Carrol. The old Doctor was so much pleased with this that the glasses and everything around him were threatened with very serious effects from his obstreperous mirth. Another toast was, 'The tree of knowledge in Prince Edward : it is different from every other tree in that the beauties are at (the) Root's.' But these doubtless appeared more witty when the wine had made us good-hearted than they do now. There was not much wine drunk, although one or two of the students were overtaken. In the evening the Root of the Tree of Science gave a kind of musical performance. The girls mounted a kind of stage or rostrum, where the piano was placed, and played and sang before about one hundred and fifty persons. Some of them were very much confused, but some of them were wholly unconcerned. All of them must become so if they stay there long, for at examinations it is much worse than it was to-day." 40 Life and Letters of Roisekt Lewis Dadnev. Mr. Root, referred to in the last quotation, conducted a large female school at the court-house village, now called Worsham. That school presented the same sort of attractions to the Hampden-Sidney students of that time that the present resi- dents in the State Normal School for Young Women, in Farm- ville, do for our young men in Hampden-Sidney to-day. Young Dabney was himself drawn occasionally to the root of science, or at any rate within the sacred precincts. But while he suffered attraction thitherward, he propounds criticism of the methods in vogue in this female school that would have astounded Mr. Root and his whole school, and perhaps the community. This school is a subject on which he writes at length. It furnished the desired occasion for the exhibition of his views on female education. Many of these views he cher- ished to his later years. He at this early period regarded the piano as an overvalued instrument ; he tells us that he had never heard but one person play whose playing, in itself con- sidered, was worth listening to, that there were smaller instru- ments out of which more music could be gotten ; that too much attention was paid, in female education, to mere "intellectual varnishing," not enough to the solid furnishing of the intellect and upbuilding of character. He wished the females in whom he was interested to be taught in good home schools, too, or at most, only in small private schools, and he desired that none of their native modesty should be rubbed off. In his letters, he gives, naturally, a full account of himself: his room, and how he kept it, his relations and life with his fellow-students, and with the members of the faculty, and with such members of the community as he came into contact with. He wrote, too, about things back at home. He is deeply inter- ested in his brother's affairs of heart, has much advice to give, urges persistence in his suit, argues and encourages as long as there is a possibility of success. With his mother he discusses all her farming and milling operations, keeps up with the state of the crops, and probable prices of wheat, corn and tobacco, and so forth. He was especially interested in his younger brother. George Francis, whom he encourages to study, and to try to break himself of stammering. He does not wish him to be a physician, but a lawyer or preacher, and, therefore, to culti- vate eloquence. Even thus early he had a peculiarly strong affection for his youngest sister — a lovely child and maiden. He advises his mother as to her studies, as well as to "Frank's" While Student at Hampden-Sidney. 41 (George Francis'), sends her messages, and pleads for letters from her — at least, for dictated messages. These letters make it clear as the sun that he bore to all the members of his family very tender love. They make it equally clear that he was just. as much loved and admired by them. The members of his family seem to have referred to him often by the pet phrase, "The old gentleman." His attitude toward the rest would suggest and justify this phrase; for he took thought at this early period for mother, brothers and sisters. As the end of the summer session of 1837 approached, he decided to discontinue his studies in the college, a step which he took not without regret. On the i8th of September, 1837, he writes : "I now sit down to write what I suppose will be my last letter to you from this place. ... I look forward to the prospect of leaving these dreary walls with a good deal of pleasure, although I have enjoyed much happiness in them. If I had no home to go to, I would as soon stay here as in any place I know, if not rather. Although all the external appearances are uncomfortable and repelling, few persons ever come here without regretting their departure. I do not know whether the excellence is in the people, for they do not seem to me to be more than usually kind and hospitable, but so it is. I have always been treated with the utmost politeness whenever I have become acquainted." Of his reasons for leaving he gives somewhat in a previous letter, written on September ist. After indulging in some remarks concerning the peculiar pleasures and dignities await- ing the senior class of i837-"38, he says : "But I would not have you think that I regret leaving college. If it was so, I should not think of these idle advantages, but rather of the opportunity for study. I know that it will be more advantageous to me to teach than to study now, and I will return at a time when I shall be better qualified by my age to make full use of all the circum- stances which surround a student." He had other reasons of which he was not so careful to speak to his mother. He has left a record of them elsewhere. His widowed mother was somewhat in debt. She was, also, under the necessity of rebuilding her mill at that time. The rents from that property were absorbed in the enterprise. Young Dabney was determined not to further burden her. but, on the contrary, to help her in the work of rebuilding. He had been discussing the best kind of water-wheels with Dr. Draper and 42 Life and Letters of Robert Lewis Dabney. his brother Wilham for months ; but he was ready for any sort of work, as we shall see, to set his mother on comfortable footing. We wish we could know exactly what the people of Hamp- den-Sidney thought of this young man, who looked so closely at them, and discussed them so keenly, and yet so generously. Tradition says they thought him to be a great, strong fellow, with noble traits, but wanting in the graces. The faculty's report sent on the 25th of September, 1837, and covering the whole session then ending, and claiming to be a "correct and impartial statement of the conduct and proficiency of each student," assigns to him the most distinguished rank in scholar- ship, the most distinguished rank in behavior, and the most distinguished rank in industry, which its rules provided for the recognition of. He was the only representative of his class thus highly ranked. This report was accompanied by a letter from the president of the college, which may be presented in full : "Mrs. Dabney: "Dear Madam, — I feel great regret that your son Robert should be interrupted in his studies by teaching or from any other cause. He is now prepared to enter the Senior Class with great advantage, and to complete his studies under circumstances more favorable to his scholar- ship than he can hope hereafter. The Faculty have unanimously agreed that if he will continue they will not require of him the tuition fees for the next year till some future period when it may be convenient for him to pay. I hope that Robert has experienced a great change in his religious feelings lately, and this is an additional reason why we wish him to continue his education without interruption. If you can make such an arrangement as to send him back the next session it will be greatly to his advantage. You have great reason, madam, to be thankful to God for giving j-ou such a son. ''Yours, etc.. "D. L. C.VRROl.." The greatest thing in the relations of any man is his relation to God. There is nothing strange, therefore, in an assertion of Robert Lewis Dabney, when long past his threescore years and ten, viz., "The most important event of this period to me was my profession of faith in Christ," in September, 1837. He announces his change to his mother, in a letter of the i8th of that month. He tells his mother that he heard indirectly of the death of his little niece, infant daughter of his sister, ■Mrs. While Student at Hampden-Sidney. 43 Payne, expresses his inability to form any idea of what a parent must feel in such a situation, and then continues : "I pray most sincerely that this may be made by God a benefit to their piety. You will be somewhat surprised, my dear mother, to hear me talk in this way; but, by the grace of Christ, I have been made to think at least a little about my sins and my eternal salvation. There has been a great deal of feeling in the college for a few days, and about twelve of the students have become religious. I know I need not ask you to remember both your son and his fellow-students in your prayers. I am afraid that the revival is dying away very fast ; but we ought to be thankful for what has already been done. Dr. Carrol has had meet- ings every night for nearly a week, and Mr. Taylor (professor in the Seminary) and others sometimes attend. Mr. Taylor was here last night." Throughout his life, Dr. Dabney continued to think of this as a time when "the college was visited by a powerful and genuine awakening." At the close of the session, in the end of that September, he returned to his mother's, and later on in the autumn, at Provi- dence Church, and from the hands of his mother's pastor, Mr. Wharey, he partook of his first communion. What were his thoughts? Would that he had been away from home, that to his dear ones there he might have recounted what it W'as to him. It remained a memorable day in his life. Toward the evening of it he said, "Since that day my face has ever been turned Zionward, thoush with sad defections of dutv.'' CHAPTER \V. EARLY EFFORTS TO AID HIS MOTHER. (October, 1837-Dcccnilicr 9, 1839.) Working ix Ql'akry. — His First School. — The Sum:mer of 1838. — His Second School. — Visit to his Aunt, ^Irs. Reuben Lewis, of Albemarle County, in 1839. — The Invitation of Mr. and Mrs. Lewis. — His Correspondents the Meanwhile. YOUNG Dabney was very much in earnest in his purpose not to be a burden, but a help to his widowed mother. He reached home late in September, 1837, fixed in this resolu- tion, and he spent the rest of that year in the stone quarry, and on the boat transporting- stone, which was needed in the rebuild- ing of the mill. We may think of this youth of seventeen years aiul a half, whom the members of his family lovingly referred to as "the old gentleman," or "the old man," who had won the plaudits of professors and fellow-students for talents, industry and bearing of the most distinguished sort, as suitably garbed, and holding a drill, or, it may be, driving it with a sledge- hammer, or straining with a lever to move a block of stone, helping to steer and propel the boat on which it is being carried to its destination. He shows the quality here of the primordial mass of his manhood. He is the son of a slave-holder. His mother owns slaves, but she is somewhat straitened in her business. He will not be a burden to her; he will help her. There is nothing wrong or dishonorable in manual labor ; he will work with his own hands, that his mother's burdens may be made lighter. Mrs. Elizabeth Randolph Dabney may have gone and looked at her son engaged in these labors, and thought of Dr. Carroll's words. "You have great reason to be thankful to God. madam, that he has given you such a son." She may verv well liave felt that she was getting new proof of the truth of those words. On the 15th of January. 1838, he opened a neighborhood school. At this time he lacked one month and twenty days of being eighteen years old. The cal^n in which he taught was similar to the one in whicii he had been taught bv Mr. Caleb Early Efforts to Aid His ]Mother. 45 Burnley. This cabin he helped to build with his own hands. There were about seventeen pupils, boys and girls. His brother Frank (and his sister Betty, perhaps) was among the number. So far as was known, he was a faithful and efficient teacher. It was important to him chiefly as bringing him, clear money, about three hundred dollars. The summer of 1838 he seems to have devoted to farming operations, and the winter following he seems to have given to the pursuits of the planter. During the latter part of the summer and the autumn of 1839 he taught a second school. This school was held about four miles west of his mother's, in a log cabin near Col. William Harris's. The benches on which the pupils sat had no backs. He w^alked all this distance of four miles night and morning, his brother Frank accompanying him. This school brought him in another three hundred dollars. The two schools together had covered a period of about ten months, and together they had netted him six hundred dollars. The last of the two closed early in December, 1839. Aleanwhile. in the early part of the summer of 1839. l^e had gone, riding a colt, to pay a visit to his aunt, Mrs. Reuben Lewis, of Albemarle county. She lived not far from Charlottes- ville, the seat of the University of Virginia, an institution whose advantages he had for years hoped some day to enjov. In all the South, and, indeed, in all the land, there was no place with more of fame for the character of the work done by the students who were graduated. It had amongst its professors men of national reputation. The institution was established on a basis more liberal and enlightened than any other in our country at the time, and had already won a reputation abroad. While on this visit to the home of Mr. and Mrs. Lewis he attended on the exercises connected with the close of the Uni- versity session, and was greatly impressed by what he saw and heard. His uncle and aunt insisted that he should come and live with them : they offered to give him board and lodging for himself and his horse, and urged that he could ride thence to the University and back, attend the lectures and thus complete his education. This was not an offer to be lightly rejected, nor did it take young Dabney long to accept it. Up to this time he does not seem to have abandoned the idea of returning to Hampden-Sidney. He had been entreated repeatedly to return, by his student friends, and amongst them. 46 Life and Letters of Robert Lewis Dabney. Moses Drury Hoge. In August, 1839, M^- Hoge writes, expressing the hope that they may be cohege-mates again and class-mates. In September, 1839, ^^^ wrote again, urging vari- ous reasons for his friend Dabney's return, one, at least, of which is worthy of repeating. It is put by Mr. Hoge as fol- lows : "The other day, Mr. Maxwell" (who was made president in 1838) "was talking to me of the prospects of the College, and said that it was his intention to get two tutors as soon as possible; and asked me if I knew of a young man who would answer his purpose. I immediately gave him an account of you, and he requested me to sound you on the subject. He told me that if I would teach two or three years, he would send me to Europe, and give me an opportunity to fit myself for any chair I pleased. A part of his offers I declined, for I am not willing to make any engagement that would preclude the possi- bility of studying divinity. I may possibly teach in the College and carry on my studies in the Seminary at the same time. But of this hereafter. It is Mr. Maxwell's plan to train young men for professor- ships, by first making them tutors ; and although a tutorship must be no temptation to you, if you intend to teach, you might not object to being a professor. I hope you will reflect on this seriously. I regret that you cannot come in the fall and have a conversation with Mr. Maxwell yourself." The venerable widow of the Rev. Dr. John Holt Rice also urged and entreated her "young- friend Mr. Dabney" to return to Hampden-Sidney. This noble woman was one of his most regular, and, we must believe, one of his most helpful corres- pondents in this period. He entertained a most respectful and profound regard for her character then, and continued to cherish her memory throughout his long and full life. Certainly she wrote affectionately, tenderly, and wisely to him of his Christian life. Here are some of her words, on the T3th of February, 1838: "I trust you will make your religion serviceable to you in every thought and action. It is of little avail if our religion is not in con- tinual practice, if it is not interwoven in our very system. Oh ! how much Christians lose by not being more entirely Christian, and how much good they lose the privilege of doing, and how much reproach they bring on the cause of the blessed Redeemer, who gave his life a ransom for all who believe and trust and obey him ! I wish you to take a higher stand than the common Christians. How little use is it to pretend to be a Christian at all, when the case is so doubtful to all and even to ourselves. I wish you to enjoy all the blessed and gracious Early Efforts to Aid His Mother. 47 promises and truths of God's Word; to have that faith which will purify 3'our heart and work by love; that will ever lead you to do good, and in every way be useful. Oh ! it is worth all labor, self-denial and exertion to be found so engaged as at last to have it pronounced, 'Well done, good and faithful servant.' I trust you will make the Bible, and not other professors, your rule and guide. Shrink not from any duty, however difficult and painful ; and diligently seek for duties." Her letters to him abound in homilies similarly helpful. This venerated lady to whom he wrote, often two letters to her one, makes it her business to urge him to return to Hampden-Sidney. She began this as early as November, 1838. She says, in a letter of the 22nd of that month : "Though I now have a good many letters pressing on my hands, yet I cannot delay yours, if anything I can say will aid in deciding so important a point as your next year's college course. I must say that Mr. Maxwell . . . seems to take hold of the poor old College with the right spirit ; and that every son of Virginia, and especially Pres- byterians, ought to hold up his hands, and aid him in every way in their power. This I would by no means wish you to do to the least injury of yourself or your dear young brother. Everj' man must, in a great measure, form himself, or he will not be a good scholar or anything else; and I should think recitations preferable to lectures for undergraduates. The College, as far as I can learn, is now going on admirably. Mr. Maxwell says his duties thus far are pleasures ; and we are apt to attend well to what is a pleasure. He says he has to study hard, but he seems to enjoy it. He talks much of putting the place in thorough repair, and making it attractive by having fine fruits, trees, pleasure walks, and so forth, and of doing everything to improve and please, to benefit and render the students comfortable and happ}'. Professor Smith [this gentleman was soon to become the head of the \'irginia Military Institute] is said to be a fine officer. He wishes to put the College under complete martial law, and make it a sort of West Point. Mr. Maxwell is very anxious to make a truly Christian college, and for this, I believe, ardently prays. Now, although the College has not been patronized by the State, it has been a patron of the State, and I do not think the old mother should be neglected for the pampered daughter, who has sucked all the literary resources, and yet has higher expenses. The cost there is considerably greater, and there are many more temptations to indulgence and extravagances. And as to friends, I do not expect you have one near there more interested in you than I am." In a letter of January 15, 1839, she again speaks in praise of Mr. Maxwell's administration, and of the college generally; 48 Life and Letters of Robert Lewis Dabxey. says that the students are becoming better pleased ; mentions Mr. Hoge as a special instance of this, and says, "They have talked of writing to you, and perhaps have, and can tell you much more than I can." On the <)th of April following she wrote : "I am, of course, no judge of college matters. But Mr. Maxwell seems to have his heart so much in the work, and his views seem to me so much what they ought to be in relation to such a work, that I cannot but hope he is doing very well, and that if he can be sustained the institution will yet be a blessing and a glory to our State. I should have no doubt of his success if it was not for this lamentable party strife." The reference is to the conflict between the New and Old School Churches, with the spirit of which this good lady had no sympathy. She thought that the defenders of correct prin- ciples had shown a want of Christian charity in dealing with their opponents. On the i6th of July she wrote : "I am sorry to hear there will be any difficulty or doubt about you and your brother's coming this fall. This is an important crisis with the good old College, and as much as she wants money, she wants students of the right stamp more, and you know how much our country and the church at this time needs her sons to have every possible qualification for usefulness. The more I see and hear of Mr. Maxwell's views and conduct in regard to college matters, the more I approve and wish him every facility for success. He has many difficulties to contend with, and I wish him to have the aid and comfort of such a pupil as my own young friend. This, though, would not influence me if I did not feel fully assured it would be to the permanent interest of yourself and brother." Having heard of the offer of Mr. Lewis, near the L^niversity of Virginia, to give Mr. Dabney free board, Mrs. Rice wrote, on the 22nd of September, 1839: "I wish I were in a situation to make an offer that might equal your good aunt's. I think it of considerable importance to build up a good Presbyterian institution, such as President Maxwell has his heart set upon, where pure morals and sound learning may be taught. . . . Mr. Maxwell wishes to raise officers from our own College that will feel and act together, and strive to do good to their country through the College. He has set his heart on Mr. Hoge and young Reid, of Lynchburg, and Mr. Hoge recommends you as a suitable person to Early Efforts to Aid His Mother. 49 train for that object, and, therefore, Mr. Maxwell wishes to get you here. ... I think this may be to your advantage, and open a field for great usefulness for you. I am sure I am not making calculations for the gratification of my old age. Yet it would be gratifying to have such young friends settled around me. As far as I can see, Mr. Max- well has very just views for managing and conducting the College, and I wish him to have help." These letters were no doubt gratifying" to young Dabney, and helpful because of their appreciation ; but we cannot doubt that he chose wisely, being as mature in mind and character as he was, and Hampden-Sidney not being perfectly organized, in going to the place of larger opportunities, albeit it was also the place of greater danger. The course which might have proved hazardous in the extreme to others was not so to him, and he was too large a man to have been able to look forward con- tentedly to a mere professorship in the Hampden-Sidney of his dav. CHAPTER V. LIFE AT THE UNIVERSITY OF I'IRGIXIA. (December g, 1839-July 5, 1842.) The University of Virginia at the Time. — Youn'g Dabxey's View OF THE University, of Professors Bonnycastle, Powers and Sylvester, Rodgers and Emmet, Tucker and Harrison. — His Views of the Student Body, and the Murder of Professor Davis. — Views of the Community.— His Painstaking Efforts as a Student, and his Achievements in the Several Sessions. — Attempts at Composition. — Christian Work in Behalf of his Fellow-Students. — Member of a Total Abstinence Society. — Beginning of his Friendship with the Rev. Wm. S. White. — Gives Attention to Politics, Slavery, to his Mother's Farming Operations. — Teaches his Brother Francis while at the Uni- versity.— Interest in his Sister Betty. — Some of his Corre- spondents.— Funds with which he got through the University. THE period 1839 to 1842 was one of change at the Univer- sity of Virginia. The changes in the Faculty at Hampden- Sidney had been a factor in producing the dissatisfaction with that institution on the part of young Dabney. It was his destiny, however, to enter the University at a time of equal change. He was to see the distinguished head of the Law School cut down by the ruthless hand of an assassin, and, in ■consequence, the election of first a locum tenens, and then another head of the school. He was to see Prof. Bonnycastle pass away, and Mr. Powers, who had been his friend, and much-admired mathematical professor at Hampden-Sidney, put into Prof. Bonnycastle's place for a year as locuui tenens, and then to see the place filled by Mr. Sylvester for one session. He was to see Prof. Blsetterman's place taken by another, and still other similar changes. He was to have occasion to con- demn the early fondness of the Visitors of the University for foreigners as professors. This fondness Mr. Jefferson was largely responsible for. The original body of professors with whom the Univeristy had begun in the year 1825 contained only three from the United States, viz., those of law, chemistry, and ethics. Events soon showed the inability of these foreign- Life at the University of Virginia. 51 €rs to understand and control our Virginia youths. Notwith- standing the seeming liberality of the step, it was not a wise one, but so great was the influence of the sage of Monticello, who was the first rector, as well as the founder of the University, that his views, including this particular one, continued for some time after his death to dominate the movements of the Board of Visitors ; but these changes, some of them untoward, were not without certain beneficial results to our subject. An era of <:hange in an institution of learning, however great its advan- tages to idle and vicious students, is attended with some decided advantages as well to students of the first rank. They compare man and man in the same department, and develop a relative independence and originality of mind, a consciousness of force, and a readiness to bear responsibilities for opinions. The feeling of the young man from Louisa was one of partial disappointment with the place and the professors, when he came to take a nearer view of the LTniversity. Of the place he wrote, ■on the 22nd of January, 1840 : "It is quite a pretty place, though I suspect I do not think it quite as pretty as Mr. Jefferson used to think it. Almost any of the build- ings would be pretty by itself, but I do not think the tout ensemble is very lovely. The philosophical and chemical apparatus is hardly so ^ood as would be expected, not better than that at Hampden-Sidney. They have a library of 16,000 volumes, and a collection of some thou- sands of paintings and engravings, but the books, except those which relate to law and medicine, are mostly written in French and German, and the paintings have no room to be put into, so they do not do anybody much good." A week before he had written of the teaching, "The instruc- tors here display a good deal of learning, and spread through a wide range, but, as far as I can see, they are not cal- culated to push on any one who does not study of his own accord, and as these are few^ the classes are generally very deficient." Of Professors Bonnycastle and Emmet, he says that they are "English cockneys," and, further, "their manners are more imsuited to my taste than the manners of the Yankees" ; that Professor "Bonnycastle has an afifectation of originality and independence which leads him to desert the old and settled standards of science, for no other reason, oftentimes, than be- cause they are old." During Mr. Powers' tenancy of the chair, 52 Life and Letters of Rop.ert Lewis Dabxev. he wrote that while Mr. Powers was not so learned a man as Prof. Bonnycastle, he was as effective a teacher.^ On October 25, 1840, he had written to his mother : "In the event of Mr. Bonnycastlc's death, I hope Mr. Powers will get the place, as I believe him fully competent to make as good a pro- fessor as Mr. Bonnycastle, although not so learned a man, and more especially because he is one of our own people, and a good Baptist. I do not like much to see the high stations conferred on foreigners, who have no sympathy with our ways of feeling and our manners, and no love for our institutions. Mr. Powers is a Virginian, and a most warm- hearted and amiable man. I consider it very important, also, that they should get as many religious men as possible into the Faculty, and I do not at all regret that Mr. Powers is not a Presbyterian. It is best that they should have as great a variety of sects as possible, to guard against the imputation of sectarianism. They have now an Episcopalian and a Methodist, with sundry infidels, Unitarians, and so forth." On the 15th of December, 1840, he writes: "We have received the last of our assortment of professors, as I suppose you have heard. Mr. Sylvester arrived about a fortnight ago, and was received by the students with an illumination and other demon- strations of respect, such as burning tar-barrels, yelling and such like dignified and manly proceedings. But, perhaps, if he knew how much of this to set down to the students' love of frolic, and how much to their good-will to him, his gratulations to himself might be somewhat diminished. They will probably give him a little insight into this matter, by stoning his house the first time he crosses their sovereign will, which will be very soon if he does his duty. The foolish fondness which the University people have always shown for things from a distance is rebuked in his instance, and I am heartily glad of it. They were dis- appointed in him — more, indeed, than they had reason to be, for I think that the prospect is now fully as good as they had reason to expect. They thought that a man all the way from London, recom- mended by great men, and titled lords and bishops, must be a wonder in every respect. They were looking for a splendid fellow, who was to take his place in the top notch of public estimation, at once and ' When the several representations of Mr. Bonnycastle made by Mr. Dabney are all put together, they constitute no unfavorable picture; but it is quite possible that they come somewhat short of even justice. Mr. Bonnycastle was not only a great teacher and a man of com- manding talents, l)Ut of ninisual social abilities wlieii he chose to display them. See Tlioiitas Jefferson and the ['iiiT'crsity. by Herbert B. .\dams. Ph. D.. pp. 117, 118. Life at the Unj\-ersitv of Virginia. 53 by storm, and to surpass everything that was ever seen in his mode of instruction, when lo ! a little, bluff, beef- fed English cockney, per- fectly insignificant in his appearance, and raw and awkward in his manners, only twenty-six years old, deficient in the faculty of giving instruction, and far below what we have been accustomed to in a lec- turer. You may guess it required all efforts of the intended admirers to keep their countenances from falling. The students, indeed, made no secret of their disappointment; but the Faculty make much of him, and profess that they are highly delighted. He is, I should think, from what I have seen of him, which is but little, a fellow of excellent sense and good acquirements for his age, but not at all superior in intellect to Powers and many others among us. Practice, I hope, may give him the facility of imparting his ideas, which Mr. Powers possessed in a high degree. He has a hearty, open countenance, and seems to be an industrious, lively fellow. So that I hope he vyill make a very good professor, although I do not think he has any of that imposing great- ness which Mr. Bonnycastle had, and which the people expected in him. The best professors in the institution are native Virginians, and almost all the foreigners have had some difficulty with the students arising out of their own impudence, so that I hope the Visitors will learn after awhile to be satisfied with our own men." Of Prof. Rogers, of the School of Natural Philosophy, he wrote on the i6th of January, 1840: "Mr. Rogers is a very good-natured man in his manners, and. I believe, in his heart. He has the manners of a Virginian, too. Mr. Rogers is rather pompous and wordy in his lectures to the Junior Class ; but when we come to the tug of war in the Senior, where we take up the mathematical parts of the subject, we find him an accurate scholar. I expect that if we would divest ourselves of that foolish admiration of that which comes from far off, we should consider him just as great a man as Mr. Bonnycastle. His exterior accomplishments are certainly much greater." In the same letter he writes of Prof. Emmet : "Dr. Emmet seems to be more familiar with the routine of the lecture-room, because he has been lecturing so long, than Dr. Draper, but I doubt if he is a better chemist. He is certainly not so great an enthusiast in the science." On the I2th of March, 1840, he wrote: "There is in some odd corner of the laws of the University a clause requiring every student to satisfy the Faculty of his ability to write English correctly before he can receive any diploma. They make this 54 Life and Letters of Robert Lewis Dabney. the foundation for the most pestilent examination in the whole session. This year the director of the affair is , who I should think, if I believed in the transmigration of souls, contains the spirits of all the pettifogers that ever were born. . . . The old granny has a whole raft of whimsical notions about the terms in common use, and requires us to come into them. Consequently, those who have not heard his lectures on rhetoric, or found out his hobbies somehow or other, stand but a poor chance. I have no expectation of getting through as long as he has anything to do with it." On the 13th of October, 1840, he writes to his brother Wil- liam : "You have heard, I suppose, that Dr. Blsetterman is dispensed with. His dismission causes universal joy amongst the ladies, who consider his family discipline too dangerous a precedent to be permitted in their vicinity. I have substituted in the place of his ticket (Modern Lan- guages) Moral Philosophy. I find the professor very dull and unin- teresting, which is peculiarly unfortunate on this subject, where so much depends on the perspicuity of the teacher. Our text-book, also, is written in a very diffuse, obscure style, and what with that and the impalpable nature of the subject, the matter is confusion worse con- founded, by the time the professor has stumbled . . . over it." Of Prof. Gessner Harrison he speaks only good. Of the student body in his day he tells us that the "big men"' of the time took pride in sending their sons to the University,, and that there were wild, dissipated young prodigals there- Writing to his mother, on the 25th of October, 1840, he says : "Those students who are able, and are not prevented by principle, dress in a most extravagant manner. I will give you a list of the part of one of their wardrobes, which I am acquainted with. Imprimis, prunella bootees, then straw-colored pantaloons, striped pink and blue silk vest, with a white or straw-colored ground, crimson merino cravat, with yellow spots on it, like the old-fashioned handkerchief, and white kid gloves (not always of the cleanest), coat of the finest cloth, and most dandified cut, and cloth cap, trimmed with rich fur. They do not think a coat wearable for more than two months, and as for pantaloons and vests, the number they consume is beyond calculation. These are the chaps to spend their $1,500 or $2,000, and learn about three cents worth of useful learning and enough rascality to ruin them forever. They have some old standing belles, who bloom with all the persever- ance of an evergreen, whom they flirt with as their daily occupation." He remarks of students in general, ".Students are the most inflammaljle race of beings that ever existed, and thev must be Life at the University of Virginia. 55 managed with the greatest promptness and skill, for when they once get a little awry, they are' perfectly unmanageable," and he continues concerning the students then at the University : "If the students who are here now are to set the measure of morality and honor among the people in the succeeding generation, old Virginia will become but a scurvy place. At college they are removed pretty much from the restraint of public sentiment, for that which exists in colleges is altogether false and perverted; and, under the excuse that they are sowing their wild oats, they commit all sorts of vices. The worst of it is that these wild oats they sow in youth will yield such a tenfold crop of seed as will keep them sowing all their lives. Does that deserve the name of principle, which measures the propriety of actions only by the amount of danger to be apprehended from public opinion? Is it not rather sheer selfishness? Such is the only curb on the conduct of five-sixths of the young men in our colleges, as far as my acquaintance has gone."' " Thus, like a philosopher of vigorous parts, albeit somewhat immature, does our young man, in homespun, from Cub Creek, in Louisa county, write to his mother. His opinion of the character of the student body at the University, during his years there, was moulded by many un- pleasant experiences. Long years afterwards he was accus- tomed to remark on the low standard of honor which obtained amongst some of his fellow-students, and to illustrate it by incidents of his own experience. He used to relate that on one occasion, during an examination, his attention was attracted by the rapidity with which a student commenced to write near him. Suspecting the source of this unwonted inspiration, he removed his own written papers, so that they could not be seen. Whereupon he was actually requested to replace them where they could be seen. He, of course, refused. He was also wont to relate that once while there he picked up a most elaborate little manuscript book, evidently prepared to be slipped up a man's sleeve, and used on examination. He gave it to the pro- fessor having charge of the department. They both regarded it as a sort of wonder, judging that it must have cost the maker far more labor than would have been necessary to honestly master the whole subject. The University of Virginia student body of to-day has a fine reputation for honor. It is the peer of any body in the land, and ^ Letter to his mother, December 15, 1841. ^6 Life and Letters of Robert Lewis Daiixey. has long been so. Even from the start it had an element as noble as the best in any institutfon of the whole country ; but it took some time for the spirit of honor to pervade the entire student body to such an extent as now obtains, and has for decades — a spirit that drives from its midst every man who attempts to cheat his way through an examination. The students at the University during its early career were noted for their disorderly behavior. Mr. JefTerson had advo- cated the largest liberty to the students ; he had contended that by appealing to their reason, their hopes, their generous feel- ings, their honor, and their manhood, and to these alone, more could be done than by multiplication of rules, and the effort to enforce them. Treat them as self-governing gentlemen, and they will show themselves to be gentlemen. The students did not respond, however, as expected. Disorder ran riot, the position of the professors became intolerable, they suspended their lectures, and tendered their resignations to the Board of Visitors. The board met, abandoned their plan of self- government, and ordered a course of rigid discipline. The Faculty began the making and enforcing of many petty rules. One rule, requiring the students to retire to their rooms at nine p. M.^ and to remain there till six o'clock next morning, which was made in 1S34, the students flatly refused to obey. The Faculty had to withdraw the requirement. The act of refusal, known as the "Rebellion of 1834," was conducted in an orderly manner, but was the occasion of much subsequent disorder." During the second year of the student life of R. L. Dabney in the University, one of these outbreaks of disorder culminated in an awful tragedy, the murder of Prof. Davis, who was head of the Law School, and one of the most efficient officers and professors in connection with the institution. Young Dabney was filled with horror and indignation at the deed, in common with all the nobler element of the student body. He was honored by the body of his outraged fellow-students with an appointment on a committee to apprehend the eulprit. He writes of the matter, and of his feelings on the subject, to his brother William as follows : * For an excellent brief sketch of early discipline in the University, see Dr. W. Gordon McCabe's Virginia Schools Before and After the Revolution, etc., p. 43, a copy of which has been put into our hands by Mr. R. Lee Trayh)r, of Ricliniond. Va. Life at the University of A'irgixia. 57 My Dear Brother: ^ ^ "The last twenty-four hours have been the most fatiguing and exciting that I ever went through. We were alarmed last night by the news that Mr. Davis, the chairman of the Faculty, was shot, in a riot, which was held in commemoration of the great rebellion of four ( ?) years ago. On running up to College, we found a dense crowd around his door, in the most fearful state of excitement, awaiting the decision of the surgeons. There were only two rioters seen, who had been firing blank cartridges about the doors of the professors, masked and disguised. The two passed freely within a few feet of the peaceful students, completely concealed by their disguises, when one of the students told them to take care, as Mr. Davis was on the watch, near his house. One of the two immediately walked down that way, loading his pistol : but, in addition to the former charge of powder, he was seen to put in a ball, ramming it down against the wall of the house as he went. Nobody at that time, however, suspected anything, or felt him- self authorized to interfere. A few moments after another report was heard, and the masked figure was seen making off across the lawn. Some of the students heard groans, and, going out, found Mr. Davis down and unable to rise. He said that he had gone out to preserve order; that he saw the masked figure, attempted to take hold of him and take off the mask, but that he dodged him, retreated a few yards, and then, after he (Mr. Davis) had ceased to pursue, turned and fired. The ball entered his abdomen, and for the first hour the physicians could not find it, so that the greatest apprehensions were felt that it had entered the cavity of his body, and that his case was desperate. At last, however, they found it below the hip-joint, about a foot from the orifice of the wound, and ascertained that it had glanced around to that place without touching any mortal part. Still, you may con- ceive that a wound a foot in extent, and by a rifled-barrelled pistol, passing through the groin and in the neighborhood of several large nerves and arteries, must be extremely dangerous and painful. There is no immediate danger now, however, and the wound has seemed favorable thus far.