As for myself, I shall be content to take my seat in the Senate of the United States." This little passage in the lives of the three gay companions, has only become notable from the singular fulfilment of the jocular prophecy in respect to each of the parties. Within a year or two after the marriage of his daughter, Doctor Gilmer died. In the division of his estate, which became necessary upon this event, a portion of it, known as Rose Hill, was allotted to the young wife and her husband, and here Wirt built a house, which thenceforth, nominally, became his residence. Rose Hill was in the vicinity of Pen Park, and as its new proprietors had no children, they spent so much of their time in the family mansion, as scarcely to allow us to say they had changed their dwelling place. Amongst the several letters of Wirt, which have been preserved, belonging to this period, I find them all dated at Pen Park, affording evidence of the fact that the writer had not ceased to regard himself as an inhabitant of the domicil. I am tempted here to give one of these letters written, in the spring of 1799, to his friend Carr, which, dealing with a matter of no more importance than an invitation to dinner, may, nevertheless, interest the reader by the picture it affords of the light-heartedness of its author. "I cannot go over to see you to-day, my good friend. And I have almost as many, and as solid reasons for my conduct, as Doctor Ross had for not wearing stockings with boots. The first of his was, that he had no stockings, and his catechiser was satisfied. Let us see whether you will be as candid. "Firstly. We have a troop of visiting cousins here, who have come from afar, and whom we cannot, you know, decently invite to leave our house. "Secondly. We have, perhaps, finer lamb and lettuce to-day, for dinner, than ever graced the table of Epicurus, not meaning to imply any thing to the dishonor of Donlora or Dunlora,-or something, I forget what. "Thirdly. Mr. Ormsby is here, who brings an historical, topographical, critical, chronological and fantastical account of Kentucky and its inhabitants. "Fourthly. To conclude, we have determined that, immediately upon the receipt of this, you are to start for this place; for, you observe, that the same reasons which justify my staying at home, prove the propriety, and, I hope you will think, necessity of your coming hither."* ⚫ I have to acknowledge my indebtedness, for much of what I have been able to collect relating to the family of Doctor Gilmer, and Mr. Wirt's connection with it, to the kind assistance of the Hon. Wm. C. Rives, of Castle Hill, in Albemarle, and of his friend and neighbor, Mr. Franklin Minor, a grandson of Doctor Gilmer. I may take this occasion also to express my obligations to Mr. David Holmes Conrad, of Berkeley, for some interesting particulars relating to Judge Carr, and to Messrs. John R. Thompson, of Richmond, the accomplished editor of the Southern Messenger, and John M. Muschett, of Charles county, Maryland, for very acceptable contributions respecting the early life and professional history of Mr. Wirt. To numerous other friends I owe the same acknowledgment for many favors received in the course of my occupation upon these memoirs, and must content myself with this general proffer of my thanks, for services which have not been less useful to me than they have been indicative of the highest appreciation of the worth of the subject of my labors. VOL. 1-7 CHAPTER VI. 1799-180 2. HAPPY LIFE AT PEN PARK.-MISFORTUNE.-DEATH OF HIS WIFE.-RE- ORATION.-EMBARRASSED THE term of his residence in Albemarle may be reckoned as marking the golden days of William Wirt's youth. He came to this region poor, and we may say, without friends-at least, without such friends as open to us the road to fortune. He was inexperienced in the business of life, provided with no great store of useful knowledge, not yet sufficiently acquainted with the strength or value of his faculties to give him assurance of his fitness for the contests through which alone the career he had chosen might become prosperous. We may imagine him also, neither over-confident in his discretion nor sanguine in his dependance upon the guidance of his judgment. Yet here it was his happiness to witness the quick growth of esteem and consideration: to become conscious, day by day, of the unfolding of those talents which were adequate to the winning of a good renown. Here he found himself growing, with rapid advance, in the affections of a circle of friends, whose attachment was then felt as a cheerful light upon his path, and which promised a not less benign radiance over his future days. But above all other gratifications, here it was that he became an inmate of that delightful home which love had furnished, and which wise counsel and