if . Jocelyii. 
 
 I -J 
 
 ^:E^. EilLISIHA MlT^MIEILILi, l])=]n) 
 
 Processor of chemistrt, mlneralog^ .and geoi.ogt, 
 
 IS THE XrsiVEKSTTT Or SORTH CAUOXIXA . 
 
 <^' 
 
 .ue'. ±Oi' tile PliilfUiflironTr- Societr ul tl) e TTiivecsxt^r. 
 
A MEMOIR 
 
 OF THE 
 
 KEY. ELISHA MITCHELL, D. I). 
 
 LATE PKOFESSOR OF CHEMISTRY, MINERALOGY & GEOLOGY 
 IN THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA : 
 
 TOGETHER WITH 
 
 THE TRIBUTES OF RESPECT TO HIS MEMORY, BY VARIOUS 
 PUBLIC MEETINGS AND LITERARY ASSOCIATIONS, 
 
 AND 
 
 THE ADDRESSES DELIVERED 
 
 AT THE RE-INTERMENT OF HIS REMAINS, 
 
 BY 
 
 ET. EEY. JAMES H. OTEY, D. D., 
 
 BISHOP OF TENNESSEE, 
 AND 
 
 HOE". DAYID L. SWAm, LL. D., 
 
 PRESIDENT OF THE UNIVERSITY. 
 
 CHAPEL HILL : 
 PUBLISHED BY J. M. HENDERSON, 
 
 PEINXER TO THE UNIVERSITT, 
 
 1858. 
 
COMMITTEE OF PUBLICATION : 
 
 PROFESSORS HUBBARD, SHIPP AND WHEAT. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 MEMOIR, BY PROFESSOR C. PHILLIPS, ----- 5 
 
 SEARCH FOR PROFESSOR MITCHELL'S BODY, - - - 13 
 
 FUNERAL SERMON BY DR. CHAPMAN, 20 
 
 PUBLIC MEETINGS: 
 
 Meeting at Asheville ; 
 " " Chapel Hill ; 
 " " Fatetteville ; 
 
 " " GrEENSBO ROUGH ; 
 
 " " AVilmington; .----■- 26—34 
 TESTIMONIALS OF RESPECT :— 
 
 Resolutions of the Trustees of the University: 
 
 " OF the Faculty ; 
 
 " of the Students ; 
 
 " of the Dialectic Society ; 
 
 *' of the Philanthropic Society ; 
 
 " OF THE Trustees of Davidson College ; 
 
 " OF THE Faculty of Davidson College ; 
 
 " OF THE Commissioners of Chapel Hill ; 
 
 Minute of the Presbytery of Orange ; 
 
 *' OF THE Synod of North Carolina, - - - 35 — 44 
 
 THE RE-INTERMENT :— 
 
 Proposed Monument ; 
 
 Proceedings of the 16th of June — Mr. Battle's Letter ; 
 
 Mount Mitchell, a Poem, 45 53 
 
 BISHOP OTEY'S FUNERAL ORATION, 55 
 
 Advertisement ; 
 PRESIDENT SWAIN'S ADDRESS, ^5— 88 
 
MEMOIR. 
 
 BY PROFESSOR CHARLES PHILLIPS. 
 
 ELISHA MITCHELL^ D. B., Professor of Chemistry, Mineralogy, ami 
 Geology iu the University of North Carolina, was born in Washington, 
 Litchfield County, Connecticut, on the 19th of August, 1793. He was 
 the eldest son of Abxer Mitchell, a respectable farmer of that town- 
 ship, whose wife, Piicebe Eliot, was a descendant in the fifth generation 
 of Joiix Eliot, the celebrated " Apostle to the Indians." Dr. Mitchell 
 wa.x thus a member of a family now very widely spread over the United 
 States, and reckoning many who have exercised much influence in Com- 
 merce, Politics, Science, and Religion. He possessed many of the charac- 
 teristics which marked the Eliots, especially of the earlier generations. 
 The Rev. Jared Eliot, M. D. and D. D., minister for many years at Kil- 
 lingworth, Connecticut, was Dr. Mitchell's great-grandfather. He wavS 
 distinguished in his own times for his knowledge of History, Natural 
 Philosophy, Botany, and Mineralogy, while as a theologian he was sound 
 in the faith and delighted in the doctrines of Gospel Grace. Among his 
 ctjrrespondents were Dr. Franklix and Bishop Berkeley, and in 1762 he 
 was honored by the Royal Society of London with a gold medal for a 
 valuable discovery in the manufacture of Iron. This ancestor Dr. Mit- 
 chell closely resembled in many peculiarities of body and soul. Both 
 were men of large stature, of great bodily strength, of untiring activity^ 
 of restless curiosity, of varied and extensive attainments, of a quaint and 
 cjuiet humor, of persevering generosity, and of a well established piety. 
 This desire for excellence in things pertaining to the mind was a pronii^ 
 nent feature in Br. Mitchell's character from early childhood. When 
 only four years old he acted a spirited part in an exhibition of the school 
 he then attended, greatly to his own satisfaction, and to the delight of hin 
 friends. As he grew older, he was never so well pleased as when his 
 playmates would gather around him to hear him tell what he had read iu 
 his books, and explain the pictures they contained. His preparation for 
 
 college was completed by the Rev. Azel Backus, D. D., who maintained 
 9 
 
for many years a classical school at Bethlem in Litchfield County, and 
 was afterwards the first President of Hamilton College in New York. Dr. 
 Backus was famous in his day for skill in training boys. He exercised a 
 very strong control, over even the vicious, by his genial disposition, his 
 good common sense, his keen wit, his unsleeping vigilance, his long suf- 
 fering patience, his respectable attainments in Science, and his devout 
 deference to the will of God. Those who knew Dr. Mitchell will readily 
 perceive that many of his excellent peculiarities, as a man and as a Profes- 
 sor, must have received an important developement by his association with 
 Dr. Backus. 
 
 Dr. Mitchell graduated at Yale College in 1813. along with' the Hon. 
 George E. Badger, Dr. Olmsted, President Longstreet, Mr. Thomas P. De- 
 VEREUX, the Rev. Mr. Singletary, and others who have been of note in 
 various walks in life. Among these he was counted as one of the best 
 scholars in their class, being especially distinguished for his knowledge of 
 English Literature. He was very popular with his College mates, and the 
 younger members of the Institution especially delighted to do him honor. 
 The College Society to which he belonged depended on him to gain it cred- 
 it on public occasions. His fine physiognomy, the dignity of his person, 
 the originality of his discussions, and the humor that enlivened them, ren- 
 dered his orations acceptable to his audiences, and secured him respect 
 from men of taste and education. It was not till the Senior year that he 
 became thoughtful on the subject of Religion. The kind and gentle per- 
 suasions of a classmate — a man of humble powers of mind but of exempla- 
 ry piety — had great influence in leading him to that serious examination 
 of his life and hopes, which resulted in his conversion. 
 
 On quitting College, Dr. Mitchell taught in a school for boys, under the 
 care of Dr. Eigenbrodt, at Jamaica, in Long Island. Afterwards, in the 
 Spring of 1815, he took charge of a school for girls in New London, Con- 
 necticut. Here he formed an acquaintance with Miss Maria S. North, 
 who was the daughter of an eminent physician of that place, and became 
 his wife in 1819. Experience has shown the wisdom of this choice, inas- 
 much as for nearly forty years this lady presided over his household, so as 
 to command his entire esteem and confidence. In 1816 |Dr. Mitchell 
 became a Tutor in Yale College, and while so engaged he was recommen- 
 ded to the favorable notice of the Trustees of the University of North Car- 
 olina. This was done through Judge Gaston, by the Rev. Sereno E. D wight, 
 a son of President Dwight, and at that time Chaplain to the Senate of the 
 United States. Ever since 1802 one of the most active and judicious of 
 the Trustees of the University, Judge Gaston was at that time a member 
 of the House of Representatives, and on terms of intimacy with Mr. 
 
DwiGHT. Because of this recommendation, in 1817, these gentlemen 
 were appointed each to a professorship in the University of North Caroli- 
 na — 'Dr. Mitchell to the chair of Mathematics then vacated by Dr. Cald- 
 well's elevation to the Presidency, and Dr. Olmsted to the chair of Chemis- 
 try, then first established at the University. After spending a short time 
 at the Theological Seminary in Andover, Massachusetts, and receiving a 
 license to preach the Gospel from an orthodox Congregational Association 
 in Connecticut, Dr. Mitchell reached Chapel Hill on the last day of Janu- 
 ary, 1818, and immediately began to discharge his duties as a professor — 
 a labor from which he ceased only by reason of death. In the discharge 
 of these duties he exhibited an energy, a vigilance, an intelligence, a good 
 common sense, a self denial, an attention to minute particulars, and a suc- 
 cess rarely surpassed or even equalled. During the thirty'uine-and-a-half 
 years of his connection with the University his absences from his post on 
 account of sickness, visits to the seat of government, attendance on eccle- 
 siastical bodies, and from all other causes, did not occupy, on an averag<^, 
 more than three days in a year. Indeed, it may be safely stated that, 
 throughout that entire period, his days and his nights, in term time and 
 in vacation, were devoted to his professorship. No one of the hundreds of 
 Students who have been connected with the University during the last 
 generation will be able to recall the memory of his absence from morning 
 and evening prayers but as a rare exception to a general rule. 
 
 Dr. Mitchell preached his first sermon in the College Chapel shortly 
 after his arrival there, and his last in Salisbury, North Carolina, when on 
 his way to the scene of the labours that cost him his life. He was ordain- 
 ed to the full work of the Christian Ministry by the Presbytery of Orange 
 in Hillsborough, North Carolina, in the fall of 1821. During his long 
 ministry there were very lew weeks in which he did not declare to his fel- 
 low men the will of God for their salvation. He always and most heartily 
 acknowledged that this Kosmos, with whose varied phenomena he was very 
 conversant, was created and controlled by a personal God, whose wisdom, 
 power, goodness, and holiness he set forth with no little skill, and often 
 with a very striking originality. This he did during a time wherein too 
 many of his associates in the investigation of Nature indulged in si-ecula- 
 tions, and clothed them in language, that ignored the existence of an au- 
 thoritative revelation concerning Creation and Providence. His minute ac- 
 quaintance with the Archaiology and Geography of the Holy Scriptures 
 rendered his exposition of them at times luminous in a remarkable de- 
 gree, and, most deeply interesting. For the redemption of the one race of 
 mankind, from the abyss of sin and misery into which the fall of Adam had 
 plunged it, he looked only to the mystery of the Cross inwrought by the 
 
8 
 
 Holy Ghost and received by Faith into the heart of each individual, and 
 he rested his own soul thereon with sincere and deep felt emotions. Dur- 
 ing his eventful life he was ever an attentive observer of the signs of the 
 times, being a great reader of newspapers and other periodicals. In these 
 Le had noticed so many associations for the reformation of the evils in hu- 
 manity, skilfully organized and vehemently recommended, and after all, 
 superseded by their original projectors, that while he did not oppose 
 schemes, which, devised by man, relied on the organization of his fellow 
 men for the attainment of reformation, he was not disappointed when 
 these attempts failed ; and he persevered in the old way of presenting to 
 his hearers the necessity of a prompt and persevering dependence on the 
 power of personal and revealed religion to regulate the «iifections and the 
 daily life. 
 
 But it v.'as as a professor that Dr. Mitchell displayed the most energy and 
 accomplished the greatest results. Until 1825 he presided over the depart- 
 ment of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy. During this period the doc- 
 trine of Fluxions, now called the Calculus, was introduced into the College 
 curriculum, and the degree of attainment in other branches of Mathematics 
 was elevated considerably. In 1825, when Dr. Olmsted accepted a situation 
 in Yale College, Dr. Mitchell was transferred to the chair thus vacated and 
 left his own to be filled by Dr. Phillips. The pursuit of Natural Science 
 had alwa^'^s been a delightful employment with Dr. Mitchell. Even 
 while a Professor of Mathematics he had frequently indulged his taste for 
 Botany by pedestrian excursions through the country around Chapel Hill. 
 After he took upon himself instruction in Chemistry, Mineralogy, and Geol- 
 ogy he extended and multiplied these excursions, so that v.dien he died lie 
 was known in almost every part of North Carolina, and he left no one be- 
 hind him better acquainted with its mountains, vallies, and plains, its^ 
 liirds, beasts, bugs, fishes, and shells, its trees, flowers, vines, and mosses, 
 its rocks, stones, sands, clays and marls. Although in Silliman's Journal, 
 and in other periodicals less prominent but circulating more widely nearer 
 home, he published many of his discoveries concerning North Carolina, 
 yet it is to be regretted that he did not print more, and in a more perma- 
 nent form. It would doubtless have thus appeared that he knew and per- 
 haps justly estimated the worth of many facts which much later investiga- 
 tors have proclaimed as their own remarkable discoveries. But the infor- 
 mation he gathered was for his own enjoyment, and for the instruction jf 
 his pupils. On these he lavished, to their utmost capacity for reception, 
 the knowledge that he had gathered by his widely extended observations, 
 and had stored up mainly in the recesses of his own singularly retentive 
 memory. 
 
9 
 
 But it was not only for accuracy and intelligence as a personal observer, 
 th;it Dr. Mitchell was famous, marked as his exertions were by a won- 
 derful activiW of bod}-, patience of labour, and insensibility to fatigue. 
 He read greedily all that he had a chance to read on the subjects directly 
 or indirectly concerning his professorship, and on many other things be- 
 sides. So that he well deserved the name of " the walking Encyclopedia." 
 There were xery few subjects on which men of polite literature, or of ab- 
 stract as vrell as natural science converse, wherein he was not an intelli- 
 gent and appreciative listener, or an instructive teachen His knowledge of 
 (jcography was wonderful. It was a constant amusement for him to read 
 the advertisements in a large commercial newspaper, to learn what things 
 were bought and sold in the markets of the world, and then to sit doAvn 
 and find out where the things were manufactured. Such was his reputa- 
 tation for these acquisitions that when any one wanted some rare inferma- 
 tion on a Historical, or Geographical, or more strictly Scientific matter, it 
 was a common thing to say, " Go, ask Dr. Mitchell." He also kept him- 
 self supplied with periodicals and magazines in which the Sciences he 
 taught were developing; for he loved to have his knowledge fresh, and 
 would not wait for others to winnow the true from the false. He took 
 pleasure in running the pure motal from the crude ore for himself. His 
 large library contained something on almost every thing. But it was in 
 such a form, and obtained in such times, and at such prices that in the 
 market it never would have brought any approximation to what it cost 
 him. The Sciences he taught were developing Avhile he taught them, and 
 he felt it incumbent on him to have at the earliest moment Avhatever 
 treatise he heard of as likely to secure him the best and latest informa- 
 tion. ]Much of what Dr. Mitchell had to read is not now necessary, and 
 many of his acquisitions may seem to others useless, but he thus provided 
 that no one of his pupils left his laboratory Avithout having an opportunity 
 (}f learning all that Avas of interest or of use to him on the subjects there 
 discussed. Nor Avere his remarkable accomplishments as a professor con- 
 fined to his oAA'n department. In the Ancient Languages he Avas frequent- 
 ly ready and able to help a colleague who Avas prevented from discharging 
 his oAvn duties. In the Mathematics he would often, at public examina- 
 tions, propose such questions as shoAved that his earlier love still retained 
 a hold on his attention and affections. He Avas a good Avriter, and in the 
 department of Belles Lettres he Avas a Avell-read and insti-uctive critic. 
 When it was knoAvn that he Avas to deliver an address before the North 
 Carolina Agricultural Society, a friend, Avho kneAv him well, exclaimed, 
 "I'll Avarrant that Dr. Mitchell begins at the garden of .Eden." And so 
 he did. But by the time that, passing through Egypt and Canaan, Greece 
 
10 
 
 and Rome and Great Britain, he got to Cbatham County in North Carolina, 
 he furnished, as usual, an essay full of rare information,- judicious sugges- 
 tions, peculiar humour, and excellent common sense. 
 
 As a teacher, Dr. Mitchell took great pains in inculcating the first 
 principles of Science. These he set forth distinctly in the very beginning 
 of his instructions, and he never let his pupils lose sight of them. When 
 brilliant and complicated phenomena were presented for their contempla- 
 tion, he sought not to excite their wonder or magnify himself in their eyes 
 as a man of suprising acquirements, or as a most dexterous manipulator, 
 but to exhibit such instances as most clearly set forth fundamental laws, 
 and demanded the exercise of a skilful analysis. Naturally of a cautious 
 disposition, such had been his own experience, and so large was his ac- 
 quaintance with the experience of others, that he was not easily excited 
 when others announced unexpected discoveries among the laws and the 
 phenomena which he had been studying for years as they appeared. — 
 While others were busy in prophesying revolutions in social or political 
 economy, he "vv^as quietly awaiting the decisions of experience. He con- 
 stantly taught his pupils that there were times wherein they must turn 
 from the voice of the charmer, charm he ever so sweetly. His influence on 
 the developments of Science was eminently conservative, for he loved the 
 old landmarks. As a disciplinarian he was vigilant, conscientious, long 
 suffering, firm, and mild. Believing that the prevention was better than 
 the cure of the ills of a College life, he was constantly watching to guard 
 the Students from a violation of the rules of morality and common pro- 
 priety. When offences were committed, to the offender he set forth his 
 conduct in its true light, and often with very plain language. But when 
 punishment was to be inflicted he generally proposed that which appealed 
 to the culprit's better feelings, and left him a door open for a return to a 
 better mind and an earnest attempt for his reformation. Many cases are 
 known where such unwearied and unostentatious kindness has produced 
 the happiest results. How widely extended it was no one can tell now for 
 it was almost always shown to the receiver alone. It sprang from a love 
 to man and fear of God, for Dr. Mitchell never feared the face of his 
 fellow. 
 
 Dr. Mitchell enjoyed being busy. Neither laziness nor idleness enter- 
 ed into his composition, so that he always had something which he was 
 doing heartily. Besides being a Professor, he educated his own children 
 and especially his daughters to a degree not often attempted. He was 
 a regular preacher in the College Chapel and in the village Church, the 
 College Bursar, a Justice of the peace, a Farmer, a Commissioner for 
 the village of Chapel Hill, and at times its Magistrate of Police. What- 
 
11 
 
 ever plans he laid were generally sketched on a large scale, and when exe- 
 cuted, they were commonly well done. Although a man of strong feel- 
 ings, his excitement rarely lasted long, and he did not harbour resentment 
 even when he had to remove unjust suspicions, or forgive unmerited inju- 
 ries. His generosity was abundant, and was often appealed to again and 
 again. No friend of his ever asked him for help without getting all that 
 he could give him. In this he often swore to his own hurt yet he did not 
 change. 
 
 Such were the leading characteristics of Dr. Mitchell who loved God 
 and every thing He has made ; and now, while his colleagues mourn for 
 one who counselled with wisdom and executed with vigour — while men of 
 Science miss the co-operation of a learned associate members of the Cabi- 
 net and Ministers to foreign countries, with Senators and Representatives 
 in Congress, Governors of our States with their Judges and their Legisla- 
 tors, Ambassadors from the Court of Heaven, and men of renown in 
 the professsions, learned Professors, with famous School-masters, and 
 thousands of other pupils in more retired positions rise up in all parts of 
 our country to do their revered preceptor high honor. His bow abode in 
 strength to the last, neither was his natural force abated. He died as 
 Abner died, and because they loved him unlettered slaves as well as migh- 
 ty men followed his bier weeping. 
 
 Dr. Mitchell perished on Saturday, the 27th of June, 1857, in the six- 
 ty-fourth year of his age. He attempted alone to descend Mt. Mitchell 
 the highest peak of the Black Mountain which is in Yancey County, North 
 Carolina. But a thunder storm detained him on the mountain, so that it 
 was evening and dark as he was groping his way down the mountain's 
 iiides. Not far from nineteen minutes past eight — for his watch marked 
 that time — he pitched head-long some forty feet down the precipice into a 
 small but deep pool of water that feeds the Sugar Camp Fork of Caney 
 Eiver. At the bottom of this pool he was found on the 8th of July by 
 Mr. Thomas D. Wilson, who with some two hundred other mountain- men 
 "were looking for Dr. Mitchell in every glen on the sides of that fearful 
 anountain mass. This was the fifth visit that Dr. Mitchell had paid to 
 the Black Mountain, the others being in 1835, 1838, 1844, and 1856 re- 
 spectively. His object at this time was partly personal, and partly Scien- 
 tific. He wished to correct the mistakes into which some had ]>een led 
 concerning his earlier visits, and to so compare the indications of the 
 Spirit Level and the Barometer, that future explorers of mountain heights 
 might have increased confidence in the results afibrded them by these in- 
 -struments. His untimely end left both parts of this work to be completed 
 by the pious hands of others. 
 
