The Peyton Stake 195 



shipped was Black Maria, who, "when fit was too fleet 

 for the fast and too stout for the strong." When led out 

 on the levee at New Orleans, on March 29, 1838, Black 

 Maria received an ovation to which her fame well entitled 

 her. If Balie Peyton was not in that throng of welcom- 

 ing admirers his appreciation of the mare was, neverthe- 

 less, soon manifest; in company with his law partner 

 J. S. Yerger, of Vicksburg (formerly of Nashville), and 

 his friend Dr. J. G. Chalmers, of New Orleans, he bought 

 her for $4,000, $1,500 less than Stevens had declined to 

 take for her a year previous. 



In the same issue of The Spirit which contained the 

 proposition, above quoted, appeared an editorial endorse- 

 ment of it. 



"In Tennessee and Louisiana," Editor Porter wrote, 

 "people will tell you that * whatever Balie Peyton says is 

 gospel ' ; and he writes us that this stake must be made a 

 National Affair. He thinks Kentucky is bound to come 

 in, and Tennessee and Alabama, also. 'And I do not see/ 

 writes Mr. P., 'why the gentlemen of Carolina, Georgia 

 and the Old Dominion of Maryland, New Jersey and 

 New York should hesitate to join us and make this 

 stake the most splendid and attractive ever run in 

 America.'" 



Thus Peyton's proposition went to the world in the 

 fullness of its growth and, by general acclaim, became 

 "the Peyton Stake." 



But the mature plant had its real germ (according to 

 the statement made by The Spirit's staff correspondent, 

 in his account of the race) "in the rivalry and difference of 

 opinion between the ' friends ' of Glencoe and Luzborough, 

 as to their respective merits, at the time, or shortly after, 

 Picton had been making such havoc at the North. Mr. 

 Van Leer, the agent of John C. Stevens, had concluded 



