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LIFE 
 
 John Van Lear McMahon. 
 
 BY THE LATE 
 
 HON. JOHN THOMSON MASON, 
 
 FORMER JUDGE OF THE COURT OF APPEALS OF MARYLAND. 
 
 COMPLETED, REVISED, AND EDITED 
 
 BY HIS SON, JOHN THOMSON MASON. 
 
 Baltimore : 
 EUGENE L. DIDIER. 
 
 1879. 
 
1^5 
 
 Copyright, 1879, 
 By JOHN IHOMSON MASON 
 
 Press of 
 
 JOHN A. GRAY, Act. 
 
 18 Jacob Street, 
 
 nevvIyork. 
 
TO 
 
 The Chief-Justice and Associate Justices 
 
 OF 
 
 THE COURT OF APPEALS OF MARYLAND, 
 
 TO WHOM, EITHER IN THEIR HIGH PUBLIC OFFICES OR IN THEJR PRIVATE LIVES 
 
 THE NAMES OF MA.NY jMENTIONEO IN THIS BIOGRAPHY ARE FAMILIAR 
 
 WORDS, WERE HONORED ASSOCIATES, OR HAVE BECOME THE 
 
 CHERISHED MEMOKIES OF PAST FRIENDSHIPS, 
 
 THIS BOOK 
 
 IS 
 
 JiE SPE C TF UL L V D EDICA TED, 
 
 IN COMPLIANCE WITH THE KNOWN WISHES 
 OF THE DECEASED AUTHOR. 
 
NOTE TO THE READER. 
 
 In presenting this little volume to the public, I can 
 only repeat substantially what I stated in my circular 
 to the subscribers to the book, and to whose response 
 thereto I am largely indebted for this result. Six 
 years have elapsed since the death of my father, Judge 
 Mason, the author ol this biography, and the delay in 
 producing the result of his labors, undertaken and lei- 
 surely prosecuted several years before his death, may 
 possibly have subjected me to the imputation of in- 
 difference or neglect in carrying out his plan. But I 
 feel sure that my friends and the public who are inter- 
 ested, and whose generous criticism and kind forbear- 
 ance I ask for my part in the fulfilment of this duty, 
 will be equally lenient in viewing the reasons for its de- 
 lay. Many obstacles of a business and financial nature, 
 the hesitancy of publishers to undertake a work of a 
 purely local character, and the great difficulty in sup- 
 plying a few but very important links in the history of 
 Mr. McMahon's time, made this long delay necessary 
 £ind indeed almost compelled me reluctantly to abandon 
 it. I must here thank those friends who have aided me 
 by their advice, suggestions, letters, and reminiscences, 
 and thus were largely instrumental in enabling me to 
 proceed. The reader will observe that several references 
 to events and names throusfhout the book have neces- 
 
6 NOTE TO THE READER. 
 
 sarily lost their original correctness by the circum- 
 stances of time elapsed, subsequent deaths, and other 
 changes. I have tried to mark these by marginal notes, 
 but where I have not followed these changes 1 must 
 trust to the reader's detection and indulgence. These 
 discrepancies necessarily arise with the fiight of time, 
 and 1 have tried to meet them without disturbing prac- 
 tically the original text. Several events in Mr. Mc- 
 Mahon's private life I have taken the liberty of adapting 
 somewhat to the opinions and wishes expressed of his 
 family — and which was the intention of the author — 
 without marring their interest or reliability. With 
 these hurried explanations of my part in this book and 
 its presentation, I respectfully submit it to the public. 
 
 JNO. THOMSON MASON. 
 
 Baltimore, August, 1879. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Few men have died in Maryland whose death ex- 
 cited so general a feeling of regret and interest, in 
 every class of society, and called forth so iniiversal an 
 expression of admiration for his talents, learning, and 
 virtues, as that of Mr. McMahon. Few men better 
 deserved such a tribute ! Yet are we to leave the 
 record of his brilliant talents, his great labors, and his 
 noble virtues to the brief, ephemeral, and imperfect 
 sketches of his life which were drawn forth in the sever- 
 al courts of Maryland on the occasion of the first an- 
 nouncement of his death ? Is his history only to be 
 transmitted through the personal recollections of the 
 present generation, and to live entirely in tradition ? 
 Is there no abler pen in Maryland to be invoked to do 
 justice to his memory ? 
 
 The writer of this humble tribute to this departed 
 jurist has been watching since his death for some be- 
 coming record of his life and character, or for the an- 
 nouncement of the forthcoming of some such work from 
 hands worthier of the undertaking, but instead thereof, 
 in the busy march of life already his name has ceased 
 to be upon the lips of almost every man, as it was upon 
 the first announcement of his death, and ere long he is 
 likely to share the common fate of lawyers, and, as in 
 the case of his renowned predecessors in the legal pro- 
 
o IN TR OD UC TION. 
 
 fession in Maryland, the memory of his brilliant intel- 
 lectual triumphs, his lofty genius, and his irreproachable 
 personal integrity will fade almost entirely from the 
 minds of men, and, like the name of Daniel Dulaney, will 
 soon be " forgotten in his native State, where the un- 
 questioned supremacy of his talents was once the theme 
 of every tongue and the boast of every citizen," 
 
 Like his illustrious predecessors and most of his con- 
 temporaries, he has passed from the active scenes of 
 the fallible courts of this earth to the solemn, silent, and 
 unerring tribunal of the other world. Mitchell, Ta- 
 ney, Scott, Mayer, Dulaney, Price, Nelson, Chambers, 
 Schley, and Alexander have all gone before him, and, 
 alas ! many of them are already forgotten, and all 
 neglected. Although the persons and histories of these 
 men were once as familiar to all classes of our people 
 as the changeless mountains that towered above their 
 heads or the rivers that flowed at their feet, yet already 
 the records of their lives have become so faint and indis- 
 tinct that the most industrious historian would now be 
 hardly able to rescue them from oblivion. The graves 
 of many of them have not only never received the mel- 
 ancholy reward of a monument, but have even almost 
 been forgotten and lost, and their illustrious names 
 have passed in many cases from the veneration, if not 
 from the memory, of their own descendants. Alas ! 
 alas that the fruits of genius, virtue, and labor should 
 so soon perish and be forever lost ! 
 
CHAPTER I. 
 
 The author's object — Mr. McMahon's unrecorded life and works — Their 
 valuable example to young men — His peculiarities and characteristics 
 — His great modesty, and consequent absence of early notoriety — Con- 
 trast to his contemporaries — Difficulties of the biographer. 
 
 No character better deserves a Avell prepared bio- 
 graphical essay than that of Mr. McMahon, and it is 
 hoped that some able pen or eloquent tongue may yet 
 be invoked to perform with calm deliberation this high 
 and responsible duty. In the vain hope of supplying 
 in some degree this omission the present memoir has 
 been undertaken. Unsparing and exclusive panegyric 
 is not the purpose of this humble sketch. Fortunately, 
 in this case the truth ma}^ be spoken without a blush, 
 and the weaknesses, errors, and even faults of our de- 
 parted friend may be laid bare, and while they confirm 
 the rule that to err is human, they will be found to rest 
 for forgiveness upon higher grounds than the mere 
 claims of mercy. It is true for the present genera- 
 tion, no history of this man is necessary. Few men 
 ever lived in Mar3dand whose life and character were 
 so well known to all classes of our citizens. They stood 
 forth, like a grand portrait, with clearly defined fea- 
 tures, before and familiar to every eye, and there are 
 few men of the present generation in Maryland, how- 
 ever humble his sphere of life, that could not give a 
 very clever account of this great jurist and orator. 
 But this is not enough ! His history should be trans- 
 
lO JOHN VAN LEAR MC MAHON. 
 
 mitted to generations to come, as a bright and rare ex- 
 ample of what labor, talents, and virtue, when com- 
 bined, may accomplish for the good of mankind and for 
 the elevation of one's self among his fellow citizens. 
 
 For one possessed of such an extraordinary combi- 
 nation of intellectual gifts, personal virtues, and natural 
 accomplishments, his life was not eventful or marked 
 by striking incidents, and was even comparatively ob- 
 scure. The results of his labors were often so remote 
 from their first cause that frequently the author was 
 for the time lost sight of by the world in their frui- 
 tion of his work. His great professional efforts were 
 rarely reported, often not even known or heard of un- 
 til their results, and not always then, were experienced 
 in some decision of the courts upon a question of 
 vital public importance, or developed in some public 
 enterprise involving the welfare and advancement of 
 the State, and thus in contemplating the imposing re- 
 sult the eye was often withdrawn from the remote yet 
 controlling cause. He was never obtrusive, yet his 
 modesty could not repress the spread of his fame. 
 Thus it will be seen the difficulties of McMahon's biog- 
 rapher will be greatly enhanced by the circumstance 
 that his labors and intellectual triumphs were for the 
 most part hid from the world, and that unless they are 
 rescued while they are fresh in the recollection of his 
 friends and contemporaries, they must be forever lost. 
 To this may be added that in this case biography has 
 an extraordinary and peculiar duty to discharge. It is 
 no more necessary to record the actual performance of 
 his life than it is to show, as a valuable lesson to pos- 
 terity, the achievements which he could and ought to 
 have accomplished in life, but yet did not. In this re- 
 spect Mr. McMahon's character was in striking con- 
 trast with that of Mr. Pinkney, Mr. Wirt, and many of 
 
yOIIxV V.l.V LEAR MC MAHON. IT 
 
 his surviving compeers. They never permitted their 
 labors to go unrequited nor their lights to be ob- 
 scured under a bushel. They never turned their 
 faces from any way that led to distinction and power 
 nor were content to occupy a position in the back- 
 ground of any scene where they might have stood in 
 the front. McMahon, on the contrary, has rejected 
 the most prominent and alluring positions in the coun- 
 try — has stood back and witnessed others enjoy the 
 rich fruits of his own labor, and was always ready to 
 open the vast store-house of his mind for every brother 
 of his profession to help himself at pleasure. 
 
 He was a strange compound of a high order of am- 
 bition and of much personal vanity, with a great deal 
 of native modesty and diffidence, and the power of 
 these latter traits has been abundantly illustrated in the 
 splendid opportunities which by their influence he 
 has from time to time suffered to pass him unavailed of, 
 and which would have afforded him an extensive and 
 attractive field for the gratification of those other pas- 
 sions, ambition and vanity, which, though great, were 
 yet subordinate to the more feminine yet more attract- 
 ive and lovely traits, modesty and diffidence. 
 
 As has already been remarked, the mere events of 
 Mr. McMahon's life were neither remarkable nor spe- 
 cially striking, although the lessons to be drawn from 
 them, and from his traits of character, if properly por- 
 trayed, would be of great value and imposing interest. 
 The value of biography does not always depend upon 
 great eminence in the subject. Often the lives of the 
 greatest and the best men afford no other instructive 
 lessons than those which may be drawn from every 
 day's familiar observation of ordinary men around us ; 
 while, on the contrary, men who have been compara- 
 tively obscure in the walks of life as often furnish by 
 
12 JOHN VAN LEAR MC MAHON. 
 
 their history the most valuable and instructive lessons 
 for those who are to come after them. In either point 
 of view — whether regarded as 2ig7'eat man or one only 
 of striking incidents of life and instructive traits of char- 
 acter — the life and character of Mr. McMahon are 
 deemed worthy of commemoration. This impression is 
 doubtless strengthened by friendship, and by a sense 
 of many obligations, which an intercourse of a long 
 series of years, involving many trials and much depend- 
 ence upon the wisdom and affection of friends, has 
 generated. In Mr. McMahon's death many losses are 
 combined, but as he had passed his allotted period on 
 earth, and his public career of usefulness had closed, 
 the special loss in his death is to his friends. From 
 them he has passed forward, and no more will they be- 
 hold his manly form, or grasp his hand in warm affec- 
 tion, or listen to his lessons of wisdom. Thus the 
 friends and examples of our early years are dropping 
 one after the other into the grave, like stars that sink in 
 the west, while those of us who are not yet gone down 
 are already paling betore the increasing twilight of the 
 eternal morning, and ere long we shall all stand amid 
 the blaze ot that sun which shall know no setting. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 His birth and parentage — Early associations — School and college days — 
 His remarkable record as a student. 
 
 John Van Lear McMahon was born in the town 
 of Cumberland, Maryland, on the i8th day of October, 
 1800. The house in which he was born is still stand- 
 ing, and is the frame building at the corner of Green 
 and Smallwood Streets. His parents were Irish Pres- 
 byterians of culture, of the highest respectability and 
 integrity. His father, William McMahon, was deserv- 
 edly one of the leading men of Alleghany County, and 
 of great individual popularity. He possessed a hand- 
 some and attractive person .with manners and address 
 the most engaging. He represented Alleghany several 
 times in the Legislature, at different periods of his life, 
 and was once the sheriff of the county. His life, how- 
 ever, was mainly passed in retirement and industry, 
 domg good, and receiving in return the homage of his 
 neighbors. 
 
 It would seem that the name of his son was origin- 
 ally simply John McMahon, from the fact that it is thus 
 written wherever it appears in connection with his ear- 
 lier life. During both terms of the Legislature while 
 he was a member from Alleghany, he was known and 
 always recorded as John McMahon. The addition of 
 Van Lear was evidently subsequently adopted in com- 
 pliment to his kinsman John Van Lear, a respected and 
 prominent citizen of Washington County. 
 
14 JOHN VAN LEAR MC MAHON. 
 
 He was the only son of his parents, though he had 
 several sisters. His mother died when he was little 
 more than an infant — at the age of about seven years. 
 He had, however, even at that early age, developed 
 traits of character and mind which impressed his saga- 
 cious mother with a foreshadow of his future excel- 
 lence and greatness. Upon her death-bed, and but a 
 short time before she expired, she summoned her hus- 
 band and her son to her side, and placing her feeble 
 hand upon the child's head, addressed her husband 
 thus : " Mr. McMahon, I charge j^ou, whatever else 
 you may do, take especial care of the moral and mental 
 cultivation of this our only son, for I hope and think 
 that if you do he will become a great blessing and 
 comfort to you and his sisters. ' ' 
 
 This touching incident is related upon the authority 
 of one who still lives, and whose experience illustrates 
 how fully and faithfully the early predictions of her 
 mother about her son were fulfilled in his subsequent 
 devotion to an aged father and dependent sisters. 
 
 From his earliest infancy he was a vivacious and 
 sprightly child, social and even jovial among his com- 
 panions. He was apt at learning and very remarkable 
 for the faculty of memory, a trait which adhered to 
 him, as will be shown, though his whole life. His pre- 
 parator}^ studies were pursued in the " Alleghany 
 County Academy," at Cumberland, under the direc- 
 tion of the Rev. Robert Kennedy, a Presbyterian cler- 
 gyman of the old straight-laced school. In connection 
 with his duties as principal of the Academy, Mr. Ken- 
 nedy preached on Sundays. He came one Monday to 
 the Academy at an unusual and an unexpected hour. 
 Hearing something unusual going on, he quietly and 
 unobserved entered a private door, when to his sur- 
 prise he found his scholars playing " c/mrcli" and Mc- 
 
JOHN VAN LEAR MC MAHON. 15 
 
 Mahon in the rostrum preaching most vehemently to 
 his youthful but attentive congregation. Mr. Ken- 
 nedy's ear was at once caught by something that was 
 familiar to him, and immediately he recognized his own 
 sermon that he had preached the day before. He 
 paused, listened, and to his great astonishment heard 
 the whole sermon repeated almost verbatim, and 
 withal delivered with a very pleasing and impassioned 
 elocution. The old parson, so far from being dis- 
 pleased, was on the contrary highly gratified at this 
 little piece of disorder. After the performance had 
 ended he approached the boy and inquired how and 
 why it was he had committed his sermon to memory — 
 that there must have been something in it which espe- 
 cially attracted his attention. " But," continued Mr. 
 Kennedy, " you cannot come to church next Sunday 
 and after listening to my sermon repeat it to me the 
 next day ?" Young McMahon accepted the challenge, 
 and on the next Sunday he was early in his father's 
 pew, an attentive and eager listener to the discourse 
 of his reverend preceptor. On Monday he met the 
 test boldly, and repeated the whole sermon with such 
 ease and accuracy that Mr. Kennedy was utterly 
 astonished. He was at this time not fourteen years 
 old. 
 
 Having taken a full academic course under Mr, Ken- 
 nedy, who was not only a scholar but an excellent 
 teacher, young McMahon was sent to Princeton Col- 
 lege, where he graduated in September, 18 17. Here he 
 first developed the talents and industry which in after 
 life made him so pre-eminent among his fellow men. 
 
 That excellent and learned man, Rev. Dr. Ashbel 
 Green, was then the president of the college. He con- 
 ducted in person young McMahon's examination lor 
 admission. He did not hesitate to pronounce him fully 
 
1 6 JOHN VAN LEAR MC MAHON. 
 
 qualified to enter tlie junior class, but owing to his eji 
 treme youth, being at the time only fourteen years old, 
 Dr. Green advised him to start with the sophomore. 
 His excellent preparations, "his studious habits, and, 
 above all, his natural powers of mind, made the studies 
 of his classes an easy work. During his whole collegi- 
 ate term Dr. Green continued to manifest a great in- 
 terest in him, and as he was correct and moral in his 
 habits and of even a religious turn of mind, his rever- 
 end friend did not hesitate to assign him to the Presby- 
 terian pulpit and predict for him a brilliant and trium- 
 phant career in the ministry. 
 
 For many years after he graduated, his footprints 
 were still visible amid the classic walks of this ancient 
 and renowned institution, and many were the tradi- 
 tions which were handed down from class to class, by 
 professors and citizens, illustrative of his genius and 
 fidelity to his college duties. It was told of him that 
 he never missed a recitation, a prayer, or any other col- 
 lege duty. He thus subjected himself to the jeers and 
 jealousy of some of his school companions who were 
 less attentive to their obligations, and in order to defeat 
 his purpose to go through college without a demerit 
 mark, some mischievous boys, to prevent him from at- 
 tending early prayers, on one occasion barred him so 
 securely in his room that it was impossible for him to 
 get out through the door. But he was not thus to be 
 thwarted in his purpose. After exhausting every or- 
 dinary means to escape from his confinement, he at 
 length fell upon the expedient of tying his bed-clothes 
 together, and securing one end of this improvised rope 
 to a heavy article of furniture, he let himself down to 
 the ground from his window, and triumphantly though 
 good-naturedly entered the chapel in time to respond 
 to his name. Such a display of energy in prosecuting 
 
JOHN VAN LEAR MC MAHON. 17 
 
 SO noble a purpose could not but be a harbinger of 
 future success in life, and when coupled with his supe- 
 rior natural gifts we need not wonder that this unknown 
 boy should become the distinguished man. He grad- 
 uated perhaps the youngest member of his class, with 
 the first honors of college. 
 
 A distinguished Virginian, Mr. Edmund J. Lee, thus 
 writes : " You are right in your impression that 
 I was a classmate of J. V. L. McMahon. We grad- 
 uated in 1817 — he taking the first honor. He was so 
 close a student that there was no great social inter- 
 course with his fellow students on his part. He never 
 in our hours of relaxation participated in any of the 
 games resorted to for exercise or amusement ; and I re- 
 member that during the senior vacation he boarded in 
 town, and could be daily seen, slip-shod, walking from 
 his boarding house to the college library and return- 
 ing with an armful of books. He would then takfe a 
 seat in the shade and read the entire day." 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 Admission to the bar — Youthful hopes and disappointments — Leaves 
 Baltimore in disgust — Abandons the law and tries medicine and the- 
 ology — Incidents of other prominent lawyers. 
 
 He at once entered upon the study of the legal pro- 
 fession in Cumberland, with the same zeal and industry 
 that had marked his college career. His legal precep- 
 tor was the late Roger Perry, Esq., in his day perhaps 
 the leading member of the Alleghany bar. 
 
 As soon as he had been admitted to the bar, he re- 
 moved to Baltimore and opened his office. Flushed by 
 his college successes, and to a certain degree inflated 
 by the vanity which unsparing domestic and provincial 
 praise had produced, he expected at once to enter the 
 first ranks of his profession, or at least to be awarded 
 the position to which he supposed his talents and ac- 
 quirements entitled him. He entirely forgot that he 
 was but an unknown boy, and a stranger in a large 
 city. He was disappointed. But nevertheless, to the 
 more discriminating his claims to success were soon 
 made evident, and at a very early day he was by many 
 recognized as a " rising young man." 
 
 Notwithstanding his great intellectual accomplish- 
 ments and personal attractions he was tabooed to a cer- 
 tain extent by an element of society for eccentric and 
 uncouth manners and perhaps carelessness of dress, 
 and certain members of his profession sneered at him 
 
JOHN VAN LEAR MC MAHON. 19 
 
 at first who in after life were too glad to follow after 
 him and gather up the drippings from his overfiowing 
 brain or to bask in the sunlight of his reputation. 
 
 Under some real or imaginary neglect or indignity 
 from the bar and the bench, or from what he supposed 
 was a want of a due appreciation of his merits by the 
 community, he left Baltimore in disgust, after a brief 
 sojourn of less than two years, and returned to his na- 
 tive county. 
 
 His chief practice, as Avas the case with most young 
 lawyers in our earlier history, was in the criminal 
 court. His impetuous temper and proud nature led 
 him into frequent difficulties with the court, and on one 
 occasion into a personal altercation with the late Judge 
 Brice, one of its members. And from this circumstance 
 the ostensible reason assigned by his friends and per- 
 haps by himself for his abrupt departure from Balti- 
 more was that he had " lost the ear of the court." 
 
 Whether this charge was true or not in this case it 
 is not deemed necessary to inquire at this late day. 
 Certain it is that often it is well sustained, and in too 
 many instances we have known young men, who other- 
 wise might have risen to distinction, for this cause to 
 be driven from the bar altogether or consigned to la- 
 bor through a long period of their lives under the al- 
 most insupportable burden of the court's disfavor. Let 
 it be known in a comm.unity that the court is adverse 
 to any particular member of the bar, and it will need 
 an immense amount of talents and learning, and which 
 few possess, to overcome the influence of such hostil- 
 ity. While the courts should always be treated with 
 respect and veneration under the assumption that they 
 merit such honor, still when they forfeit that claim 
 they should be reminded of their shortcomings, al- 
 though there are few who have the courage or the dis- 
 
20 JOHN VAN LEAR MC MAHON. 
 
 interestedness to perform such a thankless duty. Mr. 
 McMahoh was of this latter class, especially in his ear- 
 lier years, and it may therefore be reasonably supposed 
 that the tradition to which reference has been made 
 was well founded, and that to some extent at least he 
 was driven from his profession by the austerit}'' of the 
 bench and by the subserviency of the bar. 
 
 These disclosures afford a sad commentary upon the 
 weakness of human nature, and illustrate how delusive 
 is the general theory which imputes to' judges and 
 courts immaculate purity and unswerving impartiality. 
 
 As regards sympathy and support from the members 
 of the bar, Mr. McMahon in his youth received none. 
 Nor was his case in this particular a rare one. Young 
 lawyers starting in life, especially clever ones, count 
 without their host if they expect to be raised to prac- 
 tice by any actual aid from their professional brethren. 
 They may receive from some courtesy and fair deal- 
 ing, but from others, and perhaps a majority, they will 
 experience nothing but meanness and injustice, and 
 often from those who make the greatest ostentation of 
 magnanimity and generosity. The legal profession is 
 no more exempt, as many assume, from the universal 
 law of selfishness than any other pursuit, and while 
 many a young lawyer has been raised to success and 
 prominence by the influence of family and friends, yet 
 he should always start on his rugged and toilsome pro- 
 fessional career with the conviction on his mind that 
 success and honor can only be attained by a bold and 
 indomitable reliance upon his own unaided efforts. 
 But this virtue of self-reliance is attainable alike by all, 
 and unhappily we often see by its aid the vulgar, the 
 ignorant and unprincipled rising above and triumphing 
 over talents, learning, and integrity. 
 
 Returning to Alleghany with his over-sensitive and 
 
JOHN VAN LEAR MC MAIION. ■ 21 
 
 morbid spirit deeply wounded by the real or imagi- 
 nary wrongs or slights he had met with while in Balti- 
 more, in a moment of disgust he abandoned the law 
 and studied medicine. If he supposed that the ills of 
 which he complained were inherent in the legal profes- 
 sion, and that he would escape them by joining the 
 medical fraternity, he was greatly mistaken. In turn 
 he soon became disgusted with medicine as uncon- 
 genial to his tastes and the temper and turn of his 
 mind. He next devoted his attention, strange as it 
 may now sound in the ears of his latter-day friends, to 
 the study of divinity. His father and family, as has 
 been before remarked, were strict Presbyterians, and 
 he had received both at home and at college a rigid re- 
 ligious training. To this cause in part, but perhaps 
 more to his own convictions that he possessed a high 
 degree of oratorical powers, can be attributed what 
 may now be styled this eccentric movement. How 
 far he pursued his theological studies we are not able 
 to state, but that he did actually enter seriously and 
 deliberately upon this field of science is affirmed upon 
 his own authority. 
 
 Whoever knew Mr, McMahon will at once realize 
 what an inappreciable loss the Presbyterian Church sus- 
 tained in his final abandonment of his purpose to be- 
 come one of its ministers and preachers. As eloquent 
 and profound as have been the clergymen of this de- 
 nomination, it may well be doubted whether any of 
 them ever attained an intellectual position so high that 
 McMahon would not have surmounted it, had he ad- 
 hered to and vigorously pursued his determination to 
 make theology his profession. 
 
 This circumstance suggests a remarkable coinci- 
 dence- — that the bar of Baltimore should have appropri- 
 ated to itself, about the same period, no less than three 
 
22 JOHN VAN LEAR MC MAHON. 
 
 promising- young men who had been dedicated to the 
 Presbyterian Church, and whose loss to the church 
 may be measured by their subsequent great and honor- 
 able achievements at the bar. They were all educated 
 at Princeton, and two of them expressly for the minis- 
 try. One still survives. 
 
 To show the unsettled condition of Mr. McMahon's 
 mind at this period, and the despondency of spirits 
 under which he was then laboring, it is mentioned, on 
 the authority of his early and continuous friend Mr. 
 David M. Perrine, that learning that he (McM.) was 
 contemplating a removal from Baltimore he called at his 
 office, which was then in an humble basement on Monu- 
 ment Square, to remonstrate with him against such a 
 step. He was found greatly depressed and disturbed. 
 He spoke as if he regarded his efforts in the legal profes- 
 sion as a failure, and expressed his determination to 
 abandon it. In vain did his friend urge him to stand 
 fast yet a little longer — in vain did he promise him 
 brighter skies and happier and more successful days. 
 But this excellent advice availed not — ^his mind was 
 made up to leave Baltimore and to abandon the law. 
 " What then," inquired Mr. Pennie, " do you propose 
 to do ?" His reply was : " My present purpose is to 
 devote my life to writing novels — to works of fiction !" 
 
 This state of mind associated with his subsequent de- 
 termined purpose to turn to the law, and the great suc- 
 cess which ultimately crowned his efforts, should fur- 
 nish a lesson of inestimable value to all young men who 
 m.ay languish and at last fall under the weight of disap- 
 pointment and corroding mortification which often at- 
 tend their early professional failure. This anxious state 
 of probation when properl)^ considered and availed 
 of is an advantage rather than a calamity to a young 
 lawyer. It affords him time for study and preparation 
 
JOHN VAN LEAR MC MAHON. 23 
 
 for the great struggle he is about to engage in, and 
 without which he is in danger of a greater source of 
 mortification and failure than mere want of practice — in 
 defeat by better trained opponents. The late Mr. J. 
 T. Mason* used to affirm that it was an actual disad- 
 vantage rather than a benefit to a young lawyer to fall 
 at once into a full practice, and cited his own case as 
 an example. For three long, weary years, a stranger 
 in the community and in the State, he sat in his ofifice, 
 almost crushed by the weight of despondency, before 
 he got a client. But this time was not misspent in idle- 
 ness or dissipation. When at last a client did come he 
 was fully prepared for every emergenc}^ which his case 
 might present, and this one client led to as large and 
 lucrative a practice as any man in Maryland ever en- 
 joyed. 
 
