preserved any of his letters written during our school and college days. We never supposed that a day would come when they would be valuable, and, like school-boys, manifested but little forethought.

Most of my father's political papers were at Milledgeville at the time of his death, and have never been recovered, or, rather, returned to his family. He was plain and unaffected in manners and speech, suiting the word to the thought and expressing it as plainly as possible. He rarely, if ever, used a metaphor, and never a hyperbole. Truth was ever clothed in its plainest garb, and honor ranked highest in the catalogue of human virtues.

As a father, he was all that could be desired,-kind, considerate, loving, and yet requiring implicit obedience. During the last year of his life he frequently regretted that he was unable to devote that time to his family which he desired and they had a right to claim. As a man, he was warm-hearted, generous, and confiding. As a lawyer, he was the earnest and impressive advocate of justice, ever mindful of his client's interest, though he deemed the duty to his God and to himself of a prior nature, and never, if he was aware of it, advocated an unjust cause. During the whole of thirty years' practice, he never appeared but three times in prosecutions for murder, and, on each occasion, appeared only upon the condition that, if from the evidence he believed the prisoner not guilty of the charge of murder, he should be allowed the privilege either of retiring from the case or stating his opinion to the jury.

As a statesman, it will be left for history to decide. He was ever to be found battling for the true interests of his State, and was always a true friend to woman. His most remarkable faculty was memory. He never forgot. He could remember the minutest details years after the event had occurred. As a practitioner of law, he possessed the faculty of expressing every thing in few words,-which he ever found to his advantage, and particularly in equity practice.

He was of small stature and pleasant address, had blue eyes, which wore the appearance of gray as he grew older, large mouth and nose, and a lofty forehead, which expanded and grew broader the longer he lived. He had an amiable expression of countenance, though there ever appeared around his mouth those small lines which indicated decision of character.

To perpetuate his name and to testify their high regard, the Legislature, by act* of February 26, 1856, created a new county from parts of Baker and Early, and called it "Miller." This memoir could not be more gracefully concluded than by transcribing

An act to appropriate a sum of money to erect a monument in honor of Hon. A. J. Miller, deceased.

Whereas, It is a time-honored custom to provide for a suitable monument to the memory of our deceased associates and to mark the place of their interment, and whereas, in the decease of our late friend and associate, the Hon. Andrew J. Miller, Senator from the county of Richmond, the General Assembly of the State of Georgia has lost one of its most See Pamphlet Laws, compiled by John W. Duncan, Esq., p. 114. VOL. II.-12

faithful, efficient, and gifted members,-one whose services as a legislator and qualities as a man must leave their fixed impression upon the history of this State and the hearts of his countrymen,

Therefore, this General Assembly do hereby enact, That the sum of two hundred dollars be, and is hereby, appropriated for the erection of a suitable monument of Georgia marble to mark the burial-place of the Honorable Andrew J. Miller, the Senator from the county of Richmond, having such inscription commemorative of the services of the deceased as may be ordered by the Honorable John Milledge and James Gardner, Esq.

Approved, March 3, 1856.

XXIV.

THOMAS D. MITCHELL.

THE gentleman whose brief career is under notice was born in Laurens district, South Carolina, in the year 1793. His father, William M. Mitchell, removed from Virginia prior to the Revolution. On the score of birth nothing more is necessary to be stated, as no claim is set up on the ground of distinguished ancestry.

THOMAS D. MITCHELL became an orphan at a tender age. His education was respectable in the English branches,-nothing more. When about eighteen years of age, he came to Georgia and taught school in Montgomery county. On attaining the age of twentyone, he returned to Carolina and obtained his small patrimony of about one thousand dollars. By no means provident, and being very liberal among his friends, he was soon relieved of his money. This brought him to school-teaching again, which he pursued a while in Abbeville district. Not satisfied, and wishing to improve his talents and condition, he visited Columbia during the session of the Legislature in 1818, and there formed the acquaintance of the Hon. Joel R. Poinsett, through whose influence he took charge of the English department of the academy, affording satisfaction to all concerned.

While residing in Columbia, he employed his intervals of leisure in reading law under the direction of Col. Blanding, until the year 1820, when he again came to Georgia, and completed his legal studies in the office of Eli S. Shorter, Esq., at Eatonton. In the course of a few months, he applied for an examination in open

court, which proving satisfactory, he was licensed to practise law, and for a short time located in Sandersville. Not being pleased with the prospect of business, he removed to Hartford in 1821, where he opened an office and continued to practise in Pulaski, and in the neighboring counties, until his death.

Owing to some difficulty on the circuit, Mr. Mitchell received a challenge from the late Robert Augustus Beall, Esquire. In March, 1825, a hostile meeting took place between them, at Hamburg, South Carolina, and a couple of shots were exchanged without effect, when Col. Pace interposed, at the solicitation of all persons present, (except the immediate friends of the parties,) and a reconciliation was effected honorable to both gentlemen, who shook hands on the field. John P. Booth, Esq.,* was the acting friend of Mr. Mitchell on the occasion.

