The Arkansas advocate., 1836-07-01
FROM THE NASHVILLE REPUBLICAN.
 BIOGRAPHY UF UGEH E.. NS HIT Ef.

election, has again made 1t necessary for the people of these United States to select, from themselves, a person to fill that high and re- gponsible station. By the voice of a large and respectable portion of the citizens of this country, the Hon. Hugh L. White, of Ten ressee, has been brought before the pubic, as man, in all respects, eminently qualified for the execution of it's arduous duties. The name, and the life, and the character of Hugh l.. White, have long been familiar to the greater portion of his countrymen. Te them, his abilities in the various and difficult duties ot long and active live, have, for gears, been well known, and duly and hon. orably appreciated. But it is presumed, from other portions of the country, and other classes of our citizens, the same familiar knowledge could not be expected. Their remoteness from the principal scenes of his actions, and the domestic habits oflife, which may have excluded certain portions of the community, from close inspection of the actors upon the wide theatre of public life, will afford rational grounds for the presump. tion, and will, at the same time, furnish ample apology for laying before the people al. large, a brief sketch of his public and privte life, and of the various and important servi- ces which he has rendered his country. The honesty of the motives which have prompted to this undertaking, and deep and just re- gard for the lawful demands of the commu- rity on such an occasion, would alike deter us from holding up the subject of his memoir in the light of eulogy. They who would at tempt to impose upon the public mind, in matters of such momentous concern, or would sacrifice the weighty interestof mighty Re- public, to the prejudices, and blind partialities <& l,fo 4I, IL sign intended, but should call down upon the censures of an insulted and injured people. In view of these considerations, impelled alone by the great interests of the nation, and | sincere devotion to an undivided country, the friends of Judge White would present him to the public notice as he is-describe hsl life and character as they are aud haue been-and recount his sgrvices just they soere per- formed, and leave the result to a candid and intelligent people.
 Hugh l.. White was born in Iredell eoun- ty, North Carolina, in the year I773. He was the son of respectable and influential parentage, of Irish descent. His father, James White, was a soldier in our memer- able struggle for Independence, afterwards a General of Tennessee Militia, and served with high honor and distinction in the late Creek war. At the close of the Revolution, he removed first to Virginia, and then emi- grated to Knox county, Tennessee, when Hugh was thirteen years of age. At the time of which we speak, Tennessee was q will derness and into this wild abode, was the family of Mir. White ushered, with no defence but personal prowess, and no means of sub sistence but what were seized In the face of danger and death. But the hardshps and perils which the early pioneer had to encoun- ter, from the natural obstacles of the unsub- dued forest, and it's terrific inhabitants, have been too often and glowingly described, and are too well known even to infancy, to need relation here. But in these dangers and pe- rils, the family of Mir. White bore no ordi- nary share. At the age of nineteen Hugh volunteered as private soldier in the Indian campaigns. In these dangerous and doubtful conflicts of border warfare, he spent the years of his early manhood, with others of kim dred spirit, in defending mothers and wives and daughters from the flames and the scalp ing knife. In these perilous scenes, which put to such severe test the masculine ener- gies of the poineers; Hugh l.. White was soon distinguished as brave, vigllant, and untiring soldier. He possessed consttu- tion peculiarly fitted for such rugged duties n constitution which has preserved its elasti- city and firmness, almost in primitive vgor, beyond the boundary of three score years. These scenes of his early life are interesting on this occasion, only, as they were the rough school of discipline; i'll which, he acquired, and strengthened those hardy Roman virtues, which by universal consent, have distin- guished lis character throughout his whole public career.
 The early education of Hugh l.. White was not as thorough and extensive as he could have wished it, and as 1t would have been, under more favorable circumstances. The refnements of polished scholarship had hard ly been introduced into Tennessee at that early day. But of the more practical, and useful branches of education, such as quail fled him for the discharge of the immediate duties of life. he acquired the utmost that the schools of that day afforded. He was in- structed in the ancient languages, by the Rev. Samuel Carrick, and MT. Afterwards Judge) Roane, gentleman of no mean prof. eiency in scholarship. To these attanments he afterwards added a course of Mathema- tics, under Professor Patterson, of Philadel. phia, whither he had gone for that purpose, in 1795 he left Philadelphia, for Lancaster Pennsylvania, where he entered the office ol James Hopkins, an eminent lawyer, under whose superlhtendence he devoted himself with great ardor to the study of the law Having completed the. usual preparatory Course, he returned, in l796 to Knoxville where lie commenced the practice of his pro fession. Such. i'll brief, is the early history of Hugh l.. White.
 It is not the province of the present writer to follow him step by step, through the stages of his early education-to trace through eaci
 successive year, the gradual development