 Another eminent lawyer of our State, now no more, 
 in speaking on the subject used this strong language : 
 " For a young lawyer to start in his profession with a 
 large business is an actual calamity." Our own Mr. 
 Reverdy Johnson also has given some quite amusing 
 incidents of his own early experience and difficulties at 
 the bar, incidents amusing in reminiscence, but at the 
 moment deep mortifications and corroding sorrows ! 
 Time greatly changes the lines of the events of our 
 lives. Sorrows of the moment are by time often 
 changed into pleasant memories, while on the other 
 hand the recollections of joys lost, never to be found, 
 as often bring, bv the contrast with present gloomy 
 surroundings, an aggravation of unhappiness and sad- 
 ness. It is stated upon authority that so great a fail- 
 ure was Mr. Johnson's first effort in court that he shed 
 tears over it, of mortification and chagrin ! and that 
 
 * Father of the author of this biography. 
 
24 JOHN VAN LEAR MC MAHON. 
 
 at another time, soon after, he was called on for a 
 written opinion on some legal question ; it was pre- 
 pared and handed to his client, and the moderate 
 charge of five dollars made. The client, like the ma- 
 jority of the world, no doubt looking more to out- 
 ward . appearances than real merit, turned the soiled 
 and scratched piece of paper around and around, and, 
 without reading it, contemptuously remarked, " Ain't 
 this a pretty piece of paper to pay five dollars for?" 
 Of Mr. Alexander, another of Maryland's most distin- 
 guished lawyers, it is told that his early efforts at the 
 bar were a succession of failures, and nothing but the 
 spirit of perseverance and courage which marked his 
 whole life enabled him to surmount these early diffi- 
 culties and led him to the front rank of his profession. 
 Let all young lawyers in their hours of disappointment 
 and despondency call to mind these examples of hero- 
 ism and take courage from them. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Return and devotion to the law — His immediate success and distinction 
 — Enters politics — Reminiscences of legislative experience to 18^3 — 
 The Jackson excitement. , 
 
 Mr. McMahon finally returned to his first love, the 
 law, with renewed energy. His previous inconstancy 
 to this mistress, who held after all the first place in his 
 affections, seemed to awaken a kind of remorse, and 
 for which by a strict and chivalric fidelity through his 
 whole subsequent life he sought to atone. This mis- 
 tress never had cause afterwards to be jealous of her 
 lover. He at once resumed the practice of the law, 
 which he pursued assiduously at Cumberland, and with 
 immediate and great success. The people of Alle- 
 ghany could not be made to believe he had his equal in 
 the State or nation, and he soon ranked among the 
 leaders at the bar in the western section of the State. 
 
 Possessing wonderful fluency of speech and a com- 
 manding personal presence, he was not insensible to 
 the power that these rare gifts would bestow upon him 
 in the field of politics, and, allured by the seeming at- 
 tractions of public life, he very early offered himself a 
 candidate for the Legislature. Unaided by the modern 
 invention of caucus or convention or any other such 
 influence, he threw himself directly upon the favor of 
 the people in their unrestrained power, and although 
 little more than a mere boy, the charm of his elo- 
 quence, the boldness of his nature, the attractions of 
 
26 JOHN VAN LEAR MC MAHON. 
 
 his person, and perhaps above all the odor of honesty 
 which through his whole life has hung around him, 
 carried him triumphant over his older and oft-tried op- 
 ponents. 
 
 Before his first election to the Legislature his reputa- 
 tion as an orator had preceded him in the east, in well 
 defined and incontrovertible evidences. Doubtless the 
 first time his name was ever mentioned in Annapolis 
 was under the following circumstances : In the year 
 1823 the late Rev. Dr. Davis (his son, better known 
 than himself, was the late Henry Winter Davis), then 
 President of Saint John's College, made a visit, during 
 his summer vacation, to the " west," which at that 
 time hardly extended beyond the Ohio. Reaching 
 Cumberland, fatigued and tired, he expressed a wish 
 to his landlord to take rest and sleep. Before going to 
 his chamber, being an observant and inquiring man, he 
 asked if anything of interest was to be seen or heard 
 in town. The landlord gladly responded that there 
 was — that there was to be a public meeting at which 
 young McMahon was to speak, his countenance glow- 
 ing with such exultation as he mentioned the name, as 
 to awaken a desire in Dr. Davis to hear him. " When 
 the meeting organizes, awaken me," said he, and then 
 retired to take his nap. The landlord was too glad of 
 an opportunity to spread the fame of the youthful ora- 
 tor, and promptly at the hour called the Doctor. He 
 listened to several speeches before McMahon's turn 
 came. To the gentleman to whom he was relating the 
 incident after his return home, the late General Har- 
 wood, he broke forth in an excited and enthusiastic 
 strain : " Sir, I never was more astonished — a mere 
 stripling of a boy ! I never before had heard such fer- 
 vid eloquence. Sir, he moved me — he moved me as I 
 never was moved before !" and he thus continued in 
 
JOHN VAN LEAR MC MAHON. 27 
 
 extravagant praises for several minutes. No higher 
 authority of excellence, no more valuable tribute could 
 be paid to genius than this example furnishes, coming 
 as it did from a man possessed of such great learning, 
 culture, and taste. Nor did his encomiums end here. 
 He so spread the fame of the young mountain orator 
 among the students under his charge that when at last 
 McMahon came to Annapolis to take his seat in the 
 Legislature, the boys of the college, impressed no less 
 by the reputation their President had given him than 
 by his peculiar and unique dress and manners, ran after 
 and gazed at him with wonder and astonishment. 
 
 He made his appearance in Annapolis, when he first 
 came to take iiis seat in the Legislature, absurdly 
 dressed in the guise of a mountain huntsman in a lin- 
 sey-woolsey shirt, and he also affected a primitiveness 
 and uncouth manner which indeed was no part of his 
 nature. As the winter progressed and his acquaint- 
 ance and his intercourse with the members of the 
 other parts of the State increased, the affectations and 
 vanities gradually subsided, and before the session had 
 ended, the native simplicity of his heart had entirely 
 resumed the control over his manners and conduct, 
 and he became not only a prominent and even leading 
 member of the House, but also very popular with the 
 members of all parties and sections. Even his preju- 
 dices and animosities towards Baltimore had in part if 
 not wholly been overcome by his constant intercourse 
 with gentlemen from that city, and he at last was 
 brought to the belief that he was more highly appreci- 
 ated in Baltimore than he had ever before supposed. 
 
 During his first term in the Legislature, the first 
 public step in behalf of works of internal improvement 
 were then taken, Mr. Benedict J. Semmes, of Prince 
 George County, on the 3d day of December, 1823, 
 
28 JOHN VAN LEAR MC 31 A HON. 
 
 moved that a committee be appointed to prepare an act 
 of incorporation for the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal 
 Company, which has since grown into reality and into 
 such immense proportions and importance, but which 
 then was supposed by most persons, to exist only in the 
 imaginations of visionary men. The committee was 
 ordered, and it may not now be uninteresting to enume- 
 rate the names of that committee as the original pro- 
 ducers of this great enterprise. It consisted of B. J. 
 Semmes, of Prince George ; Athanasius Fenwick, of 
 St. Mary's ; Wm. Stewart, of Baltimore City ; Jas. J. 
 Merrick, of Washington ; John Edelen, of Charles ; 
 Dan'l C. Hopper, of Queen Anne ; J. V. L. McMahon, 
 of Alleghany ; Wm. Riley, of Worcester ; and Jno. R. 
 C. Chesley, of Calvert. Immediately thereafter Mr. 
 McMahon offered the first petition or memorial ever 
 presented to the Legislature praying aid for this great 
 work. Thus it will be seen that Mr, McMahon was 
 one of the first as he always continued to be one of 
 the most steadfast and efficient friends of our great 
 works of internal improvement. 
 
 Previous to 1823, Democratic nominations for Presi- 
 dent and Vice-President were usually made by a Con- 
 gressional caucus. National conventions were un- 
 known. It had been ascertained that a majority of the 
 Democratic members of Congress were in favor of the 
 nomination of William H. Crawford, of Georgia, for 
 President in 1824, and that he would probably be nom- 
 inated. The Maryland Legislature of that period were 
 decidedly in favor of x-^ndrew Jackson for the Presi- 
 dency, and in order to defeat the advantage which Mr. 
 Crawford would acquire by a Congressional nomina- 
 tion, they early took strong grounds against the whole 
 system of caucus nominations. Accordingly a number 
 of resolutions were passed by the Legislature of that 
 
JOHN VAN LEAR MC MAHON. 29 
 
 session, one of which was that " tJie Legislature of Mary- 
 land will view with concertt any attempt to control the elec- 
 tion of President and Vice-President of the United States by 
 means of a Congressional caucus." Mr. McMahon, being 
 an original friend of General Jackson, was prominent 
 in the advocacy of this measure. It led to his first 
 but by no means the least eloquent and able of his 
 speeches. It was the first blow that led to the death 
 of the Congressional caucus system. These resolutions, 
 having been directed to be sent by the Governor to our 
 members of Congress, led to a sharp and angry retort 
 from two of them, namely, Edward Lloyd and William 
 Hayward, Jr. 
 
 The reply of Hayward was caustic in the extreme, 
 and the point of which was. You mind your ozvn business 
 and I will attend to mine. 
 
 The Jackson members of the Legislature flared up 
 into an indignant rage, and young McMahon undertook 
 the response to what was deemed the disrespectful and 
 insulting letter of Mr. Hayward. As soon as the 
 communication was reported from the Senate, to 
 which body it had been first submitted, McMahon re- 
 sponded in a message to the Senate characterized by 
 great bitterness and sarcasm, amounting almost to 
 coarseness and want of dignity. He spoke " of acts of 
 a private and unofficial character which have been sur- 
 reptitiously invested with the garb of official dignity." 
 He went on to say that had this communication been 
 submitted directly to the House instead of the Senate, 
 ' ' it would probably have met with that reception from 
 us and found that place in our hall due to its intrinsic 
 merit and delicacy, a place under our table.'' He also 
 spoke of the ''flagrant and atrocious 7CSurpations" of 
 members of Congress ; and that he could see in 
 such a reply of Mr. Hayward nothing but " a vain at- 
 tempt to cast the cloak over his illegal assumptions." 
 
30 JOHN VAN LEAR MC MAHON. 
 
 This message was a very lengthy one, and many at- 
 tempts were made to pass substitutes or amendments 
 by way of tempering its violence, but in vain. The 
 majority of the House was in such a temper of mind 
 that they would not permit any alteration to be made to 
 this intemperate document, and finally passed it by a 
 large majority. The Senate, being influenced by more 
 moderate counsels, passed resolutions of their own, 
 which were more dignified and respectful but equally 
 decided and pointed. 
 
 One of the effects of this controversy was that Mr. 
 Hayward was consigned to private life, and never 
 again held official position, and another, already men- 
 tioned, was that the Congressional caucus system was 
 entirely and forever overthrown ; whether for good or 
 evil it is not now necessary or pertinent to consider. 
 
 He represented Alleghany for two years, namely, 
 1823 and 1824. In the latter year he was made chair- 
 man of the Committee of the Judiciary. In view of the 
 fact that he was the youngest man in the House, this 
 appointment to so responsible a post may well be re- 
 garded as a most distinguished compliment. Of all 
 those who were associated with him in those early and 
 virtuous days of our own State only three venerable 
 citizens survive — -Hon. Reverdy Johnson, who was a 
 member of the Senate, Thomas Hope, and Dr. Wash- 
 ington Duvall.* Millard, Lockerman, Lloyd, Fen wick, 
 Merrick, Semmes, Kennedy, Sprigg, Wootton, Peter, 
 Thomas, Bowie, Chambers, Rice, and the many others 
 whose names during that period shone so conspicuously 
 and honorably in the public councils, have all passed 
 away, and, alas ! their memories have almost entirely 
 faded from the minds of posterity. 
 
 * All since dead. — J. T. M., Jr. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 Important legislation — The session of 1823-24 — The " Jew Bill" — 
 Thomas Kennedy and McMahon — Memorable measures and speeches. 
 
 During this period, the sessions of 1823 and 1824, the 
 " Jew Bill," as it was familiarly called, was attracting 
 general attention and producing considerable feeling in 
 the State. In our early days, strange as it may now 
 sound, Israelites were disfranchised by the constitu- 
 tion, on account of their religious faith. Without any 
 political influence to purchase or reward legislative 
 efforts in their behalf, the Jews yet found friends to 
 come forward as their champions, in defence of relig- 
 ious liberty, and chief among these were McMahon of 
 Alleghany and Thomas Kennedy of Washington. The 
 foundation of this movement was commenced and par- 
 tially laid by the latter, the bold champion of liberty in 
 every form. But with all Mr. Kennedy's zeal and in- 
 fluence, he was yet unable to perfect this great and 
 favorite work, the enfranchisement of the Jews, and it 
 fell at last into the abler hands of McMahon. 
 
 It is a great blur upon the history of Maryland, hon- 
 ored as she has always been as the first to establish re- 
 ligious freedom in the States of America, that there 
 should be found among her people, at that late day, men 
 who bitterly opposed this measure of liberty and jus- 
 tice which is so consistent and congenial with the 
 theory of our free institutions. But such was the fact, 
 
32 JOHN VAN LEAR MC MAHON. 
 
 and it required all the energy, eloquence, and power of 
 McMahon to overcome this hostility. He did succeed, 
 and was amply rewarded by the gratitude of this per- 
 secuted race. 
 
 On the contrary, the memory of the pioneer of this 
 great work, Thomas Kennedy, the first and able cham- 
 pion of the movement, has never received from the Is- 
 raelites of Maryland the reward which was justly due 
 for his efforts in their behalf, and his remains now sleep 
 in obscurity, without any monument to commemorate 
 his public services and his private virtues. If the 
 manly and eloquent speech of Thomas Kennedy deliv- 
 ered in the Legislature in support of this favorite 
 measured-Jewish emancipation — could be brought to 
 the notice of the Israelites of Mar3dand in their present 
 free and improved condition, it may be safely affirmed 
 that they would take some steps to rescue the memory 
 of their early friend and champion from neglect and 
 total forgetfulness. 
 
 Mr. McMahon's elaborate speech on the " Jew Bill" 
 is still extant, and is an able, profound, and classic pro- 
 duction. At this late day it could be read with profit 
 by bigots who are seeking once more to revive the 
 spirit of religious persecution and to deprive citizens 
 of political equality because of their religious faith. 
 
 The reprint of the entire speech is precluded by its 
 great length, but so little of the forensic arguments and 
 eloquent orations of this great man have been preserv- 
 ed, especially those of his maturer years, that we are 
 tempted to make some extracts from the speech before 
 us, which is among the earliest productions of his life, 
 having been delivered before he was twenty-four years 
 of age. 
 
 The force of the extracts which are submitted is weak- 
 ened by their segregation from the main text. They 
 
JOHN VAN LEAR MC MAHON. ZZ 
 
 are given only as samples of the whole, and to furnish 
 evidence of the power, statesmanship, and cultivation 
 of their youthful author. He opens his speech by a 
 reference to his extreme youth in this language : 
 
 " If my esteemed friend, the gentleman who last ad- 
 dressed you, has had cause to tremble for his temerity 
 in approaching with youth and inexperience a question 
 at whose feet the stores of hoary-headed experience 
 and the dictates of learning and wisdom have so often 
 been laid in this House and elsewhere, with how much 
 fear and trembling, with how much humility should I, 
 upon whom these incumbrances hang doubly heavy, ap- 
 proach and present my little but heart-bestowed offer- 
 ing-" 
 
 The bill, as may have been expected, finall}^ passed, 
 and became the subject of warm applause in the papers 
 throughout the Union. So far as the public journals 
 were a test of public sentiment, there did not seem to 
 be a dissenting voice abroad as to its justice, its pro- 
 priety and policy. A few narrow minded and big- 
 oted papers of our own State still continued to growl 
 and protest against the measure, but very soon their 
 voices were lost in the general approval of the wisdom 
 and magnanimity of the Legislature. 
 
 From the histor}^ of this case let the men of the pres- 
 ent day learn that the old sj^stem of the Procrustian 
 bed, which lopped off from those who were too long 
 and racked those who were too short, is going out of 
 vogue. Let men find that the less they interfere with 
 the consciences of each other the better it is for all. 
 Religious faith can never be controlled by force. 
 
 At this session (1824), great commercial and financial 
 distress pervaded the whole State, and numerous peti- 
 tions poured in upon the Legislature, praying for some 
 relief. These petitions were referred to a special com- 
 
34 JOHN VAN LEAR MC MAHON. 
 
 mittee of which Mr. McMahon was chairman, who sub- 
 sequently made a report upon the subject. This mat- 
 ter is referred to not that it has any special interest to 
 men of the present day, but to show by a brief extract 
 from his report the vigorous and statesman-like view 
 which he took of the subject, and the sound philosophy 
 of government with which he was imbued, even in his 
 youth, which is equally as applicable to the present as 
 it was to the past. He said : 
 
 " Great respect is undoubtedly due to calls for aid or relief, pre- 
 ferred by every class of citizens, but more especially to those of the 
 agricultural portion of the community. 
 
 '' Yet in this instance, as in many others, there is reason to fear 
 that the proper apprehension of consequences of untried and even 
 dangerous measures is swallowed up in the sense of existing griev- 
 ances, and that a desire to get rid of the present drowns all fears as 
 to the future. 
 
 " It seems, however, to be the wiser doctrine that we should 
 rather bear the ills we know, if not altogether intolerable, than fly to 
 those we know not of. There is scarcely any plan or system of re- 
 lief which legislative wisdom can devise which may not have the 
 tendency to plunge us deeper into misfortune and despondency, whilst 
 its probable operation in exhorting us to a state of individual and 
 national prosperity is just as questionable as that of the system under 
 which we now live 
 
 " Your committee cannot but regard the dark picture of individual 
 distress which stands in such high relief upon the face of the petitions 
 as drawn with that license common to poets and painters which permits 
 the use of high coloring for the sake of effect. The present condition 
 of our country should furnish no matter for surprise when we advert 
 to the fact that the whole community has for years past been sus- 
 tained in a state of unhealthy and unnatural excitement by the ap- 
 plication of inordinate stimulants, which, whilst they influenced the 
 body politic, upheld it in a bloated and diseased state, which might 
 at first view have been mistaken for a state of health, but which, 
 when more closely approached, was found to be the work of decay. 
 These stimulants have been removed, and the necessary consequence 
 has been the prostration of all the various interests of the State." 
 
JOHN VAN LEAR MC MAHON. 35 
 
 These views show that the less legislation in eveiy 
 department of our government which we have, the 
 better for the general prosperity — that legislation is 
 to be resorted to only as a means to protect our 
 citizens from oppression, fraud, and crime, and not, 
 as is now the openly avowed purpose of government, 
 to secure to a few advantages and privileges by which 
 they may extort contributions, it may be covertl}- 
 and indirectly, but none the less certainl}-, from the 
 masses. 
 
 At the end of his second term in the Legislature as a 
 representative from AUeghan}^, he announced his pur- 
 pose to remove to Baltimore and not again to be a can- 
 didate. But he supposed he had an account to settle 
 with his constituents, for some malcontents had taken 
 him to task for his vote and advocacy of the measure 
 for increasing the representation of Baltimore City in 
 the House of Delegates to equal that of the counties — 
 in other words to give the city /(?7/;* delegates instead 
 of two, which it then had. This was the only ground 
 of complaint which was suggested against him. A 
 public meeting was called (17th Sept., 1825) at Cumber- 
 land, as was stated, that he might give an account of 
 his stewardship. It was a large meeting, and he made 
 an exceedingly able and happy effort, which was en-, 
 tirely directed to his vote upon the Baltimore question. . 
 This is one of the few of his speeches that is preserved, 
 and its publication, were it consistent with the plan of 
 this sketch, would greatly enhance its value and in- 
 terest. 
 
 In this speech he inveighed with power against local 
 prejudices, Avhich the narrow-minded and short-sighted 
 framers of our several constitutions, even in latter days, 
 have so much promoted by localizing our officers and 
 representatives and by restrictions upon the right of 
 
36 yOIIN- VAN LEAR MC MAHOI\f. 
 
 the people to select them without regard to locahty or 
 place of residence. Thus he continued : 
 
 " But what, after all, he would ask, was this dreaded Baltimore in- 
 fluence ? What was Baltimore influence, but Maryland influence ? 
 And what was Alleghany influence but Maryland influence ? Are our 
 interests not only distinct, but even opposed to each other ? If so, we 
 should separate from each other — we should no longer be brethren of 
 the same family." 
 
 He expressed the increasing prosperity of Baltimore 
 City in the following glowing language : 
 
 " When the constitution was formed, she was but a fishing village 
 upon which the metropolitan City of Annapolis looked down with 
 some degree of contempt as vastly inferior both in natural and ac- 
 quired advantages. Now her name has gone forth to the whole 
 earth, her commerce whitens every sea, her inhabitants traverse 
 every land, and your treasury hangs upon her breast for its very sus- 
 tenance. The golden belt of your State is she. Your fathers did not 
 then see or could it have entered into their minds to conceive of 
 that which we see an^ which seeing we disregard. Had they beheld 
 her in this her day, believe you they would have denied her the pit- 
 tance she now asks — an equal representation with your ov,'n county?" 
 
 Again in connection with the same subject he asks : 
 
 ' " Is justice of yesterday or to-day ? or is it not the same yesterday, 
 to-day, and forever more ? Is she but the slave of expediency, or the 
 tool of parties, or does she now sleep ?" 
 
 In concluding his speech of vindication, and before 
 retiring, he begged to propose to his constituents the 
 following question : 
 
 " Had his general conduct as their delegate been 
 worthy of himself and satisfactory to them?" upon 
 which he requested their vote. 
 
 Mr. McMahon then left his stand, and Roger Perry, 
 Esq., advanced to it and put to vote the question pro- 
 posed by Mr. McMahon, upon which there Avas an 
 unanimous vote in the affirmative. 
 
JOHN VAN LEAR MC MAHON. 37 
 
 Singular enough, however, this same gentleman, Mr. 
 Perry, then the head of the Alleghany bar, the very 
 next week announced himself as a candidate to suc- 
 ceed Mr. McMahon, and pledged himself that " if 
 elected he would oppose the alteration of the constitu- 
 tion allowing to the city of Baltimore two additional 
 delegates to the General Assembly." 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Progress at the bar — The great Jackson movement and McMahon's 
 active part — J. Q. Adams' Brilliant speeches and a duel — Remarks on 
 Duelling — Close of his legislative experience — His early farewell to 
 public office. 
 
 He immediately thereafter took his leave of his birth- 
 place, his home, and his friends, and opened his office 
 once more in Baltimore City, but imder far different 
 auspices than before. His reputation as an orator, a 
 statesman and lawyer had preceded him, and he had in 
 a great degree disrobed himself of his boyish follies 
 and eccentricities, and consequently he was at once 
 awarded a position among her first citizens. 
 
 He came to Baltimore about the time that that mighty 
 man Andrew Jackson, as a statesman, was emerging 
 from comparative obscurity and was making rapid prog- 
 ress towards the highest place in the country and in the 
 hearts and affections of the people. His romantic his- 
 tory, his military services, his patriotism, his courage, 
 his honesty of purpose, drew around him hosts of 
 friends, especially among the young men of the land. 
 The chivalric and enthusiastic nature of McMahon 
 had previously attached him to the banner of Jackson, 
 and it may be said without the fear of contradiction 
 that no young man in America contributed more 
 largely by the lire of his eloquence and earnestness to 
 the triumph of General Jackson than the youthful Mc- 
 
JOHN VAN LEAR MC MAHON. 39 
 
 Mahon. To him was attributed, no doubt correctly, 
 that famous and inspiring- stanza, beginning : 
 
 " Freeman, cheer the hickory tree, 
 
 Its boughs in storms have sheltered thee ! 
 O'er freedom's land its branches wave, 
 'Twas planted on the lion's grave ! 
 Firm, united, let us be, 
 Rallying around the hickory tree I" 
 
 These thrilUng catch words were inscribed upon al- 
 most every .banner, headed the columns of almost 
 every Jackson paper throughout the country, and was 
 the talisman by which the Jackson ticket everywhere 
 was voted with such enthusiasm. Few rustic orators 
 ever closed their rude outbursts in favor of Jackson 
 without quoting these inspiring lines. The popular 
 addresses of Mr. McMahon during this excited politi- 
 cal contest for eloquence or vigor were unsurpassed in 
 ancient or modern times. It is doubtful whether De- 
 mosthenes or Henry, in tlieir respective palmiest days, 
 ever succeeded in arousing the fire of enthusiasm in 
 their hearers to a greater degree. His voice was won- 
 derful in power and volume, and equally musical and 
 rich. He was tall and erect in person and graceful in 
 manner, with enough of peculiarity or eccentricity in 
 all that he did and said to rescue him from the sem- 
 blance, even in any other particular, of a common- 
 place man. 
 
 To this extraordinary combination of physical gifts, 
 so essential to excellence, he possessed even in a higher 
 degree every quality of mind which was necessary to 
 the perfect orator ! His judgment, common sense, 
 and knowledge of human nature were profound ; his 
 powers of imagination were rarely equalled, if ever ex- 
 celled ; in wit and humor and repartee he abounded ; 
 
4° JOHN VAN LEAR MC MAHON. 
 
 but above all he was distinguished for his ready com- 
 mand of language. He never hesitated for a word, and 
 rarely ever used any but the right one. His figures of 
 speech were for the most part drawn from familiar sub- 
 jects around him, and were therefore susceptible of ap- 
 preciation from all who listened to him, and his lan- 
 guage, though chaste and vigorous, was always simple. 
 He abounded in well drawn anecdotes, most of which 
 were the creatures of his own fancy, and used as the 
 best and most captivating way of illustrating and en- 
 forcing his subject. 
 
 It was during the period of which we speak that John 
 Quincy Adams, then President of the United States, and 
 a candidate for re-election, on his way to Washington 
 was stopping at Barnum's Hotel in Baltimore. It 
 happened that on that very evening a Jackson meeting 
 had been called in Monument Square, which, as is well 
 known, is in front of the hotel. McMahon was to ad- 
 dress the meeting, and consequently a large crowd had 
 assembled. Mr. Adams and David Barnum, unnoticed 
 by any one, quietly took seats at a window, where they 
 could hear and see, unobserved, all that was going on. 
 Mr. A. listened with profound attention to Mr. Mc- 
 Mahon 's speech. He was too old and too wise a poli- 
 tician to wince under the powerful invectives that 
 were poured out upon him, but when the address 
 closed he turned to Mr. Barnum and remarked : " I 
 have listened before to many popular speeches, but 
 have never in all my life heard anything to equal this 
 effort." 
 
 During the bitter political excitement of this period 
 Mr. McMahon was involved in a personal altercation 
 with the late John S. Tyson, which resulted in a duel. 
 Mr. Tyson was at the time a young lawyer of consid- 
 erable promise, and was a Quaker, or at least belonged 
 
JOHN VAN LEAR MC MAHON. 41 
 
 to a prominent Quaker family. From this latter cir- 
 cumstance it was supposed he would not fight. In 
 those days genteel fighting of every kind was more in 
 vogue than at present, and many young gentlemen 
 supposed they could take liberties with Mr. Tyson with 
 impunity, and some even said he could not be tricked ■"^■ 
 into a fight ; and it seems Mr. McMahon so thought 
 and acted, but found himself mistaken. Mr. Tyson 
 was Mr. McMahon's opposing candidate for the Legis- 
 lature, and, while the former was haranguing the crowd, 
 charged the father of the latter with having been an 
 Orangeman. In those days it was not considered so 
 much of an honor to belong to such an association as it 
 is at present, and Mr. McMahon's Irish blood, although 
 it was also colored by Presbyterianism, fired under 
 this imputation against his father, which he resented 
 by kicking Mr. Tyson on the stand. A correspond- 
 ence ensued, a challenge passed, and a duel was ar- 
 ranged to come off in Virginia. Upon the first meet- 
 ing, and before the preliminary arrangements weie 
 settled, the police pounced down upon the parties, 
 when principals, friends, and surgeons fled in confusion. 
 In their haste to escape arrest, by an unlucky accident 
 the two principals found themselves the sole occupants 
 ol the same carriage, and in this awkward and incon- 
 gruous association they travelled for miles. It may 
 well be imagined that no pleasant conversation or 
 agreeable intercourse marked this extraordinary jaunt, 
 nor had it the effect, as might well have been hoped, 
 of paving the way to a reconcihation. On the con- 
 trary, the untoward circumstance seemed rather to 
 sharpen the appetite of both for a personal conflict, and 
 accordingly another meeting was soon arranged and 
 the parties exchanged shots. 
 