12 
 
 Dr. Mitchell was buried in Asheville, North Carolina, on the 10th of 
 July, 1857, by the side of one of liis College mates. But at the earnest 
 solicitation of many friends, and especially of the mountain men of Yancey, 
 his family allowed his body to be removed and deposited on the top of Mt. 
 Mitchell. This was done on the 16th of June, 1858. There he shall rest 
 till the Judgment Day, in a mausoleum such as no other man has ever had. 
 Reared by the hands of Omnipotence, it was assigned to him by those to 
 whom it was given thus to express their esteem, and it was consecrated by 
 the lips of eloquence warmed by affection, amidst the rites of our Holy Re- 
 ligion. Before him lies the North Carolina he loved so well and served so 
 faithfully. From his lofty couch its hills and vallies melt into its plains 
 as they stretch away to the shores of the eastern ocean, whence the dawn 
 of the last day stealing quietly westward, as it lights the mountain tops 
 first, shall awake him earliest to hear the greeting of 
 
 a^ "Well DOXE GOOD AND FAITHFUL SERVANT." 
 
 % 
 
THE SEARCH FOR PROFESSOR MITCHELL'S BODY. 
 
 From the Asheville Spectator. 
 
 Messrs. Editors — Having spent a week at the scene of this memorable 
 calamity, in eearch of the body of Dr. Mitchell, and assisting in its remrn 
 val after it -"A-as found, I have been requested by sundry citizens to give to 
 the public a sketch of the deplorable event. In accordance with their re- 
 quest, I now take my pen to give you all I know of the accident, which 
 has caused so much sorrowful excitement in this region, and which I 
 doubt, not will unnerve the public feeling to its centre throughout the 
 State when the sad tidings shall be generally known. 
 
 It is known to all who have felt interested in our State Geography, that 
 there lately sprung up a dispute between the Hon. T. L. Clingman and 
 Dr. Mitchell, in regard to one of the high peaks of the Black Mountain 
 put down in Cook's map as Mt. Clingman. The former alledging that he 
 was first to measure and ascertain its superior height to any other point 
 on the range, and the latter gentleman asserting that he was on that same 
 peak and measured it in the year 1844. After several letters, pro and con, 
 through the newspapers, Dr. Mitchell announced last fall his intention 
 of visiting the mountains again for the purpose of re-measuring the peak 
 in dispute, taking the statements of some gentlemen who had acted as his 
 guides on his former visits, &c. Sometime since, about the middle of 
 June, I think, he came up, in company with his son Chas. A Mitchell, his 
 daughter, and a servant boy, established his headquarters at Jesse Stepp's, 
 at the foot of the mountain, and began*the .laborious task of ascertaining 
 the height of the highest peak by an instrumental survey, which as the 
 former ad-measurements were only barometrical, would fix its altitude with 
 perfect accuracy. He had proceeded with his work near two weeks, and 
 had rea^clied to some quarter of a mi>e above Mr. Wm. Patton's Mountain 
 House, by Saturday evening, 2^ o'clock, the 27th of June, at which time 
 he quit work and told his son that he was going to cross the mountain to 
 the settlement on Caney River for the purpose of seeing ]Nlr. Thomas Wil- 
 son, "Wm. Riddle, and I believe another Mr. AVilson, who had guided him 
 up to the top on a former visit. He promised to return to the Mountain 
 House on Monday at noon. There was no one with him. This was the 
 last time he Avas ever seen alive. On Monday his son repaired to the 
 Mountain House-to meet his f\ither, but he did not come. Tuesday the 
 same thing occurred, and though considerable uneasiness was felt for his 
 safety, yet there were so many ways to account for his delay that it was 
 scarcely thought necessary to alarm the neighborhood ; but when Wednes- 
 
14 
 
 day night came and brought no token of him, his son and Mr. John Stepp 
 immediately started on Thursday morning to Caney River in search of him. 
 On arriving at Mr. Thos. Wilson's, v\rhat vras their astonishment and dis- 
 may to learn that he had neither been seen nor heard of in that settle- 
 ment ! They immediately returned to Mr. Stepp's, the alarm was given, 
 and before sundown on Friday evening companies of the ha^dy mountai- 
 neers- from the North Fork of the Swannanoa were on their way up the 
 mountain. The writer, happening to be present on a visit to the Black, 
 joined the first company that went up. About eighteen persons camped 
 at the Mountain Housq that evening, and continued accessions were made 
 to our party during the night, by the good citizens of that neighborhood, 
 Tvho turned out at the call of humanity as fast as they heard the alarm, 
 some from their fields, some from working on the road, and all without a 
 moment's hesitation. Early on Saturday morning our party under the 
 command of Mr. Fred Burnett and his sons, all experienced hunters, and 
 Jesse Stepp and others who were familiar with the mountains, struck out 
 for the Baain top, and began the search by scouring the woods on the left 
 hand or Caney River side of the trail that runs along the top. We continu- 
 ed on this way to the highest peak without discovering any traces what- 
 ever of his passage, when our company became so scattered into small 
 parties that no further systematic search could be made that day. But 
 directly in our rear as we came up the mountain was Mr. Eldridge Bur- 
 nett with some more of his neighbors, who had come from their houses 
 that morning ; and hearing a report that Dr. Mitchell had expressed his 
 intention of striking a bee line from the top for the settlements without 
 following the blazed trail way- to Caney River, they searched for signs in 
 that direction, and soon found a trail in the «oft moss and fern that was 
 believed to have been made by him, and followed it until it came to the 
 first fork of Caney, where it was lost. Nothing doubting but they were 
 on his track, and that he had continued down the stream, they went seve- 
 ral miles along the beat of the river, over inconceivably rough and dange- 
 rous ground, until dark, when they threw themselves upon the earth and 
 rested till morning. Mr. Stepp, Mr. Fred. Burnett and others made their 
 way to Wilson's on Caney River to join the company that was coming up 
 from the Yancey side, and the writer and many others returned, gloomy 
 ^and disappointed to the Mountain House. Thus ended the first day's 
 search. During almost the entire day the rain had poured down steadily, 
 tke air was cold and chilling, the thermometer indicating about 44° at 
 noon, whilst the heavy clouds wrapped the whole mountain in such a 
 dense fog that it was impossible to see any distance before us. It seemed 
 as if the genii of those vast mountain solitudes were angered at our un- 
 
15 
 
 wonted intrusion, and had invoked the Storm-God to enshroud in deeper 
 gloom the sad and mysterious fate of their noble victim. 
 
 Sabbath morning came, but its holy stillness and sacred associations 
 were all unregarded, and the party camping in the Mountain House, now 
 largely augmented by constant arrivals from the settlements, plunged 
 again into the gloomy forest of gigantic firs, and filing through the dark 
 and deep gorges struck far down into the wilds of Caney River. Mr. El- 
 dridge Burnett's party returned about 2 o'clock, bringing, no tidings and 
 seeing no further trace whatever of the wanderer's footsteps. Still later 
 in the day Messrs. Fred. Burnett and Jesse Stepp and party returned with 
 some twelve or fifteen of the ciz-ens of Caney River, having traversed a 
 large scope of country and finding still no trace of the lost one. The rain 
 still continued to pour down, and the gloomy and ill-omened fog still con- 
 tinued to wrap the mountain's brow in its rayless and opaque shroud. 
 Jnst before dark the remaining party came in, unsuccessful, tired, hungry 
 ^and soaking with water. A general gloom now overspread the counte- 
 nances of all, as the awful and almost undeniable fact was proclaimed, 
 that Dr. Mitchell was surely d^ad, and our only object in making the 
 search, would be- to recue his mortal remains from the wild beasts and 
 give them christian sepulture ! It could not be possible, we thought, that 
 he was alive, for cold, and hunger, and fatigue, if nothing worse had hap- 
 pened to him, would ere this have destroyed him, Alas ! we reasoned too 
 well. By this time the alarm had spread far and near, and many citizens 
 of Asheville and other parts of the country were flocking to the mountains 
 to assist in the search for one so universally beloved and respected. On 
 JMonday tho company numbered some sixty men. New routes were pro- 
 jected, new ground of search proposed, and the hunt conducted through- 
 out the day with renewed energy and determination, but still without 
 avail. On Tuesday the company of Buncombe men separated into three 
 squads and took difi"erent routes, whilst Mr. Thomas Wilson and his 
 neighbors from Caney River, took a still more distant route, by going to 
 the top of the highest peak and searching down towards the Cat-tail fork 
 of the River. They were led to take this route by the suggestion of Mr, 
 Wilson, that Dr. M. had gone up that way in his visit to the high peak in 
 1844, and that perhaps he had undertaken to go down by the same route. 
 They accordingly struck out for that point, and turning to the left to strike 
 down the mountain in the prairie near the top, at the very spot where it 
 is alleged that the Doctor entered it thirteen years ago, they instantly 
 perceived the impression of feet upon the yielding turf, pointing down the 
 mountain in the direction indicated of his former route. After tracing it 
 some distance with that unerring woodcraft which is so wonderful to all 
 
16 
 
 but tine close observing hunter, they became convinced that it was his 
 trail and sent a messenger back some five miles to inform the Buncombe 
 men, and telling them to hurry on as fast as they could. The Avriter with 
 Mr. Charles Mitchell and many others were in a deep valley on the head 
 waters. of another fork of the river, when the blast of a horn and the firing 
 of guns on a distant peak, made us aware that some discovery Avas made. 
 Hurrying with breathless haste up the steep mountain side in the direc- 
 tion of the guns we soon came np and found the greater part of our com- 
 pany watching for us, with the news that the Yancey company were upon 
 the trail we had been so earnestly seeking so many days. After a brief 
 consultation, two or three of our party a'eturned to the Mountain House 
 for provisions, and the balance of us started as fast as we could travel 
 along the main top towards our Yancey friends, and reached the high peak 
 just before dark. Here v\'e camped in a small cabin built by Mr. Jesse 
 Stepp, ate a hasty supper and threw ourselves upon the floor, without 
 covering, to rest. 
 
 About 1 o'clock in the night, just as the writer was about closing his 
 eyes in troubled and uneasy slumber, a loud halloo was heard from the high 
 bluff that looms over the cabin. It was answered from .within and in a 
 moment every sleeper Avas upon his feet. Mr. Jesse Stepp, Capt. Robert 
 Patton and others, then came down and told us that the body Avas found. 
 Mournfully then indeed those hardy sons of the mountain seated them- 
 selves around the smouldering cabin fire, and on the trunks of the fallen 
 firs, and then, in the light of a glorious full moon, whose rays penciled the 
 dark damp forest with liquid silver, seven thousand feet above the tide- 
 washed sands of the Atlantic, the melancholj'^ tale was told. Many a heart 
 was stilled with sadness as the awful truth was disclosed and many a 
 rough face glittered with a tear in the refulgent moon-light as it looked 
 upon the marble pallor and statue-stillness of the stricken and bereaved 
 son, and thought of those far away whom this sudden evil Avould so deep- 
 ly afflict. 
 
 It was as they expected. The deceased had undertaken to go the same 
 route to the settlements which he had formerly gone. They traced him 
 rapidly down the precipices of the mountain, until they reached the stream 
 (the Cat-tail fork), found his traces going down it — following on a hundred 
 yards or so, they, came to a rushing cataract some forty feet high, saw his 
 foot-prints trying to climb around the edge of the yawning precipice, saw 
 the moss torn up by the outstretched hand, and then — the solid, impression- 
 less granite refused to tell more of his fate. But clambering hastily to 
 the bottom of the roaring abyss, they found a basin worn out of the solid 
 rock by the frenzied torrent, at least fourteen feet deep, filled with clear 
 
17 
 
 and crystal waters cold and pure as the winter snow that generates them. 
 At the bottom of this basin, quietly reposing, with outstretched arms, day 
 the mortal remains of the Rev. Elisha Mitchell, D. D., the good, the great, 
 the wise, the simple minded,^ the pure of heart, the instructor of youth, 
 the disciple of knowledge and the preacher of Christianity ! Oh what 
 friend to science and virtue what youth among all the thousands that 
 have listened to his teachings, what friend that has ever taken him by the 
 hand, can think of this wild and awful scene unmoved by the humanity of 
 tears ! can think of those gigantic pyramidal firs, whose interlocking 
 branches shut out the light of heaven, the many hued rhododendrons that 
 freight the air with their perfume and lean weepingly over the waters, that 
 crystal stream leaping down the great granites and hastening from the 
 majestic presence of the mighty peak above, whilst in the deep pool below, 
 where the weary waters rest but a single moment, lies the inanimate body 
 of his dear friend and preceptor, apparently listening to the mighty requi- 
 em of the cataract I ! Truly " Man knoweth not his time, and the sons of 
 men are entrapped in the evil, when it cometh suddenly upon them." 
 
 Upon consultation it was thought best to let the body remain in the wa- 
 ter until all arrangements were completed for its removal and interment ; 
 judging rightly that the cold and pure waters would better preserve it, than 
 it could be kept in any other way. At day light a number of hands went 
 to cutting out a trail from the top of the mountain to where the body lay, 
 a distance of three miles, whilst others went to Asheville to make the ne- 
 cessary arrangements. Word was also sent to the coroner of Yancey, and 
 to the citizens generally to come and assist us in raising the body on Wed- 
 nesday morning. At that time a large num])er of persons assembled at 
 Mr. Jesse Stepp's and set out for the spot, bearing the coffin upon our 
 shoulders up the dreary steeps. We had gone near ten miles in this way 
 and had just turned down from the high peak towards the river, when we 
 were met by Mr. Coroner Ayers, and about fifty of the citizens of Yance}', 
 coming up with the body. They had got impatient at our delay, and en- 
 veloping the body in a sheet and fastening it securely upon a long pole, 
 laid it upon the shoulders of ten men and started up the mountain. And 
 now became manifest the strength and hardihood of tliose noble mountai- 
 neers. For three miles above them the precipitous granites and steep 
 mountain sides forbade almost the ascent of an unincumbered man, which 
 was rendered doubh' difficult by great trunks of trees, and the t^iick and 
 tangled laurel which blocked up the way. The load was near two hundred 
 and fifty pounds and only two men could carry at once. But nothing 
 (la"-nted by the fearful exertion before them, they steJD boldly up the way, 
 fresh hands stepped in every few moments, all struggling without inter- 
 
18 
 
 mission and eager to assist in the work of humanity. Anon they would 
 come to a place at which it was impossible for the bearers to proceed, and 
 then they would form a line by taking each others hands the uppermost 
 man grasping a tree and with shouts of encouragement heave up by main 
 strength. In this way, after indescribably toiling for some hours they 
 reached the spot. Here was afforded another instance of the great affec- 
 tion and regard in which the deceased was held by all. These bold and 
 hardy men desired to have the body buried there and contended for it long 
 and earnestly. They said that he had first made known the superior 
 height of their glorious mountain and noised their fame almost through- 
 out the Union, that he had died whilst contending for his right to that 
 loftiest of all the Atlantic mountains, on which we then stood, and they 
 desired to place his remains right there, add at no other spot. It would 
 indeed have been an appropriate resting place for him, and greatly was it 
 wished for by the whole country, before its being told them that his fami- 
 ly wanted his remains brought down. They reluctantly yielded, and the 
 Buncombe men proceeded to bring the body slowly down the valley of the 
 Swannanoa. Before leaving the top, the writer took down the names of 
 all present, and will ask you to publish them to the world, as men who 
 have done honor to our common humanity by their generous and disinter- 
 ested conduct on this melancholy occasion. I am no flatterer, Messrs. 
 Editors, but I must confess that the labor which these mountain men ex- 
 pended and the sacrifice they so willingly and cheerfully made, is worthy 
 of all praise and admiration. May God reward their kindness ; I feel sure, 
 the numerous friends and pupils of the dear deceased would rather read 
 the list of these men's names than the "ayes and naes" of any Con- 
 gressional vote that has been recorded in many a day. 
 
 FROM YANCEY. 
 
 Nathaniel B. Ray, I. M. Broyles, Joseph Shephard, Washington Broy- 
 les, Henry Wheeler, Thomas Wilson, Jas. M. Ray, D. W. Burleson, G. B. 
 Silvers, J. 0. Griffith, E. Williams, A. D. Allen, A. L. Ray, Thomas D. 
 Wilson, E. A. Pyatt, D. W. Howard, W. M. Astin, James H. Riddle, Dr. 
 W. Crumley, G. D. Ray, Burton Austin, James Allen, Henry Ray, T. L. 
 Randolph, John McPeters, W. B. Creasman, S. J. Nanney, Samuel Ray, 
 E. W. Boren, Rev. W. C. Bowman, J. W. Bailey, Thomas Silvers, Jr., 
 Thomas Calloway, Henry Allen, J. L. Gibbs, Jesse Ray, James Hensley, 
 Robert Riddle, W. D. Williams, J. D. Young, William Rolen, G. W. Wil- 
 son, John Rogers, James Allen, Jr. J. W. Ayres, J. F. Presnell, R. A. 
 Rumple, W. J. Hensley, D. H. Silvers, R. Don Wilson, Jas. Calloway. 
 
19 
 
 FROM BUNCOMBE. 
 
 S. C. Lambert, William Burnett, R. H. Burnett, R. J. Fortune, Ephraim 
 Glass, J. H. Bartlett, B. F, Fortune, A. N. Alexander, James Gaines, J. 
 E. Ellison, John F. Bartlett, F. F. Bartlett, Elijah Kearly, E. Clayton, A. 
 Burgin, Jesse Stepp, D. F. Summey, T. J. Corpning, Harris Ellison, T. B. 
 Boyd, A. J. Lindsey, Joshua Stepp, William Powers, R. P. Lambert, Tis- 
 dale Stepp, Daniel Burnett, Thadeus C. Coleman, A. F. Harris, W. C. 
 Fortune, Fletcher Fortune, Capt. Robert Patton, Cooper, servant of Wm. 
 Patton, John, servant of Fletcher Fortune, Esq. 
 
 A. J. Emmerson, Chatham County, A. E. Rhodes, Jones County,, H. H. 
 Young, and Moses Dent, Franklin County ; all students of Wake Forest 
 College. 
 
 This list does not comprise all who assisted in the search, as much to 
 my regret I did not take a list of any but those present at the removal of 
 the body. I believe, however, that the names of all are recorded on the 
 register of Mr. Patton's Mountain House, where the friends of Dr. Mitch- 
 ell can see them when they visit (as I have no doubt many will) the scene 
 of his death. 
 
 This ends my brief sketch of this melancholy affair. As to any eulogy 
 upon Dr. Mitchell's character I feel myself unequal to the task. I trust 
 that it will be appropriately pronounced by some one of his learned and 
 devoted fellow laborers of the University. My feeble pen could add noth- 
 ing to his moral and intellectual stature. I will only say, that I loved him 
 as sincerely as any one in the State. I am gratified to be able to state that 
 unusual kindness and respect was exhibited by every citizen of the coun- 
 try throughout the whole transaction. 
 
 Yours truly, Z. B. VANCE. 
 
A FUKERAL SERMON, 
 
 DELIVERED IX THE 
 
 PRESBTTEKIA^" CHURCH AT ASHEYH^LE, 
 
 ox THE TENTH OF JULY 1857. 
 
 By the REV. ROBERT HETT CHAPMAN, D. D., 
 
 A SOX OF THE SECOND PRESIDENT OF THE UNIVERSITY. 
 
 Max kxoweth xot uis time : . * * ^ the soxs of mex are sxared in 
 
 AX evil WHEX it FALLET^ SUDDEXLT UPOX THEM.^ — Eccl. chap. 9, V. 12. 
 
 What words of truth are these ? and how fearfully have they been rea- 
 lized in the incidents which have convened us here to-day I The doctrine 
 of the Text is, that there is a dreadful uncertainty respecting things ter- 
 re.stial — that trials, and changes, and death are our heritage here-— that in 
 our calmest, and even apparently in our safest hours, we are but short 
 sighted and frail — all exposed and in peril : and know not what a day may 
 bring forth ! Children of clay, and inhabiting a globe of graves, we are 
 in peril every hour ! It is true the Almighty upholds, and Ave are in His 
 hands ! His Providence is over us, but whether it shall be afflictive, or be^ 
 nisnant — whether of the issues of Life, or of Death we cannot tell! The 
 future is all before us, but shadows, clouds, and darkness rest upon it ! 
 its issues, and its events are alone kno\tn to the Infinite ! To the Chris- 
 tian, and in his conception there are no accidents — nothing fortuitous — ■- 
 the hand of God is in it all; and so it is in point of fact XLutli us all; 
 whether we realize it, or not — God telleth off your days and mine, and 
 those of the entire race ! — as an hireling we shall each accomplish our 
 day, and then pass on and up to the Judgment of the great God ! Then 
 should we not watch? ought we not to be ready? lest suddenly coming He 
 find us sleeping ! 
 
