history even, have better earned that distinction. He was a leader
among men--and naturally so. He had those characteristics which
could not fail to make him a leader, not self-appointed, but chosen
by common consent. He was a wise man. He was able to estimate
causes and calculate effects. He was able to foresee what would
come to pass, because he understood men--that is necessary in a
leader. We rely upon the Infinite because we are finite. We feel the
limitations of our own knowledge, and we long to find some one who
knows more and can see further than we. Among men, we naturally turn
to the one who can foresee events, as a child turns to a parent for
advice. It was not the experience of age which he possessed, it was
a sort of intuitive judgment, an instinct for truth, that made him
see in advance what others only found out afterwards.
It has been mentioned here to-day that when the late civil war was
about to break out he was able to survey the whole ground and see
what would be the necessary result, and that he told his people what
that result would be. He did this, too, when a young man--younger
than any of us who are on this floor to-day--and time proved his
wisdom. So, coming on down, as each new crisis arose, as each new
force began its work upon society, he seemed to be able to calculate
what was coming, and every time his judgment was justified by events
his hold upon popular confidence increased.
When the Fifty-third Congress was convened in extra session in
August, 1893, no man in this country more clearly foresaw the course
of events and more clearly predicted the results of the proposed
financial policy. He talked with his associates; he wrote to his
people, he told them just what the effect would be upon the party
with which he was identified, and whose name he loved.
Not only was he wise, but he was courageous. And courage is a
characteristic, too, in a leader of men. He had the courage to
assume responsibility. He shirked no duty. What he believed he
said, and he was willing to stand or fall by the correctness of
his conclusions. Jefferson, in speaking of some man, said that he
had not learned the sublime truth that a bold, unequivocal virtue
is the best handmaid even unto ambition. Zebulon B. Vance had
learned that sublime truth. He knew, while trimming one's sails
to catch a passing breeze may help temporarily, there is nothing
which is permanently of aid to a public man except standing by his
convictions. I have no doubt he had ambition; but from what I have
been able to read and learn of him, it was a laudable ambition
which every man in this country may well possess, an ambition to do
his duty everywhere, an ambition to deserve well, to have what he
deserved and nothing more.
He had more than wisdom and courage; he had that without which
wisdom and courage would have boon of no avail: he loved the people
whom he would lead. And it was no condescending love either. It was
no stooping down to some one beneath him. He really believed in the
equality of men, and that those among whom he associated were his
brethren. He shared their hopes, their aims, and their ambitions. He
felt their woes and he knew their joys. He was one of them, and the
people loved him because they knew that he loved them. They trusted
him because they knew that he trusted them. In building upon the
affections of the people he built upon the only sure foundation.
It has been said that the most sincere tribute that can be paid to
a man is that which is paid at his grave. Some may fear him while
he lives, and therefore show him attention; or others may desire to
court his favor. When we see apparent friendship for the great we
do not always know what motives may be behind it. But when a man is
dead and is impotent longer to injure or to aid, when men gather
round his grave and manifest their love, then we know that their
affection is disinterested. And I believe it can be said that no
man in this country ever enjoyed the sincere affection of a larger
proportion of the people whom he served than Mr. Vance.
But he was not only a leader of men, he was an orator of great
influence. Not that, on dress parade, he was the best man to put up
for a public speech, but he was one of the great orators because he
possessed two of the characteristics of the orator; he knew what he
was talking about when he talked, and he believed what he said. He
who believes what he says will move others; and he who knows what
he is talking about will convince others. Not only did he impart
knowledge surcharged with earnestness, but he possessed rare ability
in making the truth pleasant to receive.
He was a statesman as well as a leader of men and an orator. As a
statesman he was devoted to his work and was prepared to make every
sacrifice for which his position called. As a statesman he was
ready to give to every call that conscientious response which duty
required. As a statesman he was pecuniarily honest. There is nothing
in the life of Mr. Vance that I prize more than the fact that with
all his ability, with all his knowledge, with all his influence,
no person can say that he ever sold his influence, his ability, or
his support for money. No person can say that on any occasion he
ever surrendered the interests of the people, as he understood those
interests, for hope of gain.
