Weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1858-1865, 1864-09-07


and the philosophy of history shows
heir dependence, and that the lesser event vas
ather to the greater. The State of North Carolina
ave a0snerI Greene $4,000 acres Of western land
Or tbatday'swork, now worth million Of dollars;
,ut thsaday itself has net yet obtained its proper
alace ID American history.
The military life of Mr.. Macon finished with his
departure from the camp on the Yadkin, and his
civil public life commenced on his arrival attthe
General Assembly, to which he had been summon.
ed-that civil public life in which hewas continued
above forty years BY free elections representative
in Congress under Washington, Adams, Jefferson,
and Madison, and long the Speaker OF the House;
Senator in Congress under Madison, MonFoe and
John Quincy Adams; and often elected President OF
the Senate, and until voluntarily declining twice
refusing to be Postmaster General under Jefferson
never taking any Office but to which he was elect
ed and resignng bis last Senatorial term when it
was only half run. But characteristic trait re-
mains to be told of his military life-one that has
neither precedent nor imitation (the example OF
Washington being out of the line of comparison ,
be refused to receive pay, or to accept promouon,
and served three years a. private through mere
devotion to his country. And all the long length
of his life was comfortable to this patriotic and
disinterested beginning: and thus the patriotic |
principles of the future Senator were all revealed
in early life and in the obscurity Of an unknown
situation Comfortably to this beginning, be re-
1
gress for the benefit of the surviving officers and
soldiers of the Revolution and voted against them
all, saying they had suffered alike, (citizens and
milltary) and all been rewarded together in. the
establishment of independence; that the debt to
the army had been settled by pay, by pensions to
the wounded. by halfpay and land to the officers
that no military claim could be founded on depre-
ciated continental paper money, from which the
civil functionaries who performed service, and the
farmers who 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 (for many were applicable to
himself) ..-.-
His political principles were deep rooted, innate
subject to no change and to no machinery OF party.
He vas democratic in the broad sense OF the word,
signfying capacity in the people for self gov
ernment and in its party sense, as in favor of
plain and economical administration of the federal
government, and against latitudnarian construc-
tions of the Constitution He was a party man,
not in the hackneyed sense of tie word, but only
where princi pie was concerned; and was indepen
dent of party in all his social relations and in all
the proceedings which be disapproved Of this he
gave strong instance in the of General Hamil-
ton whom he deemed honorable and patriotic and
utterly refused tn be concerned in q movement pro-
posed to affect him personally, though politically
opposed to him. He venerated Washington, aa
mired the varied abilities and high qualities of
Hamilton and esteemed and respected the emf
ncnt federal gentlemen of his time He had an affec-
tionate regard for Madison and Monroe but Mr.
Jefferson was to him the full and perfect exempliG
cation of the republican statesman. His almost
fifty years of personal and political friendship and
association with Mr.. Randolph is historical and in
dissolubly 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.
fan s-Hs,~.n ~ H.
Senator in Congress under the administration of
the elder Mr. Adams; and was able to tell Congress
and the world who he was when he begaDto astonish
Europe and America by his victories. He was the
kind observer of the conduct Of young men, en-
couraging them by judicious commendation when
he saw them making efforts to become useful and
| respectable, and never noting their faults. He
was just in all things, and in that most difficult
whom b. ;a eusg pSsss word
or act, but in thought He spoke frequently in
Congress, always to the point and briefly and wise:
| ly; and was one of those speakers which Mr. JET.
ferson described Dr.. Franklin to have been-aspeak-
er of no pretension and great performance
spoke more good sense while he was getting up cut
Of his chair, and getting back into it, than many
others did in long discourses; and he suffered no
reporter 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 sun of
summer-the only season Of the year when Sena-
toral duties left him at liberty to follow the plough
ls17,-that the last time Che told me) 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 | see at Washing
ton robustious men going through scene Of sup
plication trbulation and degradation to obtain Of
fee, which the salvation of the soul does not i'm
pose upon the vilest snnerl His fields, his focks,
and his herds yielded an ample supply Of domestic
productions. A small crop Of tobacco-three hogs
heads when the season was good, two when bad
purchased the exotics which comfort and necessity
required, and which the farm did not produce. He
was not rich, hut rich enough to dispense hospital
ty and charity, to receive all guests in bis house.
from the President to the day laborsr-no other
title being necessary to enter his house but that Of
m honest man rich enough to bring up his family
1.-TWO daughters) as accomplished ladies' and marry
them tu accomplished gen;lemen-one to William
Martini Esq, the other to William Eaton, Esq, of
Roanoke, my early school fellow and friend for
more than half a century and above all he was
rich enough to pay as he went, and never owe .
dollar to any man.
He WAS steadfast in his friendships and would
stake himself for friend, but would violate no
point Of public duty to please or oblige him: OF
this his relations with Mr.. Randolph gave . signal
instance. He drew knife to defend him in the
theatre at. Philadelphia, when menaced by some
naval and military officers for words spoken in de-
bate, and deemed ofsnsiv9t5 their professions yet
when the Speaker of the House Of Representatives,
he displaced Mr. Randolph from the head of the
COMMITTEES of ways and means, because the chair
man Of that committee should be on terms of po-
litical friendship with the administration, which
Mr.. Randolph had then ceased to be with Mr. JEFF
ferson's. He was above executive Office, even the
highest the President could give; but not above the
lowest the people could give, taking that Of justice
Of the peace in his county, and refusing that o.
Postmaster General at Washington. He was op.
posed to nepotism, and to all quarterng Of his con
nections on the government; and in the, course o.