 The bullet from Mr. Tyson's pistol was arrested in 
 
42 JOHN VAN LEAR MC MAHON. 
 
 its deadly course by the trigger guard of his adver- 
 sary's pistol, and thus undoubtedly was his life saved. 
 Had Mr. McMahon perished in this encounter he 
 would have gone to his premature grave with probably 
 this only passing tribute to his memory — that a brilliant 
 young man had fallen in the blossom of his promise, 
 and long ago he would have been forgotten by the 
 world. 
 
 But neither was injured, and the quarrel was ad- 
 justed and amicable relations were restored, which con- 
 tinued through their liv^es. 
 
 Notwithstanding both parties acted with gallantry, 
 the newspapers and individuals were disposed to cast 
 ridicule upon the affair, because no blood was shed. 
 It is a very common practice among newspapers — too 
 often the perverters and corruptors of public senti- 
 ment--to ridicule affairs of honor, as they are styled, 
 where they termiinate without the shedding of blood or 
 are adjusted in advance upon amicable and just terms. 
 As ridicule and contempt are the most dreaded of hu- 
 man judgments, so nothing as often leads to sanguin- 
 ary conflicts or prevents the honorable adjustment of 
 private quarrels as this fear of incurring them by the 
 settlement of personal clifihculties without bloodshed. 
 On the contrary, if 'death or serious wounding is the 
 result, with a strange inconsistency these same parties 
 raise a doleful howl against the barbarous and brutal 
 practice of the dule, as shown in results which they 
 have so materially contributed to produce. 
 
 No man who professes and practises the Christian 
 faith can ever become involved in any way in a duel, 
 except as a medium to prevent it. The sublime teach- 
 ings of the Saviour point to forgiveness and forbear- 
 ance as the rule for those who wish to follow Him and 
 his precepts. Indeed it is almost impossible for those 
 
JOHN VAN LEAR MC MAHON. 43 
 
 who practise His faith to ever give cause of personal 
 offence, and they are therefore properly exempted from 
 all obligation to resent insult to themselves, which un- 
 der such circumstances can only be regarded as wan- 
 ton and cowardly. 
 
 But to men of the world, men who live under the 
 laws of this world and disregard the higher law of 
 Christianity, one of the best preservers of the integrity 
 and purity of society is the law of personal responsi- 
 bility as defined by a well regulated system of duelling. 
 In every point of view duelling is an evil, but a neces- 
 sary one because of the imperfections of our natures. 
 In the same sense it may be said that the court of jus- 
 tice, the jail, the penitentiary are evils, but they are 
 rendered necessary by those more remote yet certain 
 evils which result from the injustice and depravity of 
 human nature. The law of the duel places a penalty 
 upon certain offences in society against honor and truth 
 which the civil law cannot reach, and consequently de- 
 ters the perpetration of them by men of courage and 
 honor, while mean and cowardly men are restrained 
 from their commission by the fear of the consequences. 
 How many of us have of late witnessed upon the floor 
 of Congress, where decorum and a sacred regard for 
 the rights and feelings of others should above all other 
 places be observed, men violating these obligations in 
 the most wanton manner ; and in one instance, at least, 
 have heard an individual lament that when he had help- 
 less women and children in his power he did not tor- 
 ture and persecute them more than he had done, and 
 yet, although without a smgle Christian sentiment to 
 restrain him, has permitted and even exulted in the 
 grossest personal insults from men, simpl}^ because 
 they were able to defend themselves ! Could society 
 by the most unrestricted use of the duel be reduced to 
 
44 JOHN VAN LEAR MC MAHON. 
 
 any greater degree of degradation or merit stronger 
 condemnation ? 
 
 Regarded as an evil, and even as an unjustifiable 
 evil, it is well worthy of the consideration of public- 
 spirited and philanthropic men whether duelling would 
 not be at least a good substitute for the present system 
 of avenging private wrongs now so generally adopted 
 and sanctioned by public sentiment, and by even courts 
 and juries, and which is so often attended by the most 
 cowardly violence, wanton cruelty, and grossest injus- 
 tice upon its victims. 
 
 That the law of duelling is often resorted to as the 
 means of gratifying private malice rather than of vindi- 
 cating personal honor is undoubtedly true. Under 
 such circumstances no man who is actuated by honora- 
 ble or noble sentiments can justify this abuse of a sys- 
 tem that was adopted for far different ends, and this 
 condemnation by men who acknowledge " the code" 
 would greatly tend to abolish this abuse. One thing is 
 very certain — that the almost total abolition of the duel 
 has not had a favorable influence upon the moral and 
 honorable tone of societ}^, nor can we discover that a 
 true Christian spirit has been thereby promoted. Had 
 the opposite been the result, all high-toned men and 
 well-wishers of society would rejoice in the disuse of 
 the practice. 
 
 Mr. McMahon twice represented Baltimore City in 
 the Legislature, viz. , in the years 1827 and 1828. He 
 was associated, as before, with many of the leading men 
 of the State, and took a conspicuous rank among them. 
 He was again assigned the prominent post of chairman 
 of the Committee of the Judiciary. His colleague dur- 
 ing both terms was the late General George H. 
 Steuart, distinguished for his intrepidity and fidelity. 
 
JOHN VAN LEAR A^C MAHON. 45 
 
 They were firm and efficient friends of General Jack- 
 son, and were elected on his ticket. 
 
 During the time he was thus representing Baltimore 
 his father was a member from Alleghany. This coun- 
 ty had begun to grow in population and importance. 
 Already its great mineral resources were attracting at- 
 tention, and their development commenced. This in- 
 volved new and original legislation, and from his age and 
 experience the elder Mr. McMahon was charged with 
 much of the business of the county. Often he would 
 find himself involved in difficulty and resisted by op- 
 position which he could not surmount. In every such 
 case his gallant son came to his rescue with his elo- 
 quence and logic. A distinguished gentleman who 
 still survives and who was a member at this period 
 thus writes upon this point : ' ' Whenever the father 
 got into difficulty in carrying through the House his 
 favorite measures, 1 was often struck with the power and 
 zeal with which his son would come to the rescue, and 
 by his commanding oratory and influence seldom if ever 
 failed to carry the House Avith him. I remember upon 
 one occasion, after a great effort of the son to carry 
 through the House a favorite measure of the father, 1 
 went to the old gentleman and congratulated him upon 
 his success, and said he must feel proud of his son. With 
 his face beaming with delight he grasped my hand and 
 Avith great emotion exclaimed, ' Any man would be 
 proud of such a son ! ' " The same gentleinan, whose 
 opinion upon such a point is worthy of weight, adds : 
 " I have ever looked upon Mr. McMahon as the most 
 ready, fluent, and off-hand debater I have ever known. 
 Judge Chambers may have equalled him in some re- 
 spects, but excelled him in none." 
 
 The labors of Mr. McMahon during the four years 
 he was in the Legislature, as shown by his speeches, 
 
46 JOHN VAN LEAR MC MAHON. 
 
 his elaborate and studied reports, many of them upon 
 new and hitherto unexplored subjects, his messages, 
 and the numerous measures inaugurated by him, were 
 wonderful, especially when compared with the labors 
 of our latter-day legislation. The proceedings show 
 in addition that he seemed never to have been absent 
 from his seat, as his name appears upon almost every 
 vote that was taken. He originated and carried through 
 several important measures affecting the Baltimore 
 and Ohio Railroad. 
 
 After his second term expired, whether it was the re- 
 sult of a fixed purpose formed at the time or not, his 
 connection with all political and official station forever 
 ceased. He never afterwards held any office, although, 
 as will presentl}^ be shown, the most elevated places in 
 the State and National Government were subject to his 
 acceptance. 
 
 In June, 1829, he was nominated with acclamation 
 by the Jackson party, which had then been recognized 
 as the Democratic party, as a candidate for Congress. 
 He declined the nomination in a long published address 
 to the people of the State. That he would have been 
 triumphantly elected there could be no doubt, as he was 
 the idol of the Jackson party, which was then at the ze- 
 nith of its power and triumph. But he persistently re- 
 sisted the temptation, and, as has been stated, never 
 again appeared before the public as a candidate for any 
 office, national or State. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Temptations of his early life in Baltimore — Bravely overcomes them — 
 Social charms and distinctions offered him and resisted — Comments on 
 society at this time — His connection with important business and com- 
 mercial projects — B. and O. R. R. Charter — Genius and faculty for 
 details. 
 
 Biography becomes a crime against society when- 
 ever it suppresses the truth. The portrayal of no char- 
 acter should ever be attempted unless with the firm 
 purpose of telling not only the truth but the whole 
 truth. The vices and weaknesses of the great as well 
 as their virtues should be narrated, for the one no less 
 than the other teaches lessons of inestimable value. 
 Mr. McMahon's life leaves behind this well-established 
 truth, that no power of early education, no strength of 
 virtue, no force of character, intellect, or example is 
 always proof against temptation, and that the only 
 safety for all, especially the young, is to have always 
 upon their lips, in their hearts, and in their conduct of 
 life the words of divine inspiration : ' ' Lead us not into 
 temptation." No young man passed through the 
 moral dangers of a college life so entirely unscathed, 
 or spent the first years of manhood in a state of more 
 perfect exemption from every kind of vice. Yet after 
 his career in Annapolis as a member of the Legislature, 
 and after he had resumed his residence in Baltimore 
 and plunged headlong into business, politics and its 
 world, with all their incidental excitements, it cannot 
 
48 JOHN VAN LEAR MCMAHON. 
 
 be denied that he fell into a partial state of dissipation, 
 with its concomitant attendants, which soon not only 
 gave alarm to his friends, but, as is most unusual, 
 awakened, before it was too late, apprehensions in him- 
 self for his own safety. Happily for all those virtues 
 and mental triumphs w^hich in after years so conspicu- 
 ously shone forth in his life, .he took a bold and manly 
 stand against this insidious eneni}', and completely, in 
 one bold struggle, triumphed over it forever. His 
 middle and latter life were as free from all such irreg- 
 ularities as that of any man. 
 
 Though actively engaged in politics, he was no less 
 attentive during this period to his professional duties. 
 His success in each was in a great degree due to the 
 secluded and studious life which he led after he had 
 sown what may be called "his wild oats." His tal- 
 ents, youth, and accomplishments, no less than his per- 
 sonal appearance and address, fitted him to be a great 
 favorite in society, especially among ladies, but he 
 eschewed its allurements, and devoted himself to his 
 books, his business, and to ambition. His chief and al- 
 most only relaxation consisted in conversation with his 
 few and select friends, many of whom consisted of 
 young lawyers from the counties, and this rule he ob- 
 served during his entire life. He has been often heard 
 to say of the latter that their primitive, strong, and orig- 
 inal ideas, their frank and undisguised manners, and 
 their sincere, appreciative, and simple nature were espe- 
 cially congenial to his own tastes. No man could ever 
 hold conversation with Mr. McMahon without being 
 improved and captivated. 
 
 Mr. McMahon rarely ever appeared in the circles of 
 fashionable life, and many attributed this result not to 
 his own choice, but to wdiat has been styled want of 
 social position. This last theory was wholly unfounded, 
 
JOHN VAN LEAR MCMAHON. 49 
 
 and no doubt originated with those who, finding their 
 advances towards this rising young man to enter the 
 round of fashion and levity rejected by him, and there- 
 by becoming chagrined, charged him with not being 
 able to attain a position in society which he had posi- 
 tively refused. No man enjoyed in a higher degree all the 
 elements that sliould entitle him to a social position, yet 
 few held in greater contempt its absurd and wicked ex- 
 actions. He never followed any man because of his 
 position, especially, as is often the case, when that po- 
 sition was more the result of ad\^entitious circum- 
 stances than solid merit. " Solid merit" was a favor- 
 ite expression as well as a favorite idea with him. 
 Among his intimate friends were to be found some of 
 the plainest and most unpretending people, while many 
 of those who stood high in social life he cordially de- 
 spised and entirely rejected. But the great elements of 
 a gentleman — honor, truth, and refinement of sentiment 
 • — he always held in veneration. 
 
 Notwithstanding he was an object of notice and at- 
 traction, he was still the subject of occasional jeers. I 
 well remember the time and circumstances under which 
 1 first saw or ever heard of Mr. McMahon. I was a 
 small boy of only ten years of age and was on a visit 
 with my mother at the house of a family then residing 
 on Lexington Street, which was considered among the 
 most fashionable of the city. A number of young ladies 
 we're seated in the parlor, when the lady of the house, 
 who was at the window, called aloud to them to run to 
 her. "There goes," she said, "young McMahon! 
 isn't he splendid !" Then in the next breath she add- 
 ed', " but. he's vulgar — see, he wears his hat on the side 
 of his head ?" But it he did, the girls all gazed at him, 
 in admiration, until he had passed out of view. 
 
 Of all the strange anomalies of human society, that of: 
 
50 yOHiY VAN LEAR MCA'IAHON. 
 
 " social position" is the greatest. While its limits are 
 clearly marked and its power universally acknowl- 
 edged, yet the principles upon which it rests or the 
 rules by Avhich it is known and governed no one can 
 define. It is an organization without any fixed theory 
 or system, yet it appears to have existed through ever}^ 
 period of the world, exciting the boldest and most en- 
 ergetic efforts of the unworthy, the weak-minded and 
 vain to attain to its immunities. In this country neither 
 virtue, nor cultivation, nor talents, nor family, nor even 
 refinement, as they should be, are the tests of ad- 
 mission into its fellowship, for often we find men and 
 women possessing all these in a high degree, yet are to- 
 tally discarded from social rank, while, on the contrary, 
 many who are destitute of most of those possessions 
 and advantages are received. Often it is true we find 
 those who, without a thought or a care upon the sub- 
 ject, are admitted to all the rights of social life 
 not so much because of their merits and qualifications 
 as because of some adventitious or unimportant cir- 
 cumstance, while others possessing the same claims, 
 but without the aid of the same chain of circumstances, 
 are denied them. Substantial merit is often found in 
 social position, but surely it is not so much the key to 
 admission to it as qualities far more inferior and less 
 enduring. This position is frequently if not generally 
 attained, in cases of the undeserving, by means of pre- 
 sumptuous usurpation, the abuse of wealth, and by the 
 sacrifice of many of the noblest virtues — for example, 
 independence, charity, truth, friendship, and the like. 
 To the vain and weak, especially among women, there 
 is an attraction or fascination about social position 
 which is inexplicable — indeed there are few who are 
 entirely free from this morbid aspiration. It runs 
 through and pervades every class of society, every de- 
 
JOHN VAN LEAR MC MAHON. 51 
 
 gree of intellect, every condition of fortune. When 
 we reflect upon the sacrifices that are made to attain it, 
 when compared with the unsubstantial fruits that re- 
 sult therefrom, we seek in vain for an explanation, 
 except it be found in human vanity. It is a passion 
 wholly sensual, because its object is immediate gratifi- 
 cation. Unlike ambition, which seeks for fame in the 
 future, all the triumphs of this passion are present and 
 die with the possession. The memory of no man, with 
 rare if any exceptions, was ever deemed worth}^ of com- 
 memoration exclusively upon the ground of the dis- 
 tinction he may have attained as a man of fashion or of 
 social standing. If he has nothing more substantial 
 upon which to build a posthumovis fame, his memory 
 will soon fade from the minds of posterity. While the 
 men and women of fashion who ruled society during 
 the period of the Charleses, the Jameses, the Georges 
 in England, and later in our own countr}^, if they pos- 
 sessed no other claim to distinction, have so completely 
 passed from the records of history as to make it diffi- 
 cult, at this day, to cite a name even for an illustration. . 
 Goldsmith, Cromwell, Savage, Burns, Henry, Frank- 
 lin, Morgan, Martin, and a host of others, who perhaps 
 never attained or aspired to any fashionable distinction, 
 as now understood, live in imperishable fame. Yet 
 men and women continue, and probably always will 
 continue, to pursue the phantoin of sOcial distinction 
 with more avidity than orators, statesmen, soldiers, and 
 poets seek to record their names upon the tablet of im- 
 mortality. 
 
 That there will be distinctions in society, no one can 
 doubt and none regret. It is impossible that the virtu- 
 ous could mingle with the debased, that the cultivated 
 mind should find pleasure in intercourse with the igno- 
 rant, that filth and cleanliness should be congenial, 
 
52 JOHN VAN LEAR MC MAHON. 
 
 that vulgarity and refinement should commingle. If 
 some such distinctions or well-understood rules should 
 regulate and determine social position, there could be 
 no well-grounded objection to its recognition, and it is 
 greatly to be lamented that by means of the weakness 
 of our nature we should be prevented from organizing 
 refined society upon well-defined, elevated, and noble 
 foundations, and that it should no longer depend upon 
 the caprices and whims of the weak and silly or of 
 mere pretenders. 
 
 It is not against social distinction that we war, but 
 against the extreme and absurd lengths to which it is 
 often carried, and against the false principles upon 
 which it is made to stand. The votaries of these ex- 
 travagances suffer more from them than those they seek 
 to exclude from equality. While they are rearing their 
 children under the rules of tenderness and effemi- 
 nacy, repressing the natural growth of their minds, 
 impressing upon them the value of adhering to the triv- 
 ial laws of fashion and society and the elegances of 
 dress, rather than studying the great laws of nature, 
 truth, and man, the children outside of this mysterious 
 organization are unrestrained, growing in strength and 
 courage of body and mind, and as the trees of the natu- 
 ral forest outstrip the cultivated shrubbery of the gar- 
 den, so do these rise above their effeminate competi- 
 tors in the struggle of life. It is for these reasons 
 mainly that the children of the higher classes with all 
 their advantages are not able to sustain themselves 
 against the advances of the youths of the humbler ranks, 
 and we find it a i"are circumstance at the present day 
 for those who are devotees of fashion or of exclusive- 
 ness, however great their intellectual power and dis- 
 tinction may be, ever to see their descendants attain to 
 a similar position in society, while they are daily wit- 
 
JOHN VAN LEAR MC MAHON. 53 
 
 nessing those who in their youth knew nothing- of luxury 
 or effeminate culture — in other words the "vulgar" — 
 rising to distinction over their heads. For this reason 
 the great statesmen of the present day for the most 
 part have no ancestry and leave no posterity of whom 
 to boast. 
 
 It was not so in the earlier history of the Republic. 
 The boys of gentlemen, as they were known and styled 
 in those times, were permitted to " rough it" in their 
 younger days as the best means of fitting them for the 
 future conflicts of life, and the main if not the only les- 
 sons it was deemed important to add to the ordinary de- 
 velopment of their minds were those of truth, honor, 
 courage, and sympathy. In the early times of Virginia, 
 when she furnished Presidents for the country, it used 
 to be a jocular maxim that no one need aspire to be 
 President unless he had gone barefooted when a boy, and 
 it is probable that this fantastic theory has actually held 
 good in the case of all of the eighteen Presidents that we 
 have had, with perhaps one exception. Washington, 
 Jefferson, and Madison, it is well known, are illustrations 
 of its truth, while Messrs. Pinkney and Wirt and the 
 late Chief Justice of our own State constitute striking 
 examples that early fashionable training is not neces- 
 sary to fit a man for high social position in after life. 
 If individual examples were examined, it would be 
 found that the rule as stated is correct and general, 
 while opposite results only furnish the exceptions. 
 With such a foundation as has been indicated, namely, 
 truth and honor, well laid in youth, it will not take 
 long in after life to acquire the external polish and ac- 
 complishments of a gentleman. 
 
 This exclusiveness of life shuts us out from many 
 sources of enjoyment and amusement, as well as from 
 the lessons of wisdom and philosophy which one so often 
 
54 JOHN VAN LEAR MCMAHON. 
 
 finds in the humbler walks of life. From this source, 
 almost exclusively, did Dickens draw his unrivalled 
 lessons of wisdom, wit and humor. Much of the wit 
 and humor of the world has been drawn from hum- 
 ble and obscure sources, and Mr. McMahon's well- 
 drawn anecdotes fully illustrate this truth. Humor 
 always attracted his attention, wherever he would fall 
 upon it, and if it were possible to draw it from an oys- 
 te?' he would make the effort ! His appreciation of wit 
 and humor was keen in the extreme, and no man in- 
 dulged in both more than he, on all becoming occa- 
 sions, or in better taste. 
 
 The history of Mr. McMahon, who brought with him 
 from the country to Baltimore all the elements of his 
 greatness, is an example of the truth of what has been 
 afihrmed, and proves the falsity of the impression which 
 generally prevails that true eminence in all professions 
 is only to be found in our large cities. That they pre- 
 sent a wider field for success than the country there can 
 be no doubt, and hence many of our best men are at- 
 tracted to them ; but that they are better calculated to 
 develop real intellectual or moral greatness in youth, I 
 deny. And the reason is obvious. In cities, the minds 
 and bodies of men of all orders and ranks, owing to 
 their dependence upon each other, fall under what are 
 termed the rules of society and general conventional- 
 isms (and frequently these rest upon unsound princi- 
 ples of morality and humanity), beyond the circle of 
 which they never think of adventuring. Upon young 
 men especially this influence is most baneful, and where 
 they fall under it the result they never rise to any de- 
 gree of originality, but continue through life the mere 
 slavish followers of other men's thoughts and actions. 
 Without freedom of thought and independence of ac- 
 tion, no man can ever attain to true greatness. On the 
 
JOHN VAN LEAR MCMAHON. 55 
 
 other hand, in the country, untrammelled by conven- 
 tional laws, the mind is free to think and the body to 
 act to the fullest extent of their capacity ; and not- 
 withstanding country men may sometimes incur the 
 imputation from fashionable circles of boorishness, and 
 lack the opportunities for culture which cities furnish, 
 yet in the country have been laid the foundations of all 
 the great men that have risen to renown in our nation, 
 with but few striking exceptions. 
 
 The practice of this rising young lawyer, McMahon, 
 during the period of which we have been speaking, was 
 not confined to criminal cases or to that class of civil 
 practice which calls forth especially forensic displa3^s 
 of oratory. Professionally he soon became identified 
 with the commercial and solid business affairs of the 
 city. Business men found that his judgment, learning, 
 and business qualifications could as well be relied on 
 as his eloquence, and he thus early in life became iden- 
 tified with most of the grand enterprises of the city 
 which subsequently led to its increase and develop- 
 ment. One of the most enduring monuments of the 
 well-founded confidence of the business public in his 
 skill and ability is the charter of the Baltimore and 
 Ohio Railroad, which is the work of his pen. This was 
 perhaps the first elaborate railroad charter ever granted 
 in the United States, and its merit as a work of profes- 
 sional skill and great foresight cannot be too highly ap- 
 preciated. Formed without a precedent, out of the 
 fertility of his own brain, this charter itself became the 
 precedent for almost every early similar charter grant- 
 ed in the United States. 
 
 He was distinguished for the combination of two en- 
 dowments which is rarely ever met with. To a lofty 
 genius was united a capacity to deal in details in a 
 wonderful degree, and what is still more remarkable, 
 
5^ JOHN VAN LEAR MC MAHON. 
 
 while the regions of logic and fancy seemed to be 
 his natural element, he would come down to dry and 
 insignificant practical matters with apparent pleasure. 
 He was no more familiar with the rules of tropes and 
 figures or legal logic than he was with those of arith- 
 metic and book-keeping, and few merchants or shop- 
 keepers could state an account better than he, or with 
 greater facility. 
 
 The faculty of memory is not often found associated 
 with genius, yet Mr. McMahon's history presents a 
 striking example of an exception to this rule. No man 
 could possess a more tenacious and accurate memory 
 than he ; nor was it confined to general subjects, but 
 also embraced the most minute details, both as regards 
 figures, dates, and events. He never forgot anything, 
 and this faculty of memory it seems was born with him. 
 He could refer with wonderful accuracy to case, vol- 
 ume, and page upon any subject, and to which perhaps 
 his attention had not been called for years. All who 
 have ever heard him argue cases in court can attest the 
 truth of this affirmation. There have been persons 
 who have charged Mr. McMahon with affectation upon 
 this subject, and that this seeming display of memory 
 was in fact the result of deliberate present prepara- 
 tion. Such a charge is wholly unfounded, and any 
 one who has been at all observant of his arguments 
 would at once discover that it would be absolutely im- 
 possible for him to affect this readiness of memory. 
 As an extraordinary illustration of his power of mem- 
 ory and great learning, an intimate friend relates this 
 anecdote : A lawyer once came into his room at the 
 Eutaw House, where he kept his library, to confer 
 with him about a case he was then considering. He 
 stated that there were four questions about which he 
 had great difficulty and upon which he could find no 
 
JOHN VAN LEAR MC MAHON. 57 
 
 satisfactory authority. Mr. McMahon asked what the 
 points were, and the gentleman proceeded to state the 
 first. "Go to the book-case, " said McMahon, "and 
 you will find the very point settled," referring, at the 
 same time, to volume, case, and page. The second 
 and subsequent points were then submitted, and upon 
 every one, without a moment's hesitation, he cited, with 
 the same precision and accuracy, some case or other 
 authority which settled them. His friend, after the 
 lawyer had gone, asked him how long it had been since 
 he had seen those cases. Some of them, he replied, 
 his attention had not been called to for twenty years ! 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 1829-1831 — A celebrated trial and romantic features — McMahon's history 
 of Maryland — His desertion of the administartion (Jackson) party — 
 The example of other leaders — "The Indemnity Act" and Bank of 
 Maryland riots — Mr. Reverdy Johnson and Mr. McMahon before the 
 Legislature — The latter's grand argument — Good results — The Sena- 
 torial contest of 1836. 
 
 In the year 1829 a crime was committed in the west- 
 ern part of the State which excited deep and universal 
 interest, on account of its rareness as well as its enormity 
 and the previous respectability of the parties involved. 
 The sheriff of Washington County himself pre- 
 viously a highly esteemed and even beloved citizen, 
 and connected with one of the oldest and most respect- 
 able families in the State, through the powerful influ- 
 ence of a paramour murdered his wife under circum- 
 stances of the greatest atrocity. He fled, but after the 
 lapse of several months was captured in New Orleans 
 just as he was about to embark for some foreign coun- 
 try. He was brought back to Cumberland for trial. 
 McMahon, then only twenty-nine years of age, in con- 
 nection with the late William Price and William V. 
 Buskirk, defended him. The evidence was so clear 
 against the prisoner that although McMahon's effort 
 before the court and jury was so powerful and fasci- 
 nating that it literally intoxicated the crowds that at- 
 tended the trial, it failed to secure an acquittal. The 
 prisoner was convicted and subsequently executed. It 
 
JOHN VAN LEAR MC MAHON. 59 
 
 was in this speech that he dwelt with such pecuhar 
 power upon the mysterious and ma^^ic influence which 
 is so often exercised for evil by the gentler over the 
 sterner sex — how, prostituting reason, obliterating 
 obligation, paralyzing the will, blasting hope, it ter- 
 minates at last in ruin and desolation. His philosophy, 
 his wisdom, and his eloquence as displayed on this oc- 
 casion were of themselves enough to place him among 
 the great men of our country. 
 
