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 A.MES L. PETIGRU. 
 
 J'llU( hi^.l)lN<;S OF THE BAT5 OF CHARLESTON, %.C,., ' 
 
 MARCH 2;., 1863. 
 
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 itt c ino I* i rt I 
 
 OF THE LATE 
 
 JAMES L. PETIGRU. 
 
 TROCEEDINGS OF THE BAR OF CHARLESTON, S.C, 
 MARCH 25, 186.3. 
 
 NKW VOIIK: 
 l; I (' II A l: I) SON <t (M)M I'ANY, 
 
 r,li) 15 K () A I) W A Y, 
 
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 Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1860, by 
 
 RICHARDSON & COMPANY, 
 
 In tlie Clerk's Office of tlie District Court of the Southern District of New York.
 
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 PREFACE. 
 
 Mn. Petigru's virtues and attainments are too fully commemorated 
 in tbe following pages to require notice in this preface. Such meet- 
 ings as we here record, often assume a perfunctory character ; but 
 this was remarkable for the number and distinction of the participants, 
 and the much more than ordinary exhibition of respect. It represent- 
 ed, too, every hue and shade of our State politics, from the avowed 
 Unionist, on through the moderate States-rights' men, to the extreme 
 secessionists. 
 
 All came together there, from their diverse points, like pilgrims 
 to a common shrine, to oifer the united tribute of their respect and 
 love. 
 
 It is not our purpose, therefore, to add any thoughts upon a topic 
 so fully and ably treated ; but, in giving to the world those eloquent 
 memorials of veneration for Mr. Petigru, we would take the op- 
 portunity of correcting some misapprehensions whidi liave gone 
 forth in regard to his political and social position in ihis coiiiinu- 
 nity. 
 
 About till! first, there is, to this extent, nn room for ((ucstidii 
 whatever. He wa.s an ardent lover of the I'uiori, and lie had faith 
 in the cnica<y of a strong government to sustain it. Tliero is no 
 diversity of opinion on this, and it needs no elaboration. 
 
 A friend, from his own e,xpcnen(te, furnishes a touching proof / 
 of this sentiment. Srion after llie Ordinaiiee of Secession was 
 pas-scd, ho accosted him in IJroad Street, with this remark, " Mr. 
 I'eti'TU, ihrsi! are times, whirh rri|iiire every man In (Idine his 
 position. \ I'll weie a good M»ldi(.'r in ih'- War of I >^ I'J ; your 
 
 3
 
 4 PREFACE. 
 
 captain told me bo: where are you now?" They were walking 
 at the time, and the old man bowed his chin on his breast, and 
 walked on for some distance in silence (his friends will recall the 
 manner) ; and at last, lifting up his head very quickly, he made 
 
 this only reply, " W , I have seen the last happy day of my 
 
 life." 
 
 But, while Mr. Petigru's devoted love for the Union is beyond 
 all dispute, his position and views of the late struggle have been 
 misunderstood and misrepresented. 
 
 It is said that his love of the Union was paramount to his love 
 of the State, and that his differences entailed upon him persecu- 
 tion and oppression. 
 
 Nothing could be further from the fact than both of these 
 statements. 
 
 Mr. Petigru's position was this : He loved the Union ; he 
 would have given his life to preserve it. He considered the course 
 of the State wrong in principle, and fatal in its consequences. 
 He would have prevented secession by any sacrifice it would 
 have been in his power to have made. But this is all. No one 
 can truthfully assign to him a more complete position, as a Union 
 man, than that. He deploi'cd the war ; he considered us mad in 
 attempting it : but, when it was begun, he felt that his State was 
 his mother, and to her he owed his" all. If it were not so, why, 
 at his advanced age, did he undergo hardships and privation among 
 us, instead of imitating those craven spirits who took flight at the 
 first note of danger? 
 
 Even before the war, he was urged to settle at the North, whose 
 people, he was assured, appreciated him as we did not. He was 
 elected anniversary orator of the Story Association ; and he was 
 much urged, in and out of his family, to accept. Why did he not 
 emigrate, when, in forty-eight hours, he could have passed through 
 the lines? It was because he felt it his duty to stand by the 
 State tlirough weal and through woe.
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 Mr. Petigru's sympathies were not with the United-States arms, ^ 
 after the war was commenced. 
 
 He always spoke of the contest as our contest; and he has fre- 
 quently said, that he thought xoe would achieve our independence- 
 
 During his last illness, he said he did not know what to think 
 of the termination, as the combatants seemed to be so equally 
 matched. 
 
 There is another feature of his position in the late struggle, of 
 great importance. Mr. Petigru could scarcely have believed in y 
 the right of the General Government, certainly not in the expe- 
 diency of its attempting, to coerce a State after secession. Our 
 reasons for this opinion shall be stated, and the public shall judge 
 for themselves. 
 
 Early in the war, perhaps even before the attack upon Sumter, 
 Mr. Petigru wrote to his old friend, Lieut.-Gen. Winfield Scott, 
 warning him against an attempt to subdue the South. He cau- 
 tioned him against falling into the error of supposing that this 
 was "a Union and Nullification affair." He dwelt upon the 
 unanimity of the whole people ; and, deprecating it as much as his 
 friend could do, he signified his views by this strong language, 
 which would certainly have weight in our day. "But, my dear 
 general, suppose you go on, and coerce the South, :iud sustain tlio 
 Union. Would a Union supported by bayonets be the Union 
 our fathers bled and died to accomplish?" Although wo have 
 marked the passage as a quotation, we do not mean to be under- 
 stood as quoting literally ; but we arc sure his meaning is given. 
 The contents of the letter, we got from Mr. Petigru himself, under 
 circumstances to impress tliem upon the memory. If tlicy are not 
 accurately given, let it be shown fi'im the letter itself. 
 
 So niucli for his views of the struggle. The misapprehension 
 is still stronger in relation to the estimate of him liy our jJiMiple. 
 So fnr fiuin his ciuso showing intolerance, it has been cited, ever 
 since the days of iinllifiration, as an eviilenee how iillle polilical
 
 (') PREFACE. 
 
 differences influence the regards and fostering care of our people 
 for their great men. 
 
 For upwards of thirty years, he numbered, among his clients and 
 his most intimate friends, men of opinions diametrically opposite to 
 his own. He was Solicitor and Attorney-general, and through life 
 could, whenever he wished, have been Judge or Chancellor or 
 Chief Justice if the office had then existed. What higher proof 
 could be given than his being appointed, just before the war, to 
 codify the laws of the State, and being continued in this office, 
 by annual election of the Legislature, until his death ? There never 
 was a time that Mr. Petigru's opinion would have deprived him 
 of any of the honors of his profession, nor of the highest social 
 consideration possible to be awarded to any man. He was only 
 not elected to represent the State or people in Congress, because 
 his views were well known not to be theirs ; but even then we 
 sent him to the Legislature from Charleston. 
 
 And how could it be otherwise ? Who could resist that cheery 
 temper, that enlivening smile, those feelings, like his beautiful 
 hair, showing no frost of age, but youthful, fresh, and genial ? 
 And then the more robust qualities : Look at his courage ! 
 Could a people who value it so fail to mark and appreciate its 
 possession? See him before the Historical Society of South Caro- 
 lina, where he says of the Kevolutionary War, in that beautiful 
 passage, deserving to live forever, "It is not true that all of the 
 virtue of the country was in the Whig camp." 
 
 Or before the Confederate Court, resisting the Sequestration 
 Act, and declaring, in the stirring words of St. Paul, " I was free 
 born." 
 
 Wlio that ever observed the dauntless spirit of the man could 
 fail to admire, and who tliat knew could fail to love him ? Not 
 ajipreciated 't Persecuted for his opinions V Was ever man more 
 respected ? Was ever one more free in the expression of bis 
 every thouglit V
 
 PNHFACE. 7 
 
 Ilis daughter, in a letter to tlie public, has shown that he met 
 with nothing but respect and veneration. Petigru persecuted ? 
 ^Vhy ! no man who knows any thing of his position here could say 
 or believe such a thing. He was our pride and ornament. 
 