Sometimes people speak sneeringly of legislators. Sometimes they
speak as if there were no such thing as honesty among them. Some
people talk as if every man has his price, as if all that is
necessary is to offer enough money, and the influence of any man who
is serving in official position can be purchased. I do not believe
that the worst enemy that Mr. Vance ever had would say of him that
any amount of money, however great, could have purchased his vote,
his voice or his influence. And that a man with his commanding
ability, whose official life began at the very dawn of manhood, and
continued through all the conspicuous positions within the gift of
his countrymen, should successfully resist all pecuniary temptation
and die poor, is, I think, one of the proudest of his achievements.
Mr. Speaker, there are things in this life more valuable than money.
The wise man said three thousand years ago, "A good name is rather
to be chosen than great riches, and loving favor than silver and
gold." We struggle, we sacrifice, and we toil in order to leave
to our children a fortune; but I believe that Senator Vance has
left to his widow, and to his children a greater, a more valuable
heritage than could possibly have been left had he given to them
all the money which one man ever accumulated in this world. When he
left to them a name untarnished, when he left to them a reputation
such as he earned and bore, he left to them that which no wealth
can purchase. I am not skilled in the use of obituary adjectives,
and did not rise to give a review of his life, but I beg to place
on record my tribute of profound respect for a public servant who
at the close of his career was able to say to the people for whom
he toiled, "I have lived in your presence for a lifetime; I have
received all my honors at your hands; I stand before you without
fear that any one can charge against me an official wrong." I say,
to such a man I pay my tribute of respect.
[Illustration: THOMAS RUFFIN.]
THOMAS RUFFIN.
BY WM. A. GRAHAM.
The patriotic people of the county of Rockingham, in a public
assemblage at their first Superior Court after the death of Chief
Justice Ruffin, in which they were joined with cordial sympathy by
the gentlemen of the bar at that court, resolved to manifest their
appreciation of his talents, virtues and public usefulness, by
causing to be pronounced a memorial on his life and character. Such
an offering was deemed by them a fitting tribute from a people among
whom his family first settled, upon their arrival in North Carolina,
and with whom he had been associated as a planter and cultivator of
the soil from his early manhood till his decease. The Agricultural
Society of the State, of which for many years he had been a
distinguished president, subsequently determined on a like offering
to his memory at their annual fair. The invitation to prepare such a
discourse has been by both bodies extended to the same individual.
The task is undertaken with diffidence and a sense of apprehension
that amid the multiplicity of other engagements its fulfillment may
fail in doing justice to the subject of this memoir.
Thomas Ruffin, the eldest child of his parents, was born at
Newington, the residence of his maternal grandfather, Thomas Roane,
in the county of King and Queen, in Virginia, on the 17th of
November, 1787.
His father, Sterling Ruffin, Esquire, was a planter in the
neighboring county of Essex, who subsequently transferred his
residence to North Carolina, and died in the county of Caswell.
Ardent in his religious sentiments, and long attached to the
Methodist Episcopal Church, he very late in life entered the
ministry, and was for a few years prior to his death a preacher in
that denomination.
His mother, Alice Roane, was of a family much distinguished in
Virginia by the public service of many of its members, and was
herself first cousin of Spencer Roane, the Chief Justice of that
State, in the past generation, whose judicial course, connected as
it was with questions of difficulty and importance in constitutional
law, gave him high professional, as well as political, distinction;
but it may well be doubted whether, in all that constitutes a great
lawyer, he had preeminence over the subject of our present sketch,
his junior kinsman in North Carolina, then but rising into fame, and
destined to fill the like office in his own State.
His father, though not affluent, had a respectable fortune, and
sought for the son the best means of education. His early boyhood
was passed on the farm in Essex, and in attendance on the schools of
the vicinity. Thence, at a suitable age, he was sent to a classical
academy in the beautiful and healthful village of Warrenton, in
North Carolina, then under the management of Mr. Marcus George, an
Irishman by birth and education, a fine classical scholar and most
painstaking and skillful instructor, especially in elocution, as
we must believe, since among his pupils who survived to our times
we found the best readers of their day, within our acquaintance.
