Part 14

After completing his collegiate course he selected the law as his profession, and immediately commenced his studies in the office of François Xavier Martin, then a practicing lawyer in this State, but now a Judge of the Supreme Court of the State of Louisiana. The same diligent attention to the studies of his profession, which had distinguished his career in college, enabled him to obtain admittance to the bar in the year 1798. In that same year the late Chief Justice Taylor, who had married his sister, was elevated to the bench and gave all his business to his young friend and relative, which put him at once into full practice. This sudden accumulation of business, which would have operated to the disadvantage of a mind less active and cultivated, served only to call forth all his energies, by the necessity it occasioned of a thorough preparation to meet the great responsibility thrown upon him. He very soon acquired distinction in his profession, which steadily increased until he attained, by universal acknowledgment, the proud eminence of being at the head of the bar of this State--a pre-eminence which he never lost until he was raised by his admiring countrymen to a still more exalted station. But while he was thus pursuing, with rare success, the profits and honors of his profession, he never for a moment lost sight of the interests of his country. The very next year after he reached the age of manhood he was elected a member of the State Senate from his native county of Craven; and in 1808 he was elected a member of the House of Commons, and was chosen to preside over its deliberations. The same year he was nominated by the Federal party, to which he was attached, as Presidential Elector for the district in which he resided. The reputation which he had acquired at the bar and in the legislative halls of the State for integrity, patriotism and distinguished ability procured his election in 1813, and again in 1815, to the House of Representatives in the Congress of the United States. Of the elevated stand which he took in that body it is needless for me here to speak. It is a part of the history of the country, that amidst the brilliant constellation of statesmen then seen in the councils of the American nation--a constellation illustrated by the genius and eloquence of a Lowndes, a Randolph, a Calhoun, a Webster, and a Clay, the star of Gaston was far from being the least brilliant. The admirer of parliamentary oratory will find in his speeches upon the Loan Bill and the previous question some of the finest displays of reasoning and eloquence which our country has produced.

In 1817, Judge Gaston voluntarily retired from Congress, and never returned to the national councils. The residue of his days he devoted to the duties of domestic and professional life, and to the service of his native State. He was frequently chosen, sometimes by the freemen of the county of Craven, and sometimes by those of the town of New Bern, to represent them in the General Assembly. Of the value of his services in this more limited, but still very important sphere of usefulness, it is difficult to speak in adequate terms without the appearance of exaggeration. I have not the materials, if I had the time and opportunity, for stating in detail all the measures which he accomplished, or assisted in accomplishing, for the good of the State. I can point only to a few monuments in the course of our legislative history, to show that the hand of a master-workman has been there. In the year 1808 he drew up the "Act regulating the descent of inheritances," which, with scarcely any alteration or addition, remains the law on that subject to this day. In 1818 he was mainly instrumental in the establishment of our present Supreme Court system; and in 1828 all his varied powers of eloquence and argumentation were exerted to their utmost to prevent the success of a measure in relation to the banks, which would have spread ruin and dismay throughout the length and breadth of our State. His last appearance in the Legislature was as a member of the House of Commons in 1831 when he made a splendid effort, but all in vain, in favor of rebuilding the capitol, which had been destroyed by fire the preceding summer.

