I was a member of the Legislature when Judge Nesbitt, by act of the Legislature, was admitted to the Bar, he having not attained his majority, and by a rule could not be admitted in the ordinary manner.  Nesbitt, though so young, 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, honestly, and purely.  As a member of the Legislature, of Congress, as a judge of the Supreme Court, as a worthy member of the Presbyterian Church, and, above all, as a father, husband, and citizen, he has been good, wise, and faithful.  Is not his measure full?  Who deserves it more?