USA > Virginia > Westmoreland County > Westmoreland County > Westmoreland County, Virginia : parts I and II : a short chapter and bright day in its history > Part 2
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Montross Celebrates Drafting of Resolutions by Richard Henry Lee-Lieutenant-Governor Presides.
MONTROSS, VA., May 9, 1911.
With imposing ceremonies and in the presence of a distinguished assemblage, two large and costly tablets commemorating important events in the early history of Westmoreland county were unveiled in the courthouse here this afternoon. These tablets were secured through the aid of Judge T. R. B. Wright, who for several years has urged the practice of adorning the walls of the court rooms in his circuits with the portraits of prominent men of each county and with tablets commemorating notable historic events.
J. Taylor Ellyson, Lieutenant-Governor of Virginia, accom- panied by Mrs. Ellyson, the president of the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities, presided at the exercises. Judge T. R. B. Wright presented the tablets.
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; Historical addresses were delivered by Frank P. Brent and Wal- ter E. Hathaway, of Lancaster, and by Dr. George W. Beale, of Westmoreland. The tablets were received in an address by Conway Baker, Commonwealth's Attorney of Westmoreland.
WRITTEN BY RICHARD HENRY LEE.
The first tablet commemorates the formation of the Westmore- land Association of Patriots at Leedstown, on February 27, 1766, and the resolutions adopted by them at that time. These resolu- tions denounce the Stamp Act as a violation of the natural and chartered rights of British America, pledge the membership of the Association to resist its execution and bind them to defend each other with their lives and fortunes.
These famous resolutions, written by Richard Henry Lee, were found in 1847 among the papers of Mr. Henry Lee, at one time Consul-General to Algiers, by Dr. John Samuel Carr, of South Carolina, then residing in Maryland, by whom they were delivered to John Y. Mason, Secretary of the Navy in the Cabinet of Presi- dent Polk, who transmitted them to William Cabell Rives, presi- dent of the Virginia Historical Society, in whose archives they are still preserved.
They are believed to be the first resolutions adopted by any local association in the American colonies against the Stamp Act. The tablet is a present to the county of Westmoreland from Mrs. Emily Steelman Fisher, a native of New Jersey, but now residing at Reedville. Mrs. Fisher is a member of the General Lafayette Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution, at Atlantic City.
FIERY RESOLUTIONS PASSED.
The other tablet commemorates the acts and resolves of the Westmoreland patriots at their meetings held at the Courthouse on June 22, 1774, and January 31, 1775, and the resolutions of the Westmoreland Committee of Safety, on May 23, 1775. These reso- lutions assert the right of inhabitants of the American colonies to be taxed solely by their Colonial assemblies, composed of members of their own choosing; reprobate the act of Parliament closing Bos- ton harbor; pledge the citizens of the county not to use any article imported into the colony from England and to export no pro- ducts from the colony to England; denounce the action of Lord Dunmore, the Colonial Governor, in seizing the powder in the magazine at Williamsburg; and in appointing Richard Henry Lee
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and Richard Lee deputies to the convention soon thereafter to as- semble in Richmond instruct them to inform the convention that the patriots of Westmoreland are firm in their determination to stand or fall with the liberties of their country.
The tablet commemorating these events in the history of West- moreland is a present from Dr. Algernon S. Garnett, a native of this county, but now a prominent physician in Arkansas. Dr. Gar- nett was a surgeon in the Confederate Navy, and his brother, Gen- eral Thomas Stuart Garnett, was killed at the battle of Chancel- lorsville.
The walls of the court room here are covered with the portraits of the great men that Westmoreland has produced. In less than one hundred years this county produced George Washington, Rich- ard Henry Lee, Thomas Ludwell Lee, Francis Lightfoot Lee, Rich- ard Lee, Arthur Lee, James Monroe, and Robert E. Lee, while James Madison was born just across the border, at Port Conway, in King George county, which was carved from Westmoreland .- Correspondent Baltimore Sun.
TABLETS TO THE PATRIOTS OF HISTORIC WESTMORELAND.
