The wit of the impromptu was so fine and the company so appreciative, that, as if by common consent, all enjoyed it, and good feeling was not disturbed.

McDuffie was not above the middle size.  His features were large and striking, especially his eyes, forehead, and nose.  The latter was prominent and aquiline.  His eyes were very brilliant, blue, and deeply set under a massive brow—­his mouth large, with finely chiselled lips, which, in meeting, always wore the appearance of being compressed.  In manners he was retiring without being awkward.  His temperament was nervous and ardent, and his feelings strong.  His manner when speaking was nervous and impassioned, and at times fiercely vehement, and again persuasive and tenderly pathetic, and in every mood he was deeply eloquent.

In the after period of life these antagonists were, through the instrumentality of a noble-hearted Hibernian, reconciled, and sincerely so—­both regretting the past, and willing to bury its memory in social intimacy.  McDuffie married Miss Singleton, of South Carolina, one of the loveliest and most accomplished ladies of the State.

Owing to the wound received in the duel with Cumming, his nervous system suffered, and finally his brain.  The ball remained imbedded in the spine, and pressed upon the spinal chord.  An attempt to remove it, the surgeons determined, would be more hazardous to life than to permit it to remain.  There was no remedy.  From its effects his mind began to decay, and finally perished, leaving him, long before his death, a melancholy imbecile.  In all the relations of life this great man was faithful to his duties—­a devoted husband, a sincere friend, a kind neighbor, and a considerate and indulgent master to his slaves.  He was one of those rare creations for which there is no accounting.  None of his family evinced more than very ordinary minds; nor can there be traced in his ancestry one after whom his nature and abilities were marked.  His morals were as pure and elevated as his intellect was grand and comprehensive, and his soul was as lofty and chivalrous as the Chevalier Bayard’s.  His fame is too broad to be claimed alone by South Carolina.  Georgia is proud of giving him birth, and the nation cherishes his glory.

CHAPTER VIII.

FIFTY YEARS AGO.

GOVERNOR MATHEWS—­INDIANS—­TOPOGRAPHY OF MIDDLE GEORGIA—­A NEW COUNTRY AND ITS SETTLERS—­BEAUX AND BELLES—­EARLY TRAINING—­JESUIT TEACHERS—­A MOTHER’S INFLUENCE—­THE JEWS—­HOMELY SPORTS—­THE COTTON GIN—­ CAMP-MEETINGS.

Immediately subsequent to the Revolution, all the country northwest of the Ogeechee River, in the middle portion of the State of Georgia, was divided into two counties, Franklin and Wilkes.  It was a wilderness, and contiguous to both the Creek and Cherokee Indian nations.  No country in the world was more beautiful in its topography, and few more fertile in soil.  Governor Mathews had purchased a home in this region; and being at this time the principal man in the up-country, attracted to his neighborhood the emigrants who began to come into the country.