Joseph Bit an.
a brief memoir
W.Crorclon McGabe

1909.

1-7'.

J if',.

s».J-
' . " r«A '-'''¦' ^' " '
S^^ftL^a
* "^
•:.v
'>
^14'^
V,
, ' , '
Gift of

^srJ'Jir

19f/

\

3o$^|)(t l^tudn.

Flos 0seCimidiis.

A Brief JVLemoir

W, GORDON McCABE,
President of the Virginia Historical Society.

Reprinted from the
Virginia Magazine of History and Biography,
April, 1909.

3o$^pft Btgati*

Flos ipse Civitatis.

A Brief JVIemoir

W. GORDON McCABE,
President of the Virginia Historical Society.

Reprinted from the
Virginia Magazine of History and Biography,
April, 1909.

WM. ELLIS JONES,
PRINTER TO THE SOCIETY,
RICHMOND, VA.

3o$^p^ Btgati*

And let me treat him largely; I should fear
(If with too prying lens I chanced to err.
Mistaking catalogue for character,)
His wise forefinger raised in smiling blame —
Nor would I scant him with judicial breath;
And turn me critic in an epitaph 
I would but memorize the shining half
Of his large nature that was turned to me.
Thus Lowell, in his noble elegy on Agassiz, and such must
be the scope and purport of this halting tribute to our noble
"Virginia Worthy."
Since his death, the press throughout the whole country
has teemed with appreciatory articles dealing with his mar
vellous energy, intuitive sagacity, bold initiative, and consum
mate administrative ability, as a man of affairs.
His success there was, indeed, brilliant, but it is the other
"shining half" that shall abide with us, when its more ma
terial complement, if not altogfether forgot, shall, perhaps, be
unregarded. Yet even here, there must needs be more or less of "cata
logue," for 'tis a trite aphorism that "character," however virile
and self-poised, always owes much to environment.
Joseph Bryan, eighth child of John Randolph Bryan and
Elizabeth Tucker Coalter, his wife, was born at his father's
plantation, "Eagle Point," in the county of Gloucester, Vir
ginia, on August 13th, 1845. He died at his country-seat, "La
burnum," near Richmond, November 20th, 1908.
His father, John Randolph Bryan, godson and namesake of
the brilliant and eccentric John Randolph of Roanoke, after re-

VI VIRGINIA HISTORICAL SOCIETY,
known in Colonial days as "the grandees" of Tidewater Vir
ginia, was a beautiful woman of rare culture, wrapped up in
husband and children, known and loved through all the
countryside for her gentleness, her ready sympathy, cheerful
piety and unobtrusive benefactions. Wordsworth might, in.
deed, have had her in his mind's eye when he spoke of —
"Those blessed ones who do God's will and know it not."
Such was the refined, cultured, and wholesome home that
The family grew apace in wealth and influence, and Jonathan's
grandson, Joseph (grandfather of our Joseph), being the only child
and heir, was reckoned one of the richest planters in Georgia.
Joseph was a man of vigorous native parts, which had been seduously
cultivated by training in the best schools at home and abroad. After
completing his academic studies at the University of Cambridge
in England, he returned to America, and in 1793 studied law in
Philadelphia under Edmund Randolph, at that time Washington's
Attorney-General. Here, he had for his fellow-student (there were
but these two), and room-mate, John Randolph of Roanoke, be
tween whom and himself there sprang up a friendship that was roman
tic in its intensity. Mr. Randolph has left us a picture of him as
vivid as any that was ever drawn by the hand of that eccentric genius
— of his fine bearing and notable beauty of person, adding (and this
should arrest the interest of students of heredity), "he was brave even
to rashness and his generosity bordered on profusion." He further
descants on the brilliancy of his intellectual gifts and on his sobriety
of judgment, and declares "he has rendered me such service as one
man can seldom render another." He does not enlighten us as to
what that service was. Apropos, Moncure D. Conway, speaking of
John Randolph, in his Omitted Chapters of History, Disclosed in the
Life and Letters of Edmund Randolph (p. 137). says: "The Attor
ney-General's other student, John Bryan" (a slip for "Joseph") "got
John Randolph out of a scrape so serious that neither would reveal
it." This Joseph Bryan, after finishing his law course under Edmund
Randolph, went again to Europe (this time for travel, not for study),
"made the grand tour," and on his return to Georgia in 1802, was
almost at once elected to Congress, in which he served for three
sessions, but resigned on his marriage in 1805, and retired to one of