 Man knoweth not his time ! but certain it is, that here, on earth, where^ 
 ver found he is all incident to suffering — exposed to calamity and danger 
 = — the sure victim of coming dissolution, aye the certain trophy of Death I 
 His leaden fingers shall be laid upon you and me, chilling the pulsations 
 of life — His arm of power snail be by us felt, breaking the golden bowl at 
 the fountain I — we shall all experience his wasting influence, changing 
 
21 
 
 the countenance and bidding us pass from Earth to the Spirit Land ! but 
 when these trials shall reach us : — when we shall each in our lot go down 
 before the puissant arm of him, who breaks the sword of valor, and 
 takes the diadem from the brow of kings — when the veil shall part before 
 jour spirit's eye and mine, and the gales of eternity shall freshen upon 
 our souls, God alone knows ! Sometimes danger and death show them- 
 selves in the distance, and with slow and steady step gradually approach, 
 letting us know, that they aim at us and ours, and that their office and 
 work is with us ; at other times they draw nigh wdth steady tread — noise- 
 less, silent, unperceived they gather round ; their presence is but recog- 
 nized in their attack^in the marks of their desolation— in the affixing of 
 an unchanging seal which cannot be mistaken, and which can neither 
 he blotted out, nor broken I All ma}^ be quiet without, and calm within ; 
 and there may be no sense of danger, and no fear— but Death is there, and 
 sudden destruction. The veil of Eternity sometimes parts as in the twink- 
 ling of an eye and the soul without sign or token, or note or warning, is 
 in the spirit land, summoned to the presence of God, its Infinite Judge! 
 Ah, Friends ! the text is true, " Man knoweth not his time/^ The sons of 
 men are oftentimes snared in sudden calamity ; there is an awful, a fear-* 
 ful uncertainty as to what is before us, when w^e shall be called on to lay 
 aside these vestments of mortality, and to stand before Jehovah God our 
 Judge ! Then is it not wise ?— would it not be well to have our prepara- 
 tion work well and early done, that we may stand ready, and waiting for 
 the coming of the Son of Man ? " Man knoweth not his Time^as the fish 
 are taken in a net, as the birds are caught in a snare, so are the sons of 
 men snared in an evil when it falleth suddenly upon them/' My Text 
 has been selected, and the train of thought just indulged in, suggested) 
 1 ty one of those fearful incidents of life which alike startle and appall ! 
 Tidings of them fall not listlessly on human ears, they fail not deeply, 
 and painfully to affect human hearts I It is no ordinary death scene that 
 we chronicle ; nor is it the departure from the scenes of time of any ordi- 
 nary man, that we have met in the Sanctuary to meditate upon ! Elisha 
 Mitchell ! the loved and venerated— -the astute and wise— ^the man of 
 God and Christian Minister, lies low in death ! He is no more of earthy 
 for God hath taken him up to the scenes of the spiritual) and caused him 
 to mingle in the realities of the eternal world ! His family are bereft of 
 their Head — no more shall he guide them by his counsels, nor at morning 
 and evening lead their devotions ; — the temple of Science has had extin- 
 y;ui6hed in him one of its living lights, and taken down and removed is 
 one of its stalwart pillars I The Church of God and its courts have in him 
 lost an advocate — a judicious counsellor^ and prized presbyter! His seat 
 o 
 
22 
 
 at the family table, in the hall of Science, and within the Sanctuary of 
 God, have alike been vacated by the sad event vrhich has convened us, 
 and which we are endeavoring spiritually to improve ! His agency as 
 father, friend, and instructor, and Christian Minister has ceased ; and no 
 more shall we enjoy his converse, weigh his counsels, or go with him up 
 to the House of God ! Ye reckon it in days since some of you enjoyed his 
 sunny smile and kind hearted converse, and communion ! When last 
 with him, aye when last seen of mortal vision, he was full of life — as 
 buoyant with hope, and had as bright promise of future years and useful- 
 ness, as had any of you^ or your race ! but he is not — his summons was 
 sudden — fearfully sudden ! Yours may be as sudden, and not as safe 1 
 He died emphatically alone ! Neither wife nor brother nor son nor friend 
 nor man was near I Amid mountain fastnesses, under laurel shades, and 
 with unceasing sound of moaning pines and rushing waters, furnishing 
 an appropriate requiem, alone and without human aid or sympathy, he 
 breathed out his life. Except for efforts the most patient and untiring on 
 the part of the community, his death as to its place, and means, and time^ 
 would have remained a mystery ; his grave would have been unknown and 
 his body unsepultured. There is something, at once grand and fearful in 
 such a death ! Far from human habitation — amid the solitude of nature 
 — her works there on the grandest scale — it brings up those mounts of 
 God mentioned in the Scripture, Pisgah and Nebo, and suggests the death 
 scene of the " Ruler of His people " as connected therewith — Angels per- 
 formed the dying offices of the one, nor is it vain speculation to suppose 
 that in needful form and sympathy they were present with the other ; this 
 sure Word of God informs us that they minister to the heirs of salvation 1 
 I have said Dr. Mitchell was alone in his death — I speak of earth and 
 of man — I except angelic influences, and the presence of his covenant God 
 and Saviour ! He who stamped grandeur on those mountains, and marked 
 out a channel for those pure and crystal waters did not in that hour de- 
 sert His servant but was near him and around him ! Do I say too much ? 
 what says the Scripture ? " as the mountains are round about Jerusalem, 
 so Jehovah is round about them that fear Him " — What says God him- 
 self? "Fear not I I am with thee, be not dismayed! I will never leave 
 thee nor forsake thee I" Tell me not of accidents I Speak not to me of 
 second causes ! God's hand was in the startling event, as it is in all 
 events. He designs that we should feel it, and lay it to heart, and wisely 
 improve it. From that mountain side and seething pool where they found 
 him tliere cometli a voice deep, thrilling, and loud, addressing itself to 
 you, and me, to all! Its language is " prepare to meet thy God!" Who 
 can fail to realize, if he will throw around the scene one lingering thought. 
 
^o 
 
 that amid these frowning precipices and impervious shades and wildly 
 dashing waters, and with death at hand, it was far more important to 
 have been the humble child of God, the devoted follower of Christ, than to 
 have been the man of gold, or of distinction and fame, or even a sceptered 
 king, Avith destitution of this grace ! Ah ! the Avell earned fame, the dis- 
 tinctions of our departed friend and brother, have here no power in im- 
 parting joy and comfort to those who loved him in life, and to whom he is 
 doubly dear in death ! — their hope, and joy, and strong consolation is bas- 
 ed on the simple fact that Dr. Mitchell laid all his honors, and loved to 
 lay them, at the feet of Christ and around Ilis Cross ! — that there he hung 
 his hopes of Heaven— that there he planted his expectations of Life Ever- 
 lastino; ! He was an humble child of God, and a Christian ! In that fact 
 there is comfort, joy, strong consolation ! When father, or mother, or 
 child, or brother, or friend passes from earth, let me know they are in 
 Heaven, and among the blood-bought and ransomed, and I cannot unduly 
 grieve ! Who would call them back from their rapt scenes of angelic 
 joy, and again attach the chains of sense, and affix the stains of sin to their 
 freed and pure spirits/ Earth is fleeting and mingled are its scenes — its 
 joys are at best but transient ! there is no treasure worth securing, save 
 that which is laid up in Heaven ! Moral victories are alone worthy the 
 effort, and the energy of the deathless spirit of man ! 
 
 " Man knoweth not his time and the sons of men are snared in an evil 
 when it cometh suddenly upon them I" This is Truth, and it teaches us 
 that evil oftentimes comes upon us in an hour when we least expect its 
 approach! The future is all before us, and we must meet it; but its 
 scenes are with the Deit}' — an impenetrable veil covers it from your vision 
 and mine — we tread at best but a darkened path, and know not our time 
 of trial ! It may occur in our happiest hours, and amid scenes of gushing 
 joy ; the cloud may gather and loom up, and burst within an hour ! What 
 reverses have been witnessed in this changing world between the rising 
 of the sun and the lengthening of its shadows ! What, as in the present 
 instance between the going down of that orb of light and the breaking of 
 the day ! Death often steals on dying men unheralded — no note of 
 warning precedes his approach ! Some whilst pressed with care, engros- 
 sed with business, and all unprepared, are hurried away — others engaged 
 in the pur^^uit of pleasure, and with no sense of danger, suddenly feel his 
 touch, stilling the pulsations of life, and bidding them up to the Judg- 
 ment ! Some in life's morning and the hey-day of their being, as they 
 fondly fancy, with the world all before them ! Others with hoary locks, 
 and shortened steps ! some prepared with armor on— with loins girt about, 
 and their lamps trimmed and burning ! Others amid their course of fjlly 
 
24 
 
 — the love of sin iinslain, and depravity burning its deep and corroding 
 brand within the soul ! Ah ! it is the suddenness of scenes like these — it 
 is their unexpectedness to the individual, which makes them so awful and 
 fearful ! Prepared for death — girded for the judgment, and clad in those 
 robes of righteousness, which alone can bear its living light ; a sudden 
 death is not to be deprecated — with the love of God within the soul, and 
 the living everlasting Saviour at hand, a solitary death is not to be deplor- 
 ed ! But unprovisioned for eternity how fearful ! unprepared for the solemn . 
 interview with God, which must then ensue, how tremendously awful is a 
 sudden death ! Who would appear before his Maker with the love of sin 
 uppermost in his soul — who would thus appear, even united to Christ, 
 with the world clustering around, and clasping the affections of the heart ? 
 Not so ! Oh, not so, would he that is wise die ! How lightly, friends, 
 should we esteem the thing of time, and what priceless value should we 
 attach to the interests of the deathless soul ! And yet poor man, in his 
 blindness and sin, reverses all this ! God stoops, and invites us to his 
 arms, and to his heavenly home, but too many busied with the vanities of 
 earth, and eager in its pursuits, slight those rich treasures and everlasting 
 joys — turn away from these offers of life, and seek an heritage for time ! 
 Other thoughts, frier ds, crowd upon me, but I must hasten ! I trust 
 you see and feel the teachings of the text, enforced as they are by the fear- 
 ful incident which convened us together. "We are but pilgrims on the 
 shores of time ! Sojourners on the earth as were our fathers ! Here we 
 have no abiding place — passengers at the best, we walk in darkness, un- 
 der perils and in great suspense — the future is all Jiidden — we know not 
 what a day may bring forth ! Do you esteem the picture dark and 
 gloomy ? and ask what can be done ? I answer, trust in the Lord and d(i 
 good ! thus may you fill up your lives with acts of usefulness, and deck 
 them with deeds of Christian honor ! Thus passing away, piety shall give 
 you the tribute of tears ; and the bosom of virtue shall send forth sighs at 
 your decease! Do you still ask, as to what can be done.^ I answer, 
 make Jehovah God in Christ your refuge, and trust, and then it shall be 
 well with you, well with your soul! "He that dwelleth in the secret 
 place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty." 
 It is your privilege so to live, and so to bind the hopes of the gospel of 
 •Jesus Christ to the heart, that you may dread the grave as little as your 
 bed ! Here is the Bible of God — the great moral light which teaches Je- 
 hovah's will — presents the provisions of His mercy ; with its truths re- 
 ceived — with its remedies embraced — with its Saviour believed in, and trus- 
 ted on, you have a stay which shall avail amid the conflicts of time — more ! 
 it shall cheer you as you go down under the power of Death's arm — light- 
 
25 
 
 ing up the grave and dispelling forever all its fearful shadows ! Earth is 
 changing ! but Heaven is stable and sure ! Fix your affections there ! and 
 now from that solitary place in the wilderness where my Brother breathed 
 out his life, and passed from earth ; aye from that bier on which now lie 
 his mortal remains, there cometh a voice addressed to you, to me, to all 
 present — and yet it singles us out and addresses us each, and its language 
 is, " Be ye also ready for the coming of the Son of man ! prepare to meet 
 God !" Obey this voice, and your death scene shall be peaceful as are an- 
 gelic slumbers, and your eternity shall be passing happy, and supremely 
 blissful as of the riches of Jehovah's grace ! Thus prepared and panopli- 
 ed, when you come to walk through the valley of the shadow of death you 
 shall have the rod and the staff, the presence of Him, who is the Resur- 
 rection and the Life. 
 
PUBLIC MEETINGS. 
 
 MEETING AT ASHEVILLE. 
 
 From tilt Asheville News, July 16. 
 
 It having been announced in Asheville, on Wednesday morning, 8th 
 July, instant, that the dead body of Professor Elisha Mitchell, of Chapel 
 Hill, had been discovered in the vicinit}" of the Black Mountain ; pursuant 
 to a short notice, a large meeting of the citizens of Buncombe county and 
 many others from a distance, met in the Court House at 5 o'clock in the 
 afternoon of the same day, when, on motion of Z. B. Vance, Esq., Rev. 
 Jarvis Buxton was appointed Chairman of the meeting. 
 
 Mr. Buxton, on taking the chair, made some feeling and appropriate re- 
 marks, explanatory of the object of the meeting, and upon the services 
 and character of Professor Mitchell in his relations to the University, also 
 as a man in his social and domestic relations, and as a christian gentle- 
 man. He said he knew the deceased well, having been a member of his 
 household while a student at College, and that to know him was to love 
 him. 
 
 On motion, John D. Hyman was appointed Secretary of the meeting. 
 
 W. M. Shipp, Esq., after prefacing with a few remarks, in which he 
 bore testimony to the exalted character of Dr. Mitchell, and his eminent 
 services in his devotion to Science and Education, offered the following 
 resolutions, expressing a desire that they would be adopted : 
 
 1. Resolved, That we have heard, with the most profound regret, the 
 announcement which has just been made, of the sad and melancholy death 
 of the Rev. Dr. Mitchell, of the University of this State. 
 
 2. Resolved, That in the death of Dr. Mitchell, the University has lost 
 one of its most tried friends ; the Faculty one of its most zealous votai-ies ; 
 and the church of God one of its most faithful ministers. 
 
 3. Resolved, That in the opinion of this meeting, it would be highly ap- 
 propriate — should it meet the approbation of his family — that the remains 
 of the deceased be deposited upon some eligible point of the Black Moun- 
 tain ; a place with which his name has been connected for many years, as 
 the first to call public attention to its superiority in height to any point 
 in the United States, East of the Rocky Mountains. 
 
 4. Resolved, That, in our opinion, no more suitable testimonial of re- 
 spect to the memory of the deceased could be given, than the erection of 
 
27 
 
 an appropriate monument upon the mountain, with which his name and 
 sad fate are so intimately associated ; and, to carry out this purpose, we 
 ask the assistance of all good citizens of the State and the friends of edu- 
 cation and science generally. 
 
 5. Resolved, That to the family of the deceased we extend our heartfelt 
 condolence, and the Chairman of this meeting appoint a committee of three 
 persons to convey to them a copy of these resolutions, and express our 
 sympathy in their bereavement. 
 
 6. Eesolced, That a copy of these proceedings be forwarded to the Presi- 
 dent of the University, with a request that he convey to the Faculty and 
 Students our deep sympathy in the great loss they have sustained in the 
 death of their oldest member and most experienced instructor. 
 
 7. Resolved, That the Chairman appoint a committee of six to take such 
 steps as they may think advisable to carry out the object of the 4th reso- 
 lution. 
 
 8. Resolved, That a copy of these proceedings be published in the Ashe- 
 ville papers, and that the papers of the State general^ be requested to 
 copy. 
 
 Hon. Thos. L. Clingman said he approved of the resolutions and hoped 
 they would be adopted. He added his testimony to the eminent services 
 of Professor Mitchell in his explorations of this section of th^ State, both 
 in regard to its topography and geology. 
 
 Rev. Dr. Chapman made some eloquent and touching remarks in rela- 
 tion to the sad calamity that had called the meeting together, 
 
 Z. B. Yance, Esq., being called upon, narrated the circumstances, as far 
 as they had been ascertained, that attended the death of Professor Mitch- 
 ell. He also said that great credit was due to a large number of gentle- 
 men, principally persons residing in the vicinity of the Black Mountain, 
 for their untiring exertions to recover the body of the deceased. 
 
 On motion the resolutions were unanimously adopted. 
 
 In accordance with the 5th resolution, the Chairman appointed the fol- 
 lowing gentlemen as the committee : Rev. Dr. Chapman, AVm. M. Shipp 
 and James W. Patton, Esq'rs. On motion, the name of the Chairman was 
 added to the list. 
 
 In pursuance of the 7th resolution, the Chairman appointed the follow- 
 ing committee : Messrs. A. S. Merrimon, David Coleman, Z. B. Vance, 
 John A, Dickson, W. M. Shipp, and James A. Patton. 
 
 On motion of A. S. Merrimon, Esq., the Chairman appointed twenty 
 persons to superintend the conveying of the body of the deceased to its 
 place of burial. The following persons were appointed : Z. B. Yance, A. 
 S. Merrimon, J. A. Patton, R.M. Henry, Thadaeus Coleman, G. W. Whitson, 
 
28 
 
 James Gaines, D. F. Summey, A. Burgin, W. M. Hardy, W. A. Patton, 
 J. E. Patton, J. D. Hyman, S. C. Bryson, "W. Morrison, T. A. Corpening, 
 and T. B. Boyd. 
 
 On motion the meeting adjourned. 
 
 JAR VIS BUXTON, Chairman. 
 
 Joax D. Hymax, Secretary. 
 
 MEETING AT CHAPEL HILL. 
 
 From the Chapel Hill Gazette, July 13. 
 
 Upon Friday the 10th instant very painful rumors of the sudden death 
 of the Rev. Dr. Mitehell, on Black Mountain, reached Chapel Hill. On 
 Saturday these rumors received some confirmation, and upon Sunday even- 
 ing all doubt was removed by intelligence that his body had been found 
 floating in the Cat-tail Fork of Caney River, in the county of Yancey, at a 
 point where the water was about twelve feet in depth ; circumstances ren- 
 dering it very probable that he had fallen some forty feet, from a preci- 
 pice overhanging the river. His hand still clasped a broken branch of 
 Laurel. 
 
 Dr. Mitchell had been busily engaged for several days in making Baro- 
 metrical and Trigonometrical observations upon Black Mountain. On 
 Saturday, the 27th of June, he had nearly completed these labors. During 
 that day he separated from his son in order to visit Caney River Settle- 
 ment, making an appointment to meet him the next Monday at the Moun- 
 tain House. He was not seen again, and it was only after several day's 
 search by many citizens in that vicinity, carried on with ardor and sym- 
 pathy which do them great honor, that his body was found on Tuesday 
 evening, the 7th of July, as is above described. It is understood that he 
 was interred at Asheville on the 10th instant. 
 
 Upon receiving the above intelligence, the citizens held a full and solemn 
 town-meeting in the University Chapel. On motion of David L. Swain, 
 Edward Mallett, Magistrate of Police, was called to the Chair, and Jones 
 Watson, Esq., was appointed Secretary. 
 
 The Chairman announced that in anticipation of such a meeting, he had 
 appointed the Rev. Dr. Hawks, who providentially was with us upon this 
 occasion, together with Samuel F. Phillips Esq., a Committee to prepare 
 resolutions for the consideration of the meeting. 
 
 Dr. Hawks then arose, and gracefully alluding to his own deep interest 
 in the community amidst which he had received his early education, con- 
 tinued in a few eloquent and touching observations upon the occasion 
 
29 
 
 which had called forth this display of feeling, and then submitted the fol- 
 lowing preamble and resolutions : — 
 
 " Whereas, It has pleased our Heavenly Father, in His wise Providence, 
 to take unto Himself the Rev. Elisha Mitchell, late Professor of Chemistry 
 and Geology in the University of North Carolina ; we the inhabitants of 
 Chapel Hill, convened in town meeting, for the purpose of testifying our 
 respect for the memory of a good man, who has gone to his reward, — 
 leaving it to his associates to render their appropriate tribute to his ^vell 
 . known scientific character, desire to speak as his fellow citizens, and bear- 
 ing our willing testimony to his worth as a man, have 
 
 Resolved, That in the death of Dr. Mitchell, our whole community has 
 sustained a loss not easily repaired, in the removal of one who, resident in 
 this village for forty years, has, during that period, fulfilled all the duties 
 of an enlighted, public-spirited citizen, with the most exemplary proprie- 
 ty, illustrating in his daily walk and conversation the christian principle 
 by which his life was regulated. 
 
 Resolved, That in no one particular has his example been more striking 
 than in his universal kindness to the poor and suffering. Ever ready to 
 help his fellow creatures, and mindful that his Master went about doing 
 good, while he ministered to the spiritual wants of the blind and erring, 
 he was no less prompt in alleviating bodily misery : and the poor of Chapel 
 Hill and its vicinity, who have been partakers of his silent and unostenta- 
 tious benevolence, will especially have cause long to treasure up the me- 
 mory of their departed friend and benefactor. 
 
 Resolved, That our whole community, of all classes, gratefully recogniz- 
 ing the worth of an eminently good man now removed from among us, and 
 submitting, in humble faith to the dispensation of the Gracious God who 
 has seen fit thus to visit us with sorrow ; do tender our Christian sympa- 
 thy and love to the bereaved family of our departed friend ; and mingling 
 our smaller sorrow with their more grievous and heavy affliction, do com- 
 mend them in our prayers to the merciful goodness of that everlasting 
 God whose chastenings to his children are but proofs of his afiection. 
 
 Resolved, That the individuals composing this meeting will, as a mark 
 of respect for the memory of Dr. Mitchell, wear the usual badge of mourn- 
 ing, on the left arm, for thirty days. 
 
