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COPYRIOHT DFPOSIT
'^1
JUSTICE LAMAR.
LUCIUS Q. C. LAMAK:
HIS LIFE, TIMES. AND SPEECHES.
1525—1595.
BY EDWARD MAYES, LL.D.,
EX-CHANCELLOR OF THE UNIVERSITY OP MISSISSIPPI.
"It is, tlierefore, as the inspired pacifieator that Lamar will stand out unique, al- most incomprehensible to other times."— T/ie lUuslraled Amerimn. -
."^tVO- -^
Nashville, Tenn. :
Publishing House op the Methodist Episcopal Church, South.
Barbee & Smith, Agents.
lS9fi.
e:
COPYRUmTED, 18S13,
BY EDWARD MAYES.
ELeCTHOTVPED AND PRtNTEO BY
BARBEE & SMITH, AGENTS,
NASHVILLE, TENN.
3 >-^'
PREFACE.
The writing of Mr. Lamar's biograph}' was not, with me, a pelf-assiimed task. When he died the members of his more immcdiatf family requested nie to undertake the work. Notwithstanding the grave objections that I possessed no adequate Uterary preparation, either of study or experience, and wiis much pressed by the imperative demands of an active law practice, there were certain other considerations which compelled my consent. Of these the principal was a belief that my long-continued and intimate association with jMr. Lamar, which began in 1869 and ended only with his life, qualified me especially to collect the facts of his history and tii understand and interpret much of his thoughts and designs which to any other who could be in- duced to assume the labor woidd be obscure or even incomprehensible. Bound to him by many ties of gratitude and tender memories, I could not decline to render the service desired.
It is not the purpose of this memoir to rake over the ashes of old quarrels or to stir up the embers of dying anim.isities. Nor is its object either to vindicate the [leople of the South or to convict those of the North. Nor is it an apology for, or a glorification of, the career of Jlr. Lamar. The-aim is to give the story of his life as it was; to show, so far as is possible, what he did and why he did it, conceiving that the story will be not only a merited tribute to a brave and patriotic man who dared much and sufiered greatly for the good of his people, and in the end was greatly rewarded, but also a useful illustration of the unprecedented times in which he lived and of the novel events among which he moved. Those events extended over forty years of most exciting and fruitful struggles in all departments of our government. They included the subjects of slavery, secession, civil war, reconstruction, constitutional amend- ments, reconciliation, in all of which Mr. Lamar was actively and prominently con- cerned. In order, therefore, that his biography may be read with full comprehen- sion and sympathy, it has been necessary to venture upon the delicate and dangerous task of presenting occasional brief expositions of some of those great controversies, as appropriate and helpful settintr for the man and his work. I have earnestly tried to do this in a nonsectional spirit. Unless that lias been done, I have not only fallen short of my duty as a man and patriot; but also I have departed from the way of the great-hearted subject of the work, and have been untrue to his teaching.
The principal labor and end of Mr. Lamar's later and greater life, that indeed to which all other efibrts were but a means, was the molding of a public sentiment— a sentiment in each section of our unhappily divided Union for a broad and lasting na- tional love. What success was his, and how much of that success was his work, this volume may help to indicate. It was manifestly impossible to tell that story without recalling and unfolding the conditions of then existing sentiment, both North and
4 LUCIUS Q. C. LAMAR.
South, with which he and his colaborers had to deal. Let the reader be assured that in discussing those topics the statement of them is designed to be historical only, and not polemic.
The new South holds the old in highest lionor. The South of to-day thrills with filial love for the South that was; and in her innermost heart sits enshrined an un- wavering faith in the purity, the nobility, and the patriotism of the former genera- tion. But aspirations and hopes change with the lapse of time and the drift of events, and the Southern dreams of the present are not those of the past. Our people, throughout all the republic, are by the South believed to be now united as never be- fore. Prejudices of section and the passions of war and the humiliation of conquest have alike and all failed to rend us asunder; and the voice of the sower of dissension is felt to be the voice of a criminal. Edward Mavbs.
.Jackson, Miss., November 5, IbQS.
CONTENTS.
I'AUE
Preface 3
CHAPTKK I.
The Family of Lamar — Thomas, the Immigrant — Thomas, His Son — John I^amar — Mirabeau B. Lamar— Lucius Q. C. Lamar, the Elder — Micajah Williamson and Sarah Gilliam, His Wife— Dr. Thompson Bird and Susan Williamson, His Wife— :Mrs. Sarah ( Bird) Lamar 13
CHAPTER n. The Old Lamar Homestead— The Old Georgia-Conference Manual-Labor School — Lucius' Character and Habits as a Child — Anecdote — Removal to Oxford, Ga. — Emory College — Graduation — College Influence upon His Character and
Views 27
CHAPTER in. Legal Education and Admission to tlie Bar— ^larriage- Judge Longstreet— Mrs. Longstreet — Mrs. Lamar and Mrs. Branliam — " Influence of Women " 37
CHAPTER IV.
Removal to Oxford, Miss.— Admitted to the Mississippi Bar— Elected to an Ad- junct Professorship in the University of Mississii)pi— Dt'^^ui as a Political Speaker— The Compromise Measures of 1850— Debate with Foote over the
Compromise '^5
CHAPTER V.
Religious Impressions— Hon. Jacob Thompson— Prof. Albert T. Bledsoe— Return to Covington, Ga.— In the Georgia Legislature — Moves to Macon, Ga.— Candi- date for Congress from Third District— Returns to Mississippi— " Solitude "— Practices Law— C. H. Mott— James L. Autrey— Congressman or Professor? 56
CHAPTER VI.
The Kansas-Nebraska Bill— The Struggle for Kansas— The Nicarasrua Affair- Elected to Congress from the First District— Correspondence on Questions of the Day— First Speech in Congress— Rozell Letter— The Keitt-(4row Fight— The Vallandigham-Campbell Contest— A Professorship Contemi)lated—Dr. Bar- . nard's Letter— Speech at Jackson on Douglas— Eulogy on Harris— Speech on
the Tarifl" ^^
CHAPTER VII.
Thirty-sixth Congress; Reelected— Speech at Jackson— Speech on Election of Speaker— Letter to Barnard- Speech on Southern Slaven,'— Charleston Conven- tion—Letter to :\Iott— Baltimore Convention— Accepts Professorship in Uni- versity— Speech at Columbus ^"
CHAPTER VIII.
Election of Lincoln— Conference of Congressmen— Speech at Brandon— Legisla- ture of 1860— Resigns Seat in Congress— Liddell Letter— Member of Secession Convention— Passage of Ordinance— Lamar's Views on Secession— Blaine on
Lamar and Secession 8(>
(5)
6 LUCIUS Q. C. LAMAR.
CHAPTER IX. PAGE. Appointed to Confederate Congress^Lieutenaiit Colonel of tlie Nineteenth Mis- sissippi Regiment— Speech in Riclimond— Military Service— Battle of Wil- liamsburg—Honorable Mention— Official Report— Illness- Resignation— Death of Jefferson M. Lamar 9'i
CHAPTER X.
Envoy to Russia— Special Letter of Instructions— Trip to England— Official Dis- patches—Mission Terminated— Anecdote of Thaclieray— Anecdote of Disraeli- Speech in England— Return to the Confederacy— Speech at Atlanta— Death of Thompson B. Lamar— Judge Advocate of Third Corps— Speech in Lines— Sur- render
103
CHAPTER XL
Southern Sacrifices and Condition— Cien. Walthall— Settles at Coffeeville— Condi- tion of Law Praitice— Abstains from Politics— B. N. Harrison— C. C. Clay- Southern Sufferings- Correspondence — Accepts Professorship of Metaphysics- Made Law Professor— Character and Methods as Professor- Resigns Profess- • orship— Address at University— Death of Judge Longstreet— Address at Emory College— Agricultural Address— Lee Letter— Letters to Reemelin— U. S. Marshal Pierce— Debate with Alcorn at Holly Springs 117
CHAPTER XII.
Reconstruction: President Lincoln's Plan— Southern States: In or Out?— Presi- dent Johnson's Plan— Provisional Governments— Southern Constitutional Con- ventions—Temper of Southern People— Temper of Congress— Howe and Ste- vens—Gloomier Days— Reconstruction Legislation— Military Rule— Demorali- zation—Carpetbaggers— Reconstruction Constitutions— Three Delayed States- Radical Rule— Freedman's Bureau— The Negro Problem— Southern Sentiment 137
CHAPTER XIII.
Reconstruction in Missiscippi— Ejection of Gov. Clarke— Constitutional Conven- tion of 1865— Gov. Humphreys— Col. Lamar on the Situation in 1866— Leg- islation of 1865 and 1867 about Freedmen— Rejection of Fourteenth Amend- ment—The Fourth Reconstruction District— Participation or No?— Constitu- tion of 1868-69— Removal of Gov. Humphreys— Adelbert Ames, Military Ctov- ernor— Louis Dent and Election of 1869— Gov. Alcorn— The Kuklux Prnsecu- tions— Col. Lamar in Retirement— The New Outlook 156
CHAPTER XIY. The Liberal Republican Movement- -Lamar's Letter on Greeley and Brown— La- mar for Congress in 1872- Nomination, Canvass, and Election— Letters— Re- moval of Political Disabilities— Illness— Deliberations, 1873— Democratic Party Disbanded — Supports Alcorn against Ames— Illustrative Letters of November, 1873— Enters Forty-third Congress— I>etters to Judge Wharton on Grant— First Speeches : West Virginia Contested Election 169
CHAPTER XV. The Eulogy on Sumner: Pieparation— Letter to Reemelin— Mr. Sumner's Flag Resolution — Memorial Services in the Senate — In the House— I^amar's Ora- tion—Its Delivery— Its Reception— Letter to Wife— Comments of the Press: Extracts— Anecdote— Criticisms— ;\Ir. Blaine on the Eulogy— Effects 181
COS TEXTS. 7
CHAin'ERXVI. I'AUE. Speech on Misrule in the Soiitheni SkiU's— Radical Rule in Louisiana- McEnery and Kellogt!— Judge Duiell's Kxtraonlinary Order— Kellogg Installed— Mr. Lamar's Speech— Its Reception— Incorrect Newsiiaper I'ersonals— Further Events in Louisiana— Contlict of September 14, 1874- Ivellogg Again Installed by United States Troops— Mr. Lamar's Canvass of 1S74 The "Landslide"— Critical Era in the South— Coiu-se of Events in Louisiana— DeTrobriand Purges the Legislature— Gen. 1\ H. Sheridan's "Banditti" Dispatch- Excitement in the North— Debates in Congress— CorrespondiMuc on Southern Policy— La- mar's Remarks on Civil Rights Bill— The Force Bill— Filibustering— Letter to New York Herald on Afiairs in the South— Its Reception— Canvass and Speech in New Hampshire— Press Comments— Interviewed by Henry Grady— Corre- spondence ^"^
CHAPTER XVII. The Question of Reelection— Rescue of the State from Radicalism— Mississippi and Louisiana— Gov. Ames's Administration- The Taxpayer's Convention of 187,5— The Vicksburg Riot— Congressional Investigation— Ames's Message- Address of the Legislators— Invidious Police Laws— The Color Line— Lamar's Growing Fame— Renominated— Reorganization of the Democratic Party of the State— County Mass ]Meetings— Siwech at Falkner's Station— The Color Line Again— The State Democratic Convention of 187.5- Lamar's Speech— Demo- cratic Platform— The Press on Lamar's Renomination and Speech— Address of the Sfcite Democratic E.xecutive Committee— Campaign of 187.5— George's Let- ter on the Black Code— Riots at Clinton and Yazoo City— Gov. Ames Calls for Federal Troops— Democrats Triumph and the State is Rescued— Impeachment
of Ames, Davis, and Cardozo 228
CHAPTER XVIIL Forty-fourth Congress Convenes— Mr. Lamar Chosen Chairman of Caucus— The Caucus Address— Press Comments— Senator Alcorn's Term Expiring— :Mr. La- mar Discussed as His Successor— Calls from outside the State— Nominated by Acclamation— Speech before the Legislature— Election and Comments on It— The Centennial Year— Debate on the Amnesty Bill— Lamar's Centennial Speech— The Scene Described— Press Comments— The Belknap Case— Lamar's Speech on Parliamentary Privilege— Press Conmients— The Hamburg Massa- cre—Speech and Its Reception— Charged with Inconsistency, and His Vindica- tion-Speech on the Policy of the Republican Party and the Political Situation
in the South
CHAPTER XIX. The Presidential Election of 1876— The Result Contested— Storms Threatening— The Electoral Commission— Mr. Lamar Speaks in Favor of the Bill— Sijeech— Additional Reasons for Supporting the Bill- Popular S|)eech— The Electoral Count— Democrats Disappointed— Filibustering- Feeling in Mississippi-Un- founded Rumors of Collusion— Press Discussions and Correspondence— The Gain Found in Defeat— President Hayes' Inaugural on Southern Pacification- Republican Chagrin-Mr. Blaine's Tilt with Thurman-Mr. Lamar's Letter to the President— Withdrawal of the Troops-The South Relieved-Mr. Lamar's
Speech of 1879 on Hayes' Administration
CHAPTER XX. Doubts About Admission to Senate— Causes Thereof-Elections of 187o-Tbe Boutwell Committee of Investigation-Correspondence— Reports of the Bout- well Committee -The Presidential Contest Intervenes-The Complication
265
290
8 LUCIUS Q. C. LAMAE.
PAGE.
with Kellogg's Case — Mr. Blaine's Unexpected Turn — Seated — The Democratic State Convention of 1877 — Independentism in Mississippi — Gen. George's Ad- dress to the Convention — Mr. Lamar a ;\Ienil)er— Spealis — Silver— Platform of 1877 — Called Session of the Forty-fifth Congress — Speech on the Seating of Sen- ator Butler, of South Carolina 311
CHAPTER XXI. The Silver Speech — Summary of the Question — President Hayes' Message — The Bland Bill — The Matthews Resolutions — Debate on the Resolutions — Mr. La- mar's Speech — Newspaper Comments — The Legislative Instructions — Corre- spondence— Refusal to Obey Instructions — Speech — Public and Private Com- ments— The Double Question of Statesmanship Involved — Uarper's Weekly — "A Heart Almost Mated to Despair " — Campaign Speech of 1879 — Defense of Vote on the Resolutions — The Texas Pacific Railroad — Report and Speech on the Same 323
CHAPTER XXII. Returns Home — His Reception — The Epidemic of 1878 — The Congressional Elec- tions of 1878 and the Solid South — The Cincinnati Interview — The Presi- dent's Message — Mr. Blaine's Investigation Resolution — The Debate^Mr. Lamar's Speech — Press Sketclies — The Debate Resumed — Anecdote — Jefferaon Davis' Open Letter on the Right of Legislative Instruction — The Bill to Pension the Soldiers of 1812 — Senator Hoar's Amendment Excluding Jefferson Davis — Angry Debate — Mr. Lamar's Speech — Mr. Chandler's Sjjeech — Correspondence with Davis — Symitosium in Norlli American Reviewou the Negro Question — Pen Sketches and Anecdotes of Senator Lamar 352
CHAPTER XXIII.
Struggle in Congress over the Army Appropriations — Troops Must Not Be Used at the Polls — The Debate of 1879 — Mississippi Opinion — Senator Conkling-- The Mississippi River Commission Bill — The Army Bill — Republicans Filibus- tering— Senator Conkling's Speech — Mr. Lamar's Reply — Exciting Personal Col- lision— Current Comment — ^Ir. Lamar's Letter to Gen. Walthall — Press Com- ments on the Incident — Effect in Mississijipi — Mr. Lamar's Views on Dueling. 377
CHAPTER XXIV. Mississippi Politics in 1879 — Democratic Party Threatened with Disru|ition — Mr. Lamar's Position before the People — Letter to Wright — The F.pidemicof 1879 — Canvass of 1879 — The Right of Lej^'islativelnstruction Again — Question Kept in Agitation — Mr Lamar's Argument and Discussion of It — His Power as a Stump Speaker — Reception of His Speeches — Death of Mrs. Troutman — The Succession to Senator Bruce — Judge George Elected Senator — Mr. Lamar's Illness 394
CHAPTER XXV. Returns to Washington — Interview with Blaine — The Exodus — Mr. Lamar's Views — The "^''oorhees Investigation Resolution — The Debate on the Commit- tee's Report — Mr. Lamar's Speech — Speech at the Democratic National Con- vention of ISSO — Lafayette Sjirings Speech — Letter to Hon. J. W. C. Watson — Mrs. Lamar's Failing Health — Holly Springs Speecli, and Fall Canvass — The " Grant Bill "—The Executive Session of March, 1881- Political Complexion of the Senate — Virginia Readjusters — Senator Mahone— Struggle in the Senate over the Committees — Struggle over the Election of Officers — The Debate — Mr. Lamar's Speech — Its Reception 41-1
CaV7AVV7*. 9
CHAPTER XXVI. lAUE. Candidiite for Reflection — Opposition and Complications — Cioss Currents — Voice of tlie Press — Address at tlie A. and M. College — Progress of the Senatorial Question — The State Convention— A Selliack or Xo? — Mr. Lamar's Great Can- vass of ISSl— The DeKalb Speech— The Canton Speech— The Yazoo City Speech — Letter to Mcintosh — The Forest Speech — The Hazlehurst Speech — In- terest outside the State — Reelection and Vindication 431
CHAPTER XXVII. Mrs. Lamar's Failing Health — The Taritl' Speech of 1883 — Press Comments — Speech on National Aid to Education — Presidential Camijaign of 1884 — The Holly Springs Speech— The Aberdeen Speech— The Xews of Cleveland's Elec- tion— Death of Mrs. Lamar — Senator Edmunds' Condolences — Letter to a Friend — The Shemian-Davis Imbroglio — Senator Hawley's Resolution— The Debate — Mr. Lamar's Speech, and His Last— Letter to West on Davis and Se- cession 44!i
CHAPTER XXVIII. JVIr. Lamar Discussed as a Possible Member of the Cabinet — Cleveland's Inaugu- ration—The Cabinet Named and Confirmed- Comments and Congratulations — Calls for Resignations of Heads of Departments— Mr. Lamar's Methods— Sale of the Government Carriages— The Land Office— The " Backbone " Patents— The Death of Jacob Thompson— The Throng of Office Seekers— Views on Office- holding in Washington— Limitations in the Bestowal of Offices— Civil Service Reform— Watchfulness over Character of Subordinates— Freedom from Ne- potism—First Annual Report— Management of the Indian Bureau— The Re- port on the Indians— The Report on the Public Lands— The Report on the Railroads— The Report on the Pensions— Minor Subjects— Education— The Second Annual Report— The Third Annual Report— Third Report on Public Lands— Adjustment of the Railroad Land Grants— Thir<l Report on Indians- Minor Titles '^69
CHAPTER XXIX. Anecdotes of Mr. Lamar— Honorary Degree Confen-ed by Harvard University- Second Marriage- Oration on John C. Calhoun— Speech at Banciuet of New York Chamber of Commerce— Death of Mr. Justice Woods, of the Supreme Court— Mr. Lamar Discussed as the Successor— Correspondence— N<innnated by the President— Objections to Confirmation— Corresi)ondence— Complexion of the Senate— Resigns Office of Secretary— Cliaracter as an Administrative Officer
506
CHAPTER XXX. Senator Stewart's Letter on Lamar for the Supreme Court-Senator Walthall's Friendship-Adverse Report bv the Judiciary Committee-Conlinned-lress Comments— The Burial of the Bloody Shirt-Congratulations-Installed in Office-Labors as a Judge-Character as a Judge-The Neagle Cast— Kid.i m Pearson-Lamar's Opinions-Enjoys His AVork-Anecdote-AVork on the Cir- cuit-Interviewed on Cleveland's Administration-Ad.lress at Emory College -Letter to Barker on Mississippi Politics-Address at Center Cr,llege-Letter to Mr. Cleveland-Letter on Chief Jiistice Marshall-Reminiscences of Mr. Lamar's Last Summer-Joins the Church-Religious Experience and Character. oM
20 LUCIUS Q. a LAMAR.
CHAPTEK XXXI. iaue. Failing Healtli— Diagnosis— Illness, April, 1892— Visit to Macon, Ga.— Death- Action of Supreme Court— Congress— Interior Department— Reception of the News in Mississippi— In Other States— In Georgia— Proceedings in Macon, Ga. —The 01)sequies— Dr. Candler's Sermon— Bishop Fitzgerald's Discourse— Ear Meeting of the Supreme Court of tlie United States— Mr. Vilas' Remarks— Sen- ator 'Walthall's Trihute— Hon. J. Randolph Tucker's Remarks— In the Supreme Court— The Remarks of tlie Attorney-general— The Response of the Chief Jus- tice—Resolutions of Illinois State Bar As-ociation— The Removal of Mr. La- mar's Remains to Oxford, Miss. — Conclusion '^''f>
SrPPLE:\IENTARY CHAPTER.
1. Tribute of Hon. Blanche K. Bruce, ex-Senator o!13
2. Tribute of Senator George F. Hoar, of Massachusetts o!l4
3. Tribute of Rev. Charles B. Galloway, Bishop of the Methodist Church, South.. 594
4. Extract from Address of Hon. John L. T. Sneed, at tlie Meeting of the Mem-
phis Bar 5''<5
5. Tribute of ex-Chief Justice James M. Arnold 598
(i. Study V)y Harry Pratt Judson, Head Dean of the Chicago University 000
7. Resolutions of the Legislature of North Dakota ''O-
8. Collection of Newspaper Comments ''03
APPENDIX.
