PREFACE. VI 1 



ing was far superior to that of many men, who, hy brilliancy 

 of parts, would have dazzled the multitude of superficial 

 observers more than he either did or could. In tiuth it never 

 was his aim to dazzle. He was a patient labourer in the 

 field of learning, because he loved learning for its own sake, 

 as well as for the uses to which it might be applied in the 

 practical business of life. He was a good scholar, particu- 

 larly attached to classical learning, and, through his whole 

 college course, always bore off a fair share of the honoura- 

 ble distinctions awarded in his class. Unaffectedly modest, 

 he sometimes appeared to those who did not know him well, 

 to labour under a painful diffidence, and distrust of his own 

 powers. Such however was not the fact, for I have never 

 known a man of more independence of mind, or more fear- 

 less in the expression, on a proper occasion, of opinions 

 which he had adopted. And I know also that, when in 

 maturer years, he discovered some of these earlier opinions 

 on most important subjects, to be erroneous, he had the 

 manly honesty to confess his mistakes; and recant his errors. 

 After leaving college, we were fellow students of law in the 

 office of the Honourable Judge Gaston of North Carolina, 

 and here we became inseparable companions. Knowing, as 

 I did, his fondness for classical literature, and the refined and 

 chastened tasf b which he possessed for English belles letters, 

 I confess T did not expect to see him relish very highly the 

 pages of my Lord Coke. But I was agreeably dissappoint- 

 ed. What Mr. Croom deemed worth learning at all, he had 

 the good sense to know was worth learning well ; and there- 

 fore he studied his law books, as he had done his classics, 

 attentively. It was never his purpose to become a practi- 

 tioner in the profession. There was no necessity that he 

 should do so, as his inheritance promised to be ample, and 

 besides, his health was always delicate. He was, from the 

 time we were at college, apparently predisposed to consump- 

 tion. The opinion which he often expressed was, that it 

 became a gentleman, whose means and education permitted 



