USA > Virginia > The history of the Virginia federal convention of 1788, with some account of eminent Virginians of that era who were members of the body, Vol. II > Part 28
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276 One of his essays was signed "A Friend to Peace," in six num- bers; another series was signed "By a Lawyer Who Does Not Wish to Be a Judge."
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leaders, and what were their designs, especially to ascertain the purposes Nicholas had in view; and what acts of a seditious character, if any, he had been guilty of. Ross, who was an honorable gentlemen, of great legal knowledge, and the origi- nal friend to the administration, possessed a character too ele- vated to be its dupe or instrument. Fortunately for him and the country he was an old and intimate friend of Colonel James Morrison. Morrison was a friend and relation of Nicholas, and in daily communication with him. Ross frankly disclosed to Morrison the object of his visit, and received from him perfect satisfaction that Colonel Nicholas was sincerely attached to the Union, and that his only object was a reformation of the policy of the administration and to produce a repeal of the laws which he believed to be unconstitutional; and, in addition to other facts, he communicated in still confidence that he had it from Colonel Nicholas himself that the Spanish Government, through their agent, Thomas Perrei, tendered to Colonel Nicho- las and two other gentlemen two hundred thousand dollars-one hundred thousand to be to their own use, and the rest to be used in carrying out the measure-to use his and their influence in producing a separation of Kentucky from the Union and annexing it to the Spanish province; that Colonel Nicholas and the other gentlemen not only refused it, but positively assured the agent that no considerations could induce them to desire a separation from the Union or accept a compensation for their political services from any foreign government. When Morri- son communicated to Nicholas his conversation with Ross Nicholas replied that he was glad Morrison had made the com- munication of the facts to Ross, and that the Government would now be informed through its agent of the designs of Spain.
"Colonel Nicholas was continually assailed by the adminis- tration papers, particularly by that of Cobbett, and the essays of anonymous scribblers and pamphleteers of the Federal party, in which threats of arrest and punishment were not unfrequent. He, however, sustained himself by letters to his friends and appeals to public opinion through newspapers, until about the month of August, 1798, when he made an appointment through the newspapers to address the people of Kentucky on the con- dition of the country. On the day of appointment a vast assemblage of people from all parts of the State met at Lexing-
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ton in pursuance of the notice. There being no house, public or private, large enough to contain the crowd, the people were assembled to the amount of thousands on the College lawn, when Colonel Nicholas addressed them for four hours in a strain of eloquence and power scarcely ever equalled, and certainly never surpassed. In his speech he laid open to the people their Federal Constitution, the nature of their Union, their value and importance to the protection of the States and the liberties of the people of the States; then laid bare the maladministration of President Adams, its crimes, its follies, and its cruel oppres- sions. He drew a strong picture of the sufferings of the country, and the victims under the alien and sedition laws. He, how- ever, warned them against violence as a means of redress, but urged them to take the constitutional means through the ballot- box, their only remedy of changing the administration and restoring the Constitution to its supremacy, thus relieving the country of their oppression under the Stamp Act, direct taxa- tion, and unconstitutional persecutions.
