Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 05.pdf/179

 154

Thc Green Bag.

fallen so far below the young orator's ideal that he sank back in profound dejection. In 1846 he studied law in Macon, and was admitted to the bar in 1847. He began the practice of his profession in Macon; but the absence of immediate success and a disap pointment in love (oí which more anon) caused him to remove to Oxford, Miss., where he accepted the position of adjunct Professor of Mathematics in the State Uni versity, — the principal in that department being Alfred Taylor Bledsoe, editor of the "Southern Review." The best brains of the South contributed to the pages of this peri odical, Lamar among the number. Its vol umes are a treasury of good literature. Being unknown to the general public, they are a mine of wealth to the plagiarists. I was amused to discover in a recent book on Wit and Humor by a voluminous author who writes LL.D. after his name (Mr. William Mathews), long paragraphs stolen bodily from an article in that review. Having returned to Georgia and located at Covington for the practice of law, Lamar was, in 1853, elected a member of the Legis lature. He was elected as a Democrat, although his county of Newton at that time had a Whig majority. Lamar had not been in the house more than a month before he came to the front as a leader. A contempo rary gives this account of his first speech : '• 1 Hiring the session there were so many motions to suspend the rules to take up business out of its order that a resolution was adopted requiring a two thirds vote to suspend the rules. In a day or two thereafter a resolution was offered to suspend the rules to bring on some important election. prol'ably that of a Senator, and fixing a day for it. The Democrats, having a majority, would be able to elect their candidate. The Whigs opposed the motion to suspend the rules; and Mr. Thomas Hardeman, the member from Bibb, led in the opposition. H e made a speech against it; and on л vote being taken, the Democrats only having some twelve or fifteen majority, failed to carry it by two-thirds vote, — upon which there was consterna tion on the Democratic, and rejoicing on the Whig,

side. The Democrats felt they were caught in the trap, and many were the anxious faces on the part of the majority. The next day, on a motion to re consider, Mr. Lamar made his first speech. He was then young, not more than twenty-seven, — a hand some face, a full head of dark hair, with brilliant eyes, in figure rather below the medium height, handsomely dressed, with fine musical voice. He at once attracted the attention of the House. In a short speech of not more than thirty minutes he captured the whole assembly. I remember how he scathed the motives of those who would thus seek to defeat an election that under the law and constitution had been devolved upon the General Assembly. '• Such an excitement as was produced by his speech I never saw in that body. When he fin ished, no one sought to reply. A vote was taken, and a large majority reconsidered the action of the House of the preceding day, and the resolution passed with almost a unanimous vote. "His speech was a remarkable exhibition of the power of the orator and logician, and his appeal to his opponents to step manfully and patriotically forward to discharge their duty was so overwhelm ing that all party spirit was subdued,, even in the breast of the most bitter partisan, and none even ventured a reply."

In 1854 he returned to Mississippi and made his residence upon his plantation in La Fayette County. This was his final and permanent adoption of that State as his home. If any one wishes to see a picture "drawn out in living characters " of the times and the people with whom Lamar cast his fortune, let him read " A Southern Planter" by Mrs. Susan Dabney Smedes, — a book which elicited Mr. Gladstone's enthusiastic praise. Л New England critic has declared that the real Thomas Dabney, who appears in its pages, is as beautiful a character as Thackeray's imagination conceived in Sir Thomas Newcome. The most unsympa thetic reader cannot fail to see in the simple annals of this true gentleman's life that side of slavery which made such men as Lamar its defenders. The society of that time and section had conceptions of personal right and honor which are " to the Jews a stum