^6/*^^^ 
 
 ^^ 
 
 THE JEWELS OF VIRGINIA. 
 
 JiY 
 
 Col. C^eoro-e Wvtlie Mimforcl 
 
 ■ Publisbed for the Benefit of the Hollywood Memorial Association. 
 
 F 
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il« §nvth oi f hpnia: 
 
 A. LECTTJRE, 
 
 DRLIVKRED BY INVITATION OF THE 
 
 HOLLYWOOD MEMORIAL ASSOCIATION 
 
 IN RICHMOND, JANUARY 18, 1867, 
 
 Col. GEOEGE WYTHE MUNFORD, 
 
 Of Gloucester, Va. 
 
 [Published for the benefit of the Association. J 
 
 RICHMON^D : 
 GARY & CLEMMITT, PRINTERS. 
 
 1867. 
 
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 -L^ 
 
 / o 
 
 In E._.i; 
 Wis. Hist, So«» 
 
LECTUKE 
 
 Ladies and Gentlemen, 
 
 One of the most difficult things to 
 accomplish is the composition of good toasts. To make 
 them worthy of note they should be sententious, full of 
 meaning, and like the champaigne in which they ought to 
 be drunk, spirited and buoyant. Of the great number I 
 have heard, the only one I will recall was delivered mauy 
 years ago by the great Carolinian. It was "Virginia! 
 Like the mother of the Gracchi, when asked for her jewels, 
 she points to her sons." This sentiment, rich with classic 
 beauty, high compliment and sparkling brilliancy, I have 
 adopted as the theme of my discourse on the present occa- 
 sion. 
 
 But I have so seldom addressed a public audience, and 
 especially of late, that I feel like the aged minstrel: 
 
 "Amid the strings his fingers stray 'd, 
 And an uncertain warbUng made, 
 And oft ho shook his lioary head." 
 
 If I shall gain his reassured confidence, I may begin to 
 "talk anon 
 
 Of good earl Francis, dead and gone ; 
 And of earl Walter, rest him God! 
 A braver ne'er to battle rode." 
 
 I may make an effort to bring to remembrance the great, 
 the good, the wise and the brave of Virginia, who were 
 characterized by the great and good, the wise and brave 
 Calhoun as the "jewels" she wears, and to which she 
 points with exalted pride as ornaments that have made her 
 
4 LECTURE. 
 
 famous in story, and given her glory and immortality. 
 There has been no son of hers of any repute in her coun- 
 cils, or the councils of the nation, for the last fifty years, 
 that I have not seen and known. I have had opportunity 
 to scan their public actions and writings, their persons and 
 lineaments, the character of their minds, the intonation of 
 their voice, their style of oratory, their modes of thought, 
 the principles they inculcate, the parties upon whose altars 
 they poured their incense, the aims and objects they had in 
 view. 
 
 But where shall I begin ? "Which casket shall I open ? 
 Her house is full of them — -jaspers, sapphires, chalcedo- 
 nies and emeralds. In the quaint language of St. John the 
 evangelist, at the close of his gospel, I may say, and there 
 are also many things which the great men of Virginia have 
 accoiTiplished, "the which, if they should be written, every 
 one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain 
 the books that should be written." I shall have then to 
 pick and to choose, and while I would do injustice to none, 
 by omission, I must per force leave some of them on the 
 pedestals, upon whose superstructure some Houdon, or 
 Crawford, or Rogers, may rear their form sublime. And 
 then again there are thousands who have never entered her 
 councils, whose charity and hospitality, and rare intellects 
 and virtues, have made Virginia lovely and of good report, 
 and spread her renown from pole to pole. 
 
 Besides the oaks of her forests, there are roses and lil- 
 lies in her vales, and 
 
 " Though large the forest monarch throws 
 His leafy shade, 
 Yet sweet the juicy hawthorne grows 
 Adown the glade." 
 
 Of all her brilliants, none can compare with her Wash- 
 ington, the greatest of all the Kohinoors of ancient or of 
 modern times. Every chisel and every brush has essayed 
 to develop his character and actions; every pen endeavored 
 
LECTURE. 5 
 
 to describe and beautify both; everj^ Hower and leaf have 
 been woven and twined around him; every heart has 
 poured forth its love; every tongue uttered his name with 
 loud acclaim, and all the nations praise him. I name the 
 name of Washington, simply because my subject is Vir- 
 ginia's jewels, and I could not omit her purest, most pellu- 
 cid, unblemished diamond. 
 
 In the mysterious book of Revelation we read of one 
 "that was, and is not, and yet is;" and this language 
 seems to convey a contradiction in terms. But when I 
 contemplate the life of Washington, I can understand how 
 it may be true; f or he was, and is not, and j;fii.is. He 
 liv^d, he is dead, and yet hejives. We may well imagine 
 that his living soul has found a blissful paradise. We may 
 well imagine that one of the four and twenty seats v/hich 
 are round and about the throne of Jehovah has been re- 
 served for him, and that he occupies the place of one of 
 the four and twenty elders that were clothed in white rai- 
 ment with crowns of gold upon their heads. 
 
 But, more than this, he lives on earth, he endures m his 
 precepts, in his writings, in his prophetic warnings, in his 
 matchless example, in the institution of learning which he 
 endowed, and to which the fame of the second Washing- 
 ton, now at its head, has given a new attractive force; by 
 which the minds that will be enlightened there will en- 
 lighten others, and so on, wave upon wave extending and 
 enlarging through endless ages. And besides, we have a 
 living witness in the person of Governor Wise, (another of 
 Virginia's jewels), who happily reminds us, in glowing 
 language, that George Washington lives in another sense ; 
 for " in Houdon's marble we have the form and feature, 
 the limb and lineament, the configuration and proportion, 
 the stature and posture, and we have enlivening all, illu- 
 mining all, the mien, and manner, and majesty of the man, 
 the breath as well as the body, the grandeur of the moral 
 greatness of the very soul of the living Washington!" 
 
 But how long he may be permitted to live in the capitol 
 
6 LECTURE. 
 
 in peace I know not. The deeds that are being done in 
 these days ought to make his bones restless in their tomb; 
 for if aliens to our soil can mutilate and deface the col- 
 lege he endowed, demolish its apparatus and destroy its 
 libraries; if they could lay in ashes the beautiful and im- 
 posing buildings of the Virginia Military Institute, and rob 
 it of all that could be appropriated as trophies, and displace 
 from its pedestal that statue in bronze which Virginia had 
 erected there, as another " endearing proof of her grati- 
 tude to her living son," what may they not do? How long 
 his bones may be permitted to rest in Virginia soil I know 
 not; for if they can obliterate at one blow our ancient 
 boundaries, and erect a new state by the consent of the 
 sham representatives of three or four counties, and at their 
 pleasure take from us county after county, and annex them 
 to another state, why may they not give Mount Vernon to 
 Massachusetts, and give her the title to claim our conse- 
 crated relic as her OAvn, her living son ? Yes, they may 
 take that " West Augusta," upon which he relied as his 
 refuge and safeguard, and give it to another; they may 
 take from his mother Virginia her rights and her heritage; 
 they make take his monuments and grind them to powder, 
 and sow it on the fields, but the father Avill live in the 
 hearts of his children, and he will live forever "to the 
 world an immortal example of true glor3^" 
 
 If he is dead, let his disinterestedness live. Let his let- 
 ter to the general assembly live, in which they were told 
 "that when first called to the command of the American 
 forces, he resolved, and since then he had invariably ad- 
 hered to the resolution, to shut his hands against every 
 pecuniary recompense." Let "the endowments of the 
 hero and the virtues of the patriot" live. Let his en- 
 deavors to establish the liberties of his country live, whe- 
 ther those liberties under the pressure of modern radical- 
 ism survive or perish. Let the great works for the im- 
 provement of his native state, and which were encouraged 
 l)y his patronage, live. Let the great avenue of the state 
 
LECTURE. 7 
 
 wliicli he (lesi«;nate(l l)e opened up, until at every pulsation 
 her life-blood as it gushes from her heart shall How from 
 one extremity to the other. Above all, if we are ever 
 restored to the Union, and awarded our equal station by 
 the side of the other states, then let the spirit of amity and 
 of mutual deference and concession which he invoked as 
 indispensably necessary at the adoption of the constitution 
 be revived, and let the era of harmony and peace bring- 
 forth its living fruit, to l)e enjoyed equally by all, now and 
 forever. 
 
 And if it would be improper to omit the name of Wash- 
 ington, for the same reason I must mention the grand old 
 orator Patrick Henry, whose eloquence sparkles, even at 
 second hand, like corruscations from the tips of brilliants; 
 and the great and revered George Mason, the author of the 
 Bill of Eights and of the first Constitution for Virginia, 
 the composition of which required the learning of the 
 scholar, the wisdom of the statesman and the purity of the 
 patriot. Every one who has dipped into the history of the 
 colonies knows that Henry was the foremost to draw the 
 sword in defence of the rights of the country, and was the 
 originator of the three greatest test measures of that epoch, 
 the resolutions against the Stamp Act, the resolutions for 
 placing the colony in military array, and equipping her 
 armies for the field, and the resolutions instructing our 
 delegates in congress to declare the colonies free and inde- 
 pendent. They well know that he was the animating spirit 
 of the revolution, leading and swaying public opinion, and 
 boldly guiding it for the public good. None but intrepid 
 men, in such times, can induce the masses to attempt an 
 overthrow of established governments. Men who are cal- 
 culating chances of success, and looking to self-promotion 
 or self-interest, are looked upon with cold indifference. 
 When the masses of* a community are chafing under wrono- 
 and oppression, each one of them feels that singly he is 
 powerless, and therefore for a long time they smother 
 their discontent, and mutter hatred between their teeth; 
 
8 LECTURE. 
 
 but when at lengtli an upright, disinterested, bokl patriot 
 arises, with burning oratory on his lips, and a proud con- 
 sciousness of rectitude stamped upon his brow, and ani- 
 mates the crowd, and gives them hope of success, he be- 
 comes their mouthpiece, gives utterance to their stifled 
 feehngs, and is able to move and hurl the masses whither- 
 soever lie will. This was Patrick Ilenrj; thus he threw 
 his soul into the cause, and waked the living spirit of re- 
 bellion, hurling it against the old government, and causing 
 its overthrow and annibilation. 
 
 So, on the other hand, when men have been roused and 
 agitated, and induced with all their energies to upturn and 
 destroy their government and laws, and anarchy begins to 
 reign, the wealthy and the prudent begin to take alarm, 
 and eagerly look around for some balance wheel to regulate 
 and control the disordered mass, and bring system and 
 order out of chaos. Then some man equally bold, equally 
 wise, and equally patriotic and disinterested, is required to 
 compose the popular mind by giving form and life to the 
 desire to protect property, and life and honor. A declara- 
 tion of rights is necessary, a form of government is essen- 
 tial, with all its departments complete, to give stabilit}'', and 
 to ensure calm and repose. And this was the duty which 
 was assigned to George Mason, and which he accomplished 
 with unsurpassed ability. For this he drew the Virginia 
 Bill of Rights, which announces the very essence of the 
 great principles and doctrines of freedom from the earliest 
 times, the elemental ideas, which constitute the foundations 
 upon which society rests, and upon which all good and free 
 governments are constituted. These principles afforded 
 the pabulum for thought, and were the short pithy axioms 
 which men could easily understand, and for which they 
 were ready to risk their lives and their fortunes, and for 
 the maintenance of which they intended to peril every- 
 thing within their power. And then when they had 
 grasped the principles, there came forth from his brain the 
 form of government, which embodied these principles, and 
 
LECTURE. 9 
 
 afforded evidence of the stability which was so much 
 needed, and which had the effect to compose the prudent, 
 to restrain the vicious, and protect all in the acquirement 
 of propert}' and in the maintenance of right. 
 