 Resolved, That a copy of these resolutions, duly certified by the officers^ 
 of this meeting, be communicated to the family of Dr. Mitchell. 
 
 These were seconded by President Swain who dwelt in terms of strong 
 eulogy upon the long public services of the deceased, lamentingover a loss 
 which to himself, he added, was irreparable. 
 
 Other remarks, appropriate to the occasion, were made by Messrs. S. F. 
 
30 
 
 Phillips, Sidney Smith, Charles Phillips and Jones Watson. Thereupon 
 the Resolutions were passed unanimously. 
 
 Upon motion of S. F. Phillips, the persons present went in procession 
 to the residence of Dr. Mitchell, in order to present in person to his fami- 
 y, the resolutions that had been adopted. This having been done, the 
 meeting adjourned. 
 
 All the stores and other places of business of our town were closed and 
 ^11 business suspended, during the meeting. 
 
 MEETING AT FATETTEYILT.E. 
 
 rrom the Argus, July 18. 
 
 DEATH OF PROF. MITCHELL, 
 
 This great man is no more. By his death the cause of science has sus- 
 tained an irreparable loss — Chapel Hill one of its strong pillars — and 
 North Carolina one of her noblest sons. 
 
 As will be seen below, he came to his death among those mountains 
 which had so long been the subject of his investigation — a martyr to sci- 
 -ence. 
 
 Prof. Mitchell has occupied the position of Professor in our University 
 for thirty years or more, and has during that period, established his repu- 
 tation as one of the very first scholars in the country. 
 
 We learn from the Standard that a peak of the Black Mountain has 
 been selected for the burial of Dr. Mitchell. This we are rejoiced to know. 
 No place could be more fitting for the last renting place of the illustrious 
 dead, than those grand and magnificent Mountains that were so long the 
 object of his study. No more suitable monument could be reared to his 
 memory which must endure as long as Mountains stand. 
 
 We append the following Resolutions which were passed in this town, 
 •by the resident graduates of the University of North Carolina. 
 
 A meeting of graduates of the University of North Carolina residing in 
 .and near Fayetteville was held on Tuesday, July 14, 1857, W. J. Ander- 
 son, Esq., presiding, and Mr. Geo. H. Haigh acting as Secretary. 
 
 The Chairman having announced the melancholy intelligence on account 
 of which they had been called together, 
 
 Messrs. W. B. Wright, John Winslow, W. A. Huske, W. II. Haigh, J. 
 €. Huske, R. P. Buxton, P. M. Hale, R. H. Sandford, and B. Fuller, rep- 
 resenting difierent classes, were appointed a Committee to prepare resolu- 
 tions suitable for the occasion. 
 
 Whekeas, Almighty God, by a painful and most melancholy act of his 
 
31 
 
 Providence, has brought to a sudden and sad end the life of our former 
 respected preceptor and friend, the Rev. Dr. Elisha Mitchell, Professor in 
 the University of N. C. : 
 
 Therefore, Kesolved, That we have received intelligence of this most 
 mournful event with feelings of pain and unmingled sadness. 
 
 Resolved, That as in his life we have have been made debtors to him by 
 his faithful instructions and by his unwearied devotion to our best inter- 
 ests, so now in his death we cherish his memory in our hearts. 
 
 Resolved, That the Rev. Dr. Elisha Mitchell, by his great and varied 
 learning, by his indefatigable zeal in the pursuit of knowledge, his spirit 
 of invincible perseverance in whatever he deemed to be right, by his devo- 
 tion to the duties of his profession, whether as a teacher of science or as a 
 teach<^r of the religion ot the Gospel, by his devotion to the interests of his 
 pupils, to the interests of the University of which he was so distinguished 
 a Professor, and by his devotion to the interests of the State at large, and 
 in a word, by a long, honorable, and useful life of incorruptible integrity 
 and fidelity to duty, has made himself to be an ornament and an example 
 to his profession and to his fellow men in general. 
 
 Resolved, That in view of the eminent services which he has rendered 
 the State, direcili/, by the prompt and faithful discharge of particular du- 
 ties assigned him, and less directly, but not less effectively by his devotion 
 to the cause of education, the deceased has entitled himself to a public 
 testimonial of respect to his memory ; and we hereby pledge ourselves to 
 assist in any measure tending to that end. 
 
 Resolved, That a copy of these resolutions be sent to the family of the 
 deceased, with an expression of our sincerest sympathy and condo- 
 lence ; and also, that a copy be sent to his brethren of the Faculty, and to 
 each of the Literary Societies at Chapel Hill, with the request that they 
 be filed in their archives. 
 
 The resolutions were unanimously adopted. 
 
 W. J. ANDERSON, Chairman. 
 
 George H. Haigh, Secretary. 
 
 MEETING AT GEEENSBOEO'. "^ 
 
 From the Times, August 23. 
 
 A MEETING of former pupils and friends of Dr. Mitchell, resident in 
 Greensboro and vicinity, was held in the Court House on Monday evening 
 last, for the purpose of giving public expression to their feelings of grief 
 and sympathy, excited by the painful intelligence of his death. 
 
32 
 
 Hon. James T. Morehead was called to the Chair on motion of John H. 
 Coble, and on motion of R. M. Sloan. Jr., Charles E. Shober, Esq., was 
 appointed Secretary. 
 
 On taking the chair, Mr. Morehead addressed the meeting appropriate- 
 ly and feelingly upon the mournful subject which had called it together. 
 He was a student at the University when Dr. Mitchell first became con- 
 nected with it, and had known him intimately ever since. He was there- 
 fore well qualified by length of acquaintance to speak of him. 
 
 On motion of Rev. C. H. Wiley, the chairman appointed a committee, 
 consisting of Ralph Gorrell, Esq., R. P. Dick, Esq., Jesse H. Lindsay, Sr., 
 W. L. Scott, Esq., J. A. Long, Esq., and Rev. C. H. Wiley, to prepare 
 resolutions expressive of the sentiments of the meeting. The committee 
 retired, and after a brief absence, reported through their chairman Rev. 
 C. H. Wiley, the following Preamble and Resolutions : 
 
 Whereas, we have heard of the recent death of the Rev. Elisha Mitch- 
 ell, D. D., late Professor in the University of our State, under circumstan- 
 ces peculiarly sad and startling, and well calculated to excite the tender- 
 est interest and sympathy on the part of every lover of science, therefore, 
 
 Resolved, That we have received the tidings of this melancholy event 
 with emotions of profound sorrow, cherishing as we do a lively recollec- 
 tion of the many amiable qualities, of the great and varied acquirements, 
 and of the long, laborious and useful services of our lamented friend and 
 instructor. 
 
 Resolved, That we regard the death of Prof. Mitchell as a public calami- 
 ty, long identified as he has been with the progress of science and scien- 
 tific improvements in North Carolina, devoted to her interests and her 
 honor, and for many years an invaluable member of the Faculty of her 
 University, which is greatly indebted to his zeal, his learning and his in- 
 dustry for its eminent success and illustrious character. 
 
 Resolved, That we cordially respond to the suggestion that some fitting 
 and lasting monument to the memory and character of the deceased 
 should be erected among those stupendous scenes amid which he fell a 
 Martyr to the cause of Science, and that, to this end, we will contribute 
 of our means and influence. 
 
 Resolved, That a copy of these resolutions be sent to the family of the 
 deceased with the expression of our sincerest condolence and sympathy, 
 and that copies also be sent to the Faculty of the University and to each of 
 the Literary Societies, with a request that they be entered on the records 
 of the University and filed in the archives of the Societies. 
 
 Mr. Wiley accompanied the report of the resolutions with a few re- 
 marks mainly explanatory of the manner of Dr. Mitchell's death as he 
 
33 
 
 had received it from a resident of the region of country where the painful 
 casualty occurred, and then the resohitions were unanimously adopted. 
 
 On motion of Julius Gorrell, Esq., the newspapers of the town were re- 
 quested to publish the proceedings of the meeting, and then, on motion, it 
 
 was adjourned. 
 
 JAMES T. MOREIIEAD, Chairman. 
 
 Charles H. Shober, Secretary. 
 
 MEETING AT WILMINGTOJSr. 
 
 From the Wilmington Herald, August 5. 
 
 AccoRDiXG to previous notice, a meeting of the Trustees, former Students, 
 and Alumni of the University of North Carolina was held in the Court 
 House in the town of Wilmington on the 29th of July, 1857. 
 
 On motion Dr. Thomas H. Wright was called to the chair, and John D. 
 Taylor requested to act as Secretary. 
 
 The object of the meeting was explained in a few feeling and appropri- 
 ate remarks by George Davis, Esq., who also moved the appointment of 
 three to draw up suitable resolutions expressive of the sense of the meet- 
 ing. Whereupon George Davis, Esq., Rev. Dr. C. F. Deems and Eli W. 
 Hall, Esq., were appointed by the Chair. 
 
 The Committee through their chairman, Dr. Deems, submitted the fol- 
 lowing resolutions which were unanimously adopted. 
 
 AVhereas, the whole State of North Carolina has recently been called 
 to mourn the sudden and violent close of the life of Rev. Elisha Mitchell, 
 D. D., Senior Professor in the University, and whereas no other section of 
 the State can furnish a larger proportionate number of those who have 
 enjoyed the acquaintance of the eminent deceased, therefore 
 
 Resolved, That the Trustees and former Students and Alumni of the 
 University of North Carolina, and the friends of science and of the late 
 Prof. Mitchell, assembled in Wilmington, do sincerely sympathise with the 
 general grief which his death has spread over the country ; that his great 
 abilities, vast acquirements, and indomitable industry, while they combin- 
 ed to present in him a model to the young men of the land, did much to- 
 wards the elevation of the University of our State to that lofty position 
 which it maintains among the very first institutions of learning in Ameri- 
 ca ; that his contributions to general science have given him a respectable 
 place among the most learned, and his special devotion to the development 
 (if all the physical resources of North Carolina has laid the State under 
 obligations which the gratitude of many a generation will scarcely avail 
 to cancel. 
 
84 
 
 Resolved, That we will unite in whatever plan the authorities of the 
 University mav adopt to perpetuate the excellent memory of him whose 
 devotion to the interests of the Institution through more than the ordinary 
 time of a generation has entitled his name to be held in reverential re- 
 membrance. 
 
 Resolved, That a copy of these resolutions be forwarded to the family of 
 the late Dr. Mitchell, with the expression of the most sincere and tender 
 sympathy of this assembl3^ 
 
 Resolved, That a copy of these proceedings be furnished to the Presi- 
 sident and Faculty of the University of North Carolina, and our condol- 
 ence with them at the great social and official -breach made in their ranks 
 by the recent dispensation of Divine Providence. 
 
 Resolved^ That these proceedings be published in all the papers in 
 Wilmington. 
 
 Dr. Deems, after offering the resolutions, paid an eloquent and touching 
 tribute to the memory of Dr. Mitchell, testifying from his intimate asso- 
 ciation with him as a colleague, friend, and neighbor, to his many gene- 
 rous traits of character and kindness and benevolence of heart. 
 
 On motion of James C. Smith, Esq., the meeting then adjourned. 
 
 THOMAS 11. WRIGHT, Chairman, 
 
 John D. Taylor, Secretary. 
 
TESTIMONIALS OF RESPECT. 
 
 RESOLUTIONS OF THE TRUSTEES OF THE UNIVERSITY. 
 
 Raleigh, July 4, 1857. 
 
 At a meeting of the Executive Committee of the Trustees of the Uni- 
 versity, at the Executive office in this Citj on the 4th inst., the following 
 proceedings were had : — 
 
 His Excellency Governor Bragg having officially communicated intelli- 
 gence of the recent, sudden, aud melancholy death of the Rev'd Dr. Elisha 
 Mitchell, late Professor of Chemistry, Mineralogy, and Geology in the 
 University, the Executive Committee, in view of his character as a Chris- 
 tian gentleman ; of his arduous, long continued and inestimable services 
 in the Academic corps, and his distinguished position for the last forty 
 years as a member of the Faculty, in the administration of the affairs of 
 the College ; in view of his eminent attainments in literature and science ; 
 his ardent patriotism and public services ; consider the present a fit occa- 
 sion to express their unanimous sentiment of true condolence and sympa- 
 thy with the widow and family of the deceased, with the officers and mem- 
 bers of the College, and the people of the whole State, at the sad and 
 overwhelming bereavement which we have all sustained ; and in the name 
 and on behalf of the whole body of the Trustees of the University, this 
 Committee will cordially unite with other associations and individuals in 
 paying enduring honor to his memory. 
 
 Resolved, That the half year's salary of the professor, for the residue of 
 the present fiscal year, be paid by the acting Bursar of the College to the 
 widow of the deceased, and that her family be permitted (if she so desires 
 it) to continue the occupation of her present residence until the close of 
 this year. 
 
 Resolved, That a copy of the foregoing proceedings be placed in the 
 hands of the widow of the deceased. 
 
 In consideration of the vacancy occurring by the death of Dr. Mitchell, 
 in the Professorship of Chemistry, Mineralogy and Geology, and the Bur- 
 sar's Bureau at the beginning of the session just commencing: 
 
 Resolved, That to enable the Board of Trustees to till these places per- 
 manently, with judgment and discretion, the President of the University, 
 Gov. Swain, be authorized and requested, with the concurrence of the 
 Faculty to distribute the various duties of these several offices among such 
 
36 
 
 members of the Faculty as may be willing to undertake them, and, if ne- 
 cessary, to appoint one or more tutors. That such temporary arrangements 
 shall be in force for and during the present session only; or, for such 
 shorter peried as the Board of Trustees or this Committee shall hereafter 
 determine. 
 
 Test : CHAS. MANLY, Sec'y. 
 
 RESOLUTIONS OF THE FACULTY. 
 
 Chapel Hill, July 17, 1857. 
 
 At the first regular meeting of the Faculty of the Universit}", after a 
 solemn prayer to Almighty God, the following paper was unanimously 
 adopted. 
 
 TVhereas, since the last meeting of the Faculty of the University, an 
 All-Wise God has been pleased^ by a dispensation the more distressing be- 
 cause unexpected, to take unto Himself the oldest member of our Body, 
 the Rev. Elisha Mitchell, D. D., Professor of Chemistry, Mineralogy and 
 Geology: — bowing in humble submission to this sad bereavement, We, 
 the Faculty of the University, desiring to bear our testimony to the worth 
 of our departed companion and friend, and endaringly to record our tri- 
 bute to his memory, have unanimously adopted the following resolutions : 
 
 Resolved, That in the lamented death of our late associate we feel that 
 the Institution to which we belong has lost one of the most valuable ofii- 
 cers she ever possessed ; and that in the devotion of forty years to her 
 service his zeal never slackened, his diligence never relaxed, his faithful- 
 ness never slumbered ; but during all that long period, ripening constant- 
 ly in experience, he consecrated his best faculties and varied attainments to 
 the advancement of the usefulness and honor of the Institution of which 
 he was so distinguished an ornament 
 
 Resolved, That we cannot but feel also the loss that Science has sustain- 
 <^d in the removal of our departed friend. Pursuing it in various depart- 
 ments and not unsuccessful in any that he attempted, the rich and varied 
 vStores of his well cultivated mind gave to him, deservedly, a celebrity that, 
 reaching beyond the limits of this his immediate sphere of action, secured 
 to his name and opinions a weight of authority that was felt and acknow- 
 ledged by the scientific throughout our land; and in the midst of our re- 
 grets it affords us a melancholy satisfaction to reflect that he met his death 
 in the cause of Science, and thus, in appropriate keeping with the duties 
 of his life has, in his death, added his name to the list of her honored 
 martyrs. 
 
37 
 
 Resolved, That our loss is in our view more sorrowful still when we 
 think of him as the christian gentleman, whose heart overflowing with the 
 tenderest sympathies of humanity, made him the ever beneficent friend of 
 the poor ajad wretched ; as the minister of our Holy Faith, dispensing the 
 precious truths of eternal life to the sinful and wayward ; as the watchful 
 friend and faithful guardian of the young, by whom he was surrounded, 
 ever ready to speak to them in gentleness and love,, the wise words of 
 warning and counsel ; as the intimate companion and associate of our- 
 selves, whose presence brought experience to our deliberations, and the 
 cheerful playfulness of innocent mirth to our social intercourse. 
 
 Resolved, That this our faint tribute to the worth of Dr. Mitchell be re- 
 corded on our Minutes and that a copy thereof be communicated to the 
 family by the Secretary ; accompanied with the assurance of the deep con- 
 dolence and the heart-felt sympathy of every member of the Faculty. 
 
 Resolved, That the Rev. Dr. Phillips be requested to deliver in the 
 Chapel of the University, on Sunday next, an appropriate Funeral dis- 
 course and that the President of the University himself be respectfully de- 
 sired to prepare and pronounce before the University an Eulogy on our 
 deceased brother, at such time as may suit his convenience. 
 
 RESOLUTIONS OF THE STUDENTS. 
 
 Chapel Hill, July 22, 1857. 
 
 At a Meeting of the Students held in Girard Hall, the following resolu- 
 tions were adopted in memory of the Rev. Elisha Mitchell, D. D., Profes- 
 sor of Chemistry, Mineralogy and Geology. 
 
 Whereas, The All-wise God as part of his inscrutable dealings with 
 men has seen fit to call our beloved and honored preceptor, Dr. Mitchell, 
 from a life of labor and usefulness ; 
 
 Resolved, That we do sincerely lament his decease, and tender our sym- 
 pathies to his afiiicted family. 
 
 Resolved, That in the death of Dr. Mitchell, the University has sustain- 
 ed a loss scarcely to be repaired ; that we the students miss a true friend, 
 Science an active, able and learned follower ; and Religion a sincere and 
 zealous advocate. 
 
 Resolved That his habits of laborious and patient research rendered him 
 a model for every aspirant for honorable distinction ; that his great pro- 
 ficiency in the departments of which he had charge, admirably fitted him 
 for his office as a teacher ; that his intellect, naturally acute and compre- 
 hensive, and by many years of reading and reflection the repository of al- 
 
38 
 
 most every kind of useful or recondite knowledge, rendered him eminently 
 an honor to this Institution and to the State ; that his high toned princi- 
 ples commanded universal respect, and the kindness of his heart made him 
 near to all who knew him. , 
 
 Resolved, That in token of our high esteem for his memory, we will 
 wear the usual badge of mourning for thirty days. 
 
 MEETING OF THE DIALECTIC SOCIETY. 
 
 Dialectic Hall, July 24, 1857. 
 
 Whereas, It has pleased Almighty God, by a most sudden blow to re- 
 move from the midst of our community the Rev. Dr. Elisha Mitchell ; the 
 Dialectic Society, acknowledges that the intimacy of his personal and offi- 
 cial relations with all of its sitting members demands that it depart from 
 the custom which renders such obituary tributes as this appropriate only 
 to those who have been members of its particular organization ; the more 
 especially as Dr. Mitchell was eminent among the lovers of Virtue and 
 Science ; 
 
 Resolved, That this catastrophe, which has caused a shock through all 
 the domain of letters, occasioned a loss to this University, so great and 
 peculiar as to call for the deepest sorrow on the part of all who have any 
 connection therewith. 
 
 Resolved, That although none of us had been privileged to follow our 
 late revered Professor along those paths of study which were specially 
 his own, yet we desire to say that we make it matter of honest pride 
 that we were Students of the University during his era ; that we can re- 
 call in after life many circumstances of profit and pleasure in our inter- 
 course with him ; and record here our obligations to him for that high ex- 
 ample that the much absorbed and universal student need not, amidst 
 such pursuits, divest himself of those homely yet noble qualities which 
 make the benevolent and public spirited citizen, the courageous magis- 
 trate, and the humble and sincere christian — that the 3'^outh not only of 
 the State, but of the country, will in years long yet to come, remem- 
 ber him as one who guided the footsteps of their fathers amid many rug- 
 ged paths in the search of knowledge and truth, and even by them 
 will his name be recorded with those great benefactors of his race. 
 
 Resolved, That upon the loss of this their distinguished member, we 
 tender our condolence to our brethren of the Philanthropic Society, and 
 pledge ourselves to co-operate with them in such manner for erecting a per- 
 manent memorial of our respect and gratitude as may be deemed suitable. 
 
39 
 
 Resolved, That a copy of these resolutions be filed in the Archives of 
 our Body and that one be sent to the bereaved family of the deceased as 
 the last sad tribute of our respect to his memory. 
 
 Resolved, That we also wear the usual badge of mourning for thirty days, 
 
 J. G. McNAB, 
 
 J. G. MOREIIEAD, Jr., > Com. 
 
 F. D. STOCKTON. 
 
 MEETING OF THE PHILANTHROPIC SOCIETY. 
 
 Philanthropic Hall, July 26, 1857. 
 The members of the Philanthropic Society having learned the sudden 
 and melancholy death of the Rev. Elisha Mitchell, D. D,, the Senior Professor 
 in our University ; to express the feelings which the sad event has inspired 
 us with, have 
 
 Resolved, That in the death of Dr. Mitchell our University and the cause 
 of learning in our Country have suffered a great and irreparable loss ; that 
 we, his pupils, are bereft of a most able, skillful and learned instructor, 
 and have been separated forever from a man whom we admired and a 
 friend whom we loved, whose many kind offices and wise counsels we shall 
 sadly miss. 
 
