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CHAPTER VII.

1802-1803.

ELECTED TO THE POST OF CHANCELLOR.-VALUE OF THIS APPOINTMENT.— REASONS FOR ACCEPTING IT.-COL. ROBERT GAMBLE.-COURTSHIP.-A THEATRICAL INCIDENT.-SECOND MARRIAGE.-REMOVES TO WILLIAMSBURG. LETTERS TO CARR.-RESIGNS THE CHANCELLORSHIP AND DETERMINES TO GO TO NORFOLK.

In the session of the Legislature which terminated in the winter of 1802, the last of the three sessions in which Wirt was the clerk of the House of Delegates, an act was passed for dividing the Chancery jurisdiction of the State into three districts. Heretofore the whole of this jurisdiction had been vested in a single Chancellor, and the venerable George Wythe had, for a long period, discharged its duties, with a fidelity and learned skill which have placed him in the rank of the most eminent jurists of the country. The increasing business of the court, however, had now rendered it indispensable that the labor should be distributed, and the Legislature had therefore passed the act to which I have referred.

The clerk of the House was agreeably surprised, before the close of this session, to find that the Legislature had selected him for one of these new appointments. He was altogether ignorant of their purpose to confer this honor upon him, until the moment when he was requested to withdraw from the House of Delegates, in order that his nomination might be made and the election proceeded with. He was elected by a unanimous vote. An honor of such magnitude, conferred under such circumstances, speaks very intelligibly as to the estimation in which the subject of it was held. He was at this time twenty-nine years of age. He had the professional experience of his country practice in Albemarle, and that of some two years in the more extended theatre of the Richmond courts; but he was still what might be considered a junior at the bar, and scarcely in a position to attract the public attention for a post so grave and responsible in its duties, as a Chancellor,

unless we suppose him to have given decided and satisfactory manifestations of a capability to attain high eminence in his profession. It had not entered into his imaginings to expect such a mark of favor from the Legislature. The same diffidence in himself which forbade him to solicit such a distinction, now wrought in him some perturbation of spirit in the accepting of it. It is not always the quality of true genius to distrust itself, for there are instances of men of the brightest parts protruding themselves upon the public, with that eager self-commendation which we are accustomed to call vanity, in weaker minds;-but this attribute of diffidence is so generally the accompaniment of youthful merit, that we scarcely err when we reckon upon it as one of the signs by which we may prophesy future success. So full of apprehension, was the newly designated Chancellor on this occasion, of his ability to acquit himself in this high function with credit and usefulness, that, it is told of him, he called upon the Governor, Mr. Monroe, then, and always afterwards, his friend, and who most probably had something to do with the nomination, to communicate his doubts and fears as to his suitableness either in age

or acquirement for the post. "Mr. Monroe," says my authority,

"replied, that the Legislature, he doubted not, knew very well what it was doing, and that it was not probable he would disappoint either it, or the suitors of the court."*

The district assigned to him in this appointment, comprehended the Eastern Shore of Virginia and the tide-water counties below Richmond. The duties of the station required that he should reside in Williamsburg, a point rich in associations with the history of the State, and where was to be found a cultivated and refined society, in every respect most likely to prove agreeable to the tastes of the new functionary.

In adverting to this appointment and its consequences, in the following letter to his friend Carr, written after he had reached Williamsburg, he reveals the considerations which influenced him, in terms which show how justly and how deeply he was impressed with the necessity of a more sedate pursuit of those better aims in life to which I have, more than once referred. It will be remarked, in the reading of the first paragraph of this letter, that

* Cruse's Memoir.

Carr was desirous to obtain the clerkship just made vacant by the preferment of his friend."

MY DEAR Dabney:

WILLIAMSBURG, February 12, 1802.

This moment I received yours of the 5th. First, with regard to the clerkship. You will have heard, before this reaches you, that on the evening preceding the last day of the session, James Pleasants was elected clerk, for the purpose of making his way easy at the next session. If, after this, you determine to offer for the place, you may expect from me all that the warmest friendship can perform. And though I am removed from the immediate scene of action, I flatter myself I could be of service to you.

Now, for my honor. As to the profit, it is a decent maintenance. Next year, the probability is, it will be worth five hundred pounds, on which I can live. And although the clerkship, together with my practice, would have produced more cash, yet it was precarious, and therefore subjected me to the hazard of living beyond its limits. It was earned, too, by that kind of labor which left no opportunity for the further cultivation of the mind.