"Westmoreland county contains more historic ground than many an entire State," an old resident of Baltimore who was familiar with his native Virginia often remarked. The tablets just placed in the Westmoreland Courthouse, which were unveiled with due ceremony on Tuesday, direct attention anew to the county that was the birthplace of Washington and the home of the Lees.
As early as 1766 an association of patriots was formed at Leedstown to resist the imposition of the Stamp Tax; and resolu- tions, written by Richard Henry Lee, were adopted, denouncing the Stamp Act of the British Parliament, pledging the members to resist its enforcement, and binding them to defend each other with their lives and fortunes. This was the same spirit that burst into full flower in later years in the Declaration of Independence penned by the great Virginian. These resolutions are in the posses- sion of the Society of Virginia Antiquities, and comprise one of the most precious documents of our early history.
The Westmoreland patriots never relaxed their activity until the Revolution was ended and the colonies firmly established as an independent nation. At meetings in the Courthouse on June 22, 1774, on January 31, 1775, and on May 23rd of the same year the rights of the colonists were asserted in terms little less vigorous than in the Declaration of Independence itself.
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One of the tablets commemorates the events of 1766, and the other the action of the colonists just preceding the Revolution. They stand as a memorial to men who were not only leaders in the patriotic cause in Virginia, but bore a great part in winning the independence of all the colonists. If they had been blessed with chroniclers as industrious as the Massachusetts historians, the West- moreland resolutions would be as familiar to every school child as the Boston Tea Party. Virginia has been tardy in giving recogni- tion to many of its heroes, but perhaps one reason is that the State, like Maryland, is so full of historic spots, so much richer in his- tory than in historians and sculptors, that it has required more than one hundred and twenty-five years to mark them all. The "Mother of Presidents" has produced so many illustrious men that they overcrowd her hall of fame .- Editorial Baltimore Sun.
ADDRESS OF LAWRENCE WASHINGTON, EsQ., THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS,
In Presenting on May 3, 1910, at Montross, Va., the Portrait of Judge Bushrod Washington, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States.
In appearing before you on behalf of the family of the late Colonel John Augustine Washington, of the Confederate States Army, to beg the acceptance by Westmoreland county of this por- trait of Judge Bushrod Washington, the task of preparing a brief sketch of his life to be used on this occasion has been assigned me, and I have consented to it, from a sense of filial duty and not from any conceit of my special fitness to perform it.
The difficulty that confronts a layman in an attempt to portray the life of one whose reputation rests on professional achievement is so generally understood that I undertake it with much diffi- dence, trusting to your very indulgent judgment of my effort, and promise to confine myself to a plain statement of unornamented fact, much of which I have taken from the writings of Judge Bin- ney, Judge Hopkinson and Judge Story, who knew Judge Wash- ington intimately, having been closely associated with him during the thirty-one years he sat on the bench, and esteemed his character fit subject for their literary efforts.
Born at Bushfield, near the mouth of Nomini, in this county, on the 5th of June, 1762, Bushrod Washington was the oldest son
COL. JOHN AUGUSTINE WASHINGTON
HANNAH BUSHROD, Wife of Col. John Augustine Washington, of Bushfield.
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of that Colonel John Augustine Washington whose wife was the daughter of Colonel John Bushrod. His ancestors on both sides of the house had taken part in the councils of the Colony and of the Church in the Colony from the beginning of their history, and though perhaps not wealthy, he enjoyed from infancy every advan- tage that social and political prestige could give; and, what stood l.im in better stead than either or both, the careful training of pious, intellectual parents. His early tutelage was firm, if not severe. The dominant purpose of parental authority in that day was the inculcation of a spirit of reverence. His duty to God, his duty to his neighbor, and veneration for his parents held higher place in the curriculum of the school in which he was reared than the softer policy of obedience from love, and whatever modern critics may say of it, its vindication seems secure in the characters it produced. In the only letter written by Bushrod Washington to his parents that I have seen, he addresses them as "Honored Sir and Madam", signs himself, "Your most dutiful, obedient ser- vant", and the whole tone of this letter, written when he was about sixteen, is deferential in the extreme.
