"> oO" " 
 
 ^<y I'^JJ!* o. 4^ oil."* ^ 
 
 ' C H 
 
 
 
 •- ^^v.<i*^' 
 
 C-.V^'.-o ./.-^^'X /..•-'^•-*° 
 
 
 
 * o 
 
 "'' .V 
 
 
 
 
 V-^^ 
 
 , V - u » ■"T, 
 
 
 
 ^ . . • 
 
 " • » * A N. J. 
 
 X V" " " " f <fu 
 
 *-^/ •^^•. ^'f •*A*- \>/ .•^''. %/ 
 
 3^ ^o 
 
 
 
 
 ^ O. * o « 
 
 'oK 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 * .<^ 
 
 '^ '%'*"•'> 
 
 
 
 '^ A*0' '■ A<5s/^/,',l 
 
 
>„./ .-iJ^I'. %.** /J^*; \J^ :iS»i'. ^*..«* .• 
 
 V^» 
 
 vn<^' 
 
 
 V .. 
 
 vv 
 
 
 
 ^^'^'^ 
 
 • ■<'r^ C.**- *^ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ^/ -^.^ -^^ • 
 
 ' ^^o-i'^' 
 
 ^'•. '^o. 
 
 3Pv\ 
 
 
 
 
 o " « ^ <^ 
 
 
 •^ C° **<->v7^- -O 
 
 
 " ^ • 4^ 
 
 .0 '^■ 
 
 
 ^'^"^r 
 
 
 <* 1y^ -% • 
 
 
 o. "iTvo' .0-' 
 
 
ADDRESS 
 
 OF 
 
 LAWRENCE WASHINGTON 
 
 In Presenting on May 3, 1910, at Montross, Va., the 
 Portrait of Judge Bushrod Washington, Associate 
 Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States 
 
ADDRESS 
 
 OF 
 
 LAWRENCE WASHINGTON 
 
 In Presenting on May 3, 1910, at Montross, Va., the 
 Portrait of Judge Bushrod Washington, Associate 
 Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States 
 
 QIoItnnbuB. C^Ijiii: 
 
 F. B, TOOTHAKER, LAW PRINTER 
 1912 
 
I ^ u "O 
 
 
 .L 
 
ADDRESS. 
 
 In appearing before you on behalf of the family of the late 
 Colonel John Augustine Washington, of the Confederate States 
 Army, to beg the acceptance by Westmoreland county of this por- 
 trait of Judge Bushrod Washington, the task of preparing a 
 brief sketch of his life to be used on this occasion has been as- 
 signed me, and I have consented to it, from a sense of filial duty 
 and not from any conceit of my special fitness to perform it. 
 
 The difficulty that confronts a layman in an attempt to portray 
 the life of one whose reputation rests on professional achievement 
 is so generally understood that I undertake it with much diffi- 
 dence, trusting to your very indulgent judgment of my effort, and 
 promise to confine myself to a plain statement of unornamented 
 fact, much of which I have taken from the writings of Judge 
 Binney, Judge Hopkinson and Judge Story, who knew Judge 
 Washington intimately, having been closely associated with him 
 during the thirty-one years he sat on the bench, and esteemed his 
 character fit subject for their literary efforts. 
 
 Born at Bushfield, near the mouth of Nomini, in this county, 
 on the fifth of June, 1762, Bushrod Washington was the oldest 
 son of that Colonel John Augustine Washington whose wife was 
 the daughter of Colonel John Bushrod. His ancestors on both 
 sides of the house had taken part in the councils of the Colony 
 and of the Church in the Colony from the beginning of their 
 history, and though perhaps not wealthy, he enjoyed from in- 
 fancy every advantage that social and political prestige could 
 give ; and, what stood him in better stead than either or both, the 
 careful training of pious, intellectual parents. His early tutelage 
 was firm, if not severe. The dominant purpose of parental 
 authority in that day was the inculcation of a spirit of reverence. 
 His duty to God, his duty to his neighbor, and veneration for his 
 
 3 
 
parents held higher place in the curriculum of the school in which 
 he was reared than the softer policy of obedience from love, and 
 whatever modern critics may say of it, its vindication seems se- 
 cure in the characters it produced. In the only letter written by 
 Bushrod Washington to his parents that I have seen, he ad- 
 dresses them as "Honored Sir and Madam," signs himself, "Your 
 most dutiful, obedient servant," and the whole tone of this letter, 
 written when he was about sixteen, is deferential in the extreme. 
 
