War-cloud gathering.
As the session wore on and spring advanced, secession was a frequent topic of discussion in our debating-society, I with others taking the
Union side in these discussions to the last.
Soon our noble old preceptor became a candidate for the
Convention, and called in
William McLaughlin (afterwards the commander of a battalion of light artillery in the Confederate army and now a circuit judge) as his assistant in teaching our class.
Public meetings were held, and old
Dr. George Junkin, of Washington College, with his squeaking voice, frequently addressed those meetings and managed
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to make his shrill shouts of ‘Union,’ ‘Union,’ heard above the cackling of the obstreperous students of the various institutions of learning in town.
I remember young
Harmer Gilmer, of
Richmond, one of our law class, disconcerting one of the
Union speakers very much by suddenly crying out, as the man reached one of his best periods, ‘Come to my arms, you greasy fritter.’
I suppose
Harmer caught the expression in some of the meetings of the sovereigns in ‘Old Market
Hall.’
The war cloud was now gathering thick and fast in the far
South, and its distant mutterings grew ominous as the Virginia Convention assembled.
We law students went to our homes, and, as the Court of Appeals was then in session in
Richmond, I went there to get my license, appearing for examination before
Judges Moncure,
Robertson, and
Daniel.
I went first to
Judge Moncure, and found him at Ford's Hotel.
Truly in him I beheld ‘a man without guile.’
One so simple and unpretending, so gentle and kind, and at the same time so great, we rarely meet.
He took me into his private room, where his good wife, the very counterpart of himself in woman's attire, sat knitting.
First this gentle couple put me at my ease by asking about my home and introducing some familiar topics, about which we chatted until I forgot what I came for. Gradually the old judge introduced the law into our conversation and drew out of me what little I knew about it—I almost imagining that I was imparting to the old gentlemen before me valuable information.
I left him highly pleased with myself and my legal attainments, but, bless me, what a check was in store for my vanity.
I next sought
Judge Robertson, who boarded at the
Exchange and
Ballard, and he frightened me half to death.
He examined me two hours and then signed my license.
Judge Daniel, seeing the signature of his brethren, signed without a word, for which act I heartily thanked him, for
Judge Robertson had about used me up. Whilst in
Richmond I visited the
Convention, where I saw all the notables of that day and time, some of whom I was destined to see very frequently on another field of discussion in the near future.
The venerable
John Janney presided;
Henry A. Wise,
John Tyler,
James Marshall,
Summers,
Goode,
Jack Thornton, and
Jubal Early were on the floor.
