Memoir of John Howe Peyton Part 20

Judge Alexander Rives wrote that "I know no lawyer in Virginia for whom I have the same admiration, respect and esteem."

John B. Baldwin said, "He was the greatest common-law lawyer he ever knew."

Judge Briscoe G. Baldwin said, "He had more strength, originality and learning than any lawyer of his acquaintance."

Judge Lucas P. Thompson said, "His sentiments were illuminated by genius."

Sidney S. Baxter, late Attorney General of Virginia said, "No lawyer in Virginia equalled him in debate."

Thomas J. Michie said of him: "That he was a man who had served his country with distinguished ability in various civil positions in time of peace, who has honorably and gallantly served and sacrificed his property in time of war, a man whose honor and integrity have never been impeached in this or any other community."

Judge R. C. L. Moncure in speaking of him as a young lawyer said: "He took a position on being admitted to the bar which brought him immediate and continued popularity as a lawyer, a pleader and a scholar."

T. M. Green, a distinguished lawyer and author, of Kentucky, said: "John Howe Peyton was eminent as lawyer, statesman and orator."

Professor J. T. L. Preston, late of Virginia Military Inst.i.tute, said: "He was a champion in every branch of his profession."

The late James D. Davidson, of Lexington, said: "I regarded him altogether as a superior being."

The late William Frazier said: "His pleadings were master pieces of art."

The late Judge McCue said: "In his discourses he displayed a soundness of view, an extent of research, a manliness of principle, an accuracy of learning and a vigor of style surpa.s.sing anything I ever heard."

Mr. Peyton was as eminent for stern integrity as for learning and ability, and in that connection a writer, whose name I will not call, as he is still living, said: "I never knew a man who had more of what Edmund Burke styled 'the chast.i.ty of honor which felt a stain like a wound.'"

I have heard many lawyers who personally knew Mr. Peyton as a lawyer, speak of him, and, without exception, they placed him in the very front rank of the great lawyers of his day, and the late Judge H. W. Sheffey, with whom I was a.s.sociated for so many years as a partner, spoke of him often and alluded to his appearance in a celebrated cause, which at the time of the trial, made a most profound impression upon the community and said that Mr. Peyton's description of the facts connected with the _corpus delicti_, and the behavior of the accused at the time was the most dramatic, powerful and stirring burst of eloquence he had ever heard or read, and that during the utterance of the speech there was not a dry eye in the crowded Court House.

It will be observed that these statements are made by men qualified in the highest degree to estimate justly human character and ability, and who had the very best opportunity of judging the character and ability of Mr. Peyton, as they were intimately a.s.sociated with him at the bar and in public life; and their testimony therefore is conclusive, that Mr. Peyton was a man of commanding ability, of the highest culture, of profound legal learning, of the sternest integrity and the strictest honor, and is worthy to be commemorated in the manner proposed by placing this portrait in the group which now adorns these walls, and I now take great pleasure in presenting it to you for that purpose.

At the close of his discourse the audience warmly applauded Captain b.u.mgardner, as it had repeatedly done during its delivery.

MAJOR ELDER'S ADDRESS.

Major Elder then rose and spoke in the following terms:

TO COL. JOHN LEWIS PEYTON whom I see before me, and who by right of primogenture now stands at the head of the descendants of John Howe Peyton, and through him to all the descendants of this eminent man, I would say that the people of the county of Augusta, represented by the Judge of their County Court and Board of Supervisors, have requested me to signify the acceptance by the county of the admirable portrait of Mr.

Peyton which has just been tendered it by Capt. b.u.mgardner in such appropriate and beautiful terms. Col. Peyton, in presenting to his native county this portrait of his distinguished father, has done well, in that he has at once performed an act of filial piety and conferred a public benefit; for whilst Col. Peyton has by this act given apt expression to the tender and loving relations which should exist between a dutiful son and an honored parent, it must also be remembered that the father whom he loved so well was amongst the most distinguished of Augusta's adopted sons, and she is now given an opportunity of manifesting towards him those sentiments of affection and pride which a mother cherishes for her honored children. Individuals and families honor themselves in honoring their worthy ancestors, and communities and states offer the highest incentive to industry, virtue and patriotism by honoring the memory of those who have filled the public stations with fidelity and zeal for the public good.