 Thus we had the orator to rouse, animate, lead, upturn 
 and destroy the old government, and the statesman to com- 
 pose, calm, regulate and govern. And then to show the 
 confidence reposed in the orator and destructionist, the 
 general assembly elected Henry the first ■ governor, to es- 
 tablish and make solid the new government, to put it in 
 motion, to see that all its machinery worked smoothly, 
 without jostle or derangement, and to protect and defend 
 all interests entrusted to his governmental care. 
 
 Such gems as these I cannot omit, though I have been 
 constrained to limit myself almost entirely to the contem- 
 plation of the jewels that I have personally seen, or with 
 whom I have had personal intercourse. 
 
 I^Tor can I omit, next to these great men, among the 
 architects of Virginia's fame, her sons, Jefferson, Madison 
 and Monroe. Every one, without hesitation, would desig- 
 nate them as jewels worthy to ornament the brow of any 
 state, but at the same time it would be universally admit- 
 ted that it would be next to impossible to present any 
 characteristic of their lives, which histories and biographies 
 have not already given. I cannot pass them by unnoticed, 
 and yfet I do not expect to add one jot or tittle to their 
 exalted fixme. Each one was himself a monument of in- 
 dustry, of intelligence, of consistent and devoted purpose, 
 of patriotism pure and fearless, and of rare and far-reachr 
 ing philanthropy. They all ascended the ladder of fame 
 successively, and each as he advanced paused at each 
 round, to make an enduring mark for the benefit of pos- 
 terity, and for the glory of Ms country. Few of those 
 present, I imagine, have ever seen these great men, or 
 listened to their pleasant and instructive words. I have 
 liad the good fortune to see and converse with each of 
 them, and have a most pleasing recollection of their per- 
 
10 LECTURE. 
 
 sonal appearance and dcliglitful manners. There arc por- 
 traits and monuments of each, to which reference may be 
 had. In the hall of the house of delegates there is a full 
 length portrait of Mr. Jefferson, taken by Catlin, which 
 was purchased by a few gentlemen of this city, and placed 
 there as a memento of his person, and a memorial of their 
 devotion to his character. You have all seen, too, the 
 colossal statue in bronze by Crawford on the Washington 
 monument. Besides these, the general assembly author- 
 ized Alexander Gait, of l!^orfolk, a young Virginia sculp- 
 tor of great promise, to execute a marble statue, which 
 has been placed at the University. 
 
 As I remember the great patriot and sage, he was tall, 
 slender, and remarkably erect, with a small head and thin 
 hair, originally reddisli, but so intermingled with grey as 
 to have softened it to a pleasant hue, with mild, speaking 
 blue eyes, emitting the rays of his brightened intellect, and 
 a countenance composed, yet frank and enlightened. 
 
 Of Mr. Madison there are doubtless many likenesses, 
 but the chief are those taken by Stuart in 1803, by Catlin 
 in 1831, and by Longacre in 1833, three years before his 
 death. His person as he appeared to me when in the 
 Convention of 1829-'30, was that of a Virginia gentleman 
 of the olden school, of medium stature, dressed in a plain 
 suit of black cloth, with short knee breeches clasped at the 
 knees with silver buckles, black silk stockings, and shoes 
 fastened with silver buckles too, with powdered hair, full 
 over the ears, and smoothly brushed and tied behind. Add 
 to these a speaking eye, a fine forehead, a benevolent coun- 
 tenance, a cheerful, healthy complexion, tinged with the 
 ruby of a moderate quantity of the best old madeira, with 
 a hand open, and a purse ready to minister to the wants 
 of the destitute and poor, and a mind enlightened by 
 copious drafts from the pierian spring, and you will have 
 a good idea of Mr. Madison as I remember him. 
 
 Mr. Monroe was taller than Mr. Madison, but the for- 
 mer, at the same period, had become very feeble and much 
 
LECTURE. 11 
 
 broken, his face exceedingly wrinkled, and complexion 
 pale and sallow. In the last year of his presidency, when 
 I saw him in the white-house transacting business with 
 his secretary of state John Quincy Adams, I would have 
 described him as another specimen of the Virginia gentle- 
 man, affable and courteous, whose soul had abandoned 
 recreation and pleasure, and devoted itself to the cares, 
 and toils, and troubles of great affairs, and whose constant 
 thoughts were the welfare and honor of a great people. 
 
 Mr. Jefferson and Mr. Monroe were educated at William 
 and. Mary college, the alma mater of as man}^ great men 
 as ever adorned the halls of any literary institution, and 
 their free and unrestrained intercourse with the polished 
 society of old "Williamsburg gave them an ease and ele- 
 gance of manners, which, in after life, was mellowed and 
 chastened by the refinement of the most elegant circles 
 of America and of foreign courts. Mr. Madison was edu- 
 cated at Princeton college, and he, too, possessed a fasci- 
 nation and grace, a simplicity and frankness that repelled 
 formality, and lent a charm to his society that was exceed- 
 ingly delightful. If at any period of their history the peo- 
 ple had occasion for men of pure and irreproachable lives, 
 of enlightened intellect, with judgment and prudence, 
 armed with argument and reason, with a quiver full of the 
 choicest arrows from all the armories of literature, of un- 
 ruffled temper, of firm and decided action, simple in dress, 
 easy of access, frank and artless in conversation, yet en- 
 livening and instructive, they would turn with undoubting 
 faith to these men as representatives fit for any office. 
 
 They accordingly successively occupied all of the politi- 
 cal offices fit for such a rare combination of qualifications, 
 and every office was honored by their presence. Each of 
 them has left among the archives of his office enduring 
 evidences of industry and extraordinary powers. Mr. Jef- 
 ferson and Mr. Monroe were members of the general 
 assembly, members of conventions, members of congress, 
 governors, ministers to foreign courts,, secretary of state. 
 
12 LECTURE. 
 
 Mr. Jeft'erson was vice president, and both were presidents 
 of the United States. Mr. Madison occnpied all of the 
 same offices, except that he never held a diplomatic ap- 
 pointment, nor was governor of the state. Mr. Jefferson 
 and Mr. Madison were each visitors and rectors of the Uni# 
 versity, and Mr. Madison and Mr. Monroe were each in 
 the convention to revise the constitution of Virginia in 
 1829-'30. Each served as president of the United States 
 for eight years; but Mr. Monroe was the only one of all 
 the presidents who came into office with every electoral 
 vote save one. 
 
 I had the pleasure on several occasions of hearing Mr. 
 Jefferson in the unreserve of private conversation. Such 
 men necessarily enchain the attention of others, and their 
 reminiscences of events and incidents in their previous 
 lives, and in their deep research after knowledge, are ex- 
 ceedingly entertaining. On one occasion, with an enchant- 
 ing pleasantry, he was giving a descrij)tion of the offices 
 and character of the muses and graces, and of the poesy of 
 the ancient mythology, and being myself a young man 
 then, I was particularly struck with his remark, "that he 
 had been amused in his reading to find that upon antique 
 gems Vulcan, the artizau of Olympus, was represented in 
 his workshop forging arrows for the little god Cupid." 
 Our fair daughters and bachelor sons will have to keep a 
 sharp look out, for if in these days the deformed old god, 
 with his accumulated experience and skill, should be still 
 engaged in his ancient occupation, it will be exceedingly 
 difficult to shun those arrows, feathered and keenly tipped 
 by a master workman, and sped with unerring certainty by 
 a very cunning and wary little bowman. Mr. Jefferson, on 
 the occasion referred to, glided into the theme of the mo- 
 numents of antiquity, and dwelt upon the perfection of 
 ancient architecture, and the magnificence of ancient tem- 
 ples and public buildings, and said that he had selected for 
 the model of the capitol at Richmond the Maison Carre, or 
 temple of Nismes, which though of more modern date was 
 
LECTURE. 13 
 
 remarkable for its beauty and architectural proportions. 
 That model is still preserved in the capitol; but any one 
 who will examine it, will discern in the building which was 
 erected many departures from the design, particularly in 
 the change of the attic into a basement, and in the con- 
 struction of the columns to the portico, which are of the 
 same diameter from the base to the capitol, and in the 
 omission of the steps to the portico, which add grace and 
 usefulness in the model. 
 
 Mr. Jetferson's mind at that time was engrossed with the 
 erection of the University, and his conversation continually 
 ran upon that topic. It was the pet of his old age, and he 
 petted it, because he hoped at no distant day that all the 
 orders of architecture would be developed there. And he 
 expressed the fond desire to build up the institution, for 
 the purpose of preparing Virginia's sons to become the 
 instructors of future generations, and to diffuse her prin- 
 ciples and policy among the other states, instead of having 
 the minds of our own youth polluted and corrupted by im- 
 ported teachers, who had overrun the state and taken pos- 
 session of our academies and primary schools. He had 
 the sagacity to discern the necessity and the importance of 
 institutions at which the highest branches are taught, to 
 ensure for all time the capacity to teach all the sciences and 
 arts, and thus give to Virginia the power and glovy that 
 enlightened intellect will ever command. 
 
 ISTothing that his great mind touched upon was without 
 its interest. He had been the great reformer of the age — 
 had warred against long established abuses, and against 
 every principle that tended to perpetuate the old aristo- 
 cracy, or to strengthen the hand of power. He had laid 
 his axe at the very root of the tree, and eradicated the 
 laws of primogeniture, of entails, and of a governmental 
 religion; and though these subjects were intimately inter- 
 woven with our whole system, and constituted its fibres, 
 and nerves, and muscles, yet he possessed the popularity 
 and power to destroy them, and to erect a new system 
 
14 LECTURE. 
 
 upou their ruins. He was the founder of the repnbhcan 
 party of that day, aud tlie master builder of the democracy, 
 and he pursued the old federal part}^ with the besom of 
 destruction, and for this re'ason was subjected to as much 
 hostility and vituperation as ever fell to the lot of any man, 
 but he pursued his purpose with undiverted aim. 
 
 The three great acts of his life which he deemed worthy 
 to constitute the inscription on his monument were the de- 
 claration of independence, the act for establishing religious 
 freedom, and the establishment of the University of Vir- 
 ginia. Not his writings, which were upon almost every 
 conceivable subject, and which displayed unusual erudi- 
 tion, deep research, universality of taste and unsurpassed 
 industry and accuracy ; not his correspondence with all the 
 publicists and scholars of the age, marked as it was by origi- 
 nality of thought and fearlessness of expression, and stored 
 with the consecrated lore of the classics,, and with fruit 
 from all the granaries of the earth. Not his acquisition of 
 Louisiana, the master stroke of his policy while president, 
 which unlocked the Mississippi and its tributaries, and 
 brought into existence the millions of human beings, who 
 have since teemed like magic in the vast country through 
 which these inland seas flow, with myriads of productions 
 that have sprung from their industry, enterprise and capital, 
 displaying a wealth and magnificence that have made the 
 power and . might of this nation the astonishment of all 
 people; not his political acts with his party victories and 
 triumphs; not the ofiices he filled, with the great men 
 around him, agitating and composing great questions and 
 guiding a nation's destinies ; but, the emanations of his 
 mind — independence, religous freedom and education. 
 