His excellence in this particular was probably attributable to his
experience on the theatrical stage, where he had spent a portion of
his life. He made his first appearance in the State at Hillsborough,
during the Convention of 1788, which rejected the Federal
Constitution, and being in search of employment as a teacher, he
was engaged by the Warren gentlemen then in attendance, and many
years subsequently was still at the head of a flourishing school, in
which our student entered. The system and discipline of Mr. George
conformed to the ancient regime, and placed great faith in the rod;
and he being a man of much personal prowess and spirit, did not
scruple to administer it on his pupils, when sloth, delinquency
or misbehavior required, without regard to age, size or other
circumstances. Yet he secured the respect of his patrons and the
confidence of the public, and inspired the gratitude and affection
of his pupils in a remarkable degree.
This turning aside from our subject, to pay a passing tribute to
his old preceptor, is deemed to be justified not only by the long
and useful labors of Mr. George, in the instruction of youth in
the generation in which Mr. Ruffin's lot was cast, but because he
himself entertained the highest appreciation of the profession of
an instructor, accustoming himself to speak of it as one of the
most honorable and beneficent of human employments. Throughout his
laborious and well-spent life he often acknowledged his obligations
of gratitude for the early training he had received under the
tuition of this faithful, but somewhat eccentric, son of Erin. And
it may well be doubted whether Lord Eldon, in the maturity of his
wisdom and great age, retained a more grateful and affectionate
recollection of Master Moises of the High School of New Castle, than
did Chief Justice Ruffin of Master George of the Warrenton Male
Academy.
At this institution were assembled the sons of most of the
citizens of eastern North Carolina, and of the bordering counties
of Virginia, who aspired to a liberal education. And here were
formed friendships which he cherished with great satisfaction
throughout life. Among his companions were the late Robert Broadnax,
of Rockingham, subsequently a planter of large possessions on
Dan River, among the most estimable gentlemen of his time; and
Cadwallader Jones, then of Halifax, but afterwards of Orange, an
officer at different periods in the navy and in the army of the
United States, a successful planter, and a model of the manners
and virtues which give a charm to social intercourse. Here, too,
he found Weldon N. Edwards, of Warren, subsequently distinguished
by much public service in Congress and under the government of
the State, thenceforward his lifelong friend, with whom the
bonds of amity seemed to be drawn more closely as others of his
contemporaries dropped from around him. Of these four youths of the
Warrenton Academy, in the beginning of the nineteenth century, Mr.
Edwards alone survives. Long may he live to enjoy the veneration and
respect due to a life of probity, honor, and usefulness.
From the Warrenton Academy young Ruffin was transferred to the
College of Nassau Hall, at Princeton, New Jersey. It is believed
that his father, who was a deeply pious man, was controlled in the
selection of this college in preference to that of William and Mary,
in Virginia (next to Harvard University the oldest institution of
learning in the United States), not only by a desire to guard his
son's health, which had suffered from the malaria of tide-water
Virginia, but to secure him as well against the temptations incident
to college life in an institution where, as he supposed, the
discipline was too lax for the sons of affluence who matriculated
there. He entered the freshman class at Princeton, and graduated
at the commencement in 1805, the sixteenth in a class of forty-two
members, "being the first of the second division of intermediate
honors." The late Governor James Iredell, of North Carolina, was
in the class succeeding his own, and for nearly the whole of his
college course his room-mate. Thus commenced a friendship between
these gentlemen in youth which was terminated only by the death
of Mr. Iredell. Among others of his college associates who became
distinguished in subsequent life, there were Samuel L. Southard
and Theodore Frelinghuysen, of New Jersey, Joseph R. Ingersoll, of
Philadelphia, the Cuthberts and Habershams, of Georgia, Christopher
Hughes of Maryland, and Stephenson Archer, of Mississippi.
