Memoir of John Howe Peyton Part 19

With great respect and esteem, Yours truly, GEO. W. THOMPSON.

PRESENTATION OF MR. PEYTON'S PORTRAIT TO THE COUNTY OF AUGUSTA.

In order to preserve, in a permanent form, the interesting proceedings on the occasion when Mr. Peyton's portrait was presented to the county of Augusta, the little pamphlet containing them and printed at the time, is here reproduced.

The pamphlet was ent.i.tled: "John Howe Peyton. Ceremonies attending the presentation of his portrait to the county of Augusta."

_"Great men heighten the consciousness of the human race, and it is our grateful duty to magnify him whose genius magnifies mankind."_

(Printed for Private Circulation.)

THE STOUT AND PEYTON CORRESPONDENCE.

Staunton, October 29th, 1892.

_To Col. John L. Peyton_:

_My Dear Colonel_--In accordance with the wishes of the bar and people of the county generally, it is the purpose of the county court to place in the Court House, if they can be obtained, portraits of our eminent lawyers of the past. Among the most distinguished of our jurists was your father, Hon. John Howe Peyton, distinguished alike for his varied abilities as a scholar, lawyer and statesman, for the extent of his learning and the purity of his private and public morals. For nearly forty years he displayed his great qualities on this theatre to the admiration and advantage of the public, and I trust you may be able to accede to my request and supply a copy, life size, of his portrait.

I am, very truly, your friend, JOHN W. STOUT, Judge of Augusta County.

Staunton, October 31st, 1892.

_Hon. John W. Stout, Judge of Augusta County_:

_My Dear Judge_--I have had the honor to receive your kind and courteous note asking for a copy of my father's portrait, to be placed in the County Court House, among those of the eminent lawyers of Augusta, and hasten to say in reply that it will give me great pleasure to comply with your request.

I have the honor to be, Judge, with great respect and esteem, Your friend J. L. PEYTON.

In accordance with his promise to Judge Stout, Col. Peyton instructed Mr. Edmund Berkeley, of Staunton, to employ an experienced and competent artist of New York City to make, in oil, a portrait of his father. Some delay took place in the matter, as Col. Peyton had promised a portrait of his father to Was.h.i.+ngton and Lee University, Lexington, which was executed by the same artist and sent to Lexington last year.

In the month of July, 1894, the portrait of Mr. Peyton was finished in New York and expressed to Staunton, where it safely arrived. Col. Peyton duly advised Judge Chalkley, the successor of Judge Stout in the office of County Judge, of the fact and received the following letter from him.

Staunton, July 2nd, 1894.

_My Dear Col. Peyton_:

I am very much pleased to know that the portrait of your father, Hon.

John Howe Peyton, which was gotten by you at the request of Judge John W. Stout, to be hung in the County Court House, has arrived in Staunton.

As far as it is in my province to speak, accept my a.s.surances that it will be received by the people of Augusta county with the most cordial feelings toward you, and with the greatest admiration for the memory of one who has reflected so much credit upon Augusta county.

It will give me great pleasure to go with you to the Court House at any time that it may be convenient to you, for the purpose of selecting a place to hang the portrait.

Believe me to be, with the greatest respect and consideration.

Very truly yours, LYMAN CHALKLEY.

A few days later, on behalf of the County Court, an invitation was extended to the leading families of the town and county to attend a public meeting of the county officials and the general public, at the Court House, on July 20th, at 12 o'clock, M., when the portrait would be formally presented to the county by Capt. James b.u.mgardner, Jr., on behalf of Col. Peyton, and be accepted by Major T. C. Elder on behalf of the county, these gentlemen, two of the ablest and most eloquent members of the bar, having been selected by Judge Chalkley for these pleasing duties.

THE PUBLIC MEETING.

The meeting announced to take place at 12 o'clock, July 20th, for the reception of Mr. Peyton's portrait, was duly held in the Court House on the day and at the hour specified. It was largely attended by the county officials, among them Hon. Lyman Chalkley, Judge of the County, N. B.

Watts, Sheriff, Wm. A. Burnett, County Clerk, and others, including the Supervisors, namely, Elijah Coiner, T. M. Smiley, H. B. Wilson, Samuel Forter, Silas H. Walker, and Wm. A. Crawford, the members of the Bar and many others, among whom were a number of fas.h.i.+onable and elegant ladies, including Mrs. and the Misses Atkinson, Mrs. Elder and daughter, Mrs. W.

P. Tams, Mrs. Wm. Frazier, Miss Malcomb, Mrs. W. E. Craig, &c., &c.

On motion of Capt. Thos. D. Ranson, seconded by Wm. P. Tams, Esq., Capt.

George M. Cochran was called to the chair. Capt. Cochran explained briefly the object of the meeting, when Capt. b.u.mgardner arose and said:

CAPT. JAMES b.u.mGARDNER'S SPEECH.

