h all of us who labor most earnestly for the
preservation of the Union.

I tender my sympathies to the family of the deceased. I unite with
them in their regrets and in their hopes of the happy future to which
he may have attained.

The Hon. WILLIAM C. RIVES, of Virginia, said:--Though wholly
unprepared to say any thing worthy of the solemnity of this occasion,
I feel that I should be wanting, sir, in that sentiment of respect
which is due to the character of a distinguished citizen, if I were
not to add to what has been so eloquently spoken by others, a few
words of personal recollection in regard to our deceased friend Judge
WRIGHT. It so happened that we entered the public councils of the
country at the same moment, and continued in them for the same period
of time. It is now just thirty-seven years since I had the pleasure of
meeting Judge WRIGHT, for the first time, in the House of
Representatives of the United States. I may be permitted to say, that
there were giants in those days. My honorable friend from Kentucky
(Governor WICKLIFFE), who has already so feelingly addressed the
Convention, will recollect that on the roll of the House of
Representatives at that time stood the names of WEBSTER and EVERETT,
of OAKLEY and STORRS, of SARGEANT and of HEMPHILL, of LEWIS McLANE, of
the immortal CLAY, and BARBOUR and RANDALL, and other gentlemen known
to fame from the State which I have the honor to represent in this
body, and LIVINGSTON of Louisiana, McDUFFIE and HAMILTON of South
Carolina, and other gentlemen who, on the spur of the occasion, I am
not now able to recall, but whose names will forever shine upon the
rolls of their country's glory. And yet in that body Judge WRIGHT,
then in the maturity of his powers, though not previously known to the
nation, vindicated an equal rank in debate with those gentlemen whose
names I have mentioned. Sir, I shall never forget with what
earnestness, with what manliness, with what integrity, with what
ability, he ever uttered his convictions of public duty, whatever they
were, in that consecrated hall.

After remaining here, I think, for six years, he retired to his own
State for the purpose of assuming the duties of a highly-important and
dignified office, which was soon followed by his retirement into the
bosom of private life, where he met a rich and ample solace for the
storms of his public career. He was followed there by the respect of
his fellow-citizens throughout the