There is another reason, entre nous. I wished to leave Richmond on many accounts. I dropped into a circle dear to me for the amiable and brilliant traits which belonged to it, but in which I had found, that during several months, I was dissipating my health, my time, my money and my reputation. This conviction dwelt so strongly, so incessantly on my mind that all my cheerfulness forsook me, and I awoke many a morning with the feelings of a madman.

I had resolved to leave Richmond, and was meditating only a decent pretext to cover my retreat. In this perplexity, the appointment descended upon me, unsolicited, unthought of, with the benevolent grace of a guardian angel. Yes, my dear Dabney, if I do not fill the office with justice, at least, to my country, it shall not be for want of unremitting effort on my part.

VOL. 1-8

Your friend,

WM. WIRT.

The Chancellor entered upon his employment, as we may infer from this letter, with a hearty resolve to make this event an era from which he might date the beginning of a graver and more steadfast career of duty and self-control.

During his residence in Richmond, his good fortune brought him into an intimacy with the family of Colonel Robert Gamble. This gentleman was a merchant in that city, and was greatly esteemed for his probity and intelligence. He was wealthy, or, at least, in the enjoyment of a competency which enabled him to practise a liberal hospitality. His fireside was familiar to the most cultivated society of the time. His manners were grave and thoughtful, such as attract the deference of the elder portions of the community, and command the reverence of the young.

The clerk of the House of Delegates had a special motive, beyond that of his companions who frequented Colonel Gamble's house, to desire his good opinion. His unguarded life, unfortunately, rendered this, perhaps, a more hazardous venture, than many others found it. His intimacy brought him within the sphere of the attraction of one who was destined to become the guardian spirit of his life. It was not long after the period to which our narrative has now arrived, that Elizabeth, the second daughter of Col. Gamble, became the wife of the subject of this memoir. Of all the fortunate incidents in the life of William Wirt, his marriage with this lady, may be accounted the most auspicious. During the long term of their wedlock, distinguished for its happy influence upon the fortunes of both, her admirable virtues, in the character of wife and mother, her tender affection and watchful solicitude in every thing that interested his domestic regard, and in all that concerned his public repute, commanded from him a devotion which, to the last moment of his life, glowed with an ardor that might almost be called romantic.

In the many letters which have been preserved, written by Mr. Wirt to his wife, beginning in the earliest period of their acquaintance, and continued to the last, most of which have passed under the review of the author of this biography,—if such confidences could be published to the world, they would exhibit to the reader the most agreeable evidences of an attachment of which time had no power to dull the edge, and which not less intensely engrossed the affections of his mature age, than it commanded the

worship of his early manhood. No eulogy can better express the merit of a woman, than such a tribute from one so able to observe, and so formed to appreciate female excellence.

This prize was not won without many apprehensions. The lover had not yet given that hostage to fortune, which might be said to strengthen the assurance of the father in the success of the young votary.

The giving away a daughter's hand, is a perilous and responsible office to a parent. Men weigh this matter, often, with painful anxiety, even when the foundations for hope are strongest. The clerk of the House, we must admit, was not in the safest category for a father's ready consent. There are some men who ripen early, and, at eight or nine and twenty, have their full freight of discretion and judgment. There are others whose boyhood runs into a later date. Wirt was one of these, as they who were intimate with him in advanced life, might testify. A certain boyishness of character, if I may call it so, did not altogether desert his mature age, and, indeed, often disputed the mastery in it. Colonel Gamble, the story goes, had his doubts whether the suitor should be presently sped in his enterprise, or whether he should wait for a longer probation. When he was consulted by the misgiving candidate on that awful point, "to be, or not to be," there was some demur, and the young gentleman was put upon his good behaviour.

During this interval, as the tale has been told, Col. Gamble had occasion, one summer morning, at sunrise, to visit his future sonin-law's office. It unluckily happened that Wirt had, the night before, brought some young friends there, and they had had a merry time of it, which had so beguiled the hours, that even now, at sunrise, they had not separated. The Colonel opened the door, little expecting to find any one there at that hour. His eyes fell upon the strangest group. There stood Wirt with the poker in his right hand, the sheet-iron blower fastened upon his left arm, which was thrust through the handle; on his head was a tin wash basin, and, as to the rest of his dress-it was hot weather, and the hero of this grotesque scene had dismissed as much of his trappings as comfort might be supposed to demand, substituting for them a light wrapper that greatly added to the theatrical effect. There he stood in this whimsical caparison, reciting, with an