* The excitement among the students was so great, and everybody was so horror-struck, that no immediate steps were taken to secure the criminal. The action was so atrocious that it is impossible to conceive a motive, and still the circumstances are such that we cannot believe it to have been accidental, which we would gladly do if we could. After some consultation among the students, suspicion concen- trated so much on one individual that it was determined to send a committee of the students in search of him, to endeavor to get some clue to the matter. We went, found him, and made all the investigation ■* Prof. Davis was to die from the assassin's wound, nevertheless, within a few days. 58 Life and Letters of Robert Lewis Dabney. the hurried and excited state of affairs would admit of. He acknow- ledged having been one of the rioters, denied the act, and refused to give any information as to the names, disguises or motives of the others. As we had no legal authority, we were obliged to release him, and they very foolishly let him off, taking his word not to abscond. But, as you may guess, before the warrant for his apprehension reached College he had made himself scarce. He was seen this morning crossing the fields, and an active pursuit continued the best part of the day, by stu- dents and civil authorities, for the former had held a meeting earlj^ this morning, and unanimously offered their cooperation. Some circum- stances, however, turned up to make us believe that he was not guilty, although he was accessory, and the suspicion also fell strong enough on another of them to justify his arrest. The warrant was founded on testimony given by me, and, consequently, I am placed in a rather unenviable position, for in a college any man can have aiders and abettors, however vile he may be. As the ofificers of the law had been all dispatched after the other man, the task of putting the warrant into execution was committed to another student and myself. By exerting some caution and self-command, the warrant was executed without the violence which everybody expected would have been resorted to. Whether the crime can be fixed on any one, I do not know. I fear the first man will escape, for all our efforts have thus far been unavailing. He could be arrested under the law as an accessory, and if we had him, I doubt not we should get to the bottom of the matter. Such a crime I never heard of. It is impossible to assign any probable motive. Mr. Davis had been peculiarly popular this session, and neither of the men suspected had been subjects of discipline or had received any cause of offence whatever. I will venture to say that no crime was ever attended with more tragical scenes and more exciting scenes. The young men who carried hiin in say that the sight of Mrs. Davis and her sufferings was painful beyond conception, and produced emotions in themselves more intense than they had ever experienced. Yet when we attempted to gain some information from him to enable us to identify the man, she prevented him, by her influence, from saying a word. Such is the heroic forgiveness of the Christian. At the very moment when she had every reason to believe that the man had inflicted upon her, and all that are dear to her, the greatest of injuries, she did her utmost to screen him from suffering. I must confess that it would have been more proper for a well-balanced mind to have admitted the importance of the claims of the law, and, while she disclaimed everything like revenge, to have permitted the i)aram()unt interests of society to be vindicated by the punishment of the law-breaker. How- ever, Mr. Davis could have given no additional information, for the matter was too unexpected and instantaneous for him to observe any- thing. You see that out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. I have not had time, during the last twenty- lour hours, to Life at the University of A'irginia. 59 think of anything else, and consequently it is hard for me to talk of anything else now. The students celebrated the late misfortune of the nation [Mr. Dabney was an ardent Democrat] by burning tar-barrels and yelling around the professors' houses, 'Huzza ! for old Tip and Mr. Tucker,' etc. What an illustration of the hollow, empty falsehood of the popular shout. Night before last the Faculty are cheered and almost idolized : to-night, one of them shot down without provocation, like a brute beast. . . . "Yours affectionately, "R. L. D." In subsequent letters he follows the fortunes of the student Semmes, condemns the means used to evade trial, says the two most important witnesses have been induced to abscond, not- withstanding that one of them was bound to appear under a penalty of five thousand dollars. The lawyers for the defence, Messrs. Leigh, Lyons, and Gilmer, come in for some trenchant criticism. He says in this connection : "I never could understand what sort of consciences these big lawyers have, when they undertake, for a sum of money, to prostitute their talents, to defend and save a man whom they know to be guilty. But the more palpable the guilt, the greater the honor of clearing the guilty, they say. I can only say that I would be very unwilling to run the risk, which they run, of finding the stain of blood-guiltiness resting on them at the last day, should any of the desperadoes who are turned loose upon society, and snatched from the wholesome discipline of the law through their instrumentality, be guilty of a second murder. Who can tell how much of the recklessness and contempt of the law which Semmes displayed may have arisen from the tales he heard, as well as all the rest of the country, of the manner in which money and influ- ence triumphed over law in the case of Vaughan? If I could be so base as to harbor deadly malice against any one, it would not be the fear of the gallows that would restrain me from taking his life. In this country a few thousand dollars are fully sufficient to atone for the blood of a fellow-creature. The old Saxon law of valuing the life of a man at a certain sum, and putting to death only those murderers who are too poor to pay it, is virtually in force among us. "I believe that the public attention is pretty well turned away from my humble self to more important and interesting objects. I hear of no odium attached to my name, for the atrocity of the act and the certainty of Semmes' guilt have so completely vindicated my instru- mentality in his arrest that nobody, except those who are perfectly contemptible, can blame me. I did not at all thrust myself forward. I was put on a committee by my fellow-students to cooperate with the Faculty and civil authorities, without my seeking the place; but as the 6o Life and Letters of Robert Lewis Dabney. lot fell on me, I was determined to stop at nothing in discharging what I thought the trust reposed in me by my fellow-students required. I took care not to push forward into the scrape, officiously ; but when called upon, I had no reason for excusing myself which would not apply to any one else also. If a man is certain that it is a ditfy which calls him into danger or disagreeable circumstances, he will turn neither to the right hand nor to the left, for fear of any evils which may threaten him, from the injustice of public opinion, or from per- sonal violence. Without this certainty, courage degenerates into rashness." " In portraying his behavior and motives in this business, Mr. Dabney set forth himself to his brother, and through him to us. He was a man of large caution in deaHng with his fellow-inen, but when his judgment had once approved a course, when he heard the clear call of duty, he was going to answer, no matter what the obstacles in the way. This incident is typical of his whole life, and prophetic. He was preparing himself to uphold the right in the face of a disapproving world." His views of the community, perhaps, hardly do justice to the community. He complains of the want of sociability, except on Sunday, which was too much given to social visiting. He speaks as if good old-fashioned Virginia families of the gentry class were rare. He did not approve of the fashions in woman's dress prevailing about the University. He had very decided views on the subjects of female dress, and propriety of behavior at this early age, and expresses them with all directness and vigor. For instance, in the letter to his mother, of October 25, 1840, from which we have already quoted in another connec- tion, he says : "You will not be any less surprised when I tell you that I saw a very venerable lady, the wife of one of the professors, who has all the honors of age upon his head, and who is herself not so j'oung as she formerly was, having had three husbands besides the present, walking out this cold, windy day in light salmon slippers, with stockings to correspond. How would it look to see old Aunt Polly [Scptuagenary] hop out of her carriage at Providence [Mrs. Dabney's church], in salmon slippers, ° Letter to his brother William, dated December 7, 1840. " The curious may wish to know something of the fortunes of Semmes. He lay in jail in Charlottesville for some months, getting very sick immediately before or on the morning of the day appointed for trial ; was finally bailed out in the sum of $25,000, on the plea of ill-health, and committed suicide in 1841. Life at the Uni\'Ersitv of A'irginia. 6i pink merino, crimson velvet bonnet and blonde veil? I have no doubt the old lady, with her refined taste in dress, would almost faint at the idea. Yet her appearance would be identically that of the old lady I speak of, who is not old Mrs. , either. This evening I saw another young lady, walking and sentimentalizing with a student, in a wind keen and strong enough to make a man believe that he and his nose were about to part company. I suppose, though, that they were kept warm by those — " 'Thoughts that burn, and words that glow,' which folks talk of when they wish to be poetical. A few days ago, as aforesaid young lady was walking in Charlottesville, being overcome by the very unreasonable task of climbing a hill almost as steep as the one by the corn-house (three or four degrees), she fainted, and, tumbling over in a most tragic style, thumped her noddle against a stone, and had to be picked up and carried into a house insensible. How ex- quisitely interesting ! It is a pity but somebody had been there to apply the needful remedy, a pair of scissors to the back of her — ahem ! — corset. We have sundry other lovely young girls of thirty to thirty-five, whose qualifications and exploits are not a whit more undeserving of honor." There were, however, some members of the commtmity for whom our young critic in homespun from Louisa had the highest regard. He formed one friendship pecuhar and endur- ing. To this we shall revert later on. Our young friend was not at the University, however, for the primary purpose of looking on at the doings of others, but for work as a student. He carried about in that long, slender body of his, armed with its abounding store of nervous energy, his old yearning to become a learned man. Those slender, sinewy hands fingered curiously many things the ordinary student never dreamed of as worthy of handling, those piercing dark eyes looked narrowly at a host of things that many of his fellows travelling the same paths never saw ; but amidst things of interest on every side he was driven toward the mastery of the studies of the course for the degree of Master of Arts. He had deter mined to do this work, he wrote to his friends more than once. Those who looked on his strong visage saw that he had all the signs of genuine determination writ large in jaw and mouth and chin. That he worked well in the course which he had fixed upon is sufiticiently shown by his achievements in the several sessions. He matriculated on the loth day of December. 1839. More than two months of that collegiate year had then passed by. but 62 Life and Letters of Robert Lewis Dabney. during that year, nevertheless, he was graduated in physics and chemistry, "to the disgust of the professors," who did not expect him to graduate in so short a time. It was an additional difficulty in his way, that an important examination in physics, covering the work of the whole of the preceding part of the term, was held just about three and a half weeks after he was matriculated. He writes to his mother on the 4th of January, 1840: This is almost the first moment of leisure I have had since I came up, and I cannot spend it better than in writing to you. When I got here, I found that there was an examination in one of the classes in which I wished to graduate, on this day, the 4th of January. My only chance was to prepare for it, although the time was less than three weeks, and the subject embraced the studies of the class for more than three months, and was nearly new to me. The Faculty will not allow any person to defer his examination, except for sickness, and as it was necessary that I should stand this one in order to graduate, it was my only chance, and a bad one. However, the examination is now over, and I hope that 1 shall squeeze through by dint of hard study. I shall not hear the decision of the professor, perhaps, for a week. But the matter is over, and I feel no anxiety about it, for I have done my best. Out of five questions which fell to my share (not questions which could be answered in a few words, but which require several pages of writing), I believe I answered four creditably. The fifth stumped me entirely, a thing which has rarely happened to me before." During the second year he was graduated in mathematics, Latin, philosophy, and political economy. This wa§ the year during which he found most pleasure in the studies pursued. During the third year he was graduated in Greek, French and Italian. He chose French because he wished to acquaint him- self thoroughly with that language ; he chose Italian because it was esteemed the easiest of the modern European languages to learn. He attempted work for The Collegian also. This was the literary organ of the student body at the University. Amongst his articles in The Collegian were an "Essay on the Merits of Ancient Classic Literature," published in the fall of 1840; "Re- marks on Planting Trees for the Adornment of the University Grounds," published in June, 1842, and "The Comparative Ex- cellence of our Authors," which appeared in 1841. It is a some- what curious fact that he did not take so high a view of the relative importance of the study of Greek and Latin when he Life at the University of Virginia. 63 wrote his article for The Collegian in 1840 as he soon came to do. One smiles at the note on the back of his manuscript on "The Merits of Ancient Classic Literature," for the note is in his own hand, and appears to have been made several decades ago; the note is, "An abortion." Nevertheless, this paper shows force, and they all show that young Dabney was really using the mind God had given him, and was not swallowing what men said in his presence, no matter who the men were, without digesting. These and other publications of his at the time had done him service, as orations or essays in the Jefferson Society, of which he was an active as well as a vigorous member. He had at this early time a developed itch for publishing his writings. In the Charlottesville Jeft'ersonian of March, 1842, he had a long and excellent article on banking. Crudities attach to his treatment, but he at least writes in a way to disabuse the public mind as to current fallacies. While earnestly engaged in the improvement of his mind, he was not oblivious to the fact that other obligations rested upon him. He felt that he was bound to try to be his brother's keeper. Accordingly, during his one year of residence on the University grounds he was diligent in Christian work on the Sabbath on behalf of his fellow-students. He wrote to his mother on the 25th of October. 1840 : "We have also started a Bible class among the students, which will liave, I hope, somewhat more than twenty members. I look to this to do a great deal of good, and shall do everything in my power to help it on the way." During his last session of attendance on the University he was moved, by his desire to be his brother's keeper, to join a band of students pledged to "total abstinence." In a letter to his brother William, dated February 7, 1842, he says: "We have just established a tetotal temperance society in the Uni- versity, binding its members to total abstinence during their connection with college. We have about thirty members, and mean to have more. There is quite a hostility to it among some of the students, but this is a good sign. Apathy and an affectation of contemptuous neglect of the subject is what we have to fear. The plan is so rational and so bene- ficial that a continued attention to the subject cannot fail to win over some. I have no sanguine expectations about it; but if we can prevent one young man from going home to his parents with the seeds of 64 LiKi-: AND Letters of Robert Li:\\is Dacxev. drunkenness in his habits, I shall feel that we have saved a world of misery to himself, and to his friends, and to the descendants he may have after him, and that our labors will be by no means thrown away.'' There was one man in the comnmnity witli \vht)ni. we may rest assured, young Mr. Dabney consuUed about these Chris- and philanthropic efforts. He had begun a friendship with that man of God, the Rev. Dr. WilHam S. White, soon after reaching the University. Mr. White, being in the neighborhood in which Mr. Reuben Lewis lived, on some work proper to his vocation, found it convenient to spend a night in the house of Mr. and Mrs. Lewis. Robert Dabney wrote to his mother on January 4, 1840: "He is a very friendly man, and offered me the use of his books and invited me to his house. I am very much pleased with him. I have not heard him preach yet, or, indeed, any one else. The weather has been so inclement that it is with difficulty I got to the University." Later he speaks of going to accept Mr. White's invitation ; he distinguishes between invitation and invitation. Some invi- tations, he says, contain on their faces warnings not to accept them. Mr. White's was honest. On October 25, 1840, he writes to his mother: "Mr. White is getting on very well, and, what is the best feature in the matter, mends upon the good opinion of the people. They are obliged to think better and better of him every Sunday. His first sermon was quite ordinary, and from that he has been getting better and better every time. There are few men in the State who do more good than he does, in one way or another. His church is flourishing, and he has a very useful, and I hope profitable, school of about sixty scholars. He told us the other day that he united three distinct pro- fessions, either of which was enough to occupy his time, and that he rarely sat down to a meal without being called off before he had time to eat. Sunday before last he told the congregation that that was the eleventh sermon he had preached that week, besides riding nearly two hundred miles to and fro. The people will have nobody else to marry them, preach their funerals, and see them when they are sick, so that he is always on the pad.'' lie was accustomed to visit this good and great pastor from time to time, as his opportunities and his sense of the value of Mr. White's time permitted. Thus began and grew the friend- ship cherished l)y each to the end of life. It was a great thing Life at the University of Virginia. 65 for a young man to be thrown under the influence of such a pastor. While throwing himself with great energy into his life as a student, and a member of the community around and including the University, the interests and thought of this youth were not confined to so narrow a sphere. The politics of the country, the great subject of slavery, practical measures for improving the fertility of soils that have been worn, in particular his mother's farming operations and business affairs, the personal welfare, temporal and eternal, of friends in many quarters, and also Hampden-Sidney College, engaged an amount of attention, and called forth an amount of effort on his part, which would have bieen fatal to his success as a student had he been a man of mere ordinary endowments. In his politics he was already a thorough-paced Democrat. He found time to hear the speeches made by the representatives ■of the leading parties in Charlottesville, and took an inde- pendent estimate of what the speakers said. We may quote here from a letter to his brother William, dated April 22, 1840, as illustrative of the critical, and sometimes satirical, spirit with ^vhich he listened to the sage orators of his day : "I am convinced, from a long specimen we have had to-night between Uncle Reuben (Mr. Lewis) and Dr. Anderson, that talking politics is a most joyless amusement, and I doubt not but that your thoughts and feelings are more happily engaged, and will continue so. If men were more in the habit of centering their thoughts and feelings at home, they would make better republicans, because, although they would not spend so much time in settling the affairs at Washington, they would feel a graver interest in the support of order and political morality, and would be more careful how they let prejudice or accident determine their political course. Among the endless improvement of the age is one in arguing, which. I think, promises to afford as much facility in settling political matters as the steam engine does in navigating the Mississippi. In old times, when a man wanted to prove anything, he was obliged to take the acknowledged facts and principles and make the best argument he could with them ; but now they are not cramped by this necessity. If the premises look unpromising, why the politician just fabricates such as will suit his purpose. With the aid of this imlimited liberty, the Whigs about this Athens of Virginia (as the -court-house orators call it) have proved to a dead certainty that Van Buren is a Federalist, Harrison a Republican, and comparable to Wash- ington in military and civil talents. The Democrats have proved, with «qual certainty, that Harrison is a Federalist in his dotage, and that 5 66 Life and Letters of Rop.ert Lewis Dacxev. he never deserved any honor at all, but that the credit of his success must be attributed to those two worthies, Fortune and Col. Johnson. These are wonderful triumphs of reason, certainly, and deserve to be celebrated by a log-cabin and hard-cider procession. We have thus learned to throw off the error of that old maxim of the dark ages, that 'the affirmative and the negative of the same question cannot both be true.' In the midst of these gigantic strides towards a new era in politics, Mr. Rives has stepped forth, to help on the great cause of improvement. He has shown us how to make a standing army out of militia; how to turn a political somerset without turning his prin- ciples heels over head, or even moving them for an instant from the upright position, and several other feats equally wonderful. He has gone over to Winchester to explain the same tricks to the good people there, and big rumors are afloat of his success, although we have heard no authentic accounts. I heard his speech at Charlottesville, of which you have seen such contradictory accounts. It was extremely ingenious, touching altogether on the few points on which he can unite with his present friends without open contradiction of his previously expressed opinions, and entirely slurring over the many, on which they are as wide asimder as the poles. His speech contained more animosity and more misrepresentation, and less eloquence, than I expected from him. His cimning at twisting and misrepresenting any document he is criti- cising almost exceeds belief. He will slip in an idea which changes the aspect of the thing from the true one without your perceiving it, and probably using the very words of the document. The Whig battle has been fought heretofore mainly by blustering and assertion, until these weapons have become blunt. Some acumen and (apparent) argument are very necessary for them now, and these Rives has. The Whigs are making the utmost use of him, making him work for them by flat- tering him. as you may do with a vain negro sometimes who would not ]>e moved by fear of the switch. The Democrats need not pretend to look on Rives with contempt. He is able to do them a great deal of mischief, and he has the will. The decline of their cause in this part of Virginia is much more owing to his efforts than to the circuit riders and yeomen, and such like measures, by which the Whigs are moving heaven and earth. I was at Mr. Clilmer's the other day, and met with him, he having come on a visit to his family. He is a very pleasing man to me. free and polite in his manners. I think, from his conversation, that if he would submit to the labor of elal)orate investiga- tion, his mind is capable of much more profound opinions than he has generally displayed. He seems to take his ground with very slight examination, and yet his views are sometimes very striking. He does not indulge in this foolish bragging about success in the elections or in any of the Whig slang. He says he hopes for a very small \\'liig majority in the Legislature next session, but of the election of (ien. Harrison, can foresee nothing certain. Perhaps I am inclined to like Life at the Uni\'ersity of Aircixia. 67 him because he is an Old School Presbyterian.' All this rigmarole, I reckon, will be rather uninteresting to you ; but it is about the scenes through which I have lately passed, and which are, therefore, upper- most in my remembrance. Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. Or. perhaps, like almost ever3'body else, you have turned Whig, as I have heard nothing to the contrary." A discussion of politics is no unfrequent featin^e of his letters, and on the 13th of October, 1840, he paid his respects to Mr. Rives and the Whigs in a style so spicy that he could not have surpassed it in his palmiest days. The views which he entertained on the subject of slavery, in these early days, are of special interest. He sets them forth in that part of a great omnibus letter to the homefolks, dated January 22, 1840. which was addressed to Mr. G. Woodson Payne. In condoling- with Mr. Payne over the difficulties in managing the negroes, he remarks as follows : "It seems to me that there could be no greater curse inflicted on us than to be compelled to manage a parcel of negroes. Whatever may be the influence of slavery on the happiness of the negroes, it would most effectually destroy that of the master, if they were all like me. Before the abolitionists began to meddle with our affairs, with which they had no business, I remember that it was a common opinion that domestic slavery was at least injudicious, as far as the happiness of the master was concerned. I do believe that if these mad fanatics had let us alone, in twenty years we should have made Virginia a free State. As it is, their unauthorized attempts to strike ofif the fetters of our slaves have but riveted them on the faster. Does this fact arise from the perversity of our natures? I believe that it does, in part. We are less inclined to do that which we know to be our duty because persons, who have no right to interfere, demand it of us. But the change of public opinion in the South, favorable to the continuation of slavery, doubtless arose partly from free discussion. We have investigated the subject, and we find emancipation much more dangerous than we had before imagined. Who knows but that this uproar of the Abolitionist, which has almost broken the ties of our political union, and thrown back the poor slave from his hope of approaching emancipation at least a half a century, which, in short, has been to our view productive of nothing but evil, may have been designed by Providence as a check upon our imprudent liberality. If we had hastened on to give the slave his liberty at once, as I believe public sentiment was tending, we might " This was Mr. Thomas Walker Gilmer, Governor of Virginia, 1840-1841. He was soon to become a Calhoun Democrat, exactly the party R. L. Dalmej- approved. 68 LiFE.AXD Letters of Robert Lewis Dabney. have done irreparable injury. I am no Abolitionist. I do not doubt that liberty would ruin the African race in the Southern States ; that they would wane away, like the unfortunate Indians, by the effects of their own vices and from the pressure of a more powerful and more enlightened race. I cannot conceive of any duty arising from the com- mand to love my neighbor as myself which compels me to inflict a ruinous injury on that neighbor, and such would be immediate freedom to our slaves. But yet I do not believe that we ought to rest contented that slavery should exist forever, in its present form. It is, as a system, liable to most erroneous abuses. The guilt of the matter rests not with us, as long as we fulfill our duty to our slaves, but with those who are guilty of the abuses, and with the forefathers of these Yankee Aboli- tionists, who entailed the curse upon us by their nefarious traffic. Do you think that there will be a system of slavery, where the black is punished with death for an offence for which a white man is only imprisoned a year or two; where the black may not resist wanton aggression and injury; where he is Ijable to have his domestic rela- tions violated in an instant; where the female is not mistress of her own chastity; where the slave is liable to starvation, oppression and cruel punishments from an unprincipled master — that such a system can exist in the millennium? If not then, it is an obstacle to the Prince of Peace, and if we would see his chariot roll on, among the prostrate nations, it is our duty to remove this obstruction. While abolition is impossible, yet I believe much might be done to modify the system and remove abuses (of which the greatest is the domestic slave trade), while we retain the good parts of it." In spite of the mistaken view, expressed in the foreg-oing, as to the issue of the abohtion movement, and the too lurid painting of the slave's condition, so far as Virginia was concerned, we have a profound grasp of the merits of the subject for a youth in his twentieth year only. We find this same youth writing to his brother, after special conference with the professor of chemistry, of the best method of burning oyster-shells for the purpose of fertilizing lands, find him collecting views as to the way in which lime should be used on the farm for the purpose of increasing its productiveness, find him overlooking his mother's fann from the vantage point of the University. On the 15th of March, 1842, he writes to his brother Francis, who was superintending the farm that year : "I suppose you have commenced to sow oats before now. You ought to sow a good many, for there is much land, and it is preposterous for us to go on contracting our crops year after year, as we have done of Life at the University of Virginia. 69 late. We shall make but little wheat, and we ought, therefore, to make something for market in its place. Sow as much clover with the oats as you possibly can, especially up the Armstrong branch. I would advise you not to attempt to plant corn before you are ready. Plant the highland first, and be sure that you have the lowgrounds, especially, nicely prepared beforehand. You ought to aim to keep a coalter run- ning constantly from the very day you finish planting. Do not wait for the corn to come up. One early lick is worth three late ones for helping on the corn. It is an excellent plan also to run a large harrow over the corn, and if you could get all your field well coaltered and harrowed by the time the corn is as high as your hand, the tug of war would be over with it. Do not aim to do anything with the tobacco lot, but to plow in all the coarser manure. If this could be done before beginning to plant corn, it would be much the best. Try to get a good coat of manure plowed in on the poorer places in the upper end, and the rich parts next to where Pompey's house stood you might let stand until the plants get big enough, and then manure it in the hill." His mind reverted to the old plantation, and his letters are full of suggestions as to the management of his mother's estate. During his second year at the University he was forced, by having early lectures, to live on the grounds, and not five and a half miles away, at Mr. Reuben Lewis's. His brother Francis lived that session in the same quarters with him, and studied under Robert's directions. This playing tutor would have been a heavy burden to some students, but Robert Dabney found a vv-ay of doing it with little burden to himself, had all' the satis- faction derived from his brother's society, and the additional pleasure of having several other subjects, connected with the training of youths, to think about and write about. Hear him ventilate his views on native bents for mathematics, in a letter of Alay 8, J 841 : "The mysteries of mathematics he (Francis) finds peculiarly knotty. I never believed much in the notion about natural bents of genius, but it seems that there is a remarkable difiference in the readiness with which different persons acquire this science. I have been astonished at the difficulty which he finds in comprehending things which, I remem- ber well, I could understand in my first beginnings without trouble. Perhaps, the chief reason is in the fact that he has not such a good instructor as I had in old Brother Wharey, for he shows the greatest readiness in other things. One of his chief mistakes is in investing reasoning with too mysterious and lofty a character. He cannot realize how simple and obvious, and almost trivial, are the individual steps m all our reasonings. When he comes to me to have a problem ex- yo Life and Letters of Roi'.ert Lewis Dadxev. plained, I often find that th:: relations on which the solution imme- diately depends have been perceived by him, but he has passed them over as entirely too trifling and easy to have anything to do with the matter, or to lead to anything important. Another great obstacle to his progress I have found to be his inability, when he is confused by the reasoning of the author, to perceive the obvious cause of his con- fusion and difficulty in himself. Sometimes, when he is in a great 'botheration,' I ask him, much to his surprise, and rather insultingly, he thinks, if he is certain that he knows the meaning of all the words. He generally finds that his whole difficulty has arisen from his not affixing definite and proper ideas to some one or other of the terms. Hence, I am convinced that if pains were always taken to impress on the mind of the beginner the true, exact nature of the things he is to learn about, by repeated and accurate definitions, and by models and drawings when it is possible, nine-tenths of the difficulties would be removed from his path. When two ideas are really before the mind even of the simplest, he cannot fail to perceive the relation that is pointed out between them ; but if the terms used fail to put the ideas into his mind, we need not wonder if he does not perceive the relation." During the last session at the University he was seeking to solve the question as to how and where Francis should be sent to college ; he finally concluded that it would be best to send him to the Virginia Military Institute, at Lexington, Va., and in the latter part of the year took the necessary measures to secure his appointment. There was another member of his family for whose well- being of every sort he was solicitous throughout these years, viz., his youngest sister. Three remarkable letters from him to her have been preserved. Through these he tried to move her, so far as man may attempt such a thing, to become a child of (lod. \n the first of these letters he, in four pages of fool's-cap, closely written, presses on her mind the dangers of delay. In the second, he takes up the same danger, and referring to the considerations adduced in the first letter, added to them that of ■'contracting a habit of resisting serious impressions." He be- gins, "You very well know that when we have done anything several times, we are much aptcr to do it again, and it is much easier to do. Alas ! T fear that you have already contracted a fearfully strong habit of resisting God." and he proceeds to press this danger, and the consequent duty of ini mediate repent- ance, with a vigor and an earnestness that would be worthy of any noble pastor we know to-day. He heard that his darling sister was nuich affected bv his e>'.hortations and arguments, Life at the Uxi\'ersity of A'ikc.ixia. 71 Lut that she failed to take the desired step ; hence his third letter, again three and a half fully and cl(jsel\- written pages of fool's-cap. This letter is not abler than the others, but some paragraphs may be presented as specimens of his earnest deal- ing with this lovely and best beloved sister. The third letter begin's with a statement of his anxiety for her spiritual welfare. This is followed by a portraiture of the remorse of the lost for their failure to give the proper response to God's law, and to God's incarnation and death in the second person of the Trinitv. He then presses the need of some saving system as follows : "That your reason is convinced of the need of some plan of salva- tion I cannot doubt, yet I will try to set it before you with all plainness of speech once more. You cannot doubt the obligation you owe to God to obey him, and the perfect right he has to require just such a measure of obedience as he may see fit. He is your creator, and nothing can be more perfect than the right of the maker over the thing formed. You have lived upon his bounty all your life, and would have died long ago without it; and hence, even if you had made yourself, he would thus have gained a right over you. Nor can you doubt but that you have sinned, and that times and ways past numbering. Now God, seeing that it was best for his own glory, and for the happiness of his creatures also, that he should require of them a perfect obedience, has enforced his demands by a punishment threatened. It is evident that, as man is a free agent, left to do as he pleased, he could not be certain of his obedience without seme motive being set before him. This motive is the fear of punishment and the hope of reward. Now, God, having made his law, that the soul that sinneth, it shall die, must of course enforce it, or be disappointed of his object. Threats made and not executed only subject the maker to contempt. So it is in this world. When a crime is committed, the law says punishment must follow ; and shall God be less strict in preserving his law than man is in preserving the laws of this earth? Nay, is not God infinitely more great and glorious, and is not his government vastly more important than any earthly government? You see, then, the impossibility of atoning, by any after obedience, even supposing you were capable of it. If, there- fore, you had committed but one sin, some atonement must be made for it, either by your own eternal sufferings or by the obedience and death of an all-sufficient, because an infinite and divine. Saviour. God is pleased to accept the atonement of Christ, and all you have to do is to receive it thankfully, not cavilling at the mode or the conditions. This condition, which must be fulfilled before the benefits of the atone- ment can be enjoyed by you, is one which is evidently proper and suitable to the nature of the case. If you are sensible that you need it, you can formally accept it, in your inmost soul, and at the same 72 Life and Letters of Robert Lewis Dabney. time renounce all other hope, and this is the faith in Christ, which is the condition of salvation. By having this faith you do not become any more zvorthy. It is still sovereign grace in Christ Jesus. But by having this faith you fulfil the condition that God has been pleased to set for you, so that he can then bestow his gift of pardon in accord- ance with the plan he has been pleased to lay down. Simple as this faith on Jesus is, the carnal mind will not submit to it, and give up all its own hopes, unless by the grace of God constraining it. "You may, perhaps, ask, 'Then if the influence of the Holy Spirit is necessary, what am I to do? If I cannot convert myself, why are you exhorting me to be up and a-doing?' If this question is asked in humility, and as the men on the day of Pentecost cried out, 'Men and brethren, what shall we do to be saved?' it is a sign for good. We may hope that indeed the kingdom of God is not far from you. But if it is offered as a cavil, rest assured that it is either suggested by the devil or is the result of a heart at enmity to God, and that it is not the result of a sincere desire to be reconciled to God. If you feel this desire, your duty is plain, tangible and practical. You have just to make this formal bargain with Christ, explained above, without delay or reservation, under the conviction that disobedience to God is sinful and wicked, that the punishment pronounced against it is just, and that you have no means of escape except through Christ; and then, you have from this moment forth to set your face against sin, go right into a course of religious duties, such as conscience and the Bible direct, not with the hope of working out your salvation by them, but because it is right and proper, and God requires it. For the rest, you may then safely trust to God. 'He will in nowise cast out them who come unto him through Christ.' And if you think that God has not yet heard your prayer and blessed you in your first attempt to close in with Christ, make another, and another, with full purpose of heart, never to give over, and believe always that the fault is on your side, and that if you come unto him truly, God will in nowise refuse you." Thus, while engaged in winning the degree of Master of Arts at the University, he could and did travail over many other things. He had a considerable list of correspondents, in addi- tion to his home folks. He still swapped interesting letters with Mrs. John Holt Rice, and with Moses Drury Hoge, amongst others at Hampden-Sidney, who have not ceased to regret his absence from the Hill. In his letters to Mr. Hoge he discusses freely the character and place of Hampden-Sidney College, and suggests certain needed changes. He says, in a letter to Mr. Hoge, dated January 9, 1840: "We greatly need such an institution as Hampden-Sidney College might be and ought to be. The University was not intended by its Life at the University of Virginia. 73 founders as an academy to drill boys through the algebra, and geome- try, and the time of the professors ought not to be so spent. This is a part of education which belongs to the secondary colleges ; and the literature of our State will not reach the proper standard until this office is left to the colleges, and the University is reserved to those who have already become well-grounded in the principles of science, and who wish to pursue their studies further." In another letter to Mr. Hoge from the University, dated March 31st (year not given) he shows that the old College receives a good deal of thought on his part. He says : ''There are a few things which I should like to see well represented to the Trustees. They are essential to the permanent well-being of the College, but were neglected when I was there, and most probably are now. The first is strictness in the examinations for diplomas. They must get out of the notion of giving students diplomas merely because they have been there four years. Another is to refuse a second trial to candidates for graduation within a few weeks after the first. The way they used to have there about this was the most preposterous thing I ever heard of. How can a man make up the deficiencies of four years in a fortnight? If he is not worthy of graduation on the 20th of August, how can he be on the 15th of September? This is just a way of whip- ping the devil around the stump. They had just as well at once resolve to admit all to the honor, deserving or not, as to practice it. Another thing is the neglect of the examinations of students entering college. This ought to be the strictest examination of all. The college stands before the world as pledged to impart a degree of scholarship propor- tioned to a nominal time of four years, and yet, by her own negligence, she curtails this time to two and one-half, and sometimes two years. Why does she place herself at this disadvantage before the world? I, if I had graduated, would have gone through without any regular course of study on algebra. The class I joined had already passed over it, and my examination on it was neglected. Another is the extension of the course of Natural Science. This wide and interesting field is to be explored throughout in one year, at the rate of three lectures a week, while the languages, comparatively useless, occupies at least two lectures a day of the professor for three years ! The natural sciences are worth all the others put together, and yet not a sixth of the whole college time is devoted to them. The department of Natural Philosophy ought to be given to another professor, and ought to occupy as much time as is now devoted to both the branches. These instances of weak policy, I think, have done more to injure the College than the changes of professors or the want of funds, especially the neglect of examina- tions of students entering college. This neglect was no doubt caused by the fear that if the students were put into a lower class than they 74 Life and Letters of Robert Lewis Dabney. expected they would quit college. But they had better adhere to a rigid policy, if it drove every student from the college but one. I wish the Trustees could be made to take a plain, common-sense view of these matters. Any suggestion coming from me. a mere boy, and not per- sonally known to them, they would, of course, treat wnth contempt. I think the most of them are very blameable for their neglect of the interests of the College." * He sometimes writes to his Hampden-Sidney friends twice to their once, after his old habit, so that Mr. Hoge says, in his charming way, on the 7th of January, 1842, "It seems to me that your pen is always rampant — curling its very feathers with impatience to entertain some far-away acquaintance. Wonder not if you excel your friends in the possession of such a ready servant, as in other things." The fountain of energy in him ran a bold stream, and the waters divided and ran in many fructifying channels. The students of to-day of small means may be glad to learn how his expenses were paid. He had earned six hundred dollars by keeping school in the interim between his student days at Hampden-Sidney and those at the University. He sold a horse, which his mother had given him, for about one hundred, and fifty dollars, his mother gave him one hundred and twenty- five dollars, and he borrowed during the last session one hun- dred and fifty dollars from a friend of his. Col. Harris. His most expensive year at the University was the second, during which, on account of the early hours of some of the lectures, he had to live on the grounds. His expenses for that year were four hundred dollars. He denied himself everything but the necessaries. By boarding in the house of Mr. and Mrs. Lewis, five miles and more from the LTniversity, during the first and last sessions, he got through on much less for the session. Many young men would have thought the riding back and forth, over five and a half miles of muddy road a day, too big a price to pay for an education. This lank youth, of noble ambixion and heroic will, was philosopher enough to hope that those long, cold, muddy horseback rides would improve his health ; and his health was. perhaps, the better for it. Certain it is that his year of residence on the grounds, with its press of * This letter is in the possession of Mr. R. L. Traylor, Richmond, Va. Mr. Dabney came afterwards to take a much higher view of the relative value of the ancient languages than is here taken. Life at the University of A'irginia. 