 The schoolmaster, too, was a serious proposition. Solomon's 
 admonition as to the use of the rod was as strictly followed in 
 the private schools, conducted in the homes in the neighborhood, 
 as it was at a later period in the public academies, and it was 
 under those conditions that young Washington was prepared for 
 a course in William and Mary College, where he finished his 
 classical education. General Washington's influence secured him 
 a position in the law office of Mr. James Wilson, one of Phila- 
 delphia's most distinguished lawyers, where he was carefully and 
 thoroughly prepared for his chosen profession, and it may not be 
 uninteresting to note that it was this Air. Wilson who was later 
 appointed an associate justice, and whom Judge Washington suc- 
 ceeded on the bench. 
 
 On the completion of his law course, Bushrod Washington 
 practiced several years in Westmoreland, which he represented in 
 the General Assembly and in the Convention that ratified the 
 Federal Constitution, though in neither body did he take a very 
 prominent part in debate. Neither does his law^ practice seem to 
 have been altogether satisfactory, as we find a letter from him 
 to the President intimating a desire to be appointed attorney in 
 the Federal Court ; but the reply he received was sufficient to 
 convince him that nepotism was not one of his uncle's redeeming 
 vices, and he shortly afterwards removed to Alexandria, where 
 he was no more encouraged than he had been in his native county. 
 
 \Miether this apparent lack of success was only such as most 
 young lawyers experience, or w^as due to the great draught on his 
 time, occasioned by a close attention to the private affairs of Gen- 
 eral Washington, whose public duties obliged him to rely on him 
 more and more as the cares of State increased, does not appear, 
 
but his stay in Alexandria was short, and he moved on to Rich- 
 mond, where he quickly came into lucrative and successful prac- 
 tice, was soon recognized as one of the ablest lawyers in the State, 
 and was engaged in the most important cases argued before the 
 Appellate Court. He had been married, before leaving West- 
 moreland, to Miss Anne Blackburn, a daughter of Colonel 
 Thomas Blackburn, of Prince William county, who had served 
 on the staff of General Washington in the Revolution. The 
 health of this lady was never robust, and was greatly impaired 
 shortly after her marriage by a shock occasoned by the sudden 
 death of her sister under peculiarly distressing circumstances, a 
 shock from which she never entirely recovered, and which ren- 
 dered her so dependent on her husband that he took little part 
 in the social functions for which Richmond was as celebrated 
 then, as now. His whole time was devoted to his practice, to 
 the work of writing and publishing the decisions of the Court 
 of Appeals of Virginia and to a tender and affectionate attention 
 to his wife, which he never relaxed until death claimed him, and 
 which caused him to be cited by his family, even in my recol- 
 lection, as a model of what a husband ought to be. 
 
 Though an ardent Federalist, he had taken little part in poli- 
 tics, and it was with much reluctance that he consented to be- 
 come a candidate for Congress. Politics in Virginia were run- 
 ning high, the Federal party was on its downward road to defeat, 
 and sacrifices had to be made. He entered the canvass with all 
 his energy and had a fair prospect of election, when he received 
 his appointment to the Supreme Bench, which of course withdrew 
 him from the field. At the time of his elevation to the bench, 
 Washington was only thirty-seven, and it is not unnatural that his 
 selection at so early an age for so high an office, should be at- 
 tributed, at least in part, to his relationship to his great kinsman, 
 and I have searched most diligently for some word or expression 
 from General Washington that might be construed as indicative 
 of a desire for his nephew's advancement. General Washington's 
 letters have been so carefully preserved and so generally pub- 
 lished, it seems impossible that such wish, if ever written, should 
 remain concealed. Not only so, but the writings of every man 
 who was in a position to be of service in procuring his appoint- 
 
 5 
 
ment have been very carefully collected and published ; but in none 
 of them is found even a remote reference to such influence. 
 
