THE FAR WEST
Archibald Cary finally left the University of Virginia when he was twenty-one years old. He had come to man's estate and could now make his own plans for the future. On June 11, 1836 he writes to his sister Mary in Alexan- dria: "My lot is destined to be cast somewhere in the Far West, apart from friends, relations, nay acquaintances.'
In the view of his generation, the Far West was the valley of "Ole Man River' But instead of the friendless solitude he depicts, he had agreed to join in that remote and disconcerting world his own kinsman William Mann Randolph. Mr. Randolph had left the University of Virginia three years earlier with the degree of B.L. and had promptly migrated to Grand Gulf on the Mississippi, where he was now practicing law. He subsequently knit still closer the relationship to Archibald Cary by marrying the latter's first counsin, Margaret, daughter of Thomas Jefferson Randolph of Edge Hill, and some years later he became Judge of the Probate Court of Claiborne County, Mississippi.
But young Cary wished, no doubt to impress upon his older sister, the melancholy of hisexpected
solitude. This gift for self-dramatization has not been unknown among his descendants.
In this same letter he commends the youngest member of the family, Martha Jefferson Cary, called "Patsy." He writes: "Pat has written me a very good letter, both as of execution and composition. I am delighted to see her improvement, for I have her education more at heart than any other thing at
present. My anxiety on that subject may be appreciated when it is recollected that all my powers have been employed to the attainment of that one posession ever since I knew the responsibility of my
existence." Here, at the outset of his career, we see a very serious young man indeed--both serious and ambitious, which is good.
He had been deeply impressed by his father's longing for the promised land of the "Far West" and was now vicariously to fulfill his father's dream.
A dozen of Archibald Cary's letters from Mississippi to his family in Virginia have survived. His handwriting is clear and easily legible; there are almost no corrections or interlineations. The general impression made by his letters is of an orderly, neat and self-respecting young man. There is no sign of disorderly or dissipated habits. He was earnest, industrious and ambitious. We miss a sense of
fanciful humor, but now that he is active and interested and is dealing with men and events, he forgets his tendency to dramatize himself.
The long journey had begun in Baltimore in October 1837, in the company of a group of kinsfolk westward bound. From there they travelled by the "accomodation line" of stage-coaches which carried them in four days to Wheeling. There they stayed for two days--with relatives, of course! Archibald had begun to enjoy the excitement of travel, his chief worry being that he had left behind a carpet bag containing his law book
At Wheeling, they boarded an Ohio River Steamer. He writes: "Our principle in selecting a boat was to avoid the crack boats of the river as the ones to which accidents would likely occur. On this account we did not take the Ceylon although it was canvassed, and fortunate for us was it that we did not for she was burnt up at the mouth of Salt River in Kentucky. The Wilmington on which we
embarked was new, substantial and slow, and but for the absence of a good pilot our voyage would have been as uninterrupted as it was safe. Unfortunately the river was low and on that account the unskillfulness of the pilot man- aged to delay us three or four days on the different bars of the river. We left Louisville the 11th [November] and arrived at Vicksburg the 23rd, making an extraordinarily
long passage.... The time, instead of hanging heavily on my hands, passed pleasantly and profitably, and the recollection alone of that agreeable female society will go far to repress and keep back the leanings and inclination in every man's nature to become savage in this Country. Nothing could show more plainly the gap between "then" and "now" in American society than this naive observation !
He continues: "Vicksburg is certainly a remarkable place. Notwithstanding the shock of thelate
pressure [the panic of 1837] the transactions there are more active and the business more abounding than in any city I've vis- ited since leaving New York. The energies of the citizens seem to be undying, their city pride unconquerable. They have risen up in arms against New Orleans and cut off al- most entirely the trade between the two cities, enjoyed a monopoly until now by the latter. Thewharves
piled up with cotton bales, three or four large ships discharging goods to reload with the invaluable staple of the South all indicate unconquerable and undaunted spirit. But the number of the professional men is still more astonishing.
