HON. JOHN HOWE PEYTON
Of Staunton, Virginia, was born in Stafford county, Virginia, in 1778,
and died in Augusta county in 1847. He was descended from the ancient
English family of Peytons of Isleham, County Cambridge, England,
was graduated A. M. at Princeton, New Jersey, in 1797, after a brilliant
university career, competing for the highest honors with Richard
Rush of Philadelphia and Chas Fenton Mercer of Virginia, studied law
under Judge Bushrod Washington of the U. S. Supreme Court, was admitted
to the Bar in 1799, establishing at once a reputation as a lawyer,
debater and orator. In 1806 he was elected a delegate to the General
Assembly of Virginia, from Stafford, and was regarded in the
House as a parliamentary leader and orator of the first order. He was
author of the celebrated report and resolutions on the subject of a tribunal
for settling disputes between the States and Federal judiciary,
adopted by the legislature of Virginia in 1810. He removed from Stafford
to Augusta county in 1809, and was appointed attorney for the
commonwealth in the circuit, the most lucrative and important office
in the state at that time, which office he held until he resigned in 1845,
acquiring in the thirty-six years the reputation of being the ablest
criminal lawyer and public prosecutor Virginia ever had. In 1812 he was
commissioned major, and served in the army under Gen. Robert Porterfield
until 1815, his minor children receiving a pension for his services
in the war. On the return of peace he resumed the law practice, and
was appointed deputy U. S. district attorney for Western Virginia.
Though greatly engrossed by professional duties he found time to contribute
to reviews papers rich in lessons of truth, wisdom and faith, on
literary, social and political topics, and to maintain a correspondence
with Jefferson, whose counselor he was, with Chief Justice Marshall,
who also, in his business affairs, availed himself of Mr. Peyton's legal
abilities, with Presidents Monroe and Madison, with Gov. Thos. M. Randolph,
Wm. C. Rives, and others of eminence. In 1836 he was elected
to the Senate of Virginia, re-elected in 1840, occupying in that body a
position of commanding influence, and giving a general support to the
Whig party. In 1840 he was appointed by President Harrison a visitor
to West Point. He resigned his seat in the Senate in 1845 on account
of ill health.
In his biographical sketch of Mr. Peyton, Major John T. L. Preston
speaks of him as a complete lawyer, a man knowing every part of his
profession, and who had met in contest the strongest men in each department
of his profession, and had made himself a champion in all.
As a speaker his language, Prof. Preston says, was "forcible, pure
and idiomatic;" "his mind no Sybil's cave whence came forth wind-driven
leaves inscribed with mighty thoughts disposed by chance, but a
spacious castle, from whose wide-open portals issued men-at-arms
orderly arrayed." Prof. Preston continues that while Mr. Peyton was
"thoroughly furnished in every part of his profession, in one department
his qualifications were peculiar and unsurpassed—he was the best commonwealth
attorney in the State. He was the lawyer of the commonwealth,
which he treated as a client, laboring for her with the same
zeal, industry and fidelity that he manifested in behalf of any other client.
The oft-quoted merciful maxim of the common law, "better that ninety
and nine guilty men should escape than that one innocent man suffer,"
he interpreted as a caution to respect the rights of the innocent, and
not as an injunction to clear the guilty, and he labored to reduce
the percentage of rogues unwhipt of justice as low as possible. With a
clearness and force rarely equalled, would he point out the necessity of
punishing the guilty in order that the innocent might be safe, thus exhibiting
the absolute consistency of strict justice with true mercy. So
simply and earnestly would he do this, that he not only bound the consciences
of a jury, but also made them feel that they were individually
interested in the faithful execution of the laws. Here his clear perception
of the moral principles upon which rests the penal code and his
fondness for recurring to general principles stood him in great stead. It
was delightful to hear him expatiate upon the theme, for upon no other
was he more truly eloquent."
In the great discussion in the U. S. Senate between Daniel Webster
and Robert Y. Hayne of South Carolina, Mr. Webster referred to and
quoted from the preamble and resolutions presented to the Virginia
legislature in 1810 by Mr. Peyton, and said they were so conclusive
of the questions involved in that controversy that they would not admit
of further discussion. Mr. Peyton was inflexible in his integrity,
or, as Hon. Daniel Sheffey expressed the idea: "was not only a great,
but a good man." B. Watkins Leigh, referring to him said he was
"the greatest lawyer west of the Blue Ridge." Judge Henry St. Geo.
