g of oracles more
practical, more prudent, more profound, and penetrating further into the
abyss of the dark and illimitable future than were ever uttered at the
Pythian fane; and last, though not least, how, in the lingering twilight
of his years as in their earliest dawn, he loved Virginia, not with that
cold feeling which looks to latitude and longitude, to East or to West,
as the limits of affection, but, first, in that tender and household
light, as the home of his ancestry, the sepulchre of his sires, his own
birth and burial-place, and the birth and burial-place of those who were
dear to him, and then in that more majestic aspect as the bride of
liberty, the first born of the colonies of Britain, and the first born
of the States of the new world, as the mother of heroes, statesmen, and
philosophers, "above all Greek, above all Roman fame," as the sole
mistress of his heart, valuing her humblest commission, whether stamped
by the greater or the lesser seal, above the highest honors which a
federal executive could bestow, or the most gorgeous transcript of
imperial praise, as a free, puissant, and perfect commonwealth, as an
integral, independent, and sovereign State, as independent, as
sovereign, as when she struck the lion with his senseless motto from her
flag, and placed in their stead her own Virtue, erect, with a helmet on
her head, a spear in her hand, and a fallen crown at her feet, and that
ever dear and ever living sentiment, "SIC SEMPER TYRANNIS," and
especially and touchingly, with unutterable and inextinguishable
affection, as the beneficent parent who had rocked his cradle, who had
held out to him in youth the helping hand, who had honored his meridian
and his setting years with her greenest bays, and who as he humbly and
fondly hoped, would drop a tear upon his tomb, and hold his name not
unworthy of her remembrance. Let us, gentlemen, recall these and similar
traits of this illustrious man, and holding up before posterity his pure
and bright example, let us not only honor it with our tongues, but
imprint it on our hearts, and imitate it in our lives.

And now, Patron of my youth, Guide and Counsellor of my maturer years,
and ever, ever, ever the Friend of my bosom, HAIL and FAREWELL!

FOOTNOTES:

[1] The various spellings are Tan'swell, Ta'rswell, Tassell, Taswell,
Tazewell. Tarswell is another abbreviation of Tankersville.

[2] Judge Benjamin Waller.

[3] Mr. Wickham married Mr. Tazewell's aun