The schoolmaster, too, was a serious proposition. Solomon's admonition as to the use of the rod was as strictly followed in the private schools, conducted in the homes in the neighborhood, as it was at a later period in the public academies, and it was under those conditions that young Washington was prepared for a course in William and Mary College, where he finished his classical education. General Washington's influence secured him a position in the law office of Mr. James Wilson, one of Philadelphia's most distinguished lawyers, where he was carefully and thoroughly pre- pared for his chosen profression, and it may not be uninteresting to note that it was this Mr. Wilson who was later appointed an associate justice, and whom Judge Washington succeeded on the bench.
On the completion of his law course, Bushrod Washington prac- ticed several years in Westmoreland, which he represented in the General Assembly and in the Convention that ratified the Federal Constitution, though in neither body did he take a very prominent part in debate. Neither does his law practice seem to have been altogether satisfactory, as we find a letter from him to the Presi- dent intimating a desire to be appointed attorney in the Federal Court; but the reply he received was sufficient to convince him that nepotism was not one of his uncle's redeeming vices, and he shortly afterwards removed to Alexandria, where he was no more encouraged than he had been in his native county.
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Whether this apparent lack of success was only such as most young lawyers experience, or was due to the great draught on his time, occasioned by a close attention to the private affairs of Gen- eral Washington, whose public duties obliged him to rely on him more and more as the cares of State increased, does not appear, but his stay in Alexandria was short, and he moved on to Rich- mond, where he quickly came into lucrative and successful prac- tice, was soon recognized as one of the ablest lawyers in the State, and was engaged in the most important cases argued before the Appellate Court. He had been married, before leaving Westmore- land, to Miss Anne Blackburn, a daughter of Colonel Thomas Blackburn, of Prince William county, who had served on the staff of General Washington in the Revolution. The health of this lad was never robust, and was greatly impaired shortly after her mar- riage by a shock occasioned by the sudden death of her sister under peculiarly distressing circumstances, a shock from which she never entirely recovered, and which rendered her so dependent on her husband that he took little part in the social functions for which Richmond was as celebrated then, as now. His whole time was devoted to his practice, to the work of writing and publishing the decisions of the Court of Appeals of Virginia and to a tender and affectionate attention to his wife, which he never relaxed until death claimed him, and which caused him to be cited by his family, even in my recollection, as a model of what a husband ought to be.
Though an ardent Federalist, he had taken little part in poli- tics, and it was with much reluctance that he consented to be- come a candidate for Congress. Politics in Virginia were running high, the Federal party was on its downward road to defeat, and sacrifices had to be made. He entered the canvass with all his energy and had a fair prospect of election, when he received his appointment to the Supreme Bench, which of course withdrew him from the field. At the time of his elevation to the bench, Wash- ington was only thirty-seven, and it is not unnatural that his selec- tion at so early an age for so high an office, should be attributed, at least in part, to his relationship to his great kinsman, and I have searched most diligently for some word or expression from General Washington that might be construed as indicative of a desire for his nephew's advancement. General Washington's let- ters have been so carefully preserved and so generally published, it seems impossible that such wish, if ever written, should remain concealed. Not only so, but the writings of every man who was in a position to be of service in procuring his appointment have been very carefully collected and published; but in none of them is found even a remote reference to such influence.
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President Adams, who made the appointment, seems to have considered the question purely with reference to the public interest. Many eminent and distinguished men were urged for the position, and the claims and merit of each were carefully considered and frankly discussed, but Mr. Adams' mind soon became fixed on two men, John Marshall and Bushrod Washington; and however men may have viewed it then, certainly few men will now consider it disparagement to be rated second to John Marshall. In writing to Mr. Pickering, Secretary of State, Mr. Adams says: "General Marshall or Bushrod Washington will succeed Judge Wilson. Marshall is first in age, rank and public service, probably not second in talents. The character, the merit and abilities of Mr. Washington are greatly respected, but I think General Marshall ought to be preferred ; of the three envoys [to France] the conduct of Marshall alone has been entirely satisfactory, and ought to be marked by the most decided approbation of the public. He has raised the American people in their own esteem, and if the in- fluence of truth and justice, reason and argument is not lost in Europe, he has raised the consideration of the United States in that quarter of the world. If Mr. Marshall should decline, I should next think of Mr. Washington."