In the summer of 1833 a vacancy upon the bench of the Supreme Court occurred by the death of Chief Justice Henderson. From various causes, of which I know too little to attempt an explanation, the Supreme Court had at that time by no means so strong a hold upon the confidence of the people as it has since obtained. It was very desirable, therefore, on the part of the friends of the system to fill the vacancy by a man of commanding talents and great influence, in order to give it strength. All eyes were at once turned towards Judge Gaston. But there were supposed to be two very serious obstacles to his acceptance of the office. It was known that his practice at the bar was extensive and very lucrative, and it was also known that a prudent regard to his private affairs would dictate that his professional income should not be exchanged for a judge's salary. It was also believed by many that the thirty-second article of our State Constitution forbade his accepting the office, in that clause which declared that "no person who shall deny the truth of the Protestant religion shall be capable of holding any office or place of trust or profit, in the civil department, within this State." The friends of the Judge nevertheless urged him to become a candidate for the office. After a full and fair explanation of the latter and most important objection, he became satisfied that it was not tenable; and as to the former, that his duty to his country required him to make the sacrifice. His name was accordingly brought before the Legislature in the winter of 1833, and he was elected by a large majority on the first ballot. At the ensuing term of the Court he took his seat upon the bench, and from that time until the very day of his death he continued to discharge the duties of his office with an ability and devotion seldom equaled and never surpassed. When a Convention of the people of the State was called in 1835, to amend the Constitution, he took a seat in it as one of the members from the county of Craven. Of the manner in which he performed the peculiarly delicate and important duties of assisting to revise and amend our fundamental law, I know it is needless for me to speak in this presence. The distinguished President of this Institution, who was then Governor of the State and a member of the Convention, can tell the extent of his labors and the value of his services in that body. Suffice it for me to say that he was placed on almost every important committee; that he took a leading part in every important debate; that he, in a great measure, guided and directed the whole business of the Convention. And when its labors were at last brought to a successful conclusion, it was from his hand that the amendments to the Constitution received the form and dress in which they now appear. Excepting his judicial duties, this was the last public service in which he was engaged. It is true that when our Senators in Congress resigned in 1840, the Whig party, which had then the ascendency in the Legislature, tendered him the nomination for one of the vacancies; but he declined it, preferring to remain on the bench, where he thought he could do the State better service. Nor need we regret his determination; for though none could have represented the State in the Senate with more dignity, fidelity, and ability, yet his profound legal attainments, his extensive and varied information, his severe and patient habits of thought, and a style of composition at once dignified and elegant, so admirably fitted him for the high tribunal on which he was placed that we could not have wished to see him transferred to any other station, however exalted. But it is needless for me to enlarge upon his judicial fitness and ability. The Chief Justice of the Court, the associate of his labors and his duties, himself one of the ablest judges and most profound lawyers of his day, has emphatically pronounced from the judgment-seat that he was a "great judge." In confirmation of this sentence, if it needed confirmation, I would refer to all his reported judicial opinions; and particularly to the opinion of the Court as delivered by him in the case of the _State_ vs. _Will_, 1 Dev. and Bat. Rep., 121; and his dissenting opinion in the _State_ vs. _Miller_, _ibid._, 500; the latter of which has been pronounced by a very competent judge one of the finest judicial arguments to be found in this country.

I have said that Judge Gaston continued in the faithful discharge of his official duties until the very day of his death. This is literally true. On Tuesday, the 23d of January past, not quite a fortnight ago, he took his seat in the Court as usual, though he had felt for several days a sensation of chilliness and a difficulty of breathing. He remained on the bench until about two o'clock P. M., giving strict attention to a case then under discussion, when he was attacked with faintness and other symptoms of violent sickness. He was taken to his room and a physician called in, who very soon relieved him. He revived, became cheerful and engaged in an interesting conversation with some of his friends who had called to see him. In the course of the evening he told several anecdotes, at which they laughed heartily. "He then related" (says a published account) "the particulars of a convivial party at Washington City, many years ago, and spoke of one who, on that occasion, avowed himself a freethinker in religion. 'From that day,' said Judge Gaston, 'I always looked on that man with distrust. I do not say that a freethinker may not be an honorable man; that he may not, from high motives, scorn to do a mean act; but I dare not trust him. A belief in an All-ruling Divinity, who shapes our ends, whose eye is upon us, and who will reward us according to our deeds, is necessary. We must believe and feel that there is a God--All wise and Almighty." As he was pronouncing the last word, he rose to give it greater emphasis. The moment after there was a sudden rush of blood to the brain, when he immediately fell back and expired.

In reviewing the life of this eminent man, which has been thus hastily and imperfectly sketched, we see that though left an orphan in earliest infancy in a country where he had no kindred, save a widowed mother and an infant sister, though professing a religious faith almost proscribed, and attached to a political party always in the minority, he yet rose to the highest summit of professional distinction, acquired, during a brief career in the Legislature of his State, a preponderating influence in its councils, was among the foremost of the great in the national assembly, was selected by almost general acclamation to preside in the highest judicial tribunal known to our law, and, more than all, won and maintained to the day of his death, the confidence, the admiration, and the affection of his countrymen. It is interesting, and it must be profitable to all, particularly to you, young gentlemen, who are just entering upon the career of life, to inquire what were the qualities and what the talents which enabled their possessor, under such circumstances, to achieve such great results. In the very outset of his life, we discover one trait to which much, if not all, of his success was owing--his love and veneration for his mother.