Returning home with his bachelor degree, Mr. Ruffin soon afterwards
entered the law office of David Robertson, Esq., of Petersburg, as
a student of law, and continued there through the years 1806 and
1807. Here he was associated as a fellow-student with John F. May,
afterwards Judge May, of Petersburg, and Winfield Scott, afterwards
so highly distinguished in arms, and the only officer, down to
his time, except General Washington, who attained the rank of
Lieutenant-General in the army of the United States. General Scott,
in his autobiography, describes their preceptor, Mr. Robertson, as
a Scotchman, a very learned scholar and barrister, who originally
came to America as a classical teacher, but subsequently gained
high distinction as a lawyer, and was the author of the report of
the debates in the Virginia Convention which adopted the Federal
Constitution, and of the report of the trial of Aaron Burr for high
treason. In a note to the same work, General Scott mentions his
chancing to meet Judge Ruffin in New York in 1853, while the latter
was attending as a delegate the Protestant Episcopal Convention
of the United States, after a separation of forty-seven years,
and recurs to their association together with Judge May, as law
students, and to the conversation in which they then indulged, with
manifest pride and pleasure. He also refers to their subsequent
intercourse in the City of Washington, in 1861, while Judge Ruffin
was serving as a member of the Peace Congress, and expresses the
opinion that if the sentiments of this good man, always highly
conservative (the same as Crittenden's), had prevailed, the country
would have escaped the sad infliction of the war, which was raging
at the time he wrote.
Sterling Ruffin, the father, having suffered some reverses of
fortune, determined to change his home, and removed to Rockingham
county, North Carolina, in 1807. His son soon followed, a willing
emigrant. It was in North Carolina he had received his first
training for useful life: here was the home of most of his early
friends, and here he confidently hoped to renew his associations
with Broadnax, Jones, Edwards, Iredell, and other kindred spirits.
He doubtless brought with him a considerable store of professional
learning from the office of Mr. Robertson, in which he had been
more than two years a student, but on his arrival in North Carolina
he pursued his further studies under the direction of Hon. A. D.
Murphy, until his admission to the bar, in 1808. Early in 1809,
he established his home in the town of Hillsborough, and on the
9th of December in that year he was united in marriage to Miss Ann
Kirkland, eldest daughter of the late William Kirkland, of that
place, a prominent merchant and leading citizen.
The twenty years next ensuing, during which his residence was
continually in Hillsborough, comprehends his career at the bar
and on the bench of the Superior Courts. In 1813, 1815 and 1816
he served as a member of the Legislature in the House of Commons
from this town, under the old Constitution and filled the office
of Speaker of the House at the last mentioned session, when first
elected a judge, upon the resignation of Duncan Cameron. He was
also a candidate on the electoral ticket in favor of William H.
Crawford for the Presidency of the United States in 1824. But his
aspirations, tastes, and interests inclined him not to political
honors, but to a steady adherence to the profession to which his
life was devoted. He found at the bar in Orange and the neighboring
counties several gentlemen, his seniors in years, who were no
ordinary competitors for forensic fame and patronage, of whom it may
be sufficient to name Archibald D. Murphy, Frederick Nash, William
Norwood, Duncan Cameron, Henry Seawell, Leonard Henderson, William
Robards, Nicholas P. Smith, of Chatham, and later of Tennessee. His
first essays in argument are said not to have been very fortunate.
His manner was diffident and his speech hesitating and embarrassed.
But these difficulties being soon overcome, the vigor of his
understanding, the extent and accuracy of his learning, and the
perfect mastery of his causes by diligent preparation, in a short
time gave him position among these veterans of the profession,
secured him a general and lucrative practice, and an easy accession
to the bench in seven years from his initiation at the bar.
