"after having withdrawn from the bar to find it difficult, if
not impracticable, to resume their former rank in business." Mr.
Graham experienced no such difficulty. Though often called from
his profession to public station, at the first court at which he
appeared after his term of office expired, he was retained in all
important causes, and business flowed in upon him thenceforth as
if he had never been absent. In common with all the people of the
South, his resources had been somewhat impaired by the war, and
when civil government was restored he resumed the practice of his
profession with more than his wonted ardor. He returned to all the
courts of his former circuit, the business of which had greatly
increased by the general settlement of all previous transactions
which took place after the war. The business of the circuit and
district courts--both of which he regularly attended--had been
greatly enlarged by the new system of revenue laws and other changes
introduced by the war, but, above all, by the bankrupt laws then
recently enacted. These with appeals to the Supreme Court of the
State, and appeals to the Supreme Court of the United States,
increased his labors, protracted his absences from home, and left
him few intervals for repose. It was felt by his friends that he
was overtaxing his strength by these great exertions, but there was
no abatement of his energies until about a year before his death.
Symptoms then appeared which inspired deep apprehensions. It seemed
but too certain that disease had fixed itself upon some of the
great organs of life. He now gave up attendance upon courts, but
still watched over the progress of his causes, and labored in the
preparation of briefs--the causes themselves being argued by his
son, Maj. Graham. He was preëminently a worker and he continued to
work to the end. At length the symptoms became more distressing,
and he repaired to Philadelphia to consult the eminent physicians
of that city. The result confirmed the opinion before entertained
that his malady was disease of the heart. Upon his return home he
continued his labors in his office. It was only under physical
exertion that his malady gave him trouble; when in repose he was
capable of as great mental efforts as ever.
At this period of comparative inaction that fortunate destiny which
presided over his life was constant to him still. The pain, which
was incident to his malady, was only felt at intervals, and then was
not severe. Apart from this, there was every possible compensation.
Besides the department of professional labor still left to him,
he had the boundless resources of literature, ancient and modern,
which in the busiest periods of his life he had always cultivated
and justly prized. Every day, moreover, brought to him in the visits
of friends, or through the mails, in newspapers and letters, some
new testimonial of esteem and regard, public or private. But above
any and all of these, he could now enjoy without interruption those
pleasures, in which, amidst his most brilliant successes, he ever
found his chief happiness, the pleasures of home and its sweet
endearments.
Mr. Graham had been nominated by acclamation by the people of Orange
for the constitutional convention which sat in September, 1875, but
the state of his health rendered it impossible for him to undergo
the labors of the canvass. This was not needed on his own account,
but his absence from the hustings was regretted on account of the
convention cause. He published, however, a strong address to his
constituents; which was widely circulated, and had an important
influence on the result.
A meeting of the commissioners to determine the boundary between
Virginia and Maryland had been arranged to take place at Saratoga
Springs, in the State of New York, in the month of August, 1875.
Thither Mr. Graham accordingly went, accompanied by Mrs. Graham
and his youngest son. For many days he appeared to be in his usual
health; but a great change was at hand. After an evening spent with
his friends, whose society he enjoyed with more than his wonted
zest, he retired a little beyond his accustomed hour. Soon after
the symptoms of his disease recurred in aggravated form. Physicians
were summoned who ministered promptly, but ineffectually. Meantime
the news of his situation spread, and messages of inquiry and offers
of personal services testified to the general and deep concern.
But all that science and the most affectionate solicitude could
suggest proved unavailing. He expired at 6 o'clock on the morning of
Wednesday, the 11th of August, 1875.
It had long been believed, by those who knew him best, that
Mr. Graham was at heart a Christian. It is with inexpressible
gratification, I am able to add, that when approached on this
subject during the last days of his life, he freely expressed his
hope of salvation through our crucified Redeemer.