75 work, saw him sick, at the close- of the session, of an attack that laid the foundation of his subsequent years of ill-health. Many young candidates for the ministry, instead of practicing this severe economy, and taking these long horseback rides throughout two sessions, would have availed themselves of the concessions of tuition fees to students of their class ; but this, thank God! was not young Dabney's way. He knew what personal consecration meant, that it involved his being careful about all use of public moneys. He was not afraid of enduring hardness as a good soldier. He was so masculine in his Chris- tian character that he preferred, from head to foot, "to paddle his own canoe." He had the independence of manly strength. When he left the University, at the close of the third session, he left with his degree of Master of Arts, which he had de- termined to win, in his possession, and with a mind enriched and ennobled. CHAPTER VI. THE INTERVAL BETWEEN HIS UNIVERSITY AND SEMINARY LIFE. (July 6, 1842— October, 1844.) Mind made up to Study for the Ministry. — Reasons for not Going TO THE Seminary at once. — Manner in which this Interval was Actually put in : Managing the Farm, Teaching Classic.\l Schools, Getting Means with which to go through the Semi- nary, Reading and Correspondence. — Other Vocations Offered. — Determined to the Ministry. IN his later days, Dr. Dabney was accustomed to speak of himself as having made up his mind to preach the gospel before going to the University ; but there are pretty good reasons for thinking that he was unwilling at the time to make an open announcement of his purpose. His mother's pastor, the Rev. James Wharey, in a letter, dated January 17, 1841, urged the claims of the ministry on his attention, saying, amongs other things : "Have you not determined to devote 3'ourself to the ministry of the gospel? There is a loud and pressing call at this time for more ministers. I hope that you will find it to be your duty to turn your attention that way. It is the way to usefulness and respectability, it not to honor and wealth. Think prayerfully on this subject; and may the Lord guide you." From these words it is clear that Mr. Wharey did not regard the matter as settled. Elsewhere we learn, also, that while young Dabney was anxious to secure an abatement of fees at the University, he would not receive gratuitous tuition, seventy- five dollars per aiinuiu, conditioned on a declaration that he was a candidate for the ministry. This had been offered. He refused it. He did not relish being treated differently because he was a candidate for the sacred office. It seems that he would not have been willing to accept this abatement had he been ready to declare himself ; 1)ut it was clear that he was not ready to commit himself pul)licly. His purpose to be a minister was probably firmly lixed in his own mind before he entered the IXTEKVAL BETWEEX UNIVERSITY AND SEMINARY LlEE. // University, but his caution and strong sense of responsibility would naturally lead him to maintain a prudent silence for some years. By the time he is ready to leave the University, however, his friends generally, as his correspondents show, understand that he expects to be a minister. Accordingly, many of those friends expected and desired to see him go straight to the Seminary for the study of divinity. Young Moses Drury Hoge exhorts, and would command him if he could, to come straightway to the Seminary. Mr. and Mrs. Reuben Lewis, who have come to look upon him with the affection of parents for a son, deprecate his stopping midway in his preparation, to begin again after an interval. They think he ought to go right on, as the Seminary course is itself a long one. Others, in like manner, urge him to this step. But for certain reasons he decided not to do as these friends had urged. His brother Francis was still quite a boy, and had made no great success as manager for his mother during his one year of trial in that capacity. Besides, he was precisely at that age when he ought to have been attending college, if he was to take such a course of training at all. Betty, the youngest daughter of his mother, and his best beloved sister, was also in need of a capable and scholarly and efficient teacher; but the expenses of sending Frank to college, and of procuring a suit- able tutor for Betty, would be too heavy for his mother, who had fallen somewhat into debt again during Robert's career in the University. He felt that she needed and was entitled to his help. He decided to become himself the manager of her farm until he could secure a good man to take the place, decided to act as tutor to his sister Betty, and to replenish his own treasury by teaching a classical school, and so to be able to relieve his mother of embarrassment, to pay his own debt to Col. William Harris, and to lay up something on which to live while in the course of Seminary training. He spent the last half of the year 1842 as manager for his mother. The crops, which he found in weeds and grass when he got home from the University, he put into order, and on their maturity, garnered them, wound up the year, and procured a manager. He sent his brother Frank to the Virginia Military Institute. He opened a small classical school in his mother's house, from which he derived an income of about four hundred dollars a year. In connection with this school he taught his sister Betty, who blossomed, under his tuition, into a fine 78 Life and Letters of Robert Lewis Dadney. scholar, reatling' French and Latin with remarkable ease. He threw himself, with his characteristic energy, into this work. Amongst other things: he wrote for his sister Betty an entire Latin Grammar, Part L, in which he set forth, in his own way, the principles which govern word formation. The handwriting is, as always, somewhat cramped, but neat, clear and easily legible. This manuscript volume contains one hundred and fifty-eight closely written duodecimo pages. It it bound in blue manilla paper. On the title page are the words : "GRAMMATICA LATINA. In tisiiiii Sororis sercnissiincc." The first and second pages rcrhcitiiu are as follows: I. "Principles of Etymology. '"If any language consisted of words which underwent no changes, either of sense or form, the labor of learning it would be confined wholly to learning the meaning of the words. The language would have neither accidence nor syntax, and the labor of the grammarian would be nothing. But the Latin language, as does every other, admits of changes both of sense and of form, to a great extent, and it is the part of etymology to describe these changes and to give the rules which regulate them. The change of form is intended to I'epresent a change of sense, and, consequently, we may usually expect that the former will not take place without the latter. But — "(i.) A word often changes its sense without changing its foruL They often, indeed almost always, have a meaning derived directly from their composition, which is considered as the leading or primary meaning, and then they have several secondary meanings flowing from the first, in succession, by some obvious principle of similarity, or by taking them in a figurative sense. Thus : Lingua means, primarily, a tongue, hence it is used to mean a language — the tongue being sup- posed to be the organ of speech. J'irtus is derived from vir, and means manhood: hence, hardihood, courage, and lastly, in our language, virtue, because, among a rude and warlike people, courage is regarded as the chief virtue. If the student would learn the true powers of words, he must seek first this primary meaning, and see hcnv the otlier meanings t^ow from it. "(2. ') A word often changes its sense, without other change of form tlian is necessary, in passing from one language to another. Example: In Greek, hot/jr^ is the neuter of an adjective which means hollow, concare. In Latin it is written Caelum, and means the sky, which is concave. '/'^tyw, I stretch, in Latin is Tendo." Interval between University and Seminary Life. 79 The production of this vohime, which to most, even of the Master of Arts graduates of his alma mater, would be a tedious and irksome, if not an impossible labor, was simply a pleasure- able vent for his overflowing energies. Of course, it is a philosophic etymology of the Latin. Probably few of the great philologians of the country would agree to all of the explana- tions, but it was fitted to interest the student, and to make her think. It is the work of one with the instinct of the teacher born in him. For his teaching in this period he took in about eight hundred dollars. With this he was enabled to repay to Col. Harris his loan of one hundred and fifty dollars, to restock his wardrobe, and to contemplate with equanimity the relatively small ex- penses to be incurred in two years of seminary life. This was in addition to his satisfaction from the improved income of his mother, which was owing to his supervision of her affairs, and to the pleasure which he derived from having conducted his sister iJetty's education to its completion. Mr. Dabney's letters of this period have apparently been lost for the most part. He corresponded much, for he has saved letters from many persons received in these years. They con- tain many allusions to his letters, and show clearly, if inciden- tally, that, though living a retired and sequestered life, his mind was careering around over all the sphere of the individual histories of his friends and acquaintances, the current questions in politics and religion, and in science. Amongst his corres- pondents are two venerable old ladies, quondam University friends, and Moses Drury Hoge. He wrote some at this time for political as well as religious papers. His friend Hoge thinks so, and congratulates him on the successful cover of his identity, which he had found in his pen name. One of the articles which he published at the time was on "The Probable Sum of the Numbers of All the Generations since Adam." This came out in the Watchman of the South, about the spring of 1843. Amongst his unpublished manuscripts of the period are "Jeho- ash: A Sacred Drama," translated from the Italian of Aletas- tasio; "North Wind's Autobiography," in fifteen stanzas of nine lines each, and a "Valentine," in four stanzas of four lines each. These papers show that he had the itch for versification in his early days, as well as in his old age. Indeed, throughout life he was wont to employ odd moments of leisure in this fashion. His translation of Metastasio makes easv reading. 8o Life and Letters of Robert Lewis Dabney. He was a man capable of success in any one of many fields. and efforts were made to secure him for other work than that which he had cut out for himself. Mr. Thomas Ritchie, the distinguished editor of the Richmond Enquirer, and one of the dominating men in the councils of the Virginia Democrats of his day, and the Richmond Campaign Committee, offered Air. Dabney a salary of twelve hundred dollars a year, with a con- tingent interest in the net profits, on condition of his becoming editor of the party organ in Petersburg. This gives color to the view that Mr. Dabney had shown his skill already in news- paper debate. His friend, John S. Caskie, of Richmond, strongly urged him to accept this work. He writes, in a letter of September 23rd (year is not given) : "Dabney, depend upon it, you can do this great service to your party and yourself. I am no flatterer, but must be permitted to say that in my estimation there is no man of your age in the Union your superior as a writer. In the editorial chair you would powerfully aid a great and glorious cause, and in so doing would win for 3'ourself a reputation wide and high. Nature meant you for an editor. If you be a Calhoun man, I know your heart is glowing in his behalf, and now here is an opportunity to do him and your country service." In the summer of 1843, ^^- Dabney had the pleasure of declining another offer of employment of a more peaceful kind. Dr. S. Maupin needed some one to fill the place of the classical teacher in his school in Richmond. Certain gentlemen called his attention to Robert L. Dabney, of Louisa. The salary offered to this post seems to have been seven hundred dollars per annum. This place, though possessing certain incidental advantages, Mr. Dabney could not accept without sacrifice. At home he was educating his sister, giving a very helpful, if general, supervision to his mother's business, and, in addition, taking in for his teaching of outsiders four hundred dollars in the course of a session. But this, as well as the other offer, shows the general esteem in which he was held, and that he had at the early age of twenty-three won an enviable reputation. This reputation was deserved. He had developed himself on many sides, and was competent to distinguished work in many different departments of life; but he was fixed in his resolution to be a preacher of the gospel, and with a mind at ease concerning his inother's family, he repaired, during the early days of November, 1844, to Hampden-Sidney, to be ready Interval between University and Seminary Life. 8i for the work of the Seminary on its opening. Soon after, he presented the following introductory letter to the Faculty : '■Richmond, Va., Novonhcr 7, 1844. ^'To the Faculty of Union Seminary. "Dear Brethren: Although the bearer, Mr. Robert Dabney, has "been introduced to all of you, yet you may not remember him. At all events, I take great pleasure in saying to you that he has my entire confidence as a gentleman, Christian and scholar. I have known him for some time, and have always highly esteemed him and all his family. I hope you will give him your confidence from the first. He is a candi- date for the ministry under the care of West Hanover Presbytery. I trust his time at the Seminary will be spent pleasantly. "Accept my kind regards for yourselves and your families. "Very truly yours, "Wm. S. Plummer." CHAPTER VII. STUDENT LIFE AT UNION SEMINARY. (November, 1844 — -^lay, 1846.) Union Seminary in 1844. — Mr. Dabney's Journey thither. — His Room in Seminary Building. — His Boarding-place. — Impressions OF THE Faculty ; of his Fellow-students ; of "the Hill" People ; of the People of Prince Edward county. — Time he Spent here AS a Student. — His Energies in Study. — Efforts to Preach. — The Criticisms. — Efforts to Write. — Forms of Exercise. — Forms of Recreation. — His Correspondence. — His Licensure. — Comple- tion OF Studies at the Seminary. UNION SEMINARY was under a cloud of depression in 1844. There was a Faculty of three professors, viz., the Rev. Samuel B. Wilson, D. D., professor of Systematic and Polemic Theology ; the Rev. Samuel L. Graham, D. D., profes- sor of Ecclesiastical History and Polity, and the Rev. Francis S. Sampson, D. D., professor of Oriental Literature. There were only eighteen students on the roll, whereas there were nearly one hundred and fifty at Princeton. There were few candidates for the ministry in the Synods of Virginia and North Carolina ; some of those few were attending the Semi- nary at Columbia, and others were at Princeton. Mr. Dabney seems to have had some difificulty in deciding where he was to go for his theological training ; Ijut he was. even at this early period, an advocate for building up our own peculiar home institutions. This decided him in favor of Hampden-Sidney. In the early days of November. 1844. he set out from his mother's home. Certain considerations seem to have called him by Richmond, whence he went by canal-boat to Cartersville, in Cumberland county, and thence by stage to his destination, at Hampden-Sidi-.ey. Our facilities of travel have improved since his dav, and the manners of those who officer the lines. He wrote to his mother on the 12th of November. 1844: "I took the canai-hoal Friday evening as I e.xpcclcd, and found tlie captain drunk. He had a fight in the boat with one of the passengers wlio was also (b"unk-. an old Irishman named Irving, who li\'cs near Student Life at Union Seminary. 83 Cartersville. The chief part of the fight took place at the supper-table, and made one of the most disagreeable scenes I ever saw. I suppose, if the captain met his deserts, he has been discharged before this time. I arrived at Prince Edward Courthouse a little after dinner Saturday, having had a very pleasant trip in the stage, except the cold in the morning." He was soon domiciled in his room in the main bttilding of the Seminary. He describes his room, in a letter to his brother William, dated November 22, 1844, in the following- terms: "My situation here is very much what I anticipated, and in some fespects better. I have a good room up two pair of stairs, facing the south, with two windows, a convenient closet, and sufficient furniture of the plainest sort." Of his boarding-place he writes, in the same letter : "The living with the steward is, upon the whole, much better than I expected to find it, although there is still room for improvement. One thing was rather annoying to me at first— we sit upon long, and not very nice benches at our meals. We have good bacon, and beef, and sometimes fowls, and a little milk. We shall all make out doubtless to eat as much as we ought." Of the Faculty he has noted his first impressions as follows : "Dr. Wilson is an old Virginia gentleman, in the true sense of the word, mild, polite, and courteous, and still, natural and dignified. Dr. Sampson and his wife are both very clever." He soon came to have a profound veneration for the person and character of Prof. Sampson. In his old age he wrote, too: "Let me say that if I ever had any special intellectual growth and vigor, I owed it to three things, first, to the Master of Arts course in the University of Virginia, second, to Dr. Sampson, and third, to my subsequent mastery of Turretin." Of Dr. Graham he wrote, in the letter already repeatedly quoted : "Hoge's remark seems perfectly true, that when you visit him, the only smile that illumines his countenance is when you take your leave. I do not expect I shall ever enter his house as a visitor." This was not a true prophecy ; our prophet's letters of a later date betray a rather unusual intimacy between Mr. Dabney and 84 Life and Letters of Robert Lewis Dabxey. this same cold Dr. Graham, and he must have found Dr. Gra- ham's house a sufficiently comfortable place on occasion. He writes to his mother, on December 4, 1845: "Last night I went to a little gathering of young folks at Dr. Gra- ham's, a real old-fashioned candy stew. . . . Mrs. Graham is a very old-fashioned sort of body, and does everything at her house pretty much as it is done in the country, and we had quite an old-fashioned frolic." Now, generally, the word "old-fashioned" in Mr. Dabney's mouth means something superlatively good. Of his fellow-students he writes, November 22, 1844: "There are about eighteen students here. There are a few of them of good families, and of pretty high character, as to acquirement and manners. The rest seem to be just what Aunt Coles would call 'good creatures,' very kind and quiet and very uninteresting. All of them, I believe, are young men in limited circumstances. Not many of the rich of this world cast in their lot among us. Some of them are sons of mechanics, and are supported partly by charity, or by school teaching, and so forth. When I consider the way in which ministers are generally received into the best society of the country in which they live, and the power they have of giving a tone to manners and feeling in the com- munity, there often arises a feeling of repulsion against this class of candidates for the responsible duties of the office. But, upon the whole, it is right, I am convinced, to employ such materials unless better can be found. In a great house there must be vessels for honor and for dishonor. These sorts of preachers generally find their level, after a little fluctuating, and either learn the air and deportment of gentlemen, if they have quick parts, or else find their proper place in some plain neighborhood, and work to advantage among people of their own class. There is much ministerial work for which the refinement and sensibili- :ties of gentlemen would almost disqualify them, which these sorts of men can do without repugnance; and it should be said, too, that they :are generally very exemplary and correct in their characters. In this rrespect, too much honor cannot be done them; and, upon the whole, tthere are not more men of this grade in the ministry — nay, not near so many — as ambition or avarice has pushed into the other genteel pro- fessions. It is quite surprising to what an extent they do shed their native rudeness. The strict morals, the literary pursuits, and self- denying manners, which they are obliged to cultivate, does as much towards making them real gentlemen as anything could. There is a voung man here now, . . . the son of a mechanic, who is really quite an accomplished fellow. We have also a young man who was once a Catholic, a brother of Prof. Ewell, of Hampden-Sidney College." Student Life at Union Seminary. 85 During the first year there were amongst his fellow-students the following, who afterwards became well known throughout the church, viz. : William T. Richardson, for many years editor of the Central Presbyterian; Jacob Henry Smith, long one of the leading pastors and preachers of the Synod of North Caro- lina, and of the whole church ; Williarn Stoddert, a man of many marked idiosyncrasies, but of eminent talents, and much beloved wherever known ; Clement Read Vaughan, for some time professor of Systematic and Polemic Theology in Union Seminary, his alma mater, a prince and great man in Israel, and a most intimate and life-long friend of Robert L. Dabney. John Marshall Grasty, of the class next in succession to Dr. Dabney's, also became widely known as a racy and evangelical writer and preacher. In this little class of five was also William Henry Ruffner, a man known and venerated throughout Virginia, and more widely still for ministerial gifts, and in his later years for services in behalf of public instruction. So small was the attendance on the Seminary at the time, that his two-years' residence there seems to have brought him into contact with less than twenty-four fellow-students in that institution. Of certain of these brethren, it was a grief to Mr. Dabney that he could see so little. Mr. Richardson, whom he had known both at Hampden-Sidney College and at the University of Virginia, and for whose character he entertained great esteem, was a tutor in College, and consequently had his lodgings there. After a little, he found in Mr. Vaughan, perhaps, his most con- genial companion. A laughable incident in the life of one of his fellow-students was celebrated, one night after hearing it, by young Dabney in eighty-five iambic hexameter lines, show- ing that he was able to get something out of the lives even of those between whom and himself there was little congeni- ality.i Of the people on the Hill he took a view, which, not unfavor- able at first, rose steadily as long as he stayed there. There had been many changes in the Faculties of the College and the Seminary since he had left the College in the year 1837. The ^ The incident which excited this ebullition was the adventure of one of the brethren with the house dog of the gentleman who kept the refectory. The brother had gone to the well for water. The dog ap- peared, and the brother climbed a tree. There he sat until nearly frozen. He climbed down. The dog ran. The poet narrated the incident, and draws a moral. 86 Life and Letters of Rocert Lewis Dabxev. great Dr. Baxter had died in 1841, and his family, who had kept open house, were gone. The magnetic Dr. Stephen Taylor was gone ; Dr. Goodrich was gone. There was a new Seminary Faculty, with their families. The changes in the College had been hardly less sweeping, so that the personnel of the Hill was almost entirely changed when he went back in the fall of 1844. He writes : "My old associations here are almost entirely broken up. and the sight of so many familiar places unpeopled of all their former occupants makes me feel very lonely. Mrs. Rice (the venerable widow of Dr. John Holt Rice) is still here, and promises to make an agreeable companion, as formerly." He found there also Mrs. Wharey, the wife of the old pastor from Louisa, and after a little, enlarged his "list of widows," making it include Mrs. Rice, Mrs. Caruthers, "the widowed daughter of Dr. Wilson" ; Mrs. Wharey, and Mrs. Palmer. Mrs. Rice and Mrs. Caruthers were very sprightly and accom- plished ladies, compelling the highest respect for their charac- ters as well. They were his favorites amongst the ladies. He visited them often, and has not a little to say of the pleasure and profit to be derived from their conversation. The wife of one of the venerable professors, he learns, is addicted to the use of the pipe, and he tries to sectire from his own regions some peculiarly delicate tobacco, that she may enjoy this small vice all the more. (^f the larger community about the Hill his opinion rises just in proportion to the extension of his acquaintance. He pro- nounces the people of Prince Edward county, marked for their sttperior intelligence, culture and character, notwithstanding the fact that they were generally people of very moderate means. We 'shall see, after a little, that he enjoyed hugely short visits to these most excellent and hospitable people. Mr. Dabney began his studies in L'nion Seminary early in November. 1844, and completed them in May, 1846. Prior to . 1845, the Seminary had two sessions a year: a summer session of four months, June to September, inclusive, and a winter session of si.x months, November to April, inclusive. The vacations were May and October. Tn 1845, the session was changed, and made to be of nine months, beginning with Sep- tember and ending with May. In these two years Mr. Dabney completed the three years' course, served Dr. Graham by copy- Stldext Life at Uixiox Seminary. 87 ing a manuscript of his in preparation for the printer, wrote some articles for publication, took an unusual interest in all preaching and forensic enterprises, read somewhat widely, visited a good deal, made some excursions, and spent his surplus energy in corresponding. He was the most distinguished student of his classes, and received the usual certificate of grad- uation conferred in his day. He was remarkable amongst his fellow-students, not for the time he pored over his books, but for the intensity of effort with which he applied himself while at it. While he worked he worked, and when he played he played. He threw himself into his preaching exercises and forensics Avith as much zeal as he displayed in the preparation for his recitations. He availed himself of all invitations to preach, feeling that the way to learn to do a thing is to do it. After his first sermon, he writes to his mother as follows, in a letter dated July 8, 1845: "Last Sunday I preached my first sermon at one of Dr. Graham's country churches. The congregation was small, pretty select and pretty critical, the very worst sort of a place to preach in you ever saw ; and, besides, they only regard the preaching of the seminarians as a sort of imitation of the reality, and look on with no other feeling than curiosity to see how complete the mimicry will be. I kept the atten- tion of my congregation pretty well ; only two leant on their elbows for a few minutes, 'which I think was very well for so hot, sleepy a day. I found preaching tired me, both body and voice, much more than I expected. The bodily labor is not any great thing, but the strain of mind is so great that when the excitement passes away the preacher feels like a drunken man sobering. To be obliged to talk or keep company in such a state is almost torture. If you want to consult their comfort after preaching, you should give them, first thing, some place to lie down in perfect quiet and rest, especially if they have to preach a second time the same day. I was a good deal agitated, but excitement usually makes me more wide-awake, and I avoided all blunders or mistakes completely until the dismission. Then I thought the thing was all over, and feeling perfectly indifferent and self-pos- sessed, made a mistake in giving out the doxology. I am convinced by my first trial that I can never read sermons to my people in any comfort. Extempore preaching is the thing for me. I could notice the difference plainly between the paragraphs I threw in, although not expressed with half as much propriety of language as that which was on the paper. It is much more important that sinners should be excited to listen to the truth than that I should have the reputation of a pretty writer." 88 Life and Letters of Robert Lewis Dabney. During his student days, however, he never Hked to preach on "The Hill," or in the surrounding community. The criti- cism, rampant in the place, and helpful in its final influence on the young men going out from the Seminary, was hard for him, as well as for most of these brethren to bear. He writes on the 14th of April. 1846: "I rejoice to tell you that I preached my last sermon in this neighbor- hood yesterday, being a sermon to the negroes. There are two things which make preaching here hateful to me: one is the criticising, part of it official by the professors, and part voluntary ; and the other is the fact that we have hereabouts the most ill-behaved, gospel-hardened and God-despising congregations I ever saw. South Anna is perfect pro- priety to it. During public prayer, no matter who preaches, there is a constant whispering and shuffling, and when you open your eyes you find perhaps that a large part of the congregation has changed its position. Some who were on one side of the house when you bowed down in prayer are on the opposite side when you rise up, and some have gone out. And then, as Dr. Graham says, they all criticise, from suckling babies up, through the children, the negroes, and all. How- ever, all these things move me not. I have tried to preach whenever my turn has come, both to white people and negroes, with plainness and affection, and would continue to do so if my lot was cast here. "Regular criticism of our public performances is an important part of the training here, in its extent at least, if not in its good effects. The effects I am inclined to rate very low, unless perhaps they may have some moral effect in keeping us humble. * Their futility, as a means of information, will appear from a few instances. The pro- fessors criticise our sermons, and our fellow-students the speeches we make in the debating society. Concerning a speech I made in the latter, last winter, it was claimed that I spoke too much like a popular declaimer, with more warmth than becomes one addressing educated and reflecting persons, who weigh thoughts, not sounds. The last time I preached in the chapel, Mr. Sampson said, that as it was the last time he should have the opportunity to criticise me, he would inform me, as he had done twice before, that the greatest defect in my preach- ing was the lack of animation! And, as if this was not strange enough, he added, 'It is true that we all see that Mr. Dabney is animated him- self, but he is unable to express that animation to his audience!' Then I should like to ask, if I am not able to express it to my audience, how on earth do they all notice that I have it? Criticisms as rational and consistent as these could only make a man's style of speaking a medley of everything that was affected and contrary. The truth is. what I suppose Mr. Sampson felt, although he could not .express it. I have a bad habit of exerting myself more than is necessary, while there is not sufficient cadence in my voice from high to low, and from low Student Life at Union Seminary. 89 to high — a fault which I am fully convinced of, and have long been striving to correct. There is one part of the conduct of the students regarding each other's sermons which is worthy of all commendation and of imitation. No one, after he has preached, gets the remotest hint as to what his comrades think of his performance. However much they may admire it and praise it to others, to him they are as mute on the subject as if it had been a fatal failure. This effectually removes all temptations to vanity." The manuscripts which have come down from these years show that he was careful, painstaking and able in all the scholastic duties connected with the Seminary. There is a careful, thoughtful, and up-to-date "Report to the Society of Missionary Inquiry," bearing the date of March i, 1845, ^^^^ dealing with the recent China treaty, and the consequent obli- gations to missionary effort there, on the part of American Christians, and also with recent circumstances in India, and the probabilities of the more favorable progress of the cause there. There is a trenchant and able review of "Bush on the Resurrec- tion," bearing date of June, 1845, which was prepared as a class exercise. There is also a bright paper on "Transcendentalism," dated July, 1845, i" which the young Seminarian lets flow his vein for ridicule and light sarcasm. In August, 1845, ^^^ P^^" pared a historical essay on "What Causes Checked the Progress of the Reformation?" It was a thesis "for graduation," or certification rather, since at the time the Seminary bestowed no degrees. This is a genuinely philosophical discussion of the subject, and does great credit to a man of his years, indicating the keenest insight into the conditions of the time. His mind was so much alive that he did fully all the work that was assigned him, and then went out in search of more. He actually prepared, during his first year in the Seminary, a "Series of Articles on the Second Commandment and Popish Idolatry," which he published in the JVafchnian and Ob- server. During his Seminary life, Mr. Dabney's health was not good. He inherited an unfaithful liver, and the dysentery, with which he had suffered at the University of Virginia, predisposed him to bilious colic, in which he suffered the severest pain from cramps. He had one very severe spell in February, 1846. He was afflicted, also, with weak eyes in the spring of 1846, and throughout the following year. He was at first afraid he was going to lose his eyesight, and received some letters of sym- 90 Life and Letters of Robert Lewis Dabxev. pathy, with that apprehension in view ; but he ^s^ot a physician's advice, used them only for brief intervals at a time, allayed their inflammation by frequently bathing them in hot water, and so gained a measure of relief and slow improvement. His physical troubles caused him to take much bodily exer- cise. The forms of exercise show that he was ready at any time to vindicate the dignity of labor. He was remarkable in later days on "The Hill" for holding forth the duty of the young men to find some useful labor at which they might exercise, main- taining that such exercise gave the most perfect rest from ordinary mental toil ; that there was refreshment coming from the very consciousness of doing something useful, something having a purpose. He entertained this theory in his youth. Accordingly, he took exercise in caring for his room, in cutting his wood, in working a large watermelon patch, and in building a summer-house on the Seminary campus, and by trying in other ways to beautifv the campus. It may be a surprise to men of to-day that some of the students in this period, being sons of slave-holders, and men of comfortable means, would cut their own wood, sweep and dust their own rooms, make their beds, and take the whole care of their roonfs, but such was the case. In this form of exercise, Mr. Dabney was simply doing as his fellows did ; but his working a watermelon patch was, we may believe, not so common a form of exercise. In this work he foimd much to interest him, certainly. He had attempted the enterprise while a college boy. He begins it again in the spring of 1845. He wrote on the 15th of March of that year: "I have just begun to-day to work on my watermelon patch. It is a tolerably rich piece of land, but rather too clayey, and rather too far from the house. I shall expect to see the most of them stolen, but it is the exercise I go in for chiefly. I am .digging holes to manure under the hills. I shall have about seventy-five hills, and one of the brethren talks of working with me; but we have no help from the plow, and it will keep us pretty busy in our odd moments." It may be doubted as to whether he made a great success with his watermelons, but he seems to have gotten varied forms of exercise through that patch, for he writes to his brother, Mr. William Dabney, on the 2nd of August : "The most immediate interest I have in the drought is my water- melon patch, which is most miserably cut short. None of the melons are larger than a baby's head, and the most of them are sick ripe." Student Ltfe at Union Seminary. 91 During- the winter of 1845-46. he planned exercise in the improvement of the Seminary campus when the spring should come. Of this he wrote his mother, on December 4, 1845 "Brother Hogshead and I talk of making a summer4iouse, after the wood-cuUing season is past, in the yard of the Seminary. They have named one-half of the yard North Carolina, and the other half Virginia. The Virginia side was the highest ; so that, in levelling, all the soil was carried off it and put on the Carolina side. Besides, the latter has a summer-house, and some flowers, while old Virginia is nothing but a barren waste of dry, stunted weeds. I wish to make a summer-house there also, and to stimulate the ladies to do something for its improve- ment. This shall be my spring work, as there will be no use in making a watermelon patch next summer." This young- man who was doing his class work in two-thirds the usual time, and leading the classes, and who was writing and studying much on outside matters, but who found much exercise necessary, and who found all these homely forms of exercise interesting, was nevertheless very social in his instincts. He craved society, the society of refined, elegant and interesting people. He was' the son of a home of refinement, as we have seen, in spite of the modest circumstances of his mother. So- ciety was a sort of substitute for the pleasure of home. More- over, he sought the good society to be had about and on the Hill for the sake of improvement in manners. He felt that these were verv important in the minister, and that it was a part of his preparation to acquire agreeable manners. Accordingly, he did a good deal of social visiting in the families on the Hill. He also found that he was the better for an occasional walk to a gentleman's house at a distance of several miles. He writes to his brother, on l-'ebruary 4, 1845 • '■My life here is just the reverse of the one you describe yourself as leading. Everything is as regular as clock-work. It seems to suit some of them to admiration, but I have so much of the Price blood in my veins that it is necessary to be stirred up in some way occasionally. My usual resources are a long ramble, or a visit to the country. I have not many places to visit far enough off to make a pleasant excursion, but I have access to almost every family in the immediate neighborhood. The people are plain, but well informed. There are few counties which have so respectable a population. They are a regular and stable people in their politics, and in all their doings. ... I have been twice to the house of Mr. Treadway, a retired merchant of the old school." 92 Life and Letters of Robert Lewis Dabney. In March, 1845, l^^ went on a brief excursion to Charlotte county, and while there, to visit the house of John Randolph. After describing the estate, in a letter to his brother Francis, dated the i6th of March, he continues: "The house, or rather houses, are in the midst of the woods, some distance from the low grounds, and entirely out of sight of all the cultivated land, except a little garden. They are two little one-story houses, with two rooms on a floor without any passage. The oldest one, which was the only one till the latter part of his life, is a little dark- looking, low affair. . . . The posts of the porch were oak saplings, skinned, and put into the ground like fence posts. The new house is entirely unconnected, and about eight yards off. It was quite well built, and is rather higher pitched, and more comfortable. There was a good deal of very fine furniture, but old-fashioned, and a great many very fine books. Some of our party estimated them at two thousand volumes, almost all of them English editions, and many of them bound in calf- skin and gilt. There were nearly all sorts of books, a good many Latin and Greek, and a good many theological; among the rest, Scott's Com- mentaries, and Henry's. There were two defects which struck me very forcibly: one was the want of all mathematical works (the only one I saw was Newton's Frincipia), and the other, the meanness of his law library. Any young county-court lawyer would have a better one; but it is possible that all his valuable law books have been borrowed, perhaps by Judge Tucker. All his favorite books had his name pasted on the.n, with his coat-of-arms, and his motto, 'Fari quae sentiat.' His foible evidently was the wish to regard himself as a nobleman. His chamber was hung around with coats-of-arms, portraits of horses, a portrait of himself in his boyhood, and of Juba, and of his lap-dog. There was an old arm-chair, . . . and on it was hanging the far-famed white llannel morning gown, in which he fought the duel with Mr. Clay. The holes of Mr. Clay's bullet are there still, darned up roughly. His boots and shoes were hanging up in a little closet, some of them worn and some new. You have heard, I suppose, that the will case is decided at last, and the negroes are set free." On one of these excursions he accompanied his friend and class-mate, Mr. \'aughan, to his home in Farmville. Mr. Dab- nev was very much interested in the inmates of this home, and much entertained l)y them ; but the most notable thing he found in Farmville was a factory full of negroes singing hymns. He writes : "They sing with very great effect, and fully maintained their reputa- tion as musical geniuses. Indeed, some of the finest vocal music I ever Student Life at Union Semixary. 