a brilliant galaxy of learning and talent and of high moral bearing."

Professor John B. Minor wrote Major Elder on February 23rd, 1891:

"Supposing that I am indebted to you for the Staunton Spectator of 18th, containing the notice of Mr. Stuart's death, and also the tribute of the Staunton Bar Association to his great merits, I beg to tender my warm thanks therefor. I shall preserve it as a memorial of one of the truly great men of the Commonwealth.

"His conduct as one of the famous 'Committee of Nine' will rank him as a true statesman, keen to discern the action which the crisis required, and brave to follow it out through all obstacles, and despite the adverse sentiments of many of his countrymen. In contemplating conduct so wise, and so fearless, one is strongly reminded of Horace's heroic ode:

Justum ac tenacum propositi virum, etc.'

"Our country would at this moment wear a more encouraging aspect if more of our public men were capable of exhibiting a like example."

No one can read the story of Mr. Stuart's life without being deeply impressed with the fact that he was a man, to use his own words, "of broad catholic patriotism." It breathes through every public address he ever delivered, from the time when, in the early prime of manhood, he discussed the Tariff Bill in Congress in 1841, to his speech in the Virginia Convention of 1861, when he pleaded against the Ordinance of Secession until one more effort could be made to preserve the Union of the Fathers. There was nothing small or sectional about him. His patriotism was as broad as our country itself.

He had done the State "some service and they knew it." The question arises: Why was he never honored with a seat in the United States Senate? The answer is that prior to the War of 1861 he was a Whig, and the State of Virginia was controlled by the Democrats. The door of political

preferment was closed and hermetically sealed against a Whig, unless he went over bag and baggage to the Democratic party, as is demonstrated by the twelfth Madison Letter.

This Mr. Stuart could not do. He had waged unrelenting war all his life against that party in advocacy of a Bank, a Tariff, Internal Improvements, and against Sectionalism.

In a letter, dated March 5th, 1859, addressed to the chairman of a public meeting to be held in Richmond, Virginia, on March 7th, 1859, to ratify the nominations of the Whig and American candidates for the offices of Governor, Lieutenant-Governor and Attorney-General he said of the Democratic party:

"With regard to the Democratic candidates I should have but little to say. I have known Mr. Letcher from his boyhood, and I should take pleasure in bearing testimony to his high character for integrity, and all the qualities which adorn the character of a private gentleman. As such I should delight to honor him. But standing as he does, the representative man of a political party which has, in my judgment, done so much to injure the best interests of the country, and unless checked in its mad and mischievous career is destined to bring upon us still more serious calamities, by paralyzing the business of the people, alienating one section of the country from the other, endangering the stability of our institutions, and degrading our national reputation in the eyes of the civilized world, I feel bound by every consideration of public duty, to oppose his election by all fair and honorable means.'

After the close of the War of 1861, when Mr. Stuart had steered the State safely through the rough seas of Reconstruction; had saved her from the clauses of the Underwood Constitution which would have disfranchised a large majority of the white people and disqualified them from holding office and serving as jurors; when he had done so much to save the white people from the rule of black republicans, scalawags and carpet-baggers, and led the State

back to her place in the Union; even then there were in the Legislature many old Democrats who remembered that he had been a Whig.

In contemplating the services which Mr. Stuart rendered the people of Virginia, the words are applicable to him which George Eliot, in Romola, puts in the mouth of Bardo when he cries out:

"Nevertheless my name will be remembered, and men will honour me: not with the breath of flattery, purchased by mean bribes, but because I have laboured, and because my labours will remain."

APPENDIX I

Report of the Joint Committee of the General Assembly of Virginia on the Harper's Ferry Outrages.1

[January 26, 1860]

The Joint Committee of the two Houses of the General Assembly of Virginia, to whom was referred so much of the Governor's Message as relates to the recent outrages committed at Harpers Ferry and its vicinity, have had the same under consideration, and submit the following report: In the night of the 16th of October last, a band of armed conspirators from the Northern States, in fulfilment of a design which had been long entertained and deliberately matured, made an incursion into the State of Virginia, at Harper's Ferry, for the purpose of inciting our slaves to insurrection, of placing arms in their hands, of aiding them in plundering the property of their masters, of murdering them and their families, and of overthrowing the government of the Commonwealth.

