Memoir of John Howe Peyton Part 23

PROFESSOR OF LAW, &C.

University of Virginia, February 3d, 1881.

_My Dear Sir_:

I pray you to accept my thanks for the brief memoirs of your distinguished father, which you were so kind as to send me.

It is very pleasing to have before my eyes the well remembered features, expression and att.i.tude of a man for whom, through my whole professional life, I have cherished the most unreserved respect and admiration.

For many years I have been accustomed to regard the county of Augusta as occupying the first position in the Commonwealth, in respect to the _morale_ and intelligence of its people, and the soundness of its public sentiment, and have ascribed the pre-eminence, in a marked degree, to the lofty character of its bar--a pre-eminence in uprightness, as well as in abilities and learning, which has now subsisted continuously for near a hundred years. There is no community in the State, I believe, which has been blessed, for a blessing indeed it has proved, for so long a period of time, with such a wonderful and uninterrupted succession of great and virtuous lawyers.

In that remarkable series, your father is a most conspicuous figure, and by his example and influence contributed as much as any one to the n.o.ble result, as I apprehend it to exist, in the elevated tone of the people of Augusta.

Doubtless the highest influences of religion co-operated powerfully to accomplish what has been achieved, but I do not doubt that one of the chief auxiliaries was the stainless purity existing for so many years among the pract.i.tioners of the law, rendered more conspicuous and patent by the extraordinary capacity which accompanied it.

I look with trembling anxiety to the young men who now compose the bulk of the Augusta bar, many of whom are my pupils, to sustain and transmit unimpaired the ill.u.s.trious reputation for lofty integrity and eminent ability and learning, which has come down to them through so many successions of their predecessors, so that for the next hundred years, as for the last, old Augusta may continue to enjoy the distinction she has won.

Thanking you again for kindly remembering me in the distribution of the sketch, I am, with great respect and esteem,

Yours truly, JOHN B. MINOR.

James D. Davidson, in a letter dated Lexington, Va., January 25th, 1879, and addressed to Col. John L. Peyton, says:

"When I knew Mr. Peyton in practice in Rockbridge county, I was comparatively a young member of the bar, and I looked up to him, as a man of imperial, far seeing, commanding intellect, and in every respect as a superior being, not only as a lawyer, but as a man."

Letters and excerpts from letters to whom the little pamphlet giving an account of the presentation of Mr. Peyton's likeness to the county were sent:

_Judge S. Ba.s.sett French_, of Mynchester, says:

"Mr. Peyton was a wonderful man in his day, and had few peers in any age."

_Col. Wm. A. Anderson_, in a letter to Col. Peyton, dated Lexington, August 8th, 1894, says:

"Accept my thanks for the memorial pamphlet of your honored father. Some knowledge of his splendid gifts, his eloquence, learning and lofty traits of character had come down to me among the traditions of the Lexington bar, at which he was for many years a distinguished pract.i.tioner, and I am very glad to have in more enduring form the sketches of his life, character and services."

PROF. JOHN B. MINOR, LL. D.

University of Virginia, Law Department, August 9th, 1894.

_My Dear Sir:_

I received yesterday, the pamphlet containing the account of the "Ceremonies attending the presentation of the portrait of John Howe Peyton," your honored father, to the county of Augusta, and beg you to accept my cordial thanks therefore.

I apprehend that no county in the State, nor in the United States, can exhibit such an aggregation of judicial worthies as Augusta, not merely lawyers of distinguished learning and power, but men no less distinguished for incompatible integrity. The county authorities do themselves great credit in thus commemorating the virtues and abilities which have so ill.u.s.trated their community.

Among these great and good men your father was conspicuous, and well deserves to be enshrined in the esteem and admiration, not of Augusta only, but of Virginia, and the whole country. With renewed thanks for the pamphlet,

I am, yours very truly, JOHN B. MINOR.

Col. John L. Peyton, Staunton, Va.

_Hon. John W. Rieley_, judge-elect to the Supreme Court of Appeals, of Virginia, says:

"I have read with deep and intense interest the addresses and all that was said of Mr. Peyton by his contemporaries, and as a Virginian I am proud of such an ill.u.s.trious citizen, and congratulate old Augusta that her people have for contemplation, and emulation for all time the life and character of one of such worth and commanding ability."

_Col. Jos. H. Sherrard_, under date of Lexington, August 12th, 1894, writes:

"I have read the pamphlet with a great deal of pleasure, and am glad to see this departure from the rule too long prevalent of doing honor only to statesmen and military men, and the system inaugurated of 'rendering unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's.' Truly among professional men there is oft-times as much virtue, genius and patriotism as in the former cla.s.ses, and this was the case as to your great and good father, and is so as to many modest citizens, who are as worthy to be commemorated. Many a youth will be taught that honor and glory are not alone to be achieved at the cannon's mouth, or in the halls of Congress, and to emulate such examples of virtue in private life. Would that this precedent of your good people could be repeated by those of every county in the State, until all of our court-houses are ornamented by their ill.u.s.trious citizens. Surely we might then say: 'Lives of great men all remind us we may make our lives sublime and departing leave footprints in the sands of time.'"

_John F. Lewis, Esq._, writes from Charleston, W. Va., under date of October 12th, 1894:

"While it was not my good fortune to have known personally the subject of these eloquent tributes to worth, I know full well how richly deserved they are. From the days of my youth I have heard from the lips of those who knew John Howe Peyton well and honored him, the most beautiful and feeling tributes to his high toned honor, his brilliant intellect, his fervid patriotism and his spotless life. It is eminently fitting that this speaking likeness of him should adorn the walls of the Temple of Justice of old Augusta, those same walls which erstwhile echoed back his eloquent words in defence of the right."

_Rev. Wm. H. Ruffner, D. D._, writes from Lexington, under date of August 10th, 1894:

"I have read all [the pamphlet containing ceremonies attending the presentation of Mr. Peyton's portrait to the county] with interest and sympathy. Your father was one of the heroes of my early days. I saw and heard him often, and the impression I received of his character and abilities was correct."

_Dr. R. A. Brock_ writes from Richmond, October 10th, 1894:

"I am thankful in the inspiration that the contemplation of so benign a presence, and the consequent retrospect of so admirable a life, will command in posterity."

_Rev. Geo. Gordon Smeade_, Rector of Magill Memorial Church, Pulaski City, writes:

"For the sake of the rising generation who may frequent your Court of Justice, it was most timely in placing upon her walls the portrait of so distinguished a personage as your father. He who has left so deep an impress upon the community in which he lived, and I may say also upon his age, cannot help being an incentive to the very _highest type of virtue_ and patriotism."

_C. B. Thomas, Esq._, writes from Wytheville, August 11th, 1894:

"I have read the pamphlet with much interest. I will have my boys to read it, hoping that they may be stimulated to strive to emulate some of the virtues which characterized your distinguished father in such an eminent degree."

_Miss M. J. Baldwin_, the gifted and accomplished Princ.i.p.al of the Augusta Female Seminary, under date of August 15th, 1894, writes:

"No one takes more pleasure in seeing your father's memory honored than I do. May his descendants ever prove worthy of so distinguished an ancestor."

FROM MRS. LOUISA DUPUY.

The talented and accomplished Mrs. Louisa Dupuy, who was intimately acquainted with Mr. Peyton and his family, and who spent much time at Montgomery Hall in early days, thus writes:

Staunton, Thursday Afternoon.

_Dear Col. Peyton_: