and impertinent intrusion of magpies
and daws; but it is truly a misfortune to the country that the imperial
bird should sleep on her lonely eyrie, and leave the supreme dominion to
region kites and mousing owls.

"I had long been curious to see the natural vigor, fertility, and
adroitness of Mr. Tazewell contrasted with the consummate art and
accomplished prowess of Mr. Pinkney; and participated in the public
disappointment, (as I must ever deplore the cause which produced it,)
when the death of Mr. Pinkney rendered it impossible, just at the moment
that the contest was to take place. But a few days before Mr. Pinkney's
death, (a circumstance which probably hastened it,) he had exerted
himself very much in the argument of a cause of great interest to his
client. Immediately the discussion was over, and while the accents of
that _cycnea vox_ reverberated in the ears of all who heard the last
effort of his eloquence, he began the preparation for his argument with
Mr. Tazewell. His application was too intense; his strength, and health,
and life, sunk under it; and they who hastened from a distance to
witness the competition, beheld anticipated victory and triumph turned
into a funeral procession: _O fallacem hominum spem, fragilemque
fortunam, et inanes nostras contentiones!_"

The reader will keep in mind that this sketch by Mr. Gilmer was written
nearly forty years ago, and before Mr. Tazewell appeared in the Senate
of the United States.

No. IV.

EXTRACTS FROM THE LETTERS OF MR. TAZEWELL RESPECTING PUBLIC OFFICE.

Mr. Tazewell kept no copies of his letters to his friends, and I make
the subjoined extracts, explanatory of his views respecting public
office, wholly from those in my own possession. I may state here that
when a commissioner was appointed to Kentucky, in 1823, Mr. Tazewell was
consulted on the subject by some of his friends in the General Assembly,
and he agreed to undertake the office; but when he heard that the
friends of Benjamin Watkins Leigh, his warm personal friend, desired the
appointment of that distinguished jurist, he sent a peremptory
withdrawal of his name, and urged the nomination of Mr. Leigh. When he
believed that the arbiters of the dispute between Kentucky and Virginia
would be chosen at large, he suggested the names of Jeremiah Mason of
New Hampshire, William Hunter of Rhode Island, and Langdon Cheves of
Philadelphia.

In a letter, dated January 1, 1823, he says: "I ask not