 Observe the circumstances under which the meeting was held, 
 to which we are now inviting your attention. It was in the spring 
 of 1863, when the Federal arms had met many reverses, and 
 their cause looked gloomy, and the Confedei'ate pulse was beating 
 high. It was just then that it pleased God to take away this 
 great lawyer, this great Union man, from among us. Did he go 
 down to the grave unlamented ? Were there no honors to his 
 memory ? Who that was here can fail to reotiU the gloom that 
 was thrown over the connnunity? Who can forget that mournful 
 cortege that followed him to the tomb, — a private man, holding 
 no office, with generals and colonels and stout soldiers mingling 
 their grief with our stricken city in the fall of her distinguished 
 and well beloved son ? 
 
 And when it was all over, and he slept quietly, see what an 
 assemblage of his brethren was grouped together to do honor to 
 his memory ! — from the white-haired presiding officer (his friend 
 through life) to the tyro without his first brief, — all ages, all poli- 
 tics, all manner of thougiit, represented. See how they pour forth 
 their love and admiration, without raca.sure and without stint ! 
 
 Consider the man, his opinions, the time, his eulogists, ancl 
 it will be no longer difficult to say, that neither war nor puli- 
 tics nor diirerences, nor any other thing, ever could, for i>ne 
 moment, sway them away from tlicii- respect and love for James 
 Louis Petigru. 
 
 Charleston, July, 1^06. 
 
 .NO'Ji; \ 
 " History is t'.il>c to licr triisl wlun sliu licliays the iniist; ol' Inilli, even 
 nil Iff tlic iiiflmncc of juitrioiir iiiipnlsrs. It is rwit iriic that ail (if liic viitui! 
 of the 'ountrv was in (In- NN'lii;,' r,iin]i, or llial all of liic Tories wore a liaiid 
 
 / 
 
 /
 
 8 PREFACE. 
 
 of ruffians. Thcv were conservatives ; and their error was in carrying to 
 excess the sentiment of loyalty, which is founded in virtue. Their constancy 
 imbittered the contest, but did not provoke it. Their cause deserved to fail ; 
 but their sulFerings are entitlwl to respect. Prejudice has blackened their 
 name ; but history will speak of them as they were, with their f;iilings and 
 their virtues, as more tenacious than ambitious, rather weak than aspiring; 
 and show towards them the indulgence due to the unfortunate." — Petigru's 
 Adilress be/ore the South-Carolina Historical Society." 
 
 NOTE B. 
 
 The following passage from the same address shows that Mr. Petigru 
 would not be himself inclined to condemn honest differences of opinion : — 
 
 " South Carolina has been taunted with the division of parties that marked 
 the war of independence. It is the rejjroacli of ignorance : the division is 
 proof of sincerity, of freedom, of manliness of character."
 
 THE LATE JA31ES L. PETIGRU. 
 
 PROCEEDINGS OF THE iSIEETING OF THE BAR OF CHARLESTON. 
 
 A MEETING of the bar of Charleston was held on "Wednesday, March 
 25, 1863, to pay a tribute of respect to the memory of their deceased 
 brother, the Hon. James Louis Petigru. 
 
 On motion of the Attorney General, I. W. Hayxe, Esq., Hexry 
 A. DeSaussure, Esq., was called to the Chair, and the meetin<i further 
 organized by the appointment of C. Richardson IMiles, Esq., as 
 Secretary. 
 
 The Chairman, in opening the meeting, said, — 
 
 There are times and occasions when the customary 
 language of sympathy and condolence is inadequate 
 to express the emotions of the heart. Death, in the 
 ordinary course of human affairs, the common inheri- 
 tance of humanity, excites no unusual disturbance ; 
 but there are also extraordinary occasions which 
 arrest public attention, excite the keenest sensibility 
 of society, and diffuse general gloom over its compli- 
 cated framework. The death of remarkable men 
 often awakens the deepest sohcitude and n flections; 
 and such is the event that has now convened the bar 
 of Charleston. 
 
 Our recent iillendance on his obsecjuies has too 
 mournfully realized to us that tlie Hon. James L. 
 Petigru has been translated, by the dispensation of 
 Providence, from the bar of Ins count ly to the bar 
 of God. 
 

 
 10 MEMORIAL OF 
 
 To .abler lianrls must be confided, on a future and 
 proper occasion, the duty of delineating the elements 
 of character, the professional learning, the genius and 
 the moral elevation, of this remarkable man and 
 accomplished jurist, who has left his impress on soci- 
 ety, and on the bench and the bar of South Carolina, 
 for the last half century. 
 
 Descended in the maternal line from a respected 
 Huguenot family, he received his academic education 
 under Dr. Waddell, of the Willington Academy, and 
 his collegiate education in the South-Carolina College, 
 under Dr. Maxcy ; and pursued his legal studies in 
 the office and under the supervision of the late Wil- 
 liam Robertson, Esq., an influential and respected 
 lawyer of Beaufort, who long enjoyed the confidence 
 and professional support of that community. 
 
 In stating the object of this meeting, it is neither 
 my province nor my intention to anticipate the ex- 
 pression of ^V5 judgment of Mr. Petigru's prominent 
 qualities, and of the proud pre-eminence which he 
 obtained as the head of the legal profession in South 
 Carolina. As primus interpares, his competitors at 
 the bar, without invidious feeling, admitted his indis- 
 putable right to occupy the front rank of his profes- 
 sion, without a rival, without fear, and without 
 reproach. His brethren throughout the State all 
 conceded him intellectual superiority, and deeper 
 learning, and a higher order of talent, than they pos- 
 sessed. 
 
 Mr. Petigru possessed by nature the rare endow- 
 ments of genius for the creation of new and original 
 ideas, blended with talents for combinino; facts, and
 
 JAMES L. PETIGRU. 11 
 
 marshalling established truths with admirable judg- 
 ment and sagacity. His induction from his preraiaes 
 was always logical and lucid, and turnpikcd the legal 
 pathway out of the most complicated labja'inth of 
 law and fact. 
 
 Though not intending hereb}^ any labored eulo- 
 gium on his character and worth, I cannot, as one of 
 his personal friends and contemporaries for upwards 
 of half a century, refrain from bearing my testimony 
 to the high moral intrepidity, inflexible principles, 
 the generous antagonism, and liberal practice, which 
 characterized his professional career. Ilis manly, 
 generous nature disdained to envelop justice in 
 technical meshes or metaphysical subtlety; and his 
 effort ever seemed to be rather to eviscerate truth 
 and justice than to succeed in his object at their 
 expense. 
 
 To the junior members of the bar he was peculiar- 
 ly courteous and accessible ; and no one ever applied 
 to his experience, vigorous intellect, and profound 
 knowledge, for friendly consultation and instruction, 
 without obtaining the benefit of his assistance. 
 
 Such was the noble man whose loss we mourn ; such 
 the calamity society has sustained. 
 
 Attoni(!}-(Jcn. IIaynk, after a Ijiiof allusion to the sad oceasion 
 which had tailed the brethren of the bar of Charleston toj;ether, olllred 
 
 the following 
 
 PREAMIJLI-: A.ND RESOLUTIONS. 
 
 The death of one still in the fidl vigor of his facul- 
 ties, whose name, by common consent of South- 
 Carolinians, has been for forty yeai's enrolled among
 
 12 MEMORIAL OF 
 
 the great intellects of the State, is a bereavement 
 not confined to the community in which he lived, or 
 to the profession which he adorned. The State 
 mourns the loss of one of her most gifted and worthy 
 sons in the death of our brother lawyer, James L. 
 Petigru. But because he was our brother, and the 
 bar — the bar of Charleston — has afforded peculiarly 
 his field of usefulness, and been the scene of his 
 triumphs, it is fitting that the bar of Charleston 
 should express, as such, their sorrow at his death, 
 and their appreciation of the rich legacy he has 
 bequeathed them in the bright example of a lawyer, 
 as elevated in the morals of the profession as he w^as 
 pre-eminent in learning and ability. Fifty years at 
 the bar, — he was forty years ago made Attorney- 
 General of the State. For eight years officially at 
 the head of the bar, upon his resignation, now more 
 than thirty years since, he became, and continued to 
 the period of his death, its acknowledged leader. 
 A leadership without official position, so universally 
 conceded and so uninterrupted, has never, perhaps, for 
 such a length of time, fallen to the lot of any other 
 lawj'er in any country. Never had that "jealous 
 mistress," the Law, less cause for jealousy. His life- 
 long singleness of devotion to his jji'ofession was not 
 the least remarkable circumstance in his career. 
 Though alive to every public enterprise, and always 
 interested in the politics of the country, his attention 
 was never, ev^n for a time, distracted from the 
 engrossing pursuit of his life. Though a ripe scholar, 
 and passionately fond of letters, scholarship and 
 letters were ever subordinate to his profession.
 