1. Speech on Kansas and Nicaraguan Afi'airs: House, January 13, 18.'58 609
2. Speech before the Legislature at Jackson, Miss., November 3, 1858 (il8
3. Speech on the Election of Speaker: House, l>ecember 7, 1859 ()21
4. Speech on Southern Slavery anil Slaveholders: House, February 21, ISOO 624
5. Letter to P. F. Liddell, December 10, 1860, on Formation of a Confederacy. . . 033
6. Credentials to Russia, November, 1802 ''39
7. Speech on the State of the Countiy (Confederacy) : April 14, 1864 639
8. Letter on the Cliaracter of Robert E. Lee, December 5, 1870 650
9. Speech on Misrale in the Southern States: House, June 8, 1874 659
10. Letter of H. C. Carter on Carpetbag Misgovernment, April 25, 1874 069
11. Speech on the Centennial Celebration: House, January 25, 1870 070
12. Speech on Parliamentary Privilege (Belknap Case): House, March 7, 1870. . . 074
13. Speech on the Southern Policy of the Republican Party, etc.: House, August
2, 1876 6S2
14. Speech on the Electoral Commission : House, January 25, 1877 69S
15. Speech (Undelivered) on the Electoral Count: House, February, 1877 699
10. Speech on the Payment of Government Bonds in Silver: Senate, January 24,
-1878 " 701
17. .Vrticle on the Enfranchisement of tlie J\egn)— North Amcrinin Rei-ieir, March,
1879 "1^
IS. Speech on the Exodus of Negroes from Southern States: Senate, June 14, 1880 723
19. Speech on Placing Gen. Grant on tlie Retired Army List: Senate, .January 25,
1881 "'^8
20. Speech on the Election of Othcera in the Senate: Senate, April 1, 1881 739
21. Speech on the TarifT: Senate, Feliruary 7, 1883 "-18
22. Speedi on National Aid to Education: Senate, March 28, 1884 "74
23. Oration on Life and Services of John C. Calhoun: Charleston, April 26, 1887. 779
24. Speech at Emory College, June 24, 1890 SOI
ILLUSTRATIONS.
TAOE.
1. Justice Lajiiar Frontispiece.
2. Mirabeau B. Lamar '. 16
3. Judge Lucius Q. C. Lamar, of Georgia 20
4. Rev. Augustus B. Longstreet 38
5. Mississippi Senators and Congressmen at the Time of Secession (Group) 86
6. Gen. Edward C. Walthall 1 18
7. Liberal Republican Leaders, 1870-75 (Group) ,, 108
8. Charles Sumner 182
!). Senator L. Q. C. Lamar . . . ^^'O
10. Some Democratic Senators (Group) S-'iS
11. Some Republican Senators (Group) 378
12. Mr. Lamar's Children (Group) -120
13. President Cleveland and His Cabinet (( iroup) -186
14. The Funeral of the Bloody Shirt 536
15. The Supreme Court of 1891 (Group) 546
16. Campus Views at Emory College 5o2
(11)
LUCIUS Q. C. LAMAR:
HIS LIFE, TIMES, AND SPEECHES.
CHAPTER I.
The Family of Lamar— Thomas, the Immigrant— Thomas, His Son— John Lamar— :Mirabeau B. Lamar— Lucius Q. C. Lamar, the Elder— Micajali Williamson ami Sa- rah Gilliam, His Wife -Dr. Thompson Bird and Susan Williamson, His Wife— Mrs. Sarah (Bird) Lamar.
THERE is a tradition amongst tlie Lamars of Georgia that their family was of Huguenot origin, and was planted in Maryland Uy four brothers who fled from France in the celebrated exodus consequent upon the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685. In part this report is probably correct; but there are public records still extant in Mary- land which show that the Georgia tradition is incomplete and, in de- tails, erroneous.
In the early days of Maryland all of the papers which found their way into the records, and so have been preserved, were prepared by petty officials and lawyers who seem to have had very limited educa- tional advantages. The spelling of names varied almost with the num- ber of the documents in which they appeared; for example, Brown was spelled Broun, Brown, Browne, and Broune, all in instruments intended to convey property to the same individual. It seems also to have been customary for one person, in making deeds, to spell his own name in different ways, in order to conform exactly to the various spellings by which he had received conveyances of the properties alienated. It is not strange, therefore, that a Frenchman in an English colony should have his name spelled phonetically, and differently by different parties.
It is more than probable that the first Lamars came to Maryland prior to the year 1663. There is a Maryland tradition that there were three brothers. Huguenots. If their religion formed any part of the motives which led them to seek the New World, the immediate cause certainly could not have been the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, but probably was only the general disfavor and oppression of Protestants under the administration of Cardinal Richelieu following upon the destruction of
Rochelle in 1628.
Maryland being an English colony, the English laws obtained, anil no immigrants could hold lan.ls in fee except sucli as were of British na-
^ (13)
14 lAVirS Q. C. LAMAR:
tioiiality. lu lG-49 Lord Baltimore issued a circular to the people of France, Germany, and other countries, offering inducements to immi- grants to join his Maryland colony, and assuring to them the same priv- ileges as immigrants of English birth. On November 17, 1663, he granted a certificate of nationality — or "denuozacou," as it was called — wherein it was recited that
Whereas Thomas and Peter Lamore, late of' ]'irginia, and subjects of the crown of France, having transported themselves into this province here to abide, have besought us to grant them, tlie said Thomas and Peter Lamore, leave to here Inhabit as free denizens, and freedom land to them and their heirs to purchase. Know ye, that we, willing to give encouragement to the subjects of that crown, do hereby declare them, the said Thomas and Peter Lamore, to be free denizens of this our province of Mary- land, etc.
Various record entries and documents, extending from 1663 to 1684, give the names tif these men, and of a John of the same name, as La- mer, Lamare, Lamair, Lamaire, De Le Maire, Lemaire, Lemarre, Le- mar, Le Marr, and Lamar. Not infrequently the name was spelled va- riously in the same document. The records of this period are so per- fect that it would seem impossible to confound these men and their fam- ilies with other persons. There are no names similar to these three.
John Lamaire was naturalized about ten years after Thomas and Pe- ter, from which it is inferable that he came over at a later date. His naturalization papers sliowed that he, at least, was born in Anjou.
Peter and Thomas " Lamore " located in what was then Calvert County, on the Patuxent River, and engaged in ijlanting; while John, who was a doctor, as the records show by numerous administrator's accounts, settled in the more populous community of Port Tobacco, the county seat of Charles County.
However, all of this is more or less speculative. What is certain is that Peter Lamer's will is of record, dated in 1693; while that of Thom- as Lamar, dated October 4, 1712, is also recorded, and shows that he was then living in Prince George's County. By that instrument he left what seems to have been quite a considerable estate, both in Maryland and in England, to his wife, Ann, and to his two sons, Thomas and John.
The second Thomas also left a will. It is dated May 11, 1747. He distributed a large estate between his six sons and two sons-in-law, by name. In the year 1755 three of those sons (Robert, Thomas, and John) and one of the sons-in-law ( Clementius Davis) on the same day sold their lands to the Rev. John Urqi;hart, " Minister of Al-Faith Parish in Saint Mai-y's County," their mother's brother, and moved down into South Carolina and Georgia, settling at Beach Island and on the Geor- gia side of the Savannah River. This settlement in these Southern col- onies may have given rise m later years to the Georgia tradition that four brothers came to America.
HIS LIFE, TIMES, AND SPEECHES. 15
John Lamar, son of John, was graiidsou of tlie Joliu who moved to Georgia. He was born in the year 1769, aud married his cousiii-germnn, Rebecca Lamar. That union produced nine children who attained ma- turity. Four were sons (Lucius Quintus Ciucinnatus, Thomas Ran- doli:)h, Mirabeau Buonaparte, aud Jett'ersou Jaciison) and tive were daughters ( Mrs. Evalina Harvey, Mrs. Mary A. iloreland, Mrs. Aurelia liandle, Mrs. Louisa McGehee, and Mrs. Loretto H. Chappell 1.
This John Lamar, the grandfather of Justice Lamar, was a planter, and a thrifty one. His residence was for a time in Warren County; but later iu Putnam, eight or ten miles south of Eatonton. Here, about the year 1810, he established what is still locally known as the "olil La- mar homestead," now the property of Mr. Mai-k Johnson. The house still stands in good condition: a tine, old-fashioned, two-story, frame building, constructed after the strong and enduring models (>f that period. Little River winds near by, aud cultivated fields offer a wide prospect. Here for many years, iu great happiness and moderate pros- perity, lived the old couple.
With them lived a bachelor brother, Zachariah— a ;^elf-t;iuglit uuin — who, like many of the men iu old plantation times, gave himself up to the ideal world of literature aud history, without any further purpose than the enjoyments of that fairyland. These honest, happy— some might consider them useless — members of society belong to an extinct fauna, but they were loved and revered and humored in their day and little circles. This Lamar was one of this sort, perhaps its most striking e;iample. Over all his immediate surroundings was cast the glamour of that realm of letters in which he lived. When he le.l in family prayer, good Methodists that they were, he did not think it inapt to thank God for the heroic examples of Roman or English or American history, for the march of science, or for exemption from the crimes and mis- eries of less favored lands into which Ids geographical studies had last led him. So when son after sou was born to the head of the house this bookish enthusiast claimed the privilege of naming his infant nephews after his fevorite of tlie moment, and the amiable and doubtless amused parents consented. Thus Lucius Quintus Ciucinnatus, Mirabeau Buonaparte, Jefferson Jackson, Thomas Randolph, and J>avoisier Legrand (a grandchild ) indicate how his interest shifted from history to politics, and from politics to chemistry.*
At this old homestead, buried in a quiet garden, by the side of his daughter Evalina, lies John. His grave is kept in excellent order, and over him is a slab bearing the following inscription, written by his son Mirabeau:
In memory of John Lamar, who died August ,S, 1S33, aged sixty-four years. He was a man of unblemished honor, of pure aud exalte.l benevolence, whose conduct through life was uniformly i-egulated by the strictest principles of iirobity, truth, and justice; thus leaving behin<t him, as the best legacy to his children, a noble example of consistent virtue. In his domestic relations he was greatly blessed, receiving from every member of a large fannly unremitting demonstrations of respect, love, and obe- dience.
'William rreston ,Iiilinston, in tlie Farmer's Wurhl ^i Feliniary .1. isro.
16 LUCirS Q. C. LAMAU:
That is the testimony of a son. Here is the impartial evidence of one who was connected by no such endearing tie. In the " Bench and Bar of Georgia" Hon. Joel Crawford says this:
Though not a rich man, Mr. John Lamar, by dint of industry and good manage- ment, found means to give his children the best education wliich the schools of the country aflbrded. None of them had the benefit of a college course, nor were they (it is believed) acciuainted with the ancient classics or any other language l)ut English. But, if the children of this worthy man did not bring into practical life any great amount of literary and scientific lore, they certainly brought what was infinitely more valuable: mind, morals, and most of the virtues which elevate and adorn it. In the regimen of no other family were strict veracity, temperance in all things, probity, and benevolence more peremptorily and successfully inculcated.
John Lamar had the rare good fortune that two of his sons achieved distinction. Of these, Mirabeau, the yt)uuger, was born in 1798. He was a man of considerable, genius and of great versatility of talent. M'riter, soldier, lawyer, statesman, and diplomatist — in each career he was successful, and in some brilliant. Beginning life as a planter and merchant, he cultivated letters; and in 1828 established the Columbus Inquirer, a State rights paper. Some of the best essays upon the gov- ernment of the United States, which appeared in the public press of Georgia, were from his pen; and later he proved a capacity for poetry of no mean order, publishing a volume of " Verse Memorials."
He was already distinguished for eloquence when he came to Texas, in 1835, to aid the constitutional cause, and is said to have l>een the first to declare publicly for inde- pendence. He was not less ardent as a soldier than as a speaker; and, in the cavalry skirmish on the day before the battle of San Jacinto, saved the life of Gen. Rusk by a free exposure of his own. He was conspicuous for gallantry at San Jacinto, and, hav- ing first served as Attorney General, was soon after appointed Secretary of W.ar by President Burnet, and was elected Vice President in 1836. His impetuous valor, en- thusiastii' temper, and unselfish aspirations for the honor and welfare of his country, made liim tlie fit choice of Texas as her President. Lamar was a man of high, un- bending honor; his native gifts were fine: lari.'eness and brilliancy of conception, fancy, eloquence, readiness, and courage. Though ardent, impulsive, and open tci pres- ent impressions, sometimes, es|iecial!y in seasons of ill health, he gave way to the re- action that dis'iJays itself in waywardness, dejection, and lassitude. But lie was biave, aifectionate, open as the day, lofty, and magnanimous. . ' . .
To the eloquent appeals of Lamar are due the foundations of the educational sys- tem of Texas, and tlie consecration of nolile grants of public lands to the school and university funds. By him, too, a great tide of corruption and public (ilunder was s\iddenly stopjied.*
After the annexation of Texas Mirabeau Lamar served efficiently in the Mexican -War. In 1857 he was appointed United States Minister to the Argentine Republic, and in 1858 to Costa Eica and Nicaragua. He died in the year 1859. Between him and Justice Lamar existed the deepest attachment and mutual admiration. His rare combination of qualities, his fiery and chivalric nature, his enthusiasm, his patriotism
* Willi.-iiu Prest.in .I.>lin..t(>i.. in •• I.ilr' of Gen. A. S. .lolin-t ii." ]>v- ii3. M.
HIS LIFE, TUfES, AND SPEECHES. 17
and fervid partisanship— all strongly drew and deeply iutluenced the nascent character of his observant and thoughtful yonng nephew.
As a specimen of the literary style of Mirabeau Lamar the following lyric, which does not appear in the " Verse Memorials," is given. The poem is the last he wrote, and was inspired by a rarely beautiful wom- an whom he saw in Central America.
THE DAUGHTER OF MENDOZA.
O lend to me, sweet nightintrale,
Your music by the fountains! And lend to me your cadent'es,
O river of the mountains! That I may sing my gay brunette
A diamond sparli in coral set, Geui for a prince's coronet —
Tlie daugliter of Mendoza.
How brilliant is the morning star!
The evening star, how tender! Tlie light of botli is in her eye,
Their softness and their sjilendor. But for the lash that sliades their light,
They were too dazzling for the figlit; And when she shuts them all is night —
The daughter of IMendoza.
O! ever bright and beauteous one, Bewildering and beguiling.
The lute is in thy silvery tones. The rainbow in thy smiling.
And thine is, too, o'er hill and dell. The bounding of the young gazelle.
The arrow's flight and ocean's swell- Sweet daughter of Mendoza!
What though, perchance, we meet no more?
Wliat though too soon we sever? Thy form will float like emerald light,
Before my vision ever. For who can see and then forget
The glories of my gay brunette? Thou art too bright a star to set —
Sweet daughter of Mendoza!
Lucius Q. C. Lamar, the father of the late Justice, was John La- mar's oldest son. Born in Warren County, on the 15th of July, 1797, he passed the most of his early youth in Putnam, to which county his father had removed. Much of his time was spent behind the counter as a salesman; bitt in 1816 he began the study of law in the office of Hon. Joel Crawford, at Milledgeville. Reading with great ddigence, lie acquired, amongst other things, accuracy in pleading. After twelve months or more he repaired to the celebrated law school of Judges 2
18 LUCIUS Q. C. LAMAR:
Eeeve and Gould, at LituLtield, Conn. About the year 1818, having been admitted to practice in the courts of law and equity in Georgia, he opened an office in ^Lilledgeville. There, on tlie 10th of March, 1819, he married Sarah W. Bird, daughter of Dr. Thompson Bird, au eminent physician of that city.
Though few young lawyers have brought to the bar higlier quahfications, he lacked some, ami for a few years liis prospects were anything but bright. While others, with not a tithe of his genius or learning, were seen to be reaping rich har- vests of fees and crowded with clients, he remained poor and almost briefless. How and why did this happen? Courage, truth, and honor were among the most con- spicuous elements of his character, and he seemed to have the esteem and confidence of every one. But he could not court clients nor solicit patronage; his characteristic independence and legitimate self-esteem would not tolerate even the semblance of unworthy conilescension. He doubtless wanted what is commonly called addrrss: he liad no turn for frivoliius chat, story-telling, anecdotes, etc. In short, he lacked those qualifications on which humbler natures rely for conciliating ijopular favor.
When quite young in his profession Mr. Lamar was chosen by the Legislature to compile the laws of Georgia from 1810 to 1820. He arranged the several acts under their apjiropriate divisions, and made such references and explanations in notes as were necessary to show what had been repealed or modified. The result of his la- bors was reported to Gov. Clark in 1821, and by him was accepted after a careful examination at the hands of a committee. It was then published in a quarto vol- ume of thirteen hundred pages, constituting Volume III. of the "Georgia Statutes."
Mr. Lamar also revised Clayton's "Georgia Justice" (now rarely found ) about 1819.
In the summer of 1821 Judge Crawford, who had retired from the practice some four or tive years before, resumed it, and Lamar be- came his partner.
This copartnership by its terms was limited to three years, and before the expira- tion of that time Lamar had so many oijportunities of exhibiting proofs of his great legal ability that he never afterwards wanted clients or fees.
Mr. Lamar doubtless had ambition — a legitimate ambition — to acquire by merito- rious actions that fame and fortune which may at all times be justly awarded to use- ful and brilliant achievements; but he had an insuperable aversion to catching oflice as a mere fortuitous windfall, or getting it by surrendering himself to the arbitrary management of a jiolitical party. Under the influence of snch generous self-denial, he more than once refiLsed his name as a candidate when success was little less than certain. His conduct when Thomas W. Cobb (about the fall of 1828) became a candi- date for the bench of the Ocmulgee circuit will serve to exemplify some of the lofty traits which belonged to his character.
Mr. Cobb was an experienced and confessedly an able lawyer; had been for many years a respectable member of Congress, desired to continue in the public serv- ice, but, in the decline of life, preferred a station nearer home. The popularity, however, which had carried him three terms to the House of Representatives, and afterwards to the Senate of the United States, now forsook him. He was beaten on joint vote of the General Assembly by a large majority; but, for some cause best known to himself, his successful opponent within a few days resigned the commis- sion of judge, and the vacancy had again to be filled. Cobb's friends again jiresent- ed his name, and Lamar was importuned to offer as a rival candidate. Had he con- sented, his election was morally certain ; but he had a becoming respect for Mr.
Ills LIFE, TIMES, ASD SPEECHES. 19
Cobb's seniority and past services, was no stranger to tho uiiwiuthy motives of tliose who were most intent on a second defeat, nor to the plasticity of tliat ill-organized college of electors, the General Assembly. His refusal was jienMnptory, and Mr. Cobb was permitted to take the office he so much coveted.
Before the term for which Mr. ("obb had Ijeen elected expired, his death made a vacancy which Mr. Lamar could honorably consent to fill. He came then, on the 4th of November, ISliO, while only in his thirty-fourtli year, into oliice on such con- ditions as met bis approbation, and continiicd until the day of his own lamented death to discharge its duties with signal ability, and witli jiuMic applause which few injudicial stations have had the good fortune to receive.
He presided with great dignity, and was most elfective in the dispatch of busi- ness. No one who knew the man ever ventured on an act of rudeness or disrespect to his court; yet every person whose deportment was worthy of it had unfailing as- surances of his kindness. His lectui-es of instruction to the grand juries, at the opening of a term, were delivered in aduiiralile style; and his charges to special and petit juries in the trial of dilhcult and nmch-Utigated cases might well serve as mod- els to any bench.
As specimens of Judge Lamar's style and reasoning on legal topics, reference may be made to two cases in Dudley's "Keports:" Brensfer vs. Hanlcinan and Kendrirk vs. the Central Baid; the latter sustaining notes when the statute required bonds. They are both fine instances. A remarkable case was one which was brought from Jasper b(>fore the convention of Judges. It was well argued, was thoroughly discussed, and the authorities examined by the Convention, Judge Lamar leading the convention to adopt his view. Au opinion was rendered unaitiiiwHsli/. During the succeeding interval before the next conven- tion he met with a case which gave him a new view. He pursued the examination closely during several weeks. When the next convention assembled, he stated what had occurred, and that his opinion had un- dergone an entire change. The authorities were reviewed, criticised, and applied by the convention, and it iiiianhnonsli/ reversed its former decision. Judge Lamar leading both times the argument, and writing out the final decision of the judges. This remarkable episode furnishes a high proof of his mental powers and intellectual and moral integrity; more especially when it is remembered that William H. Crawford, Judge Law, Judge Dougherty, and perhaps Judge Warner, were mem- bers of the convention. Of this decision, and of that of Brewster vs. Hanlciiiiin, Hon. Joseph Henry Lumpkin says, that they "may be placed on a level with the best productions of the American or Eng- lish bench."
Nothing delighted him more than for his brethren of the bar to mingle literary anecdote or classical allusion in their arguments. He was a great admirer of Hugh S Legare, of South Carolina, as presenting the finest model of the profound lawyer and accomplished scholar; and such, since Legare's death, was the judgment of
Mr. Justice Story. ■ ~. ^ i
From boyhood Judge Lamar was a lover of books, readmg with good effect al- most everything that came within his reach, but had a decided partiality for poetry
20 LUCIUS Q. C. LAMAR:
and other works of imagination. In after life he was distinguished for his attain- ment ill belles-lettres, for tlie classic purity of his compositions, and for his forensic eloquence. He was fond of poUtics, and wrote many articles of that nature for jjub- lication.
His active genius, lofty virtues, and profound erudition would have given eclat to any name. There is no instance in England or America where a judge so rapidly gained public favor. In less than four years from his accession to the bench he was commonly known as "the great Judge Lamar," and was its brightest luminary. He could not have been displaced; there was no desire felt by his political opponents to give his otKce to another; and it was his singular merit, his crowning glory, that both Union and State rights men would equally have renewed his commission. And, to complete his blessings, he was happy in his domestic circle. Wife and chil- dren, relatives and friends, everybody loved him, and he loved all.