 I have sometimes thought, if Mr. Jefferson could come 
 back into the world with the indignant feelings that inspired 
 him when he penned the declaration of independence, and 
 could take in at a glance the enormities that have been perpe- 
 trated upon the southern people since his departure from 
 the earth ; could see his beloved Virginia, whose voice was 
 
LECTURE. 15 
 
 once so potential in the national councils, now palsied by the 
 infliction of wrongs more aggravated than those perpe- 
 trated upon the colonies by the British king; could see her 
 with diminished territory, taxed without representation, 
 not permitted in any department of the government to raise 
 a finger of warning or utter a word of reprobation against 
 those who are warring against constitutions and reeking 
 their vengeance upon her people ; could see her citizens de- 
 prived of property without their consent, governed by 
 laws intended to oppi'css them, not assented to by their 
 representatives; her state laws suspended by subordinate 
 military commanders by the mere exercise of their orders ; 
 trial by jury abolished and substituted by mock trials held 
 by petty military officers having no knowledge of law, and 
 not recognizing the binding obligation of constitutions ; 
 the liberty of the press assailed by the arrest of editors 
 and the seizure of their presses and papers; standing 
 armies quartered upon her in time of peace, and every ag- 
 gravation of misrule impending or threatened. — If he could 
 see all this perpetrated by authority of the federal govern- 
 ment, not in time of war, but after the restoration of peace 
 has been proclaimed, and after all the states have returned 
 to their allegiance and become loyal to the government, he 
 would blot from his monument that he was the author of 
 the declaration, and mourn that in so short a time all its 
 principles had been subverted and destroyed. If he did not 
 do this, he would attempt to exercise the once acknowledged 
 right of petition, and send to congress a remonstrance, 
 burning with brands plucked from the altar of liberty, 
 breathing the inspired sentiments of a free soul, filled with 
 the exalted pride of a freeman, who felt that freedom was 
 his inheritance, and that a virtuous nation could not de- 
 prive a son descending from noble ancestors who secured 
 the liberty of that nation of his just privileges and inesti- 
 mable birthright. 
 
 If he were on earth he would at least rejoice that the 
 other highest creation of his brain, religious liberty, had as 
 
16 LECTURE. 
 
 yet stood the wreck of nearly every other hope, and that 
 the pet of his old age, the University, still survives. Of 
 these, he would have cause still to be proud, and every man 
 in the state has cause to be thankful. It is some consola- 
 tion at least to reflect that we have one right not yet de- 
 nied, — "That Almighty God hath created the mind free; 
 that all attempts to influence it by temporal punishment or 
 burdens, or by civil incapacitations, tend only to beget hy- 
 pocrisy and meanness." (It would be well if our rulers 
 would weigh these words in their application to other 
 rights !) " That all men shall be free to profess, and by argu- 
 ment to maintain, their opinions in matters of religion." 
 Every temple that rears its beautiful spire to the clouds and 
 adorns our cities, and every lowly church in a sequestered 
 grove, is a monument to the sacredness of these principles 
 and to the assertion that "truth is great and will prevail; 
 that she is the proper and suflicient antagonist of error and 
 has nothing to fear from the conflict, unless by human in- 
 terposition disarmed of her natural weapons, free argument 
 and debate — errors ceasing to be dangerous when it is per- 
 mitted freely to contradict them." We have one other 
 consolation too, that the University and our other noble 
 educational institutions and charities have been permitted to 
 exist, and that the higher institutions will in time send down 
 bright minds to elevate the lower and bring them in turn 
 to the higher, to be improved in a more expanded degree, 
 establishing a current of learning through all the ramifica- 
 tions of society ; like wisdom descending from the mind 
 of the Almighty, permeating all the minds upon earth in 
 different degrees, but preparing all as they improve and 
 are exalted, to be adapted to inhabit the regions of eternal 
 bliss. 
 
 If, m}^ friends, any of you desire to know something 
 more of Mr. M^adison — if you desire to glance at his writings 
 and his speeches, and the colouring and shading which 
 made his bright and eventful life 2:lorious, I must refer 
 3'ou to William C. Rives, the gifted biographer, another 
 
LECTURE. 17 
 
 of Virginia's jewels. You will find him devoting his re- 
 tirement to develop the genius and virtues of the patriot 
 sage, and endeavoring to transmit to posterity a biography 
 worthy of his noble theme. But if you are not content, 
 and still desire some specimen of his power of argument, 
 and his manner of forging a chain of reasoning, I can only 
 invite j'ou to read his report and resolutions of '98 and 
 '99. A finer specimen of a lucid style and a more over- 
 whelming and convincing argument can scarcely be found 
 in the English language. They produced the desired eft'ect 
 in their day, and the alien and sedition laws against which 
 they were leveled, which were proved to be utterly un- 
 constitutional, were suffered to expire by their own limi- 
 tation, and were never subsequently revived. They ought 
 to have a similar eflfect now, in restraining latitudinarian 
 constructions of the constitution. But men have no occa- 
 sion for forced or strained constructions now: when con- 
 gress, or its leading men, in their mad career rush up 
 against the constitution, they do not hesitate a moment, 
 but crack their whips and drive right onward through con- 
 stitutions and laws, and over principles and rights. If you 
 are not satisfied still, and wish to have an inkling of his 
 prophetic vision, listen while I give you a short extract, de- 
 tailing his apprehensions of the encroachments of the legisla- 
 tive department of the government. It saddens the heart 
 when we look around us and see how the prophesies of 
 these men are being fulfilled — how the encroachments of 
 power are sweeping away all constitutional restraints. In 
 former days we were accustomed to look with anxiety on 
 the usurpations of the executive department, and to hurl 
 our thunders at the one man power. Now, we are looking 
 with terror at the great malstrom of legislative misrule, 
 which is drawing into its maddening and muddy whirl- 
 pool all the powers of the government, and usurj)ing pow- 
 ers never contemplated by the wildest Utopean. He says : 
 "Experience assures us that the efiicacy of providing writ- 
 ten constitutions has been greatly overrated, and that 
 3 
 
18 LECTUKE. 
 
 some more adequate defence is indispensably necessary for 
 the more feeble against the more powerful members of the 
 government. The legislative department is everywhere 
 extending the sphere of its activity, and drawing all power 
 into its impetuous vortex." " The founders of the re- 
 public seem never to have recollected the danger from 
 legislative usurpations, which by assembling all power in 
 the same hands must lead to the same tyranny as is threat- 
 ened by executive usurpations. But in a representative 
 republic, where the executive magistrate is carefully lim- 
 ited, both in the extent and duration of its power, and 
 where the legislative power is exercised by an assembly, 
 which is inspired by a supposed influence over the people, 
 with an intrepid confidence in its own strength, which is 
 sufficiently numerous to feel all the passions which actuate 
 a multitude, j-et not so numerous as to be incapable of 
 pursuing the objects of its passions, by means which rea- 
 son prescribes, it is against the enterprising ambition of this 
 department that the peojyle ought to indulge all their jealousy and 
 exhaust all their ])recautions.^' 
 
 And I cannot resist the inclination to quote a passage 
 from Mr. Jefferson's pen, of similar import. In his im- 
 pressive language, he says : " All the powers of government, 
 legislative, executive and judiciary, result to the legisla- 
 tive body. The concentrating these in the same hands 
 is precisely the definition of despotic government. It 
 will be no alleviation that those powers will be exercised 
 by a plurality of hands, and not by a single one. One 
 hundred and seventy-three despots would surely be as 
 oppressive as one." 
 
 Were these men speaking of the present congress? 
 Were they warning us against the enterprising ambition 
 of the legislative department of these times? If the pre- 
 sent congress succeed in concentrating all the power they 
 are now striving to obtain in their own hands, then we 
 shall have precisely the definition of despotic government 
 yerified ancj. intensi^eci. "Virginia, dismembered, disheart- 
 
LECTURE. 19 
 
 ened, spirit-broken Virginia, cannot interpose as she once 
 did, for she is helpless and almost hopeless; but there are 
 other states — not in the southern clime, but in the frozen 
 zone — who may, like Mary, the mother of the Saviour, 
 *' keep all these things and ponder them in their hearts." 
 We are powerless to restrain, can do nothing but fold the 
 arms and shake the head. But other states will come in 
 for their share in time. The lion hunts his prey day by 
 day, and when he has slaked his thirst with the blood of 
 one victim, seeks another. Wisdom looks afar off, and by 
 the signs which she has noted, marks the coming tempest, 
 and prepares her refuge before it sweeps the ocean and the 
 land. 
 
 But I hurry on. If I touch on the character, or actions, 
 or writings of any of these men, the materials grow, en- 
 large, expand. I have no time to dwell even for a moment 
 upon any of the interesting incidents of the war with Eng- 
 land which occurred during Mr. Madison's administration. 
 If I were disposed to eulogize the old flag, and to paint 
 daring deeds, brilliant achievements and thrilling events, I 
 might pause for a second, for we had a right to claim a full 
 share of the honors and the glory of those days, as well as 
 of the days of the revolution. We could run up " Union 
 jack" then. We could glory in the motto, "Don't give 
 up the ship" then. Our men were there, our guns pealed 
 forth their thunders, our ships sent the ships of old Eng- 
 land to Davy Jones' locker, their glories were wreathed 
 around us. Our money in full share was devoted to the 
 service, for the spirit of the south was " millions for de- 
 fence, not a cent for tribute," and the blood of our sons 
 was freely spilled. It was our home, and our country we 
 defended, and we had a right to share all the fame. Then 
 our rights were respected, our honor was revered. Vir- 
 ginia was at the helm, and the constitution was the com- 
 pass. The stars and stripes were the emblem of an Union, 
 whose honor and faith were untarnished and spotless. 
 State rights were venerated. A gallant ship bore the 
 
20 LECTURE. 
 
 name of the Constitution, and the gallant tars who were 
 aboard of her fought with desperation, because she was the 
 type of the fundamental law. She was nicknamed Old 
 Ironsides, to indicate that neither shot nor bomb could 
 pierce her impregnable sides. Such was the love they 
 bore her, that even when she was unfit for service, they 
 refused to permit her to be broken up, and every one 
 exclaimed with the poet: 
 
 O, better that her shattered hulk 
 
 Should sink beneath the wave ; 
 Her thunders shook the mighty deep. 
 
 And there should be her grave." 
 
 And, alas! if the government had continued to respect 
 the instrument as they did the emblem ; if they had not 
 warred against the one while they adored the other, our own 
 Confederate government never would have lived its short, 
 glorious and honored life. But while the latter existed, it 
 performed one illustrious act at least, that will ring in fu- 
 ture time, and glitter in story and in song. As the con- 
 gress was the chief violator of the constitution, and a ship 
 had been christened the Congress in honor of it, and waa 
 its emblem, the iron-clad Virginia of the Confederate 
 States conquered the emblem and sent its flames to the 
 skies and its ashes to the mighty deep. And at the same 
 time sunk the Cumberland, and riddled the Minesota, 
 and scared off the Roanoke, and peppered the St. Law- 
 rence, and disabled two gunboats, drove off the Erricson 
 and silenced the forts. That was glory enough for one 
 day. 
 
