ds of others, which seems to have passed from the workshop and the
counting-room to the halls of legislation; the unbounded extravagance of
expenditure which might serve to indicate the possession of the darling
prize, and, above all, that worst sign of all, the almost perfect
indifference with which the most enormous frauds are received by the
public; these and similar things show the bitter consequences of this
vulgar passion. I rejoice that our venerable friend, when in the prime
of his extraordinary powers, and at a period of life when the flame of
ambition glows wildest, turned his back upon the gilded phantoms which
have lured so many to destruction, and sought repose in the bosom of
domestic life.

The conduct of Mr. Tazewell in respect of public office has also been
misunderstood. He would hold no office in perpetuity, and I have already
shown that, whenever called upon to render public service, he obeyed the
call without a thought of the pecuniary sacrifices which he inevitably
must incur;[12] and it would be easy, if it were proper, to show that
Mr. Tazewell, though in retirement, afforded most valuable assistance to
those who held office, and indeed to all who chose to consult him. He
held it as a settled maxim, that it was the first duty of every citizen
to serve his country; and I have no doubt that, if the office of Chief
Justice of the United States had become vacant during the first fifteen
or twenty years after his retirement from the bar, and he had been
called to fill it, as perhaps he would have been, he would have accepted
the appointment; and I further believe that if the presidency of the
Court of Appeals had been tendered him, or even the judgeship of the
Superior Court on the Eastern Shore, provided in this last case he did
not interfere with the expectations of his brethren of that bar, he
would have accepted either, and held it for a certain time, and for a
certain time only; for he had no respect for perpetuities in great
public trusts.

They also misjudge him who say that he ought to have composed a great
historical work for posterity--a task which Jefferson, Madison, and John
Quincy Adams, with every possible motive urging them to its performance,
declined to undertake. In this respect, Mr. Tazewell acted with his
usual good sense; not that he did not write on particular topics of our
history, as, for instance, the difference between the original and
recent surveys, a subject which he has