There are upwards of forty lawyers in Vicksburg and the bar continuing to increase daily. However, about one-half are doomed to starve, for a few monopolize the business. There's Wm. Ritchie, an educated, talented, polished, travelled gentleman, not making money enough for the salt in his bread !"
"On my arrival in Gr. Gulf, I found the health of the place perfectly restored, although the yellow fever yet rages in Natchez. Many have died at the G., but it was pleasant to find the rumor had killed several useful citizens who were alive to disprove the charge."
He concludes his letter with a brief but caustic comment on the political situation in Mississippi and adds "I am a Va. democrat, but forgive me, not a Miss." This is a significant herald of his later career as a Whig! Those who live in Virginia in this year of grace 1942 can understand exactly what he meant.
His next letter is dated three months later on February 26, 1838 and was written at his new home in Port Gibson, Mississippi.
For the following description of this little town, the present writer is indebted largely to a "History of Port Gibson, Mississippi" by the Reverend H. G. Hawkins, an essay which was published in 1909 by the Mississippi Historical Society.
Port Gibson, the county seat of Claiborne lies on the South fork of Bayou Pierre River, thirty miles south of Vicksburg, and was at one time in the last century known as one of the best cotton markets of any inland town in the south. On the Mississippi River, ten miles to the West are Rodney (originally Petit Gulf) and Grand Gulf, names given in 1700 by the French. Port Gibson was founded in 1803, named after one Samuel Gibson who had fled up the river to escape from the Spanish government at New Orleans in 1788 and had secured a grant of 850 arpents of land in the trackless forest, "a region of towering trees, dense canebrakes with reeds thirty feet in height; bears, wolves and panthers came within a few feet of Gibson's house, but Mr. Gibson felt himself more comfortable there than in the hands of the Spanish down river."
By the year 1803 Port Gibson had become the seat of the County of Claiborne, with a courthouse, a jail, stocks. a pillory and whipping post. In the upper part of the jail was the debtor's room. A four-horse stage ran daily from Port Gibson to Grand Gulf and return. There were steamers down the Bayou to Grand Gulf and from thence to New Orleans, which was some years later the route
naturally taken by Archibald Cary on his vacation trip back to Virginia. In the early days of the history of Port Gibson letters from New York took about a month, as those from Europe to New York usually two months. This explains why, in 1815 the famous battle of New Orleans was fought five weeks after a treaty of peace between England and the United States had already been signed at Ghent !
Harmon and Margaret Blennerhasset had lived at a Cache six miles from Port Gibson after their flight from the exotic palace they had built on an island in the Ohio river. Their names shed upon this remote spot mystery and romance arising from their association with the most intriguing and perhaps most fascinating figure in American history--Aaron Burr.
To Archibald Cary, the fledgling law-student recently arrived from Virginia, these strange surroundings must have seemed thrilling. However, could he but have read the future, his greatest interest in Port Gibson would have centered upon a local celebrity named Earl Van Dorn. A quarter of a century afterwards, his daughter Constance Cary, was asked by the Confederate government together with her first cousins Hetty and Jennie Cary, to make one of the three first Confederate battle-flags. It was to Gen- eral Earl Van Dorn of Port Gibson that she entrusted the flag which she had so lovingly sewn from silk dresses This flag was returned to her after the war by the gallant general, and now rests in the Confederate museum at Richmond.
In the autumn of 1837, Archibald Cary settled at Port Gibson. His law partner, William Mann Randolph kept his own office at Grand Gulf on the Mississippi, some ten miles down the bayou.
The newcomer found social life very agreeable at Port Gibson in a circle of cultivated and congenial companions. He rejoiced in the fact that the little town was one of the healthiest spots in the state, far more so, indeed, than was Grand Gulf. The Yellow Jack had not touched Port Gibson. He writes to his brother "I fear nothing for my health, for my habits are good, thank God, and my constitution strong."