 If the constitution should ever be respected again; if the 
 olden times should ever return ; if men, like the patriots 
 of a better age, should once more raise their hands and 
 their voices to protect, not only the rights of minorities 
 but State rights as they were, once acknowledged, and 
 the rights of the humblest and poorest citizen, and we 
 could say, " Inasmuch as ye did it to the least of these ye 
 
LECTURE. 21 
 
 did it unto me." Then we might be able once more to 
 say: 
 
 "By the death of the brave ! hy the God in the skies, 
 There's life in the old land yet." 
 
 Then the wise and the good might have a brighter hope for 
 a better day. 
 
 In the Convention of 1829-'30, the greatest assembly of 
 Virginia jewels that was ever exhibited to an admiring 
 country, I had an opportunity to witness a little incident, 
 which I mention simply to show how great men will some- 
 times be appalled. Mr. Monroe, the old soldier of the 
 revolution, the friend of Washington, Jefferson and Madi- 
 son, and beloved by every body, had been unanimously 
 elected president of the convention. The men of other 
 days with their mellowed fame, and the men who were pre- 
 paring to take their places with the fresh garlands they 
 were daily gathering, were assembled around him. They 
 were in the hall of the house of delegates, seated in the 
 old benches which time had consecrated ; the president in 
 the old walnut chair, a curious specimen of antiquity, 
 which, even in my day, I have seen with the coat of arms 
 of Great Britian emblazoned on its frontlet; the room 
 filled to its utmost capacity, when Mr. Madison rose and 
 addressed the chair. The reporters seized their pens. 
 The convention rose in a body. Every man stood. The 
 great man assayed his voice, and finding it too weak to fill 
 the compass of the hall, advanced from his seat quite to 
 the secretary's table. Nearly the entire convention rushed 
 around him. He was confused by the unusual circum- 
 stance, faltered once or twice, but then proceeded, and 
 while his language was chaste and pure, his ideas did not 
 flow in a connected chain, the point and the strength was 
 wanting, which he possessed when " he was wont to pull the 
 arrow to its head on the strongest bow and let it fly with 
 all its power." Few of those who surrounded him could 
 
22 LECTURE. 
 
 bear his remarks, and none of the spectators could catch a 
 syllable. 
 
 In the evening, as secretary, I went as usual to Mr. Mon- 
 roe's apartment to read to him the day's proceedings, as 
 required by the rules. Mr. Madison came in. It was 
 delightful to witness the cordiality of the old cronies, and 
 the boyish playfulness with which the one accosted the 
 other. It reminded me of the song 
 
 "John Anderson, my Joe, John, 
 
 We've domed the hill thegither, 
 And mony a canty day, John, 
 
 We've had we ane anither : 
 Now we maun totter down, John, 
 
 In hand and hand we'll go, 
 And sleep together at the foot, 
 
 John Anderson, my Joe." 
 
 In a few moments the reporter of the debates entered 
 and asked Mr. Madison to run over the notes he had 
 sketched of his remarks. "Sir," said he, "I would not 
 have you publish that speech as it was delivered for any 
 consideration. Did you not perceive that I had the buck 
 ague? The situation in which I was placed, the knowledge 
 that much was expected of me, the feebleness of my voice, 
 the rush of the convention around me, unnerved and sealed 
 my brain and it would not work. I will give you the 
 remarks I intended to make, but not that speech." 
 
 It is remarkable to see how many of the principles 
 announced by all of these remarkable men live to keep up 
 their fame. We see their effects every day, — they are pro- 
 ducing results in the world now that can scarcely be appre- 
 ciated. As an evidence of this, I will barely mention the 
 Monroe doctrine, which announced to the world that the 
 United States would not permit the nations of the old 
 hemisphere to interfere with the concerns of the new. 
 Now, we see the time has already come when this principle 
 is guiding the government, and the Napoleons of modern 
 
LECTURE. 23 
 
 times have been warned that they have stepped beyond the 
 boundary prescribed, and they must unckitch their grasp 
 from Mexico and withdraw their troops. But I am com- 
 pelled to close this casket of jewels and hasten to another. 
 
 Mr. Madison died on the 28th of June, 1836. Had he 
 lived a few days longer he would have expired on the 4th 
 of July, the day which, memorable as it is, was made still 
 more memorable by the death of Jefferson, Adams and 
 Monroe. He is buried at Montpelier, in the county of 
 Orange, and the words James Madison, and the date of 
 his birth and death, constitute the only inscription on his 
 tomb. 
 
 There is in the cemetery at Hollywood, on the beautiful 
 hill which overlooks the river, a monument erected by the 
 state in honor of Mr. Monroe. On one side are the words, 
 "James Monroe. Born in "Westmoreland county 28th 
 April, 1758. Died in the city of New York 4th July, 
 1831. By order of the general assembly his remains were 
 removed to this cemetery 5th July, 1858, as an evidence of 
 the affection of Virginia for her good and honest son." 
 On the other side: "The eminent services performed by 
 this patriot for his country are enduring monuments of 
 his wisdom and virtue." 
 
 After having glanced at these antique gems, we come to 
 look at more modern jewels, which we cherish not only 
 for their intrinsic value, but for the associations which sur- 
 round them. I come to bestow a kind remembrance upon 
 John Tyler, another of Virginia's sons, whom she prized 
 for the services he rendered, and the noble qualities of his 
 head and heart. "When I was first elected clerk of the 
 house of delegates, his voice was among the first that I 
 heard ringing in its hall, and his hand the first that gave 
 me a welcome to the position I occupied. And there was 
 a charm about the voice that won upon the heart, and a 
 warmth in the grip of the hand that felt cordial, and an 
 attraction in the countenance and manner of the man that 
 drew you to him with irresistible power. When he was 
 
24 LECTURE. 
 
 elected governor, which was at the same session of the 
 general assembly, I was welcomed in the same way in the 
 governor's mansion and in the executive chamber, and such 
 was his ease and familiarity, that everybody could approach 
 him without the least restraint, and he transacted business 
 with such promptness and kindness, that it was a pleasure 
 to have official intercourse with him. He was so frank 
 and generous, so jovial and cordial, so genial and kind, 
 and withal so manly and high toned, and so familiar with 
 the duties of his station, that you were ready to give him 
 your hand and heart in return for his, which he seemed 
 ever ready to proffer. He was then in the heyday of 
 popularity, and appeared to be the owner of the talisman 
 that secured for him the choicest favors of fortune, and he 
 was characterized as her most lucky pet. I have always 
 noticed that when men are either petted by the people, or 
 have what is called a continuous run of good luck, that 
 they generally possess the mental and personal qualities 
 that justify the petting, and the judgment and prudence to 
 secure the successes they win. 
 
 During Mr. Tyler's gubernatorial term, he was elected 
 to the senate of the United States, and while in that body 
 was chosen president of the senate, to preside during the 
 temporary absence of the vice president, and no man who 
 ever occupied the station of senator gave his mind and 
 strength to the service of the state with more devotion and 
 love. He was a strict constructionist of the old school, 
 and had been brought up to admire and to carry out the 
 principles inculcated in Madison's report. Throughout his 
 whole course in the senate he never swerved for a moment 
 from the most rigid interpretation of the constitution, and 
 from the most strict limitation of executive power; and 
 notwithstanding these were his avowed and well under- 
 stood opinions, and had been acted upon with the utmost 
 firmness in all the public trusts with which he had been 
 invested, yet, after his retirement from the senate, he was 
 selected by the Whig party as its candidate for the office of 
 
LECTURE. 25 
 
 vice president, and was elected, and as is well known, by 
 the death of the president in one month after entering 
 upon the office, he became the president, and served out 
 his official term. It is easy to understand how, under such 
 circumstances, he became unpopular with the Democratic 
 party, and was denounced by them. And then when he 
 began to act upon the principles in which he was nurtured, 
 which had become a second nature to him, and with the 
 firmness and resolution of his character began to veto the 
 long-cherished measures of the party which had elected 
 him, and to control their action, it is perfectly natural that 
 he should have become distasteful to them. Of course, 
 popular favor deserted him for a time, and he was the sub- 
 ject of bitter vituperation and of acrimonious feeling for 
 the greater portion of his administration. But when he 
 summoned around him as members of his cabinet such 
 men as John C. Calhoun, and Abel P. Upshur, and Thomas 
 W. Gilmer, and John Y. Mason, and Hugh S. Legare, 
 men of exalted talents, of high-toned character and vir- 
 . tues, of upright honesty and deserved popularity, the 
 genial warmth of other days began to revive, party asperity 
 began to be mellowed and softened, and long before his 
 death he was again beloved, and was held in high estima- 
 tion as a virtuous patriot. 
 
 And when stormy times came round again, when the 
 southern states had been roused by sectional strife and 
 threatened oppression, by violations of the constitution, 
 and impending violations of the rights of property, to dis- 
 solve the Union, and had formed another government, Mr. 
 Tyler was summoned from his retirement and elected a 
 member of the convention of Virginia to consider whether 
 she should unite her fortunes with the new Confederacy.. 
 Virginia, as is well known, paused long, and was willing to 
 make every effi^rt to save the Union. Mr. Tyler was ap- 
 pointed one of the commissioners to attempt to reconcile 
 the contending sections, and prevent, if possible, the threat- 
 ened war. We know the fate of his mission. We know, 
 
26 LECTURE. 
 
 on his return, he counselled a ecverance of the Union, and 
 that Virginia took her place with her southern sisters. 
 We know that he became a member of the Confederate 
 congress, and that all his powers were exerted in the cause 
 of the Confederacy. With heart and soul he lent his ener- 
 gies and faculties to rouse and encourage the people, to in- 
 fuse vigor and life into the public conncils, to energize the 
 decimated ranks of our armies, and uphold our gallant 
 oiRcers and noble defenders. And we know the sad result. 
 
 In all these situations Mr. Tyler was the same resolute 
 and firm representative, the same sincere and devoted 
 patriot, and the same warm and kind friend. He com- 
 menced his career as a member of the house of delegates 
 at the age of one and twenty, and as soon as he was eligi- 
 ble, was elected a representative in the congress of the 
 United States, and being thus, from boyhood, in all the 
 most elevated public positions, he was thoroughly familiar 
 with all the men of note, and perfectly versed in all the 
 great measures which had agitated and controlled the coun- 
 cils of the state and the nation. His father before him had 
 been governor of the state, and wherever the old blood is 
 traced it is the progenitor of noble and virtuous actions. 
 Mr. Tyler's remains were deposited in Hollywood cemetery 
 by the side of the ashes of Monroe. Let these two bright 
 jewels be placed in the same casket, and let aflection gather 
 around and perform the office of keeping up their beauty 
 and brilliance. 
 
