Memoir of John Howe Peyton Part 5

"This is rarely the case--were I to meet a man who should contend that two and two do not make four, or that the amount of degrees in three angles of a triangle are not equal to the amount of degrees in two right angles, I must justly charge him with folly or wilful falsehood; but, in whatever does not admit of demonstration, our convictions are our feelings; and our feelings depend more upon involuntary impressions than we are often willing to allow. Certainly truth and reason are the most likely to prevail with cultivated minds, for truth and reason are the most likely to make the right impression, but we are too apt to over-value our own kind of knowledge, while we underrate that of others.

"In point of real utility, the knowledge of the man who is skilled in the breeding and feeding of cattle is more valuable to society than is the knowledge of him who is skilled in mathematics, yet the latter will look down upon the former, when, perhaps, the only advantage he has over him is the being able to convey his knowledge in more correct and perspicuous language; and unless we possessed all kind of knowledge in an equal degree, we are liable to be imposed upon in some things, either by thinking too much upon them, or too much, to the exclusion of other branches of knowledge, the possession of which, though seemingly foreign to the subject, may be necessary to its clear elucidation; for it is by possession of general knowledge only that we can claim a superior t.i.tle to correctness in every particular. A may be able to solve a difficult problem in mathematics; B can not do this, but B can make a plow upon true mechanical principles which A can not; if C can do both, C must be superior to A or B; but all mankind are in the situation of A or B, as possessing only partial knowledge. We should all, therefore, be indulgent to each other's deficiencies. Still, my superior in general knowledge and learning, may be the dupe of a weak prejudice, without justifying an impeachment of either. I have a brother-in-law," he would look askant at Colonel Lewis when getting off this kind of fillip, "of whose cleverness and general knowledge I have a very high opinion, yet in politics we are quite opposite. We indeed worship different idols, and the only superiority I can pretend to claim over him is, that I can bear for him to adore his idol, even in my presence, and yet keep my temper--a compliment he can not always repay."

"Fudge!" exclaimed the Colonel, jumping to his feet and walking hastily to and fro across the room, "I may warm with the subject, but as to being offended with you it is out of the question. I never have and never will so far forget myself."

"Come, come, be seated," Mr. Peyton would rejoin, giving him a friendly tap on the shoulder. "Let me proceed. Of course you will not think I wish to depreciate the value of truth and reason, I only wish to urge that the seeming want of them in others may be deceptions, and should not be the cause of contempt, acrimony or ridicule. All are enamoured with even the shadow of truth, and should see the substance, if in their power, but placed in a variety of lights and shades, some can only see the shadow, and mistake it for the substance." Thus their fraternal discussions proceeded and terminated in the discomfiture of Col. Lewis, who though a clever man, an eloquent talker, full of confidence, and abundance of zeal, was no such logician as Mr. Peyton, and left not the slightest pain rankling in his bosom.

"Now, William," said Mr. Peyton, "I cannot flatter myself that I shall convince you of any errors, which, in my opinion, you have been guilty of in this respect. That is no reason, however, why I should not attempt to make you entertain a disbelief of all foolish impossibilities. For example, there is the fallacious science of astrology--it has been the game of a few designers in all ages, for sordid interest, to have duped others and been duped themselves. In ancient times they were, in Alexandria, compelled to pay a certain tax, which was called the 'Fool's Tax,' because it was raised on the gain that these impostors made from the foolish credulity of those who believed in their powers of soothsaying. Well may believers in this science be called 'fools,' when they do not seem to consider that if the principles of judiciary astrology were correct, and its rules certain, the hands of the Almighty would be tied, and ours would be tied also. All our actions, all our most secret thoughts, all our slightest movements: would be engraven in the heavens in ineffaceable characters, and liberty of conduct would be entirely taken away from us. We should be necessitated to evil as to good, since we should do absolutely what was written in the conjectured register of the stars, otherwise there would be falsehood in the book, and uncertainty in the science of the astrologer. How we should laugh at a man who thought of settling a serious matter of business by a throw of the dice. Yet the decision of astrology is just as uncertain. Our fate depends upon places, persons, times, circ.u.mstances, our own will; not upon the fantastical conjunctions inspired by charlatans.

"Suppose two men are born on our planet, at the same hour and on the same spot. One becomes a hewer of wood and a drawer of water, and the other an emperor, or a commander-in-chief of an army. Ask an astrologer the cause of the difference. In all probability he will reply, 'It was so willed by Jupiter.'