 JAMES L. PETIGRU. 13 
 
 Though eminently social, and from his wit and genial 
 nature the delight of the convivial board ; though full 
 of human sympathy and warm affections, — " the prim- 
 rose path " never allured him to the neglect of the 
 stern and ruQ-o-ed duties which were the habit of his 
 life. But, in this singleness of devotion to the law, 
 there was none of the sordidness of a Saunders or the 
 narrowness of a Coke. It was his selected field for 
 manly action. Here were displayed his love of the 
 right, and his scorn for wrong. Here his friendships 
 were made effective, and his generosity and charit}'' 
 bore fruit. The profits of the profession were his 
 least consideration. The honors he coveted were 
 honorable to the man as well as the lawyer. As a 
 lawyer, he'was a model. With learning unsurpassed, 
 he applied the powers of his own mind to work out 
 the principles involved. A " case " was as nothing, but 
 for the principle it illustrated or established. With 
 all his extensive reading, he cited few cases, but 
 those were to the point ; and the principle contended 
 for, he enforced with a fertility and aptness of illus- 
 tration which were inexhaustible. 
 
 Mr. Petigru's originality of manner, his humor, 
 . wit, sarcasm, and wondrous powers of ridicule, were 
 weapons peculiarly his own, which it would be 
 dangerous in any other man to attempt to imitate. 
 Add to these courage, will, and indomitable persist- 
 ency of purpose which never flagged or faltered, and 
 he was a power felt and acknowledged in every 
 sphere in which ho moved. 
 
 "Take him for all in :ill," it will be long ere "we 
 look upon his like again."
 
 1-i MEMORIAL OF 
 
 He is dead ; but the days of his pilgrimage were 
 more than the usual lot of man. " Threescore and 
 ten " had for some time been passed ; but, until very 
 recently, his was a robust and green old age. 
 
 " And that which should accompany old age, — 
 As honor, love, obedience, troops of friends," — 
 
 he had in no stinted measure. Peace be with him ! 
 
 Resolced, That the Bar of Charleston, in the death of James L. 
 Petigru, Esq., mourn in heartfelt sorrow the loss of a beloved and vener- 
 ated brother, who for forty years has been their honored leader. 
 
 Resolced, That, in token of this sorrow, they wear the usual badge 
 of mourning for thirty days. 
 
 Resolved, That the Chairman be requested to express to the family 
 of the deceased the condolence and sympathy of the members of the 
 Bar. 
 
 Resolved, That copies of these proceedings be presented by the 
 Attorney-General, in the names of the Charleston Bar, to the Court 
 of Appeals at its next session, and to the Courts of Equity and of Common 
 Pleas and General Sessions for Charleston District ; and that he ask that 
 they be spread on the minutes of those courts I'espectively, and that they 
 be presented by the District Attorney to the Confederate Court of South 
 Carolina. 
 
 R. Yeadon, Esq., rose to second the preamble and resolutions, and 
 said, — 
 
 3f)\ Chairman, — The relations which existed be- 
 tween myself and the lamented dead render it both 
 my melancholy duty and high privilege to lay my 
 humble offeriniji: on his bier. No one shares more 
 largely than myself in the general sorrow of this com- 
 munitvat his decease: and I stand second to none in 
 the desire, however inadequate may be the perform- 
 ance, to do fitting honor to his memory and his 
 worth. 
 
 Mr. Petigru was indeed one of the most remarkable 
 men that our community ever produced. Meaning no
 
 JAMES L. PETIGRU. 15 
 
 approach to profanity or irreverence in the allusion, 
 he may, in respect of his gifts, moral and intellectual, 
 personal and professional, have been appropriately 
 called " wonderful counsellor." Graduating at our 
 State college with the first honor of his class, he pur- 
 sued the honorable and useful occupation of a school- 
 master while preparing for the bar ; and, on his 
 admission into the legal fraternity, he soon arose to 
 the highest honors and emoluments of his profession. 
 lie stood, during his long and brilliant career as a 
 lawyer, at the h^ad of the profession, — undoubtedly 
 so in this State ; and perhaps, also, both in the old 
 Union and in the new Southern Confederacy. Law he 
 studied and mastered as a science, and he was most 
 profoundly versed in its learning and its principles. 
 So much was this the case, that not only his brother 
 practitioners looked up to him as a teacher, but even 
 the bench regarded him as the Gamaliel of jurispru- 
 dence. Well do many of us, his contemporaries, 
 remember the numerous triumphs, before court and 
 jury, which at once asserted and crowned his profes- 
 sional pre-eminence. Cruger and Daniel stands as a 
 monument of his learninti* and labor, — a carthavinu: 
 been necessary to convey his numerous and ponderous 
 authorities to our highest court of State judicature; 
 and his brilliant success was commensurate with his 
 lavish expenditure of learning and toil. Pell and 
 Ball was an achievement in its masterly analysis 
 of the doctrine of pr('suni])lious ; as perfect a gem in 
 its way as the thrilling elocjuencc of his gil'lod associ- 
 ate and friend, Legare, call'-d forth hy the shipwreck 
 tragedy which consigned husband and wife, amid the
 
 16 MEMOBIAL OF 
 
 rage and howl of the elements, to the same ocean- 
 grave. DeCottes and Talvande showed him the 
 generous and sympathizing champion of a much- 
 wronged W'idow, and exhibited his power to move 
 the passions and mould the verdict of the jury by the 
 charm and potency of pathetic eloquence. Conspicu- 
 ous among his professional characteristics and virtues 
 was that noble generosity, which, in the cause of 
 benevolence or of principle, gratuitously enlisted his 
 powers and resources with a zeal and ability which no 
 fee, however large, could so readily secure. Eobert- 
 son and Gilfdlin vs. Shannon strikingly illustrated his 
 holy abhorrence of oppression, and wdiat may be 
 styled the perseverance of benevolence, pursuing its 
 noble and disinterested end undeterred by defeat, and 
 hoping against hope, until, crowned by final and com- 
 plete success, it gave liberty to the aged and time- 
 worn tenant of the prison. 
 
 Nothing could more decisively prove his legal 
 pre-eminence than his selection by the State Legis- 
 lature, notwithstanding his unpopular politics and 
 opinions, to reduce to a code the statute laws of the 
 State; a highly honorable and responsible task, which 
 he barely lived to complete. 
 
 A passing tribute, too, is due to the remarkable 
 and infinite power of wit and humor with which he 
 relieved the asperities and the tedium of forensic con- 
 flicts and investigations, convulsing auditory, bar, and 
 even bench, w^itli contagious merriment ; and also to 
 the potency with which he applied ridicule and sar- 
 casm as a forensic weapon and a test of truth. 
 
 Much could be added to this portraiture of his 
 professional character and career, did time and the
 
 JAMES L. PETIGRU. 17 
 
 occasion admit of the completion of the picture, — how 
 truthful he was in the citation and application of 
 authorities; how fair, and above trick or artifice, in 
 his practice ; how kind, paternal, and even brotherly, 
 in his deportment to younger members of the legal 
 fraternity. To sum up all in few but expressive 
 words, he was at once the patriarch of the bar, and 
 the Bayard of his profession, — sans peiir et sans 
 reproche. 
 
 But it was not onlj^ as a profound lawj'er that Mr. 
 Petigru challenged our admiration for his intellectual 
 gifts and acquirements. lie was a classical scholar ; 
 a man of literary habitudes ; a w^riter of taste and 
 elegance, as often testified by the essay and the oration, 
 couched in language drawn from the pure well of 
 English undefiled ; it having been his peculiarity and 
 pride to adhere, as closely as possible, to the Anglo- 
 Saxon vocabularv. 
 
 As a man, Mr. Petigru was full of noble qualities. 
 lie was o-enerous and charitable even to a fault. He 
 had "a heart to devise and a hand to do liberal 
 things." His purse was ever ready at the call of the 
 needy and deserving, and freely emptied itself to the 
 wants of friendship. If his fortune had been as large 
 as his heart, it would have been princely indeed ; but, 
 owing much to his exceeding great liberality and 
 fearless assumption of respousibility for friends, he 
 may be said to have verified Daniel Webster's defini- 
 nition or description of the lawyer, " One who works 
 liard, lives well, and dies jjoor." lid it be the care 
 and privilege of his brethren that liis iionored widow 
 siiall never realize the fact. 
 
