USA > Virginia > Sketches of Virginia : historical and biographical > Part 29
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In his thirteenth year, young Rice suffered a calamity in the afflic- tion that came upon him, the death of his mother. Mr. Rice and his children saw more clearly from day to day, as weeks and months rolled on, the length and breadth of the distress that followed the bereavement. The guiding hand of Mrs. Rice being paralyzed, discomforts came in upon the family, and the widowed husband, like many another man, felt he had lost the comfort and charm of his house. John Holt was old enough to appreciate and remember his mother ; and through life he cherished a lively recollection of her form, her affection, and her instructions. She had already cast the mould of the boy's character, and laid the foundation of the
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man. The habit of entire self-control so remarkable in him, he attributed, under the blessing of God, to the earnest persuasion and instruction of his sainted mother to govern his naturally hasty tem- per; and his thirst for knowledge and desire for improvement had been cherished, if not instilled, by her tender care.
When fifteen years of age he was permitted by his pastor, James Mitchel, to make a public profession of religion. He had witnessed the great revival in Bedford, the revival that began in Charlotte and Prince Edward, and was promoted by the labors of Smith, Graham, Legrand, Lacy, Mitchel, and Turner. From his earliest life in religion, he believed that true piety consists in a spirit of ardent devotion, deep penitence, love of purity, and an earnest attachment to Christ. He had trembled uuder the warnings of Mitchel, been agitated by the pathetic exhortations of Turner, moved by the persuasions of Legrand, and enlightened and im- pressed by Smith and Graham. The standard of religious experi- ence formed in the churches about the time he became a member, he labored to erect wherever he preached in after life; rallying the church around that, he strove to lead her on to high achievements of godly living ; a standard higher than any since the days of Davies, and having the elements of perfection.
On the division of the County of Bedford, in the year 1784, Mr. Rice removed to Liberty, the new County seat. His worldly cir- cumstances were improved by his marriage with a widow of the brother of Patrick Henry. The first Mrs. Rice excelled in tender- ness and piety; the second in domestic management and success in worldly affairs. The step-mother not being deeply impressed by the abilities of John Holt, and perhaps not valuing at a high rate a liberal education, and consulting for the future welfare of the boy, proposed that, as the father probably would not be able to give him a farm, he should be put to some good trade. The father and the son objected. The son thought of nothing but an education, and the father cherished the desire, and God's providence favored the child.
Dr. Rice used to tell some circumstances of his early life, charac- teristic of himself and the country. Cotton was reared as an indis- pensable material for clothing, and was manufactured in the family. Whitney's cotton-gin was not then invented, and the preparation of the cotton for the spindle was a tedious operation, and gave employ- ment to the fingers of servants and children the carly part of the long winter nights. After supper, the children and servants were gathered round the blazing hearth, each with his regular task of cotton from the field in balls, to be freed from seeds and impurities. Pieces of the heart of pine, and knots saturated with turpentine, by a process of nature, supplied the place of candles and lamps. Burn- ing on the hearth, they gave a splendid light. Where the rich pines abounded, candles were scarcely known in the domestic concerns. Thousands of families in the Southern and Western country at this time enjoy this light by night. By this, young Rice performed his
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regular nightly tasks of cotton picking, and then indulged his appe- tite for reading and study. " Often,", said he, " as the flames wasted, have I thrown myself at full length upon the floor, drawing nearer and nearer the decaying brands, and finally thrusting my head into the very ashes, to catch the last gleam of light." Multitudes of Southern youths have conned their school tasks by the pine light ; and men in high station have amused their visitors, by contrasting the simplicity of their boyish days with the luxuries of their grand- children. Dr. Hill was accustomed to describe the cotton pickings with great glee.
