Part 38

It is not possible that there can be found, anywhere, a plainer manifestation of a decided intent to raise the consideration and standing of the slave than is expressed in these acts of the Legislature. Will the Court disappoint this unequivocal intention? Will they rebuke the spirit of the age and strike back this unfortunate race of men, advancing from the depths of misery and wretchedness to a higher ground under the shield of so much legislation enacted in their behalf?

Our laws furnish incontestable evidence of what is the enlightened sentiment of the State. The history of other nations affords a body of luminous information to instruct us what that sentiment should be; and I feel no small pleasure in believing that the legislative policy of our past and present day most fully accords with that course which the long tried experience of bygone ages has distinctly marked out as the wiser and better one.

Upon this subject the Baron Montesquieu has gathered the choicest materials of every age, clime, and nation. With a mind, formed in the mould of patience itself; strong by nature and enriched with a philosophic cultivation, he hath executed the task of analysis with the most profound and discriminating sagacity. With no object in view but the advancement of political knowledge, he hath unmasked all the forms of government, traced to the fountain the principles of their action, and exposed to the meanest capacity the deep-hidden reasons of all the diversified relations of man, and the true genius of the laws necessary to support them.

In his _Spirit of Laws_, Vol. I, p. 291 _et seq._, to 298, he treats of the subject of slavery, and informs us as the result of his inquiries that in governments whose policy is warlike, and the citizens ever ready with arms in their hands to quell attempts to regain liberty, slaves may be treated with great rigor and severity without the hazard of servile wars; but that in republics, where the policy is essentially pacific, and the citizens devoted to the arts of peace and industry, the treatment of slaves should be mild and humane; that the power of the master should not be absolute, and that the slave should be put within the keeping of the law. If that candid and ingenious writer be not deceived in his conclusions, he has given us a hint for the regulation of our domestic servitude, the neglect of which may lead to the most fatal sequel. Our government is perhaps the most pacific on earth, and the citizens most addicted to the pursuits of civilized life. How inconsistent, then, will it be in us to adopt a policy in relation to our slaves which must be either yielded up or must change the habits and character of our people, and ultimately our form of government, with the blessing of liberty itself.

We may not expect that the danger of servile wars will only operate to arm the citizens generally in their own defense. The recent insurrection may show, indeed, the formation of numerous companies of yeomanry for the purpose of being always ready to meet and vanquish the earliest movements of insurrectionary slaves; but a little observation at this time, so soon, too, after the panic that gave rise to these preparations, will serve to show that at the present moment there remains scarcely a single one of the many associations which were then formed. They grew up with the panic, and they have vanished with it. It must be apparent, then, if ever ready arms are necessary to our safety, they must be lodged in hands not filled with other occupations, but responsible to the public for efficiency and dispatch. In other words, if a display of force be requisite to chain down the spirit of insurrection or stop the bloody career of its actual march, a standing army, which will leave the great body of citizens to pursue their favorite occupations of peace in perfect security, will be the loud demand of the community. How certainly such a permanent association of armed men, first formed to preserve the relations of our slavery, will ultimately introduce a civil slavery over the whole land, the experience of other nations, and the warning of our own Constitution, will most fearfully answer. I know it has been frequently said, and with some it is a favorite idea, that the more cruel the master, the more subservient will be the slave. This precept is abhorrent to humanity, and is a heresy unsupported by the great mass of historic experience. The despair of individuals cannot last forever; neither will that of a numerous people afflicted with common wrongs, and exchanging a common sympathy. Rome had no servile wars till her masters had outraged every feeling of justice and benevolence and made their slaves drink the cup of unmitigated cruelty to its last drop; nor had she any, that I remember, after the first Christian prince of the empire had relaxed the intolerable degradations of that unfortunate class of her people.

I feel and acknowledge, as strongly as any man can, the inexorable necessity of keeping our slaves in a state of dependence and subservience to their masters. But when shooting becomes necessary to prevent insolence and disobedience, it only serves to show the want of proper domestic rules, but it will never supply it; and never can a punishment like this effect any other purpose than to produce open conflicts or secret assassinations.

In adjusting the balance of this delicate subject, let it not be believed that the great and imminent danger is in overloading the scale of humanity. The courts must pass through Scylla and Charybdis; and they may be assured that the peril of shipwreck is not avoided, by shunning with distant steerage, the whirlpool of Northern fanaticism. That of the South is equally fatal. It may not be so visibly seen, but it is as deep, as wide, and as dangerous.

JAMES JOHNSTON PETTIGREW.

