n his admirable letters
published in the memoir of Mr. Kennedy; and his gentle courtesy and
generous nature are yet freshly remembered in our city. As a proof of
his playfulness, I have heard Mrs. Tazewell say that when Wirt would
call at her house, on his way to court, he would beg her for a bundle of
newspapers to stuff in his green bag, to make a show of business as he
passed into the court-house. When the Old Bachelor appeared, a series of
essays in imitation of the Spectator, which Wirt published after leaving
Norfolk, he delineated at full length the character of Tazewell, under
the name of Sidney, and of General Taylor under that of Herbert; and I
refer to the number as a gratifying evidence of the estimate which he
placed upon the genius and acquirements of those eminent men. And now
that the grave has closed above Wirt and Tazewell, it is refreshing to
contemplate the cordiality of their friendship, and the substantial
welcome which Tazewell extended to Wirt; and it is proper to say that,
but for the revelations of Mr. Wirt himself contained in his published
letters, and in the statements of his nearest friends, the recollection
of the generous kindness of Mr. Tazewell to Wirt, as may be said of many
other cases, would have remained unknown to his surviving friends.

In tracing the career of a great lawyer, we should follow him through
the courts in which his life was spent; but here, unfortunately, no
records appear which can throw any light upon the subject. The grandest
efforts of counsel are made in the presence of the court and of the
jury, and of those spectators who may happen to be in the court-room at
the time, and are soon forgotten. Many heroes, the poet tells us, lived
before Agamemnon, but are forgotten, because they had no poet to record
their praise; and, before the days of the stenographer, the most
brilliant harangues in our inferior courts perished with the breath of
them who uttered, and of those who heard them. Such has been the fate of
Mr. Tazewell. Of all the speeches which he addressed to the courts and
juries of Norfolk, from 1802 to 1821, not a vestige remains; and all
that we know is, that he was employed on one side or other of all the
important cases of that interval; and that he exhibited abilities which
easily placed him at the head of the bar of the Commonwealth, and
attracted the attention of all who, whether in foreign countries or our
own, held any connexion with our city. I sha