sses to the eldest
daughter of Col. Nivison, who belonged to the federal party, an old and
active federalist observed that the Colonel would never allow a daughter
of his to marry a democrat; and, as an illustration of the bigotry of
the opposite party, I may mention that I have heard old republicans say
that Tazewell's democracy was tainted by marrying into a federal family;
and that his marriage was the true explanation of the change of his
relations with the administration of Jefferson, of which I shall treat
in another place. And here it may be proper to state that, in 1802, Mr.
Tazewell led to the altar Anne Stratton, the eldest daughter of Colonel
John Nivison; a lady with whom he lived most happily for fifty-four
years, and whom, after an interval of eighteen months, he followed to
the grave.

In the fall of 1803, William Wirt, whose brilliant genius has reflected
so much credit on his adopted Commonwealth, came to reside in Norfolk.
Like all his legal compatriots, he had been an active politician, and
had been clerk of the House of Delegates for three sessions, during the
last of which, the session of 1799, the Virginia report was adopted, and
was a warm personal and political friend of Mr. Jefferson. It is from
his pen that the beautiful resolutions of the Virginia Assembly,
approving the administration of Jefferson at its close, proceeded; but
then he was not known even as the author of the Letters of the British
Spy which, though they had been printed in the Richmond _Argus_ in the
early fall, had not been collected into a volume. He was welcomed most
cordially by Mr. Tazewell, by whose persuasion he had come to Norfolk,
and whose business was now so overflowing that he offered, as we are
told by Wirt, to withdraw from several courts purely for his benefit.
The success of Wirt was flattering, but, overcome by the fear of the
yellow fever, and seduced by family attachments, in the early summer of
1806, he removed to Richmond. While he resided in Norfolk, he was
engaged with Mr. Tazewell in the case of Shannon (1804), which was tried
in Williamsburg, and which excited the most intense interest in Eastern
Virginia. Of Mr. Tazewell's speech on the trial Mr. Wirt always spoke in
terms of enthusiastic admiration, which was not the less glowing as
until that time he had looked upon Mr. Tazewell only as a severe
logician, and incapable of the loftier flights of eloquence. The
buoyancy of Wirt's spirits is exhibited i