 3
 
 18 ME MOB I AL OF 
 
 But the most distinsruishino; feature of Mr. Peti- 
 grii's character was his moral courage. Descended, 
 maternall}^, from the Huguenot, his was that intrepid 
 and martyr spirit which made him worthy of a race 
 that numbered the srreat Conde and the chivalrous 
 Constable Montmorenci among its noblesse and heroic 
 commanders. True to principle, and fearless in 
 the assertion of right, he never swerved to the 
 right hand or the left to promote personal interest 
 or court popular favor. Mailed in the armor of 
 honesty, all respected his motives, and admired his 
 boldness and independence, while they lamented 
 what they believed to be his errors of opinion, as 
 fearlessly avowed as they were conscientiously enter- 
 tained. He seemed encircled, as it were, with an 
 atmosphere of dignity, armed with some electric 
 power to repel hostile or dishonoring assault. But 
 often, in his long and useful career, w^as this noble 
 trait of his character called into play by the dearest 
 interests of our community ; and never did he fail to 
 throw himself in the breach,- and do valiant and 
 efficient battle for the Right. Plere let us recall the 
 me'rnorable occasion, Avhen our city, temporarily 
 frightened from her propriety by an emeute at the 
 workhouse, was on the brink of tarnishing her 
 escutcheon by mob violence ; when the misguided 
 demagogue, and the more criminal incendiary, stood 
 ready to light the torch ; and when Mr. Petigru, as the 
 intrepid champion of law and order, bravely breasted 
 the torrent, warning our citizens not to emulate the 
 Red Republicanism of France, and calming the 
 troubled elements into peace and quiet. But for his
 
 JA^IES L. PETIGRU. 19 
 
 interposition and that of noble compatriots at that 
 fearful crisis, Calvary Church may have been made a 
 funeral pile, and even the dwelling of his present 
 eulogist razed to the ground, to the everlasting dis- 
 grace of the Palmetto City. 
 
 But here let me close this imperfect tribute to 
 one who was the comfort of the domestic and the 
 ornament of the social circle, a light of literature, and 
 an apostle of jurisprudence. 
 
 Tears for his loss ; the cj'press and the willow for 
 his grave ; homage to his memory. 
 
 Sir, with heartfelt but melancholy satisfaction, I 
 second the resolutions. 
 
 Hon. R. Barnwell Riiett followed, and said, — 
 
 Mr. Chairman, — I obey, perhaps for the 1 ist time, 
 the summons for the Charleston Bar to assemble 
 together to commemorate the death of one of its 
 members. Its most distinguished and its most vener- 
 able member, with Init one exception, has left its toils 
 and its honors, — my, tutor in boyhood, my friend in 
 early manhood, my better friend in advanced life, whom 
 neither time nor fortune, private duties nor troubles, 
 nor the angry public contests and differences of more 
 than thirty years, ever induced to say to me an 
 unkind W(jrd or to do .in imldiid (LmmI. Private acts 
 of fricndsliip, 1 know, K)se some of I heir sacredness 
 by I>eing disclosed to others ; but 1 am sure T sliall 
 be pardoned for mentioning an incident in our lives, 
 wliich strongly dis])Iay('d (uu- relations and his own 
 generous nature. 'I'licre are many tests of riicudsliij) ; 
 but the woiM r(;cogMiz(!S one as i)araiiioiint to all
 
 20 MEMORIAL OF 
 
 others, — money. Christ himself seems to have con- 
 sidered it as the most potent of all influences; for it 
 is the one thing he» has to put as antagonist to him- 
 self " Ye cannot serve God and Mammon " is his 
 twice-repeated declaration. The deceased gave me 
 this test of his friendship. In the commercial con- 
 vulsions of 1837, I thought I was ruined by the 
 misfortunes of others. I went to him, and told him 
 my troubles. He expressed to me his warm sym- 
 pathy, and then said, " I have no money ; you know 
 I cannot keep money : but my credit is yours, in any 
 manner you choose to use it, to the last dollar of the 
 property I possess." At this time he was in posses- 
 sion of a considerable estate, the fruit of many years 
 of labor and accumulation. I did not embrace his 
 generous offer : but it shows you the man ; and it 
 shows you also, in part, why I am here to-day to 
 bear testimony to the character and worth of one of 
 the bravest and truest of friends. 
 
 Mr. Chairman, much has been well said, and much 
 more will be said, of the characteristics and life of this 
 distinguished man. This is not perhaps the time or 
 the occasion in which his whole character can be de- 
 lineated ; but I propose to lay before you a few of 
 the traits that distinguished him from other men, 
 and made him most esteemed and admired. 
 
 To say that the deceased was a great lawyer is to 
 say but little of his great qualities. He never was 
 a mere lawyer to his clients. He was a friend, and a 
 sincere friend ; and, when called on for his counsel, he 
 never stopped at expounding the law, but placed before 
 his clients the duties their positions required. With
 
 JAMES L. PETIGRU. 21 
 
 him, honor was worth more than property ; and he 
 frankly and freely counselled the course that high 
 morals required his clients to pursue, irrespective 
 of law. A young gentleman, just arrived at manhood, 
 sought his legal advice on a very delicate matter, 
 relative to the conduct of property on the part of an 
 executor. He told him his legal rights, and then said 
 to him, " This is no matter of law : it is a matter affect- 
 ing your honor as a gentleman ; and 3'ou must 
 redress it." I need not say that his advice was 
 followed. Not long since, an old client went to him 
 to make his will. He produced a paper containing 
 the heads of the will as he desired it should be made. 
 Amongst other provisions was one prescribing, that, 
 should any of his children die without leaving 
 children, their portion should revert to his right heirs. 
 "This is wrong," said Mr. Petigru : '•' your children 
 ought to have the power of rewarding benefactions 
 by the property you leave them, as you are now 
 doing in your will ; and you ought not to deprive 
 them of this power ; " and he run his pen through the 
 clause. A widow lady, after years of counsel and 
 advice, proposed to him to send in his bill. " No," 
 said he: "you have a largo family, and must want 
 money. If I die l)efore you, you will find some 
 jnemorandum of wliat you owe me in my books ; and, 
 if you die before me, your estate can pay it. I cannot 
 take money from you." Sir, 1 mention these inci- 
 dents, known personally to me, and 1 have no doubt 
 similar incidents are kninvn to many present, to show 
 yon what sort of a lawyer our late associate was. He 
 rejdized, in his syin|>athi/in;j kindness, more perfectly
 
 22 MEMORIAL OF 
 
 the old relation of patron and client among the 
 Romans than any lawyer I ever knew. Nor was the 
 mighty power his profession gave him ever abused to 
 fo.ster dispute, or to defeat justice by the rigorous 
 enforcement of law. He knew very well that the laws 
 dispense justice only in their general operation, and 
 that, from the very necessity of our imperfect reason 
 and nature, thousands of cases must occur in which 
 law, in its application, is not justice ; and therefore 
 he was ever assiduous to clear himself of any com- 
 plicity with moral crime which the profession of law 
 sometimes produces. Of his clients he was equally 
 carefid ; and, in more instances than one within my 
 knowledge, he counselled the abandonment of legal 
 rights, because, in his opinion, inconsistent with strict 
 honesty and honor. 
 