 Resolved, That we offer our sincere and earnest sympathies in this af- 
 fliction to the family of our deceased friend, and to the Faculty of the Uni- 
 versity which he served and honored so long. 
 
 Resolved, That our Society, of which he was a member and whose inte- 
 rest he always gladly served, has lost a warm and zealous patron and 
 friend ; and that our members wear the badge of mourning for thirty days. 
 Resolved, That the Committee present copies of these resolutions to the 
 family of Dr. Mitchell, and to the Faculty of the University. 
 
 W. S. HUMPHRIES, 
 ADDISON HARVEY, 
 S. D. GOZA, 
 E. S. J. BELL. 
 
 Com. 
 
 MEETING OF THE TRUSTEES OF DAVIDSON COLLEGE. 
 
 Davidson College, July 16, 1857. 
 On motion of Rev. Dr. Lacy, 
 
 Resolved, That a Committee consisting of C. L. Hunter, M. D., Rev. 
 W. W. Pharr and Edwin R. Harris, Esq., be appointed to prepare resolu- 
 
40 
 
 tions expressing the views of the Board, in relation to the sudden and 
 melancholy end, of the late Rev. Elisha Mitchell, D. D., Professor in the 
 University of North Carolina. 
 
 The following Preamble and Resolutions were offered and unanimously 
 adopted : 
 
 Whereas, The Board of Trustees of Davidson College has just learned 
 of the death of a venerable and learned Professor of the University of 
 North Carolina, the Rev. Elisha Mitchell, D. D,, who fell as a martyr to 
 Science, and whereas his name is intimately connected with the building 
 up and dissemination of sound learning in this State : 
 
 Therefore, Resolved, That we deeply deplore the great loss sustained by 
 the State at large, by the Church of Christ, of which he was an active and 
 a useful member, and by the Institution of which he was a distinguished 
 and prominent Professor. 
 
 Resolved, That it becomes us, as a body of Christian men, to bow with 
 reverence and humility, to this dark, melancholy and inscrutable dispen- 
 sation of Providence, thus impressively reminding us that " in the midst 
 of life we are in death." 
 
 Resolved, That we cordially extend to the family and relatives of the de- 
 ceased our sincere, condolence, and heart-felt sympathy in this their sudden 
 and afflictive bereavement. 
 
 Resolved, That a copy of the foregoing Preamble and Resolutions be 
 forwarded to the family of the deceased, to the President and Faculty of 
 the University, and to the Raleigh papers, with the request that the same 
 be published. 
 
 C. L. HUNTER, 
 
 W. W. PHARR, y Com. 
 
 EDWIN R. HARRIS. 
 
 MEETING OF THE FACULTY OF DAVIDSON COLLEGE. 
 
 Davidson College, July 18, 1857. 
 
 At a meeting of the Faculty of Davidson College held on the 18th day 
 of July 1857, the following Preamble and Resolutions were unanimously 
 adopted, viz : — 
 
 Whereas the painful rumors which reached us a few days ago of the 
 sudden and melancholy death of a distinguished Professor of our State 
 University has been surely confirmed, we cannot refrain from some ex- 
 pression of the thoughts and feelings so naturally prompted by the sad 
 news. 
 
41 
 
 We regard the death of the Rev. Elisha Mitchell, D. D., as a puhlic ca- 
 lamity, which must fill all who knew his eminent worth with the pro- 
 foundest grief. Not only the University, but the State, has suffered an 
 irreparable loss in being thus suddenly deprived of the invaluable servi- 
 ces of one of her most laborious, ardent and successful instructors of 
 youth. And we have abundant reason to know that there are those among 
 the best and ablest in nearly every State of the Union who have carried 
 with them from the University the impression of his high and generous 
 character as a christian gentleman and scholar, who will mourn his death 
 as a personal bereavement. The church also, in this general grief, sor- 
 rows most of all, because she has lost, in this distinguished philosopher an 
 eminent christian minister and a noble exemplar of the high and essential 
 harmony of Science and Religion. Through the whole of a long life he 
 was an assiduous and enthusiastic devotee of Science ; and to us there is 
 something of a melancholy, poetic grandeur and greatness in the place and 
 manner of his death— whereby Science in burying one of her worthiest 
 eons has hallowed a new Pisgah, which future generations shall know and 
 
 mark. 
 
 His career on earth is closed ; and this mournful dispensation of Divine 
 Providence brings forcibly to the mind of us all the solemn admonition of 
 our Lord, " Be ye also ready, for in such an hour as ye think not, the Son 
 of Man Cometh." 
 
 Resolved, That we deeply sympathies with the Faculty of the University, 
 of which he was the oldest member, and has been so long an ornament and 
 pillar, in the great loss they have sustained in this sudden and mournful 
 visitation. 
 
 Resolved, That a copy of this paper be sent to the family of Dr. Mitch- 
 ell, not only to convey to them the expression of our sincere sympathy and 
 condolence, but to remind them that though he, their stay and guide and 
 light, is taken away from them and us, all is not taken ; that there is still 
 left to them an imperishable heritage in the good fame and the wide and 
 distinguished usefulness of this eminent servant of the Church and of the 
 country. 
 
 By order of the Faculty. C. D. FISHBURN, Clerk. 
 
 MEETING OF THE COMMISSIONERS OF CHAPEL HILL. 
 
 Chapel Hill, July L3, 1857. 
 Whereas, It has pleased Our Heavenly Father in whose hands alone 
 are the issues of life and death, to call from "kmong us our venerable and 
 
42 
 
 much beloved fellow member, the Rev. Elisha Mitchell ; Therefore, 
 
 Resolved, That we have received with feelings of the deepest sorrow, the 
 intelligence of his sad and melancholy fate. 
 
 Resolved, That while we bow with humble submission to the decree of 
 . the Supreme Governor of all things, we shall ever cherish in our hearts, 
 the sentiments of esteem and friendship, with which his life and charac- 
 ter have impressed us. 
 
 Resolved, That in his death the Commissioners and community of 
 Chapel Hill have sustained an irreparable loss. 
 
 Resolved, That we most sincerely sympathise with his bereaved family 
 in their trouble and distress. 
 
 Resolved, That these 'resolutions be spread upon the journals of the 
 Village, that a copy be sent to the family of the deceased also to the 
 Chapel Hill Gazette with request for publication. 
 
 E. MALLETT, Magistrate Police. 
 ' P. H. McDADE, 
 H. B. GUTHRIE, 
 J. H. WATSON, 
 C. SCOTT. 
 
 > Commissioners. 
 
 MINUTE OF PRESBYTERY. 
 
 Minute adopted by the Presbytery of Orange at its session in Lexing- 
 ton, N. C, October 20th 1857. 
 
 " Inasmuch as it has pleased God to remove from us so suddenly, by 
 a mysterious providence, our beloved brother, Elisha Mitchell — for nearly 
 forty years a Professor in the University of North Carolina, having suc- 
 cessively filled the Chairs of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy, and 
 of Chemistry, Mineralogy, and Geology — it becomes us, while we deplore 
 our weighty loss, to submit humbly to the stroke laid upon us. Let us, 
 therefore, remember that we are now taught in this Providence that the 
 time is short, and that no loveliness, nor usefulness, nor learning can ex- 
 empt us from the solemn call that soon awaits each of us. 
 
 We recommend that a copy of this minute be sent to the family of the 
 deceased brother with the hearty sympathy of this Presbytery. 
 
 WM. N. MEBANE, Ch'n. Com. 
 
43 
 
 MINUTE OF SYNOD. 
 
 The Committee appointed by the Synod of the Presbyterian Church in 
 North Carolina, at its meeting in 1857, reported the following minute to 
 the meeting in 1858. 
 
 ** The Synod of North Carolina records with heart-felt sorrow the loss 
 of one of its oldest members by the death of the Rev. Elisha Mitchell, J). D., 
 Professor of Chemistry, Mineralogy and Geology, in the University of 
 North Carolina. Late in 1817, Dr. Mitchell was licensed to preach the 
 everlasting Gospel by a Congregational Association of orthodox faith in 
 Connecticut. He was ordained to the full work of the Gospel ministry by 
 the Presbytery of Orange. His first sermon was preached in the Chapel 
 of the University not long after his licensure, and his last in the Presby- 
 terian Church in Salisbury, a short time before he perished. So his ministe- 
 rial service of nearly forty years was rendered altogether while in commu- 
 nion with this body. He was probably the most learned man that ever 
 lived in this State. He was a skillful and conscientious Professor, and as 
 such was constantly engaged in preparing for their various walks in life the 
 youth of the land. He was a well-grounded believer in Revelation, and no 
 common expounder of its doctrines in matters of Natural Science, as well as 
 in those of Religion. The Synod gladly recognizes the healthful influence 
 of his teachings upon the many generations of his pupils, in that he always 
 led them, by precept and by example, to look for the Lawgiver of nature 
 as well as for its laws. He also preached regularly to them the great 
 doctrines of moral depravity, the necessity of an atonement by a Divine 
 Redeemer, of regeneration and sanctification by the Holy Ghost, and of 
 faith and repentance by each individual of the one race of Adam. By the 
 will of God, he served his generation faithfully in his day, and he was cut 
 off while surrounded with unfinished plans of usefulness. This death 
 calls upon the Synod to lament that Science has lost a learned, patient, 
 and devout investigator — that Education must miss an honest and accom- 
 plished guide, and that Religion needs another faithful watchman upon 
 the walls of Zion . The Synod also mourns for itself, the absence of one who 
 was to many of its members a revered preceptor, and to all a sincere 
 friend, and a worthy co-laborer in the harvest of God. 
 
 In view of this solemn event the Synod resolves. 
 
 That while it thanks the great Head of the Church for its long and 
 fraternal intercourse with Dr. Mitchell, and for the example of untiring 
 industry, unfailing liberality, unceasing acquisition, fearless conscien- 
 tiousness, and consistent piety afforded by his life, its surviving members 
 will so improve his sudden and unexpected death in the midst of his un- 
 
44 
 
 dertakings, that, when their work here is done, they too may leave behind 
 the savor of a life spent in the fear of God and the love of man. 
 
 That the Stated Clerk of the Synod send a copy of this minute to the 
 family of Dr. Mitchell as a mark of respect and sympathy from his breth- 
 ren in Christ the Lord." 
 
 DRUEY LACY, Ch'n. Com. 
 
THE RE-INTERMEIT 
 
 PEOPOSED MONUMENT. 
 
 TO THE PEOPLE OF NORTH CAROLINA. 
 
 From the Asheville Spectator, 
 
 The sad fate of the late Professor Mitchell of the University of North 
 Carolina is well known to all. He perished in one of the wild gorges of 
 the Black Mountain, during a laborious investigation which he had under- 
 taken relative to the highest of the different peaks. Upon receiving this 
 melancholy intelligence, a large number of the citizens of Buncombe and 
 adjoining counties assembled in the Court House at Asheville to give some 
 public expression of their feelings in regard thereto, when among others 
 the following resolution was unanimously adopted : — 
 
 Resolved, That, in our opinion, no more suitable testimonial of respect 
 to the memory of the deceased could be given, than the erection of an ap- 
 propriate Monument upon the mountain, with which his name and sad 
 fate are so intimately associated ; and to carry out this purpose, w& ask 
 the assistance of all good citizens of the State and the friends of education 
 and science generally. 
 
 In pursuance of the object herein expressed the undersigned were ap- 
 pointed a committee to solicit aid from the citizens of North Carolina, and 
 the former pupils and friends of the deceased everywhere. The family of 
 Dr. Mitchell have given their consent to have his remains removed from 
 Asheville and deposited on the highest peak of the Black Mountain, and 
 as soon as the arrangements are all made this will be done. Abundance 
 of granite, capable of being worked, is to be found on the very spot where 
 we propose to erect this monument, and it is thought that $5,000 will be 
 amply sufficient to accomplish what we desire. 
 
 In view of the fact, that he was the first to visit these mountains and to 
 make known their superior height to any east of the Rocky Mountains, 
 and that he spent a great portion of his time, and finally lost his life in 
 exploring them, we think it will be admitted that no more fitting testi- 
 mony of esteem could be offered his memory, and no more fitting spot 
 found whereon to erect it. The noble mountains themselves will stand 
 his most worthy and enduring monument, but the State of North Carolina 
 certainly owes him something, who has so long devoted his best energies 
 to the instruction of her youth. 
 
46 
 
 The committee propose by this circular simply to make known what ia 
 intended, feeling confident, that to the good people of the State and the 
 vast number of old pupils and personal friends of the deceased, nothing 
 more need be said. The plan of the monument will be discussed when 
 sufficient funds are' secured for its completion. They invite the co-opera- 
 tion of the county committees, and of single individuals throughout the 
 State. Contributions can be transmitted to the committee or any one of 
 them, by any means most convenient, who will deposit all such sums in 
 the Bank of Cape Fear at this place to await the making up of the requi- 
 site amount. All papers friendly to this project are requested to copy this 
 circular. 
 
 Z. B. VANCE, 
 JAS. A. PATTON, 
 JOHN A. DICKSON, 
 A. S. MERRIMON, 
 D. COLEMAN, 
 W. M. SHIPP. 
 
 V Com. 
 
 THE EE-INTEEMENT OF DE. MITCHELL'S EEMAINS. 
 
 BY RICHARD H. BATTLE, ESQ. 
 
 From the Raleigh Register, July 10, 1858. 
 
 On the evening of Monday, the 14th of June, the body of Dr. Mitchell, 
 after having rested for nearly a year in the pretty little grave-yard of the 
 Presbyterian Church in Asheville was exhumed for re-burial on the top of 
 the highest peak of the Black Mountain. Encased in coffins of wood and 
 metal it was laid at the foot of a large Oak tree, preparatory to its removal 
 the following morning. It was entrusted to the care of several energetic, 
 able-bodied mountaineers, whose zeal in performing the laborious task as- 
 signed them is worthy of high commendation. From the dawn of day on 
 the 15th, till a full hour after darkness had settled down on the sides of 
 the Black, and from a very early hour till near midday on the 16th, they 
 were at work with scarcely a minute of rest or relaxation. 
 
 From the nature of the road, by which the top of Mt. Mitchell was to be 
 reached, it was hardly practicable that a regular procession should attend 
 the body ; but many citizens of the town and visitors from a distance — 
 among the latter, the venerable Bishop of the diocese of Tennessee, the dis- 
 tinguished President of the.- University, and Messrs. Ashe and Mitchell, the 
 
47 
 
 son-in-law and son of him we had met to honor — some in vehicles and 
 others on hbrseback, left Asheville between 8 and 9 o'clock, a. m., seve- 
 ral hours after the corpse had been taken from its former resting place. 
 It being only twenty miles to Mr. Stepp's, a place of accommodation at the 
 foot of the Black, we easily reached it in time to refresh ourselves with a 
 good dinner, and a rest to prepare us for the more toilsome portion of our 
 journey. The vehicles hitherto used being here dispensed with and bridles 
 and saddles substituted in their place and animals being hired by those 
 of us who had not provided ourselves upon leaving the village, the upward 
 journey was begun about 3 o'clock in the afternoon. By a few, of prefer- 
 ence or necessity, the ascent was made on foot ; but much the greater num- 
 ber were mounted on surefooted horses or mules. 
 
 The winding of the road up the steep sides of the mountain, to make 
 the climbing possible for man and beast, gave to the long line of horsemen 
 quite a striking appearance. Those in front seemed often to be going in a 
 direction just opposite to that of those in their rear and the line was con- 
 stantly assuming the form of the letter S. It was to one at alitle distance 
 a sight strange and picturesque, viewed in connection with the surround- 
 ing beauties of mountain scenery — the majestic oaks and chestnut trees, 
 the undergrowth of mountain laurel and ivy and the large red and yel- 
 low honey-suckles, the overhanging rocks and the little brooks, fresh from 
 the springs a few yards higher up, that met us at every turn. At the ex- 
 piration of about the fourth hour from the time of starting we had made 
 but five miles, but half the distance from the base to the summits and reach- 
 ed the "Mountain House" a little before sunset. This is what may be 
 called a Summer Hotel and is from its situation a somewhat singular place 
 of entertainment, standing, as it does, on or rather against, the side of the 
 mountain at a point where, in some directions the declivity is very preci- 
 pitous. It was, I believe, built at the expense of a wealthy citizen of 
 Charleston, S. C, Mr. Wm. Patton, (lately deceased), who was himself in 
 former years an occasional tenant during the heats of Summer. The furi- 
 ous winds of Winter and the driving rain storms of the Spring would de- 
 ter the stoutest heart from making it a permanent habitation. It is there- 
 fore left to the mercy of the elements for six or eight months of the year 
 and was untenanted at the time of our visit. 
 
 It may not be amiss here to remark, that near the Mountain House ie 
 first observed the change in the character of the growth on the mountain 
 that constitutes its distinguishing feature. The trees and shrubs before 
 mentioned as overhanging the first half of our winding road, at this point, 
 and the corresponding altitude on all sides of the Black, give place to the 
 Balsam, which is the exclusive growth df the mountain tops. It is 
 
48 
 
 the dark green of this tree as seen from a distance that has given the name 
 of " the Black " to this mountain or rather to this long range 6f peaks. It 
 would be too much of a digression to enumerate the many uses to which 
 this tree, with the resin it exudes, is put by the people living about the 
 mountain for many miles from its base. 
 
 The kind hospitality of some of the relatives of Mr. Patton, the proprie- 
 tor, had procured for us the keys of the hotel, and made all our large com- 
 pany free to enter at pleasure every apartment from cellar to garret, and 
 select their places for sleeping. To the same gentlemen and to Dr. Boyd 
 of the " Eagle Hotel," Asheville, we owed the means of satisfying a crav- 
 ing appetite, the necessary consequence of the continuous exercise we had 
 taken. Our numbers making sitting impracticable, we ate standing a pri- 
 meval meal ; using our hands and fingers as plates and forks, and I might 
 add, spoons. We were glad to find in hot coffee, which we swallowed with 
 avidity without milk or cream, an effective sedative to nerves which the 
 cold piercing air of our great altitude was rapidly unsettling. 
 
 In the meanwhile those in charge of the body were toiling slowly up- 
 ward. In many places, the oxen drawing a sled, upon which it had been 
 placed, became useless in consequence of the muddiness or steepness of 
 the way and for short distances the corpse was carried on the shoulders of 
 the mountaineers. It was after nine o'clock, and many of our company 
 had retired for the night before they arrived. One by one, tired, wet, 
 muddy and chilled, these worthy men came in, seeking a share of the sup- 
 per of which we had partaken and the pallets we had spread upon the 
 floors. It was late before the house was quiet and even then, as thoughts 
 of the novelty of our situation and of the mournful purpose for which we 
 were there ; besides occasional whispers from some one more awake than the 
 rest ; and the wintry state of the atmosphere — which not the blazing fires 
 on our hearths, the thick blankets in which we were wrapped, nor the 
 animal heat diffused from the bodies of so many room-mates could entire- 
 ly dispel — all served to prevent our falling asleep for some time. 
 
 An early start, after a hasty breakfast on the remnants of the supper of 
 the preceding evening and securing the animals turned loose to shift for 
 themselves during the night, enabled most of us from the Buncombe side 
 to reach the top of Mt. Mitchell before 9 o'clock. While awaiting the 
 commencement of the ceremonies we had several hours in which to enjoy 
 the magnificent prospect our lofty elevation afforded us. The cold mists 
 that at first enveloped the tops of the mountain were gradually dispersed 
 by the sun as he rose higher in the heavens, and then was revealed to us 
 a grander scene than it had ever before been our lot to behold. The ma- 
 jestic heights of the peaks that with Mt. Mitchell rise from a common 
 
49 
 
 base ; the Blue Ridge in the distance ; the deep frightful gorges on all 
 sides below us, growing every moment more distinct as we gazed upon 
 them and pictured to ourselves the fall and death of the old friend we 
 were then to bury ; the river winding with their silver streams in every 
 direction from their little sources in the recesses of the mountains ; the 
 beautiful farms with their golden harvests, cultivated spots amid the 
 boundless wilderness of trees ; the light fleecy clouds dotting the horrizon ; 
 and the blue sky above ; all formed a picture that any one not entirely de- 
 void of a taste for the beautiful in nature could not fail to gaze upon with 
 feelings of silent admiration. 
 
 In the meantime the sturdy mountaineers of Yancey were assembling in 
 great numbers. They, many with their wives and daughters, had toiled 
 up the long and steep ascent to witness the burial of the friend, who near- 
 ly a quarter of a century before, endeared himself to them while laboring 
 to ascertain the height of their famous mountain and explore its hidden 
 recesses, who had died amongst them while verifying the results of those 
 former labors and who was found by tJiem at the bottom of his watery 
 grave. A stranger did not require words from them to know how they 
 loved him while living and cherished his memory after death. They had 
 not long to wait ; for the body, kept with much difficulty in its place on the 
 sled, as the oxen made their way over the miry road and slippery roots 
 was drawing near its final resting-place. At the foot of the steep knoll 
 that forms the summit, the oxen and sled were finally dispensed with, and 
 a friendly emulation was displayed by the Yancey Mountaineers in offering 
 their broad shoulders to support the corpse. 
 
