quiescence under insult is not the way to escape war. I am with great esteem, dear Sir, your most obedient, humble servant.

(Signed) THOMAS JEFFERSON.

It has been said of Henry Tazewell:

"He filled all of the public stations he held with great satisfaction."7

Henry Tazewell was cut down as a flower in full bloom, as he had not yet reached the zenith of his power when death overtook him. He contracted a cold on his journey from Virginia to Philadelphia in January, 1799, where he took his seat in the Senate. The cold developed into an inflammatory attack, which caused his death on January 24, 1799. He was buried in Christ Church graveyard, Philadelphia. A white marble slab covers the grave. In eternal sleep he does not rest alone in that graveyard, for not far distant from his grave are buried his friends and colleagues, Colonel James Innes, Steven Thomson Mason, who succeeded him as Senator, and Isaac Read, all natives of Virginia.

Richmond, Va.

October 31, 1928.

D. GARDINER TYLER, JR.

REFERENCES:

1 A Discourse of the Life and Character of Littleton Waller Tazewell-By Hugh Blair Grigsby.

2 Virginia Convention of 1776, pages 79-90-Hugh Blair Grigsby.

3 History of Virginia, Vol. 2-The Federal Period-By Lyon Gardiner Tyler.

4 Virginia Convention of 1788, Vol. 2, pages 237-8-Hugh Blair Grigsby.

5 Letters and Times of the Tylers, Vol. 1-By Lyon Gardiner Tyler. 1 Va. Cases, 106-7.

6 1 Washington (1 Va.) Reports;

2 Va. Cases, Va. Reports annotated, p. 106.

7 The Green Bag─The Court of Appeals of Virginia-By S. S. P. Patteson.

JUDGE SPENCER ROANE.

"I love the honor, and, if you please, the glory of my country, but I love its liberty better."1

Spencer Roane, the most colorful figure in the history of Virginia jurisprudence, and often erroneously referred to as president of the appellate court, was born in Essex County, Virginia, on April 4, 1762, and died at Warm Springs, Bath County, Virginia, September 4, 1822.2

His ancestry was Scotch. His paternal ancestor, Gilbert Roane, was born in Scotland, on February 12, 1680, and, as a reward for distinguished service in the civil wars under William III, was given a grant of land in Ireland, to which he removed. All of his four sons migrated to America. The third son, William, married Sarah Upshaw, settled in Essex County, Virginia, and brought up his six children there. His third son, who became the father of the judge, was William Roane, junior. He was born about 1740, received a good education, and represented his county in the House of Burgesses from 1768 to the Revolution, when he joined a company of volunteers. He married Judith Ball, who became the mother of Spencer Roane.3

Judge Roane was carefully educated for his future career. From early childhood his father and tutors grounded him in the classics and in the democratic principles which were sweeping the country into revolution. He continued his academic education at William and Mary College and, later, attended the law lectures of Wythe, after which he studied law in Philadelphia. Roane was diligent in his study of history and in his pursuit of Littleton, Coke, Hale, and Holt. His strong bent was for constitutional law, somewhat to the neglect of his study of equity.3

In 1779, while a student at William and Mary, Roane became a member of Phi Beta Kappa Society, founded only three years before as a secret organization and with its primary purpose the pursuit of literary subjects. In the fraternity were several

ardent youths whose names were to achieve renown, among them Bushrod Washington, who was destined to sit on the bench of the Supreme Court of the United States which Roane was so bitterly to condemn. No subject was too ambitious, no theme too abstruse, for the boy orators. From the "progress of the arts & sciences" they ranged through such topics as "Whether Brutus was justifyable in having his sons executed," "Whether anything is more dangerous to Civile Liberty in a free State than a standing army in time of Peace," and "Whether the Institution of the Ostracism was Legal." Roane was very prominent in the debates, and his name was signed to the charter given the new chapter "at Cambridge." In January, 1781, with the storm of revolution menacing the quiet town of Williamsburg, the fraternity met "for the Purpose of Securing the Papers of the Society during the Confusion of the Times, & the present Dissolution which threatens the University." The closing journal entry was as follows:

"The members who attended were William Short, Daniel C. Brent, Spencer Roane, Peyton Short, & Landon Cabell. They thinking it most advisable that the papers should not be removed, determined to deliver them sealed into the Hands of the College Steward, to remain with him until the desirable Event of the Society's Resurrection. And this Deposit they make in the sure & certain Hope that the Fraternity will one day rise to Life everlasting and Glory immortal."4

And how glorious that resurrection has been!

In December, 1782, at the age of twenty, and with his studies far advanced, Roane sought admission to the bar in the following petition to Governor Harrison:

"The Petition of Spencer Roane humbly Sheweth.

"That your Petitioner for a considerable Time past has been endeavoring to attain a knowledge of the Laws of this Country, sufficient to enable him to exercise the Duties of an Attorney therein; and being now desirous to