93 heard was in this factory. They carry three or four parts, and as many of the pieces they sing are those which they caught from the church choirs, I could perceive that the accompaniments were greatly varied. Indeed, in many cases they seem to be almost entirely of their own manufacture. Their favorite accompaniment seems to be the bass, and a sort of counter-sing falsetto. The effect of the latter is sometimes very fine, for some of the lads have falsetto voices as clear as a sky- lark's, which run through the mass of harmony like a golden thread through a dark robe, slender, and yet distinct. There was one big, burly fellow in a corner from which the heaviest bass seemed to come, and I took it for granted that he was their chief bass singer; but when I went near him, I found that he was singing the finest falsetto. This passion for music might be made the means of conveying a great deal of relig- ious truth, if the masters would encourage it a little, and give it a right direction. All persons, and especially the illiterate, learn by heart words which are accompanied by good melodies much more readily than in any other way, and I believe it would be very easy to sing a company of negroes into a competent system of Bible truth. The General Assembly of our church once entertained the intention of having the Authorized Version of the Psalms set to music, so that each psalm might be stereo- typed, as it were, to its own melody, and thus the sense and the music might go together in the memory, and help to suggest each other. The work has been begun, indeed, by the great masters of the last century, and there is already a large proportion of the most striking psalms set to fine anthems, and so forth. If the work was completed from the music left by Handel, Hayden and Mozart, and by the aid of living composers, it would present a most elegant and impressive body of divine truth. If the music was really good, and of a strong, popular style, not the fine-drawn, lack-a-daisical melodies fashionable nowadays among the opera composers, and if the work was introduced into com- mon and regular use in our churches, it would result in storing the memories of the people, in the course of time, with the larger part of the psalms. We would thus have an invaluable body of inspired truth conveyed in the most permanent form to the mind, without labor to the learner, and connected with the most pleasant associations. I hope that when a taste for vocal nmsic becomes more common in our churches the work will be done." There were other excursions. These will suffice to show that he went with open eyes and ears, and a mind that never ceased its activities. For him to make an excursion was to see something worth seeing, and for him to see that thing was to begin to think of it in many of its important relations, bearings, and suggestions. After the above disquisition on the teaching power in melody when connected with truth, and the duty of 94 Life and Letters of Robert Li:\\is Dabxey. the church to set the psahiis to music, he gives some strong animadversions against instrumental music. - He was as much of a correspon'lent in these years as he had been in previous years. He added to the range of his topics. Seeing the farmers along Buffalo attempting irrigation, he finds in that enterprise a new subject on which to write to his home folks, and suggest that some of their lands can be easily irri- gated. Xaturallv church matters engage more and more atten- tion. He studied the (lid School Assembly of 1845, especially the positions touching Romish baptism and slavery, and wrote of it with penetration and vigor, if not with masterfulness." r>ut he never needed topics, when writing home, in order to satisfy his home people. What they wished to hear about was himself. They loved him devotedly. His mother dreads the close of his student days at the Seminary, lest he be sent far away from her. She exclaims: "See how selfish I am. I think of vou, and want to see you all the time." * Betty, the fair and nuich-loved sister, writes: "Whatever the church may think, I am very sure that you are as far above him [a brother minister whom the young lady had been criticising in previous letters, and Robert had been defending to the verge of self-immolation] as the sun is above the earth." '' in the same letter she tells him that she hears that he has preached at least one sermon "that could not be surpassed." The whole tone of her letter shows that she believes everything good said of him. Mr. Dabnev appeared before West Hanover Presbytery, at its session at Pittsylvania Courthouse, Va., the last of April, or first of May, 1846. He came armed with a Latin thesis of eleven closely written pages, on the subject, Ouomudo homo jnstificatns sit. This exercise was no farce with him. He was not the kind of candidate to turn a part of liis trial for licensure into a farce. He begins liy speaking of the importance of the subject; then inquires into the status of man with (iod, and the true nature of justification. Having done this, he disposes, last of all. of the question, "Oitomoilo," etc. He l^rought with him, also, a critical exercise on Hebrews vi. 4-6, covering thirty- eight pages of sermon paper — a strong and useful piece of " LeUer to Mr. William Dahncy. l-\'l)ruary 5. US46. * Letters, June 7, 1845, p. 3, and June 12, 1845. * Letter to Robert, dated February 6. 1846. ■'■ Bettv Dabncy's letter to Robert, of April 10, 1846. Student Life at Union Seminary. 95 work. All his tests seem to have been equally satisfactory, and on the 4th day of May, 1846, the Presbytery licensed him to preach the gospel of Christ, as a probationer, for the holy ministry, within the bounds of this Presbytery, or wherever else he should be orderly called, William' C. Scott being Mod- erator, and P. J. Sparrow, Stated Clerk. At this time he looked so thin and pale that the Presbytery thought his life would probably be a short one, and that he needed the care of interested friends. A few weeks before, the church of Providence and the South Anna and Green Springs neighborhoods, in Louisa county, had been thrown together, thus constituting a missionary field. As his mother's home was in this field, and as the field was vacant, the Presbytery assigned Mr. Dabney to it. With his license in his hands, and his immediate field for active work assigned, he left Pittsylvania Courthouse, went back to the Seminary, completed the session's work, and, upon its close, received, on the loth of June, 1846, the usual certifi- cate granted to those who had completed the entire curriculum of studies. Subsequent events were to prove that he had made on the Faculty, upon his fellow-students, and upon the community about, an inijjression as of a man who could show himself equal to a post and liurden of unusual responsibility ; but our next chapter will carry us with him into a small missionary field, such as would have been despised as too mean bv some of his fellows for any but men of the humblest capacities. He does not seem to have had any question as to whether or not it was good enough for him. CHAPTER VITI. A MISSIONARY IN LOUISA COUNTY. (June, 1846 — June, 1847.) Disinclination to Undertake the Work. — Wanted by the People. — Pleasure in his Work and Acceptance with his People. — Varied and Extensive Correspondence. — Continued Ill-health. — Trip to the White Sulphur and to the Hot Springs. — Invita- tions to other Fields. — The Advice of Dr. Meredith and the Invitation to Visit Tinkling Spring. — The Call and Decision TO Accept it. MR. DABNEY, on some accounts, was naturally drawn to the Louisa field. He would be able, while working in the field, to make his home with his widowed mother, who had long leaned on him in a peculiar way. On his going to the Seminary, his mother had written : "I knew I should miss you very much, but it is worse than I expected, even. Francis is as kind and attentive to his business as he can be, but still you are wanting here for my comfort; but I know that I have to give you up, and I will not complain, but live in the hope of seeing you in four months from this dark morning. . . . Your room here looks like there had been a death in it. Indeed, I know not what we shall do without you." ^ Of warm, generous affections, disposed to bear the burdens of the weak all about, his home folks naturally leaned on him ; nor did time efface the sense of their loss. When the Louisa field was offered, he knew that his going there would comport with his mother's happiness and comfort. The destitutions of the field also appealed to him. There was little worthy preach- ing at the time in the county. The Baptists and Campbellites, then holding forth there, were, for the most part, but poorly furnished to teach the way of life. There seemed to be an advantageous opening for a preacher of his faith ; so, at any rate, thought West Hanover Presbytery ; but there were other reasons why Mr. Dabney was strongly disinclined to take the ' Letter, dated December 2, 1844. A AIissioNARY IN Louisa County. 97 work. The chief of these was that "No prophet is accepted in his own country." This was the people among- whom he had grown up. Many of them were related to him by ties of blood. His connections were still more widely ramified. By nature he was modest and shrinking. He distrusted himself as equal to the task of doing his proper work as preacher and pastor in this place. But this people, amongst whom he had grown up, desired him, and some of them very much. On the very heels of the Presbyterial Committee's determination to construct the Louisa field, the session of Providence Church had held an informal meeting, and desired the Rev. William. S. White to call Mr. Dabnev's attention to that field, and ask him "to visit them" as soon as his licensure should be over, "with a view to settling among them." It was, in part, in recognition of this known desire that the Presbytery assigned him to the field as a mis- sionary licentiate. That the congregation of Providence would have given him an early call to the pastorate, had he been disposed to cut short the period of his licentiateship, there can be little doubt. This fact is made clear, as well as the general esteem in which Mr. Dabney was held, by such proofs as the following letter from Mr. Launcelot Minor, an elder in the Providence Church : "Louisa, May 29, '46. "Reverend and Dear Friend : I take this mode of saying something more to you in regard to your accepting the invitation to preach in. our Providence field, which will be very certainly extended to you, lest I should not have an opportunity of saying it verbally. "Your only objection seems to be the fear that you will not be able to do good, on account of your being "in your own country," and, on the first view of the subject, it would seem to be well-nigh an insuper- able objection. I mean, it would appear thus to a stranger to all the circumstances. As I said to you the other day, you would begin your ministry, I am convinced, under much more favorable auspices than usual. As the son of a man to whom the people of Louisa, and all, indeed, who knew him, delighted to do honor, you will stand on higher ground than any stranger could; your being but little known personally to the people of the field, but most favorably known as a young man of learning and sense, would give you much stronger claims than others ; and your being known as one who was sound on all the ques- tions which seem to be separating the various sects of Christians, would, in my esteem, be a very strong lever in your favor. But all, all these sink into perfect insignificance compared with the acknowledgment of 7 98 Life and Letters of Robert Lewis Dabxey. ■our utter dependence on a Higher Power ; to do his work acceptably to himself, or indeed with any success, 'tis absolutely necessary that we should be conformed to his likeness. We must be lozvly and meek in spirit; we must be kind and forgiving and courteous to all ; finally, we must say nothing or do nothing that will militate against our gain- ing the confidence of the community, or which will lead men to speak lightly of the religion of our Master as set forth in us. The minister's is truly a life of crosses ; he must expect to be crossed every hour of his existence. He must expect to have his sermons found fault with because of their being too plain — and because they are not plain enough ; because he writes them — and because he does not write them; because he reads them — and because he does not read them ; and at last, after being covered with abuses of this kind, he will find himself charged with seeking a livelihood, or fortune, under the guise of the blessed religion of Jesus Christ, so fiickle and vain is this "stiff-necked and gainsaying people" with whom the minister of Jesus Christ has to do ; tut, thanks to a merciful and gracious God, there is in this world some relief to this dark picture. I have never yet seen the humble, devoted Christian, I have never yet seen the individual — private or public, rich or poor, male or female — whose life was devoted to deeds such as are the fruit of the Spirit, but in the end assumed such an influence over those he had to do with as most effectually checked and overawed vice and obtained the admiration of all. . . . "With the advantages you possess over young men starting in the ministry in their native neighborhoods, together with a faithful and entire dependence on God, I cannot myself see an objection to your taking the field with the utmost confidence of being successful. Faith ! faith ! is, I think, in religion, pretty much what action is said to be in an orator — it is to be asked for first, and asked for last ; with it we can do anything, and without it we can do nothing. The next thing to be sought in prayer is, I think, the constant presence of the desire to do all that we do to the glory of God, that we may be divested of self, and he actuated only by supreme love to him and desire to glorify his ■name; to count all things but dung, so that the excellency of the ]. M. Smith, then pastor at Staunton, united his voice Avith that of this church, whose members "cover fifty square miles of fine land." are most substantial in character, almost entirely devoted to the Presby- terian faith, so far as they have ecclesiastical predilections." He tells him that his "specimens of preaching have given uni- versal satisfaction, and produced deep impressions on the minds of some young people, of whom there are fifty or sixty, that A Missionary in Louisa County. 107 have knowledge of the truth, but have hesitated to avow a faith in the Lord Jesus." Mr. Dabney was perfectly open in deahng with his people in Louisa as soon as he began to contemplate the probability of change of work, and won their hearts still further by this thorough honesty. He was much perplexed, but, with the aid of his Presbytery, decided to go to Augusta. Many men w^ould have decided quickly on the simple question of salary. He had worked all the year in Louisa, travelling through sunshine and storm, and had received only the pittance of three hundred dollars ; but he was not much affected by this consideration, for he lived in Louisa in his mother's home. Moreover, he was not moved by greed. In our next chapter we shall present him in his pastoral care of Tinkling Spring. CHAPTER IX. THE PASTORATE OF TINKLING SPRING. (July, 1847— August, 1853.) The Beginning. — Laborious and Successful Pastorate. — A Season OF Despondency. — Revival. — An Honest, Faithful, Able Pastor. — Home with Mr. Hugh Guthrie. — Marriage to Miss Margaret Lavinia Morrison. — Still at Mr. Guthrie's. — "Sleepy Hollow^.'' — "Stone Cottage." — "Bobby" and "Jimmy." — Domestic Trials and Joys. — Still the best of Brothers and Sons. — Abun- dant IN other Labors, also. — Preaching Tours. — School-Keep- ing. — Correspondence. — Farming. — Study on Special Lines. — Able Contributions to Papers and Periodicals. — Condition of the Seminary at the Time. — Difficulty in Proper Filling of THE Chairs. — An Article on Duty of Prayer for Conversion of OUR Youth and Increase of Ministers. — His Election in March, 1852. — General Commend.^tion of this Act. — Receives Title of D. D. — Goes to Hampden-Sidney. THE beg^inning at Tinkling Spring was not without its salt of suffering, but was, nevertheless, just about what one might naturally have expected. He wrote of it to his mother: "The first Sunday I was here I had a slight attack of colic, enough to make me miss preaching. There was a tremendous congregation, and all agog with curiosity to see my debut. I think it was very for- tunate that I was prevented from preaching, for it is next to impossible for a man to satisfy expectations on such an occasion; and the people were not met in a temper of mind which promised any profit. I have been well since, in the main, although very closely confined, and I think there are appearances of a favorable change in my system. But I am not sanguine, as I have never been, and am willing to wait for a radical improvement. "Day before yesterday I went into Staunton to be examined on my college studies. Yesterday the Presbytery met and heard my sermon, and nearly all the rest of my examinations. There is no doubt of my being sustained, and they expect to proceed to my ordination to-day. To-morrow and Sunday we expect to hold a communion season, Mr. Benjamin Smith assisting us. Before you receive this I shall be a bishop, if nothing happens." ^ ^ Letter to his mother, July 16, 1847. The Pastorate of Tinkling Spring, 109 He labored in this field as preacher and pastor for six years and two months. He threw himself with energy into his work, and with success. Under his inspiration, stimulus and super- vision the congregation built the present excellent and com- modious house of worship. This consumed much time and energy in the year 1849. Like other church builders, he found the enterprise annoying. He savs, in a letter of March 8, 1849: "Of all annoying and pestilent concerns that ever a man undertook, to please a whole congregation of people about a new church, more especially when that congregation is composed of Scotch-Irish, of all people in the world the most inflexible and obstinate, is the most so. I am chairman of the Building Committee, and have a thousand diffi- culties to reconcile and clashing views to conciliate." On the 30th of July he wrote : "Our church building is progressing tolerably well. We have suc- ceeded in getting a most excellent kiln of bricks, which are now read3\ We begin to lay, probably to-morrow, and the mason says he can finish the walls in four weeks. The wood-work is well forwarded, and we shall have the shell of a house, at least. I fear, however, that by the tiine the house is finished there will be no congregation to worship in it. They seem to be, a part of them, possessed with the desire to quarrel about every trifle in the arrangement of the matter. I have been fretted until I heartily wished the old trap standing still, with all its defects. Both parties in these altercations are to blame, some for meddlesome- ness, and some for repelling that meddlesomeness in too rash a manner. Meantime, by an exertion of great forbearance. I steer clear of both, and try to keep the peace between them, but in vain. The Scotch-Irish are the most inflexible people in the world when they are right, and the most vexatiously pig-headed and mulish when wrong, on the face of the earth. . . . But while such foolish contentiousness is extremely disgraceful to religion, and no doubt throws the devil into perfect convulsions of sardonic glee, it is consoling to see that the persons really active in the evil-doing are few, and that there are many mod- erate, forbearing, forgiving Christians, whose pious endurance of these annoyances honors the gospel as much as the conduct of others dis- graces it. When I think of some of the pettifogging quarrels of some persons, I feel myself getting so angry that I feel as if it would be a great luxury to tell them just what opinion deserves to be passed on them. But I hold my tongue, and that is a great assistance in keeping one's temper. The quiet ones seem to hope that they will have done quarreling now, but I am not so sanguine." no Life and Letters of Robert Lewis Dabxey. But at lencrth the building was done, and became a great source of pleasure and comfort to the pastor and people.- He had at once, on beginning his life at Tinkling Spring, showed great diligence in pastoral work, being persuaded, as he tells his correspondents, that the pastor ought to know the spiritual condition of each member of his flock. He was, per- haps, better fitted to edify God's saints than to win the unre- pentant to God. He was preeminent, even in these early days, for instruction in the teachings of Scripture. He broadened, and deepened, and built up his people in their knowledge and understanding of the Scriptures. In order to this, he not only generally used the didactic form in preaching, but conducted a Bible-class of such as were more inclined to learn. Amongst his manuscripts of this period is a small book, entitled, Bible Questions on the Acts of the Apostles, covering the first sixteen chapters. There are from twenty-one to thirty-nine questions on each chapter. They are well conceived, and suited to open up this tract of Scripture to an earnest class. Most of the references are to Scott's Commentary. He had fruit, indeed, in the way of conversions, but the number of the communicants grew slowly, on the whole. Some years his session reported no members as received either by profession or by letter. He often mourned the absence of spiritual life in his church. On the 9th of January, 1849, he wrote his mother: "I have experienced more depression of spirits the last few weeks than for many a month before. A part of it is caused, I reckon, by- anxieties about my wife, although there is no peculiar ground of anxiety that I know of; and more of it by the apparent fruitlessness of my ministry. My charge hangs on my hands like a growing burden, heavier and heavier continually. They listen to my preaching very attentively, and often with fixed interest ; but it always feels to me like the interest of the understanding and imagination only, and not of the spiritual affections. My preaching seems to human eyes to be utterly without effect; bad for me, and bad for them." He evidently wrote in this tone of despondency to his friend and mentor, the Rev. William S. White, of Lexington. In a "He had not allowed his people to relax in their support of the evangelical causes while building the new church. During the years 1848 and 1849, he secured by subscriptions, most of which he collected himself, four hundred and forty-nine dollars and fifty cents for Union Seminary, at Hampden-Sidney. The Pastorate of Tinkling Spring. hi letter to Mr. Dabney, dated January 26, 1849. ^^- White exhorts : "Remember that it is "neither the first blow nor the last that fells the oak' ; therefore, strike away, and the tree will fall and the forest be cleared. I know no means of building up and extending the borders of Zion but the truth studied, learned, communicated, and then followed by prayer. Preach as if your preaching was everything, and then pray as if it were nothing. If I could not rest in this view, I should despair." He was hungry for revival. God seems to have let the hunger continue unappeased throughout the year 1849. Early in 1850, Mr. Dabney wrote to his brother, Rev. C. R. Vaughan, whom he had comforted, and was to comfort and to counsel again, expressing his longing for the breath of the Spirit of all grace on his people ; and this brilliant young pastor of twenty- three, whose church had recently been blessed with a powerful work of grace, replied to his friend's yearning as follows : "You have my deepest sympathy in your yearning for a revival. It is as natural for a minister who has one single adequate idea of his office as the wish for bread is to the starving stomach. Indeed, my dear brother, the keenness of anxiety that breathes from your letter is one symptom that your desires are to be gratified, if I may reason from the parallel of my own case. For months before there was an expression of interest in my church, my own heart was bursting with the burden of my people's welfare; and to gain relief I was obliged to pray; and the efifect of that told upon my preaching with wonderful effect. All you need do, my dear friend, is to pray and trust and preach straight at the conscience. As for the 'objurgatory aspect' of your manner (a phrase which Robert Hall has immortalized in his review of 'Zeal Without Innovation'). I reckon you take yourself to task too hard. Preach earnestly, no matter if your manner may seem harsh. The manliness of your mind and the sincerity of your heart will both keep you from putting on feeling which you do not possess. Simply cultivate a single-eyed earnestness, and you may let the other go ; and if that very earnestness be the cause of apparent harshness, let it go. I'll assure you the very best way I have ever tried to break into the conscience is to strike straight at it with a deep, consuming feeling that all is at stake, and that there is no time to stop to calculate the degree of offence that may justly be taken to mere manner. "I also sympathize deeply with you over the black sheep of your flock. I have some, too; none notorious for immorality; but cold- hearted, worldly, selfish, liquor-selling fellows. My male membership is some twelve or thirteen, some of them the biggest sorts of grains in the salt of the earth, some moderate religious, and others Sabbatically 112 Life and Letters of Robert Lewis Dabney. religious only. It will give you pleasure to know that the state of feeling in my church is still encouraging. A new case of awakening has occurred within a week, apparently without a cause, in a quiet way. I am now trying to rouse my church members to self-examination and prayer by preaching closely to their consciences, and by personal appeals to them in pastoral visitation. May the good Lord grant us both a large refreshing from his presence, for Christ's sake. If God should ever grant you a large revival, don't do as I did, and preach yourself to the dregs as I did. My great mistake was in having too many meet- ings, and I expect the cause of it all was nothing but unbelief; an unwillingness to let Christ do his own work, and a desire to do too much myself. Brother White sent me word not to do the thing to a crackling; but I was out of breath, pretty nearly, before the wise and friendly warning came." At last the congregation of Tinkling Spring received a gracious season of refreshing. Mr. Dabney gives some account of this in a letter to his mother, written on the 8th of June, 1850. He must philosophize about the proper conduct of revivals in writing to his vigorous-minded old mother, and, though there are certain apparent crudities in some of the views expressed, they are not unworthy of the man. He writes as follows : "I have been so busy of late that I have but little time to think of anything, much less to write letters. I have not had any more preach- ing to do the last two weeks than usual, indeed, rather less. Other ministers have been with me at times. It is almost vexatious to see the mistaken kindness of people when they hear that you have some- what of a revival in your church. During all the wearisome months and years when you are toiling to bring the people up to the proper state of spirituality and zeal, and preaching indefatigably to drowsy and careless hearers, dragging the vast mass of inattention along by a self- destroying effort and overstraining of your energies, brother ministers seem to think you need no help. But when they hear this long toil has been instrumental in bringing round the harvest season, then they come flocking in uninvited, or on the least pretext of an invitation. This is just the time I don't want them. Now it is a delightful indulgence to preach. The congregations full, the listening intent and solemn, one's own mind roused and elevated, and the people catching up any portion of divine truth, as if it were most powerful eloquence (pro- vided it be spoken with unction), it is no effort to preach and no trouble. I don't want help. It is like taking the bread out of a hungry man's mouth, just when he had been toiling a whole year to get it ready. Besides, very few ministers, coming from other congregations in a cold state, are up to the mark of our feeling. They come here with their old, time-yellowed manuscripts in their pockets, and give The Pastorate of Tixkling Spring. 113 us their cnt-and-dried orthodoxy in so chilling a style that it ruins the whole affair. And, then, there is an utter want of unity and coherence in the effect of the dift'erent sermons of the different men. One sermon is out of joint with the next. The variety awakens mere carnal curiosity. (For these reasons it is that the preaching at Presbyteries is so utterly without effect, usually.) There is another reason of pastoral policy which should prompt the pastor to do most of the preaching for him- self in his own revival, no matter who is there. It is this : when a church is revived, they listen with so much more interest that the same sort of preaching would seem to them just ten times as able and forcible as it would at other times. Now, if the pastor does all his own preach- ing in times of coldness, and lets his brethren do it for him in times of revival, it will cause his people to draw most unfavorable compari- sons between him and his brethren. It will ruin any man." He proceeds to cite an instance of a clever pastor who had ptn-sued jtist this policy, with the result that he was held as a most sorry preacher, while loved as a pastor, and then con- tinues : "If Dr. Plumer were here now, he should not do any preaching for me. I e.xpect a visit of a few days from an acquaintance, a minister; and although I should be delighted to see him at any other time, I am in fear and trembling lest he should come to-day. and expect to preach to-morrow. If he does come to-day, I am determined I will invent some way to manage and get around the clerical etiquette. I mean to preach to-morrow myself. We have preaching twice on Sabbath and once on Wednesday evening of each week. I e.xpect to have something of a protracted meeting before harvest. We have about twenty-five or thirty under concern, and out of them a goodly number hoping that they have been born again. I think if I could get the church aroused we should have a glorious work. But, alas ! this is harder even than to arouse sinners. More than half of them are fast asleep. They all come Sunday, but when working day comes, why they are plowing corn, and the revival and the Holy Spirit, and the souls of the anxious may all go, for them. But I must not be censorious; to their own Master they stand or fall." On the 29th of July he wrote again to his mother: "I fear the interest in my church has rather declined. We have no inquiry meetings now, and although the congregations are still large and solemn, there is less tenderness. Some few who had and avowed strong convictions have cast them off, and now appear careless. But one thing very gratifying to me was that almost all who ever attended inquiry meetings made a profession of religion, and the most of them a highly credible profession. You know a person cannot help having 8 J 14 Life and Letters of Robert Lewis Dabney. h'\s ideas about the character of others ; and I have my notions as to which of these young Christians are in earnest, and are truly born again, and which are self-deceived. In every case, those whose pro- fessions I consider most doubtful are the ones who had least advantages of pious education. Some of them seem to be taking a noble stand as Christians, and, I hope, will maintain it. There seem to be no cases of pungent conviction, so far as I know, similar to those which occurred in the spring; but there are quite a number who seem to be serious and concerned. Some of these I have visited and talked to, and I must see the rest. Some of them profess a saving concern, but hesitate ; others say they are not serious, but still show some seriousness. I fear their impressions are not deep enough to amount to much." During this year his session received thirty-three members into the communion of the church on the profession of their faith. This was almost, and perhaps altogether, as many as were received in this manner during the whole rest of his pastorate. This part of his work must, on the whole, be pronounced successful, as it was unquestionably honest, faithful and able. There is not wanting evidence that more than one Virginian in this period felt about Mr. Dabney, as his young crony, the young pastor at Lynchburg, wrote, on the 5th of March, 1853 : ''You do not know how much I value you. Dabney : and I value you mainly because I think you are the most honest — almost the only honest — and the least selfish man I know in the ministry. I mean the younger ones. I preach for show. So does , , and most others, if they would be as bitterly candid as I am. I hate myself for it; but still I do it ; and I speak what I believe when I say that you are the only young minister in my acquaintance of whom I do not feel the suspicion." This may be a bit too hard on others, including IMr. Vaughan Tiimself, who was evidently given to almost morbid introspec- tion, but it expresses a common conviction amongst Mr. Dab- ney's friends that he was honest to the back-bone. His work was universally regarded as very able also. The most of his Sunday morning sermons were not only planned with much profound study, but were laboriously written out in full. Thor- oughness of investigation and weight of conclusion was char- acteristic of all his preaching. His sermons were so full of thought that they seemed packed. If this was a fault, it was one that tended to make stable men of those who heard him. The Pastorate of Tinkling Spring. 115 When Air. Dabney went to Tinkling Spring, he was Uke pastors generally who go to charges without manses, under the necessity of seeking some abiding place. He found his first home with Mr. Hugh Guthrie, between whom and himself a friendship was commenced that lasted as long as life. Mr. Guthrie was at the time a bachelor, but well-to-do, and kept a comfortable establishment. Mr. Dabney seems to have gravi- tated his way naturally. He writes to his mother, on the i6th of July, 1847, about ten days after his arrival, from Mr. Guth- rie's residence : "It seems that it was the expectation and design of the congregation that I should board here, as well as his. This, indeed, would be very far from deciding the matter, for I am not much in the habit of letting other people choose for me. But I believe, on the whole, the place suits me better than any other where I could be taken in. There are one or two that would perhaps be preferable, but there are obstacles to my going there, in one case the ill-health of the mistress. There is a Mr. , who has a large and good house, a fine wife, and every- thing suitable; but from the specimens of the power of his children's lungs, which I heard there on a short visit, I think I should not better the matter by going there. He has been married six or eight years, and has a growing crowd of little children. Here the table is generally good and the house comfortable. I can be more unconstrained and can have a better command of my time ; and the neighborhood is so thick that fifteen minutes' walk will bring me into company at any time. I have a large room, with four windows, on the second floor, and with a porch in front of it." Here he lived, at first single and then married, till the end of 1849. ^^ Isss than a year after going to the Valley, Mr. Dabney got the "wife appointed him by Providence." The story of his winning her, and his admiration for her, is here given in his own words, for the most part, viz. : "The Rev. James Morrison, of New Providence, Rockbridge county, was always hospitable, especially to ministers. He sent me an invitation to visit him on my way to the Presbytery, that was to convene in August, '47, at Bethesda Church, seven miles off. I had been ordained the end of July. Accepting this invitation, I reached Bellevue (Mr. Morrison's) the day before Presbytery. An elderly gentleman met me at the gate, just dismissing another guest. He was, in person and manner, remarkably like Gen. Robert E. Lee. He kindly took my hand, saying. This is our young brother, Dabney,' at the same time giving me a cordial reception. There was already company at the house, on the way to Presbytery. Now, my associates in the Seminary from it6 Life and Letters of Rohert Lewis Dabxey, Rockbridge and Augusta, had often spoken of Miss Lavinia Morrison, the second daughter, whom they truly regarded as the most charming hidy in that region for piety and good sense, and as the best of daugh- ters, but somewhat indifferent to marriage. She was then about twenty- four years of age. When approaching Bellevue, I, like any unmarried young man, had indulged my imagination as to the appearance of this young lady I was about to meet. I said to myself, I suppose that Miss Morrison is one of your pattern young ladies, of Puritan manufacture. So I shall find her a tall, angular person, with sandy hair and blonde complexion, sharp Roman nose and gold-rimmed spectacles, and very primpy manners, talking of 'missionary heralds, theology,' etc. "At dinner she did not appear, nor during the afternoon. Towards sunset I was sitting with Mr. Morrison, where I could see out into the front hall. A young-looking girl, I thought about eighteen, crossed the hall and tripped up the stairway, her hair and eyes brown, her cheeks rosy, very slender in figure. She was dressed in a blue gingham, and wore, also, a housekeeping apron. I said, 'This is not Miss Lavinia, but some young cousin or niece,' not thinking that this was the pattern young lady I had heard of. Well, it was. Mrs. Morrison was in feeble health, and such hospitable people as they were had to' make much preparation for Presbytery ; for, in addition to the entertainment at home, they carried a huge basket of food each day. to be eaten in the grove by the church. So Miss Lavinia had been working that day in the kitchen, making cakes, pies, bread, etc., etc. Her father had told us, at dinner, to excuse his daughter, as she was helping the cook to prepare for Presbytery. The next day I was her escort, both of us on horseback, and during the meeting I had several rides with her on horseback. Miss Lavinia had a fine horse, and she was a very fine rider, and could manage a horse perfectly. I thought she was remark- ably graceful. Mine was very nearly a case of 'love at first sight,' but I have never thought this unreason or rashness, as I had heard much of her character from her admirers, whom I knew to be young men of good sense and truth. So I was acquainted with her essential traits. It only remained for me to see if her person and manners would suit my notion. I soon decided this. Then began the first and last love affair of my life. We were married on the 28th of March, 1848." Dr. Dabney addetl to tlii.s account of his courtship and mar- riage, the whole of which was written for his children. "You, her children, need not he told what she was as a wife and mother, how faithful, industriou.s, true and devoted she lias been." Good Mr. (luthrie took Mr. Dabney and his l)ride into liis house again, and there they boarded until late in 1849. Mean- while, something had stirred ]\Jr. Guthrie himself to try for a The Pastorate of Tinkling Spring. 117 wife from the Lord, an enterprise in which he, too, found the blessing sought. Mr. Dabney's love of farming, and various other practical considerations, conspired to make him think of buying a little farm, and having a home of his own. On March 8, 1849, ^^^ wrote to his brother William : "I have been looking around me a little for some small piece of land, but unsuccessfully heretofore. One man offered me a piece of poor gravelly ridge, the poorest arable land in the neighborhood, with no orchard nor any improvement whatever, except a bleak, clumsy log house, at the rate of twenty-five dollars per acre. Another offered me twenty acres of very good land, with a reasonably roomy log house and other conveniences, for seventy-five dollars per acre. So they go. They all take it for granted that a preacher must be gullible about the affairs of 'filthy lucre,' and wish to make off of him. They will find themselves a little mistaken. I am not at all uneasy about getting a home, having a very pleasant boarding-place as yet, and a great many other kind friends who would stand by me ; and at the worst, if the difficulty of getting a suitable home to board, rent or buy should actu- ally come to a crisis, why I would just quit, and not be shut out of all the world, either. But I have no disposition whatever to leave the neighborhood ; and I shall continue to keep one eye open for some suitable location when it can be got on good terms." He recognized, what many about him did not, that the prices of land and farm products were temporarily much inflated in the Valley, while the railroad to the White Sulphur Springs was being made, the tunnels bored, and so forth. An unusual home market, to last only for a while, was thus created. Some of his friends advised him to buy, on the grounds that prices were bound to advance. He held the contrary view ; still he desired to purchase a small farm ; he wished to go to house- keeping. Hence the purchase of his first little farm, "Sleepy Hollow," described in a letter to his brother William, dated October 3, 1849, ^ P^^^ o^ which reads as follows: "I have feared for some time that we, or rather Bob [his little boy], were creating some discomfort for our kind host, and this made me nervous. So the other day I went and made a bargain to buy a little homestead, on the main road between Staunton and Waynesboro, quite convenient to the church, etc. It is a poor place, but the only habitable one in the whole congregation in which I could hide my head at all at the present time. It contains about one acre of timber and nine acres of open land. The land is of excellent quality, with a well ii8 Life and Letters of Robert Lewis Dabney. and pretty good water on it, with a pump, a little cottage of four small rooms, one brick and three log, where one can keep warm and dry enough, but ugly and ill-arranged ; an outhouse in bad repair, and a small stable, enough for my horse and a cow or two. For this I have to pay nine hundred dollars, half cash, and half a year hence. Accord- ing to the way little places sell here, this is about one hundred dollars too much. Besides my pressing anxieties to have a place of my own to hide my head and be independent, two motives influence me to buy. One is that if I should leave the congregation in a few years, the total of the purchase-money being so small, the risks of loss in the sale of the property are very small. There is no place where I could have the essentials of a home with so small an aggregate of property ; and, there- fore, in reselling my total loss must be small, even though I were com- pelled to sell at a considerable per cent, below what I give. The other consideration is, that what with the prospect of railroads, and the inroads of the Germans, who are always land-mad, the price of land is run up entirely too high. As a matter of money investment, no man ought to buy land now in this neighborhood. The prices are exorbitant, and the prospective rise very great for a fezv years. The great collec- tion of laborers and beasts of burden at the tunnel and on the Staunton section of the railroad will create an unusual demand for produce, and sustain this absurd speculative rise for five years. Then things will go flat enough. . . . Therefore, I think that any man looking for a landed investment of money ought to buy almost anywhere rather than here. . . . On the other hand, I cannot live without a home five j'ears, till the mania is cured. So my policy is to buy the least land possible, and even to give too high a rate for a very little piece, of which the total purchase is trifling, rather than to be investing largely in land under such adverse circumstances. These ideas have caused me to think this, under the circumstances, a judicious purchase. I think I run no risk of a loss greater than a hundred dollars in resale at any time. The place is very desirable for a mechanic, and the house is such as would satisfy the tastes and ideas of the laboring classes much better than mine." The business sagacity of our young minister was vindicated by the issue, for when the day for resale came, he did better than he had hoped. He was no mean farmer, and "Sleepy Hollow" took on a look ot thrift. The repair of the buildings gave a pleasant as well as profitable sphere, in which lie took at least all necessary physical exercise. Here they "lived com- fortably for three years, his salary being six hundred dollars."' They kept two good horses and two cows. He hired a negro man and a cook, "lived well, and was as happy as a king, and entertained much company." The Pastorate of Tinkling Spring. 