 Surrounding the woman who led to this tragic crime 
 there hangs a history that romance could hardly equal. 
 Without any special personal beauty or attractions, she 
 yet possessed a serpent-like fascination over men which 
 few could resist and which with a fiendish delight she 
 exulted in exercising especially for the purpose of 
 rupturing the sacred and tender ties of marriage. Pre- 
 vious to her acquaintance with the unhappy victim of 
 whom w^e have been speaking, she had successfully ac- 
 complished her hellish purposes in a number of in- 
 stances and in several cases in families of the highest 
 standing. After the tragedy at Cumberland she disap- 
 peared, and as Rachel Cunningham was forever after 
 lost sight of by the world. Though out of public view, 
 she still lived. Years afterwards a poor, friendless, and 
 penitent woman, hailing from North Carolina, vmder an 
 assumed name asked admission into the Baltimore 
 Almshouse, and was received. Her tenderness to 
 the sick, and afflicted, her fidelity to every duty as- 
 signed to her, and her exemplary conduct generally, 
 soon secured for her a fiduciary position from which 
 she was gradually advanced until she became the ma- 
 tron of the institution, and only a short time ago she 
 died respected and, indeed it may be added, beloved by 
 all those who fell under her care and influence. As a 
 Magdalen it may be hoped that she fully atoned for 
 
6o JOHN VAN LEAR MC MAHON. 
 
 the afflictions and sorrows which she had caused in her 
 earher hfe, by the assiduity and tenderness which she 
 employed to alleviate suffering and distress in her lat- 
 ter years ! 
 
 Mr. McMahon was not deterred at this period by his 
 professional labors from undertaking a responsible lit- 
 erary work which could only be performed b}^ great 
 study and laborious research. Reference is made to 
 his history of Maryland. This production as far as it 
 went — for it is greatly to be lamented that it never was 
 completed —speaks for itself, and will impress all who 
 are capable of judging as an achievement of great 
 merit and value. The correct and vigorous style in 
 which this book is written proves the author, inde- 
 pendent of all concurrent evidences, to be a man of lite- 
 rary culture and great strength of mind. This volume 
 of the history of Maryland was published in 1831. 
 
 We have spoken of the active part taken by Mr. Mc- 
 Mahon in 1 827 and 1828 and 1829 in promoting the elec- 
 tion of General Jackson. The old hero had not long 
 been in the Presidential chair before this firm and pow- 
 erful friend deserted his administration. It would be 
 difficult now to trace the motives that led him to take 
 so important and so damaging a step. It surely could 
 not have resulted from the loss of confidence in, or ad- 
 miration and personal affection for, the great chieftain. 
 He continued the same bold, true, patriotic, and faithful 
 citizen and man he had ever been, and instead of doing 
 anything to forfeit the confidence and affection of his 
 friends, every act he performed, every sentiment he 
 uttered as President could but tend to strengthen the 
 cords that bound him to his personal and political 
 friends. Yet Mr. McMahon did desert him, and in this 
 one act we find more to condemn in the motives which 
 we are forced to attribute to him for this step than in 
 
JOHN VAN LEAR MC MAHON. 6i 
 
 any other ever taken by him in his previous or subse- 
 quent life. He forsook General Jackson either be- 
 cause he found his vanity wounded in not having the 
 political influence awarded to him which he claimed, 
 or because of the President's financial and commercial 
 policy in the administration of the government. Either 
 motive was wholly unworthy of the man and entirely 
 indefensible. Though the first was perhaps the con- 
 trolling one, Mr, McMahon thought proper to place 
 the grounds of his change in politics upon the latter. 
 In this he entirely failed to sustain himself before the 
 public or his friends. It is well known that General 
 Jackson only carried out boldly as President those 
 measures which he had as boldly advocated before the 
 people while he was a candidate, and during this pe- 
 riod no one more ably and ardently sustained him than 
 Mr. McMahon. 
 
 Reference has been made to the fact that he had be- 
 come about this period closel}^ identified, in his pro- 
 fessional duties, with the financial and commercial 
 affairs of the city of Baltimore. The truth is, as bold 
 and free as he was when he came to Baltimore, as far 
 elevated as-he was abov^e all sordid and mercenary mo- 
 tives, he was yet not — and few men are — above the con- 
 taminating power of wealth and traffic when found to 
 bear directly upon his own personal interests. It is not 
 to be intimated he was to be corrupted by such consid- 
 erations, but that his judgment was swayed by them. It 
 was against the undue and disproportioned increase of 
 capital over other interests in the government, which the 
 constitution and laws made it the duty of the President 
 equally to protect, that General Jackson arrayed him- 
 self. Mr. McMahon, though strong-willed and virtu- 
 ous, was yet not enough so to take sides in this contest 
 against his clients. His vanity led him to suppose that 
 
62 JOHN VAN LEAR MC MAHON. 
 
 he could injure General Jackson's political fortunes as 
 much as he had previously helped them. But in this 
 he was sadly mistaken. In after life he once playfully 
 referred to this epoch in his histor}' as illustrating the 
 strength and firm unity of the Democratic party. He 
 said that he imagined that when at that period he 
 took sides against the old party he would see it totter 
 if not fall under the power of his assaults, but so far 
 from it, he pla3'fully added, that after the smoke of his 
 fire had cleared away he found, to his great mortifica- 
 tion, that two, and only tzvo, had fallen victims, and one 
 of those in less than two weeks recovered and re- 
 turned to his original fealty. 
 
 About the same time quite a number of other promi- 
 nent leaders of the Jackson party in Baltimore, doubt- 
 less for the same cause, deserted its standard. Among 
 the immber, Messrs. Reverd}^ Johnson, John Glenn, and 
 y George P. Kennedy were conspicuous. Notwithstand- 
 ing all these gentlemen had been among the most vehe- 
 ment in their denunciations of Mr. Clay — the latter per- 
 haps the first in Maryland who publicly from the hust- 
 ings charged the corrupt bargain between Mr. Adams 
 and Mr. Clay in regard to the Presidency — they yet sub- 
 sequently, unlike Mr. McMahon, became warm political 
 and devoted personal friends of the great Kentucky 
 statesman, and firmly adhered to him as long as he 
 lived. 
 
 It was in the year 1836 that Mr. McMahon made per- 
 haps the greatest forensic argument of his life. It was 
 when the ' ' indemnity act, ' ' as it was known, was under 
 consideration in the Mar^dand Legislature. 
 
 Most persons who are at all familiar with the history 
 of our State know all about the indemnity question and 
 its origin. 
 
 The Bank of Maryland, one of the oldest as it was 
 
 A4> 
 
 fL^ 
 
yOH.V VAN LEAR MC MAHON. ^Z 
 
 considered the safest in the State, had secured to a won- 
 derful extent the confidence of all classes of the pub- 
 lic—the wealthy merchant, no less than the widow and 
 orphan. Those most directly interested in the bank — 
 its directors and officers — had such confidence in this 
 old institution that they supposed that by some super- 
 human power it could manage itself. Under this de- 
 lusion — or rather to use more appropriate terms, and 
 perhaps the mildest that could be employed — by reason 
 of neglect, the bank in an hour when least expected 
 went to pieces, producing more wide-spread ruin, espe- 
 cially among the humble classes, than had ever before 
 been experienced from a similar cause. In a single day 
 the wealthy lost their fortunes, the widow and orphan 
 their pittance, and the hard-working laborer was re- 
 duced to beggary ! Popular indignation followed, cul- 
 minating in riot, bloodshed, and destruction of prop- 
 erty. The houses of some of the leading men connected 
 with the bank, without regard to their owners' actual 
 complicity with its bad management, were attacked and 
 demolished. The arm of civil law for the time was powr 
 erless and the city fell into the hands of an infuriated mob. 
 
 After order and quiet were once more restored, the 
 parties who had thus suffered appealed to the Legis- 
 lature for redress and indemnity. 
 
 This application was based upon the plain principle 
 of civil government, that loyalty, obedience, and the 
 payment of taxes on the part of the people begot the 
 correlative obligation of protection on the part of the 
 State. Whether this doctrine applied to the case then 
 before the Legislature was the imposing question to be 
 settled for the first time in Maryland. It excited uni- 
 versal attention and even much personal bitterness and 
 party rancor. The best talent and professional learn- 
 ing of the State were elicited in some way upon one 
 
64 JOHN VAN LEAR MC MAHON. 
 
 side or the other of this grave question. Men were 
 consigned to political obscurity for the part they took 
 in this controversy, while others for the same reason 
 suddenly advanced to power and distinction. Mr. 
 Taney was first employed by the parties seeking indem- 
 nity to represent them before the Legislature, but be- 
 fore the time came he was appointed Chief Justice of the 
 United States, and of course withdrew from the case. 
 Mr. McMahon was therefore called to fill his place, and 
 entered at once with zeal upon his preparation for the 
 task. 
 
 Mr. Reverdy Johnson and Mr. McMahon by resolu- 
 tion of the House were allowed the same privilege of 
 appearing on the floor to address the Legislature in 
 behalf of the claim for indemnity. Mr. Johnson, not- 
 withstanding his known ability and great self-posses- 
 sion, fell on this occasion, perhaps the first time in his 
 hfe, below the expectation of his friends and the public. 
 This result was mainly if not entirely attributed to the 
 peculiar relation which he bore to the case. He was, 
 virtually, himself on trial. Flis own house had been 
 demolished by the mob, because of his alleged complic- 
 ity with the affairs of the Bank of Maryland, and he 
 was himself seeking indemnity from the Legislature, 
 and in order to accomplish that, his own vindication 
 was necessary. Under these trying circumstances, 
 coupled with a sensitive nature, his power in a measure 
 failed him, and he found it necessary to throw himself 
 upon the argument of his friend. It was manifest he 
 leaned upon a pillar of strength quite sufficient for the 
 emergency. It was then that he made the speech to 
 Avhich reference has been made. No befitting record 
 of this brilliant effort remains, and the author's efforts 
 to find some written trace of it have failed. 
 
 It was on this occasion that he exclaimed in an im- 
 
JOHN VAN LEAR MC MAHON. 65 
 
 passioned manner in response to the assertion of one 
 of his opponents that all mobs or riots were impelled 
 by virtuous and generous impulses : ' ' Was the mob that 
 cried crucify him ! crucify him ! — the blessed Saviour- 
 influenced by virtuous and generous impulses ?" This 
 interrogatory was followed by many other similar ones, 
 referring to other noted occasions in history where in- 
 nocence and' virtue had suffered and perished under the 
 power of a vicious populace. He spoke on this occa- 
 sion for three days, and several times he became so ex- 
 hausted physically that he had to take his seat until he 
 could gain strength to proceed. 
 
 His father, then an old man, with his locks whitened 
 by the frosts of seventy winters, was at the time a mem- 
 ber of the House. Doubtless he was of all the audi- 
 ence who sat spell-bound under the power of his son's 
 eloquence the most impressed by the solemnity of the 
 scene, heightened as it was by the full consummation 
 of the most extravagant parental aspiration. 
 
 The Hon. John Nelson had been em.ployed by the; 
 city to defend its interests in this great controversy, 
 and he also appeared upon the floor of the House and 
 delivered a speech, characterized by his usual ability 
 and eloquence, against the power of the Legislature to 
 tax Baltimore for purposes of indemnity. 
 
 The indemnity was allowed. Graduall}^ as time 
 passed on, the public mind became reconciled to the 
 measure, and finally with great unanimity it was sanc- 
 tioned by them as proper and just. The same public sen- 
 timent, after the excitement of the occasion had sub- 
 sided, with equal unanimity and justice exonerated 
 the parties from all censure for any criminal connection 
 with the Bank of Maryland. Indeed it may be safely 
 affirmed that enlightened public opinion, after a calm 
 review of the whole subject, settled down upon the 
 
66 
 
 JOHN VAN LEAR MC MAHOX. 
 
 belief that the gravest judgment that could be rendered 
 against the parties for the disaster of the Bank of 
 Maryland was official negligence, and that fraud or 
 peculation could not be charged or even insinuated 
 against any of them. This was Mr. McMahon's view 
 from the beginning, otherwise he would never have 
 taken so bold and conspiciious a part in their vindica- 
 tion. Immediately after followed the laAV by which 
 indemnity for the future was provided for through the 
 courts without the necessity of an appeal to the Legisla- 
 ture, for all injuries sustained from mobs or riots in 
 cities, towns, or counties. This law was the work of 
 Mr. McMahon's pen. It was the direct fruit of the 
 Baltimore riots of 1835, and though warmly resisted at 
 the time, it has since been fully accepted by the peo- 
 ple, for no attempt has been made to repeal it, and it 
 remains in full force, and under the law several pro- 
 ceedings have been had and corporate toAvns made to 
 indemnify individual losses. 
 
 In the year 1836, the people, under our old unique 
 and, as Mr. Madison styled it, the wisest system in ex- 
 istence among the States, elected- electors to chose a 
 Seriate to serve for six years. Under the constitution 
 each county, without regard to population or extent of 
 territory, was allowed two electors, and the cities of 
 Annapolis and Baltimore each one. The majority of 
 the electoral college thus chosen designated the entire 
 Senate, which was composed of sixteen members. The 
 election resulted in the choice of twenty-one Whigs and 
 nineteen Democrats, while the popular vote showed an 
 immense Democratic majority in the State. By a sin- 
 gular provision of the constitution tzvc7ity-foiir members 
 of the electoral college Avere necessary to constitute 
 a quorum, and hence it was in the power of the Demo- 
 cratic electors to defeat an election by refusing to go 
 
JOHN VAN LEAR MC MAHON. 67 
 
 into the college. This power they determined to avail 
 themselves of, and refused to unite with their Whig 
 colleagues in an election of a Senate, except upon cer- 
 tain terms Avhich they dictated. The Democrats main- 
 tained that this arbitrary provision of the constitution 
 respecting a quorum was a wise and subtle principle 
 incorporated expressly with the view of providing for 
 an emergency which had for the first time arisen in our 
 history, namely, the protection of the majority against 
 the rule of a minority, and that it was the deliberate 
 design of the framers of the constitution thus to afford 
 the people the power to work a peaceful revolution in 
 our form of government whenever such a contingency 
 should arise and when the rights of the majority could 
 not be amply protected under the forms of the consti- 
 tution. The Whigs boldly and to a man repudiated 
 this doctrine, and would at first listen to no terms of 
 adjustment, but claimed the right to elect the entire 
 Senate. The Democrats were equally firm in the 
 maintenance of their position. In this incongruous 
 state of things each party under separate organizations 
 met and adjourned from day to day and week to week. 
 In the mean time the people throughout the State 
 were gradually worked up to the highest pitch of ex- 
 citement. The Governor (Veazy), a Whig, made a 
 great stir, much greater than was wise or necessary, and 
 which added mainly to the excitement of the people. 
 He directed that the military be equipped and hold 
 themselves in readiness for service at a moment's notice. 
 Capital, always sensitive and anti-republican, imag- 
 ining that it saw in this movement not only revolution 
 but anarchy and agrarianism, threw its immense in- 
 fluence in favor of " the twenty-one,'' while the virtue 
 and muscle of the State was mainly on the side of " the 
 nineteen." 
 
68 JOHN VAN LEAR MC MAHON. 
 
 Mr. McMahon was at the time acting with the Whig 
 party, and consequently took sides with " the twenty- 
 one," but his friends, perhaps from his previous repub- 
 lican tendencies, imagined that his heart was not 
 deeply enlisted in the subject, and if the truth was 
 known he regarded the whole affair from the begin- 
 ning to the end as something of " a tempest in a tea- 
 pot." 
 
 The quarrel was at last ended by a compromise, 
 which consisted in the election of certain liberal Whig 
 reformers. 
 
 Persons are still living who, familiar with the period 
 between 1830 and 1840, will remember that the Whig 
 party was divided into two factions, known as the 
 "Court House Clique," headed by Mr.'*|,^=re€j:i and 
 Mr. Johnson, and the " Country Clique," headed by 
 the Merricks and Thomases. Mr. McMahon, though 
 he rather inclined to the latter, belonged to neither, 
 but was a great favorite with both, especially as he was 
 supposed to desire no ofhce and had withal great polit- 
 ical influence. In the bitter and doubtful struggles for 
 power of these cliques, he would have been gladly ac- 
 cepted at any time as a fitting arbiter between them. 
 Indeed, there was no time during the period referred 
 to, such then was his political power, that he could 
 not, had he pleased, put his foot upon the neck of either 
 of these factions, and crushed any one of its members. 
 
 Immediately upon the sudden death of Ex-Governor 
 Joseph Kent, the Senator from this State, in No- 
 vember 1837, there commenced a warm and bitter con- 
 test for his much coveted place. It was a political 
 mark worthy of the highest aspiration, not only for its 
 honor but for its power. The two cliques at once en- 
 tered the field and would have waged a bitter warfare 
 against each other had not the presentation of the 
 
 7^- 
 
 '^IaA^ ' ( 
 
JOHN VAN LEAR MC MAHON. 69 
 
 towering name of McMahon at once cooled their ardor 
 and suspended their struggle. Appeals at once from 
 every quarter of the State, from Alleghany to Worces- 
 ter, began to pour in upon McMahon urging him to al- 
 low his name to be used for the vacant place and pledg- 
 ing him support. Mr. I. D. Jones (our late Attorney 
 General), then of Somerset, addressed him a letter from 
 which is made the following extracts : 
 
 " Princess Anne, December i, 1837. 
 " Dear McMahon : I snatch a moment amidst the hurry and 
 bustle of court to write you a hne, and I shall make no apology for 
 abruptly saying to you that there is but one voice among the Whigs' 
 here relative to the filling of the vacancy in the United States Senate 
 occasioned by the death of the late Dr. Kent, and that voice is loudly, 
 boldly, and decidedly in favor of John V. L. McMahon ! Judge 
 /^Jjigie was in my office when I opened the paper and read the intel- 
 hgence of Dr. Kent's death. We instantly expressed a hope that you 
 would accept a seat in the Senate, and declared for vigorous efforts to 
 secure your election, if from any quarter it should be opposed. In a 
 moment or two, one of our delegates, C, C. Carroll, Esq., came in, 
 and joined most heartily in our wishes and resolution. In the course 
 of the evening I saw WiUiam M. Handy and S. J. K. Handy, and 
 they -are zealously for you. Judge Goldsborough came the next even- 
 ing, and tells me all Dorset is for you as far as he can learn. His 
 cousin, N. L. Goldsborough, Esq., one of the delegates for that 
 county, he said expressed his determination to sustain you for the 
 place. All the Whig delegates I have seen or heard from in this sec- 
 tion of the State are for you. The three delegates for this county are- 
 warmly committed in your behalf. 
 
 "So is Townsend, of Worcester. The others I have not heard 
 from, but they will unquestionably join him. In fact, I have not con- 
 versed with a man of any party who has not instantly coincided with 
 me in opinion that you are pre-eminently entitled to the place. These 
 are no ordinary times. The State has long enough laid under the 
 incubus of mediocrity. The occasion demands, the State 6f Mary- 
 land demands, a Senator who can and will measure intellectual 
 strength with even the giants in mind who now adorn the Senate of 
 the United States. I speak not only the opinion of those bound to 
 you by private friendship and personal attachment and acquaintance. 
 
 t 
 
 d) 
 
70 JOHN VAN LEAR MC MAHOiV. 
 
 but I speak the voice of those who know you only as a public man, an 
 American advocate, an American statesman, the mountain orator, 
 whose spirit and sentiments partake of the boldness of the natural 
 scenery amidst which his early days were passed, when I say that 
 you stand out alone in bold relief, pre-eminently entitled to public con- 
 sideration for the vacant seat. . . 
 
 Mr. McMahon had, in some casual conversation with 
 Mr. Johnson or some of his friends, dropped certain 
 expressions which he was afterwards pleased to con- 
 strue into a committal that he would not interfere with 
 the latter's election, and he supposed or imagined that 
 it would not be honorable in him afterwards to seek or 
 even accept the Senatorship. What he did actually 
 say is not now 'remembered, but his friends protested 
 against any such construction of his language, and in- 
 sisted that it would be perfectly consistent with honor 
 and fair dealing for him to allow his name to go before 
 the Legislature as a candidate. Mr. M. C. Sprigg, 
 of Alleghany, absolves him from further obligation to 
 Mr. Johnson upon the ground that the latter had no 
 chance for election. He writes thus : 
 
 " Monday Twilight, Annapolis. 
 " My Dear Sir : I now more than ever regret the course which 
 your friendship (as I think) for Johnson has induced you to adopt. 
 Depend on it, he stands no chance of being elected. If I am mis- 
 taken in this, I shall never venture a guess again. You could have 
 succeeded without difficulty, and I believe can yet, provided you will 
 say, without any zfs or ands., further than ' if your friends think 
 proper to elect you, you cannot feel at liberty to decline the honor ' — 
 something in that way, but decisive. If you are off I shall vote for 
 Schley, for whom, as you perhaps know, I have very great personal 
 regard. ■ I am interrupted. Several Whigs have just left me, and all 
 concur in the belief that Mr. Johnson stands no chance of success. 
 
 " Yours truly, 
 
 "M. C. Sprigg." 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Continued and general efforts to induce Mr. McMahon to go to the United 
 States Senate — Correspondence on interesting matters — The political 
 excitement at this time — His great power and control in all measures — 
 " Log Cabin" days and the great Whig Convention. 
 
 Charles C. Carroll of Somerset at the same time 
 addressed a similar letter to that of Mr. Jones to Mr. 
 McMahon, pledging himself and his delegation to his 
 support. Mr. M. C. Sprigg, of Alleghany, also a mem- 
 ber elect and ex-member of Congress, again and again 
 wrote to the same effect promptly and urgently. Tea- 
 kle Townsend of Worcester, known then as one of the 
 " wheel horses" of the Whig party, after the meeting of 
 the Legislature wrote a number of similar letters. He 
 said : " If I know my own heart, I am actuated by the 
 purest motives, my dear sir. In addition to my own 
 private feelings and wishes, I desire to serve the Whig 
 party of Marjdand, and perhaps of the United States. 
 I have ascertained certainly that you can be elected by 
 acclamation, and all agree that it is the only thing 
 which will save the State of Maryland." Mr. James 
 Turner, of Baltimore County, ex-member of Congress 
 and member elect, makes a similar appeal ; also Thom- 
 as Burchenal of Caroline. David Ridgely, the ven- 
 erable librarian, wrote to Mr. McMahon after his per- 
 emptory declination : "I believe — I know — had you 
 left yourself in the hands of your friends you would 
 have been taken by acclamation. Even now it ap- 
 
72 JOHN VAN LEAR MC MAHON. 
 
 pears to be the wish of all (candidates included) that 
 you should be prevailed on to serve. 1 never knew 
 the Legislature to be as unanimous in any one thing, 
 and all wonder at your want of ambition," Mr. Jno. 
 Dennis, then the representative in Congress from the 
 lower Eastern Shore District, wrote to the same end, 
 and, in anticipation of his possible determination to de- 
 cline the position, added: "For which determination 
 (you Avill excuse the expression) I think you would de- 
 serve censure from your friends." 
 
 To these evidences of popular preference we might 
 refer to numerous newspaper articles from all parts of 
 the State in behalf of his election. We refer to but 
 one — an Easton paper — and make the following ex- 
 tract : 
 
 " None other than a first rate man will do. A man conversant 
 with the true interests of the State and of the people at large— with 
 courage to uphold them and talents to defend them when assailed, 
 one that will not sink into insignificance by the side of a Webster, a 
 Clay, or a Calhoun, but who can assist them by his impressive elo- 
 quence in battling for the constitution and the laws — we want, and 
 such an one we must have, or the pride of Marylanders will be hum- 
 bled to the dust. Such a man is John V. L. McMahon. And should 
 the superior wisdom of the Legislature point to him as the guardian 
 of Maryland's rights in the national councils, mere words would be 
 inadequate to express the measure of our gratification at the result." 
 
 Finding that Mr. McMahon's purpose not to be a 
 candidate was fixed and unalterable, the several aspi- 
 rants for the place at once began to coquette with him 
 for his powerful influence. Mr. Gill, at the time the 
 clerk of the Court of Appeals, a leading and influential 
 Whig, an active member of the Court House Clique, 
 and one of Mr. Reverdy Johnson's most' devoted 
 friends and partisans, led off in the following letter : 
 
JOHN VAN LEAR MC MAHON. 73 
 
 ' " Dear Sir : I learn this morning from several sources that you 
 have announced yourself as positively declining to go into the Senate 
 of the United States, and under that belief write you. The prominent 
 men are Merrick, Schley, and Johnson, and I do know that you 
 can serve Johnson effectively at this moment. The only ground of 
 opposition is the circulation of an opinion that his election may prej- 
 udice the Whig cause, that his association with the Bank may injure 
 us. I write to you, who know how unjust this is in fact, who have so 
 warmly, anxiously, and manfully resisted this foul aspersion from 
 first to last, who have given time, health, exertion, opinion, and char- 
 acter to arrest such consequences, to put the seal of your approba- 
 tion to this matter, and do what I know must be most agreeable to 
 our past relations of friendship and confidence — to come again into the 
 affair, in refuting the oft-repeated slanders. I am quite confident that 
 you can, if you will, do more than any other person, and this act, while 
 it corresponds with your past efforts, will in future times be a source 
 
 of unalloyed satisfaction to you. 
 
 " Yours, 
 
 " R. W. Gill. 
 " Annapolis, Christmas Day." 
 
 Mr. Samuel Jones, Jr., a delegate from Baltimore 
 City, and an undoubted leader of his party, appeals to 
 him for his influence in behalf of his friend Mr. John- 
 son, but not having any decided hope of his election, 
 makes one more strong effort to induce Mr. Mc- 
 Mahon to reconsider his purpose and allow his name 
 to be brought before the Legislature. He thus writes 
 to him : 
 
 "Annapolis, December 26, 1837. 
 " Dear Mc. : I arrived here this afternoon, and find matters all at 
 sea in regard to the individual who may be selected to fill the place of 
 the late Dr. Kent in the United States Senate. The prospects of our 
 friend Reverdy are not so flattering as I could desire, and it is essentially 
 necessary that his friends should use every effort to insure his election. 
 Would it be inconsistent with your views of propriety to write to a num- 
 ber of the members of the Legislature, expressing your preference 
 for Mr. Johnson, and urging his election as promoting the power of 
 the State and the advancement of the principles of the Whig party ? 
 After all it will be exceedingly doubtful whether he can be carried. 
 
74 JOHN VAN LEAR MC MAHON. 
 
 And now permit me to ask you, will you not consent to a nomination 
 in case Mr. Johnson's friends find it useless to press him? You can 
 be elected without difficulty if you will say the word. Your friends 
 from all parts of the State are much disappointed in learning that 
 you will not be a candidate, and many of them express their opinion 
 that your declination will be a serious injury to the Whig party and 
 your own political prospects, if you have any — and who in your posi- 
 tion has not ? — while on the other hand it is asserted that your accept- 
 ance will increase the Whig vote on the Eastern Shore one thousand 
 votes. I have always understood that you placed your refusal upon 
 the ground that you would not interfere with Mr. Johnson's prospects. 
 If this be so, and the firm friends of Mr. Johnson find he cannot be 
 elected, permit me to announce your name, and the whole is at once 
 settled. And why should you refuse ? The course you adopted when 
 anarchy threatened the State, and the overthrow of the constitution 
 seemed inevitable, has gained for you a name among your fellow citi- 
 zens and a place in their affections from which you may not easily be 
 dislodged, unless peradventure your own neglect of their proffered 
 regard should cause you to perish from their memory. Remember 
 
 ' There is a tide in the affairs of men,' 
 
 and I trust you will take it at the flood. Is it not your duty to re- 
 spect the wishes of the people so universally and so willingly ex- 
 pressed ? Let me then hear from you, and say that if Mr. Johnson's 
 prospects are such as to render his election altogether out of the 
 question, I may use your name. 
 
 " Your friend, 
 
 " Sam. Jones, Jr." 
 
 Mr. David Stewart, the Senator from Baltimore, and 
 at the time one of the leading and deservedly most in- 
 fluential men in Maryland, writes thus to McMahon : 
 
 [confidential.] 
 
 "Annapolis, Wednesday, February 26. 
 " Dear Mac : Our caucus the other night satisfied me that you 
 must accept or lose much of your proud position in the State. I do 
 not mean political position merely. In the candor of my sincere 
 and enduring friendship I must say that unless you answer this ap- 
 peal which / am authorized to make to your patriotism and fidelity 
 to a party (to whose tributes of honor you certainly owe a debt of 
 
JOHN VAN LEAR MC MAHON. 75 
 
 gratitude) by placing your name at the disposal of a friend who never 
 has abused confidence and who has at heart only a glorious victory 
 to be achieved by a worthy champion, your character for firmness 
 and disinterestedness will h^ greatly impaired. 
 