 President Adams, who made the appointment, seems to have 
 considered the question purely with reference to the public 
 interest. Many eminent and distinguished men were urged for 
 the position, and the claims and merit of each were carefully 
 considered and frankly discussed, but Mr. Adams" mind soon 
 became fixed on two men, John Marshall and Bushrod Wash- 
 ington ; and however men may have viewed it then, certainly few 
 men will now consider it disparagement to be rated second to John 
 Marshall. In writing to Mr. Pickering. Secretary of State, Mr. 
 Adams says : "General Marshall or Bushrod Washington will 
 succeed Judge Wilson. Marshall is first in age, rank and public 
 service, probably not second in talents. The character, the merit 
 and abilities of Mr. Washington are greatly respected, but I think 
 General Marshall ought to be preferred ; of the three envoys [to 
 France] the conduct of Marshall alone has been entirely satis- 
 factory, and ought to be marked by the most decided approba- 
 tion of the public. He has raised the American people in their 
 own esteem, and if the influence of truth and justice, reasoti and 
 argument is not lost in Europe, he has raised the consideration 
 of the United States in that quarter of the world. If Mr. IMar- 
 shall should decline, I should next think of Mr. Washington." 
 
 Other names continued to be presented and considered ; but 
 in a short time after the letter just quoted. Air. Adams wrote 
 again to his Secretary of State : "I have received your letter of 
 September 20th, and return you the commission for a judge of 
 the Supreme Court, signed, leaving the name and date blank. You 
 will fill the blank with the name of Marshall if he will accept it, 
 if not, with that of Washington." 
 
 (See JJ'rifiiifjs of John Adams, \o\. A'lII, pages 596. ct scq.) 
 Mr. Marshall declined the oflice and Bushrod Washington was 
 appointed, and became, says David Paul Brown, "perhaps the 
 greatest Nisi Priiis Judge that the world has ever known, without 
 even excepting Chief Justice Holt or Lord IMansfield." and adds. 
 "This appointment and that which speedily followed, the Chief 
 
Justiceship of John Marshall, were enough in themselves to, 
 secure a lasting obligation of the country to the appointing 
 power." 
 
 In regard to his qualifications as a judge, I have preferred to 
 cite the opinions of his contemporaries to expressing one of my 
 own. Judge Story says : 
 
 "For thirty-one years he held that important station, with a 
 constantly increasing reputation and usefulness. Few men, in- 
 deed, have possessed higher qualifications for the office, either 
 natural or acquired. Few men have left deeper traces, in their 
 judicial career, of everything, which a conscientious judge ought 
 to propose for his ambition, or his virture, or his glory. His mind 
 was solid, rather than brilliant ; sagacious and searching, rather 
 than quick and eager ; slow, but not torpid ; steady, but not un- 
 yielding ; comprehensive, and at the same time, cautious ; patient 
 in inquiry, forcible in conception, clear in reasoning. He was, by 
 original temperament, mild, conciliating, and candid ; and yet, he 
 was remarkable for an uncompromising firmness. Of him it may 
 be truly said, that the fear of man never fell upon him ; it never 
 entered into his thought, much less was it seen in his actions. In 
 him the love of justice was the ruling passion ; it was the master- 
 spring of all his conduct. He made it a matter of conscience to 
 discharge every duty with scrupulous fidelity and scrupulous zeal. 
 It mattered not, whether the duty were small or great, witnessed 
 by the world, or performed in private, everywhere the same dili- 
 gence, watchfulness and pervading sense of justice were seen. 
 There was about him a tenderness of giving ofifense, and yet a 
 fearlessness of consequences in his official character, which I 
 scarcely know how to portray. It was a rare combination, which 
 added much to the dignity of the bench and made justice itself, 
 even when most severe, soften into the moderation of mercy. It 
 gained confidence, when it seemed least to seek it. It repressed 
 arrogance, by overawing or confounding it." 
 
