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form a fit coronal to the memorial obelisk he has reared to his brother's memory. Clay, Crittenden, and Webster each gave their tribute of affection, which, like immortelles, remain as fresh and beautiful to-day as when strewn upon his new-made grave. I will add to them but a few more. One from the pen of Giles M. Hillyer, the brilliant editor of the Natchez Courier, published July 5, 1850, reads as follows:

"SEARGENT S. PRENTISS.

"The proceedings of the bar of the Chancery Court, to be found in another column, afford some proof of the universal feeling of regret and sorrow at the loss of such a man as Prentiss. To eulogize his talents, to speak of his burning eloquence, that rolled so impetuously and fervently from his lips, to refer to the influence which he exercised, now as an advocate upon a jury, and now as an orator upon the assembled throng, is but to refer to a theme about which there can be no dispute, since there is even no difference of opinion. It is to the expression of sorrow that we meet with daily in our streets, which we find spread upon our court records, and which we will soon hear reverberated through the press from Louisiana to Maine, that we will have to look for a proper appreciation of the hold that Seargent S. Prentiss had upon the hearts of his countrymen.

"It was over ten years since that the writer first had the opportunity of listening to his voice, as it pealed out to a thronged assemblage the rich stores of his eloquence. For nearly three hours was that audience held, as it were, spell-bound. Arguments and thoughts which from others might have appeared commonplace, were by him arranged in attire dazzling and captivating. Every well of human feeling appeared to have been by him sounded to its depths. Every portion of animated nature had been ransacked for its gems, and with these treasures he decked his words, not by heaping them together in one gaudy, ornate mass, but with such taste, such knowledge of contrast, that the hearer lost, at the time, all idea of the amount of the richness of his imagery by being captivated with the beauty and judgment with which it was arrayed. What would probably have palled upon the ear coming from others, was rendered doubly beautiful arranged in the brilliant laboratory of his brain. For him the fountains bubbled up anew, the rivulets murmured, the rivers swelled, the ocean roared. All nature seemed his hand-maiden. From the fragrant flower to the mighty tree, from the meteor's glare to the lightning's flash and the sun's overpowering brightness, from the deep solitude of nature to the humming of man's abodes, nothing escaped his observation, nothing but what was made subservient to the calls of his eloquence.

'As some vast river of unfailing source,

Rapid, exhaustless, deep, his language flowed,

And opened new fountains in the human heart,
Where Fancy halted, weary in her flight,

In other men, his, fresh as morning, rose

And soared untrodden heights, and seemed at home
Where angels bashful looked.'

"To those, his associates at the bar and in the daily walks of life, his friends who knew him intimately and loved him well, must be left the sad but pleasing task of doing full justice to the memory of so gifted a companion. As an adopted son of Mississippi, he has left an enduring reputation upon her annals, one that she can point to with pride as long as the star that glitters to her name holds its place upon the banner of the country."

The following is from the "Biographical Sketch" of Mr. Prentiss, by Judge Morris, in his "State Cases of Mississippi," and is inserted by his permission:

"From the hour of his début his fame as an orator, as a logician, and as a counsellor of profound learning spread far and wide, not only throughout the State but all over the Union. The memorable epoch of speculation, of inflated credit, of broken banks, and financial explosion was then near at hand in the new and exceedingly wealthy State of Mississippi. In every great contest at the bar Mr. Prentiss was the central, and generally the controlling, intellect and the leading spirit. In the stormy period which followed he was on every theatre of action, and in every scene an actor without an equal, and the object of universal admiration and applause. His energies never wearied, his vigilance never slept, his bearing was without limit; his powers of invention never were at a loss; his memory retained with indelible fidelity all that he ever knew; his expedients for apparently hopeless cases never failed him; his liberality and generosity to friend and foe amazed every beholder; his courage never quailed ; and his integrity or his honor was never blemished. In the extent of his civil and criminal practice, in his unexampled success, in the splendor of his pecuniary rewards, in his boundless influence over both the judgment and passions of men of either high or low positions, he was above all others, without an equal and without a competitor.

"His manner as an orator, even in his boyish efforts, was simple, unostentatious, artless, and sincere. He first drew to himself and to his cause the interest and sympathies of every heart, and then by the most skilful and overwhelming argument, comparison, illustration, and appeal captivated and led away, obedient to his will, the consciences and understandings of all who heard. His figures and metaphors were drawn from the grand and beautiful in nature. The mountains, the ocean, the thunderriven crag, the rainbow, the stars, the flowers, the birds, or the glorious sunset became a thousand times more grand, or a thousand times more lovely, when called into service by his matchless eloquence."