 My friends, we have all seen some lovely bride in her 
 bridal robes, the emblem of purity, with a flowing veil 
 partly concealing, partly exhibiting her modest features, 
 gathered in folds about her brow by a brooch of pearls 
 clustering to form a beautiful laurel bud, all to shed a mild 
 glory around her graceful form. Such a picture reminds 
 me of Virginia in her maiden bloom, with her sons cluster- 
 ing around her like bees about their queen, forming a brooch 
 worthy to adorn the brow of any bridal state. Such sons 
 as Randolph, of Roanoke, and Littleton W. Tazewell, and 
 
LECTURE. 27 
 
 Wm. B. Giles, and Benj. W. Leigh, Cliapman Johnson, 
 Abel P. Upshur, James Barbour, Philip P. Barbour, Robert 
 B. Taylor, William S. Archer and John W. Jones, and I 
 could give you a more extended catalogue, brighter and no- 
 bler than those which Homer gives of his warriors gathered 
 around the walls of Troy. But who can do justice to such 
 men as these; who can do himself justice, or do honor to 
 the country that gave them birth, by attempting to give an 
 inkling of their histories, a surface view of their charac- 
 ters, or a shadow of the circumstances by which they were 
 environed. I am skimming along like a swallow on the 
 surface of a meadow, and can only give you a faint idea 
 of the style of oratory of some of them as it appeared to 
 me when I have hung upon the inspirations that dropped 
 from their tongues. 
 
 I invoke my memory, unaided by books or documents, 
 to bring before you a reminiscence of Randolph of Roan- 
 oke — one of the most remarkable men of this or of any 
 age. The whole appearance of the man was striking. His 
 head, in proportion to his frame, was small, his hair, which 
 he parted in the middle, grew low upon his brow, and con- 
 tradicted the science of phrenologists, by giving to one 
 with an expanded brain and great mind a remarkably low 
 forehead; his features were rather delicate and feminine, 
 and gave him the appearance, when he first went to con- 
 gress, of extreme youth, which induced the speaker, when 
 he was about to administer to him his official oath, to en- 
 quire if he had attained the constitutional age, and which 
 elicited from his ever ready tongue the response, " Go ask 
 my constituents." His eyes were black and full of lustre, 
 his voice peculiarl}'^ feminine and shrill, yet clear as the 
 tones of a silver bell, and he could give it a compass which 
 would enable the hearer at a distance to catch his lowest 
 whisper, when he assayed the deep or the pathetic. His 
 neck was very short, and deeply seated between his shoul- 
 ders, which were somewhat elevated; the frame of his 
 body, for one so thin, was massive, l^is arn^s ijnusually 
 
28 LECTURE. 
 
 long, and his fingers attenuated, and when he extended 
 that right arm in debate, and shook that dexter finger, it 
 gave you an idea of the warnings and tln-eatenings that 
 were to fi^llow; his limbs, from his body downwards, were 
 Ions: and thin, and made him much taller than he seemed 
 while seated. His dress at times was fantastic, at one time 
 appearing in a full jockey suit, jockey cap, roundabout, 
 long toy) boots as high as his knees, spurs and whip like 
 one equipped for a race ; at another time wrapped in Rus- 
 sian furs, from his cap to his feet ; and then again in plain 
 attire, such as other gentlemen wore who are best dressed, 
 when the habiliments attract least notice — simple, be- 
 coming and appropriate to the man, the place and the 
 occasion. 
 
 I heard him twice in debate, once in the senate of the 
 United States as the compeer of Calhoun and of Webster, 
 and the antagonist of Clay. When I heard him the first 
 time he was in one of his excited moods, when his brain 
 seemed to be charged with electricity, and the sparkles 
 fle^v around him as lieated metal throws off" corruscations 
 when struck by some vulcan's hammer. His style was 
 eccentric, rapidly jumping from subject to subject like 
 meteors flying from a common centre, and you would have 
 thought from his sharp hits, right and left, that he would 
 strike some of the great spheres revolving there, and hurl 
 them beneath his feet. Like Plipeton driving the coursers 
 of the sun, with magic power he would smoothl}' and ma- 
 jestically glide up the ascent of the blue firmament, and 
 then again suddenly, w^itli impetuous daring, dash along, 
 seeming to have lost all control of himself, his coursers or 
 his chariot, and all regard for his appointed track. He 
 would seem to lose sight of the subject in debate, and to 
 be hunting his game in out of the way places, but before 
 you were aware of his object, you would hear his double 
 barrel in the midst of a whole covey, and he invariably 
 bagged the bird at which he fired. With all this there 
 were copnecting links of argument and illustration, 
 
LECTURE. 29 
 
 pointed and glaring, when the application of his eccentri- 
 cities was made manifest. Senators laid down their pens, 
 and turned with eager eyes full upon him, and auditors 
 stood breathless until he paused, then expanded their lungs 
 with a fall inhalation, and listened with profound attention 
 for another outpouring. 
 
 I heard him again in 1829-'30 in the convention. I 
 think I see him now as he stood before me then. The 
 question for discussion was whether white population and 
 taxation combined should be the basis of representation. 
 There was a large old stove, of the colonial times, which 
 then heated the hall, having the arms of the colony cast in 
 the metal, with the motto, '■'■ Eti dat Virginia quartern.''' 
 Mr. Randolph had a few days before called my attention to 
 it, and said he revered it for its antiquity, the hand of inno- 
 vation had not reached it, and it made Virginia the fourth 
 estate in the realm. From this stove a pipe ran into the 
 opposite partition, and a plain staff which could be grasped 
 with the hand arose from the floor and supported this pipe. 
 Whether he had taken the position because he desired the 
 support of something that had the appearance of stability 
 I know not ; but when he rose, he grasped and supported 
 himself by this staff with his left hand, his right arm being 
 free. It was late in the day, and the concourse of people 
 who usually attended the debates had nearly all dispersed. 
 But in less time thaii I could conceive it possible for the 
 information to have been carried, every avenue to the room 
 was flooded, and men walked on tiptoe, as if afraid that 
 the creaking of their shoes might lose them a single word. 
 His manner was entirely different from that I have hereto- 
 fore attempted to describe. It was calm, collected, digni- 
 fied and commanding, and his gesticulation was that of a 
 master actor. He would begin to express a thought in lan- 
 guage, and then leaving the sentence incomplete, would by 
 a wave of the hand, or a change of the muscles of the face, 
 give the idea as perfect to the mind as if conveyed by the 
 most speaking words. No reporter can catch these pecu- 
 
30 LECTURE. 
 
 liarities, and it is difficult to convey a jnst conception of 
 tlie effect. He went on smoothly, expressing liis astonish- 
 ment at the changes that had heen proposed to the consti- 
 tution, that no part of it shonld be left untouched, ex- 
 pressed his amazement at such a result, believed it was the 
 very best constitution, not for Japan, not for China, not 
 for N'ew England, or for old England, but for tins our 
 ancient commonwealth of Virginia. I remember one 
 thought, and his manner of uttering it : "I am unwilling 
 to pull down the edifice of our state government from the 
 garret to the cellar; aye, down to the foundation stone." 
 And tlien he said, "The gentleman from Augusta," and 
 he seized his cravat with both hands, and twisted and 
 pulled at it, as if feeling a sense of extreme suftbcation, 
 and the contortions of face united with the efforts of Ihe 
 hands to relax the throttle he felt, the whole gesture ex- 
 pressing the idea so forcibly, that you saw it palpable that 
 he intended to say that Virginia was suffering strangula- 
 tion from the ruffians who were assailing her. And yet he 
 went on with another idea. These things must be seen to 
 be understood. No man that ever I have seen equalled 
 him in this respect. He took up the great subject before 
 the convention, and argued it with power, grouping the 
 arguments of his opponents, and turning them with force 
 against them. I remember one other thought. He said 
 he had been told not to look at the federal government. 
 And this in Virginia, " where to use a very homely phrase, 
 but one that exactly suits the case, we can't take a step 
 without breaking our shins over some federal obstacle." 
 Mr. Tlandolph's style was not that of a close reasoner, of 
 one who laiys his premises at a distance, and then step by 
 step advances to the conclusion. It was disjointed, not 
 dove-tailed, but when fully and spiritedly presented as he 
 did it, it was equall}^ overwhelming. 
 
 Mr. Randolph was a descendant through his father from 
 Pocahontas, the daughter of Powhatan, the great Indian 
 chief. He was elected a member of the house of repre- 
 
LECTURE. 61 
 
 seutatives in 1799, and was in that body twenty-six years. 
 He was in the senate of tlie United States for two j^ears, 
 and was then elected a member of the convention of Vir- 
 ginia. After the adjournment of the convention, General 
 Jackson appointed him minister plenipotentiary to Russia, 
 He died in Philadelphia on the 24th of May, 1833. 
 
 What would he have thought if he had lived to the pre- 
 sent day? What would have been the thoughts of all the 
 men of whom I have spoken? How would they have 
 acted had they been on the arena of Virginia now? ITot 
 only to see the constitution of their fathers disowned and 
 disavowed, but to see the men of the present day living 
 under a thinr/ called a constitution adopted by a miserable 
 set of a loretclicd minority of three or four counties of this 
 old commonwealth, the " magna mater virum,^^ and those 
 counties under the thraldom of military occupation, send- 
 ing forth spawn, to rule and have dominion over her peo- 
 ple! What would these men think were they here now, 
 when literally we cannot take a step without breaking our 
 shins over some federal obstacle? It might have been 
 tolerated when military satraps held the sway and sup- 
 ported the ill-gotten power by the bayonet an.d the shell. 
 It might have been tolerated when a military commander 
 could veto your laws, unrebuked even by a mild remon- 
 strance, and could say to the people of this city you may 
 elect whom you please as your mayor, but if you elect a 
 man distasteful to me he shall not serve. It might have 
 been tolerated when your sons were in prison, and you 
 spake with bated breath lest the dungeon" should be your 
 portion. But when peace has been proclaimed, and you 
 are allowed to have a legislature of your own, is there no 
 remedy? If the faintest semblance of self-government 
 remains, if there is any power residing in the people to do 
 anything, they might call a convention to Avipe from exist- 
 ence the incubus; that is, the ever-rising, never-ending 
 remembrancer of degradation, and having been born 
 again, begin the new life with old principles, but with a 
 
32 LECTURE. 
 
 new constitution and new men. They might in the new 
 organic law bring to a full stop the existence of the as- 
 sumed power of those who, from the honorable position to 
 which they have been improperly elevated, can recommend 
 an amendment to the federal constitution, which I am 
 proud to see the general assembly of this state has indig- 
 nantly rejected; by which every Virginian, who deserves 
 the name, would humble and debase himself in his own 
 eyes, and in the estimation of every honorable man, if he 
 could vote for it; by which Virginia would be required 
 to degrade her highest and noblest worthies; by which 
 she would consent forever to disfranchise Robert E. Lee, 
 and the men who stood shoulder to shoulder and upheld 
 his arms in the grand and matchless defence of the ever- 
 renowned capitol of his honored state; by which she 
 would discard and disinherit the Stonewall brigade, and 
 the friends and compatriots of the lion-hearted Jackson — 
 
 " The legions who had seen his glance 
 Across the carnage flashing, 
 And thrilled to catch his ringing "charge" 
 Above the volley crashing;" 
 
 by which she would renounce the men who rode trium- 
 phant with the "wings of the army," the cavalry of 
 Stuart ; by which the veterans, whose hearts never felt a 
 quail, should be scouted from your ccuncils; by which 
 you would elevate and honor ignorant Africans, and dis- 
 honor and disgrace the men who were spurring by the side 
 of " Ashby, our Paladin," to 
 
 " Catch the last words of cheer 
 Dropped from his tongue ! 
 Over the volleys din 
 Let them be rung! 
 