JOSEPH BRYAN. Vll
"Joe" Bryan (for no one ever called him Joseph) was blessed
with in his boyhood, and, in the coming years, when tried by
both extremes of fortune, remembering the lessons taught
there, he showed himself equal to each and proved himself
worthy of the noble stock from which he sprung.
When this lovely Virginia matron lay a-dying, she called
her little brood about her, and taking them one by one in her
arms, whispered, along with the mother-kiss, a few words of
his estates (known as "Nonchalance") on Wilmington Island, having
decided that he would find his truest happiness in the domestic circle.
and among his beloved books.
He died at the early age of thirty-nine, leaving a beautiful widow
and five small children, the oldest of whom was Jonathan Randolph
Bryan ("Jonathan" after his great-grandfather, and "Randolph" after
the father's bosom friend of "Roanoke"). The lad was always from
the first called "Randolph" and, in time, the "Jonathan" was changed
to "John." 'i
A year after his father's death (1812), the little fellow was sent
by his mother to school in Savannah. There he boarded in the family
of a Madame Cottineau, who with her children, had fled to America
from the horrors of the negro insurrection in San Domingo. Madame
Cottineau's "spiritual director" was a certain accomplished French ec
clesiastic, the Abbe Carle, who had accompanied the family in their
flight, and under his care little Randolph learned to speak French
with elegance and precision, besides being taught the rudiments of
Latin. At ten years of age (1816), Randolph, with a younger brother.
Thomas, came to Virginia at the earnest solicitation of the master
of "Roanoke,"' who wanted his namesake near him and who urged
the better facilities for education in this State.
Here he remained at school for four years, he and his brother
spending all their winter holidays and summer vacations at "Roan
oke," and from that time Mr. Randolph always regarded and treated
him as a son. At the expiration of this time, he returned to Georgia
to be with his mother, and, after spending two years at school there,
came North in the summer of 1823, where for a short time he at
tended a fitting-school at Repton, Conn., and in October of that year.
entered Yale College at the age of sixteen.

VlU VIRGINIA HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
loving counsel, well within their comprehension, then, smil
ing, quietly fell on sleep.
The memory of that scene and of her words never faded
from heart or brain of "little Joe," and in the days of stress
and storm (happily not many) he ever counted them a pre
cious sheet-anchor in life.
On the death of his mother, he entered the "Episcopal
liigh School" (near Alexandria, Virginia), then under the
He remained at Yale but a single year, for having applied for a
warrant as Midshipman in the Navy of the United States, his ap
plication was promptly granted, chiefly through the active interest
of his father's old friend and neighbor. Col. Edward Tatnall, of
Georgia, brother of Commodore Josiah Tatnall, of "Peiho" fame, after
ward a distinguished officer of the Confederate Navy.
He remained in the navy little over seven years, seeing much active
sea-service, but in January, 1830, he married John Randolph's "darling
niece" (as Randolph calls her in his letters), "Betty Coalter," at her
father's home, the historic "Chatham," opposite Fredericksburg, and
almost immediately thereafter resigned his commission, the young
couple taking up their residence at "Eagle Point." There were ten
children born of this union.
Mrs. John Randolph Bryan died at "Eagle Point" in 1856. Her
husband survived until 1887. They sleep side by side in the beautiful
old family burying-ground almost within a stone's throw of the home
of their married life.
There is no need of any note touching "Betty Coalter's'' family.
The history of her family is, in great measure, the history of the
Colony and of the Commonwealth.
[I am indebted for the larger portion of data relating to Jona
than Bryan and his descendants to the courtesy of the Rev. C. Brax
ton Bryan, D. D., of Petersburg, Virginia, a younger brother of the
subject of this slight memoir. Dr. Bryan is a keen antiquarian, and
by patient industry has collected a great mass of most interesting
and valuable papers and records touching his family. As he has
"the pen of a ready writer," it is greatly to be hoped that he may be
induced to publish in this, or some other historical magazine, or
even in more ambitious guise, the results of his researches concern
ing the Bryans of Georgia and Virginia and their times. — W. G. McC]

JOSEPH BRYAN. IX
headmastership of the Rev. John P. McGuire, and remained
there until the beginning of the war (1856-1861).
Though not sixteen when the war began, he was eager to
enlist at once, but he was a delicate lad, and, as an ever obe
dient son, he yielded to his father's earnest wishes in the
matter, and remained with him at "Eagle Point," and, later
on, at another of his plantations, "Carysbrook," in Fluvanna
county (whither they went on the occupation of the former
by the enemy), until the autumn of 1862. In October of that
year, he entered the Academic Department of the University
of Virginia, where he remained until July of '63. He was
now keener than ever to be "at the front" (as the phrase was
then, instead of the modern "on the firing line"), when, by an
untoward accident, he broke his bridle-arm badly, and was
again condemned to inaction, while his brothers were winning
"glory" in the field. He felt that he must do something, so
he took service for a few months in the "Nitre and Mining
Bureau," donned his grey uniform and was assigned to duty
in Pulaski county. Southwest Virginia.
In May 1864, he got leave of absence, immediately volun
teered with the "Second Company, Richmond Howitzers,"
and took part in the sanguinary engagement of May i8th at
Spotsylvania C. H. On the expiration of his leave, he had,
of course, to report for duty to his chief in Pulaski, but his
arm was now sound again, and after a few months' time he
joyfully took service as a simple trooper in Captain Mountjoy's '
Company of Mosby's command.
He had not been in the command a month, when he was
shot twice and sent back to "Carysbrook." But his wounds
soon healed, and back he went to Mbsby, and from that time
to the very end was to be found riding hard by the bridle-rein
of that brilliant partisan officer in all his daring raids and
desperate hand-to-hand encounters.