"Pray what is this Jupiter? Why it is a planet, a body without cognizance, that acts only by its influence. How comes it then that Jupiter's influence acts at the same moment and in the same climate in so different a manner? How can that influence differ in its power? How can it take place at all? How can it penetrate the vast extent of s.p.a.ce?

An atom--the most minute molecule of matter would stop it, or turn it from its course, or diminish its power. Are the stars always exercising an influence, or do they exercise it only on certain occasions? If they exercise an influence only periodically, when the particles which, it is intended, are detached from them, are moving to our sphere, the astrologer must know the precise time of their arrival in order to decide rightly upon their effect. If on the other hand, the influences are perpetual, with what wonderful speed they must rush through the vast extent of s.p.a.ce! How marvelous too must be the alliance they form with those vivacious pa.s.sions which originate the princ.i.p.al actions of our lives! For if the stars regulate all our feelings and all our proceedings, their influence must work with the same rapidity as our wills, since it is by them our will is determined."

HIS RELIGIOUS BELIEF.

Mr. Peyton was a firm believer in the doctrines of Christianity, and the experience of his life was that true happiness is only found in the observance of her precepts. He held that man must have some religion and the most perfect was that handed by Christ to his Apostles. He did not attach great importance to sects, and when asked whether he was a Catholic, Presbyterian or Episcopalian, answered that he did not find such words in the Testament--he was merely a Christian; he believed in what was revealed to us in the Bible and submitted himself with humility to the Almighty power. He was brought up in the Episcopalian church and died a member of it.

MR. PEYTON'S ORIGINALITY AND POWER OF ILl.u.s.tRATION.

"I recall a conversation," says one of Mr. P.'s biographers, "just after a protracted term of the Augusta Circuit Court, in which the late Judge Lucas P. Thompson and Gen. B. G. Baldwin bore the leading parts. Gen. B.

was paying generous tribute to Mr. Peyton's force and originality. Judge Thompson remarked in substance, that he had never seen Mr. Peyton go through a cause deeply interesting and moving him, in which he did not utter some view or sentiment illuminated by genius, or at the least, some ill.u.s.tration marked by a bold originality; and he instanced two causes, tried at the last term--one a civil suit and a very heavy will case, in which he made a novel and scorching application of a familiar fable of aesop. I forbear to give its details, because both the critic and his subject have pa.s.sed from earth.

"In the same cause three signatures were to be identified and proved--that of the testator and also of the attending witnesses--all three having died since their attestation. Many witnesses were called to prove the genuineness of the three names. Opposing counsel sought to badger the witnesses by urging them to specify what peculiar marks there were in the handwriting and signatures, whereby they could speak so positively as to their ident.i.ty and genuineness. This of course for the most part they could not do, and in the argument of the cause before the jury the same counsel strove to throw discredit and contempt upon those witnesses (all men of good character) for their failure and inability so to describe the quality and peculiar marks in the calligraphy of the signers as to show they were familiar with their handwriting. In his reply to those sallies of his opponents, Mr. Peyton swept away the whole airy fabric by a single happy ill.u.s.tration:

"'_Gentlemen,' he said, 'You have often been a.s.sembled in crowds on some public or festive occasion. Your hats have been thrown pell-mell in a ma.s.s with perhaps a hundred other hats, all having a general resemblance. Suppose you had attempted to describe your hat to a friend or servant, so that he might go and pick it out for you. It has as many points for accurate description as a written signature--its color, height of crown, width of brim, its band, lining, &c. Do you think that friend or servant could by any possibility have picked out your hat for you? And yet when you went yourself, the moment your eye would light upon it, you instantly recognize it amongst a hundred. Familiarity with it has stamped its picture on your mind and the moment you see it, the hat fills and fits the picture on your mind as perfectly as the same hat fits your head_.'

"The jury were evidently won, and gave full credence to the ridiculed witnesses.

"The other instance during the same term (cited by Judge Thompson) occurred in the celebrated prosecution of Naaman Roberts for forgery--in forging the name of Col. Adam d.i.c.kinson to a bond for six hundred dollars.

"The body of the bond was confessedly the handwriting of the prisoner at the bar. That was admitted. The signature was a tolerably successful attempt at imitating the peculiar handwriting of Adam d.i.c.kinson. But no expert could look at the whole paper and fail to see a general resemblance between the body of the instrument and the signature, raising a strong conviction in the mind that both proceeded from the same hand.