 R. D. Wilson, Esq., of Yancey, being requested to act as Marshall, here 
 formed a procession in the following order : 
 
 Citizens of Buncombe. 
 
 Citizens of Yancey. 
 
 Students of the University. 
 
 *■ THE CORPSE. 
 
 Family of the Deceased. 
 Trustees and Faculty of the University. 
 The President and Rt. Rev. Orator. 
 Upon reaching the summit of the Mountain, the lines in front of the^ 
 the Corpse were opened and the procesion in reversed order advanced to 
 the grave, Bishop Otey reading the impressive service of the Episcopal 
 Church for the Burial of the Dead. Arrived at the brink of the grave, a 
 necessarily shallow one dug mostly through rock, the body was lowered ; 
 and the Bishop, from a desk formed of a stone taken from the grave, deli- 
 vered a funeral address to an audience that stood or sat with heads. reve- 
 
50 
 
 rently uncovered. When it is remembered that with great inconvenience 
 and trouble and upon very short notice the Bishop had come from his dis- 
 tant home on the banks of the Mississippi, every one is assured that he 
 spoke the truth when he said, that gratitude and love caused him to be 
 there to pay the last honors to the instructor and friend of his youth — 
 surely such a tribute to friendship has been seldom offered in this selfish 
 world. "We scarcely knew whom more to admii-e — him who inspired, or 
 him who felt such undying friendship — him who was eidogized or him 
 who spoke the eulogy. 
 
 Upon motion of Gov. Swain a vote of thanks, that seemed to come from 
 the inmost heart of the audience, and a request for a copy of the address 
 for publication were unanimously adopted and were but a feeble testimony 
 to the general appreciation of it. Though composed chiefly of people of 
 the surrounding counties, Mountaineers, whose lives had been spent far 
 from schools and academies of learning, the whole assembly seemed most 
 deeply interested and impressed. And when the Rt. Rev. Orator spoke of 
 the zealous and untiring labors of his departed friend, for forty years, in '~ 
 the cause of religion and science and in the instruction of hundreds of 
 the youth of this State — of all the Southern States, and of his tragic death 
 in verifying in his old age measurements and observations made by him 
 on that mountain long years before. I am sure there was not one of his 
 hearers too young or too ignorant to feel that in the death of Dr. Mitchell, 
 North Carolina lost one of her noblest sons, one of her brightest ornaments. 
 
 f The able President of our University then, after paying a graceful com- 
 pliment to the address we had so much admired, in words eloquent though 
 unstudied, added his testimony to the truth and justice of its eulogy ; and 
 alluding to the eminent appropriateness of the place of burial he expressed 
 an intention on the part of himself and his friend N. W. "Woodfin, Esq., of 
 Asheville, as owners, to present the ground on which they stood, the top 
 of the high peak, to the Trustees of the University on condition that it 
 shall be called Mt. Mitchell — alleging very truly, that the right of proper- 
 ty is not more theirs than the right to give it a name. Of the propriety 
 of this name, it seems to me, no one who has had the opportunity as we 
 had on that accasion of interrogating Dr. Mitchell's guides to the different 
 
 ^ peaks in 1835, can entertain the slightest doubt. If the word of man, cor- 
 roborated by independent circumstances, is to be believed, Dr. Mitchell > 
 was on the summit on which his remains noiv rest, with William Wilson and 
 Adoniran Allen in 1835. 
 
 At the conclusion of ex-Governor Swain's address, which was extempo- 
 raneous, James W. Patton, Esq., moved that he be requested to write it 
 out for publication ; and R. Don Wilson, Esq., of Yancey, Col. Washington 
 
51 
 
 Hardy, of Buncombe, and J. W. Graham of the University were appoint- 
 ed a committee to confer witii him and with Bishop Otey, and to urge 
 most earnestly the permission to publish their several addresses. 
 
 To these solicitations I was happy to learn neither of the distinguished 
 speakers considered himself at liberty to turn a deaf ear, and consent was 
 given that the public should have in print, what was so edifying to us who 
 were present at the delivery. Though they have not the propitious acces- 
 sories of the occasion — the top of the lofty mountain, the open grave, the 
 body of the departed, the tone of the speakers and the mournful faces of 
 the listening hearers, to heighten the effect of what was said, I feel confi- 
 dent that the general appreciation of it will be akin, if not equal to ours. 
 
 It is a coincidence not unworthy of remark, that on Mt. Mitchell, in the 
 persons of Bishop Otey and his respected friend and class-mate Dr. Tho- 
 mas II. Wright of Wilmington, and of Mr. Graham and Mr. Mitchell the be- 
 loved sou of the departed, were here to mourn at his funeral, members of 
 the first and of the last class that Dr. Mitchell instructed at the University. 
 
 MOUJ^T MITCHELL— JUNE 16, 1858. 
 
 From the University Magazine. 
 
 Proud Peak ! so sternly rising 'mid the smiling heaven — 
 Thy haughty brow by thunderbolts and tempests riven. 
 Dark bristling with thy jagged pines, like warriors mailed, 
 And beetling crags where erst unharmed have eagles sailed. 
 Among thy giant brothers grim, without a peer ; 
 Thy solitudes unwaked from rolling year to year, 
 By man, or aught, save howling storms or brutes of dread ; 
 To-day, how thou must marvel at th' unwonted tread 
 Of those who climb thy heights, and cloud-throned summit scale, 
 To chant o'er Science' martyred son the funeral wail. 
 
 Oh, haughtiest ingrate ! — to prove thy pride and place. 
 E'en o'er proud Washington, king of the mountain race ; 
 This was his eager wish from year to year pursued — 
 And with his blood thy cruel clutches thou'st imbued ! 
 Rock-hearted type of Pride, thou would'st undoubted claim, 
 By search or measure true, of king the rank and name ! 
 Oh hateful cliff, from whose rough, treacherous, wildering height, 
 
52 
 
 The kind and wise old man fell on that saddest night, 
 
 Sweet stream beneath ! whose pitying bosom took him in, 
 
 As down, down, down, with headlong crash and horrid din 
 
 Of hurtling stones around he fell, and none was nigh 
 
 To hear, for help his last, heart-thrilling, gasping cry. 
 
 Uproot the frail, weak. Laurel tree to which he clung ; 
 
 False herb ! a precious life in truth upon thee hung 
 
 That night, as oft it has on thy poetic meed — 
 
 Alas ! thou^rt ever but the broken, piercing reed ! 
 
 What, though it mocked his dying grasp, the treacherous laurel bough, 
 
 Fame's self he'd won, and needed not the emblem now. 
 
 A crown of glory shall be his beyond the grave 
 
 O'er which his well-earned earthly laurels fadeless wave. 
 
 Sleep, good and kindly man, in this thy tomb sublime : 
 
 Such was thy wish, here to await the end of time. 
 
 Honored wherever Science lifts her searching eye, 
 
 Loved in thy classic home thy memory cannot die ! 
 
 And Otey, who o'er thy pale, cherished form, doth say 
 The last fond words that loving, honoring lips e'er may ; 
 Weil may he feel the spell of place upon him now ; 
 For he is mountain-born. Lo ! on his glorious brow 
 High thoughts inspired fleet on, as storm and sunshine chase 
 Each other o'er the calm, uplifted, mountain's face. 
 Thou'rt like to Saul amidst his brothers ; he like each, 
 And like thy far-off heights, his lofty soarings reach,' 
 Far, far beyond the aching sight and easy ken, 
 Of most who walk this earth and bear the names of men. 
 
 On dark, blue, Otter's rounded peak, oft hath he said, 
 " Make thou, my well beloved, my last and lonely bed :" 
 But oh ! may God, the Merciful, forbid that thou 
 Shouldst find a martyr's grave, as he we mourn o'er now. 
 Yet what more noble, worthy, death may be desired ? 
 The great, the good, he long pursued — achieved — expired. 
 
 True nobleman of nature thou — gentle, yet firm, 
 Honored to terror's verge by scholars through the term ; 
 But like a brother loved, when college rule was done ; 
 The master so august, and genial friend in one. 
 Oh, noble Mitchell ! thy revered and cherished name 
 Old Chapel Hill deems sweetest heritage of fame. 
 
53 
 
 Oh ! tender, loving ones of his dear home embalm 
 His memory with sighs ye must ; but seek for calm 
 In all the good he living, did ; and dying, paid 
 His life — upon the shrine of zeal in duty laid. 
 
 Dark mountain king ! baptized with sacrificial blood, 
 Mt. Mitchell now. Gained by this broad and easy road, 
 Black Peak, no longer frowning unattained and wild, 
 Love hath subdued thee to the footsteps of a child : 
 A monument to that immortal power, thou'rt given 
 To man, by Him who made and ruleth Earth and Heaven. 
 
 Y. 0. M. 
 
 Richmond, Va., June 16, 1858. 
 
^'That His Man's highest glory TO BE GOOD.'" 
 
 A FUKERAL ORATIOI 
 
 AT THE 
 
 RE-INTERMENT OF THE REMAINS 
 
 OF THE 
 
 REV. ELISHA MITCHELL, D. D. 
 
 LATE PROFESSOR OF 
 CHEMISTRY, MINERAIiOGY AWD GEOIiOGT IN THB 
 
 UNIVEESITY OF NORTH CAKOLINA. 
 
 O^ MOILN^T MITCHELL, 
 JUNE 15, 1858. 
 
 BY THE 
 
 RT. REV. JAMES H. OTEY, D, D., 
 
 BISHOP OF TENNESSEE. 
 
 CHAPEL HELL : 
 I*IIBLISHED BY J. M. HENDERSON. 
 
 PEINTEK TO THE UIOVEESITT. 
 
 1858. 
 
A FUNERAL ORATION. 
 
 Who needs to be told, in the midst of the awe-inspiring 
 scenes of grandeur which here surround us, that '^ God on- 
 ly is great ?" " There is neither speech nor language," but 
 a voice conies from all these lofty heights, these profound 
 and awful gulfs, comes to the soul of man— of every re- 
 flecting man here, and re-echoes the sentiment of reve- 
 rence to which Moses gave utterance in the sublime lan- 
 guage, ''Before the Mountains were brought forth, or ever 
 the earth and the world were made. Thou art God from 
 everlasting, and world without end !" 
 
 Man and his works are perishable and ever perishing. 
 :N"ature is more stable and enduring. The scenes of great 
 events serve as striking memorials to future ages ; while 
 the changeless features impressed upon them, convey by 
 contrast, an awakening lesson of the mutability of human 
 things. 
 
 In the art in which genius sometimes displays its most 
 brilliant powers, and fancy amuses itself with mimic repre- 
 sentations of passions and wants on the great stage of life ; 
 the curtain falls upon the scenery and action together : and 
 when the walking shadows of being disappear, the '' coun- 
 terfeit presentment" of objects, introduced to strengthen 
 the illusion, is removed from view, as unmeaning lumber. 
 
 Not so with the reality enacting on the wide and varied 
 field of human existence and enterprise. The action, it 
 is true, is fleeting and inconstant. Generations succeed 
 each other in mournful and rapid succession; and their 
 
58 
 
 works are swept away, as the leaves of the forest are dri- 
 ven before the chilling blasts of autumn. But the scenes 
 among which men labour and toil and struggle remain 
 with the same characters unchanged, which God impressed 
 upon them ; having all of perpetuity that earth can give ; 
 destined to witness other crises and other catastrophes in 
 the ever-passing drama of mortality ; and to furnish to 
 the end of time, silent but truthful monuments to the 
 facts of history. Races, institutions, religions and go- 
 vernments; arts, trades, associations, and dynasties fol- 
 low each other in mighty and varied series, sheltered be- 
 neath the shadows flung from the same mountain heights, 
 and mirrored in the same placid waters. The storied plain 
 of Marathon with its encircling hills, its meandering rivu- 
 let, its marsh — the grave of many a Persian horseman — its 
 beach, battered by the surges of the ^gean sea, continues 
 now, as on that memorable day, . when it was pressed by 
 the feet of the flying Mede, with skaftless quiver and bro- 
 ken bow, or trampled in hot haste by the furious and con- 
 quering Greek, with red, pursuing speer ! But the na- 
 tions, the ideas, the altars and the institutions of those who 
 contended there for victory, are dissolved as utterly, and 
 almost as long ago, as the bodies of the slain in the lonely 
 mound which yet marks the spot of their inhumation. — 
 The majestic summit of "high Olympus" still overlooks 
 the peaceful vale of Thessaly, with the same lofty and pure 
 eminence which commended it to heathen fancy as the 
 throne of the Gods ; as the council chamber where " Jove 
 convened the Senate of the skies," to decide the fate of na- 
 tions. But the divinities themselves, the intellectual crea- 
 tions of ancient poets ; the fair humanities of those old re- 
 ligions which the ingenuity of Statesmen invented, or em- 
 ployed, to effect political objects; the power, the beauty 
 and the majesty that had there their imagined haunt, on 
 its consecrated heights, have all vanished and live no Ion- 
 
69 
 
 ger in the faitli or fancy of mortals. The truth of which I 
 am speaking is most strikingly illustrated in the associations 
 which henceforward will cling to this Father of American 
 Mountains; rising here in majestic grandeur; with its 
 rocky battlements scathed by the red lightnings, but yet 
 unharmed; and throwing back the voice of the loudest 
 thunders, from its deep-muttered and reverberating caverns, 
 and transmitting the awful roar from crag to crag, until 
 earth herself appears to shudder with fear and trembling. 
 A few years only have elapsed since it stood here in solitary 
 loneliness, unchronicled amidst changes which have mark- 
 ed the passing away of nations of men that roamed under 
 its woody sides or climbed its dizzy heights ! 
 
 "We tread the scenes over which buried tribes and gene- 
 rations of men once wandered ; we gaze upon the cloud-cap- 
 ped summits which once filled their vision ; we strain the 
 eye to trace the dim and distant outline that bounded their 
 horizon ; the places which know us, knew them ; saw all 
 that we would vainly explore ; and heard those shrouded 
 secrets of the shadowy past which are never to be recover- 
 ed from oblivion till the coming of that hour when " the 
 earth shall give up her dead I" 
 
 The eye of one who first drew breath in a northern clime, 
 and moved by the most honorable motives which can go- 
 vern human conduct, to seek useful employment in this, 
 his adopted State, and led by the desire to add to the stock 
 of human knowledge, or by the natural love of the sublime 
 and beautiful, rested some twenty three years ago upon 
 this glorious monument of the Creator's handy-work. He 
 traversed its most deeply wooded dells ; he stood upon its 
 loftiest peaks ; he gazed in rapture upon its bold and mag- 
 nificent outlines of grandeur ; his spirit here drank in the 
 sweet and elevating influences of the Heavenly world, and 
 though no angels, messengers from the spirit -land, met him 
 here to lift the veil that covers eternal things, yet here he 
 
60 
 
 doubtless held communion with, his God, and in that soli- 
 tude and silence which are most propitious to devotion, he 
 felt in the mingled affections of love, reverence and fear that 
 filled the soul of the disciple upon the mount of transfigu- 
 ration and which inspired his breast, that it was indeed 
 good for him to be here. 
 
 *' Early had he learned 
 To reverence the volume that displays 
 The mystery, the life, that cannot die ; 
 But in the mountains he did feel his faith !" 
 
 " The whispering air 
 
 Sends inspiration from the mountain heights/' 
 
 Wordsworth. 
 
 We know not what were the varied emotions and exer- 
 cises of mind which the contemplation of these scenes of 
 sublimity and beauty excited in him. "We know that he 
 possessed a soul thoroughly attuned to the full appreciation 
 of all these things ; and tastes formed and educated by 
 study and observation to derive the most exquisite pleasure 
 as well as profit from their contemplation. He has not, so 
 far as I know, left on record any account of the reflections 
 to which acquaintance with the view of these things gave 
 rise. Whatever shape they took, sure I am, they were in 
 spirit holy and elevating and if now they exist in words of 
 human language, they remain as precious mementoes of 
 love and affection to those who were enshrined in his heart. 
 But mere selfish gratification formed no part of his charac- 
 ter and its elements, if they mingled at all in the motives 
 which actuated his pursuits, did so incidentally. If this 
 constitution of his mind led him to investigate the laws and 
 operations of nature and derive pleasure from such occupa- 
 tions, the affections of his heart influenced him not less to 
 turn all his discoveries and convert all his acquisitions to 
 the good of mankind. Perhaps not a flower blooms on 
 this mountain and sheds its fragrance to perfume the bree- 
 
61 
 
 zes that fan its brows, but a specimen of it adorns his her- 
 barium. Perhaps not a root draws nourishment and heal- 
 ing virtue from its soil, but its like or a description of it 
 enriches the collection of his Cabinet. Perhaps not an ani- 
 mal roams through these wilds ; not a bird warbles its ma- 
 tin notes of joy, or sings its vesper-hymn of praise, amidst 
 these umbrageous groves ; not a reptile crawls around these 
 rock-serrated ridges ; nor insect floats in the morning 
 beams that herald the approach of the "powerful king ot 
 day," or sports in the rays that leave their dewy kiss upon 
 the brow of this giant son of the everlasting hills (as Mght 
 throws around him her sable folds, inviting to repose,) that 
 he has not observed its habits, tracked its ways, learned its 
 instincts, and chronicled its history. Is there a rock up- 
 heaved from yonder summit that throws exultingly its 
 thunder-rifted crags to the sky, or that protrudes in stately 
 and proud disdain, from yonder iron-bound and beetling 
 cliffs, as though it held in contempt all smaller things ? — 
 He knew its class, its composition, its age. Is there -a 
 mineral that has been dug from these hills ; that has rolled 
 down from these ridgy steeps ; or been uncovered by the 
 torrents that rave and roar down these mountain sides ? — 
 He knew its form and family, its value and its uses. Hither 
 he brought the theodolite with its unerring precision to 
 compute angles ; the surveyors chain to measure distances ; 
 the compass to determine bearings ; the barometer to weigh 
 the atmosphere and the hygrometer to ascertain its humi- 
 dity. From all these elements of Scientific calculation as 
 developed by means and instruments that speak no lan- 
 guage but that of truth, simple, and naked truth — unmov- 
 ed from propriety by envy, unswayed by the whisperings 
 of ambition — he ascertained and proclaimed that this spot 
 on which we here stand — this glorious summit, raised above 
 the scenes of a toiling and weary world, was the highest 
 land in the United States, East of the Mississippi River! 
 
62 
 
 "Who then has a better right than he, to give it a name ? — 
 I^one ; hj all that is praiseworthy in honest labor, sacred in 
 truth and just in reward ! 
 
 But what has convened this vast assembly ? What has 
 brought the people from their homes as far as the eye can 
 reach from this proud eminence over all the land below, to 
 gather here in solemn silence — seriousness impressed on 
 every countenance and reverence enthroned on every brow ? 
 The dwellers in vales and on the mountain tops are here. 
 The husbandman has left his plough ; the artisan his tools ; 
 the professional man his office ; the merchant has quit the 
 busy mart of trade ; the man of Science has closed the doors 
 of his study ; the student has laid aside his books to come 
 hither ! " The bridegroom has come forth from his cham- 
 ber and the bride from her closet," the Fathers and Moth- 
 ers of the land are here ! " Young men and maidens, old 
 men and children ;" and the ministers of the Sanctuary are 
 here to do honor to this occasion, and in this place no " un- 
 fit audience chamber of Heaven's King," to consecrate the 
 spot, as far as the act of man may, ''to deathless fame !" — 
 No martial music breaks upon the hearing, stirring the 
 hearts of men and gathering armed hosts in the serri- 
 ed ranks of battle ; no sound of the trumpet, nor voice 
 of prophet has collected this mighty concourse of living 
 men ! I never saw such an assembly : I never expect to 
 see the like again ! I never read of any thing in history 
 approaching its equal or its parallel, except the gathering 
 of the hosts of Israel on Mount Carmel at the call of Eli- 
 jah ! In the physical features of the scene here presented 
 to the eye, the proportions of grandeur and beauty more 
 than equal those of Carmel. The moral grandeur of the 
 object and of the assembly gathered by Elijah far surpass 
 ours. Indeed they were never equalled in our world ex- 
 cept when God descended upon Sinai and surrounded by 
 
63 
 
 terrible emblems of power and glory proclaimed bis law 
 to liis people. 
 
