The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1869-01-26
Gen. PeIrpOint---A Warm Tribute
from Massachusetts.
BOSTON, January 18Th, Is

BOSTON, January I0tn3 4cO9'
MY DEAR UNCLE:-Your two letters
containing extracts from the Wheeling
INTELLIGENCER concerning the death of
my dear friend and comrade in arms,
Gen. L. Z. Peirpoint. have been re-
ceived. thank you sir, for your kind
thoughtfulness in thus promptly send
ing me the sad news, but ! cannot yet
realize its truth.
! have broken the sudden and wholly
unexpected Intelligence to his Large cir
Gle OF friends here, and l assure you,
sir, that Boston and Cambridge, by
many of their citizens, join West Nir-
ginia in her sacred grief at this sudden
taking off of one of her purest, ablest
and noblest sons.
Peirpoint was noble man, and
while his talents and industry COM
manded the respect OF every student of
US at Howard Law School. his genial,
hearty, modest, whole sOuled bearing
did more, and made US love him as
brother. Especially was this true of
those OF us who had the good fortune
to be his intimate friends. We respect
ed and placed great confidence in his
power over knOtty questions OF law,
and at the same time loved him
| for his modest way of showing It,
| We all knew how he loved his State,
and what sincere pride he felt in the
growth of West Virginia. We know he
| was one of her first sons and felt as deep
an interest in her welfare as could any
son in that of a fond mother. He used to
quietly urge those young men at the
| Law school, in whom he saw the germs
| oftrue statesnen, and in whom he TOOK
an interest, to look carefully at the IN
ducements offered by his own undeVei-
oped bu: naturally rich State, and think
well before they passed the rich miner
al loaded mountains of West Virginia
| TO seek their homes among the flat aEri-
| cultural regions of the far West. He
used to tell them that West Virginia
needed just such men as they were to
bring New England ideas and customs
to her bosom and then, backed by the
\ capital of their Eastern friends they
could maze West Virginia a second
Massachusetts in idea but worth II dCZ-
en- such States IN mineral, agriculture
and sites for manufacturing. And then
he would refer 10 me who had ridden
all over the State wlth AverIIl ana
Hunter to verify his siatnmentS-but
thew needed no endorsement falling
from those lips whose every uttcrauce
WAS truth G7ld purity.
The death Ui General Peirpoint is a
National calamity-his State loses more
than 1t can realiZe-he was strong brave
and pure, and could not have failed
to take high rank among states
men and exert AN influence which
| would have been honorable TO his State
and beneficial 20 his country. Heaven
| knows we need sterling worth and purl-
~ i'll the arena of national politics, just
! now, especially, when we are emerging
from Il bloody and demOraliZing war
and Ppirpoint's true, pure power is just
the influence which would have acted
| as oil upon the troubled waters, and his
presence would have inspired respect
| even among his political enemies. ana
he would have had unbounded in1lu-
| w M
of the West Virginia Regiments know
him in his capacity of Adjutant Gener-
| nj of the infant State, and we can all
bear testimony to the uneXampleu in
dustry and patience displayed, as well
las the always present courtesy and I'M
| partially which endenred him to every
| soldier of the State.
| have watched my friend the General
carefully, and seen him grapple with
the heavy load of business which was
urged upon him, and sometimes felt
that l, too, ought to leave Boston with
her crowded bar and stand shoulder to
shoulder with the General, in the State
whose battles we had fought and whose
welfare we held so dear.
| Bat he has gone, and Joined the noble
| armVOf patriots who watch the deStlnles
of our country from higher standpoint
with Lincoln and Andrews in the van.
| God bless the dear departed. ! mourn
| him as II brother, ana claim the right to
mingle my tears with those of his sOr-
rowing family; they may well grieve
for him, but they cannot mourn alone,
| for around his bier stand 81 sOrrOwlng
| State and nation.
A host of friends here i'll Boston and
vicinity join me in rendering to his
West Virginia friends their hearty
sympathy at this bereavement.
Again thanking you for your kind
moss in sending me the sad intelligence,
l relnnin very respectfully,
Your Nephew,
WILLIAM w. BLACKMoRE.
THOMAS HoRNBRooK, Esq.
| Wheeling, ". pG.