_Gentlemen of the Board of Supervisors_:

The late lamented Judge Stout, who did much to ent.i.tle him to be gratefully remembered by the people of Augusta County, requested that a copy of the portrait of John H. Peyton might be made, to be placed on the walls of this Court room.

In accordance with that request the portrait has been made, and on behalf of Col. John Lewis Peyton and the other descendants of John H.

Peyton, I deliver this portrait to you, as the representatives of the County of Augusta, in order that the purpose of Judge Stout may be carried into effect; and that this portrait may be placed in that group of ill.u.s.trious citizens, with all of whom he was closely a.s.sociated in life, and with whom he is ent.i.tled to be grouped and remembered in all time to come, as one of the men who have made the Staunton bar famous and honored, and who in their day enjoyed and deserved to enjoy, the esteem and admiration of their countrymen.

John H. Peyton was born in Stafford County, Virginia, in the year 1778.

He inherited the virtues of patriotism, devotion to duty, courage and honor from his father, who ill.u.s.trated them in the highest degree as a soldier of the Revolution. His academic career was distinguished by faithful application and great ability, and he graduated at Princeton, taking with high honors the degree of Master of Arts in the year 1797.

After finis.h.i.+ng his academical course he went earnestly to work to prepare himself for his professional career in which he rendered such faithful and honorable service to the Country and in which he earned so much honor and distinction. He studied law under the advice and tuition of Judge Bushrod Was.h.i.+ngton of the Supreme Court of the United States, and with his ability, and taught by such a master, it is not surprising that the accuracy and extent of his legal knowledge placed him in the front rank of the great men of his profession, who were his contemporaries. He commenced the practice of the law on the Fredericksburg Circuit. In the year 1806 he was elected as a Member of the House of Delegates from the County of Stafford, and was again elected in 1807. As a debater he had no superior on the floor of the House.

Mr. Peyton removed to Staunton and commenced the practice of the law in the Courts held in Staunton and the adjoining Counties in the year 1808, and he devoted himself to the practice of the law from that time until near his death in 1847. His great and recognized ability in the practice of his profession is shown by the fact that he was appointed Attorney of the Commonwealth for this Circuit immediately after his removal to Staunton, and three years later in 1812, Attorney for the Commonwealth for Augusta County. Chapman Johnson, who said he himself was not suited for the office, resigning it that Mr. Peyton might be elected, whom he declared was the ablest public prosecutor in Virginia. During the year 1812 he served as Chief of Staff of General Porterfield. In his army service he established his reputation as an able, enterprising and gallant officer. With the exception of his service in the House of Delegates, in the Senate and in the Army, his time and energies were spent in the arduous duties of his profession.

He was Mayor of Staunton in the years 1816 and in 1817, but his performance of the duties of that office was not, of course, any serious interruption to the laborious work of his profession. From 1812 (when he was appointed Attorney for the Commonwealth for the county of Augusta) he filled that office continuously until 1844, serving in the mean time for two terms in the Senate of Virginia from 1836 to 1844, when he resigned from ill health. And now, because sirs, during that long period he was one of the great men of this bar, because he was one of the great citizens of Augusta and of Virginia, because it is of interest and benefit to the Commonwealth, that the memory of her great and able men be preserved and cherished, this picture was asked for, that its presence on these walls might be a perpetual evidence of his ability and virtues, and evidence of how the people of this county recognize, reverence and honor those lofty attributes of mind and heart, which give fame and distinction to the locality in which they are displayed. It is now forty-seven years since Mr. Peyton pa.s.sed away. Since his death nearly two generations have been born and died. Of the men now living in this county very few personally knew Mr. Peyton, or personally know the position he occupied in the estimation of the bar, of the men, and of the community of his day and time. That position is clearly shown by the written expressions of many great men of his day, and as these expressions will convey a clearer idea of Mr. Peyton's character than I am able to give in any other way, I think it most proper on this occasion to quote them.

Mr. Peyton was the author of the celebrated report opposing the Amendment of the Const.i.tution of the United States, proposed by the State of Pennsylvania, for the alleged purpose of preventing collisions between the Federal Government and the State Governments; concerning which report Mr. Webster said, that "the reasoning and conclusions were unanswerable" and on another occasion said, "it was a misfortune that he was not in Congress."

Benjamin Watkins Leig said, "He was the greatest lawyer west of the Blue Ridge."

Chapman Johnson said, "He was the greatest criminal lawyer and public prosecutor I have ever seen."

Judge Henry St. George Tucker said, "He was one of the most profound and learned of lawyers."

Daniel Sheffy said, "He possessed gigantic power without effort, and was not only a great but a good man."

Major James Garland, of Lynchburg, said, "There was no greater lawyer in the Commonwealth."