Shortly after his arrival, the young lawyer made a circuit of the state, to acquaint himself with the people and their surroundings. On January 30, 1838, he writes to his favorite and youngest sister "Patsey", care of Dr. 0. Fairfax, Alexandria, D. C. He has received two letters from his "dearest Pat", and sits down to write explaining that it is his rule as a business man to answer every communication he receives as soon as he can do it, and adds that he has just deposited 15 letters of business in the mail. So, apologizing for any dullness he may feel, he continues: "Well, since I wrote last, I've been in almost all the little villages of the state--such as Raymond, Clinton, Jackson, Brandon, Canton, Madisonville, Livingston, Vernon, Benton, Manchester, &c, &c. I have seen the Legislators of the state in session, and heard specimens of the southern eloquence that originates from impulse and ardent feelings, and the most perfect anticlimax of nonsense and stupudity ever delivered on the head of a barrel by the corporal of a militia company, unexpectedly nominated for higher military honors." "I have been among the wealthiest planters of the South and learned the exact significance of the words generally used to designate southern comfort and luxury. To give you an idea--I stayed with a Planter
in Madison Co., who raises 1000 Bales of Cotton annually, which brings him in an income of between 50 and 60 thousand dollars ! You would say that with that sum his establishment should be princely, his house spacious and well furnished--the plate rich and massive--servants numerous, equipage
magnificent--dress elegant and fashionable, and himself intelligent and refined, with daughters beautiful and intellectual. But no! Therein consists the peculiarity of the south, and its chief difference from the north. In approaching this rich planter's house I entered a yard sur-
rounded by a rough rail fence and passed into a double log cabin, the mansion of its princely owner. Rough hewn logs, without ceiling and with the cracks daubed with mud --a plank passage connecting the two cabins ! The furni- ture consisted of a rich ottoman, surrounded by stick-chairs
with cow-hide bottoms, plain pine tables and a faded Brussels Carpet (like my slippers!) on the floor. The master ignorant, vulgar, dirty but frank, ardent and good-hearted. The 'ladie fair' a second Dame Quickly, blue pitchers, rag carpets, the price of butter, eggs, poultry, forming the principal conversation interlarded with vociferations at the 'Dirty nasty niggers why don't you clean out the chicken coops, and pour the dish water into [torn] from the parlour windows' She asked if I was fond of hogs, and took me to the pen, daughters (dressed in tawdry calicoes with large finger and ear-rings and breast pins), and all,-- knocked up the grunters, admired each fat porker, and counted the pigs. The daughters were very refined as you may imagine; one of them exclaimed in the presence of my fastidious self while at the hog pen, my nice boots dirtied by the mud and mire, "la! ma (not as we bleat it like a sheep mar, but delicately with lips compressed, the word issuing from a profusion of dark hair overhanging a pale and beautiful face) there's a hog that ain't got no tail." My heart sank within me, I turned somewhat pale myself, and went of--to the hen-coop! This is a specimen of Miss. Aristocracy--Perhaps not a fair one--but certainly one."
At about this same period, visitors from "Overseas," particularly Captain Basil Hall, Charles Dickens and Mrs. Trollope have given us similar pictures of social manners on our frontier which leave little more to the imagination.
His first impressions of frontier democracy came as a shock to the young Virginian. His caustic criticism of the Mississippi legislature of 1838 was the natural reaction of a scion of tidewater stock to the crude workings of democracy in the raw. As a youthful democrat of the school of Mr. Jefferson, he had, of course expected to find natural man as Roussean depicted him, endowed with a noble
concern for the commonwealth and inspired by motives of the public welfare.
Professor Thomas P. Abernethy in his valuable work "Three Virginia Frontiers" has recently pointed out that democracy was frequently inspired by self-interest and that democracy in action is not necessarily liberal.
The subordination of self-interest to the general welfare, the unselfish liberalism of the aristocrat is the hall mark of the superior mind. All of this was aptly phrased many centuries ago by GeoffreyChaucer
whose favorite line runs as follows:
"For pity runneth soon in gentle heart."
By gentle, Chaucer meant, of course, gently bred.
Soon after settling at Port Gibson, Archibald Cary wrote to his brother describing the dire effects of the panic of 1837 on the commercial life about him and says: "We may look forward to a more wholesome state of things, a better currency and a better government, for strong demonstrations are daily made in all parts of the state in favor of a convention to revise the Constitution of '32. The present one is radically faulty. The judges are elected by the people, and thus by the existence of universal suffrage we have palmed upon us those men who are most popular and not those who are most able. The Const.n is too democratic, almost a pure democracy, as near as can be reached while
there exists a slight tincture of republicanism."
