USA > Virginia > Virginia and Virginians; eminent Virginians, executives of the colony of Virginia, Vol. I > Part 12
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In 1815, Mr. Barbour was elected by the Virginia Assembly to the United States Senate, and served continuously for ten years. until 1825. In this body he took an important part in the discussion on the Missouri question, and his speeches on the abolition of imprison- ment for debt elicited great applause and commendation throughout the Union. He was chairman of the committee on foreign affairs, the District of Columbia and other important committees, and frequently President pro tem. of the Senate. In 1825, upon the invitation of Presi- dent John Quincy Adams, he became a member of his cabinet, as Secretary of War, and served in that capacity until May 26, 1828, when he was appointed Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to Great Britain. His brief sojourn in England was a season of un- alloyed pleasure to him. The bitterness of the (then) recent conflict between the two countries had measurably passed away, and Great Britain was beginning to cherish a sentiment of pride in the lusty Re- public, which she had long regarded as a rebellious child of her own. James Barbour was everywhere received with the utmost cordiality. A commanding physique and noble mien (in which he was, in the estima- tion of many, the peer of the majestic statesman, Daniel Webster), added to wondrous colloquial powers, in which pathos, humor and elo- quence were charmingly blended with a sunny geniality of manner, united in a personal magnetism which claimed the regard of all in every circle which he entered. His ready wit and patriotic impulse were happily exhibited in his reply to the good old Bishop of Bath and
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Wells. They were chance companions at a large dinner party, and after some brilliant manifestation of the rare colloquial powers of Mr. Barbour, the good old Bishop naively inquired, " How long, sir, have you been in this country ?" "About two months," was the reply. "You astonish me," said the Bishop, " for you speak the English language re- markably well, considering your brief sojourn here." "Why, sir," said Mr. Barbour, "I represent a country where we flatter ourselves that we have preserved the English language in greater purity than you have in England." A visit to Mr. Coke of Holkham (subsequently created Earl of Leicester), is referred to in a brief diary kept by Mr. Barbour, as one of rare enjoyment to him. Holkham was a striking manifestation of what agriculture, under the combined influence of skill, capital and perseverance, can accomplish, for these. had rendered fertile and bounteously productive, thousands of acres of the sandy lands of Norfolk County, which the merry monarch, Charles the Second, had sarcastically said, was only fit to be cut up into roads for the re- mainder of his kingdom. Mr. Coke recited to Mr. Barbour many in- teresting anecdotes relating to the revolt of the American Colonies, at which period he was a Member of Parliament, and was wont, he said, in the greatest throes of the struggle, with Edmund Burke and others, in the luncheon room (with hand over the mouth) to drink " Success to America !" Another reminiscence, recorded by Mr. Barbour, is so re- markable that it is deemed worthy of preservation here. He narrates with manifest satisfaction, that Mr. Coke had the rare privilege and exquisite delight of seeing a vessel launched at Woolwich, which was composed in large part from the timber of trees which he had himself planted when a youth.
Mr. Barbour was recalled by President Jackson, in September, 1829. He now retired to the enjoyments of private life, from which he only again emerged in obedience to the impulses of duty and the claims of friendship. In the Convention for the nomination of President, held at Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, in December, 1839, Mr. Barbour presided. He was brilliantly conspicuous in his advocacy of the claims of General William Henry Harrison, and prominent and effective in the campaign which resulted in his election as President. Soon after this the dis- ease which was ultimately fatal manifested itself. He died at his seat, Barboursville, June 7, 1842, within three days of the anniversary of his birth. Within half an hour of his decease he said to his son, present at his bed-side, " If any thing is put over me, let it be of the plainest granite, with no other claim than this:
"HERE LIES JAMES BARBOUR, ORIGINATOR OF THE LITERARY FUND OF VIRGINIA."