 The deceased did not seek poiuer. The very few 
 occasions in which he was a candidate before the 
 people was rather to defeat what he deemed a false 
 policy than to obtain place. The vulgar ambition 
 of personal distinction or notoriety had no place in 
 his capacious and noble mind. Perhaps, too. he feared 
 power, remembering the great accountability it in- 
 volved. Certainly no man has lived in our day who 
 possessed so much moral and so little official authority. 
 To control himself, and not others ; to do his duty, 
 and not to win place, — seems to have been the ele- 
 vated aim of his career. With his powerful intellect, 
 keen wit, and fearless will, no man could have been 
 more dangerous in a republic, if he hiid beeri desti- 
 tute of high princi[)les. But all these were placed 
 upon the side of oi'dcr, for the maintenance of truth,
 
 JAMES L. PETIGRU. 23 
 
 and furtherance of justice. His error, if error it was, 
 rather led him to too much abstinence from power, 
 than desire to possess it. He not only would not 
 yield any of his convictions to obtain it, but he would 
 practise no reserve in their enunciation. He quailed 
 before no antagonism, but rather seemed to defy it. 
 £sse qnam videri, the proud motto of Plato, seemed ever 
 to have been in his contemplation. The virtues of a 
 good man are not exclusively his own : they belong 
 also to society and the country ; and if, by any course 
 of his, they are lost to others, he has not fulfilled the 
 full measure of his duty. We cannot presume error 
 in this particular in one so conscientious and watchful 
 over himself as the deceased ; but many doubtless 
 have deemed him too indifferent or too haughty in 
 his disregard of power. With the great multitude 
 of men, in public affairs, place is success. To conceal 
 opinions where they are unpopular, to dissemble with 
 the people, to support expediencies, and to make 
 correct principles subordinate to policies, is ever the 
 resorts, to obtain power, of men with weak minds or 
 weaker principles. It is only the strong man — strong 
 in conscious rectitude, strong in convictions of truth, 
 strong in the never-failing and eternal vindications 
 of time — who can put aside the temptations of present 
 power, and patiently submit to unofficial inferiority. 
 Superficial observers may not understand, perhaps 
 despise, the greatness of such a man. They are daz- 
 zled by the external trappings and inlhiences of power. 
 But greatness in man consists of personal attributes, 
 not in tlie external accidents around liiiii. Indeed, 
 power, without wisdom and principle to direct it, only
 
 •24 MEMORIAL OF 
 
 renders men more mean and contemptible. ITenry 
 VIII. of England, and Philip II. of Spain, were pos- 
 sessed of vast power ; yet are they described as pre- 
 eminently the meanest men of their day. Mr. Petigru 
 was a great man, without official power, — great in his 
 moral characteristics, self-poised, disinterested, faithful, 
 fearless. 
 
 The deceased was no linnier of ijopidanty. He was 
 no courtier, either in the saloons of the reputed 
 great, or on the hustings before the people. The 
 same characteristics which make the sycophant at 
 courts make the demagogue before the people. 
 Falsehood is the essential feature of both. To say 
 what is agreeable, but not true ; to flatter with 
 professions which are unreal, and thus to obtain con- 
 fidence and support to further objects of ambition, — 
 is the usual course of the seekers of iiopulantjj. The 
 deceased doubtless valued the esteem of men ; but 
 it was esteem based on truth and virtue. Favors 
 are seldom just ; and favors of the people in repub- 
 lican governments, not won by service or merit, are 
 as dangerous to the people as they are corrupting 
 to the individual. They are dangerous to the peo- 
 ple, because they do not imply that fidelity and in- 
 tegrity wliich are essential to the administration 
 and perpetuity of this form of government'; and 
 they corrupt the individual, who learns, by his eleva- 
 tion, that correct principles are not essential to offi- 
 cial distinction. In the noble lano:uao:e of Lord 
 Mansfield, he might have said, " I honor the people : 
 I love popularity ; but it is that popularity which 
 follows, not that which I sought after." Yet, although
 
 JAMES L. PETIGRU. 25 
 
 not seeJcinf/, he was not without popularity. It fol- 
 loived him in all the walks of life ; and, if it did not 
 lift him to high official station, it was because his 
 views of public policy were opposed to those of the 
 great majority of the people with whom he lived. 
 False confidence in the people, induced by false pro- 
 fessions, — which is the great cause of the overthrow 
 of republics, — could neveT find countenance in his 
 elevated patriotism. 
 
 Mr. Petigra was essentially a conservative, — conser- 
 vative in all his views of societ//, government, and reli- 
 gion. He detested all the new inventions which 
 would arm society against itself, by pretensions to 
 organize and control it. He hated the pernicious 
 doncmas of Thomas Paine, and the whole batch of 
 French atheists and philosophers, who, by denying 
 the weakness of our fallen nature, would set man 
 against his fellow man, in vain efforts for abstract 
 justice and equality, and vainer eflbrts for human 
 perfectibility. He was a comervalivc in govemincuf . 
 He clung, perhaps too much, to things as they were, 
 for the dani'erous times in which he lived. He was 
 a supporter of the Union of the United States, as 
 long as it lasted ; and, when it went down, he looked 
 to the future with the gloomiest forebodings, — too 
 sadly realized, and still covered with darkness, when 
 death closed his eyes uj)on the terrii)le contest it 
 involved. Yet to the behests of his native State, in 
 casting off the Union of the United States, he bowed 
 with all humility. He feared ciiange ; for change in 
 governments too oltcn, Ik- knew, prodiici'd hiwless- 
 ness ill |io\ver, — a lawlessness which iii.i}' endanger
 
 26 MEMORIAL OF 
 
 the welfare of a State, more from its own agents 
 than from the power of external foes. Change also 
 broke off those habits of submission and support to a 
 government, which often constitute its strongest ele- 
 ment of stability. He tried, therefore, to follow the 
 injunction of the Psalmist, " Seek peace and insure 
 it." His generous and noble nature could not realize 
 the dangers others thought they saw hanging over 
 the destinies of the South from our Northern associ- 
 ates. He could not believe in their hate and hostil- 
 ity, when not only good faith, but manifest interest, 
 demanded a policy on their part of forbearance and 
 peace. Like thousands and tens of thousands of the 
 best men in the South, he could not understand the 
 characteristics of the people of the North until devel- 
 oped by the stern test of war. He was conservative 
 in religion. Like all men of strong convictions and 
 deep sensibilities, his reverence for holy things was 
 great. He admired the old writers, the old paths 
 of religion, the old organization, the old ritual, 
 the venerable ordinances of the Church. He clung 
 with admiration and love to the Church itself, as the 
 grand and appointed instrumentality for the eleva- 
 tion and salvation of men. His antique taste de- 
 lighted in old fanes, with their majestic and solemn 
 architecture, stained and worn by the waste of ages. 
 The mysteries of religion, inevitable from the nature 
 of God himself, and our finite intelligence, made 
 him no skeptic. They only made him wonder and 
 adore. Hard-by the place in St. Michael's, where, 
 for forty years, he attended the worship of God, he 
 now lies interred. We mourn our loss in the death
 
 JAMES L. PETIGIiU. 27 
 
 of such a man ; but our loss, we lium])ly trust, is liis 
 gain in eternal peace, happiness, and glory. The 
 language of the old Latin poet, with whom he was 
 so ftimiliar, in his Ode to Virgil on the death* of 
 Quintilius, may not be inappropriate : — 
 
 Cui Pudor, et Justitiai soror 
 Incorrupta Fides, nudaqtio voritas 
 
 Quando uUuin iiA'cniet parem ? 
 IMultis ille bonis flebilis oceidit: 
 Nulli Hebilior, quam tlbi Virgili. 
 
 Nelsox Mitchell, Esip, rose and said, — 
 
 Mr. Chairman, — x\s it has been my privilege, for 
 several years past, to enjoy the opportunity of free 
 and almost daily association with our deceased 
 brother, I would desire to add something, however 
 feeble, to the large though well-earned tribute 
 which his many virtues and striking qualities have 
 called forth. 
 
 It is not an uncommon impression, perhaps fre- 
 quently well founded, that much private and careless 
 intercourse, with those whose efforts on signal occa- 
 sions excite our admiration, tends rather to lower 
 our estimate of their powers and originality, 'i'his, 
 certainly, was not the case with regard to Mr. Peti- 
 gru. It was always after much and familiar inter- 
 course that our ;i|)preciati()n of lii:u was the highest. 
 The warmth of his love for justice, as for somethiu<r 
 incarnate; his jealous vigilance over tlie rights of 
 truth, and resentnient of fil-fhond in every form, as 
 of ;i personal wrong; tii;it unswerving intrepidity 
 ol' opinion wlii(;li so marked him ; iiis pathetic ten- 
 derness, not h'ss for nil huni.in infirmity th:in for
 
 '2S MEMOJRIAL OF 
 
 siiflering, — were always then most impressive ; the 
 breadth and vigor of his perceptions, his keen and 
 unsparing anal3'sis, so conspicuous that one would 
 ahuost doubt whether, on public occasions, even 
 when most successful, he had quite come up the 
 height and vigor of which his nature was capable. 
 