Here, at the age of 23, Archibald Cary shows us that he had begun to think for himself. He had been only eleven years old when "Uncle Jefferson" had died. The boy had often stood at the knee of the sage of Monticello and held his memory in reverence. The basic doctrine that all men were created equal still seemed perfectly sound to him, but it was now the era of Jackson, when a short cut was being made to the rule that all men are equal, or should be made so. This involved the awkward process of putting the bottom rail on top.
Now, face to face, for the first time with the workings of "almost a pure democracy," he is alarmed by the implications of the 'philosophy of numbers,' and comes out flatIy for quality. To soften the argument for the elder brother whose esteem he values so highly, he adds that he is still a Virginia democrat ! From this point onwards, we shall find him advancing steadily towards the Whig party, of which it was said in those days in the south that two Whigs could recognize one another at sight, because each looked like a gentleman.
A year later he writes to his brother: "I have for the past two months sent you the Port Gibson Correspondent, a paper I think sufficiently neutral for a good democrat like you. This sheet, as you will perceive, is floating by itself and attached to no masthead, although it has come very near being a Whig paper.. What do you think of that? I editing a Whig newspaper? Does it not shake your
democratic nerve with horror? Alas! it would be even so, I am afraid and if you don't write to me soon I shall turn Whig malgre toi. So let me have one of your missives and let us see what good it will work." Seven years after his declaration that he was a "Vir- ginia democrat but not a Miss." he offers us in his diary a fuller definition of his views on the subject of democracy. Writing of General Andrew Jackson he states: "That's right! Make the old hero stand up to his opinions ! The truth is he has been on both sides of every great question that has agitated the country for the last twenty- five years,and
if his opinions, pro and con, were first marshalled in order and then set against each other at their
proper values, they would neutralize and leave nothing as the residuum. I have long ceased to have any respect for the opinions of Gen. Jackson.... Mr. Jefferson com menced the game of radicalism in this country and Gen. Jackson has played it out with a vengeance, but Mr. Jefferson's "democracy" was almost "aristocratic" when compared with the sans culottism of the Jackson era. Mr. Jefferson used the democracy as his instrument.... Mr. Jefferson contended for principles of government; Gen.
Jackson was made a tool of party to obtain and portion out the offices among his followers.... Mr. Jefferson rewarded merit; Gen. Jackson punished it. Mr. Jefferson had a will and a mind of his own, and the operations of the former were the results of the reflections of the latter. Gen. Jackson had a will of his own but was fed and directed by the minds of other men. Mr. Jefferson was a statesman; Gen. Jackson was the "Hero of Orleans." Mr. Jefferson thought and then acted; Gen. Jackson was all the time acting and never thought."
The Correspondent and Mississippi General Advertiser of which Archibald Cary had become editor, had been founded in 1830 at Port Gibson. It was published every Saturday and the subscription rates were $5.00 in advance. It contained European as well as American news items but a good deal of space was given to advertisements for runaway slaves.
The young man had now reached the advanced age of 23, and was of robust intellect, well educated and with a decided gift for self-expression. He reacted as fiercely and ardently as ever had any of his tidewater forebears to politiness, falseness and unctuous self-seeking. When embarking upon a career as editor of a Mississippi newspaper, he well knew the personal risk he took. A century ago in the deep south, he who wielded the editorial pen was a marked man in the community and almost certain sooner or later to be called to account on the "field of honor" for what he had written. It was almost equally certain that Archibald Cary was entirely indifferent to the personal risk involved.
The hazard was all the greater because he was so young, so earnest and so sincere. One could have said of him what Caesar said of the young Brutus: "Quidquid Vult, vax vult." He cared too much. The editorship so gladly taken up by Archibald Cary was in no way intended to interrupt his career as a lawyer --at first it was only a side-issue, though as we shall see later, entirely in character. At the same time he displayed zeal and energy in his practice at the bar.
