Semi-weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1853-18??, 1853-07-30

known situation. Conformaby to this beginning, he
refused to take any thing under the modern acts Of
Congress for the benefit of the surviving officers and
soldiers of the revolution and voted against them
ALL saying they had suffered alike (citizens and mil
itary) and all been rewarded together in the estab-
lishment of independence that the debt to the army
had been settled by pay, by pensions to the wound
ed by halfpay and land to the officers that no mil
itarv claim could be founded on deprecated CONT
mental paper money from which the civil functona-
ries who performed service, and the farmers VINO
furnished supplies suffered as much as any. On this
principle he voted against the bill for Lafayette against
all the modern revolutionary pensions and land
bounty acts, and refused to take any thing under
them, 4or many were applicable to himselt)
His political principles were deep-rooted, innate,
subject to no change and to no machinery OF party
He was Democratic in the broad sense of the word
as signifyng capacity in thepeo pie for selfgovern
ment, and in its party sense as IN favor OF pam
and economical administration OF the Federa! UoVc
ernment and against latltudlnar1an CONSTRUCTORS oI
the Constitution. He party man, not IN the
hackneyed sense of the word, but only where prln-
ciple was concerned, and was independent OF party
in all his social relations, and IN all the proceedings
which he disapproved Of this he gave strong in
stance in the case of Gen. Hamilton, whom he deemed
honorable and patriotic, and utterly refused to be
concerned in a movement proposed to affect him per-
sonaly, though politically opposedto him. He ven
Grated Washington, admired the varied abilities and
high qualities of Hamilton, and esteemed and re-
spected the eminent Federal gentlemen OF his time
lie had aifectionate regard for Madison ana monroe;
emplificaton of the Republican statesman His al
most fifty years of personal and political friendship
and association with Mr.. Randolph is historical and
indissoluby connects their names and memories IN
the recollection of their friends and in history, if it
does them Justice He was the early friend OF Gen.
Jackson and intimate with him when he was a Sen
ator in Congress under the administration OF the
elder Mr.. Adams and was able to tell Congress and
the world who he was when he began to astonish
Europe and America by his victories. He was the
kind observer of the conduct Of young men, encour-
aging them by judcious commentator when he saw
them making efforts to become useful and reSpecta-
ble and never noting their faults He just in
all things, and in that most difficult of all things
Judging political opponents, to whom he would do no
wrong, not merely in word or act, but IN Thought
He spoke frequently in Congress- always to the point,
and briefly and wisely; and was of those speak
ers which Mr. Jefferson described Dr. Franklin to be
"a speaker of pretension and great performance,
who spoke more good sense while he was getting up
out of his chair and getting back into it than many
others did in long dscOurses and he suffered no re-
porter to dress up speech for him. He was above
the pursuit of wealth. but also above dependence and
idleness; and like an old Roman OF the elder Catos
time worked in the fields at the head of his slaves in
the intervals of public duty and did not cease this
labor until advancing age rendered him unable to
stand the hot Of the SUMMERTIME only season
of the year when Senatorial duties left him at liberty
to work in his fields. think it the summer of
1877 he told me was the last he tried it. and found
the sun too hot for him-then sixty years of age,
Senator, and the refuser of all office. How often
think of him when l see at Washington robustious
men going through scene of supplcation, tribula-
tion and degradation to obtain office which the sal
walton of the soul does not impose upon the vilest
sinner His fields, his ocks, and his herds yielded
an ample supply of domestic productions. A small
crop of tobacco-three hogsheads when the crop was
good, two when bad-purchased the eXotics which
comfort and necessity required and which the farm
did not produce. He was not rich, but rich enough
to dispense hospitality and charity, to receive all
guests in his house, from the President to the day
okbo 10
house but that of an honest man; rich enough to
bring up his family 1.-TWO daughters accomplished
ladies, and marry them to accomplished gentlemen
one to William Martin, Esq, the other to William
Eaton, ESQ, of Roanoke, my early schOolfellow and
friend for more than half century, and above all,
he was rich enough to pay as he went and never to
owe dollar to any
He was steadfast in his friendships, and would
stake himself for friend, but would violate no point
Of public duty to please or oblge him. Of this his
relations with Mr.. Randolph gave signal instance.
He drew knife to defend him in the theatre at Phil
ldelphia when menaced by some naval and military
officers for words spoken in debate and deemed Of
ensive to their protessions yet when Speaker of the
House of Representatives he displaced Mr. Randolph
rom the head of the Committee of Ways and Means
the chairman of that committee should be on
erms of political friendship with the Administration
which Mr. Randolph had then ceased to be with Mr..
Jefersons He was above Executive office, even the
highest the President could give but not above the
owest the people could give, taking that of justice
peace IN MS anu LnaC OI
Master General at Washington. He was opposed to
1epotsm and all quartering of his connexions on the
Government; and in the course of his forty-years
service, with the absolute friendship of many Admin
STATIONS and the perfect respect of ALL he never had
)ffice contract for any of his blood He refused
o be candidate for the VicePresidency, but took
he place of elector the Van Buren, ticket in 1886
He was against paper money and the paper SYSTEM
md accustomed to present the strong argument
against it in the simple phrase, that this hard
money Government, made by hard-money men, who
1ad the evils paper money and meant to save
heir posterity from it. He opposed to securi-
yships, and held that no man ought to be entanged
the affairs of another, and that the interested par
les alone-those who expected to find their profit in
he transaction should bear the bad consequences,
rs well enjoy the good ones, of their own dealings
He never called any one friend" without being so
Ind never expressed faith in the honor and integrity
IF man without acting up to the declaration when
The occasion required it. Thus, in constituting his
friend Weldon N. Edwards, Esq. his tcstamentary
and sole executor with large discretionary powers,
ne left all to his honor and forbid him to account to
my court power for the in which he should
execute that trust. This prohibition charac-
.erstic and so honorable to both parties, and has
been well justified by the event. that give it in
MS own words, copied from his will, to wit:
81 subjoin the following, in my own handwriting,
rs codicil to this my last will and testament and
direct that it be part thereo-that is to say, having
full faith in the honor and integrity of my executor
court or power whatever for the discharge OF the
trust confided by me to him in and by the foregoing
will. -
And the event has proved that his Judgment, as
always committed mistake when it bestowed
that confidence He had his peculiarities-idioSy-