X VIRGINIA HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
No more devoted soldier of "the Lost Cause" ever wore
his country's gray. He believed in the righteousness of that
Cause with all the passion of his mighty heart, steadfastly
counting it worthy all the splendid sacrifices made for it by
his people, for in it, and through it, as he clearly discerned,
had been developed to heroic pitch by fire of battle the noblest
virtues that God has allowed to mortal man.
Unless forbidden by the imperious demands of great inter
ests (in which were involved, apart from his own, the inter
ests of others), he never in all the years missed a "Re-union"
of Lee's veterans. To any one of these veterans in want, his
purse was always open, and the writer of these lines happens
to know that when, at last, fortune was lavish of her favors,
he gave a trusted comrade, with characteristic prodigality,
carte blanche to relieve the necessities of every indigent Con
federate soldier, or widow of such soldier, in his county, in
structing him to "draw at sight" for whatever amount he
deemed proper. This comrade expended literally thousands
of dollars in this noble benefaction, which, it is safe to affirm,
is here made known for the first time to even the intimate
friends of Mr. Bryan. He made but one stipulation — that
neither they nor anyone else was to know from whom the
money came.
It would take pages, indeed, to set down like good deeds
which he did by stealth, and of which there is no record save
in hearts grateful to the unknown donor.
Yet, strong and unwavering as was his conviction of the
absolute righteousness of our contention, with that sanity of
vision and breadth of tolerance, which characterized him in
things, great and small, he loyally accepted the results of
the unequal contest, and, with broad patriotism, urged by pen
and tongue a thorough reconciliation between the sections.
It was mainly because of his belief that the various "pa-

JOSEPH BRYAN. XI
triotic societies" throughout the country were no mean agents
in fostering this spirit of reconciliation, that he joined "The
Society of Colonial Wars" (of which he was made President),
"The Society of the Sons of the American Revolution" and
became a member of "The Society of the Cincinnati." He
also took an active interest in the affairs of the "Phi Beta
Kappa."
The disastrous end of the war found his father broken in
fortune, as was well nigh every man of former affluence in
the State. "Carysbrook" might be held with rigid economy,
but "Eagle Point" had to go. To anticipate a little — that was,
indeed, a day of (what the Romans would term) "pious hap
piness," when "Joe" Bryan, having surmounted earlier diffi
culties, was enabled to buy back his boyhood's home, remodel
ling and refitting its interior with such faultless taste and
luxury, as must' have compelled a nod of approval (could they
know) from departed "grandees," who "rarely hated ease,"
and had been wont to live "in a manner becoming a gentle
man of fortune."
Just before the end came, a band of Mosby's men had cap
tured a Federal paymaster, plethoric with "greenbacks," and
Joe's share was a goodly "wad" of the same. But when those
bold horsemen disbanded, April 21st (twelve days after the final
scene at Appomattox C. H.), the big-hearted young Virgin
ian gave every dollar he had in the world to an impecunious
comrade eager to get back to his home in Kentucky.
Thus penniless, yet undismayed by the "res angusta domi,"
young Bryan, bent on completing his interrupted education,
cast about for the means to secure that cherished object.
Scarce six weeks after Lee's surrender, his chance came,
and, as always, he was swift to seize it.
It was well known to his companions that he was not only
a superb rider (as all Virginia boys were in those days), but

XU VIRGINIA HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
a fine judge of horse-flesh, not excluding "the humble, but
useful, mule."
Captain William Glassell (who had proved himself a daring
officer in the Confederate naval operations in Charleston har
bor) now approached him with a scheme for purchasing
"Government mules," that were being sold for a song by the
thousand in Washington, on the disbandment of the vast
Union armies.
"Joe" saw instantly the great possibilities of the proposal
and jumped at it.
The government no longer wanted the mules, and there was
nothing that the Virginia and Carolina farmer needed more.
Glassell was to furnish the money (obtained from a brother
in California) ; "Joe," the experience.
The scheme proved a brilliant stroke of business from the
start. They went back again and again for "more mules."
They grew rich and incautious. Some envious rival whis
pered the Government officials that the shrewd mule-buyer
was "one of Mosby's men," and they were ordered to leave
town at once.
That night they slipped away, but the mules (branded "if.
S.") went along too.
They had "turned the trick" — the profits were divided —
and that autumn young Bryan entered again the Academic
Department of the University of Virginia.
Little did the struggling young undergraduate of twenty
dream then that in the coming years he was to become a mem
ber of the governing body, and a munificent benefactor, of
that great foundation of learning.
For two years he pursued his academic studies*, and in
*He attended the "Schools'" of Latin, Greek, Mathematics, Modern
Languages, History and Literature, Physics, Chemistry, and Moral