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The following reminiscence, with which the present writer has been kindly furnished by the venerable statesman, the Hon. Alexander H. H. Stuart, Staunton, Virginia, evidences the just esteem in which Mr. Barbour was held by those who were favored in the opportunity to know his worth. Mr. Stuart writes: "In the greater part of my service in Congress, from 1841 to 1843, I was a member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, of which John Quincy Adams was chairman. During the warm season of the year, Mr. Adams was in the habit of going, immediately after breakfast, to the committee room, which was a spacious and airy apartment in the upper story of the southern wing of the Capi- tol, where he occupied himself in writing until the committee assembled. As my family were with me, I also found it convenient to go at an early hour to the committee room, to examine my morning mail and to reply to such letters as required prompt attention. In this way it hap- pened that Mr. Adams and I met in the committee room almost every day, an hour or two before the time appointed for the meeting of the committee. And, as it not unfrequently occurred that the other mem- bers of the committee failed to attend, Mr. Adams and I were the only occupants of the room from eight to twelve o'clock. This close associa- tion often led to very interesting conversation between us in regard to the early political history of our country, and the statesmen who bore a prominent part in it. In these interviews I always found Mr. Adams exceedingly affable, and I need hardly add, interesting and instructive. On one occasion, on entering the room, with my newspapers and letters in my hand, I found Mr. Adams sitting at the table engaged in writing. Not wishing to interrupt him, after exchanging salutations with him, I withdrew to a window to look over my morning mail. I was shocked to see, in the Richmond papers, the announcement of the death of my venerable and honored friend Governor James Barbour. With some strong ejaculation expressive of surprise and grief, I announced the fact to Mr. Adams, who seemed as painfully impressed by the news as I had been. Without uttering a word, he pushed back the papers which were before him, and folding his arms on the table, rested his head on them for some time, as if lost in thought. Then slowly raising his head, he turned his face toward me, and in a voice tremulous with emotion, said: 'Mr. Stuart, I have been connected with this govern- ment, in one way or another, almost from its foundation to the present hour. I have known personally nearly all the great men who have been connected with its administration, and I can safely say that I have rarely known a wiser, and never a better man than James Barbour.' Such a noble tribute, coming fresh and spontaneously from the heart of its illustrious author, made an impression on my mind which can never be erased, especially as my own relations to Governor Barbour
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enabled me to recognize and appreciate its justice. On other occasions I have heard Mr. Adams speak in the most cordial terms of Mr. Bar- bour, and refer to incidents which occurred while he was Secretary of War in Mr. Adams' administration, which illustrated his integrity and manly independence of character." In an " Eulogium upon the Life and Character of James Madison," by Mr. Barbour, 8vo, Washington, 1836, the paternal affection in which the illustrious subject ever held the reverential eulogist is touchingly manifested. A like dutiful tribute was rendered to the exalted worth of Mr. Barbour by his warm personal friend, Hon. Jeremiah Morton, but the writer has been unable to obtain a copy of it.
Mr. Barbour married, October 29, 1792, Lucy, daughter of Benjamin Johnson, of Orange County, a member of the House of Burgesses. The surviving issue of this congenial marriage are: Hon. Benjamin Johnson Barbour, of Barboursville, Virginia, born June 14, 1821, and married, November 17, 1844, Caroline Homoesel, daughter of Dr. George Watson, a distinguished physician of Richmond, Virginia. Mr. Barbour inherits the rare gifts of his eminent father in a marked degree, and is a gentleman of profound culture. His addresses, historical, lite- rary, political, and agricultural, on various occasions, are alike chaste and felicitous. In 1865 he was elected to the United States Congress, but the representatives of unreconstructed Virginia were not allowed in that year to take their seats.
Lucy, daughter of Governor Barbour, married, in 1822, John Sey- mour Taliaferro, who was, unhappily, drowned in 1830. Another daugh- ter, Frances Cornelia Barbour, is the wife of William Hardy Collins, a distinguished lawyer of Baltimore, Maryland.
A portrait of Governor Barbour is in the attractive gallery of the governors and distinguished men of Virginia in the State Library at Richmond. Barbour County, now in West Virginia, formed in 1843 from the counties of Harrison, Lewis, and Randolph, perpetuates the name of the distinguished Barbour family.
WILSON CARY NICHOLAS.
The ancestry of Wilson Cary Nicholas embraces several of the most worthily represented families in the Old Dominion. The founder of the distinguished Nicholas family of Virginia was Dr. George Nicholas,*
* The arms of the family, as given the writer, appear to be those of the families of London, Ashton-Keynes, and Ryndway, County Witts, England, as follows: Az. a chev. engr. betw. three owls or. Crest-On a chapeau az. (another gu.), turned up erm. an owl with wings expanded or.