BY MRS. C. P. SPENCER.

James Johnston Pettigrew, late a Brigadier-General in the army of the Confederate States, was born at Lake Scuppernong, in Tyrrell county, North Carolina, upon the 4th day of July, 1828. His family is of French extraction. At an early period, however, one branch of it emigrated to Scotland, where it may be traced holding lands near Glasgow about the year 1492. Afterwards a portion of it removed to the northern part of Ireland. From this place James Pettigrew, the great-grandfather of the subject of this sketch, about the year 1732, came into Pennsylvania, and, some twenty years afterwards, into North Carolina. About 1770 this gentleman removed to South Carolina, leaving here, however, his son Charles, who was a resident successively of the counties of Granville, Chowan, and Tyrrell. Charles Pettigrew was subsequently the first Bishop-elect of the Protestant Episcopal Church in this Diocese. He died in 1807, and his memory survives fragrant with piety, charity, and an extended usefulness. His son, Ebenezer, succeeded to his estates and reputation, devoting his life to the successful drainage and cultivation of the fertile lands which he owned and to the government of the large family of which he was the head. Mr. Pettigrew resisted every solicitation presented by his neighbors for the employment of his talents in public service. Upon one occasion alone was his reluctance overcome. In 1835 he was chosen by a very flattering vote to represent his district in the Congress of the United States. At that election he received the rare compliment of an almost unanimous vote from his fellow-citizens of Tyrrell, failing to obtain but three votes out of more than seven hundred. He could not be prevailed upon to be a candidate at a second election. Mr. Pettigrew married Miss Shepard, a daughter of the distinguished family of that name seated at New Bern. She died in July, 1830, when her son James Johnston was but two years of age. Ebenezer Pettigrew lived until July, 1848, having witnessed with great sensibility the very brilliant opening of his son's career among the contemporary youth of the land.

After his mother's death the child was taken to the home of his grandmother at New Bern, and there remained until he was carried into Orange county to pursue his education. Owing to an unfortunate exposure whilst an infant, young Pettigrew became a delicate boy, but by diligent and systematic exercise he gradually inured his constitution to endure without harm extraordinary fatigue and the extremes of weather. He was a member of various schools at Hillsborough from the year 1836, enjoying the advantages of instruction by Mr. Bingham for about four years previous to becoming a student at the University. During this period the state of his health required him to be often at home for several months together. He was a member of the University of North Carolina during a full term of four years, graduating there at the head of his class in June, 1847. From early childhood young Pettigrew had been noted as a boy of extraordinary intellect. At all the schools he was easily first in every class and in every department of study. He seemed to master his text-books by intuition. They formed the smallest portion of his studies, for his eager appetite for learning ranged widely over subjects collateral to his immediate tasks. Nor did they always stop here. His father was amused and gratified upon one occasion to observe the extent to which he had profited by his excursions among the medical books of an eminent physician at Hillsborough, of whose family he was an inmate at the age of fourteen. In the class-room at the University he appeared in reciting rather to have descended to the level of the lesson than to have risen up to it. Student as he was, and somewhat reserved in demeanor, he was nevertheless very popular with his fellows, and the object of their enthusiastic admiration.

Anecdotes were abundant as to the marvelous range of his acquirements, and the generosity and patience with which he contributed from his stores even to the dullest applicant for aid. Nor was it only in letters that he was chief. A fencing-master, who happened to have a class among the collegians, bore quite as decided testimony to his merits in fencing as he had obtained from the various chairs of the faculty respecting his proficiency in their several branches.

The commencement at which he graduated was distinguished by the attendance of President Polk, Secretary Mason and Lieutenant Maury of the National Observatory. Impressed by the homage universally paid to his talents and acquirements, as well as by the high character of his graduating oration, these gentlemen proposed to him to become an assistant in the Observatory. After spending some weeks in recreation, Mr. Pettigrew reported to Lieutenant Maury, and remained with him for six or eight months. In the occupations of this office he fully maintained his earlier promise, but soon relinquished the position, inasmuch as the exposure and labor incident to it were injuriously affecting his health.

