The same influences powerfully operate in producing that bearing of chivalrous distinction, which is seen everywhere in the deportment of the Southern gentlemen toward ladies. They are ever polite, respectful, and deferential. This, however, is only one of many elements in the peculiar character of Southern people. Their piety is Christian in its character. The precepts of the Bible are fashioned into example in the conduct of the older members of society, and especially in the female portion. This is, perhaps, the predominant element. The Bible is the guide, not the fashion, in religious duty. Its doctrines are taught in purity, and in their simplicity enter into the soul, as the great constituent of character.
The chivalrous bearing of man toward woman inspires her with elevated and noble sentiments—a pride and dignity conservative of purity in all her relations—and, reflecting these back upon society, producing most salutary influences. It is woman's pride to lean on man—to share his love and respect—to be elevated by his virtues, and appreciated by the world because of his honors—to be a part of his fame. The mother, the wife, the sister, the relative should share with the husband, the son, the brother, the kinsman, in the world's honors, in the sufferings, sorrows, and miseries incidental to all. They are part and parcel of man, and partake of his nature and his position, as of his fortune. When man shall cease to view woman, and so deport himself toward her as a purer, more refined, and more elevated being than himself, that moment she will sink to his level, and then her prestige for good is gone forever. That delicacy, refinement, and chasteness, so restraining and so purifying to man in her association, is the soul of civilization—the salt of the earth. In its absence, no people are ever great; for, as it is the spirit of man's honor, so is it a nation's glory. It must be cherished, for it inspires man's honor by man's chivalry. Thus she becomes a people's strength; for their crown of glory is her chastity and angelic purity.
These virtues distinguished the pioneer women of Middle Georgia sixty years ago. As their husbands were honest and brave, they were chaste and pious; and from such a parentage sprang the men and women who have made a history for her pre-eminent among all her sister States. Her sons have peopled the West, and are distinguished there for their high honor and splendid abilities; and yet at home she boasts Toombs, Colt, Stephens, Hill, Johnson, Campbell, and a host of others, who are proud specimens among the proudest of the land. They have measured their strength with the proudest minds of all the Union, and won a fame unequalled, adorning her councils, its Cabinet, its Bench, and were the first everywhere.
George Michael Troup, one of the most distinguished of Georgia's sons, was the son of an English gentleman, who emigrated to Georgia anterior to the Revolution. He married Miss McIntosh, of Georgia, sister of General John McIntosh, of McIntosh County. He took no part in the Revolution. England was his mother country; to her he was attached, and in conscience he could not lift his hand in wrath against her. This course did not meet the approval of the McIntoshes, and he retired from the State and country. First, he went to England, but not contented there, he came to the Spanish town of Pensacola. Here he met the celebrated Indian chief, Alexander McGilvery, who was hostile to the Americans, and who invited him to take refuge in his country. McGilvery was a remarkable man; his father was a Scotchman, his mother a half-breed; her father was the celebrated French officer who was killed by his own men in 1732 at Fort Toulouse—his name was Marchand,—and her mother a full-blooded Creek woman.
McGilvery supposed him an English emissary, and invited him to go into the Creek nation and reside with his people. From Pensacola he went to Mobile, and thence to a bluff on the Tombigbee, where he remained during the war. This bluff he named McIntosh's Bluff, and it bears the name yet. Here George M. Troup was born. At the close of the war he returned to Georgia, and fixed his residence among the relatives of his wife. The McIntosh family were Highland Scotch, and partook of all the intrepidity of that wonderful people. They immigrated to Georgia with General Oglethorpe in company with a number of their countrymen, and for one hundred and thirty years have continued to reside in the county named for the first of their ancestors who settled and made a home in the colony of Georgia. It is a family distinguished for chivalry as well in Europe as in Georgia. At the commencement of the Revolution they at once sided with the colonists. Lachlin and John McIntosh became distinguished as leaders in that protracted and doubtful conflict, meeting in battle their kinsman in high command in the British army. On one occasion, when John McIntosh had surrendered at the battle of Brier Creek, a British officer, lost to every sentiment and feeling of honor, attempted to assassinate him, and was only prevented from doing so by Sir Æneas McIntosh, the commander of the English army, whose promptness arrested the blow by interposing his own sword to receive it.
Lachlin McIntosh was the commander of the first regiment raised in Georgia to aid in the Revolution. In 1777, a difficulty arose between Button Gwinnett (who, upon the death of Governor Bullock, had succeeded him as Governor,) and McIntosh. A duel was the consequence, in which Gwinnett was killed. Tradition says this difficulty grew out of the suspicions of McIntosh as to the fidelity of Gwinnett to the American cause. He was an Englishman by birth, and, upon the breaking out of the war, hesitated for some time as to the course he should pursue. This was a time when all who hesitated were suspected, and Gwinnett shared the common fate. Eventually he determined to espouse the revolutionary party, and was elected to the Convention, and was one of the immortal band who signed the Declaration of Independence emanating from that Convention. Until his death he was faithful and active. McIntosh doubted him, and he was not a man to conceal his opinions. McIntosh was severely wounded in the conflict.
