in Richmond, and to battle for the victory.  He was accordingly returned, in 1799, by the Borough of Norfolk to the House of Delegates, on the floor of which the contest was to be decided.  At the session of the previous year, the Assembly had passed the celebrated resolutions of John Taylor of Caroline, long since known to have been written by Mr. Madison, which had been sent to the several states.  The leading object of the present session was to refer the answers of the states to a committee, and to report an argument in defence of the resolutions of the previous year.  The report, since so well known as the Report of ’99, or the Virginia Report, drawn by Madison, was the consequence.  When it was presented to the House of Delegates, it was discussed by the prominent men of both parties with eminent ability.  Young Taylor performed his part with his usual zeal and force, and, by the side of his illustrious namesake, George Keith Taylor, opposed the adoption of the Report, which prevailed, however, by a decided majority.  He also sustained Mr. Adams for the presidency in preference to Mr. Jefferson; and, when Mr. Jefferson was elected, he opposed his administration up to 1802, when Tazewell came to reside in Norfolk.  Though opposed then, and as long as he lived, to the party which, with few and short intermissions, has controlled, from 1789 to the present day, the political action of the state, his devotion to our blessed mother was as pure and as ardent as was ever felt by any son who drew nurture from her bosom; and he was as prompt to avenge her wrongs as to assert her rights—­at once a D’Aguessau in the forum and a Bayard in the field.  Nor was that affection unreturned.  When the clouds of war were gathering round her, Virginia entrusted her safety and her honor to his sword; and when the returning light of peace shone upon her hills and valleys and over the green savannahs of the East, and he had withdrawn from the arena of his splendid fame, she invested him with her ermine, which he wore with becoming grace to his dying hour; and she stood in tears at his tomb.

In this young man, Tazewell was to find an intimate friend, a fit, an able, and a lifelong competitor.  They were nearly of the same age:  they had been classmates in College, and had been in the Assembly together; and while Tazewell was studying law in Mr. Wickham’s office in Richmond, Taylor was following suit a few doors off in the office of Gen. Marshall.  Even on the score of physical beauty they were not unmatched.  Though belonging to different models, each in his sphere was, in youth, in middle life, and in old age, among the finest looking men of their generation.  Sometimes the aspect of Taylor was magnificent.  I saw him one afternoon thirty years ago as he was returning from the court in Portsmouth.  He was passing from Toy and King’s corner to Hall’s.  The waves of recent debate were sweltering in his breast.  His person was erect; his gait was rapid; with one hand he held his cloak in a graceful fold, and with the other he grasped his ivory curule staff.  I thought of Cicero hastening up the Capitoline hill to announce in the forum the death of Catiline on the Picenian plain and the slaughter of the traitor’s band.