HISTORICAL PAPERS OF RANDOLPH-MACON COLLEGE. JUNE, 1905. INTRODUCTION. No apology is offered for devoting so much space in the Branch Papers this year to the life and work of Judge Spencer Roane. Henry Adams and the other historians of the period have but little to say of Roane or of the protest which he constantly made again Chief Justice Marshall, and the files of the Richmond Enquirer, which give so much of the history of Virginia at the time, are not easily accessible. The series of newspaper letters and formal articles will explain themselves. Most of these articles have not hitherto been identified as Roane's. This has been done now by reference to the correspondence of Jefferson and Madison and by a study of the Enquirer files for the period of 1815 to 1821. Roane, Ritchie, and John Taylor, were active leaders of opinion in Virginia for many years. Jefferson gave them his full countenance, and Madison agreed with them in part and at times. John Marshall and the Supreme Court of the United States, as will be seen, were subjects of lively attack. SPENCER ROANE. BY EDWIN J. SMITH,* A. M., RANDOLPH-MACON COLLEGE; T HE FORMATIVE PERIOD of our national existence is the one which, more than any other, produced great men. Great issues arose which had to be settled. Great battles were fought and won in the arena of public life-battles on which depended the nation's very existence. Although many were on the losing side, it does not follow that, those who fought hardest for what, it seems to us now, would have meant death to our Union, were not moved by the highest motives of patriotism and devotion to duty. Each had ideas which he thought were right, and each did his best to have them adopted. Spencer Roane fought long and strenuously against a construction of the United States Constitution which he and his co-workers thought would lead to monarchy, but which we now see properly hastened and developed it for the centuries of life and activity that were to follow. Jefferson, Roane's friend and political teacher, entertained the same opinions, and who can say, that following the tendency of Hamilton, the Union would not have drifted, ere this, to monarchy in some form, but for the influence of their constant opposition which culminated in the Civil War. The work of a great judge, no matter how perfect its argument or profound its learning, is necessarily hidden from the general public. The work of the active politician always submerges and renders obscure that of the more conservative and dignified court. Its wisdom is shut up in the musty volumes of the law libraries accessible only to lawyers or those interested in antiquities. But its influence is none the less powerful because it is unobtrusive and *Awarded the Bennett History Prize in 1904. there has been no more important factor in our national development than the Judiciary. Spencer Roane was influential not merely on account of his fine judicial work, but also because of the active interest he took in politics. He frequently wrote for the papers in regard to matters of public interest. The Roanes are of pure Scotch origin. Gilbert Roane, among the first of the name, was born in Scotland, on February 12, 1680, After serving with distinction under William III., in the civil wars of his time, he removed to Ireland to a grant of land given by the King to him and his heirs "as long as grass grows and water runs," in reward for his services. He had four sons, all of whom came to America. John, the fourth son, born in 1717, came over in 1739, and was ordained a Presbyterian minister in 1745. William, the third son, came over with his other brothers in 1741. He was born in 1713, and having married Sarah Upshaw, settled in Essex county, Virginia. They lived a quiet, country life, and many of the descendants of their six children were destined to hold high places in their country's service. The oldest, Thomas, married Mary Ann Hopkins, and one of their fourteen children marrying Sterling Ruffin, became the mother of that distinguished jurist. Chief Justice Thomas Ruffin, of North Carolina. Another son became the father of John Roane, for a number of years a member of the United States Congress. A daughter married Archibald Ritchie, and became the mother of Thomas Ritchie, the founder of the Enquirer, and "father of journalism" in Virginia-a lifelong friend of Spencer Roane. The third son of William Roane, William Roane, Jr., was the father of Spencer Roane. He was born about 1740, and seems to have received a classical education. He was thoroughly in sympathy with the action of the Colonies, and after serving the State as member of the House of Burgesses from 1768 until the Revolution, he joined a volunteer military company to serve her as defender. He married Judith Ball, and lived in the county of his birth. It was here that Spencer Roane was born April 2, 1762. From his boyhood Roane was carefully educated by his father, with the assistance of tutors, both in the classics and in that spirit of liberty and freedom which characterized his whole career. He was born during the period when his country was preparing for the great struggle which all felt must come, and accordingly, his whole being was permeated with those fundamental republican principles characteristic of the time. These principles were departed from by some of his friends after the adoption of the Constitution, but he never forsook them. He was an ardent supporter of the Revolution, and though only fourteen when it broke out, he organized his playmates into a company of militia, who wore native hunting shirts with the famous words of Patrick Henry, "Liberty or Death" on their breasts. Thus carefully prepared by his father, he entered William and Mary College. He did work here in the academic department, and later attended the law lectures of that greatest of all Virginian teachers, Chancellor Wythe. He was a good student and devoted himself to his work. He mastered Littleton, Coke, Hale, and Holt, besides reading a great deal of history. Of his law reading he preferred the work of Coke. He then attended a Law Society in Philadelphia, pursuing still further his law studies. He neglected to some extent common law and equity, and devoted his time to constitutional questions which he studied with the greatest delight. Up to the end of his life this was the field of his greatest activity. He finished his education and begun to practice law in 1782, in his native county. He turned at once, however, to politics, and was elected by his county a member of the House of Delegates in 1783-only a year after he began to practice and re-elected in 1784. Here he was a member of a number of important committees. With Patrick Henry, he served on the Committee on "Propositions and Grievances;" and with Marshall, "to prepare and bring 1See Enquirer, Sept. 17, 1822. |