Memoir of John Howe Peyton / in sketches by his contemporaries, together with some of his public and private letters, etc., also a sketch of Ann M. Peyton

by Unknown

PROF. JOHN B. MINOR, LL. D.

University of Virginia, Law Department,
August 9th, 1894.

My Dear Sir:

I received yesterday, the pamphlet containing the account of the "Ceremonies attending the presentation of the portrait of John Howe Peyton," your honored father, to the county of Augusta, and beg you to accept my cordial thanks therefore.

I apprehend that no county in the State, nor in the United States, can exhibit such an aggregation of judicial worthies as Augusta, not merely lawyers of distinguished learning and power, but men no less distinguished for incompatible integrity. The county authorities do themselves great credit in thus commemorating the virtues and abilities which have so illustrated their community.

Among these great and good men your father was conspicuous, and well deserves to be enshrined in the esteem and admiration, not of Augusta only, but of Virginia, and the whole country. With renewed thanks for the pamphlet,

I am, yours very truly,
John B. Minor.

Col. John L. Peyton, Staunton, Va.

Hon. John W. Rieley, judge-elect to the Supreme Court of Appeals, of Virginia, says:

"I have read with deep and intense interest the addresses and all that was said of Mr. Peyton by his contemporaries, and as a Virginian I am proud of such an illustrious citizen, and congratulate old Augusta that her people have for contemplation, and emulation for all time the life and character of one of such worth and commanding ability."

Col. Jos. H. Sherrard, under date of Lexington, August 12th, 1894, writes:

"I have read the pamphlet with a great deal of pleasure, and am glad to see this departure from the rule too long prevalent of doing honor only to statesmen and military men, and the system inaugurated of 'rendering unto Cæsar the things that are Cæsar's.' Truly among professional men there is oft-times as much virtue, genius and patriotism as in the former classes, and this was the case as to your great and good father, and is so as to many modest citizens, who are as worthy to be commemorated. Many a youth will be taught that honor and glory are not alone to be achieved at the cannon's mouth, or in the halls of Congress, and to emulate such examples of virtue in private life. Would that this precedent of your good people could be repeated by those of every county in the State, until all of our court-houses are ornamented by their illustrious citizens. Surely we might then say: 'Lives of great men all remind us we may make our lives sublime and departing leave footprints in the sands of time.'"

John F. Lewis, Esq., writes from Charleston, W. Va., under date of October 12th, 1894:

"While it was not my good fortune to have known personally the subject of these eloquent tributes to worth, I know full well how richly deserved they are. From the days of my youth I have heard from the lips of those who knew John Howe Peyton well and honored him, the most beautiful and feeling tributes to his high toned honor, his brilliant intellect, his fervid patriotism and his spotless life. It is eminently fitting that this speaking likeness of him should adorn the walls of the Temple of Justice of old Augusta, those same walls which erstwhile echoed back his eloquent words in defence of the right."

Rev. Wm. H. Ruffner, D. D., writes from Lexington, under date of August 10th, 1894:

"I have read all [the pamphlet containing ceremonies attending the presentation of Mr. Peyton's portrait to the county] with interest and sympathy. Your father was one of the heroes of my early days. I saw and heard him often, and the impression I received of his character and abilities was correct."

Dr. R. A. Brock writes from Richmond, October 10th, 1894:

"I am thankful in the inspiration that the contemplation of so benign a presence, and the consequent retrospect of so admirable a life, will command in posterity."

Rev. Geo. Gordon Smeade, Rector of Magill Memorial Church, Pulaski City, writes:

"For the sake of the rising generation who may frequent your Court of Justice, it was most timely in placing upon her walls the portrait of so distinguished a personage as your father. He who has left so deep an impress upon the community in which he lived, and I may say also upon his age, cannot help being an incentive to the very highest type of virtue and patriotism."

C. B. Thomas, Esq., writes from Wytheville, August 11th, 1894:

"I have read the pamphlet with much interest. I will have my boys to read it, hoping that they may be stimulated to strive to emulate some of the virtues which characterized your distinguished father in such an eminent degree."

Miss M. J. Baldwin, the gifted and accomplished Principal of the Augusta Female Seminary, under date of August 15th, 1894, writes:

"No one takes more pleasure in seeing your father's memory honored than I do. May his descendants ever prove worthy of so distinguished an ancestor."