We now quote again from Archibald Cary's letter of May 23, 1838, from Port Gibson to his elder brother. "You see I have determined, although in the midst of the May Courts, to reply to your letter at once.... I sup- pose the principal topic must be my progress and operations in this State. And first of the Law, which, as it is my meat and bread, must absorb most of my time and attention. God knows I've thought of little else, done nothing else, but have given myself up, hoping to become a martyr to its dull details.... Well, let me give you some account of what the practice is here. At the first of the month Wm. R. went to attend the Federal Court at Jackson, and I to the county of Copiah, the first day of both
sessions being the same. To the May terms of two county or Circuit Courts and the Federal Court we have brought one hundred and eighty suits, for smaller or greater sums, amounting in all to about 150 thousand dollars. This is a pretty good docket for young men, but the times are more favorable to our profession than may be our good fortune to see again. Of forty-five suits in Copiah, I obtained
thirty-eight judgments, the rest of the cases continued to the next term for want of evidence, etc. All suits are de- fended in this State, so that defenses yield a pretty handsome revenue. At the bar all discussions are short and condensed; the amt. of business to be transacted prevents much obstinate litigation. Young men, therefore, have but a poor opportunity to distinguish themselves by forensic display. The warfare is more like that of our Arabian Comanches, a sortie and retreat, a skirmish & a sudden flight. Special pleading is carried to perfection in our courts. Very frequently cases are carried through pleas, replications, rejoinders, surrejoinders, &c, for an indefinite number of terms. Wm. R. has written to beg that I will take his place at Jackson and let him return home to attend the Claiborne Court. He has private business which renders it necessary that he should be here. So probably I shall go to Jackson in a few days, there to wait on the slow movements of the U. S. Circuit Court; that is, should there be a court which is a doubtful matter even now, although the Judge has been on the bench for nearly three weeks. It happened thus: A week since some of our radical locofoco lawyers (the notorious Foster) attempted to quash the venire and were successful. The objection was
that the Jury had only been summoned 30 days instead of 60 as required by the State law, and the question was whether the Court was bound by the State enactment. I think not, although the laws of the State are obligatory so far as they are consistent with the laws and constitution of the U. S., yet I think the Courts have a right to disregard laws prescribing the modes of proceeding unless adopted by a law of Congress. However, it was decided differently. The Venire was quashed, and by a State en- actment another was ordered returnable to next Friday, when a fresh question will arise as to the power of the Court to order it. It is thought the Judge will not entertain a motion to quash the new venire, but will compel par- ties to resort to their right of challenging the array, which will be the same thing in effect."
"The election as you perceive has resulted in the return of Prentiss & Word to Congress. I voted for the successful candidates because my friend Claiborne told me on the steps of the Capitol that he believed the people of Miss. elected him for the called session only. I do not agree entirelywith
Prentiss, for I am a River man, and yet I am not a Miss. democrat. We will have a convention ere long
to alter some of the ultra democratic features of our Government."
FORTUNE'S WHEEL TURNS DOWNWARD
On June 25th, 1839, we find Archibald Cary writing his brother the news of his new menage:
Port Gibson, June 25, 1939.
"My dear Brother:
The Spring Courts, a partner in that thing they call love, the various troubles of going for the first time to housekeeping, the late fire in our town & consequent confusion, all have prevented my earlier writing. Since my return to Miss. I have really worked hard, & even now it seems that I am just half way over the mountain.
"On my return I purchased a house and lot in Port Gib- son & having received all of my furniture &c from the North with great despatch, I was housekeeping exactly 2 mos. after leaving Baltimore. My property (individually mine--no partnership) in this town is worth, I think, about $10,000, upon which I owe $3800, to be paid in the next 2 yrs., during which time I shall have to stay at home & be hard pressed, but I am comfortably fixed in one of our Miss. cottages with 6 rooms, 2 larger than any in your house, and the rest smaller than do., kitchen, &c, &c. I have two servants who do all the work, Edward being invaluable to me.