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of County Lancaster, England, a surgeon in the British Navy, who settled in the Colony about the beginning of the eighteenth century, and married, about 1722, Elizabeth, widow of Major Nathaniel Burwell, and daughter of Robert "King" Carter. Their issue was : Robert Carter, born about 1723; John, married Martha, daughter of Colonel Joshua Fry; and George Nicholas. Robert Carter Nicholas, statesman, jurist, and patriot, familiarly known as Treasurer Nicholas in colonial annals, from having long and honorably filled that important office, married, in 1754, Anne, daughter of Colonel Wilson and Sarah (Blair -grandniece of the Commissary) Cary (second in descent from Colonel Myles Cary, the emigrant ancestor of the family in Virginia, who was born in Bristol, England, in 1620; died in Virginia, June 10, 1667, and was fourth in descent from William Cary, Mayor of Bristol in 1546, and who lineally descended from Adam de Kari, Lord of Castle Cary, in Somerset, in 1198).f Robert Carter and Anne (Cary) Nicholas had issue five sons and three daughters: John, married Anne Lawson; member of Congress 1793-1801, removed to Geneva, New York, where he has numerous descendants; George, married the daughter of the Hon. John Smith, of Baltimore, Maryland, and was the father of Judge Samuel Smith Nicholas, who published a masterly plea for the Habeas Corpus when it was suspended by President Lincoln, during our late war; Wilson Cary; Lewis; and Philip Norborne Nicholas, many years Attorney-General of Virginia, President of the Farmers' Bank of Richmond, Member of the Virginia Convention of 1829-30, and a Judge of the General Court of Virginia. He was associated with William Wirt and George Hay in an able defence of James Thompson Callender, who was tried in Richmond in May, 1800, before Judge Samuel Chase, of the United States Supreme Court, for publishing a pamphlet entitled "The Prospect before Us," in which the character of President John Adams was infamously libelled. The prosecuting at- torney was Thomas Nelson, son of General Thomas Nelson, Jr., of the Revolution. The zeal of Judge Chase in directing the prosecution sub- jected him to the charge of having transcended his powers, and occa- sioned his famous trial for impeachment before the United States Senate. Judge Philip Norborne Nicholas was twiee married; first, to Mary Spear, of Baltimore, Maryland (and had issue three sons, of whom only one- John Spear Nicholas, of Baltimore, survives) ; and, secondly, to Maria Carter, daughter of Thomas Taylor and Mary Anne (daughter of William Armistead) Byrd, of Clarke County, Virginia, and grand- daughter of the third Colonel William Byrd, of Westover, James River. The issue of the second marriage of Judge Nicholas was Philip Cary (a well known member of the bar of Richmond, and long the efficient
t The descendants of Colonel Myles Cary, in the first five generations, intermar- ried with the Milner, Wills, Wilson, Scarborough, Barbour, Blair, Selden, Whit- ing, Scarbrook, Jacqueline, Randolph, Bell, Spiers, Fairfax, Nicholas, Taylor, Page, Bolling, Kingeade, Carr, Nelson, Peachy, Curle, Snowden, Herbert, and other families of worth.