Yet amid all this innocence and honor and felicity a withering bolt fell; and Judge Lamar's sudden death occurred on the 4th of July, 1834, when he was thirty-seveii years of age.
A lengthy and beautiful " Tribute of Respect " was adopted by the bar of the Baldwin Superior Court, from which the following extract is taken :
At the bar he was an ingenious and able advocate and excellent jurist. Possessing a mind far above the ordinary grade, distinguished alike for acuteness and discrimi- nation, it could grapple with the giant difficulties of the science and master its abstruse theories. On the bench he exhibited a soundness of judgment and depth of learning beyond his years. His candor, ingenuousness, and modesty were no less conspicuous than his amenity and kindness to all in any way connected with the administration of justice. His expositions of the law, his charges and instructions to juries, were uni- formly marked by piecision, beauty, and eloquence, imjiarting interest to the suliject and instruction to the hearer. Devoting himsi-lf to the arduous duties of his station, he seldom erred in judgment; but, ever anxious that his judicial opinions should be correct, he sought occasion for their revision, and, with the noble impulse of an up- right mind, rejoiced in the opportunity for their revision. Always guided by human- ity, he truly administered justice in mercy. To the youthful aspirant for professional distinction he was indeed a friend, exciting his ardor, aiding his exertions, commend- ing his efforts, alluring him onward, and extending a fostering hand for his support when difficulties surrounded him.
In all the relations of private life he was blameless, ever kind, ardent, and affec- tionate. Of unblemished integrity and pure morals, no whisper injurious to either ever rested on his name. He was beloved for his amiable disi^osition, his bland de- portment, his noble frankness, and his generous sentiments.*
Judge Lamar had eight children, five of whom attained maturity. The sons were Lucius Quintus Cincinnatus, Thompson Bird, and Jeffer- son Mirabeau. The daughters were Mrs. Susan E. Wiggins and Mary Ann, who first married James C. Longstreet, Esq., and afterwards John B. Ross, of Macon, Ga.
The maternal ancestors of Justice Lamar are historic in Georgia. They shotild be briefly noticed, not only because they are noteworthy in
" These quotations are trom tlic " Ilench ami Jiar of Georgia; " title, " L. Q. C. Lamar."
JUCGE L. Q. C. LAMAR.
HIS LIFE, TIMES, AND SPEECHES. 21
themselves, but also because both by inheritance and by education they materially contributed to the production in him of those (jualities of mind and soul with which he was endowed, as well as the sentimeuts by which his life was greatly influenced. The women especially were at once lovely and heroic. Sarah Gilliam, Susan Williamson, and Sarah Bird were all of such sort as was the Roman Cornelia.
The first is believed to have been a niece of the Eev. Devereux Jarratt, the celebrated Episcopalian divine of Tirginia. A native of Henrico County, Va., and descended from a Huguenot stock, she married Mica- jah Williamson, of Bedford County, whose grandfather was from the North of Ireland, and who was himself a man of quite considerable wealth. The two, in the year 1768, moved to Georgia and settled in Wilkes County, where Mr. Williamson purchased a valuable plantation from Col. Alston, giving him sixty negroes in exchange therefor. Wilkes County was then on the frontier, and subject to great afflictions from Indian aggressions. Here and then, and in the later stormy days of the great Revolution, the Williamsons were conspicuous from both their services and their sufferings.
The country was almost a wilderness. The houses of settlers were built as near together as possible, for union and for capacity of fortify- ing against hostile attacks. In the Indian wars Williamson became prominent. He was brave but prudent, and inspired such confidence as made him by common consent a leader. He soon became intimate with Elijah Clarke, even then the most prominent man of that region, and later a colonel in the continental army. Their intimacy continued through the Revolution. In that struggle they were associated in the army of the South, which was assigned to protect the western frontier of Georgia. Williamson was Clarke's lieutenant colonel and was his chief dependence. In all hazardous enterprises requiring skill, caution, and perseverance he was selected to command. This, of course, im- mensely increased his risks, and he was more frequently wounded than any other officer in the command. The scene of this war was in the im- mediate neigliborhood of his home, and his wonderful wife was not only a witness of many of the conflicts, but also often a participant in them. Hers was a character as marked as was that of her husband. While he was in the field fighting she was in the fields at home supervising the management of the farm, and contriving to support a large family of sons and daughters. In one of the inroads of the English, Tories, and Indians, during the absence of Col Williamson with his command, their liouse and outbuildings were burned, with all their mova])les. A son, a youth of twelve years, was hung in the presence of his mother. Following this a proclamation was issued, offering a large reward for the head of Col. Williamson. The wife and cliildren were forced to flee to the mountains of N(n-th Carolina for safety. This was near the end of
22 LUCIUS Q. a LAMAR:
the war. It was only on the cessation of hostilities that the suffering family returned to their desolated fields. Then Williamson went to work to i'e2:)air his shattered fortunes. A few slaves were left; and, uniting with theirs the labor of himself and his sous, the farm was cul- tivated actively and successfully. He also kept an inn in the town of Wa.shingtou. In a few years he was again comparatively independent, and directed as best he could the education of his family. In this his wife, who was well educated for the times, assisted. But the fatigues, the wounds, and the anxieties of the troubled life he had, added to the severe labors of the reclamation, broke down the old soldier's constitu- tion. He dietl in 1795, aged about sixty years.
Col. Williamson left five sons and six daughters. The sons were Charles, Peter, Micajah, William, and Thomas Jeffenson. The daugh- ters were Mrs. Nancy Clarke, Mrs. 8arali Griffin, Mrs. Susan Bird, Mrs. Martha Fitch, Mrs. Elizabeth Thweat, and Mrs. Mary Campbell.
It was a most remarkable family of women. Thej' were celebrated for their beauty antl intellects. Any one of them would have made a home distinguished, and no sisters ever took a wider hold iiijon a State. Mrs. Clarke was the wife of Gen. John Clarke, afterwards Governor of the State. Mrs. Griffin was twice married; both husbands were judges, and "the second, Hon. Charles Tail, served two terms in the United States Senate. The husbands of Mrs. Bird, Mrs. Fitch, and Mrs. Thweat were all men of high standing and influence. Mrs. Campbell was the wife of Hon. Duncan G. Campbell, a lawyer of prominence, who was one of the two commissioners of the United States who negotiated the treaty whereby the Creeks surrendered their lands in Georgia and Alabama; and she became the mother of the Hon. John A. Campbell, late Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. It is believed that the William- son family occupy the unique position that it was the first in the United States to give two of its members to that great tribunal, since the com- mission of Judge Campbell antedated that of Justice Field, while Jus- tice Lamar was appointed before Justice Brewer.
Dr. Thompson Bird, the husband of Mrs. Susan (Williamson) Bird, and tlie grandfather of Justice Lamar, was a son of Empsou Bird, of Cecil County, Md., who died there in 1787. Thompson graduated at William and Mary, and afterwards at the celebrated medical college in Philadelphia. His older half-sister, Mrs. Mary Montgomery, and her husband (from whom are descended a fine family of that name), having found their way to Georgia, induced Thompson to follow them. He settled first in Milledgeville, and later at Macon, at which place he died July 8, 1828. He was one of the most eminent, successful, and popular physicians in the State. His nature was frank and generous; quick to resent an injury, he was yet easily conciliated. He was dis-
HIS LIFE, TIMES, A\D SPEECHES. 23
tinguisbed for hospitality; and his cheerfulness and vivacity gave liiui great prestige in society. For example, in 1823 he was selected to pre- side over the festal board at the first banquet ever given in the then newly organized C(junty of Bibb in conimetnoration of the Declaration of Independence. His superior skill and many jjersoual virtues secured for him a high place in popular esteem.
However, the chief interest along this branch of the family history gathers about Mrs. Bird. The personal and mental graces, the intel- lectual and spiritual glory of a perfect woman — who shall paint them? And who shall sound the mysterious ways in which God moves to per- form his wonders? or guess why it is that a star whose brightness and serenity seem worthy of a cloudless heaven shall yet go down in dark cloiids and in storm? This magnificent woman died, under the most tragical and dramatic circumstances, of a broken heart.
Her sister, Mrs. Fitch, with her husband and children, lived at St. Angnstine. Attracted by them, thither also had gone Mrs. Bird's only son then living, just entering upon manhood, a most amiable and gifted young man, who when only twenty-one years of age had been appointed United States Attorney for the Territory. To him his uncle and aunt were very kind. On one fatal occasion in the fall of 18'21, while trav- eling off the coast, Mr. Fitch found floating on the o'cean a mattress which seemed to be good. He had it taken aboard, dried it, and slept upon it. The result was yellow fever. This dread disease spread. When it became epidemic Mrs. Bird wrote to her son, praying him to come away; but in the meantime every member of his aunt's family had been taken ill, and she, rising from her bed of sickness, threw her arms about her nephew and implored him not to leave her in her de- spair. He knew that to stay was death; but he wrote his mother that he must meet his fate; and stay he did, and died November 15, with his uncle, his aunt, and both of his cousins. From this blow his mother never recovered. Her grief was supposed to have in- duced organic disease of the heart.
On the 22d of March, 1822, Mrs. Bird's niece, Nancy Clarke, the daughter of the Governor, was married to John W. Campbell, the ycmuger brother of Hon. Duncan G. Campbell. Mrs. Bird laid aside her mourning, if not her sorrow, and assisted in the prepai'ation for the wedding. When the ceremony was over, she approached the hap- py and blushing bride, kissed her, wiped from her eyes the gathering tears, and said, "Dear Nancy, if your happiness shall be equal to my wishes, you will never know misery. Excuse me now, I am fatigued and must go home." She kissed her niece again, and left the draw- ing-room.
The elite of the young people of the State were present. Everybody knew Nan- cy Clarke, and everybody loved her, and was responding in mirth to her happiness.
24 LUCIUS Q. C. LA MA II:
The clock struck twelve, the dancers were upon the floor, when that stern old man, Gov. Clarke, with his military stride, entered the room, and authoritatively said: "Stop this!" All were startled, and an instantaneous silence ensued. There was a pause of a moment, when the Governor said: "Mrs. Bird is dead. "*
Aye; the wrung heart had ceased, from its labors, aud the stricken mother had fallen on sleep, slain through the noble conduct of her ilu- tiful aud loving son. Again was illustrated the singular and terrible fact that acts of the highest virtue and those of the lowest depravity often lead to the same bitter result; tiiat in the strange complexity of this mysterious life many of the jjurest altars bear the burden of that tremendous offering, the broken heart.
The mother of Justice Lamar, Sarah Williamson Bird, was born in Milledgeville on the 2-ith of Februar}-, 1802. She was married when only seventeen years of age. Left a widow by the cruel stroke already narrated, at thirty-two, with five young children to rear, she was not overwhelmed by so great a calamity, but bravely gathered her men- tal and moral forces to meet the duties cast upon her. In her widow- hood she was not altogether aloue, for she had many warm and devoted friends, both of her husband and of her own. She was spared the sharp bitterness of poverty. Her husband left her a comfortable loroperty, which was considerably increased by the skillful management of his brother, Mr. Jeflerson Lamar. Her daughters were educated at good boarding schools; her oldest son, Lucius, at Emory College; her second sou, Thompson B., at the same institution, aud afterwards at the Jef- ferson Medical College, in Philadelphia; and her youngest son, Jeffer- son M., at the University of Mississippi.
In July, 1851, after remaining a v\'idow for seventeen years, she was married to Col. Hiram B. Troutmau, of Yineville, near Macon, Ga., and removed to his home, where she lived until her death.
She had much in this world — beauty, intellect, education, social po- sition, a competency, admirati<jn, friends, dutiful aud bright children — aud she had need of them all, for her life was often stricken by the sharpest darts of agony. First, was the great shock of her brother's death, followed by that of her mother. Then came that of her Tins- band. In the year 1858, her youngest daughter's husband, James C. Longstreet, to whom she was tenderly attached, died. In September, 1862, her youngest son, then a lieutenant colonel of Cobb's Legion, fell while leading his command in the engagement at Cramptou's Gap. In May, 186-1, her eldest daughter, Mrs. Wiggins, passed away after losing both of her children, and after a painful illness jjrotracted through several years. In 1864, also, her second son, then colonel of the Fifth Florida, was killed in a battle near Petersburg. In the clos- ing period of her life, there came both upon her and upon her second
*Col. Sparks, in tlK' Atlanta Constitution ; artick", '*01d F-.iniilies of Geo gia."
Ills I.IFK, TIMES, AND SPEECHES. 25
husband, the* companion of her old age, the great shadow of darkness, the liorror of blindness. But amid all these continuinLif troubles she had the great consolation. From early life n humble and devout Meth- odist, the native strength of her character was not her only resource. She had taken the eternal truths into her heart, her feet were planted firmly upon the Eock of Ages, and her liand was clasped closely in that of the loving Christ. On the 31st of October, 1879, she died suddenly of heart disease. It was her last request that her body be taken to Milledgeville, and there be buried by the side of her first husband.
A few of the tributes paid to this noble lady will be given here in or- der to illustrate her own charactei", as well as that of her son. An obituary by the Rev. G. G. Smith says:
She was one of the most elegant women in a circle of women of rare accomplish- ments. . . . She presided over a large establishment and dispensed a queenly hospitality. ... 1 have known few such women. She was accomplished, talent- ed, dignified, pious. She adorned every circle into which she was thrown. In pros- perity slie was not proud, in adversity she was not despondent. She had a true Christian faith, and it sustained her through all the varying circumstances of a sadly checkered life. I liave known her all my life, and never knew aught but good of her. She was truly an elect lady, and sleeps in Jesus.
The Rev. Joseph S. Key, now Bishop Key, said:
She lived and died loved and honored by all who knew her. Endowed by nature with great beauty of person and amiability of disposition, she added the graces of education and culture, and laid all these in consecration at Jesus' feet. Religion with her was no mere profession or theory; it was an experience felt and seen. She literally " put on the Lord Jesus Christ," and to her dying day through good and ill il- lustrated him. Her last years were years of testing. Blindness came lirst upon her, and then upon her husband. She anticipated its coming, and stored her memory with many precious passages of scripture on which to dwell in meditation in the darkness. A most touchini; sight it was to see the two aged saints sitting together, under the cloud of their Ijlindness, repeating to each other the promises and hopes of the Word of God. The stroke which took her off was sudden and unexpected, leav- ing no opportunity for dying testimony. It was not needed. Her life was monu- mental goodness. Her end was peace.
The blindness of which Bishop Key spoke was relieved before her death, as also was that of her husband, by successful operations for cat- aract.
Judge John A. Campbell, under date of November 3, 1879, wrote to
his own sister:
Ml/ Dear Rebecca: I was grieved to receive your notice of the death of my cousin Sarah, Mrs. Troutman. I remember her a long while ago, when I was but a boy, as she was at Aunt Griffin's. I remember her as I saw her about 1821, newly married, when I went to Milledgeville. I remember her as I saw her after my return from West Point in 1829. I have seen her since. She was much connected in my mind with mother, of whom she reminded me. I held her in the highest esteem and re- spect. There were sincerity, truth, gentleness, good breeding, high honor, religious culture, and refinement in her demeanor and in her thoughts. I felt proud of her as
26 LUCIUS Q. C. LAMAR.
a relation by blood. I cannot too strongly express my sympathy for Col. Troutman. Please tell him how much I grieve with him.
The gentleness and good breeding to which Judge Campbell referred produced one of the most striking of Mrs. Troutmau's personal traits. This was her most nnnsually soft and low voice. Hardly audible across a small room, it was never raised, even in moments of intensest excite- ment. Nothing could induce her to speak loudly.
This review of the ancestry of Justice Lamar shows how completely and wholly he was a Southerner. Himself born and reared in Georgia and adopted by Mississippi, his forefathers to the remotest generations in America, so far as known without exception, were citizens of the States of Maryland, Virginia, and Georgia. Every inherited trait and predisposition, every tradition, every feature of his education — all of his instincts and all of his teaching — were distinctively and strongly Southern.
CHAPTER II.
The Old Lamar Homestead — The Old Georgia-Conference Manual-Labor School — Lu- cius' Character and Habits as a Child — Anecdote — Removal to Oxford, Ga.— Emory College — Graduation — College Influence upon his Character and Views.
LUCIUS QUINTUS CINCINNATUS LAMAK was born at the "old Lamar Homestead,"' in Putnam County, Ga., on the 17th of September, 1S25. Much of his c-hildhood was spent there. To his hatest days he retained a longing for the old place, and delighted to indulge in reminiscences of it and of the old life when he was a child. The scenes were apparently as clearly and darably cut upon his memory as if they had been cameos. There was a large, old-fashioned, two-story house or mansion, with a wide gallery along its entire front. The whitewashed walls of the airy rooms were hung with pictures, of which one, symbolizing a nightmare, had been painted by " Uncle Mirabeau " — a beautiful woman asleep ujson a sofa with her hair aHow, and a great shadowy horse's head thrust through the window above her. An im- mense front yard was filled with grand oaks and Lombardy poplars. To the east and front lay rolling lands, and a widespread plain in the rear shelved gradually down to a beautiful river which gave to the owner of the farm the sobriquet of " Little Eiver John." There was an orchard filled with fruit trees, resonant with the hum of bees busy about the labors of their hives, and thrilling with the insistent songs of birds. In wide fields the odor of the freshly turned earth hung heavily, and the cracking of the growing maize was heard after the summer showers, under the hot suns of noon. The house was a relay; and down the far- reaching red lane which stretched away like a long orange ribbon, the stage coaches would daily drive with rattle and halloo and call of bugle from afar, emptying their bustling bevies of hungry but genial travelers for the midday meal. In the evenings, as the darkness gathered, from the oaks and the forest about came the long-drawn, drowsy droning of the locusts, punctuated with the quick but melancholy cry of the chuck-Will's-widow, while waving branches gave half-admittance to the moonlight, and made eerie shadows about the house. Then there were the black "mammy"— the indispensable factotum of the Southern nursery — and the fascinated terrors of those restless nights when she would try to frighten Lucius to sleep with threats of the devil, who would come out of the black hole under the garret stair and catch him if he wasn't good. There was one adventurous hour when, with the courage which comes of desperation, he explored that recess and found that there was no hole. How he triumphed over the old nurse in his vain childish imagination! and what was his disappointment and dismay
(27)
28 LUCirS Q. C. LAMAR:
wbeu, with the facility of her kind, she replied to his exultation that the devils concealed the hole from boys except as suited themselves. All of these things, and many more of similar character, Mr. Lamar loved to lecall, and to recount to sympathizing friends.
However, dearly as he loved this grandfather's home, his own resi- dence was, of course, with his father in Milledgeville. Judge Lamar, it seems, had also, at one time, a residence in Hcottsboro, a village some four or five miles from Milledgeville; and it was there, so far as appears from the papers still extant, that Lucius got his first schooling. He also attended a school at Midway, in that vicinity, of which Beman and Mead were the Principals. Then came the sad event of his father's death, shortly after which Mrs. Lamar moved to the town of Covington for the jDurpose of educating her boys. To this object, like the wise and true mother that she was, she devoted much of her personal attention, carefully directing his course of reading. SiJeaking of this period many years afterwards, he said:
Books? I was surrounded witli books. My fatlier's library was unusually large and varied for tliose times. The first bonk I remember liaving had put into my hands by my mother, after juvenile books, was Franklin's Autobiograpliy. The next was Kollin's History. Then came Plutarch's Lives, which I keenly enjoyed. Then Mrs. Hemans' innocent poems were intrusted to me, and Young's Night Thoughts. As an antidote, or at least a foil, for these, came Byron, wliich I devoured with eagerness. It was not till later years that I discovered that I had read an expurgated edition — 'Don Juan' had been carefully cut out. After this was Robinson's America, Mar- shall's Life of Washington, Locke on the Understanding, Stuart's Mental Phi- losophy, Brown's Lectures on the Intellect, and, after a while, Cousin's Psy- chology.
Near Covington was located the old Georgia-Conference Manual-La- bor School. At that early period there was quite an enthusiasm, espe- cially amongst educators, over the importance of developing the physical powers simultaneously with those of the mind. ' Robustness of frame was regarded as greatly favorable to robustness of intellect. Hence, amongst other results, was the establishment of this school, where farm labor, supplemented by mental drill, would, it was thought, best prepare the boys for their life's work. Dr. Alexander Means was the Principal. Under him were Profs. Round, Lane, Myers, and several assistants. The campus was surrounded by numerous dormitories for the boys, res- idences for the professors, and schoolrooms. Adjoining was the school farm. The labor was by no meitns arduous, and the boys, of all ages, de- voted (piite as much time to those games in which they delight as would have been done even had they not wielded a hoe or guided a plow for two or three hours daily. Aliout two hundred and fifty students were in attendance, and various sections relieved each other at intervals through- out the day. The boys were paid for their work a few cents per hour.
HIS LIFE, TIMES, AND SPEECHES. 29
tlie amounts being graduated, not according to the amount of labor done, but according to the size of the laborer. The small fry therefore had but a poor showing when pay day came, wliich was at the close of the ses- sion. To this school Lucius was sent for three years, during the period from 1835 to 1838. It was a wise step. He needed something of the kind. Eeared, so far, in a town, he was diminutive, pale, and troubled with dyspepsia. The hours of labor tried him greatly. He was unac- customed to handling farm implements, and was not partial to the exei-- cise. He had none of the fondness for it which was entertained by many of the boys from the rural districts. But irksome although this duty was, his old schoolmates testify that he went to it with a quiet res- olution, never needing to be pushed up by the Superintendent and nev- er doing it slovenly. In after years he himself said of this period that
" I was a delicate lioy, never so athletic as ray two lirothers, and being put to work strengthened and toned up my whole system. We all had to work three hours every day at the ordinary work of a plantation — i^lowing, hoeing, cutting wood, picking cotton and sowinn it, pulling fodder, and every item of a planter's occupation. When we left that school we could do not only this ordinary drudgery in the best way, but the most expert could shoe a hor.se, make an ax helve, stock a plow, or do any plain bit of blacksniitliing and carpentry. It was a great training for us all, for we became perfectly versed in the details of the work of a farm. Many of Georgia's most distin- guished men were reared there." — His mental tendencies were toward history, [loHt- ical economy, sociology, and biology. He said: "Poetry, too, took a strong hold of me. When I was in college I read through the i)Iays of Sliakespeare and the dramatic poetry of that remarkable woman, Joanna Baillie, recommended to me by my mother."
