Part 9

I have exchanged with Mr. Valentine, Malvina for a man cook, named Smith, about 18 years of age. He is a good tempered, quick and efficient general servant, and though young, already skillful as a cook; and is anxious to go to the upper country, as he suffers with chills and fever here. He will be of much service on the return trip, as I have a lot of packages containing articles of furniture, mantle ornaments, books, clothing, &c., to be looked after. I would have left this miserable place sooner, but the steam boats run but twice a week. I console myself with the hope that Susan is enjoying and profiting by the excursion. I long to be with you. I am, as ever,

Your affectionate husband, JOHN H. PEYTON.

SAME TO SAME.

Lewisburg, July 14th, 1857.

_My dear Ann_:

I arrived here on yesterday in time for the court, but the business is delayed by the failure of Johnson and Baldwin to appear. They are expected tomorrow. I hope you are spending your time pleasantly, making Miss Herring's visit agreeable. Tell Susan it is my particular wish that she should write me frequently and at as great length as her engagements will admit of. She is young and thoughtless and requires the counsels and advice of her father, which I will take much pleasure in giving her in letters, where it will be more permanent than if merely spoken. She is at an age when her acts and sayings are the subject of observation and comment, hence she cannot be too circumspect--next to the consciousness of acting right, the public voice should be regarded, and we should endeavor, by a prudent behavior, even in trifling matters, to secure it in our favor.

I hope my dear wife that you will also write me often. Mr. Rodgers, the stage driver, will take charge and safely deliver to me any letters you may wish to send.

Have you made the acquaintance yet of Dr. and Mrs. Nelson? You will find them agreeable and pleasant acquaintances--they are very intimate with Bernard's family. Have you visited your pretty little farm near the Springs. If not, go to see it, and let me know what you think of the property.[12]

[12] This was a farm of 350 acres lying in the Sweet Spring Valley, inherited by Mrs. Peyton from her father, and in 1894 is owned by her nephew, Dr. J. Lewis Woodville.

Judge Fry, who married a daughter of Parson McElhaney, will be at the Sweet next week. They are worthy people and I will be glad if you can call on them. I think you will like them. The good parson has long been one of my most particular friends, and I want you to be civil to his daughter.

Excuse this hasty scrawl. My engagements do not admit of my saying more than that I send affectionate regards to Ben, Tom, sister Caroline and all the kith and kin about you.

I hope those agreeable New Yorkers--the Clarkes, are still at the Springs. The society of people of so much information and intelligence who have traveled abroad, is really improving.

Your affectionate husband, JOHN H. PEYTON. Mrs. John H. Peyton, Sweet Springs.

SAME TO SAME.

Lexington, Va., April 20th, 1839.

_My Dear Ann_:

I have only time to write you a few lines to advise you of my safe arrival in good health at Lexington, where our friends and connections are all well. Tell Aunt Towles I have met her grandson, John Dabney, who recognized her son Thomas as he rode up to Taylor's. Taylor invited Mr. Dabney's family and John to take tea with us on yesterday evening, and to-day we are to dine with the Dabneys'. I am much pleased with Mrs. Dabney and her sister, Mrs. Price, and more so with John Dabney, who strikes me as a superior young man. Taylor is expecting his son, Dr. James Taylor, from Philadelphia, every day, where he has successfully concluded his medical studies. Their daughter Susan, who has been spending the winter in Alexandria, is also expected home in a few days.[13] They wish to give them a royal reception, and wish our daughter Susan to come up for the merry making. Mrs. Taylor says if she will do so she will send her to the Natural Bridge, &c. I have told her I knew you would not part with Susan at this time, but I thought it probable you would allow her to spend a week with them in May, after my return from the courts. She was glad to hear this and said she would send her son Robert and John Dabney to Staunton to escort her at that time.

[13] Susan Taylor married some years subsequently Hon. John B. Weller, M. C. from Ohio, and afterwards Governor of California.