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librarian of the State Law Library of Virginia), Sydney Smith, and Miss Elizabeth Byrd Nicholas, an accomplished lady, foremost in the art and literary circles of Richmond, and who was a leading originator in the Colonial Court Ball, mentioned in the preceding sketch of Lord Botetourt as having been held in Richmond, February 22, 1876, the pecuniary proceeds of which were patriotically devoted to the furnishing of the Virginia Room in the Mount Vernon mansion. Of the three daughters of Robert Carter and Anne (Cary) Nicholas, Sarah, married John Hatley Norton; Elizabeth, married Governor Edmund Randolph; and Mary, died unmarried. Wilson Cary Nicholas, the subject of this sketch, the third son of Robert Carter and Anne (Cary) Nicholas, was born January 31, 1761, in the city of Williamsburg, Virginia, which continued to be the residence of his father until the opening of the Revolutionary War in 1775, when he removed his family to a country seat, called "The Retreat," in Hanover County, and at which he died in 1780. The year following, Cornwallis, in the route of his invasion of Virginia, stopped at "The Retreat." Mrs. Nicholas, being apprised of the approach of the British troops, had taken the precaution to conceal her plate and jewels in the chimney. One of her children betraying the place of deposit, Lord Cornwallis begged, with a bland smile, that she would give herself no uneasiness as to their fate, and indeed de- meaned himself with courtly consideration throughout his brief visit. The visible apprehension of Mrs. Nicholas had a more serious cause of excitement. Her maternal instincts were keenly upon the rack for the fate of her eldest born, John, whose flight under hot chase by the British dragoons, she witnessed through the open door with eager eyes and tumultuous heart. Happily the superior fleetness of his horse en- abled him to escape his pursuers. After this intrusion, Mrs. Nicholas, in her unprotected situation, deemed it prudent to remove her residence to Albemarle County, where her husband had purchased an extensive estate on James River. Wilson Cary Nicholas was a student at William and Mary College, which he left in 1779, at the age of eighteen, to enter the army. His gallantry met with deserved promo- tion, and he was the commander of Washington's Life Guard until its disbandment in 1783, when he returned to Albemarle County and took possession of his estate there, called "Warren." In the same year also he married Margaret, daughter of John Smith, of Baltimore, and the sister of the wife of his brother George. It was a happy union, and Mr. Nicholas was fortunate in the possession of a companion and help- mate who united the gentle graces of womanhood with rare judgment and fine intellectual powers. Sent from Baltimore in early girlhood to avoid the dangers to which a seaport was necessarily subjected in time of war, she was yet cognizant of many of the stirring events of the Revolution. In her place of refuge in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, she was apprised of
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the dangers daily incurred by her father as the active chairman of the Committee of Ways and Means of the State of Maryland. She saw her three brothers arm in defence of their beloved country, one of them to return home to die from the effects of a severe winter campaign, and another as the laurelled defender of Fort Mifflin-and whose subsequent long, useful, and honored career is instantaneously identified in the his- toric name of General Samuel Smith, defender of Baltimore in 1812, and statesman. At Carlisle, too, in her father's family, was the accom- plished and hapless Major Andre domesticated, whilst a prisoner on parole, and who engaged her childish affections by his many genial graces, yet she was the patriot even to recognize the necessity of his stern fate. In her, it is said, "love of country was no mere sentiment. It was a principle inculcated in early childhood, and fixed by the study and reflection of riper years. When at the age of eighty she was erro- neously informed that her son, Colonel Robert Carter Nicholas, of Louisiana, had changed his polities, she rose from her chair, and raising her hand, with her eyes brilliant as in youth, and her voice tremulous with emotion, said, 'Tell my son, as he values the blessing of his old mother, never to forsake the faith of his Fathers!"" With such a mother, such a wife, it is not to be wondered that the distinguishing trait in the character of Mr. Nicholas was an intense devotion to his country. His public services commenced in 1784, as the representative of Albemarle County in the House of Delegates of Virginia. In first offering for their suffrages he made the acquaintance of every freeholder in the county. This was done by domiciliary visits which were never repeated, and he rarely attended the county courts, the ordinary propitiatory hustings of the aspiring politician. During the legislative sessions of 1784 and 1785 Mr. Nicholas, though so youthful and inexperienced, was zealous and prominent in the advocacy of the bill securing religious freedom, and in the suppression of parish vestries, and for the remandment of the property of the Episcopal Church in glebes, to support of the poor in the several counties. Drawn by domestic ties, Mr. Nicholas, at the close of the session of 1785, returned to private life, from which he was recalled by the strenuous opposition made to the adoption by Virginia of the Federal Constitution. After a warm contest, he and his brother George were returned to represent the county of Albemarle in the Convention of 1788. Mr. Nicholas was conspicuous in his advocacy of the adoption of the Constitution. He served in the House of Dele- gates in 1789 and 1790, and again from 1794 to the autumn of 1799, when he was elected by the Assembly to the United States Senate, in which body he at once became a leader of the Republican party. In 1801, upon the accession of Mr. Jefferson as President, Mr. Nicholas, who was his warm personal and confidential friend, zealously and ably supported his administration. The questions brought before the Senate at this period were highly important. The new organization of the
LADY SPOTSWOOD, Wife of Governor Spotswood. From the original in oil in the State Library of Virginia.