"This speech overwhelmed the Federal party in Kentucky, and established the cause of the opposition. Colonel Nicholas was now at the highest of his popularity; but his political diffi- culties were not yet at an end. The Federal administration had infused into most of the religious societies a horror of French infidelity, and denounced Nicholas, Jefferson, and others of the opposition as infidel Democrats. And while Nicholas was engaged in overturning the power of the administration, his adversaries, and those of the Democratic party, set on foot an opposition to the State Constitution, principally on the ground that it tolerated negro slavery, and finally succeeded in having acts passed to call a Convention; and for a season it appeared obvious that the Abolitionists would throw a majority of their party into the Convention, and the slaves would be emancipated. From some cause Colonel Nicholas seemed to pay no attention to the movements of the Abolitionists until the month of Febru- ary preceding the election of members to the Convention, which, by law, was to take place on the first Monday in May. Seeing that an effort upon the town of Lexington would be ineffectual, the Abolitionists being too strong in the town, he called a meet- ing of the people in the county, at Bryan's Station, where he. had a meeting of. the country people, and addressed them at
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large upon the propriety of their voting for conservative men, and particularly for supporting men opposed to turning the negroes loose upon the country. This speech was well received by the thinking classes of the community north of the Ken- ' tucky, and was decisive of the question with the people in every part of the State; so that when the people met there was but one emancipator elected. 277
"Colonel Nicholas was not only a politician, and exerted, as such, a great influence over the public men of Kentucky; he was also an agriculturist and a political economist; and by his moral writings, lectures, and conduct contributed much to regulate public sentiment in favor of all the branches of labor. He not only devoted himself to this object, but had his office filled with students of law, to whom he lectured and whom he prepared for the profession with a success rather astonishing, as scarcely one of his students failed in the profession, and most of them rose to . high eminence, both at the bar and in the councils of the State and the nation. He did not live to reap his full share of the benefits resulting from his labors for his country. He died in the month of June, 1799, in the forty-sixth year of his age,278 and in the midst of his usefulness, to the loss of his country and the irreparable misfortune of his widow and numerous family. . He was a man of low stature, not exceeding five feet seven inches high, of a fair complexion, large, glowing blue eyes. . His head was very large for his stature; his hair (what remained of it) was red. He became before his death almost entirely bald, from which circumstance, and from other indications of age, for more than six years before his death, he was called Old Nicholas. 279 He was a man of taciturn habits in mixed company, but in pri- vate circles, and especially at his own house and fireside, he was a most interesting companion, and sometimes both humorous and witty. He was remarkable for his hospitality, and in all the relations of husband, father, and master his character was per- fect. He was universally loved by the gentlemen of the bar, and
177 The reader will regard these views of Mr. Wickliffe as embracing the opinions of himself and of Nicholas only.
278 Forty-four only, if born in 1755.
219 Every clever fellow by the name of Nicholas soon gets the title of "Old Nick."
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looked up to by the greatest lawyers and sages of the age. His eloquence was of a very high order, and his reasoning most powerful. As a criminal advocate in his day he had no equal in Kentucky. This is proved by his success both as a civil and criminal advocate. At the time of his death he was the employed counsel of the unfortunate Fields, who was accused of the mur- der of his wife. Nicholas died before his trial, and the unfortu- nate man was condemned to the gallows, although he was ably defended by the late Chief-Justice Marshall. Fields was a man possessed of many able qualities, and had many friends out of his own family; and his family in Kentucky and Virginia among the most numerous and respectable in America, many of whom loved him and stepped forward to rescue him from the fate that awaited him. He continued to declare himself innocent from the moment of his arrest to the moment of his death; and the last words he uttered under the gallows were that he was inno- cent, and knew not how his wife came by her death. Had Nicholas survived, no one acquainted with his powers and influ- ence as a counsellor doubts that the fate of the unhappy man would have been very different. Nicholas was not only a benevo- lent and kind-hearted man, but an encourager of every branch of labor; and to the poor he was courteous and kind. The whole State was shocked at his death, and the Legislature that suc- ceeded his death, in gratitude and remembrance of his great talents and services, named the county of Nicholas after him."
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I have only a few words to add to these reminiscences. It was to Nicholas Mr. Jefferson communicated the celebrated Kentucky resolutions, which received the sanction of that State, and played an important part at a memorable crisis.280 The course of Nicholas in the Virginia Assembly may be seen in the review of their sessions heretofore given.
His last days were serene and honorable. On his removal to Lexington he occupied a commodious house, which became the centre of refined and intellectual society. Here his relatives and friends from abroad received a courteous and cordial welcome, and formed a favorable opinion of the West; and many were induced to make that land of promise their permanent abode.