119 After a while he had a chance to sell ''Sleepy Hollow," and thinking his "wife had a right to a better home," he sold it for thirteen hundred dollars, which covered his outlay, and bought one hundred and twenty acres of land, lying about two miles distant from ''Sleepy Hollow/' on the road from the church to South River, and about a mile from the church. On this place, which he called "Stony Point," he built a stone cottage, which he regarded as a "very peculiar, picturesque, and tasteful house, and within, a perfect little snuggery." He built this house, in part, of the stone cut out of the living rock on which the house was founded. By finding his quarry there, he made room for a cellar of suitable proportions. With his own shoulder he helped to put many, perhaps most, of the stones in place, and formed stronger local attachments for the place than for Hampden- Sidney, or any other place in which he ever lived. In his old days he said, "The grey-stone cottage I thought a gem. Had I lived there, it would have been a beautiful place." His neigh- bors were very kind in helping to get his new house habitable. He wrote to his mother, on the 30th of June, 1852 : ''I have had as few annoyances and difficulties about it as any one could expect, and the neighbors thereabouts have been very kind, especially Mr. Gilkerson. He just comes and see what is wanting, and has it done as if it was his house. They have hauled all my sand for me, and Mr. Guthrie has given me the lime thus far; but lime is a much more trifling article here than with you — one shilling a bushel.'' He moved into this house the first of January, 1853, and only lived there eight months. He began at once planting fruit trees and making a garden. He had set out and cultivated a fine orchard in "Sleepy Hollow." It may be conveniently remarked here that he retained posses- sion of this estate till during the first year of the war, when he sold it for four thousand dollars, lent the money to the Con- federacy, and lost it all without regret, as it went to the service of his country, though he had saved it, for the most part, from his earnings. During these early years of their married life, Mr. and Mrs. Dabney were blessed with two little boys. The first, "Bobby," had been called tor his father, Robert Lewis. He had put in his appearance on the 19th day of February, 1849. His father described him as a Morrison in his appearance, with white skin and brown eves. The second, "Timmv." was called, for his ma- 120 Life and Letters of Robert Lewis Dabxey. ternal grandfather, James Morrison. Following closely on the heels of his brother, he put in his appearance on the ist day of April, 1850. These were bright children, and very precious to their big-hearted father. Though we shall, in the next chapter, see him and the mother crushed to the earth over their little graves, who shall say they had no important mission on the earth ? They were God's ministers, to soften and ennoble and further fit the father for his great work in the world. Ever after, he was to have unutterable sympathy for those who had lost little ones. In these homes, with his loving wife and his bright little boys, he had the usual ups and downs of householders. It is to be questioned whether many men have enjoyed their downs so nmch. On the 31st of December. 1849. ^i^ wrote his brother William : "For your amusement and Cordelia's, I will give you some account of our getting along in the interval between the hegira of the old hira- Hngs and the coming of the new. Wednesday the last of them went, leaving us without a soul to do anything, indoors or out, except a little girl of nine years, which Mrs. Morrison gave Lavinia. Friday the new hirelings came, by special agreement. Well, we had a carpenter here, who was doing some very urgent repairs, and therefore consented to work Christmas. I asked Lavinia what was to be done for the cow. She said she could milk, and, indeed, quite prided herself on it. I thought it would never do for a boarding, school miss' fingers, trained to belabor the piano and handle the painting pencil and embroidering needle, to grasp a cow's teats. But the more I opposed, the more she insisted. So. when I went to feed the horse and cow. she sallied to the stable, and, after a few graceful tremors and starts, succeeded in milking the cow very effectually. There was a churning of cream that she thought needed attention, so. as she could, not possibly find time, I volunteered to churn. So I beat away for two mortal hours, and then she tried her hands for an hour longer, but not a bit of butter would come. So we had to resign that as a bad job. Next morning she got up complaining that her thumb was as sore as if it were out of joint (from milking), and her shoulders so stiff (from churning) that she could not lift her hands to her head. So I thought I would try my hand at milking. I did very well by persevering, but found it rather harder work than grubbing. The old lady managed to get breakfast : and afterwards, with a degree of hardihood wdiich dis- played more adventure than prudence, determined to set afoot a rising of lightbread to be baked at evening for supper. It turned out as you might expect. Very soon, however, her cooking operations were sadly interrupted, for the lifting of pots and oven tops gave her the backache The Pastorate of Tinkling Spkixc;. 121 (inost unromantic ailment). So I had just to subinduce my Atlantean shoulders to the burden. Behold the Rev. R. L. D., then, for the rest of the time, presiding in the kitchen as first vice (under the direction of the madam, who maintained, in the main, the same dignified absti- nence from the practical toils which great generals commonly exercise at a pitched battle), lifting ovens, washing out skillets with a dish- clout, baking bread and potatoes, and frying pork. You may guess that when the hired woman came Friday, just after dinner was served (my last exploit and my chef d'ociii'^^rc). she was hailed with great pleasure, and I abdicated in her favor with more promptitude than Napoleon after Waterloo, or any other of those celebrated chaps who had got hold of a bag that grew rather too heavy for him to hold. The Scrip- ture says, 'It is good for a man to bear the yoke in his youth.' This is the youth of my housekeeping, and I certainly have borne the yoke. Civilization makes a vast amount of work. What a saving it would be to live in a hut, eat out of one's fingers, and save all this tremendotis routine of cooking and cleaning up. How much easier it would be, if all that was necessary to wind up the dinner arrangements, after the meal was dispatched, were just to lick your fingers, and wipe your knife on your breeches and pocket it, instead of having dishes, cups, saucers, knives and forks, pots and kettles, to clean after every meal." There is ample evidence that he met the demands of his position as the head of a household, whether of the nature of emergencies or of a more ordinary sort, with ready sagacity and resourcefulness. Strong common sense was a chief, if not his preeminent characteristic. This is constantly illustrated in the homeliest manner, as when he writes to his mother, on the 8th of October. 1849: "I will tell you what I want you to have done for me. against I come by from Synod. Have a bag of yeast cakes ready. Have me a good garden hoe made; for here they do not make broad hoes; they buy a set of little worthless things, made out of sheet iron, from the stores. And also a bread-tray, if there are any of your colored acquaint- ances that deal in those articles. I can carry it up under the seat of my buggy. If you can get these things, I would thank you to have them ready against I return from Synod. Also. I wish Frank to chaffer with Sam Mason, or any other good and cheap smith in the neighbor- hood, about making and ironing for me a set of one-horse zcagon wheels, good and strong. The prices of smith's work here are exorbi- tant. I find a good one-horse wagon, ready for use. will cost me here not less than seventy dollars. This I can't stand. I think it probable the rates of work are so much cheaper down there that I can buy the four wheels and have them hauled up cheaper than I can get them here. Then I will make the axles, shafts and bodies myself." 122 Life and Letters of Rop.ert Lewis DAnxEY. Life came near being all a thing of choice with him. He drifted nowhere. On the thousand small things of life he thought, thought through them, and did consciously what he did, in preference to many other courses contemplated as possi- bilities. jNIore courses lay open to him than to most men, be- cause of his multitudinous capacities. In the matter of the one-horse wagon, he was competent to a course which would have been open to few gentlemen. He had such skill in wood- working that he could not only make nearly every part of that woodwork with accuracy, but could do the fine work of a trained joiner. He had made a good deal of the furniture that went into his house at "Sleepy Hollow." It is said that most sons, once they marry and have families and homes of their own, cease to be the interested and helpful sons and brothers they were before marriage. Robert L. Dab- ney was an exception in this respect. On the 20th of February, 1849, he writes to his brother William: "I have been wishing to give mamma some help this year, in squar- ing up her little matters. I have not drawn any of the mill-rent for the year 1848,' and wish one hundred dollars to be applied to the pay- ment of her accounts, so as to help her in bringing up the arrearages. I would be glad that you would attend to the matter, and see this much of the money applied in this way." This is but one instance in his daily thought for his mother, and it wants somewhat of being a characteristic instance. He had not only the disposition to aid his mother at the end of the year, but he supervised in a friendly way her affairs, giving suggestions about every sort of interest, year in and year out, from his perch in the Valley. The health of his sister Betty declined in the year 1849. He construed, in his own way, the mildly expressed fears in the letters from Louisa. He coun- selled energetic measures to counteract what he looked on as tendencies to scrofula. He had her come to the A^alley that summer, and carried her himself to the Rockbridge Alum, and thus did much to stay the progress of the malady ; but the best testimony to his unchanged devotion to his family is found in their feelings on the subject. Even his sister Betty, his former pet, declared that Robert was one son and brother whose active ^ At this time Mr. Dabney owned a one-fourth interest in what had been his father's mill farm. The Pastorate of Tinkling Spring. 123 and practical interest in their concerns marriage had not changed in the least. This filial and fraternal devotion was paid for in appropriate coin. A sister writes to him: "Never did a son have a more devoted mother than you. I believe she thinks of you con- stantly." Her own admiration for her brother was hardly less than that felt by the strong-minded old mother. They all ad- mired him for his talents, cultivation and character, and they all leaned on him in every crisis in their individual lives as a safe support, and they all loved him for what he was to them and did for them. His labors thus far recounted, and the family interests to which he gave attention, would have filled the mind and heart of any ordinary man, and pressed him sorely; but this man abounded in this period in many other forms of labor. Several summers he partly spent in preaching tours, usually in accord with the appointment of his Presbytery, going once or twice as far as Pocahontas county, now in the State of West Vir- ginia. In 1852, Mr. Dabney added to his other forms of labor that of school-keeping. The Tinkling Spring people, though a rich agricultural community, had neglected to have a classical school. On the ground of this want, Mr. Dabney explained the fact that they had reared no ministers. He proposed that they should no longer be without such an institution. In September, 1852, he began the conduct of a classical school in the session-room. He got his people to put up a nice school building at Barter Brook, very soon had twenty-six or seven scholars, and made the school yield him seven hundred and fifty dollars as an addi- tion to his income. He had scholars that year who became a credit to him. Amongst them was Mr. Walter Blair, for a long time a distinguished and honored member of the Faculty of Hampden-Sidney College. Many stories, more or less charac- teristic of the man and his methods of discipline, have been told. He was always energetic. It is said that in this school he some- times broke slates over the heads of naughty pupils, and left the frames around their necks as ornaments, that he found it convenient to pitch books, keys, sticks of wood, and other bric-a-brac, at the heads of the lazy and disorderly. Many of these stories are probably apocryphal, but they may be taken to indicate somewhat as to the energy of his methods. It is per- fectly certain that he meant to be master in that body, no matter 124 Life and Letters of Rodekt Lewis Dacnev. what the cost, for in a letter to his sister Betty, of March 4, 1853, he tells her that the mother of one of his pupils had written to her son not to submit to being whipped. He says : "On hearing this, I told him that we must settle the question of supremacy at once ; and while I was gone to get some switches, he might make up his mind either 'to cut dirt' or take a thrashing again. He elected the former. His parents foolishly backed him up in his insubordination, and so I told them he would have to staj' expelled. " On one occasion there was something approaching mutiny in the school. Air. Dabney had given one of the young men a flogging which some thought too severe. There was talk of combining against him and flogging him. He suspected some- thing of the kind. His face became more grim and determined than usual. At recess he strode to the woods near by, cut an extra handful of stout switches, and also a stout hickory cane, with which he could have felled an ox. When he returned, the boys looked at his instruments of education. They subsided. Nor did they ever forget the look of his face. That the teaching added to his reputation shows that it was able ; but his many kinds of enterprise pressed heavily on his strength and health ; accordingly, he engaged Mr. J. N. Craig, afterwards the Rev. Dr. J. N. Craig, long Secretary of Home Missions, as his assistant.'* He took the school when Mr. Dabney was called to be professor in Union Theological Seminary. It was for a long time kept up at least intermittently, under the blessing of God, and sent not a few young men into the ministry. Mr. Dabney's correspondence in this period grew heavier, and took a wider range of discussion. Religion, politics, law, literature, farming, school-teaching, family life, local history, etc., etc.. gave him occasion and furnished niaterials for his self-expression in epistolary effort. ____^ t ■* Dr. Craig was a spiritual son of Dr. Dabney. The Rev. William Price writes : "About 1848, J. N. Craig, then at the Fishburne School, at Waynesboro, wrote me at Marlin's Bottom, now Marlinton, Poca- hontas county, W. Va., to let me know that he had given his heart to Christ and united with the church, as a result of continued religious services conducted by the pastor, W. T. Richardson, assisted by Rev. R. L. Dabney, pastor of the neighboring Tinkling Spring Church. He referred to one of Mr. Dabney's sermons as the impulsive agency that led to his taking the stand he had. as an open professor of the faith in Christ as his Lord and only hope." The Pastorate of Tinkling Spring. 125 The following letter to the Rev. Moses D. Hoge may be presented as a fair sample of many in this period, dealing with subjects at once important and delicate: "January 28, 1852. "Dear Brother Hoge: I had heard iiearlj' the proposal of your letter from a highly respectable source at Synod, and am glad to find that it is exciting attention. I concur fully with the reasonings you present on the main point, and in most of the details. There is nothing more repugnant to my judgment and my feelings than the proposal to force Dr. to ft resignation by any scrt of expedient. I consider it not only unkind, but unjust to him; and it would be disastrous to the Seminary. I was much struck by a remark made by Dr. McGuffey last summer, in talking of this very case : that he had never known a literary institution, from which an old locum tcnens of tolerable respectability had been ousted by any such means, that was not seri- ously injured by it. And you may depend upon it that all such plans and changes will only realize for the Seminary the fable of the fox and the flies. One swarm of cavillers will be quieted only at the expense of raising an opposite swarn. For instance. Bocock, and many such geniuses, are resolved not to give any hearty support till Dr. is supplanted. Now, his man to succeed him is Brother , a person whose peculiarities of style would raise far more opposition among many of the plain seniors than even Dr. 's supposed old-fogyism raised among the ecclesiastical chivalry. This shows how wrong and unjust it is to suspend our support of the Seminary on having all the men of our choice there. But there will always be such people; and, my dear brother, we must only go on sustaining the Seminary magnani- mously and disinterestedly, whether everything suits our personal preferences or not. "I foresee very great difficulty in any man's now accepting the vacant professorship who is fit for it. So much has been said, and said by directors and electors, about the necessity of a man of transcendent abilities and reputation, to work some miracle for the raising of the languishing institution, that it seems to me any man who should now accept must either be very conceited or very destitute of proper respect — unless elected unanimously. Who can now command a unanimous vote? But if an Adjunct Professor of Theology were elected at the same time, and if he were a man in whom the Professor-elect of Church History had confidence, it would greatly smooth the way. The idea is decidedly a good one. As to the talk about the folly of electing a fourth man to teach twelve students, this weighs nothing with me. We are not working for the present only. We have not so little hope and faith ; our aspirations for our Zion are not so low and mean as to be willing that things shall always remain as they are. We build for the future. We should act as though we really expected a blessing on our 126 Life and Letters of Robert Lewis Dabney. prayers and labors, and expected the church to grow. The farmer builds a barn when he has not a sheaf of ripe wheat. Who charges him with folly? Nor would the expense of the support of the new professor be an obstacle, if the church chose to put forth her strength. There is money enough if the church chooses to give it. "The difficulties which weigh with me are these : Might not the elec- tion of this adjunct professor be interpreted by Dr. into a wish for his resignation? and thus lead to his immediate departure. That the adjunct professor should take any share in the agency for the col- lection of his own salary strikes me very unpleasantly. I think no man would consent to it who had much delicacy. His salajy must be some- what precarious, resting on such a basis as the annual subscriptions of the churches ; and the man who should take this chair must make up his mind to a good many sacrifices and uncertainties until Dr. retired. Again, I do not know where to look for the men. I have great repugnance to truckling longer to the suicidal notion that foreign things must be best, by going abroad for professors. While I am ready to sustain heartily any respectable man whom my brethren may select, I should have great difficulty in pointing out a man to my own satisfaction for either chair. But there is no more difficulty in finding two than one. "The ordering of this step must come, I suppose, from the Board of Directors ; and I, being an elector, can have no other agency in it than as a well-wisher. If it can be heartily done, I shall rejoice to see it done. I shall take the liberty of suggesting your ideas to Rev. Wil- liam Brown, Smith and White, and advocating them as well as I can. "I have been wading, for the last week or two, through all the annoyances of a removal into an unfinished house. And this week there are superadded the afinoyances of Christmas. Most of my servants are hirelings; they are now free. I have just finished replacing my books on the shelves to-night. After filling the day with multitudinous offices, among the rest, paving a path with broken stone, I cut wood for the family, fed the hogs (one of which showed fight, not liking a white skin), and stooped about over my books, till my brain was nearly addled. I doubt not you will see manifest evidences of this in my letter. I can most heartily wish you a Merry Christmas; but if you enjoy it, you are better off than I. "Sincerely your brother, R. L. Dabney." Another of Mr. Dabney's avocations was that of farmer. This has been inipHed in the accounts g'iven of his homes ; but he had so much interest in ail the operations of farming", and did his own farming so well that it deserves, at least, distinct recog- nition in his life at Tinkling Spring. He compared the methods of farminsf in the \'allev with those east of the Blue The Pastorate of Tinkling Spring. "127 Ridge. Some of the habits of the Valley farmer he regarded as slovenly and wasteful ; others he prized highly. He noticed the relative economy in labor in the V^alley. Thus he wrote to his brother William in October, 185 1 : "Here manure is never scraped or dug up in the barnyard or wood- pile, nor is any dung fork strained nor strength expended in tearing it out of a tough mass. The manure heap is plowed with a common two-horse plow, and after the fork has done its work, a scraper is used to gather the balance. It is just as uniform a thing to see the prints of the plow at the stable or wood-pile, in the fall, as to see those of the harrow-teeth in the wheat field." He also found time for special study along chosen lines. Thus, in 1850, he must have made a very careful and thorough study of that immortal work, Butler's Analogy, for amongst his papers, in his own neat and very characteristic hand-writing, is an excellent syllabus of the whole work, and bearing the date 1850 immediately after the title. In the course of these years he bought many valuable books. The lists of his purchases from Robert Carter & Brothers, New York, amongst his papers, show that he was buying the best books, the masters in theology, philosophy, and sacred history, and along with them certain lighter works, in the sphere of biography, popular his- tory, and pastoral theology. In the course of these years he made able contributions to newspapers and periodicals. In 1848 he published two sermons in the Watchman and Observer. One of these was on the "Relation of Popery to Republicanism. In 1849 he published, in the same paper, an article against the use of "Organs," and two articles on "Dangerous Reading." In 1850 he published one or more papers on the deportment appropriate to one when approaching and while attending the house of God, and one on "The Most Fashionable Church." His object in the paper against the use of organs in worship was to "vindicate the great body of the Protestant Church of his day from the charge •of bad taste, rudeness, and blind prejudice in their opposition" to instrumental music, — an object which he accomplished easily, displaying, incidentally, a remarkable theoretical know- ledge of music also. His object in the paper on "The Most Fashionable Church" is to expose the meanness of those who would determine the church they are to join by the considera- tion of the social standing of those who are already its members. 128 Life and Letters of Rohert Lewis Dahney. It is a proof that he knew how to use sarcasm and ridicule, along with strong arguments, in a good cause. In 1850, the young pastor, thirty years old, and with only four years of ministerial experience, writes for Lexington Presbytery a pastoral letter to the sessions of their churches. The letter is strong and dignified in tone, and impresses and argues well the duty of holding services in their own churches every Simday, whether there be a minister to officiate or not. The letter was published in the JVatcJDiiau and Observer. In December, 1850, and January, 1851, he published a series of four articles in the Watchman and Observer, on the proposed innovations in the Board of Education. He opposed these inno- vations, and particularly that the church should assist in the college education of persons who are not destined to be minis- ters at all, as it now assists the education of candidates for the ministry, and that it should extend aid even to those who are not professors of religion at all. In 185 1 he reviewed, in the columns of the same paper, the Assembly of that year, of which he had been a member. He had a series of five articles of considerable length. He again paid his very particular respects to the Board of Education. At this time he held fimily to the view that the church, as such, should have nothing to do with secular education directly. The church may, and should, by its teaching of Scripture truth, and the use of appropriate discipline, arouse its members to do their duty as individuals in the way of giving an education. In the spring of 185 1 he published a series of articles on the slavery question in the Richmond Enquirer. These articles received wide and favorable notice. The whole line of the fight between the sections was closely scrutinized by Mr. Dab- ney, who "read the newspapers very little," but seemed to be aware of, and to have formed his judgment on, all the more important political movements. He felt that the ethical charac- ter of the relation of slavery ought to be vindicated before the great public. He had written to his brother, on the 15th of January, in this year, 1851, on the proper attitude for the South to maintain against the North. In the course of these sugges- tions, he writes : "Another thing which should be clone is this, to push the discussion on the fundamental etliical (juestion of the justifiahleness of slavery. This question of moral right is at the I)ottom of the whole matter. It is the ~i») (7710 from which the whole matter is set in motion. For The Pastorate of Tinkling Spring. 129 those who do not really act from principle, make a pretext of the moral principle. If we possess ourselves of this -ou ffzd) we shall undermine the whole cause of our adversaries. The justice of the Wilmot proviso is founded in the justice of the anti-slavery theory. The fact that slavery is wrong is, ultimately, the pretext of the whole movement. We should be striking home, therefore, at the foundation of the whole matter. And, rely upon it, the proper way to argue this ethical question is to put the Bible arguments. A few philosophical minds may reason out moral relations ; but with the masses the spring of their moral ideas is in their religious ideas. Our political men have neglected the re- ligious element too much, in attempting to manage human opinion. If we want to effect the general current of national opinion on this subject, 'Is slave-holding intrinsically immoral or unjust?' we must go before the nation with the Bible as the text, and 'Thus saith the Lord' as the answer. This policy is the wiser, because we know that on the Bible argument the abolition party will be driven to unveil their true infidel tendencies. The Bible being bound to stand on our side, they will have to come out and array themselves against the Bible. And then the whole body of sincere believers at the North will have to array them- selves, though unwillingly, on our side. They will prefer the Bible to abolitionism. I know the temper of my own denomination. There is in the Northern States a vast, powerful and usually sober body of Presbyterians, in the abstract anti-slavery, but not abolitionist, who have given their weight to the Wilmot proviso. If abolition was driven- to assume an infidel ground, these men would array themselves actively against the abolitionists, out of their sincere love for the Bible. Here is our policy, then, to push the Bible argument continually, to drive abolitionism to the wall, to compel it to assume an anti-Christian posi- tion. By so doing we compel the whole Christianity of the North to array itself on our side. This would be an immense political advantage. "But to enjoy the advantages of this Bible argument in our favor, slave-holders will have to pay a price. And the price is this. They must be Avilling to recognize and grant in slaves those rights which are a part of our essential humanity, some of which are left without recognition or guarantee by law, and some infringed by law. These are the rights of immortal and domestic beings. If we take the ground that the power to neglect and infringe these interests is an essential and necessary part of the institution of slavery: then it cannot be defended. One thing is certain, the relations of an immortal being to his maker override all others. We must come out and grant that our right to hold slaves to labor does not include a right to make a husband guilty of the sin of separation from his wife, for other cause than forni- cation, or to violate the chastity of a female by forcible means ; and that practices or laws which do any of these things are not a part of the scriptural and lawful institution, but abuses. Unless Southern men are willing to take this position, they cannot conquer in the discussion." 9 130 Life and Letters of Robert Lewis Dabney. Mr. Charles William Dabney took the liberty of showing' Mr. Ritchie the letter from which the quotation just made was taken, and he expressed his great readiness to have the sug- gested articles. Accordingly, they were soon prepared, and appeared in the Enquirer, over the name "Chorepiscopus," a name over which most of his contributions in the JVatchiiiaii and Observer, also, had appeared. He published, in the October issue of the Southern Presby- terian Reviezv, in 1852, an article of thirty pages, entitled, "Principles of Christian Economy," an article well fitted to awaken high expectations of the future of the writer. It may have been somewhat wanting in that it did not set forth "a general rule by which to proportion the proper degrees in which men of different degrees of wealth might indulge that species of self-improvement which consists in the cultivation of taste, etc." This criticism was. passed upon it by a man of great critical ability, who, also, pronounced the article very valuable. These articles, and others which he published in this period, gave him a well-deserved reputation for vigor and learning, as well as for a sound conservatism. They no doubt served to ■show the church, and especially the Synods of Virginia and North Carolina, his fitness for service as a professor in the Seminary at Hampden-Sidney. Another article in the Watch- man and Observer, in November, 185 1, on the duty of "Special Prayer for the Conversion of our Youth, and the Increase of our Ministers," had done not a little in the same direction. It was a single, straightforward plea for the performance of this duty on the part of the people, in accord with the solemn in- junction of the recent Synod of Virginia. The condition of Union Seminary was apparently precarious in 1852. After Dr. Graham's death, there were but two pro- 'fessors, one of them an able and efficient teacher, the other :already burdened with years, though a very excellent man. The endowment was very small. The salary paid a professor was only twelve hundred dollars and a house. The number of students, eleven ; and the opinion had gone abroad that the institution had poor prospects. Students from the two con- trolling Synods were inclined to go to Princeton or to Columbia. Under these circumstances, it was naturally difficult to properly fill the vacant professorship. It was, indeed, rather hawked about. There was a natural desire to elect a man of The Pastorate of Tinkling Spring. 131 note throughout the country that attention might be attracted to the Seminary, and attraction thither created by his influence. In the summer of 1852, the electors offered the position to Dr. Robert J. Breckinridge. Mr. Dabney, who was a member of the electoral body, was dissatisfied with the election, having preferred the Rev. Benjamin M. Smith, though he had hesitated to vote for him, on account of Mr. Smith's being a brother-in- law. He gives, at least, a partial explanation of his not voting for Dr. Breckinridge, in a letter to his brother William, dated June 28, 1852. He says, after giving an account of a sojourn in Lynchburg: "I went from Lynchburg to Union Seminary in a day, fifty miles. When I got there I found the Board of Electors busy, hammering at their nominations. I had purposely fixed my arrival after the hour set for the meeting, in the hope that the business might be done before I got there. But an unexpected trouble had arisen. Some had taken it into their heads that Dr. R, J. Breckinridge, of Kentucky, was dis- satisfied with his present position, rather broken in health and spirits, and, on the whole, might be willing to 'retire' to the quiet of the Semi- nary. We believe that the real promoters of the idea never had the remotest thought of his accepting, but only used it as a ruse to delay the election of Smith, to whom they were opposed. Alas ! that there should be ruses among Christians. The idea of a man of his tastes and reputation, of his varied wealth, with twelve children and step- children, his wife's daughters keeping their own carriage, his wife keeping hers, administering her own splendid estate and moving among the haut ton of Lexington, Ky., a man who spends five or six thousand dollars a year, and holds one of the highest elective offices in Kentucky, coming to live in quiet L^nion Seminary, with a salary of twelve hun- dred dollars a year, to assist in teaching a few poor young men divinity, is preposterous. Those who nominated him did not believe it. In itself, I did not consider the choice a good one. The case of Judge Tucker and the Law School of the University has taught me the folly of elect- ing a man who has the disposition to retire upon his ease to such schools. Dr. Breckinridge was raised a lawyer and politician, and only became a minister after he settled in life. But he has sense, and would soon have scholarship enough for any such office, in a short time, if he had a suitable temper, and chose to bend his mind to it. He is supposed to have one of the most active minds in the nation. Dr. Alexander, a very sober judge, said he believed he had more forensic talent, take him all around, than any other man in the world. His first wife was a Preston. Being with Mr. William C. Preston at Washington, one day, he met with Mr. Calhoun, and Preston being called out, he and Mr. Calhoun were left a good while together. Breckinridge was always a 132 Life and Letters of Robert Lewis Dabney. Clay man, being a neighbor, and they entered into a conversational debate on nullification. When Mr. Preston returned and Breckinridge went away, Mr. Calhoun expressed his amazement at the acuteness and force of his mind, and said he found him harder to answer than any of the professed politicians, asking who on earth he could be. Mr. Preston said he was only a Presbyterian parson from Baltimore. But with all his noble and generous traits, and his piety, which seems to be unfeigned, his temper is irritable, so that he has never done a great deal of good. I voted for Smith, but without any active par- ticipation in the struggle. Breckinridge was elected by one vote. But it is all a farce. They might just as well have elected Dr. Whately or Dr. Merle D'Aubigne, of Geneva." His prophecy as to the issue of this election came true. Dr. Breckinridge did not come. It was in the preceding November that Mr. Dabney had pubhshed, in the JVatchiiiaii and Observer, the article on the "Reasons for Observing the Day of Prayer for the Conversion of Youths, and the Increase of Ministers." In this article, after showing that only two men, out of about five hundred and fifty youths pursuing a liberal education, and not connected with denominations other than Presbyterian in three colleges in Virginia, only two men from the Synod of Virginia, although the Synod contained over a hundred minis- terial families, and over five hundred elders, whence our minis- ters, for the most part, come — only two men were added to the Seminary for the session i85i-'52; that from the Synod of Virginia, Union Seminary had only five or six men altogether, and of these, only two native-born \^irginians, he broke out : "Hear this, ye Christian fathers ! Hear this, ye mothers in Israel ! In truth, we have been sliding down the cold and drowsy descent of worldliness till we have unconsciously reached a state that is absolutely frightful. That spirit of consecration to God. of which a desire to serve God in the ministry is the sure indication, has almost utterly deserted our churches. . . . How bitter must be the divine frown that rests upon us, and to how alarming an extent must the Holy Ghost have withdrawn his true power from us, when in all these professedly Christian families there was only enough of self-devotion to lead two young men from us to the school of the prophets. . . . "Now, if other churches have lent us a few of their sons to supply the shameful destitution we have created, far be it from us to look coldly on the gift. We rejoice in the acquisition of every true minister, from whatever source. We are the last to intend anything invidious towards those who come to labor among us. But yet, are we willing, as Virginians, to sink into this state of intellectual and spiritual vas- The Pastorate of Tinkling Spring. 133 salage to other communities ; we. who have given so many intellectual rulers to the human race? No Presbyterian need be told how exten- sively an educated ministry rules and molds the minds entrusted to it. And of all Virginians, are we, Virginia Presbyterians, we who have given a Hoge, a Rice, an Alexander to the church and to the world, willing to resign ourselves to a foreign guidance? And of all times, are we willing that the control of public opinion shall be given up to other sections at tliis time, when differences of opinion, and even lamentable hostility, have separated them more widely than ever from us, and when the ill-will which pervades the South against the Northern men, whether well or ill founded, has almost made it impossible for the natives of the North to do good amongst us?" This, and more of the same character, in this article, had pleased mightily many of the leaders of the Presbyterian Church in Virginia and North Carolina. In July. 1852, he came out again, in a long and important article, in the JVatchiuan and Observer, on the "State and Claims of Union Theological Semi- nary." He does not seem to have contemplated any such efifect, but it was natural for the church at large to raise the question as to whether this young man. who could argue the importance of the Seminary to Virginia and North Carolina Presbyterian- ism so ably, could not serve the church well in one of the pro- fessorships there. In May, 1853. the Board of Electors offered the vacant chair of Ecclesiastical History and Polity to Mr. Dabney. He was not a candidate for the place, and did not desire it. He knew nothing of the movement to put him into the position, though his friends, such as Rev. Moses D. Hoge, and Rev. C. R. Vaughan. had been telling him, for two years back, that he ought to be chosen as a professor in the Seminary, and Mr. Hoge used every exertion to secure his election, and expected it fully. Mr. Dabney was happy in his manifold labors at Tinkling Spring, in his preaching and pastoral work, in his school-keeping, and in farming and building a house, in his writing for publication and correspondence. He has told us that one Saturday he was in his little corn-field, with his hired negro, planting corn, that his wife sent a boy to call him, that he called saying, "INIrs. Dabney says come to the house. Who do you suppose has been elected professor in Union Theological Seminary?" "Who?" "She says you are." He says that, in much astonishment, he went to the house, where she gave him an official letter, which threw him into great perplexity; that he much preferred to stay in his own sweet home, and with his 134 Life and Letters of Robert Lewis Dabney. church and his prosperous school. He was also in doubt as to whether he could have his health in Prince Edward county, for his health had suffered during his stay there as a college student, and again during his career as a seminary student, a fear which in his old days he regarded as proven justifiable by his experience of thirty years there as professor ; for during all that period he never enjoyed established health. He feared,, however, that he might do wrongly by deciding in accord with his personal preferences, and against what seemed to be a call of duty. The call of the Board of Electors, which had been unanimous, received commendation from every side. Drs. Wilson and Sampson, of the Seminary, wrote the most affec- tionate and urgent letters, and to his replies, replied again, arguing with him point by point. Mr. Vaughan, of Lynchburg, wrote that he must go, no matter what his feelings were. Drs. Foote, of the Board, and William S. White, and Dr. McGuffey, of the University of Virginia, and many others, urged him energetically to accept the election. Thus called and urged, he submitted the call to the judgment of his Presbytery; his con- gregation, which had seen, bursting frequently from beneath his usually severe bearing, flashes of tender and intense affec- tion, not only trusted him absolutely, but had come to love him devotedly. It made a most affectionate and energetic protest against his leaving, maintaining that such a step would not only greatly injure Tinkling Spring congregation, but Valley Pres- byterianism. There was a very solemn discussion before the Presbytery, resulting in the decision that he ought to go to the Seminary. As illustrative of the way in which he was urged by letter, and of the view of the case which his Presbytery took, the letter of the Rev. William S. White, D. D., of Lexington, is pre- sented : "Lexington, Va., April 4, 1853. "My Dear Brother : I greatly desired to see you as I passed through j^our neighborhood, but being in the stage and in great haste, I could not. "As to the general aspects of the question submitted to your con- sideration by the recent vote of electors of Union Theological Semi- nary, of which, as chairman of the committee appointed for the purpose,. I have already given you official information, you are just as well acquainted as I am. I regard the position to which you are invited as more important than any pastoral charge in the land. And I am free to say that j'our habits, tastes and genera! qualifications fit you for The Pastorate of Tinkling Spring. 135 the station. The experiment jou have made as a writer is quite suffi- cient to prove that, with the opportunities which this office will furnish, j'ou may reasonably hope, through God's blessing, not only to serve your own, but succeeding generations by your pen. You know me too well to suppose that I intend this for flattery. I will also say that this opinion is entertained as far as my acquaintance extends. "As to the election itself, you know that I have been long anxious to elect Mr. Smith. But in this I was not sustained so as to make his election desirable, even if it were practicable. "It will surely be enough for you to know that your election was unanimous and cordial. Others were voted for, but your name was among the first put into nomination. The men who seemed resolutely resolved not to support Mr. Smith in any event, went promptly and earnestly for you. As I stated in my official letter, there was not even a minority to acquiesce. "From the Seminarj^ I went to Farmville. There I learned that your election was most acceptable. Even Dr. Leech spoke in strong commendation of it. The Petersburg and Richmond brethren were highly gratified. Indeed, Hoge and Van Zandt took a very leading part in the matter. In Charlottesville I spent a day, and there, too, it was highly approved. My own people I find greatly delighted. Indeed, it meets with universal favor. So far, then, as the voice of the church can be regarded as any index of the will of Providence, that will obvi- ously is that you accept the appointment, and enter with all prudent haste upon this new, wide and promising field of labor. "I have never known the Board as much united, nor as inucli in earnest. Your place at Tinkling Spring may readily be supplied — that at the Seminary cannot be. My heart's desire and prayer to God is, that you may see the finger of God pointing distinctly to acceptance. "A brighter day is dawning. I never saw so noble, so promising, though so small, a band as they now have at the Seminary. There is not an indifferent young man among them. "The number of young men looking to the ministry is increasing; or, what is more certain, is that ministers are beginning to talk and preach and pray about this matter as they have never done in my day. "Dr. Junkin says 'the glory has departed' from Princeton ; that his two sons, now there, 'are not at all pleased.' I know that but for their enjoying the proceeds of two scholarships, they would forthwith leave and come to Union. Two young men have already done this, and one of them told me, on my late visit, that they were pleased they had done so. "I went by Richmond chiefly to see if good Brother Gildersleeve could not be bought out. Since I reached home I have had a letter from him expressing his willingness to sell, and stating his terms, which seem to me to be reasonable. The plan is to have the paper 136 Life and Letters of Rohert Lewis Dabxey. edited by an association of gentlemen — Hoge. Moore and Van Zandt have already promised to be three of the number. We only want one more. Smith of Staunton, or Sampson of the Seminary, or yourself, must be the fourth. "Several of my people are very sick. My hands are very full ; so farewell for the present. "Tell Lavinia that she and Bob and Jim are not to say a word against this Seminar}' business. Give them my love, and the love of my wife and children. "Yours truly and atTectionately, "Wm. S. White." -■ In this summer of 1853, when Mr. Dabney had just been elected to the professorship in the Seminary, and when he was only thirty-three years of age, he received the honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity. On occasion of this recognition of his abilities, attainments and character, by the eminent Board of Trustees of that institution, his friend A^aughan writes char- acteristically : "How do you feel? I could not help being amused at imagining how you must have looked and felt when you got the notice of the action of the Board — to fancy the strong, sarcastic expression that twisted your dear old long, severe face, as it struck you the Board might have waited a little longer, and the gradual modification of this expression, as yovir religious instincts began to whisper, 'Maybe it may be for the interests of the Seminary, however embarrassing to me.' Have I spelt you right, fnon chcr? But really and heartily, all badinage aside, my dear friend, I congratulate you. Your blushing and well- deserved honors are budding thick upon you this year. You are worthy of this title, far more so than a thousand that have it. The title of D. D. was originally intended to reward high scholarship in the ministry. But of late years it has grown down very nuich into a distinction merely of age, pastoral fidelity and general usefulness. It ought to be restored to its original basis, and on that basis you may accept it without the embarrassment that you will probably feel at the recollec- tion of your age. and the recent period of your elevation to a public ])ost in the church. ... It may add weight to your professorial character and extend your influence abroad on the fortunes of the Seminary. But whether you accept or reject it, you may be sure that those that know you will not dream that your personal merit will l)e afifected by it. It did not take the title of doctor to make them respect you, nor will either its acceptance or rejection alter their views for the better or the worse." ' Letter of C. R. Vaughan, June 27, 1853. The Pastorate of Tinkling Spring. 