Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1843-07-01

THE LATE ATTORNEY GENERAL OF THE
UNITED STATES. "


UNITED STATES.
The fall, in the very vigor Of life and in the very
height OF noble faculties matured by the most con-
su5nmate cultivation, OF man like the late Mr..
LEGARE, is one Of those mischances OF life which
come, at times, to sadden the enthusiast OF letters
at his lonely TOLL to check the ardor OF high public
pursuits, and teach to. life. most generous OF pas
sions--,hat of great andjusl renowp-the melan-
choy lesson of humility: how the studious watch
ings Of year after year, the accumulated knowledge,
the pracsed Judgment, the fancy enriched with all
that poetry or taste could supply OF brightest The
disciplined reason, the commanding and varied at
tainments, the minuter skill of technical learning in
its Details and all that mighty and beautiful pile Of
thought and feeling which labor and the strenuous
love Of high things can rear the mind naturally
great, may fall to the earth, like the commonest
hovel; and just when the grandeur, the grace, and
the sodity Of the structure has begun TO catch and
to charm every eye, spread its ruins around. The
great powers so lavishly given and SO admirably
improved have, by a cruel stroke Of fate, been
snatched away, when they had yet scarcely been
felt by the country they seemed destined SO much
to aiorn. He has been stricken down at the very
tnTeSnOQ oil FAME , ana When we 'SHOuiu nave du-
mired him, nothing is left US but to deplore.
Alas what boots it with ncesssnt care
To ply the homely sighted shepherds trade,
And strictly mediate the thankless Muse
Were it better done, others use,
To sport with Amaryllis in the shade, ..
Or with the tango of Nesta's hair2
Fame is the spur that the clear sprght doth raise
THAT last infrmity of noble mind)
To delights and live laborious days:
But the fair guerdon when hope to find
And think to burst out into sudden blaze,
Comes the blind Fury with tn accused shears,
And Sits the thin spun life ....
HUGH SwINTON LEGARE was sprung from that
honorable stock which has given South Carolina so
many eminent names-her Huguenot population !;
whom attachment 10 religious freedom led to seek
refuge from French oppression, under the liberal
institutions which Philosopher had planned for the
infant State in whose genial cline they found an
image Of their own. Settling there in the neigh
borhood Of the now dismantled town Of Derches
ter, his ancestors acquired respectable though not
large eststes in thai quarter, where and in Johns
Island, lay his patrimonal property
The early loss Of his father (who persisted while
Re ~ <bild) left hm-with a sister who died
laa year. spd another whom his own death leaves
!. complesely dssolate. the last of hef immediate
race TO do Sidowed care Of that exceIent mother
who bseathed her lastin his here, few months
!. since. How admirably she performed those duties,
10 the successful exerton Of which Nature herself
seems to have made the concurring influence OF
both sexes almost indispensable, was apparent in
abe singularly fine impulses which, from studious
boyhood upward, bore him on through The success
i&ahenors of the school, the college, professional
. an6public life; in all OF which he made himself
Sapsanty felt as one on whom Nature had lavished
nts and in whom art and labor would give TO
lalents very high perfection.
151s ripper boyhood was committed to the instruc-
~ that fortunate teacher, the Rev. Mr.. WsD-
niisve) of AbbeviIIe, and subse-
6fShe OgIethorpe University