 Judge Binney, who practiced in his court for twenty years, and 
 was afterward associated with him on the bench, says : 
 
 "Without the least apparent effort, he made everybody see at 
 first sight, that he was equal to all the duties of the place, cere- 
 monial as well as intellectual. His mind was full, his elocution 
 
free, clear and accurate, his command of all about him indisput- 
 able. His learning and acuteness were not only equal to the pro- 
 foundest argument, but carried the counsel to depths which they 
 had not penetrated ; and he was as cool, self-possessed, and effi- 
 cient at a moment of high excitement at the bar. or in the people, 
 as if the nerves of fear had been taken out of his brain by the 
 roots. 
 
 "Judge Washington was an accomplished equity lawyer when 
 he came to the bench, his practice in A'irginia having been chiefly 
 in chancery, and he was thoroughly grounded in the common law ; 
 but he had not been previously familiar with commercial law ; and 
 he had had no experience at all. either in the superintendence or 
 the practice of jury trials at Nisi Priits. after that fashion which 
 prevails in Pennsylvania, and in some of the Eastern and North- 
 ern States, as well as in England, where the judge repeats and 
 reviews the evidence in his charge to the jury, not unfrequently 
 shows them the learning of his mind in regard to the facts, and 
 directs them in matter of law. And nevertheless, it was in these 
 two departments or provinces — commercial law and Nisi Prius 
 practice and administration, particularly the latter, — that he was 
 eminent from the outset, and in a short time became, in my 
 apprehension, as accomplished Nisi Prius judge as ever lived. 
 I have never seen a judge who in this specialty equalled him. I 
 cannot conceive a better. Judging of Lord Mansfield's great 
 powers at Nisi Priits, by the accounts which have been trans- 
 mitted to us. I do not believe that even he surpassed Judge W'ash- 
 ington. 
 
 "One fundamental faculty for a Nisi Prius judge he possessed 
 in absolute perfection, it was attention. Attention sprang from 
 his head, full grown, at least as trul\- as Minerva from Jupiter's, 
 or he had trained it up in infancy in some way of his own. He 
 possessed the power, as I have said before, in absolute perfection. 
 
 "In addition to this, he had great quiekness and accuracy of 
 apprehension. Washington never interrogated a witness, nor 
 asked counsel to repeat what he had said, and but rarely called for 
 documents after they had been read to him. He caught the im- 
 portant parts in a moment, and made a reliable note of them, 
 before the counsel was ready to proceed with further testimony. 
 
 8 
 
"He liad a most ready command of precise and expressive lan- 
 guage, to narrate facts or to communicate thoughts, and a poiver 
 of logical arrangement in his statements and reasonings, which 
 presented everything to the jury in the very terms and order that 
 were fittest, both for the jury and for the counsel, to exhibit the 
 whole case. A jury never came back to ask what he meant, and 
 counsel were never at a loss to state the very point of their objec- 
 tion to his opinion or charge, if they had any objection to make. 
 
 "Few, very few men," says Judge Hopkinson, "who have been 
 distinguished on the judgment seat of the law, have possessed 
 higher qualifications, natural and acquired, for the station, than 
 Judge Washington. And this is equally true, whether we look to 
 the illustrious individuals who have graced the courts of the 
 United States, or extended the view to the country from which so 
 much of our judicial knowledge has been derived. He was wise, 
 as well as learned ; sagacious and searching in the pursuit and 
 discovery of truth, and faithful to it beyond the touch of corrup- 
 tion, or the diflidence of fear ; he was cautious, considerate and 
 slow in forming a judgment, and steady, but not obstinate, in his 
 adherence to it. No man was more willing to listen to an argu- 
 ment against his opinion ; to receive it with candor, or to yield to 
 it with more manliness, if it convinced him of his error. He was 
 too honest and too proud, to surrender himself to the undue in- 
 fluence of any man, the menaces of any power, or the seductions 
 of any interest ; but he was as tractable as humility, to the force of 
 truth ; as obedient as filial duty, to the voice of reason. When he 
 gave up an opinion, he did it not grudgingly, or with reluctant 
 qualifications and saving explanations ; it was abandoned at once, 
 and he rejoiced more than any one, at his escape from it. It is 
 only a mind conscious of its strength, and governed by the highest 
 principles of integrity, that can make such sacrifices, not only 
 without any feeling of humiliation, but with unaffected satisfac- 
 tion." 
 