 We have all known and enjoyed the zest and in- 
 dividuality of his unrestrained conversation, the 
 interest of which was so much due to the liberality 
 and earnestness of his nature. He was not one of 
 those who thought, that, in this daily commerce, his 
 expenditures were to be nicely adapted to their 
 apparent importance or their immediate results. He 
 would, to a cordial though humble hearer lavish his 
 most felicitous illustrations and strikinsr views as 
 freely as to a large and influential assemblage. His 
 earnestness, too, especially commanded our respect, 
 Avhen considered in view of those graceful endow- 
 ments generally so productive and sometimes so 
 mischievous. 
 
 Gifted with a most subtle wit and genial apprecia- 
 tion of the ludicrous, any thing like levity or paradox 
 was always most foreign to him. Wit and humor 
 were never resorted to for mere patch-work embel- 
 lishments ; with him they were, for the most part, 
 modes of thous-ht, and instruments of illustration. 
 If at times he pursued a grotesque or pleasant image 
 beyond the range of his subject, we might be sure it 
 had originated there. 
 
 His instance was an instructive illustration of what 
 an error it is, in appreciating striking character, to 
 sever the moral from the intellectual and ambitious,
 
 JAMES L. PETIGRU. 29 
 
 instead of considerinu^ them too;ether. It was no 
 doubt owing much to the earnestness on which I 
 have dwelt, and his broad sympathies, that he so pre- 
 served the vigor of his faculties and the freshness of 
 his pulsations; for, though full ripe in years when 
 he terminated his career, to the last he exhibited 
 nothing of age but its dignity and its wisdom. 
 
 David Ramsay, Esq., followed. 
 
 Mr. Chairman, — I would fain add my tribute to 
 those of my seniors. Others have spoken of Mr. 
 Petigru to whom he was nearer in years and profes- 
 sional position ; but it will not be denied us, who 
 knew him in his later'life, to share the regret of con- 
 temporaries and immediate successors. As one of 
 his many students, I had much to thank him for; as 
 a member of the bar, I could feel proud of friendly 
 association with such a man. So much has been 
 said, fitting and decorous, that to speak again of his 
 professional or private character were to use only 
 enfeebling repetition. We are here to honor him as 
 an advocate, and have spoken of his successful career 
 as a great lawyer; that, fortunate in this career of 
 life, he was fortunate in the opportunity of his death ; 
 that, !is he lived to vindicate law, so he was not to 
 die before recalling the jurisprudence of his State, 
 under her sanction and commission, to system and 
 order. lie was yet more fortunate in associating his 
 name with higher principle than can be found in the 
 collilion of local laws: these partake of the infirmi- 
 ties of their times, and with them, hnjjpily for man, 
 must be forgotten. The i)cculiar liw of any pt'riod,
 
 30 MEMORIAL OF 
 
 the peculiar institution, will soon be a tradition, giv- 
 ing place to the better labor of a more enlightened 
 future ; yet from the date of man, through all his- 
 tory, interwoven with the very thread of time, is an 
 eternal right. Seldom does it fall to a purely legal 
 activity to vindicate essential principle ; but that 
 which is placed upon this height, whatever else the 
 waters of oblivion overwhelm, is flir above their 
 surge. The greatest jurist of the past, who linked 
 his name to the greatest code in human law, had, in 
 his remote age, to choose between right and life. 
 He sealed his testament with blood, preferring the 
 wrath of Caracalla to the accusation of innocence ; 
 and, long as remains language^ will vibrate, through 
 its various channels, the dying jurist's undying 
 answer, — " Qucb facia Icedunt imtatem, existhnaiionem, 
 vereciindiam, et, lit generaliter dixerim, contra bonos mores 
 fiunt, nee nos facer e jjosse credendumJ' James Louis 
 Petigru laid "a« offering of age upon the altar of justice^' 
 as unquenchable lustre. When the Sequestration 
 Act required the confidence of clients to be betrayed, 
 the trusts of imbecile age, incapable inftmcy, irres- 
 ponsible lunacy, the defence of widows and helpless 
 W'Omcn, the ties of nearest kindred and sacred grati- 
 tude, all to be abandoned, his was the voice that 
 gave denial to the delator's search. His last effort 
 was truly the coronation of his work. Who can for- 
 get his voice, so long eloquent for others, then plead- 
 ing for himself as to the question, why he made re- 
 fusal, as he answered with a despairing accent, " Be- 
 cause I was free born." He well deserved such heri- 
 tnge, for all his long life was devoted to Right, to
 
 JAMES L. PETIGRU. 31 
 
 Truth, to Freedom ; and, now that he is no more, 
 gratitude, friendship, and veneration are met to 
 mourn liim here, as in all the circles of his life. 
 Even when we are gone, all Ave loved and honored 
 forgotten, our laws and customs questions of anti- 
 quity, his last great defence will still survive. I 
 stand amono; those who shall see the dawn of another 
 age, in which his recollection will endure as long as 
 gratitude and affection; even afterwards, I know 
 that there is an unfading memory for those whose 
 words, in unison with the sublime harmony of eternal 
 Eight, rose above the transient discords of Time. 
 
 George S. Bryan, Esq., was, the next speaker. 
 
 Mr. CJudrman, — I feel that it is scarcely per- 
 mitted me to be a gleaner in this field, or to speak 
 at all in this presence ; and, if my relations with him 
 wdio has gone were simply those of a lawyer, I 
 misjfht well be silent. The "-eneration with whom he 
 passed the prime of his life, the renowned lawyers 
 and orators with whom he wrestled on this arena, — 
 Hayne, Hunt, McDuflie, Grimke, Bailey, Preston, 
 Legare, Harper, — have long gone to their rest. 
 With diffidence, those of us wlio are liere, the chil- 
 dren, as it were, the grandchildren, of him who has de- 
 parted, — with dillidence, indeed, may we attempt to 
 measure his mind, and (ix his rank as a lawyer. lUit 
 wlio of us shall sound tlie depths of his humanity ? 
 Who sliall measure his large heart ? Who shall seek 
 to circumscribe witliin strict lines that great liberal 
 ii.it me, wliicli, in its fulness, ovcrllowed ;ill bounds, 
 and poured itself all al)i(>;Ml ".' Who can describe the
 
 32 MEMORIAL OF 
 
 delights of his fellowship, and paint the pleasant, 
 familiar spirit, so merry and so gamesome ; jocund 
 as the morn ; bright and joyous as the spring with 
 all its birds, and warm as its quickening breath ? 
 
 Great and mirivalled was our friend as a lawyer, 
 touchingly and simply and profomidly eloquent as 
 an advocate, and distinguished and incomparable as 
 a wit ; but how much greater than all these the 
 genial, loving, heroic 7uan, James L. Petigru ! 
 
 His charity has been celebrated ; and never, in- 
 deed, could the words of the great poet be applied 
 more truly to any one than to him : — 
 
 " For his bounty, 
 There was no winter in't : an autumn 'twas, 
 That grew the more by reaping." 
 
 And how tender, considerate, and delicate in the 
 bestowal of his favors ! His benefits descended, like 
 the dews of the night, in silence, without a witness, 
 and were known only by their fruit, and the voice 
 of gratitude, which could not be silenced. The cry 
 of distress was to him as the voice of God. He 
 counted not the cost of his compassion : whether 
 his treasury was full or empty, he gave. He drew 
 upon the future when he had not, and made good 
 his drafts by toil, often continued deep into the 
 night, and frequently surprised by the first ray of 
 the morning. And he gave not only to the good : 
 it was enough that a fellow-creature" should be aban- 
 doned and forlorn and wretched to enlist his sympa- 
 thies and command his aid. And just at the point 
 that the world dropped such an one, and he had not 
 a friend, he bccauie his friend, and covered him with
 
 JAMES L. PETIGRU. 33 
 
 the mantle of his protection. It was for the only 
 Judge to judge and to punish: it was for him to pity 
 and to help. But his was not simplj^ the charity 
 that gives and serves : his also, in rare measure, 
 without pretension or profession, that diviner and 
 rarer charit}^, which " suflereth long, and is kind ; 
 envieth not; vaunteth not itself; is not puffed 
 up ; doth not behave itself unseemly ; seeketh not 
 her own ; is not easily provoked ; thinketh no evil ; 
 rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the 
 truth ; beareth all things, believeth all things, hopetli 
 all things, endureth all things." 
 
 How touching and sublime his patience under 
 every variety of ills ! And he whose instinct it was 
 to give and to aid, himself surprised by misfortune, 
 with what magnanimit}^ did he receive, with what 
 nobler generosity bear obligation, and, after ten- 
 fold requital, still owe, and ever pursue, with service, 
 affection, and gratitude, those who had stood b\^ him 
 in liis hour of trial ! 
 
