The Vermont transcript. [volume] (St. Albans, Vt.) 1864-1870, 1866-12-14
John PierpOnt.

John PierpOnt.
Let me now describe his personal
appenrance for the help Of those who
have only heard Of the man. He was
tall, straight, and spare, six feet, l
should say, and rather uugraccful in
fact though called by the women of
his parish, not only the most graceful.
but the most finished of gentlemen
That he was dignifed, courteous, and
prepossossing, very pleasant in con-
versation, capital story-teler, and
tolerable - no. irtolerable punster,
exceedingly impressive both IN the pull
pit and elsewhere when much in earn
est, and in after life great lecturer
and platform speaker, | am ready to
acknowledge; but he wanted ease OF
manner tho readiness and quiet self
possession of high man, who
cannot be taken By surprise, and Is.
neither afraid Of being misunderstood
nor afraid Of letting himself down
till after he had passed the age of
three score.
The first impression he made on me
was that of country schoolmaster, on
of professor, on his good behavior
who had got his notions of the polite
world from Chesterfield; though, When
/ knew him better and learned that
he had been tutor in the Aston
family of South Cardinal detected the
original type Of his perpendcularty,
serious composure. and stateliness,
the archt,lN. ! was constantly re-
minded of John c. Calhoun, fellow
student with him at Yale, and a man
he always mentioned with strange
mixture of admiration and awe, a, if
he thought him an oilshoot from the
Archfend himself, skilled TO make
the worse appear the better reason.
His tall figure, his erect, positive
bearing, and somewhat uncompromis
ing, severe expression of countcnance,
when much in earnest, with black,
heavy eyebrows, clear, blue eyes, which
passed for black, and stiff black hau,
were all of that Huguenot Southern
type, which, like the signs of the
Scotch Covenanter, or of the old Eng
lish Puritan, are rs unlikely to die
out as the Canada thistle, where they
who SOW the wind are content to reap
the whirlwind. in their steadfast per
tnacity, whether right or wrong, III
their adamantino logic, as unyielding
rs death, and calm, serious energy OF
action, and III part of their transcen-
dental theories, they were alike; and
alike, too, in their tried honesty
The great Nulliier and the great
Reformer were both Titanic, in the
vastness and omprehensiveuess OF
their views, in their unrelenting self
assertion, in their metaphysics, and III
their theories of government. If the
dark Southron made open war upon
his country till it grew to be unsafe,
the dark Northerner would tear the
Constitution of that country to tatters,
and trample it under foot, as he did
upon one occasion, without remOrse
or compunction, because it was held
by Others to give property IN man,
though for himself he denied that it
did SO, or that it sanctioned slavery III
any shape, AS he did, say, though
was not an eyewitness of the out
rage, and have only the report from
others who were. If 1t was only q
flourish, like that of Edmund Burke
when he suddenly lugged out the dag
ger before the upturned smiling eyes
of his patient compeers, and Sheridan
or was it Fox ?-begged the gentle
man to tell him where the fork was t.
be had which belonged to the knife
why, even that were not only unworth
of the man, but SO utterly unlike hin
for he never INDUCED i'll rhetoric G
rhodomontade or claptrap. that on
would be inclined to think he was b,
side himself, or had been dining on
like Daniel Webster when he propose
in the Senate Chamber, to plant OF
starry banner on the outermost verg
the Ultima Thule, of our disputed te
rtory needless of consequences
Both Pierpont and Calhoun certain
ly forgot the injunction to be ten
perate in all things and allow me
add, that, in my Judgment it mattere
little who was with, or who again
them, after they had once set the Ian,
in rest, with "A windmill III view, - the
only spured the harder for oppositio
and dashed out all the more vehemen
ly for being cheered, even by the 10,
hest. Encouragement and opposite
were alike to both, after the rowe
were set, and their beavers closed.
John Neal, in the Atlantic Month
for December.