utterance, whether in his most impassioned eloquence, or the gentle flow of social conversation.

With this quality of soul, with a round, melodious voice, a mastery of language strong and appropriate, a bold yet chastened imagination, a strength of logic which gave to a simple statement of a proposition the force of a demonstration, he ranked among the foremost orators, whether on the hustings, or in the forum as an advocate. Even his charges to the grand and petit juries were often eloquent, and always models of diction.

But so far we have only looked upon the moral and intellectual man. There was another and a higher and sweeter life, to which we direct attention, else the performance of the duty assigned to us would be sadly incomplete.

Judge Adams died at the age of forty years. He had about reached the crest of the hill. In his upward course he had gathered honors, reaped rich rewards, listened to the plaudits of those below, so sweet to young ambition; he had soared his head above the clouds where vaulting youth fondly dreams eternal sunshine settles to remain.

Having reached the contemplative period in life, he looked down and backward, and then down and forward, and he realized that, as he advanced beyond the crest, his worldly honors could be no prop to his feet, his intellectual lamp no light to his safety. Conscious of his weakness and dependence, he asked for divine aid. About a year before he became a member of the Independent Presbyterian Church of this city, he led to the altar Miss Sarah Olmstead of Savannah. And we think it not out of place to say we doubt not but that this judicious step changed the current of a moral into a devotedly active Christian life. That earnestness of soul which we believe was his strong characteristic, kindled into a brighter flame in the Christian, and illuminated every step he took until his mortal became immortal. Those who knew him best after his spiritual change unanimously bear witness to his absolute submission to the divine will, and his abiding faith that death is but the usher to immortal life.

E

SKETCH OF HON. JOHN PEABODY.

BY L. C. LEVY.

This distinguished lawyer and golden-hearted gentleman was born on the 20th day of October, 1830, in Washington county, Ga., and was the second son of John and Elizabeth Peabody. They removed to the city of Columbus in the year 1834, where the education of the subject of this memorial was begun, to be finished with credit to himself and pride to his Alma Mater, at Emory College, Oxford, Ga. Pursuing the study of law under the direction of the late Major Raphael J. Moses, in 1853 he was admitted to the bar in the city of Columbus, and as the associate of Major Moses entered immediately upon the active practice of his profession.

In 1860 he was elected solicitor-general of the Chattahoochee Circuit, which office he held until 1867, discharging its duties with zeal, ability, and devotion to the interests of the State, and yet with a sense of justice, fairness, and generosity, which was not less a tribute to his own manliness and humanity than an honor to the great Commonwealth which he represented, and which commanded alike the encomiums of the people and the bar.

In 1863 he formed a law partnership with William H. Brannon, which connection was severed only at his death-bed, after professional and personal relations of such absolute confidence, mutual esteem, and respect, as to suggest the tenderness of fraternal affection, rather than a mere business association.

In 1873-74 Mr. Peabody represented Muscogee county in the General Assembly of Georgia, serving with eminent ability as a member of the Judiciary Committee in the House of Representatives, procuring the passage of important local bills for his constituents, and of that beneficent public law prohibiting the issuance of bonds by cities and counties, except after sanction by two-thirds of the qualified voters; the substance of

which law was afterwards incorporated in our State Constitution of 1877.

He was an ardent advocate and promoter of free school education, and of the establishment of public schools in the city of Columbus for its white and colored population. Mr. Peabody also filled successively and for many years the offices of treasurer and member of the Board of Commissioners of Commons for the city of Columbus, president of the Columbus and Rome Railroad, counsel for the Central Railroad and Banking Company of Georgia, and for the Eagle and Phenix Manufacturing Company of Columbus; to each and all of which several corporations he rendered arduous and invaluable service.

In 1892 Mr. Peabody was elected to the presidency of this Association, and performed the duties of that office in a manner at once so felicitous and tactful, as to enhance alike the pleasure and usefulness of its purposes.