JOSEPH BRYAN. XUl
October 1867 entered the Law School. At the end of the
session, his money was exhausted, and he was unable to re
turn another year for his degree.
But he had compassed more than he had hoped for — ^the
foundation had been laid deep and strong, and, like Shake
speare's "puissant prince," he was "in the very May-morn of
his youth, ripe for mighty enterprises."
During the summer (1868), he went before the judges of
the Virginia Court of Appeals, passed satisfactorily the "Bar
Examination," and at once began the practice of law at Pal
myra, in Fluvanna county, within easy riding distance of
"Carysbrook," where his father was still living.
Here he remained but two years, moving in 1870 to Rich
mond, which seemed to offer a more promising field for sub
stantial success in his profession.
Allied by blood to many of the most prominent families
of the capital, a young man of fine presence and engaging
manners, with the sure passport to his people's heart of hon
orable wounds, he speedily became one of the most popular
men in the community, and his foot was now firmly set on
"the first round of the ladder."
It has been deemed not impertinent to set down here these
personal details of his "years of preparation," because, outside
his family and the circle of his intimates, few people know
little, if anything, about them.
In 1871, he married Miss Isobel L. Stewart, daughter of
John Stewart, of "Brook Hill," and, within a few years, so
many large financial interests were confided to his manage
ment, that gradually he relinquished the active practice of his
Philosophy. The catalogues of those years do not state the
"Schools" in which he graduated. In 1907, Mr. Bryan received the
degree of LL. D. from Washington and Lee University.

XIV VIRGINIA HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
profession and entered upon his memorable career as a man
of afifairs.
The story of his phenomenal success in that career, which
death cut short in the fulness of beneficent fruition — his in
tuitive sagacity — quick decisive action, when once his ,mind
was made up — his indomitable pluck and imperturbable"nerve,"
when financial storm burst over the country — his prodigious
industry and intelligent alertness — his inflexible integrity — his
absolute observance of "the golden rule" — his large-hearted
generosity — his happy secret of winning the confidence and
affection of his men, who were proud to take his wage, and
of imbuing them to a unique degree with his own enthusi
asm for the prosperous issue of the work in hand — his munifi
cent unselfishness in furthering every scheme for the moral
and material advancement not only of his city and his county,
but of the whole Commonwealth — all this has been told by his
civic and industrial colleagues, who, following his initiative,
worked in unison with him, and who, beyond all others, are
able to speak with authority.
It is, in truth, no exaggeration to say that, in his immediate
industrial domain, he happily solved the vexed problem of
"capital and labor." Though an aristocrat by instinct and
heredity, the humblest artisan never felt him condescend, for,
with high and low alike, he was always his natural self, and
amid all sorts and conditions of men "bore himself at man
hood's simple level."
During the last ten years or more of his life, the mental
and physical strain on him was enormous, but the spirit of the
man was high and invincible to the end.
He not only had on his hands the exclusive management
for years of a great manufacturing plant, in which he and
those near to him had a tremendous stake and on the success
ful maintenance of which depended the support of thousands

JOSEPH BRYAN. XV
of bread-winners and their families, but, in addition, he shared
the direction and control of so many large corporations, in
dustrial and otherwise, from New York to Alabama, that only
the names of the more important may be enumerated here.
Yet (and this is the paramount object-lesson of his noble
life), he was never too busy to be accessible to the humblest
of those who served him, white or black — never so absorbed,
no matter what the stress of urgent engagements, as to turn
a deaf ear to the cry of distress. The busy brain never held
the mastery over the generous heart. The active hand was al
ways the open hand. Above all, he knew how to give, a thing
that many of the most philanthropic never learn. It was because
his was what Dante finely calls "the intellect of love." Those
who came to him for help were given, in addition to the as
sistance sought, such words of unaffected sympathy, such
kindly encouragement, that, not seldom, they carried away
something still more precious than the gift itself — the lar
gess of a rekindled self-respect, a dawning hope, that "changes
winter into spring."
No doubt, he often gave foolishly, as the world counts it.
On that score remonstrance was hopeless. He used to laugh
his cheery laugh and say, "Oh, well, I'll acknowledge it's sel
fish, for, after all, I get so much more pleasure out of it than
they possibly can."
Even in cases where there could be no question of pecuniary
aid, his ready sympathy, his delicate perceptions, his high
ideals of conduct, made him one of the wisest and most help
ful of counsellors in nice and difficult situations.
Insensibly there arises before the inner eye that shining
Vision that came to Abou Ben Adhem, when, awaking from
his "dream of peace," he sees an Angel in the flooding moon
light "writing in a book of gold," and asks :

