Page:The Poets and Poetry of the West.djvu/192

 176 THOMASH.SHREVE. [18aU-4U. times, and under all circumstances, as one to be relied upon — the same in joy or in sorrow, in weal or in woe, in adversity or prosperity, in life or in death. He scorned a meanness with the same heartiness that he admired a noble act. Pie made no con- cessions to wrong, and bestowed applause in no stinted words upon the nght. From his earliest life he abhoiTed all doctrines of expediency in matters of moral import, and was unrelenting in his hostility to all arguments drawn from them. He stood upright before his God, and his fellow-man, and no compromises with falsehood or error Avere able to push him from his place. What, after diligent inquiry and the exercise of the best powers of his mind, he believed to be right, was right to him, and by it he would stand or fall. These earnest words in his praise are spoken by one who knew him in young man- hood and mature Hfe as no other man living knew him. We were through many years his associate in active business, in editorial employments, in literary pursuits, in the schemes of youth that are but bubbles, and in the hopes of manhood that turn to dust and ashes upon the heart. In his religious views, Mr. Shreve was a Quaker. This was the education of his childhood, and his matured faculties indorsed it as correct. The sincerity of his heart bore testimony to its truthfulness, and the simplicity of his manners and habits accorded with its precepts and examples. Some of the strongest articles that came from his hand, in his later years, were vindications of William Penn from the asper- sions of the historian Macaulay. Mr. Shreve's keenest regrets, aside from those connected with his separation for all time from his wife, children, and friends, were that he had accomplished so little in his favorite pursuit of literature. Little he had done, indeed, compared with what he had designed and would have achieved had a few more years been permitted him in this life : but should a collection be made of what he has written, as we earnestly hope it may, and a careful selection be taken from it, it will be found that he accom- plished much more than has been done by many a one who has rested from his labors and been content. In 1851, " Drayton, an American Tale," from the pen of Mr. Shreve, was pub- lished by Harper and Brothers, New York. It was favorably reviewed in several of the leading magazines and newspapers of the East as well as of the West. Its plot is of more than common interest, and many of its pages contain admirable examples of character painting. The hero is a fair representative of American energy and independence. He passes from the shoemaker's bench to a position of honor and in- fluence in the legal profession, illustrating in his career, study and industry well cal- culated to elevate and improve young men who are denied the advantages of education and family influence. About fourteen years before his death, Mr. Shreve married Octavia Bullitt, daughter of the late Benjamin Bullitt, for many years an influential citizen of Louisiana. She survived him, and partners in her bitter bereavement were three daughters — all the children that Avere born to them.