 It was my fortune to have known him long, and 
 my unequalled privilege to have felt, as it were, the 
 beatings of his heart, wlien he had to meet the great 
 occasions of his life. That brave heart never Ihit- 
 tered or faltenvl in the i)ath of duty. l)ut, Mr. 
 Chairman, how mucli it cost liim to be true to coun- 
 try, to deny affection, to dilfcr utterly with those 
 whom lie tendc'rly loved, mid to turn his loving na- 
 ture away from those, wlio, dilfering, yet chmg to 
 him ! 
 
 And lie whose business it was (o deal wilh the 
 sul)tlelies of lufu and subtk'ties of the law, ;iiid
 
 34 MEMORIAL OF 
 
 whose life was passed in the metropolis of trade, and 
 centre of politeness, — how free he was from all mo- 
 dislmess, sophistication, and art ! His eyes first open- 
 ing upon the light amidst the virgin scenes of Nature, 
 he was ever her unweaned child. His devotion to 
 her, knowing no abatement, only grew warmer and 
 fonder with advancing years. He loved to quit the 
 hackneyed haunts of men, and to 'be alone with her. 
 And she repaid his fidelity with her own rewards. 
 The freshness of her fields enveloped him as an 
 atmosphere ; and she breathed into him the spirit of 
 her owm immortal youth, and for the barrenness and 
 frosts of age she gave him the crowned garlands of 
 spring. 
 
 It is a grave error that he was, as has been sup- 
 posed, indifferent to opinion, and careless of office ; 
 that he did not appreciate the seat and authority of 
 the magistrate, and properly estimate those high 
 places, which, whilst they afford the surest passports 
 to distinction and the largest opportunities of useful- 
 ness, are accepted by the multitude as the only 
 measure of mind, and evidence of greatness. Pie 
 knew well the value of the golden candlestick to the 
 candle ; and that a light, to be seen aflir, must be set 
 upon a hill. No one more than he submitted rever- 
 ently to all just authority ; no one more than he was 
 a lover of order ; no one felt more profoundly the 
 deep significance of the line of the inspired sage and 
 poet, — 
 
 " Take but degree away, untune that string." 
 
 No one loved his countrymen and fellow-men with a 
 fonder aflection, and craved their recognition and
 
 JAMES L. PETIGBU. 35 
 
 sympathy with a more passionate longing ; and, if it 
 ever seemed otherwise, it was but the frettins; of the 
 eddy, produced by the very depth and force of the 
 current ; and no one more than he could feel denial, 
 postponement, exclusion, suppression. lie bore them 
 all with manly fortitude ; with cheerful submission, 
 without parade ; a martyr, without affecting martyr- 
 dom ; defeated, but never overthrown. 
 
 " Who hatli beheld decline upon his brow, 
 Or seen his mind's convulsion leave it weak ? " 
 
 His own individual greatness sufficed to sustain 
 him. But he suffered ; and, suffering, he was willing 
 to suffer in the cause of truth and justice. For them 
 he was prepared to suffer all things. As, in his 
 . charity, he was charitable at the cost of ease and 
 wealth and ceaseless toil ; so, in his love of country, 
 he was faithful at the expense of place and power 
 and fame. He had ambition, — the ambition of excel- 
 lence, of service, of a pure fame, — that echo of the 
 world's abiding respect, affection, and gratitude. He 
 knew that the mere practising lawyer, like the mere 
 practising physician, unless he reach the heights of 
 oratory or speak from the chair of the professor, can 
 serve only his neighbors, and can scarcely hope to 
 escape from provincial obscurity ; and though ho 
 may be useful, may be honored, may have troops of 
 friends, m;iy live in an atmosphere of gratitude, yet 
 his name scarcely survives the day of bis death, and, 
 at best, lives onl}' in the remembrance of the genera- 
 tion he served and the nciii^hborliood for wliom he 
 labored. It would have been an escape and a relielj
 
 36 MEMOniAL OF 
 
 and a matter for sober joy, if, in an office worthy of 
 his abihty, and commensurate with his gifts and 
 accomphshments, he could have been permitted to 
 have dispensed justice to this once broad country, 
 and enunciated universal principles in a manner to 
 have challenged the lasting admiration, respect, and 
 honor of mankind. To have sat alongside of Mar- 
 shall and Story, and from that seat where the judge 
 must frequently become the lawgiver, and founding 
 his decisions upon the broadest sentiments of equity, 
 whilst he pronounces as a judge, must teach as a 
 moralist, — to have been allowed to speak from such 
 a commanding height, and granted the opportunity 
 of clothins: Eio;ht in the forms which would have 
 made the world and the latest generations his reader 
 and debtor ; which would have carried his name to 
 Westminster Hall, and commended it as an author- 
 ity to be cited by the great and good in all lands, 
 in the profession to which he devoted his life, — this 
 would have been with him, indeed, a crowning con- 
 solation, and his cup would have been full. 
 
 This he had to forego ; this he had consciously to 
 forego. He knew that the gate to power — the only 
 gate to power in the Confederacy — was through 
 the State. Thromirh that door alone could he reach 
 the country and the world, and hope to win the 
 large distinction worthy of his genius. He loved 
 his people better than himself; and he could not sub- 
 scribe* to a creed which he believed would carry 
 death to the countrj^, and bring ruin on his State ; 
 and, without complaint, he submitted himself to his 
 limited lot and narrow destiny.
 
 JAMES L. PETIGEU. 37 
 
 Justice it was that ruled all his noble life : with 
 him it was but an expression for Deity, with which 
 he could no more trifle than with his Maker, and 
 to which he bowed in utter and child-like submission. 
 This it was that made him the friend, and not the 
 flatterer, of the people ; the champion of equal rule 
 and law, and the unswerving foe of license and self- 
 will, wdiether of the people, the demagogue, or the 
 despot ; this the inspiration and the soul of his death- 
 less love of liberty : this it was that lifted him above 
 the distinctions of class, of wealth, of power, and 
 made him so strong against the oppressor; which 
 reared his arm so defiantly against all power that 
 would play the tyrant, whether that of an individual 
 or a class, or whether it came clothed with the sanc- 
 tions and authority of government. He counted not 
 government itself, when it would command to wrong : 
 he was willing to suffer wrong, but could not be 
 made to do it. He was faithful to justice, even when 
 the sentimeut of country had to be opposed ; and 
 bore it triumphantly in the face of all opposition, 
 and dared to be true at the hazard of reproach and 
 contumely, and desertion of friends. 
 
 He has gone to his rest. lie hm so lived as to win 
 from all I he award Ihal he tvas an honest man, and to 
 vnite even his opponents in the declaration, tkd, however 
 v'idebj he may have erred, he teas still true. It toil I be for 
 a different people or remoter ricncration to sit in judijment 
 upon his opinions and counsels, and to concede or Uemj to 
 him the merit of supe?-ior ?i'isdom. 
 
 I have been betrayed into sa} iug more than I had 
 thought to say. Would only that it weie worthier!
 
 38 MF: MORTAL OF 
 
 But I could not be silent when he Wcas to be lionored, 
 "whose face, from my bojdiood, was never turned 
 upon me but in kindness, and whose friendship I 
 have counted the honor, privilege, solace, and suffi- 
 cient support of iny life, under all circumstances. 
 
 By request of Gen. William E. Martin, and in bis absence, Hon. 
 "William D. Porter read the following tribute from hiin : — 
 
 Mr. Chcdrman, — Having been unexpectedly de- 
 prived of the mournful gratification of joining the 
 bar in person in their tribute to our deceased brother, 
 I solicit the indulgence of the meeting to be permitted 
 to pl.ice on record my sense of our deep and irrepa- 
 rable loss. If this w^ere one of the usual assemblages 
 which often sadly enough call us together, I should 
 not attach sufficient importance to my position to 
 prefer so unusual a request. But I hope the indul- 
 gence Avill be extended to me in consideration of the 
 friendship of our distinguished brother, which I in- 
 herited from one whom he loved dearly ; a friend- 
 ship of which I have received the delightful and 
 never-to-be-forgotten proofs, from my earliest recollec- 
 tion to the last interview I had with him in the sick- 
 ness which removed him from us. 
 
