Memoir of John Howe Peyton

The following sketches of John Howe Peyton, by some of his contemporaries, and the scanty material gleaned from an imperfect file of the Republican Farmer (newspaper) of 1811-12, and from the Staunton Spectator from 1838 to 1847, (between 1811 and 1830, only a few mutilated and unbound Staunton newspapers exist,) and a small parcel of family papers, letters, etc., which escaped destruction during the civil war; are all that can be found to throw any light upon the life of one of Virginia's purest men and greatest lawyers.[1] And thus his fame must largely rest upon the applause and praises, which his efforts called forth, with his immediate hearers and admirers. This deplorable want of material for a portrayal of his life and character, is not peculiar to his case. Few of those who have astonished their contemporaries by their wit and genius, and who were held in the highest admiration in their day, have left behind them memorials sufficient to justify their fame. This is so as to many of Virginia's eminent lawyers, and of even some of her most renowned public men. As to some of these the record is decidedly nebulous. Patrick Henry left behind such scanty remains, that great as were his oratorical talents and patriotic services, his fame rests rather upon the praises of others, than upon what he left behind of his own work. In this reflected or traditional way, his record is splendid, and so is that of John Howe Peyton, who, without overrating his merits and doing injustice to the memory of any of the jurists of the time, may be styled the greatest legal genius of his day. The universal opinion of his contemporaries goes to prove that in the science of criminal or penal law, of civil injuries or torts, and as a Public Prosecutor he had no equal, and it is as well established that in no department of the law had he any superiors. And this want of material is equally true of his great contemporaries, such as Daniel Sheffey, B. W. Leigh, and Chapman Johnson, so that like his, their fame rests on tradition. Alas, that they had not left something of their own productions--enough, at least, to enable us to have measured them as thinkers, writers and speakers. That they were all great men is beyond a doubt, for it is only the great man who touches the heart of the people, as well as their intelligence.

[1] Note.--In the library and papers of his son, J. L. Peyton, which were stored for safe keeping on his estate in Alleghany on Jackson's River, and in the Valley of the Falling Spring, in the Spring of 1861, there were many boxes of MSS., letters from various members of the family, written between 1740 and 1860, and often the answers of them. The letters were from John Peyton, who died in 1760, John Rowze Peyton, John Sergeant, C. J. Ingersoll, Jos. R. Ingersoll, J. M. Berrian, Thos. Jefferson, John Marshall, James Madison, Bishop Madison, Governor Tyler, John Scott, of Fauquier, Dr. Alexander, D. D., Bishop Meade, B. W. Leigh, Chapman Johnson, John S. Archer, Gov'r. McDowell, Governor Campbell, Thos. H. Benton, Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, Wm. C. Rives, Gen. Francis Preston, Wm. C. Preston, William Preston, J. M. Preston, Wm. B. Preston, John Floyd, Judge A. G. Dade, John Yates, Bushrod Washington, Gov. Thos. Mann Randolph, H. A. Wise, John Randolph, of Roanoke, John Tyler, Spencer Roane, and others; and Mr. Peyton's letter book, beginning about 1806. The whole of this invaluable mass was burnt, or destroyed, together with Col. Peyton's library, by Federal troops during the civil war. Cr.

There was little of incident or stirring adventure in the life of Mr. Peyton, and this is the case generally, as to literary and professional men, but the life of such a man should not be permitted to sink into oblivion. He is represented by his contemporaries to have been a great and truly good man, who pursued his profession, not merely to gain a subsistence, but to do good, to advance justice and humanity, to promote the well being of his fellow creatures, and the general interests of society. Not his eloquence alone, but all of his powers were ever exerted for the cause of right and justice. And thus his gifts became a public benefit and blessing. If such a man does not deserve to be remembered, we might well ask, who does?

During the two brief episodes in his professional life, when a member first of the lower and then the upper House of the General Assembly, he labored to improve the Criminal laws, the Land laws, the laws relating to the rights of person and the rights of property; in fact, our whole system of jurisprudence, and to advance the cause of popular education and of internal improvements.