XVI VIRGINIA HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
" 'What writest thou ?' The Vision raised its head ;
And, with a look made of all sweet accord.
Answered — The names of those who love the Lord.'
'And is mine one?' said Abou. 'Nay, not so!'
Replied the Angel. Abou spoke more low.
But cheerly still, and said — 'I pray thee then.
Write me as One that loves his fellow men!'
The Angel wrote and vanish'd. The next night
It came again, with a great wakening light,
And show'd their names whom love of God had bless'd:
And lo ! Ben Adhem's name led all the rest."
When we consider the long array of organizations — reli
gious, philanthropic, patriotic, social and economic — in which
he was no mere "figure-head," but an impelling force, it
seems almost incomprehensible how he managed to find time
to play the active part he did in so many, and such widely.
varying, fields of business endeavor.
Apart from his mechanical and industrial activities (such
as the Schloss Sheffield Works, the American Locomotive Co.,
and others of like kind), he was a director in the Southern Rail
way Company, director in the New York Equitable Life As
surance Association (this, at the express solicitation of Grover
Cleveland, when Chairman of the "Committee on Reorganiza
tion"), a member of the Board of Visitors of the University
of Virginia, a trustee of the "University Endowment Fund,"
President of the Virginia Historical Society, member of the
"Advisory Board" of the Association for the Preservation of
Virginia Antiquities, a most active and munificent vestryman in
two parishes (one in Henrico, and the other in Gloucester),
a member of the Standing Committee of the Diocese of Vir
ginia, a delegate, year after year, to the Episcopal Council of
Virginia, a delegate, from 1886 to the day of his death,
to the General Convention of his church in the United
States (which convened in Richmond two years ago,

JOSEPH BRYAN. XVU
owing in chief measure to his instance), a trustee of the
"Episcopal High School," a director of the "Jatnestown Ex
position" (the chief management of which was twice pressed
upon him and declined), and last, though by no means least,
the controlling power in directing the policies of a great daily
paper, of which he was sole owner.
And it must be remembered that this takes no account of
his almost numberless municipal and county activities, or of
his "social duties," which last were enormous to a man of
his genial temperament, and wide acquaintance, to whom open-
handed hospitality was an instinct and an inheritance, and who
was never happier than when he could gather about him un
der his own roof-tree kinsmen and comrades and friends.
His fondness for entertaining amounted, indeed, well-nigh
to a passion. At "Eagle Point" especially, whither he would
steal away at times from the incessant demands of business
for a week or ten days, his unbounded hospitality recalled
to more than one of his guests of a past generation those
palmy ante-bellum days, when Virginia squires, descendants
of the men, who "rode with Spotswood 'round the land, and
Raleigh 'round the seas," still kept bright in our "Old Do
minion" by song and hunt and open board the brave tradi
tions of Yorkshire and of Devon.
Though an ardent "Churchman," and, beyond question, the
most influential layman of his communion in the diocese, he
was absolutely free from anything savoring of ecclesiastical
narrowness or sectarian prejudice. No Baptist nor Presby
terian, nor Methodist, no Jew nor Gentile (be his creed what
it might), no Salvation Army "Captain" nor negro evan
gelist, ever came to him in vain, seeking aid to further the
cause of the Master. Not only did he eagerly open his purse
to them, but, in some unaccountable fashion, he found the
time to listen patiently to their plans, to discuss these plans

XVlil VIRGINIA HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
minutely, and to give them freely of the rich stores of his ex
perience as a man of affairs. When the Union Seminary
(Presbyterian) was moved from Hampden-Sidney to Rich
mond, he was one of the most liberal subscribers to the fund
necessary for the undertaking, and his last appearance in
public (ten days before his death, when he was so ill that
he could scarcely stand) was to urge upon his fellow-citizens
the completion of the endowment fund for the "Greater
Richmond College" (Baptist), to which he himself had made
an almost princely contribution.
Of all the secular organizations which claimed his active
interest and service, the chief in his affections was our His
torical Society, which was the constant recipient of his lavish
benefactions and of which he was for so many years the ef
ficient President. It was largely through his influence that
Mrs. Stewart, of "Brook Hill," and her daughters made to the
Society the munificent donation of a permanent home (the
old residence of General Robert E. Lee), and it is an open
secret that, had he lived, he purposed to erect a fire-proof an
nex to the "Society House" as a secure repository for our
manuscript treasures.
Scarcely less keen, however, was his interest in the affairs
of our sister Society, the "Association for the Preservation of
Virginia Antiquities, to whose members it must prove a grate
ful, if mournful, reflection that one of the last of his many
benefactions was made to them, when he and his wife pre
sented to the Association a superb bronze statue (to be un
veiled soon on Jamestown Island) of his pet hero, the virtual
founder of Virginia — the man of blood and iron, "John Smith
of Willoughbie juxta Alford in the Countie of Lincolne."
Paramount, indeed, of all earthly sensibilities (save love of
family), was his devotion to his mother-state. It was no ab
stract sentiment, but the passionate personal loyalty that a

JOSEPH BRYAN. XIX
Hielander of the eighteenth century felt for the chief of his
clan, and, from boyhood to gracious age, burned with a deep
and steady glow. He was saturated with her history and tradi
tions. In the moments of leisure that came to him, he never
tired of reading or discussing some book dealing with her
genesis and development, and in his noble library at "La
burnum " is to be found a priceless collection of "Virginiana,"
which, in point of completeness and rareness, stands un
rivalled of any collection, public or private, in America.
His intimates will long recall how the color would steal
into his cheek and the fire kindle in his luminous eye, as
some eloquent speaker would recount the pre-eminent part
that Virginia had played in establishing the new nation and
in shaping its destines for years after — ^how breathlessly he
hung upon the glowing periods portraying the instant readi
ness of her people — down through all the centuries, whether
under Nathaniel Bacon or under Robert Lee — ^to attest by
their blood their devotion to those principles, which men of
their breed had wrested from John at Runnymede.
He loved to hear recounted, and to recount in turn, stories
of the beautiful and gracious old civilization, which he had
seen swept away by war and the subsequent shabby tide of
"Progress." Though unconscious of it, he himself was, in
his generation, a consummate flower of that civilization, which,
in the old Roman phrase, "was of its own kind," and to which,
despite his twentieth-century spirit of enterprise, he always
turned with wistful eyes.
Once, when we were travelling together in the far South
and our talk was of the proper ambitions in life, he turned to
the writer and said with the most perfect simplicity, "of earthly
things, my highest ambition is to live and die as becomes a
Virginia gentleman."
Doubtless, it seemed to those of a younger generation that,