He was not regarded by either pupils or teachers as possessed of re- markable intellectiial powers, or as a promising boy in any respect. Very frail in appearance, small for his age, and with a sallow complex- ion, he w^as (juite reticent, slow in movement, giving the impression of constitutional weakness, of sluggishness and indolence, rather than of the nascent physical and intellectual strength which was in him. He was considered a good, commonplace boy, who, if he came to manhood at all, would run a common career and disappear in the common way. When in the full maturity of his powers he spoke of his own mind even then as dull and slow in its operation.
He seemed to have but little love for books. His recitations were seldom perfect; biityet he was scrupulously faithful to his class duties, never missing a call of the roll. For this reason his deficiencies in les- sons were put down to the account of dullness, and not to any want of inclination to respond to the demands of his masters.
He was never wild and thoughtless like most boys, but was remarka- ble for his quiet and manly manners. The oldest of his mother's boys, even as a child he seemed her stay and companion. He was one of the purest of boys. His conduct and conversation were always chaste. One of his old classmates decribes his morality as " that of a Samuel or
30 LUCIUS Q. C. LAMAR:
a Timothy." He mingled but little with the other lads, and hardly ever took part in their sports. He loved retirement, and seldom engaged in conversation; and this predisposition was regarded as an idiosyncrasy of a nature inclined to solitary musing. Even when, with his young comrades, he roamed through the woods and fields, hunting for sqir- rels and rabbits, it was noticed that he "often seemed abstracted, as if he were communing with the invisible, and hunted for thoughts and ideas" rather than for small game.
The other boys thought him at times morose, and made but little efibrt to get near him; but this moroseness was only in appearance. He was given to deep and earnest thought from his earliest days. When any subject engaged his attention he had the faculty of withdrawing his mind from everything else. At such times he would hardly notice his most intimate friend; but rouse him from his contemplations, and no one was more genial or lovable than he. His heart was as tender as that of a girl, and his attachments were like those of Jonathan. The proof of this fact is that those affections endured throughout his life; and amongst his vast correspondence are to be found to this day the fresh- est and most loving letters, written, over a period of three-score years, to and from the friends of his youth. He loved to have the good will and confidence of his comrades; and while he used no blandishments to secure them, yet no one enjoyed them more than he when secured. Said one of those old friends, writing from Milledgeville, in 1885: "It is a glad advantage I have of you to look across the creek and over the hills to Midway, where dear ' old Bemau ' used to direct the studies of our early school days ; and to write from the old Forte homestead, about a hundred yards from where you once lived, to my old classmate, whose boyhood, principles, and impulses have changed not in character, but 'from glory to glory,' till his name adds fame to the country."
Even at this time Lucius possessed to a remarkable degree the powers of abstraction and of concentration of mind upon any subject which interested him. The boys at the school were required to write compo- sitions and were, for the most part, left to themselves in the large dor- mitory appropriated to the small boys to do as they pleased and to write what they could on any subject. To write original essays without hav- ing received any instruction whatever on that branch of education, and in the midst of a babel of voices free to be used as loudly and as long as their owners pleased, was no easy task; and the productions of those callow brains were curious in the extreme. But Lucius would seat himself to his task, seemingly unconscious of the conversations, the laughter, and the general confusion, and write with intelligence and coi'rectness, if not with elegance.
The lads were also required to declaim, every week or two, such se- lections of prose or poetry as they might fancy; and, while the hours of
HL^ LIFE, TIMES, AND SPEECHES. 31
the small boys for speaking iu tlie chapel wore times for amusemeut aud hilarity to the larger youths, Lucius was uever their sport. Although extremely modest and diffident, never seeking applause, and apparently uever caring for anything approaching notoriety, his little efforts on those occasions were marked by a dignity and a self-pos- session which won admiration. He seemed always to comprehend fully the meaning of tlie author, and made every syllable he spoke his own; so that emphasis, intonation, and gesture were admirably fitted to the subject. Doubtless he received assistance from his accomplished mother. So, also, iu the debating society he would often astonish and overwhelm his little rivals with argument masterly for a child. He never spoke unless he understood his subject thoroughly. He not only thought out his line of argument, but evidently also the very language in which it was expressed, and those expressions were unusually succinct and forcible. Nor did those little victories ever seem to render him vain or dispose him to underestimate the abilities of his mates.
He was remarkably fond of listening to sermons, orations, aud dis- cussions, and even as a child seemed to have the ability to sift out the good from the bad, and to engrave the former upon his memory, as if with a burin upon steel— a capacity which became remarkably developed with him in after life. An illustration of this gift will be found in the following amusing anecdote, which he related at a dinner table to a cir- cle of friends in 1891, while the Methodist Ecumenical Conference was iu session in "Washington City:
AVhile living in Covington his mother took him to hear a discussion between a professed Universalist (who was in reality an infidel) and an old Methodist local preacher. A great crowd had assembled. He and his mother secured favoral)le seats, and he listened with eager in- terest. Child as he was, he took in aud retained the whole scope of the argument, and he rehearsed it to his friends after the lapse of about fifty- five years. While pretending to believe the Bible, the infidel yet ridiculed the doctrine of the immortality of the soul; and in the course of his argument quoted from the Scriptures quite a number of passages to prove his position. In concluding he said that the soul was nothing but a breath of air, a something that lingered iu connection with the body for a time, and at death was exhaled like the breath, which was the last of it. He was a fine speaker, and clothed his thoughts in beautiful language. Just in front of him sat a lady who held a vinaigrette, which she occasionally applied to her nostrils. The speaker pointed to her and said: "See that smelling bottle in the hand of this lady: now the soul is nothing more than that! "
The old preacher's time came for reply. He answered argument after argument in a masterly manner. Finally he alluded to this figure of the vinaigrette. He said: "Our friend has asserted that the soul is
32 LUCIUS Q. a LAMAR:
nothing more than a smelling bottle. He has quoted Scripture in proof of his position. Let us see how his theory will work. In the Scriptures it is said: 'And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living smelling bottle.' — How beautiful is the thought contained in Jacob's remark to his father: 'Arise, I pray thee, sit and eat of my ven- ison, that thy siiielliiig bottle may bless me!'" By this time the crowd were thoroughly aroused to the situation, and the infidel began to show signs of wincing. The preacher continued: "What complacency must Jacob have felt in his possessions! for it is said: 'AH the smell ing hot- ties of his sons and his daughters were thirty and three.' And again: 'All the smelling bottles that came with Jacob into Egypt, which came out of his loins, besides Jacob's sons' wives, all the smelling bottles were three- score and six.' " — By this time the crowd had lost all control of them- selves, and were roaring with laughter. But the old preacher went on with his quotations: " 'Bless the Lord, O my smelling bottle! and all that is within me, bless his holy name! ' " At this his antagonist, completely routed, rose to leave, but the preacher said: "Just one word more: 'Why art thoi; cast down, O my smell Ing bejttle? and why art thou dis- quieted within me? hope in God: for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God.' " And thereupon the infidel lied from the field.
Mrs. Lamar's selection of Covington as a residence had been brought about by the recommendation of Mr. Harmong Lamar, a half uncle of her late husband. This gentleman was a very wealthy planter from Alabama, who had moved to Covington for the purpose of educating his sons. He was a devoted Christian, and was widely known for his kind- ness and generosity to the poor. After some years he returned to Ala- bama, but meanwhile his hand had something to do with directing the life of the young nephew.
About the year 1838 the labor school was converted into Emory Col- lege, at Oxford, some two or three miles from Covington. Mrs. Lamar and Mr. Harmong Lamar disposed of their respective properties in the latter place and erected handsome residences in the former. Mrs. La- mar's premises were large and attractive. There was a two-story frame house, with all the conveniences and adjuncts then used and a beau- tiful flower garden at the front. Here she remained for a number of years, educating her boys at the college, and taking a few student boarders to help defray her expenses. Many of the letters found among the correspondence of the Justice refer in tender and grateful terms to her kindness to, and her ennobling influence over, the writers while they were youths at school.
Here it was mainly that Lucius received the early bent which impart-
ins LIFE, TIMES, AND SPEECHES. 33
ed a devotional strain to all his aftor life. The mother was a typical Georgia lady, in the possession of those qualities of shrewd, practical, and strong common sense for which the people of tliat State, as a class, are noted. Her generons hospitality, her agreeable personality, and her enthusiastic Methodism, made her home the rendezvous for the Meth- odist clergy of that time, and " Sister Lamar " was known far abroad. Thus Lucius' early life was subjected, in the most agreeable and fruit- ful way, to the eloquence, the fervid piety, and all of the fascinating in- fluences of the able clergy of that period. He loved to listen to the words of wisdom that fell from the lips of such men as Sam Anthony, James Evans, Lovick Pierce, and many others of the great preachers whose names are now historic in the Church; and the memory of their kindling and powerful utterances formed a treasury of reminiscence and deliglit from wdiich he drew largely until the day of his death.
In August of the year 1841 Lucius Lamar entered the freshman class of Emory College at Oxford, Ga. He graduated in July, 1845. This institution had been chartered in 1837, and in 1841 its first class grad- uated. The social, religious, and educational advantages were excep- tionally fine. Under the auspices of the Methodist Church, its Presi- dent was then the Eev. A. B. Longstreet, eminent as a lawyer, judge, polemic, educator, and divine.
During the first year of his college course Lucius manifested no spe- cial ability in his classes. Nor did he ever do so; but after his advance- ment to the sophomore class there was a marked improvement in stu- diousness and scholarship. His grade was highest in the classics and lowest in mathematics. This, however, was the result, not of any inca- pacity to deal with mathematics, but of a distaste for it which led to a comparative neglect. Here again his ability as a speaker was manifest- ed. He was a member of the Phi Gamma Society, and its records show that he was the leader in its debates. On every occasion throughout his college course he was awarded a speaker's place.
In later days, in a Commencement address delivered at Emory Col- lege in July, 1870, he said this of his college life: that it was "bright and happy;" and then:
No spot on earth has so helped to form and make me what I am as this town of Ox- ford. It was here, in tlie church which stands a little farther up the street, that I be- came fully impressed with the value and peril of my soul, and was led to pour out my contrite confessions. It was in yonder building, which now seems so deserted, that I became conscious of power. It was here, in the Phi Gamma Society, that I received my training as a debater. I see before me now many who wrestled with me then in the arena of debate. There sits a man who was one of the first (he was the second) to suggest that I had powers within me to stir men's hearts and to convince their rea- son. Wesley Hughes was the first. I know not where he is, but I send to him my greetings wherever he may be. Ihere sits the venerable man who, when I delivered 3
34 LUCIUS Q. a LAMAR.-
my graduating speech, in approval of its sentiments, placed his hand upon my head and gave me his blessing. There is another old man (Dr. Means) who sat at the very fountain head of my mind, and with loving hand directed the channel into which it was required to flow, and who, when I arrived at manhood, gave me my betrothed bride, who has ever since held the choicest place in my ati'ections and made my life one constant song of joy.
]Manv of those whom I then knew have disappeared. Tliere was Prof. George W. Lane, who unlocked for us the pure springs of Gsecian literature, shedding over them all the rich light of his holy precepts and example; long since he went to his reward. There was also Lucius Whitie, the eloquent speaker, the ripe scholar, the refined gen- tleman, who in a-few years followed Lane to the grave. And many youniier have passed away. Robert Goodloe Hai-per, to whose soul my own was knit as was David to Jonathan, has gone. My two brothers and a host of the Emory students, who fell in defense of the noblest earthly cause that ever dawned upon humanity, now fill soldiers' graves.
Many years later, ou May 13, 1887, while lie was Secretary of the In- terior, Mr. Lamar wrote to Eev. Edward Tliomson, o£ Los Angeles, Cal.:
The obligation I am under to your sainted father (Bishop E. Thomson) through his writings is very great, and the sense of it grows in intensity and force the longer I live. . . . Much of my practical success in life among men is due to the principles I imbibed from the speeches of your father when he was President of a Western col- lege which I read during the formative state of my intellect and character. Those speeches were published in a magazine entitled the Ladies' Repository, and my atten- tion was called to them by my widowed mother, who was at a Methodist college in the South educating her sons.
The fact that Mr. Lamar was educated at Emory College, and was so educated at the particular period during which he attended that insti- tution, is one most noteworthy. All are aware of the formative effects upon an ingenuous and noble youth of his college life. Mr. Lamar's life at Emory doubtless contributed largely to produce in him those sen- timents and opiiuous anent the question of slavery and its relation to the ijolitieal frame of the Federal Government which made him shortly afterwards a conspicuous and aggressive leader in Southern politics.
It must be remembered that Mr. Lamar's mother and his uncle were Methodists so ardent that the location of the Methodist schotJs deter- mined their places of residence; also that Emory College was the expo- nent and the center of Georgia Methodism, while Georgia Methodism in turu was nearly or quite the center of that of the South. Again, the period was that of 1841 to 1845, which was that of the intensest agita- tion of the slavery question within the Church, and of the final rupture, on that issue, of that great denomination into its present Northern and Southern branches. At the General Conference at Cincinnati in 1836 there had been agitation by the abolitionist wing within the Church, whereby it was sought to so alter the book of Discipline as to bring the Church as a whole more into line with tbe movement for abolition, and to free it "from the evil of slavery"; but the Conference refused to
i//,S; LIFE, TIMES, AND SPEECHES. 35
take any action in that direction, and resolved that it was " docidodly opijosed to modern abolitionism," and disclaimed any right, wish, or in- tention to interfere in the civil and jjolitical lelation between master and slave as it existed in the slaveholding States of the Union.
Nevertheless the agitation was continued, especially in the New En- gland States; and "extraordinary preambles and resolutions," in spite of the efforts of the bishops to prevent it, " were thrust upon the An- nual and Quarterly Conferences. Some of these resolutions censured the acts and attitude of other Annual Conferences, especially in the South; unchristianized a lai-ge proportion of American Methodists; re- flected seriously upon the administi'ation; and pronounced harsh judg- ment upon ministers and members in good standing in the Church who had not been arraigned."* Eepeated charges were brought, by two of the bishops and others, against some of the leaders in this excitement, of slander, defamation, etc., resulting in Church trials. The agitators claimed that no slaveholders should be admitted to membership in the Church; while on the other hand, in other quarters, even in the North, ministers were disciplined for attending abolition meetings and partici- pating in them. Tlie Wesleyan Methodist Church was established in 1842, and made nouslaveliolding a condition of membership.
When the General Conference of 1844 met in New York a resolution was introduced requesting the resignation of Bishop James O. Andrew, of Georgia, because of his ownership of slaves, which led to an anima- ted debate of several days' duration, culminating in the adoption of a resolution that Bishop Andrew desist from the exercise of his office so long as that impediment should exist. Thereupon, on June 5th, Dr. Longstreet, then the President of Emory College, "offered what is known as the 'Declaration of the Southern Delegates,'" to the effect that
The delegates of the Conferences in the slaveholding States take leave to declare to the General Conference of the IMethodist Episcopal Church that the continued agit;i- tion on the sul:iject of slavery and abolition in a portion of the Church, and the fre- quent action on that suljject in tlie General Conferenco, and especially the extrajudi- cial proceedings against Bishop xVndrew, winch resulted, on Saturday last, in the vir- tual suspension of him from his office as Superintendent, must produce a state of things in the South which renders a continuance of the jurisdiction of this General Conference over those Conferences inconsistent with the success of the ministry in the slaveholding States.
On this declaration the " Plan of Separation " was adopted three days subsequently.*
It may be easily imagined with what deep feelings and eager discus- sion all these agitations and their final consummation were watched from Emory College. The questions touched the Southern people, not only as citizens and property holders, but also as Christians. It so hap-
•"Historvof Methcwlisni." JIcTyeii-e, pp. 601-637.
36 LUCIUS Q. a LAMAR.
peued that the ultimate struggle came over the qualification as a Chris- tian minister of a Georgia bishop, and the declaration for severance came from their own honored President. Inevitably such stirring- events, with which they were brought into such close relation, must have produced in the students impressions deep and lasting. It was certainly so with Mr. Lamar, and with him those impi'essions remained throughout life firmly fixed.
Naturally it would happen that convictions thus acquired, and so burned in, as to the right of the Southern peoi^le to regulate their own domestic relations free from interference or dictation from the other portions of the Union, although coming through a religious controversy, should become metamoriDhosed into articles of political faith; and to a temperament such as Mr. Lamar's it was inevitable that such a political belief should, under the circumstances, reach the altitude and firmness of a religious dogma.
CHAPTER III.
Legal Education and Admission to the Bar— Marriage— Jud-re Longstreet— Mrs. Long- street— Mrs. Lamar and Mrs. Branliam— "Influence of Women."
UPON his graduation, in the year 1845, Mr. Lamar began a study of the law. This work was prosecuted at Macon, in the office and under the direction of the Hon. Absalom H. Chappell, a lawyer of dis- tinction who had married his youngest aunt, Loretto. After two years he was admitted to the bar at Vienna, iu Dooly County, Judge Litt Warren presiding. After the admission, Judge Christopher B. Strong, long a Georgia judge for two different circuits, rose and openly congrat- ulated young Lamar upon his examination, saying, amongst other things, that he was a friend and cotemporary of the deceased Judge Lamar.
Mr. Chappell then took young Lamar into partnership, and a firm of Chappell and Lamar was formed to practice at the Macon bar. This arrangement, however, lasted but a very short time. Mr. Chappell soon moved to Columbus, and Mr. Lamar offered for practice iu Covington.
It is an interesting and noteworthy fact that the aunt whose amiable and accomjjlished husband gave her nephew liis first training and start in business outlived the Justice, and yet resides in Columbus, Ga.
On the 15th of July, 1847, Mr. Lamar was married to Miss Virginia Lafayette Longstreet, daughter of the Kev. Augustus B. Longstreet, then President of Emory College. In his life many fortunate events befell him, but this was perhaps the most fortunate of all. "We have his own testimony going very nearly to that extent. Years afterwards, when he was a member of Congress, in a large assemblage of Mississippi's bright- est and noblest men and women, he was heard to say to a knot of uni- versity students: "Young gentlemen, I hope every one of you will get married, and that none of you will have more cause to regret it than I. For if I am worthy of the respect and confidence of my fellow-citizens, or ever shall be in the future, I want my wife to have full credit for it."
This Longstreet family, into which Mr. Lamar married, became in the fullest sense his own family. With it he lived on the most intimate and affectionate terms so long as they all did live; and their love, en- couragement, and assistance pervaded and greatly colored his subse- quent history. It is therefore necessary, at some length, to consider them.
Judge Longstreet was descended, in the fourth remove, from Dirk Stoffels Langestraat, a Dutchman wlio in Ifio? settled ui)mi Long Is- land, then a part of the Dutch colony of New Netherlands. His parents,
(37)
38 LUCIUS Q. a LAMAR:
William Longstreet and Hannah Randolph (formei'ly FitzRandolph), were natives of New Jersey; but he was born in Augusta, Ga., on the 22d of September, 1790.
Graduating at Yale College in 1813, he immediately entered the cele- brated- law school of Reeve & Gould, at Litchfield, Conn. In 1815 he was admitted to the bar, and in 1817 settled in Greensboro. He was successful, and quickly rose to eminence in his profession. In 1821 he was elected to the legislative assembly; and on the 8th of November, 1822, was commissioned judge of the Ocmnlgee Circuit, than which there was then no higher judicial position in Georgia. He was the youngest practitioner, as, later. Judge Lamar was the youngest man, raised to that position in the State.
It was at this period of his life that he began that series of inimitable humorous sketches which have been since published to the world as the "Georgia Scenes."
In 1821 he was a candidate for Congress, with every prospect of suc- cess; but the death of his only son, to whom he was tenderly attached, following, as it did, closely upon the death of a beautiful little daughter, and that of his wife's mother, clipped the wings of his worldly ambition forever, and turned his thoughts heavenward. He withdrew from the congressional race, and he and his wife became earnest seekers and pro- fessoi's of religion.
About the year 1827 he moved to Augusta, and there continued the practice of his profession, with much success. But his mind was bent on other things, and in the very flood of success, during the year 1838, he became a minister of the gospel in the Methodist Church.
Judge Longstreet was an ardent politician, and was devoted to the cause of State rights and the Jeffersoniau school of strict construction. His articles, over the signature of "Bob Short," in the days of nullifi- cation, exerted a jaowerful influence on the public mind. During that period of excitement he established and edited the Augusta Sentinel.
In the latter part of the year 1839 he was elected President of Em- ory College. Under his superintendence that institution greatly pros- pered, soon rivaling the State University in patronage and importance. Here he remained until July, 1848, when he resigned: and in February or ^[arch, 1849, was installed as President of the Centenary College (also a Methodist institution), at Jackson, La. In September, 1849, however, he was inaugui-ated as President of the University of Missis- sippi, located at Oxford, in that State, which position he resigned in 185(3. Late in 1857 he was chosen President of the South Carolina College, and continued to occupy tliat jxjsition until the institution was deserted by the students in a body for the Confederate army on the breaking out of the Civil War. This closed his public career, and he lived quietly at home, at Oxford, ^liss., except such interruption as was
REV. AUGUSTUS B. LONGSTREET.