"And such a wife, but you are too well circumstanced in that regard to listen to praises that in your case are not more common than strictly just. The only fault I can find with Monimia is that she is too good for me & works too hard for this climate in the summer season. She has good blood from her mother in at least one respect, the constant willingness to be a martyr to her duties. Thank God for
my wife. I think he means to bless me in this world because I believe her to be the special object of his love and kindness. Do not consider me sentimental, for I have become very old in the world. I am happy at home and as long as we are blessed with health nothing can make me otherwise.
"The late fire spared my property, although it kept me in alarm for some time."
Three months later he writes again: "The summer has passed and I am well, thank God, and so is my wife. We have had no sickness in this region, and among all of our Jacks in office and out we have had no visitations as yet from Yellow Jack, a gentleman quite spry in his attentions to the Orleanois at this time.... Give my best love to Sister J. M. and kiss the children each for their Uncle's sake. So likewise says Monimia, my jewel of a wife, who is too good for this world."
And now we come to the last of his letters from Port Gibson which has survived, dated March 4th, 1840.
"My dear Brother:
Since I wrote you last two things have occurred in which I am personally interested and which I will, therefore, communicate to you in as short a manner as possible. "On the 17th of last month (February) Monimia presented me (I believe that's the phrase) with a son, whose name is fixed to be Falkland, simply and alone. He is healthy boy, of good size, and as well favored as such little things generally are. Monimia has been well ever since her confinement and has not during the whole time expe-
rienced one unfavorable symptom. "The other matter is this: on the 2nd inst., two days ago, I was elected one of the Directors of the Bank of Port Gibson. I am the youngest man in the Directory and perhaps one of the youngest Directors in the State. The Bank of Port Gibson, with a million dollars capital, went into operation in 1838."
At this point in his career, all seems well, and the "goose hangs high." Happily married, with a little son; established in a good law practice, director of the bank, editor of the local paper,--what more could a young man ask? When we consider the discomfort and drabness of his childhood in Fluvanna County, this seems by contrast to be a rapidly mounting wave which he is riding. But it was the crest of a wave which soon broke and shattered his ambi- tions and his life's happiness.
For the following three and a half years, the written records of his life are a blank. His next letter is dated from Lexington, Kentucky in June 1843. Of his doings and of his thoughts in the intervening years, no current records have survived. This is all the more peculiar because in the large collection of Cary letters which have come down to us, some of them written in this very interval of time by other members of his family circle, there is no reference whatever to Archibald Cary. We can find no clue
in them, no hint, even, as to what had happened to him in the meantim
We know from references in his diary of 1845, the only one he ever kept, that he campaigned for General William Henry Harrison, the Whig candidate for the presidency in 1840, and that he lived in Port Gibson during part, at least, of the year 1841. That he was back at Vaucluse in September 1842 would seem probable from the fact that we find among his papers a draft of a deed of sale of the negro body-servant Edward, to whom he was so much attached, to John Dulaney of Loudoun County. He would not have parted with Edward unless he were in dire need of money.
This blind spot in the annals of his life would have re- mained forever a mystery, had not the key to what happened at that time to Archibald Cary been told to the present writer by his brother, the late Fairfax Harrison at their last meeting, in London a few years ago. The latter had been told the story by our mother on her death-bed, and the secret had thus been kept for some eighty years.
Archibald Cary had fought a duel some time in the year 1841 in Mississippi and had killed his opponent, said to have been a member of the legislature. Search in the archives of that state has, thus far, disclosed no record of that event. Nothing has come down to us but the bare bones of the
story. Whatever may have been the reasons for the encounter, and whatever the circumstances of the fight, it seems difficult to explain why this tragic event not at all unusual in the Mississippi of that day, should have so altered the plans, hopes and promise of his career, and so disastrously affected the fortunes of his little family. The present writer can offer no possible explanation except upon the
ground of Archibald Cary's deep and genuine religious principles. In his diary of 1845, four years after this event, he writes: "A duel was to have been fought yester- day somewhere in Delaware between two young members of Congress, Mr. Clingman of North Carolina, a Whig, and Mr. Yancey of Alabama, a locofoco. The difficulty originated in a personal attack upon the former by the latter
gentleman during the debate on the Texas question. The result is not yet known. When will this barbarous and unchristianlike practice cease to blacken the annals of our history? When will poor miserable man cease to take upon himself the prerogative of the Deity? "I will avenge," said the Lord.