 But wliat bas moved us, as by tlie spirit of one man to 
 be bere to-day ? From tbe banks of tbe majestic Mississip- 
 pi in tbe West, and from tbe sbores wbere tbunders tbe 
 Atlantic wave in tbe East, we bave met on tbis midway 
 ground. For wbat ? To do bomage to goodness, my 
 countrymen ! Some of us to pay tbe tribute of our love in 
 tears to tbe memory of one wbo was dear to us as a Fatber 1 
 Many of us wbo in years long past could appropriate tbe 
 language of tbe propbet in bebalf of Israel and say, "My 
 Fatber ! tbou art tbe guide of my youtb. ' ' All of us to testi- 
 tify our appreciation of merit and by one act to link for 
 ever tbe bonored name of Elisha Mitchell, witb tbis Mo- 
 narcb of Mountains. Here tben, and to-day, we commit to 
 tbe ground all tbat remains of bis perisbable body. Here, 
 in tbe face of Heaven, in tbe ligbt of yonder Sun, wbose 
 radiance beams brigbtly on tbis spot wben darkness veils 
 tbe world below, and tbe storm-cloud witb its fringes of 
 ^e girdles tbe mountain waist, — in tbe name of trutb, 
 bonor, and justice; by rigbt of prior discovery; by merit 
 of being tbe first to claim tbe bonor of actual measurement 
 and matbematical determination ; by virtue of labors en- 
 dured witb unremitting patience, and terminated only by 
 deatb ; we consecrate tbis mountain by tbe name of Mt. 
 Mitchell and we call upon you to speak your approval and 
 say Amen ! Yes, we consecrate it — a monument raised 
 to tbe memory of Dr. Elisha Mitchell, to a fame, 
 
 " Unwasting, deathless and sublime, 
 
 That will remain while lightnings quiver, 
 
 Or stars the hoary summits climb, 
 
 Or rolls the thunder chariot of Eternal Time." 
 
 A. Pike. 
 
 Here I migbt consider my undertaken task as finisbed — 
 tbe object of my long and wearisome pilgrimage as consum- 
 mated ; but I must crave your indulgence, wbile I endea- 
 
64 
 
 vor in liuinble imitation of him whose deatli we deplore, 
 and whose virtues we honor, to improve even this occasion 
 to the practical benefit of my fellow men. Such, methinks, 
 would be his course, if he were living and called to act in 
 the circumstances under which I find myself placed. He 
 allowed no opportunity to pass unimproved, if by any 
 means he could employ it to the good of mankind. Little 
 did I think, this tkne last year, that I should be soon called 
 to ofiiciate at his burial — to see the doors of death opened 
 and then closed upon him, till the clangor of the Archan- 
 gel's trumpet shall break the silence of the grave, and the 
 dawn of the resurrection morn shall shed its light over all 
 the places of the scattered and slumbering dead ! But 
 God's ways are inscrutable — his wisdom unsearchable and 
 his judgments a great deep. Submission, trust and hope 
 are the virtues which his dealings with us evermore and 
 emphatically inculcate. 
 
 About seven years ago I stood by the tomb of Sir Wal- 
 ter Scott, the great Weird of the E'orth — the man whose 
 genius by a kind of magic influence held the world spell- 
 bound. His grave was made under an arch in the ruins of 
 Dryburg Abbey and covered with a plain slab of Sand-stone, 
 his name with the date of his birth and death inscribed up- 
 on it. His wife and eldest son reposed in death by his side, 
 one on the right, the other on his left. It was the most 
 melancholy-looking place I ever saw. The spirit of sad- 
 ness seemed to preside over the spot ; to utter its low voice 
 in the gentle and just audible murmurs of the Tweed ; to 
 breathe sighs in the light winds that whispered through the 
 trees and to brood over all the scene like a dull haze ob- 
 scuring the brightness of the sky. It seemed to me, as if this 
 great man had come to this secluded spot to lay down the 
 burden of mortality in mockery of the pride and vanity of 
 human expectations. It is well known, that his fondest 
 and most earnest desires were to attain the honors and ti- 
 
65 
 
 ties of a baronetcy and to become tbe founder of an enno- 
 bled family. For tliis, liis vast and versatile powers were 
 taxed to tlie utmost strength, and even beyond endu- 
 rance. He seemed just on the eve of realizing his ardent- 
 ly cherished hopes. His literary fame was redolent with 
 the praises of a world of admirers. He attracted the favor- 
 able notice of his sovereign, and through the interest of one 
 and another, powerful in Court influence, he gained the 
 name of Baron. And very soon the vicissitudes of trade, 
 through which he hoped to acquire the means of maintain- 
 ing his newly conferred dignity, imposed on him the stern 
 obligation of laboring for his bread, and the liquidation of 
 the j ust claims of his creditors. Bravely he waged the battle 
 of life : But '' time and change happen to all ' ' and at last the 
 mightiest of all conquerers met him : and in his grasp he 
 yielded up life and all its promises of distinction, with as 
 little resistance as an infant oflers to the over-mastering 
 and crushing strength of a giant. For what purpose had 
 he lived and to what end had he employed the command- 
 in o- talents with which God had endowed him? It is 
 an accredited ma^sim, ^' de mortuis nil nisi bonum'' — that is 
 speak nothing derogatory of the dead. We accept the 
 aphorism, and mean not to deny its obligation in practice. 
 We would not take one leaf of pine or laurel from that 
 crown with which the suflTrage of a world has graced the 
 brow of Scotland's favorite son. But by suggesting a com- 
 parison between the works of the great Magician of the 
 Korth and the unobtrusive and patient labors of the Profes- 
 sor toiling for forty years in the Academic shades of Caro- 
 Una, in their acknowledged results upon human society, I 
 would add a modest and unpretending Forget-me-not to the 
 wreath which adorns the honored head of our beloved 
 
 friend. 
 
 We ask, how much have the writings of Sir Walter con- 
 tributed to the formation of correct principles of human 
 
6Q 
 
 conduct, and enforced the obligations of virtue ? To the 
 entertainment of the world they have made a large contri- 
 bution. He has made Scotland classic ground. He has 
 converted her hills into mountains, her fresh ponds into mag- 
 nificent lakes, her rivulets into deep, flomng rivers. Every 
 thing he has robed with the colors of imagination ; but 
 when you come to look at the reality, you are astonished 
 to find that of all men, he has furnished in his descrip- 
 tions of men and things, the most striking, mai-vellous and 
 thoughtful exemplification of what his brother poet, Camp- 
 bell says, in the opening of his poem, on the Pleasures of 
 Hope ; 
 
 " Tis distance lends enchantment to the view." 
 
 His characters are unreal ; his estimate of the obligations 
 and standard of virtue, defective ; his exemplifications of 
 principles in practice, imaginary and very rarely such as 
 any judicious father could safely propose for the imitation 
 of his children. It is more than probable that there is not 
 a living man in the world, whose character has been fash- 
 ioned after the model which Sir Walter Scott has drawn of 
 the most brilliant conception which his iliind has realized 
 of human excellency. And herein lies the marked clifie- 
 rence between the practical teacher — the conscientious in- 
 structSr and trainer of the young, and the man whose con- 
 ceptions of life and its responsibilities are embodied in the 
 dreams of poetry, and in the thrilling and moving scenes 
 depicted in the descriptions of the writers of Romance and 
 Fiction. 
 
 Wlien we stand by the grave of Professor Mitchell we 
 feel that we are near the ashes of one who has labored and 
 striven conscientiously in the noblest and holiest of the 
 causes of humanity. That cause was, and is, and must ever 
 be, to develop and strengthen the intellectual powers in 
 alliance with efforts to cultivate and cherish and bring 
 into healthy action the moral affections; in a word to 
 
67 
 
 educate the head and the heart at the same time. IN'ever 
 was there a greater mistake nor one more injm^ious to per- 
 sonal and relative interests, to social and puhlic weal than 
 to separate these and attempt to effect a divorce between the 
 intellectual and the moral in man. What sort of a creature 
 would a man be, if he had no heart ? 'No heart to feel for 
 another's woe ; nor to rejoice with them that rejoice ; and 
 never to weep with them that weep ; to have no word 'of 
 encouragement for the desponding ; no look of compassion 
 for the suffering; no hand to feed the hungry or clothe the 
 naked ; no promptings to go on errands of mercy to the 
 sick and dying ? Yet this is what the presuming wisdom 
 and arrogant spirit of this age has attempted in some of the 
 highest and, in point of mental furniture, some of the best 
 endowed institutions in our country. 
 
 With such a system Professor Mitchell held no sympa- 
 thy. Defective as all institutions founded upon Legisla- 
 tive patronage unquestionably are, in necessary provision 
 for teaching Christianity as a system of divine revelation for 
 the salvation of men, and that, in consequence of the petty 
 rivalries and mean jealousies of sectaries, who seem unable 
 to comprehend and embrace the enlarged and catholic 
 spirit of the gospel, and who would see every institution of 
 learning in the land crumbled into ruins rather than not 
 have a direct share in its management and government, — • 
 this defect in moral training founded on the recognition of 
 the great facts and doctrines of Christianity, so justly com- 
 plained of by parents, and particularly by religious parents, 
 in the education of their sons. Professor Mitchell, I 
 know, endeavored to supply by infusing the religious ele- 
 ment, as much as possible, into his instructions in the 
 lecture room, and more especially in his conversation 
 with those who were so fortunate as to win his perso- 
 nal regard. More than forty years have now elapsed since 
 he first entered the walls of the North Carolina Universi- 
 
t 
 
 68 
 
 ty, and assumed the duties of the chair of Mathematics. 
 I was there then, an untaught, undisciplined and unsophis- 
 ticated youth. I remember what a deep impression his 
 commanding form, his noble brow on which mind seemed 
 enthroned, and his dark, lustrous eye made upon our young 
 hearts. Besides him there were the President, the vene- 
 rable Dr. Caldwell, Dr. Hooper, Professor of languages, 
 and two Tutors, the late Priestly H. Mangum, and John 
 M. Morehead, afterwards Governor of the State. Profes- 
 sor Olmsted, now of Yale, his '^Jidus et cants comes " 
 added his strength to the Academic Corps, some months 
 later. How many now living and dead whose characters, 
 as developed in the various departments of human life, have 
 the precepts and example of Professor Mitchell in the last 
 forty years contributed more than any other man's influ- 
 ence to form and develope ! 
 
 Does any one ask where are the monuments of his labors ? 
 We answer they will be found among the members of the 
 Cabinet — among Senators in the Council Chamber — Rep- 
 resentatives in the Halls of Congress — Governors of States 
 — Judges sitting in the highest places of Justice — Legisla- 
 tors — Ministers to Foreign Governments — Heralds of the 
 Cross — Men of renown in all the departments of human 
 enterprise — Lawyers, Physicians, Professors, Schoolmas- 
 ters — a mighty array of talent, of learning and worth, the 
 influence of which is felt through all the land, and will con- 
 tinue to be felt while industry and knowledge shall be 
 honored, or gratitude find a name and place of esteem 
 among men. 
 
 Have not the recorded observations of mankind given 
 the character of an established and admitted fact to the as- 
 sertion that a man's future usefulness depends upon his 
 early associations ? and that the destiny of every human 
 being is written upon his heart by his Mother or by. his 
 Teacher ? If " the Boy is father of the Man," how much of 
 
69 
 
 the excellency and usefulness of tliat manhood depends up- 
 on the wisdom, the sagacity, the care and the skill of him 
 to whom is entrusted the rearing and training of that boy! 
 Socrates was the teacher of Phito and of Aristotle, the 
 briglitest luminaries of the ancient heathen world ! And 
 of this last, Philip of Macedon, the w^isest monarch of his 
 day, and father of Alexander the Great, is said to have ex- 
 pressed his high admiration by writing, that he was not so 
 "thankful to the Gods for making him a father, as he w^s 
 for their giving him a son in an age when he could have 
 Aristotle for his instructor." 
 
 If the time permitted I could tell you, by the recital of 
 remembered instances, how Professor Mitchell's wise and 
 far-reaching care, his ever-present and friendly watchful- 
 ness and parental solicitude for the student, manifested 
 themselves in the lecture room, on public occasions, in the 
 social circle, and in the administration of discipline. Eve- 
 ry where, and in all things, he acted as if under an abiding 
 conviction, that he was forming the princij^les and char- 
 'detev of those to whom would presentl}^ be committed, not 
 only their own individual, personal happiness, but the 
 guardianship of the great public interests of the land, and 
 the momentous concerns of souls that would live when the 
 cares and turmoil of this world were ended. Thoughts 
 dwelling upon these responsibilities were ever present with 
 him, and words of instruction, of advice and of warning, as 
 the occasion served, mingled themselves in, and if I may 
 »o say, infused fragrance to, all his direct communications 
 with the young. I could tell you how he projected short 
 pedestrian excursions into the surrounding country for the 
 benefit of his class, in order that the}' might reduce the prin- 
 ciples of science which they had learned from the book into 
 practice ; and how his conversation always abounded with 
 striking and pleasant anecdotes, about men of other coun- 
 tries and other times ; intended by him not only to relievfes 
 6 
 
70 
 
 the weariness of labor, but to serve as striking illustrations 
 of some moral truth spoken, or as incentives to persevering 
 effort, or to inspire a worthy emulation. I could tell you 
 how he was ever ready to relieve the difficulties of the stu- 
 dent, by patient efforts at explanation ; to unfold to him the 
 intricacies of mathematical calculations ; the mysteries of 
 science — its sublime truths, the use and the beauty of their 
 application — how he wrought for his improvem.ent from 
 the garnished heavens where myriads upon myriads of 
 worlds speak the Creator's glory, power and praise ; through 
 the rich and variegated fields which the science of Botany 
 displays, to the wonders of Geology with its mysterious 
 history and revelations, " graven with an iron pen in the 
 rock forever;" and to the marvellous discoveries which the 
 microscope makes in the insect world ; and from all these 
 departments brought forth stores rich and abundant, to en- 
 large and improve his understanding and mend his heart. — 
 A task so grateful to me, so justto his memory, and which, if 
 faithfully performed, might be so beneficial to the living, I 
 must leave to others having more time and better opportu- 
 nity to do it justice. 
 
 "Can that man be dead, 
 
 Whose spiritual influence is upon his kind ? 
 
 lie lives in ^.-lory ; and his speaking dust 
 
 Has more of life than half its breathing moulds. " 
 
 Miss Laxdox. 
 
 We must hasten to the performance of the melancholy du- 
 ties for which we have here met. His "record is on high !" 
 His memory, enshrined in the hearts of those who knew 
 him, shall live till this mountain which perpetuates his 
 name shall perish in the fires of the last conflagration. 
 
 We may pause a moment to speak of his death. Its cir- 
 cumstances are too well known to you all to make their de- 
 tail necessary. It is sufficient to mention that on the 28th 
 day of June 1857 he parted with his son to cross the moun- 
 tain to Thos. Wilson's. 
 
71 
 
 A storm, not an uncommon event in this region at that 
 season of the year, arose and shrouded the mountain in 
 thick darkness. He wandered from his way, and never 
 reached the point of his destination. The fact of his being 
 missed and the consequent uneasiness of his son and daugh- 
 ter were soon made known to the hardy sons of this region ; 
 who, touched with the genuine feelings of sympathy and 
 humanity so characteristic of all people whose dwellings 
 are in proximity to Nature's grandest and noblest works, 
 assembled speedily and in large numbers to begin the 
 work of search for him who was missing, and whose visits 
 to their mountain homes, and whose affability of manners, 
 simplicity of deportment and instructive conversation had 
 gained for him a sure lodgment in their respect and in their 
 hearts. It mav indicate the sava2:e wildness of the reo^ion 
 to state, that this search was continued for ten days dili- 
 gently but without success. At length, at the end of that 
 time, perseverance and diligence, animated by affection and 
 led by love, were rewarded by the discovery of the body. — 
 His manly, breathless form was discovered in a deep, clear 
 basin of water at the foot of a precipice forty feet high, from 
 which he had fallen in the darkness of the night, when none 
 but God was ni^h. His noble features were not disfio-ured 
 and not a bone of him was broken. M^iat a death, my 
 hearers ! probably without a pang — without consciousness 
 of pain or suffering ! In the mysterious appointment of 
 Heaven, his hour had come, and his transition from the 
 mortal to the immortal state, was as rapid as the ascent 
 of Elijah, by a "chariot and horses of fire. " We know 
 not of the communings held with his own heart, in the 
 loneliness of that last walk upon the mountains, while the 
 storm-cloud wrapped its folds of darkness around him, and 
 the hoarse thunder uttered its loud dirge to herald the 
 passage of his spirit from the cares and toils of a weary 
 world, to the rest and peace of the better land. Did in- 
 
72 
 
 stinctive fears alarm him, as all unconscious of danger in 
 his path, he approached the fatal ledge of the precipice ? — 
 We know not. Did any exclamation burst from his lips, 
 at the instant he became sensible of falling from its dizzy 
 height? God only knoweth. We only know that his life 
 had been such as to give to all who knew and loved him, 
 the precious consolation of hope in his death. We only 
 know that his name will hereafter be encircled with the 
 same halo that sheds its light upon the names of the Frank- 
 lins — the Andersons and the Kanes, who perished in pros- 
 ecuting their labors in the cause of science — in making 
 known the wonders of God's works, and the fruits of whose 
 efforts and cares were meekly and modestly laid at the foot 
 of the cross. I hold up the example of his life as embody- 
 ing the elements of precious consolation to his surviving 
 family and friends ; of animating encouragement to the 
 young, and of solemn warning to the living ; admonishing 
 them to remember, by a catastrophe never to be forgotten, 
 that "in the midst of life we are in death. ' ' I hold it up to his 
 children, as the strongest incentive that can nerve the heart 
 by sweet memories of the dead, to walk as he walked, in 
 virtue's ways. I take it to his now desolate hearth-stone — 
 to his widowed home, and unfolding there a life and con- 
 versation, all of which are treasured up in the deepest re- 
 cesses of the soul, I would say to the bruised spirit, in 
 remembrance of the rich mercies of the past, be comforted, 
 by all the kindling hopes of the future. Let the holy re- 
 collections of years gone — the path of life's pilgrimage, il- 
 luminated by the light which shone from a faith illustrat- 
 ed by good works — throw brightness over his grave ; con- 
 i^ecrate his memory; and spread the hue of Heaven's own 
 gladness over the bereaved and rilled bosom, in contempla- 
 ting the assurance of a happy re-union beyond the tomb. 
 
 As the traveller wends his weary way along the journey 
 of life, his eye, from many a distant point in his road, will 
 
73 
 
 catch a glimpse of this lofty eminence, rising heavenward, 
 like a great beacon-light over the waste of mortality ; and 
 its name repeated by men who will ever be found dwelling 
 under its shadow, will remind him that here repose the 
 ashes of a great and a good man. In this palace of nature 
 — this vast cathedral raised by God's hand, where swift 
 winged winds mingle their voices with the dread sounds of 
 Heaven's thunder, we leave him — leave him — 
 
 " Amid the trophies of Jehovah's power 
 And feel and own, in calm and solemn mood, 
 That, ^tis man's highest glory, fo be good. " 
 
 / 
 
A VINDICATION 
 
 OF THE PROPRIETY OF GIVING THE NAME "MT. MITCHELL," 
 
 TO THE HIGHEST PEAK OF "BLACK MOUNTAIN':" 
 
 AN ADDRESS, 
 
 DELIVERED 16TH JUNE, 1858, 
 
 BY 
 
 HON. DAYID L. S¥AIN, LL. D, 
 
 PRESIDENT OF THE UNIVERSITY OF N. C. 
 
 CHAPEL HILL : 
 PUBLISHED BY J. M. HENDERSON. 
 
 PRINTER TO THE UNIVERSITY. 
 
 1858. 
 
ADVERTISEMENT. 
 
 The arrival of Professor Charles Phillips had been anxiously expect- 
 ed until the close of the ceremonies. He was, however, confined at home 
 by severe illness. At the conclusion of Bishop Otey's address, and before 
 the coffin was lowered into the grave President Swain remarked that the 
 duty of representing the University in these ceremonies had most unex- 
 pectedly devolved upon him. That the audience were aware, that his 
 friend and colleague, Professor Phillips, had carefully investigated the 
 points of controversy which had recently arisen with respect to the origi- 
 nal discovery of this mountain height. To the Professor's published pa- 
 pers he would refer for a more extended vindication of Dr. Mitchell's 
 fame than was necessary to his purpose.* 
 
 President Swain said that in relation to this question, he was very loth 
 to indulge himself in a statement even of facts within his own knowledge, or 
 susceptible of direct proof, by persons then present whose truthfulness no one 
 would question. That his reluctance arose not merely from a consciousness 
 of his inability to do the full justice to the subject, anticipated from Pro- 
 fessor Phillips ; but from a painful apprehension, that anything he should 
 say might serve only to mar the effect of the most touching and interest- 
 ing exhibition of filial piety he had ever witnessed. That the venerable 
 Prelate to whom they had all listened with so much delight, had at an un- 
 reasonably short notice, in the midst of pressing engagements, harassing 
 anxieties and cares, left the sick-bed of a near relative, and travelled six 
 hundred miles from the Mississippi to the Alleghany, to pay a tribute 
 of respect and afi'ection at the grave of an instructor, with whom his inter- 
 course began quite forty years ago. This simple incident is all the evi- 
 dence that need be required of the true character of the living and the 
 dead. It is an incident, with the attendant circumstances, such as has 
 never occurred before and will never occur again. The moral sublime is 
 in beautiful harmony with the surrounding scenery. He who of the race 
 of men first stood in life, is the first to find repose, in death, on the highest 
 ascertained elevation on the continent, east of the Mississippi. Of the lat- 
 ter distinction, no one can divest him. Of his right to the former, the evi- 
 dence is believed to be scarcely less clear and conclusive. 
 