HIS LIFE, TIMES, AKD SPEECHES. 39
caused by the war, uutil liis death, which occurred on the 9th of July, 1870.
Judge Lougstreet's figure was tall aud spare, his carriage easy and quietly graceful. He had a fair complexion, with brown hair and blue eyes; mouth rather large aud very flexible, with strong aud perfect teeth, which never decayed, but were worn down by age. Abounding in physical vitality, in his younger days he was fond of athletic sj^orts aud exercises. With a pleasant and winning address, he was courteous and regardful of the feelings aud rights of others. He had the power to draw frieuds strongly and to hold them firmly. He was a modest man, yet possessed a high sense of personal dignity, was sensitive to affront, and prompt to resent it; under all circumstances self-possessed; by no means quarrelsome, yet he was combative. His piety was deep and ever present. An enthusiastic Methodist, aud devoted to all spe- cial interests of that denomination, he neither believed in any repression of individual opinions or compulsory conformity to arbitrary rules, nor entertained any narrow jealousies of other sects of Christians; he was thoroughly catholic. As a writer his style was fluent, limpid, jDi-ecise, idiomatic, and fascinating; his letters especially were charming. He was a ready and attractive speaker, but was not a pulpit orator, since he studiously avoided in his sermons anything which might savor of intellectual pride rather than of the humility becoming to a minister of the gospel. His friends thought him overscrupulous in this resi^ect.
He was very energetic aud industrious. When over seventy -five years of age, iu order that he might write an article on Biblical trans- lation, he undertook a study of the Hebrew, aud made some advance- ment in that difficult tongue. As a lawyer he was acute, learned, sym- pathetic, and generous. The best work of his life was done, however, as an educator, in which calling he displayed to greatest advantage all of his varied qualities aud accomplishments, including a ti-ue pedagog- ical instinct and an iin usual capacity for organization and administra- tion; while his learning without pedantry and his iinquestionable gen- ius gave him a strong hold upon the fancy of his pupils. He was gifted with both a ready aud sparkling wit and a shrewd aud rollicking humor, both of which were kindly, true, spontaneous, and apparently inexhaustible; while also he was an accomplished mimic. The rendi- tion of one of his own " Scenes " by himself was a thing not soon to be forgotten by any who heard it.
Finally, he was shrewd, systematic, and orderly in business; very thrifty, yet always capable of generous expenditures and large chari- ties. No man was ever a kinder or more indulgent husband and father, or a kindlier counselor to any who were in troulile.
Such was the man under whose influence Mr. Lamar came so inti- mately at the plastic age of twenty-two. While there were many points
40 LUCIUS Q. C. LAMAR:
of dissimilaiity between the two men, it cannot be doubted that the mental and moral qualities of the father-in-law, for whom he had al- ways the highest respect and love, contributed largely to the establish- ment of his own character. In 1859 Mr. Lamar wrote to him thus: "I am indebted to yoii for ennobling intiuences from my boyhood u]^ to middle age. I have doubtless often pained you, but for many years I have loved you as few sons love a father. And many a time in mo- ments of temptation your influence, the desire of your love and appro- bation, have served me when my virtue might have failed. No applause of the public delights me so much as your declaration that I am un- speakably dear to you."
Mrs. Frances Eliza Longstreet, daughter of Emsley Parke and Mary Hawkins, was born in Eandolph County, N. C, on the 5th of March, 1799. By the will of her grandfather, followed by the death of her only brother, she became possessed of an estate quite considerable, considering the times and the locality. She was educated at Warren- ton, Ga., and was married to Mr. Longstreet on the 2d of March, 1817. This couple lived together in mutual esteem and tenderest love for fifty-one years.
She was of a delicate constitution, and suffered much; but the crown- ing sorrow of her weakness was the frailty of her children, of whom she lost all in their infancy except two daughters. She herself died on the 13th of November, 1808.
Mrs. Longstreet was a typical Southern lady. Her life and her home were illustrated by every charm, and they were powers in the commu- nities in which she lived. The following exquisite pictures — the one by Dr. Wightman, of "Washington City, the other by Justice Lamar himself — contributed to the "Life of Judge Longstreet" by Bishop Fitzgerald — are reproduced here because of their tender and truthful portrayal of this lovely woman.
Dr. Wightman says:
Between President Longstreet and his lovely wife there was a striking contrast. He was tall, bent, scarred — an oak among men; she was small, graceful, with a sweet face — a flower. She had intwined herself into all his labors, and it would be a ques- tion which influeneed the college boys more, the President or his charming lady. Her power was not seen, but felt. Her husband could not have attained the s:ime greatness had he not jiossessed a better Eve, cajiable of guiding his house and of in- fluencing his profound thoughts. He was keenly alive to passing influences, and his nature was suscejitible of vivid impressions. On that nature she impressed the con- victions of her own mind. His large and dependent heart gladly respondeil to the thoughts so pure and lovely, and made him share with her the responsibilities of his lugh position. She nobly accepted the loving charge and linked herself in sympathy to her husband's loftiest aspirations for a higher life ami breathed into them the in- spiration that comes only from a pious heart.
There was a cliarm about the house. The table smiled. The quiet atmosphere
ins LIFK, TIMES, AND Sl'KECUES. 41
•was redolent of love. The liuly was a queen in manners. Nothing was coniinanded, yet every one owned the supremacy of a subtle power. Tlie servants caught tlie spirit. Even the President was ijlad to acknowledge himself the loyal subject of an accomplished wife, who dutifully studied every resi)onsibility of his life.
There flowed in her conversation a rhythm of delight. She was Ainuliar with the English classics; Milton, Shakespeare, Longfellow, and Keats were her companions. She put them in her memory, and the sublime passages of these masters of poetry rolled from her bewitching tongue in colloquial eloquence. She played on a better than a Syrian harp. The President drank from these wells of pure English, and sweet- ened the tone of his literature from the poetic lips of his wife.
It was a Christian home — no wine nor noisy show, no hollow flattery nor nodding plumes hiding the worm that was gnawing at the heart, no gilded vanity and smooth and facile courtesy and sarcastic epigram; but a home of real joy and substantial love, lit uj) with hope, where a Christian wife inspired her husband with the noblest sen- timents of conjugal fidelity.
Somehow there crept out from that little woman a commanding, motherly power that held three hundred young men loyal to the college. The President sat at her feet; and the boys, at his. This home was a shelter from the storm, and far above the darkness he saw one star that shed a soft and heavenly light on his troubled si)irit. Nor was this a house of idleness. Those delicious biscuits and smoking rolls and the aromatic cofl'ee told the story of a dutiful housewife. The table was hospitable, and from that board went food into the mouths of the poor, and at the footway of that mansion stooil one whose hands had become the unweary instruments of dispensing to the needy.
Her charity was large, her faith was simple. She was a Methodist woman. Her Bible was marked with devotion; and could the walls of her cliandjer repeat the bur- den of her prayers, they would become witnesses of her fidelity to God. Here was the secret of her power. She lived with God; she loved him; all was his.
Justice Lamar said:
Mrs. Longstreet was the mother of my wife; and she was in love, tenderness, and goodness my mother. It is, therefore, hardly possible for me either to think or speak of her as if in the perspective. She was a true type of a true Southern woman ; and when I say that I mean that she embodied that indescribable charm, that spirit of lo\-e, that subtle effluence of refinement, that piety and culture of character, which rarely failed to be wrouglit into the nature of a woman reared under a Southern roof, with its sacred environments and clustering joys.
To an eye not accustomed to analyze the indications of female character she might appear too reserved, and even retiring, to possess those qualities that make up a her- oine in the conflicts of life. But her modesty, which, like a sensitive plant, shrank from rude familiarities, was sustained by a courage that never shrank from hardship, trial, and self-denial. The war diil not subdue her spirit. She came from its desola- tions undismayed by the poverty which it entailed upon herself and the dear ones of her own family. She visited the homes of the poor and turned her own into a hos- pital, and did not hesitate to bathe her gentle hand in blood that she might bind the wounds of the dying.
The gentleness of her manners, the grace of her motion, the reserve of her dignity, only served the lietter to set off the brightness that shone in her conversation and to disclose an intelligence that threw a charm over the modesty of her nature. Full of warmth and tenderness and depth of feeling, confiding, trustworthy, a lover of home, a true wife and mother, her hand touched and beautified and sanctified all domestic relations.
She was nurtured amid an elegar.t hospitality and made familiar with all the dn-
42 LUCIUS Q. a LAMAR:
ties and delicate relations of social life, which strengthened her character and uncon- sciously prepared her to glide into the higher powers of mistress over a numerous body of domestics and dependents, and to govern a Southern patriarchal home. The profound and long-abiding attachment between the mistress and her old servants, in- cluding the descendants of the old negro nurse who rocked her in the cradle and the dusky maids with whom she played " house " in childhood, was not shaken by the war; Init it lingers even to this day, and illustrates the substantial and lasting influ- ences of the old home life.
Both Mrs. Lamar and lier elder sister, Mrs. Dr. Branliam, were such ladies as such a home aud such parents would be expected to produce. They were much alike in general appearance, rather above medium height, witli slender, though not thin, figures; quite small heads, very small and delicately cut and i)leasiug features (Mrs. Branham's beiug more like those of their father in outline), with remarkably fair com- plexions, black hair, and blue-gray eyes. In them were gathered all of those attractive qualities, both of mind and soul, which Justice Lamar so tenderly portrays as possessed by their mother. Both had been finely edncatf^d and accomplished. Notable housewives, they had all of the arts which go to make home delightful and to crown the lives of their families with a perfect hajjpiuess. Each had iuiieriled a large measure of the special graces and powers of their parents, yet with a difference. Mrs. Branham had her father's wit, bright, sparkling, and Xjungeut, but tempered by the kindliest feeling; while Mrs. Lamar had her father's abounding and i^erennial humor, with his rare powers of mimicry, to which she occasionally gave rein in the retirement of her own home, to the great amusement of her friends.
Both had the cheerful disposition of their father. Mrs. Lamar, even while engaged in her household duties, effervesced and exhilarated like champagne. Her lively chatting from room to room with the various members of the family or with the servants, her audible little solilo- quies, the mild hectoring in which the diligent but gentle and vivacious housewife indulged, were inspiriting and often most amusing; and the whole was shot with snatches of song, now gay and again devout. Mrs. Branham's cheerfulness, on the other hand, was of a more tranquil character, being modified by somewhat of the gentle peiisiveness of their mother; and .she was much more given to serious and introspective musing than was her sister. Both had the courage and endurance of their parents. In all of his checkered life, when her husband was often in serious peril, either in person or in political fortunes, Mrs. Lamar was never harassed by anxieties about possible ills. She rested secure in the confidence that "Lucius," as she called her husband, would come through unscathed and triumphant. Nor was this a want of sensibility, for she possessed that quality in a high degree, and to all the varying fortunes of the family she immediately adjusted herself with a ready
HIS IJFE. TIMES, AND SPF.ECIIES. 43
aud a cheerful acquiesceiici'. Her lieart was simply an unfailing spring of bright waters, aud her brave eyes refused to fall before the glare of troubles, but gave dull care on all occasions and everywhere the cut di- rect. Mrs. Branham had a si)berer and more apprehensive temper. The trials which her .sister ignored she anticipiated, recognized, brooded over, aud either endured or conquered.
The sisters were inseparable companions; in fact, were never during their lives separatetl, except for brief periods. They and their parents, their husbands and children, aiforded a beautiful example of family unity and harmony. They all lived together much as one family, fre- quently in the same residence for long periods, and their children grew up calling each other '"brother" and "sister."
So it was that Mr. Lamar during nearly the whole of his life, ;ind during all of the critical jjart of it, had the singular good fintune that he could draw without stint upon two so royally gifted, womanly, aud Christian souls. Their iuflneuce thrilled through his life like a strain of ex([uisite song in which each singer carries a ilifterent part, yet there is perfect accord and perfect unison, with a constant recurrence to one elevating and insi)iriting motif.
So complex and wayward are the influences which control the mi ods of men that into the life of every man of genius aud deep feeling, no matter how strong he may be or how fortunate aud successful, come hours like anchorets, arrayed in somber garb and set from others apart; hours in which a troubled heart and a faltering spirit cry out for the healing and strengthening touch of another's sympathy and love. At such periods — indeed, at all periods, but especially then — there is no blessing so great as a wife such as was Mrs. Lamar. And how greatly is that blessing increased when the wife, so rarely endowed, carries also into her husband's life the added boon of a sister, her equal and perfect complement in social, mental, aud spiritual graces, aud dif- fering in love only as the devotion of a sister differs from that of a wife! Frequently aud freely did Mr. Lamar profit by that sisterly af- fection. He was infinitely tender toward his wife and thoughtful of her happiness. Her bright spirit was a sustaining power to his own soul, and he had the wisdom to know its value. Often when somber moods would come upon him, with a perfect assurance of his wife's ability and anxious readiness to leave the sunny skies of her own spir- itual flight and share the darkness of his groping, he still would shrink, because of his own loving unwillingne.ss, from placing that Inirden upon her; or, again, in different humor, he would find solace and relief not only in her quick sympathies and loving faith, but also in a wider commun- ion. In any eveut and whatever his state of feeling, besides the tender wife, there was nearly always the resource of a .solemn and encouraging talk with "Sister Fannie," from which he would often come forth both
44 LUCIUS Q. C. LAMAK.
with reuewed strength for life's hard combats, with renewed zest for brighter waliis, and without any remorseful thought that he had laid upon either ministering spirit the weight of a melancholy beyond its strength to bear.
This sounds like a sketch of romance, but it is the simple statement of a tn;th, a feeble description of the personal relations for nearly forty years of three loving, noble, and loyal souls. Mr. Lamar himself recog- nized these influences without doubt. In a pocket note-book kept by him while Secretary of the Interior, which contains a qiieer jumble of sentimental, legal, political, social, and business notes, is to be found this passage, which no one who knew him well can read without a con- fident assurance that he penned it with his thoughts fixed upon the women who had been the good genii to him:
It is to the influence of woman that all man's greatness or his viciousness may "be traced. No man (or history is felse), no man has ever won the world's applause for noble deetls, for self-sacrificing efforts, around whose infant brow a mother's hands have not placed the chaplet of virtue and honor, or upon whose heart her love or the affections of a sister or the attachment of a wife have not impressed the indelible lin- eaments of true greatness. The influence of woman — it can hush the harth and dis- cordant notes of passion; in the cause of aflection or duty it has a charm that can arrest the murderer's hand and stay the tide of vengeance. And that influence is working in our midst. There is not a heart that has not been molded or that will not Ije directed by the same potent spell. As irresistibly as the beautiful moon sways tlie ocean tides, bidcling them to ebb and flow, so does the light of woman's smile compel the currents of man's heart to flow on until they cover the l;)arren rocks of selfishness, the desert spots of crime, making the glad soil rejoice and blossom. And so also can the cloud of woman's frown drive back the genial tide until that heart will be once more as sterile as the rocks of Petra or as Sahara's arid sands.
It is no shame to us men that we are the subjects of so gentle a scepter. As well might the cold earth complain that the genial influences of the springtime or the blessings of tlie rain or the dew compel it to bring forth the blooming flower or the fruitful vine; for neither spring nor rain nor dew ever brought a greater blessing upon earth than the sweet influence which man's fair companion has bestowed upon his sterner mnlii.
Nor was this recognition of women as a potent factor in the shaping of men and their lives a mere theory or sentiment with him. It is re- membered that while he was Confederate Commissioner to Kussia, a cele- brated French lady, prominent at the court of the Emperor Napoleon, remarked of him that he was apparently the only diplomatist at that court who fully recognized, and endeavored to utilize, the jjower of the women there.
CHAPTER lY.
Removal to Oxford, Miss.— Aflmitted to the Mississippi Bar— Elected to an Adjunct •Professorsliip in tlie ITijiversity of Mississippi— I>/?w( as a Tolitical Speaker— The Comi:>romise Measures of 1,S.")0— Debate with Footc over tlie Compromise.
WHEN Judge Longstreet went to Mississippi, in September, 1849, to take charge of the State University, he addressed to Mr. La- mar, then living in Covington, Ga., a letter which induced him also to remove to Oxford, Miss., for the purpose of practicing law. Tliat village was the county site of a large and prosperous -county in the northern part of the State, in a region, embracing about two-fifths of the State's entire area, which had been ceded by the Indians to the whites only about fifteen to eighteen years before; and it, therefore, was a new country. There was a great and rapid immigration. Mr. La- mar's trip was made overland in a rockaway and two wagons, carrying his wife, infant daughter, and servants. The travelers reached Oxford about the middle of November, the Branhams following in the next year.
Under date of May 14, 1850, Mr. Lamar wrote as follows to Mr. Chap- pell:
Dear Sir : I received a few weeks since your letter accompanying the commission from the Governor of Georgia, wliich you were Ivind enouKli to obtain for me. 1 post- poned my reply until I could get qualified. Inclosed you have the certificate of the judse, which you will oblige me by sending to the Governor. I thank you, my dear sir, for the sentiments of friendship and regard which you express for me; my heart responds to it all. The knowletlge that I possess your esteem will always incite me to deserve it; and should I live to realize your flattering liopes of me, my chief pleas- ure will be in the belief that it gratifies such friends as you and my aunt, at the bare- mention of wliose name my heart beats with a sacred impulse. And I hope I shall be pardoned for repeating licre what upon every fit occasion I delight to say to your- selves and others, that after my own immediate family there is no being on earth for whom I entertain an afi'ection so devoted and abiding as that which I chensli for no- Aunt Loretto. The year I lived with you was fraught with benefits to my character of incalculable value, and from you in particular I have received impressions which I shall carrv with me to my grave. I can never reciprocate these kindnesses, but should the thne unfortunatelv ever come when your children may need a friend (and what may not happen in this whirligig world?), they will have one in me, firm and
true. , , , fi N- i
This is a magnificent countrv for planters. There are men here who left Newton County poor and in debt eight and ten years ago, who now have a good plantation and fifteen to twenty hands, and are buying more every year. ...
There will be, a month or two hence, an election of two additional tutors for this university; and as the duties of one of them will not be so onerous as to draw my attention from mv profession, I shall apply for it. My motive for tliis step is to pro- vide myself with" read V monev until I get a practice, but more particularly to extri- cate my mother from some pecuniary embarrassments in which she baa become in- ^ (45)
46 LUCIUS Q. C. LAMAR:
volved, rather by untoward circumstances than by her own mismanagement. ... It is my duty, and it will be my pleasure, to avail myself of this opportunity to relieve a mother whose whole widowhood has been a history of self-sacrifices for her chil- dren.
On the 1st of June, 1850, Mr. Lamar was licensed, on examination, by the Hon. Hugh E. Miller, to practice "as an attorney and counselor at law and solicitor in chancery in all the courts of law and equity" in the State. In July of the same year he was elected adjimct professor of mathematics in the university, the princiiial jirofessorship being held by Dr. Albert T. Bledsoe, later distinguished as an author and as the editor of the Southern Revieir. Mr. Lamar at once endeavored to qualify himself to manage his department most advantageously, and, amongst otlie*' preparations, corresponded with the teacher of mathe- matics at Emory College in respect to his methods and experiences.
In the latter p&vt of this year, also, he began to make political speeches, and they were favorably received. Indeed, they seem to have made him a local reputation somewhat unusual for a neophyte. It was in the autumn of 1851, however, that he was first pitted against a formi- dable foe, and won his spurs. In order that this incident may be under- stood, it will be necessary to make a brief historical digression.
In the year 1851 there was intense excitement and profound agitation in the slaveholding States of this Union. Nowhere was that excite- ment more intense or the agitation more profound than in Mississippi. The direct cause of it was certain legislation which had been indulged in by the preceding Congress, which bore upon the question of slavery, but especially the admission of the State of California with an anti- slavery constitution and, it was claimed, in a grossly irregular manner.
From the formation of the Federal Union there existed between the North and the South a jealousy of political power, which was pregnant with immense issues and dire resitlts. That jealousy was the life of the subsequent great struggle over slavery as a domestic institution. Ex- cept as a xjolitical force, it is more than doubtful whether that particular struggle would ever have been. The possession of slaves was not only a unifying agency for the South, but it was also understood to be a source of political power to each State, iuasmiich as under the constitution the representation of each State in Congress was fixed at the sum of its white citizens and of three-fifths of all its slaves; and that j^rovision was gen- erally, although erroneously, understood to have been adoj^jted as a repre- sentation of property. In the North, therefore, the political and the moral questions conspired to produce an intense opposition to any in- crease of the slave States; while in the South the political question, and the anxiety to secure a vested property interest, conspired to produce a desire equally intense to make such an increase.
The first great contest over this issue was on the admission of Mis-
HIS LIFE, TIMES, AND SPEECHES. 47
souri. lu that region were already many slaves, and in 1819 the terri- tory applied for admission under a constitution which recognized slav- ery. The application failed by a disagreement between the two houses of Congress; the House refusing assent unless a clause abolishing slav- ery should be inserted in the constitution, while the Senate held that such a requirement would be violative of the Constitution of the United States. In 1820 the application of Missouri was renewed. After a pro- tracted and bitter controversy a compromise, known to history as the " Missouri Compromise," was agreed on, the substance of which was that the State should be admitted with a proslavery constitution, but with a prohibition in the act of admission against slavery in all of the territo- ry north and west of Missouri, down to the parallel of thirty-six degrees and thirty minutes.
