To a northern traveller in the southern states, there is scarcely any
thing more novel or entertaining than a _Court Day_. Familiar as the
occasion and its scenes may be to a Virginian, there is something in
the whole aspect of this monthly festival which rivets the attention
of a stranger. And I have not been without my suspicions that the
influence of this custom and its adjuncts upon society, manners, and
character has never been appreciated. In our northern country there
are no occasions upon which the whole population of a county, even as
represented by its leading freeholders, convenes at one spot. County
courts are attended by functionaries, litigants, and very near
neighbors, but not, as in the south, by the gentry and yeomanry of a
whole district.
The consequence of such an arrangement as that of the south is, that
all the landholders and gentlemen of a neighborhood become mutually
acquainted, and lay the foundation for friendly and hospitable
reciprocities, which may be continued through life. The whole texture
of society has a tincture from this intermingling. It is undeniable,
that while aristocratic family pride, and chivalrous elevation of
bearing, exist no where in greater vigor than at the south, there is a
freer intercourse on the court-house-lawn between the richest planter
and the honest poor man, than is ever witnessed in the manufacturing
districts of Connecticut or Pennsylvania. This constant mingling of
the aged with the young, tends to keep up national characteristics and
to perpetuate {434} ancient habits and sentiments. And let an
old-fashioned man be allowed to whisper in the ear of this innovating
age that all is not antiquated which is old, and that the hoary stream
of tradition brings down with it not only _prejudices_, but wholesome
_predilections_.
To enjoy a genuine and unsophisticated Court Day, one must select a
county in the heart of the real Old Dominion, where emigration has not
too much thinned the population, nor foreign settlers made the mass
heterogeneous. It should be moreover in a region where the increase of
villages has not modified the ancient character of the large estates.
I have in my mind's eye the very _beau ideal_ of an old Virginia Court
House. The edifice itself is neither large nor lofty, but
“time-honored” and solid, and embosomed in a grove of locusts, which
at the May Court fill the air with their balsamic odor. The lawn,
which surrounds the house and grove, has not the deep green of our
northern commons, nor is the earth so perfectly hidden by matted
grass, but it is sufficiently soft and fresh to tempt many a group of
loungers. But the scene becomes more lively as the day advances.
Stalls and booths are rapidly erecting, and wagons of vendibles are
disposed in rows; no doubt by pertinacious wanderers from New England.
The porches of two or three plain-looking stores are filling rapidly
with visiters who are arriving every moment. A northerner is amazed at
the number of equestrians, and the ease and non-chalance with which
even little boys manage their spirited horses. I must pass a thousand
traits which in the hands of Irving or Kennedy would afford a tempting
picture. The cordiality of greeting with which Virginians meet is
delightful; and from ample trial I am able to pronounce it sincere and
available. This heartiness is encouraged by such monthly gatherings.
It is vain to object to this vehement shaking of hands and emphatic
compellation. As my old pastor used to say, “The form without the
power is better than neither;” and as Solomon says, “He that is a
friend must _show_ himself friendly.” By the time of dinner, a
thousand morsels of business, postponed during the month, have been
transacted; a thousand items of precious little family news have been
exchanged; hundreds of clusters, under porch or tree, have discoursed
of the reigning political topic; or mayhap, the mighty mass has all
been moved toward some little eminence to hear the eloquence of a
genuine “stump-speech.”
From my very heart, northman as I am, I admire and affect this good
remnant of olden time. May no revised code ever disannul it, no
sapient convention ever parcel out your counties into little municipal
fragments!
I state it as an opinion very deliberately formed in my own mind,
after some opportunities of comparison, that the elocution of southern
men is more easy, more graceful, more natural, more vivacious, and
more pathetic, than that of their northern compatriots. This is fairly
to be traced to the influence of such occasions as the one which I
describe. The moveable and excitable throng of a court-house-green is
precisely the audience which awakens and inspires the orator. The tide
of feeling comes back upon him at every happy appeal, and redoubles
his energy. It was the Athenian _populace_, who “spent their time in
nothing else, but either to tell or to hear some new thing,” (what a
picture of a court day!) which made the Athenian _orator_. The
practice of addresses to the literal and real constituency by every
aspirant, brings into trial, very early, all the eloquence of the
state. The manner of the best models is in some small degree
perpetuated. The mere listening to such men as Patrick Henry, and John
Randolph, not to mention the living, affords a school of eloquence to
the youth of the country, and cultivates the taste of the people. And
then in every little group upon yonder green, there is an ardor of
conversation on political topics, which, as feeling rises, approaches
to the character of harangue. I have never heard the impassioned
conversation of southern men, in a tavern or by the way-side, without
observing the natural tendency to a higher tone of elocution than
would be tolerated in a similar circle at the north.
Whether the practice of “whittling,” during conversation, has any
connexion with ease of utterance, is a question too abstruse for my
present cursory investigation. The celebrated doctor Rush used
jocosely to characterize some of his southern students, by their
“_R-phobia et Cacoethes secandi_.” It may be noted as a token of the
“free-and-easy” manner of certain courts, that we have seen advocates
whittling during a defence, and judges whittling on the bench.
But finally, and most seriously, I trust no fanaticism of a faction at
the north will ever so far prevail against the good sense and sound
feeling of the community, as to interrupt the genial flow of
hospitality, with which in every _individual_ case I have known,
northern men have been received by the gentlemen of old Virginia.