The combination of a great mind and a great soul constitutes the truly great, and the life of such a man creates a public sentiment which, like an intense essence, permeates all it touches, leaving its fragrance upon all.  Such a man was George M. Troup, such a man is Charles J. Jenkins; and the incense of his character will be a fragrance purifying and delighting the land when he shall have passed away.  The exalted abilities of his mind, the great purity of his heart, the noble elevation of his sentiments, and his exquisite conscientiousness, will be an honor and an example to be remembered and emulated by the coming generations of his native land.

CHAPTER XIV.

A REVOLUTIONARY VETERAN.

TAPPING REEVE—­JAMES GOULD—­COLONEL BENJAMIN TALMADGE—­THE EXECUTION OF MAJOR ANDRE—­CHARACTER OF WASHINGTON—­A BREACH OF DISCIPLINE—­BURR AND HAMILTON—­MARGARET MONCRIEF—­COWLES MEADE.

Fifty years ago, the only law-school in the United States was taught by Tapping Reeve and James Gould, at Litchfield, Connecticut.  The young men of the South, destined for the profession of law, usually commenced their studies in the office of some eminent practitioner at home, and, after a year or so spent in reading the elementary authors, they finished by attending the lectures at this school.  A course of lectures occupied a year.  Then they were considered prepared to commence the practice.

Many of the young men of Georgia, at that day, received their education at the North.  Most of those who selected law as a profession, finished at the school in Litchfield.  Few remain in life at this day who graduated there.  Thomas Flornoy and Nicholas Ware were among the first, who read law there, who were natives of Georgia.  William Cumming succeeded them.  Then followed L.Q.C.  Lamar, William C. Dawson, Thaddeus Goode Holt, and many others of less distinction, all of whom are gone save Judge Holt, who remains a monument and a memory of the class and character of the Bar of Georgia fifty years ago, when talent and unspotted integrity characterized its members universally, and when the private lives and public conduct of lawyers were a withering rebuke to the reiterated slanders upon the profession—­when Crawford, Berrien, Harris, Cobb, Longstreet, the brothers Campbell, and a host of others, shed lustre upon it.

1820 was spent by the writer at the law-school at Litchfield, in company with William Crawford Banks, Hopkins Holsey, Samuel W. Oliver, and James Clark, from Georgia.  All are in the grave except Clark, who, like the writer, lives in withered age.  His career has been a successful and honorable one, and I trust a happy one.

During this probation it was my fortune to form many acquaintances among the young and the old whom I met there, and from them to learn much, especially from the old.  At that time there resided in the pleasant little village, Governor Oliver Wolcott, Benjamin Talmadge, and my distinguished preceptors, Tapping Reeve and James Gould.