Other names continued to be presented and considered; but in a short time after the letter just quoted, Mr. Adams wrote again to his Secretary of State: "I have received your letter of Septem- ber 20th, and return you the commission for a judge of the Supreme Court, signed, leaving the name and date blank. You will fill the blank with the name of Marshall if he will accept it, if not, with that of Washington."
(See Writings of John Adams, Vol. VIII. pages 596, et seq.)
Mr. Marshall declined the office and Bushrod Washington was appointed, and became, says David Paul Brown, "perhaps, the greatest Nisi Prius Judge that the world has ever known, without even excepting Chief Justice Holt or Lord Mansfield", and adds, "This appointment and that which speedily followed, the Chief Justiceship of John Marshall, were enough in themselves to secure a lasting obligation of the country to the appointing power."
In regard to his qualifications as a judge, I have preferred to cite the opinions of his contemporaries to expressing one of my own. Judge Story says :
"For thirty-one years he held that important station, with a constantly increasing reputation and usefulness. Few men, in- deed, have possessed higher qualifications for the office, either natural or acquired. Few men have left deeper traces, in their
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judicial career, of everything, which a conscientious judge ought to propose for his ambition, or his virtue, or his glory. His mind was solid, rather than brilliant; sagacious and searching, rather than quick or eager; slow, but not torpid; steady, but not unyield- ing; comprehensive, and at the same time, cautious; patient in inquiry, forcible in conception, clear in reasoning. He was, by original temperament, mild, conciliating, and candid; and yet, he was remarkable for an uncompromising firmness. Of him it may be truly said, that the fear of man never fell upon him; it never entered into his thought, much less was it seen in his actions. In him the love of justice was the ruling passion; it was the master- spring of all his conduct. He made it a matter of conscience to discharge every duty with scrupulous fidelity and scrupulous zeal. It mattered not, whether the duty were small or great, witnessed by the world, or performed in private, everywhere the same dili- gence, watchfulness and pervading sense of justice were seen. There was about him a tenderness of giving offense, and yet a fear- lessness of consequences in his official character, which I scarcely know how to portray. It was a rare combination, which added much to the dignity of the bench and made justice itself, even when most severe, soften into the moderation of mercy. It gained confidence, when it seemed least to seek it. It repressed arrogance, by overawing or confounding it."
Judge Binney, who practiced in his court for twenty years, and was afterward associated with him on the bench, says:
"Without the least apparent effort, he made everybody see at first sight, that he was equal to all the duties of the place, cere- monial as well as intellectual. His mind was full, his elocution free, clear and accurate, his command of all about him indisput- able. His learning and acuteness were not only equal to the pro- foundest argument, but carried the counsel to depths which they had not penetrated ; and he was as cool, self-possessed, and efficient at a moment of high excitement at the bar, or in the people, as if the nerves of fear had been taken out of his brain by the roots.
"Judge Washington was an accomplished equity lawyer when he came to the bench, his practice in Virginia having been chiefly in chancery, and he was thoroughly grounded in the common law ; but he had not been previously familiar with commercial law; and he had had no experience at all, either in the superintendence or the practice of jury trials at Nisi Prius, after that fashion which prevails in Pennsylvania, and in some of the Eastern and North- ern States, as well as in England, where the judge repeats and re- views the evidence in his charge to the jury, not unfrequently
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shows them the learning of his mind in regard to the facts, and directs them in matter of law. And nevertheless, it was in these two departments or provinces-commercial law and Nisi Prius practice and administration, particularly the latter-that he was eminent from the outset, and in a short time became, in my appre- hension, as accomplished Nisi Prius judge as ever lived. I have never seen a judge who in this specialty equalled him. I cannot conceive a better. Judging of Lord Mansfield's great powers at Nisi Prius, by the accounts which have been transmitted to us, I do not believe that even he surpassed Judge Washington.
