my acceptance or refusal leaves me no alternative, for it is impossible I can refuse my long-tried and best friends an opportunity of bidding me adieu prior to my leaving the State; and it might not become me to prescribe the mode. I therefore accept the invitation of my Gloucester friends with profound sensibility, not only for the distinguished and unexpected mark of their affection and confidence which it bespeaks, but also for the numberless obligations with which they have been loading me for years past. If it should be agreeable to yourselves, gentlemen, and those whom you represent, I will meet my friends on Saturday, the 12th inst.
"I have the honor to be, gentlemen, with perfect respect and esteem, your grateful friend, Thomas S. Dabney.
"To Capt. Robbins, Col. Smith, Gov. Tyler, Capt. Page, and Col. Curtis.
"The Rev. R. R. Corbin, Benj. F. Dabney, Esq., and Robert Nicholson, Esq., who are also about to leave the land of their nativity, were invited guests, the last of whom alone attended. The absence of the other two gentlemen was much regretted by all who were present. Notwithsttinding the inclemency of the day, the seats at the table were filled. The tribute of respect thus paid to one of our most valued and most valuable citizens furnishes an admirable moral to the rising generation. It was the voluntary outpouring of the heart, in testimony of a well-spent life, offered by his neighbors, countymen, and friends, to a private citizen, mingled with the loss which our society is destined to experience in his emigration. Governor Tyler was called on to preside, and Captain Mann Page acted as Vice-President. After partaking of an excellent dinner, the cloth was removed, and the President addressed the meeting in a few brief remarks. He said that he had risen to propose a sentiment which he was sure to find the most cordial unanimity at that table, and he had as little doubt on the part of this whole community, if every citizen of the county was there assembled. Those present had met to render a tribute of respect to a native-born citizen of the county, who, after having passed the spring, and in some degree the summer, of his life among them, was about to migrate to a distant State, where he trusted he might reap the richest harvest of reputation and wealth. Heaven grant that his days may be long in the land which he proposes to inhabit I He will not "fail to think of the land of his fore-fathers and the friends he has left behind. We, on our part, can never forget that Elmington, while his dwelling-place, was the seat of unbounded hospitality and of all the social virtues. He would say no more, but would propose:
"'Our guest, friend, and countyman. Colonel Thos. S. Dabney. His departure from among us leaves a vacuum in our society not easily to be filled. He will be to Mississippi what he has been to Virginia, one of her most useful and valuable citizens.'
