T. M. Green, a distinguished lawyer and author, of Kentucky, said: "John Howe Peyton was eminent as lawyer, statesman and orator."
Professor J. T. L. Preston, late of Virginia Military Institute, said: "He was a champion in every branch of his profession."
The late James D. Davidson, of Lexington, said: "I regarded him altogether as a superior being."
The late William Frazier said: "His pleadings were master pieces of art."
The late Judge McCue said: "In his discourses he displayed a soundness of view, an extent of research, a manliness of principle, an accuracy of learning and a vigor of style surpassing anything I ever heard."
Mr. Peyton was as eminent for stern integrity as for learning and ability, and in that connection a writer, whose name I will not call, as he is still living, said: "I never knew a man who had more of what Edmund Burke styled 'the chastity of honor which felt a stain like a wound.'"
I have heard many lawyers who personally knew Mr. Peyton as a lawyer, speak of him, and, without exception, they placed him in the very front rank of the great lawyers of his day, and the late Judge H. W. Sheffey, with whom I was associated for so many years as a partner, spoke of him often and alluded to his appearance in a celebrated cause, which at the time of the trial, made a most profound impression upon the community and said that Mr. Peyton's description of the facts connected with the corpus delicti, and the behavior of the accused at the time was the most dramatic, powerful and stirring burst of eloquence he had ever heard or read, and that during the utterance of the speech there was not a dry eye in the crowded Court House.
It will be observed that these statements are made by men qualified in the highest degree to estimate justly human character and ability, and who had the very best opportunity of judging the character and ability of Mr. Peyton, as they were intimately associated with him at the bar and in public life; and their testimony therefore is conclusive, that Mr. Peyton was a man of commanding ability, of the highest culture, of profound legal learning, of the sternest integrity and the strictest honor, and is worthy to be commemorated in the manner proposed by placing this portrait in the group which now adorns these walls, and I now take great pleasure in presenting it to you for that purpose.
At the close of his discourse the audience warmly applauded Captain Bumgardner, as it had repeatedly done during its delivery.