among these, the leaders of the revolution were selected to be transported to Augustine, while the younger patriots were confined in the prison ships in the harbour of Charleston. Judge Heyward was among the former. His spirit was to be broken neither by exile nor threats. Even his cheerfulness was superior to misfortune, and to the music of "God save the king," he adapted the words of "God save the states," a song now popular on festivé occasions, that under a loyal tune the prisoners might give play to the feelings of patriotism. During his imprisonment, a party of the enemy from Augustine visited his plantation, and seized and carried away all his slaves. No interposition on the part of his friends was permitted, and the civil authority sanctioned this military plunder. The hatred to his name had nearly involved his brothers in a similar calamity; but their minority was at length permitted to except them from the devastation.

Though some of Mr. Heyward's slaves were afterwards reclaimed, one hundred and thirty of the number remained among the spoils of the enemy, and were probably transferred from the rice fields of Carolina to the sugar estates of Jamaica.

The prisoners at Augustine were at length released; but his ill fortune had not yet deserted him. On his passage to Philadelphia he fell overboard,

and only escaped drowning by holding to the rudder of the ship until he was taken in. It was in Philadelphia that the exiles from Carolina were first assured that their state was reconquered, and independence secured.

But, as if infelicity was the lot of man, it was in the midst of the exultations of the patriot, that he was visited with the severest domestic affliction. In him, public and private virtue were happily blended, and the patriot and the husband were sustained by the same sensibility. In his grief for the loss of the companion of his youth, and the mother of his children, every other feeling was now swallowed up. From this state of mind he slowly recovered, and gradually found tranquillity in the discharge of his public duties.

Upon his return to Carolina, he resumed the labours of the bench, and continued to act as a judge until 1798. He was, in 1790, appointed a member of the convention for forming a state constitution. In this dignified body, concentrating the experience, the ability, and the virtue, of the state, he contributed his part to secure what he had before assisted to advance, the liberty and independence of his country. He lived to see the states united under the federal constitution, and reverenced that instrument as the palladium of national power, pros

perity, and glory. From public labours and cares, he withdrew himself in 1791, and found in retirement and the bosom of his family, the calmness of a virtuous old age. By a marriage in 1786, with Miss E. Savage, he had secured a companion for his retirement, by whose superior understanding the cares of life were divided, and its vacuities supplied.

Three children were the fruits of this marriage; and it was in the midst of a family, whose tenderness had smoothed the path of his downward years, that he died at his country seat, in March, 1809.

Though of a grave temper, which was indicated by his countenance, he was not insensible to wit and pleasantry. In early life he was fond of company, from which he seems only to have been estranged by the afflictions and the cares which thickened upon him. His judgment was sound, and his disposition ardent. These are attested by the offices he filled, and the part that he bore in the revolution. His friendships, and the general esteem of his fellow citizens, furnish proofs of the goodness of his heart. In his public duties, he was honest, firm, and intelligent. He conscientiously and fearlessly em✩ barked in the revolution. He was neither blind to its dangers, nor indifferent to its morality. His life, estate, and reputation, he cast upon the waters of strife. A successful revolution could confer no

more on him than on the humblest of his countrymen. Though the prize was common, his stake was among the largest. Of such a character, a stranger to public virtue can scarcely from a conception; and yet America produced thousands, in whom the promotion of the general weal was the predominating motive, who ventured upon the most desperate hazards under the influence of a patriotism which stifled every selfish consideration; nobly grasping at an assured freedom, and a national independence for themselves and their posterity.

The lesson they teach is the only preservative of freedom. It can neither be achieved nor maintained without patriotism. By revolving in our minds the actions of the patriots of the revolution, we cherish the principles of liberty. Their lives are public property, and should be embalmed for their posterity as the pabulum of PUBLIC VIRTUE.

VOL. IV.D