Tell the overseer to take the calves off my grain, and let them run in the clover field back of the house--the grain is so far advanced now that the calves will injure it. I hope he has finished corn planting. Write me at the Warm Springs, either by Tom Michie or Wm. Frazier, telling me how the farming operations are going on, and how aunt Towles and our dear little children are.

Aunt McDowell, who is here, sends her best love to you, Mrs. Towles and sister Green. Mrs. Taylor says if Susan will come to her in May, she will meet her relations, the McDowells, who will return from Abingdon in April and be at home, and also Jane Preston, and other relatives who are coming with the McDowells, from Southwest Virginia for a visit to Lexington. I have time to say no more, as I am called to court.

Yours affectionately, JOHN H. PEYTON.

The following extract from the Spectator possesses such interest that we make no apology for introducing it here:

JEFFERSON, STUART, PEYTON.

We have been much interested recently in reading the early history of the University of Virginia as developed in the unpublished letters of Jefferson and J. C. Cabell. One of the letters particularly struck us. It is from Mr. Jefferson to Mr. Cabell, and dated Monticello, May 13th, 1825, and contains the warmly expressed opinions of two of our former citizens as to the professional ability, general qualifications and high character of the late Judge Dade, who was urged by his friends as a suitable person to be made Professor of Law in the new institution, Judge Stuart and Hon. John Howe Peyton were on a visit to Monticello at the period when Jefferson was perplexed by the declension of this Professorship by Mr. Gilmer, and Mr. Jefferson gives the substance of what Judge Stuart and Mr. Peyton said to him.

The letter will be read with interest by all, but more particularly by those who remember Judge Stuart and Mr. Peyton, two of our famous men of the past, both of whom died full of years and honors, bequeathing fortunes and leaving families, which have inherited their genius.

JEFFERSON'S LETTER.

DEAR SIR:--Every offer of our law chair has been declined, and a late renewal of pressure on Mr. Gilmer has proved him inflexibly decided against undertaking it. What are we to do? The clamor is high for some appointment. We are informed, too, of many students who do not come because that school is not opened; and some now with us think of leaving us for the same reason. You may remember that among those who were the subjects of conversation at our last meeting, Judge Dade was one; but the minds of the board were so much turned to two particular characters; that little was said of any others. An idea has got abroad, I know not from what source, that we have appointed Judge Dade and that he has accepted. This has spread extensively, perhaps from a general sense of his fitness, and I learn it has been received with much favor, and particularly among the students of the University. I know no more myself of Judge Dade than what I saw of him at our Rockfish meeting, and a short visit he made me in returning from that place. As far as that opportunity enabled me to form an opinion, I certainly thought very highly of the strength of his mind, and the soundness of his judgment. I happened to receive Mr. Gilmer's ultimate and peremptory refusal while Judge Stuart and Mr. Howe Peyton, of Staunton, were with me. The former, you know, is his colleague on the bench of the General Court; the latter has been more particularly intimate with him, as having been brought up with him at the same school. I asked from them information respecting Mr. Dade, and they spoke of him in terms of high commendation. They state him to be an excellent Latin and Greek scholar, of clear and sound ideas, lucid in communicating them, equal as a lawyer to any of the judiciary corps, and superior to all as a writer; and that his character is perfectly correct, his mind liberal and accommodating, yet firm and of sound Republican principles.

* * * * *

This is the substance, and these, I may say, the terms in which they spoke of him, and when I consider the character of these two gentlemen, and their opportunities of following what they attested, I could not but be strongly impressed. It happened very much to my gratification, that General Cocke was here at the same time, received the same information and impression, and authorizes me to add his concurrence in proposing the appointment to our colleagues; and to say, moreover, that if on such further inquiry as they may make, they should approve the choice, and express it by letter, in reference to a meeting for a conference on this subject, I might write to Judge Dade, and on his acceptance, issue his commission. I should add the gentlemen above named were confident that he would accept, as well from other circumstances, as from his having three sons to educate. Of course this would put an end to the anxieties we have all had on this subject. The public impatience over some appointment to this school, renders desirable as early an answer as your convenience admits. Accept the assurance of my great esteem and respect.

