Mr. Stuart had been under a promise for some time to Dr. R. A. Brock to write a sketch of his father for the Virginia Historical Society, "in emendation and enlargement of that by Dr. Hugh Blair Grigsby." The preparation of this article had been delayed from time to time until Dr. Brock, being anxious that it should appear in the same volume with the one by Dr. Grigsby, wrote Mr. Stuart and begged him to let him have the paper at an early day. Under these circumstances Mr. Stuart began the article and was at work on it when he was seized with his last illness. A few days after Mr. Stuart's death Dr. Brock wrote stating what had occurred between himself and Mr. Stuart in regard to the sketch, and expressed the hope that Mr. Stuart had prepared the paper in whole or in part; and, if such were the case, he requested that it be furnished him at once as he was going to press with the volume. An examination of Mr. Stuart's writing table disclosed the sketch which he had been working on until February 9th, four days before his death, and which abruptly ended in an unfinished sentence. The article was copied exactly as it was left and sent to Dr. Brock, who published it in Volume X, Virginia Historical Collections, pages 383-392.

Mr. Stuart's death was caused by a cold which developed into influenza. He was confined to his bed only four days, and was in full possession of all his faculties to the last, when without pain, he quietly fell asleep and passed away on February 13th, 1891, in the house in which he was born, and which had been built by his father, Judge Archibald Stuart.

CHAPTER XL

TRIBUTES TO HIS MEMORY

S SOON as the news of Mr. Stuart's death became known, many editorials appeared in the newspapers giving an account of his public services and the high esteem in which he was held.

The Hon. John W. Noble, Secretary of the Department of the Interior, issued the following order:

"Washington, D. C., Feb. 14, 1891.

"It is my painful duty to announce the death of Alexander Hugh Holmes Stuart, of Staunton, Va., on the 13th inst., in his eighty-fourth year. Having served with distinction as a representative in the Virginia House of Delegates and afterwards as a member of Congress, he, by appointment of President Fillmore, became Secretary of the Interior September 12, 1850, and served until March 3, 1853. By his eminent ability and industry he greatly advanced the organization and efficiency of this Department. He had the support of President Grant in his earnest advocacy, after the war against the Union, of the restoration of his State to its legitimate relations to the National Government. His subsequent years were devoted to the cause of education, as Rector of the University of Virginia, a member of the Board of Trustees of the George Peabody Educational Fund, and President of the Virginia Historical Society.

"In respect for his memory the Department will be draped in mourning for thirty days and will be closed at noon on the day of his funeral, Monday next. Until after the

funeral, the flag will be placed at half-mast.

John W. Noble, Secretary."

The Staunton Bar adopted the following memorial tribute prepared by Major Thomas C. Elder:

*

"Mr. Stuart was descended from an honored and distinguished ancestry, both on his paternal and maternal side. His father, whilst a boy, fought for freedom in the War of the Revolution, and afterward became prominent among the leading Virginians of his day, ending his career by a long and distinguished term of service as one of the Circuit Judges of the State. His grandfather, Alexander Stuart, was an officer in the Revolutionary War, and both he and his son, Archibald, the father of the eminent deceased, met the enemies of American liberty at Guilford Courthouse.

"Our distinguished friend was highly favored by nature. He was cast in her best mould. Of a well-proportioned form, handsome of feature, and of commanding presence, he was a noble specimen of physical manhood. His intellectual endowments were of a very high order; and his moral qualities were a fit counterpart of these endowments.

"These natural advantages were developed and embellished at the historic College of William and Mary, and afterwards at our State University, founded by the great Jefferson, the confidential friend and associate of Judge Archibald Stuart.

"Mr. Stuart commenced his career in Staunton, where he lived all the days of his life, save only when temporarily absent in the public service. It was to have been expected that a young man of such parts, with such an ancestry, coupled with all the associations and inspiring influences which such an ancestry implies, and with the educational advantages and associations he enjoyed at William and Mary and at the University, would make rapid progress in life. And he was successful and attracted attention from the start.

"Above all things, Mr. Stuart was a patriot, an ardent lover of his State and Country. He was a patriot by inheritance, and his patriotism was intensified by his surroundings, and by the spirit of the age in which he set out upon

his career. Consequently, politics, which, in the better sense of the term, are so nearly allied to patriotism, had great attractions for him. But for politics as a trade or business, and for those who engaged in them for private gain or merely selfish purposes, he had the utmost contempt.

"Indeed, he was keenly alive to every enterprise and movement, whether political, educational, social, or moral; and whether local, state or national, which had for its object the promotion of the public welfare.

"This is not the time, nor is this the occasion, to trace his political career, whether as a legislator in the councils of Virginia or of the nation, or as a Cabinet officer in the Executive Department of the Federal Government, or his course in the numerous other eminent public positions not of a political character, which he filled. However great the temptation to award him the highest meed of praise for the invaluable services he rendered his State and people as a member of the Committee of Nine, and in other capacities during the period of the Reconstruction, it cannot be done now. Suffice it to say that in every office and place he filled, and in every undertaking of a public character assumed by him, or imposed upon him by others, his first thought was for the public good, the last for himself.

"Nor can we now speak of his domestic and private life, characterized as it was by the tenderest and most devoted affection towards those of his own household and kindred, and by consideration, courtesy and charity towards all with whom he was brought in contact by social or business relations.

"It is of Mr. Stuart as a lawyer we would speak today, and even of him in his professional character, in which he was in nearer touch with us than in any other, our words must be briefer than we could wish, and far briefer than his merits would justify.

"Mr. Stuart retired from the bar a number of years ago. Advanced age and the weight of physical infirmities would not permit him to endure the severe labor of that higher class of professional work in which alone he would have been willing to engage.

"But for nearly or quite fifty years he was an active member of this bar, and his name is indissolubly linked with its history. The bar of Staunton has in the past enjoyed a high reputation in the State. Chapman Johnson, John H. Peyton, the Baldwins, father and son, the Sheffeys, uncle and nephews, Michie, Fultz, Stuart, and others, gave to it their best labors, and imparted to it the lustre of their talents and learning. They have left us a heritage to which we cannot hope to add, and which it will be difficult, if not impossible, for us to preserve.

"Mr. Stuart's learning as a lawyer was broad and comprehensive. He relied more upon general principles than upon adjudicated cases. For the minor technicalities of the law his mind had but little affinity, and he made no affectation of special learning as to them. Such was the scope and character of his mind that he sought, when these technicalities were in his way, to avoid their effects by an overwhelming presentation of his case on its merits, rather than by an array of counter-technicalities.

"A sound and discriminating judgment, united with a natural aptitude for business affairs, an equable temperament, and a keen sagacity, made him a safe adviser and a prudent counsellor.

"As an advocate he was unsurpassed, if equalled, by any of his contemporaries. His voice was strong, clear, and flexible; his manner was gracious and courtly; his vocabulary extensive and at ready command; his fancy lively; his taste almost perfect.

"When in the prime of manhood, it was difficult for a jury to resist his eloquence.

"It has been said that it is as difficult to define a true orator as a true poet. What constitutes the true orator can hardly be defined. No one can perhaps ascribe to its right source the indescribable spell which a great orator casts on his audience.

"Mr. Stuart was a great orator, and possessed of all the gifts which oratory implies. We can say no more.

"But Mr. Stuart's business in the courts was by no means