University of Virginia Library

VIII. Joseph C. Cabell

Joseph Carrington Cabell, who was born in the tumultuous atmosphere of the Revolution, was the grandson of William Cabell, an English gentleman who emigrated to Virginia, patented a principality in the valley of the upper James, and founded a family of social and political importance in itself, and of remarkable ramifications by inter-marriage. Joseph's mother was sprung from the Carrington family, which occupied a corresponding position of distinction in the general history of the Colony and State. The course of his education followed the normal groove of those times, -first, he sat under a tutor in his father's house; next, attended two private schools in Albemarle county; and then, after one term passed at Hampden-Sidney College, recommended perhaps by its nearness to his maternal kinsfolk, he entered the College of William and Mary. Here he soon won the affectionate interest of the venerable president, Bishop Madison, by his accurate scholarship, uncommon talents, and genial temper. The same superior qualities made an equally strong appeal to his companions among the students; his friends felt for him a tenderness so deep and true that it continued to soften the tone of their letters to him many years after they had become absorbed in their callings; and that they were entirely worthy of him in character and abilities alike, is proven by the eminence which they reached in their native State, -Isaac Coles, private secretary of President Jefferson; Henry St. George Tucker, Presiding Judge of the Court of Appeals; Benjamin Watkins Leigh, Senator of the United States;

Philip P. Barbour, Justice of the Supreme Court; Chapman Johnson, Robert Stanard, and John T. Lomax, famous lawyers; and finally, John Hartwell Cocke. Graduating in 1798, he began the study of the law under St. George Tucker, professor of jurisprudence and politics in the College; but seems to have found constant distractions in the gaieties and political demonstrations that diversified the life of the little town.

Cabell was fettered throughout life with a delicate constitution. Alarming pulmonary weakness began to assail him even before his final departure from Williamsburg. In 1801, he made his first voyage for the restoration of his strength; his tour, in this instance, did not carry him further than Norfolk; but after spending several months in the office of Daniel Call, in Richmond, during the autumn of that year, he made a second voyage, which reached as far as Charleston, where he passed the winter. His taste for travel, which had its earliest stimulus in this search for health, was not yet satisfied, for, during the following summer (1802), he visited the principal resorts in the mountains of Virginia, and in the autumn, set out on horseback on a long journey; Turkey Island, on James River, was his first goal; from that place, he rode to Fredericksburg, Mt. Vernon, Western Maryland, Harper's Ferry, and Winchester; and from Winchester returned to his home. He derived so little permanent benefit from this excursion in the open air that he decided to pass a winter in Southern France. "While I am compelled to spend time and money in pursuit of health," he wrote his father, Colonel Nicholas Cabell, in November (1802) "is it not better, at the same time, to travel for improvement, and where can I turn my attention with more propriety than to the two most cultivated countries on earth, England and France?"

During the detention of his ship in the port of Norfolk by unfavorable winds, he made his first and last application for a Federal office. James Monroe had been appointed by the President to settle the irritating differences which still hung on between the United States, on the one side, and France and Spain, on the other. Cabell sought the position of private secretary to the envoy, or the secretaryship of legation attached to the mission, should the former place have been already filled. "I hope," he wrote Monroe, "that you will favor the views of one who has impaired his constitution in the pursuit of science, and who now goes to Europe chiefly with the view to widen the sphere of his knowledge." But this high-minded aspiration for office was frustrated so soon as it expressed itself. Arriving at Bordeaux in February, 1803, very much debilitated by a rough voyage, he, nevertheless, at once resumed his journey to Paris, and after he reached that city, had opportunities to enjoy many of the public and private pleasures which it offered, -witnessed a brilliant review of troops by Napoleon; dined with Volney and Kosciusko; and went on long rambles through the streets with Robert Fulton, who had come over from London to continue his experiments with the submarine in the waters of the Seine. Fulton urged his companion to interest himself in internal improvements on his return to Virginia; and the advice was not lost, as the course of Cabell's future career will reveal.

During a visit to Italy, with the view of inspecting the celebrated universities of that country, Cabell, while stopping in Naples, was brought into delightful intercourse with Washington Irving. They strolled through the famous museums and palaces of the city together, climbed to the crater of Vesuvius, and were nearly suffocated with gas from its crevices by a sudden shift in the

wind. Together they slowly travelled to Rome, where they passed Holy Week in the enjoyment of all those ceremonies of the Church which made that part of the year so splendid in the Eternal City. After his return to Paris, in the same genial companionship, Cabell started upon a second tour, which carried him, by measured stages, into Switzerland, Belgium, and Holland, and later still into England, where he was introduced into the literary circle that had as its centre the unconventional William Godwin.