The intelligence of his death was transmitted by telegraph to every
part of the country. All the great journals responded with leading
articles expressive of the national bereavement. Numerous meetings
were held--meetings of the bar, meetings of citizens, meetings of
political opponents, for political enemies he had none--to give
their estimate of the illustrious deceased, and to speak their
sense of his loss. The States of Virginia and Maryland, with that
high sense of delicacy which marks all their public acts, took care
that the remains of one who had stood in such honored relations to
each, should be conveyed with due honor across their bounds. At the
borders of our State they were received by a committee appointed
by the bar of Raleigh, by a committee appointed by the mayor and
common council of that city, and by a committee from Hillsborough,
and were conveyed by special train to Raleigh. There they were
received by appointed committees--by the Raleigh Light Infantry, by
the Raleigh Light Artillery (of both of which companies he was an
honorary member), by the United States troops from Camp Russell,
and accompanied by a great concourse of the citizens, conveyed to
the capital. There the remains were deposited in the rotunda, which
was draped in mourning for the occasion. Late in the afternoon of
the same day they were conveyed with similar ceremonies to the
central station. From thence, attended by the Raleigh companies,
and by special guards of honor, appointed by cities and towns of
the State, and by the family of the deceased, they were conveyed by
special train to the station at Hillsborough. From thence they were
escorted, with the addition of the whole population of the town, to
his mansion, where they lay in state till the noon of Sunday, the
15th. At that hour they were conveyed to the Presbyterian Church,
and, after appropriate funeral services, were interred with solemn
ceremony, amid an immense concourse, gathered from many counties, in
the graveyard of that church.
The place which will be awarded him in the rank of orators will not
be the highest. Indeed at oratorical effects, purely as such, he
never aimed. There is no doubt but that he might have employed the
resources of oratory, other than the very highest, to a much greater
extent than he did. All who have heard him in capital trials, and on
other occasions when great interests were at stake, were persuaded
that he possessed reserved resources of this kind to which he did
not give play, and which he could have called into requisition
at will. That he refrained was matter of deliberate judgment. He
preferred to address himself to the understanding. He relied wholly
upon argument, disdaining the adjuncts of mere rhetoric. He knew
that the triumphs of reason are more durable than those which are
the offspring of excited feeling. Reaction and change follow the
latter; the former leave full, permanent conviction.
As a parliamentary speaker and as an advocate he stood in the first
rank. His style was that which finds so much favor among eminent
English statesmen, that style in which the results of thought
and research are given with the warmth and ease of animated and
unpremeditated conversation.
In addition to his high intellectual endowments, nature had to him
been profuse in external gifts. In person he was the ideal of the
patrician. His features, regular and classic in their outline, would
have satisfied a sculptor. The habitual expression of his face was
one of blended thought, refinement and quiet will. His form was
noble and commanding; cast, indeed, in nature's finest mould. These
advantages were set off by a dress always scrupulously neat, and
sufficiently conformed to the prevailing mode to escape observation.
The advantages, thus slightly touched upon, were singularly
calculated to impress favorably the mind of any audience. If we
add that he appeared before every audience with the prestige of a
character, which calumny itself would own to be without a blemish,
the causes of his uniform success are easy to discern.
He possessed in many respects the temperament of a great commander.
As difficulties thickened around him his courage seemed to rise,
and his resources to develop. No man ever fought a losing cause
with more courage and constancy. When in important cases the tide
of testimony unexpectedly turned and flowed dead against him there
was nothing in his look or manner that betrayed the change. His
attention would be redoubled, but in all else there was so much
of calm composure that lookers-on, inattentive to the evidence,
have left the court house under the impression that he would gain
the cause. He preserved, under all circumstances in the trial of
causes, the lofty tenor of his bearing. He was never betrayed into
an altercation with witnesses. It may be that awe of his character,
and a consciousness of his practiced sagacity and penetration
constrained witnesses, when in his hands, to an unwonted utterance
of the truth. This impression may have been assisted, and probably
was, by the fairness and integrity observable in his whole
bearing. But whatever the cause, it is certain he never resorted
to boisterous tones or a browbeating manner. Equally removed was
his manner from all the arts of cajolery. In his examination of
the most refractory witness his mien was calm, his look observant
and penetrating, his voice never or but slightly raised above
its ordinary tone. In such a contest, the contest between acute,
disciplined reason, and cunning or obstinate knavery, the victory
was always on the side of the former.