TH. JEFFERSON.

MR. PEYTON'S WELCOME TO HENRY CLAY.

In August, 1839, Henry Clay passed through Staunton on his return from Washington to his Kentucky home. The people determined to give him a warm greeting. A meeting was held and arrangements were made for his reception, and John H. Peyton was selected to make a speech of welcome.

A procession of gentlemen on horseback met the coach, in which Mr. Clay was travelling from Charlottesville, near Glendale, the present residence of George L. Peyton, Esq., and escorted him to town. On arriving in front of the Eagle Hotel, now the Spectator office, Mr. Clay descended from the coach and was met by _Mr. Peyton_, who welcomed him in a handsome and appropriate address in which he referred to his long and distinguished public services, his championship of constitutional freedom and his patriotic labors on behalf of the best interests of the country and tendering him the warm hospitalities of the town during his stay.[14]

[14] NOTE.--The late Wm. Frazier, who was present, informed us that it was the most felicitous address he ever heard from one great man to another, and he greatly regretted that a stenographer had not been present to take it down.

Mr. Clay, though laboring under a cold and great fatigue, replied in his usual happy manner. After entering the Hotel, and a short rest, he held an informal reception, when the principal people of the town and neighborhood were presented. There was, of course, no time for conversation, but Mr. Clay made many facetious remarks to his admirers as they passed one after another during the hand-shaking.

CAMPAIGN OF 1840.

In December, 1839, Mr. Peyton was a delegate to the National Whig Convention, which met at Harrisburg, Penn., to decide between the claims of several rival candidates for the Presidency. General Harrison, of Ohio, was nominated for the Presidency, and John Tyler, of Virginia, for Vice President. And immediately afterwards the celebrated "log-cabin and hard cider" campaign commenced. Log cabins and hard cider became the party emblems, and both were features of all the political demonstrations of the canvass, which witnessed the introduction of the enormous mass meetings and processions which have since become common in all Presidential elections. There was more clap-trap and less appeal to reason in this than in any Presidential election in our history. Harrison was chosen by a vote of 234 against an electoral vote for Van Buren of 60, and was inaugurated at Washington March 4th, 1841.

MR. PEYTON'S SPEECH IN THE CANVASS OF 1840.

On his return to Virginia, such was his taste and so pressing the nature of his private affairs, that he took little active part in the celebrated canvass.

But upon the occasion of a grand mass meeting at Staunton on the 28th of October, 1840, he spoke in the Court House to a crowded audience of ladies and gentlemen, and made a magnificent speech, showing up the political life and character of Martin Van Buren, his political tergiversations, intrigue, subserviency, treachery and heartless selfishness. It was like a prosecution of a prisoner at the bar, and persons who were present declared that they had never seen or heard anything like or to equal to it.

MR. PEYTON'S SPEECH IN CHARLOTTESVILLE.

Having much business to be settled Mr. Peyton attended the Autumn term, 1840, of the Superior court of Albemarle and was invited by the "Central Tippecanoe Club" to address the people. The "Charlottesville Advocate," edited by the talented Thomas Wood, a man who had few superiors in Virginia as a writer, thus refers to it:

"_Mr. Peyton_ made one of the most felicitous efforts we have heard during this whole canvass. We shall not undertake to report his speech; we would do him injustice by such an effort. We will say, however, that few speakers are better qualified to entertain and instruct the public mind in reference to the great questions now agitating the country. He understands thoroughly the character of Martin Van Buren.