By the advice of his physician, he dropped his books, and filled up his time with lectures and conversation only. His principal aim was always the acquisition of knowledge, -especially in the several departments of natural science, -and this led him to sit at the feet of Cuvier and other eminent professors, in the study of zoology, vegetable chemistry, chemistry proper, anatomy, and mineralogy. "France," he wrote, "presented to my view all the branches of natural history under the aspects of new and captivating splendor." He assisted an American friend, MacClure, in collecting a valuable quantity of minerals, in the course of which they explored together the hills of Auvergne, and sauntered as far as the Alps; and in order to extend and perfect his information about botany, he spent a winter at the University of Montpelier, famous at that time for the thoroughness of its instruction in this province of Nature. So keen was his interest in education that he visited Pestalozzi at Yverdon to observe the original methods of that celebrated teacher of the young. His intimacy with Washington Alston stimulated his native taste for the fine arts; he made detours in his travels to inspect the most renowned galleries; and during his stay at Rome, purchased many engravings of

Raphael's frescoes in the Vatican, and also of the noblest paintings by Poussin, Guido, and Domenichino.

When Cabell was on the point of setting out from Virginia for Europe, his brother William H. Cabell, had warned him "not to suffer anything to shake his attachment for his own country, or to render him dissatisfied with the American state of society, manners, and customs." "The moment you feel any disposition -of the kind," he concluded, "fly back to America." There was no need of this counsel, amiably designed as it was. Cabell's thoughts, in all his travels, researches, and studies abroad, were principally directed towards serving his native State by gathering up all sorts of knowledge that were likely to be useful to it when applied for its benefit later on. He returned to the United States in the spring of 1806, after an absence of three years, which had quadrupled his stores of information without weakening his loyalty to the land of his birth. He brought back with him a letter of introduction to Dr. Barton, of Philadelphia, who possessed a wide reputation for his attainments in the sciences of botany and natural history. Through a letter of introduction from Barton, Cabell for the first time, made the personal acquaintance of Jefferson, whose reception of him was marked by uncommon warmth and cordiality, for Cabell was a friend of his secretary, Isaac Coles; belonged to a family of high social station in Virginia; and was known to be interested in the sciences which appealed most directly to the President's taste. Jefferson tried to induce him to enter the Federal service, -offered him in turn the consulate at Tunis, the Under-Secretaryship of State, the Secretaryship of Orleans Territory, and finally, the Territorial Governorship; but Cabell had been too long abroad to be seduced into accepting

offices that would further prolong his absence from Virginia, with which he was now anxious to identify himself again in both social and civic life.

He soon found a charming wife in Williamsburg in the stepdaughter of the eminent jurist, St. George Tucker, the daughter of Mrs. Tucker by her marriage with George Carter, in early life. Mrs. Tucker herself was a daughter of Sir Peyton Skipwith. In the veins of the youthful and lovely Mrs. Cabell there ran, from these two sources, the most aristocratic blood to be found in a State that could rightly boast of the gentle descent of its leading families. She was also the wealthiest heiress in Eastern Virginia; her Corrotoman estate spread over an area of nearly seven thousand acres of land, peopled by several hundred slaves and many white tenants; and in some years, the products of its soil swelled in volume to four thousand bushels of wheat and three thousand barrels of corn.

Although the laws of the State, at that time, vested in the husband the property of the wife, Cabell kept the splendid estate thus acquired entirely detached from his own; administered its affairs in his name as trustee with the most scrupulous care; and at his death, it reverted to her trebly augmented in value through his sagacious management. With his own inheritance thus largely increased, he was in the position of a man of handsome fortune, who could follow his own inclinations in the pursuit of a calling, without being harassed by the necessity of earning his daily bread. Should he begin again the study of law? "Watkins Leigh was here yesterday," wrote W. H. Cabell to him in April, 1807, "and said that you ought not to think of law except as a politician, or except as it will advance your political aims. He thinks there is a moral obligation on every man in your situation to be

a politician" St. George Tucker, who was one of the best, wisest, and most accomplished men of that day, held a different opinion: he urged Cabell, with characteristic earnestness, to aim at eminence in the law. Cabell replied that he "meant to begin as a lawyer, and allow the passage of time to settle the question whether or not he should diverge permanently into the field of politics." In the meanwhile, he resolved to attend the course of lectures on jurisprudence which judge Nelson was delivering in Williamsburg, where Cabell was now residing with his wife; but this turned out to be only an excellent preparation for the political career upon which he was so soon to embark, and which he was to pursue so usefully and so honorably for so many years. His most intimate friends, Watkins Leigh, Isaac Coles, and John Hartwell Cocke, understood the predominant bent of his tastes. "You have been a wanderer long enough," wrote Coles in December, 1807, "it is now fit that you should have a home . . . . Build a box on your Warminster farm and become a candidate for the Legislature from Amherst."