In his moral constitution he was complete on every side. All his
conduct in life was regulated not only by the highest sense of
honor, but by the most scrupulous sense of duty. This supreme sense
of duty in everything that he did, whether great or small, was his
distinguishing characteristic. From his cradle to his grave not
a shadow of a shade ever rested upon him. Esteeming a stainless
character as the highest of all earthly possessions, he exercised
the most scrupulous caution in his judgment of others. Few men were
more often in the public arena. He took part in all the political
canvasses of his time; in many of which partisan feeling was
inflamed to the highest pitch. Yet he never assailed the motives of
his opponent and never left any feeling of personal injury rankling
in his bosom. He always contended for principle, and disdained to
use any argument which reason would not sanction.
In debate he was a model of candor, and whoever might be his
opponent he would always accept Mr. Graham's statement of his
position. In all his intellectual conflicts, whether at the bar,
on the hustings or in the Senate, under no provocation was he ever
excited to an unseemly exhibition of temper. "Although," said a
gentleman of high distinction, who knew him long and well (Hon. S.
F. Phillips), "I have been present at the bar, and upon other public
occasions when he must have been greatly tried, I have never seen
his countenance degraded by an expression of passion. His look may
at times have been stern and high, but at all times it could with
advantage have been committed to marble or canvas."
It was the opinion of that eminent lawyer, Archibald Henderson, that
public men should mingle much with the people--that there is to be
found the true school of common sense. Either because he held the
same opinion, but more probably from inclination, his intercourse
with the people was constant and cordial. When in attendance on his
courts it was his custom when the day was fine to repair, after the
adjournment of court, to the portico of his hotel, or the lawn in
front of it, and sit for an hour or two. This was often his custom
after the evening meal, usually served in his circuit at hours
primitively early. Here he became the centre of a group of citizens
all of whom he received with courtesy. The talk on such occasions
was free and general; and, whatever the topic, he listened to their
views with attention, and in turn frankly gave his own. Thus his
information in regard to all matters of general interest was minute
and particular. It was thus, too, that he became informed as to the
current opinion in regard to public men and public measures. This
intimate knowledge of the people was one of the great sources of his
strength; it rendered his judgment of the probable fate of State and
national questions of great value. His judgment upon such matters,
in the counties in which his circuit lay, was almost infallible.
In his social relations Mr. Graham was one of the most attractive of
men. Few had so wide a circle of friends, or friends so attached.
His manner to all men was urbane; to his friends cordial and
sincere. There was, except to a very few, and at times even to
them, a shade of reserve in his manners; but there was nothing
of pride; nothing expressive of conscious superiority. There was
great dignity, tempered by unfailing courtesy. Perhaps this tinge
of reserve made his subsequent unbending the more agreeable. In
his social hours, in the long winter evenings at court, with the
circle gathered around the blazing hearth--it is as he was then
seen that his friends love best to recall him. For many years there
met together at one of his courts a number of gentlemen of high
intellectual gifts and attainments. These were Hon. Robert Gilliam,
Hon. Abram W. Venable, the present Judge of the Seventh Circuit,
and others less known. With such men there was no need that any
limitations should be imposed on the conversation. Except in the
field of exact science they were very much at home in all. The
conversation ranged wide, law, cases in court, history, biography,
politics--largely interspersed with anecdotes--formed the topics.