 No one within my observation has gone down to 
 the graveleavinga wider circle of devotedly attached 
 friends than Mr. Petigru. I have seen others pass 
 away, wdiose position attracted more of the notice 
 of the world. They occupied some one or other of 
 the theatres — the senate, the field, or the world 
 of letters — on which national flime is acquired. He 
 filled none of these. The forum, a limited one, too,
 
 JAMES L. PETIGRU. 39 
 
 for one fitted to shine in one so much more extended, 
 and the social circle, ever gladdened by his presence, 
 were the principal and almost only spheres in which 
 he moved. In his long and laborious and useful life, 
 he became personally well known to a' very large num- 
 ber of individuals. The memory, therefore, which lives 
 after him, is that of personal knowledge, derived from 
 actual notice and observation by a very large number 
 of countrymen and countrywomen. It may be safely 
 affirmed, that no one has left behind him more actual 
 endurino; recollections of srreatness of mind, extent and 
 range of acquirement, and the charm and fxscination 
 of social intercourse. 
 
 My pen would fiil in an}^ attempt to sketch the 
 greatness of his professional achievements. From the 
 time when he first appeared, the member of a coun- 
 try bar, unaided by friends, and unsupported by the 
 adventitious circumstances which often introduce men 
 to public notice, he exhibited that " persistive consis-. 
 tency" which early marked him as one certain of 
 bearing of!' the highest honors of his profession ; and, 
 long before the day and generation of many here 
 present, he had fulfilled the expectations of his eaily 
 promise. It could not have been otherwise. In the 
 commencement of his studies, he laid broadly and 
 deeply the foundation upon which was built the super- 
 fjtructnrc of those great attainments which have ele- 
 vated him to so enviable a rank in his profession. 
 Tlie law was studied by Mr. Petigrii as a great and 
 noble science. He drank, not from the muddy stream 
 whicli Hows by tbe side of llie connnon wayfarer, l)ut 
 IJir up where it spi'ings puie and undcHlcd iVom llie
 
 40 MEMOniAL OF 
 
 sources of tlio fountain. His legal opinions rested 
 upon great principles ; and, when he quoted decided 
 cases, he did not seem to have derived his views from 
 them, but rather to adduce them for the purpose of 
 showing the concurrence of other minds in the posi- 
 tions he held. He seemed rather to sustain the cases 
 than they to sustain him. In the ethics of his profession 
 he set the brightest example. To beginners he was 
 always kind and accessible. He did not avail himself 
 of any technical exception, unless it involved the 
 merits of the controversy; and, in his own language, 
 " did not remember ever to have turned a lawyer out 
 of court because he did not understand his business." 
 The distin(i:iiishino; traits of his legral mind were love 
 of truth and justice. Hence it has been often re- 
 marked, that no honor or emolument could tempt 
 him into a cause where either was violated. He was 
 much distinguished by moral courage ; and those 
 familiar with him will recall striking instances where 
 he has espoused, without expectation of reward, and 
 in opposition to the frowns of the community, the 
 cause of those whom he deemed friendless and op- 
 pressed. With his ardent temperament, and his innate 
 sympathy w^th the weak, he may have doubtless 
 sometimes exhibited that strong professional bias from 
 which no one is exempt; but there are few whose 
 judgments, if so clouded, could lay claim to so much 
 of generosit}^, and disinterestedness of motive. He was 
 always remarkable for becoming identified with his 
 client. Once embarked, and convinced of the justice 
 and equity of his cause, he spared not himself in its 
 su[)port. Those who have observed him in there-
 
 JAMES L. PETIGRU. 41 
 
 sponsible position of an advocate in a capital cause 
 will accord to him all that self-immolation so well 
 described by a great modern jurist; though I do not 
 mean that his patriotism would justify the application 
 of the concluding paragraph : — 
 
 " The advocate knows, in the discharge of his office, 
 but one person in the world, — that client, and none 
 other. To save that client by all prudent means, to 
 protect that client at all hazard and cost to all others, 
 and among others to himself, is the highest and most 
 unquestioned qf his duties. He must not regard the 
 alarm, the suffering, the torment, the destruction, 
 which he may bring on any others ; nay, separating 
 even the duties of a patriot from those of an advocate, 
 and casting them, if need be, to the wind, he must go 
 on, reckless of the consequences, if his fate should be 
 unhappily to involve his country in confusion for his 
 client's protection." 
 
 All the professional honors our friend desired were 
 conferred upon him through life ; and the latest he 
 received was the highest, rendered as it was at a 
 time of great excitement, when his political views 
 were well known not to be in harmony with those 
 of the State. Such an instance, so rare in republics, 
 is alike a testimonial to the excellence of his life and 
 character, and creditable to the magnanimity of the 
 Commonwealth. He loved the State with all the 
 ;ird()r of his entliusijif-tic nature; and she testified to 
 his latest breath tliat ho enjoyed nlikc her esteem, 
 lu-r confidence, iiud her love. 
 
 IJut willi all oiu- pride in contem[)lating the honor 
 he conferred upon oiii- profession by bis upright
 
 42 MEMOIilAL OF 
 
 walks in its paths, with all the gratitude we feel for 
 setting us all an example so well worthy to be fol- 
 lowed, I turn with greater pleasure to the contem- 
 plation of his character and virtues. There is an 
 inner circle into which I would not presume to in- 
 trude on this public occasion ; in which, perhaps, 
 he was seen, of all others, to the greatest advantage. 
 As friends and companions only are we now per- 
 mitted to speak of him. 
 
 There was a charm in his society rarely met with. 
 We all knew him to be a man of great courage. 
 We felt in our daily intercourse that he was very 
 kind of heart j that his temperament was genial, and 
 his affections remarkable for their tenderness. Those 
 whom he loved he loved always, through the world's 
 frowns, as well as through its smiles ; and, when they 
 died, he loved the children for the parents' sake. 
 His attachments never grew cold. His feelings 
 seemed always young. There was a freshness about 
 them rarely found among those of advanced years ; 
 and they were manifested not only to individuals, 
 but also in local attachments. The blight which in- 
 tercourse with the world, and many disappointments, 
 often throw over the feelings of earlier years, seem 
 to have been unknown by him ; and years brought 
 no abatement of early affections. 
 
 It is no wonder, therefore, that his society was a 
 source of unmingled pleasure to the aged, the middle- 
 aged, and the child. All were warmed and glad- 
 dened by his presence. They met him with pleasure, 
 and separated from him with regret. 
 
 Our last earthly separation has come. It has come
 
 JAMES L. PETIGBU. 43 
 
 to US who were cheered and gladdened by his pres- 
 ence; whose time passed pleasantly when he was 
 with us ; who have witnessed his triumphs, and re- 
 joiced at his success. ■ All of him has not left us. 
 We can never be deprived of his pleasant memories. 
 His monument is in the heart of each as an enduring 
 monument to true friendship, manly sincerity, high 
 courage, generosity, and benevolence. 
 
 " Ars utinam mores animumque effingere posset, 
 Pulchrior in terris — nulla tabula foret." 
 
 Rendered by one of Mr. Petigru's pupils beautifully 
 thus : — 
 
 " Could Art but paint his manners and his mind, 
 Earth would produce no tablet of the kind." 
 
 John Phillips, Esq., oifercd the following additional resolution : — 
 
 Resolved, That the Chief Justice of this State,- the Hon. John B. 
 O'Neall, be requested to deliver an eulogy on the life and character of 
 the late James L. Petigru, LL.D., at such time and place as will suit his 
 convenience. 
 
 B. J. Whaley, Esq., also submitted the following resolution : — 
 Resolved, That, as an additional mark of our appreciation of the learn- 
 in" and virtues of Mr. Petigru, the members of this bar do cause to be 
 painted a full-length portrait of him, to be placed in the Library Room 
 of the Court of Appeals ; and that, to this end, the Chairman of this meet- 
 ing do appoint a Committee to be charged therewith. 
 
 The preamble and resolutions were then put by the Chairman, and 
 unanimously adopted. The resolutions of Mr. John Piiillii-s and ^[r. 
 B. J. Wjialky, were also unanimously adopted. 
 
 On motion of J. W. Gkay, Es<i., the proceedings of the meeting were 
 
 ordered to be published in the newspapers of the city. 
 
 On motion of Mr. CJkay, the meeting llicn adjourned. 
 
 C. IliciiAUDSON Milks, Secretary.
 
 I ,r SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FAClUn^ 
 
 AA 000 555 888 7
 
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