Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1882-01-06
fcoMMUNIcATED.l
The Late Hon. John A. Cuthbert, Of
Alabama.

as LruJ0Iul history anu OesefNeu
eulogy. But, within the last ten years,
SO much from time to time has been pub
lished of him, until he occupies the excep-
tionable attitude Of one whose obituary has
been written and whose eulogy has been
pronounced before his death. As the Oldest
surviving member of the National House of
Representatives In all the land, and as the
sole surviving member of the Princeton
graduating class of 1905, the eyes of all
reading people have been turned to him for
at least the last five years. He has thus
been conspicuous in a manner that has
fallen to the lot Of few men
since the dawn of Christian civilization. A
late instance of the kind is Thomas Carlisle,
but he was decade his junior. And there
was greater difference between them than
age makes. While one, with all his pom
derous intellect, his vast attachments and
his world wide reputation, has left unpleas-
ant memories of his deep prejudices and his
rudeness of speech and action, OF the
other there are naught but pleasant
memories of the refined, Olden-
time gentleman. Just why Judge
Cuthbert thus became the object Of such
special interest, can be better illustrated by
a short extract from a notice OF his connec
tiOn in Congress with the Missouri com
promise, written by Hon. w T. Walthall.
Of Biloxi, Miss. for the New Orleans DemO =
crdt:
"He (Judge Cuthbert) was born before
the Cons. itution of the United States went
into operation. The old articles of confede-
ration were then in force. All the settled
parts Of the country now constituting the
States Ct Flo ida, Alabama, Mississippi,
Louisiana and Texas were then
the outbreak Of the French Revo-
luton. napoleon Bonaparte was an OBJ
scure Lieutenant Of artillery, and Walter
Scott an apprentice in his fathers Office.
Edmund Burke and pjamin Franklin
were still living. George Canning and
Henry Brougbsm were college students.
Calhoun and Webster were little children.
and Henry Clay was riding as ride of his meal
bag in the Hanover slashes. He was born
ia the same year with Byron and Peel He
was nearly twenty years IN advance Of Bull
wer and Besconsfeld and Robert E. Lee.
Just twenty senior to Jefferson Davis,
and still more TO Lincoln and
Gladstone. He was member
of Congress in his second session when
John G. Breckenridge was born, and a man
of middle age at the birth Of Garfield. He
was in Congress during the agitation of the
Missouri compromise, and was the associate
of Clay, Macon, Lowndes, Randolph and
the Pinckneys Of South Carolina and Mary
land"
The pertinency and brilliancy of the fore
going array Of historical characters may be
the better realized If we select from them
Byron, and say that although he died
nearly sixty years ago, yet
it is among the possibilities
that he could be living now, for he and
Judge Cuthbert were born in the same year.
Thus, how is the character of man fixed,
aud how is the public veal or woe affected
by that arbiter-dedth-who at once pro-
nounees and executes his judgments with
out the utterance of a word, and from whom
there is no appeal. Byron should have lived
long enough to be ashamed of Don Juan
and to reap the glory of Childe Harold. 1t
is becoming that this paper should, next
to those of Mobile, commemorate the
deceased, for our city is his birthplace, and
here, or in our vicinity,he passed his youth
full manhood Here and vicinity yet reside
many Of his blood-relations, but Of many a
generation this side Of the one to which he
belonged. On his mothers side he is the
grandson of Col. Joseph Clay of the Revo-
luton, and his father was Seth John Cuth-
bert, Colonel In the same war. In this
connection, so far as concerns the descend
ants of Joseph Clay, we will substitute, as
better than we could write, an extract from
the Sunny South, of Atlanta, Ca, published
more than year ago:
1.-THE descendants oil. Colonel Joseph Clay are
remarkable for their talents and distinction.
They present one of the few illustrations of the
transmission of talent. His son, Joseph Clay,
Jr was a lawyer and Judge of eminence
during the latter years of the last century in
Savannah. Georgia. He was the legal pre-
ceptor of Judge Berrien, and if Judge Berrien
were now living he would have entered on his
hundreth year. Judge Clay was an orator-an
eloquent advocate, having great power over
iuries. There is a tradition that at the close Of
one of his most effective appeals in
behalf of a criminal, the presiding Judge,
in tears, said to the sobbing
Jury ''beware of the eloquence of that man."