These are the words of a spirit bowed down by remorse. One would suppose that his wife might have soothed the troubled conscience and poured her loving balm upon the tortured soul, but it is probable, with her own excessive piety, that she only aggravated his spiritual disorder.
If, now, we have been able thus to diagnose correctly the collapse of his promising career at Port Gibson, one's sympathy for him is not, indeed, lessened, but one's surprise is great. Was not Mississippi the "land of mosquitoes and hair-triggers?" How refuse an "affair of honor" and retain the respect of his fellow citizens? Why then engage in writing political editorials in an era of deep passion when the dueling pistol was perforce the adjunct of the pen? Why, above all, lend one's countenance to the practice as Archibald Cary had done previously, when he served as a second to the Yankee novelist, Joseph Holt Ingraham, later a clergyman, in the famous duel near Grand Gulf in which Ingraham wounded Tibbits, his opponent?
Why, indeed? The answer to such questions was buried in the heart of this proud upright and sensitive man at Ivy Hill Cemetary near Alexandria. The fact remains that this fatal encounter filled Archibald Cary with a remorse which was never exorcised.
AT THE ATHENS OF THE WEST
In Professor Bernard Mayo's scholarly "Henry Clay," we find the following description of Lexington, Kentucky, in 1806:
"Visitors to Lexington attributed its 'Considerable taste and refinement' to its bookstores, theatre, circulating library, (now with 2000 volumes) academies for both sexes, and to its TransylvaniaUniversity. Transylvania which even critical Mr. Wilson termed 'a well-endowed University under the superintendence of men of learning and piety' contributed most to sustain Lexington's title as the Athens of the West."
And again, Professor Mayo writes:
. . . "in the years following the eventful Louisiana Purchase, they remarked uponLexington's
uncommonly wide, stone-paved streets with spacious footways guarded by hitching posts; the some 'six hundred houses, mostly brick, which appear to have neatness, elegance, and convenience,
combined ;' the stores with their swinging sign-boards, filled with varied merchandise; the clean and commodious inns with their cherry or walnut furniture and pannelling and bells on the roof which summoned guests to an excel- lent and bounteous table; and the many thriving industries in this'singularly neat and pleasant town.' Visitors from adjoining Western States looked up to Lexington as the 'seat of wealth and refinement of the western country.'
Virginians seem to have blossomed forth with unaccustomed exuberance in the stimulating atmosphere of Kentucky. Professor Mayo in quoting James McBride's "Jorney to Lexington, Ky. in 1810" notes "Virginia cousins stated that their frontier relatives had lost a portion of Virginia caste and assumed something of Kentucky esteem, an absence of reticence, and a presence of presumptuousness." This no doubt, was what was meant by stay- at-home Virginians when they described Kentucky as "Vir- ginia in the raw."
Those frontier days had long passed when Archibald and Monimia, with their little boy Falkland moved there late in 1842 or early in 1843. He writes to his brother that he has come to Lexington to complete his legal education. It is indeed true that Transylvania University then stood very high in public esteem; several of the circuit judges had served as professors, the most eminent of whom was Judge George Robertson. The law school there had great prestige.
But to find Archibald Cary at the age of twenty-eight once more an undergraduate, withdrawing from the world of men and of lively events, is significant. We begin to see that his defect as a lawyer as it had been with his father as a planter, was the love of books and of the atmosphere of study. They both lacked a gift of active contact with their fellow men, so necessary for success in a careerduring that effervescent age. The bookworm prefers libraries to men. One often sees in the great libraries of the world men who have spent their lives there merely from the love of study. After his exciting experiences in Mississippi, we may look upon Archibald Cary at Transylvania as an "escapist."