"The defense strongly insisted upon excluding the body of the instrument from the view of the witness, by covering it with paper, or turning it down, and so confining the view to the signature only--upon the familiar doctrine of the law of evidence forbidding a comparison of various handwritings of the party, as a ground for an opinion upon the ident.i.ty of genuineness of the disputed writing. And this point was ably and elaborately argued by the prisoner's counsel.

"The learned prosecutor met it thus:

"'_Gentlemen this is one entire instrument, not two or more brought into comparison. Let me ask each one of you, when you meet your friend, or when you meet a stranger, in seeking to identify him, what do you look at? Not his nose, though that is the most prominent feature of the human face; not at his mouth, his chin, his cheek; no, you look him straight in the eye, so aptly called the "window of the soul." You look him in the eye, but at the same time you see his whole face. Now put a mask on that face, leaving only the eyes visible, as the learned counsel would have you mask the face of this bond, leaving to your view only the fatal signature_.

"'_If the human face so masked was the face of your bosom friend, could you for a moment identify him, even though permitted to look in at those "windows of the soul?" No; he would be as strange to you as this accursed bond has ever been strange to that worthy gentleman, Colonel Adam d.i.c.kinson, but a glance at whose face traces the guilty authorship direct to the prisoner at the bar_.'

"This striking ill.u.s.tration seemed to thrill the whole audience as it virtually carried the jury."

MR. PEYTON DECLINES A JUDGESHIP.

In 1824-5, Mr. Peyton received a highly complimentary letter from the late Col. S. McD. Moore, of Lexington, then a delegate to the Legislature from Rockbridge and attending the sessions in Richmond. The Colonel informed him that a caucus of members had been held on the subject of a judgeship then vacant, or about to become so, and that Mr.

Peyton's friends were so largely in the ascendancy that his nomination by the caucus and election by the a.s.sembly was certain, if only he would declare his willingness to accept the position. The caucus had adjourned over to await his reply. The Colonel went on to say that he and two others had been deputed by the caucus with the agreeable duty of communicating with him, to ascertain his views as to the matter. We do not recollect what judgeship it was, but remember distinctly that Colonel Moore mentioned that in case of election, it would lead to, or require (we know not which) Mr. Peyton's change of residence to Richmond. In this letter Col. Moore on behalf of himself and his colleagues urged his friend to accept and presented many cogent reasons why he should do so. Proof against all importunities, Mr. Peyton politely but firmly rejected these overtures and declined under any circ.u.mstances to allow his name to be used in connection with the office. This circ.u.mstance is mentioned, not as an evidence of Mr.

Peyton's indifference to preferment, which has sufficiently appeared, but to show the estimate in which he was held by the profession and to present, so far as possible, clearly and truthfully, the history of his life.

There is an old Spanish proverb which says, "Tell me whom you live with, and I will tell you who you are." We can infer what manner of man he was from the fact that through life, he was held in the highest esteem by the enlightened men of the day. From the ranks of the virtuous and wise came his friends, and what a source of happiness it must have been to him. It has been well said: "There is no blessing of life that is in any way comparable to the enjoyment of a discreet and virtuous friend. It eases and unloads the mind, clears and improves the understanding, engenders thoughts and knowledge, animates virtue and good resolutions, soothes and allays the pa.s.sions and finds enjoyment for most of the vacant hours of life." If this be true, and who can doubt it? how much greater the happiness to be blessed, not with one, but with many friends, and those friends, themselves worthy of every honor and praise.

The steadiness and devotion of his friends is worthy of mention in this connection, they never deserted or betrayed him--on the contrary, through life, they gave him innumerable evidences of their appreciation.

Some of his youthful college friends, they were not simply companions, among them Professor Comfort and the late John Yates, of Jefferson county, Virginia, visited him at Montgomery Hall, forty years after they parted at Princeton. And Mr. P's papers disclosed a correspondence with numerous others, such as John Sergeant, Joseph R. Ingersoll, Richard Rush, William Gaston, J. M. Berrien, of Georgia, and others of his earlier friends, all of whom became prominent men.