 " I feel deeply upon this subject when the alternative is submitted — 
 continued confidence in you and eminence above all, or the present 
 alienation of public affection and future oblivion. You are not a com- 
 petent judge in this matter. 
 
 All with one voice from Worcester to the West ask this accept- 
 ance, and claim fulfibnent of your pledges, which they remember and 
 refer to. No one else will do. Your acceptance will be expected by 
 return mail, as we have agreed to meet on Friday. 
 
 " Faithfully yours, 
 
 "David Stewart." 
 
 Mr. William D. Merrick, at the time a delegate from 
 Charles, and who became ultimately the successful can- 
 didate, finding- that efforts were being made to invoke 
 Mr. McMahon's influence against him, most effectually 
 defeated any such purpose by the following adroit let- 
 ter, which he addressed to him in the midst of the 
 Senatorial contest : 
 
 "Annapolis, December 28, 1837. 
 
 " Dear Sir : The friendly relations existing between us justify me 
 in communicating frankly with you upon the present occasion, and 
 warrant the expectation of an equally frank reply. 
 
 " It is not unknown to you that there is a large portion of the Whig 
 members of the Legislature, now assembled here, who desire wath 
 your consent to place you in the Senate of the United States, nor can 
 you have failed to have observed that it was not until after your card 
 had been published, which was generally considered as a refusal on 
 your part to permit your friends to present you for that station, that 
 my name was presented to the public consideration ; and though 
 perhaps not known to you, it is a fact that your most particular 
 friends and supporters here, who after the meeting of the Legislature 
 seemed still to suppose that you might be induced to become a candi- 
 date, were informed Ihat in the event of your becoming a candidate, 
 / and my particular friends would with pleasure cast our votes for 
 you. Notwithstanding all which, it has been constantly reiterated, 
 upon the alleged authority of conversations held with you and letters 
 
76 JOHN VAN LEAR MC MAHON. 
 
 received from you, that your name would not be presented, and the 
 canvass has proceeded betw^een Mr. Schley, Mr. Johnson, and myself ; 
 until now that it is clearly ascertained that my strength is greater 
 than that of either or both of these gentlemen, your name is again 
 suggested and made use of here to delay the election, and ultimately 
 to defeat me if possible. Under these circumstances may I not ask 
 the favor of you to let me know distinctly your position ? I am very 
 sure it is not with your own consent that your name is thus used, nor 
 can I suppose you will have any difficulty in giving me the informa- 
 tion I desire, and which is necessary to the regulation of my own con- 
 duct in resisting these machinations of your and my own enemies. 
 " Very respectfully, 
 
 ' ' Your friend and servant, 
 
 "William Do Merrick." 
 
 Notwithstanding these conflicting appeais, Mr. Mc- 
 Mahon maintained a neutrality to the end among the 
 several Senatorial aspirants. 
 
 These evidences, which are only a part of those at 
 command, have been submitted not for any special 
 value or interest in themselves but only to prove con- 
 clusively the power and influence of Mr. McMahon 
 at that period in Maryland — indeed neither Mr. Cal- 
 houn, Mr. Cla3% nor Mr. Webster ever exhibited great- 
 er strength in their respective States in the zenith of 
 their political career. 
 
 Mr. Merrick was subsequently elected for the unex- 
 pired term of Governor Joseph Kent, and the follow- 
 ing year, 1838, was re-elected for a full term. 
 
 Mr. McMahon continued to act with the Whig party 
 until 1840. It is evident from the following letter, 
 which was a private one, and which bears on its face 
 the sincere conviction of the well-informed politician 
 and able statesman Colonel Merrick, then United States 
 Senator, that he continued to hold the most prominent 
 and controlling position among the men of Maryland 
 up to the date of that letter, which was written imme- 
 
JOHN VAN LEAR MC MAHON. 77 
 
 diately after General Harrison's nomination at Harris- 
 burg in November, 1839, ^^d that he was regarded as 
 the adviser, director, and main support of the Whig 
 party : 
 
 "Washington, December ig, 1839. 
 
 " My Dear Sir : Sufficient breathing time having now been al- 
 lowed since the result of the Harrisburg Convention has been made 
 known, you will allow me to call your attention to the importance of 
 the early organization of our party in the State, preparatory to the 
 next fall election. The nomination being one which I am aware 
 meets your approbation, it seems to me important to us all that 
 you should take the lead and the front rank in preparing for and con- 
 ducting the campaign to a successful result. 
 
 " If you will consent to take upon yourself this lead in our affairs, 
 and give to the party the benefit of your name at the head of the 
 electoral ticket, I shall have no fears about carrying the State trium- 
 phantly. What think you of an early call of a convention of dele- 
 gates from each county in the State to nominate an electoral ticket 
 and make other necessary preparations and arrangements ? I would 
 most respectfully advise that course, and would also suggest that the 
 call proceed from a meeting of friends in your city ; that such a meet- 
 ing put forth an address after your usual and effective manner. The 
 convention it seems to me should be as numerous as possibly may be 
 consistent with convenient accommodation, and judicious friends in 
 every county should be requested to give their attention to the county 
 meetings and the selection of the delegates. This last matter could 
 be best attended to by a corresponding committee ad i7iteriin to 
 be appointed at the primary meetings in your city. 
 
 " The administration party here are making large calculations 
 upon our State, and many Whigs are doubtful, and seem to be the 
 more so because Clay is not the candidate. I tell them all, as is really 
 the fact, that I have no fears of carrying the Harrison ticket by a 
 handsome majority if you, as I sincerely hope you will, enter zeal- 
 ously into the matter. Let me hear from you, and believe me to be 
 " Your Sincere Friend, 
 
 "William D. Merrick." 
 
 He declined the post of honor assigned him as an 
 elector at large on the Harrison ticket, preferring, as 
 he said, to remain a private in the ranks. 
 
7 8 JOHN VAN LEAR MC MAHON. 
 
 In the year 1840 we had the famous " Log Cabin" 
 and " Hard Cider" campaign. The Whig party made 
 their nominations as much as a year in advance of the 
 election. Never in the histor}^ of this country have we 
 had such an active and excited — and even bitter, 
 though withal honest and honorable — political con- 
 test. Women and little children no less than voters 
 entered into the conflict, and even the beasts of the 
 field seemed to take sides upon the absorbing question. 
 Business was neglected, men and women shut up their 
 houses and went miles from home to swell the great 
 gathering. In fact the whole country for one full 
 year was boiling with excitement and alive with com- 
 motion. The intercourse of families which had al- 
 ways been united b}' the strongest cords of friendship 
 was suspended. The bitterest passions were aroused. 
 And all for what end ? The country was at peace with 
 all the world — was happy and prosperous. The consti- 
 tution was by both parties venerated and observed 
 next to the inspired Word. The laws were maintained, 
 and liberty preserved and honored. The election of 
 either Harrison or Van Buren would not have been 
 likely to have changed that happy condition, yet the 
 struggle was maintained as if our very national exist- 
 ence depended upon the result. Alas ! how happy 
 we, even those who were so active in the contest of 
 1840, would feel if we could now have the proud privi- 
 lege of voting for either of those candidates or men 
 like them. Instead of repeating the scenes of that pe- 
 riod we would gladly shut our eyes and permit a child 
 to select our ballot as between the two.'* 
 
 Of all the assemblages of people that have ever been 
 
 * This was written at the close of our civil war, and has reference 
 to the poHtical demoralization immediately following it. — Ed. 
 
JOHN VAN LEAR MC MAHON. 79 
 
 held in this country, the Young Men's Whig Conven- 
 tion which met in Baltimore in May, 1840, was the 
 greatest and the most imposing. Without the facili- 
 ties of railroads, men and women nev^ertheless seemed 
 to come from the remotest sections of the land. Dele- 
 gations came hundreds of miles in log cabins drawn by 
 horses, and in many instances were over a month in 
 making the political pilgrimage. All along the roads 
 over which they travelled they were greeted and 
 feasted with the Avildest delight and unbounded profu- 
 sion. Probably every prominent Whig in the country 
 was present. Political aspirations had already been 
 awakened, and every step likely to lead to future pro- 
 motion had begun already to be contested. Conse- 
 quently the presidency of this convention was deemed a 
 great prize. Captain Stockton, at the time in the Navy, 
 an original Jackson man, had but recently united his 
 fortunes with those of the Whig party, and as he was 
 then at the head of the New Jersey railroads, and pos- 
 sessing consequently great power, he was regarded by 
 himself as well as by others as a great acquisition. He 
 pledged New Jersey for Harrison, as the price of the 
 presidency of the convention. He was an imperious, 
 ambitious, and dictatorial man, and though not a person 
 of very strong intellect, he yet possessed many ele- 
 ments of greatness and power, in his force of declama- 
 tion, his wealth, and his indomitable will. He was dis- 
 appointed. In his disgust and indignation he ordered 
 a special car, had the track to Philadelphia cleared, 
 and wrapping himself in his martial cloak and in sullen 
 grandeur he took his abrupt leave of Baltimore and the 
 Whig party, and turned his face homeward, without 
 even waiting to cast his eye over the sea of human be- 
 ings that was soon to exhibit itself. 
 
 McMahon was after due deliberation chosen as the 
 
8o JOHN VAN LEAR MC MAHON. 
 
 President. This selection was the result of no effort of 
 his own either direct or remote. When he was called 
 to take the chair he arose, swelling himself even above 
 his own natural proportions, and in an imposing manner 
 and a stentorian voice he bid " the Nation to come to 
 order !" Perfect stillness and order instantly prevailed 
 throughout the vast multitude. He then commenced 
 his far-famed address with that bold and striking but 
 defective figure of speech which became so familiar 
 with every one. He began : " The mountains have 
 sent forth their rills — the hill-sides their streams — the 
 valleys their rivers, and lo ! the avalanche of the people 
 is here ! ' ' To all cultivated minds the incongruity of this 
 figure will be apparent. Rills, streams, and rivers 
 may cause a flood or a deluge, but can hardly be said 
 to produce an avalanche. Had he said, " And lo ! the 
 deluge of the people is here," the figure would have 
 been far more appropriate and artistic. Mr. McMahon 
 subsequently during the campaign made several 
 speeches, but he never entered the contest with the 
 zeal and energy which had characterized his Jackson 
 days. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 General Harrison's election — McMahon's great influence in his adminis- 
 tration — The Baltimore postmastership — Political changes — His sec- 
 ond persistent refusal of his country 's honors under Tyler — The office 
 of Attorney General of the United States thrust upon him — The memor- 
 able Mackenzie-Spencer affair — Synopsis of the tragedy and his con- 
 nection therewith. 
 
 Upon the election of General Harrison, a seat in his 
 cabinet was at Mr. McMahon's disposal and formall_y 
 tendered, but he promptly declined it, as it was gener- 
 ally expected he would. For this step he could for 
 once give an excellent reason — he was afraid of the 
 company with which he would necessarily have been 
 associated in this administration. 
 
 His influence, nevertheless, with General Harrison 
 in organizing his administration was all-powerful. His 
 recommendation was alone sufficient to secure any ap- 
 pointment in Maryland. An amusing and characteris- 
 tic anecdote is told of Mr. Wm. H. Gatchell,'- of Balti- 
 more, in this connection. He was, at the time, as he is 
 still, possessed of many warm and devoted friends who 
 are ready to make any reasonable sacrifice to serve 
 him. 
 
 He became an applicant for the office of postmaster 
 of Baltimore City. This announcement, such was Mr. 
 Gatchell's supposed power with the Whig party in 
 
 * Mr. Gatchell died in Baltimore in 1878. — Ed. 
 
82 yOHA' V.4.V LEAR MC MAHON: 
 
 Maryland, was alone sufficient to drive off all competi- 
 tors and leave the field open to him. His friends from 
 all parts of the State literally covered him with volun- 
 tary letters of recommendation until they accumulated 
 to such a bulk as to make them a burden to carry. 
 There was, however, one name that did not appear 
 among Mr. G. 's credentials, and that was Mr. Mc- 
 Mahon's. As the time approached for the appoint- 
 ment the name of a gentleman, politically obscure, 
 but personally one of the highest respectability, was 
 feebly suggested as an opponent of Mr, Gatchell. 
 The name of Colonel Finley in this connection ex- 
 cited ridicule and contempt. At last Mr. Gatchell 
 started for Washington weighed down by his carpet- 
 bag of letters to the President. The cars had hardl}^ 
 started before he discovered his competitor, Colonel 
 Finley, seated not far from him, and assuming what 
 his mission to Washington was, he turned his eyes 
 from the venerable Colonel down to his well-filled bag, 
 and his heart throbbed with pity and commiseration at 
 the fate that surely awaited him — he lamented that such 
 a respectable old gentleman should be so soon sub- 
 jected to such an overwhelming and mortifying over- 
 throw. Upon reaching Washington, among the first 
 objects that greeted Mr. Gatchell's eyes was a coach- 
 man in livery. He soon commenced to inquire for 
 Colonel Finley, and on being pointed to him he quickly 
 approached him with the announcement that the Pres- 
 ident's carriage was waiting to take him to his house. 
 Mr. G., it may well be imagined, was overwhelmed 
 with surprise and disappointment. He realized his 
 fate in an instant, and saw that his case was hopeless. 
 He never left the depot, but took the first train home- 
 ward, bringing back his letters, which perhaps remain 
 to this day unopened or unread. 
 
yOHN VAN LEAR MC MAHON. 83 
 
 The explanation was that Mr. McMahon had seen or 
 written to the President and secured Finley's appoint- 
 ment. On the 9th of March 1841, Senator Merrick ad- 
 dressed Mr. McMahon as follows upon this subject : 
 
 " I waited upon the President yesterday and delivered 
 him your letter in relation to Mr. Finley, and have to 
 say to you that he requested me to inform you imme- 
 diately, and desires you to inform Mr. Finley, that it is 
 his fixed purpose to give Mr. Finley the Post Office. 
 This puts an end to the question in a manner which 
 cannot but be satisfactory and flattering to you. 
 
 To further show the power and authority of Mr. 
 McMahon at this period, I must refer to one other ex- 
 tract from a letter of Colonel Merrick. Mr. Jas. W. 
 McCulloh had been recommended by Mr. McMahon 
 as the First Comptroller of the Treasury, and the ap- 
 pointment was considered as assured until Colonel 
 Merrick wrote that, " Upon conversing with the Presi- 
 dent to-night about our friend McCulloh, I was amazed 
 to find that his mind had been, by some means, put 
 afloat on the subject." Colonel M. further urged him 
 to come at once to Washington and to see the Presi- 
 dent, and adds : " Kerr (his colleague) is at Easton. 
 Drop him a note ordering him home to his post, to 
 help us." 
 
 Mr. McCulloh was in the end appointed. It thus 
 seems that McMahon not only controlled the President 
 of the United States in regard to Maryland affairs, but 
 was also invested with authority to " order ' her Sena- 
 tors at will ! 
 
 Notwithstanding the false step he had taken in 
 changing his political associations after the election of 
 General Jackson, he nevertheless through life contin- 
 ued firm in his faith in the fundamental principles of the 
 Democratic party. In fact he never was at heart or in 
 
84 JOHN VAN LEAR MC MAHON. 
 
 principle a Whig. The doctrines of Mr. Clay and his 
 especial followers he detested, and did not hesitate to 
 condemn them on all proper occasions. He supported 
 Harrison as a member of the opposition party to Mr. Van 
 Buren, and he seemed too glad after ten years' estrange- 
 ment from his old political associations to return to 
 them upon the first pretext that was offered, and which 
 was afforded him upon the accession of the Harrison 
 party to power, and the bold proclamation that was 
 then made by its leaders that all the old exploded fed- 
 eral measures were to be revived. 
 
 After the death of General Harrison, which occurred 
 on the 4th of April, 1841, just one month after his inau- 
 guration, and the elevation and defection of Mr. T3der, 
 Mr. McMahon came to his support openly and boldly. 
 Upon the reorganization of Mr. Tyler's cabinet, again 
 the post of Attorney General was tendered him. Mr. 
 Henry A. Wise Avas deputed by the President to call in 
 person and make the tender to him. An interview ac- 
 cordingly took place between the two at Baltimore. 
 The object of Mr. Wise's mission was made known to 
 him, and the importance of the acceptance of the posi- 
 tion strongly urged. He declined the honor, when in 
 fact he could assign no good reason for doing so. He 
 hesitated, he halted, and even shuffled in his replies to 
 the pointed and bold queries which were pressed upon 
 him for explanations of his conduct in thus withhold- 
 ing his influence., his talents and learning from the pub- 
 lic councils and from his political friends at a moment 
 when they would have been of so much value to each. 
 Still he persisted in his refusal. At last Wise lost his 
 patience, and in his not unusual abrupt and dictatorial 
 manner turned upon him and vehemently addressed 
 him: "Man! what is the matter with you? Have 
 you become a coward ?" McMahon, much to Wise's 
 
JOHN VAN LEAR MC MAHON. 85 
 
 surprise, tamely admitted that he had ; that he had not 
 the courage to undertake the duties of a position which 
 would draw the eyes of the whole country upon him ; 
 that he shrunk from the obligation he would be obliged 
 to assume, and that he would rather continue in his 
 present quiet and unobtrusive walk of life, and smother 
 the fires of ambition that burned within him as hotly 
 as they did in the heart of any man, than run the re- 
 mote risk of even a partial failure in the new field of 
 fame which had thus been opened to him. 
 
 Surely no friend of Mr. McMahon can admire or 
 even approve of his timidity as thus manifested on this 
 occasion. In recording this episode in his life, his biog- 
 rapher admits that he brings to view a trait of charac- 
 ter which will not commend itself to even the most 
 ardent and indulgent of, his friends. 
 
 Yet there was something of sacrifice and principle in 
 his conduct on this occasion which when properly 
 viewed is in fact worthy of admiration. It showed in 
 the first place an exalted appreciation of public and 
 official obKgation ; in the next place it developed a na- 
 tive instinct of modesty which should always be com- 
 mended and admired ; and, above either, it illustrated a 
 spirit of self-abnegation which was ready to surrender 
 personal advantage and honor to a sense of the pubhc 
 welfare, and an obedience to the demands of the heart 
 rather than of fame. It is hardly proper to impute to 
 Mr. McMahon as a fault that he had more distrust of his 
 own abilities than his friends and the public had ; 3'et 
 it may well be a subject of regret and even censure 
 that he should have suffered that distrust to become 
 morbid and irrational. And again, some merit may be 
 found in his undue timidity, in the contrast which may 
 be drawn to those who, without regard to the public 
 welfare or individual modesty, eagerly and rashly 
 
86 JOHN VAN LEAR MC MAHON. 
 
 rush after high positions in the government and in the 
 scientific and industrial walks of society, without any 
 of those qualifications of nature and education which 
 fit them for the proper discharge of their duties — those 
 who from day to day shamelessly enjoy the emolu- 
 ments and honors of positions to the discharge of the 
 duties of which they bring no corresponding qualifica- 
 tions and return no equivalent. 
 
 It may be added that this persistent practice in re- 
 jecting high official positions constituted one of the 
 main elements of Mr. McMahon's power in the State. 
 
 In a letter addressed to him by a leading member of 
 the county bar, this view is so well expressed that an 
 extract of the letter is given : 
 
 " . . . January 29, 1844. 
 
 " Dear Sir : Allow me to say that neither my 
 
 friends nor myself overrate your influence. I do not think that being 
 a wordy partisan is necessary to obtain strength. On the contrary, 
 men of that character are far the most ephemeral both in popularity 
 and power. The other night in a circle of friends at my house the 
 question was started how it was that you had acquired such influ- 
 ence with men and affairs. 
 
 " And it was answered, and answered truly, that it was not only by 
 your innate force of character and your eloquence, but from your very 
 position. Hitherto you have held yourself aloof from all rewards, 
 and you have thereby demonstrated conclusively the disinterested- 
 ness of your motives and opinions. 
 
 " Without being scarcely conscious of it, you have acquired a po- 
 tency with your friends that but few men can pretend to. 
 
 "Add to this that your commanding position is not the result of 
 patronage or any adventitious circumstances, but from native talents, 
 generosity of character, and from having conducted yourself in all 
 the private relations of son, brother, friend, and citizen, as adorns 
 humanity. Excuse me for saying this much, but you have called it 
 
 out by your self-renouncing disparagement 
 
 " I am truly yours, 
 
 "Hanson B. Pigman." 
 
JOHN VAN LEAR MC MAHON. 87 
 
 As time presses onward and men are carried with it 
 from life to death, events which were of to-day, famil- 
 iar to us all, soon pass from the personal knowledge of 
 the living and become matters of history, and to many 
 are forever lost. How few remember or have even 
 any knowledge at this day of the memorable and tragic 
 affair which took place on board the United States man- 
 of-war Somers, while at sea in December, 1842, and 
 which at the time formed an exciting and universal topic 
 of thought and conversation in every class of society, in 
 which a } oung officer and two of the crew were hung 
 upon a charge of mutiny without even the forms of a 
 trial ! 
 
 Preparatory to referring to Mr. McMahon's connec- 
 tion with the case, it will greatl}^ relieve the dullness 
 and tedium of this sketch to insert Colonel Benton's 
 opening account of that affair as found in his " Thirtv 
 Years in the Senate." We confine ourselves to the 
 opening paragraphs, but must recommend the wdiole 
 narrative as one of the most interesting and thrilling in 
 the English language. He begins his review thus : 
 
 " In the beginning of this year the public mind was suddenly as- 
 tounded and horrified at the news of a mutiny on board a national 
 ship-of-war, with a view to convert it into a pirate, and at the same 
 time excited to admiration and gratitude at the terrible energy with 
 which the commander of the ship had suppressed it, hanging three of 
 the ringleaders on the spot without trial, bringing home twelve others 
 in irons, and restraining the rest by the undaunted front which the 
 ofificers assumed, and the complete readiness in which they held 
 themselves to face a revolt. It was a season of profound peace, and 
 the astounding news was like claps of thunder in a clear sky. It was 
 an unprecedented event in our navy, where it had been the pride and 
 glory of the seamen to stand by their captain and their ship to the 
 last man, and to die exultingly to save either. Unlike almost all 
 mutinies, it was not a revolt against oppression, real or imagined, 
 and limited to the seizure of the ship and the death or expulsion of 
 the ofificers, but a vast scheme of maritime depredation, in which the 
 
88 JOHN VAN LEAR MC 31 A HON. 
 
 man-of-war, converted into a piratical cruiser, was to roam the seas 
 in quest of blood and plunder, preying upon the commerce of all 
 nations, robbing property, slaughtering men, and violating women. 
 A son of a cabinet minister, and himself an officer, was at the head 
 of the appalling design, and his name and rank lent it a new aspect 
 of danger. Every aggravation seemed to attend it, and the horrify- 
 ing intelligence came out in a way to magnify its terrors and to 
 startle the imagination as well as to overpower the judgment. The 
 vessel was the bearer of her own news, and arriving on the coast 
 took a reserve and mystery which lent a terrific force to what leaked 
 out. She stopped off the harbor of New York, and remained outside 
 two days, severely interdicting all communication with the shore. A 
 simple notice of her return was all that was made public. An officer 
 from the vessel, related to the commander, proceeded to Washing- 
 ton City, giving out fearful intimations as he went along, and bearing 
 a sealed report to the Secretary of the Navy. The contents of that 
 report went direct into the government official paper, and thence flew 
 resounding through the land. It was the official and authentic re- 
 port of the fearful mutiny. The news being spread from ^the official 
 source, and the public mind prepared for his reception, the com- 
 mander brought his vessel into port, landed, and landed in such a 
 way as to increase the awe and terror inspired by his narrative. He 
 went direct, in solemn procession, at the head of his crew, to the near- 
 est church, and returned thanks to God for a great deliverance. 
 Taken by surprise, the public mind delivered itself up to joy and 
 gratitude for a marvellous escape, applauding the energy which had 
 saved a national ship from mutiny and the commerce of nations from 
 piratical depredation. The current was all on one side ; nothing 
 appeared to weaken its force or stop its course ; the dead who had 
 been hanged and sent to the bottom of the sea could send up no 
 voice ; the twelve ironed prisoners on the deck of the vessel were 
 silent as the dead ; the officers and men at large, actors in what had 
 taken place, could only confirm the commander's official report ; that 
 report, not one word of which would be heard in a court of justice, 
 was received as full evidence at the great tribunal of public opinion. 
 The reported confessions which it contained (though the weakest of 
 all testimony in the eye of the law, and utterly repulsed when ob- 
 tained by force, terror, or seduction) were received by the masses as 
 incontestable evidence of guilt. The vessel on which all this took 
 place was the United States man-of-war Somers, her commander 
 Alexander Slidell Mackenzie, Esq., with a crew of one hundred and 
 
JOHN VAN LEAR MCMAHON. ■ 89 
 
 twenty all told, ninety-six of which were apprentice boys under age. 
 She had gone out on one of those holiday excursions which are now 
 the resource of schools to make seamen ; she had crossed the Atlan- 
 tic and was returning to the United States by way of the West In- 
 dies, when this fearful mutiny was discovered. It was communicated 
 by the purser's steward to the purser, by him to the first lieutenant, 
 by him to the commander, and the incredulous manner in which he 
 received it is established by two competent witnesses, the lieutenant 
 who gave it to him, and the commander himself, and it is due to 
 each to give the account of this reception in his own words. And first 
 the lieutenant shall speak : ' I reported the thing (the intended mu- 
 tiny) to the commander immediately. He took it very coolly, said 
 the vessel was in a good state of discipline, and expressed his doubts 
 as to the truth of the report. ' ' ' 
 
 The account of Colonel Benton, as far as it is given 
 above, was intended to show the view which the com- 
 mander and his confederates had thrown out upon 
 their first arrival, and by which they purposed to fore- 
 stall public sentiment and prejudice the popular mind 
 in advance of the real facts and truth of the case. The 
 residue of Colonel Benton's review is devoted to show- 
 ing, which he does in a cool, clear, and conclusive man- 
 ner, the groundlessness of this- desperate proceeding, 
 and the delusion, falsehood, wickedness, and cowardice 
 of these parties in this imaginary mutiny. 
 
 The Secretary of the Navy at the time was Abel P. 
 Upshur, of Virginia. The eyes of the country were di- 
 rected towards him and the action he would take in 
 the matter. Though no court of inquir}^ was invited, 
 the Secretary ordered one, and subsequently a court- 
 martial. Impressed with the importance of having the 
 government represented by a proper Judge Advocate, 
 and after maturely considering the subject, he desig- 
 nated Mr. McMahon for this solemn duty, and in his 
 letter to him tendering him the appointment he de- 
 parted from the usual course in such cases, and strongly 
 
90 JOHN FAjV LEAR MCMAHOA'. 
 
 appealed to him to accept the trust. Nothing could 
 better illustrate the standing of Mr. McMahon at this 
 period before the countr}^ than such a letter from such 
 a source as Judge Upshur : 
 
 " Navy Department, January 30, 1843. 
 
 " Sir : The very great interest which is felt in the result of the trial 
 of Captain Mackenzie, and the sincere desire which I feel so to con- 
 duct it as to meet the approbation of the public, induce me to hope 
 that I may obtain your services as a joint Judge Advocate with Mr. 
 Norris. Your position before the country is such as to insure that 
 your name will give to the proceedings of the court their just au- 
 thority and impressiveness, and I know not where I can find any 
 other person on whose standing with the country I would so safely 
 rely to produce that desirable effect. As the charges and specifica- 
 tions are already prepared, you will have no trouble except in the 
 mere conducting of the proceedings in court. Allow me to hope that 
 you will as far as possible yield every objection of mere personal con- 
 venience to the high consideration of the importance of your services 
 in satisfying the public mind upon this exciting subject. 
 " I am respectfully your obedient servant, 
 
 " A. P. Upshur. 
 
 "To J. V. L. McMahon, Esq., Baltimore." ' 
 
 At the same time Mr. James W. McCidloh, a distin- 
 guished and widely known man, and at the time First 
 Comptroller of the Treasury, addressed Mr. McMahon 
 the following letter on the same stibject : 
 
 "Washington, January 30, 1843. 
 " John V. L. McMahon, Esq.: 
 
 " My Dear Sir : I hear that you have been requested to become 
 Judge Advocate in the trial of Captain Mackenzie ; and because the 
 case is one of profound interest, not only to the bereaved and the ac- 
 cused, but to the whole country, as it shall for ages affect our navy, 
 I venture to entreat you, as I do with all my heart, to gratify their re- 
 quest. 
 