He suddenly became pious entered the Baptist
ministry, accepted the pastorate of a church
in Boston, and there died in 1911. at the early
age of forty seven. One of his daughters mar
ried VIM. Rufus Gray, prominent citizen Of
Boston, and their descendants are now among
the most wealthy. refined and cultivated peO-
pie Of that city After the death Of Judge Clay
his family returned to Georgia, and resided on
their estates in Bryan county. There, many
years ago died his only son, Thomas S. Clay,
an elegant gentleman, noted for bis pietY and
benevolence, and there now resides his only
surviving child, Miss Eliza Clay.
"A daughter of Colonel Joseph Clay married
Samuel Stiles and by this marriage came Rev
Dr. Joseph c. Stiles and Hon VIM. H. Stiles a
member of Congress from Georgia Both were
men Of talent and distinction. DR.. Stiles was
in the very first rank of able and eloquent
vines Of the South. He and Richard Fuller
were cotemDOraTies and twin brothers in pulpit
elcouence-Jhe first a Presbyterian, the second
a Baptist. Another daughter of Colonel Joseph
CLAY married Thomas Cumming, and by this
marriage we have William, Henry, Alfred and
Joseph Cumming All were men of note and
some of the first order of ability. William dis
tinguished himself as an officer of the United
States army in the war of 1912, and afterwards
as a lawyer. He became known to the whole
nation by his duel with George McDuffie."
Among the descendants of Joseph Clay,
not named in the above, was Alfred Cuth-
bert, the brother OF our subject, who was a
United States Senator of Georgia from 1884
to 1S43, I'D died in Jasper county In the
year 1855. A correspondent of this paper
some ten years ago called attention to the
Cutbbert bro5heTs IN an article written for
the NEWS, in which, after allusion to Alfred,
said of John A:
''He was likewise man of talents, took a
high rank in the State as a lawyer, and was q
brilliant political writer He moved from the
low country to Eatonton, then to Forsyth, then
to Miledgevile, where he edited the Federal
Union with great ability. About the year 1885
he moved to Alabama and resided at Mobile or
vicinity for MANY years He was elected to the
United States House of Representatives from
Georgia during the times of Clark and Troup,
and became a member of that BODY. Like his
large property, but unlike him did not succeed
in improving it, He is represented as more So
ciable and affable than Alfred, and had strong
Dersonal as well as political popularity. His
old surviving legal and political competitors
remember him with pleasure, and speak most
kindly of him. An incident is related of him
which displays his kindly nature and brotherlY
affection. At Epson Court some lawyers were
disputing as to Mr.. CalhOun's power of con-
versation. To settle it, one made the PROPOSE
tion to ask John A. Cuthbert who was the best
cOnversationalist he had ever heard, feeling
assured he would say Mr.. Calhoun, whom he
had lately parted with at Washing on city. 1t
was accepted as the solution, and Dir. Cuthbert
was called from his room and the question pro-
bounded. He had known nothing of the con-
versatiou, or Of the purpose of the question.
He manifested embarrassment, and, with hest
tation he replied, M brother Alfred With
equal delicacy on the part of the propOunders.
he was never informed of their object. This is
very like the warrior, whose toast on a conviv-
ial occasion has been immortalized in
verse. because it was the simple but touching
words, My mother.
There only remains to add the following
brief synopsis of the career Of Judge Cuth-
bert that has not before received notice.
In the year 1908, before he had completed
his twentieth year, he embraced religion
and was baptised by his uncle, the Rev.
Joseph Clay, in the city of Boston From
then until death he was prominent, con-
sistent and Jealous member of the Baptist
Church.
In 1910 he was elected from Liberty coun-
ty to the Legislature Of the State, and for
MANY wears after he represented the same
county both in the Senate and the House.
In the war of 1912 he commanded vol
unteer company to protect the coast of