 "Follow me! follow me!!" 
 Soldier! oh! could there be 
 Pasan or dirge for thee 
 Loftier sung." 
 
LECTURE. 33 
 
 If we have not the power to get rid of even the Alex- 
 andria constitution and its representatives, then fold the 
 arms in solemn pride, and let them do their worst. 
 
 I return from this digression and come back to the pearls 
 of great price. I hope you will hear with me while I at- 
 tempt to draw a faint sketch of another orator whom I 
 think one of the most gifted of our Virginia statesmen. I 
 allude to Abel P. Upshur, a jurist, a judge, a representa- 
 tive, a member of the convention of 1829-'30, secretary of 
 the navy and secretary of state during the administration, 
 of .Mr. Tyler. His forte, I think, was in a deliberative 
 assembly. I heard him on many occasions at the bar, for 
 he was for a long period attorney for the commonwealth 
 in this city. I have listened to his lucid, short, distinct 
 and able opinions delivered off hand as a judge. I wit- 
 nessed some of his efforts in the convention; but the most 
 powerful speech of his life, that I know of, was delivered 
 in the house of delegates on the proposition to repeal the 
 law which prohibited a man from marrying his wife's 
 sister. Judge Upshur was of large frame, broad shoulders, 
 expanded chest, fine head, high and capacious forehead, as 
 if the brain had pressed it outward. It was like the mas- 
 sive brow of Daniel "Webster, though his eyebrows did not 
 throw the dark shade upon the face that Webster's did, 
 but there was a sunshine playing upon the features as if 
 the light had been reflected from his exceeding bald head. 
 One eye was defective, but the other was so speaking, that 
 it threw the defective one in the shade. At that time old 
 General Samuel Blackburn was a member from the county 
 of Bath. He was a remarkable man, too, in his day, was 
 a grim, morose old customer, who had a peculiar intellect 
 of his own, which displayed uncommon powers, but de- 
 lighted most in cutting hits upon his brother members, and 
 his blows had been given so hard, and repeated so often, 
 that he became a terror to the young, and the older avoided 
 encounters with him. He had never failed to turn the 
 laugh upon his antagonists, and made them subjects of his 
 5 
 
34 LECTURE. 
 
 ridicule and mirth. Judge Upshur had delivered a master 
 effort in favor of the bill before the house, and when he 
 concluded, having delighted all beyond measure, and the 
 effect was manifest in the beaming of the countenances of 
 the audience, and in the quivering tear that hung on the 
 undried lid, and which rough men were ashamed to wipe 
 away, lest they might unfold their weakness, General 
 Blackburn undertook to dispel the illusion, and by the em- 
 ployment of his old weapons to break the force of the 
 argument. He let slip all his dogs, and attempted to worry 
 the game by snapping and barking, but as long as he con- 
 fined himself to bowlings at arguments which were un- 
 touched and unimpaired, a playful smile only lighted up 
 the judge's face; but at length he took another tack, and 
 assailed his personal appearance, and drew upon his fancy 
 for imaginings, derogatory to his personal character, and 
 he assayed to laugh him to scorn, and throw him into con- 
 tempt. Then I saw the great man's bosom heave, and his 
 countenance seemed to grow radiant with a glow, the in- 
 spiration of the orator filled his soul. " When Achilles 
 was about to draw his sword against Agamemnon, his king 
 and chief, we are told the blue-eyed goddess suddenly 
 stood behind him with terrible look, invisible to every one 
 but himself, seized his yellow hair, and assuaged the wrath 
 of the young hero with prudent advice. He withdrew his 
 mighty hand from the silver handle, and the sword drop- 
 ped back into the scabbard." Kot so Upshur; the blue- 
 eyed Pallas lent him the Egis of Jove, and he shook its 
 flaming boss full in the eyes of all the house. He began 
 with tones that moved the hair on your head, and told that 
 his blood was up. He was calm as he is who in danger 
 knows no fear — with measured step, and slow, he stalked 
 along, and he balanced his words in his hands to see that 
 they were well chosen and of the proper weight. There 
 was a solemnity around that you could feel; he kept re- 
 moving the little impediments from his path, and as he 
 advanced ke grew " warm, energetic, chaste, sublime," 
 
LECTURE. 35 
 
 and when at last he had acquired the proper pitch, and felt 
 the key-note had roused his brain, he turned upon the foe, 
 
 " And, with a withering look, 
 The war-denouncing trumpet took," 
 
 and his words hissed and scorched. And then he left, as it 
 seemed, the hateful theme, and he would come back to the 
 subject in debate, and with a mellowed voice soft tones 
 were dropped, as if the lighter shades were thrown in to 
 make the darkness gloomy and the night more black, and 
 then he would serenely recall the imputations on his per- 
 son and character that had roused his ire, and assuming 
 the tones with which he first began, he drove right onward, 
 "and still he kept his wild, unaltered mien, while each 
 strained ball of sight seemed bursting from his head." 
 
 I never shall forget that day. I never shall forget the 
 look of the denounced and discomfited assailant. I never 
 shall cease to remember the spell that bound the hearers, 
 and how men gave expression to their feelings by pressing 
 around the speaker when he concluded, and giving him the 
 cordial grip of the sympathetic hand. Such is a faint 
 effort to give you some idea of the manner of the roused 
 and animated Upshur. 
 
 I would wish to tell of all the jewels I have mentioned, 
 but time will not allow. There are other gems to con- 
 stitute the valued ornaments for Virginia's person. I 
 can only name th6 bright list of her governors in my day, 
 whose persons are familiar to my memory as the Lares 
 and Penates of an ancient household, many of whom have 
 been intimate and personal friends, whose inestimable 
 worth I have seen tried in that hard test of merit, the 
 alembic of party feeling and party vituperation, and who 
 have come out of the contest like pebbles from the depths 
 of ocean, whiter and more polished by the very agitation 
 of the waters in which they have been revolving. 
 
 Of Wm. H. Cabell and James Barbour, Wilson Gary 
 Kicholas, James P. Preston, Thomas Mann Randolph an4 
 
36 LECTURE. 
 
 James Pleasants, my father's associates, boon companions 
 and bosom friends, who came to his house in social inter- 
 course, and indulged in the pleasantries of unreserved, 
 unrestrained conversation, interchanging frequent, rich 
 and intellectual repasts. 
 
 I have heard them reading over the rough drafts of their 
 messages, intended for the gen oral assembly, and listened 
 to his and their comments, and caught from them the 
 ardent desire so frequently expressed, to do something to 
 develop the resources, protect the interests, and defend 
 and maintain the rights of their native state — to educate 
 the minds, and build up the fortunes of the humble among 
 her citizens — to establish, adorn and fructify Virginia 
 through all her borders. 
 
 And from the commencement of my official career to its 
 termination, I can only mention, with high respect and 
 esteem, the names of William B. Giles, John Tloyd, Lit- 
 tleton W. Tazewell, David Campbell, Thomas W. Gilmer, 
 James McDowell, William Smith, John B. Floyd, Joseph 
 Johnson, Henry A. Wise and John Letcher; and her 
 acting governors, AVyndham Robertson, John M. Patton, 
 John Rutherfoord and John M. Gregory. What a space 
 in the ej'es of the nation have not these men filled ? How 
 dear have they been in the just aftections of the people. 
 How ardently they too strove to elevate the name of Vir- 
 ginia. How they gloried in endeavoring to save the Union 
 by preserving the constitution, straining every nerve to 
 check the unlimited exercise of ungranted powers, and to 
 restrain the different departments of the government within 
 their respective spheres, uttering continued warnings and 
 thrilling appeals to prevent sectional jealousies and sec- 
 tional strife, and foreshadowing with gloomy forebodings 
 the gathering storm, while they solemnly and ardently 
 hoped for the preservation of peace. God, in his wisdom, 
 willed it otherwise ; brothers' hands have been imbued with 
 brothers' blood, and woe, with unnumbered ills, has fol- 
 lowed in the wake of desolating war. How sad it is to 
 
LECTURE. 37 
 
 look over the bright catalogue, and note how few there are 
 who have not gone to the silent tomb'; and though 
 
 " Their fame on brightest pages, 
 Penned by poets and by sages, 
 Shall go sounding through the ages ;" 
 
 yet the very monuments that were reared to honor their 
 names have been torn from the state and obliterated from 
 her record. Oh ! it was thought that if a portion of Vir- 
 ginia's territory should bear their honored names, it would 
 be a monument more enduring than marble or bronze ; but 
 it has been reserved for him who occupies that executive 
 chair, that each of them graced and adorned, to perpetrate 
 the deed, and to have been one of the foremost to obliterate 
 our ancient boundaries, and to give the counties that bore 
 their names to a bastard state. Better that they should 
 have " been cold and dead, and lying low," than to have 
 heard " the wailing of our people in their woe." Shame 
 on the sons of the state who aided in accomplishing the 
 deed. Shame on the men of the nation who ratified the 
 outrage. Shame on the men 
 
 "Who would have our proud eagle to feed on the eyes 
 Of those who have taught him so grandly to soar." 
 
 I can barely allude to the long list of her judges. Her 
 revered, honored, simple hearted, learned Marshall, her 
 "Wythe and Pendleton, her Tuckers — I could dwell upon 
 this name and his exalted worth — her Roane, Brooke, Carr, 
 Cabell, Coalter, Daniel, Brockenbrough and Stanard. Jus- 
 tice, according to the ancient poets, was depicted with a 
 bandage over her eyes, indicating that she could not be 
 impartial unless deprived of her sight. Such men as these, 
 with eyes unfettered, and with minds unbiassed by passion 
 or prejudice, could hold the scales of justice with even 
 balance, and dispense her fair and equitable judgments 
 without exciting a murmur of discontent. Their opinions 
 were everywhere received as sound and true interpretations 
 
38 LECTURE. 
 
 of the subtleties of law and of constitutional right. Can 
 you imagine anything more abhorrent to the feelings of 
 such men, thus versed in constitutions and laws, and in the 
 principles of free government, as adopted and adored until 
 now by the people in every state in the Union, than to see 
 the military superior to the civil power, and contemning 
 and controlling its judges after a proclamation of peace, 
 denying the writ of habeas corpus, and petty military com- 
 manders refusing to obey it. Judges lending themselves 
 to the dirty work of packing juries, and suborning and 
 paying witnesses to testify falsely against the purest and 
 best men in the land. Aye, judges confiscating property, 
 and rendering judgments in their own favor, to secure that 
 property for themselves. Denying the representative of a 
 brave and noble people, who had been insulted, manacled 
 and confined in the unwholesome cell of a dungeon, in the 
 strongest fort in the world, the right to know the offence 
 for which he was incarcerated, to be confronted with his 
 accusers, and the right to a speedy trial by an impartial 
 jury — a right secured in the constitution to the meanest 
 person accused of any offence — a right which the great 
 men of Virginia and of every other state declared to "per- 
 tain to them and their posterity as the basis and founda- 
 tion of government." What would such men as Marshall, 
 and Wythe, and Eoane have said, if they had been asked 
 'by a committee of congress if they could procure a jury 
 in their courts to convict a criminal? I can imagine the 
 look from the flashing eye of the old chief justice. It 
 would have indicated that he felt the question was an in- 
 sult, and he would have retorted that Virginia judges never 
 packed juries at the bidding of any authority for any pur- 
 pose. He would have added, that no man who had the 
 character to be summoned on a jury could be found who 
 would act if he had made up his mind to convict any pri- 
 soner, and that the judge who would instruct the sheriff" to 
 summon a jury for such a purpose, would be as base as the 
 juror who would do his bidding. Such would be the Ian- 
 
LECTURE. 39 
 
 guage of any man worthy to be a judge. He would sooner 
 rest with the blessed, until 
 
 " The last and dreadful hour 
 This crumbling pageant shall devour," 
 
 than be the hateful instrument to execute a hateful purpose 
 by corrupt means of degrading a proud and great man who 
 has become the very embodiment of a proud and grand 
 people. Corruption may do its worst, but fetters and dun- 
 geons cannot bind the soul or disturb the mind conscious 
 of rectitude and glorying in virtue. Such judges as these, 
 though, would have rejoiced to see that the supreme court 
 have at last had the firmness to throw themselves into the 
 breach, and to decide that the military must be subservient 
 to the civil power, and that no more trials of civilians shall 
 be permitted before military tribunals on any pretence 
 whatever. With such decisions as those we may say, there 
 is a department where justice and right predominate, and 
 there is a spark of the old fire kindling on liberty's altar. 
 Perchance it may burn pure and bright as in other days. 
 