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courts and of the financial system, the repeal of the bankrupt law, the amendment of the Constitution as to the election of President and Vice- President, the attempt to make war on Spain, together with many other questions, all highly exciting, were not to be decided in a body where parties were so nearly equally divided, without engendering intemperate discussion and bitterness of feeling. Mr. Nicholas, however, passed through the ordcal of this political cauldron most creditably, in the full confidence of those with whom he acted, and winning the esteem and respect of his opponents. All the measures projected by the Republican party having been accomplished, and the dispute about the right of the deposits at New Orleans adjusted without a war with Spain, by the ac- quisition of Louisiana, Mr. Nicholas deemed that he might, without any dereliction of duty, resign his seat in the Senate, which he did in 1804. It was a step which the state of his private affairs imperatively de- manded, as he had become seriously embarrassed. To the reparation of his fortunes he now devoted himself with great assiduity, his success in agriculture bearing witness to the skill and energy with which his operations were conducted. In 1806 he declined a special mission to France, to ratify, under the auspices of Napoleon, the treaty with Spain. But, in 1807, the necessity of a champion " whose talents and standing taken together would have weight enough to give him the lead" in the National Council, brought on him such urgent appeals to his political convictions and patriotism, that he was forced to yield. He became a candidate for Congress and was elected without opposition. "The period was momentous and highly critical. The aggressions of England in the attack on the 'Chesapeake,' and the extension of the orders of the King in council, and afterwards the application by France of the Berlin and Milan decrees to our commerce, imposed upon us the necessity of resistance. But pursuant to the pacific policy which had governed our councils during a period of most unparalleled aggression on the part of Great Britain, a period extending as far back as 1793, our govern- ment proposed an embargo. The government was at that time in a wholly defenceless state. We had but the skeleton of an army, few or no ships in commission, no military stores, with an immense value of property afloat, and our whole seaboard from north to south open to attack." Under these circumstances, Mr. Nicholas united cordially in the support of the embargo, being willing to try its efficacy for awhile as a coercive measure, but relying on it more as giving us time to prepare for other measures. In 1807 he assured his constituents that in the event of the failure of the embargo to produce some speedy change in the policy of France and Great Britain, the only alternative offered was a base and abject submission or a determined resistance. In his printed circular to them, as well as from his seat in Congress, he urged the ne- cessity of raising men and money, and the immediate provision of every requisite of war. In the autumn of 1808 he wrote to Mr. Jefferson,
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urging him, unless there was a certainty of a favorable change in the affairs of the nation, before the meeting of Congress, to announce to the body in his message, that the great object in laying the embargo had been effected. That nothing more was to be expected from it, and that it should be raised, and other measures which the vindication of the national honor demanded, resorted to; that our people would not much longer submit to the burdensome restrictions of the embargo, and that we could not and ought not to think of abandoning the resistance which we so solemnly pledged to make. In 1809 Mr. Nicholas was re- elected to Congress, and served in the spring session, during which the agreement of our government with Mr. Erskine produced for a time a delusive calm. In the autumn of the same year, on his way to Wash- ington, he experienced so violent an attack of rheumatism, that he was compelled to resign his seat, and was closely confined to his room for a period of four months. He was now so thoroughly convinced of the impracticability of enforcing any commercial restrictions; of their de- moralizing influence on the people, and exhausting effect on the finances of the country, that he frequently avowed his intention never again to vote for any similar measure, except as preparatory to war, and for the briefest duration. In the month of December, 1814, the gloomiest period of the war, and when Virginia especially, but the remaining States as well, were chiefly left to their own resources, Mr. Nicholas was elected Governor of the State, an unthankful office, which yet his patriotism would not allow him to decline. The happy announcement of peace in the spring of the following year, gave but little opportunity for the exhibition of administrative capacity, which emergency, with his attested characteristics, would have enlisted. The defence of the State depending chiefly upon the militia, who could not be kept constantly in the field, an appropriation was made by the Assembly to enable him to erect telegraphic stations, and to raise a corps of videttes to be so dis- tributed at his discretion, as to transmit his orders throughout the State with the utmost dispatch possible. But peace rendered needless the carrying into execution this well digested provision.
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