The number of persons directly concerned in this nefarious conspiracy cannot be accurately ascertained, because many of them escaped, and filed to the Northern States and the British Provinces. Their plan seems to have been conceived two years ago, and John Brown, the leader of the party, and his more active confederates, have been cautiously engaged for that length of time, in procuring information by means of secret emissaries, collecting money, recruiting men, and obtaining supplies of arms and ammunition, to be used in the accomplishment of their fiendish purposes.

To give greater dignity and importance to their movements, the conspirators met together at Chatham, in Canada West, in May, 1858, and formed what purported to be a constitution for a provisional government, which was to be substituted for the fundamental law of Virginia when it should have been subverted. Under this instrument it appears that W. C. Munroe, a free negro, was elected President, A. M. Chapman VicePresident, John Brown Commander-in-Chief, Richard Realf Secretary of State, J. H. Kagi Secretary of War, George B. Gill Secretary of the Treasury, Owen Brown Treasurer, and M. K. Delany Corresponding Secretary. Subordinate military officers were appointed under the authority of this alleged constitution, all of whom were required to take oaths to support it.

Having thus perfected their arrangements, Brown and his associates established a secret military rendezvous in Washington county, in the State of Maryland, a short distance from Harper's Ferry. To this point they caused to be conveyed 200 Sharpe's rifles, which had been furnished to Brown by the Emigrant Aid Society of Massachusetts, to accomplish his bloody purposes in Kansas; about the same number of revolver pistols,

1See Ante, pps. 167-178.

with large quantities of ammunition and clothing, and 1,500 pikes, which had been manufactured to his order by Charles Blair of Collinsville, Connecticut. These pikes are very formidable weapons, and peculiarly adapted for the use of the slave population, who are unskilled in the management of fire-arms. The heads are about fifteen inches in length, with sharp edges, and the handles are longer than the ordinary musket, with a view to give those who employ them an advantage in a hand to hand contest with troops armed with the musket and bayonet.

Early in October, John E. Cook, one of the conspirators, was dispatched, under false pretences, into the interior of the county of Jefferson, to ascertain the number of able bodied slaves in particular neighborhoods, and to learn their disposition towards their masters, and Brown acknowledged that he himself had also visited different parts of the State for similar purposes.

The town of Harper's Ferry, situated on the south bank of the Potomac, in the county of Jefferson, is the seat of an extensive armory of the United States, and for many years past has been without the protection of a military guard.

When everything seemed ripe for the execution of their scheme, between ten and eleven o'clock of Sunday night, the 16th of October, a band of the conspirators, in number about twenty-three, advanced stealthily on the town, and finding that the inhabitants had generally retired to sleep, took possession of the armory, containing about 50,000 stand of arms of different kinds.

Parties were then sent into the neighborhood, who broke into the dwellings of unsuspecting citizens, seized them in their beds, and carried them and their slaves as captives to Harper's Ferry, where they were held in close custody.

At daylight it was discovered that the armory was in the possession of a body of armed men, whose number and purposes being alike unknown, a panic very naturally spread over the town and vicinage. The extreme audacity of the act tended to increase the apprehension which filled the public mind, for no one supposed that so small a number as were actually present would have ventured on such a demonstration, unless they were assured of assistance from some quarter. The peculiar character of the population of the town added to the feeling of distrust. In other towns, having a fixed population bound to each other by ties of kindred, social sympathy and common interest, every one feels that he may safely rely on his neighbor for assistance in the defence of his family and fireside; but in a community like that of Harper's Ferry, where so many are mere temporary sojourners, the sense of security which springs from mutual trust and confidence is greatly diminished.

Early in the morning some skirmishing began between the citizens and the bandits, and several were killed and wounded on both sides. Pressed at all points, the conspirators were soon driven to seek refuge in the armory and engine-house. The armory, from its structure and the number of its windows, was much more exposed to attack than the engine-house, and those who sought shelter in it were promptly dislodged, and in the attempt to escape across the river, were either killed, or wounded and captured. Those in the engine-house were surrounded and held in close siege.