orators said of the best of English statesmen may not unjustly be said of Pinkney, and to have deserved the encomium is an honor sufficient to prompt and reward the ambition of any man. "No state chicanery, no narrow system of vicious politics, no idle contests for mere party victories, regardless of principle, ever sunk him to the vulgar level of hr so called great.”

CHAPTER XIV.

WILLIAM WIRT,

THE ELEGANT ADVOCATE.

ELOQUENT and upright lawyers have ever been among the first to resist oppression and promote human weal. Demosthenes, who roused the Athenians to resist the tyranny of Philip, was an advocate. Cicero, the antagonist of oppressors and the savior of his country, was an advocate. When Charles the First commenced his despotic exactions, it was the advocates of England who first breasted the torrent. France was revolutionized by advocates; and her best patriots at this moment are the ablest leaders at her bar. When the enormities of Great Britain threatened subjugation to her colonies in the west, it was the voice of such advocates as Otis, Henry and Adams, that, like a Paladin's horn, roused the people of America to conquest and liberty. From the first planting of republican institutions in our land, advocates have perpetually kindled the beacon-lights of patriotism and law-"hope of the fettered slave and glory of the free." Prominent in this noble class was

William Wirt. His parents were a Swiss and a

German, who resided, at the time of his birth, Nov. 8th, 1772, at Bladensburg, near Washington. His father died when he was an infant; and his mother when he was but eight years old. Like most great men, he was early left orphaned of every thing but resolution and hope, to antagonize with worldly adversity, and, in the midst of storms, to build his fortunes.

After suitable preparatory studies, he went to Leesburg, Virginia, and when seventeen years old, com menced the study of law in the office of Mr. Swann. He seems to have prosecuted his studies with great diligence and success. Among other good influences under which his mind was there developed, he was ever of the opinion that he derived much advantage from the beauty and sublimity of the natural scenery which encompassed him. Undoubtedly, his conclusion on that point was correct. There is always a striking resemblance between the predominating character of local scenery and the minds matured under its influence. Edmund Burke grew up amid the most gorgeous scenery of Ireland, and Daniel Webster was cradled in the bosom of the White Mountains of New Hampshire, where all in nature is cool, colossal, sublime.

Mr. Wirt obtained his license to practice law in 1792, a few days before he was twenty years old. The first cause in which he was engaged was in Culpepper County, on which occasion his argument is said to have been firm, collected and successful.

For several years, he resided in the family of Dr. G. Gilmer, whose daughter he married in 1795. The Doctor had a high professional and classical reputation.

and was on familiar terms with the first men of the day. Here Wirt became acquainted with Monroe, Madison, Jefferson, and other eminent citizens, whose learning he emulated, and in whose society he greatly improved. After the death of his wife, in 1799, he was elected Clerk of the House of Delegates of Virginia, which Drought him into the sphere of some of his greatest achievements. His first appearance in Richmond, as a speaker, was upon the 4th of July, 1800, and in the celebrated trial of Callender. In 1802, he was elected Chancellor of the Lower District of the Chancery Court, held at Williamsburg. In the autumn of that year he married Miss Gamble, who survived him. During thirteen years, the time of his residence at Richmond and Norfolk, he conducted a great many civil and criminal causes, and competed successfully with the Tazewells, Taylors, Wickhams, Randolphs, and other distinguished men who adorned the Virginia bar.

One of the first trials which engaged his attention, after his return to Richmond, and which gave him a wide reputation, was the prosecution of Aaron Burr, in 1807. To him, as much as to any of the counsel engaged, belonged the commendation of the court, that a degree of eloquence, seldom displayed on any occasion, embellished solidity of argument and depth of research."

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In 1808, Mr. Wirt was elected to the House of Delegates from Richmond, and during that year drew up several important State papers. The British Spy was written in 1803; the Old Bachelor, in 1812; and in 1817, he published the Life of Patrick Henry.

In 1816, Mr. Madison appointed Mr. Wirt DistrictAttorney for Virginia; and in the following year, at the age of forty-five, he was appointed by Mr. Munroe, Attorney-General of the United States. Unlike his predecessors, he removed permanently to Washington, and continued there throughout eleven years and four months, more than twice the time the office had been held by any other. He was very strict in his attention to official duties, and exceedingly laborious. He instituted a new practice in the office, and not only filed every document for future reference, but made a regular record of every official opinion and letter he wrote Three large volumes of this kind he left for the use of the future historian of the jurisprudence of the country, more valuable material, no doubt, than can be gathered from all the previous incumbents of his office since the government was formed.

In 1826, at the request of the citizens of Washington, he delivered an eulogy on Adams and Jefferson. It was deemed one of the most masterly productions which that melancholy event occasioned. In the winter of 1822, he was severely attacked by a disease resembling apoplexy, and was compelled to resign his position as Attorney-General.

But he did not cease to prosecute with ardor the duties of his profession. His aid was sought by individuals, by corporations, by States, and even by the government itself, in matters of the greatest importance. He visit ed every part of the Union, in his professional capacity, and every where commanded admiration by his great egal and personal worth.