Then came, in time, the annexation of Texas, the Mexican "War, and the acquisition from Mexico of vast territories reaching to the Pacific Ocean. This straightway opened a new question. The autislavery party began to declare that, notwithstanding the Missouri Compromise, slavery should not be introduced into any newly acquired territory — not even below the line of thirty-six thirty— that the compromise was limited to such territory as was embraced in the old province of Louis- iana. In August, 1846, when the President requested an appropriation to enable him to negotiate a treaty of peace with Mexico, based on a ces- sion of territory, a Democratic member from Pennsylvania offered a proviso to the appropriation bill, called after him the " Wilmot Provi- so," to the effect that as an express and indispensable condition to the acquisition, slavery should never be allowed therein. This proviso was passed by the House, but was rejected by the Senate. The territory subsecjuently ceded by Mexico was acquired free from its operation. But its introduction, its advocacy, and its almost success, were regarded by the State rights party as a practical repudiation of the Missouri Compromise, and accordingly were deeply resented and bitterly de- nounced.
In February, 1847, Mr. Calhoun presented in the Senate a set of res- olutions to the effect that, inasmuch as the territories were the common property of all the States, Congress had no constitutional power what- ever to exclude from them slaves, the legal property of so many of the citizens of the States of the Union; and in the South the opinion rapid- ly crystallized that the only just or constitutional course for Congress to adopt was one of absolute nonintervention. The Soutii demanded "simply not to be denied equal rights iu settling and colonizing the common public domain;" and that when territories should be formed into States their people " might be permitted to act as they pleased upon the subject of the status of the negro race amongst them, as upon all other subjects of internal policy, when they came to form their constitutions."
48 LUCIUS Q. C. LAMAR:
lu April, lS-i9, Gen. Bennett Kiley was, by the United States Govern- ment, appointed military governor of the newly acquired province of California; and in June, by the initiative of President Taylor, who had been elected by the Whig party, he called a convention to meet at Mon- terey for the purpose of forming a State constitution. This convention adopted such a constitution, antislavery in character, on the 13th of October, which was ratified by a vote of the people. In December a Governor was elected under this constitution, and application was made to Congress for admission. A proposition was made to continue the line of the Missouri Compromise through the newly acquired territories to the Pacific. This measure was defeated in the Senate by a vote of thirty-two nays to twenty-four yeas. All of the affirmative votes were cast by Southern Senators; and all of the negative votes, except two from Missouri and Kentucky, by Northern Senators, Delaware being then counted as a Northern State. The pacification effected by the Missouri Compromise, and which had endured for thirty years, was now ended. There was a furious struggle between the two sections. It was, in fact, a struggle for the control of Congress. The North had con- trolled the House from the foundation of the government, at first by the exclusion of two-fifths of the negro population in the count for ap- portionment of representation, and later by its superiority in popula- tion; but the attitude of the Senate was different. There a system of admitting States practically in pairs, a Northern and a Southern State together, had long been established; so that when the question of the admission of California arose the North and the South were equal in strength in the Senate, and the admission of California with an anti- slavery constitution meant that the North should control both Houses. The opposition urged that the organization of California into a State without any enabling act of Congress was illegal and revolutionary; that the refusal to extend the compromise line to the Pacific, whereby two States might in time be formed, one of each class, as theretofore, pro- ceeded from a purpose to admit California as a State, rightly or wrong- ly, with an antislavery constitution, in denial of the constitutional and equitable rights of the South tc3 have equal practical benefit with the North in the territories acquiied by their common expenditure of treas- ure, suffering, heroism, and blood. They did not deny the abstract proposition that each new State should determine for itself what form of constitution it would adopt; but they charged that the requisite pop- ulation did not yet exist in California, such as it had being mainly com- posed of Mexicans, South Americans, and adventurers, drawn thither temporarily by the " gold fever," and that the pretended vote on which the constitution was based was cast by persons not enfranchised by any competent authority, while the region itself was largely under the con- trol of military organizations from New York, sent thither during the
HIS LIFE, TIMES, AXD SI'EECHES. 49
Mexican War, aud disbanded in California on tho restoration of peace; that tlie powers of the Federal Government were in fact unfairly aud nnconstitntionally nsed to trammel and defeat the popular will if it was favorable to slavery, and they denied that the proposed new State was practically allowed to determine the matter for itself.
This conflict led to the adoption of the celebrated "Compromise Measures of 1850," which, in effect, were as follows: California was ad- mitted with her free constitution; the remainder of the Mexican cession was organized into territories without any provisions as to slavery, thus leaving its establishment therein, or exclusion therefrom, to the choice of the settlers; certain territory claimed by Texas was purchased from her and annexed to New Mexico; the domestic slave trade in the Dis- trict of Columbia was abolished, but a pledge giveu not to interfere else- where with slavery or the internal slave trade; and the South was con- ceded a fugitive slave law more efficient than the one passed in 1793. The last item of the compromise was advanced as the real compensation to the South for the other unacceptable measures. Under the act of 1793 it was the duty of the Federal Government to return fugitive slaves to their owners whenever they had escaped into States other than those in which they were held. The Legislatures of thirteen of the nonslave- holding States, however, had passed statutes which forbade the State of- ficials to cooperate in such cases (such cooperation being a part of the scheme of the act of 1793), and in many instances riots and bloodshed had followed upon attempts of slaveowners to recover their property. The act of 1850, therefore, provided for a prompter and more effective execution by the Federal Government of its obligation in this respect. Most of the Southern people, however, believed not in the efficacy of the act of 1850. They regarded it as a snare. They had no faith that in the communities whose sentiment was such as to produce the results in- dicated above the Federal officers would carry out, or would be per- mitted to carry out, the new act of Congress any more than had been done under the previous act of Congress. They felt that they were of- fered the shadow for the substance.
However, notwithstanding these objections and recalcitrations, the act admitting California aud the Fugitive Slave Law were passed, Califor- nia being admitted in September, 1850.
It will readily be conceived that pending these controversies the South was not dormant. In October, 1849, a convention was h(>ld in Jackson by which resolutions were adopted asserting the equal right of the Soiith in and to the free use and enjoyment of the new territories, and by which also a convention of delegates from the Southern States was called to meet at Nashville in Jane, 1850, for the purpose of concerting measures for the securing of those rights, and others similar in nature.
On the 21st of January, 1850, Senators Davis and Foote, and the four 4
50 LUCIUS Q. a LAMAR:
Eepreseutatives from Mississippi, addressed a letter to Gov. Quitman, in which they notified him, and through him their common constituents, that California would be admitted; that their individual opinions had undergone no change; that they regarded such action, tinder all the cir- cumstances of her application, as an attempt to pass the AVilmot Provi- so in another form. They said, further, that they desired, through the Governor, to submit to the people and the Legislature the single fact that California would most likely be admitted with an antislavery constitu- tion, and that they should be greatly pleased to have such expression of opinion by the Legislature, the Governor, and, if practicable, by the peo- ple, as should clearly indicate the course which Mississippi would deem it her duty to pursue "in this new emergency."
This letter was by the Governor submitted to the Legislature, and that body on the 5th of March adopted a series of resolutions upon the subject, setting forth its view of the situation and particularly that the policy theretofore pursued by the government in refusing to provide a territorial government for California had been and was eminently cal- culated to promote, and was about to effect indirectly, the cherished ob- ject of the abolitionists, which could not be accomplished by direct legislation without a palpalile violation of the Constitution; that the admission of California under the circumstances would be an act of fraud and oppression on the rights of the slaveholding States, and that it was the sense of the Legislature that the Senators and Representa- tives should to the extent of their ability resist it by all honorable and constitutional means.
Notwithstanding these resolutions, based on the letter calling for them, Mr. Foote finally voted for the admission of California, being in- duced to do so by the compromise measures detailed above. There- upon, at an extra session of the Legislature convened in November, a resolution was adopted which set forth the above letter and the above resolutions and indorsed the action of Mr. Davis and of the Eepresent- atives, but disapproved the action of Senator Foote and declared that "this Legislature does not consider the interests of the State of Missis- sippi committed to his charge safe in his keeping."
The same Legislature passed an act providing for a convention of the people, to be held in Jackson in November, 1851, to express their will upon the legislation in Congress of the session under consideration and especially "to devise and carry into effect the best means of redress for the ijast and obtain certain security for the future, and to adopt such measures for vimlicating the sovereignty of the State and the protec- tion of its institutions as shall appear to them to be demanded."
Of course these stirring events ci-eated a great commotion in the State. There was much difference of opinion upon the efficiency and propriety of the compromise measures, but that difference did not pro-
HIS LIFE, TIMES, A .\D SPEECHES. 51
ceed upon the old pai-ty lines. The old parties were disrupted and new combiuations were formed. Senator Foote did not resign, but showed fight. His supporters, calling themselves the "Union party," were com- jjosed in large measure of the old AVhigs, reenforced by ;i considerable coutiugeut of Democrats, and they placed him in nomination for Gov- ernor. He was opposed by e.\-Gov. Quitman as the standard bearer of the State Rights jjarty. Each party had its candidates for delegates to the convention and for members of the Legislature. The canvass was very bitter and exciting. The election for delegates came off in September, and the Union party was triumphant by a majority of about seven thousand. This disastrous result caused Gov. Quitman to relin- quish his candidacy, and his party then called upon Mr. Davis to as- sume his place as candidate for Governor. This Mr. Davis consented to do, resigning his seat in the Senate for that jjurpose. The condition of his health was such, however, as to prevent his participating in the canvass to a great extent, and he was defeated at the November electi(m by a majority of less than one thousand.
The convention met in November, and after being in session a week or ten days adjourned sine die, after declaring its unalterable fealty to the Union.
It was in this canvass that Prof. Lamar encountered Mr. Foote. The Senator, Hushed with the triumph of the September election, was ap- pointed to speak at Oxford. The State Eights party were without a champion. They appealed to Lamar to represent them. Notwithstand- ing the fact that the call was unexpected and on only a few hours' no- tice, he consented. It was a great compliment to him, a young man of only twenty-six, but it was also a fierce ordeal. He had had no practice in polemical discussions, and was without experience in practical poli- tics. His antagonist was an exijerienced and trained politician of the highest official position, who had been driven to bay and was now ex- ulting in victory, whose adroitness and pugnacity were unmatched in the State, whose hot temper and personal courage were proverbial, and whose tongue was untiring and vitriolic.
Of Prof. Lamar's speech on that occasion nothing now remains, ap- parently, except a few pages of his own manuscript, containing a num- ber of hurried and fragmentary notes. So far as they go, his line of argument was as follows:
He felt keenly his own incompetency to encounter one wlio was so greatly his own superior in age, position, abilities, and experience; one who was practiced as a de- bater on every field from the hu.stings to the Senate chamber; one who, Iiear of him where you will at home, is speaking; and who, hear of him when you will, is demol- ishing every one who meets him on the stump; and who is said to have spoken on a single clause of a bill seventeen times from seventeen different seats, showing him- self as expert on the wing as at rest. The gentleman came not only equipped with his own great abilities, native and acquired, but also panoplied in the armor furnished
52 LUCIUS Q. C. LAMAR:
to liim by his Northern alhes in the battle again&t the South recently fought at the capital and now renewed belore his constituents. Even so, however, the discussion would not be so unequal as it is if only the gentleman drew his facts from sources ac- cessible to both ; but he will tell you of his expectations, founded uj)on reports picked up during his pilgrimages to the North or gathered from his nuineious correspond- ents, of whom the speaker never heard and of whom you know he has many, whose disclosures he publishes or keeps to himself, as shall best serve his purposes.
But the speaker did not conr^ider himself at liberty to consult his own reputation or interests. The State was entitled to all that he was, be it little or much ; and have it she should, whether her summons is to the lecture room, the hustings, the field, or the gibbet, if it be treason to obey her call against the Senator's particular friends. Clay, Cass, and Webster — par nohile fralrum.
The gentleman appears before you in a singular attitude. He presents himself as the ijrosecutor of his constituents. He has discovered many egregious sins in the late action of the Legislature of his State, and has visited upon them a punishment which, in his estimation, doubtless is equal to their transgression: the weight of his senatorial condemnation. The S[ieaker did think that the case of the State vs. Foote stood upon the docket before that of Foole vs. the Slate. There were grave charges against the gentleman which he must clear up before he could animadvert upon his constituency. We protest against his discussing any other questions until he shall have ]ilaced liimself rectus in curi:'i, until he shall have answered the charges against himself. He is charged, and the speaker pledges himself to prove those charges to be true, with knowingly and willfully misrepresenting the sentiments of the people of his State as made known to him through her only constitutional organ of communi- cation; with doing wliat he knew that his State Legislature did not wish him to do — nay, with doing what it positively forbade him to do — nay, with doing what he re- quested it to instruct him not to do — and at the same time with abandoning the cher- ished principles and friemls of the South, leaguing with her enemies on matters vital to the South's prosjierity and honor, exerting his acknowledged abilities against the recognition of her most earnest and righteous demands, committing in the meantime every variety of gross inconsistency.
The gentleman's motives are not impugned. He says that they were good, and says, furthermore, that his etforts have been beneficial to his section. He has cer- tainly been performing before the country some very remarkable evolutions, begin- ning with his displays at the opening of the last Congress. His political friends and foes alike have been dazzled and confounded by his gyrations. He began the session by indulging in fiery ultraism, which shocked his conservative free-soil friends at the North and caused them to hold up their pious bands in holy horror at Ins savage talk. But he finished by assisting to fasten ujjon us the very wrongs which he de- nounced, and declaring that there is no aggression upon the South and that she has nothing to complain of. It has been said that when the English were in China one of the stratagems to which they resorted to frighten the poor Celestials out of their wits was to tie skyrockets to their heels at niglit and turn somersaults in full view of the enemy's camp. The result is said to have been amazingly successful, and it may be that the gentleman has attempted to steal their thunder. At all events he has ex- hibited some very remarkable specimens of ground and lofty tundjling at Washing- ton. But alas! instead of frightening the enemy, he ha« turned a somersault into their camp, and now attempts to speak Ids old friends into the delusion that he has taken the whole force prisoners of war. The Soutli, says he, gets everything; the North, those wily old politicians, Cass, Webster, Fillmore, have all been hoodwinked. We have met the enemy, and they are ours! So much for his first fight. Having whipped the North, he now begins to whip the South. The speaker, for one, will not
HIS LIFE, TIMES, AXD SPEECHES. 53
decline the fight, hoping from his heart tluvt tlie Si>ii;itor will gain over him just such a victory as he gained over the North.
Witli his usual anil characteristic positiveness the Senator asserts that the only is- sue before you is union or disunion. We are prepared to meet that issue when it comes from the proper authority, and at the proper time; hut it is not before you on this occasion, nor has the gentleman the right to force it belbre you. He promised at Washington to present to the people a very diS'erent issue, and the only one he is competent to discuiss before them— viz., do they, or do they not, approve of the mis- called compromise measures. Listen to his own language in the .Senate chamber (reading from Mr. Foote's speech). These words were hardly cold before he received from his constituents, in terms of direct censure, their reprobation of these measures and of his agency in the adoption of them, through the resolutions of the Legislature, for the passage of which he is responsible. Instead of resigning his jilace upon this intimation, with no precedent for his conduct but that set by Tijomas H. Benton (whom he has himself denounced), he holds on to his post, and appeals to the peo- ple of his State to sustain him in liis course. Now what do the people say? Let us see what the organ of the Union party (the gentleman's own organ) says (reading): . . . Now has the gentleman redeemed his pledge to resign if all he has said be not approved? No; but he appears before you, and in order to divert your minds from the grave offenses with wliicli he is charged he proclaims, with an authority which seems to admit of no denial, that the only issue is union or disunion.
Whatever dilferences may exist among the people with regard to the remedies for the injuries of which we complain, whether they shall deem it best to correct these evils by means of the ballot box, or by means of disunion, one thing is certain, or else the speaker has mistaken the high-hearted freemen of Mississippi — they will never again listen to the counsels of one who assisted their enemies in fastening such meas- ures upon them ; they will brook no dictation from such a quarter. Even the Union men of this State shall be convinced that Mr. Foote is not the man whose leadership even they should acknowledge; and that, for the plain reason that his being a LTnion man to-day is no guaranty that he will not be a fire eater tomorrow, what he advises and promises to-day he will repudiate to-morrow, what he espouses to-day he will de- nounce to-morrow, whom he hails as friends to-day he will count as enemies to-mor- row, whom he attacks as enemies to-day he will colleague with to-mori-ow. That this is true the speaker now proceeds to prove.
A few things must be premised. It is unnecessary to point out the clauses of the Constitution which protect slavery. It needs not to tell you that but for those clauses the Southern States would never have come into tlie Confederacy. All this you know. The Northern States ratified that instrument with a full knowledge of its terms, and thereby incurred the most solemn obligation that can be imposed upon a nation hon- estly and faithiully to maintain it in all its stipulations. How has that obligation been fulfilled? Hear Mr. Foote's answer to that question, given in company with many Southern men whom he has since deserted: "It has been fulfilled by hostile acts on the part of the Northern States intended to render it of noneffect, and with so much success," etc. (See address of the Soutliern Congressmen.) So spoke the gen- tleman in tlie days of his Southernism. What has changed his tone? "Why at that time the fugitive slave bill was not passed." But a slave bill had then been passed under which a hundred negroes have been reclaimed for one that has been reclaimed under the late bill. What have we gained by this bill? The gentleman's complaint was of hostile enactments. Have they lieen repealed? The complaint was that those enactments rendered the Constitution inoperative; can a statute disarm them of a power which overcame the Constitution? Those infamous enactments all stand unre- pealed ; and nine hundred ami forty abolition clubs are still working out, with a more terrific enginery, their infernal schemes. Every one knows tluit a Southern man
54 LUCIUS Q. a LAMAR:
cannot go into the North fur the purpose of recovering his slave without encounter- ing resistance, from hostile legislation, from otticers of the law, and from mobs of both colors. The efficacy of the late bill has been tried in a few cases, and those who went, under its panoply, to recover their property, were insulted, prosecuted, imiiris- oned, and subjected to every kind of pecuniary loss. You hear of no claims made un- der it in these days, and I doubt whether you will ever hear of another in Massachu- setts, (ir ten mure in all the free States put together. The old law, according to Mr. Webster, was less favorable to the fugitive tlian the present one. Under its operation we did save a few slaves, and it was never resisted by an armed mob in open court. Claims under both have ceased as worthless. The gentleman, who was so rampant at the disrespect shown to the first, is so well satisfied witli the last that he is willing to be kicked out of California, abandon 36: 30, and carve out of Texas a very resi>ectable State for the free-soilers, simply for the pure gratification which it afibids him. Un- der its comforting securities, he visits the North, partakes of her festivities, speaks of course— and what did he say? Did lie brand them to their fiices as recivants, lost to honor until tliey should blot out from their statute books their unconstitutional laws? No; but he glorified the Union.
But let us look seriously at the gentleman's explanation. It is this : that all of these objections were to the admission of Calilbrnia as a sepaniie measure, and that he was always willing that she should come in under a general scheme of compromise. Now, fellow-citizens, he said that that admission of California was the Wilmot Proviso in another form— nay, worse than the Wilmot Proviso. I put the question to you, and I wish you to think well upon it, could any scheme of compromise justify your Sena- tor in fastening the Wilmot Proviso upon you? How, then, can such a scheme justi- fy him in fastening upon you a measure worse than that proviso?
Unfortunately for tlie gentleman, the only time that he spoke of the admission of Califciniia as part of a compromise scheme he specified what that compromise sliould be. Here is his language: "If all other questions connected with the subject of slav- ery can be satisfactorily adjusted, I see no objection to admitting all California above the line of 30:30 into the Union, provided another new slave State can be laid off within the present limits of Texas, so as to keep up the present equiponderance be- tween the slave and the free States of the Union ; and provided, further, that all this is done by way of compromise, and in order to save the Union— as dear to me as to any man living." Here the gentleman lays down that general scheme of compromise which alone would reconcile him to the admission of California— namely, that her southern boundary should be 36: 30, and that another slave State should be admitted with 36: 30 as her boundary, and tliis to be considered only as an extreme concession, made in order to save the Union.
In passing it will not be improper to show what different and opposite reasons the gentleman gives for his conduct at different times. While he acted with the Southern party he gave as a reason for not offering this scheme of compromise that the aggres- sive spirit of the North determined him to offer no more compromises. But when he left his old Southern associates, so anxious is he to throw odium upon them that he relieves the North of all the blame of his withholding the plan just mentioned, and throws it upon Mr. Calhoun and the Southern Senators.
Here the notes stop abruptly. It is to be regretted that they are so meager, and deal almost exclusively with the more personal portions of the speech; for this debate with Mr. Foote is understood to have been the foundation of Mr. Lamar's subsequent political advancement. It was the flood which led on to fame, albeit not to fortune. His success
HIS LIFE, TIMES, AND SI'EECUKS. 55
was considered phenomenal. The college students, especially, were wild witli excitement and pride, and bore liim away from the hustings upon their shoulders. Judge C. P. Smith, then upon the bench of the High Court of Errors and Appeals, was present, and he enthusiastically re- lated in Jackson, to auditors somewhat incredulous, the powers of the young orator who had appeared in Lafayette County.
It is a striking and curious thing to find Mr. Lamar in tliis debate pressing Mr. Foote about his disregard of the legislative instructions. The latter was then in the zejiithof his fame and power in Mississippi; the former, at his dawning. It is believed to be the only time they ever met in joint discussion. It was at the crisis of Mr. Foote's career. Thirty years later the same question, as shall be seen, confronted Mr. Lamar in the very crisis of his fate and in the fullness of his political career— of which, however, in its proper place.
CHAPTER V.
Religious Impressions — Hon. Jacob Thompson — Prof. Albert T. Bledsoe^Retm-n to Covington, Ga.— In the Georgia Legislature — Moves to Macon, Ga. — Candidate for Congress from Third District— Returns to Mississippi — "Solitude" — Practices Law — C. H. Jlott — James L. Autrey — Congrefsman or Professor?
