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.
* * * * *
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.
In the opening of his remarks the next day, Mr. Michie, who was
evidently much excited, said: _"I regret the course which the counsel on
the other side have pursued in going out of the record to assail my
client--a man who has served his country with distinguished ability in
various civil positions in time of peace, who has honorably and
gallantly served and sacrificed his property for his country in time of
war--a man whose honor and integrity have never been impeached in this
or any other community, before this or any other tribunal. And so help
me God, I will not suffer him, old, respected and honored as he is, to
be hunted down by the blood-hounds now on his track."_ At this point Mr.
Stuart jumped to his feet and disclaimed any intention to assail Mr.
Peyton, to which Mr. Michie retorted, "_I suppose the gentleman will not
have forgotten that he charged that the public rights had been bought
and sold._" Mr. Stuart insisted that he had made no attack on Mr.
Peyton. Mr. Michie then delivered a powerful and earnest speech in which
the position of his adversaries were literally pulverized. He declared
as to the North Mountain people that they had come to Staunton in crowds
and had attempted to brow-beat the halls of justice.
Judge Thompson, in delivering his opinion on the case, decided that the
original order of the County Court obtained by Mr. Peyton was a valid
and legal order, and that the remedy which the other parties had, if,
indeed, the public convenience required that the old road should be kept
open, was to petition the Court under the general road law of Virginia
to open the road _de novo_--thus deciding the whole case in Mr.
Peyton's favor. Thus ended a controversy which had excited a degree of
feeling rarely exhibited in a case where so small a pecuniary, or
property interest was involved.
PROTECTS A WEAK MINDED GIRL.
I remember Mr. Peyton's personal appearance and manners well. He made a
great impression on me as a youth and I never knew any man who had more
of what Edmund Burke styled the "chastity of honor, which felt a stain
like a wound." His humanity and sense of right were deeply aroused in a
case which occurred in Bath county in 1842, in which a man for
speculative purposes sought to take the person and property of a girl of
weak mind from the custody of her brothers. He was represented by John
W. Brockenbrough, afterwards United States Judge for Western Virginia.
Mr. Peyton appeared for the girl and her brothers and in opposition to
the proposition made by Brockenbrough's client delivered an impromptu
speech in which the mean, selfish, cruel and avaricious nature of the
proposition was so clearly and mercilessly exposed that Brockenbrough
did not even attempt to reply, and the presiding Judge E. S. Duncan, a
half-brother of Judge John J. Allen, dec'd, instantly decided that the
custody of the girl and her property should remain in the hands of her
brothers. It was evident that Mr. Peyton's high and generous nature was
filled with indignation at what he regarded as a most atrocious
proposition, and he spoke with an animation, warmth and energy, probably
never exceeded in any other effort of his long and distinguished
professional career.
SENEX.
_Spectator, 1891._
LETTER FROM JOHN HOWE PEYTON, ESQ., TO THE
COMMITTEE OF THE AMHERST FESTIVAL.
Staunton, October 8th, 1843.
_Gentlemen_:
Your letter of the 2nd instant inviting me on behalf of the Whigs of
Amherst county, to be present at a festival to be held at Amherst Court
house, on the 19th of the present month, for the promotion of the Whig
cause, has just reached me. I regret, that for reasons unnecessary to
detail, it will not be in my power to accept your polite invitation. You
judge rightly, however, in supposing that I cordially unite with you in
the objects which you have in view. The next Presidential election is a
subject so important and so deeply interesting to the nation, that it
cannot be taken into consideration too soon. The issues involved in it
are the same with those before the people in 1840, and affect so vitally
the public welfare, that too much care cannot be bestowed upon our
proper organization--not only to prevent the evils arising from
misrepresentation and falsehood, by disseminating among the people
correct information, but to secure a full and fair expression of the
public sentiment. If these issues are fully and fairly explained,
together with the mode and manner in which the Whigs have been
disappointed in carrying their measures into effect by the lamentable
death of President Harrison, I do not fear a different result in the
ensuing election from that which occurred in 1840. Our opponents have
not yet designated their candidate. We are as yet uninformed whether we
are to encounter the subtle abstractions of the South Carolina
nullifier, or the wiley artifices of the "Northern man with Southern
principles" or whether we are to face both. Not so with the Whigs.
Henry Clay is so identified with the Whig cause and with Whig
principles, that "all tongues speak of him, and the blear'd sights are
spectacled to see him." He is distinctly pointed at by Whigs, in all
parts of the Union, as the candidate for this distinguished station.
Let Whig clubs then be established in every county in the State; let the
people be correctly informed what Whig principles are, and why the
battle of 1840 is to be fought over again; let the people know that the
Whigs are not only in favor of a sound currency but of a currency of
uniform value throughout the Union--a national currency, consisting
partly of the precious metals and partly of paper, convertible at
pleasure into specie; and that they maintain, that in the present
commercial condition of our country and of the world, this species of
currency can be best attained by a well-regulated national bank. Let
them know that we prefer indirect to direct taxation--that we are the
friends of a tariff, to raise the necessary revenues for the general
government--so arranged as to protect our home industry, and to create a
home market. Let them know that we are the friends to a distribution of
the monies arising from a sale of the public lands, according to some
equitable ratio, and that we are not willing that a fund pledged by the
States for specific objects, shall, after those objects are secured, be
diverted to others not contemplated by the parties at the creation of
the trust. Let them know that we, as our name indicates, are the friends
of rational liberty; that we are for preserving the balances of power as
established by the Constitution, among the three co-ordinate branches of
the Government--that we are the enemies of monarchy and all the
monarchical tendencies of our Government--that we are in favor of
restraining Executive power and patronage; and for an economical
administration of the finances.
If these topics are fully discussed, and the people made clearly to
comprehend their bearing, the election of a Whig President in 1844, can
scarcely be questioned.
You will pardon me for entering upon these subjects so much at large,
when addressing myself to those who are more capable of doing them
justice, and more interested in the issue than myself. I am an old man,
and cannot expect to reap many of the fruits of a Whig victory, but I
have a country and family that will enjoy them; and therefore I feel a
deep interest in their success.
As I cannot be personally present, permit me to offer as a sentiment:
_May a retreating Whig in the contest of 1844, be a character unknown
and unheard of._
Accept the assurances of my respect--Your fellow citizen.
JOHN H. PEYTON.
_Spectator, Nov. 23, 1843._
A DEPLORABLE ACCIDENT.