137 Mr. Dabney went alone to the Seminary, in August. In October, he brought over his family. They were assigned the residence in the eastern part of the main building. He and his good wife must have felt very keenly the differ- ence between the life in a pastorate, and that in a scholastic institution. His Valley charge had been his first real pastoral charge. He loved that people as he never loved any other to the end of his life. They were hard-headed folk, as the Scotch- Irish ever are, and hard to lead ; but his own honesty and earnestness had met honesty and earnestness in them ; and they loved him as they have loved few pastors. Here are letters from the Guthries, and the Bells, and the Van Lears, etc., lamenting his departure, and breathing out a reverential afifec- tion for him. The new environment w^as, for a time, less agree- able, but the new post was more important. At Union Seminary he was to stay thirty years, fill, with great distinction, two professorships — first, that of Ecclesias- tical History and Polity, and, later, that of Systematic and Polemic Theology — he was to be co-pastor for many years of College Church, the adviser of many in need in his community and elsewhere. There he was destined, by his writings, to bring the philosophical and theological world into debt to God for him ; and, while residing there, he was to figure as a patriot and soldier. In the next chapter we shall study his life while he was holding the first-named of the professorships. CHAPTER X. PROFESSOR OF ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY AND POLITY. (August, 1853— May, 1859.) View of the Importance of the Chair. — Time during which he Occupied this Chair. — His Inaugural. — Method of Teaching. — Holds High Ideals before the Students. — Vigor and Success of his Work in this Department. — Other Labors for the Semi- nary.— Raising Money; Drumming for a High Order of Stu- dents ; Superintending Improvements; Seeking Professors ; Teaching Theology to the Senior Class in 1858-1859. — Head Man in the Seminary after 1854. — Dr. Sampson's Death in 1854. and Loss to the Seminary. — Dr. B. M. Smith's Election TO FILL THE VaCANT ChAIR.— Dr. Wm. J. HoGe's ELECTION TO FILL the New Professorship. — Reorganization of the Seminary Studies. — Varying Fortunes of the Institution in the Period. — • Mr. Dabney's Devotion to the Institutoin. WHEN Mr. Dabney went from his large and important congregation, leaving also his flourishing classical school behind him, to the professorship in run-down Union Seminary, where only about a dozen students had been gath- ered the preceding session, he seemed to some to be leaving a larger work for a smaller; but he did not view the matter in this light. He saw the pervasive character of the influence of the theological teacher. The motives by which he was actuated are set forth in a letter of his to the Rev. Dr. G. B. Strickler, dated October 8, 1883. Mr. Strickler had, in the meantime, passed through the Seminary under Dr. Dabney, had won a most distinguished place in his regard, and subsequently an enviable place in the estimation of the whole church, and had just been elected to the chair of Ecclesiastical History and Polity in his ahna mater. Mr, Dabney, in this letter, is setting forth the motives by which he thinks his friend Strickler should be moved. They were those which had availed with him. The letter is, in part, as follows:. "Hearne, Texas, October 8, 1883. "The Rev. G. B. Strickler, D. D. '"Dear Brother: I was sorry to notice in the last Central I saw, now more than a week old, that your church in ,\tlanta had voted Professor of Ecclesiastical History and Polity. 139 against your going to the Seminary, declaring your post in that city more important than the other. Their position tacitly concedes the logic that if the Seminary position were the more important one, it would be their duty to give you up. On the premise (the respective importance of the two spheres) they evidently utter the judgment of local prejudice and erroneous information. Nobody can doubt that to train up many pastors, and thus multiply yourself, is better than to do the work of one pastor. There is the case in one sentence. So Dr. Chalmers decided for himself, in leaving the greatest pastoral work m Great Britain, sustained by the most brilliant personal abilities, in order to teach theology in the Free Church College in Edinburgh, then a comparatively new and problematic enterprise. "There is another reason, which, in your case, is even more de- cisive for your going to the Seminary. You have that didactic turn of mind which is so rare, and so hard to find in a high degree, and which is the crowning qualification for eminent usefulness in the Semi- nary. It exists in few, in combination with mental vigor, learning, pru- dence and moral character. It is precious and essential in the church's teaching work. Where it exists the church is entitled to lay hands on it, and appropriate it to its highest exigency in training its pastors. . . . "Very faithfully yours, R. L. Dabney. "P. S.—ls not this a proper element of the argument to be taken m ? In what sort of situation would your refusal at this time place the Seminary? Would it not be simply terrible? When I had to leave (it was no free choice) we had the hope that you would supply my place. If you refuse, the case is almost desperate." Dr. Dabney taught in the chair of History and Polity for six sessions. His inaugural address, deUvered at the close of the first session, showed an unusual conception, at once, of the difficulties, the importance, and the dignity of the historian's work : ^ "There is no department of human study requiring wider or more profound knowledge, and a rarer union of varied talents, than are requisite for him who would be master of the science of history. The study of this science is no dull tread-mill of names, dates and events, as some seem still to imagine. It is based, indeed, on a multitude of facts; but it is concerned with all their causes and relations. For the mere verifying of these facts there must be a combination of accurate and extensive knowledge, with patience, impartiality, sound judgment, subtlety and perpetual watchfulness against the blinding influences of prescription, habits, great names and prejudices. All the faculties which 'The reader can find this address in Vol. II. of Discussions by R. L. Dabney, D. D.. edited by C. R. Vaughan, D. D. It is the leading article in the volume. 140 Life and Lettf:rs of Rop.ert Lewis Dahney. are requisite for eminence in judicial transactions are here called into play; for the historian must sit in judgment on a multitude of com- peting witnesses, and hold the balance of truth with an acute eye and steady hand. Nor can he seek his witnesses only among compilers and professed historians. He must ascend to the contemporary sources of information; he must know the literature and the spirit of the age he studies ; he must gather notices of the true nature of events from every side, because statements or hints which are collateral or accidental are often, for that very reason, most impartial. The more rigidly he ques- tions the original witnesses for himself, the more will he be convinced that those writers who have professed to compile and digest the mate- rials to his hand have discolored or misinterpreted the true, living pic- ture of events. De Quincey has said, 'Two strong angels stand by the side of History as heraldic supporters : the angel of Research on the left hand, that must read millions of dusty parchments and of pages blotted with lies ; the angel Meditation on the right hand, that must cleanse these lying records with fire, even as of old the draperies of asbestos were cleansed, and must quicken them into regenerated life.' " In such wise he vindicates the dignity of his science, then sets fortli its importance with equal eloquence and vigor, and concludes : "And here, fathers and brethren, you will assent that I have bestowed upon my science the most magnificent enconium which is possible, when I have said that the history of the church is one of the studies and enjoyments of heaven. But is it not true? Here, then, let me stop, only repeating the expression of unfeigned diffidence with which I assume a department of instruction demanding for its most successful treatment universal scholarship and a mind whose imperial powers unite the sagacity of the statesman with the epic vision of the poet. I am well aware that such an undertaking cannot fail to result in a life- long sense of deficiency. Let it be mine to feel this sense as a stimulus to greater diligence. And. above all. I would seek the guidance of him whom we expect to be our teacher in heaven to unfold the divine dealings. May my historic muse be that power invoked by Milton: ■' 'And chiefly thou, O Spirit that dost prefer Before all shrines the upright heart and pure, Instruct me; for thou knowest. Thou from the first Wast present, and with mighty wings outspread, Dove-like sat'st brooding on the vast abyss. And madest it pregnant. What in me is dark, Illumine; what is low, raise and support; That to the height of this great argument I may assert eternal providence. And testify the ways of God to men.' " Professor of Ecclesiastical History and Polity. 141 The method of teaching history which he pursued. Dr. Dab- ney has himself described in another letter to Dr. Strickler. In view of the possibility of his accepting the call to the professor- ship of History and Polity, in 1883, Dr. Strickler had requested of Dr. Dabney a description of that course as conducted by him in these years, 1853 to 1839. Dr. Dabney wrote as follows : "November 2, 1883. "Dear Brother Strickler: I promised to write again and reply to your inquiry about my method of teaching Church History in the Seminary. This was a long time ago ; my teaching was doubtless very crude and imperfect; and Dr. Peck, with his longer experience and more elegant scholarship, will doubtless be able to give you better lights. "The plan of our Seminary, as a biblical seminary, makes the Bible itself a text-book for every professor. The Old Testament was my text-book for the history of the church of the old dispensation; my human helps, Prideaux's Connexions and Alexander's History of the Israelitish Nation. The Book of Acts was my text-book for the apos- tolic age of the new dispensation, with old Mosheim for the rest (with Murdock's notes). The extent of the Old Testament history was so large, and the time so short in which I had to dispatch it, that I made a sort of syllabus of the narrative in the form of questions, referring to the Old Testament by "book, chapter and verse, or to Prideaux, to give the answers. Some interesting topics, as the Usherian chronology (as against the Septuagint), etc., I made the subject of special lectures. This series of questions, I think I have still at Red Hill. I lent them once to Dr. Addison Alexander, in Princeton, and then to Dr. Peck. "Coming to the New Testament dispensation, I expounded most of the Book of Acts from the Greek. I then made the class recite on the whole of Mosheim (with all of the important notes), and lectured on salient points, as Prelacy and its Development: The Development of Roman Popery; the Crusades; The Relations of the Feudal System to the Church ; The Theory of Persecution : Of Indulgences, etc. For instance, my lectures on Acts and the first three centuries, or the devel- opment of prelacy, and the true prelatic concel^tion (which I think very few of our book-makers really grasp intelligently), are, in sub- stance, presented in the Southern Presbyterian Review, article, 'Prelacy a Blunder.' By the way. I wish you would examine the theory I there set forth. In teaching Church Government, my main reliance was on my own lectures, with Mason on the Church, which I made the class read, and references to Turretin's Eighteenth Locus. I also made the students write a few essays on points selected for them. Of these, some were capital. This was about all I did. "I still think Murdock's Mosheim, on the whole, about the best class book. Heavy, objectionable on many grounds, but yet learned and 142 Life and Letters of Robert Lewis Dabney. weighty, and introducing the student to the wide literature of the sub- ject. Dr. Peck came to use Kurtz. "Dr. Philip Schaff had then written the first volume of his Church History, extending to the Council of Nice. I thought extremely well of it. He has since continued his work. I surmise it is very valuable ; may have the makings of a valuable class-book. Gieseler, translated by Cunningham, is invaluable. His text is a mere string. The valuable feature is the well-selected and germane notes, and full citations from the contemporary literature. Read, for instance, Mosheim's sketch of the Nestorian question, and then Gieseler's citations ; and you will feel that you have daylight, where Mosheim left you in moonlight; that you have gotten to the kernel of the heresy, while Mosheim left you in the shell. "Torrey's translation of Neander I consulted a good deal. The style is heavy and very Germanish, and metaphysical in places. Yet it is a storehouse of information. Neander's accounts of the History of Doc- trines must be taken 'cum grano sails.' He tries to make out that all the fathers, and especially the Greek, thought a la Schliermacher. Hallam's Middle Ages I regard as invaluable, as giving a proper con- ception of the feudal system, and its influences on the church. "I found the chief drawback to be this, in teaching Church History : that to study it intelligently, and especially to grasp anything of the philosophy of history (the only thing in it worth keeping), requires much general information ; and our college graduates have so little. "Best wishes for Mrs. Strickler. "God be with you, my dear brother, "R. L. Dabney." He held aloft a high ideal before his students, taught them that they were in the Seminary for training, for "bodily work." He made the opening address of the session i854-'55; his subject was "Methods of Studying." He insisted on the necessity of active habits, elastic labor, on learning to think with definiteness, abhorring a vague idea, reproducing in our own verbiage an author's train of thought, on "studying fast," holding that otherwise a man could not study much, specially after becoming a pastor, on the student's availing himself of every means of improvement. He warned them that, if they were lazy as students, they would be lazy as future ministers. He not onlv taught along this line, he lived a highly strenuous life. He studied and taught his course with great vigor. As early as January ii, 1854, Dr. William H. Foote had written: Professor of Ecclesiastical History and Polity. 143 "Brother Dabney: I want to ask a small favor of you. I under- stand that your labors are very acceptable; that your lectures are lis- rened to with deep interest, and that your example of study and investi- gation is impressing the students favorably, both as to yourself and as to their personal duties. In all this I rejoice. To see the Seminary begin to lift up its head again and be reckoned among the first in the land, and its example and arrangements claiming not only attention, but fixing a mark for others to aim at — all this is exceedingly encour- aging. And now, my dear brother, I ask a favor ; that is, that you will not on any account sit up and continue your studies after nine or ten o'clock at night." And the good Doctor goes on to argue why this favor should be granted. On March 10, 1856, his friend Vaughan wrote: ''I trust you will never listen to any proposition to change your present position, either for a church or another chair. Write a Church History. This, in my judgment, is your work. It is my deliberate opinion that you can do it better than it ever has been done, not with the learning, but with a spirit, life, power and completeness never yet displayed in writing the history of the most wonderful institution ever known on earth. Let your inaugural discourse be to your future labors what Macauley's paper on 'History' in the Edinburgh Review has been to him. You can't do this without sticking to your chair. But if you will, you will make a book that will give you more reputation, that will put money in your pocket for your family, and that the church will not willingly let die. This is a favorite scheme of mine for j^ou. What do 3'ou think of it?" His students of this period, still living, as Dr. James P. Smith, of Richmond, Va., often speak of the freshness, pene- tration and vigor of his occasional lectures on important parts of Church History, and of his general success as a teacher in this department; but his greatest work as a teacher was to be done in another department. His teaching of Church History and Polity was only a part of his work for the Seminary during these years. He made laborious tours every vacation at his own expense. In the summer of 1855, he travelled as a collector for the additional endowment, raising about three thousand dollars. During other years he visited churches, colleges and universi- ties, preaching, endeavoring to give a favorable impression of the Seminary, and canvassing for the "right sort of students." 144 Life and Letters of Robert Lewis Dabney. His aim was "to get hold of men of worthy antecedents, l)reed- ing, and piety of a decided sort," and, as far as possible, of men of culture or of unusual susceptibility therefor, instead of de- pendent and ill-educated men. He was besought to do this by friends of the Seminary in many of the Virginia Presbyteries, and in several of the Presbyteries of North Carolina. On September 8, 1857, Dr. Charles Phillips, of the University of North Carolina, writes : "I do most sincerely hope you will carry out your plan of visiting us ; and please try to give us a Sabbath, and preach to our boys in the College on Sunday at 11 a. m.^ and at night in our village church as often as you please. We had four hundred and four on our roll the other day, and several look to the ministry, and others might well be influenced that wa3\" At another time Dr. Phillips writes him that the pastors and sessions are indeed under obligation to seek out suitable men for the ministry ; but it is still the duty of Seminary professors, as opportunity ofifers, to come to the help of the local presbyters in the effort to increase the number of candidates. Dr. Dabney was fully convinced of the propriety and importance of such endeavor on the part of Seminary professors, and did not spare himself in regard to it. For example, in the summer of 1858, he made two such tours — one to North Carolina, visiting Chapel Hill, Yanceyville, and Milton, and other points, and another to the Valley of Virginia, visiting and preaching at Lexington, New Providence, Tinkling Spring, Winchester, Charlestown, Martinsburg. Berkeley Springs, Falling Water Church, Rom- ney, Moorefield, Petersburg, New Creek, Piedmont, and Cum- berland, Md. During this vacation he was separated from his family nearly three months on itineracies. His jom-neying may have been somewhat greater that summer than usual, but it was typical of his vacations throughout this period. He spent them in laborious effort to build up the Seminary, and ennoble it by attracting a high class of students. In 1856. the election of an additional professor required the building of another house. Dr. Dabney was made chairman of the building committee. He gave the vScminary, as a free gift, eight acres of land, on which the house was built ; he drew all the plans, and superintended the building of this, the fourth residence. This house, which was very attractive in appearance, and a model of convenience, was assigned to him to dwell in. Professor of Ecclesiastical History and Polity. 145 He went at once to work to create a garden spot. The soil was most unpromising, full of small stones and of small black-oak stumps. He soon made it a famous garden, and similarly improved the whole lot attached to his house, planting an orchard, and an additional garden, which he watered by irriga- tion. This period was one of change in the professorial body. His deep interest in the fortunes of the Seminary made him anxious that the proper men should be secured as professors. Though not a member of the Board of Electors, he was, as greatly hon- ored and trusted by them, naturally invited to take an active, though unofficial, hand in securing suitable men. In the year 1858, his burdens in the service of the Seminary were materially increased by the request, on the part of the Board, that he should conduct the senior class in the Depart- ment of Systematic and Polemic Theology. The Board had felt that Dr. Wilson needed help in that department. A most excellent man, and very much beloved and respected as such by all who knew him, Dr. Wilson was burdened by years, and could not carry the work. Some of the representatives of the church were in favor of his retirement from the position ; to many of the noblest ministers and elders, however, such a course was abhorrent, on account of his eminent character and services. Of this latter party was Dr. Dabney, who always entertained great esteem for his venerable colleague. If the Seminary was not to suiter, however, it was necessary that some one else should take a hand in the teaching of that chair. Dr. Dabney seemed to have the surplus energy and the ability, of every sort, needed, and, accordingly, he was asked to take charge of the senior class, for the session of i858-'59, in theology, as well as to continue his work in his own chair of Church Historv and Polity. He had undoubtedly been the head man. the leading member, of the Seminary Faculty since 1854. This will be made clear, incidentally, in the course of the following paragraphs. It may be noted here that the evidence is abundant that he was re- garded, throughout the controlling Synods, as the leading man in the institution. It would not be proper to exhibit this evi- dence at length. It would, indeed, be invidious ; but the fol- lowing excerpt, from a letter of the Rev. John W. Pugh, of Warrenton, in the Presbytery of Winchester, which had re- cently passed a set of resolutions reflecting, to a degree, on the 10 146 Life and Letters of Robert Lewis Dabney. management of the Seminary, may be cited as an example. The letter bears date October 8, 1857. In it, amongst many other things. Mr. Pngh says : "You may rest assured, however, that at no time have you been stronger in the affection and confidence of Winchester Presbytery. We all are rejoiced that Dr. Dabney holds the chair that he does, and if ever any wish for a change, so far as affects him. has entered the mind of any one, it was only that he might occupy the chair of Didactic and Pastoral Theology." The lamented Francis S. Sampson had died on the 9th of April. 1854. His death was a great blow to the Seminary. He was a man of eminent piety, nnswerving in the path of duty, very modest and very humble, but very courageous in behalf of right, and against every fonn of sin. His scholarship was exceptional, and his teaching abilities of a very distinguished order. The churches had begun to appreciate him at his ap- proximate worth. The belief that he should have him as a colaborer, in his efiforts to build up the Seminary, and raise it from its decrepit position, had been one thing that reconciled Mr. Dabney to undertake that "almost hopeless enterprise." The death of Dr. Sampson, his most venerated teacher, and then his colleague, only a few years his senior, and knit to him closely by ties of affection and a common deep concern for the Seminary, left Dr. Dabney alone with the venerable Wilson, who was overburdened with years, to carry on the work. On the 24th of April. 1854, Dr. Dabney writes to his brother, Mr. C. W. Dabney : "Dr. Sampson's death was a great blow to us, and I fear it will be to this institution. He was eminent just in those departments in which good scholarship is rare in this country, Hebrew, etc. His sick- ness was short, and though his lungs had long been in a suspicious state, he seemed better the last winter than he had been for many years. He leaves a very helpless young family, and dies intestate. But these are comparatively unimportant matters to one who has any proper appreciation of that world which has now been brought so near to us by his entrance into it. I fully believe that he was a good man. and is now blessed. Although his death occurred a few hours earlier than the physicians anticipated, they had only a faint gleam of hope. He was not aware of his certain death, even up to the time when he ceased to communicate with his family and attendants; but, from an early stage in his sickness, was aware of the extreme probability of such an is\ Ezekiel xviii 31, xi. 19, 20; John iii. 1-15; Ephesians i. 19, 20. These are a few of a multitude. Let me appeal to your own consciousness and experience. Is not this obviously the correct view of human nature ; and that not only in things religious, but in all things, that man has certain prevalent dispositions which are innate, unchangeable by human power, and dominant, and which determine the force and effect of motives on him, and the nature of his preferences and actions? For instance, there is the love of the approbation of fellow-men; a principle not taught, but inborn, not adopted or selected by the person's own choice, but prior to, and prevalent over his choice, by the influence of which every man naturally seeks a part of his happiness in the applause of his asso- ciates, and naturally does many things to gain that applause. Knowing that this is a natural trait of the soul, we expect to find man guided by it more or less with absolute certainty and in every human being. We are willing beforehand to assert it of every human being in the world, however unknown to us, that he is sensii-)le in some respects to this love of applause, and does some things to win it. And if any man tells us, 'No, he has rid himself entirely of it by an act of his choice, or has been educated or persuaded out of it entirely" (like the hermit, Professor of Ecclesiastical History and Polity. 183 for instance, who professes to forget the praise of men in his desert cell), we tell him he is only mistaken. An inborn disposition is not so eradicated; he still feels it, but unconsciously. A man cannot (be- cause he will not) choose or be persuaded to divest himself of one of these native dispositions of the soul, because it is they which deterr mine the nature of its choices. We might draw a similar illustration from the native love of self, the native sense of incum and tcuin, or love of property, the native sexual propensity, the native love of society, €tc., etc. Now, is there not in all of us a similar native, dominant, original disposition for earthliness, rather than godliness; a disposition which turns us away from the holiness and spirituality of God to the world, as our preferred object, and causes us to adopt some form of disobedience to his law as our habitual course and career? Every man is conscious of it. I knoiv it ivas so with me. I see it is so with every human being I know, who is not changed by God, aijd so I believe the Bible when it says it is so universally. It is a disposition innate, funda- mental, original, itself determining the force of motive and the nature of our preferences, and not, therefore, to be revolutionized by mere motive. Education, habit, persuasion, self-government, may curb or conceal, but cannot eradicate it any more than eradicate self love, the sensual propensity, or the love of applause. There is not an instance of such a thing in the history of the human race. Is it so, then, that this native ungodliness is in us, and is utterly ineradicable by any mere human influence? There is no denying these two facts. "But reason and Scripture both say that it must be eradicated, or there is no true, no effectual redemption. "Ye must be born again;' 'that which is born of the flesh is Hesh' (possessed of man's nature). 'Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God.' And there are two reasons why this must be so. "i. As David says in the fifty-first Psalm, 'God requireth truth in the inward parts.' As a spiritual, heart-searching and perfect being, he cannot be satisfied with a service or regard that is external or merely interested. "2. Man cannot be happy without the change. Impunity could not make him happy. Heaven could not. This dominant disposition is called in the Scriptures carnality. It attaches itself to the world, the objects of merely natural and earthly desire, as its preferred good, and turns away from God and his more spiritual qualities with native repug- nance. But 'naked we came into the world, and naked we go out.' The time is coming when God and his worship will be the only objects pro- posed to any soul as a summum bonum. Now, what more utter misery can be imagined than to be stripped of all which our native disposition prefers as its good, and confined to that to which it has no appetency or relevancy at all ; on the contrary, a repugnance : and that for- ever. "Is it not, then, a fact most palpable, practical, e-xperimental. that 184 Life and Letters of Robert Lewis Dabxey. man needs a fundamental moral change — one which neither his own resolutions, choice, self-control, self-discipline, nor habit, education, persuasion, nor mere force of truth, will ever work? It is the most awful, startling, and awakening of all truths, more than those awful facts of an uncertain approaching death, a judgment to come, and eternal retributions, because these may be a few, a good many years off, but that presses you this moment and every moment, and shows you as much a lost soul as those already doomed; but here the gospel comes in, and says that God will work this change, which natural means cannot, by his almighty Spirit, working in connection with gospel truth heartily embraced and obeyed. This new creating grace, God says, is an influence mysterious, invisible except by its moral results, not dis- cernible even by him who experiences it, except by the changes which it produces, and supernatural. But it is real. There may be tens of thousands who persuade themselves they have experienced it, and are mistaken, and hundreds who hypocritically profess it for selfish ends ; but if there is one unmistakable instance, where the native disposition has been thus fundamentally reversed, where the well-sustained conduct shows that (amidst remaining imperfections) God and his favor have become the soul's chief good instead of the world, there is sufficient evidence. There is a mental phenomenon, which no natural principle can explain, any more than the resurrection of Christ's body. There is the finger of God. "Now this great and awful fact leaves man in a state of dependence on God. There is no pardon, except in connection with the new birth. Guilt and depravity must both be removed together, if at all. Sinful man hangs on God's good pleasure. Well, if this is so, what is the madness of provoking this holy being by further pursuing a life of sin? Do you object that you are dependent (according to my teaching) on grace to arrest that sinful life to any good purpose? Well, if continu- ance in sin is madness and guilt, and cessation of sin will not take place without divine help, the only dictate of good sense is to fall as a helpless, passive sinner on the promises; to resign one's self at once to be saved as one helpless by the gospel plan. This state of mind is what leads to faith, thoroughly convinced, emptied of self, despairing of self, wholly resigned to God's righteousness and grace. To such a mind the promise comes in, 'To as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to as many as believed on his name, which were born not of blood, nor of the will of man, nor of the will of the flesh, but of God.' (John i. 12, 13.) Weigh every word. "You will say I send you a sermon instead of a letter. Well, I will add one more feature of resemblance ; and as the preachers follow their sermons with a prayer for the divine blessing, after I have folded up this lame and halting composition, and directed it to you, I will kneel down, and pray to 'the God who seeth in secret,' to guide you into his truth, to show you the way of salvation, and place you in it, to bless \ Professor of Ecclesiastical History and Polity. 185 your little ones and make them his children, and to give the sweetest and best influences of his grace to my dear sister; and may the Lord forgive me that I, so poor and beggarly a sinner, should try to unfold the riches of his grace to one less guilty than myself. "We are all reasonably well. Betty urges me to join you all at Christmas at mamma's. This is impossible, as I have no recess, and cannot leave Lavinia. My heart will be with you. As to our griefs, our life is as April weather. R- L. D. While betraying, in most of his letters to him, this earnest desire for the conversion of his brother, their correspondence ranges over the spheres of scientific farming, law, politics, the state of the country, and churches. He pours out his fears of "mischief to come in our political relations"; sets forth his views, very moderate and cautious as to the stand the South should take'; and expounds the duty of Christian people to save the country from coming political evils. He is much consulted, not only by his brother ministers, touching calls, after the manner of many theological professors, and by congregations touching supplies ; but by men of enter- prise in beiialf of the cause of the church generally. When Dr. McGuffey would prepare a scheme for a second course of lectures on Christianity in the University of Virginia, he con- sults Dr. Dabney amongst others ; and he replies with two or three elaborate schemes as "suggestions." His old congrega- tion at Tinkling Spring numbered amongst it some of the warmest friends and admirers he ever won anywhere. They were long in finding a successor to him to please them ; he com- mended to them man after man, but they drew a contrast unfa- vorable to the candidate, even when partly disposed to accept him. But for his intense affection for the people of his old charge, and for some of them in particular, the correspondence must have proved irksome and burdensome ; but there is no sign of this on his part. Indeed, he had formed friendships amongst these sturdy Scotch-Irishmen that remained amongst the dearest of his life. During this period he received one letter by way of consulta- tion, which is a marked proof of the great honor in which he was already held, as well as indicative of character of the highest order in the writer. They were long mutual friends. ' See letter to Charles William Dabney, Esq., February 15, 1857. 1 86 ■ Life and Letters of Robert Lewis Dacney. Their regard increased with age. The letter is from Thomas J. Kirkpatrick. Rewrites: "Lynchburg, May 3, 1858. "My Dear Sir: Your favor of the 22nd ultimo was received as I was about leaving home for a week's absence. This fact occasioned the delay in my answer. It was by no means "meddlesome' in you to address me on the subject of your letter. I welcome your interest in me and in the cause of our common Redeemer ! I feel that I need the counsel and sympathy of God's people ; — especially in refer- ence to this great question of duty. I will endeavor to give you a candid statement of my situation and views. I ask that you will do me the favor to consider them, and then give me your advice. "I believe that I love Jesus Christ with an ever-increasing affection. I desire, above all things, to do his will. I hope that I am prepared to make some sacrifice for the glory of God, and sincerely pray that my soul shall be so fixed with his love as to make it my meat and drink to do his will altogether. "I have, during the last two years, frequently deliberated the subject of entering upon the life of a minister. Yet whenever I examined my motives very closely, I have seen very clearly that they were impure. I have seen that I desired to be a minister of the gospel, rather to be freed from the trying temptation of my present profession, rather to enjoy the means of grace, than to glorify God by dispensing those means to others. This motive was selfish, and pusillanimous. I am satisfied, too, that it was based on false notions of a minister's life. For some time past I have been quite active in conducting prayer- meetings — frequently making public exhortations. I have thus had a taste of the preacher's experience. This taste has satisfied me that his pathway is full of pitfalls. I have found the devil assailing me in quarters and with means that I never dreamed of before. Oh ! how wonderfully deceitful is the human heart. "But these are considerations that do not deserve so much notice. The question is. What is my duty? This I desire to know; and in arriving at an answer, the teaching of God's Providence demands the first consideration. It is here that I encounter the most serious diffi- culties, which I will briefly state. "My father died when I was very young. He left my mother, with a large family, in straightened circumstances. It was impossible to keep my education steadily advancing. For several years I went to miserable teachers, though they pretended otherwise. Once or twice the plan of my education was changed, Greek given up altogether. So that at seventeen years of age I was badly prepared for the sophomore class at Washington College. I managed, however, to get through that year, but was then compelled to teach in order to provide the means for continuing my collegiate course. I could get only a small school ; made nothing. My friends then induced me — unadvisedly, per- Professor of Ecclesiastical History and Polity. 187 haps — to commence studying law. I entered the bar when twenty years of age. Two or three years afterwards — madness ! you will exclaim — I married a poor girl, the daughter of a widow with three children, all girls. One year afterwards my mother-in-law died, when her family became my own. In the meantime, and up to the present, I have to contribute from $150 to $500 annually to the support of my mother's family. "I professed religion just before my marriage; but embraced the Confession of our church with so many and important qualifications as to render my entry upon the life of the minister wholly impossible. These difficulties grew gradually less until two years ago, since which period I have looked upon our Confession as embodying my own fixed convictions and principles. Since then, also, I have been con- sidering whether God did not call me to preach his gospel. "But I now find that my classical attainments, never respectable, have suffered from long neglect and a naturally bad memory. I have confined myself for ten years to the study of my profession and of metaphysics, the latter in all its branches, mental, moral and theological. I now know very little of the Latin — nothing of the Greek lan- guage. "Add to these facts the others, that my family are dependent upon my labor for their support, and that some of them are in such ill-health as to require much of my personal attention, and I think you will agree with me in thinking that it would require many years of the interrupted labor (which is all that is possible in my case) to prepare me for the work of a fully-equipped minister. During this period my family would be obliged to suffer. "These facts demand consideration, and I think they show — at least, with tolerable certainty — that God intends me to remain where I am. Yet I wish the matter was uiorc clearly settled. I want to do something — I want to do great things for Christ's kingdom. My dear sir. every day I live. I am more and more amazed at the love of God in Christ. That love, as I witness its work in my own poor soul, contemptible in comparison with what the work might be, is yet past all comprehension. I long to tell and to teach others the blessedness of this glorious inheri- tance. I want to be honored of God, by being used by him in bringing sinners to the marvellous light of his gospel. I pray to be wholly de- livered from everything not consonant with this high honor, this most exalted dignity. Will you, most respected sir. give me the help of your prayer just on this point? Pray that I may be delivered from all cow- ardice, all fear of sacrifice. May the Holy Ghost imbue me with his gracious influence, and lead me to love the Lord Jesus with every faculty of my being ! "Forgive my troubling you with this long dissertation on myself. May I ask. in conclusion, that you will consider my case, and help me with your advice? I thank j'ou for your kind offers of help and sym- 1 88 Life and Letters of Robert Lewis Dabney. pathy contained in your letter. May God bless you, dear sir, and honor you greatly in his blessed service ! "Very sincerely and respectfully, your friend in Christ, "ThO. J. KiRKPATRICK." * The most delightful part of his correspondence in this period is that to his wife. This has already been illustrated in the treatment of other topics, as, for instance, in that of his first trip to New York. His letters to Mrs. Dabney were always affectionate and tender in a high degree, but they were always the letters of a man of intellect, powers of observation, humor, sometimes sarcasm ; they were often descriptive, and would be useful to the historian trying to reproduce the Virginian life of his time. Take this as an instance : "TJiursday morning. "My Dear Binney: I reached mamma's last night about an hour of sun, and found mamma and Betty still at brother's, but they are ex- pected this morning. I got on very well, indeed, after starting Tuesday, eating my snack about twelve o'clock at the Tearwallet spring a mile and a half from Cumberland Courthouse, and reaching Mr. Harrison's early. I had the pleasure of travelling in my own dust all the way. which has aggravated, I think, the inflammation in my nostrils and throat. It seems to me, at any rate, that I have the symptoms of cold all the time. I rode with Mr. Harrison over his farm, which is very extensive. He has a hundred acres sown in peas, and three hundred in wheat. Of the latter, he expects to make 5,000 bushels. There is, "be- sides, a monstrous tobacco crop, and this year he is selling some corn at $5 a barrel. Such is his income. Now I will give you an inventory of the furniture in the chamber I lodged in, which was very comfortable and nice : One sycamore bedstead, worth about $4.50, with shuck mat- tress, calico counterpane, etc. ; three calico window-curtains, three split- bottom chairs, homemade ; one neat, two-ply carpet, one little, little pine washstand, one white delf wash-bowl, smallest size ; one brownstone pitcher, same material of the common crocks; one little looking-glass, on a pine dressing-table, worth about $1.50; one pine cupboard. All clean. All good enough. His coat and pantaloons cost about $2.75 per yard, coarse grey cloth. All the ladies of the family in calico, except Mrs. , who, being poor, was finer. She had on a black stuff dress in the evening, and white cambric wrapper in the morning. Now this is the way rational people live, who really are rich. Mr. Harrison says that he about lives on his income, and in educating his boys has been ' Major Kirkpatrick never entered the ministry, but blessed the whole church by his life as a Christian, and his services as a ruling elder. Professor of Ecclesiastical Historv and Polity. 