Richmond times-dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1914-current, 1919-03-17
Judge ROGER PRYOR
ASTR|K|NG FIGURE
Began Life in Petersburg as
Editor of a News
paper.
HELD POSITION IN RICHMOND
Worked His Way Up to Seat
on Supreme Court
Bench.
HELD POSITION IN RICHMOND
Especial 10 The Times-Dlspatch. !


WASHINGTON. March i6.--Reprcsen-
tative Walter a. Watson. of the Fourth
Virginia District. in an interview to-
Nirginians in Washington feel over
the passing Of General Roger a. Pryor
in New York. the last survivor Of the
famous group of Virginians who fig
urcd in the stirring days preceding
and during the War Between the
States.
Judge Watson. who now represents
the same district from which General
Pryor was elected 10 Congress - 1853,
today reviewed some Of the striking
phases of General Pryors stormy ca :
rcer. Judge Watson said:
The tidings of the death OF Roge
\. Pryor in New York yesterday was
the subject Of much interest and com
inent here. lie was national charac-
ter in the period which ushered in the
War Between the States. and one of
the most striking and picturesque fig
ures in the history Of American poll
70 succeed in three distinct fields of
intellectual work: he achieved fame as
an editor politician and a lawyer,
and then it was ,vouchsafed him TO
survive all his fellow laborers of the
times in which he acted and preserve
his mental faculties almost undimmed
INTO his ninetieth year. He was. T
think, the las; survivor of the United
states Congress before the war the
last of the Confederate Congress- and
the last, but two or three. of the 49s
general officers commissioned in the
Confederate army
EDITORIAL ON CRIlIEAN
WAR FAMOUS WRITING
He began life as an editor at Pc
tersburg, Va. from where ne camc TO
Washington and did brilliant work on
subsequently, the States. An editoria
OF his on the Crimean War led to his
appointment. by President Pierce as
special minister to Greece AS CO.
editor upon the Enquirer, at Richmond,
he wrote the argument which, in con
junction with Henry 5. Wise's speeches S
upon the stump, was credited with the
defeat OF Know Nothing gism in Vir-
ginia. subsequently he edited and
published at Richmond the South, an
organ devoted to advanced Southern
views, and which had brief but brill
liant career. and it's editor driftcd into
politics as member of Congress
where at once he attracted the atten-
!. .li9n-. ot thf vShQl sconp Ia. o -elo.
! political Views. 49,. s4.s. @
Not originally a seccssionist lie
vas gradually pressed by the march
Of events into that position. and with
the zeal which characterized all his
utterances later became an extreme
advocate of that doctrine. In April,
1861, he delivered great speech at
Charleston, in which he advocated the
things. said.
You ask me about Virginia. Strike
a blow-strike blow, and, my word
for il. the Old Dominion Will join
your Confederacy in three hours BY
shrewsbury clock.
WAS DEVOTED TO THE
CAUSE OF CONFEDERAGY
AS a brigadier general in the ON
tederate service he had the rnisfor-
tune 10 quarrel with benjamin the
secretary OF War. and his career as a
commander was not a success Per
maps, he. was tcmperamentaliy not
qualified for command. but notwith-
standing there was criticism of his
military service, l never knew any
person 10 question his loyalty and de-
voiion 10 the Confederate cause. for
which he sacrificed all that he was and
that he had.
Having hlled national space in
the newspaper field and in politics, at
the close of the war. although in mid
tirely new field and by dint OF hard
labor went TO the front OF the New
York bar, where, in the end, he fliea
with eminent success a seat upon the
supreme Court bench.
In personal appearance General
Pryor was the most striking and i'm
pressive figure ever saw. AS pop
ular orator. no man, in so short
the people of Virginia. He was a
rhetorician as we'll as orator, and old
men are now living in Virginia who
at the distance Of over half CEN
tnry can quote whole sentences from
his speeches. In one of his editorials
in the Richmond Enquirer he first
made use of the expression the ire
pressible conflict which afterwa rds
became famous.
General Pryor was one of the Rep
reSentatives from tho Fourth Congress
siona District in Virginia whose name
Will live, and throughout the South he
Will be remembered. along with
fancey and Toombs, rs one of those
who, in the stormy days before the
war, fired the Southern heart and
paved the way cmotionally for the
great struggle of the sixties"
WEALTHY PLANTER MISSING
AETEp MIccIccIDpI TOpMhNO