Page:Sketches of the life and character of Patrick Henry.djvu/114

 90 SKETCHES OF THE

Mr. Carr's resolutions were supported, successively by Mr. Henry, and Mr. Richard Henry Lee, with their usual abihty. The reader will no doubt be gi^atified by a short sketch of this assembly, as it presented itself to a gentleman who now saw it for the first time, and who looked upon it with an eye of taste and genius; the writer who was then in the ardour of youth, and a stranger in the colony, has since been distinguished by holding and adorning some of the highest offices of the state.

" When I first saw Mr. Heniy, which was in March, 1773, he wore a peach blossom coloured coat, and a dark wig, which tied behind, and I believe a bag to it^

��this his first and last speech in the house of representatives. " I well remem- ber the pleasure expressed in the coimtenance and conversation of the mem- bers ; g-enerally, on this debut of Mr. Carr and the hopes they conceived, as well from the talents as the patriotism it manifested. But he died within two months after, and in him we lost a powerful fellow labourer. His charac ter was of a hig-h order: a spotless integrity, sound judgment, handsome imagination, enriched by education and reading, quick and clear in his con- ceptions, of correct and ready elocution, impressing every hearer with the sincerity of the heart from which it flowed. His firmness was inflexible in whatever he thought right : but when no moral principle was in the way, never had man more of the milk of human kindness, of indulgence, of soft- ness, of pleasantry in conversation and conduct. The number of his friends and the warmth of their affection, were proofs of his worth and of their esti- mate of it. To give to those now living an idea of the affliction produced by his death, in the minds of all those who knew him, I liken it to that lately felt by themselves on tlie death of his eldest son, Peter Carr ; so like him in all his endowments and moral quahties, and whose recollection can never recur, without a deep drawn sigh from the bosom of eveiy one who knew him."

Extract from the Virginia Gazette of 29th May, 1773.

" On Sunday, the 16th of May, died, at Charlotte ville. in the 30th year of his age, Dabney Carr, esquire, attorney at law, and member of Assembly for the county of Louisa. This excellent person possessed a fine genius, and a benevolent heart, with a taste for all that was polite, elegant or social ; and when occasion offered, displayed a masculine eloquence, and an undaunted love of liberty.'*

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