For clearness of thought, force of reasoning and statesmanlike views on all questions of moment he had no superior, and such was his sense of justice and his impartiality, his powers of judicial a.n.a.lysis and insight, or the judicial character of his mind, that we have often heard the most gifted of his contemporaries regret that he had never sat upon the Justice Seat, where in their opinion, he would have equaled, if he did not surpa.s.s, the greatest judges who had adorned the bench of Virginia.

Notwithstanding his refusal to stand as a candidate for a Judgeship, he was voted for, in the General a.s.sembly of Virginia in 1831-32, and came within a few votes of election. The result gave him satisfaction, for had he been chosen, he must have resigned, as unceremoniously as he was elected. He always explained to his supporters that he could not give up his extensive and lucrative practice, on account of his large and expensive family, for a poorly paid judgeship--and besides he preferred the active and exciting life of a lawyer, to that of a judge, or in a word, the bar to the bench.

MR. PEYTON'S LETTER ON THE CONVENTION OF 1829-30.

For several years previous to 1829, the question of calling a Convention to form a new Const.i.tution for Virginia was agitated. There was a kind of political fermentation on the subject of innovation, with many persons, a strong desire to up-root the laws under which the State had so long prospered, and make a new experiment in government. The Ultras objected to the freehold basis of representation and demanded the white basis, or manhood suffrage, they opposed a judiciary elected for good behavior and demanded the election of judges at short intervals, by a popular vote. They objected to various other conservative provisions of the Const.i.tution of 1776. Party spirit infused itself in all discussions and no small excitement was created in the public mind--as a result of the agitation on the subject. A convention, though opposed by the wisest men in the State, was finally ordered, and persons nominated for election were called upon to give their opinions through the newspapers, on the various questions which would come before it.

Among those asked for their views was Mr. Peyton, who published in the Staunton papers a long and able letter, in which he opposed the white basis; the election of judges by a popular vote and for a term of years; and advocated their election during good behavior, by the Legislature.

He advised the retention, generally, of the conservative features of the old Const.i.tution, and while he admitted that a few changes might be made with advantage, warned the people against tampering with the laws, the currency and the peculiar inst.i.tutions of the South. He added that he had voted against calling a Convention, believing that the Const.i.tution of 1776, was better than any the people were likely to get from a new Convention; in a word, he bade them bear the "ills they had rather than fly to others they knew not of."

The letter was so conservative in character and so conclusive of the points at issue, that it was thought it would have gone a long way towards preventing the call of a convention, had it been published earlier. As it was, it only made the friends of organic change, more determined. They were bent on giving form and substance to their dreams, their pa.s.sions were up and they would be satisfied with nothing else.

Some of the most advanced enthusiasts advocated, what are styled "women's rights," their right to vote, to serve on juries, to hold office and the like--others were opposed to allowing a man to enjoy the fruits of his industry, and favored dividing out his income when it had reached a certain sum; no doubt some would have liked the princ.i.p.al divided also, others favored free inquiry, if any one knows what this means in a country where investigation and thought are as free as the air we breathe; free religion, which was supposed to have been settled by Mason's act of 1776, legalizing all forms of worship, commonly called the act of religious freedom, free morals and opinions, and it is not unlikely there were others who favored free love as a means of squelching out polygamy. One of the most notorious and eccentric of these social reformers, was f.a.n.n.y Wright, not, however, a native or resident of Virginia; and it was said, with what truth we know not, that the sum of her teachings amounted to this, that any man who donned a whole coat and a clean shirt was an aristocrat and ought to be put down.

These misguided people sought to break the force of his views by a loud outcry, saying he was an old Bourbon, entirely behind the age, a praiser of times past, like Nestor in the Iliad; who wished the laws of Virginia to remain unchanged and as unchangeable as were those of the Medes and Persians, and would have it so if left alone. A looker-on would have supposed this enlightened man and moderate conservative, from this kind of ultra nonsense, as extreme in his policy as the notorious Lord John Manners, a man of phlegmatical repulsiveness of manners, who in admiration of his cla.s.s, once exclaimed, with idiotic fatuity:

"Let wealth and commerce, laws and learning die But leave us still our old n.o.bility."