I shall not attempt a biographical sketch of Mr. Peyton. Capt.

b.u.mgardner has told us of his birthplace and honorable lineage, of his collegiate education and subsequent preparation for the bar, of the commencement of his professional career in his native county of Stafford, and in connection therewith of his early selection for the office of Commonwealth's Attorney for that county, and of his having been chosen several times to represent it in the popular branch of the general a.s.sembly of the State before his removal to Staunton in 1808. We have also been told of the course of his life after his removal to this place. Some account of his merits must have preceded him, for almost immediately after settling here he was appointed Commonwealth's Attorney for this Circuit by its presiding judge, and in two or three years afterwards the distinguished Chapman Johnson resigned the office of prosecuting attorney for this county, in order, as it is said, that Mr.

Peyton, because of his peculiar fitness, might be chosen for the place.

It seems that from the time Mr. Peyton came here to live until he was disabled by the disease that ended his life, his time and talents were devoted to the study and practice of his chosen profession; for he belonged to that cla.s.s of lawyers who do not stop studying when they begin to practice. During almost the whole of his professional life in this county he was Commonwealth's Attorney either for the County or the Circuit, and for the most part for both. The reputation he made as a prosecuting officer has rarely, if ever, been excelled in this State.

But whilst devoted to the law, which he studied as a science, and practiced only as a great and n.o.ble profession should be practiced, he was by no means unmindful of the duties he owed the community in which he lived and the State and country of which he was a citizen. As a military officer of the war of 1812, and as a member of the Senate of Virginia for a number of years, he discharged his duties inc.u.mbent upon him in these positions with honor to himself and with benefit to the State. And over the public a.s.semblage of the people of this town and county occurring in his day, he was frequently called on to preside, upon which occasion he always acquitted himself with dignity and grace.

He took a lively interest in everything of a public character that was going on around him.

He was one of those who think that every man should be more than his work; wider and higher than the business or calling by which he earns his daily bread. Some there are indeed who, whilst thinking this should be so, have barely the capacity to discharge the duties of their vocations, and are without time or strength for anything else; and hence must submit to be driven--

"Round the daily scene Of sad subjection, and sick routine,"

until death relieves them of their bondage.

But we have been told by Capt. b.u.mgardner that Daniel Sheffey, a competent judge surely, in speaking of Mr. Peyton, said--"He possessed gigantic power without effort." No greater compliment could be paid to the intellect of any man. Mr. Peyton had time enough to become great in his profession, and to spare for other things. With him his daily work was a pleasure rather than a burden. Fortunate indeed is the man who is so gifted. The consciousness of the possession of such powers and the use of them in the right directions must be a delight to the possessor.

This appears to have been the thought of Macauley, when contemplating Milton in his poetic flights, after the constructive and artificial parts of his was done, he fancies the great poet might have said to himself:--

"Now my task is smoothly done I can fly, or I can run."

Nature was in various ways lavish in the bestowal of her favors upon him of whom we speak to-day. Not only did she endow him with high intellectual gifts, but he had _mens sana in sana corpore_. He was a large, well proportioned man, of dignified bearing and pleasing address, with a glow and color indicative of a fine physical const.i.tution. Like jewels in a setting, at once strong and graceful, the mental powers of Mr. Peyton were displayed to the best advantage through his magnificent form and presence. How we all do admire intellectual power, and if a.s.sociated with physical size and strength and manly beauty, we admire it all the more. But, it may be repeated, intellectual power, talent and genius are always admired for their own sake. The fact that they are a.s.sociated with bad moral qualities, and indeed with great vices, does not wholly deprive them of their charm. Lord Bacon, sometimes described as the "greatest, meanest of mankind," will never cease to be admired by even the best of men for his towering and resplendent intellect. Satan, as depicted by Milton, while revolting in the hideousness of his moral deformity, excites our interest, and, in a sense, extorts our admiration by the grandeur and independence of his masterly mind. But it was the crowning excellence of him whose memory we honor to-day, that he was as pure and n.o.ble in heart as he was great in mind. In him there was that fine and harmonious combination of high moral qualities and great intellectual powers which make the model man. This combination of moral and intellectual qualities is what so greatly commended this man to the regard and esteem of his contemporaries, and it is what still keeps his memory fresh.

And the moral qualities now referred to are not merely such as truth, sincerity, honesty and integrity, which, and the like of which, Mr.