XX VIRGINIA HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
in his passionate loyalty, this man of ardent temperament
somewhat idealized the picture that he drew of those brave
old days, but he had seen with his own eyes, in his boyhood
and young manhood, its high-bred simplicity, its generous
courage, its unfailing courtesies to gentle and simple alike,
its reverence for women, its simple faith in things religious,
and he believed with all the fervor of his soul that it was the
highest and finest type of civilization in the western world.
He held with Emerson that "the true test of civilization is
not the census or the size of the cities, nor the crops — no,
but the Jcind of men the country turns out." Tried by this
test, Virginia civilization need fear comparison with none
other on earth.
As to slavery, he had seen only the gracious, kindly side of
it, as actually administered in Virginia and not as grotesquely
caricatured in "Uncle Tom's Cabin.'' Like the great major
ity of gentle folk in Virginia, his family had long regarded
slavery as wrong in principle, if beneficent in practice, and as
an economic blunder, the remedy for which lay in gradual
emancipation. In his father's and mother's Immediate fam
ily connection, the opinions of John Randolph of Roanoke
(his father's "foster-father," his mother's "dearest uncle"),
naturally counted for much — of even greater weight were the
views of his mother's grandfather, the learned and accom
plished St. George Tucker, a judge of the General Court,
who had succeeded George Wythe as professor of law at Wil
liam and Mary College, and who afterwards became Presi
dent of the Court of Appeals and a United States Circuit
Judge. He remembered that as early as 1796, St. George
Tucker had published his Dissertation on Slavery with a Prop
osition for its Gradual Abolition in Virginia — that John Ran
dolph in his will had manumitted all his slaves, stating in
that last testament that he "greatly regretted that he had ever

JOSEPH BRYAN. XXI
been the owner of one"— that Randolph's brother Richard
(the language of whose will is even more emphatic as to the
evils of the system) had done the same, as had Edmund Ran
dolph at the time of his resignation as Washington's Secretary
of State.
But he also remembered, with a sort of righteous indigna
tion, and with a virile scorn, the mawkish maunderings of the
self-righteous Pharisees, who, harping on "the blot of slavery,"
derided Virginia's claim to a high civilization.
He had at his finger's end the whole story of how Colonial
Virginia repeatedly during the eighteenth century tried to
rid herself of the moral and economic burden, but had always
been estopped by the mother-country — how in the Convention
of 1787, that framed the Constitution_, Virginia's efforts to
put a sharp and definitive stop to the slave-trade, had been de
feated by the votes of the New England delegates — finally,
how the carefully matured plans of the leading men of the
Commonwealth put forward in 1831-32 to bring about grad
ual emancipation, had been wrecked by the insolent and ag
gressive interference of the fanatics, who afterwards reviled
her as a "slave-holding oligarchy."
His own relations with the large number of colored ser
vants employed both at "Laburnum" and at his plantation,
"Eagle Point," were quite those of ante-bellum days, when
the master was the friend, supporter and defender, and the
servant (they were never called "slaves'- by gentle-rfolk in the
old days) proudly regarded himself as a member of the
family. His affectionate personal interest in them, when ill
or in trouble of any sort, was constant — his benefactions in
numerable, extending even to their relatives not in his
employ. In turn, they simply worshipped "Mars' Joe," as
they always called him ("freedom" or no "freedom"), and,
when the end came, eight of these faithful servitors ten-

XXU VIRGINIA HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
derly bore him, shoulder high, to his last resting place, in
the quiet country churchyard, on a spot overlooking a typical
lowland Virgina landscape — the land he"loved best.
His services to his city, to his county, and to the State
cannot be detailed here. In time, the actual record of them
will most probably be known to few beyond determined stu
dents or "the curious."
But they will long endure as a great tradition.
Pe was never in public life, as the term is commonly
understood, nor did he hold any pubHc office of importance.
Yet he was reckoned the first citizen not only of Richmond,
but of the whole Commonwealth.
No such private funeral was ever seep in the State, though
the simple rites were held in a country church several miles
from the city.
But, while not holding public office, he frequently spoke at
great public meetings, and his words always carried tre
mendous weight. He was not so much an orator in the high
est sense of the word, as he was a most persuasive and
convincing speaker — his frankness won good-will and his trans
parent honesty carried conviction. His manner was singu
larly simple, earnest, virile, without a touch of that artificial
gravity, that so many "weighty orators" and "ripe divines"
see fit to assume in delivering themselves of ponderous plati
tudes. He wrote quite as well as he spoke, and when any "burning
question" kindled the eager interest of the people, the leading
articles, easily recognized as from his pen, in the great jour
nal he controlled, were accepted, even by those opposed to
him, as the candid utterances of a man, who had made con
scientious investigation, and, who, with an eye single to the
honor and well-being of city. State or country, presented to
them the truth as apprehended by a clear head and an honest
heart.