In politics Mr. Mitchell was a Clark man, and was elected by the Legislature, in 1825, Solicitor-General of the Southern circuit, receiving the commission of which a copy is here given :

GEORGIA. By his Excellency George M. Troup, Governor and Commander-in-chief of the Army and Navy of this State, and of the Militia thereof;

TO THOMAS D. MITCHELL, Esquire,-greeting:

Whereas, the General Assembly of the State aforesaid did, by joint ballot of both branches thereof, on the twelfth day of November instant, confiding in the patriotism, judgment, abilities, and good conduct of you, the said Thomas D. Mitchell, elect you Solicitor-General of the Southern District of the State aforesaid:

These are therefore, in virtue of said election, to authorize and empower you, the said Thomas D. Mitchell, to have, hold, exercise, and enjoy the said office of Solicitor-General, together with all and singular the rights, fees, profits, privileges, and emoluments thereto belonging or in any wise appertaining; to act, plead, implead, sue, and prosecute all and every person or persons whatsoever, which now owe, and shall or may be due and in arrear to, the said State on any account whatsoever, and to prosecute all matters, criminal as well as civil, wherever the said State may be interested,giving and hereby granting to you, the said Thomas D. Mitchell, full power and authority to act in the premises as Solicitor-General aforesaid. This commission to be and continue in force for the term of three years from the date of your said appointment.

Given under my hand and the great seal of the State, at the State-House in Milledgeville, this twelfth day of November, eighteen hundred and twenty-five, and of the Independence of the United States of America the fiftieth.

By the Governor :

E. HAMILTON,
Secretary of State.

G. M. TROUP.

* Afterward removed to Alabama, where he was elected a major-general of mili

tia, and judge of the circuit court.

The duties of the office Mr. Mitchell discharged with marked energy. True, he was not skilled in criminal pleading; but what he lacked in formality and neatness in his official papers he made up by ingenuity and zeal in defending them against exceptions when assailed by the opposing counsel. He was not permitted to gain experience in his office; for he had organized and waited upon but two or three grand juries, when his untimely death deprived the State of a bold and vigorous prosecuting officer.

Unfortunately, some comments made by Dr. Baber,* who attended as the surgeon of Maj. Beall at Hamburg, called forth a public card from Mr. Mitchell, which gave offence to Dr. Baber, who thereupon invited Mr. Mitchell to the field. The challenge was accepted; and rifles, at ten paces, were the weapons selected by the party having the right to name them. The parties met at Hamburg, in March, 1826; and, on the second fire, Mr. Mitchell was mortally wounded, being shot through the lungs,-and instantly expired.

The qualities of Mr. Mitchell may be thus summed up. He was exceedingly jealous of his reputation for courage, had an exalted sense of what was truly great in mankind, and a sincere contempt for trifles. In person he was rather homely,—even repulsive at first view, from his stern and haughty bearing, which instantly relaxed upon acquaintance. His hair was sandy, and stood like porcupine-quills, features rough, and his whole appearance the very reverse of effeminate beauty. He was somewhat dictatorial and rash in controversy, and was not much inclined to soothe where he had offended. Yet he would value an opponent with generous admiration where talent of a high order manifested itself. His attachments were for bold, energetic men of action who proceeded to their objects regardless of difficulty. At the head of a troop he would have charged with the impetuosity of Marshal Murat, or in council have executed a traitor with the composure of Gen. Harney. He possessed a strong voice,-terrible in passion, which usually made his efforts at the bar talked about and remembered. This

* Dr. Ambrose Baber was afterward a Senator in the Georgia Legislature, where his abilities shone conspicuously as Chairman of the Committee on Education. He was appointed by President Harrison, in 1841, chargé d'affaires to the Government of Sardinia. He was eminent in his profession, irritable and eccentric, but of untarnished honor. A patient having refused to take a dose of cyanide of potassium, Dr. B. swallowed it to convince him of its harmless character, and in a few minutes was a corpse! A misprint in the Formula occasioned this fatal mistake, March 1, 1846. A handsome monument in Rose Hill Cemetery, near Macon, has been erected to his memory by the Masonic brotherhood. See " Biographical Sketch" of Dr. Baber, by Dr. C. B. Nottingham, p. 5.

was not always the case, however. He reserved his best thunder for suitable occasions, so that the blaze which he kindled was no artificial lightning, but the genuine flash, which scathed as it fell. Withal, he had a general bitterness in his composition, which had been increased, if not wholly generated, by the hardships of his youth, when his ambition needed only wealth, and the influence it secures, to enable him to reach the pinnacle of his desires. He could not bring himself down to the harsh level of things,-to the contracted, selfish ideas and sordid schemes of men as exhibited in their daily conduct. In his cases he was diligent enough; but his preparation overshot the mark, and he continually longed for a trial where the character of the parties and the importance of the issue could really interest him and call forth his slumbering faculties. That opportunity, perhaps, was never afforded just as he would have it: therefore his mental powers were never brought into action with his soul fully aroused. In this respect, his experience has been that of thousands of other young, ardent, restless minds, which have flitted in the legal drama for a season, and then disappeared, broken in hope and conscious of the vanity and perils of ambition.

The character of Mr. Mitchell is before the reader, appealing to his sympathy and respect for one who perished, in the thirty-third year of his age, a victim to the code of honor. He was never married; and the only relative within the knowledge of the author is Dr. Isaac W. Mitchell, his brother, who attended him on the field as surgeon when no professional skill could avail to preserve life. Dr. Mitchell resides in Thomas county, where he has amassed a very large fortune.