He adopted this counsel, went back to his native county, offered himself for office, was successful, and took his seat in the House of Delegates in December, 1808. He continued a member of that body during two very notable terms, and was one of the committee that reported in favor of the establishment of the Literary Fund, the most vital legislative stroke of those times. He represented the new county of Nelson in the Lower House; but, in 1810, was elected to the Senate as the member for the district composed of the counties of Albemarle, Fluvanna, and Nelson. He retired from that body in 1829, and from 1831 to 1833, sat again in the House of Delegates, as that division of the General Assembly was the one in which he could uphold and push the interests of

the James River and Kanawha Canal to the most signal advantage. In 1833, he was pressed to become a candidate for the Governorship, but declined to permit his name to be used; and although an opportunity was frequently open to him to enter Congress, he was content to be of use to his State exclusively within its own borders He pointedly discouraged the effort to bring about his nomination in 1822, with these simple and modest words, "I have devoted the prime of my life to the service of our district. I shall endeavor to close my course with fidelity to my friends . . . . My mind feels relieved, now that the world will be pleased not to regard my zeal on certain subjects as sprung from a thirst for office and popular favor."

In political as well as in personal intercourse, Cabell was in the closest harmony with Jefferson. We shall soon come to that epic chapter in the history of the University which records their great struggle, with tongue and pen, to obtain the necessary appropriations for its construction; but they were together interested in numerous other questions of hardly less importance in principle In their voluminous correspondence, they are discovered exchanging views on all sorts of subjects: on the right of one generation to bind another by legislative enactment; on whether a member of the House of Representatives could legally represent a district in which he did not reside; or whether it was expedient to divide a State into townships rather than into counties. "My object," wrote Cabell, in 1814, "is to be useful to my country in the station which I occupy (Senate), and in availing myself occasionally of your valuable aid, it would be highly improper to disturb the tranquility of your retirement," and he, therefore, assures the venerable statesman of the scrupulous privacy in which all his letters would be kept.

Again and again he seeks that aid, either for a general or a particular purpose bearing directly on his legislative duties. In September, 1814, before setting out for Richmond, he writes, "I would wish to carry some useful ideas with me when I join the Senate, and I take the liberty once more to ask you to furnish me with such suggestions as you may deem useful." And a few weeks afterwards, he writes again, evidently in acknowledgment of Jefferson's prompt compliance with this previous request, "I should be extremely thankful for any further communication you may, at any time, be pleased to make me, feeling myself always highly gratified and instructed by any views which you take of any subject."

Cabell's sense of integrity as a public servant was so pure and delicate that it amounted at times to feminine sensitiveness. "Why will you suffer your peace of mind and your happiness," wrote his brother, William H. Cabell, in 1814, "to be at the mercy of any man who chooses to assail you, or to make even an insinuation against the propriety of your conduct? I believe I should be less concerned, were I convinced that ninety-nine one hundredths of the world thought me a villain than you would if you thought an obscure individual, one thousand miles away from you, believed you only incorrect." [21]

The faithful and lofty spirit that animated him throughout his political career is transparent in all he did, spoke, and wrote. "I think the greatest service a man can render," he remarked in one of his letters, "is to speak the truth and to show that is his only object," and these simple words epitomized his personal as well as his political motives. "You have pursued an erect

and honorable course," said Cocke to him, in 1819, "and as an enlightened and high-minded public servant ought, you must be satisfied with the approbation of your own conscience." Such was the attitude towards him of all who had observed his actions, whether calculated to bring to him universal popularity or general disfavor.

There were three great public interests of which Cabell was an ardent and indefatigable supporter: Internal Improvements, Education, and Agriculture. We have already mentioned Robert Fulton's advice to him to make the question of Internal Improvements a part of his political platform on his return to the United States. He lived long enough to earn the name of the DeWitt Clinton of Virginia by his unwearied exertions for the revival, construction, and extension of the James River and Kanawha Canal, which, before the building of many railroads in the Commonwealth, was looked upon as an enterprise as imperial in its scope as the Erie Canal itself; and justly so, for had it been situated in a community of large financial resources, and not been obstructed by a vast mountain crossing, it would have been extended to the Ohio and Mississippi, and by pouring the wheat and corn of the West into the lap of Norfolk, would have made that city a second New York, and changed the destinies of the State. Previous to 1821, only twenty miles of the canal, beginning at Richmond, -where it united with tidewater, -had been completed, and that only partly at public expense. With the assistance of Chapman Johnson, the distinguished lawyer, Cabell drew up a charter for the new James River and Kanawha Canal Company, and then undertook to obtain popular support for the resuscitated enterprise. From the shores of Chesapeake Bay to the Ohio, he travelled through county after county, addressing the people from the steps of the