After an interval of travel in the Northern States, Mr. Pettigrew, in the fall of 1848, became a student of law in the office of James Mason Campbell, Esq., of Baltimore, where he remained for several months. At the close of this period, by the solicitation of his kinsman, the late James L. Petigru of Charleston, S. C., he entered his office with the design of being subsequently associated with him in the practice of his profession. Upon obtaining license, Mr. Pettigrew, by the advice of the kinsman just mentioned, proceeded to Berlin and to other universities in Germany, in order to perfect himself in the civil law. He remained in Europe for nearly three years. Two years of this time he devoted to study, the remainder he spent in traveling upon the Continent, and in Great Britain and Ireland. He availed himself of this opportunity of becoming acquainted with modern European languages so far as to be able to speak with ease German, French, Italian, and Spanish. During this tour he contracted a great partiality for Spanish character and history, having had considerable opportunity for studying the former, not only as a private gentleman, but also as Secretary of Legation, for a short while, to Colonel Barringer, then Minister of the United States near the Court of Spain. It may be proper to add here, that among the unaccomplished designs of Mr. Pettigrew, to which he had given some labor, was that of following Prescott in further narratives of the connection of Spain with America, and as a preliminary to this, he had made a collection of works in Arabic, and had made himself acquainted with that language.

Mr. Pettigrew returned to Charleston in November, 1852, and entered upon the practice of law in connection with his honored and accomplished relative. He profited so well by his studies in Europe and by his subsequent investigations, that in the opinion of his partner, who was well qualified to judge, he became a master of the civil law not inferior in acquisition and in grasp of principle to any in the United States. His success at the bar was brilliant. In 1856 he was chosen one of the representatives of the city in the Legislature, holding his seat under that election for the two sessions of December, 1856, and December, 1857. He rose to great distinction in that body. His report against the reopening of the slave-trade, and his speech upon the organization of the Supreme Court, gave him reputation beyond the bounds of the State. He failed to be reelected in 1858.

Mr. Pettigrew persistently refused to receive any portion of the income of the partnership of which he was a member. Independent in property, and simple in his habits of personal expenditure, he displayed no desire to accumulate money. Noble in every trait of character, he held the contents of his purse subject to every draft that merit might present.

For some years previous to the rupture between the North and the South, Mr. Pettigrew had anticipated its occurrence, and believing it to be his duty to be prepared to give his best assistance to the South, in such event, had turned his attention to military studies. Like many other rare geniuses, he had always a partiality for mathematics, and so very naturally devoted much time to that branch of this science which deals with war. Even as far back as 1850 he had been desirous of becoming an officer in the Prussian army; and negotiations for that end, set upon foot by military friends whom he had made at Berlin, failed only because he was a republican. Afterwards he became aid to Governor Allston of South Carolina, and more recently to Governor Pickens. Upon the breaking out of the war between Sardinia and Austria, Colonel Pettigrew at once arranged his private business and hastened to obtain position in the army under General Marmora.

His application to Count Cavour was favorably received, but after consideration his offer was declined on the ground that the event of the battle of Solferino had rendered further fighting improbable. He was greatly disappointed, as his reception had inspired him with hopes of seeing active service in the Sardinian army with rank, at least as high as that of a colonel. Availing himself, however, of his unexpected leisure, he revisited Spain, and after a stay of a few months returned to South Carolina. The fruits of this second visit were collected by him into a volume entitled _Spain and Spaniards_, which he printed, for the inspection of his friends, in 1860. It will be found to be a thoughtful, spirited, and agreeable record of his impressions of that romantic land. At the opening of the present war, Colonel Pettigrew, as aid to Governor Pickens, took a prominent part in the operations at Charleston. He was at that time also colonel of a rifle regiment, in which he was much interested, and which became conspicuous amongst the military organizations around Charleston in the winter of 1860-'61. As commander of this body he received the surrender of Castle Pinckney, and subsequently held himself in readiness to storm Fort Sumter, in case it had not been surrendered after bombardment. Later in the spring, having failed to procure the incorporation of his regiment into the army of the Confederate States, and believing there was little chance of seeing active service in South Carolina, he transferred himself to Hampton's legion as a private, and early in the summer accompanied that corps into Virginia. A few days afterwards he was recalled to the service of his native State by an unsolicited election as Colonel of the Twelfth Regiment of North Carolina volunteers, afterwards the Twenty-second Regiment of North Carolina troops. It had been Colonel Pettigrew's earnest wish to become connected with the North Carolina army, so he at once accepted the honorable position, and repaired to Raleigh, where his regiment was stationed in its camp of instruction. He devoted his attention to its discipline with great assiduity, and in the early days of August was ordered into Virginia. The fall and winter of 1861 were spent by him near Evansport, upon the Potomac. He gave his whole time and attention to perfecting his regiment in the duties of soldiers. He fully shared in every hardship that was incident to their situation. In this new position Colonel Pettigrew became conspicuous for another characteristic necessary to eminent success in every department, but especially in that of military life. He was an adept in the art of personally attaching to him the men under his charge. Their enthusiasm knew no bounds. Their confidence in his administration of the police of the camp was perfect, and their assurance of his gallantry and skill unqualified. He soon felt that he might rely upon his brave men for all that was possible to soldiers. Being offered promotion to the rank of brigadier, he declined it on the ground that it would separate him from his regiment. Sometime later, in the spring of 1862, an arrangement was made by which the Twelfth Regiment was included in the brigade that was tendered to him, and he no longer felt any difficulty in accepting the promotion.

