remained untarnished, and that he should have consistently held aloof
from all that was mean and vile. His mother was no mere memory to
that affectionate nature.

His good qualities, however, would scarcely of themselves have done
more than raise him to a respectable rank amongst the farmers of West
Virginia. A spur was wanting to urge him beyond the limits of so
contracted an existence, and that spur was supplied by an honourable
ambition. Penniless and dependent as he was, he still remembered that
his ancestors had been distinguished beyond the confines of their
native county, and this legitimate pride in his own people, a far-off
reflection, perhaps, of the traditional Scottish attitude towards
name and pedigree, exercised a marked influence on his whole career.
"To prove himself worthy of his forefathers was the purpose of his
early manhood. It gives us a key to many of the singularities of his
character; to his hunger for self-improvement; to his punctilious
observance, from a boy, of the essentials of gentlemanly bearing, and
to the uniform assertion of his self-respect."* (* Dabney volume 1
page 29.)

1841.

It was his openly expressed wish for larger advantages than those
offered by a country school that brought about his opportunity. In
1841, at the age of seventeen, he became a constable of the county. A
sort of minor sheriff, he had to execute the decrees of the justices,
to serve their warrants, to collect small debts, and to summon
witnesses. It was a curious office for a boy, but a year or two
before he had been seized with some obscure form of dyspepsia, and
the idea that a life on horseback, which his duties necessitated,