Peyton, it is true, possessed in an eminent degree, but also the rarer virtues of firmness, self reliance, persistence in the right, fearlessness in the discharge of duty, a strong sense of justice and a refined sense of honor.

And displaying constantly, as he did, these n.o.ble qualities in the practice of his profession, he left the lawyers of this bar and of the bar throughout the State an example worthy of the closest imitation. In the discharge of his duties as a prosecuting attorney, whilst he never permitted those he believed to be guilty to go wholly unwhipped of justice if he could prevent it, on the other hand he would have considered it a crime in himself to have asked for the conviction of one whose guilt was not sufficiently established. He was an independent and conscientious pract.i.tioner in the civil departments of his profession.

Well it is for the lawyers of the present day, and well it will be for those who are to follow them, that the portrait of such a lawyer should be ever looking down upon them from the walls of this hall of justice.

Its presence here will be at once an inspiration and a restraint.

With the form and features of John Marshall, the great expounder of the Federal Const.i.tution and the founder of our Federal Jurisprudence, and with the forms and features of such of his disciples as John H. Peyton, Thomas J. Michie and John B. Baldwin, ever before them, the lawyers who come here to practice their profession should not go wrong.

Nor is the presence of the portraits of these great men in this public place without its purifying and elevating influence on the great body of the people who are wont to congregate here. Every community is deeply interested in the qualifications and character of its lawyers. Like people, like bar. If the people want clean and competent lawyers to transact their business, such will be forthcoming; if, on the other hand, lawyers of a different kind are wanted and encouraged, they will abound.

But it is not only because the men whose likenesses adorn these walls were great lawyers that they are ent.i.tled to the admiration of the public; but also because they were upright and honorable in all the relations of life, both private and public. In political matters they were candid and straightforward, and, above all things, patriotic. They were not office-seekers. So far as they were office-holders, the offices sought them. None of Mr. Peyton's contemporaries ever supposed that he would of his own motion actively seek a political office. But when the people amongst whom he lived desired his services in a public capacity, they were not withheld; and they were rendered with strict regard to the public interests and without any regard at all to his personal promotion. With him, and with those like him, public office was indeed a public trust. John Howe Peyton was never the man to sacrifice a political conviction for office. He was a leader rather than a follower of public opinion, and he always guided it in the ways of justice, of honor, and of patriotism.

What was it that first gave to this county of Augusta her high and enviable position amongst the counties of Virginia? It was the custom of putting forward her best men to represent her in the legislature, and in the various public a.s.semblages of the State. The name of Augusta is indissolubly linked with the names of her distinguished sons who are gone. In the eloquent language of a great patriot--"The past is at least secure."

I claim to be a man of progress, and I trust duly appreciate the wonderful advances of recent years in the development of the resources and material wealth of our State and Country and in diffusion of education and other blessings; but at the same time, I would hold fast to the former things that are good. In this respect at least, if necessity required, I would rather adopt the motto engraved on the public seal of our country _Redeant in aurum secula prisc.u.m_, "Let the ages return to the first golden period."

May G.o.d bless the county of Augusta and may He raise up men, great and true, to serve and honor her in the future as John H. Peyton and her two other sons whose portraits adorn these walls served and honored her in the past.

When Major Elder resumed his seat he was greeted with loud applause.

COL. JOHN L. PEYTON'S REMARKS.

Silence being restored there were calls from all parts of the house for Colonel Peyton, who came forward in response to them and spoke in substance as follows:

He said he was taken entirely by surprise, but gladly availed himself of the occasion to thank Captain b.u.mgardner and Major Elder for their polished and eloquent speeches, and the lofty tributes they had paid to his father; he was pleased that his father's portrait would henceforth adorn the walls of this hall, which had so often resounded to his eloquence, and would be evermore displayed in the midst of a people he loved so well, and for whom he labored so faithfully. He confessed to a devout veneration for great and good men--the heroic masters in virtue, and felt a desire to exalt them as ideals, which would exert an influence to mould to their likeness those who earnestly contemplated them. Leaving out of view all other aspects of his father's character, he might be permitted to say that no man had a deeper or more inextinguishable thirst to promote human liberty and happiness, and such was his unselfish patriotism that it could be truly said of him that it ever was "his country first, his country last, his country all the time." [Loud applause.]

JOHN RANDOLPH TUCKER'S LETTER.

Major Elder then read the following letter from Hon. J. Randolph Tucker.

Lexington, Va., July 18th, 1894.