[243] him, and returning to his native home he devoted himself to the unostentatious calling of a planter's life.
And in this pursuit, which engaged but a small share of his diversified gifts, he found happiness and success, and won such confidence among the business men of the day, that, in the language of one of his old friends—his name was good for any amount he saw fit to write it.
But while yet a young man, in 1837, he was called by his fellowcitizens to represent them in the State Legislature, and upon his return, as an evidence of his fidelity and worth, he was returned to the State Capitol as a member of the Senate, and again later in life he was honored with the highest gift in the keeping of his fellow-citizens and became their Governor.
Considering his modest and retiring disposition, some distinguishing excellence of character, some uncommon and acknowledged gifts must have lifted this man above his fellows, and commended him to their confidence and affection.
And as we pause a few moments to-day on our way to the final resting place of our honored dead, let us calculate some of those virtues that made him what he was. Some men are the creatures of circumstance, but this is the exception and not the rule. Men of sterling worth, are men of sterling principle, and we may expect to find in the character of our lamented chieftain, that which signalized him as one worthy of pre-eminence among his countrymen.
Without being dogmatic, he was a man of deep and sincere conviction. He thought for himself, and by sober reflection he matured these convictions upon which he was willing to construct his history. When the idea of secession began to develop into a fact, he took his stand in opposition to it. Having canvassed the whole subject he pronounced it impractical if not unwarrantable, and to the end of his life this conviction was unchanged, but he saw no remedy but to fight, and his brilliant career as a soldier bears witness of his fidelity to an adopted duty.
When led on by a sense of duty he feared no enemy, spared no friendship, realized no difficulties, and dreaded no consequences. He was no disciple of utilitarianism, and scorned with an unutterable contempt every form of subterfuge and chicanery by which the mere interests of partisanship are secured.
Not only was he a man who acted upon honest and well-matured conviction, but there was born in his heart the truth that ‘no man liveth unto himself.’ He acknowledged that mutual dependence that