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Young Rice was sent to Liberty Hall Academy ; Rev. William Graham, in the meridian of his fame, presided. Mr. Edward Graham, the brother and assistant of the president, writing, in the later years of his life, says: "his moral character was entirely correct ; that he gave much of his time to miscellaneous reading, and was not par- ticularly distinguished in his classical studies." Young Rice mani- fested a desire of excellence, but never appeared ambitious of sur- passing his classmates. It is not probable that he studied one hour, during his academic life, with the desire of supremacy. His habits of mind did not fit him to shine in the class-room, and he was pro- bably too indifferent to classic honors. After remaining at the academy about a year and a-half, he was recalled by his father, for reasons of a pecuniary nature. Mr. George A. Baxter, the pupil, and ultimately the successor, of Graham, was teaching an academy at New London. Learning the circumstances of young Rice, he invited him to pursue his studies with him, and be a partner of his room. He remained with Mr. Baxter about a year, reciting regu- larly in the school, and in his leisure hours perusing choice works of English literature. His acquaintance with the classics became intimate and correct, and the productions of his pen manifested the advantage of his English reading. Mr. Baxter considered young Rice correct in morals and pious, kind in heart, reserved in com- pany, conversing on moral and religious subjects with propriety, but possessing little of that small talk essential to the cheerfulness of social circles. He gave no intimations of any extraordinary powers, or brilliancy of intellect. His mind was slow in its opera- tions, but safe in its conclusions. The friendship formed between the teacher and his pupil ripened with increasing years ; the one became President of Washington College, and the other Professor in Union Theological Seminary, which position he yielded by death to the friend and teacher of his youth.
Mr. Rice commenced the work of a teacher in the family of Mr. Nelson, of Malvern Hills, about thirty miles below Richmond. Judge William Nelson, while attending a session of the District Court at New London, made inquiries for a teacher for the family of his kins- man. Mr. Baxter recommended young Rice ; and, with the consent of his father, he was engaged for the office. Patrick Henry being at this sessions of the court, the step-son of his brother's widow was introduced to him in the court-house yard. The orator addressed a
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few words of encouragement to the youth, and said, "be sure, my son, remember the best men always make themselves." Inoperative at the time, this sentiment was pondered, in after years, as a great historic truth in Virginia, among statesmen and divines. An emi- nent British statesman said, "No man can rise without patronage." Patrick Henry, after untold mortifications, had risen to a command- ing position ; and the youth he addressed at New London, in his kindness, after efforts equally great, without the mortifications, left a name among the churches never to pass away.
· With his father's blessing, ten shillings in his pocket, and all his wardrobe in a handkerchief, he walked to James River, stepped on board a market boat, and floated down to Richmond. Canal boats, rail cars, and trunks of baggage, were unknown in those days; and young Rice would probably have been amazed at the luggage of some students in these days of progress in education. In Mr. Nelson's family he showed himself worthy of the great kindness he received, by his diligent attention to his duties as a teacher, his modesty, and obliging deportment. Here he was introduced to the highly polished society of the "Ancient Dominion," at an age to feel its allurement, and its power to refine. He made himself agreeable to the family, and the numerous visitors. His high tone of honorable and refined intercourse with ladies, which rendered him peculiarly pleasing and useful in Richmond, and throughout Virginia, and wherever else he visited, was greatly improved by his social relations with the society of Malvern Hills. Naturally unsociable, he learned winning man- ners. With his kind heart and sound principles, he became irre- sistible, where he determined to please a social circle.
This improvement in his manners was bought with trials of heart. His sensé of truth and justice was accompanied with a keen percep- tion of the ridiculous and absurd. He could be pleasant in his remarks, like his father, humorous in his observations, and when excited or offended, keenly satirical. The world opened upon him with her enchantments, and touched his heart. His well arranged principles guarded him against the persuasives to sin, while the soft- ening influence of refined society wore away his awkwardness, and reserve, and the greenness of boyhood. Religious society once fami- liar, now necessary to preserve the balance of his mind, and purity of his heart, was a rare enjoyment, almost a thing unknown. Men of sprightly minds and pleasing manners uttered in his hearing the sentiments that prevailed' in Paris, and produced the arguments of the leaders of the French Revolution, which he was not prepared to answer, and by the novelty of which he was sometimes confounded. In the midst of luxuries unusual, and prospectively beyond his enjoy- ment, and not congenial to his moral tastes, he began first to feel lonely; and then an indifference towards his fellow men came over him ; and then lastly a strange coldness towards his God. He was passing the trial which in some form awaits all youth as they come upon the great theatre of the world. First, is the kind feeling towards all; then, as bitter experience makes them partially wiser,
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comes the distrust of men which may be very general ; then as the tide of affairs roll on, unless prosperous business, or kind attention of the good, or the internal influences of God's amazing grace arrest the downward course, come misanthropy, hardness of heart, free thinking, perhaps dissipation, Atheism, and an unhonored death.
