The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-08-04

year he attained his majority, and two years later he married the girl he had loved in boyhood. Then he was a vol- unteer and g commissioned officer in the Mexican war. and upon the discov- cry of gold in California he crossed the plains in search of fortune.
 He was big man in every way-big ooned. heavy muscled, big brained, stout-hearted, robust in health, gigan- tic in strength The one thing light about him was his conscience-that he ever kept void of offensa toward his brother. He never sought preferment. His character and attachments com manded 1t. He was solicitor of his cir- cult and judge on the bench, as we'll as lawyer at the bar. and never was there a whisper against his unblemishe ed honor. There was a homeliness about him that was delightful. A sound mind in sound body. his heart was also healthy and 1t and malice were ever strangers. Big as 1t was. duty so filled 1t that there was no room for hate. His speech was simple and direct, though he was master of the classics and deep- ly read in general literature.
 When the inevitable came Pettus went with his State and his section, and was a brave soldier in the big war. At Vicksburg he performed feat that reads like D'Artagnan. The enemy had erected a redou5. that meant almost immediate surrender to the garrison unless 1t was taken. Assault after as- sault was made upon 1t. only to fail :. Then there was . call for volunteers to make one last attempt, and Pettus of- fered himself A Texas command com posed the rank and file and Pettus was the ranking oficer. He directed the attack. one of the bloodiest of the war. numbers considered, and, after prodi- gfes of valor. performed on both sides, the redoubt was taken. The surviving Texans then assembled and gravely promoted Pettus to the rank of Tex an." and Texan" he was the rest of the war. In Cousin Bettee," Balzac relates how old Hulot, under the eye of Napoleon. performed the most des- perate deed of darking even Napoleon ever witnessed and all the tens of thousands who loved old Pettus are fond of believing that Hulot at the bridge was not more intrepid or serene than Pettus at the redoubt. He rose to the rank of brigadier general, and helped to dispute the country inch by inch from Dalton to Atlanta, where he faced death with sedate coura1 1e daily. When the war closed he was bank rupt in all but honor and valor, and set about to aid in restoring to Ala
 
 had any office in the gift of the State after the jackals were driven from Alabama. He preferred the practice of his profession. which he followed for more than thirty years. In 1897 he was chosen Senator in Congress, in which position he shed additional luster on the State of King and Lewis. Of Yancey and Houston. But the pres ence of Pettus and Morgan there in the bOdv naw hocapa laftfndip ria n always recalled to my mind that at least two Senators on that floor con- trasted unfavorably the temple build ed upon the permit of Cyrus with the house Solomon erected to the God of Israel. That was manifest in their votes against the rate bill. which was only another and an additional aug mentation of Federal powe0 North Carolina has vindicated them and set the example to all the other States. Whatever the Supreme bench may ad- 5udicate, the fact remains that the power to regulate abides in the States. and the States are only restrained, as they should be. by constitutional guar antee of the rights of property.
 Some years ago attempted to de- scribe a scene in a Senate gallery of which Senator Pettus was the central figure. It clings to my memory, for it recalled that ante bellum period when the patriarchal system. of our slave States was the best government that had been established among men, and here was Thackeray's Col Newcome in the flesh. Father Pettus had been Senator but a short while. probably only few weeks. He took the ele- vator on the Senate floor and escorted party to the gallery floor. It was gentleman, his wife and his daughter the old statesman had under convoy. When they came to the door the ven- erable Senator took by the hand the young lady little past her third lus- trum, and. followed by her parents he escorted her down the steps. Flunkies hurried and scurried getting seats for the party, and the Senator took his place between the mother and the daughter. AS far as the eye could reach. you could see the young girl was lovely, and just as far 1t could be detected that she was daughter of the South. So pretty. so innocent. so winsome she was that ! repeated what old Chaucer wrote of one who might have been. and probably was. one of her remote grandmothers:
 I saw her dance so comfy,
 Carol and sing so sweetly,
 And laugh and play so Womaniy.
 And look so debonairly,
 So goodley speak and so friendly; That, Certes, I trow that neVermore We seen SO blissful Urea sure.
 For ever hair upon her head.
 Sooth to say. 1t was not red.
 Nor yellow neither, nor brown It "as' But, oh! what eyes my lady had. Debonair goode. glad. and sad;
 Simple, of good size. not too wide;
 Thereto her look was not aside.
 Nor overwort. ~
 The old man sat there beside that mother and daughter, his friends, eVl- dently from home-and homefolks at this capital are more than homerolks at home-and pointed out the celeorl- ties on the floor All of them enjoyed themselves. but after a time there was a call of the Senate and the old rel low excused himself and departed with a bow that would have been the envy of Whitehall in De Grammonts day that, Versailles could not have sur passed when the grande monaraue pre- scribed etiquette for all polite society of Europe thought of Ben Franklin in French salons. but at once dismissed him, for old Ben was rake. and ms female friends over there. as rule, rakesses