Lexington gazette. [volume] (Lexington, Va.) 1871-1962, 1912-03-20

Rockbridge of his period who ever
amounted to anything. A picture
OF his visitations survive in the BIZ
Ography Of Governor James Mellow
ell, by his daughter, Mrs. Sally
Campbell Preston Miller, in which
she describes her father as having
in lS47 suffered a stroke of paraly-
sis, and says, Our dear friend and
able physician. DR.. Archibald Ora
ham, was at his bedside in a few
minutes. The doctor never left him
until the Immediately alarming
symptoms had passed" And Gov
ernor Mcdowell resumed his duties
in Congress the next month. He
was a physician who knew how to
heal himself. He set an example OF
abstinence and self-control to be
emulated by his patients, and he
was rarely sick until his final ILL
ness, contracted after the allotted
age Of man.
But the arduOus duties of physi-
clan, the bounds Of whose practice
was this big county, did not con-
sumo the activities OF man as force
full and public. spirited as DR.. Ora
ham. He devoted attention to other
interests in order TO gather a COM
potency for his family, and accumu-
lated fine estate.
Throughout life. public affairs
local, State and national, command
ed his interest and his abilities
His knowledge of the people, and o
the questions at issue, and his quail
tiles of leadership MADE him an i'm
portant factor in determining re
! suits within the bounds OF his influ
euce. he never appeared upon tn
, platform as a speaker, but wielde,
a trenchant and convincing pen, 5
much q weapon in the press of tina
: day; and in the use of that poten
instrument to carry conviction. afte
+ all the most powerful weapon know
, to move public affairs; in the quie
O face to face talk of man to man b
a was MASTER
9 His advent into citizenship her
V in 1926 was marked by the birth
d those two militant political partie.
v Wing and Democratic. the one III
=. der Clay and Adams, the other vi
10 der jackson following The Era
l. Good Feeling" under Monroe. TT
1t political differences of the ds
p sharply divided Rockbridge fan
9. lies, and for a generation contes
g in politics were of spirited kin
g. hardly appreciated in these qui
a. days. Archibald Graham from Il
ID first was Jackson man, aud ev
,e adfastly followed that great lea
IS or of the people. He had the sati
or faction of seeing victory general
It. crown the banners in State and I
at tional elections, though in Roc
is bridge his party rarely escaped d
~ feat from the Wings. He was &
voted supporter of that wise a.
ST gifted son of this county, Jam
ne Mcdowell, sympathized with b
n. in his opposition as to nullificati
&C. by South Carolina, as shown by Ct
is respondence in the biography of I
,e- Governor. and, it is to be conclude
mt in the brilliant effort he made in |
is General Assembly to bring ado
ad emancipation. 1t was natural. the
We fore, that when the question of
he cession became acute we find G
nd ham opposed TO it. AS a leader
he the Virginia delegation at the De
lg- ocratic National Convention in II
al he supported Buchanan tor Pre-
gh dent. He was delegate from '
ar GINA to the Charleston Natio
hes Democratic Convention in Is
md When, divided, it Was adjourned
his Baltimore, he went with the I'm
! element and vote for the nomiEa,
big of Stephen A. D,lglas OF Hin,
es- and supported him for election
, OF the polls. With rare foresight