The Arkansaw traveler., 1884-11-01
WILLIAM WfRr.
THesv Clay Lahsss. l. Yoskess G.ssae.i

Y2AAS8A1 "8AIs
 THeasy Clay Lukeas, h Yoakess Gassese.i
 Half . centuEy has elapsed since the |pulse of Amezica painfully tArobbed st the deafA Of one of ihe nafiont most cuI- tured publicistsl To-day the name of William Win is seldom in type. buf he
 was 1. political and infeIlectual giant of his time. His father vas a native of freedom-leving Switzesiand; his mothers
 lie epened and expanded on the historic
 Rhine. This worthy couple keps an inn, a neat. old-fashioned, ven ordered and popular hostelry, af BiadensburR, Mary land. In this house William Wirt vas born, November 8, I777, and found him. sek a orphan as the age of nine yesxs. An uncle became his legal guardian, and his education was fustered by Rev. James
 Hunt, . Presbyserian dominic, vho had an excellent classical schoo, in that neishborhood. Young Win resided with his teacher, and seveled in the exuber- ance of the clagyman's library. At
 hfseen he became tutor in the family of
 Benjamin Edwards, gentleman of for tune and influence. In I7o2. before as- taining his majosity, we ind him . prac- nnoneT in the courts of Maryland and Virginia. His success q . persuasive advocate vas immediate. Alter the death of his 6rst wife (a daughter of the thea celebsaaed Dr. George Gilmer, of Pen
 PaIk, Chariottesville) he removed in I7oo to Richmond, and entered public life as clerk in the house of delegates. In I8o7 he re-msy-:ed his second choice being the discreet, accomplished and beauti- ful Miss Gamble" Romantic stories are told of this attachment For a con- siderable time, Wirt vas chancellor of eastern Virginia. In 1897, before the supreme court at Richmond, in the pro- secution of Aaron Burr for treason, he de- hvered that hmouA glowing, word-por- traiture of the Ohio island home of un- fortunate Blennerkasset, which was long regarded As gem Of impetusus oraiory. Called by President Monroe to the at- torney generaiship of the Uaited States, m 1877, he filled that posiaon for t~elve Jears, an exceptional case in the records of our cabinet officials. His later career, at Baltimore and Washington. as a bril- liant, eloquent lwyer, is the subject of volumes of honest praise Three months and ten days subs quent to the com piesion of his sixty-6rst year, he expired at the national capital. his dissolution hastened by a virulen, erysipeils.
 Wtt was strong, graceful, remark | able writer. To him we are indebted for Engiand's tardy recognition of the origin 1 ality and force of American literature. His Letters of the British Spy" which | hrst appeared in the daily A,gNs, of Richmond, Va, in 1883. and which, pnor to IS48, had exhausted ten home 1 editions, bore a London imprint as early | as f8I2, nine years before Washington Irving threw Bracebridge Hall as | sop to Alhion's illiberal and nettling crlsi- cism. He worked thirteen years on his | most important book "Sketches of the i Life and Character of Patrick Henry." and an admirable biographical monu- ment 1t is- His essays contributed to the | EsqSirey and oth T leading | journals of the south. were notable for | their elegant dictation. In 1926. on the l forty-hfsh anniversary of the surrender at | Yorktown, he electrified the house of | representatives with his fervent, masterly | eulogy of John Adams and Thomas Jeffer- son. As fair example of Wirt's quill- | power quote this analysis of virginia's greatest orator:
 "Patrick Henry never made a gesture or assumed an attitude, which did not seem imperiously demanded by the oc- casion. Every look, every motion, every pause, every start was completely filed and dilated by the thought which he vas and seemed indeed to form a part Of the thought itself. His action, however strong, was never vehement. He was never seen rushing forward shoulder foremost. fury in his countenance and fenzy in his voice, as if to overturn lhe bar, and charge his audience sword n hand. His judgment was too manly and too solid, and his taste too true, to permit him to indulge in any such ex- His good sense and self possession never deserted him. He had he rare faculty of imparting to his hear srs all the excess of his own feelings, and Ill the violence and tumult of his emo lions. all the dauntless spirit of his reso- utions, and all the energy ot his soul, without any sacrifice of his own personal dignity. He spoke for immor- .aiity; and therefore raised the pillars of his glory on the only solid foundation- he rock of nature"