JOSEPH BRYAN. XXlU
Pie would resolutely put aside the most pressing business
matters to thus give editorial expression to his convictions,
whenever he deemed that the public weal demanded it, for
he was no opportunist, but held to Archbishop Whately's
admirable precept that "it is not enough to believe what you
maintain, but you must maintain what you believe, and main
tain it because you believe it."
Here, as in his public speaking, he struck straight from the
shoulder, but never "below the belt," for, as has just been
said, even his political opponents, while regarding him, as
they did every other independent thinker, as a wrong-headed
doctrinaire, allowed that he was scrupulously fair.
There was, however, one exception, and the incident is
worth recalling, as it made a profound impression at the time.
Some subordinate on the staff of his paper, "The Times''
(for it was before the days of the consolidated "Times-Dis
patch"), wrote an account of what had taken place at a meet
ing of the "City Democratic Committee." A member of that
committee took umbrage at the printed report and immediately
demanded a retraction from the editor. Mr. Bryan had not
even seen the article, but he at once made careful investiga
tion, satisfied himself that his subordinate had reported the
proceedings accurately, and declined to make any correction or
apology. The aggrieved politician, thereupon, demanded "the
satisfaction usual among gentlemen." Mr. Bryan, with a cour
age that few can realize to-day, promptly declined the chal
lenge in a letter that is a model of courtesy, firmness and
cogent reasoning, the blended spirit of an humble Christian
and fearless citizen, sworn to maintain the law, breathing
through every line of it.
Duelling, many sober-minded people still think, had its
undoubted uses in an earlier stage of society, but, in the evolu
tion of manners, those uses had passed. "D'aiitres temps.

XXIV VIRGINIA HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
d'autres moeurs," as Voltaire pithily says. In Virginia, "the
code" may be said to have received its mortal wound from the
tragic Mordecai-McCarty duel — the refusal of a man of
Mr. Bryan's unquestioned courage to accept a challenge, gave
it the coup-de-grdce.
To those who possessed the privilege of his intimate per
sonal friendship, it is but sober truth to declare that his loss is
irreparable. Other civic leaders as public-spirited as he, will, no
doubt, arise again, but to his old companions-in-arms, whose
faces have long since been turned towards the westering sun,
there can never be another "Joe" Bryan. They loved him so
dearly, apart from admiration, because he made them feel that
their affection was returned with like intensity and with an
invincible fidelity.
In what is called general society, Ke will be missed longer
than falls to the lot of most men in this prosaic age. He was
possessed of a singularly handsome person (the outward and
visible sign of the inward refinement and nobility of his char
acter), a happy knack of saying those charming "nothings,"
that yet count for so much, an infectious gayety of spirit, a
certain boyish ingenuousness and eagerness at times, and with
never the faintest touch of supercilious condescension.
It was said of the late Lord Houghton that he never came
into a room without making every man and woman in it have
a kindher feeling for each other. That is a beautiful thing
to be said of any one, and it was absolutely true in the case of
"Joe" Bryan. He seemed to diffuse, as it were, a sort of
social sunshine wherever he might be — to create an atmos
phere of courtesy, refinement and good-will, as he went along"
the pleasant ways of the world. He carried the same air with
him when he slipped away to enter the sombre abodes of want
and misery and lightened their gloom by the radiance of his
presence.

JOSEPH BRYAN. XXV
Who of us, indeed, can ever forget the compelling charm of
that presence in all social intercourse — his air of distinction —
the unconscious urbanity, that in some nameless way suggests
aristocratic birth — his "Old World" courtesy to women — ^his
winning smile, that could so subtly express either affection or
amusement — the kindly greeting in "the eyes whose sunshine
runs before the lips" — ^his unaffected modesty — ^his lively play
of mind, and those flying shafts of nimble wit that never left
a sting. But, after all, it was with three or four of his intimates
grouped around his generous board that he was seen at his
best as a charming host. There, under his own roof-tree, one
best discerned the manifold and enchanting graces of his
private life.
He possessed a keen zest for everything which makes life
enjoyable, and had an instinctive talent for eliciting the best
that was in his guests. He delighted in ' 'chaff" and in that ad
mirable "nonsense," which is the small change of thorough
good-fellowship. He had a large fund of anecdote himself.
and was the most sympathetic of listeners when a good story
was told.
As no coarse thought ever found lodgment in his pure soul,
so no coarse word ever passed his lips. An "improper story"
— not, of course, told at his board, but elsewhere in the world
of men — always froze him — though even then he never for
got his innate courtesy. But there was just a hint of austerity
in his manner, that caused the lively raconteur never to try
the experiment again in his presence.
His face was singularly' mobile and almost instantly
betrayed any strong emotion that possessed him.
At times, in intimate personal talk (d deux), when the
generous heart and busy brain were devising some beneficence,