The loss of Mr. Peyton's letter cannot be too much regretted. If reviewed the whole history of the Judiciary previous to and from the time of William III., when by act of Parliament the Judges were to hold office during good behavior, up to a later act of one of the George's, providing that their commissions were not to cease by demise of the Crown, and down to his day. He argued earnestly also, in favor of an independent judiciary, this question arousing his deepest interest, and showed up the curse of a venial and corrupt one, having in its unsafe keeping the lives, reputation and property of the people. He entered also, into an elaborate discussion of the question of popular representation, the first instance of which, it was stated, occurred in Aragon in the twelfth century, &c., and discussing the basis of representation, expressed himself, in case the freehold basis was discarded, as in favor of the mixed basis, taking into account both population and prosperity.

The letter breathed a really liberal and enlightened spirit in politics and religion, and made him the idol of the liberal conservatives. The extremists were, however, antagonized by it, and in their rage and disappointment, set to work to mar, if not destroy, his influence. While distorting and misrepresenting him and his opinions, they had the "cheek," to say, they did it "more in sorrow, than in anger."

Not at all disturbed by the hurly-burly, he laughed heartily at their nonsense, and said that these enthusiasts in their efforts to emanc.i.p.ate man socially, morally, politically and otherwise from all the ills of life, were innovators running after something they would never reach, as the hind wheel of the carriage which is in constant pursuit of the fore one without ever overtaking it. And when he got a chance at one of the Ring Bosses, and he sometimes cornered one, he handled him after such a fashion, that the Boss never wished to see him again. To these Bosses distance ever afterwards, lent enchantment to the view, of this man of relentless logic, keen irony and withering sarcasm. Many of these so-called Reformers aimed at nothing worse than their own advancement.

From the foregoing synopsis of Mr. Peyton's letter it is evident, if he did not say so, that, in his opinion, love of variety and change, a desire to subvert the existing state of things, indicated both weakness and ignorance; that it is not the strong-minded and right thinking who desire to cut loose from the past, its traditions and customs and its endearing a.s.sociations, but the stupid, whose wild and dangerous projects carried out, would, however, unconsciously to themselves, give us poverty in lieu of prosperity, licence instead of liberty.

MRS. ANNE PEYTON.

HER REMOVAL TO AUGUSTA COUNTY.

During the year of 1829, Mrs. Anne Peyton, the widow of John R. Peyton, the hero boy of '76, and mother of John H. Peyton, broke up her establishment at Stony Hill and removed to Staunton. Some years before, namely on February 1st 1826, her son, Rowze Peyton, was married to a second wife, Eliza Murray, daughter of John B. Murray, a citizen of New York City, but a native of England. His Northern bride did not find plantation life congenial to her tastes and induced her husband to leave Virginia. After a brief sojourn in New York City, Mr. and Mrs. Peyton removed to Geneva, N. Y., where they long lived and both died, leaving a large and interesting family, now connected by marriage with many of the leading families of the Empire State--such as the Sewards, the Cuttings, Spensers, deZengs, Wilmerdings, Rathburns and others.

The venerable and respected mother of John H. Peyton was affectionately invited by her son and his wife, as soon as they heard of her intention to leave Stony Hill, to make her home at Montgomery Hall, which she decided to do. Mr. Peyton had built immediately, for her exclusive use, a comfortable brick residence in the grounds of and near the mansion.

Here she took up her residence in the summer of 1829, and in that snug abode, she spent in singular ease and tranquility the rest of her life.

At this time Mrs. J. R. Peyton was of large and striking person, dignified and graceful in manners. She was over 70 years of age, dressed in black, with a high-crowned white muslin cap and frill, a cap in the style of what is now known as the Martha Washington cap, and she looked at first sight eminently neat, precise and stately. She was in fine physical preservation and her mind and memory unimpaired. She was very accessible and companionable, she liked to see her friends and to chat, and her conversation was always full of thought and poetry. Her acquaintance with and knowledge of the leading Southerners of the pre and Revolutionary era was extensive, and she possessed a large fund of information on social, literary, and political topics. This and her anecdotes, racy and amusing, caused her society to be courted by such men as Gen. Baldwin, Daniel Sheffey, and Chapman Johnson. Her parlor was the center of attraction and the rallying point of the family. Her grandchildren especially gathered round her chair, and listened with infantile delight, to her graphic accounts of the war, of the officers and soldiers, of their hair-breadth escapes, of the battles, &c., and at that early day became familiar with the names of the Washingtons, Masons, Conways, Fitzhughs, Lees, Scotts, Marshalls, Moncures, Daniels, Greenes, and other prominent people of the Northern Neck, and all more or less connected with the b.l.o.o.d.y drama of the war.