280 Jefferson's Works (Randolph's edition), Vol. IV, 344, and Randall's Life of Jefferson, Vol. II, 448.
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Few men excelled him in the graces and courtesies of social life. His varied experience in human affairs, his intimate familiarity with all the great men and great questions of his times, his sterling practical sense, and his easy flow of speech made him most instructive and most interesting in conversation. A long and honored life seemed to stretch away before him. Although, like most of his family, he lost his hair in early life, and appeared older than he was, his constitution was unbroken, and when he smiled his pure white teeth displayed the freshness of youth. He died after a short illness, and was buried in the family burial- ground, in the eastern part of the city of Lexington, about a quarter of a mile from the court-house. His grave has no stone, but is enclosed by a substantial wall; and within that enclosure, seven years later, was deposited the body of his wife. It is said that the mourning and wailing of his slaves (who were mostly native Africans), as his coffin was lowered in the grave, was a strange and startling sight. The wild gestures and frantic sounds with which they gave vent to their sense of bereavement on the death of their master, we are told, inspired a supernatural awe.
He left several sons, of whom Colonel Robert Carter and Major Cary Nicholas engaged in the war of 1812; Smith was bred a merchant in the house of Smith & Buchanan, in Balti- more, and died young on a trip to the East Indies; John Nelson studied law, and died at the age of thirty-three; George Wilson, a naval officer, died at sea; Samuel Smith studied law, and is the present Judge Nicholas of Louisville, Kentucky, and is the only son who ever married. Colonel Nicholas left also seven daugh- ters-Maria, Anne, George Anne, Margaretta, Elizabeth Ran- dolph, Hetty Morrison, and a seventh, whose name has not reached me. 281
Length of life is sometimes as important an element in consti- tuting the reputation of the statesman as in amassing the wealth of the capitalist. George Nicholas died at the age of forty-four.
181 The Saunders paper in the Nicholas manuscripts. I confess my obligations to Miss Ellen Wayles Randolph (now Mrs. William B. Harrison, of "Brandon,") for valuable materials relating to the life of George Nicholas, especially for the Wickliffe and Saunders manuscripts, and some printed documents.
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Had he attained the term reached by some of his associates at the bar and in the Assembly-by Marshall, by Monroe, and by Madison-how different might have been the story which the historian would be required to record! What he might not or might have been, it is impossible to divine. He might not have been other than he was-the master-spirit of the young Com- monwealth (which was mainly fashioned by his hands, and which holds his dust), moulding her young men to his own high stand- ‹ ard of abilities and character, and guiding her politics by his judicious and temperate counsels. He might have been placed on a loftier pedestal, and have transferred the sceptre of the presidency a quarter of a century earlier to the West. Had Marshall died in 1799, what a blank there would be in that career which now looms so grandly before us! He would have been remembered by a few old men as a clear-headed lawyer of slovenly appearance, or as an unlucky minister plenipotentiary. The fame of the great speech in the case of Jonathan Robbins would not have been his.282 Had Monroe died in the same year his name would be found on the list of the Governors of Vir- ginia, and of the Ministers to France and to England, and there only. Had Madison died at the same time, the report of ninety- nine would have been unwritten; his part in the General Federal Convention and in the present would be remembered by the studious, and his career in the House of Representatives for a few years would be known to some of the higher order of politi- cians, but all else of his long and honored life would be wiped away. And fully as fair as any of these stood George Nicholas when he descended to the tomb.
2d2 This speech was delivered in the House of Representatives on the 7th of March, 1800.
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WILSON CARY NICHOLAS.