Young Rice never knew, till this time, the power within him to hate his fellow man, nor the bitterness, that hidden under ridicule and sarcasm, could amuse and sting the world, and torment the pos- sessor's heart. 'He knew he had a power that might be fearful or amusing, but its two edges he found out by some inward wounds that were healed by a kind mother's hand in Prince Edward. He remained in the family of Mr. Nelson about a year and a half. On a visit to his father's house he was seized with a violent and pro- tracted fever. During the progress of the disease he fathomed the excellence of Deism, of the French Moral Philosophy, of the being without God in the world : and the line soon reached the bottom. Deism became his abhorrence on principle and on' feeling. He sounded the grace of the gospel, and like the God from whom it flowed, it was without shore or bottom, an ocean in which he might swim for Eternity. The one might be charming in the revelries of a voluptuous city, the other was the help of a sinner as he approached his God with the veil torn from his heart. The world now appeared to him, empty as a treasure, false as a support, lovely as a work of God; and full of wisdom and goodness, as man's place of trial. The cheerfulness and piety of his father were priceless in his eyes. His heart was broken, and not healed; the fashion of Christ was appear- ing, but not the full image of unsullied brightness that shone out in succeeding years. The work of reconstruction was reserved as the work of another agency more winning than sickness.
On the restoration of his health he sought employment as a teacher. Bearing in the kindest remembrance the family in which he had been employed; and carrying with him their warmest wishes for his prosperity, and enjoying their friendship through life, like all youth pleased with "novelty and fond of change," he turned his atten -. tion to another part of his native state. Hearing that a tutor was wanting in Hampden Sidney College, he sought the office. The Presbytery of Hanover held its fall session, Oct., 1796, at Bethel Meeting House in Bedford. Besides Mitchel and Turner, the co-pas- tors of his native congregation, Lacy, Alexander, and Lyle, were present. The father of Mr. Rice, as an elder, was member. The ministers were all deeply interested in the College, and some of them warm friends of the father, and prepared to favor the son. With such introduction as he could procure he made application to the trustees, by a personal interview.
With his bundle in his hand, he proceeded on foot through Camp- bell County, and part of Charlotte to Prince Edward; and found that the trustees were in correspondence with Robert Logan of Fincastle, and waiting a final answer. Encouraged to expect the appointment if Mr. Logan declined, and anxious to know the event,
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he returned to Bedford, crossed the Blue Ridge, and waited on Mr. Logan. Returning to Prince Edward with a communication from Mr. Logan declining the office, and recommending Mr. Rice to the attention of the trustees, this long pedestrian journey was crowned with success ; he received the appointment.
Major James Morton, Treasurer of the Board, took him to his residence to remain the short time intervening the commencement of his labors as teacher. From that visit Willington became asso- ciated, in the heart of young Rice, with all that is kind, and excel- lent, and lovely. The Major advanced a small sum of money for some claims due in Lexington, and furnished him with clothing for the winter. And Mrs. Morton, in her kind and Christian manner, won his confidence. The intimate friendship that followed, Dr. Rice always acknowledged as having a most controlling influence through- out his whole succeeding life. He had passed his childhood in retired life ; in his early youth he had been with the polished world ; and now he was introduced to a sphere of activity in pursuit, and seclusion in living, under the influence of Christian example of the most endearing domestic nature at Willington, in Mrs. Morton; and the most admirable public exhibition in Archibald Alexander. In Mrs. Morton he seemed to himself to find his own dear mother re- vived, and by that name he called her long before the thought was formed that she might be so in reality. With the confidence of a son he laid open to her his distress of soul, and told her his hopes and fears, and the perplexing experience through which he had passed. Her counsels and instructions were, by the blessing of God, the means of rescuing him from the hardening influences of an infidel philosophy, which he could neither believe, or with clear reasons decidedly reject; they closed the springs of bitterness, and opened the fountains of benevolence. He used to say of Mrs. Morton -"It was impossible to know such a woman without thinking more kindiy of his fellow-men for her sake." During the winter the pupils were few and the duties of the teacher light. The hours not required in teaching and preparation for recitations, were devoted to literary reading and composition. He practised the celebrated rule of reading some well-written piece, and then, without relying upon verbal memory, attempting to reproduce the style and thoughts of the author. He wrote narratives and essays, and made compends of important treatises. His facility in composition, in after years, may be traced to the efforts at improvement made at New London, and his early residence at Hampden Sidney.