The moral dignity of man never received a higher illustration than
in the life before us. We admire the pure patriot in whose thoughts
the State--her weal and her glory--was ever uppermost; the learned
jurist who, from his ample stores informed, moulded the laws of his
own commonwealth; the eloquent advocate who stood always ready to
redress the wrong, whether of the individual or the community at
large; the wise statesman who swayed the destinies of his State more
than any of his generation. But we render the unfeigned homage of
the heart to him, who by the majesty of his moral nature, passed
pure and unsullied through the wide circle of trials and conflicts
embraced in his life; and who, in his death, has left a fame that
will be an incentive and a standard to the generous youth of North
Carolina through all the ages that are to come.
* * * * *
The foregoing sketch is the main body of a memorial address on the
"Life and Character of Governor Graham," delivered in Raleigh before
the bench and bar of the Supreme Court, June 8, 1876.
Much of it has been omitted; for, while it was a labor of love (and
there is much labor in it), it is too long for the scope of this
work. If Mr. McGehee's power of condensation had been equal to his
zeal and to his admiration and knowledge of Governor Graham's life
and work this memorial would have been monumental.
As it stands now in its original form, or even as abridged in this
book, in spite of some just criticisms which could be made against
its style and method, it is an example of industry to those who seek
to collect and preserve the facts which illustrate the lives of
distinguished North Carolinians.
Who now, after the lapse of twenty years, could and would write
this life? Who has done a similar service in respect to the lives of
Mangum, Pearson, and others perhaps equally worthy?
Mr. McGehee's sketch is, however, rather a panegyric. No great
man needs to be bolstered up with compliments, and praise cannot
preserve mediocrity from oblivion.
Nothing better illustrates the defects of Southern education than
the glittering generalities with which we would whitewash our
distinguished dead--as if they needed it--or as if flattery could
"soothe the dull, cold ear of death." We must show, rather than
say, our great men are great, and for this purpose works are more
effectual than words. By their fruits ye shall know them.
[Illustration: BARTHOLOMEW F. MOORE.]
BARTHOLOMEW FIGURES MOORE.
BY ED. GRAHAM HAYWOOD.
A great lawyer, a cherished and distinguished citizen having fallen
in our midst, in obedience to an honored custom, we turn aside from
the ordinary pursuits and ambitions to pay this sad tribute to our
illustrious brother.
Bartholomew Figures Moore having passed the age allotted to man by
the Psalmist, in the midst of his friends and kindred, departed this
life in the city of Raleigh, November 27, A. D. 1878. He was the son
of a Revolutionary soldier, and born at the family residence near
Fishing Creek in Halifax county, January 29, 1801.
Having prepared himself for college, he entered the University of
the State in 1818, and in 1820 graduated with honor in a class of
recognized ability.
Leaving the University, Mr. Moore read law with Hon. Thomas N. Mann,
an able and distinguished lawyer of Nash county. After obtaining
his license he entered upon the practice of his profession at the
then flourishing village of Nashville, the county seat. His success
for some years was not by any means flattering, yet the first five
hundred dollars he received from his professional services he
expended in traveling and familiarizing himself with his country.
In December, 1828, he married Louisa, a daughter of George Boddie,
Esq., of Nash county, who lived only until the 4th of November,
1829. In April, 1835, he married Lucy W., likewise a daughter of
George Boddie, who, having witnessed and shared his toils and
triumphs, survives him, blessed with a large and estimable family.
He returned, in 1835, to Halifax, his native county, and while
pursuing his profession, was elected successively to the House of
Commons from 1836 to 1844, with the exception of 1838, when he was
defeated in consequence of having voted to give State aid to the
Wilmington and Weldon Railroad Company, of which he was a warm
friend and an able advocate.
He was appointed Attorney-General of the State in 1848, and, upon
the convening of the General Assembly in December, elected to the
same position. This office he continued to hold and fill with
great acceptability until he resigned it in consequence of being
appointed a commissioner to revise the statute law of the State. To
him was assigned the principal labor of arranging the matter and
superintending the publication of the _Revised Code_.
While ample success crowned his professional career in Halifax
county, yet in 1848 he removed to Raleigh, where he resided till the
time of his death. Bringing with him his well-established reputation
for research and ability, he continued to command an extended and
lucrative practice in this and other parts of the State.
