The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1877-1885, 1877-12-13
TRUE TO HIS COLORS. h10
COUNTRY AND HIMSELF.

There lived, IN the lower part u
Beaufort county. al the opening q
the Great Struggle, a young lawyer,
who likewise was addicted TO ayr
cultural pursuits. When the Los'
Banner was furled III the last agony
Of our people, his brave spirit "as
already gone from the roar u 'he
Guns. the bIare of the trumpe'S III
and the fierce onsets Oh the sIlloh-
en- field. We have been thinking
of him lately, when reading some
Of the earnest sentt.ices u Ihe
Managing Editor OF this paper, WIG
occasionally touches up With hlucl
beaury ana force the fading memo
ries OF the late war.
The young man OF Whoh We
write. though fonu OF the employ
ments and experiments OF the farm
WAS no uncuItured rustic, rude ana
unpublished, but a scholar, a mink
er and a forcIble speaker. lie Was
an honored graduate OF ale .
lege, a lawyer by profession aho
practice. and IN the very front rank
of influential politicians at the
commencement OF the conflict. An
old time Wing by conviction ana
Inheritance, he fought what he
considered the heresy of secession,
until the aroused popular sentiment
of the country swept his arguments
and appeals away as if by a flood.
Then he went back to his native
county and to his farm, and raised
a company Of young men for the
struggle.
That company of young e he
never forsook. They were his neigh
bors, acquaintance and friends, and
through bayonet charges, through
stormy showers of shot and shell,
through the weary, moaning words
Of the hospital, through bloody
trenches and fearful marches, he
bound them to him with hooks of
steel. Though one of the most
prominent lawyers and brilliant
politicians of his age IN the State,
and able to command red tape IN
fiuence enough to hoist him into
any bomb-prOof position of society
and comfort, though a member
elect OF the Legislature, when he
died IN the midst Of his gallant bows
at Sharpsburg, and passionately dc
voted to politics as a profession, no
temptation, no allurement could
draw HIM from the duties, from the
hardshlps and the stainless triumphs
Of a soldier.
We had the honor of perusino
many of his letters, when General
johnson fell back from Manassas
to confront Mcclellan on the Pen.
lnsula. They contained the mos,
VIVID descriptions of personal val.
our, OF terrible suffering and hero
&c self-sacrItice, which We ever read.
But through it all, and onward
even unto the end he had bur
one idea, and that was, to endure
and. II need be, to die for HI,
native South Though of am.
Gent and distinguished New-Eno
land lineage on the paternal side
ne was a stubborn enemy Of fanati
clsm and intolerance. He nove
had any hope of winning IN tn.
struggle. He knew the doooe,
determination of the Northerr
character as exhibited by land anc
sea, IN the conquest Of the wilder
ness. III the settlement and ciyiliza
ton OF rocky and barren deserts
and IN the explorations of nayioa
tors, and when he contemnlata,
Their numbers, their extensive mer
chant marine, and their lnnumer.
. i recruits from the old world
his intellectual conclusions hecam,
settled from the very first aoains
the probability Of our success. Rn
ne never faltered at his post. Tru,
as steel and as brave as any Paladi,
who ever thrilled to the clarion pea
at Roncesvalles, he struggled on +,
the end. When he went under j,
the last political struggle at Raleigh