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CHAPTER XIX.
MESSRS. ALEXANDER AND RICE - ASSOCIATED AT HAMPDEN SIDNEY COLLEGE.
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THE connection of Mr. Archibald Alexander with the College in Prince Edward County, was not desired by himself, or hastily formed. The knowledge of the circumstances leading to that event is from the Records of the Trustees of the College, November 1st, 1792. "The Board having failed in their attempt to get the Rev. Mr. Graham to take charge of the College as President, have thought proper to secure to the Rev. Drury Lacy the office of Vice President for the term of four years from the present time. It is also the intention of the Board to secure to Mr. Lacy the use of the house and lands that he now occupies, for the above-mentioned term." On the 12th of the same month the Board made another entry : - " The Rev. Drury Lacy, who has at present the charge of the College, with the office of Vice President, attended the Board, and desired that the Board would think of some suitable person, who should be associated with him in the charge of the College with equal authority, to take an equal share of the labor, and have an equal share of the emoluments. The Board having thought the proposal such an one as they ought to accede to, and Mr. Archibald Alexander being proposed as a proper person - ordered, that Samuel W. Venable and Joseph Venable be a committee to write to Mr. Alexander, and in behalf of the Board to propose to him to accept the charge of the College, in conjunction with Mr. Lacy, to have, as has been proposed, equal authority, and to bear an equal share of the labor, and to receive an equal share of all the emolu- ments. Ordered, that the same committee appointed to write to Mr. Alexander, be appointed to write to the different congregations about now to be associated for supporting a minister, to inform them of this resolution of the Board, and to propose to them to join their interest with us, and to endeavor to induce Mr. Alexander to under- take the charge of the College, with Mr. Lacy, on the proposed plan, and to preach to the congregations as one of the ministers proposed to be employed in the plan of association mentioned above." April 9th, 1793. - " A letter from Mr. Archibald Alex- ander being read to the Board, in which he stated the objections to his accepting the invitation of this Board, that was given him some time ago, to take part in the management of this College, it is agreed that the Board will consider it at their next meeting, and that they will take no resolution on it at present." At the next meeting, the prospect of Mr. Alexander's accepting being in no respect more favorable, Mr. Lacy was requested to consult the two former Presidents, on his trip to Philadelphia, as Commissioner to the Assembly.
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The time for which Mr. Lacy was engaged being about to expire, the Board, December 22d, 1795, ordered - " That Paul Carrington, Sen., Esq., F. Watkins, S. W. Venable and A. B. Venable be a committee to make inquiry for some suitable person to take charge of the College as tutor, when the term for which Mr. Lacy is engaged has expired; and also to make inquiries for a suitable person who will be disposed to undertake the office of President ; and report the success of their inquiries to this Board, from time to time." In the previous April Mr. Alexander had been chosen member of the Board of Trustees.
In the summer of 1796 propositions were made to Rev. John D. Blair, of Richmond, to become the President, but without success.