"He has watched him closely ever since he entered public life, in 1812, the opponent of James Madison, and drew a most faithful picture of him from that time down to this. Van himself, could he have heard Mr. P., would have been forced to admit, that a more exact likeness never was drawn. He traced him with much minuteness throughout his tortuous and slimy career, and showed to the satisfaction of every man present, that he had been alternately the lickspittle and libeller of almost every man in the country. So in reference to almost every important question which has agitated the country for the last 30 years, Martin had been found on both sides--and no man could tell what his principles were. Mr. P. ridiculed in a most inimitable manner, amid roars of laughter from his audience, the claim set up by Van's Southern friends, that he 'is a Northern man with Southern principles.' Even were it true, Mr. P. contended that it did not elevate Martin in his estimation, for that if there were any one thing he abominated more than another, it was a Northern man with Southern principles or a Southern man with Northern principles. He went for no such half-frog half-tadpole animal.

"Mr. P. laughed at the very idea of Martin Van Buren being held up to the country as a Republican. He remembered well the part he took in the memorable contest between Mr. Madison and DeWitt Clinton. He was then leagued with the blue light Federalists, and his course ever since had been in utter disregard of the good old Republican doctrines of '98 and '99."

VISITOR TO WEST POINT.

Sometime before, June, 1841, he was appointed a visitor to the United States Military Academy at West Point, and attended the meetings of the Board of Visitors, where he so impressed the Board, that he was selected to write their report for that year, which he did.

From West Point he visited his brother, Col. Rouze Peyton, at his home in Geneva, and in the company of the late Randolph Harrison, of Elk Island, James river, General Bernard Peyton, of Richmond, Colonel Hill Carter, of Shirley and others, and made a delightful excursion to Niagara Falls.

At the next session of the Senate Mr. Peyton was a working member. He never discharged any duty in a perfunctory manner, but as chairman of the committee on the Judiciary labored zealously in behalf of reform in our laws.

MR. PEYTON'S LETTER ON BEHALF OF THE BAR TO JUDGE TUCKER.

In 1841, H. St. George Tucker resigned his position as a Judge of the Court of Appeals, in order to accept the position of Professor of Law in the University of Virginia. The following proceeding took place. A meeting of the bar assembled over which Mr. Peyton presided, and the meeting appointed him a committee of one to express their sentiments on the occasion which he did, and the Court adopted them as its sentiments and ordered them to be placed on record, as follows:

Virginia: At a Court of Appeals held at Lewisburg on Thursday, the 5th day of August, 1841:

Present: The Honorable Francis T. Brooke, William H. Cabell, Robert Standard and John I. Allen. The remaining members of the Court of Appeals cordially concurring with the Bar in their sentiments expressed in their letter to the late President of the Court on his retiring from office, it is ordered that their letter and reply to it be put upon the records of the Court:

_Dear Sir_:

At a late meeting of the Bar of the Court of Appeals at Lewisburg, assembled for the purpose of giving expression to the feelings occasioned by your retiring from the office of President of that Court, I had the honor to act as Chairman, and to be instructed by the meeting, with perfect unanimity, to communicate to you their sentiments of sincere regret and most kind and respectful regard. We know from observation the great responsibility, the arduous labor and high qualifications required by the eminent station which you have so long and so ably filled. The talent, the learning and research displayed in your judicial opinions are known to the country at large. But none can know and appreciate, so well as the officers of your Court, the spirit in which your duties have been most promptly and unremittingly discharged. Your untiring application, unaffected zeal and exemplary fidelity, have won our humble applause; but our hearts have been touched by your uniform gentleness, kindness and courtesy of deportment, as well in the hall of justice as in the private circle; and you take with you our regrets, not merely for the loss of the public officer, but of the delightful companion and friend. I have thus endeavored, though imperfectly, to express the sentiments of our public meeting, to which let me add the assurances of my

Great respect and regard, JOHN H. PEYTON. Lewisburg, August 1, 1841.

NOMINATED FOR JUDGE TUCKER'S JUDGESHIP.