Mr. Moore early secured a high reputation as an able and profound
lawyer by an elaborate brief in the celebrated case of the _State_
vs. _Will_, a slave (_1 Devereux and Battle's Law_). It was a
case that awakened a general and profound interest throughout the
country and settled the true relations between master and slave in
our State. It recognized the right of the slave to defend himself
against the assaults of his master in the preservation of his own
life. It is reserved to but few of the profession to so impress
their views upon the courts, in advance of public opinion, and to
prepare so admirable a collocation of the law and to establish so
durable a reputation upon any one case.
Mr. Moore was a close and painstaking student; reluctant to appear
in any case without careful preparation; yet when he entered the
combat, the rich and fertile resources of his well-stored mind
clearly manifested that nothing rusted in his intellectual armory.
His mind was logical, his manner forcible, his ideas, without
undue ornamentation, were clothed in strong and graphic language.
He seized at once the strong points of his case, and pressed them
with skill and sagacity. Possessed of a strong mind and robust
constitution, he was a fine exemplification of the _mens sana in
corpore sano_.
In politics he was a Whig, and admired a strong and stable
government; an ardent lover of civil liberty, he watched with
jealousy all legislation tending to encroach upon the guaranteed
rights of the citizen.
A bold and avowed Union man, while the States were engaged in an
unremitting and unrelenting civil war, his high character and
recognized integrity secured him, even amidst the clash of arms,
a respectful hearing, for it was known that he sympathized with
his own people in their unequal conflict, and that often his hasty
expressions were the result of deep convictions. Recognized as a
pronounced and outspoken Unionist, it was but natural that he should
be sought for and consulted by the President of the United States at
the termination of the war.
His respect, however, for the constitutional limitations of the
General Government compelled him to oppose the whole reconstruction
policy, for he was incapable of yielding to the intrigues of the
politician or the subservient traffic of a mere placeman.
He was a leading member of the State convention called by the
President, and ably advocated the adoption of all such measures
as were proclaimed as indispensably necessary to a rehabilitation
of the State, believing that wise statesmanship required an early
submission to the demands of the General Government.
Reared in a conservative school of politics, and devotedly attached
to his State and the high character of her judiciary, he ever looked
with distrust upon the election of judges for short terms and by
popular ballot as an alarming inroad.
As a citizen, to the poor he was liberal and unostentatious, to his
equals, frank and manly, to all, kind and just.
That he had his faults, none will deny; he was impatient of
contradiction, at times impetuous and irascible, yet these were
but the natural emotions of an ardent and sanguine temperament,
and while they tended to obscure, did not infect those true and
excellent qualities which lay beneath the surface.
He lived literally within the Augustan age of the profession in our
State. With a Gaston, Daniel, and Ruffin on the bench, the logical
and versatile Badger, the strong and rugged Saunders, the able,
astute Haywood and their illustrious compeers as rivals at the bar,
it is praise enough to say that he was ever equal to the emergency
of any occasion.
He was the wisest man I ever knew. At his decease and almost for his
whole life, though filling only a private station, he had come to be
recognized as a distinct and efficient moral power in regulating the
social and political welfare of the State. He lived almost to the
utmost limit of the span allotted by the Psalmist to man. Satisfied
with only some very brief honorable rest in extreme old age, he
spent all these years of his life in active, unremitting, assiduous
labor, and finished his career without a taint upon his honor or a
stain upon his reputation. His life covers many epochs in our State
and national history, and among them, the most solemn and imperative
political crisis through which State and nation have yet passed. For
forty years he was a leader in the legal profession, and for perhaps
a quarter of a century he was the very head of the bar--_facile
princeps_. Of all the gentlemen who composed the Raleigh bar, when
I was first admitted to practice, he was the last relict--Badger,
the two Busbees, Husted, Jones, Manly, Mariott, Miller, Rogers,
Saunders, Sheppard, are all gone, sunk down--down with the tumult
they made!