 After referring to the fact that he was a native of the County of Bun- 
 combe, during five years one of their Representatives in the General As- 
 
 *See University Magazine for March 1858, pp. 293-318. 
 
sembly, a resident of Asheville until 1831, and a citizen until his removal 
 to the University in 1836, President Swain remarked, that to the deceas- 
 ed he stood in a relation no less intimate and endearing. He was his pu- 
 pil in 1822, had been a Trustee of the University since 1831, and at the 
 head of the Institution since 1835. His friends Bishop Otey and Dr. 
 Wright, were class-mates, and their acquaintance commenced at an earlier 
 period, they had known him longer, but there was no man living who 
 knew him as well as he. For several years previous to, and during the 
 entire period of President Swain's connection with the University, Dr. 
 Mitchell was the Senior Professor. More than twenty years of daily in- 
 tercourse afforded the fullest and fairest opportunity to form a correct 
 opinion of his true character. He was a man of no ordinary ability, of 
 very unusual attainments in literature and science, of indomitable perse- 
 verance, untiring industry and unflinching courage. 
 
 It was natural that the sudden death of such a man should produce a 
 deep sensation in any community of which he was a member. But there 
 was a kindness of heart and amenity of manner, that had endeared Dr. 
 Mitchell to all within the range of hib associations ; and the manifestations 
 of grief by the Faculty, the Students, and the community, were heart-felt, 
 and universal. The rich and the poor, the bond as well as the free, men 
 women and children, united in the award of funeral honors to an extent 
 without a parallel, in the history of Chapel Hill. 
 
 Two days after the observance of the ceremonies upon the mountain, the 
 addresses of Bishop Otey and President Swain, at the earnest request of 
 the citizens of Asheville, were repeated at the Court House, to a large 
 auditory. The subjoined narrative, is more nearly a report of the remarks 
 of President Swain upon the latter, than upon the former occasion. 
 (78) 
 
ADDRESS. 
 
 In the year 1825, in tlie city of Raleigli, while a member 
 of the Legislature from the County of Buncombe, I was in« 
 troduced to the late John C. Calhoun, then Vice-President 
 of the United States. After a playful allusion to my height, 
 which he said corresponded with his own and that of Gen- 
 eral Washington, he remarked that we could also congrat^ 
 ulate ourselves on the circumstance, that we resided in the 
 neighborhood of the highest mountain on the continent,, 
 east of the Rocky Mountains. 
 
 The suggestion took me entirely by surprise, and I in^ 
 quired whether the fact had been ascertained. He replied, 
 not by measurement, but that a very slight examination of 
 the map of the United States, would satisfy me it was 
 so. That I would find among the mountains of Bun- 
 combe, the head-springs of one of the great tributaries 
 of the Mississippi, flowing into the gulf of Mexico ; of the 
 Kenhawa, entering the Ohio ; and of the Santee and Pee- 
 dee, emptying into the Atlantic. That these were the 
 longest rivers in the United States, east of the Rocky moun- 
 tains, finding their way in opposite directions to the ocean, 
 and that the point of greatest elevation, must be at their 
 sources. 
 
 In June, 1830, in company with the late Governor Owen, 
 and other members of the Board of Internal Improvements 
 of the State, I descended the Cape Fear river from Haywood 
 to Fayetteville. Professor Mitchell of the University^ 
 availed himself of the opportunity thus afforded for a geo- 
 
80 
 
 logical excursion and accompanied us. In the course of 
 familiar conversation, I referred to the conjecture of Mr. 
 Oalhoun, in relation to the height of our "Western Moun- 
 tains. He intimated then, or at a subsequent interview, 
 his concurrence in opinion with Mr. Calhoun, and men- 
 tioned that the distinguished naturalists, the elder and 
 younger Michaux, had arrived at the same conclusion about 
 the beginning of the century, from very different data. — 
 They had found in the Black Mountain, trees and other 
 specimens of Alpine growth, that they had observed no 
 where else South of Canada. 
 
 In the summer of 1835, Dr. Mitchell made his first at- 
 tempt to verify by barometrical measurement, the accura- 
 cy of the opinions expressed by these gentlemen. His ex- 
 ploration was laborious, careful and patient. A subse- 
 quent explorer remarks '^ that at the time Dr. Mitchell be- 
 gan his observations, with regard to the height of the Black 
 Mountain, it was much more inaccessible than it has since 
 become, by reason of the progress of the settlements around 
 its base, so that he was liable to be misled, and thwarted, 
 by unforseen obstacles, in his efforts to reach particular 
 l^arts of the chain, and when he did attain some jDoint at 
 the top of the ridge, nature was too much exhausted to al- 
 low more than one observation, as to the immediate locali- 
 ty. " The accuracy of this statement will be most clearly 
 perceived and readily admitted, by those most familiar 
 ■with the character of this mountainous region, then and 
 now. It is impossible for a stranger to form a clear con- 
 conception of the obstacles that were encountered and the 
 difficulties overcome. 
 
 Dr. Mitchell's account of this exploration was published 
 in due time, and attracted very general attention at home 
 and abroad. There are few, even of the most obscure vil- 
 lage newspapers of that day, in which notices of it may not 
 be found. It was the first authoritative annunciation, that 
 
81 
 
 the summit of the Bhick Mountain in Xorth Carolina, was 
 higher than that of the White mountains in ^ew Hamp- 
 shire, and the highest in the United States east of the Mis- 
 sissippi. The accuracy of the measurement was at first 
 controverted, but subsequently yielded by writers in Silli- 
 man's American Journal of Science, and has long since 
 ceased to be the subject of doubt. 
 
 The question that remains to be settled is of less impor- 
 tance, but it is believed, that its proper and truthful solu- 
 tion, is no less favorable to the deceased Professor's claim 
 to accuracy as a man of science — was the pinnacle measur- 
 ed by Dr. Mitchell in 1835, the highest peak of the Black 
 Mountain ? 
 
 In 1839, an agent of the publishers of Smith's Geogra- 
 phy and Atlas, called upon me at the University, and re- 
 quested an examination of the work and an opinion of its 
 merits. On an intimation that it was not very accurate in 
 relation to the Southern States, and especially erroneous in 
 various instances with respect to ^orth Carolina, he re- 
 quested me to revise it at my leisure, and transmit a correc- 
 ted copy to the publishers. I complied. A copy of this 
 book is now before me, and on page 138, in the section de- 
 scriptive of Xorth Carolina is the following paragraph : — 
 " Mount Mitchell in this State, has been ascertained to be 
 the highest point of land in the United States, east of tlie 
 Rock}^ Mountains." 
 
 At the time I revised the Geography and Atlas, I re- 
 quested Dr. Mitchell, to mark upon the map of Xorth 
 Carolina, the highest point of elevation in the Black Moun- 
 tain range. " He did so, and I wrote against it " Mount 
 Mitchell." A copy of this corrected map " entered ac- 
 cording to an Act of Congress in the jenr 1839, by Daniel 
 Burgess, in the Clerks office in the District of Connecticut," 
 is now in my possession. I have examined it carefully and 
 with all the aid to be obtained from Cook's map of the State, 
 
82 
 
 and the knowledge derived from a recent \dsit to tlie moun- 
 tain, I am by no means certain, tliat if tlie maps were sub- 
 mitted to me a second time time for revision, I could make 
 a nearer approximation to accuracy in tbe delineation of 
 the highest peak, than did Dr. Mitchell in 1839. 
 
 The following Book IN'otice is copied from the Raleigh 
 Register of June 5th, 1840. The replies to the suggestion 
 of a name for the highest peak of the Black Mountain, ap- 
 peared in the Higliland Messenger, the first newspaper that 
 was established west of the Blue Eidge. 
 
 The Rev. D. R. Morally, D. D., extensively and fa- 
 vorably known as the Editor of the Christian Advocate 
 at St. Louis, Mo., one of the official organs of the Metho- 
 dist Episcopal Church South, was at that time a citizen of 
 Aslieville, and the Editor of the Highland Messenger. It 
 is perhaps proper to state that the article copied from the 
 Raleigh Register, was written by me, and that I am the 
 friend alluded to in the closing editorial of the Messenger. 
 The name of Mount Mitchell as "an appellative" of the 
 highest simimit east of the Mississippi had its origin in 
 these publications. 
 
 [From the Raleigh Register, June 5th, 1840.] 
 smith's GEOaRAPHY AND ATLAS. 
 
 We took occasion, some weeks since, to direct attention to the very neat 
 and excellent Geography of S. Augustus Mitchell, and the admirable At- 
 las, by which it is accompanied. We have no disposition, in noticing the 
 work placed at the head of this article, to abate in the slightest degree the 
 high commendation we bestowed upon the labors of Mr. Mitchell. 
 
 It is due to Mr. Smith, however, to say, that a very vslight inspection of 
 his book will satisfy any one, that it will prove a dangerous competitor to 
 the whole tribe of candidates for patronage in this department. 
 
 The Geography is well written and what is quite as important, is very 
 accurate in its details, geographical and statistical. Like other School 
 Books by the same author, it is upon the productive system and well adap- 
 ted to the comprehension of the younger class of learners. Among the 
 pictorial embelishments, is a good representation of our new State House 
 
 I, 
 
83 
 
 and of the armorial device of the State copied from the Great Seal. In the 
 description of the State, Mount Mitchell is stated to be the highest point 
 of land in the United States, east ©f the Rocky Mountains. We are grati- 
 fied to see the reputation of the Senior Professor in our University estab- 
 lished upon so durable, firm and elevated a basis. 
 
 The mechanical execution of the book however, is decidedly inferior to 
 Mitchell's ; but such is not the case vrith the Atlas, vrhich is the neatest 
 and most accurate collection of maps for the use of Schools, vrhich has 
 fallen under our observation. The new counties, Henderson and Cherokee, 
 created by our last General Assembly, are delineated on the map of the 
 State. 
 
 [From the Highland Messenger, .June 12, 1840.] 
 
 It seems that Mr. Smith, the geographer, and the editor of the Raleigh 
 Register, have taken " the responsibility " to inform " the whole world," 
 that the Black Mountain in this County, is hereafter and forever to be 
 called Mount Mitchell, Now, inasmuch as this has been done without 
 once deigning to consult the good people of Buncombe, whose authority is 
 always higher, than any powers whatever at Haleigh (as they are some- 
 thing like a mile above them,) we hereby give notice to all whom it may 
 concern, and to all whom it may not concern, that Black Mountain is to 
 be Black Mountain as long as Buncombe remains Buncombe. If Mr. 
 Smith will publish another edition of his work, and consent to call Bun- 
 combe, Mount Smith, then we will consent to call the Black Mountain 
 Mount Mitchell. 
 
 [From the Highland Messenger, June 19. 1840 ] 
 
 smith's geography. 
 
 It has been suggested to us that our remarks last week in reference to 
 the change of the name of the Black Mountain, were calculated to do in- 
 justice to the individual, to perpetuate whose memory the change of the 
 name had been proposed. It was certainly the farthest from our intention 
 to do injustice to any one, and particularly to detract in the smallest pos- 
 sible degree from the well earned, and well deserved reputation of Profes- 
 sor Mitchell. We penned the article in question, under the impression 
 that Mr. Smith had applied the name of Mount Mitchell, to the whole 
 mountain range, so well known in this region as the Black Mountain. — 
 The latter appellative has its foundation in nature, and is too old and too 
 well established to justify any attempt at substitution. The thought would 
 be preposterous. We are perfectly willing to concede the name of Mount 
 Mitchell to that particular point on the Black Mountain, which Professor 
 Mitchell, after a degree of labor and expense, which none other than a 
 
84 
 
 genuine devotee of science would have incurred, demonstrated to be the 
 most elevated point of measured land east of the Rocky Mountains. We 
 say measured land, because we have long believed, and still believe that 
 there is one, if not two points, in the same range of mountains higher than 
 that one measured by Prijfessor Mitchell, from forty to sixty miles west of 
 the Black Mountain. 
 
 If Mr. Smith will, in the next edition of his work, use language a little 
 more precise than in his last, we will concede to him the right to pro- 
 nounce Mount Mitchell one of the peaks of the Black Mountain to be 6,476 
 feet in height, and the most elevated summit that has been as yet correct- 
 ly measured in the United States. In reference to this particular peak, 
 none wijl more readily or cheerfully unite in giving it the appellation of 
 Mount Mitchell than we. It is nothing more nor less than wliat the wor- 
 thy Professor is entitled to, as discovery is the foundation of right all over 
 the world to regions previously unknown, and a great proportion of our 
 geographical nomenclature will shoAv that it frequently gives title as well 
 as right. We shall, at a leisure hour, recur to this subject, and most re- 
 spectfully invite the attention of Professor Mitchell, and other scientific 
 gentlemen to the peaks, which, in our opinion, are much higher than those 
 already measured. 
 
 In the meantime, an esteemed friend has kindly promised to procure 
 and transmit to us for publication the interesting article of Professor 
 Mitchell, on this subject, originally published in the TtaJeifih Register, and 
 aubsequently transferred to the " American jTournal of Science,*' conducted 
 by Professor Silliman. 
 
 During a visit to Aslieville in tlie summer of 1843, I 
 found tlie half of a large tract of land bounded for several 
 miles bj the extreme height of the Black Mountain, for 
 sale, and more for the purpose of becoming, in connection 
 mth my friend Nicholas W. TVoodfin, Esq., a proprietor of 
 Mount Mitchell, than for any other reason, I purchased 
 the moiety owned by W. B. Westall. Two years after- 
 wards, in June 1845, the tract was surveyed by jS'ehemiah 
 Blackstock, Esq. His son Robe-i: Y. Blackstock, was 
 marker, the late James P. Hardy, a member of the Palmet- 
 to Regiment who died a soldier's death in Mexico, and W. 
 F. Angel were the chain bearers. 
 
 On Wednesday the 16th June, in company with Bishop 
 
85 
 
 Otey and many others, I took part in the funeral ceremo- 
 nies, at the re-interment of the remains of Dr. Mitchell, on 
 the highest peak of the Black Mountain. Among the per- 
 sons present were my old friend William Wilson, whom I 
 had not seen for many years, his cousin, Thomas Wilson, 
 the well known guide to the Black Mountain, who was the 
 first to discover the body of Dr. Mitchell, in the pool, at 
 the bottom of the Falls which bear the Doctor's name, and 
 ISTathaniel Allen, the son of Adoniram Allen. The two 
 latter are comparatively young men, and were children 
 when I ceased to be a resident of Asheville. 
 
 Bishop Otey and myself examined each of them careful- 
 ly and minutely in relation to the leading facts connected 
 with Dr. Mitchell's explorations of the Black Mountain, 
 and the fatal catastrophe which terminated his existence. 
 William Wilson stated, that he was never on the spot, 
 where we then stood, until the Summer of 1835, that then 
 in company with his friend and neighbor Adoniram Allen, 
 deceased,' he went there as the guide of Dr. Mitchell. He 
 entered into a detail of the leading incidents connected with 
 the difficult and laborious ascent of the mountain, pointed 
 out the route and referred to the most remarkable locali- 
 ties and objects, which then presented themselves on the 
 way. He stated that after the exploration of 1835, he had 
 never been on the top of this mountain until some time 
 subsequent to Dr. Mitchell's death ; when, hearing that a 
 controversy had arisen with respect to the pinacle then 
 measured, he determined, old and feeble as he was, to as- 
 cend it again, and had done so. He said that he recog- 
 nized, as he went up from point to point, the remarkable 
 places which had attracted his attention when he climbed 
 it with Dr. Mitchell. He had now gone over the same 
 route the third time, and entertained no doubt of the accu- 
 racy of his recollections. There is probably no one, whose 
 course of life and long familiarity with this range of 
 
86 
 
 mountains, entitle his statements in relation to it to more 
 
 implicit confidence. 
 
 He referred repeatedly to young Mr. Allen, for confirm- 
 atory statements, in relation to the line and manner of as- 
 cent, which he had heard from his father, the late Adoni- 
 ram Allen, and was corroborated by him throughout. 
 
 Mr. Thomas Wilson and Mr. Allen united with the old 
 gentleman in the statement that this was the only peak, 
 known during many years to the citizens of Yancey, as 
 Mount Mitchell ; and that until recently they had never 
 heard the name applied to any other pinacle. 
 
 Mr. William Wilson mentioned in the course of his re- 
 marks, that during the time they were on the mountain, 
 Dr. Mitchell climbed the highest Balsam he could find, cut 
 away the limbs near the top of the tree, and after repeated 
 observations with the instrument he carried with him for 
 the purpose, said that the peak on which they were, was 
 the highest of the range. I examined the ttee to which 
 Mr. Wilson pointed as the one, or near the one, which Dr. 
 Mitchell climbed, and found the initials R. V. B., J. P. H., 
 plainly carved in the bark. It stands within a few feet of 
 the newly-made grave of Dr. Mitchell. 
 
 On my return to Asheville, two days after parting with 
 Mr. Wilson, I met very unexpectedly with Mr. Robert V. 
 Blackstock, whom I did not recollect to have seen before, 
 but who, I am glad to hear, is worthy of his lineage. With 
 his father, i^ehemiah Blackstock, Esq., well known as an 
 accurate surveyor, a skillful woodman, and a man of intel- 
 ligence and integrity, my acquaintance began in my early 
 boyhood. The young man, on an intimation of my desire 
 to see his father, and examine the plat made for me in 
 1845, informed me that it was in Asheville, and that he 
 could probably supply the information I desired in relation 
 to it. He obtained it immediately. Directing my atten- 
 tion to the beginning corner, he traced the line from point 
 
87 
 
 to point, until it reached the extreme height where Dr. M. 
 was buried, and the marked corner tree which Mr. Wilson 
 had shewn me, standing within a few feet of the grave. — 
 The following entries, copied from the plat, require no ex- 
 planation, for those familiar with such muniments of title. 
 "Mitchell's highest point, Balsam, E. Y. B., J. P. H."— 
 Here Mr. Blackstock remarked that at the time he cut his 
 initials upon that Balsam, he climbed either that tree, or 
 one standing near it, in order to obtain a more command- 
 ing view of the mountain scenery, and that when near the 
 top, he was surprised to find that limbs had been trimmed 
 away, and called out to his companions below : — "some one 
 has been here before us." Mr. B. was not on the moun- 
 tain, when the funeral ceremonies took place, and had, at 
 the time his statement was made, no knowledge of what 
 had occurred between Mr. Wilson and myself. 
 
 Mr. William D. Cooke's map of the State was published 
 in 1847. It is, in most respects, greatly superior to any 
 previous attempt at a correct topographical representation 
 of INTorth Carolina. He had access to such surveys of roads 
 and rivers, as had been made with a view to the internal im- 
 provement of the State, and preserved in the public offices. 
 No suiweys were made at the public expense to facilitate 
 his labours, and he received no assistance from the public 
 treasury. The enterprise was arduous, expensive and haz- 
 ardous ; and, under the circumstances, accomplished in a 
 manner highly creditable to his industry, liberality and 
 skill. There was no public survey to guide him in his at- 
 tempt to delineate this mountain range ; but there is no 
 evidence of any effort having been made to avail himself of 
 the best private materials, which might have rewarded 
 proper research. 
 
 To attempt "to remove an ancient landmark," is both a 
 private and a public wrong. To transfer the name of the 
 discoverer of the interesting geographical fact, that the 
 
88 
 
 Black is the highest mountain on the continent, east of the 
 Mississippi, . from the point designated by Smith in 1839, 
 and by Blackstock in 1845, and place it beneath the names 
 of a series of persons who in 1855 or subsequently, when 
 settlements had encroached upon the base, and paths had 
 been opened to the summit, with published data as a guide 
 for computation, may have successively measured a loftier 
 peak than their predecessors, is as inconsiderate as it is 
 unjust. 
 
 Mr. Cooke cannot suppose that the point designated by 
 him as " Mount Mitchell," in 1855, and by Blackstock as 
 the "Party Knob " in 1845, is the summit that was meas- 
 ured by Dr. Mitchell in 1835. It is impossible for any one 
 to compare Smith's map and Blackstock's plat with Cooke's 
 map, and not perceive that it cannot be. The "Party Knob* ' 
 rises near the dividing line between Buncombe and Yan- 
 cey. " Mount Mitchell," as delineated by Smith and Black- 
 stock, is in Yancey county, east of south from Burnsville, 
 and some four miles north of the Buncombe line. 
 
 Mr. Cooke may erase "Mount Mitchell" from his map, 
 if he chooses to do so — the continent does not bear the 
 name of its discoverer — but he will not be permitted to per- 
 petrate a double wrong, by placing the name of Dr. Mitch- 
 ell where neither the Doctor, nor any friend of his, ever de- 
 sired to see it. 
 
 O.^