His reputation was greatly advanced and extended by the manner in
which he acquitted himself in this office. The wants, however, of
an increasing family and an unfortunate involvement by suretyship
forbade his continuance in a situation of no better income than the
salary which was its compensation. He resigned to the Legislature of
1818, and immediately returned to the practice. Mr. Ruffin had kept
up habits of close study of his profession before his promotion to
the bench, and he eagerly availed himself of the leisure afforded
by the vacations of the office for the same object. He came back to
the bar not only with his health renovated, which had never been
very robust, but with a brightness in his learning and an increase
of fame which, in the Supreme Court, then recently established on
its present basis, and in the Circuit Court of the United States,
as well as on the ridings in the State courts, brought to him a
practice and an income which has hardly ever been equaled by any
other practitioner in North Carolina. For forty-three weeks in the
year he had engagements in court, and despite all conditions of the
weather or other impediments to traveling in the then state of the
country, rarely failed to fulfill them. He held the appointment of
Reporter of the decisions of the Supreme Court for one or two terms,
but relinquished it on account of the engrossment of his time by his
practice; and his labors are embraced in the first volume of Hawks.
Mr. Archibald Henderson, Mr. Gaston, Mr. Seawell, Mr. Murphy, Mr.
Moses Mordecai, Mr. Gavin Hogg, and Mr. Joseph Wilson, all men of
renown, were, with Mr. Ruffin, the chief advocates in the Supreme
Court at that period, Mr. Nash and Mr. Badger being then upon the
bench; and according to tradition, at no time have the arguments
before it been more thorough and exhaustive. The late Governor Swain
being, part of this period, a student of the law in the office of
Chief Justice Taylor, in a public address at the opening of Tucker
Hall, mentions a prediction in his hearing by Mr. Gaston to one
of his clients in 1822, that if Mr. Ruffin should live ten years
longer he would be at the head of the profession in North Carolina.
By the same authority we are informed that only a year or two later
Judge Henderson declared that he had then attained this position of
eminence.
In the summer of 1825, upon the resignation of Judge Badger, Mr.
Ruffin again accepted the appointment of Judge of the Superior
Courts. His recent successes had relieved him of embarrassment, and
supplied him a competent fortune; his health demanded relaxation
and rest; and he considered his duties to his family, now quite
numerous, required more of his presence at home than was consistent
with the very active life he was leading. He therefore relinquished
his great emoluments at the bar for the inadequate salary then paid
to a judge, and virtually closed his career as an advocate. By the
bar and the public he was welcomed back on the circuits, and for the
three following years he administered the law with such universal
approbation that it was generally understood he would be appointed
to the bench of the Supreme Court.
The reputation he had established by this time, however, did not
merely assign him capabilities as a lawyer, but ascribed to him
every qualification of a thorough man of affairs. It was conceded,
at least, that he could teach bankers banking and merchants the
science of accounts.
In the autumn of 1828 the stockholders of the old State Bank of
North Carolina, at the head of whom were William Polk, Peter Browne,
and Duncan Cameron, owing to the great embarrassment of the affairs
of the institution, involving disfavor with the public and threats
of judicial proceedings for a forfeiture of its charter, prevailed
on him to take the presidency of the bank, with a salary increased
to the procurement of his acceptance, and with the privilege on his
part to practise his profession in the city of Raleigh. In twelve
months, with characteristic energy, mastering the affairs of the
bank with a true talent for finance, making available its assets
and providing for its liabilities, and inspiring confidence by the
general faith in his abilities and high purpose to do right, he
effectually redeemed the institution, and prepared the way to close
out in credit the remaining term of its charter.
At this period, also, another place of high political eminence was
at his choice, but was promptly declined. A vacancy having happened
in the Senate of the United States by the appointment of Governor
Branch to the head of the Navy Department, and Hon. Bartlett
Yancey, who had been the general favorite for the succession,
having recently died, Mr. Ruffin was earnestly solicited to accept
a candidacy for this position, with every assurance of success. But
his desire was, as he himself expressed it among his friends, after
the labor and attention he had bestowed upon his profession, to
go down to posterity as a lawyer. Irrespective, therefore, of his
domestic interests, and the care and attention due to his family, of
which no man ever had a truer or warmer conception, he could not be
diverted from his chosen line of life by the attractions of even the
highest political distinction.