Reverdy Johnson: Annapolis Was As Familiar To Him As The Alphabet
In 1868, seventy-two year old Reverdy Johnson was sent to England on a diplomatic mission. Johnson, a St. John’s College classmate of Alexander’s brother Henry, had often been in the same courtroom with Alexander, sometimes as co-counsel, and at other times as opposing counsel. Though they had somewhat different political ideas, the two were good friends.
Before he left, Johnson was thrown a series of celebratory farewell dinners. Alexander attended at least two of these, one of them at the City Hotel in Annapolis on July 21st. “The Citizens gave their Banquet to Reverdy Johnson at the City Hotel beginning 9 ½ [PM] & ending about 1 ½ [AM],” Alexander wrote of the occasion. “Judge Nicholson presided & introduced Mr Johnson delivering a Spe[ech]. Mr J. replied very appropriately & Eloquently, & I was required to reply in behalf of Annapolis. This I did in a written Speech as I doubted as to my composure, being the First address Ever made by me at such a Board.”
The committee in charge of arrangements consisted of Joseph Hopper Nicholson, Nicholson’s brother-in-law (and Alexander’s nephew) A.B. Hagner, Hagner’s life-long friend James Clarke Welling, Richard Swann and Augustus Morse.
The custom at the time was a series of formal toasts. Nicholson began, toasting Johnson in flowery and flattering language. Johnson responded with a short anecdote of his memories of Annapolis, St. John’s, the Naval Academy, the Sons of Liberty and the great lawyers in the city when he was growing up.
His speech was reported by the Baltimore Sun of July 22, 1868:
Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen: I am gratified to believe from this warm and friendly greeting that you esteem me a brother, and my feelings tell me that I am.
A native of Annapolis, where all my youthful days were passed, every face and name that you bear remind me of the happy days that I have had in this city.
In memory I recur to the joyous hours spent here. There is not a nook or corner of the city that is not as familiar to me as the alphabet. How often have I strolled with schoolmates through its streets in search of amusement. And alas! how few, if any, remain of that number. The reflection is a melancholy one, but it is consoling to know that I felt for each the strongest attachment, and had in each a friend. Here, too, I obtained my education. St. John’s was my first and only school. How gladly do I remember the many hours passed upon its beautiful green, the earnest rivalry with which the boys engaged in the sports that give youth delight, and serve to impart vigor to the body and strength to the mind, to fit both for the laborious hours of study. I seem to have now before me the venerable form of President McDowell, when, with measured and stately steps, he was seen coming from his dwelling at the foot of State House hill to the college, and the scattering of the boys, running to their respective rooms within the honored pile, that they might be in their proper places on his arrival. I cannot, however, remember (how sad is the thought) that any one of the hundreds of youths then in full and joyous health, or of the professors, who daily instructed us in science and inculcated upon us the happiness and duty of a virtuous life, are now among the living.
It was here, too, that I first became devoted to the study of the law. When I reached the age of twelve or thirteen years, every hour that I could snatch from the duties of the college I gave to an attendance upon the several courts. My father, who wished me to adopt the profession, (in which you will not, I am sure, think it indelicate in me to say he occupied a conspicuous and honored place,) advised me to this course. And to that, and his other advice, am I mainly indebted for whatever success in the profession I may have attained. At that period the General Court and Court of Appeals were located here. The first having a jurisdiction coextensive with our limits, brought to this city all the legal talent of the State. Every Marylander knows how great that talent was. The bench and the bar were then, as since, adorned by the learning and integrity which give to both their best claim to respect and confidence. Well do I recollect, as some of you must also, the venerable form of Chief Justice [Jeremiah] Townley Chase, who presided for so many years over both tribunals. His long, flowing locks — white as unspotted snow — his mild and intelligent countenance and winning manner all served to give additional power to the clear but unambitious language in which his judgments were pronounced. And how vivid in nearly all our memories must be the name and character of his successor in the Court of Appeals, John Buchanan, the courteous gentleman, the profound jurist, and constant friend. I might also mention in terms of high praise the names of Archer, Dorsey and the other great men, now no more, who afterwards succeeded to that high place, and so ably maintained its long-established reputation, but time does not permit.
