which seems taught to conceal the natural under the artistic, and which so frequently refines away the nobler and more generous emotions of the heart.  I doubt, however, if the habit of open and unrestrained expression of the feelings of our nature is not a more enduring basis of strong character and vigorous thought and action, than the cold polish of refined society.  Whatever is most natural is most enduring.  The person unrestrained by dress grows into noble and beautiful proportions; the muscles uncramped, develop not only into beauty, but strength and healthfulness.  So with the mind untrammelled by forms and ceremonies; and so with the soul unfettered by the superstition of vague and ridiculous dogmas.  The freedom of action and familiarity of language, where there are few social restraints to prevent universal intercourse, familiarizes every class of the community with the peculiarities of each, and forms an outlet for the wit and humor of the whole.  This was the stimulant to mirth and hilarity, for which no people are so much distinguished as the Georgians of the middle country.  At the especial period of which I now write, her humorists were innumerable.  Dooly, Clayton, Prince, Longstreet, Bacon (the Ned Brace of Longstreet’s Georgia Scenes), and many others of lesser note, will long be remembered in the traditions of the people.  These were all men of, eminence, and in their time filled the first offices of the State.  The quiet, quaint humor of Prince is to be seen in his Militia Muster, in the Georgia Scenes; and there too the inimitable burlesque of Bacon, in Ned Brace.

CHAPTER VII.

WITS AND FIRE-EATERS.

JUDGE DOOLY—­LAWYERS AND BLACKSMITHS—­JOHN FORSYTH—­HOW JURIES WERE DRAWN—­GUM-TREE vs. WOODEN-LEG—­PREACHER-POLITICIANS—­COLONEL CUMMING—­GEORGE McDUFFIE.

John M. Dooly was a native of Lincoln County, Georgia, where he continued to reside until his death, and where he now lies in an undistinguished grave.  He was the son of a distinguished Revolutionary soldier, whose name, in consideration of his services in that struggle, has been given to a county in the State.  In early life he united himself to the Federal party, and from honest convictions continued a Federalist in principle through life.  But for his political principles, his name in the nation to-day would have been a household word, familiar as the proudest upon her scroll of fame.  In very early life he gave evidence of extraordinary powers of mind.  With a limited education, he commenced the study of the law when quite young.  But despite this serious defect, which was coupled with poverty and many other disadvantages incident to a new country impoverished by war, and wanting in almost everything to aid the enterprise of talent in a learned profession, soon after his admission to the Bar he attracted the attention of the community, and especially the older members of the Bar, as a man of extraordinary capacity, and