XXVl VIRGINIA HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
that must prove its own reward, one might mark, for a fleeting
moment, a look of exaltation, a sort of spiritual radiance, that
made his face beautiful and noble beyond the compass of
words. In the midst of the poignant sorrow of the present, there
is surely some adumbration of comfort in the thought — nay,
in the assured belief — ^that the glory of that rapt expression,
that ethereal radiance, which transfigured his countenance
here only at rare and intermittent moments, is no longer evan
escent "in the land beyond the stars," but glows with ever
Steadier glow, forever and forever, in the light supernal, now
that the mortal has put on immortality.
His married life was ideally full and happy, but there are
matters too sacred to be more than alluded to in print, espec
ially when one is honored with the confidence of the living.
Rash, indeed, would be the hand, that would seek to rend the
veil from the sanctities of that beautiful home-life, which was,
in truth, the very citadel of his aspirations and affections. It
may be said, however, without impertinence, that, though he
had reached three score years and more, he kept in absolute
touch with the younger generation, and his affectionate
camaraderie with his own sons and his playfulness with his
grandchildren was lovely thing to see.
Before the beauty of his Christian life, one pauses abashed,
and almost fears to speak at all.
The writer can only set down again the few halting lines,
that he wrote, through blinding tears, the very night that this
guileless spirit passed away and left us desolate.
If to labor is to pray — if to visit the fatherless and the
widow and bind up the broken-hearted and keep one's self
unspotted from the basenesses of the world, be, in truth, pure
religion and undefiled, — then are we sure that, when "the one

JOSEPH BRYAN. XXVll
clear call" came, this gentle and fearless spirit "crossed the
bar" with no misgiving, but went with the glad alacrity and
unquestioning faith of a little child to "meet his Pilot face to
face." When his old comrades stood by his coffin, and, shaken with
sobs, looked down on that gracious figure, "hushed in the
alabaster arms of death" and clad in the simple jacket of gray,
in which, more than forty years agone, he had swept through
the dust and sweat of battle, storming into the fight in all the
joyous valor of his youth — gazing on his delicate patrician
features, clear cut as a Sicilian cameo and accentuated into
an even finer beauty than that they wore in life — surely there
must have flashed through the mind of more than one of them
those words that Shakespeare puts into the mouth of Glou
cester touching the dead king:
A sweeter and a lovelier gentleman
Framed in the prodigality of nature. . .
The spacious world cannot again afford.
"Life is an instrument with many stops," and, good player
that he was, he used the best of them with courage, constancy,
vigor and discernment. In his young manhood, he knew what
it was to be very poor — he came, in later years, to know what
it was to be very rich, but the sweetness of his nature and
the vigor of his soul disdained to consider the temptations
that both offer, and he remained, through storm and sunshine,
just the same — his own simple self — pure, fearless, just,
generous, and loving.
Those who did not know him, if their eyes ever chance to
light on these pages, will say that what has been set down
here is all mere eulogy. No doubt, it will sound like eulogy
to them. Yet every word of it is simple truth, only marred
in the telling, for to those who knew him as he really was, any

XXVlll VIRGINIA HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
portrait, drawn by even the most "practiced hand^" must prove
at best but a blurred semblance of the noble gentleman, whose
simple, unselfish, godly life disdains, as it were, all human
panegyric. And now we have lost that bright and vigorous and lovable
personality, that represented to not a few of us so much of the
joy of life.
As is the inexorable law of being, even the memory of that
radiant figure shall first grow dim, and then altogether die out,
as the men and women of his generation pass away, unless, in
deed, a grateful capital shall seek to perpetuate in enduring
bronze the form and figure of one justly counted the greatest
citizen of the Commonwealth in his day and generation.
Whether this be done or not, the tradition of his robust and
gentle virtues and of his manifold activities for the well-
being of his State and his people, must, we repeat, long
endure. To some of us it was given to know him long and well — to
sympathize with his enthusiasms and to take pride in his
achievements — above, all to discern the beauty of his daily life,
that still lives on "in hearts he touched with fire."
To the least of these, it has seemed a pious duty to set
down, even if in homeliest fashion, what he himself saw and
knew of this vivid and beneficent personality, to the end that
future generations shall have something more than mere tradi
tion offered them, when they inquire how this noble "Virginia
Worthy" lived and died.
For his public service they must seek the public record.
And when the young Virginian of a hundred years to come
shall bend over the page that chronicles the history of his
mother-state, and shall scan with kindling eye and flushing
cheek the long roll of those, who have made her "glorious by

JOSEPH BRYAN. XXIX
the pen" and "famous by the sword," though he shall see there
greater names, which, perchance, may quicker stir the pulse's
play, yet shall he see there none worthier of his reverence or of
his emulation than the name of Joseph Bryan.
W. Gordon McCabe.
[Note. — This paper was prepared at the special request of the
Executive Committee of the Virginia Historical Society].