"One fundamental faculty for a Nisi Prius judge he possessed in absolute perfection, it was attention. Attention sprang from his head, full grown, at least as truly as Minerva from Jupiter's, or he had trained it up in infancy in some way of his own. He pos- sessed the power, as I have said before, in absolute perfection.
"In addition to this, he had great quickness and accuracy of apprehension. Washington never interrogated a witness, nor asked counsel to repeat. what he had said, and but rarely called for docu- ments after they had been read to him. He caught the important parts in a moment, and made a reliable note of them, before the counsel was ready to proceed with further testimony.
"He had a most ready command .of precise and expressive lan- guage, to narrate facts or to communicate thoughts, and a power of logical arrangement in his statements and reasonings, which presented everything to the jury in the very terms and order that were fittest, both for the jury and for the counsel, to exhibit the whole case. A jury never came back to ask what he meant, and counsel were never at a loss to state the very point of their objection to his opinion or charge, if they had any objection to make."
"Few, very few men", says Judge Hopkinson, "who have been distinguished on the judgment seat of the law. have possessed higher qualifications, natural and acquired, for the station, than Judge Washington. And this is equally true, whether we look to the illustrious individuals who have graced the courts of the United States, or extend the view to the country from which so much of our judicial knowledge has been derived. He was wise, as well as learned; sagacious and searching in the pursuit and discovery of truth, and faithful to it beyond the touch of corrup- tion, or the diffidence of fear; he was cautious, considerate and slow in forming a judgment, and steadv, but not obstinate, in his adherence to it. No man was more willing to listen to an argu- ment against his opinion ; to receive it with candor, or to vield to it with more manliness, if it convinced him of his error. He was
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too honest and too proud, to surrender himself to the undue in- fluence of any man, the menaces of any power, or the seductions of any interest ; but he was as tractable as humility, to the force of truth; as obedient as filial duty, to the voice of reason. When he gave up an opinion, he did it not grudgingly, or with reluctant qualifications and saving explanations; it was abandoned at once, and he rejoiced more than any one, at his escape from it. It is only a mind conscious of its strength, and governed by the highest principles of integrity, that can make such sacrifices, not only without any feeling of humiliation, but with unaffected satisfac- tion."
In any account of Judge Washington a review of his decisions is of course what most interest the profession, but such review most briefly stated would occupy more time than could be allowed on an occasion like this, and I pass at once to some of the less con- spicuous incidents of his life.
It is entirely unnecessary to rehearse before this audience the efforts made by the Virginia colonists to prevent the shipment of African slaves to her shore; you know, too, that when a power too strong for the colony to resist, had fastened the institution upon her, the wisest statesmen within her borders would have welcomed and contributed to its abolishment by any plan not threatening greater evils; and on this question Judge Washington did not differ from the majority of the gentlemen of his day and class. He had witnessed and on him had fallen the heaviest of the burden of General Washington's unfortunate experiment in emancipation ; he had seen the quiet and contented slave transformed by an act of intended philanthropy into a savage menace to the neighbor- hood; he had seen its demoralizing effect on those still held in bondage, and in company with Judge Marshall had been hurried from his official duties to quell a mutiny among the slaves at Mount Vernon, only arriving in time to prevent serious trouble. How far this insubordination had been brought about by the incendiary teaching of emissaries of Northern abolition societies, who, under the pretense of patriotic interest in the tomb and the late home of the first President, were constantly visiting the place, can not be certainly known, but that the influence of those people transmitted through these free negroes to his slaves, had practi- cally destroyed the value of Judge Washington's property lying in that part of the State is shown by a letter written in 1821 to the editor of Nile's Register in reply to attacks that had been made on him as President of the American Colonization Society for hav- ing sold over fifty of the negroes. The letter is too long to be
.
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copied in full, but the paragraphs dealing with this particular phase of the question will, I hope, prove interesting. After show- ing how, by the purchase of a number of those negroes, to prevent the separation of families, the sale had resulted in little profit to him ; he says :
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