An early attention to all his duties, and a desire to excel in everything useful, was another distinctive trait in the character of Judge Gaston. We discover this in the rapid progress made in his studies and the distinction which he acquired at college. I am aware that college honors are often decried, at least by those who never obtained them, and that it has been frequently said that they afford no presage of excellence in after-life. I beg leave to dissent from that opinion. Judge Gaston himself thought far otherwise. Long after he had left the walls of his _alma mater_, when his mind was enlarged by observation and corrected by experience, he expressed himself in an address to the young men who then occupied the seats now filled by you in the following glowing words: "True it is that it sometimes, though very rarely, happens that those who have been idle during their academical course have by extraordinary exertions retrieved their early neglect and in the end outstripped others who started in the race far ahead. These are exceptions--they furnish cause to humble arrogance, check presumption, banish despair and encourage reformation. But as surely as a virtuous life usually precedes a happy death so surely will it be found that within the college precincts is laid the groundwork of that pre-eminence afterwards acquired in the strife of men; and that college distinctions are not only good testimony of the fidelity with which college duties have been performed, but the best presages and pledges of excellence on a more extended and elevated field of action."

A faithful and fearless discharge of whatever he found to do in the path of duty was another prominent trait in the character of the Judge. He never asked what interest or policy might dictate, but what truth and justice required; and the latter he resolutely performed, "uncaring consequences." I might mention many instances of his braving popular prejudices, and incurring for a time popular odium, in doing what an enlightened conscience told him he ought to do. A memorable instance is presented in his appearing as counsel for Lord Granville in the famous suits which he instituted in this State after the Revolutionary war. A course, which all would now acknowledge to be right, then very sensibly affected his popularity for many years. He was at that time a young man, and it required no little of the force of conscious rectitude to enable him to stem the torrent of prejudice which ran so strong against him.

Another eminent quality which illustrated the whole life of Judge Gaston was the constant love of order and a devoted and almost sacred regard for the Constitution and laws of his country. In all his precepts, wheresoever and to whomsoever uttered, in all his conduct, whether in public or in private, he inculcated and enforced obedience to the law, observance of order, and the support and maintenance of our fundamental institutions in all their integrity. His views and opinions upon this subject are expressed in an address which he delivered at Princeton in September, 1835, before the "American Whig" and "Cliosophic" Societies of the College of New Jersey. It is difficult to find anywhere, within the same compass, the duties of an American citizen, in relation to the laws and institutions of his country, so clearly expressed and so powerfully enforced. The address was much admired at the time, and received on two occasions a compliment of which any man might be justly proud. In a charge to the grand jury of his Court, Chief Justice Cranch, of the District of Columbia, read several pages from the address, accompanied by remarks of the highest commendation. And shortly afterwards, Governor Vance, of Ohio, on an occasion so solemn as his inauguration, quoted largely from it, after speaking in the most flattering terms of the author, as one of the most eminent statesmen and profound jurists of our country.

If the qualities which we have considered excite our admiration and command our respect, that to which I would now call your attention is well calculated to inspire love and win affection. I mean his kind regard for the young. To them he was ever accessible, kind and communicative; always ready to give advice, or to impart instruction. Among them it was his delight to unbend, after the severity of his official labors, and to engage in their innocent amusements. Often have I seen him in such moments of relaxation; and as I saw, I could but admire and love a wisdom which, while it could instruct senates, disdained not the sports of the young, nor even the frolics of infancy; which, while it could one moment expound the gravest of laws, could the moment after explain an apothegm for the instruction of youth, or solve a riddle for the amusement of childhood. His regard for the young extended from the earliest to the latest period of that time of life. For those just approaching the verge of manhood he has often given signal proofs of his solicitude. In 1832 he was invited to deliver an address before the two Literary Societies of this institution, and in 1835 he received an invitation to perform a similar duty before the Societies of Princeton College in New Jersey. In both instances, though at much personal inconvenience, he complied with the request, and delivered the addresses to which I have had occasion to allude. On the merit of these productions the public has already decided. It remains only for me to say that no young man can read them, as they ought to be read, with care and attention, without profit and advantage; and the best return I can make for your kindness to me on this occasion is to advise each of you to procure copies of them, and to "attend to their admonitions, treasure up their counsels and obey their injunctions."