 Few men in any government have had a finer opportu- 
 nity to learn the capacities, the feelings and principles 
 which actuate the mind and elucidate the character of pub- 
 lic men than I have had while seated at the humble desk 
 in the legislative and executive halls of the state for the 
 last forty years. But why do I call it humble, when the 
 office of the clerk of the house of delegates has been occu- 
 pied by such men as Edmund Randolph, George Wythe, 
 William Wirt, James Pleasants, William Munford, St. 
 George Tucker and William F. Gordon, men of far-reach- 
 ing intellects and exalted virtues. By Eandolph, the first 
 attorney-general of the state, and the first attorney-general 
 of the United States, who had been a member of congress, 
 governor, secretary of state under General Washington, 
 and member of the conventions which adopted and ratified 
 the constitution of the United States. By Wythe, the 
 pure and virtuous chancellor, who had been in the house of 
 
40 LECTURE. 
 
 burgesses, member of the convention, member of congress, 
 signer of the declaration of independence, speaker of the 
 house of delegates, judge of the court of appeals, member 
 of the conventions on the constitution of the United States, 
 revisor of the state laws, professor of law at William and 
 Mary college, and a philosopher, instilling into the minds 
 of his pupils principles of virtue and wisdom. By Wirt, 
 the chaste, refined and eloquent orator, chancellor, district 
 attorney, and attorney-general of the United States. And 
 by Pleasants, distinguished for high public and private vir- 
 tues, who had been member of congress. United States 
 senator, governor, member of the convention of 1829-'30, 
 and was twice appointed judge, but modestly declined to 
 serve from a distrust of his own qualifications — a distrust 
 which no one entertained but himself. To chancellor 
 Wythe was reserved the honor of devising the emblems 
 and motto for the seal of the state. On one side were 
 Libertas, Ceres, Mernitas, with the motto, Perseverando. The 
 blessings of liberty and abundance for eternity were to be 
 obtained by perseverance. On the other side. Virtus with 
 her foot upon the tyrant's neck, and the motto, ^^Sic semper 
 ti/rannis." But it was reserved for the wiseacres at Wheel- 
 ing, or the literati at Alexandria, or the officers of those 
 governments, I cannot discover which, to change this rem- 
 nant of antiquity, and to mar the unity of these thoughts 
 by crowding into the seal the motto, " Liberty and Union." 
 Libertas with her cap and pileus, was not liberty enough for 
 those who were destroying the liberty of the white race, so 
 they inserted liberty again. And they added the word 
 Union as entirely appropriate, because the state was not in 
 the Union at the time ; and the same men deny her admis- 
 sion now. Liberty abridged, and Union disunited. For 
 eighty-three years the old seal was deemed good enough 
 for Virginia. If I had the power I would obliterate the 
 new motto as one of the first acts connected with the resti- 
 tution of the state to vindicate the intellects of her great 
 men, and the authority of her first convention. Let the 
 
LECTURE. 41 
 
 seal of George Wythe remain uublurred by the Alexandria 
 usurpation. When the old state shall be razeed into a ter- 
 ritory, let them blur the seal to their heart's content — its 
 emblems and mottoes will be inappropriate then. Let 
 some representative of the Alexandria convention haul 
 down the old flag from the capitol and throw it into the 
 garret. But you can never erase from the soul of an old- 
 fashioned Virginian the burning desire to see Virtus with 
 her foot upon the tyrant's neck : 
 
 "You may break, you may shatter the vase if you will, 
 But the scent of the roses will hang round it still." 
 
 The greater the oppression, the greater the tyranny — the 
 more glorious will the old motto be. 
 
 I have been told that the last legislature recognized this 
 interpolation upon the seal, by enacting that the seal now 
 in possession of the secretary of the commonwealth should 
 continue to be the seal of the state. If that seal was 
 adopted without a shadow of authority, as I believe is the 
 fact, I do hope the aat will be repealed, and the old seal 
 revived. 
 
 , It is a great pleasure to me sometimes to look back into 
 the past and pleasantly to recall the men of other days with 
 whom I have been associated; and there is no reminis- 
 cence more delightful than the intercourse I have had 
 with the various speakers of the house of delegates 
 whom I have known, or under whom I have served — men 
 of whom any state might be proud. Such men as James 
 Barbour, Andrew Stevenson, Robert Stanard, Linn Banks, 
 Joel HoUeman, Thomas W. Gilmer, George "W. Hopkins, 
 William 0. Goode and Valentine W. Southall — men who 
 were deeply versed in parliamentary lore, and understood 
 the advantage of a rigid application of simple but wise 
 rules for the government of assemblies. In those days 
 there was comparatively little necessity for the speaker's 
 gavel to command order. There was something in the 
 richness and mellow tones of old James Barbour's voice — 
 6 
 
42 LECTURE. 
 
 something in the commanding, and I may say domineering 
 manner of Andrew Stevenson — something in the firm, 
 sharp and decisive way of Linn Banks, and in the decorum 
 and dignity of each, that generated dignity and decorum 
 in all around. There was no confusion, business was ex- 
 pedited, system and order prevailed, and the house of dele- 
 gates of Virginia was a model for deliberative assemblies. 
 In those days I have seen old Peter Francisco, the giant 
 sergeant-at-arms, so renowned in revolutionary times for 
 his herculean strength, grasp a stout man by the collar 
 with his left hand, and raising him from the floor with per- 
 fect ease, walk him out of the house for having improperly 
 intruded within the bar. There was no necessity to direct 
 such a sergeant to preserve order in the lobby. But these 
 men are all gone. I can only say now, twine laurel wreaths 
 around their graves, sprinkle orange blossoms over their 
 ashes, let them linger in your memories, and spring up in 
 sempiternal verdure in the gardens where trees of life will 
 flourish. 
 
 And there is no recollection more agreeable than the in- 
 tellectual repasts I have had while witnessing the eflfects of 
 oratory when handled by a skillful master. It is gratifying 
 to view the power of the human mind upon other minds — • 
 to see how the master plays upon the strings of sympathy — 
 how his reason convinces the judgment of others — how he 
 animates, refreshes, instructs — how an assembly will be 
 swayed to and fro as an earthquake makes the mountains 
 reel. I have seen such effects produced by the inspirations 
 of the Prestons and McDowell, by Henry A. Wise, Joseph 
 C. Cabell, and Charles Fenton Mercer, and the Masons, 
 and the brilliant and impetuous Dromgoole, and Robert E. 
 Scott, and R. M. T. Hunter, and Gholson, and Brodnax, 
 and the Robertsons, and Flournoy, and Edmunds, and 
 John Thompson Brown, the bright and morning star. 
 Men who would have graced any station — men with bril- 
 liant genius and erudition, with the amor pafrice warm in 
 their hearts^ and glowing and passionate expressions of 
 
LECTURE. 43 
 
 j&lial piety to Virginia dropping from their tongues — men 
 who had imbibed their ideas of government from the 
 fathers of the revolution, and would have scouted and 
 scorned the political vagaries, and heresies, and radical 
 rabies of the present day — men who, like Dromgoole, 
 could ride on the whirlwind and direct the storm, or who, 
 like John Thompson Brown, with plaintive voice and dul- 
 cet tones, seemed to be dipping his fingers in purest water, 
 and drawing forth melody from the gentle vibrations of 
 musical glasses. 
 
 While my theme confines me to Virginia's jewels, and I 
 have therefore mentioned none others, yet I am not limited 
 to the boundaries of the state, and if time would permit, I 
 would open caskets full of bright ornaments. Such men 
 as William Henry Harrison and Zachary Taylor, presidents 
 of the United States, military gems, endowed with gold 
 medals, emblazoned with emblems and devices of victories 
 and gallant triumphs. Virginia rocked them in her cradle, 
 and dandled them on h.er knee ; their honors are her 
 honors, and history has recorded and etched their achieve- 
 ments into the very memory of mankind; and Henry 
 Clay, the glorious old orator and patriot, whose fame is as 
 undying as any of them ; and William H. Crawford, and 
 William C. Preston, and John S. Preston, and John J. 
 Crittenden, and Sterling Price; and I could surround their 
 names with governors of other states, senators and repre- 
 sentatives, cabinet ministers, foreign ambassadors, oificers 
 of the army and navy, judges and professors, bishops and 
 clergy, authors, historians and poets, who have proudly 
 claimed Virginia as their native land, and filled their high 
 offices with honor to themselves and advantage to their fel- 
 low-men. 
 
 And besides all these there are jewels of the public 
 press, that great power in free govei^nment that cannot be 
 overlooked, whose wheels, like Ezel^iel's vision of the che- 
 rubims, are instinct with eyes to enable them to discover 
 what is passing, and with wings spreading in every direc- 
 
44 LECTURE. 
 
 tion to carry information with the rapidity of the wind. 
 Among these I can but mention Thomas Ritchie, the old 
 Napoleon of the press, and John Hampden Pleasants, the 
 Javelin to pierce, and the keen -edged sword to cut and to 
 slash, and 0. Jennings Wise, the hero of Roanoke island, 
 as bright with the pen as with the sword. 
 
 Swiftly hurrying on as I am, I can only say for the 
 gems that have been omitted, go look in your country's 
 pages, you will find them there, sparkling like " the stars 
 which glitter in the noon of night;" and I can imagine 
 that all the stars in the heavens are but the mild and speak- 
 ing eyes of Virginia's sons, looking down with smiles upon 
 their mother — smiling, because invested with power to see 
 that the dark shadow which at present eclipses her once 
 radiant disk will pass away, and her light will shine again 
 in accustomed splendor. 
 