General Pettigrew shared in the march under General Johnston into the Peninsula, and afterwards, in the retreat upon Richmond. On the first day of June, 1862, in the battle of Seven Pines, he was severely wounded by a ball which passed transversely along the front of his throat and so into the shoulder, cutting the nerves and muscles which strengthen the right arm. This occurred in a charge which he led with great gallantry. He was left upon the field for dead, and recovered his consciousness only to find himself in the hands of the enemy. Some weeks later his exchange was effected, and being still an invalid, he was placed in command at Petersburg. The exigencies of the service having required his regiment to be transferred to another brigade, he found, upon his return, that it had been placed under the gallant, and now, alas! lamented, General Pender. By degrees a new brigade assembled around General Pettigrew, and such was his pains in its instruction, and such the desire among the North Carolina soldiers to make part of his command, that by the close of the year he was at the head of a brigade which, in point of quality, numbers, and soldierly bearing, was equal to any in the army. He commanded this brigade in repelling the Federal raid into Martin county, late in the fall of 1862, and again in General Foster's expedition against Goldsboro, in December, 1862, and although the quick dexterity of the enemy in falling back did not upon either occasion afford him and his associates an opportunity of trying conclusions with them, yet, upon both occasions the magnificent appearance of Pettigrew's Brigade tended greatly to revive the spirit of a community recently overrun by the enemy. He was also with General D. H. Hill during the spring of this year, in his attempt upon Washington in this State; and in the very brilliant affair at Blount's Creek gave the public a taste of what might be expected from his abilities when untrammeled by the orders of a superior.

At the time of General Stoneman's raid on the north of Richmond, General Pettigrew was ordered to the protection of that city, and shortly afterwards took position at Hanover Junction. His brigade subsequently made part of the Army of Northern Virginia, and accompanied General Lee into Pennsylvania. At the battle of Gettysburg he was in command of Heth's Division, and won many laurels. His division was greatly cut up. The loss of his brigade in killed and wounded was so heavy as almost to destroy its organization. He himself was wounded by a ball which broke one of the bones of his hand. He regarded it so little as not to leave the field. Moving afterwards with General Lee to Hagerstown and the Potomac, it devolved upon General Pettigrew, on the night of the 13th and the morning of the 14th of July, to assist in guarding the passage of that part of the army which recrossed at Falling Waters. About nine o'clock in the morning of the latter day, having been in the saddle all night, General Pettigrew and other officers had thrown themselves upon the ground for a few moment's rest, when a party of Federal cavalry rode into their midst. In the _mêlée_ which ensued, General Pettigrew was shot, the ball taking effect in the abdomen and passing through his body. When the enemy had been repulsed, he was taken up by his sorrowing soldiers and carried across the river some seven miles into Virginia, along the track of the army. Upon the next day he was carried some fifteen miles further, to the house of Mr. Boyd at Bunker Hill, where he received every attention of which his situation allowed. Upon General Lee's expressing great sorrow for the calamity, he said that his fate was no other than one might reasonably anticipate upon entering the army, and that he was perfectly willing to die for his country. To the Rev. Mr. Wilmer he avowed a firm persuasion of the truths of the Christian religion, and said that in accordance with his belief he had, some years before, made preparations for death, adding, that otherwise he would not have entered the army. He lingered until the 17th, and then at twenty-five minutes after six in the morning, died, quietly and without pain. The expression of sympathy for his sad fate was universal. Private soldiers from other commands, and distant States, vied with his own in repeated inquiries after his condition. Upon its way to Raleigh, his body was received by the authorities and by the citizens everywhere with all possible respect and attention. On the morning of Friday, the 24th of July, the coffin, wrapped in the flag of the country, and, adorned with wreaths of flowers and other tributes of feminine taste and tenderness, lay in the rotunda of the Capitol, where, within the year, had preceded him his compatriots, Branch and Anderson. Later in the day the State received his loved and honored remains into her bosom.