From what I have already said, you have doubtless anticipated my account of the character of Judge Gaston in private and domestic life. A kind master, a fond father, a true friend, a most amusing and instructive companion, he made the social intercourse of life a source at once of pleasure and profit. None could make the grave remark, none could tell the laughable anecdote, better than he. An evening spent among his friends always left them in doubt whether to admire most the extent of his information, the depth of his erudition, the variety of his powers, or the easy, cheerful, instructive flow of his conversation.

It can hardly be necessary for me to say that Judge Gaston was always a zealous and enlightened friend to the cause of education. His great services to the University as a guardian and benefactor for more than forty years have been very justly and appropriately acknowledged in the resolutions recently adopted. He was appointed a trustee of the University in the year 1802, and was at the time of his death, with the exception of Judge Potter, the oldest member of the board.

The crowning glory of Judge Gaston's character remains yet to be spoken of. He was a firm believer in the superintending Providence of an All-wise and an Almighty Being, and in the truths of Revelation. The principles of the Christian religion were deeply impressed upon his infant mind by the devoted piety of his excellent mother; and they were never forgotten and never departed from. An abiding faith in them was a staff to his hand and a lamp to his feet. It sustained, guided, and animated him through life, and in the hour of death it did not desert him. The last sentence he uttered recognized its truth and its consolations. Yes, this elegant scholar, this accomplished orator, this eminent statesman, this profound jurist, was an humble follower of the meek and lowly Jesus. He thought it no scorn to bow at the footstool--he felt it no degradation to take upon him the yoke of a Saviour. And when his last hour came, we cannot doubt that the parting soul counted all--fame, reputation, worldly pleasures, worldly honors--as but dross, in comparison with that faith, upon whose wings it was upborne to the bright realms of glory.

Such, my young friends, was the great and good man whose life and character I have attempted to portray. I cannot take upon myself to say that he was faultless: since the memorable declaration of the incarnate Son of God, that "there is none good save one, that is God," it would be impious for me to do so; but whatever might have been his frailties, he had such great virtues, such noble qualities, there was such a harmony in his character, such a beauty in his life, that I can conscientiously propose him for your study, and recommend him for your imitation. Go then, and like him, perform fully, faithfully, fearlessly, your duty to yourselves, your families, your country and your God; and then, like him, you will be honored in your lives, and when you come to die, a nation's tears will hallow your graves.

ADDRESS AT THE UNIVERSITY.

BY WILLIAM GASTON.

_Gentlemen of the Dialectic and Philanthropic Societies_:

When I look around on this extraordinary concourse of visitors I cannot but feel that expectation has been too highly excited, and cannot but anticipate and regret the disappointment which it must necessarily meet with. Aware of the value which is here set upon the ceremony of the annual address; knowing that friends of the University throughout the State regard it as calculated not only to excite a spirit of emulation among the students, but to attract the public attention to the institution itself; and warmly attached to that noble cause, for the advancement of which these edifices have been erected and your associations formed, I felt myself bound to accept the invitation, in obedience to which I appear before you. Could I indeed have foreseen the unusual engagements which, added to the ordinary occupations of a busy life, have left me no leisure to prepare anything worthy of the general expectation, I should have deemed myself at liberty to decline the call. But the discovery was not made until after my word was pledged and it was too late to hope that the duty could be devolved on another. Compelled then to choose between an entire disappointment of your hopes and the presenting myself to you without the advantage of full preparation, I have resolved to execute the undertaking imperfectly rather than forego it altogether. To whatever petty mortifications the adoption of this alternative may expose me elsewhere, from you, my young friends, I am sure of a favorable reception. You will see in it an expression of the sense which I entertain of the honor conferred on me, by your choice, of my readiness to gratify your wishes, and of my solicitude to cheer you on in the noble career upon which you have entered. The few homely truths which I wish to impress upon your minds will not indeed come mended from my tongue, but I do not despair that, presented in their naked plainness, but urged with the earnestness and sincerity of friendship, they may win their way to your generous and affectionate approbation.