William Wirt, 1772-1834, an American lawyer and author, was born at
Bladensburg, Maryland. Left an orphan at an early age, he was placed in
care of his uncle. He improved his opportunities for education so well
that he became a private tutor at fifteen. In 1792 he was admitted to the
bar, and began the practice of law in Virginia; he removed to Richmond in
1799. From 1817 to 1829 he was Attorney-general of the United States. His
last years were spent in Baltimore. Mr. Wirt was the author of several
books; his "Letters of a British Spy," published in 1803, and "Life of
Patrick Henry," published in 1817, are the best known of his writings.
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Never have I known such a fireside companion. Great as he was both as a
statesman and philosopher, he never shone in a light more winning than
when he was seen in a domestic circle. It was once my good fortune to pass
two or three weeks with him, at the house of a private gentleman, in the
back part of Pennsylvania, and we were confined to the house during the
whole of that time by the unintermitting constancy and depth of the snows.
But confinement never could be felt where Franklin was an inmate; His
cheerfulness and his colloquial powers spread around him a perpetual
spring.
When I speak, however, of his colloquial powers, I do not mean to awaken
any notion analogous to that which Boswell has given us of Johnson. The
conversation of the latter continually reminds one of the "pomp and
circumstance of glorious war." It was, indeed, a perpetual contest for
victory, or an arbitrary or despotic exaction of homage to his superior
talents. It was strong, acute, prompt, splendid, and vociferous; as loud,
stormy, and sublime as those winds which he represents as shaking the
Hebrides, and rocking the old castle which frowned on the dark-rolling sea
beneath.
But one gets tired of storms, however sublime they may be, and longs for
the more orderly current of nature. Of Franklin, no one ever became tired.
There was no ambition of eloquence, no effort to shine in anything which
came from him. There was nothing which made any demand upon either your
allegiance or your admiration. His manner was as unaffected as infancy. It
was nature's self. He talked like an old patriarch; and his plainness and
simplicity put you at once at your ease, and gave you the full and free
possession and use of your faculties. His thoughts were of a character to
shine by their own light, without any adventitious aid. They only required
a medium of vision like his pure and simple style, to exhibit to the
highest advantage their native radiance and beauty.
His cheerfulness was unremitting. It seemed to be as much the effect of a
systematic and salutary exercise of the mind, as of its superior
organization. His wit was of the first order. It did not show itself
merely in occasional coruscations[1]; but, without any effort or force on
his part, it shed a constant stream of the purest light over the whole of
his discourse. Whether in the company of commons or nobles, he was always
the same plain man; always most perfectly at his ease, with his faculties
in full play, and the full orbit of his genius forever clear and
unclouded.
[Transcriber's Footnote 1: coruscations: flashes of light.]
And then, the stores of his mind were inexhaustible. He had commenced life
with an attention so vigilant that nothing had escaped his observation;
and a judgment so solid that every incident was turned to advantage. His
youth had not been wasted in idleness, nor overcast by intemperance. He
had been, all his life, a close and deep reader, as well as thinker; and
by the force of his own powers, had wrought up the raw materials which he
had gathered from books, with such exquisite skill and felicity, that he
has added a hundred fold to their original value, and justly made them his
own.
NOTES.--Benjamin Franklin (b. 1706, d. 1790) was one of the most prominent
men in the struggle of the American colonies for liberty. He was renowned
as a statesman, and, although not an author by profession, was a very
prolific writer. His "Autobiography," which was first printed in France,
is now a household volume in America. See page 431.
Boswell, James, (b. 1740, d. 1795,) was a Scotch lawyer, and is chiefly
known as the biographer of Dr. Johnson, of whom he was the intimate friend
and companion.
Johnson, Samuel. See biographical notice, page 78.