While at Lexington, there occurred a family event of the utmost importance to the very existence of the present writer. This is described in a letter from Mr. Cary to his brother on June 10, 1843:
"Having dwelt so long upon the past let one come back to the present and introduce you to one who has just entered upon the scene of action. Our little Constance was born on the 25th April, the same day and hour with the young Princess of England, Victoria's last, which I hope may be a happy omen. As yet, her attractions are not yet much developed, but I think she promises to have hair of that
celestial colour which has been said to be 'loves's own hue.' If nothing more she is a healthy wee one." . . .
One fact above all others made Lexington an agreeable place of residence for Archibald Cary--the presence there of Henry Clay. From his diary of three years later the following passage speaks for itself: "During the last five years I have had occasion to examine very closely the life and public career of Henry Clay, and I have found nothing in them that did not excite my admiration. His propensity to indulge in some of the fashionable vices of the age during his earlier career must unquestionably be condemned by all right-thinking men. But viewing them in their worst light, they are but spots in the orbit of the sun which have not even been visible for the last quarter of a century. I have seen much of Mr. Clay; have heard him repeatedly in the Senate of the United States and on the hustings and in the Courts of Kentucky. I have observed him in private life at Lexington and am personally acquainted with almost every member of his family. During an year's residence at the latter place I occupied the adjoining pew to his in the Episcopal Church, and I think I may say with truth that no one present was
more attentive to the services than he was. With these opportunities for observation I have formed an opinion which places him, in my poor judgment, second only to Washington in the list of American worthies
The "fashionable vices" with which Mr. Clay was charged during his earlier career included dueling, card-playing and breaking the Sabbath. Each of these unfortunate practices must, as Mr. Cary says, be condemned. But exenuating circumstances might perhaps be found.
Those who have played poker with Kentucky congress- men as has been the privilege of the present writer, will always feel that they have received a liberal, though costly education.
Concerning Mr. Clay's duels, there must have been some worthy Americans of that day who felt that any man who stood up to shoot it out with John Randolph of Roanoke
was merely trying to exterminate a public nuisance. The feeling of a student of these "affairs of honor" in that day in Virginia is tinged with a faint surprise at finding "J. R. of R." so often in the field, for we remember the pen-picture of him left by the British Minister to Washington as singing bawdy songs "with a voice which spoke of chastity
As for breaking the Sabbath, we see from Mr. Cary's tribute that Mr. Clay had become a reformed character. So far as we are aware, there was no penalty for failure to attend services after the disestablishment of the church. In those early days in Kentucky politics, an enterprising and lively chapter in our history, the spirit of which lived on until very recent times in that state, such charges would not have seriously damaged the chances of election of a candidate for office. Nowadays, a change has come o'er the spirit of their dreams. As these lines are written a useful member of the United States Senate is opposed for re-election in Kentucky because he had accepted from a
contractor a present of a swimming-bath. But is not cleanliness next to godliness? Or have we again amongst us the early Christians of Roman days? Across the line in the more tranquil State of Tennessee, the dangerous issue faced by a candidate for election in these primaries is that he does not like dogs. So far as is yet known, dogs, though frequently underprivileged, have not received the vote in Tennessee.
After this digression we return, to our description of Mr. Cary's life at Lexington, and quote from his letter to his brother dated September 6, 1843: "I think in one of my former letters I stated the proba-
bility of my removal from Lexington. I expect to carry that idea into operation in the course of the next month. When I came to this place I had several objects in view. In a previous visit the beauty of the city and the surrounding country had delighted me. From my information I was induced to believe that I might gradually get into business and at the same time support myself. But my chief object in coming to Lexington was for the benefit of the law school, which is one of the best in the U. S. Before leavingthe South I discovered that I was no lawyer and I determined to become one. When I first came to Lexington I attended the lectures in the law department, as many others who had been engaged in the practice also did. In three months I read upwards of six thousand pages of law, and made myself quite a reputable lawyer. About this time we had eight or ten additions to the bar, and among them the ablest lawyers in Ky., several of them with sons whom they wished to usher into practice. The result has been that there is no practice for attorneys of my standing, and it has become necessary thatI
should leave here, or starve. I shall not act hastily or imprudently in taking this step.