In the month of August, 1796, the attention of the Board was once more turned to Mr. Alexander. Mr. Lacy was about removing to his farm, Mount Ararat, a few miles from the College, and the institution was on the point of being left without instruction. On the 13th the records say - "The Board will engage to him £50 per annum from the funds of the College, and that the tuition, until it shall amount, with the sum of £50, to £180, shall be divided between him and one assistant; and when the tuition shall amount to more than this, that then the trustees will appropriate the over- plus as to them shall seem best." Besides this salary, Mr. Alex- ander was to have the use of the dwelling-house provided for the President. On the 1st day of the succeeding September, Mr. Alexander's reply was read - "In which he expresses a wish to decline giving his final answer till November: the Board, on consi- dering the same, have agreed to await his answer till that time." An order was passed the same day to take the proper steps to obtain a teacher for the approaching winter session. In November the Board met at the Court House, on the 21st. Mr. Alexander met with them as trustee, and gave for answer to their appointment -" That he would accept their invitation, provided the Board would be satisfied that he should defer taking the actual charge of the College until the month of April next. The Board determined to accept of his proposal; but they wish and expect, that if he can find it convenient, he will come at an earlier period." Rev. Mat- thew Lyle was chosen trustee at this meeting.
At a meeting of the Board, December 19th, 1796, "Samuel W. Venable, from the committee appointed to employ a teacher, re- ported - that he and Mr. Francis Watkins, part of that committee, had contracted, on the part of the Board, with Mr. John Rice, to act as a teacher in College, till the last of April next; for which they have engaged that he shall receive twenty-five pounds. The Board approved of this arrangement, and ordered it to be entered on their minutes." As soon as practicable after his appointment, Mr. Rice began his labors, teaching the pupils assembled at the College. The winter was passed usefully and happily by him, am- bitious to make the best preparation for the President, whom he
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occasionally saw and heard preach, and began to love and to hold conference with about their future course of teaching.
May 31st, 1797, at the College. Present-"Col. Thomas Scott, Major James Morton, Charles Allen, Charles Scott, Jacob Morton, Francis Watkins, Samuel W. Venable, Joseph Venable, Richard N. Venable, and Dr. Robert L. Smith and the Rev. A. Alexander, the President, who this day appeared and entered on his office. On motion by Mr. Alexander, Major James Morton is appointed in future to receive the tuition, room-rent, and deposit from such stu- dents as shall wish to enter College, and grant them receipts for the same, which they shall present to the officers of College when they enter. Mr. S. W. Venable, from the committee, reported that he had agreed with Mr. John H. Rice, for the next term, and that he had agreed, on the behalf of the Board, to pay him twenty-five pounds for the term."
Here are two young men brought, in the Providence of God, to become acquainted, and act together upon the arena of labor, and struggle, and usefulness ; and to form a friendship to be perpetuated through life, unharmed by those changes incident to mortals, loving each other more strongly and more purely to the last. They met, the one in his twentieth year, prepared to perform the duties of teacher, and the other in the beginning of his twenty-sixth year, to assume the responsibilities of a president of a college, where in fact there was no college. There was a small but pleasant wooden dwelling for the president ; a moderate sized brick building for col- lege purposes, recitations, and lodging the students ; a wooden building to serve as a college hall, the place for assembling the students for prayer, and the neighborhood for public worship; a small library ; a meagre apparatus ; and an amount of funds to yield an inconsiderable income. But of college classes there were none ; and of students few. Under the first and second presidents the col- lege was crowded with students : would it be a gain ?
Though not symmetrical in its arrangements, the usefulness of the college was almost unbounded for a series of years in a country of exceeding loveliness, and among a population of great moral worth. The second president saw the beginning of its decline. The revival of religion, of which he had been a great and honored instrument, called him away from college duties, and complaints came up, per- haps not well founded, that he neglected the college. Upon this came also complaints, found in the end to be unfounded, that the col- lege was sectarian. And fears were expressed also lest, somehow, politics had or would get into college. The region of country occu- pied by Davies and Todd and Waddell, north of the James, had not been bound as firmly to the college as it might have been. Smith's strong resolutions in Presbytery had a severity not soon forgotten. Under all these influences the college was drooping, when J. B. Smith left the presidency. The vice-president, Lacy, on who n the college rested for a time, struggled manfully with great difficulties. He loved to preach, and his calls for preaching were numerous, and
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