If the sun of George Nicholas was eclipsed at meridian, the light of the genius of his brother, Wilson Cary Nicholas, if less dazzling, shone not less effectively for a score of years to come. The course of George, except in a military capacity, never extended beyond the limits of Virginia and Kentucky; but much of the career of his younger brother was spent abroad in one or other of the houses of Congress; and from the adoption of the Federal Constitution almost down to the close of his natural life he was the main-spring of the party organizations of the day. He exerted, directly or indirectly, no little influence on all the political questions that arose in the interval above defined, either in a minority, as was the case in the earlier part of his course, hanging heavily on the skirts of his foes, or when in a majority, as he was from the commencement of the century, arranging the tactics of the hour, composing the tender griefs of great men who sometimes thought themselves overlooked by their party, and bidding them soothingly to bide their time, assigning the tasks of duty to each individual with a strict regard to his tastes and to the breadth of his shoulders-believing, as he did, that the rule of Horace was quite as applicable to politics as to poetry; engaging in debate with his strongest opponents with sound arguments, with practical rather than with figurative or learned illustrations; and, above all, with that delicate tact which made him say neither more nor less than was needful at the time, and which prevented him from offending an adversary who might be likely to be won over at no distant period, any more than seemed indispensable to the conduct of his argument, to the gravity of his theme, or to the bounding pulses of his more fiery coadjutors. If his life could have been written in full, there would be seen the history of the most adroit political manage- ment of the last or the present century. His manners and deportment contributed to his success. In his apparel he was
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exceedingly plain; he was serious and even solemn in his aspect; his words were few, unless in the presence of intimate friends, but they were well studied, were never uttered to the wrong per- son, always sank deep in the minds of men, and were never forgotten. He read at a glance the thoughts of men; and when he saw a young recruit, and had looked into his performances, he at once allotted him a special place in the machinery of his party, and made him an active and willing adjutant. The talents of Nicholas were invaluable to his party at a time when coali- tions were the order of the day; when a numerous and able party, but recently triumphant, and though wincing under a terrible defeat, ready to coalesce with old friends and with their old enemies, were dogging the footsteps of his own, and when members of his own party even, which had become too strong and was beginning to fritter, were courting their Federal ene- mies and were looking to them for smiles and votes, Nicholas was equal to the emergency. He could not prevent a small squad of clever friends, who could not be satisfied with anything short of despotic rule and a full enjoyment of choice offices, from starting a little opposition of their own, nor could he control their forked tongues; but he utterly deprived them of all influ- ence in affairs, forced them to doff their uniform and to drop the glorious war-cry of past victories, and drove them in the face of the country to take shelter in the camp of the enemy. His man- agement was altogether successful. If he could not extract the fangs of the asp, he neutralized its poison. Its very victims. instead of dying, flourished fairer than ever, grew fat, laughed at the sinuous motions of their recreant enemy, and at last put their heels upon its head. The leading measures advocated by Nicholas were founded on the best interests of his country; and it was the fault of his enemies that his singular skill in the tactics of party were called into exercise. And wherever these quali- ties of his were required there they were instantly brought into play. Yesterday he was in the Senate of the United States; to-day he is in the House of Delegates; to-morrow would find him in the House of Representatives, and the day after he would be the Governor of Virginia. If lesser spheres were to be looked into, he became the president of the branch bank of the United States at Richmond, or the collector of the port of Nor- folk; loving no office for its own sake, holding none but for a
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short time,283 and always eager to return to "Warren," his seat on the banks of the James, and surpass his practical neigh- bors in making corn, wheat, and tobacco.
He carried the State with him and the people in all his move- ments. He seemed to combine in a wonderful degree the good qualities of Sir Robert Walpole and of Talleyrand without their bad. Like the former, his policy was as pacific as it was practi- cable; and in a time of extraordinary embarrassment in our foreign affairs, which appeared to render warlike demonstrations essential to the interests and honor of the country, he cooled down the bellicose and the demonstrative of his own party, out- witted the machinations of his wily opponents, and secured the adoption of measures which, while they postponed actual war, tended seriously to incommode and annoy our foreign enemies. Like Talleyrand, he was versatile or inscrutable, as the occasion required-a weigher of mystic words and of looks more weighty than words, or indulging in a honeyed flow of transparent talk; retentive of his own secrets, but disclosing enough to secure the secrets of others; in debate on topics of great concern frequently silent, or speaking but little, but turning with fatal facility the fairest flowers of speech, yet fragrant with the dew of hostile lips, into dust and ashes; and in the various complications of parties and of circumstances, purposely designed to put him off his guard and to confound him, so much a master of himself, so entirely poised, as not only to circumvent the schemes that were laid to betray him, but to lead his opponents into the belief that he thought them much better and wiser than they felt them- selves to be; and, unlike Talleyrand, he never used other weapons than those with which truth, reason, and honor sup- plied him. He would have been a prince among diplomatists; and every foreign mission was open to him, but his family engagements and his tastes bound him to his home.