Tucker said: "I regard Mr. Peyton as one of the most profound and
learned of lawyers."
Mr. Peyton married first Susan, a daughter of Wm. S. Madison,
nephew of Bishop Madison of Virginia and of Gov. George Madison of
Kentucky. She died, leaving him one son, Col. Wm. Madison Peyton,
of Roanoke county, Virginia.
(Wm. Madison Peyton, born in 1803, died 1868, was educated at Yale
College; was a member of the legislature of Virginia; was tendered, on
recommendation of Hon. Wm. C. Rives, by President Jackson, the position
of secretary of the Legation, Paris, in 1829, which he declined;
married, in 1826, Sally, daughter of Judge Allen Taylor, and left a
large family. He was a man of extensive acquirements, of genius, with
charming manners, a brilliant speaker and conversationalist.)
Secondly Mr. Peyton married Ann Montgomery Lewis, a daughter of
Major John Lewis of the Revolutionary army, who owned and lived at
the Sweet Springs, Monroe county, (now) West Virginia, whose wife
was a daughter of Col. Wm. Preston of Smithfield, Montgomery county,
Virginia, and a cousin of Hon. Wm. C. Preston of South Carolina, Gov.
James McDowell of Virginia, Gen. P. B. Porter of New York, Gen. John
C. Breckinridge, vice-president of the United States, and many other
eminent Southern men. By this marriage Mr. Peyton left a large
family.
The only son of the second marriage, John Lewis Peyton, author of
(1) "The American Crisis, or Pages from the Note-Book of a Confederate
Foreign State Agent," published in London; (2) "Over the Alleghanies
and Across the Prairies, or Personal Recollections of the Far West;" (3)
"A History of Augusta County, Virginia;" (4) "Rambling Reminiscences
of a Residence Abroad," and many other popular works highly
esteemed by men of letters, and favorably reviewed in the periodicals of
this country and Europe. While in England Col. J. L. Peyton was
elected a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society of London and a
member of the "Society of Americanists" of Luxembourg, Prussia. He
is also a corresponding member of the Virginia and the Wisconsin Historical
societies, and of other learned bodies. From the University of
Virginia he received the degree of Bachelor of Law in 1845. In 1855
President Pierce tendered him the position of United States district attorney
for Utah, which he declined. When not abroad, he has spent his
life principally on his fertile and beautiful estate of "Steephill," by
Staunton, Virginia, serving under the old constitution as a justice of
the peace, as a bank director, and as a member of the Board of Visitors
of the Virginia Deaf, Dumb and Blind Institution at Staunton. He has
always taken a warm interest in public improvements, in the advancement
of education, and in the general promotion of all good and worthy
objects. John Esten Cook, reviewing in the Southern Review of Baltimore,
Colonel Peyton's "American Crisis," says of his sketches of the
public men at the head of the Confederacy: "He has the art to make
them more interesting than any other author of the time." In England
Colonel Peyton was a general favorite in society, and Hepworth Dixon,
editor of the
Athenæum, and author of "New America," said. "He was
the ablest of the able men sent to Europe to represent the Southern
cause," and that his return to America was "the subject of general
regret, especially to persons of literature and science."
Colonel Peyton married Henrietta Clark, a daughter of Col. John C.
Washington, of Kinston, North Carolina, a descendant of the illustrious
Washington family of Virginia, by his wife Mary Bond, sprung
from one of the Mayflower "Pilgrim Fathers." Mrs. Peyton is a niece of
the late Gov. Wm. A. Graham of North Carolina, Secretary of the Navy,
U. S. Senator, etc., and a relative of the Haywards, Branches, Cobbs,
Bryans, Clarks, Blounts, and other distinguished Southern families
Colonel and Mrs. Peyton have issue one son, Lawrence Washington
Howe Peyton.
John Howe Peyton's seven daughters married as follows: (1) Susan
Madison, married Col. John B. Baldwin, a distinguished lawyer, and
member of the C. S. Congress, (2) Mary Preston, married R. A. Gray,
(3) Lucy Garnett, married Judge John N. Hendren (4) Elizabeth
Trent, married Hon. Wm. B. Telfair of Ohio, (5) Margaret Lynn, married
Capt. George M. Cochran, jr., of Staunton, (6) Virginia Frances,
married Col. Joseph F. Kent of Wythe county, (7) Cornelia, married
Dr. Thos. Brown, and after his death, Wm. H. Greene of Augusta.
