ung, was known through the up-country of Georgia
as a young man of more than ordinary promise. The same was the case
with Poe. They had so deported themselves as to win the confidence and
affection of the wise and the good. There were some in the Legislature
who were lawyers, and who conscientiously believed that no one so
young as Nesbitt was could be sufficiently matured mentally to
properly discharge the duties of the profession. These men themselves
were naturally dull, and ignorantly supposed all minds, like their
own, were weak in youth, and could only be strengthened and
enlightened by time and cultivation. They honestly opposed the bill
admitting the applicant. There was one though, who held no such
ridiculous notions--himself an example to the contrary--but from some
cause he strenuously opposed the bill. It was the celebrated Seaborne
Jones, one of the very ablest lawyers the State ever produced. It
seemed ever a delight to him to bear heavily upon young lawyers. It
would be difficult to divine his motives. He was at the head of the
Bar, unapproached by competition, especially by any young man.

I was young and ardent, and felt offended at this opposition, and gave
all the aid I could to the passage of the bill. Fortunately for our
cause, there were many young lawyers in the Legislature, and these
were a unit, and we succeeded in carrying the measure. From that day
Nesbitt seemed nearer to me than any other of the Bar in our circuit.
We have been separated over forty years, he remaining in his native
State, while I have wandered away to the West. Still that warmth of
heart toward him has never died out. And now, when both are on the
grave's brink, we meet, not to renew, but to find the old flame
burning still. King, Nesbitt, and myself were born in the same county,
and our ancestors worshipped at the same church--Old Bethany--and
to-day we recalled the fact as we mourned the death of our early
friend and compeer at the Bar.

Time has swept on. Our children are gray with years. One by one, all
who were at the Bar with us are gone, save two or three, and to-morrow
we shall be gone. But the oblivious past has not curtained from memory
yet the incidents and the men of that past, and while I may I will
bear testimony to these, and to the men who were their chief actors.
Nesbitt justified in his subsequent life all that his friends and the
public hoped from him. In every relation of life he has done his duty
ably,