 In any account of Judge Washington a review of his decisions 
 is of course what most interest the profession, but such review 
 most briefly stated would occupy more time than could be allowed 
 on an occasion like this, and I pass at once to some of the less 
 conspicuous incidents of his life. 
 
 9 
 
It is entirely unnecessary to rehearse before this audience the 
 efforts made by the Virginia colonists to prevent the shipment of 
 African slaves to her shore ; you know, too, that when a power 
 too strong for the colony to resist, had fastened the institution 
 upon her, the wisest statesmen within her borders would have 
 welcomed and contributed to its abolishment by any plan not 
 threatening greater evils ; and on this question Judge Washington 
 did not differ from the majority of the gentlemen of his day and 
 class. He had witnessed and on him had fallen the heaviest of the 
 burden of General Washington's unfortunate experiment in 
 emancipation ; he had seen the quiet and contented slave trans- 
 formed by an act of intended philanthropy into a savage menace 
 to the neighborhood ; he had seen its demoralizing effect on those 
 still held in bondage, and in company with Judge Marshall had 
 been hurried from his official duties to quell a mutiny among the 
 slaves at Mount Vernon, only arriving in time to prevent serious 
 trouble. How far this insubordination had been brought about 
 by the incendiary teaching of emissaries of Northern abolition 
 societies, who, under the pretense of patriotic interest in the tomb 
 and the late home of the first President, were constantly visiting 
 the place, can not be certainly known, but that the influence of 
 those people transmitted through these free negroes to his slaves. 
 had practically destroyed the value of Judge Washington's prop- 
 erty lying in that part of the State is shown by a letter written in 
 1821 to the editor of Nile's Register in reply to attacks that had 
 been made on him as President of the American Colonization 
 Society for having sold over fifty of the negroes. The letter is 
 too long to be copied in full, but the paragraphs dealing with this 
 particular phase of the question will, I hope, prove interesting. 
 After showing how, by the purchase of a number of these 
 negroes, to prevent the separation of families, the sale had re- 
 sulted in little profit to him, he says : 
 
 "I had struggled for about twenty years to pay the expenses 
 of my farm and to afford a comfortable support for those who 
 cultivated it, from the produce of their labor. In this way to 
 have balanced that account would have satisfied me, but I always 
 had to draw upon my other resources for those objects, and I 
 
 10 
 
would state upon my best judgment that the produce of the farm 
 has in general fallen short of its support from $500 to $1000 
 annually. To the best of my recollection I have during the above 
 period (two years excepted) had to buy corn for the negroes, for 
 which I have sometimes paid five, six and seven dollars a barrel. 
 Last year I commenced the purchase of this article for ninety 
 negroes in the month of May and so continued to the end of it. 
 
 "The insubordination of my negroes and their total disregard 
 of all authority, rendered them more than useless to me. Southern 
 gentlemen understand, and well know how to appreciate the force 
 of this motve, and I, therefore, forbear to enlarge upon it. 
 
 "But if it should be asked, as it well may be, why this temper 
 was more observable at Mount Vernon than upon other planta- 
 tions in the neighborhood, I answer that, that place has at times 
 been visited by some unworthy persons, who have condescended 
 to hold conversations with my negroes and to impress upon their 
 minds the belief that as the nephew of General Washington, or as 
 President of the Colonization Society, or for other reasons, I 
 could not hold them in bondage, and particularly that they would 
 be free at my death. That such conversations have passed I have 
 evidence entirely satisfactory to myself ; and that such impres- 
 sions had been made on the minds of the negroes was imparted 
 to me by a friend, who had no reason to doubt the fact. In con- 
 sequence of information so truly alarming, I called the negroes 
 together in March last, and, after stating to them what I had 
 heard, and that they had been deceived by those who had neither 
 their or my good in view, I assured them most solemnly that I 
 had no intention to give freedom to any of them, and that nothing 
 but a voluntary act of mine could make them so. That disap- 
 pointment caused by this declaration should lead to consequences 
 which followed was to be expected." 
 
