Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 14.djvu/383

 Letters and Times of the Tylers. 377

life, and without which there is no greatness that can be of much value to a community, or nation. Talent is oftener a curse than a blessing, either individually or officially. Without the bene- fits resulting from pure Christianitj^ with its moral power raising the man to his proper position and influence, for morality, in its highest tones, is and always will be, the true basis, as well as the light and life of national happiness and permanent success. This makes high-toned honor and incorruptible virtue a sme qua non in official station.

" The most important public measures connected with the memory of Judge Tyler were the resohdion, whose passage through the Legis- lature he secured in 1786, convoking an assembly of the States at Annapolis for the purposeof amending the articles of confederation — that assembly being the immediate precursor of that which met at Philadelphia in 1787 and framed the Federal Constitution; the Lite- rary Fund, which was established on the recommendations of his message in 1809 ; and the revision of the laws, which he supported as speaker of the House of Delegates and as Governor of the State with the ardor of a reformer."

The Legislature of Virginia passed a highly complimentary reso- lution on Judge Tyler's character. An obituary written on his death, by Judge Spencer Roane — who ranked with Pendleton and Marshall as one of the first jurists of the nation — gives expression to a tone of moral life that should pervade official station, and is worthy of record in the philosophic literature of the age, and should be a national motto for every period. He remarks in reference to Judge Tyler's character : " It is less a tribute of justice to the memory of the de- ceased than an act of utility to the public to hold up the mirror of his virtues. The present and future generations have a deep interest in the subject, and thousands of useful men and virtuous patriots yet unborn may be formed upon the model of his example." The ex- ample of incorruptible virtue in public men should ever be held up as a mirror to the rising generation and the polar star for official duty to every public officer.

The work continues with the times and biographical sketches and political history of the State of Virginia and national politics, and brings to the attention of the reader John Tyler, the son of the Judge and future President of the United States.

John Tyler was born in 1790 ; graduated at William and Mary College in 1807 ; in 1809 was admitted to the bar; two years later was elected a member of the Legislature, and re-elected for five sue-