 If you will bear with me a little longer, I am coming 
 down to later times, when the usurpations of the federal 
 government, prophesied or foreshadowed by our fathers, 
 caused the southern states to attempt to assume among the 
 powers of the earth a separate and independent station. 
 I am coming down rapidly to the time when Virginia, feel- 
 ing these usurpations as either immediate, or threatened 
 as ultimatel}^ certain, assembled her other memorable con- 
 vention, and having exhausted all powers of conciliation, 
 and used all proper and jealous precautions, united her 
 fate with that of her southern sisters. It was the power 
 she interposed between the government and the other states 
 that made her soil the chief battleground of the dreadful con- 
 test, and brought upon her desolation and anguish. It was 
 her devotion to the cause that impelled her to throw wide 
 open the doors of her treasury, and devote all her finances 
 to the accomplishment of the common purpose — to throw 
 open her arsenals, and dedicate all her military stores and 
 great resources to the common defence — to bring forward 
 her priceless jewels, her peerless sons, and bid them ofier 
 in her name their glorious services, and lay down, if need 
 
LECTURE, 45 
 
 be, their valued lives to vindicate a people's honor. No- 
 thing did she withhold — all was perilled. Everything was 
 absolutely sacrificed. And this is the reason to-day that 
 she is at the mercy of those who know no mercy, and is 
 bereft of her rights by those who have no magnanimity in 
 their souls. But though we are thus bereft, we have yet 
 the poor privilege of returning "thanks to-day, that neither 
 our terrible sufferings, nor the abuse of our enemies, have 
 converted us into base poltroons, nor taught us to heap 
 dust and ashes upon the history, memories and traditions 
 of the joys and sorrows of our grand but fruitless strug- 
 gle for national independence." 
 
 And while hope seems hopeless, we have learned a les- 
 !^on of patient endurance, and been taught that we must 
 wait until those who are now revelling with the strong and 
 aiding the mighty, shall themselves feel the grasp of the 
 wrongdoer, and have their rights wrested from them, and 
 shall see the necessity of peacefully applying some remedy 
 other than that to which we resorted with all the power that 
 God had given us. 
 
 These were trying times, when the assembled congress 
 of the Confederacy pondered over the affairs of the unre- 
 cognized nation. When all the nations of the earth were 
 looking on at the fearful fray, and while in their hearts 
 they could not but applaud the noble resistance we were 
 making, yet coldly threw every obstacle in our way, and 
 permitted their hundreds of thousands to swell the million 
 against us, and gave us the neutralit}^ that benefitted the 
 United States alone. Oh ! those were trying times, when 
 our Randolph and Seddon in the cabinet — our Hunter and 
 Preston and Caperton in the senate, and our Tyler and 
 Rives and Bocock and Lyons and Baldwin and Brocken- 
 brough, Russell, Preston, Johnston, Goode, Garnett and 
 Chambliss and others were, day by day and night after 
 night, encouraging and strengthening the national arm : 
 and though differing as to the best course, and objecting 
 
46 LECTURE. 
 
 often to the policy pursued, yet ever demonstrating that, 
 let who would falter, Virginia was steadfast in her resolu- 
 tion, and would maintain her faith to the utmost extremity. 
 No man in that assembly or elsewhere, when he talked of 
 failures or losses, or submission, could point the linger at 
 Virginia and say, "You did it." "When she failed, it was 
 after a desperate struggle. When she encountered losses, 
 they were accompanied by four-fold losses to the enemy, 
 that made him stagger and reel. When submission came, 
 it was the submission of all ; but she was there, if possible 
 to avert it — overwhelmed, not dismayed. When hope fled 
 affrighted and desolation reigned supreme, she was there to 
 bear the brunt. 
 
 My friends — I cannot quit my exhaustless theme, without 
 pausing for a moment to bestow one grateful acknowledg- 
 m.ent to those who survive this dreadful ruin — one tearful 
 eulogium upon those who gave their lives in the fruitless 
 endeavor to redeem their country from degradation and op- 
 pression. I would I could dwell upon the brilliant achieve- 
 ments of our noble armies, and the personal daring of their 
 great commanders. I would I could record all the glories 
 that glittered around our handful of famous but unfortunate 
 ships, and that decked the brows of their intrepid officers. 
 I can barely recite the names of a few of Virginia's war- 
 riors, and must leave it to our sister states to perpetuate the 
 memories of their heroes and patriots. I must leave the 
 record to be illustrated and graven in never-dying measures, 
 by the Homers and Shakespeares who shall spring from the 
 halls of our literary institutions, where moral grandeur shall 
 be taught by the greatest of those heroes and patriots. I 
 must leave to some gifted orator, with his soul elevated by 
 the inspiration of a Randolph, an Upshur or a Wise, to 
 pour forth eulogies in their praise, so exalted that " the 
 world should listen then as I am listening now." I can 
 only recall the bright list of names, and bid you recall the 
 devotion you felt towards them when they rode upon their 
 
LECTURE. 47 
 
 war steeds, with small, compact and intrepid bands of 
 soldiers near them, and the once proud banner floating 
 o'er them. 
 
 " For though conquered, you adore it ; 
 Love the cold, dead hands that bore it, 
 And weep for those who fell before it." 
 
 Names of Eobert E. Lee and Joseph E. Johnston and 
 Thomas J. Jackson and Early and Stuart and Ashby and 
 the Lees and Rosser and Beverley Robertson and Thomas 
 T. Munford, Ewell, Armistead, Magruder, Hill, the Joneses, 
 Rhodes, Wise, Floyd and Taliaferro, Pendleton, Mahone, 
 Anderson, Kemper, Pryor, Corse, Pegram, Imboden, Heth, 
 Garnett, Edward Johnson, Lomax, Mosby, Hunton and 
 Smith, and Allen, Preston, Cummings, Harris, Echols, 
 Cocke, Gibbons, Garland, Walker, Terry, Brockenbrough. 
 
 Oh! how their bright faces are cherished in the albums 
 of our memories ; how the incidents of their lives are gar- 
 nered among our treasures ; how we pity the unknown pri- 
 vate, as he passes by with his sleeveless arm, or his single 
 leg, hobbling on his crutch — unknown, but honored in our 
 hearts ; how the youths and the boys hang upon the recital 
 of all their glories ; how the faded uniforms will be hung 
 up and preserved ; and the very buttons that clasped their 
 bosoms will become precious keepsakes and amulets. Power 
 may endeavor to secrete them, by meanly cutting them from 
 the coat of one who from his poverty had nothing else to 
 wear, but they will be hid among the trinkets of our maidens, 
 and be wept over by mothers as relics of a dying son ; and 
 the button from the coat of Lee or of Jackson will in after 
 time be purchased in other climes, where greatness is ad- 
 mired, as priceless mementoes. Men will cherish the memo- 
 ries and traditions of the wounded, and the immortal dead 
 who perished in what they believed a holy cause. They 
 cannot forget their own rejoicings and cheerings for victo- 
 ries, nor the sorrows and moanings for the defeats of our 
 harassed, outnumbered aud overpowered veterans. They 
 
48 LECTURE. 
 
 will not forget the purity of our women, nor the sacrifices 
 they made, nor the works of their hands, nor their minis- 
 trations to the sick, the wounded and the dying, nor their 
 animating presence, the wave of the parting hand, nor the 
 cheer of their excited voices rousing the sinking spirit in 
 time of gloom, and encouraging their loved ones to daring 
 and peril for the sake of country. 
 
 Oh, we cannot dwell upon them now, but we will never 
 forget, and they cannot tear from our thoughts the history 
 and the glorious traditions of Manassas, of Kernstown, 
 Cross Keys, Port Republic, Front Royal, Alleghany, Win- 
 chester, Cedar Creek, of Williamsburg and Fredericksburg, 
 Chancellorsville, Seven Pines, Harpers' Ferry, Sharpsburg, 
 Boonsborough, Antietam, Middletown, and Gettysburg, and 
 Chickahominy, Mechanicsville, Ellyson's Mills, Beaver Dam 
 Creek, Gaines' Mill, Cold Harbour, Garnett's farm, Mal- 
 vern Hill, Drewrys' Blutf and Petersburg — nor Roanoke 
 Island, nor Donelson, nor Shiloh, nor Vicksburg, nor 
 Chickamauga, nor Pea Ridge, nor Charleston, nor the 
 mighty struggles over mountain and valley, moor and hill 
 from the Potomac to the Rio Grande. 
 
 But I weary you with my long detail. The glories of 
 these fields in this day need no description. And though 
 the Southern Confederacy has gone down never to rise, and 
 her name is not among the list of nations, she will be like 
 the sun when he sets — whose "glory remains when his 
 light fades away." Oh, we can no more see her armies bat- 
 tling for right and astonishing the world; we can no more 
 see her spotless banner waving over her ramparts ; we can 
 no more rally her men, or inspire breath into her dry bones 
 that she may live. We must acquiesce in the hard neces- 
 sity that is upon us — droop our hopes and enfold our con- 
 quered cause in our hearts, and 
 
 "Furl that banner, for 'tis weary, 
 Round its staff 'tis drooping dreary. 
 
 Furl it — fold it; it is best ; 
 For there 's not a man to wave it, 
 And there 's not a sword to save it ; — 
 
LECTUKE. 49 
 
 There 's aot one left to lave it 
 In the blood that heroes gave it ; — 
 And its foes novj scorn and brave it ! 
 Furl it^fold it; let it rest! " 
 
 There is ii duty whieli we still liave to perform, a debt of 
 gratitude which we must pay. Our southern "wives aud 
 daughters have inaugurated the undertaking and it is glo- 
 rious to follow in their lead. They have collected the bones 
 of the mighty dead and furled the banner around them; 
 they have gathered the ashes into urns aud placed them 
 among the monuments and cenotaphs of the cemetery, and 
 it is their purpose to beautify and adorn the place so that 
 pilgrims may come to it as a modern Mecca. They pur- 
 pose to perform the duty of keeping the graves clear of 
 the damp and noxious weed, to freshen and chisel deeper 
 the names and the epitaphs on the simple tombs aliection 
 may rear ; to smooth the path and turf the plats that sur- 
 round the walks; to plant roses and eglantines, the holly, 
 the cypress, the yew, the laurel and the bay ; to invite the 
 cool shade to protect from summer's heat, and let in the sun- 
 shine to moderate the winter's cold; to interweave the 
 sweet brier and the vine by the side of the murmuring 
 brook; to keep oil' the rude hands that disturb, mutilate 
 and destroy, and to the peaceful undisturbed retreat invite 
 the robin and the mocking bird to warble their sweetest 
 lays 
 
 " And pour their full heart 
 In profuse strains of unpremeditated art." 
 
 And when the mother and the sister, the widow and the 
 orphan, and the love lorn maiden shall come to look for 
 the lost one, they may feel that 
 
 " They are within the door 
 That shuts out loss and every hurtful thing." 
 
 And though they may be weeping sad tears and bitterly 
 wailing that there was 
 
50 LECTURE. 
 
 " Not a pillow for his head, 
 Not a hand to smooth his bed, 
 Not one tender parting said, 
 — Slain in battle !" 
 
 May the hand of sympathy load them to the spot where 
 the sad relic is softly iniirned, and may they know that 
 when the ladies of Virginia have undertaken to guard it, 
 that 
 
 " Somebod}^ is watching and waiting for him, 
 
 Yearning to hold him again to her heart ; 
 There ho lies with the blue eye dim, 
 
 And smiling, child-like, lips apart: 
 Tenderly bury the fair young dead, 
 
 Pausing to drop on his grave a tear ; 
 Carve on the wooden slab at his head, 
 
 Somebody's darling lies buried here." 
 
 And you, my friends, arc invoked to help in this holy 
 work ; and when you have done this, then remember that 
 the widow and the orphan require your help, and must 
 never be permitted to sutler for food, or raiment, or home, 
 or ligld for the orphan mind.