s noble being came out of
the furnace without the smell of fire upon his garments.

There was but one man who ever imputed dishonesty to him, or selfish
motives in any act. When the claims of Mr. Adams and Mr. Crawford for
the Presidency were being discussed, and party asperity sought to slay
its victims, Ninian Edwards, a senator of Congress from Illinois,
charged Mr. Crawford with impropriety of conduct in depositing, for
selfish and dishonest purposes, the public moneys arising from the
sale of lands in Illinois, in banks notoriously insolvent. Edwards had
been appointed minister to Mexico, had left the Senate, and had gone
to his home, preparatory to his leaving for Mexico; and from his home
made this attack upon Mr. Crawford. The son-in-law of Edwards, a man
named Cook, was the representative in Congress from Illinois, and, if
I remember correctly, was the only representative who at the time
reiterated these charges from his seat. Mr. Crawford immediately
demanded an investigation of his conduct. This was had, and the result
was a triumphant acquittal from all blame; and so damaging was this
investigation to Edwards that the President recalled the commission of
Edwards as minister to Mexico, and appointed Joel R. Poinsett, of
South Carolina, in his stead. Edwards was at New Orleans when the
letter of recall from the President reached him, that far on his way
to Mexico: he returned in disgrace, and soon faded from public notice
forever. At the time, it was asserted he was the brother-in-law of Mr.
Adams, and knowing that some of the banks in which Crawford had
deposited the public treasure had failed, he imagined complicity of a
dishonest character, on the part of Crawford, with the officers of the
banks, and expected to injure him and subserve the interest of Adams.
In what contrast does this transaction place the purity of the
Government, as then administered, with its conduct of to-day, and how
peerless were those who were trusted then with public confidence and
high places, in comparison with the public men who fill their places
now!

Georgia has given to the nation two Secretaries of the
Treasury--William H. Crawford and Howell Cobb; they were citizens of
adjoining counties. Cobb was born within a few miles of Crawford's
grave. They were both administering the office at a time in the
history of the nation when she was surrounded with perils. The one,
when she was just coming out of a war with the most powerfu