, 1831.

NATHANIEL BEVERLEY TUCKER.

~1784=1851.~

BEVERLEY TUCKER, as he is usually known, was the son St. George Tucker
and half-brother to John Randolph of Roanoke. He was born at
Williamsburg, Virginia, educated at William and Mary College, and
studied law. From 1815 to 1830 he lived in Missouri and practiced his
profession with great success. He returned to Virginia, and became in
1834 professor of Law in William and Mary College, filling that
position until his death. By his public writings and by correspondence
with various prominent men, he took a leading part in the political
movements of his times.

WORKS.

The Partisan Leader, a Tale of the Future, by William Edward Sydney.
George Balcombe, [a novel.]
Life of John Randolph, [his half-brother.]
Essays, [in Southern Literary Messenger.]
Political Science.
Principles of Pleading.

Of Judge Tucker's style, his friend, Wm. Gilmore Simms, with whom he
long corresponded, says: "I regard him as one of the best prose
writers of the United States."

His novel, "The Partisan Leader," made a great sensation. It was
published in 1836; the story was laid in 1849, and described
prophetically almost the exact course of events in 1861. It was
suppressed for political reasons, but was reprinted in 1861 as a "Key
to the Disunion Conspiracy." The extract is from the beginning of the
book and introduces us at once to several interesting characters amid
the wild scenery of our mountains.

THE PARTISAN LEADER, (WRITTEN IN 1836).

[The scene is laid in Virginia, near the close of the
year 1849. By a long series of encroachments by the
federal government on the rights and powers of the
states, our federative system is supposed to be
destroyed, and a consolidated government, with the forms
of a republic and the powers of a monarchy, to be
established on its ruins. . . . . . As a mere political
speculation, it is but too probably correct. We trust
that a benign Providence will so order events as that it
may not prove also a POLITICAL PROPHECY.--Sou. Lit.
Messenger, Jan., 1837.]

Toward the latter end of the month of October, 1849, about the hour of
noon, a horseman was seen ascending a narrow valley at the Eastern
foot of the Blue Ridge. His road nearly followed the course of a small
stream, which, issuing from a deep gorge of the mountain, winds its
way between lofty hills, and terminates