court-houses in the spirit of another Peter the Hermit, as was said at the time, and earnestly soliciting subscriptions to carry the bed of the proposed waterway far beyond the crest of the Alleghanies. Under his Presidency, the line was constructed westward for a length of two hundred miles. In the administration of its affairs, he exhibited, according to Governor Wise, -a man particularly competent to judge him correctly, -"such conspicuous zeal, ability, and decision, such unsullied integrity and becoming dignity, and yet so much amenity, with so choice, vigorous, and discriminating an intellect, and bore himself with so much honor and justice, that he carried with him, in his retirement, the universal respect, confidence, and regard of those who knew him."

Cabell's interest in general education in Virginia was not limited to one great seat of learning: he used his influence on every occasion, and by every means, to improve all the facilities for secondary and primary instruction also, and for both sexes too. At the hour that he was the Atlas of the fortunes of the University in the General Assembly, he was acting as one of the trustees of the Charlottesville Ladies' Academy. He apparently went so far as to have the methods of Pestalozzi adopted in the schools of Nelson county; and he also made a patient investigation of the Lancasterian system, which was based on the social principle. He also planned to erect so ambitious an institution as a college at Warminster in the immediate neighborhood of his home at Edgewood, and would probably have successfully carried out this scheme by means of a public lottery, had not his friends united in warning him of its supposed impracticability, which dispirited him for its further prosecution. "My great object," he wrote to one of the critics, who had described the projected college as a lighthouse in the

sky, owing to the remoteness and seclusion of the site chosen for it, "was to prove how much could be effected by studious measures judiciously directed, and to encourage their introduction into other parts of Virginia."

Cabell's unfailing support of all bills before the General Assembly to improve the condition of agriculture in Virginia had its stimulus in part in his keen interest in the diversified operations of his own plantation. In correspondence with Cocke, his most intimate friend, who was an enthusiastic farmer, he is repeatedly making or replying to inquiries that played about all sides of the farmer's life. Fruit trees, grass, wheat, tobacco, buildings, timber, rams, overseers, hedges, lime, machinery and ploughs, one after another, are the subjects upon which special information was either sought or given. In September, 1818, he writes to another friend, Isaac Coles, that he is too busy with surveying his lines to compose certain essays which he had promised to read before the Agricultural Society. " Confound politics," he exclaimed in a letter to Cocke, in 1821, "welcome my native fields." "I am jogging on here," he wrote to the same correspondent, in 1828, from Edgewood, "riding over my farms and superintending the servants." He was not in sympathy with the impatient sentiment that prevailed among many Virginians, about 1830, in favor of Abolition, because he was convinced that slavery was so intertwined with all the roots of the community's life that it could not be torn up without jeopardizing the health, even should it not destroy the existence, of every associated interest. But no master was ever more benevolent or more watchful in his relations with his slaves; in 1848, when he was far advanced in years, a typhoid epidemic broke out on his plantation; notwithstanding his physical infirmities, he passed four or five hours daily on horseback engaged in

visiting the sick, comforting them with kind and encouraging words, and administering their medicines with his own hands. He declined to accept Cocke's invitation to Bremo at this time. "It is quite inadmissible for us," he replied, "to leave those dependent on our care for their lives to visit even the most valued friends."

Cabell died in 1856, and the last scene of his life was consistent with the noble tenor of it throughout. "Never," reported his nephew, N. F. Cabell, who was present at the closing hour, "have I seen more dignity, calmness, and resignation to the divine will." His death was appropriately announced by the Governor of the State, who spoke of him as emphatically and peculiarly "the Virginia Statesman," the man whose entire public services had been absorbed in building up and advancing the general welfare of his native commonwealth. Having possessed the close personal friendship of Jefferson, Madison and Monroe, he had caught that spirit of wise moderation, in both word and act, which had given them such preeminence as political sages. And there was something too about his temper and demeanor that recalled to those who knew him a still loftier example of manhood and statesmanship. "No one could be much with Mr. Cabell," remarks a friend of his in his last years, "without seeing that he had taken George Washington for his model. In his principles and his conduct, in the dignity of his character, and even in the gentlemanly and becoming particularity of his dress, you could not fail to observe the resemblance." [22]