And then of the bar of the day! What cause have we to be proud of it! How often, after obtaining some knowledge of the law, have I listened with wonder to Martin, pouring out his exhaustless legal learning. He was as familiar with the principles which are to be found only in the profound depths of the science as with those which float on its surface. And then there was Pinkney, our native townsman; of him eulogy cannot be pushed to extravagance. To the legal erudition of Martin, he added the accomplishments of the scholar, the high qualities of the statesman, a logic rarely equalled, and an eloquence ever attractive, and at times startling and overwhelming. And then there was Shaaf, remarkable for the accuracy of his technical knowledge and the keenness of his argumentation. The Keys, whose charming speech I think I even now hear, were there also — one of whom cannot be forgotten so long (and may that be forever) as our banner, glittering with stars, shall “wave ‘o’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.” And, not to mention a score of others, there was Taney, a peer of them all. Never did a lawyer possess a more attractive manner, express himself with a more faultless rhetoric, or a more seductive power. And when he was afterwards transferred as its chief to the Supreme Court of the United States, these qualities were displayed in opinions which will ever be esteemed the best models of judicial style.
In addition to all these recollections, which it is so pleasant to recall, there are other circumstances connected with the history of our city which will not only keep it fresh in our memory, but in the memory of the American people.
Here it was that a scene was witnessed of unsurpassed interest — a scene displaying greater patriotic virtue than before or since is recorded in the annals of mankind.
A soldier, who had led his armies to victory, and achieved for his country freedom and independence, his work being done, in that Senate chamber, daily in your view, surrendered to his country the sword with which he had accomplished it, and at once retired to private life. Great as is our admiration for his skill and valor in the field, it is as nothing compared with that which we entertain for this crowning act of patriotic virtue, and it is for this especially that the world, as well as ourselves, will forever hold in love and reverence the character of Washington as the purest and brightest exhibited in the tide of time.
It was here, too, that the first body of patriots assembled to save our country from the perilous condition in which it was placed, because of the imbecility of the then national government, if government it could be called. Through its weakness we were rapidly progressing to destruction. This first effort at rescue was unsuccessful, but on its renewal in Philadelphia its triumph became complete, in the recommendation (happily yielded to by the people) of a form of government adequate in peace and in war to protect itself, without violating the rights which it guarantees to the citizen, or trespassing upon the legitimate and necessary domain of the States.
Mr. Chairman, the Naval Academy, in which you take so lively an interest, and which is of such inestimable value to our country, I have (I hope to be excused in saying so) some pride in remembering, owes its infant existence to a small appropriation, which, at the instance of the then Secretary of the Navy [George Bancroft] — now our representative to the Court of Prussia — was obtained in part through my exertions, as your Senator, during my first term of service in that capacity. And I have even still greater pride in remembering that after the usefulness of the institution was developed and the adaptation of this city to such an establishment was demonstrated, I took an active and successful part in defeating its threatened removal. I congratulate you, then, and the country that the permanent location of the school is Annapolis. I have said that the school is of inestimable value to the nation. This was proved during the late lamented civil war. The value of its teachings was then illustrated in the many battles which have made our navy famous abroad as well as at home — battles which insure to Farragut, Porter and others reputations which can never die.
Mr. Chairman, permit me again to recur to St. John’s — my alma mater. I express, I am sure, the great gratification which all who stand in that relation to her must feel in the prospect that she will soon be in the enjoyment of her former fame. Through a mistaken policy, and a violation of her constitutional rights, (as I think,) she was deprived of a rich endowment, that for a time placed her under an eclipse. But a more enlightened policy now prevails, and a partial recognition of her rights by our Legislature having been made, that eclipse will soon disappear, and under the care of her present able and accomplished professors she will be seen to shine in all her original brightness, and take rank among the first of universities. Mr. Chairman, I sail in few days for England, from the port of Baltimore. I have selected that as the place of my departure for, among other reasons, a desire to see as long as I can, my adopted and native cities — my two loved homes. And when, in passing down our noble bay, my eyes will be turned with anxious gaze upon the spires and monuments which illustrate the religious faith and grateful patriotism of the former, and upon that beautiful and commanding steeple towering so high aloft, as if its province was to keep watch and guard over this city, and that cupola which crowns my St. John’s, both so rich in revolutionary and literary associations, and when they shall all fade from my view, my heart will be saddened. But still, however distant I may be, home will ever be before me — home, around which all our affections gather. Home —
“Where’er I may roam — howe’er blest I may be,
My spirit instinctively turns unto thee.”
And now, ladies and gentlemen, with a heart full of gratitude for the present proof of your friendship, I have but one thing more to add; it is to say —
“Farewell! — a word that hath been and must be
A sound that makes us linger — yet farewell!”
Johnson then cried “To the City of Annapolis!” Alexander rose to acknowledge the tribute and proposed one to “The President of the United States!”
The party then proceeded to drink to the health of Queen Victoria, Governors Swann and Bowie, the United States Navy, the Maryland Judiciary, the Maryland Bar, and the Maryland Senators and Representatives before adjourning in early morning to wend their way home.
Photo: Library of Congress
