Staunton spectator and vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1896-1916, 1910-01-07
William Fitzhush Gordon.

/ A Virginian of the old school. His
Life, Times and Contemporaries. By
Armistead G. Gordon, Author of the
"Ivery Gate" and ssRobin Aroon. .
The Neale Publishing Company, New
York and Washington. 1909. Price
$500 net-2O cents postage.
| Some one has said that the Virgin
ians made more histo.y and wrote less
than any other people on the American
Continent. 1t might have been added
that they cared as little for their own
history as though they had none The
lives of the greatest men of the Com
monwealth were of too transcendent
worth to escape immortality; but the
bead roll of her great men would glis-
ten with thousands of jewels, now hid
den as if in the depths of a mine, had
the historian been found to bring into
light their virtues and their deeds. In
many cases the lives of men who only
needed chronicler to render them ia
nous, are like the blasts of the Hunts
man IN the old German distich:
"Es blies elm jaeger wohl in sein Horn
Und Allies was en- blies. des war verlorn.'
GA hunter blew into his horn
And all that he blew the wind carried
away.'o
We owe debt of gratitude, therefore,
to the patient writer who under diff
culties hard to be estimated.bringsi into
public view one of the representative
men of the Nation. And when he does
it with such subject, and treats it in
as charming manner as Mr.. Gordon
has done in the present volume our adj
miration should be added to our graft
tude. General Gordon occupied no
small place in the annals of his native
state. His reputation extended far be-
yond, in his all too short career in 1.-THE
Congress of the United States; and his
"Sub-Treasury" plan-defeated whilst
he was a member of Congress
finally adopted and is today a part of
our national system.
His figure, as presented to us by his
talented grandson, is one which looms
up large as a man of extraordinary
oratorical powers, united with unques-
TONED abilities as a lawyer and states
man, whilst his integrity as polite
ian and his fearless devotion to the
right, even though it meant his politi-
cal death, is one to be held up as an
example to all time.
The book goes beyond the ordinary
1t paints picture of the
Virginia of Gordon's forefathers' day, as +,
well as his own, which is both pleas
ant to read and pride to recall. AS a
contribution to the history of Jack
sons administration; to that of the
the founding of the University of Vir-
ginia lin which Gordon rendered most |
valuable service) aud to that of the |
great Constitutional Convention of,
lS29-3O the volume is of great value
The style of the writer, the sketches of
General Gordon's great contempora-
ries, and the skillful h andling of the
has produced a book which
is not only readable, but of absorbing
interest. 1t should be read by those
who love Virginia's great past. 1t
should be studied by her young men.
And even the careless mass of general
reaqers will find it to supply entertain
L.
and valuable information.
The foregoing complimentary notice
If the recently Published work of our
fellowtownsman, Mr.. Armistead Z.
Gordon, appears in the January, 1910,
number Of the Virginia Law Register,
md is from the pen of its scholarly and
editor, Hon. R. T. w.
Tl,vIy