189 obliged to contract some debt. Now here is a truthful picture from real life. Harrison's land is worth about $40,000, and his personal estate as much more, say $80,000 ; and here is the sort of thing which a rational, experienced man, of highest social standing, thinks that fortune will justify. . . . "When I came out from Mr. Harrison's, Marquess looked so gaunt and dissatisfied that I stopped in Cartersville to have him fed. This, together with the abominable ferry (the bridge is gone), detained us till near eleven o'clock. I came by Union Church, Providence, etc., and got to Mr. Payne's at three o'clock. A threatening cloud was just coming up. They said the house was locked up, Payne gone to Rich- mond, Anne to mamma's, etc. ; but Maria got me some dinner (hoe- cake, fried middling and milk), with a shoe knife and iron fork for table furniture, and a stool for a table. Some of Anne's windows were up, so I climbed in clandestinely at a window, opened a door, and sent her man William in to let them down. After the rain I came here, and found Louisa and Frank in possession. She is a charming woman, and none the worse in my eyes for being a "fruitful vine." I came right in on her without two seconds' warning. (Anne had left in the morning for Mr. Johnson's, so I missed her.) Louisa's dress, I suppose, cost (including everything but breastpin) about $4, a very plain lawn, a neat little collar, and a band of black ribbon, with a bow around her fair hair, but all was clean, tidy and fresh. She did not have to run and hide, as certain other females would be very apt to have to do, and undergo a hurried primping, to make herself presentable to a brother- in-law from a distance; but, hearing my step on the door-sill, looked up. and rising, came at once to meet me as she was. Her children are very well, and unusally fat. Mamma is tolerably well, they say. and very anxious to get home. "With best love to Charley, I would ask you to write to me ; but tliat I know I should not get the letter. You will get this Friday, and might write Friday evening ; send it to Richmond Saturday, so that I would be sure to receive it Tuesday; but your letters always travel so deliberately. "Your affectionate husband, R. L. Dabney." It might have been expected that a man pressed by all his cares and labors would have cared little for the social life of the community in which he lived ; but this was not the case ; he was often for an ofif day, a relief from pressure, a freedom from the stress of regular work, and wanted still more frequently an hour's pleasant, restful chat. The society of the Hill and the surrounding community was of a very high order. Rarely is a community so entirely made up of the refined, the cultivated and the excellent in character ; but it was also a communitv of 190 Life and Letters of Robert Lewis Dabney. busy people, and of people without such tremendous energy in work, and such demand for restful change as he found in himself. Hence he has the leisure to complain in his corres- pondence, now and again, of there being too little social visiting amongst them. In a letter of December 25, 1857. to his brother William, he writes: "No doubt, society here possesses many advantages over that of most country neighborhoods, or even towns. While there is vastly less of luxurious display, and expenditure, there is an almost entire absence of that vulgarity which is so often connected with it, and a very high grade of propriety and intelligence ; but it seems to me that I and most of my neighbors are able to profit very little by our social advantages. Whether it is that our professions are really so exacting, or that the idea that we can see each other so easily any day, makes us postpone our visits to every other occupation, I do not know. Sometimes I hardly see my own colleagues socially for a month. We meet officially. or pass each other on our daily errands with a nod. and this is all ; hut I am conscious that I have too many irons in the fire." In later years he drew some sketches of people of A'irginia of this period — a society which he dearly loved, and of which he would have seen more. With which sketches, under his own chosen heading, we shall conclude this chapter : 'A SURPRISED NEW YORKER. "A Virginia Reyniiiisccncc. "by r. l. dabney. "During the 'fifties" the Virginia State Agricultural Society was in its vigor and glory. Its membership included thousands of the old land- holders, both planters and yeomanry. It owned extensive grounds, ornamented with pavilions, sheds, etc.. in the western suburbs of Rich- mond, the place so well known in the more unhappy years as 'Camp Lee,' the camp of instruction for the new soldiers. The great annual meeting was held in the glorious October weather, and was attended not only by thousands of farmers, but by many of their wives and daughters. The great society itself, under the direction of its presi- dent and vice-presidents, had an annual address upon the science of agriculture, or such as bore upon it, from some distinguished citizen. At the period in question, the elected speaker was Dr. William H. McGuffey, the Professor of Philosophy and Economics in the State University. It was delivered before a vast crowd in the largest public building then in the city. The main topic of Dr. McGuffey was that economic law of production bearing upon the Malthusian theory of population, so powerfully illustrated by the then recent work of John Professor of Ecclesiastical History and Polity. 191 Stuart Mill. The main proposition of the doctrine is that agricultural industry, unlike manufacturing, cannot make increments in the returns proportional to the increments of capital and labor applied. But if equal annual additions are made to this capital and labor upon any given soil and crop, the additions thereby gained to the annual crops diminish instead of increasing, in inverse ratio to the increments of outlay. A thoughtful reader can see how this fated law may bear, not only upon Malthus' doctrine of population, but upon other questions vital to farmers, such as how far it is wise to carry 'intensive farming,' and what was the wisest policy for that generation in the large areas of Virginia. These the professor elucidated with his marvellous clearness of intellect and power of illustration, combined with beautiful simplicity of style. "There was then in Richmond a citizen of New York, a j'oung gentleman of first-rate culture, the guest of one of the Richmond pas- tors, who had a continental reputation both for talent and courtesy. This divine entertained his charming New York guest at the greatest hotel, where he was himself a boarder. He did his best to enable his young friend to see the most characteristic things in that gala week of Virginia and her capital. Of course, he took him to the great meeting and discourse of the State Society. When they retired the Richmond man asked his New York friend. 'What thought you of our Dr. Mc- Guffey?' "He answered, 'Oh! of course I was charmed with the discourse; it was a model of scientific clearness, but I feel one great objection to it.' " 'What is that?" " 'That it was entirely above the comprehension of an audience of clodhopperS) and must have gone clean over their heads.' "The Richmond man said, 'So you think that it is an audience of clodhoppers?' " 'Why, yes, of course, or at least of yeomen. Is it not a farmers' society? And the general aspect of plainness, not to say rusticity, including even the leaders upon the platform, confirms me.' " 'Well, did you notice that iron-gray old gentleman on Dr. McGuf- fey's right, with his long locks and plain gray suit?' " 'Oh ! yes ; rather a striking-looking old codger, one of the oldest and most influential of the clodhoppers.' "'Just so,' said my friend; 'that is the famous Edmund Ruffin, Esq., perhaps the foremost regenerator of Southern agriculture, the eminent man of science, author and editor, the lord of inherited acres, deriving almost a princely revenue from them, and the high gentleman and incorruptible patriot.' " 'Indeed!' said the New Yorker, dryly. " 'I will try you again,' said my friend. 'You noticed the portly old gentleman on Dr. McGuffey's left, with the flaxen hair and placid blonde face? He was dressed in a decent suit of home-made black 192 Life and Letters of Robert Lewis Dadxey. jeans, and had on plain walking shoes, with dust on them. Who do you suppose that was ?' " 'Oh ! of course I noticed him ; studied him, indeed, as an inter- esting specimen of the old rustic Hodge, retired upon his earnings.' " "Well, that was Franklin Minor, Esq., of Albemarle, an M. A. of the great State University, an elegant classicist, and principal of the most famous "fitting school" in Virginia, and also the administrator of his splendid inherited estate of Ridgeway.' "But the evening showed that our elegant New Yorker was not quite cured. After dinner his Richmond friend said to him, "I can secure you a capital chance to see many of the wives and daughters of these farmers. These are lodging in this great hotel. At night the great parlors will be filled with them and their friends, in evening dress, and, as it will not be a formal reception, though as crowded as if it were, you and I, as lodgers here, have full right to enter, and as I know the parents of many of the young ladies, I will introduce you extensively.' "'Oh! yes,' he exclaimed, eagerly; 'that will be ever so nice. I will see for myself the country swains and bumpkins, and the rustic belles, and study the manner of their flirtations. It will be better than a comedy.' "Well, at the proper time, his Richmond friend took him to one of the grand folding-doors, and pulled them wide open. The New Yorker advanced two steps, and stopped as suddenly as if he had been struck. His smiles were replaced by an absolute paleness. These were the things that met him : A blaze of gas lights, a great crowd of tastefully dressed young people, and the aristocratic hum of well-bred conversa- tion. The New Yorker had to be almost dragged along. When intro- duced, he was almost dumbfounded; he could not recover his self- possession, but became the most awkward man in the room, and before long intimated his desire to withdraw. His Richmond friend afterwards asked him, 'What struck you when you opened the doors?' " 'Astonishment struck me,' he replied, 'with the conviction that I was myself an ass. I had come to Richmond with our current erron- eous and arrogant conception of the Virginians, and my mistakes of the morning had not cured me. I thought that I was going to be amused with the ways of rustics ; but when I saw inside of those parlors, I had sense enough left to see that I was face to face with the most elegant, cultured, and graceful assemblage that I had yet seen anywhere. Why, those evening costumes — what a union they were of refined taste and grace, with appropriateness and moderation ! I never saw so many accomplished women in one set of parlors, so marked by gentle dignity, affability and culture.' "His Richmond friend said to him, 'Now you are nearer right, but not quite. Whence do you suppose those graceful costumes came?' " 'From Paris, or New York, of course.' Professor of Ecclesiastical History and Polity. 193 " 'There you are wrong again. I know the habits of those famihes thoroughly. On nine-tenths of those costumes no paid nirodiste ever put a finger ; they were fashioned by the young ladies at home, with the assistance, in some cases of elder sisters and aunts. Did you not per- ceive, sir, that the most of their materials were inexpensive? Was there any parade of diamonds? No; on the contrary, little jewelry of any sort. Those charming combinations of graceful forms and subdued colors in those dresses were simply the expression of the sober and refined home taste.' " * ° The reader will note with interest that Dr. Dabney's letters make it probable that he attended more than one of the fairs in person. i.5 CHAPTER XII. FIRST YEARS IN THE CHAIR OF THEOLOGY: TRYING TO STAY THE COMING OF "THE IRREPRESSIBLE CON- FLICT." (May, 1859 — May, 1861.) The Prosperity of the Seminary, 1859-1861. — Transferred to the Chair of Systematic and Polemic Theology. — Relations with Dr. Wilson. — Method of Conducting the Course in Theology. — Success in his new Chair. — Other Labors for the Seminary. — Labors as Preacher and Pastor. — Growth of his Congregations. — Building of the Present College Church. — Attempts made to Move him North : to Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church ; to Princeton Seminary. — Labors as a Christian Minister to Stop the rising Rancor between the Sections. — "Christians, Pray for your Country."'' — "Christians' best Motive for Patriotism/' and other Efforts. — Views his Efforts as Fruitless. — Con- tinues THEM IN THE "PACIFIC APPEAL TO CHRISTIANS." — ViEW OF the Proper Attitude of the Minister, as such, toward Political Questions. — His Ministerial Work of this kind much Com- mended.— His own Political Views. — His wide Correspondence ON THE State of the Country. — Protest against Northern Ag- gression : "On the State of the Country." — Caught in the Current of the prevailing Enthusiasm. — Other Literary La- bors.— Continued Devotion to his Mother and other Members OF her Family. DURING the session of i859-"6o there was a vacant place in the Seminary Faculty. The Rev. Thomas E. Peck had been elected to fill this vacancy, but Baltimore Presbytery had decided adversely to his removal from the pastorate in that city. The progress of the Seminary was impeded thereby ; but the Faculty, acting;- under powers committed to them by the Board of Directors, secured the services of Rev. Thomas Wharey, of Briery Church, .as assistant teacher of Hebrew and Biblical Introduction, divided the history course amongst them- selves, and conducted their departments with vigor. The Seminary was full of hope. It had now thirty-six matriculate?, of whom five were from the bounds of the Svnod of North First Years in the Chair of Theology. 195 •Carolina, twenty-five from those of the Synod of Virginia, three from Winchester Presbytery, one from Tennessee, one from Missouri, and one from New York. Less than seven years "before, the Seminary had only two professors on the ground, three professorships scantily endowed in the sum of $58,600, one endowed scholarship, and eleven students. Many of its friends had been disheartened, and the public interest and con- fidence had been greatly alienated by its depressed condition; but God had put it into the hearts of a few, amongst them Sampson and Dabney, to love it, to pray for it, to devise liberal things, and to give liberally. The professorships had been increased to four, its endowed scholarships to six, and the •churches, by their donations, had raised its permanent endow- ment to about $90,000. It will appear, in the course of this chapter, that, in the judg- ment of the men of the period, all this growth was due to Robert L. Dabney more than to all others put together. He, under God, seems to have inspired and stimulated the whole progress. The session of i86o-'6i was still more prosperous. The Faculty was strengthened by the accession of Mr. Peck, one of the grandest men that ever served in the Faculty of Union Seminary. The student body nymbered thirty-nine men. In the spring of 1859, Dr. Dabney had been transferred from the chair of Ecclesiastical History and Polity to that of The- ology, taking the title of Adjunct Professor of Systematic and Polemic Theology and Sacred Rhetoric. Though Dr. Wilson was allowed to outrank him nominally, his teaching was con- fined to the sphere of Pastoral Theology, for the most part, and the whole brunt of the labors of the department fell on the adjunct, who became at once the real head. His salary was that of the full professor at this date, in spite of his subordinate title, and properly. This title he continued to bear till the n n 7 "New Yorf,, 15 April, 1861. Kei'. Dr. Uabney: ' ^ i "Mv Dear Sir: Your letter of the uth reached me to-day. It will be a matter of interest to me to suggest and to press the publication of your letters at the North. If you have an extra copy of them to spare, I would thank you to send it to me, that I may read and submit it. "Inter Arnia leges silent, and I fear that the day is past when truth or reason will be heard. "We are in the midst of war ! And, I fear, a bitter, implacable war. to be handed down to generations yet to come. Fanaticism has be- gotten it, and there is no fury out of hell more fearful and more hateful than the spirit of religious hate. God help us and bring us out. "While you were writing to me, the guns were sounding the dcaih- knell of our Union and happiness. "Of course, the border States will go witii the cotton States. The worst of wars — interstate — will come, and social, civil and national ruin. "Can we do nothing, even now, to stay the curse? Would it be practicable for private individuals to invoke the interposition of some foreign power, like France, to mediate between the North and South? First Years in the Chair of Theology. 221 "The North will be a unit for war. Money by millions, men by hundreds of thousands, are ready. "But, come what may, let us keep the unity of the spirit ; let us enjoy the communion of saints. And, whether we have one country or two, I shall ever be j^our friend and brother, "S. I. Prime." Though averse to talking poHtics promiscuously, Dr. Dabney entertained decided, as well as profound, views on most ques- tions of statecraft. His views on affairs imminent in 1861, are set forth in a letter to Dr. Moses D. Hoge, of Richmond, Va. : "January 4, 1861. "Dear Brother Hoge: I employ a part of the leisure of this fast- day afternoon, to answer your kind letters, reciprocate your affectionate wishes for me and mine, and explain my views somewhat on public affairs. It is from God that all domestic security has proceeded, in more quiet times, though at such times our unthankfulness causes us more to overlook his good hand ; and his power and goodness must be our defence now, to cover us and our feeble households 'under his feathers.' "My conviction has all along been that we ministers, when acting ministerially, publicly, or any way representatively of God's people as such, should seem to have no politics. Many reasons urge this. One of the most potent is, that else their moral power (and, through their fault, the moral power of the church) to act as peace-makers and mediators, will be lost. I thought, too, that I saw very plainly that there was plenty of excitement and passion ; that our people were abun- dantly touchy and wakeful concerning aggression,, and that there were plenty of politicians to make the fire burn hot enough without my help to blow it. Hence, my public and professional action has been only that of a pacificator; and that only on Christian (not political) grounds and views. I believe that in this humble attempt I have done, and am doing, a little good, which my God will not forget, although it may, alas ! seem for the present to be swallowed up in the overmuch evil. The day will reveal it.' "But I have my politics personally, and at the polls act on them. They are about these : I voted for Breckinridge, fully expecting to be beaten ; and, therefore, preferring to be beaten with the standard-bearer most theoretically correct. But if I had seen that Bell, or even Douglass, had a chance to beat Lincoln, I could have voted for either. T have considered the state of Northern aggression as very ominous for many years (as you know, having stronger views of this four years ago than most of our people). But I do not think that Lincoln's elec- tion makes them at all more ominous than they were before. I believe that we should have effectually check-mated his administration, and 222 Life and Letters of Robert Lewis Dabxey. have given the Free Soil party a "thundering" defeat in 1864. Hence. I considered Lincoln's election no proper casus belli, least of all for immediate separate secession, which could never be the right way under any circumstances. Hence, I regard the conduct of South Carolina as unjustifiable towards the United States at large, and towards her Southern sisters, as treacherous, wicked, insolent and mischievous. She has, in my view, zvorstcd the common cause, forfeited the righteous strength of our position, and aggravated our difficulties of position a hundredfold. Yet regard to our own rights unfortunately compels us to shield her from the chastisement which she most condignly deserves. But, even in shielding her, we must see to it, as we believe in and fear a righteous God, that we do no iniquity as she has done. For instance: the power of a federal government to fight an independent State back into the Union is one thing; the right of that government to hold its own property, fairly paid for and ceded (the forts), is another thing. Take South Carolina's own theory, that she is now a foreign nation to the United States, and rightfully so; how can it be the duty of the President, or of Congress, sworn to uphold the laws, to surrender the soil and property of the United States to a foreign nation insolently and threateningly demanding them; and, with a sauciness almost infinite, saying to the United States, 'You shall not take any additional measures to defend your own property; if you do. we will fight.' Hence, if I were king in Virginia, I would say to the President, 'You are entitled, as head of the United States, to hold the forts; to strengthen your garrisons; to do anything defensive in them you choose, till they lawfully change owners by equal purchase. If you are assailed, beat them oft ; and their blow be on their own heads.' But if an attempt were made to subdue South Carolina herself, without iirst offering to her such a redress of her federal grievances as zvould be satisfactory to the moderate, just majority of her Southern sisters, I would say, 'Hands off !' 'At your peril !' "Now, you may say, this is all theoretically right ; but it is all out of date at this crisis; the crisis is too dangerous to admit of ethical niceties; we must 'go it blind,' and stand or fall with South Carolina. I reply, it is never too late or too dangerous to do right. Verily, there is a God who judgeth in the earth. How can we appeal to him in the beginning of what may be a great and arduous contest, when we sig- nalize its opening by a wrong? Besides, if we are to do anything pros- perously or wise, we must clear ourselves before the great mass of the Union-loving, God-fearing men of the North, of this wanton breach of Federal compacts, and disregard of vested rights, which South Carolina is trying to commit. "But I greatly fear the temper of our people is no longer considerate enough to place themselves thoroughly in the right in this matter. In view, then, of the actual state of affairs, justifiable or unjustifiable, I would say that the Legislature of Virginia ought, on the first day it First Years in the Chair of Theology. 223 meets, to call a State Convention. It ought also to take immediate steps for a concert of the Southern States, to be well knit as soon as their several State Conventions can elect commissioners; to present a united front to the North, for two objects — to demand firmly our rights within the Union, and to limit any Federal or Northern collision with South Carolina within the limits I have defined above. This congress of commissioners should also have a sort of alternative power given them, to be used only on condition that an extra session of Congress passes a force bill under Lincoln; and, in that event, to declare our allegiance to the Federal Union suspended till such measures are relin- quished; and to organize adequate means of self-defence. And this alternative power they should use promptly, in that event. Meantime, each State Legislature should diligently provide for self-defence. "I have thought, ever since the secession movement began in South Carolina, that the idea of a tertium quid, or central Confederacy as a temporary arrangement, might be useful. But this on two conditions : that any attempts or diplomatic overtures to construct it should not for a moment supersede, but only proceed abreast with our preparations for the dernier resort; and that the border slave States should utterly refuse to enter it, except on a basis liberal enough to them to assure their interests unquestionably, and, moreover, to digust New England, and prevent her accession to it for awhile. "Once more: we should all remember that America is one in race, in geography, in language, in material interests. Even if we angrily divide, there will be powerful interests drawing us together again, after the wire-edge of our spite is worn off. Every good man, even after separation seems inevitable, should try to act with a view to the speediest reunion." It is clear from his letters that he remained stoutly opposed to secession until Mr. Lincoln's unlawful and fatal call for volunteers to coerce South Carolina and the other seceding States. He was in wide correspondence with leading ministers in both sections. He saw them drifting away from him in politics. Thornwell had written : "Theological Seminary, November 24, i860. "My Dear Brother: I sympathize most cordially with you in the profound interest which you take in the present condition of public affairs. It is a time of blasphemy and rebuke ; a time in which our only hope is in the merciful providence of God. I have reflected as maturely and as prayerfully upon the duty of the South in the present crisis as I am capable of reflecting upon any subject. My opinions have been calmly, solemnly and dispassionately formed. I am sorry that I cannot concur with you in your contemplated scheme of an address to the Southern States. The effect of such a measure would be to delay the 224 Life and Letters of Robert Lewis Dabney. secession of the South, and, as that is inevitable, the sooner it is brought about the better. It is impossible to live any longer, with security and self-respect, in the present Union. The election of Lincoln is the straw that has broken the camel's back; and if we submit to it, we are degraded beyond the possibility of recovery. It is a virtual abrogation of the Constitution, and a proclamation to all .the world that the slave- holding States are to be treated as conquered provinces. That unceas- ing efforts will be made to excite insurrections among us, to render our property, our homes, our lives insecure ; that agitators will pass in various disguises and under various pretexts through the country, stir- ring up the slaves to arson and murder ; that a feverish state of feel- ing will be produced among ourselves, likely to terminate in the remorseless extinction of the negro race, are results as certain as the moral causes which have long been at work in this direction, and which have acquired a new impulse from the recent triumph of the Republican party. We owe it to our negroes to protect them from their friends, as well as to ourselves, to protect our own dignity. "In several respects the government needs a reconstruction. It cannot work as it now stands. An issue must, therefore, be made : and I see not how it can be done without secession. Conventions will end in nothing, until some decisive step is taken. My judgment, there- fore, is clear, that the time has come when each State should act inde- pendently and for itself. When the separation has been effected, then let the States that are one in principle and interests unite and form a new government. "I am not insensible to the dangers of the crisis. I feel our need of prayer, of divine guidance and protection. But to me the greatest danger is that of submission to Lincolh's election. I wish the people of Virginia could see their way clear to hoist the standard of Southern rights, and to lead us in this most necessary revolution. "I have just preached a fast-day sermon. It will soon be published, and you may look for a copy. "Present my most cordial remembrances to Peck. "Most sincerely, "J. H. Thornwell." Dabney wa.s aboard the noble ship, Our Rights within the Union. It was being deserted daily. He remained aboard till imrig^hteous war had been instituted by the North. When Mr. Lincoln commenced his war of coercion against the States, Dr. Dabney wrote one more remonstrance to the Northern Christians, entitled, "Letter to the Rev. S. I. Prime, qn the State of the Country." He had professed all along to be a staunch friend to justice and the South. Dr. Dabney asked him to print the letter in the New York Observer, of which he was First Years in the Chair of Theology. 225 an editor. He found this inexpedient. The letter was pubUshed in the Richmond papers in April, 1861, and widely in the South. An association of gentlemen subsequently published it in pam- phlet form, under the conviction that it would prove serviceable to religion and patriotism, and feeling that it spoke for them, as well as for the author. In this paper, the writer changes his tone, from one of solenm and affectionate entreaty to one of stern defiance. It was a vindication of Virginia's right to go to war against the Federal Government at Washington. Con- stitutional Union men accepted it as their defence for turning into war men. This famous letter was written during the Spring Meeting of West Hanover Presbytery, at Amherst Courthouse, in a chamber at Mr. John Robertson's whose guest Dr. Dabney was at the time. It was thrown off in a single impromptu effort, but it was nevertheless the outcome of indefinite pondering. As defining his position, and that of such men as Lee, and Jackson, and Jefferson Davis, and Alexander Stephens, et id omne genus, constitutional Union men, it deserves reproduction here : "Rev. S. I. Prime, D. D.: ^/""^'^ 20, 1861. "Reverend and Dear Brother : I took occasion, as you will remem- ber, in lifting up my feeble voice to my fellow-Christians on behalf of what was once our country, to point out the infamy which would attach to the Christianity of America if, after all its boasts of numbers, power, influence and spirituality, it were found impotent to save the land from fratricidal war. You have informed your readers more than once that you feared it was now too late to reason. Then, I wish, through you, to lay this final testimony before the Christians of the North, on behalf of myself and my brethren in Virginia, that the guilt lies not at our door. This mountainous aggregate of enormous crime, of a ruined Constitution, of cities sacked, of reeking battle-fields, of scattered churches, of widowed wives and orphaned children, of souls plunged into hell; we roll it from us, taking the Judge to witness, before whom you and we will stand, that the blood is not upon our heads. When the danger first rose threatening in the horizon, our cry was, 'Christians to the rescue.' And nobly did the Christians of Vir- ginia rally to the call. Did you not see their influence in the patriotic efforts of this old Commonwealth to stand in the breach between the angry elements ? Yes, it was the Christians of Virginia, combined with her other citizens, who caused her to endure wrongs, until endurance ceased to be a virtue; to hold out the olive branch, even after it had been spurned again and again; to study modes of compromise and conciliation until the very verge of dishonor was touched: to refuse 15 226 Life and Letters of Robert Lewis Dabnev. to despair of the republic, after almost all else had surrendered ail hope, and to decline all acts of self-defence, even, which might precipi- tate collision, until the cloud had risen over her very head, and its lightnings were about to burst. So long-suffering, so reluctant to behold the ruin of that Union to which she contributed so much, has Virginia been, that many of her sons were disgusted by her delays, and driven to fury and despair by the lowering storm and the taunts of her enemies. And those enemies (woe to them for their folly) mistook this generous long-suffering, this magnanimous struggle for peace, as evidence of cowardice ! They said the "Old Mother of States and Statesmen" was decrepit ; that her genius was turned to dotage ; that her breasts were dry of that milk which suckled her Henrys and her Washingtons. They thought her little more than a cowering beldame, whom a timely threat would reduce to utter submissiveness. And thus they dared to stretch over her head the minatory rod of correction ! But no sooner was the perilous experiment applied than a result was revealed, as unexpected and startling as that caused by the touch of Ithuriel's spear. This patient, peaceful, seemingly hesitating paralytic flamed up at the insolent touch like a pyramid of fire, and Virginia stands forth in her immortal youth, the 'unterrified Common- wealth' of other days, a Minerva radiant with the terrible glories of policy and war, wielding that sword which has ever flashed before the eyes of aggressors, the 'Sic semper tyrannis.' Yes, the point of farthest endurance has been passed at length. All her demands for constitu- tional redress have been refused ; her magnanimous, her too generous concessions of right, have been met by the insolent demand for uncon- ditional surrender of honor and dignity ; her forbearance has been abused to collect armaments and equip fortresses on her border and on her own soil for her intimidation ; the infamous alternative has been forced upon her either to brave the oppressor's rod or to aid him in the destruction of her sisters and her children, because they are con- tending nobly, if too rashly, for rights common to them and to her ; and, to crown all, the Constitution of the United States has been rent in fragments by the effort to muster new forces, and wage war without authority of law, and to coerce sovereign States into adhesion, in the utter absence of all powers or intentions of the Federal compact to that effect. Hence, there is now but one mind and one heart in Vir- ginia ; and from the Ohio to the Atlantic, from the sturdy mountaineers, and her chivalrous lowlanders alike, there is flung back in high disdain the gauntlet of deathless resistance. In one week the whole State has been converted into a camp. "Now once more, before the Titanic strife begins, we ask the con- servative freemen of the North, For what good end is this strife? We do not reason with malignant fanatics, with the mob whose coarse and brutal nature is frenzied with sectional hatred. But we ask, Where is the great conservative party, which polled as many votes against Abra- First Years in the Chair of Theology. 227 ham Lincoln as the whole South? Where are the good men who a few weeks ago even, held out the olive branch to us, and assured us that if we would hold our hands, the aggressive party should be brought' to reason. Where is that Albany Convention, which pledged itself agamst war? If it is too late to reason, even with you, we will at least lay down our last testimony against you before our countrymen, the church, and the righteous heavens. "Consider, then, that this appeal to arms, in such a cause, is as dan- gerous to your rights as to ours. Let it be carried out, and whatever may have befallen us, it will leave you with a consolidated federal government, with State sovereignty extinguished, with the constitution in ruins, and with your rights and safety a prey to a frightful combina- tion of radicalism and military despotism; for what thoughtful man does not perceive that the premises of the anti-slavery fanatic are just those of the agrarian? The cause of peace was then as much your cause as ours; and if war is thrust upon us, you should be found on our side, contending for the supremacy of law and constitu- tional safeguards, with a courage worthy of the heroes of Saratoga and 1 renton. "How horrible is this war to be, of a whole North against a whole South ! Not to dwell on all its incidents of shame and misery, let us ask. Who are to fight it out to its bitter issue? Not the tongue-valiant brawlers, who have inflamed the feud, by their prating lies about the barbarism of slavery'; these pitiful miscreants are already hiding their cowardly persons from the storm, and its brunt must be borne by the honest, the misguided, the patriotic men of the North who in a moment of madness, have been thrust into this false position. "How iniquitous is its real object— the conquest and subjugation of free and equal States ! We have vainly boasted of the right of freemen^ to choose their own form of government. This right the North now declares the South shall not enjoy. The very tyrants of the Old World are surrendering the unrighteous claim to thrust institutions on an unwilling people. Even grasping England, which once endeavored to ruin the Colonies she could not retain, stands ready to concede to her dependencies a separate existence, when they determine it is best for their welfare; l?ut the North undertakes to compel its equals to abide under a government which they judge ruinous to their rights' Thus this free. Christian, Republican North urges on the war, while even despotic Europe cries. Shame on the fratricidal strife, and turns with sickening disgust and loathing, from the bloody spectacle ! "Let it not be replied that it is South Carolina which has first gone to war with you, and that Virginia has made herself particeps criminis by refusing to permit her righteous chastisement. This is what clam- oring demagogues say; but before an enlightened posterity, as before impartial spectators, it is false; and here let us distinctly understand the ground the conservative North means to occupy, as to the independ- 228 Life and Letters of Robert Lewis Dabney. ence of the States in their reserved rights. If you do indeed construe the federal compact so that a ruthless majority may perpetrate uncon- stitutional wrong, may trample on the sacred authority of the Supreme Court, and may pervert all the powders of the Federal Government, instituted for the equal good of all, to the depression of a class of rights as much recognized by the Constitution as any other, and the minority have no remedy except submission; if you mean that sovereign States, the creators by their free act of these federal authorities, are to be the helpless slaves, in the last resort, of their own servant; if you mean that one party is to keep or break the compact as his arrogance, caprice or interest may dictate, and the other is to be held bound by it at the point of the sword ; if you mean that a sovereign State is not to be the judge of its own wrong and its own redress, when all constitutional appeals have failed, then we say that it is high time that we understood each other. Then was this much-lauded federal compact a monstrous fraud, a horrid trap, and we do well to free ourselves and our children from it at the expense of all the horrors of another revolutionary war. The conservative party in the North declared, with us, that the platform of the Black Republican party was unconstitutional. On this their op- position to it was based. They proclaimed it in their speeches, they wrote it on their banners, they fired it from their cannon, they voted it at the polls, that the Chicago platform was unconstitutional ; and now that this platform has been fixed on the ruins of the Constitution, and its elected exponent has declared, from the steps of the Capitol, that the last barrier, the Supreme Court, is to be prostrated to the will of a majority; now that the Conservative party of the North has demon- strated itself (as it does this day, by its succumbing to this fiendish war-frenzy) impotent to protect us, themselves, or the Constitution (the Constitution overthrown according to their own avowals), are we to be held oflfenders because we attempted peacefully to exercise the last remaining remedy, and to pluck our liberties and the principles of this Constitution from the vandal hands which were rending them all, by a quiet secession? Nay, verily! Of all men in the world, the con- servative men of the North cannot condemn that act, for they have declared the Constitution broken, and they have proved themselves in- competent to restore it ; and least of all should Virginia be condemned for this act, because she magnanimously forebore it till forbearance was almost her ruin, and until repeated aggressions had left no alternative. Yet, more, Virginia cannot be condemned, because, in the ordinance of 1788, in which she first accepted this Constitution, she expressly re- served to herself the right to sever its bonds, whenever she judged they were used injuriously to her covenanted rights. It was on this condition she was received into the family of States, and her reception on this condition was a concession of it by her partners. From that condition she has never for one hour receded. (Witness the spirit of the Resolu- tions of 1798, 1799.) And now, shall she be called a covenant-breaker First Years in the Chair of Theology. 229 because she judges that the time has come to exercise her right ex- pressly reserved? Nay, verily. "If, then, we have the right of peacefully severing our connection with the former confederation, and the attempt has been made by force to obstruct that right, they who attempted the obstruction are the first aggressors. .The first act of war was committed by the government of Washington against South Carolina, when fortresses intended lawfully, only for her protection, were armed for her subjugation. That act of war was repeated when armed preparations were twice made to rein- force these means of her oppression. It was repeated when she was formally notified that these means of her oppression would be strength- ened, 'peaceably if they could be, forcibly if they must.' And then, at last, after a magnanimous forbearance, little expected of her ardent nature, she proceeded to what was an act of strict self-defence — the reduction of Fort Sumter. "But it is replied : the seceding States have committed the intolerable wrongs of seizing federal ships, posts, property, and money, by violence ! And whose fault is this? Had the right of self-protection outside the Federal Constitution been peacefully allowed us, after our rights had been trampled in the mire within it, not one dollar's worth would have been seized. All would yet be accounted for, to the last shoe-latchet, if the North would hold its hand. The South has not seceded because it wished to commit a robbery. As for the forts within their borders, the only legitimate right the United States could have for them was to protect those States. When we relinquish all claims on that protection, what desire can the Federal Government have to retain them save as instruments of oppression? But you say they were forcibly seized! And why, except that the South was well assured (have not events proved the fear well grounded) that a purpose existed to employ them for her ruin? My neighbor and equal presumes to obstruct me in the prosecution of my rights, and brandishes a dirk before my face; when I wrench it from his hand to save my own life, shall he then accuse me of unlawfully stealing his dirk? Yet such is the insulting nonsense which has been everywhere vented to make the South an offender for acts of self-defence, which the malignant intentions disclosed by the government of Washington have justified more and more every day. "But it is exclaimed, 'The South has fired upon the flag of the Union!' Did this flag of the Union wave in the cause of right when it was unfurled as the signal of oppression? Spain fired upon the flag of France when Napoleon laid his iniquitous grasp upon her soil and crown. Did this justify the righteous and God-fearing Frenchman in seeking to destroy Spain? Let the aggressor amend his wrong before he demands a penalty of the innocent party who has only exercised the right of self-defence. "It is urged again: if the Union is not maintained, the interests of the North in the navigation of the Gulf and the Mississippi, in the comi- '230 Life and Letters of RonERT Lewis Darxev. ties of international intercourse, in the moneys expended in the Southern States for fortifications, may be jeopardized. I reply, it will be time enough to begin to fight when those interests are infringed. May I murder my neighbor because I suspect that he may defraud me in the division of a common property, which is about to be made, and because I find him now more in my power? Shall not God avenge for such iniquity as this? "But it is said, in fine, 'If the right of secession is allowied, then our government is only a rope of sand.' I reply, demonstratively, that the government of which Virginia has been a member has always had this condition in it as to her — for her right to go out of it whenever she judged herself injured by it was expressly reserved and conceded from the first. Her reception on those terms was a concession of it. If you say that the people of the North are not aware of this, then the only reply we deign to give is, that it is no one's fault but yours that you have allow-ed yourself to be misled by rulers ignorant of the funda- mental points in the history of the government. Now, my argument {and it is invincible) is this : that the connection of Virginia with the Federal Government, althotigh containing always the right of secession for an infringement of the compact, has been anything else, for eighty years, than a rope of sand. It has bound her in a firm loyalty to that government. It has been a bond which nothing but the most ruthless and murderous despotism could relax ; a bond which retained its strength, even when it was binding the State to her incipient dishonor and destruction. Surely it is a strange and disgraceful fact that men who call themselves freemen and Christians should assume the position that no force is a real force except that which is cemented by an inexorable physical power! Do they mean that with them honor, covenants, oaths, enlightened self-interest, affections, are only a rope of sand? Shame on the utterance of such an argument. Do they con- fess themselves so ignorant that they do not know that the physical power of even the most iron despotisms reposes on moral forces ? Even a Presbyterian divine has been found to declare that if our federal compact has in it any admission of a right of secession, it is but a simulacrum of a government. Whereas, all history teaches us that if the basis of moral forces be withdrawn from beneath, the most rigid despotism becomes but a siniidacrum, and dissolves at the touch of resistance. How much more, then, must all republican government be founded on moral forces, on the consent, the common interests, and the affections of the governed. While these remain, the government is strong and efficient for good; when they are gone, it is impotent for good, and exists only for evil. As long as the purposes and com- pacts of the federal institutions were tolerably observed by the North, that government knit us together with moral bands indeed ; yet they were stronger than hooks of steel. The North has severed them by aggression, and they cannot be cemented by blood. First Years in the Chair of Theology. 