 " You could not otherwise so well recognize the compliment that is 
 thereby paid to )'^our personal and professional merit, and you ought 
 neither to be nor seem indifferent too often to such proofs of sincere 
 respect and absolute esteem. 
 
JOHN VAN LEAR MCMAHON. 91 
 
 The occasion is one when the country will rightfully expect the 
 executive to invoke the services of one who by universal consent 
 would be hailed as a suitable prosecutor ; one whose talents, learn- 
 ing, experience, and virtues offer guarantees to all immediately and re- 
 motely concerned, ay, the most positive assurance, that its facts shall 
 be established and the law be applied to these — in a word, that jus- 
 tice shall prevail. 
 
 My duties are so engrossing as not to have allowed me opportu- 
 nities to read all of the published reports of the proceedings before the 
 Court of Inquiry, nor do I know what their decision has been. But I 
 have read Mackenzie's narrative, and parts of the testimony given by 
 witnesses produced by him, and on these I have formed the opinion 
 that Spencer never seriously intended to attempt the mutiny about 
 which he talked. 
 
 " The paper, which named three confederates, of whom one had 
 betrayed the seeming plot, and mentioned five or six uncertain acces- 
 sories, and some eight or ten who were to be made, nolens volens, to 
 unite in overpowering eighty ! ! ! a score of unarmed, reluctant 
 mutineers I ! ought not, I think, to have filled the Captain, Lieut 1- 
 ant, and subordinate officers, armed cap-a-pie as they were, or might 
 have been, into apprehension so fearful as to have tempted them to 
 be accusers, judges, executioners, and at last pharisees challenging 
 homage and honors for the sacrifice of virtue on the altar of jus- 
 tice ! ! ! 
 
 " The whole proceedings of Captain Mackenzie have been so oppo- 
 site to what I think those of a brave and just man, situated as he 
 was, should have been, that I have not allowed myself to speak of 
 them, but to you I may say, however, that I am apprehensive that 
 he was prompted to execute Spencer by idle fear, heartless tyranny, 
 and base ambition ; that he sped his arrow at a shining mark — the 
 family, including an inoffending mother. 
 
 " I know that discipline must be strict and command absolute, if 
 the navy is to be either useful or honorable ; but I also know that 
 those to whom command is given must be held as strictly answer- 
 able for the close observance of regulation and law, if we would not 
 subject innocent subordinates to the dread calamity of being hurried 
 ignominiously into other worlds by the fiats of cowardly, cruel, and 
 ambitious superiors. 
 
 " You are called by our country to see that justice be done in this 
 deplorable case ; and I repeat my entreaty that you will obey their 
 call. It is a merited and a deliberately bestowed compliment by those 
 
92 JOHN VAN LEAR MC MAHON. 
 
 who esteem you and are entitled to your regard, and in the dispen- 
 sation of justice an able prosecutor is indispensable one also who 
 is incapable of being a persecutor. 
 
 " Mr. Norris was asked to take part, and he will, if agreeable to 
 
 you, be expected to do so still, I suppose, 
 
 " Ever yours, 
 
 "J. W. MCCULLOH." 
 
 After all these appeals McMahon yet declined this 
 service. No excuse that may be suggested by any one 
 can relieve him from the censure which this act justly 
 brings upon his memory. It certainly constitutes one 
 blur, if there be none other, upon his professional repu- 
 tation. In thus declining this solemn duty he not 
 only disregarded the call of his country, but he turned 
 a deaf ear to the appeals of the parents, the widow, 
 family and friends, many of them powerless and friend- 
 less, of those who, many supposed and still believe, 
 had been murdered in cold blood and in cruel coward- 
 ice. His course on the occasion is indefensible, and 
 but for affectionate tenderness for his memory, harsher 
 terms might with propriety be hurled against him for 
 not only neglecting his own reputation, but for aban- 
 doning others who leaned upon him in their hour of 
 trial. His conduct is the more reprehensible because 
 he was then in the zenith of his manhood, and was in 
 the active practice of his profession. 
 
 It will not be deemed out of place to add that the 
 proceeding proved entirely abortive, and every appeal 
 that was made for redress by the unhappy survivors 
 to our courts of justice resulted in failure and disap- 
 pointment. Colonel Benton justly remarks, in this 
 connection : " It was the crime of individuals : it was 
 made national. The protection of the government, 
 the lenity of the courts, the evasions of the judiciary, 
 and the general approving voice, made a nation's 
 
JOHN VAN LEAR MC MAHON. 93 
 
 offence out of the conduct of some individuals, and 
 brought reproach upon the American name. 
 
 The administration was not united, as may well be 
 supposed, upon this absorbing question. Judge Spen- 
 cer sought to vindicate the memocy of his unhappy son, 
 while Judge Upshur was disposed to sustain Mackenzie. 
 The cabinet was further divided, and it is believed 
 the President inclined to take sides against Mackenzie. 
 While a subject of discussion in a cabinet meeting 
 hot words passed, and after the meeting adjourned the 
 two venerable ex-judges — Spencer and Upshur — actu- 
 ally came to blows, the latter having, not much to his 
 credit, assaulted the heart-stricken Spencer, for whose 
 conduct and unbecoming warmth, however reprehensi- 
 ble, and even insulting, every generous heart, it would 
 seem, should have found forbearance and forgiveness. 
 
CHAPTER XI. 
 
 The offices of Chancellor and Chief Justice at his disposal — Singular prej- 
 udice — The Chief Justice and the franchise — Mr. McMahon's prac- 
 tice at the Court of Appeals — The talent of Maryland there arrayed — 
 Intimacy with Mr. Johnson since 1825 — Tribute to the latter — McMa- 
 hon's professional integrity and vanity — A contrast to political modesty. 
 
 When the pure and unsullied no less than the learned 
 Theodoric Bland died and vacated the chair of Chan- 
 cellor, which he had filled for so many years with 
 ability and integrity, Mr. McMahon was tendered, by 
 Mr. Pratt, then Governor, the vacant ofihce, which he 
 declined. Immediately after, the Chief Justice (for up- 
 wards of thirty years) of the State, John Buchanan, 
 the model of grace and dignity, as well as of erudition 
 and justice, before whom it is an honor to have prac- 
 tised, departed this life — an event which at the time 
 fell like a pall upon the justice-seat of Marjdand. Rep- 
 resenting the western judicial district of the State, 
 whence McMahon had come, and where his interests 
 and affections still clung, all eyes turned to him as the 
 appropriate successor of the venerable Buchanan. 
 Governor Frank Thomas, and subsequently Governor 
 Pratt, each in turn tendered the vacant judgeship to 
 McMahon, but, in pursuance of a habit that had become 
 chronic, he declined also this honor. 
 
 In speaking of these matters afterwards, he re- 
 marked, after high eulogies upon these departed jurists, 
 that it would be a bold man who would venture to ac- 
 
JOFIX VAN LEAR MC MAHON. 95 
 
 cept their vacant places. But he had too much van- 
 ity and too high an appreciation of his own attain- 
 ments to assign any such reason for his ozvn non-accept- 
 ance, and in fact no such reason influenced his con- 
 duct in the premises. 
 
 Wlien we shall duly contemplate the wonderful nat- 
 ural gifts, the splendid attainments, the noble though 
 mysterious ambition, and the incorruptible integrity of 
 this man, we shall be at a loss to imagine what mo- 
 tive, what secret spring, what fear, what love, what 
 doubt, could have impelled him to reject these tempt- 
 ing opportunities to enter a field so expansive, and so 
 rich with all that could stimulate human emulation, 
 evoke eloquence, reward learning, advance private for- 
 tune, promote fame, -and gratify virtue ! We shall be 
 at a loss to estimate to what height his reputation may 
 have attained or what fruits may have resulted to his 
 countr-y and to the world by his well-directed efforts 
 from high places like these ! But still he did reject 
 them, and continued to lead a life of seclusion and com- 
 parative obscurity, though not of idleness or inaction, 
 but one of severe labor, the fruits of which fell mainly 
 upon the ears and minds of unappreciative jurors and 
 upon unfrequented courts, like water upon parched 
 sand, leaving no trace, and " which could not be 
 gathered up again." 
 
 It may be recorded as one of the weak and repre- 
 hensible traits of Mr. McMahon's character, as illus- 
 trated by what has already been stated, that he dreaded 
 antagonism — he shrunk from anything like a contest 
 with superiors or even equals, and such was his timid- 
 ity that he often imagined that he saw before him supe- 
 riors and equals in those who in all particulars were 
 his inferiors, and who in a fair contest would have 
 paled before his power and learning like stars before 
 
96 JOHN VAN LEAR MC MAHON. 
 
 the twilight of the approaching morning. To these 
 motives may doubtless be attributed the fact that he 
 never would appear, though often solicited, in the 
 Supreme Court at Washington. In that august tribu- 
 nal he feared he would have found himself over- 
 matched, whereas if he had measured himself by a just 
 standard he would have realized that he was the peer 
 of the ablest who attended this court, and more than 
 the equal of a great majority of them. 
 
 Notwithstanding this apparent indifference to politi- 
 cal promotion, Mr. McMahon always took a deep inter- 
 est in public affairs, and he made it a strict duty, which 
 he scrupulously performed, to vote at every election. 
 His course in this respect presents a striking and favor- 
 able contrast with that of the late Judge Taney, of 
 whom it is alleged that he never cast a ballot after his 
 elevation to the office of Chief Justice. 
 
 If this averment be true — and it is generally believed 
 to be well founded — it constitutes the greatest and per- 
 haps the only blur upon the public character of the 
 venerable and beloved Chief Justice. It was wrong in 
 theory and in practice and bad in example. In a coun- 
 try like ours it is no less the duty than the privilege of 
 ever}' citizen to participate in directing the affairs of 
 the government, and the higher the position, moral, 
 intellectual, and official, a citizen may occupy, the great- 
 er this obligation. In the Athenian commonwealth 
 the citizen who took no part in public affairs was 
 deemed indifferent to the public good and was branded 
 for his neutrality. It is no excuse for the omission of 
 this duty that it is sometimes performed in a manner 
 unworthy of its great obligations. There is a becom- 
 ing way to discharge every act of duty in life. It 
 should be done with firmness and dignity, and an op- 
 posite course often misleads us to condemn that which 
 
JOHN VAN LEAR MCMAHON. 97 
 
 if becomingly performed would meet our highest ap- 
 probation. . Thus while we would not have had the 
 Chief Justice to enter into the demoralizing details so 
 often attending the workings of our political system, 
 we cannot excuse him from withholding his great name 
 and noble influence from the higher and legitimate 
 operations of a free government. 
 
 This course was doubtless pursued under an impres- 
 sion that it Avould best preserve the judicial service 
 from even the suspicion of taint from political bias. In 
 this the Chief Justice paid his own lofty integrity a poor 
 compliment, and leaves behind him an example that no 
 friend can commend for imitation. Because he wishes 
 his government well, because he thinks its greatest 
 good can be promoted by the advocacy of particular 
 measures and men, and even further because he should 
 please out of motives of patriotism to urge upon his fel- 
 low-countrymen a particular line of public policy in the 
 administration of the government, these surely can con- 
 stitute no reason why he could not be able to adminis- 
 ter Justice fairly and impartially to every man accord- 
 ing to his deserts. 
 
 The same line of argument would have led him to^ 
 have abandoned his religion and shut his door against 
 his friends. Every relation of life, public and pri- 
 vate, however noble, however tender, perhaps tends, 
 more or less, to create prejudices, likes, and hatreds, 
 and while we are looking for a judge to sit in judgment 
 between man and man we should rather seek to find 
 one with strength enough of character and integrity to 
 surmount those weaknesses than one so cold and hard 
 as to be without them. Prejudice is almost insepara- 
 ble from our nature, but to be able to triumph over it is 
 perhaps the greatest achievement of which human 
 
9^ JOHN VAN LEAR MC MAHON. 
 
 character is capable, and no man is fit to fill the judi- 
 cial chair who cannot rise to such a victory. 
 
 If this course was right for him it would be equally 
 right for all similarly situated, and to what results 
 would his example lead ? No judge, justice of the 
 peace, or any man liable to jury service should ever 
 vote or participate in public affairs for fear he might be 
 led into prejudices and consequently false iudgments 
 in the discharge of his duty. While \nq are thus en- 
 deavoring to preserve the purit}^ of the judiciary, is it 
 not apparent that we are robbing the ballot — which, as 
 our country is at present organized, is behind and even 
 superior to the judiciary — of its power and its purity ? 
 It is no answer to these objections to say that the dig- 
 nity and imposing obligations of the office of Chief Jus- 
 tice should require a higher order of integrity, and on 
 that account should be the more sedulously guarded 
 from even the suspicion of partisan bias. The obliga- 
 tions of a judge, from the highest to the lowest, are pre- 
 cisely the same, and they are to administer justice with 
 integrity and impartiality ; and the discharge of these 
 obligations in no sense involves the neglect of other 
 inferior duties which our relations to man and society 
 impose. 
 
 Chief Justice Marshall did not so think or act. He 
 participated, in a dignified manner it is true, in political 
 affairs until the day of his death — was even Secretary 
 of State v/hile he was Chief Justice. Our own Chief 
 Justice Buchanan did not so think and act, nor did 
 Judges John Stephens and Jno. T. B. Dorsej^ The two 
 former while on the bench were elected electors of 
 President and Vice-President in Mr. Monroe's day, 
 while Judge Dorsey was a candidate for the same po- 
 sition against General Jackson in 1828, but was de- 
 feated. Chief Justice Smith of New Jersey, that great 
 
JOHN VAN LEAR M'CMAHON: 99 
 
 and good man, while on the bench was one of the elec- 
 tors chosen in favor of the elder Adams, and stumped 
 the State in his behalf. A hundred other instances 
 might be cited without a single example of judicial 
 corruption or impropriety resulting therefrom, except 
 perhaps in the case of Samuel Chase of Maryland, and 
 even he was honorably acquitted by the United States 
 Senate of such a charge, 
 
 To speak in becoming terms of Mr. McMahon's foren- 
 sic displays in the Court of Appeals during the period 
 of his active practice in that tribunal — not of the 
 strength and solidity of his arguments alone, but of the 
 beauty and eloquence of language and fancy with 
 which they were clothed — would extort now a smile of 
 incredulity from the reader. Often in the Court of Ap- 
 peals, with but three weary, worn-down auditors upon 
 the bench, who had been listening day in" and day out 
 for months to long, tedious arguments, and who had 
 become almost insensible to flowers of fancy or the 
 beauties of elocution in the dry details of legal argu- 
 ment ; with a languid, listless clerk or two whose ears 
 by constant listening for a quarter of a century had 
 become dead to all beauties of thought or language, and 
 who generally, by habit, selected such occasions of or- 
 atorical displa3^s before the court as the fittest time to 
 snatch unobserved their daily nap ; with these often 
 as his only audience, he would yet pour forth such 
 streams or rather torrents of forensic eloquence as 
 would have charmed admiring Senates and lashed to 
 frenzy a sympathizing populace. When it is remem- 
 bered how eloquence above all the fruits of genius is 
 always appreciated and admired, and how many gladly 
 would have come from a distance to have heard these 
 displays if they had known when they were to have 
 been made, it always impressed me with something 
 
lOO JOHN VAN LEAR MC MAHON. 
 
 like a feeling of pity to witness these efforts of Mr. INIc- 
 Mahon thus thrown away upon such small and what 
 seemed such unappreciative audiences, and with none 
 to make record of them for future generations. On 
 one such occasion, the Chief Justice, Le Grand, was 
 especially attracted by this state of incongruity — with 
 eloquence without an audience or due appreciation — 
 and calling the attention of his nearest brother on the 
 bench to a particularly brilliant passage in Mr. M.'s 
 speech, at the same time pointing to the only two 
 clerks present, one of whom was reading a newspaper, 
 and the other asleep, his face flushed with indignation, 
 and with suppressed yet audible language he broke 
 forth in a vituperative strain against the neglect of 
 talent and the perishable fruits of genius. 
 
 This was afterwards spoken of as an effort that 
 would equally have charmed an indiscriminate audi- 
 ence by its eloquence, as a learned bench by its irresist- 
 ible logic. 
 
 The first appearance of Mr. McMahon before the 
 new Court of Appeals under the constitution of 1851 
 was in the case of Young v. Frost, reported in ist Md. 
 Reps. Though his argument was powerful and perhaps 
 conclusive, it was so magnificently decorated by the 
 figures of fancy that the members of the court, not 
 familiar with his style, found themselves so much daz- 
 zled and bewildered by his eloquence tliat they lost 
 sight of his logic and argument — it was so at least with 
 one. But this did not long continue. 
 
 The previous Court of Appeals were ever profuse in 
 their praises of this great man. He was the admira- 
 tion of Chief Justice Buchanan and a favorite theme of 
 his conversation. After he had concluded his argu- 
 ment before the Court of Appeals in the great case in- 
 volving the power of taxation (Baltimore City v. Gor- 
 
JOHN VAN LEAR MC MAHON. loi 
 
 don, 5 Gill, 231), Judge Dorsey came down from the 
 bench evidently laboring, though by no means an 
 emotional man. under a state of deep feeling produced 
 by the speech he had just heard. Turning to a promi- 
 nent member of the bar near him, and raising both 
 hands, in a suppressed voice he said : " I never in all 
 my life heard such a speech, and should I live a hundred 
 years do not expect to hear such another." 
 
 Yet all that is left of record of this great effort in the 
 report of the case is that it was " argued for the appel- 
 lee by J. V. L. McMahon." Well might Le Grand 
 lament over the neglect of genius and talents as illus- 
 trated in this instance ! 
 
 To refer to the great arguments of McMahon before 
 the Court of Appeals would be simply to enumerate 
 the cases in which he had appeared, for there was 
 hardly any difference in his arguments. It was not 
 necessary to connect him with a case involving large 
 amounts or questions of great public interest to evoke 
 the full powers of his mind. He was generally as 
 great in small cases as large ones, and it was the prin- 
 ciple of law and not the amount that aroused his no- 
 blest effort. In this respect he stood alone, and far 
 above any lawyer in Maryland — in the present or the 
 past. A beggar with McMahon as his counsel might 
 repose in security, with as much confidence that justice 
 would be done him in every step of his case, as if he 
 were a wealthy banker or merchant. In the httle case 
 of EUicott V. Lamborne, in 2d Maryland Reps., his 
 argument was as complete a treatise on pleading as if 
 it had been prepared for publication for the student or 
 practitioner, and doubtless as such would have been re- 
 garded by the profession as a perfect production as far 
 as it went. 
 
 Had it not been that the Court of Appeals was so 
 
I02 JOHN VAN LEAR MC MAHON. 
 
 often literally crushed physically and mentally by the 
 weight of long, heavy, pointless speeches and often 
 upon questions involving neither law nor property, 
 they would have approached with unalloyed pleasure 
 the consideration of records which were to be eluci- 
 dated by Mr. McMahon and his noble compeers. 
 Every day that passes, owing to the great travelling 
 facilities for members of the bar to follow their cases to 
 the Court of Appeals, renders less frequent those 
 splendid combinations of professional talents in indi- 
 vidual cases which was once so common in Maryland, 
 even as late as the time of Mr. McMahon. A judge 
 would have been indeed insensible to the impressions 
 and the awe which genius and learning should always 
 inspire if he could look from the bench with indifference 
 upon the bar surrounded as it often was in latter days 
 by McMahon, Chambers, H. W. Davis, May, Camp- 
 bell, Brent, Dulan}^, Mayer, and others who are de- 
 parted, not to speak of the living, arrayed not only in 
 the armor in which their general learning always en- 
 cased them, but armed for the occasion with the 
 weapons of special preparation. Notwithstanding the 
 first reading of the record and briefs would often so ir- 
 revocably decide a case in the mind of the court that all 
 subsequent argument would be futile and useless, yet 
 it was always a noble intellectual treat to witness the 
 struggles of these men in support of their respective 
 theories of the case. 
 
 It is not always proper or in good taste to speak of 
 the living in such a connection. The truth if not pleas- 
 ant is considered cruel, while praise is regarded as flat- 
 tery. But the history of Mr. McMahon is so intimate- 
 ly connected with that of Mr. Johnson that the one 
 could hardly be written without reference to the other. 
 There was so small a difference in their ages that they 
 
JOHN VAN LEAR MC MAHON. 103 
 
 were for all purposes contemporaneous as to points of 
 time and history. From their early manhood they were 
 intimate, and their intercourse, personal and profes- 
 sional, was always close and even familiar.* Since 1825 
 there have been few important cases in Baltimore in 
 which they did not appear upon one side or the other. 
 We are not aware that their conflicts at the forum ever 
 resulted in any personal difficulty or estrang-ement. 
 They were both influenced by gentlemanly impulses, 
 and with such guides it was not likely they could be 
 brought into hostile collision. But as men and as law- 
 yers they were widely different. Mr. Johnson in his 
 nature is open, easy, familiar, and accessible by all. 
 He is even playful and simple in his manner, and his 
 great traits of mind and character are never discover- 
 able except when called forth by an occasion which re- 
 quires their development. He is impulsive in his na- 
 ture and disposed to enter precipitately into every ap- 
 peal that is made to him, without due regard to con- 
 sequences and often without reference to the merits of 
 the question, and consequently in his good-natured 
 zeal he often promises more than he can perform. As a 
 friend he is cordial and true, and as an enemy forgiving. 
 Mr. McMahon in many respects was the opposite in 
 all these traits. At first he was rather austere in his 
 demeanor and not easy of approach. He was more 
 dignified and formal, and in his manner and bearing 
 not generally cordial, and he was never willing that his 
 unquestioned claims to pre-eminence should be over- 
 looked. His vanity was ever prominent, and he was 
 inclined to egotism. Naturally no doubt he was im- 
 pulsive, but this trait he had so far subdued that over- 
 
 * Mr. Johnson's recent death makes this comparison all the more 
 interesting:. — Ed. 
 
I04 JOHN VAN LEAR MC MAHON. 
 
 caution had taken its place. He was faithful to his 
 obligations to his fellow-man in the highest degree ; 
 he was slow to promise, but he invariably fulfilled 
 more than he had undertaken. He was a true and 
 steady friend, but an unforgiving though by no means 
 a vindictive enemy. Notwithstanding his strong 
 traits of character and impetuous nature, he had used 
 education for the purpose of subduing prejudice, and 
 he was therefore impartial in all his judgments. 
 
 Education, one of the great objects of which should 
 be to conquer prejudice, seems instead, in many cases, 
 to be employed to promote it. All our schools and 
 colleges set out upon the assumption that certain theo- 
 ries, many of them patently false, are established 
 beyond the power of controverting them, and all sub- 
 sequent instruction must rest upon the correctness of 
 that assumption. Truth should be the aim of all edu- 
 cation, and no system is therefore perfect that does not 
 invite and even require an examination into every ques- 
 tion of science and morals which is not self-evident or 
 does not rest upon the revelations of God. 
 
 No term in the English language is so little under- 
 stood and so often perverted 2i^ prejudice. It means, as 
 its derivation indicates, a pre-judgment — that is, a con- 
 clusion drawn upon a question from an imperfect and 
 partial consideration or upon incomplete data. The 
 general and popular idea of the term is that it is a 
 strong and intemperate manifestation of approval or 
 disapproval of persons and things. This notion is erro- 
 neous. Extreme likes and hatreds are perfectly con- 
 sistent with a maturely and correctly formed judgment, 
 while the most mildly and charitably expressed opin- 
 ions may be firmly entertained upon the most errone- 
 ous and imperfect investigation. Harsh and severe 
 men ma}^ be free from prejudice, while the most amia- 
 
JOHN VAN LEAR MC MAHON. 105 
 
 ble and gentle often form irrevocable and unjust con- 
 clusions upon the most insufficient data. The mind 
 controls our judgment, while the temper or disposition 
 imparts the degree with which it is enforced. With 
 an intellect so trained that the fairest and fullest con- 
 sideration would be given to every question, Mr. Mc- 
 Mahon yet possessed such impetuosity of temper that 
 after he had foimed his opinion he would be apt to 
 carry it to extremes if the nature of the subject re- 
 quired it. He never hated a man nor liked one with- 
 out maturely considered reasons, but his opinions thus 
 formed were often intemperately and even extrava- 
 gantly expressed. His relations to the late Mr. Wirt 
 illustrate what is meant. On one occasion that distin- 
 guished gentleman was the subject of conversation in 
 McMahon's company, and his claim to pre-eminence 
 as an orator was called in question. Mr. McM. re- 
 marked that he thought his opinion on that question 
 should be entitled to some weight, for the reason that 
 he hated Wirt zvitJi a cordial hate — that he had offered 
 him an indignity when he was a very young man, for 
 which he had never apologized, and that he had always 
 regarded such an offence as unpardonable, yet he was 
 constrained to say that he had always considered Mr. 
 Wirt as the most admirable public speaker he had ever 
 known. AVhatever were his likes or dislikes for differ- 
 ent members of the bar, he was yet always competent 
 to measure them by a just standard — to friend and foe 
 he could, and always did, mete out justice with a 
 steady hand. 
 
 As lawyers these two great men, Mr. Johnson and Mc- 
 Mahon, were equally unlike. In professional integrity 
 in its broadest sense Mr. McMahon was unquestionably 
 equal — indeed, it may be safely affirmed, superior to 
 any man at the bar. It is not meant to confine this re- 
 
I06 JOHN VAN LEAR MC 31 A HON. 
 
 mark to mere fair dealing, honorable conduct, and strict 
 integrity in money or business transactions with clients. 
 That would be to do injustice to many in the profes- 
 sion in this State, of whom it may be safely said that 
 in these- respects superiority would be impossible. 
 But by professional integrity as used in this connection 
 it is intended to embrace all of the varied and remote 
 obligations which attach to a lawyer. Mr. McMahon 
 never left undone or unsaid one act or word that could 
 avail in the interest of his client. He never paused in 
 his investigation of any case until he was satisfied it 
 had been exhausted. With him there was nothing ever 
 omitted by which even assurance could be made dou- 
 bly sure. Can any man living, or the friends of any 
 dead, say the same thing ? 
 
 In regard to fees Mr, McMahon was equally punctil- 
 ious and just. In the flush of success — ^with a suddenly 
 enriched and excited client exulting in victory, with 
 every generous pore of his heart opened by a tri- 
 umph which he was erroneously disposed more to at- 
 tribute to the magic power of his counsel than to the 
 merits and justice of his cause — yet with all these seduc- 
 tive opportunities to extort an exorbitant fee he was 
 nev^er known to avail himself of them, or to charge 
 his client more than would be considered a fair fee in 
 the dark hour of professional defeat. He rather la- 
 bored to vindicate the integrity of his profession than 
 to accumulate wealth. While the case of West and 
 Flanigan, reported in 4th Md. Reps., was under argu- 
 ment, Mr. Johnson took his client to one side in the 
 court room, where he required him to count down his 
 fee, and probably a pretty heavy one. Mr. McMahon 
 afterwards went up to him and playfully but no doubt 
 correctly remarked : " Why, Rev., you have charged 
 
JOHN VAN LEAR MC MAHON. 107 
 
 your client more for losing his case than I intend to 
 charge mine for gaining it. ' ' 
 
 To continue this imperfect comparison or contrast 
 between Mr. Johnson and Mr. McMahon, it may be 
 added that it would be quite difficult to discover a 
 superior to the former in view of the qualities of mind 
 and legal education which are necessary to constitute 
 the lawyer. In a case eliciting all of the powers and 
 efforts of Mr. Johnson it is probable no man in this 
 country can excel him. On such occasions Mr. Mc- 
 Mahon surely was not his superior, and probably not 
 his equal. With all his vanity Mr. McMahon fully 
 realized and acknowledged the superior powers of Mr. 
 Johnson, yet as far as is known was never jealous of 
 him. While true courage is generally tempered by 
 wisdom and prudence, so is greatness, even when ac- 
 companied by vanity, sometimes subdued by equal or 
 greater power. Hence McMahon was always shy of 
 Mr. Johnson, and whenever they came in conflict this 
 feeling was visibly manifested by some little exhibition 
 of trepidation or perhaps nervousness, and he seemed 
 to invoke in an unusual degree the strength that he 
 possessed, and his efforts on such occasions, if possi- 
 ble, were characterized by more than his ordinary 
 power. Mr. Johnson has been often known to argue 
 cases in the most slipshod, careless manner, and to 
 pick up all the knowledge that he may acquire of them, 
 both as to facts and law, as he proceeds with his argu- 
 ment. In this respect he is, to some extent at least, 
 like Luther Martin, of whom it is related that on more 
 occasions than one he has been known to commence 
 his argument, through thoughtlessness or neglect, by 
 advocating the side of his opponent, and when his atten- 
 tion was called to his blunder, to adroitly get out of it by 
 saying that he was merely setting forth the arguments 
 
I08 JOHN VAN LEAR MC MAHON. 
 
 of his adversary to show how easily they might be 
 overturned. Mr, Johnson is like Luther Martin also 
 in this — that he is never disconcerted or thrown off his 
 guard. If he should happen to make a misstep in his 
 case, as he not unfrequently has done, he has skill 
 enough to appear, at least in the eyes of the jury and 
 hearers, to turn it to his own advantage. His cool, 
 deliberate, self-possessed manner gives him always an 
 immense advantage over his adversaries, and possess- 
 ing at the same time a pleasing elocution he has had 
 few equals in a trial at Nisi PriuSo Mr. McMahon was 
 unlike him in both the last named particulars. In the 
 first he was his superior, because he was never found 
 unprepared in any case where preparation was possi- 
 ble ; in the second he was his inferior, for the reason 
 that he was easily disconcerted and throAvn off his bal- 
 ance. A new turn in his case, by some undeveloped 
 evidence or unexpected instruction by the court, in- 
 variably flurried him to a greater or less degree, and 
 he not unfrequently under such circumstances lost for 
 the time his temper, and even his dignity. 
 