This family was one of remarkable spirit; and this has descended to the posterity of the old cavaliers even unto this day. Colonel McIntosh, who fell at Molino del Rey, in our recent war with Mexico, was one of this family. He had all the spirit and chivalry of his ancestors. I remember to have heard Generals Taylor and Twiggs speaking of him subsequently to his death, and felt proud, as a native of the State of Georgia, of the distinguished praise bestowed on him by these gallant veterans. General Taylor was not generally enthusiastic in his expressions of praise, but he was always sincere and truthful. On this occasion, however, he spoke warmly and feelingly of the honor, the gallantry, and intrepidity of his fellow-soldier—his high bearing, his pride, his proficiency as an officer in the field, and the efficiency of his regiment, its perfection of drill and discipline, and coolness in battle—and, with unusual warmth, exclaimed: "If I had had with me at Buena Vista, McIntosh and Riley, with their veterans, I would have captured or totally destroyed the Mexican army."
Captain McIntosh, of the navy, was another of this distinguished family. He had no superior in the navy. So was that ardent and accomplished officer, Colonel McIntosh, who fell at Oak Hill, in the late war in Missouri. In truth, there has not been a day in one hundred and thirty years, when there has not been a distinguished son of this family to bear and transmit its name and fame to posterity. Through his mother, to George M. Troup descended all the nobler traits of the McIntosh family. He was educated, preparatory to entering college, at Flatbush, Long Island. His teacher's name I have forgotten, but he was a remarkable man, and devoted himself to the instruction of the youth intrusted to his care. He seems to have had a peculiar talent for inspiring a high order of ambition in his pupils, and of training them to a deportment and devotion to principle which would lead them to distinguished conduct through life. Governor Troup, in speaking to the writer of his early life and of his school-days on Long Island, said: "There were twenty-one of us at this school fitting for college, and, in after life, nineteen of us met in Congress, the representatives of fourteen States."
Troup, after leaving this school, went to Princeton, and graduated at Nassau Hall, in his nineteenth year. Returning to Savannah, he read law; but possessing ample fortune, he never practised his profession. His talents were of an order to attract attention. James Jackson, and most of the leading men of the day, turned to him as a man of great promise. The Republican party of Savannah nominated him to represent the county of Chatham, in the Legislature of the State, before he was twenty-one years of age. Being constitutionally ineligible, he, of course, declined; but as soon as he became eligible, he was returned, and, for some years, continued to represent the county. From the Legislature he was transferred to Congress, where he at once became distinguished, not only for talent, but a lofty honor and most polished bearing. While a member of Congress, he married a Virginia lady, who was the mother of his three children. Soon after the birth of her third child, there was discovered aberration of mind in Mrs. Troup, which terminated in complete alienation. This was a fatal blow to the happiness of her husband. She was tenderly beloved by him; and his acute sensibility and high nervous temperament became so much affected as not only to fill him with grief, but to make all his remaining life one of melancholy and sorrow. He had been elected to the United States Senate, but, in consequence of this terrible blow, and the constant care of his afflicted lady, to which he devoted himself, he lost his health, and resigned. He retired to his home, and to the sad duties of afflicted love.
About this time the people of Georgia became divided upon the political issues of the day. William H. Crawford was nominated by his friends for the Presidency. This aroused his enemies' hatred, who organized an opposition to him in his own State. This opposition was headed by John Clarke, his old enemy, and was aided by every old Federalist and personal enemy in the State. Crawford's friends were too confident in the popularity which had borne him to so many triumphs, and were slow to organize. The election of Governor devolved, at that time, upon the Legislature, and Clarke, upon the death of Governor Rabun, was announced as the candidate. The event of Rabun's death occurred only a very short time before the meeting of the Legislature. Matthew Talbot, the President of the Senate, assumed, under the Constitution, the duties of Governor, but sent the message already prepared by Rabun to the Legislature, and immediately an election took place, whereupon Clarke was elected. Troup had been solicited to oppose him, but was loath to embark anew in political life. Ultimately he yielded, and was defeated by thirteen votes. The friends of Crawford were now alarmed, and the contest was immediately renewed. The canvass was one of the most rancorous and bitter ever known in the State, but of this I have spoken in a former chapter. At the ensuing election, Troup was again a candidate. Again the contest was renewed, and, if possible, with increased violence and vigor. Clarke, in obedience to usage, had retired, and his party had put forward Matthew Talbot, of Wilkes County, as the competitor of Troup. This contest had now continued for four years, and Troup was elected by two votes.