We give one more tribute, and that fresh from the pen of Rev. C. K. Marshall, of Vicksburg:

"Prentiss is a vital theme. Genius cannot perish, and if nothing were written of him, his fame would hang over the coming generations like a gleaming aurora in the polar regions. It is amazing how real eloquence charms the human soul, and to be real one great element is absolutely essential, self-unconsciousness, and when Mr. Prentiss was fairly into his theme he seemed no more conscious of himself than is the gushing water of a flowing spring. His eyes seemed piercing a remote prospect, as if his mental heralds had gone out to clear the way for the coming chariot of fire. Forgetting himself, he possessed the wonderful gift of banishing time, as with a wizard's wand, from the thoughts of his fascinated hearers, and men in haste to meet pressing engagements, pausing to sample him and then leave, remained, forgetful of business and pleasure alike, and after taking the sample, remained to carry off the entire bale. His genius was not measured by the ordinary standard of a frontier criticism or the judg ment of an enthusiastic population of an uninformed and miscellaneous adventurer. He was surrounded by a citizenship of the South of unexampled ability at the bar, on the bench, in the forum. In some things there were many his equals, but taken as a complete man, with his native forces, his creative imagination, his capacious memory, his coruscating, exhaustless fancy, his rare and fearful logic, his wit and sarcasm, his splendid diction, his charming voice, his glorious eye and rarely beautiful and radiant face, he had no peer. He must be forgotten before he can be matched."

These are but samples of the glowing estimation in which he was held by his contemporaries.

Mr. Prentiss left surviving him his widow, two sons, George and Seargent S., and two daughters. George, as before intimated, was a soldier in the Confederate army, and died during the war of disease. The daughters, under the pious care of the 'mother, have grown up "as the polished corners of the temple." Seargent, whose face bears a striking resemblance to that of his father, is practising law in New Orleans, and is rising to distinction. He is a noble Christian gentleman.

Of the four gentlemen who figured so conspicuously with Mr. Prentiss in the celebrated contested election case of Mississippi, three still survive. His whilom colleague, Hon. Thomas J. Word, is practising law in Palestine, Anderson County, Texas, and is still held in as high esteem as in his younger days. I have just received a letter from him, in which he says,—

"I am in fine health and still actively engaged in my profession, and although so advanced in age, I can do as much work in my profession as most of the young men."

After giving an account of the prosperity of his children, he continues,

"We have a fine State, of great extent and well governed. Life, liberty, and security of property are well protected and industry is well rewarded. So you see I think Texas is a great State. Your letter carries me back to the flush times' in Mississippi. They were fine times,-money in abundance and everything flourishing. But hard times came and we were broken up.

"Well, I am glad you wrote to me, and hope you will keep it up. It makes me feel almost young again to get a letter carrying me back to old times."

The letter is written in much better handwriting than that of the copyist.

Judge Gohlson, who once wore the ermine, doffed it, and his now armless coat-sleeve is a badge of honor, attesting how gallantly he fought for his State in the "lost cause." He still lives at Aberdeen, crowned with honor. In his letter to me, just received, he says, "Mr. Prentiss and myself were warm and rather intimate friends from January, 1835, until his death." Colonel Claiborne, who has blended his name with the story of his State in his great work, "Mississippi as Province, Territory, and State," is now resting on his laurels in the quiet shades of "Dunbarton," where Prentiss taught school fifty-two years ago. Colonel Claiborne was the first choice of the "Oxonians" to write the life of his great rival, but his declining years and feeble health forbade it, and he assigned the work, without recourse, to me. It was owing entirely to his suggestion that the task was undertaken. If it be a success, to him be the credit given of having made a proper selection; if it be a failure, let me bear the blame.

During Prentiss's life a town on the Mississippi, in what was then Washington County, now Bolivar, was called for him, but its site has caved into the stream, and thus literally

"The mighty river

Rolls mingling with his name forever."

That his memory is still cherished in the State of Mississippi is proven by a recent act of her Legislature. As late as the 15th of April, 1870, a county called "Prentiss," in honor of his name, was carved out of Tishemingo County, which, it will be remembered, was one of the Chickasaw counties against whose representation, in 1837, he fought so persistently, thus showing that political asperities die with the age of their birth, and posterity can give due credit to a man's conscientious convictions in spite of the local prejudices of the hour. In that quarter, however, Prentiss had, even before his death, obliterated all local animosity against himself.

The following incident, the details of which appeared not long since in our local paper, gives a further and most touching illustration of Mr. Prentiss's posthumous fame. During our late unhappy war one of the Federal colonels sent to coerce our people into subjection was from the birthplace of Prentiss, and it so happened by the force of circumstances that he drifted to this very locality. On one of his raids into the country this Federal officer marched to "Rokeby." Subdued by the hallowed associations of the spot, he did not allow the soldiers to enter the yard. Standing at the outer gate, he pointed to the house and, in substance, said, "Soldiers, in that house young Prentiss taught his first school in Mississippi, let nothing about it be disturbed." He then wheeled his men and left. In the mean while the unprotected inmates of that homestead tremblingly watched at a distance this strange manoeuvre, every moment expecting the swoop of the vultures, whose rude beak had so often lacerated their souls; they were, therefore, greatly astonished to see the troops wheel around and pass out of sight. Little did that family-who, like frightened birds, had hovered close beneath. the wings of their mother-dream that the memory of their father's tutor had caused the angel of destruction to pass over and leave them unharmed. The mysterious halt and sudden departure of the troops was afterwards explained by a household servant, who overheard the command.

But the strange coincidence of this romantic episode did not end here. On the day of the raid the father of the "Rokeby" family-Prentiss's whilom pupil-happened to be absent from