 Mr. McMahon was not zealous in his admiration of 
 the legal profession in the abstract, although himself, 
 if taken as a type of the profession, in every obligation 
 that attaches to the lawyer, as has been shown, would 
 present it as a vocation illustrating the noblest virtue 
 and strictest fidelity. He alwa3-s spoke of the law as 
 surrounded by more numerous and dangerous tempta- 
 tions than all other pursuits, and which often lead to 
 mean and disreputable practices. 
 
 The power of a lawj^er in full practice for evil, no 
 less than for good, is unbounded. By wise counsel he 
 may rescue many a man and his estate from ruin — may 
 restore peace and confidence where discord and dis- 
 trust before prevailed — may vindicate honor — may 
 
JOHN VAN LEAR MC MAHON. 109 
 
 protect the poor and weak — may bring light out of 
 darkness and order out of chaos ; while on the other 
 hand, where selfishness rises above wisdom and virtue, 
 as is too often the case, the opportunities for the grati- 
 fication of this passion are so numerous in the lawyer's 
 life, and can be so securely covered over from public 
 view, that there are few comparativel)^ who are able to 
 resist the unworthy temptation of taking advantage of 
 those who are at his mercy. Mr. McMahon's views 
 are no doubt expressed, in part at least, in a letter an ex- 
 tract of which follows, upon this very subject. It was 
 written in the early days of our State, as far back as 
 1 8 18, by a gentleman who attained perhaps to as much 
 success and who left behind as unsullied a professional 
 reputation as any man at the bar. It was addressed, 
 upon solicitation for advice, to a kinsman, but the sub- 
 ject of it — his son — not taking the .counsel contained in 
 the letter, and being willing to encounter the danger- 
 ous temptations to which it refers, successfully tri- 
 umphed over them and became one of the most distin- 
 guished and honorable lawyers and statesmen in the 
 country. If the letter had any force in the purer days 
 of our country when it was written, it will readily be 
 seen that it has much more now, and hence its publica- 
 tion in the present connection it is hoped will not be 
 deemed out of place. In writing of McMahon, who 
 was so thoroughly identified with law and lawyers, 
 almost everything that related to either may be taken 
 as a part of his history. 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 
 Mr. McMahon's views of the law — Interesting letter from a colleague on 
 the subject —Funny incidents at the Court of Appeals — Reminiscence 
 of this tribunal — Limited travel, yet vast and familiar knowledge of the 
 world and its news. 
 
 " . . . Let me now speak in regard to my 
 young kinsman. He is a ver}^ interesting, intelligent 
 young man. He has brought with him from Europe 
 none of that flippancy so generally imported by our 
 young men from thence. 
 
 " If he has for himself selected the profession of the 
 law there is no gainsaying it, and I very much approve 
 of your sending him to William and Mary, my Alma 
 Mater, in preference to putting him in any lawyer's 
 ofhce. In a seminary of learning a man if so disposed 
 may seclude himself from the world and may have 
 every facility of acquiring knowledge of every kind. 
 To acquire a knowledge of the law nothing but books 
 and application are required. Not so in a lawyer's 
 office, which my experience (if it be in a town or city) 
 has taught me to consider as a very improper place to 
 study anything. 
 
 " But if the profession of the law has been selected 
 by you for your son, or if you have in any degree in- 
 fluenced his selection, I can only say that you have 
 done what I shall never do. Your father did not think 
 more contemptuously of the profession than I do. A 
 lawyer of good sense, sound integrity, profound learn- 
 
JOHN VAN LEAR MC MAFION. m 
 
 ing, and ready elocution is an ornament to society and 
 a treasure to his country. But is not such a man 
 equally so in any line of life ? And I will venture to 
 say that there is no pursuit in life, short of very hard 
 manual labor so slavishly laborious as the practice of 
 the law, and none less favorable to longevity or health. 
 And after all, look around you, and among the hosts of 
 lawyers that have infested this country like locusts. See 
 what a small proportion of them have attained to wealth 
 or even a comfortable competence. A practising 
 lawyer has so many opportunities of playing the knave 
 without even the possibility of detection that a parent 
 ought to be well assured indeed of his son's inflexible 
 integrity, of his unshaken firmness to reject tempta- 
 tion in all its alluring forms, before he can justify to 
 himself or his child the exposing him to such hazard. 
 The bar, from my experience, is the last place / would 
 resort to for men of strict honesty, undeviating truth, 
 open, generous, manly ways or feeling, or any of those 
 sentiments that adorn human nature. Yet they are 
 sometimes to be found there. 
 
 " The study of the law is best pursued where there is 
 most solitude and the fewest objects to draw from it 
 the attention or even the thoughts of a student. To 
 make a man a lawyer he must read much and direct his 
 whole mental faculties to the subject. A man may be 
 a very profound lawyer and in other respects emi- 
 nently illiterate as Mr. Jefferson once observed to me of 
 one Thomas Johnson, a very striking example. 
 
 "The manner in which you speak of the rudiments 
 and principles of the law show you want to be cautioned 
 on that subject. ' A little learning is a dangerous 
 thing, ' and there is no science to which the remark more 
 forcibly applies than to that of the law. Blackstone's 
 Commentaries is the most lucid and one of the most valu- 
 
112 JOHN VAN LEAR MCMAIION. 
 
 able works in the law library ; it in the plainest and 
 most methodical way teaches the rudiments and first 
 principles of the law. My father never would suffer a 
 student to look into it until prepared for it by two 
 years' close study. His reason was (and he was right) 
 it made a lawyer of a young man of genius in his own 
 opinion in a month, and two years' mortifying applica- 
 tion, if you could succeed in obtaining it, were neces- 
 sary to convince him he knew nothing and to place him 
 in a proper state of mind to renew the study profita- 
 bly." 
 
 Whoever, like McMahon, can pass this fiery ordeal 
 with unimpaired integrity, presents an example worthy 
 of the highest commendation and honor. To the credit 
 of human nature it may be recorded that there are and 
 have been many in the legal profession who can claim 
 the same distinction, but none, it may be safely affirmed, 
 in a higher degree than the subject of this sketch. 
 
 Although Mr. McMahon's intercourse with the bench 
 was in no sense marked by subserviency — mdeed, on 
 the contrary he was ever prompt to assert the pre- 
 rogatives of the bar — vet he was with every court in 
 which he practised a great favorite. The kindest and 
 even most intimate relations existed between him and 
 the members of the old Court of Appeals, although 
 they were all older men than himself. They used in- 
 variably to address him familiarly either as " Mac" or 
 " Mr. Mac." Judge Buchanan, than whom no man 
 was ever fonder of society, especially good company, 
 or more discriminating in his selections, in his leisure 
 moments would hunt about the hotel for " Mac" till 
 he found him, and they would soon be closeted to- 
 gether enjoying the sprightly conversation of each 
 other. Even the stern and rigid Judge Dorsey would 
 always relax in his company. During by far the greater 
 
JOHN VAN LEAR MC MAHON. 113 
 
 part of the sessions of the court Mr. McMahon, no less 
 from choice than from the calls of business, would be 
 present, but if anything carried him away from Annapo- 
 lis, his return would always be cordially and even in a 
 demonstrative manner greeted by the judges. All 
 this resulted from his frankness and sincerity of charac- 
 ter, his cheerful and kind disposition, and his very 
 agreeable powers of conversation. 
 
 He continued always devoted to Annapolis. Often 
 during the recess of the courts and the Legislature, 
 when animation was almost suspended in the " an- 
 cient" city, he could be seen for days at a time loiter- 
 ing or wandering alone about her deserted streets, and 
 apparently indulging in study or revery. He seemed 
 to have a special liking for the people of Annapolis, 
 and they in turn held him in the greatest admiration 
 and affection. He always maintained that from a care- 
 ful examination of the subject he could pronounce the 
 climate of Annapolis, embracing all seasons, as the 
 most delightful on the globe, and he was not at a loss 
 for foreign authority to sustain his position. 
 
 He was equally unrestrained in his intercourse with 
 the judges, and if perchance he could pick up a joke or 
 anecdote upon any of them he would take especial de- 
 light in giving it publicity. He also would good- 
 naturedly retort upon or rebuke any one of them when 
 occasion required. 
 
 One winter the court was very slow in filing their 
 opinions, and in many cases of importance they gave 
 ■decisions without even filing any opinion, and, as Mr. 
 McMahon said were, " very lazy," and he did not hesi- 
 tate to complain of them, and even to their faces. 
 
 One morning, at this period, Mr. Johnson walked into 
 the court-room and joined a group consisting of Judges 
 Buchanan and Chambers, Mr. McMahon, and one 
 
114 JOHN VAN LEAR MC MAHON. 
 
 or two others. After the usual salutations, Mr. John- 
 son complained of his hard work, of being worn down, 
 tired, and the like. McMahon turned to him and play- 
 fully but pointedly remarked, " Rev, wh)^ don't you 
 go on the bench ?" This instantly fired Judge Cham- 
 bers, who was very quick in temper as well as in re- 
 tort, and who fully appreciated the remark as a fling 
 at the court, and he began a sharp reply, but before he 
 had uttered the first sentence McMahon had glided 
 into the adjoining room. 
 
 • About the same time, perhaps the following June 
 term, a plain, honest, unsophisticated old German 
 from Washington County named Doub was in Anna- 
 polis anxiously awaiting the final disposition of an im- 
 portant case which he then had pending before the 
 court. McMahon Avas the counsel against him. Doub 
 did not confine his importunities for an early hearing 
 to his own counsel, but he took McMahon also severely 
 to task for his tardiness in not pressing the case. He 
 took to Doub at once, as containing an inexhaustible 
 well of humor, fun, and originality. In response to 
 Doub's accusations, he charged the delay upon the 
 court, and advised him to go to head-quarters and 
 lodge his complaints there, and directed him especially 
 to Judge Dorsey — "the old judge who, like j'ourself, 
 has no hair on his head." Accordingly Doub went in 
 search of the judges. He found them after dinner 
 seated under the trees at the hotel, taking their ease in 
 sprightl}^ and agreeable conversation. Doub, una- 
 bashed by their august presence, boldly approached 
 the party, and, according to his instructions particularly 
 directing his assault against Judge Dorsey, inquired in 
 his German accent wh}^ he could not have his case dis- 
 posed of. They were all struck and favorably im- 
 pressed with the frank, simple, and good-natured man- 
 
JOHN VAN LEAR MC MAHON. 115 
 
 ner of the old Dutchman. McMahon, expecting the 
 denouement, had in the mean time unobtrusively joined 
 the party. Judge Dorsey very civilly replied that as 
 soon as "we get time we will take up your case." 
 This was too much for Doub. " Get time !" he ex- 
 claimed ; " why, what are you doing now ^ Nothing ! 
 Wh}^ can't you try the case now ?" Before Judge Dor- 
 sey could rally and respond he followed up the assault 
 with this additional pertinent question, " How much 
 wages do you get?" Judge Dorsey told him. More 
 than ever the old man was astounded. "Why," he 
 added, " m}' men only get ten dollars a month, and 
 they never stop work till sundown." McMahon was 
 overwhelmed with the success of the joke, though the 
 judges never suspected that he was at the bottom of it. 
 He was often very witty before the court. Mr. Charles 
 F. Mayer in one of his arguments in the Court of Ap- 
 peals cited "Drake on Attachments," then a new 
 publication. Mr. McMahon sneered at the authority 
 and remarked that judging from the character of the 
 book and the name of the author he would judge it 
 was the production of a professional quack ! When Mr. 
 Mayer came to reply, he protested that "it was not 
 fair to consign his authority to a condition of quackery 
 simply because of the unfortunate name of the au- 
 thor." 
 
 Mr. McMahon was not only always prepared for his 
 cases, but thoroughly prepared, and indeed if there is 
 any ground of complaint on this point it was that he 
 was too well prepared, if such a thing be possible. B}^ 
 this is meant that he elaborated his cases too much — he 
 devoted study and learning to questions far beyond their 
 exigencies — ^his investigations never ceased — he piled 
 up authority upon authority upon the same point and 
 often cited cases that had no weight of authority in 
 
Il6 JOHN VAN LEAR MC MAHON. 
 
 them. He was slow in the incipiency of a case in inti- 
 mating even an opinion, and appeared never to be sat- 
 isfied. After having arrived at an impression, he 
 seemed to labor to find out if his own positions could 
 not successfully be assailed, and so far from being in- 
 fluenced, as most men are, by the pride of opinion, he 
 would actually appear to exult in upsetting his own 
 conclusions. But when investigation was at length 
 ended and an opinion was once formed and announced, 
 he who rested upon it might feel that he stood upon a 
 rock. 
 
 His briefs prepared for the Court of Appeals were 
 full, clear, and systematically arranged. It would take 
 a very critical lawyer to discover that anything could 
 be added to them by subsequent oral argument. Yet 
 the ribs of the hull of a vessel upon the stocks could no 
 more be compared to the same full-rigged ship riding 
 upon the waters than could these briefs be compared 
 to the eloquent and logical oral arguments that were 
 subsequently based upon them. 
 
 As a lawyer he had one peculiar and commendable 
 trait. He was entirely free from the vice so common to 
 the legal profession of falling in with and encouraging 
 the prejudices, caprices, and passions of clients, regard- 
 less of the principles of justice involved in their contro- 
 versies. He consequently never encouraged but in- 
 stead always discountenanced unnecessar}^ litigation. 
 In this particular he seemed to follow the example of 
 the late Mr. J. T. Mason, ■^ of whose peculiarity in this 
 respect he used frequently to speak and to narrate many 
 anecdotes. To him Mr. McMahon attributed what is 
 
 * Father of the biographer, and, like Mr. McMahon, offered, and 
 by him refused, the Attorney Generalship of the United States under 
 President Jefferson. — Ed. 
 
JOHN VAN LEAR MC MAHON. 117 
 
 now the old, commonplace witticism as to what is 
 likely to secure success in a party going to law, viz., 
 " That he must have a good case, good witnesses, a 
 good lawyer, a good deal of money, good luck, and 
 much patience ; that under such circumstances it was 
 possible for him to win ! ' ' 
 
 He never undertook a case or sympathized with a 
 client, it may be safely affirmed, in an unjust cause, 
 however tempting the fee that might have been offered ; 
 much less did he ever advise a legal proceeding con- 
 trary to his own convictions of justice. Lawyers, and 
 often the most eminent, are too apt to consent to un- 
 dertake cases, and even to advise them, more to gratify 
 the cupidity, vindictiveness, or spirit of fraud in their 
 clients, than to vindicate the right or to promote the 
 ends of justice. With such conduct Mr. McMahon was 
 never chargeable. He even ran into the opposite ex- 
 treme, and would often withhold, out of abundant cau- 
 tion, his approbation in cases that were manifestly just 
 and proper until he had almost lost the confidence of 
 his client. Like Mr. Mason, it was a common practice 
 with him to argue a point against his client, and to 
 raise objections to his recovery so long and so ear- 
 nestly that the latter was almost driven to abandon his 
 case as hopeless, or to fly to some one else more sym- 
 pathizing. To illustrate this peculiarity an anecdote 
 majT- be cited. He was associated with Mr. Johnson in 
 a case of great importance. Their client, an enlight- 
 ened citizen of Philadelphia, v/as a stranger to him. 
 By his extreme caution and long-withheld confidence 
 from what the client supposed to be the manifest merits 
 of his case, the latter began to doubt either the ability 
 or fidelity of his counsel, or perhaps both ; he therefore 
 soon centred all his hopes upon Mr. Johnson, who 
 perhaps erred in the other extreme. The latter had a 
 
Il8 JOHN VAN LEAR MC MAHON. 
 
 pressing" engagement at Washington at the time, and 
 asked to be excused when the case was called, assuring 
 the party that his interests would be safe in his col- 
 league's hands.. The client protested earnestly and 
 warmly against such a suggestion, and was greatly dis- 
 tressed at the mere thought of losing Mr. Johnson's 
 valuable services. The latter yielded to his wishes 
 and remained. The case progressed, and presently 
 McMahon came to make the opening speech. He 
 dashed off and continued with such power, clearness, 
 and eloquence that it was impossible to resist thern. 
 In the midst of his argument the intelhgent client, no 
 longer in doubt about the ability or fidelity of his coun- 
 sel, arose from his chair and on tiptoe quietly ap- 
 proached Mr. Johnson and whispered in his ear, 
 " You may go to Washington." 
 
 This anecdote illustrates that those who reposed 
 their confidence in McMahon rested upon a foundation 
 of moral and mental strength against which the allure- 
 ments of flattery or the seductions of mone^^ could not 
 avail, and which only a rare tornado of intellectual 
 power superior to his own might move. 
 
 Numerous anecdotes might be mentioned illustrating 
 the high moral tone that governed Mr. McMahon's 
 professional conduct. One will suffice. Towards the 
 latter part of his life he was retained in eight cases, 
 similar in their nature, involving some questions grow- 
 ing out of the revenue laws. He had a distinguished 
 member of the Baltimore bar associated with him. He 
 received a retaining fee of $200 in each case. The 
 time for the trial was approaching. In his usual desire 
 to know all about the questions involved, and to ex- 
 haust investigation, he determined to go to Philadel- 
 phia, where a series of these same cases was about to 
 be tried, and where he might post himself about the 
 
JOHN VAN LEAR MC MAHON. 1 19 
 
 facts better than he could learn them from his clients. 
 Having few or no personal acquaintances in Philadel- 
 phia he took a retired seat in the court-room, where he 
 was a silent and attentive though an unobserved lis- 
 tener. In a few days after his return to Baltimore he 
 called upon his colleague, and stated that professional 
 engagements in the Court of Appeals at Annapolis 
 would prevent him from appearing in the cases in 
 question. Mr. T. protested against his withdrawment, 
 and ventured to suggest that the Court of Appeals 
 would willingly indulge him under the circumstances. * 
 No ! His mind was made up. Returning the $1600 
 contingent fees, he withdrew from the cases. Mr. 
 Meredith took his place. Long after the controversy 
 had ended, in conversation upon the subject McMahon 
 confessed that the true reason vvdiy he had withdrawn 
 was that he had been satisfied b}^ what he had heard on 
 the trial at Philadelphia that so far from his clients 
 having any merits in their cases, they were actually 
 founded in gross and glaring fraud. His associate re- 
 buked him for not giving him this information before 
 the trials came off. He responded that the latter knew 
 nothing of the fraudulent nature of the transactions, and 
 that it was no part of his business or obligation to in- 
 struct counsel about the facts of their cases or to sug- 
 gest to them their line of duty. He had only to con- 
 trol his own conduct. 
 
 Mr. McMahon was sometimes influenced by small 
 ambitions. One of these was the desire to be on the 
 winning side of his case. He always had an eye to 
 popular applause, and as the vulgar mind can never see 
 any merit in any effort unattended with success, he 
 naturally looked to success as the certain road to pop- 
 ular favor. It followed that he was very coy, espe- 
 cially in his latter years, how he entered into any case, 
 
I20 JOHN VAN LEAR MC MAHON. 
 
 lest He might find himself on the losing side. To such 
 a reputation had he attained that he could almost select 
 his cases, especially those pending in the Court of Ap- 
 peals, but he rarely suffered himself to be retained un- 
 less it appeared clear that the law and merits were 
 with him. His learning and sound legal judgment led 
 him, with the record before him, in almost every case 
 to unerring conclusions. Hence it will be readily seen 
 how easy it was for any one with such advantages to 
 be generally on the victorious side. During the latter 
 years of his practice the reports show that he rarely 
 lost a decision. For seven years after the new court 
 of 185 1 had qualified, although he argued a very large 
 proportion of the cases, it will appear from the reports 
 that he lost but one or two in all that period. This 
 fact led to the remark, rather sarcastically made by 
 superficial and small-minded lawyers, that Mr. McMa- 
 hon must have had some undue personal influence over 
 the court to be thus always successful, while Johnson, 
 Nelson, Schley, Steele, Alexander, Scott, Wallis, 
 Mayer, Brent, and others, supposed to merit equal 
 weight, lost fully one half of all the cases they argued. 
 These latter gentlemen were lawyers by profession ; 
 the law was their business, and they did not pause, like 
 McMahon, to consider the merits of the several cases 
 entrusted to them. They considered that the obliga- 
 tions of conscience were fully discharged if they pre- 
 sented to the court the best view of which their client's 
 cause was susceptible, and this they usually did with a 
 zeal and ability rarely surpassed. McMahon's practice 
 was, as has been shown, very different, and being not 
 more an ambitious man than a truly conscientious one, 
 it would be unjust to his reputation to attribute his 
 conduct in this particular exclusively to the first rather 
 than to the last named motive. 
 
JOHN VAN LEAR MC MAHON. 121 
 
 Another of his small ambitions, particularly in his 
 earlier years, was the desire to impress his audience, 
 especially the gentler sex, by his personal appearance 
 and manner and by dramatic acting. He has been 
 charged on more occasions than one with having 
 affected through deep emotion to swoon or faint dur- 
 ing some of his popular harangues, and to have fallen 
 in the most graceful and studied manner into the arms 
 of some friend standing near. This happened while he 
 was making his inaugural address as president of the 
 Young Men's Whig Convention in 1840 at Baltimore, 
 and also while addressing the Legislature upon the in- 
 demnity question in 1836. 
 
 If these charges are well grounded, they only prove 
 that greatness is not always free from weakness, and 
 an apology may be found for them in the distinguished 
 examples of similar infirmities furnished by Chatham, 
 Pinkney, and perhaps others that might be cited. But 
 it may be afhrmed as almost a universal rule, that men 
 of real genius, and of a brave, commanding, and lofty 
 spirit, are not often found without simplicity of man- 
 ners, character, and dress, and the instances that have 
 been cited are rare if not solitary exceptions to this 
 rule. 
 
 In the nobler phases of Mr. McMahon's character, 
 however, we can find enough to cover over and con- 
 ceal, all such harmless defects and yet leave him un- 
 shorn of those traits which command universal admira- 
 tion and approval. 
 
 Mr. McMahon's Hfe affords a striking illustration of the 
 fallacy of the general impression, or of its universality 
 at least, that travel is necessary to expand the mind, re- 
 move prejudices and provincialisms, and to enlarge our 
 stores of knowledge. Few men had a more expanded 
 intellect, fewer prejudices, or a larger share of informa- 
 
122 JOHN VAN LEAR MC MAHON. 
 
 tion, yet no one in his sphere of life went less frequently 
 from home or confined his movements to so narrow a 
 circuit. The opposite of what Humboldt is reported to 
 have said of a certain American traveller, namely, 
 
 that he had travelled more and seen less than any 
 other person," was true as regards McMahon. He had 
 travelled less and yet knew more than most men who 
 have made the round of the globe. He had never been 
 even in the city of New York, nor further north than 
 Princeton, and it is quite probable he Avas never south 
 of the Potomac. He occasionally made visits to Day- 
 ton, Ohio, where he had relatives, but his summers 
 were mostly passed in his native county, Alleghany, 
 where he delighted to rove the mountains and enjoy 
 their sublime solitude. He was never a frequenter of 
 watering places or other places of amusements, nor 
 did he take pleasure in mixing in crowds. Although 
 he was a genial man and fond of societ}", yet in silent 
 and retired scenes he took great delight, and from his 
 observations of the beauties of nature and the common 
 affairs of life he derived chiefly those images, illustra- 
 tions, and anecdotes which always furnished a rich re- 
 past for his audience. Possessed of great sensibilit}^ 
 and a rich and lively imagination, he was accustomed 
 more than any other man to clothe the abstractions of 
 law in the garb of sensible images, to illustrate his con- 
 ceptions by frequent allusions to the most striking 
 scenes in nature and life. 
 
 Notwithstanding his retired habits, his personal ac- 
 quaintance, especially in Maryland, was very large, and 
 few even observant travellers could enter more accu- 
 rately into details of localities and points of interest all 
 over the world than he. To have heard his descrip- 
 tions and comments upon Westminster Hall, the inns 
 of court, the Temple and the like, no one, however 
 
JOHN VAN LEAR McMAHON. 123 
 
 familiar with these places of interest by personal ob- 
 servation, could believe that he only spoke from books 
 and hearsay, and that he had never been in London, 
 He could give you more particular information about 
 Paris than a hundred visits could impart to ordinary 
 persons. Of New York he would talk, and as cor- 
 rectly too, as if he had been personally familiar with 
 its hotels, its streets and laws, and its public institu- 
 tions. The towns and even villages of the West, with 
 all their quaint and provincial peculiarities, he could 
 describe with perfect accuracy. And as to his own city 
 of Baltimore, though perhaps he was more rarely than 
 any man in it seen upon its streets, yet he knew every- 
 body's history, every improvement that was in prog- 
 ress, and was fully posted upon every event, great or 
 small, that transpired. Indeed he was even something 
 of a gossip, if we consider the extent and character of 
 his information, though he was in no respect one for 
 any purpose of making improper use of this kind of 
 knowledge. His mind was always active and even 
 greedy for food, and if he could not satisfy it with 
 grave subjects, he was content to feed it with small 
 ones. 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 Mr. McMahon's private life — Comments on speculation and gaming — 
 The romance and unhappiness of his bachelor life — Extremes of de- 
 spair and cheerfulness — His despondent nature — A legacy of love and 
 its use. 
 
 These extraordinary qualities and possessions were 
 in the main attributable to . his powers of memory, of 
 which mention has already been made, and to his fac- 
 ulty of attention. The latter never deserted him, and 
 he was observant of all things around him, and noticed 
 every occurrence or remark, however apparently trivi- 
 al. No language could be employed which would bet- 
 ter express the character of Mr. McMahon's mind in 
 this particular than that used by. Dr. J ohnson to con- 
 vey his conceptions of Savage, and every one who 
 knew McMahon will, I am sure, be impressed Avith its 
 peculiar application and fitness. Dr. Johnson said of 
 Savage : " His mind was in an uncommon degree rig- 
 orous and active. His judgment was accurate, his ap- 
 prehension quick, and his memory so tenacious, that it 
 was frequently observed he knew what he had learned 
 from others in a short time better than those by 
 whom he was informed ; and could frequently recol- 
 lect incidents, with all their combination of circum- 
 stances, which few would have regarded at the present 
 time, but which ,the quickness of his apprehension im- 
 pressed upon him. He had the peculiar felicity that 
 his attention never deserted him ; he was present to 
 
JOHN VAN LEAR MC MAHON. 125 
 
 every object, and regardful of the most trifling occur- 
 rences. He had the art of escaping from his own re- 
 flections, and accommodating himself to every new 
 scene. . . . He mingled in the cursory conversa- 
 tion with the same steadiness of attention as others ap- 
 ply to a lecture ; and amid the appearance of thought- 
 less gayety lost no new idea that wa's started, nor anv 
 hint that could be improved." 
 