As a leading elder and earnest worker for many years in the First Presbyterian Church of Columbus, the unaffected simplicity and consistency of his religious life endeared him to its entire membership, and his death was to them an inconsolable bereavement.

A few years before the death of Mr. Peabody, the names of Judge J. H. Martin and Samuel B. Hatcher were added to the old firm, and as the senior member of the firm of Peabody, Brannon, Hatcher & Martin, he continued active and indefatigable in the discharge of his professional duties, even to the end.

The estimate in which Mr. Peabody was held by his legal associates is well indicated by those who knew him best, and we adopt for its expression the following language of the Columbus bar at their memorial services held in honor of his memory: "His industry in preparation left no unprotected place to his antagonist. His discriminating legal judgment enabled him to discern, and his legal panoply fitted him for attacks upon the weak points of his opponent. His highest praise in this regard is the fact that in a practice covering more than forty years, there

was never a breath of suspicion as to his fidelity to his clients, nor as to the cleanness of his methods in dealing with all who were arrayed against him at the bar."

The deportment of Mr. Peabody in the constant attrition attendant upon forensic contests, was an example of conservative, calm equipoise and unaffected dignity, a practical illustration of the highest professional ethics which graced the profession he adorned, and ennobled its practice by gentle courtesies.

On October 10, 1854, he was united in marriage to Miss Josephine L. Chaffin, who, together with nine children, survives him, to mourn the irreparable loss of one whose unsullied and devoted life as lawyer, legislator and public-spirited citizen was sublimated by the perfect peace and loyal purity of a domestic felicity which bound him by ties of tenderness beyond expression to that inner circle of loved ones, upon the sanctity of whose supreme and sacred sorrow it is not our privilege to intrude.

F

SKETCH OF HON. JAMES T. NISBET.

BY THE COMMITTEE.

James Taylor Nisbet, second child and second son of Eugenius A. and Amanda Battle Nisbet, was born February 20, 1828, in Madison, Ga., and died at Wingfield, Bibb county, Ga., April 29, 1894. He moved to Macon, Ga., with his father in January, 1837, and attended Vineville Academy, but was principally educated by Heman Meade, who laid the foundation for that ripe maturity of classical and literary culture which enriched his thought and pervaded all the productions of his mature life.

Entering the Junior Class of Oglethorpe University at fourteen years of age, his devotion to study crowned him at the age of sixteen with the first honor in his class. Immediately after his graduation, he took a course in law and medicine at Yale,

and was admitted to the bar, by special act of the legislature, when only seventeen years of age.

He devoted himself assiduously to the duties of his profession, practicing with Judge Augustus Reese, of Madison, Ga., until 1850.

He then returned to Macon and assumed the duties and responsibilities of editor and joint proprietor of the Journal and Messenger, the firm name being S. Rose & Co. In this position he remained for five years wielding a trenchant and scholarly pen.

On December 18, 1856, he married that cultured and refined woman, Miss Mary S. Wingfield, of Eatonton, Ga., who survives him, and whose social and domestic graces adorned and blessed his home.

In 1860 he resumed the practice of law, but in a short while he responded to his country's call and entered active service with the Jackson Artillery. Subsequent to this he was appointed receiver of sequestered property on the part of the Confederate government.

At the close of the war he again returned to the practice of law, in partnership.with his distinguished father, Eugenius A. Nisbet, and his uncle, J. A. Nisbet, under the firm name of Nisbets. During this time he was made presiding justice of the inferior court, and held this position until these courts were abolished by the Constitution of 1868.

He continued in the practice of his profession until, in 1881, failing health compelled him to retire. He moved to his country home, and there had that leisure to devote to the indulgence of those scholarly pursuits which he so much enjoyed and which a busy life so frequently prevents.

He was broad, liberal and philanthropic. He drew the act incorporating the Board of Public Education and Orphanages for Bibb county, in 1872, and was for nearly twenty-two years an active and useful member and, for a while, President of the Board of Education of Bibb county. In 1887 he was appointed Secretary of the State Executive Department.