Of most happy temperament, and without a particle of ostentation or parade, "his spirit was finely touched with the gentler virtues," and those who enjoyed the privilege of his social intimacy will remember with delight the unaffected frankness and simplicity of his manners, the varied range, the breadth and depth and vivacity of his "marvellously rich and beautiful conversation," whilst they must deeply deplore the loss of one as remarkable for mildness and the kindliest affections in his domestic relations, and all the intercourse of private life, as for profound thought and rare attainments.
It is not the purpose, nor is it within the scope of this brief memorial, to delineate the character of this eminent citizen. Clarum et venerabile nomen—"a fairer tribute shall one day grace his honorable tomb." He belongs now to history.
SKETCH OF MR. TAZEWELL BY MR. SHARP.
This sketch appeared in one of the morning papers of Norfolk on the 8th of May; and though hastily written, deserves to be republished here. Mr. Sharp is the only member of the bar now living who was a student in the office of Mr. Tazewell, and who saw him closely while engaged in the two or three last years of his practice at the bar.
The mortal career of our celebrated townsman, Littleton Waller Tazewell, closed on Sunday morning, at 11 o'clock. He was emphatically one of the great men of his age, and a just memorial of his life will, no doubt, be specially prepared in due season. Meantime, we will note, that he was born in the city of Williamsburg, where his father, Judge Tazewell, of the Court of Appeals, subsequently resided, on the 17th of December, 1774. After finishing his education at William and Mary College, he commenced his study of the law, partly under the care of his grandfather, Mr. Waller, and the late Mr. Wickham, of Richmond. He was distinguished at once at the bar as scientifically acquainted with his profession, the principles of which he drew, not from the labor-saving indexes of the present day, but from the pure and almost sacred writings of Coke and Mansfield. Such wells of truth were not sounded except by great intellectual efforts, and it is chiefly owing to the necessity which then existed of making such efforts, that we boast of the great lawyers of past times.
In a short time after his appearance in the courts he was elected to the Legislature, and was one of its members in the great session of '98, when the resolutions prepared by Mr. Madison were introduced. The next year he represented the Williamsburg District in Congress, being successor to Judge Marshall in that body, and was present during the stormy period of Mr. Jefferson's election to the Presidency over Burr. Few statesmen have more truly appreciated the grandeur of Mr. Jefferson's teachings than did the subject of this notice.
He declined a reëlection to Congress, and came to Norfolk in 1802, then a place of extensive foreign commerce, and soon entered upon a large and important practice. During the same year he married a daughter of the late Col. Nivison, and from that time to the present continued to reside among us. With the exception of the interrupting years of the war of 1813-14, and of a short period, during which he represented this city in the Legislature on a special occasion, he practised his profession with the honor and success that were to have been expected from one who was, while yet a young man, pronounced by Judge Marshall and Judge Roane to be unsurpassed, if equalled, by any competitor of his day. It was indeed hard to speak in measured terms of a lawyer who, though a resident of a provincial town, was consulted, at the same time, (1819,) by London merchants on the "custom of London," and by the priests of Rome on the canon law.
At the earnest solicitation of Mr. Monroe, he reluctantly accepted the appointment of one of the commissioners under the Florida treaty,—being united in that duty with Mr. King and the late Hugh Lawson White; and after that work was done, he withdrew from the practice of law to the privacy which he so much, perhaps too much, loved.
In 1825 he was elected by the General Assembly a Senator of the United States over some distinguished competitors, and soon after taking his seat was called upon to discuss the celebrated Piracy bill of Mr. Monroe's administration; and in a speech on that measure, which he defeated, displayed such extraordinary resources of argument and learning as threw all his associates of that epoch in the shade, and established his own reputation as the greatest debater of his age.
He was a prominent member of the Convention of Virginia in 1829-30, where his compeers were Chief Justice Marshall, John Randolph, Watkins Leigh, Taylor, Upshur, and others of that brilliant assembly. He was at the same time a Senator from Virginia in Congress; and was in nothing behind the great personages of the Senate, where sat Calhoun, Clay, and Webster, save only in his invincible desire and love of retirement.