Hampden Sydney College - Kaleidoscope Yearbook (Hampden Sydney, VA)

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of property and of the basis of gaining property. except by unknown and unex- perienced methods: the surrender of a social system and its substitution bv a strange order, that made a man a foreigner in his own home: the surrender of country to become defunct, never to know resuscitationg the land was left, the sky was left, but no country: the surrender of everything but religion and life: these were guaranteed, conditionally. The men walked away with the old religion to build a new life and to return to an old country: and they and their children have done it. Here ends the first chapter of his life. His career and services had been varied, brilliant, excited, conspicuous, widely noted, but not concentred. Nm-tn Burk. Now the second chapter opens, a chapter diversified and full of action still, but defined and convergent in every line. During this period he has been invited to represent once more his party in Congress from New York, and has frequently represented it in conventions, State and National. but the exigencies of his pro- fession and other purposes in life have not allowed him to enter the field of politics again. He was made LL. D. by Hampden-Sidney in 1884. The chafing champion of secession and lilrigadier of the Rebellion went in the September of '65 to New York City, the metropolis of his conquerors, with a few borrowed dollars, less than a hundred, and without a profession to practise their laws before their courts. The venture and the result find few parallels. In this chapter, the determination of the boy, if a blacksmith, to be a good one, looms up, and the eminent jurist walks through it, regnant on hostile soil. To the surprise even of his friends the political debater becomes a learned justice. the passionate Virginian an American. He set himself diligently to the study of law again, that he might be admitted to the New York bar. llleanwhile he main- tained his large family by editorial work on New York papers, and often the silver service, given by a loving constituency, little recking what they did, stood him in good stead as collateral. The privations and sufferings of himself and family, during those first five years in New York, must not be told here. The anguish of his life came to him also then in the death of his eldest son, Theodorick llland Pryor, who graduated at Princeton with the lirst honor of his class and the mathematical fellowship: was sent to Cambridge, England, where in six months he won an English scholarship, and returned home, full of honor and happiness. to die at the age of twenty. In due time, he was admitted to the practise of law by examination. Let a New York daily tell the sequel: After starting his practise, he rose speedily to I5

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forgot his questions and the crowd forgot to interrupt, swaying to and fro with him as he fell into a secession trance-frenzy and walked back and forth along the porch railing, pouring burning words into their bosoms. ln the crush, as the crowd surged back and forth with him, many were borne down, some were injured. During this campaign, he first gave currency to the phrase, the irrepressible conflict, so often used by Mr. Lincoln: and Daniel Dougherty, the Pennsylvanian of silver tongue, has since called him the Harry Hotspur of the Confederacy. The war came in '61, Yirginia seceded. He took his place with his State and his country, the Confederate States of America. He was elected to and served in the Confederate Congress, until active hostilities commenced, for which his restless spirit panted. Then he resigned his seat and went into the field as Colonel of a regiment. After the battle of lVilliamsburg he was promoted Brigadier-General for gallantry by Major-General joseph E. Johnston. who ordered the words Williamsburg and Seven Pines to be emblazoned on his regimental banner. In consequence of a misunderstanding with the Confederate XVar Department, he resigned his commission, and enlisted in the ranks in '63, There is not a nobler period in his life than this. For some eight months he served as a private soldier in the Nottoway Cavalry, Company E, Third Yirginia Regiment. as cheerfully, as dauntlessly, as when in Brigade Headquarters or Congressional Halls, shirking no duty under privilege, commanded by men whom he had been leading from their boyhood. He was detailed for duty as special courier and scout under Lee around Petersburg in '64, being familiar with every inch of the ground. On one of these missions he was taken prisoner by violation of an informal truce, such as the soldiers of the two lines often made for the interchange of newspapers and camp comforts: a dastardly deed, done because his unmistakable, striking figure, as true to description as to photograph, was recognized. He was closely confined in a casemate at Fort Lafayette, New York, for more than half a year, until liberated on parole for exchange, by Nr. Lincoln, twenty days before the surrender. That surrender came at Appomattox, April oth, 1865-hlCl'I'lOI'2.lJlC Day! And such a surrender! None can know who have not made such surrender. It can not be learned from recitals of historians or descriptions of orators. It was not a surrender of arms and Hags and the payment of an indemnity in dollars. It was the surrender of customs as old as Jamestown, that had become habits of nature, that could no more be substituted, than the foot of an amputated limb can be sub- stituted, except by false ones: the surrender of sentiments, that could no more be eradicated. than the nerve anatomy can be extracted: the surrender of principles, that could no more be unbosomed, than the heart can be taken out: the surrender I4

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eminence. His great talents and acumen demanded recognition. The Tilton- Beecher case and the Morey letter case brought him prominently before the public. These were followed by the famous Sprague case in Rhode Island and the im- peachment case of Governor Ames in Mississippi, which brought him a national reputation. XVhen Q'Donnell was put on trial in London for the murder of informer Carney, Mr. Pryor was sent across to defend him, and his reputation became fIIfL'l'1ltIfli01IUI.H Many other cases, as the anarchist cases in Chicago, the sugar monopoly case in Xlfashington when he struck an early blow against trusts, might have been added. In ISQO he became judge of the Court of Common Pleas of New York, and continued so till ,Q5, when he was made Justice of the Supreme Court, from which he was retired in 1898 by the age limit of seventy ripe years, full of action, and he is still in action, doing a large practise. XVhen chosen judge, he led the ticket, being elected by 6o,ooo majority, receiving a larger vote than even the Governor at the head of it. It is in divorce and corporation law that Judge Pryor has shown special fearlessness, ability, and absolute incorruptibility in interpreting and maintaining the statutes. 'When he retired from the bench, the New York lV01'Id said: That fine gentleman and learned judge, Roger A. Pryor, sat for the last time in the Supreme Court yesterday. The Justice has furnished here a whiPf of the old chivalry of the South before the war. Blown into the colder atmosphere of the New York courts. he has always been instinct with that chivalry in his treatment of women litigants. He fone day startled the courtroom by declaring he would not believe the confession of a corespondent, backed by the statement of a private detective, against the unsupported denial of a woman. Corespondents who testified against women have been made most unhappy by justice Pryor. ' It is infamous to marry a woman iust for her moneyl' he impulsively exclaimed. For himself as the representative of the law, Justice Pryor has always com- manded the utmost respect. There was a wordy and acrimonious dispute between counsel in chambers where Pryor was sitting. He tapped gently on the floor before him, the disputants became silent, and in the gentlest tone the Judge said: ' Please to remember. gentlemen. when you practise law in this part of the court and when I am on the bench, that it is as important to study Chesterfield as Blackstone' Necessarily, Justice Pryor is a true American. He refused an application for the incorporation of a club of foreign-born citizens in New York and has always closely questioned applicants for naturalization and always promptly I6