 As he was familiar with modern places of note and 
 interest, so was he equally at home in his knowledge of 
 the nations, cities, and people of the past. His classi- 
 cal knowledge was varied and correct, and he contin- 
 ued to his death to cultivate and enlarge it. Those 
 who have heard him speak in public, or in conversa- 
 tion, can attest that, though without pedantry, how 
 beautifully he covild adorn his language by apt quota- 
 tions from the ancient classics ! 
 
 It may be mentioned, to Mr. McMahon's credit, that 
 he never embarked on an}^ speculations of any descrip- 
 tion. He has been often heard to inveigh against the 
 practice, especially stock speculations, as corrupting 
 to both public and private morals, and his stern exam- 
 ple was always found in support of his teachings. It 
 is not to be denied that in his earlier years he was an 
 occasional frequenter of the gaming tables, and doubt- 
 less, like all who are addicted to that pernicious habit, 
 lost large sums of money. But before he reached ma- 
 ture manhood this demoralizing passion had been en-, 
 tirely subdued, and no doubt his eloquent denunci- 
 ations in his after years against the evils of gaming have 
 deterred many a young man from rushing into this 
 vortex of destruction. He always maintained, how- 
 ever, that the habit of private gambling was even less 
 pernicious and demoralizing in its general results than 
 the passion fgr speculation. 
 
126 JOHN VAN LEAR MC MAHON. ^ 
 
 He was equally opposed to the modern system of life 
 insurance. Its tendency, he maintained, upon those 
 persons who were to be mainly benefited by its results — 
 those without property or means — was to depreciate 
 the value of life and to cause them to look to death as 
 a measure of relief to a suffering family far more ef- 
 fectual than any effort of theirs in life ; in other words, 
 as a system which had lor its object speculation in 
 human existence, and having its origin in a seductive 
 device on the part of capital, by which to allure the 
 unwary and needy to contribute out of their slender 
 means to already swollen coffers. This, no doubt, is 
 a just commentary upon the system, when even con- 
 ducted with fairness and integrity. How much more 
 should it be the object of denunciation when con- 
 ducted, as is generally the case, in fraud and decep- 
 tion ! ""•■ 
 
 There are some romantic episodes in Mr. McMahon's 
 history, mention of which ought not to be omitted. It 
 is well known he was regarded by his friends as a 
 confirm^ed bachelor. It was equally true he was not 
 insensible to the tender passion for the gentler sex. 
 He had one or two unfortunate affairs of the heart, 
 which, more than an}^ one ever imagined, influenced, 
 if they did not darken, his future pathway of life. In 
 his earlier years, being sensitive and inordinately 
 vain, these reverses, caprices, disappointments, or 
 call them what you will, had a marked and control- 
 ling effect upon his character and disposition, and the 
 morbid impress which was thus given to them went 
 deepening on through his whole life, and, it may be 
 
 * The author doubtless here intended a just criticism upon a sys- 
 tem much abused at the time of this writing, but whose fair working 
 and honest administration formed no part of his censure, as his own 
 example in adopting proved. — Ed. 
 
JOHN VAN LEAR MCMAHON. 127 
 
 safely affirmed, gave to him the semblance of a charac- 
 ter which he never received from his God ! 
 
 His personal vanity could be easily aroused by com- 
 plimentary notices from the female sex. His weakness 
 never exhibited itself ^o conspicuously as on occasions- 
 when informed of some praise or compliment bestowed 
 by a lady. It was therefore not surprising, with such a 
 high appreciation of the value of woman's commenda- 
 tion, that he should have stood in awe of the sex. He 
 was like a bashful boy, who, while running over with 
 admiration and warmth for female charms, was yet 
 afraid or ashamed to declare his passion. He could 
 ascend to the highest pinnacle in his struggles of am- 
 bition and show no signs of trepidation, and en- 
 counter physical dangers in every shape without fear, 
 yet his heart would falter and his eloquent tongue 
 grow powerless when confronted by female virtue and 
 beauty. The feat which is generally supposed to be 
 so easy of accomplishment — matrimony — he had hardly 
 moral courage enough to attempt, much less to con- 
 summate. Consequently in his affairs of the heart his 
 early life was a succession of fruitless loves and shame- 
 ful retreats. 
 
 While by these disasters of the heart he may have 
 lost in the account of personal and domestic happiness, 
 it is equally true that the balance in favor of ambition, 
 fame, wealth, and public usefulness was thereby greatly 
 increased. While matrimony may be the best and 
 surest road to private virtue and domestic happiness, 
 it does not always as surely lead to distinction, use- 
 fulness, and wealth ; and young men, in settling this 
 momentous question, would do well to weigh maturely 
 these suggestions, and no better illustration of their 
 importance could be found than is furnished by the 
 private character and history of Mr, McMahon. 
 
128 JOHN VAN LEAR MC MAHON. 
 
 Certainly he was not a happy man. How far an eh- 
 gible matrimonial alliance might have influenced the 
 tenor of his life in this particular it is hard to say. 
 Once in one of his gloomy and desponding moods a 
 friend playfully said to him, " Mac, a wife and nine 
 small children would have been a sure preventive 
 against such a state of feeling." He smiled, and 
 mournfully replied, " Probably you are right." 
 
 His case furnishes another striking illustration that 
 neither the advantages of nature, fortune, health, 
 Iriends, and intellectual greatness are of themselves 
 sure sources of happiness. He who by his profes- 
 sional ability and by his sound philosophy, wisdom, and 
 generosity could rescue others from misfortune and 
 misery, yet possessed no means in himself to bring re- 
 pose and peace of mind to his own bosom. As far as 
 an intimate personal intercourse with Mr. McMahon 
 could develop the inward working of his heart, it would 
 appear that few men had as little cause for a disturbed 
 conscience as he. In his dealings with his fellow -man 
 he was scrupulously exact. In his long professional 
 career it would be difficult to point to one single act 
 with which he could reproach himself. He sedulously 
 abstained, as has been shown, from all cases which were 
 not based upon sound principles of justice, and was 
 never known to persecute innocence or Aveakness. 
 The errors or faults of his life which were committed 
 under moments of passion or excitement he promptly 
 and amply allowed for in an after period, and wher- 
 ever he had committed a wrong, whether unwittingl}^ 
 or purposely, no dread of shame, no false pride, could 
 deter him from rendering open and abundant redress. 
 It would be difficult to imagine possessions better cal- 
 culated to secure a quiet conscience than those, except 
 it be " that peace which the world cannot give," and 
 
JOHN VAN LEAR MC MAHON. 129 
 
 this it would seem had indeed, for some inscrutable 
 purpose, been withheld. His philosophy of life was 
 false. He looked for perfection of character in others, 
 and even in himself, to which in this existence we are 
 not to attain. He used to say " that life and the world 
 were failures." Of course in this he meant to speak 
 only from the standpoint he occupied, and did not de- 
 sign any blasphemous reproaches or criticisms toward 
 our great Father. Notwithstanding his great intellec- 
 tual achievements, he seemed yet to think that he had 
 failed to attain the prize of life which rightfully be- 
 longed to him. The promise of his early years which 
 was written upon his brow he supposed had not been 
 fulfilled, and he almost spoke in tears when he referred 
 to the errors, disappointments, failures, and agonies 
 which he morbidly imagined made up the sum of his 
 life. How unjust he was to himself ! How poorly he 
 estimated those hours of labor and toil which, from his 
 boyhood to his bed of death, so lifted him above the 
 common class of men ! How he depreciated the noble, 
 intellectual fruits of his life — his exalted integrity and 
 his triumphs over temptations ! Where was his pride, 
 where his vanity, that they should so completely have 
 deserted him in these hours of sadness ? 
 
 From this depressed state he would again rally un- 
 der business or the pleasant society of friends, and so 
 readily arise to heights of cheerfulness, and even hilar- 
 ity. How often, indeed how usual it is, to find these 
 apparent inconsistent peculiarities of nature — ^extreme 
 cheerfulness and despondency combining in the same 
 person and alternately triumphing ! 
 
 These extremes of temper seemed to have been born 
 in Mr. McMahon, and to have followed him through 
 his whole life. Even in the usual bright and sunny 
 days of youth, clouds of melancholy would overhang 
 
130 JOHN VAN LEAR MC MAHON. 
 
 him, and he would often brood over imaginar}- ih in 
 silence and solitude for days at a time. Unhappy 
 man ! How often, doubtless, would he hav^e exchanged 
 all his splendid intellectual and material possessions 
 with the hum.ble peasant in return for a light heart and 
 buoyant spirits ! How little the world realizes the 
 weight of unpublished sorrows, real or imaginary, that 
 so often oppress the hearts of men and women, fre- 
 quently, too, under the light of a smiling lace ! 
 
 At times these fits of melancholy would reach such a 
 pitch that he would fall into deepest gloom, and tread 
 upon the precipice of despair. Indeed, on more occa- 
 sions than one his friends have had reasons to fear that 
 he would plunge into suicide as the only relief for this 
 condition of morbid melancholv, and Hamlet did not 
 talk more wisely and philosophically, and it may be add- 
 ed that no one could talk more piously, upon this dark 
 subject, than he often did. Doubtless he was at last 
 controlled b)^ the blessed influence which his pious 
 parents had implanted in his heart in the days of his 
 childhood, as well as by his early Christian education. 
 
 He said truthfully that suicide was not vmrdcr in any 
 sense, and therefore could be no sin against the sixth 
 commandment. Murder is to rob a man of the first 
 and most inestimable of God's gifts — life — that which 
 you can never restore ; but that it becomes a very 
 different question when one throws away his own 
 life ; he destro3-s that which is his own. The sin of 
 suicide consists in attempting to thwart God's provi- 
 dences. If he afflicts you with troubles, you should 
 bear them with resignation and submission, and not 
 seek to defeat his will by a base attempt to retreat 
 from life. 
 
 In one other instance, but much later in life, he 
 gained the affections of a lady of Charles County, a 
 
JOHN VAN LEAR MCMAHON. 131 
 
 Miss Mitchell, but by no effort of his own. Her pas- 
 sion, if such it was, was either not reciprocated by him, 
 or, for other prudential reasons, he did not respond to 
 it. She had been his client in an important lawsuit, 
 and thus she was brought into frequent and intimate 
 association with him. Wholly unexpectedly, she be- 
 came deeply attached to him, and at her death, 
 which soon followed, she left the proof of the sin- 
 cerity of her affection and regards in a legacy of upward 
 of $20,000. Miss Mitchell was a devout Catholic, 
 and as she had no very near kin, it was expected, as she 
 had often expressed such an intention, that the bulk 
 of her estate would go to the Church. But this new 
 love or temporary infatuation, obscured even her pious 
 affection and zeal for her religion, and defeated, but, as 
 will presently be shown, only for a time, the direction 
 which she had originally intended her estate to take. 
 
 Mr. McMahon received and appropriated the legacy, 
 but with a fixed purpose as to the ultimate disposition 
 he would make of it. When he made his will he deter- 
 mined that the sudden and impulsive passion of Miss 
 Mitchell for him, and which she had manifested in 
 such a substantial manner, should not defeat the long, 
 well-formed, and noble purpose she had previously 
 adopted in regard to her estate, and accordingly he 
 restored it with its accumulated interest, amounting 
 to upward of $30,000, to the Catholic Church, as its 
 proper and final depository. This was certainly an in- 
 stance of noble and uncommon generosity, and of deli- 
 cate and exquisite taste on the part of Mr. McMahon, 
 and shows a refined sensibility and romantic nature. 
 What better evidence could he have left behind of his 
 claims to be ranked among the first order of gentle- 
 man in the broad and proper sense of the term ? v 
 
 An extract of his will follow which speaks in his own 
 
132 JOHN VAN LEAR MC MAHON. 
 
 solemn language the view he had taken of the subject, 
 and gives us an illustration of the quiet and peaceful 
 working of that great mind : 
 
 " EXTRACT OF J. V. L. MCMAHON'S WILL. 
 
 " In making- the above disposition of the above-mentioned prop- 
 erty, devised to me by Miss Mitchell, I have no guide as to what 
 her wishes or intentions would have been beyond myself. She gave 
 the property to me absolutely, and under circumstances evincing the 
 highest regard for me, and awaking the most profound sensibilities 
 of my nature, mingled with the utmost respect for her memory, and 
 the highest admiration of her character. Thus made, I could by no 
 act of mine cast a doubt upon the propriety of her act in making that 
 bequest ; and I accepted it with the intention of making, at my de- 
 cease, such a disposition of it as would most strongly m.anifest my re- 
 spect for her, and my appreciation of her bequest. It is scarcely neces- 
 sary for me to say that during her life she never even intimated to 
 me her intention to make the devise. 
 
 " After her decease there was found among her papers a paper 
 with blanks which had not been filled up, and which she had signed 
 without filling them up ; and in which, after stating ' that she had 
 
 manifested her regard and confidence for by bequeathing to 
 
 him the whole of her property,' she expressed her full confidence that 
 he would provide for her father during his hfe, and make suitable 
 provision for him if he survived the devisee. Having seen the drafts- 
 man of this paper, who was also the draftsman of her will, I learned 
 from his statements that, after the preparation of this paper, she de- 
 clared to him that she did not intend to impose any obligation upon 
 her devisee, as she had entire confidence that he would take care of 
 her father ; and that upon her expressing a doubt whether she would 
 ever sign it, he then suggested to her to sign it in blank, so that her 
 devisee might know her wishes on that subject. This paper, with the 
 written statement to the above effect of the gentleman who drew it, 
 and the will, as also that of the gentlemen who found it at her resi- 
 dence, in Charles County, will be found among my papers. 
 
 " How I justified her confidence in me by taking care of her father 
 during his life it is not for me to say. Not a wish or a desire with 
 reference to her property beyond those indicated by the devisee to 
 myself, . . . and in the paper above referred to, exists to guide 
 me ; and as the intended beneficiary of her estate, it is my desire 
 
JOHN VAN LEAR MC MAHOIV. 133 
 
 and intention at my decease to make such disposition of it as will, 
 while it accomplishes a public good, redound to her honor, and 
 evince my regard for her memory, by bestowing it for the purpose of 
 educating, and ushering properly into life, the unprotected female 
 orphan, and by soliciting for this purpose the society for which she 
 had indicated a preference in one of the bequests of her will ; and as 
 a proper accompaniment to said bequest, I also give and bequeath to 
 said ' Protectors of St. Mary's Orphan Female School in the City of 
 Baltimore' the portrait of Miss Mitchell in my possession, to be 
 placed in some suitable place in their school." 
 
CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 Retirement from practice — His social evenings — The fruits of his la- 
 bors — The Legislature of 1861 and the " Board of Public Safety" — 
 Mr. McMahon's declining health and his distressing malady — Last 
 correspondence — His death — Conclusion. 
 
 For a few years previous to the breaking out of our 
 late civil war he had almost entirely withdrawn from 
 the practice of his profession, only occasionally giving 
 written opinions, and rarely appearing in court. 
 
 During this period his time was passed in compara- 
 tive seclusion among his books and his friends. He 
 was rarely even seen upon the streets, or in any public 
 places. His rooms at the Eutaw House in the even- 
 ing were the resort of his friends and admirers. Some 
 went to enjoy his varied and sprightly conversation, 
 while others, particularly members of the bar, went to 
 consult him upon questions of law that from time to 
 time arose in their practice. 
 
 It was a remarkable fact that during this period the 
 fruits of McMahon's legal knowledge was seeii and felt 
 at almost every term of court, in almost every county 
 of the State, through the members of the bar who had 
 previously consulted him upon important questions. 
 Nor was this practice confined to the younger lawyers, 
 but the wisest and most learned of our country bars 
 did not feel ashamed to acknowledge that they could 
 draw from this source information which would throw 
 light upon any subject ; and indeed every one, court 
 
JOHN VAN LEAR MC MAHON. 135 
 
 and bar, regarded Mr. McMahon as the safest and 
 wisest oracle which they could consult upon legal ques- 
 tions, and for the reason that he never gave any other 
 than well-matured opinions upon even the most unim- 
 portant points. None ever left him, who came upon 
 such missions, disappointed. His " coterie" ap- 
 proached nearer the old clubs of London in the days of 
 Dr. Johnson than any thing we usually see in this coun- 
 try, not on account of what his visitors contributed, 
 but by reason of what tJiey received from his vast store- 
 house of learning, wit, and anecdote. 
 
 It may not be out of place to recur here to McMa- 
 hon's abhorrence of the modern club system of Ameri- 
 ca. He never would become a member of one. He 
 used to style them fashionable restaurants and gam- 
 bling saloons, where gastronomic and animal attain- 
 ments were the tests of promotion and superiority, 
 rather than the possession of intellectual accomplish- 
 ments. 
 
 The club system was originally founded in England, 
 and even among more ancient people, for the purpose 
 of intellectual pleasure and improvement and social 
 enjoyment, and while wine and viands were often in- 
 troduced as an incident of the main object, they were 
 never made, as now, the chief end of such associations. 
 
 It may be safely affirmed that no source has been 
 more fruitful of demoralization among the higher cir- 
 cles of society, especially among the young men, than 
 our modern fashionble clubs, which have in view only 
 bodily gratification. They have destroyed in a great 
 degree the pleasures of home, the family circle, the 
 integrity and fidelity of husbands, and rendered simple 
 social hospitality as a thing of the past. 
 
 When the war came it completely overwhelmed Mr. 
 McMahon. He had reached that time of life — three- 
 
136 JOHN VAN LEAR MC MAHON. 
 
 score — and had been stricken by a bodily infirmity, and 
 when he reahzed that he could take no efficient part in 
 the great struggle that was upon us, that wise counsel 
 and an eloquent tongue which were the only weapons 
 that were left him were powerless against the logic of 
 arms ; and imagining at least that he foresaw in the re- 
 sult the downfall of his country and" the death of civil 
 liberty, of which he had been all his life such a votary, 
 his manhood forsook him, and in despondency he 
 sought a retirement from which he never emerged. 
 
 During the special session of the Legislature at Fred- 
 erick, in April, 1861, at the beginning of the war, Mr. 
 Coleman Yellott, Senator from Baltimore city, intro- 
 duced a bill to create a " Board of Pubhc Safety," and 
 John V. L. McMahon was named in the bill as one of 
 the board. The object of this measure was decidedly 
 revolutionar3\ The law proposed to vest in this board 
 almost absolute power, civil and military. Nothing 
 during those troublous times so startled the public 
 mind as this bold movement. The warmest friends of 
 the South, and even the advocates of secession, paused, 
 drew back, and finally declared their resistance to this 
 assault, as it was deemed, upon civil liberty, and the 
 Union men and the halting neutrals became frantic in 
 their opposition to the measure. Indeed, it may be 
 affirmed that nothing during the war — not even the 
 firing upon "The Flag ' at Fort Sumter — so aroused 
 the Union spirit and inflamed the passions of the pop- 
 ulace in Maryland. 
 
 The measure failed, and we are left in doubt how far 
 the name of Mr. McMahon was used in this connec- 
 tion with his assent. The following letter of Mr. 
 Wallis in reply to one from him will settle that point, 
 as it will also vindicate the Baltimore delegation in the 
 Legislature from any connection or sympathy with the 
 
JOHN VAN LEAR MC MAHOM. 137 
 
 proposed measure, notwithstanding- their subsequent 
 suffering in Fort Warren was as much owing to their 
 supposed sympathy with it as from any other cause : 
 
 House of Delegates, Frederick, Md., ) 
 May 4, 1861. \ 
 " John V. L. McMahon, Esq. 
 
 " Dear Sir : I have just received your favor of yesterday, and 
 communicated its contents to Mr. Yellott, as requested. Tlie bill has 
 not yet passed the Senate, and I think will be recommitted. It can- 
 not pass our House, and our own delegation is unanimous against it, 
 upon constitutional grounds. It was introduced by Yellott, without 
 consultation, and has been unfortunate a.nd ill-advised to the last 
 degree in its effects both upon the Legislature and the people. It 
 was not generally supposed that you would accept the place. I re- 
 gret, however, that your physical afflictions should form any part of 
 the reasons which induce you to decline it. 
 
 " Very respectfully yours, 
 
 "S. T, Wallis." 
 
 One cause of his partial withdrawal from active Ufe 
 previous to the war was a malady of his eyes, which 
 at first rendered it difficult, and subsequently impossible, 
 for him to discharge the duties of business. This dis- 
 ease increased with advancing years, and soon he be- 
 came virtually blind — that is, he could no longer read 
 or write, or even safely walk alone. The peculiarity 
 and depth of this affliction, as considered by himself, 
 could not be better expressed than in his own touching 
 language, contained in a letter to a friend at Annapolis,* 
 written while he was sojourning at Dayton, the names 
 and dates in which are omitted : 
 
 Dayton, May . . 1870. 
 
 " My Dear Sir : Various causes have concurred to delay my 
 reply to yours of 7th inst. for a day or two. It was addressed 
 to me at Cumberland, which place I left a year since, and this 
 caused some delay in its receipt. When received, it found me enjoy- 
 ing a visit from my old friend. Purser Ware, who is still with me, and 
 
 * To the Author.— Ed. 
 
138 JOHN VAN LEAR MC MAHOA'. 
 
 my necessary attention to him compelled a still further delay. Add 
 to this my own condition, and you will, I think, readily excuse my 
 failure to reply at once. 
 
 " For your very kind invitation to visit you at Annapolis, I beg you 
 to accept my most grateful acknowledgments. Nothing could afford 
 me more pleasure than to be permitted to meet you again, and again 
 to hold with you such talks as we were wont to have in the olden 
 times, and it would require talks of weeks to exhaust the materials 
 which the eventful years since we parted would supply. It would 
 greatly add to thi^ pleasure to have this reunion with you in the an- 
 cient city, endeared to me by so many associations and recollections, 
 and where so many of the happiest hours of my life were passed. 
 It comes back to my memory, associated, it is true, with my most 
 arduous professional labors, but of the great labor there I can truly 
 say labor ipse volnptas. I therefore deeply regret that my present 
 condition would not permit me to undertake such a journey at this 
 period, and that I am, therefore, compelled to decline the present 
 acceptance of your very kind invitation. In answering your inquiries 
 as to my health, etc., I can almost say with ^^neas, Infandu77i jubcs 
 renovare doloreni. As it regards my general health, the mquiry can 
 be readily and almost cheerfully answered. During the four years 
 that have elapsed since I left Baltimore my general health has been 
 for the most part good, and I may say much better than in former 
 years. And friends who have visited me insist that my appearance 
 exhibits more health and youth than in former years. So far, so good. 
 But when I come to that wonderful disease of brain and vision that 
 has so lonfj afflicted me, then begins the trouble, and it is indeed one 
 which no law gauge can describe, ' and none but itself can be its 
 parallel.' It would require a volume to describe the changes through 
 which it has passed, and the many new phases it has assumed since 
 
 I left B . Imagine that the atmosphere around you is at all 
 
 times, night and day, in a state of oscillating or swinging motion be- 
 fore you and around ; imagine that this oscillating atmosphere before 
 and around you is during all bright days tilled with colorless vapors, 
 and music swinging rapidly to and fro before you ; imagine that in 
 all dark days by the light of the evening, and in the darkness of the 
 night, you are surrounded by thick fleece-like color clouds of every 
 variety and combination of the brightest and most brilliant colors, 
 and all in rapid motion around you ; imagine that you go to bed every 
 night surrounded, when the lights are extinguished, by a perfect color 
 storm of such clouds of the most dazzling and the brightest hues, tilled 
 
JOHN VAN LEAR MC MAHON. 139 
 
 with ever variety of meteoric appearance from the fire-fly and the star 
 to the sheet lightning and the comet shooting and flashing in every 
 direction— Imagine all this and I might almost add multiply by 
 ten, and you will then have some idea of the later phases of this brain 
 disease which during some periods of its aggravation seems to keep 
 the brain laboring like a steam-engine. You will readily understand 
 that in such a situation locomotion is not only not very pleasant, but 
 really a very difficult undertaking. I would be glad to hear from you 
 again whenever it is convenient ; and when you write you will let me 
 
 know something about such of my old friends as are still at A ■. 
 
 I presume that my friend Mr. ■ is still there ; and if so, be 
 
 pleased to present to him my best regards. Governor , I am 
 
 told has removed to B . You know who were my friends in 
 
 olden times, and to such of them as are still at A you will 
 
 present my best respects. I infer from something read to me not 
 
 long since that Mr. is still at A , and if so I desire to be 
 
 remembered to him. The last four years have wrought such marvel- 
 lous changes in men and things that I scarcely know, after long sepa- 
 ration, ' who is who,' and whom I could venture to salute as an old 
 
 friend. Judge was one of those with whom I was on very 
 
 friendly relations, notwithstanding our political differences, and I 
 would fain hope that nothing has occurred to change those relations. 
 If you think so, remember me to him. 
 
 "With my best wishes for the health and happiness of yourself 
 and your family, 
 
 " I am sincerely yours, 
 
 " J. V. L. McMahon," 
 
 Notwithstanding this severe affliction, he is repre- 
 sented to have been cheerful at times, especially when 
 in company of old friends ; but in his declining days 
 his general temper was melancholy, solitudinous, and 
 even morose. Withal he had much to be thankful for. 
 Possessing an ample competency, he was surrounded 
 in turn by devoted sisters and other relations, and 
 sympathizing friends were always at hand to contri- 
 bute to his wants and comforts. Under such circum- 
 stances, with an unclouded intellect, with the rich 
 stores of his mind to furnish food for his daily reflec- 
 
14° JOHN VAN LEAR MC MAHON. 
 
 tions, and with excellent general health, he had 
 enough for which to be grateful to his Heavenly 
 Father, and we have no reason to doubt but that he 
 died with praise and thanks in his heart and upon his 
 lips to the great author of his being, of his intellect, and 
 of his worldly possessions. 
 
 Physical infirmity increased upon him, and his friends 
 saw that his (last) end was near. 
 
 The gentleman, Dr. McKay, his brother-in-law, at 
 whose house he died, writes : " Mr. McMahon re- 
 tained his mental vigor up to the last days of his life. 
 His final illness, if it can be properly so called, occurred 
 about a week before his death, and consisted in a sud- 
 den breaking down of the whole nervous system, and 
 he sank gradually and almost imperceptibly, without 
 pain or suffering, into the calm sleep of death." He 
 died and was buried in Cumberland, in 1871, in his 
 seventy-first year. 
 
 Thus, after seventy years of conflict with the world 
 — covered with the scars and wounds of the battle of 
 life, many of which, it is true, were self-inflicted by 
 means of a sensitive nature — he returned at last to the 
 spot where the bud of life first unfolded itself, where 
 was planted in his bosom, amid maternal pains and 
 tears, all that was noble in his character, and like a 
 warrior laid himself down to take his last sleep before 
 the morning of his final rising. 
 
 No more shall we behold his manly form or hear the 
 ring of his clarion voice. Never again shall we grasp 
 his hand in the warmth of friendship. He has em- 
 barked upon the solemn, silent ocean of eternity, and 
 already has passed beyond the reach of human vision. 
 
 THE END. 
 
ERR ATA 
 
 On page 22, eleventh line from top, for " David M. Perrine," 
 read David M. Ferine. 
 
 On page 22, thirteenth line from bottom, for " Mr. Pennie" read 
 Mr. Perine. 
 
 On page 38, second line in heading of chapter, for "J. Q. Adams' 
 Brilliant Speeches and a duel," read J. Q. Adams. — Bril- 
 liant Speeches and a Duel. 
 
 On page 42, eighth line from bottom, for dtile, read duel. 
 
 On page 62, eighteenth line from top, for " George P. Kennedy," 
 read John P. Kennedy. 
 
 On page 69, sixteenth line from top, for "Judge Tregle" read 
 Judge Tingle. 
 
 On page 140, eighth line from top, omit word " (last)." 
 
 
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