There seems never to have been a time that people did not wish Mr. Peyton on the bench, and immediately after Judge Tucker's resignation, they began to nominate him, through the papers, for the vacant judgeship. He quickly put a stop to it, however, by declaring his entire unwillingness to take the office, not that he did not consider it an honor, but because at his then age, he was not willing to enter upon its onerous duties. We regret that among the beautiful tributes paid to him at this time, in the Richmond papers, we have not been able to get any other than that which follows.

JOHN H. PEYTON FOR THE COURT OF APPEALS.

_Sir_:

It will doubtless be incumbent on the next Legislature to elect a Judge of the Court of Appeals (to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Judge Henry St. George Tucker). This is the Supreme Court of the State, whose decisions have the weight of law, and, therefore, it is of the highest importance that a profound lawyer should be elected. I propose for this place a man who has no superior as a sound reasoner, a profound lawyer and thinker, a good logician and a persevering worker; a man who possesses both genius and learning, I allude to that able, dignified and learned Senator for Rockbridge and Augusta, JOHN HOWE PEYTON, ESQ. For many years Mr. Peyton has practised in the Courts of Common Law and Chancery, and in the Court of Appeals and no one has acquired a higher reputation as a Jurist. If elected, his decisions will command the respect of every able jurist and honest man in the State.

It is not my wish to lessen the merits of others when I say Virginia has no better man, no abler lawyer, ALLEN. August 12, 1841.

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The following very interesting reminiscenses are taken from the Spectator of 1891. They were written by one of the most intelligent and cultivated gentlemen of Augusta, who is still, in 1894, living in the county. He wrote under the signature of "Senex." The opening sentences of Mr. Michie's speech constitute in themselves a splendid biography of Mr. Peyton:

AN INTERESTING REMINISCENCE OF JOHN H. PEYTON AND THOMAS J. MICHIE.

At the November term, 1843, of the Circuit Superior Court, Staunton, a case which had excited great public interest, in which the late Hon. John H. Peyton was one of the parties, was tried. It had reference to a change in the Hebron Church road through Montgomery Hall, on the lands of Mr. Peyton. Some time before a portion of the public road running entirely through these lands was closed by order of the County Court upon Mr. Peyton's motion, and another road established--the same road now, in 1894, in use. The closing of the road gave great offense to a neighborhood commonly called the North Mountain neighborhood. Upon their petition at a subsequent term of the County Court the order obtained by Mr. Peyton was, during his absence in the Senate at Richmond, rescinded, thus re-establishing the road which had been closed at his instance. From this decision Mr. Peyton shortly afterwards appealed to the Circuit Court, then the appellate tribunal in such cases. Before the case came on for trial there was an excited controversy in the newspaper in regard to the whole matter in which it was freely charged that the order of Court obtained by Mr. Peyton was in the nature of a purchase and sale of the public rights in the road. When the case came up for argument before Lucas B. Thompson, the excitement among the friends of the parties was intense, the Court house was crowded to overflowing, principally by the people of the North Mountain neighborhood.

For Mr. Peyton two of the most prominent members of the Staunton bar appeared, Thomas J. Michie and Hugh W. Sheffey; the other side was represented by A. H. H. Stuart and David Fultz.

The opening argument for Mr. Peyton was delivered by Mr. Sheffey, the junior counsel. He made a strong legal argument, closely following the record and confining himself strictly to the merits of the case. He was followed by Messrs. Stuart and Fultz, who maintained the very remarkable proposition that the order of the County Court obtained by Mr. Peyton was an invasion and violation of the public rights, which could be redressed in no other way than by annulling that order at a subsequent term of the County Court as had actually been done, and unless this last proceeding could be sustained, they contended that their clients would be the victims of a wrong for which they would be absolutely without remedy. In some of their remarks they were understood by Mr. Michie to assail Mr. Peyton personally. The Court adjourned until the next morning, when the excitement was greater and the crowd larger.