ALTHOUGH Mr. Lamar was busy about the duties of his professor- ship and his law practice, and although he made occasional excur- sions into the field of polities, those toijics did not engross his attention. At this period his thoughts hovered much over the subject of religion. The impressions on that subject received at Emory College continued. His correspondence with his sister, Mrs. AViggins, dealt with them; and in it he expressed the most orthodox views, declaring himself to be " a firm and unwavering believer in the truths of the Bible." She, how- ever, admonished him that to be such a believer his opinions must in- fluence his conduct and govern his life. Dr. John N. Waddel, then a professor in the university (afterwards Chancellor), in his "Academic Memorials," says:
I remember a casual conversation I held with him during his first years in Oxford, in which, as we spoke of his future, he remarked that he would not be surprised if he should end his life work in the ministry of the Methodist Church. My reply was: "No, sir; you will surely pass your life in the world of polities." My own impression is that Mr. Lamar had from his earlier manhood kept steadily in view the career of statesmanship.
He had not united himself with any church, bait had it in serious contemplation.
This life continued for two years. In the summer of 1852 he re- signed his connection with the university and returned to Covington, Ga., in order to engage in the practice of law in partnership with Mr. Eobert G. Harpei-, the man of whom he said in the address at Emory College in 1870, quoted in a previous chapter: "To whom my own soul was knit as was David to Jonathan." Mr. Harper had been corre- sponding with Prof. Lamar with a view to this partnership for more than a year; and his letters bear the strongest evidence of intense per- sonal devotion to Mr. Lamar, of high aspirations in his j^rofession, and of an inflexible determination to achieve its best possibilities.
Two things which have not yet been touched on shoidd be noted in connection with Mr. Lamar's stay at the University of Mississipi^i. It was there and then that he met the Hon. Jacob Thompson, for whom he entertained always the highest regard, and whose kindness to him- self and encouraging attentions he ever held in grateful remembrance. (56)
LIFE, TIMES, AND SPEECHES. 57
Mr. Thompson was then a member of Congress, and also a tiustee of the university. Years afterwards, on the occasion of Mr. Thompson's death, Mr. Lamar wrote to a niece a letter of sympathy, saying, among other things:
He was one of the few men whose presence in this world invested my own life with much of its own interest. I first met him in 1849. I was tlien a youtli only twenty-four years of age, while he was near the zenith of his high honors and intel- lectual jiowers. I huJ then, as I am now anare, many faults of high temper and im- patient aspirations; but he was on all occasions kind, considerate, and sympathetic to me, when on some he might well have been austere and reserved. My first nomina- tion to Congress was due largely to llr. Thompson's influence, openly exertetl in my behalf against very distinguished ami powerful men in the district. From that time to the day of his death our friendship, jicri^onal and political, has been unbroken.
The second fact to be observed, as remarked above, was the effect of Mr. Lamar's association for two years with Dr. Albert T. Bledsoe, his professor in chief. The relations between the two men were most cor- dial. The Doctor was gifted with a massive and vigorous intellect, trained to the most acute and logical processes of reasoning. He was not a mathematician merely, but a philosopher also, and was deeply learned in both political and theological science. In after years he was fond of saying that he "taught Lucius how to think." It is remem- bered that on one occasion after Mr. Lamar went into the Senate this remark was repeated to him. He smiled a little, pondered awhile, and then remarked: " Well, there is a good deal in it." His bearing and comment were such as to indicate that while he thought the Doctor's claim rather too sweeping, yet he acknowledged a debt to him for great service in mental training. He certaiidy held the Doctor in the highest esteem during the remainder of his life.
Mr. Lamar prospered in Covington. In the autumn of 18-53, notwith- standing the facts that he was a Democrat and that in Newton County the Whigs were in an immense majority, he was elected to the Legisla- ture. He had not been in the House more than a mouth before he came to the front as a leader.
During the session there were so many motions to suspend the rules to take up business out of its order that a resolution was adopted requiring a two-thirds vote to suspend the rules. In a day or two thereafter a resolution was ofl'ered to suspend the rules to bring on some important election, probably that of a Senator, and fixing a day for it. The Democrats, havinsr a majority, would be able to elect their candidate. The Whig3 opposed the motion to suspend the rules, and Mr. Thomas Hardeman, the member from Bibb, led in the opposition. He made a speech against it, and on a vote being taken, the Democrats, only having some twelve or fifteen majority, fiiiled to carry it by a two-thirds vote, upon which there was consternation on the Democratic side aiid rejoicim: on the Whig side. The Democrats felt that they were caught in the trap, and many were the anxious faces on the part of the majority. The next day, on a motion to reconsider, Mr. Lamar made his first speech. He was then
58 LUCIUS Q. C. LAMAR:
young, not more than twenty-seven, with a handsome face, a full head of dark hair, brilliant eyes, in figure ratlier below the medium height, handsomely dressed, with fine, musical voice. He at once attracted the attention of the House. In a short speech of not more than thirty miimtes he captured the whole assembly. I remem- ber how he scathed the motives of those who would thus seek to defeat an election that under the law and constitution had been devolved upon the General Assembly.
Such an excitement as was produced by his speech I never saw in that body. "When he finished no one sought to reply. A vote was taken, and a laige majority reconsidered the action of the House of the preceding day, and the resolution passed with almost a unanimous vote.
His speech was a remarkable exhibition of the power of the orator and logician, and his appeal to his opponents to step manfnlly and patriotically forward to dis- charge their duty was so overwhelming that all party spirit was subdued, even in the breast of the most bitter partisan, and none even ventured a reply.*
lu the summer of 1854, the health of Mr. Harper having failed, and de- siring a larger field, Mr. Lamar moved to the town of Macon, offering there for <i practice. He soon had a respectable business, albeit a small one, placed into his hands. In the aiitumn of that year, however, a corre- spondence began between himself and Jndge Longstreet, the immediate result of which was that he carried his negroes out to Mississipjji to work a farm jointly with the Judge, and under his general supervision; but which later contributed to more important results. On the 7th of March, 1S55, he writes from Macon to Judge Longstreet thus:
Judge Stark said to me that I must make up my mind to run for Congress this year: that I am the unanimous choice of my district — of the Democrac}'. Col. Chap- pell says that I must not think of anvthing else hut going. It is thought by my friends that I can get one hundred votes in Biljb over any one else. I have been spoken to from all (juarters about it, and the public sentiment of my own party seems pretty well fixed on me as the next nominee. If I let my name go before the con- vention, I shall certainly be nominated, unless the convention is packed so as to nom- inate some other aspirant, which it is very easy to do under the district system. Now what do you think? Stick to my profession and try to make something, or go to Congress if I can and be in the fight against the free-soilers? The next Congress will be an exciting one, you know.
At this period Macon was in the Third Congressional District, the rep- resentative of which in Congress was the Hon. David J. Bailey. The Whig party had been disorganized by the death of Henry Clay, and in the year previous (1854) the Know-nothing party had come to the front, sweeping several Northern States, including New York. In Georgia the Know-nothings were in the majority in the towns and cities, and the Third District was favorable to them. It was doubted whether Mr. Bailey would make the race in the election then approaching, and Mr. Lamar's name was brought prominently forward as the Democratic candidate. Later, however, it was ascertained that Mr. Bailey would run for the office, whereupon Mr. Lamar, in order to preserve the har-
* From article by W. B. Hill, Esq., in The Green Sag ot April, 1898.
HTS LIFE, TIMJCS, AND SPEECHES. 59
mony of the party, published an o])('n letter desiring that his claims should not be urged before the approaching convention.
The friends of Mr. Lamar, however, refused to recognize his with- drawal. When the nominating convention met at Forsyth on the '22d of May, the delegation from Bibb, led by Edward D. Traeey, made a most gallant tight for his nomination. The two-thirds rule was adopted, but without specifying whether the vote to elect should be two-thirds of those voting or of those entitled to vote. After a severe struggle, amidst great confusion (for the Bailey men seem to have been disposed to unruliness, even to the point of thi-eatening to bolt), the eleventh ballot was taken, several of tbe friends of Col. Bailey refusing to vote. Lamar received eighteen votes to Bailey's nine, and his friends claimed that he was nominated — as, indeed, he was, by well-settled rules of par- liamentary law; but the Chair refused to so hold, and referred the ques- tion to the convention, which decided by a majority vote that there had been no nomination. This decision produced more excitement, result- ing in a deadlock. The upshot of it all was that James M. Smith, Esq., was finally put before the convention, and was nominated on the next following ballot.
However, this disappointment may not have made much real differ- ence. The Democratic ticket was defeated in the following election; and whether the belief of his friends that Mr. Lamar could have carried the election would have been justified by the event had he been nomi- nated, there is, of course, no way to determine. He took an active i)art in the campaign, making speeches against the Know-nothing party.
In October, 1855, Mr. Lamar returned to Mississippi, and this time, as the event proved, finally. Possibly disappointment about his Con- gressional aspirations and chagrin over the ascendency of Know-noth- ingism in his vicinity, may have been contributing causes to this step, although the correspondence of the family discloses nothing of such sentiments. There were other reasons, of themselves sufficient. His professional income from his practice in Macon was not satisfactory. He and his wife owned a number of slaves whose services coxild not be by him made profitable in Georgia, and who hail, therefore, as has been stated, been sent out to Mississippi to be employed under the direction of Judge Longstreet; it was desirable that the Judge should be relieved of that burden to some extent. Then there was constant apprehension as to the healthfulness of Macon. Moreover (and in all likelihood the most powerful motive of all), there was the longing to reunite the broken family circle.
Of this move, one of Mr. Lamar's correspondents wrote from Coving- ton: "Your friends seem to regret much your resolution again to leave the State, and some of them express this feeling and their sui-prise in language more forcible than elegant."
60 LUCIUS Q. C. LAMAR:
Mr. Lamai", upon returning to Mississippi, did not take a residence in Oxford as before. He purchased a plantation, which he called " Sol- itude." It embraced about eleven hundred acres, and lay one mile east of the railroad (now the Illinois Central), then just building, on the southeru bank of the Tallaliatchee River, which curved jsartly around it. The ijlace was well timbered with cypress and several varieties of oak. There was an excellent dwelling with four rooms, and there were quite a number of cabins for the negroes, with all the usual outhouses. Here he lived during the year 1856 and part of 1857. The Branhams were with him during most of the time, the Doctor being interested with him in the cultivation of the farm. The crops were good, and the lands enhanced in value.
The family have many traditions about the stay at "Solitude." It was the life of the Southern farmer of the highest type. Surrounded by his slaves, to whom he was at once master, guardian, and friend, loved and petted by his women folk and his children, visited by culti- vated and attractive friends for days and even weeks, anil visiting them in turn; the summers were devoted to the growing of cotton and corn, while the winters were occuined in killing hogs, curing bacon sides and delicious hams, making sausages, and trying out snowy lard. Over these latter functions his wife, as was customary with even the most re- fined Southei-n ladies, jiresided. An ice house, which was a great curi- osity in that neighborhood, and the stored treasures of which were a singular luxury at that period of slow transportation, had also to be filled.
Of the life of the Southern planter Mr. Lamar spoke eloquently thir- ty-two years later in his great oi-ation on Mr. Calhoun. In that fine passage he manifestly spoke n(jt only from his observation, but also from j^ersoual experience. He said:
Would that I had the power to portray a Southern planter's home! The sweet and noble assoi'iations; the pnre, refining, and elevating atmosphere of a household presided over by a Southern matron; the tranquil yet active otrupations of a large land owner, full of interest and liigh moral responsibilities'; the alliance between man's intellect and nature's laws of production ; the liospitality, heartfelt, simple, .Tud generous. The Southern planter was far from being the self-indulgent, indolent, coarse, and overbearing person that he has sometimes been pictured. He was, in general, careful, patient, provident, industrious, forbearing, and yet tirni and deter- mined. These were the qualities which enabled him to take a race of untamed sav- ages, with habits that could only inspire disgust, with no arts, no single tradition of civilization, and out of sucli a people to make the finest body of agricultural and do- mestic laborers that the world has ever seen; and, indeed, to elevate them in the scale of rational existence to such a height as to cause them to be deemed fit for ail- mission into the charmed circle of American freedom, and to be clothed with the rights and duties of American citizenship.
In the communion with himself, in the opportunities for continued study, and in the daily and yearly provision for a numerous body of dependents, for all of whom
HIS LIFE, TIMES, AND SPEECHES. 61
he felt himself responsible, about whom his anxieties were ever alive, wliose tasks he apportioned, and whose labors he directed, lie was educated in those faculties and pereonal qualities which enabled him to emerge from his solitude and preside in the County Court or become a member of his State Ive>;islature, to discharge the duties of local magistracy or to take his place in the national councils.
The solution of the enigma of the so-called slave power may be sought here. Its basis lay in that cool, vigorous judgment and unerring sense applicable to the onli- nary affeirs and intercourse of men which the Southern mode of life engendered and fostered. The habits of industry, firmness of purpose, fidelity to dependents, self- reliance, and the sentiment of justice in all the various relations of life which were necessary to the management of a well-ordered plantation fitted men to guide Legis- latures and command armies.
But the duties of the plantation did not cliiefly engage Mr. Lamar's attention or enlist his interest. Those eighteen months were mainly devoted to study. There was a small oiEce, remote from the house and withdrawn from the noises and little daily excitements of the family, in which he passed most of his time at work with his books of law, poli- tics, and philosophy — in the summer, under a mosquito bar spread like a tent in the middle of tlie room. He used to say that the hardest and most profitable study of his life was done at "Solitude."
It was at this time, also, and while he lived at "Solitude," that he formed a partnership for the practice of law with Christopher H. Mott and James L. Autrey. The firm of Lamar, Mott & Autrey kept their of- fice in Holly Springs, and it endured until dissolved by the Civil War, albeit each member of the firm was occasionally absent for long periods on other piirsuits.
Here we must pause to consider the lives and characters of tlie two gentlemen with whom Mr. Lamar came into so intimate a relation. Of the two, his favorite and more intimate friend was Mr. Mott — a man to whose memory he was devoted during the whole of his after life. We have seen that he declared that his attachment in his earlier manhood, and in Georgia, to Hon. Eobert G. Harper was that of David to Jona- than. In Mr. Mott we find the friend of a later period for whom his love was of equal strength and from whose admiration and support he derived as great benefit and drew as much of encouragement in his mo. ments of despondency.
Christopher Haynes Mott was born in Livingston County, Ky., on the '22d of June, 1826. At a very early age he was brouglit by his i)ar- ents to Mississipxii, where they settled in the beautiful and polished lit- tle city of Holly Springs. His early education was received at St. Thomas' Hall, a school founded by the celebrated Episcopalian divine, Dr. Francis L. Hawkes; and he completed his studies at the Ti-ansyl- vania University, in Lexington, Ky. He studied law under the gifted Roger Barton. Hardly had he been called to the bar when the Mexican war broke out. Burning with tlie martial ardor of a born soldier, he entered service as a lieutenant in the Marshall Guards, a company of
62 LUCIUS Q. a LAMAR:
the celebrated First Mississippi Regiment, then commanded by CoL Jeflfersou Davis. At the battles of Monterey and Buena Vista he won distinction for general good conduct and for gallantry. The war over, he returned to the practice of law; was sent by the county to the State Legislature; later was elevated to the position of Probate Judge. While occui>ying tliis position he was appointed by the United States Govern- ment oil a special xuission to California to inquire into certain alleged abuses in the service in that region, which duty he discharged in the most thorough, intelligent, and satisfactory maimer. When the Civil War began he was among the earliest in the Held. The Secession Convention made him a brigadier general of the army of the State, but he resigned that post in order to accept employment in the regular army, when he was made Colonel of the Nineteenth Mississippi Eegi- ment, raised by his own exertions, and the first Mississippi regiment organized for service during the whole period of the war.
Col. Mott was a man after Mr. Lamar's own heart; a faithful and dil- igent lawyer, an upright and sympathetic judge, a gallant and intrepid soldier, a chivalric and generous gentleman; mc)dest but hrm, charita- ble, tender of heart yet quick to perceive a slight and prumpt to punish an injury, a friend to love and a foe to fear; through all his eventful and sparkling life there yet ran a vein of sadness, the result of a tem- perament somewhat melancholy acting upon a l)ody not wholly strong. Besides the attraction of their mutual sympathies there was another tie between the two men: that of friendship and love existing between their wives, inherited from a former generation of Longstreets and Govans.
James L. Autrey was born in 1830, it is thought in Jackson, Tenn. His father was one of the immortal band of heroes who ofi'ered their lives at the Alamo in the cause of Texan independence. His widowed mother removed to Holly Springs, and there he was educated at St. Thomas' Hall. In early youth he gave promise of superior talents, unusual readiness in repartee, and a sparkling wit, wliieli made him a most interesting child. He soon manifested both taste and capacity for politics. At the age of twenty-two he was sent to the State Legis- lature, and served in that body continuously for a number of terms. In the session of 1858-59 he was elected Speaker of the House, and was notable as the youngest man ever honored with that laosition. He was a Democrat of the strictest and a politician of the best type. He was ambitious, but generous and true — in every respect a noble man. Upon the outbreak of the war he also was among the first to throw himself into the front, and was soon elevated to the rank of lieutenant colonel.
Mott and Autrey both sealed with their blood their devotion to the cause which they espoused. The former fell at Williamsburg, the lat- ter at Murfreesboro; and the sign of Lamar, Mott & Autrey, torn from
HIS LIFE, TIMES, AXD SPEECHES. 63
its fastenings in the peaceful interior village by invading hosts, was afterwards picked up in the Mississippi River, a derelict on its way to the gulf.
But this is both a digression and an anticipation. We shall retura to Mr. Lamar at " Solitude."
Judge Lougstreet, who, it may be remembered, had resigned the presidency of the State University in 1856, was living in the village of Abbeville, only two miles away. This agreeable life was ended in the latter part of the year 1857 by the election of the Judge to the presi- dency of the South Carolina College, and by the election of Mr. Lamar to Congress.
Lafayette County was in the First Congressional District, which at that time embraced the northern tiftii of the State. On the 3d of March, 1857, the term of the Hon. Uauie) B. Wright, the representa- tive in Congress for that district, expired, and of course it became nec- essary to elect his successor. On the lOth of that month a communi- cation appeared in the Mcntphis Appeal, then the most i)opular and influential newspaper taken in that section of the country, proposing Mr. Lamar as the Democratic candidatt- for Congress. He himself Jiad in some way obtained information that such a communication had been sent to the paper, and wrote to the editor to withhold it from publica- tion, since it might place him in an uniileasant attitude toward other aspirants. To that letter the editor, Mr. B. F. Dill, replied that he was one day too late; that the communication could do him no harm, and that Mr. Lamar could command his services. Throughout the whole of his public career this paper was Mr. Lamar's stanch and unfalter- ing friend.
Another movement was in progress at the same time in respect to Mr. Lamar. In May he was approached through William F. Stearns, Esq., the Professor of Law, anent his acceptance of the chair of Metaphysics in the university. Prof. Stearns wrote, presenting strongly the desira- ble features of the proposed arrangement, its offering a comfortable support, its adaptation to his own cast of mind and habit of thought, the anxiety of the Faculty to include him amongst their number, and urging that he, "without question, would be happier here than at the bar." This proposition was seriously entertained, and would doubtless have been finally accepted but for the action of the congressional nom- inating convention.
CHAPTER VI.
The Kansas-Nebraska Bill— Tlie Straggle for Kansas— The Nicaragua Affair- Elected to Congress from First District— Corre>^pon(lence on Questions of the Day — First Speech in Congress — Eozell Letter — Tlie Keitt-Grow Fight— The Vallandigham- Campbell Contest — A Professorship Contemplated — Dr. Barnard's Letter — Speech at Jackson on Douglas — Eulogy on Harris — Speech on the Tariff.
WE have now reached that period in the life of Mr. Lamar when he entered the arena of national politics as an actor in its conflicts, its defeats, aud its victories. The stage of jsreparatiou is past; that of vigorous work begins. He commenced his public career at a most in- teresting and dramatic era — when the struggle over slavery was drawing to its crisis; when the rising of a new political supremacy was kindling the horizon into a lurid dawn which foreboded a terrible tempest.
The intense opposition of Mr. Lamar and of those with whom he was in sympathy to the comj^romise measures of 1850 has been narrated in a previous chapter; but the appeals to the people by the elections of 1851 showed that a majority of the Southern jjeople favored those meas- ures, and settled that question. Acquiescence in the compromise, and in its fulfillment, became the settled political jjolicy. So entirely was this true that, in their national conventions of 1852, both the Whigs and the Democrats expressly indorsed the compromise and pledged them- selves to maintain it. Notwithstanding this, however, great opposition was manifested North to the practical enforcement of the new fugitive slave law, which was one of its featui'es; and the Southern people com- plained bitterly that its oiJeratiou was defeated, aud the law itself in effect nullified.
At the session of Congress of 1843^4 a bill was introduced for the organization of Nebraska Territory. The Committee on Territories, of which Mr. Douglas, of Illinois, was chairman, reported favorably. The bill provided that " the said Territory, or any portion of the same, shall be received into the Union -with or withoiit slavery, as their constitution may prescribe at the time of their admission," which terms were cojjied literally from the Utah and New Mexican liills of 1850. The commit- tee's report referred to the compromise measures of 1850, and justified that provision by those measures. It said that
In the judgment of your committee those measures were intended to have a far more comprehensive and enduring effect than the mere adjustment of tlie difficulties arising out of the recent acquisition of Mexican territory. They were designed to es- tablish certain great principles which would not only furnish adequate remedies for existifig evils, hut, in all time to come, avoid the perils of a similar agitation by with- (64)
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drawiiigthequestionof slavery from the halls of Congress and the political arena, and committing it to the arbitrament of those who were immediately interested in it, and alone responsible for its consequences.