instruction made as precious to the mind, as its other allurements had made it to the heart. We err if we believe that a life of unmixed content is the most auspicious to the fortunes of a young aspirant for fame. It need not be told to those who have been most active in the emulous trials by which consideration is won in the world, that the highest order of talent stands in need of the spur of occasional disappointment to stimulate its vigor, nor that a career of uninterrupted enjoyment is apt to dull the lustre of the brightest parts, and extinguish the ambition of the most generous and capable natures. Adversity is not unfrequently the most healthful ingredient in the cup of human experience, and the best tonic to brace the mind for those encounters in which virtue is proved and renown achieved. Wirt was brought to the test of this truth more than once during that period of happy sojourn amongst the delights of Pen Park. We have already noticed the death of Doctor Gilmer, his instructor, guide and friend. In the fifth year of his marriage a more severe calamity fell upon him, in the loss of his wife. This event came with an overwhelming anguish, to teach him, if not the first, certainly the most painful lesson of his life, upon the uncertainty of human happiness and the duty of establishing our hopes upon surer foundations than the treasures of earth. There is observable in the early letters of Mr. Wirt, some occasional indications of that sentiment of reverence for religious subjects, which, towards the close of his life, had expanded into the prominent characteristic of his mind. No occasion of hilarity, no companionship of wild and careless spirits, no youthful indiscretion seems ever to have betrayed him into the profanation of subjects esteemed sacred, or to the practice of the scoffs and jests which are too currently indulged in the festivities of thoughtless youth, or of unthinking age. The death of his wife naturally strengthened this sentiment and furnished occasion for the improvement of his heart, in the entertainment of more earnest pursuit and study of religious topics. I do not mean to affirm that this event led him to any external profession of religious duty; or that it, in any very perceptible degree, altered his demeanor in the presence of the world; but it had its influence in impressing more deeply upon his character that profound sense of the sacredness of spiritual truth, and the solace of christian faith, which every healthful, reflective mind finds in the meditations which are prompted by the death of those we love. The time had now come when he was once more to be thrown upon the world. His marriage had been without children. There was no tie but that of friendship and the remembrance of an over thrown affection, to hold him to this spot. He was young. The world was still before him; not less promising in its offer of the prize of ambition than it had been. Friends beckoned him to the labors of a fresh contest. An aching memory drove him from the scenes that surrounded him. The mind torn by grief yields readily to the solicitations of adventure, and finds a double stimulus to action, in the desire to escape from present suffering, and the hope to surround itself with new objects of affection. Before He determined to establish his residence in Richmond. he abandoned Pen Park, he placed a tablet over the grave of her who had first brought him to this spot. The inscription upon it tells, in brief, nearly the whole history of this portion of his lifefor it speaks of the two events most indelibly impressed upon his heart, and the sentiment that filled up the interval between the two dates to which they refer: "HERE LIES MILDRED, DAUGHTER OF George and LUCY GILMER, WIFE OF WILLIAM WIRT. She was born August 15th, 1772, married May 28th, 1795, and died Sept. 17th, 1799. Come round her tomb each object of desire, Thus closed a short episode in his life, which comprehended some five years of early manhood, illustrated by his first access to that circle of friends who became the solace of his after days, and by the experience of the purest of all delights, the associations of the domestic hearth, its affections and its virtues. The bitterness of that misfortune which broke in upon this period of content, for a time suspended his practice, and drove him to other scenes and occupations. He went to Richmond, where the Legislature was in session. His friends in that body I am almost afraid to claim these verses as original. But I believe they were written by Mr. Wirt. If my reader, more conversant than I am with the stores of this kind of literature, should be able to trace them to another author, he will excuse my error. They resemble in style and structure some few poetical effusions of Mr. W. which have come to my hands. |