closing much of the business of the war, and of 

 the welcome peace. 



Public services, even in our own day, when 

 all is peace and plenty, are too often accompa- 

 nied by pecuniary loss. What, then, must have 

 been the .^atritice, in the turbulent times to 

 which I have just alluded! It was, as Mr. Pe- 

 ters used emphatically to call it, "burning the 

 candle at botli ends." But the reward was in- 

 dependence ; — exemption from tlie heretofore 

 vexatious rule of a government a thousand 

 leagues off; the liberty to steer the vessel of 

 state by our own compass : — this was a prize 

 worth every sacrifice. We know the value of 

 it ; and we know how to eherisli reverentially 

 and aftectiouatelj' the memory of those excel- 

 lent men, who so willingly offered the sacrifice, 

 and so nobly achieved the prize ! This cannot 

 be too often repeated. 



The war left us in an unsettled state, which 

 the good sense of the people soon put in order, 

 by the organization of a new government, under 

 the present Constitution. The great \Vashing- 

 ton. our first President, in looking round him for 

 suitable men to fill the posts in his gift, selected 

 Mr. Peters for the judge.ship of the District 

 Court of Pennsylvania. This he accepted, al- 

 though he was desirous to take up his profes- 

 sion, and enjoy some respite from public labor. 

 Since the peace, his fellow-citizens had sent him 

 to the State Assembly, of one branch of which 

 he was Speaker, at the very period, I think, 

 when he was removed to the District Court. It 

 was a new sacrifice to the public good ; for I 

 have heard my venerable friend say, that it 

 comported neither with his wish nor his interest 

 to throw up his pursuits at the bar, for an office 

 of such small emolument. He yielded, never- 

 theless, to the request of the President, and assu- 

 med the exercise of its duties, which he contin- 

 ued until his death ; being a period of thirtj-six 

 years, during which time he was seldom detain- 

 ed from Court by sickness, and never from any 

 other cau.se. The admiralty portion of his judi- 

 cial functions has been greatly simplified and 

 improved under his care ; and as a jurist in 

 other matters, his decisions have been applauded 

 here, and confiri7ied at Washington. 



The President who placed him on the bench, 

 knew him well, and took great delight in his so- 

 ciety. When a morning of leisure permitted 

 tiiat great man to drive to Belmont, the birth- 

 place and countiy residence of Judge Peters, it 

 was his constant habit .so to do. There, seques- 

 tered from the world, — the torments and cares 

 of busine.s.s, Washington would enjoy a viva- 

 cious, I'ecreative, and wholly unceremonious in- 

 tercoui'se with the Judge ; walking for hours, 

 side by side, in the beautiful gai-dens of Bel- 

 mont, beneath the dark shade of lofty hemlocks, 

 placed there by his ancestors, nearly a century 

 ago. In those romantic grounds, there stands a 

 chestnut tree, reared from a Spanish nut, planted 

 by the hand of Washington. Large, healthy, 

 and fruitful, it is cherished at Belmont, as a pre- 

 cious evidence of the intimacy that subsisted be- 

 tween those distingui.shed men. The stranger 

 who visits these umbrageous walks, trimmed 

 and decorated in the style of the seventeenth 

 century, pau.ses amid •' clipped hedges of. pj-ra- 

 mids, obelLsks, and balls," formed by the ever- 

 green and compact spruce, to contemplate this 

 thriving tree, and carry back his memory to the 

 glorious and virtuous cai'eer of him who placed 

 it there. 



The duties of the District Judge, particularly 

 (469) 



when associated with the Judge of the Circuit 

 Court, became sometimes extremely painful. 

 Two insurrections — (the only ones that have ta- 

 ken place since the adoption of the present con- 

 stitution) occurred in Mr. Pcters"s district. To 

 aid in tlie suppression of the first, he followed 

 the army a.s far as Pittsburgh, — the vi'estei'n 

 limit of his jurisdiction ; and there, with hisusual 

 promptitude and prudence, very satisfactorily 

 discharged his official duties. In a lew years 

 after, he was called on again, to try for treason 

 another set of rebels from the northern part of 

 his district. His associate during part of the 

 time, was the celebrated Samuel Chase, one of 

 the Justices of the Supreme Court of the United 

 States. The trial of these deluded insurgents, 

 and the execution of the two acts of Congress so 

 well known by the names of Alien and Sedition 

 laws, gave great notoriety to the Circuit Court 

 of this district. Its proceedings were nan-owly 

 watched by the political enemies of the Federal 

 government, until at length, John Randolph, a 

 member of the House of Representatives from 

 Virginia, thought he saw cau.se of impeachment 

 in the conduct of its Judges. Articles were 

 agreed upon by the House of Representatives, 

 and sent up to the Senate, against Samuel 

 Chase ; and great pains were taken to include 

 Mr. Peters. Indeed the House inserted his 

 name at one time; but on proper investigation, 

 it was withdrawn, under a conviction that no 

 cause of accusation existed : on the contrary, 

 when the examination took place, it was found 

 that his judicial course had uniformly been 

 marked by prudence, decorum, and moderation. 



The violence of the times, the irksomeness of 

 the Court duties, the vituperative or thankless 

 voice of the then governing party, might have 

 discouraged an ordinary mind : or at least have 

 limited its action strictly to the bxisiness of the 

 bench. Not so with Judge Peters. Almost at 

 the very moment, when political .strife was at its 

 hight, we find him promoting, and chieflj- di- 

 recting, one of the most beautiful and most use- 

 ful improvements in the State. I allude to the 

 permanent means of communication, created in 

 the year 1803. between the city and the country, 

 by the erection of the great bridge over the 

 Schuylkill, at the end of High-.street. It belongs 

 especially to us who reside on the west side of 

 that river, to assert the merit of the citizen who 

 originated, superintended, and completed this 

 noble work. Many of us recollect the interrup- 

 tion, the delay itnd the danger of the passage, 

 twenty-five years ago, now so fully obviated by 

 the splendid structure placed there at a cost of 

 three hundred thousand dollars ! 



Judge Peters, the first President of the com- 

 pany at whose expense it was built, commenced 

 his service in this work, with a zeal and courage 

 which alone could conquer the natural difficulty 

 of tlie water piers ; and it is proper to notice 

 here, as illustrative of that gentleman's sagacity 

 and foresight, that to his perseverance (I had al- 

 most said niniia<!ement) do we owe the perma- 

 nency of that bridge ; for, the oompany, discour- 

 aged by the great expense, had resolved not to 

 cover it ; and governed by this determination, 

 left it for two or three years wholly exposed to 

 the weather ; so that had not Mr. Peters, by con- 

 stant solicitation, persuaded them to give it its 

 present defence, its usefulness would have ter- 

 minated in about twenty years ; udien, decayed 

 and rotten, it would have fallen into the river. 

 But with the cover which now protects and or- 

 naments it, it will last a century or more. 