Here again arose a great, ami bitter controversy. The opponents of the bill declared that the compromise of 1850 had no relation to any territory except that acquired from Mexico, and that the effort to extend it to the Louisiana purchase was a violation of the Missouri Compro- mise, and was a broach of faith on the part of the proslavery party; while the supporters of the measure declared that the compromise of 1850 was intended to cover all controversies, merged all previous disputes, and had itself already repealed the restrictive provisions of the jMissouri Compromise by necessary implication. The bill passed. The test vote in the Senate showed, by States, twenty-one for it, seven against it, and three divided. Amongst those States voting yea were New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Iowa, Delaware, and Califor- nia. The divided votes were those of Connecticut, Tennessee, and Tex- as. But passed as the bill was, and although not on a sectional vote, it aroused an immense opposition; and again hot blood and hot words be- came the order of the day.
Before the bill was passed it was so amended as to provide for the or- ganization of Kansas Territory also, thereby becoming designated as the "Kansas-Nebraska bill." So soon as it became a law a strenuous struggle began between some of the advocates of slavery extension and some of its opponents for the possession of the Territory, whereby its status as a free or a slave Territory should be determined according to the provisions of the organizing act. There was a rush across the border from Missouri of proslavery settlers, and a few weeks later, under the auspices of emigrant aid societies in Massachusetts, of antislavery set- tlers from New England. Then ensued a great turmoil, which was finally pushed to the extreme of midnight butchery and civil war. Each side charged the other with beginning the career of violence; each charged the other with fraudulent voting at the first general election. A census taken in February, 1855, showed 1,070 registered voters from Southern States, 1,018 from the North, and 217 from other countries; but at the election in March over six thousand votes were cast, the ex- cessive poll being caused, to a considerable extent at least, by a large fraudulent vote from Missouri. The proslavery party carried the day and organized the first territorial government, the Legislature consist- ing of twenty-eight proslavery and eleven antislavery members. This Legislature was recognized by the Federal Government, and entered upon its work. It adopted a strong slavery code. The antislavery peo- ple in Kansas, however, repudiated the territorial government, and carried their opposition to it to the very verge of war against it as such. They denounced it as an illegal, usurping, and bogus concern; they im- 5
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ported supplies of Sharpe's rifles and organized companies, avowing their determination, if need be, to put down the lawful government by force; they held conveutions, by one of which a general couveutiou was called to meet at Topeka in October, 1855, for the purpose of forming a State constitution and applying for admission into the Union. The delegates to this general convention received in the aggregate 2,710 votes, but the supporters of the territorial government looked upon the whole proceed- ing as a farce, and did not vote. The Topeka convention, so called, adopt- ed an antislavery constitution, with a feature excluding negroes from the State; and this constitution was ratified by a vote of 1,731 to -16 — the sup- Ijorters of the territorial government again refusing to take any part. A State government was elected, consisting of a Governor and other officers, and members of the Legislature; but this government, while approaching the very extreme of a revolutionary one, stopped short of actual interference with the territorial government recognized by the Federal administration. The Topeka Constitution was presented to Congress, where it formed the subject of heated discussions, but neither it nor the government formed under it was recognized. The j)roslavery government, formed as it was according to law, maintained the control. Civil war raged. Large companies of armed men were introduced into the Territory by both sides, by far the larger part coming from the North. A reign of terror was established.
The presidential election of 1856, resulting in the choice of Mr. Buchanan, led to a change of Federal policy in regard to Kausan affairs. In May, 1857, Piobert J. Walker, a prominent statesman from Missis- sippi (a Pennsylvanian by birth), was appointed Governor of the Terri- tory, and it seems was authorized to make some concessidus to the anti- slavery party. Meanwhile the territorial Legislature had, in turn, called a constitutional convention; and a census, preliminary to the election therefor, was taken. It was a very defective census, for which fact the antislavery party, as is now admitted even by its ajaologists, was partly responsible. The election passed off quietly, less than one-fourth of the registered voters taking ])art in it. The antislavery party permitted it to go by default, not appearing at the polls.
Meanwhile Gov. Walker made certain speeches, in which be spoke of the climate of Kansas and its want of adaptation to slave labor; also he declared that if the coming constitutional convention should decline to submit the proposed new constitution to the people for ratification he would oppose its acceptance by Congress, and expressed confidence that the President would do likewise. These speeches were deeply resented in the South: first, and mainly, because they were regarded as a viola- tion of the principle of nonintervention by the Federal Government ; and secondly, and more particularly in Mississippi, because they came from Mr. Walker, whose politi<'al lionors had been derived from that State,
II IS LIFE, TIMES, AXIJ SPEECHES. 67
the political interests and rights of which — iu commou with those of her sister Houtheru States — he was charged with thereby betraying.
The constitutional convention met at Lecompton; and iu Movember, 1857, adopted a constitution which provided for the establishment of slavery. The convention determined not to submit it to a popular vote for ratification as a whole, but to submit only the article on slavery — ballots might be cast for "constitution with slavery," or "coustitution without slavery." This submission was made on the 21st of December, resulting in an almost unanimous vote for the "constitution with slav- ery " — the antislavery people again staying away from the polls.
Meanwhile, in the elections of October, the antislavery party had cap- tured the Legislature; aud this Legislature, assembling at Lecompton on December 7, ordered a further and unreserved submission of the constitution to the people on the 4th of January, 1858, providing for a ballot " against the constitution formed at Lecompton." At this election over ten thousand adverse votes were cast, with less than two hundred favorable.
On the 8th of December, 1857, the President submitted by liis an- nual message the Kansas affairs to the attention of Congress; and on the 2d of February following, by a special message, he transmitted the Lecompton constitution to that body, recommending that Kansas be speedily admitted to the Union, although the instrument had not Ijeen fully submitted to the people, aud declaring the antislavery party to be iu rebellion against the government. The debate upon these messages was. immensely protracted (it fills more than nine hundred pages of the Congressional Globe), and resulted in a reference of the constitution back to the people, where it was ultimately rejected. It is not uncom- mon for writers on these excitiug subjects to denounce the eftbrt to pass the Lecompton constitution as a monstrous fraud, or in similar terms; but there are certain considerations which may cause a dispassionate reader to take a more moderate view. Prof. Spring, whose sympathies are all against the instrument, yet makes this admission:
For tlic constitution tliere was a single tenable line of defense : that it was the work of a legitimate convention which had observed all indispensable formalities. The constitution dates back to the lirst territorial Legislature which submitted to the people the question of calling a constitutional convention. Fifteen months afterwards —an ample period for mature consideration— they respond favorably at the iiolls. After a lapse of three months the question reaches the second territorial Legislature, which "bows to the will of the people and provides for the election of delegates." Then between the legislative sanction and the election of delegates four months inter- vene. Before the delegates meet and enter upon their duties a further delay of three months occurs. Thev submit a single but vital article of the constitution to the peo- ple for acceptance or rejection December 21, and they ratify it almost unanimoasly. *
Nor is that all. What opposition there was to the coustitution was
*Kans,i,s (American Coniiiinnw eiimisl, p. 23».
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not expressed at the polls, the only forum iu our system for the deter- mination of such questions. Persistently, systematically, and with arms in hands, the antislavery people had refused to recognize the legal gov- ernment, had set up an illegal organization in ox^positiou, bai-ely stop- ping short of revolution, and had refused to vote. Could such recusan- cy be wisely or lawfully taken to overweigh the will of the people as ex- pressed through the ballot cast? To ask the question is to answer it. Still again: the constitution was in fact submitted on the only point of serious controversy, which was the question of slavery; and had it not been submitted on any point whatever, the step would have been no novelty in American constitution making.*
Finally, had the constitution as presented not in fact truly represented the wislies of the people, it could at any time have been altered by the people, and in very short order. Such a thing as a constitution unalter- able is unknown to our system.
During this contest a serious breach occurred within the ranks of the Democratic party. The Kansas-Nebraska bill declared it to be the "true intent and meaning" of the act "not to legislate slavery into any Territory or State, nor to exclude it therefrom, but to leave the peojjle thereof perfectly free to form and regulate their domestic institutions in their own way, subject only to the Coustitution of the United States." This declaration that "the people thereof" should be "perfectly free to form and regulate their domestic institutions in their own way " con- tained an ambiguity which jjroved fatal to the iinity of the party. In
*. Jameson, in his book " The Constitntiouai Couvention," enumerates one hundred and eigliteen conventions, and says : " Of these, seventy-eiglit have submitted the fruit of their labors to the peo- ple, and forty liave not." Jameson's work, however, is not reliable on this point. Amonsst the seventy-eight submissions enumerated by him are the following: Ohio, 1803; Missouri, 1820; Missis- sippi, 1S17; Mississippi, 1832; Tennessee, 1"%; Alabama, 1810; Arkansas, 1836; Illinois, 1818; Indiana, 1816; Kentucky, 1792; Louisiana, 1812. During the discussion of these questions, apropos of the Kan- sas constitution, newspapers of that day asserted that none of those constitutions had Ijeen referred to tlie people. It is quite certain that the following were not: Missouri. 1S20; Mississippi, 1817; Missis- sippi, 1832; Alabama, 1819; Keutuokr, 1792. And Poore, in the coniiiilation of "Constitutions and Chiirters " (a government publication), says that those of Oliio, 1S02, and Tennessee, 1791!, were not. On the other hand, Poore is not reliable on that point, eitlier; for he says that the Mlssissi]ipi con- stitutions of 1817 and 1832 were so referred, while it is certain that they were not. Poore and Jameson contradict e.ach other in sever.al jjiirticulars.— In denouncing the Southern constitutions of 1865 with a view to a justification of the reconstruction laws of Congress adopted in 1867 Mr. Blaine, in liis work " Twenty Tears of Congress" (Vol. II., p. 87), says: They diil not even stop to submit these ch;ingcs to the popular vote, but assumed tor their own assemblage of oligarclis tlie full power to motlify the organic laws of their States — an assumption irifhon/ precedcuf and icillioiU repetition in the Jiisfort/ of State co-nstititfioiif; in tliis ennntri/. antf utterly anbeersive of the fnnfla- mental idea of repuliliean tiovernment." In Ibis dogmatical statement Mr. P.laine .'■hows himself to be uninformed about the history of American constitutions. Not oidy had many of the States been admitted into the Union, prior to 1865, on constitutions not submitted, but also " the power to modify the oi-ganic laws " without reference to the people had been exercised in several instances —without considering the ten "secession " constitutions of 1861— in South C'arolin.a, 1777 and 1790: in Penn.sylvania, 1789; in Delaware, 1792 and IS31; in Georgia,1795 and 1798; in Kentucky, 1799: in New York, 18(11; in Mississippi, 1832— one of these instances being in Mr. Blaine's native State.^In Mis- sissijipi, in fact, there have been six constitutions and revisions; those of 1817, 1832, 1.861, 186.'.. 1.869, an'l ISito. Only one of them Avas ever sulnnirted to the people for ratification, which was tliatof 1869, the Reconstruction Constitution dictated by Congress, ami the submission of which was a mocUerv.
HIS LIFE, TIMES, AND SPEECHES. 69
connection with it Mr. Douglas, who was the loailer of the Northern Democrats, and whose course theretofore in connection with the shivery controversy had placed him high in the good graces of the Southern wing of that party, enunciated his doctrine of "squatter sovereignty," whicli was, in effect, that such persons as should live in a territory could, by their territorial Legislature, and before organization as a State, regulate the question of slavery ; and, if they saw proper, exclude it altogether. But this the Southern ])arty denied. They held that the right of any citizen to carry his slave property into the territories of the United States was secured to him by the Federal Constitution; that even Congress could not deny that right; that the territorial Legisla- tures were only instrumentalities or agents of Congress for the provi- sional government of the Territories; and that, since an agent's power cannot exceed that of the principal, tiie territorial Legislature might not do what Congress could not— in short, that not until the territory was clothed with the sovereignty of a State could any citizen's right to hold slave property within its limits be denied. This difference of view caused Mr. Douglas and tlK)se whom he led to refuse to cooperate with the remainder of the party in their effort to admit Kansas at once into the Union on the Lecompton Constitution; and because of that refusal, although the Democrats were in the majority in both Houses, that effort failed. By many of the Southern Democrats this course of Mr. Douglas was regarded as a betrayal of the party in the interest of his presidential aspirations, and he was denounced as worse than a " black Eepublican." It all led to the rupture of 18G0 in the party, and the consequent election of Mr. Lincoln.
Another, and a different, episode needs attenticm here. In the year 1855, one William Walker, a Tennesseean, recently resident in California, left that State at the head of a band of adventurers for Nicaragua, which he entered in the character of ally to one of the factions habitu- ally disputing the mastery of that country. So long as he acted under color of the authority of the chiefs of the faction which he supported he was generally successful. He captured the city of Grenada, which was deemed the stronghold of the adverse faction, and then assumed the title of General. Later he took upon himself the title of President of Nicaragua (or was chosen to that office, as he claimed), and pro- mulgated a decree reestablishing slavery in that country. He aroused the jealousy of the natives and weakened himself by various impru- dences. Yet he maintained an unequal contest for about two years, suc- cumbing at last to a coalition of the Central American States, and sur- rendering at Rivas. He returned to this country (or, as he claimed, was broiTght thither against his will), and immediately commenced at New Orleans the fitting out of a new military expedition to Nicaragua.
70 LUCIUS Q. a LAMAR:
He was arrested and compelled to give bond to desist from unlawful enterprises; but he very soon left New Orleans ou a steamboat freighted with armed men and military stores, ostensibly for Mobile, but in fact for Nicaragua, where he and his followers lauded at Puuta Arenas on November 25, 1857. Here Commodore Paulding, of our navy, com- Ijelled him to surrender with some of his followers, bringing him to New York as a prisoner. The President, by a special message to Con- gress, January 7, 1858, condemned Walker's expedition, but also con- demned the Commodore for violating the sovereignty of a foreign coun- try in assuming to make any arrests within it, and declined to hold Walker as a prisoner.* This message produced a discussion in Con- gress, this expedition and others like it being viewed with great dislike in the North as of proslavery tendency.
We are now prepared to resume the consideration of the attitude of Mr. Lamar toward these stirring questions.
Of course his candidacy for Congress was not free from opposition within the party. The objection most strongly urged against him was his connection by marriage with Hon. Howell Cobb, a memlier of Mr. Buchanan's cabinet, who was known to have great influence with the President. It was remembered that this gentleman, as Speaker of the House, had advocated and had materially assisted in the adoption of the comjjromise measures of 1850; and that, when assailed at home because of his course, he had afterwards canvassed the State of Georgia as a candidate for Governor on the Union ticket, and had been trium- phantly elected. Resenting the course of Gov. Walker in Kansas, as the State Plights party did, and understanding that the President was committed to support him in that course, there was an attitude of growing hostility to the administration, albeit a Democratic administra- tion. It was thought, or at all events urged, that the kinship of Mr. Lamar to Secretary Cobb, and their long friendship, would bring the former under the influence of the latter to such an extent as to impair bis efi'ectiveness as the champion of tlie party.
But this objection, and all others, failed to defeat the movement in Mr. Lamar's favor. In the month of June, 1857, there was a meeting in Oxford of Democratic citizens of Lafayette County, at which Mr. Lamar was present. He submitted resolutions condemnatory of Gov. Walker's course, and made a strong speech in their support. The res- olutions were adopted, and Mr. Lamar was nominated for the Lower House of the State Legislature.
The Democratic congressional nominating convention met in Holly Springs early in July. Before that body were placed the names of Mr.
* The "American Conflict; " Greeley, V^ol. I., p. 270. Files of Weekly Mismsippian lor .Tannary, 1S58.
HIS LIFE, TIMES, AND SPEECHES. 71
Clapp, of Marshall; Mr. Cushman, of Lafayette; aiul Mr. Jackson, of Tippah. This brought about a deadlock. All candidates were filially dropped, and Mr. Wright, of Tijjpah, and Mr. Lamar were placed before the convention. After the sixtieth ballot of the meeting Mr. Lamar was nominated by acclamation.
The fact that the convention met in Holly Springs was fortunate for him. Long afterwards (in 1879) he said in a speech made there:
The first political speech I ever made which attracted general public attention in Mississippi I made here. Near twenty years ago I was nominated as a candidate for Congress by a convention assembled here, and I attribute that result largely to the manifestation of local attachment by the peo|)le here. What I said upon that occa- sion has long finee passed from my memory, but the kindness and sui)]iort which I then received and have ever since received from you I nevei' can forjiet. I know that public professions are easily made and are counted cheap, but iis circumstances have prevented me from addressing you of late years you must permit me to depart froui my usual reserve and to say tliat there is no community in Mississippi or in the country to vvliich I am more attached than to this. I not only esteem and respect it for the intelligence, refinement, and puljlic spirit of its citizens; for the enteiprise of its business men; for the devoted piety and eloquence of its ministers of the gospel-; for the ability and honor of its bar, which I consider second to none in the State — but I also love this community for many personal reasons. Your city is in my affec- tions consecrated by thron^'iuir memories, in which joys and sorrows are strangely interminijled. Some of the best and most cherished friendshijis of my mature man- hood were formed here. I have in some way conceived the idea that I am better un- derstood and more generously regarded here tlian anywhere else. I hope it is not vanity in me to feel and say this, for it has been and will ever be a consolation to me in many a dark hour of depression and gloom.
Upon Mr. Lamar's nomination he immediately made arrangements for a thorough canvass of the district. It was announced that Col. James L. Alcorn, of Coahoma County, would enter the lists as the can- didate of the opposition, composed of AVhigs and Know-nothings, and arrangements were made for a joint canvass. This canvass excited very general interest throughout the State. Mr. Thomas Walton, writing from Jackson under date of September 25, said to him:
Xow that I have got at it I must write you what I have heard at Jackson. I only heard what convinced me that you have much to do to sustain your reputation. Every man was asking about you, every man remarking that Mr. Alcorn, it was ^aid, would be most egregiously disapi5oint( d if he expected an easy passage through this campaign, for that you were going to prove a more unmanageable character than any other he could have found in the State. However, they do not set you against Mr. Alcorn. They all talk of what you are going to do for the credit of the State when you reach Washington. I tell you what, my friend, you have, in plantation parlance, a hard mw to weed. As German Le«ter said to me last evening, you have more rep- utation than any other man in the State, considering that you have never been here and that it is all built on hearsay.
The following extract is from a letter written to Mr. Lamar by his brother Tliompson, of date August 17, and will help to illustrate the temper and views of the Southern people at this time:
72 LUCIUS Q. C. LAMAR:
I am afraid that if you are elected this time you will not be able to hold your seat — that is, if Jell' writes that which is correct. He says that you will probably assuuje an attitude of hostility to the administration on account of Gov. Walker's position. I shall be sorry if it proves to be the ease. Opposition to tlie administiation will nec- essarily drive you into a sectional party. The Northern Demociats will sustain it and will act with those at the Soiitli who do. You will be defeated whenever you have a national Democrat for a competitor. Although I disapprove of INIr. Walker's threats, I must say that I think the convention ought, under the circumstances, to submit the constitution it may foi'm to a vote of ratification. Whom tlie administra- tion tliinks should be entitled to vote on the adoption of the constitution will apjiear from the inclosed slip, cut from the Wusiiington Union. No fair man, I think, should object to the views there set forth. It is idle to say that IMr. Walker can eifect any- thing either for or against the establishment of slavery in Kansas. That question was settled against us long before Mr. Walker went to that Territory — not by the action of any government official, but by the immense influx of Northern immi- grants. All reliable accounts agree in stating that the jiroslavery jiarty aie vastly in the minority in Kansas. I would prefer that her people .should at once adopt a free- .state constitution, rather than that the free-soilers should stand aloof and perndt a constitution recognizing slavery to be formed and then in a few years almlish it. I consider it a foregone conclusion that a vast majority in Kansas are against us, and can settle the matter when they choose to act in conformitj' to law. !My confidence in the Northern Democracy and Mr. Buchanan continues unaliated. The entire unanimity with which the former have approved and defended the decision of the Sui>reme Court in the Dred Scott case, with their avowals of willingness to admit other slave States into the Union, seems to me sufficient to satisfy the most exacting. There is one view of tiie case which alone would prevent me from denouncing IMr. Buchanan for not removing Walker. Tlie latter proposed that all the inhabitants of Kansas should vote upon the adoption of the constitution under which they are to be governed. I myself think the convention should provide for that, since not more than a third of the voters are represented by delegates. But Walker goes farther: he threatens a rejection by Congress of the application for admission as a State, and his own individual opposition if his views are not adopted. The latter I consider his offense. Not the course he dictates, but the dictation. Now, if he were removed from office, it would be almost impossil>le to get the Northern mind to perceive the distinction. Tiie opponents of Democracy would urge, with a good deal of plausibil- ity, that Mr. Walker was removed for advocating the claims of each and all of tlie citizens of Kansas to take part in forming the government under whicli they were to live, for endeavoring to carry out in good faith the jirinciple of the Kansas-Nebraska bill. Their denunciation of the South for a breach of faith in this case would liave a far greater effect than when hurled at her for violating the Missouri Compromise. My convictions are fixed and unwavering that if Mr. Walker be removed and Kansas be admitted as a slave State, without submitting the constitution to a vote of the people, in 1801 a black Republican President and Congress will be installed in office. For the foregoing reasons I can see cause why the President can retain Walker in office without being a " traitor to the South." But enough of politics.
Mr. Lamar was elected, and rejiaired to Washington about the 1st of December, 1857, to take liis seat iu the Thirty-fifth Congress. On his arrival he found, of course, that the Nicaragnan expedition and the Kansas question were creating great excitement and discussion. Hav- ing been admitted to his seat, he made his first sjieech in Congress ou
HIS LIFE, TIMES, AND SPEECHES. 73
the 13tli of January, 1858. la it lie dealt with both of the questious of the day, aud the speech is yiveii iu full in the "Appeudix" as No. 1. It will be observed that he touched but lightly ou the Nicaraguau ques- tion. Iu his opinion it seems to have been of small importance.
Mr.