In the business of ordinary life he was very generally regarded as an infallible, almost an inspired, oracle. The confidence of the people was as unlimited in his integrity as in his wisdom; his friends shared liberally in his ventures; and although he was,
283 The political enemies of Nicholas used to say that he held the different offices to keep unpopular candidates out of them and until the right man of the party should turn up.
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from peculiar circumstances which were beyond the control of individual action, but rather the results of political arrangements, unforeseen or improbable at the time, to the last degree unfortu- nate, and more unfortunate still in involving his friends in mis- fortune, he retained their sympathy and confidence to the end. And when the cloud burst, had he thrown off the trammels of politics and position and directly engaged in commercial affairs, he might have retrieved a false step, reimbursed his own losses and those of his friends, and established his character by the not unfrequently false but ever-flattering test of success, instead of affording, by his conduct, an ever-memorable example of the extreme danger which the most prudent and the wisest men incur when they turn their backs upon their regular business, and, forsaking the farm and the rostrum, embark in schemes which, if successful, may add to their thousands, but which will, if unfortunate (as such schemes, from the nature of the case, are almost always apt to be), overwhelm them and their friends in one universal ruin.
But it is time that we begin to trace more minutely the events in the life of Wilson Cary Nicholas. He was the son of Robert Carter Nicholas and Anne Cary, of both of whom some mention has already been made.264 The characteristics of his revered father were integrity, wisdom, piety, and unalloyed devotion to his country-qualities which environ this name to this hour with a bright and unfading halo. The mother of Nicholas was a sister of Archibald Cary, that fierce and daring man, who bore the sobriquet of "Old iron "; who reported to the Convention of 1776 the resolution instructing the delegates of Virginia in Con- gress to propose independence; who brought forth in the Con- vention the Declaration of Rights and the first Constitution of an independent Commonwealth; who threatened to plant his dagger in the bosom of any man who should assume the office of dictator ere the setting of the first day's sun; who, at the time of his death in 1786, when he was the Speaker of the Senate of Virginia, was heir-apparent 285 of the English barony of Huns-
284 In the sketch of George Nicholas, ante.
285 Discourse on the Virginia Convention of 1776, page 91, where the fact is stated, as well as other things concerning Colonel Cary. The late Richard Randolph, Esq., is my authority about the position of Cary in respect of the barony in question.
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don-a man and a statesman whom neither interest, fear, nor favor could swerve from the cause of his country.
Wilson Cary Nicholas was born in the city of Williamsburg on the 31st day of January, 1761, when Governor Fauquier had fairly inaugurated his popular reign. He saw, in his eighth year, the august obsequies which were performed at his grave; had attended with his father-the Treasurer-the meetings of the Council when the mild and enlightened John Blair, the elder, sat as its president; had seen the splendid equipage in which Bote- tourt drove up the York road when he made his first entrance into the city; had visited with his father that amiable nobleman, and been driven in his coach drawn by his spanking grays, and had been present when the body of that lamented man, in the presence of a weeping audience, was lowered into the sepulchre of the Randolphs, to await its transportation to England; had seen William Nelson take the seat of the departed peer in the Council; had gone with his father to pay his respects to the Earl of Dunmore and his interesting family on their arrival from the old country, and had heard the uproar when it was known one bright April morning that the Earl had purloined the power of the Colony and conveyed it on board a man-of-war. Before fourteen he had wrestled with the sons of Dunmore on the palace green, had hunted hares and gathered chinquapins with them, and at the dancing school had tripped a hornpipe or cut a pigeon-wing in the presence of his popular and pretty daughters. 266
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