231 "Why, then, shall war be urged on? No man is blind enough to believe that it can reconstruct the Federal Union on equitable terms. It is waged for revenge, for the gratification of sectional hate, to solace mortified pride, to satiate the lust of conquest. From these fiendish passions let every good man withdraw his countenance. It is a war which the Constitution confers no power to wage, even were the seces- sion of the South for no sufficient cause. The debates of the fathers who framed it show that this power was expressly withheld — even the Federalist, Hamilton, concurring strenuously. This war has no justifi- cation in righteousness, in any reasonable hope of good results, in con- stitutional law. It is the pure impulse of bad passions. Will the good men of the North concur in it? "I desire through you, my dear brother, to lay down this last protest on that altar where the peace of the land is so soon to be sacrificed. I claim to be heard. If the reign of terror exercised by the mobs of your cities has indeed made it dangerous for you to lay before your fellow-Christians the deprecatory cry of one who, like me, has labored only for peace, then tell those mobs that not you, but I, am responsible for whatever in these lines is obnoxioiis to their malignant minds, and bid them seek their revenge of me (not of you) at that frontier where we shall meet them, the northernmost verge of the sacred soil of Vir- ginia. And if you find that the voice of justice and reason is no longer permitted to be heard in the North, that the friends of the Constitu- tion cannot lift their hands there with safety in its defence, then we invite you, and all true men, to come to this sunny land, and help us here to construct and defend another temple, where constitutional lib- erty may abide secure and untarnished. For you we have open arms and warm hearts ; for our enemies, resistance to the death. "Yours in the bonds of the gospel, "R. L. Dabney." A few years before the war, Dr. Dabney had been exceed- ingly doubtful as to the results of this struggle ; he had said that no man could tell which section would come out victorious, and that the consequences to both sections would be most ap- palling ; but he was now caught in the current of the prevailing enthusiasm. He wrote, on the 25th of April, 1861 : "There are many things which make me hope that it may be the will of a good Providence that we shall be spared the sufferings and crimes of a great war, or at least of defeat. I can hardly think that the Northern people will not come to their senses when they see the unex- ampled unanimity of our people and their towering spirit. There was no such unity of spirit, either in the first or second British war. Our generals embrace nearly all the military talent of the country, except old Scott, who must be in his dotage. Our cousins to the Southwest 232 Life and Letters of Robert Lewis Dabnev. will rally to our defence with a zeal which will leave us nothing to do, if we pleased, but to make bread and meat to feed them, while they fight our battles. I verily believe that, instead of lacking for de- fenders, we shall have more than we can support or employ to advan- tage. "Day before yesterday three Prince Edward companies were in high preparations for leaving. They started yesterday morning. The day before, a fine rifle company, the Prospect Greys, a few miles above this, held a meeting to drill and to raise a subscription to buy uniforms and blankets for the poorer members. I was requested to go up and make them an address, which I did. When I got there the company was in the church, with their full equipment, and a house full of their neighbors, wives, sisters and children. There was most intense feeling. I gave them various good advices, seeking rather to quiet than to agitate their feelings ; and then made an appeal to people for aid, as did a Methodist minister who was there. The people then raised about seven hundred dollars in cash, and handed it to their captain ; and also promised full assistance to the dependent wives and children left behind. So we dismissed them with prayers, among universal tears and sobs. This company is composed of middle-class men ; most of them Pres- byterians or Methodists, and a few gentlemen. They are a stalwart set of fellows, sun-burned, raw-boned and bearded; but they all wept like children. They will fight none the less for that. Our little county will soon have five large companies in the field. Such a people cannot be conquered." During these years, Dr. Dabney continued his contributions and editorials in the Central Presbyterian. Amongst them ap- peared, in June and July, of 1859, his review of Theodosia Ernest, in which he demolished the arguments for immersion. In the Philadelphia Presbyterian, issues December 3, 1859. ^'^ January 8, i860, he reviewed Thornwell's "Defence of the Re- vised Book of Discipline," which had appeared in the Southern Presbyterian Reviezv. He published in the North Carolina Presbyterian, in September and October, i860, five articles on "Theory of the Eldership." The students of Hampden-Sidney College published, in i860, a notable sermon of his on "The Sin of the Tempter" (Heb. ii. 15). All his work in this period was very strong. He was coming into the full command of hi.«. powers. During these two years his devotion to his mother and sister was as marked as ever. He is interested in everything which was of interest to them. The following homely, gossipy sheet is characteristic : First Years in the Chair of Theology. 233 "August 15, i860. "My Dear Mother: I fear my promise to write to you more fre- quently is not in a very likely way to be redeemed. I find myself very busy since getting home, preaching, doing up my neglected pastoral visiting, repairing Seminary rooms, and studying a very little. Either I am growing lazier, so as to be more easily distracted by interruptions, or my occupations grow more distracting. I see that what with un- avoidable drawbacks of the Presbytery, etc., I shall not get through my year's visiting before the session begins; and people would have me, if I would listen to them, to spend every Sabbath and every week day, too, between now and the beginning, preaching away from home. The most of these applications I repel with a firmness (rudeness, you will say, perhaps) like that with which I met yours. "As to our own affairs, we have had very abundant and refreshing rains since I saw you, and the crops begin to look quite green and fresh; but our garden has done poorly as yet, because everything had to take a fresh start. No peas, no butter-beans, no melons, and very few tomatoes. We shall float in abundance now in about a week. La- vinia and the children are all quite well, the first-named especially. Little Sammy had last week the most furious rash, or breaking out of heat I ever saw, which has been of great advantage to him. Since it came out, he has improved regularly, and I hope will not be much more troubled now till cool weather secures him. He has begun to walk a little, and to behave a little better at night, his squalling being dimin- ished from about six hours per night to an average of three, and his feeds from five or seven to one or two. This desirable beginning has been brought about chiefly by the agency of three or four little whip- pings, which I gave him, to the great indignation of his mother and mammy. I shall, I think, renew the treatment in a few days, and break up his night feeding, and consequently his night crying altogether. It makes me mad to think of a little imp's being permitted to inflict so much inconvenience and torment on himself and a whole house, just by foolish indulgence; but I assure you that in whipping him I hardly escaped a whipping myself. Charley and Tom are decidedly improved, in both health and morals, by their return home. "You will have heard of Mrs. Wharey's loss in the deatli of Mary Curry. She died in Clarksville, Mecklenburg county, Va., whither she had come to visit her sister (Anne Rice, now Mrs. Hill), and died the day after her arrival there. The explanation is that her spinal disease had proceeded to so frightful an extent that her nervous system was disorganized, and her brain diseased, so that the slightest excitement knocked her over. Mrs. Wharey bears it very well. Anne is also sup- posed to be in a consumption. Thomas has had a fever, but is gettnig well, and his friends hope his constitution will be better than before. I believe our neighbors are all well. Lavinia is 'quite pleased with her new-old carriage, and professes manfully that its small price is no ob- 234 Life and Letters of Robert Lewis Dabney. jection. Last Sunday I preached in Farmville, and she went down with me and Charley. Tell Betty she might then have witnessed the rare sight of the old codger sitting in his own carriage, drawn by his own horses, driven by his own nigger, and beside his own wife, with nothing to do with his great brown hands, but play gentleman — a very unnatural occupation. "Our new church has not yet begun to rise; still making bricks.- "Love to all, and charge Betty to write often and fully. "Affectionately yours, R. L. D.xbney." CHAPTER XIII. IX THE WAR-TIME. (May, 1861— x\lay. 1805.) His Appreciation of the Blunder in the Southern mode of Proce- dure.— Four Months as Chaplain of the Eighteenth Virginia Volunteers, Colonel Withers. — Acquaintance with General Jackson Renewed. — Organization of the Southern Presbyte- rian Church. — Seminary Session of 1861-62. — Dissatisfied with the Conduct of the War. — Mrs. Stonewall Jackson his Guest in Spring of 1862. — Tendered Office of Chief of Staff to General Jackson. — Service on Jackson's Staff. — Resignation September, 1862. — Slow Recovery. — Death of "Tommy." — Semi- nary Session, 1862-63. — Literary Labors during this Session : Defence of Virginia, ct al. — Correspondence during this and the Following Months. — Writing Life of Stonewall Jackson, 1863-64. — Seminary Session, i863-'64. — Incidental Occup.a.tions IN LATE Summer of 1864. — Feelings with which he now Watched the War. — Sees his Labors in Behalf of the Synod OF the South with his Church Succeed. — Seminary Session, 1864-65. — Looking out for Meat. — Missionary to the Army, 1865. — The Surrender. — Queries. IT has already been made clear that Dr. Dabney was a con- stitutional Union man, as long as, in his judgment, honor permitted. He heartily disapproved of the Free Soil and Abolition movements, as insulting and dangerous to the rights of the South ; but he did not regard them as furnishing a casus belli. When, however, Mr. Lincoln proceeded to usurp power to coerce sovereign States, he at once ceased to be a Union man. Resistance to the usurpation became a sacred duty. The South had a good and righteous cause. Nevertheless, it was wholly unprepared. In Dr. Dabney's view, our statesmen botched things badly ; they were too much under the influence of the popular will, of tricksters and pup- pets, rather than wise leaders of foresight and prudence ; they ought to have been armed to the teeth for defence, before throwing down the gauntlet of war. Dr. Dabney was accus- tomed to say, in his later days : 236 Life and Letters of Robert Lewis Dabney. "Our fathers should have made their stand against Free Soil in 1820. instead of joining the wretched Missouri Compromise; we were strong then, and should have settled the point for good and all. Again, when our enemies came near electing their man in 1856, we should have taken warning, and spent the interval of Mr. Buchanan's weak, pacific admin- istration in arming efifectually. Neglecting this, we should have re- mained quiet when Lincoln went in, and employed the respite at last in arming thoroughly." But things were otherwise ; and Dr. Dabney, though disap- proving of the management of the affairs of his State and section, and though he had as long as possible been a Union man, was proud to be one of the sturdiest patriots and servants of his State and the Confederacy. During the vacation of the summer of 1861, he served as chaplain. Nearly all the young men of the College Church, of which he was one of the pastors, had volunteered at once. Dr. Dabney told his session that Dr. Smith, the other pastor, could do the work at home, and that he would get a chaplaincy, and endeavor to watch over their young men in the army. He then believed that nearly all of the Prince Edward men, except the cavalry, were going into the Eighteenth Virginia Volun- teers, Mr. Robert E. Withers, Colonel. He got a State com- mission, and followed the regiment to the camp near Manassas Junction. He seems to have reached the camp on Saturday. the nth of June. On the 13th of June, he wrote to the Central Presbyterian: "Yesterday was the day of fasting, humiliation and prayer, appointed by the President of the Confederate States for our success in defending our liberties. Its observance was marked by the authorities in command, by the omission of the customary morning drill, and the invitation to all the regiments to attend divine service in their respective quarters. Can the happy frequenters of our peaceful sanctuaries frame to them- selves the picture of such a scene of worship? Overhead there is no roof besides the azure of the heavens. The place of worship is nothing. but an oblong area between two rows of tents, and the pulpit a rude box to elevate the minister a step from the earth, with a rough board before him, draped with nothing richer than a soldier's blanket. On either hand are clusters of glittering arms stacked, soldiers reclining on their pallets, and the open doors of tents, filled with their occupants. The signal of divine worship is the rattle of the drum, the soldier's substi- tute for the bell, and they come from every side to the meeting-place. some singly, some by twos and threes, some marching in companies with In the War-Time. 237 measured tread ; rough-bearded men, bronzed and weather-beaten, and almost unrecognizable as the trim gentlemen who, a month or two ago, would have been seen at similar occasions, going in holiday attire to their churches. Some bring camp-stools in their hands, some stand, .-, some of whom seem to have been very conceited, self-sufficient fellows. When Dr. Dabney had served a week. Colonel Grigsby. of the Stone- wall Brigade, a somewhat profane and eccentric gentleman, had Inisiness at headquarters. L^pon his return to his own quarters, his officers caine around him to ask the news. Amongst other questions came, "What about the new Adjutant?" The Colonel replied, "I concluded that old Jack must be a fatalist sure enough, when he put in an Ironside Presbyterian parson as his chief of staff, but I have bright hopes of headquarters, seeing they are no longer omniscient." After some weeks' further service, he paid the Parson-Adjutant-General a higher compli- ment, viz., "Our parson is not afraid of Yankee bullets, and l tell you he preaches like hell." ^ " Letter dated April 24. 1862, Headquarters Army of the Valley. " This heterodox remark gives occasion to say that Dr. Dabney, during this summer with Jackson, continued his work as a Christian In the War-Time. 265 Having joined General Jackson at his post, in the western mouth of Swift Run Gap, and taken charge of the staff, Dr. Dabney accompanied him through the marches and battles of his splendid Valley Campaign of April, May and June, 1862, to McDowel, Franklin, in Pendleton county, Front Royal, Win- chester ; back on the retreat to Harrisonburg and Port Re- public. The following letter gives some account of the battles about Port Republic : "Near Mt. Meridian, Augusta, June 12, 1862. "My Dearest Wife: The only thing I did last Monday night, after the excessive fatigues of a day of battle, was to write you a short note by express, telling you of my safety. I hope you got this. Meantime, you have seen the bungling reports which reached Richmond by tele- graph. I suppose that nothing will interest you so much as some detail of General Jackson's movements. The Wednesday after the victory at Winchester, I was taken with disordered bowels, the consequence of the water and fatigue, and was on the sick list at Rev. Mr. Graham's. While General Jackson was gone (very imprudently, as I think), fight- ing the Yankees at Harper's Ferry, he got news that Shields was advancing on the Valley from the East, and Fremont from the West, to get behind and destroy him with superior forces. I was then lying by in Winchester, and was sent up to Woodstock, and then to Rufifner's, near Harrisonburg in an ambulance. At Rufifner's I had a delightful rest of a few days, and was very kindly treated. Meantime, Jackson was very busy retreating, and bringing away his stores and prisoners captured. He had a hard tug to get off with them, but did it pretty safely. Meantime, Shields came up through the Page County Valley. and Fremont through the main road, Jackson retreating before them till he got to Port Republic. There he was attacked on Sunday by both of them. Shields' force, coming up the river on the pines side, and actually crossing into Port Republic across the mouth of South River, and Fremont attacking the main army about four miles this side of Harrisonburg. If that army was defeated, the only exit was through the long narrow bridge into Port Republic. At one time, the enemy's cavalry and artillery had actually gotten possession of this bridge : so you see, our situation was squally ; but they were very soon driven out of Port Republic, and then easily kept out by artillery, and a gallant charge of Col. Fulkerson's Regiment. Meantime, the main battle be- tween Fremont and General Ewell opened fiercely about four miles off, on the Harrisonburg road, and General Jackson sent up a good deal of minister as opportunity offered. He preached often, and great sermons, if men of Jackson's command can be trusted ; and he was indefatigable in looking after the sick, particularly the Scotch-Irish boys of the Valleyi 266 Life and Letters of Robert Lewis Dabney. his force to help. The battle raged till about four o'clock, when Ewell whipped the Yankees with great slaughter, he, fortunately, losing but few in comparison. That night all slept on their arms. Monday morn- ing early, General Jackson moved his own force, and a large part of Ewell's (leaving two brigades to watch Fremont across both rivers) and attacked Shields furiously down at old General Lewis' (next the pines). The brigades left to watch Fremont cautiously retired, and as soon as they got across, they burned the long bridge, leaving Fremont com- pletely baulked, and came down to help us to pursue Shields, who had by this time been beaten. The troops of Shields were better than those of Fremont, and the fighting fiercer than the day before. Consequently, our loss was heavier, some four hundred killed and wounded. From Shields we took, the two days, eight cannon, and lost one to them. The prisoners we took are about five hundred, including several officers. We pursued Shields some ten miles, killing and capturing and driving them ; but the men were too much exhausted to pursue very effectively. In- deed, Jackson's great fault is that he marches and works his men with such disregard of their physical endurance. His victories are as fatal to his own armies as to his enemies. The former he kills, the latter he works nearly to death. With all the rigidity of his character, I think him a poor disciplinarian. He is in too much of a hurry to attend to the physical needs of his soldiers.' But this letter says nothing of a part which Dr. Dabney had in saving Jackson's ammunition trains at this time. He, in fact, seems to have saved them. The Rev. Dr. G. B. Strickler is authority for the story that Dr. Dabney j.okingly informed General Jackson, the evening following, that he had fought a regular batde, and had employed all parts of the service — infantry, cavalry, and artillery. He then recounted the exploit which is related on pages 411 and 412 of his Life of General Stonezvall Jackson, but with the suppression of his own name. The reader of that work will recall that, on the 7th of June, Jackson had posted General Ewell m a very advantageous posi- tion, about five miles back on the road leading to Harrisonburg, ' Dr. Dabney, soon after, withdrew the criticism which he here pro- nounces. At this time, with his intense conscientiousness and love of law and order, he did not realize that breakdown inevitably accom- panies all continued military operations. He did not understand how cruel was the situation in which Jackson was, and how he was forced, by strategical and political considerations, to drive so hard the undrilled, and as yet poorly officered, country boys, who had been gathered to constitute his army. All this he came to understand thoroughly a tew months later, as the reader of his great biography of Jackson knows. In the War-Time. 267 that he had posted the other division of his army on the heights, on the northwest bank of the Shenandoah. With the one division he would hold Fremont in check, with the other he would, by means of the artillery, keep Shields' men out of Port Republic until Monday, when he proposed to whip Shields, and then pay his respects to Fremont. He had, with his staff, crossed the long bridge over the Shenandoah into Port Re- public. He had also brought all his trains across the bridge, whence they might be withdrawn either to the mountain or to Staunton. Two companies of cavalry were detached to watch the approach of General Shields, of which one was sent to reconnoitre, and the other was stationed as a picket guard upon the road to Lewiston. Says Dr. Dabney: "The morning of June 8th, which was the Sabbath, dawned with all the graceful brightness appropriate to the Christian's sacred rest, and General Jackson, who never infringed its sanctity by his own choice, was preparing himself and his wearied men to spend it in devotion ; but soon after the sun surmounted the eastern mountain, the pickets next the army of Shields, came rushing to the headquarters in the village in confusion, with the Federal cavalry and a section of artillery close upon their heels. So feeble was the resistance they ofifered, the advance of the enemy dashed across the ford of the South River almost as soon as they, and occupied the streets. The General had barely time to mount and gallop towards the bridge, with a part of his staff, when the way was closed; two others of his suit, attempting to follow him a few minutes after, were captured in the street, and one or two, perceiving the hopelessness of the attempt, remained with the handful of troops thus cut off. But out of this accident, to them so involuntary, Providence ordained that a result should follow essential to the safety of the army. As the captured Confederate officers stood beside the commander of the Federal advance, some of his troopers returned to him, and pointed out the long train of wagons hurrying away, apparently without armed escort, and the hearts of the Con- federates sank within them, for they knew that this was Jackson's ordi- nance train, containing the reserve ammunition of the whole army, and that all its other baggage was equally at the mercy of the enemy; but as the eager Federals reached the head of the village, they were met by a volley of musketry, which sent them scampering back, and when they returned to the charge, two pieces of artillery opened upon them, to the equal surprise and delight of their anxious captives, and speedily cleared the streets with showers of canister. The explanation was that one of the officers separated from the General's suite, seeing the im- possibility of joining him, had addressed himself to rallying a handful 268 Life and Letters of Robert Lewis Dx\bney. of picket guards, and with these, and a section of new artillerists from the reserves, had boldly attacked the enemy. Thus the trains were saved, and a diversion made until the General could bring forward more substantial succors." ' * See Dabney's Life of General Stotiewall Jackson, pp. 411, 412. In Parnell's Unpublished History of the Civil War is a fuller account of this service on the part of Major Dabney. Parnell says: "In consequence of the bad conduct of Jackson's cavalry, the Federal irruption into Port Republic was a complete surprise. Jackson, with a part of his staflf, by galloping at full speed, just did have time to escape over the bridge and join his army on the other side before the enemy's cavalry entered the place. Two of his staff, trying to follow him, were captured; a third (Major Dabney), seeing the way of escape closed, retreated in the opposite direction. On the way he overtook Captain Moore, with about fifteen riflemen, who had been posted as a picket guard at the confluence of the South River with the Shenandoah (its south fork), and were retreating in good order. Major Dabney placed Captain Moore and his men in a field behind a board fence, just above the corner where the Staunton Turnpike turns at right angles towards the South, so as to command the turnpike before it reached that corner. He directed them to lie down flat and fire through the lowest crack of the fence at the enemy if he should appear on their front. This road makes two turns at right angles ; the first westward, at the southern end of the main street of the village, and the next southward, in front of Moore's riflemen. Between these two corners there was an interval of about two hundred yards, in which the turnpike was perfectly straight, affording excellent range for a close rifle fire. Major Dabney then overtook and halted Carrington's battery, which, being newly raised and organized, and consequently ill-equipped and badly trained, was retreating southward along the turnpike in a gallop. Finding that Carrington had canister cartridges for two guns, and sufficient cannon primers, but no lanyards, Dabney ran two pieces back across a meadow in the rear of the interval between the two corners above mentioned, until he reached a position near the first corner at the southern end of the main street of the village. Here he posted the two guns so as to rake the street at close quarters, using whip lashes for lanyards. "But before Major Dabney had reached this position, the Federal cavalry, in full chase after Jackson's trains, had turned this corner, and come within range of Moore's riflemen, at the next corner; but Moore had,, with one volley, driven them back into the town. About the time Dabney got the guns in position, twenty-five horsemen came up, the remnant of the Confederate cavalry that had been sent over South River. These had been on picket duty, but not on the direct road to Lewiston, and had, therefore, not been met and stampeded by Carroll. At Dabney's command, they halted, and dismounting, took a position in support of the guns. Soon afterwards, the head of the Federal column In the War-T]>[i:. 269 It is needless to say that Dabney was the officer of whom he writes as doing this service, without naming him.' From Port Repiibhc he accompanied General Jackson, whose Valley campaign, just closed, had made him immortal, to the neighborhood of Richmond, to assist General Lee. Of all these movements in which he aided his great leader, he has given an able, remarkably accurate and vivid account in his biography of that leader. At Gaines' Mill he again did an essential ser- vice, and this time without getting any credit for it, till Hender- son wrote his great ''Stoncivall Jackson." " In that battle, Jack- son had, against Major Dabney's earnest protest, entrusted the orders for putting to action his whole reserves to a member of his staff, whom Dabney regarded as incompetent to its execu- tion. This man so botched the instructions as to keep all the reserves out of action, instead of putting them in. Major Dab- ney went after them, on his own motion, corrected his mistaTce, and sent in six of the best brigades ; he got them in late in the afternoon, when the day seemed almost lost to his generals, saved the day, and turned it into a splendid victory. He did not wish to report his fellow for incompetency, made no report, and consequently Jackson wrote his official report of that battle without ever knowing just how he won it.'^ emerged from the dust on the street in front. Carrington's guns at once opened on them a brisk fire, to which the enemy, with the gun posted at the corner where the Lewiston road enters the street, replied with spirit, but their firing was not accurate, except the first shot, which was a shell remarkably well aimed; but the Confederates, perceiving from its bu.z:: that it meant mischief, 'squatted in the grass like par- tridges," and the shell, bursting four yards in front of them (consid- ered the most dangerous distance for an explosion), its fragments ricocheted harmlessly over their heads. The enemy then made two suc- cessive cavalry charges, but they were repulsed each time with loss. The contest was now carried on with artillery alone until Jackson retook the bridge, and cleared the town of the enemy. This diversion, in which Jackson did not lose a man, saved Jackson's trains, and gave him time to form his troops and recapture the place." For Dr. Dabney's letter, describing this action, to D. H. Pannill, Esq., see Appendix. ' In the Baltimore Southern Magazine of William Hand Brown. 1871, Dr. Dabney records this service under the title, "What I Saw of the Battle of Chickahominy," an anonymous article. '"There is a reference, in his Life of General Stonezvall Jackson, page 418. to this service, in the following sentence: "But another officer 270 Life and Letters of Robert Lewis Dabney. This military life must have been a very trying- one to Dr. Dabney from the start. It is known to the reader that, industri- ous and hugely energetic as Dr. Dabney had always been, he had also always inclined to late rising in the morning; but when he entered the military family of Jackson, he entered a new sphere. His master moved early, and when he rose from the table his servant cleared it ofif. Nor was any late comer served even with coffee and bread. Funny stories are told of Major Dabney's effort to secure something after a nap slightly too long on one morning. His efforts were in vain, tradition says, and he acquired the habits of an early riser while in that family. Dr. Hunter McGuire, Jackson's Chief Surgeon, is authority for another story of an incident in the initiation of Major Dabney. He used to tell that, during the first days of Dabney's service as Chief-of-Staff, the Doctor wore the black Prince Albert coat to which he had been accustomed, a beaver hat, and the usual dress of a Presbyterian clergyman, and that he also carried an umbrella of a dull brown or bluish color ; that one day, when Jackson was on the march, his men began to guy his Chief-of-Staff, crying, "Come out from under that umbrella !" "Come out ! I know you are under there ; I see your feet a-shaking!" " 'Fraid you are going to get your bee- gum spoiled ?" " 'Fraid you will get wet ?" ; that Jackson was riding along with his head down, and for a time paid no heed ; but that, after a while his attention was attracted ; that he looked around, and asked him what the men meant ; and that he replied that they were guying Major Dabney about his um- brella and his dress ; that Jackson looked annoyed for an in- stant, and then, giving word, "Gentlemen, let us ride !" dashed off through an adjacent wood as hard as his horse could go for half a mile, his staff following him, of course; that he then headed for the road and his column without a word ; but that meanwhile Major Dabney's umbrella had been reduced to tatters by the boughs and branches of the trees, and his beaver hat knocked into a most unbecoming and hopeless shape ; that a member of the staff at once loaned him a cap, and that in a day or two he appeared in a rather ill-fitting unifomi. But Dr. Dabney not only suffered inconveniences in his new of the staff, comprehending better the General's true intentions, and the urgency of the occasion, corrected the error, and at length moved the remaining brigades into action." There is a reference to it, in Hender- son's Stonezvall Jackson, Vol. II., p. 42, in a single sentence also. In the War-Time. 271 life; he saw, after a few months, that physically he was wholly unfit for such campaigning as Jackson's. Jackson postponed his own comfort, and required his men of all ranks to postpone theirs, with what to Major Dabney seemed an "absolute, not to say needless, rigidity." Dr. Dabney believed that the sacri- fice of comfort and health was, in part, needless, and he gives tliis instance: "Jackson launched himself and us into the weeks of campaign around Richmond, stripped not only of every comfort, but of the very means of existence, ordering everything to the rear, his own and our baggage- wagon, tents, pallets, blankets, cooking utensils, food, and so forth, leav- ing us for one week without any change of raiment or food even; except as we might take our chances to pick up, beg or steal something. Let me give one instance : my sole chance for supper Sunday evening after the great battle of Cold Harbor, after a dinnerless day of hard work, was this : a comrade whispered to me, 'Come and bivouac in the next corn-row to mine, because I have something nice for supper, enough for you and me, but not enough for three.' The treat proved to be some raw whiskey in a bottle, and about a pint of sliced beef tongue. The tongue was absolutely raw ! I could not drink the coarse raw whiskey. Jackson had left me orders to march the corps, at break of day, in pursuit of McClellan. I came with it to Savage Station, about an hour and a half by sun next morning, breakfastless. It had rained on me in the corn- row during the night. While drying myself by a camp-fire, I saw in the leaves a big fat Irish potato. This I put into the fire immediately, my sole chance for a breakfast. Before it was half roasted Jackson called to me, 'Major, we will ride.' Midday brought the beginning of the battle of White Oak Swamp. My show for a dinner there was the following : about one and a half Yankee crackers, which I found lying in the grass. These I helped out by sop- ping the pieces in some streaks of molasses which had been spilled in a good's box, while under artillery fire, watching and directing one of Jackson's batteries." Still half sick when he joined Jackson, he naturally broke down under such severe conditions of life. General Jackson was as kind as he was exacting. He saw soon after the hard day just referred to, that Major Dabney was a sick man, and insisted on his taking a sick leave from Harrison's landing. Dr. Dabney "had not asked it," but when it was offered, he went home to have another, and, this time a long and terrible spell of camp fever, which brought him "near to death's door." After this came a tedious relapse, followed by long prostration. These attacks, together with the pronounced Judgment of Chief-Surgeon Walton, that he would never be 272 Life and Letters of Robert Lewis Dabney. fit for the service, and would certainly die if he should go back, induced him to send in his resignation toward the end of August. Jackson was loth to permit it. Dr. Samuel B. Morri- son, of the Rockbridge Baths, wrote in 1866: "I remember to have had a conversation with General Jaclcson during the second battle of Manassas. I had gone to him with a request from General Ewell that General Early be promoted and put in command of Ewell's Division. General Jackson was lying under the shade of a tree on an oil-cloth, on his face, his head resting on his arm, asleep. I had some conversation with Major Preston. He told me not to wake the General, but to stay for dinner, when I could see him. The General very soon awoke, and I delivered General Ewell's message. He gave me no answer whether or not he would recommend General Early. He then asked me aside, and inquired if I had heard recently from you. He said, 'Major Dabney wishes to resign on account of his health; I hope that after a while he can remain in the field.' I told him that I had conversed with you on the subject, and that you had told me that you feared you would have to give up your position, as experience had proven to you that active service so exhausted and prostrated you as to render you unfit for any duty. The General then told me he would have to approve your resignation, but that he did it with the greatest reluctance, for that he considered you the most efficient officer he knew, he was very much pleased with you as an adjutant, and knew of no one that could fill your place." '^ His resignation seems to have been accepted in September, but with genuine reluctance. So ended his official, formal con- nection with the Confederate army. He had been an officer remarkable for his intelligent, energetic and exact execution of his General's orders. Lieut. -Col. G. F. R. Henderson has paid Major Dabney a high tribute in remarking of the untoward delay of Jackson's columns on the day before the battle of Cedar Run : ^- "The absence of Major Dabney, struck down by sick- ness, is a possible explanation of the faulty orders." He fre- quently refers to the soldierly services of Dr. Dabney in his great work, and always with respect. His recovery was slow, and his afflictions in his own perscjn were accompanied by afflictions in his family. While he was lying sick in the relapse, the diphtheria attacked his children. The contagion entered his family from some unknown source Charles William, Thomas Price and Samuel Brown, all had it, ^' Letter to Dr. Dabney from Samuel B. Morrison, dated March 20. 1866. "Henderson's Stoiicicall Jackson, Vol. H., p. 109. In the War-Time. 273 and Thomas Price died. Dr. Dabney was wont to speak of this Httle fellow as one of the brightest, and sometimes as the brightest of his sons. He died on the 8th day after taking the disease, and after very great suffering; but in spite of these ills, by the 13th of November, 1862, .the stricken father was once more feeling that he was well enough to attempt some- thing in the Lord's vineyard, and that he ought to be about his work. The Seminary session of i862-'63 ^vas most slimly attended. He wrote to his mother, "There are only two students in the Seminary, and they, I think, seem very little encouraged to study, so that I shall have very little to interest me in my regu- lar duties here." Like his neighbors, he found some other things to think about. In this same letter he says : '•Yesterday, I went out to a sale to see about getting some supplies. A pork hog sold for sixty-one dollars. True, it was a very fine one. and would make about two hundred and forty pounds of pork. They talk of asking thirty dollars a hundred about here for pork. I bought ten barrels of corn, at eight dollars and sixty cents a barrel. The times are awful." By December the 3Tst, two other students had appeared at the Seminary. On that day he wrote : "We have four students, one of whom is Mr. Chauncey Brooks, of Louisville. He is a first-rate man." Dr. Dabney took up again, with returning health, his pastoral and ministerial labors at the College Ciiurch. On the death of Dr. James H. Thornwell, he became convener of the Assembly's- Committee on the Revision of the Form of Government and Book of Discipline, but owing to the exigencies of the times, he advised that there should be no meeting for work that year. His pen was not inactive during this session ; a very able little book was written, the Defense of Virginia and the South. While lying at home, crippled In- ill-health, and having little teaching to do, he conceived the plan of fighting for the Con- federacy with his pen. His object was "to rebut the slanders of the Yankees against our institutions," and to give this rebut- tal currency at home and abroad. He believed that moral sup- port vyas as necessary to the Confederacy as military support. Securing a copy of his articles on slavery, pubHshed in the Enquirer, he revised, recast, and enlarged them. He thus made 18 ^74 Life and Letters of Robert Lewis Daijxey. the volume named Defense of Virginia and the South. The manuscript was approved by men of distinction and parts. He submitted it to the government through Mr. John Randolph Tucker, Secretary Seddon, and Senator Hunter, who had all approved it highly. The government determined to have it published in London by our commissioners there, with a view to its circulation in Europe, and to use so much of the secret service money therefor as might be needed. It was to be subse- quently republished in the United States. Accordingly, the manuscript was sent through the blockade to the commissioners in London. But Mr. Mason submitted the manuscript to Dr. A. T. Bledsoe, who was in London at the time to prepare to write a book on the Constitutional History of the United States. He seems to have objected that something in Dabney's book was illogical or indiscreet. He had a book out entitled Liberty and Shivery, on the same general subject. Dr. Dabney was under the impression that our commissioners, being intimidated by the general Abolition sentiment of Europe, lacked the nerve to print it ; that they at first temporized, therefore, and then were disobedient to the government at Richmond. They never printed it — "a most mistaken policy," in the judgment of the author. "Our failure to meet the Abolition charges squarely was viewed as a confession of our own guilt." That Dr. Dab- ney had met these charges squarely and ably and successfully was the judgment, not only of himself, but of many who were well qualified to judge. In March, 1865, Senator Hunter, Vice- I'resident Stephens and Judge John A. Campbell, on their way to the famous Hampton Roads Conference, stopped in Peters- burg. Dr. T. A. Prior called on these gentlemen while there. Mr. Hunter was an old college-mate of Dr. Prior's. They talked freely. Mr. Hunter mentioned to Dr. Prior his deep regret that Dabney's book had not been published in Europe, and condemned the policy of the commissioners in not bringing it out.^^ And in this connection he remarked that since the death of Mr. Calhoun, he had met with no other mind which dealt with public qi:«estions with a luminous power so like that statesman's. After the Confederacy had fallen, ''not less by the slanderers of the South than by the swords of its enemies,'' the work was brought out. This was in 1867. E. J. Hale, Esq., was the pub- Letter of T. A. Prior to f)r. R. L. Dabney, D. D. In the War-Time. 275 lisher ; one edition was published an