 There remained then, no alternative, however distasteful, but 
 the sale of his negroes. Emancipation without deportation w^as 
 not to be thought of, and he had already gone as far in that direc- 
 tion as prudence permitted, and was at that time contributing to 
 the support of the most promising of his servants whom he had 
 liberated and sent to Liberia. 
 
 11 
 
Judge Washington's connection with the Colonization Society 
 deserves more notice than it is possible to give it in a sketch of 
 this character. He was its first president, and whatever of suc- 
 cess it enjoyed, was due in no small measure to his labor and 
 interest and to the assistance and confidence which his connection 
 with it secured. What the work of this society would have 
 amounted to but for the Civil War, is a matter of speculation ; 
 what it has amounted to is best told perhaps by C. H. J. Taylor, 
 who was appointed by President Cleveland minister to that 
 country, and who on his return to the United States, painted a 
 pathetic picture of reversion to type. 
 
 Judge and Mrs. Washington had no children, and the condi- 
 tion of her health rendered impossible a continuance of the 
 hospitality that had made Mount Vernon famous during the life 
 of its previous owner. A dinner now and then to members of 
 the Supreme Court, and that informal visiting that constituted 
 one of the charms of X'irginia society, was all that Mrs. Wash- 
 ington's strength permitted, and even that was much interrupted 
 by their frequent absences on account of official duties. Mrs. 
 Washington always accompanied her husband and insisted on 
 traveling in their private carriage, in which they made their regu- 
 lar journeys to Philadelphia and Trenton. The fall term of 1829 
 was attended with much difficulty. He managed to sit through 
 the session at Trenton and came back to Philadelphia, hoping to 
 perform his duties there, but grew steadily worse and died on 
 the 26th of November, 1829, his wife dying the following day. 
 
 One short incident as illustrating his attitude toward his slaves, 
 and I am done. 
 
 The incident was related to me by a niece of Mrs. Washington, 
 who was a constant visitor at Mount \'ernon, and now living, at 
 the age of nearly one hundred years. 
 
 An old negro, who w^as a kind of under gardener, had been en- 
 couraged by the promise of a dram, to catch a rat that had done 
 much damage and destroyed some of the finest bulbs in the con- 
 servatory. The old negro had long pitted his cunning against that 
 of the rat, and had devised many traps for its capture, but his 
 efforts had been unrewarded, when one dav, while the familv was 
 
 12 
 
at dinner, there came a knock at the back door, which was re- 
 sponded to by the servant waiting on the table. Returning to the 
 ling room and announcing no visitor, the Judge asked who had 
 knocked. The servant rephed it was nobody but old Joe with a 
 rat and that he had sent him away. 
 
 "Go and bring him back," said the Judge, and calling for a 
 suitable cup he poured out the promised dram and himself took it 
 to the door, accompanying its presentation to his old negro with 
 highly appreciative praise. , ^ a 
 
 Such Mr President, was the man most inadequately portrayed, 
 for whose portrait we beg a place among the portraits of the 
 other illustrious sons of this country, and it is no disparagement to 
 the greatest among them to have it placed there. He represented 
 what they stood for. His regard for truth and justice was as 
 great as was that of his greater kinsman, and his devotion to duty 
 as sublime as was that of the immortal Lee. 
 
 13 
 
W84 
 
^"^^^ °''^W*\'^^^% "'^^Z J'^\ °-^^*" "^^^^ ^ 
 
 
 
 
 ' ' rv •' ^ 
 
 .-?^"- 
 
 
•^"o 
 
 
 V'.. •'b 
 
 
 
 
 
 -^-o 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 /.c:^.% 
 
 ^, 
 
 
 ;^ - • • Av 
 
 
 v'^ 
 
iflisSiliiiilH