Page:The Southern Literary Messenger - Minor.djvu/127

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Literary Messenger
111

self-conceit, but of learning and ability to sustain it. He had recently returned from Germany and took hold of the Messenger very warmly, because he was in full accord with its objects and he and the editor had been friends at the University of Virginia. He contributed other articles and sometimes assisted editorially, besides paying his subscription. He was a lawyer and for a while edited a Democratic paper in Petersburg. He migrated to St. Louis, Mo., where he engaged actively and prominently in politics. He was sent as U. S. Minister to Spain and claimed to be able to speak well seven languages. When the Southern Confederacy war broke out, he was lieutenant-governor of Missouri and he and Gov. Claiborne Jackson both espoused the cause of the South and left Missouri for the Confederate army. After the war, he returned to St. Louis, resumed the practice of law and was made counsel for that city. He was an unsuccessful candidate for the U. S. Senate. In St. Louis he and the editor revived their old acquaintance. He was twice married and his prospects seemed bright and cheering. But he came to a sad and sudden end, by falling, or throwing himself down the shaft of the elevator in a large public building in St. Louis. He was a native of Charleston, S. C., and once introduced the editor to his family by letter. His father was the "Bosher"