Some Virginia Lawyers of the Past and Present. ness of life, he was peculiarly interesting and instructive." He was a very religious man. He died March 30, 1854. Abel Parker Upshur was one of the most brilliant men who ever appeared in the his tory of Virginia. His mind reached the realm of genius. He was judge of the Cir cuit Court of the eastern shore of Virginia. He was a member of the celebrated con vention of 1829-30. Mr. Tucker says: "Upshur opened the debate on the Basis of Representation in a speech profound and philosophic, clothed with an eloquence which placed him in the front rank of de baters, orators and statesmen, and was unsurpassed by any speech made in that convention of giants. His review of Judge Story's "Work onthe Constitution," on the question whether that instrument was the act of " one people" or of the thirteen sov ereign States, Mr. Tucker commends to the younger members JOSEPH of the bar as a " trea tise on political philosophy in its application to our system, which is an admirable vindi cation of the true old Virginia view of the Constitution." Mr. Upshur was born in 1790. President Tyler made him secretary of state and he began the negotiations for the entrance of Texas into the Union. He was killed on board the steamer " Princeton," by the burst ing of the " great gun," during a trial trip, February 28, 1844. John Y. Mason was born in Greenville county, Va., April 18, 1799. He gradu ated at the University of North Carolina in 1816, and studied law at Litchfield, Conn.
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He was a member of the convention of 1829, of the Virginia Legislature, and a member of Congress from 1831 to 1837. He was a judge of the United States Dis trict Court and of the Circuit Court of Vir ginia. President Tyler appointed him sec retary of the Navy in 1844, and in 1845, President Polk made him attorney-general of the United States. He was president of the Virginia Constitutional Convention of 1850. He was sent as minister to France by President Pierce in 1853, and reappoint ed by President Bu chanan, remaining as such until his death, in Paris, in 1859. Mr. Randolph Tucker said: "Who that ever knew Judge Mason can forget the fascination of his per sonal character in social relations. His genial nature, his gen erous hospitality, his love of humor and of all with which a lib eral heart would sympathize in the life of others, and his charms as a conver CABELL sationalist, made him a central object for the love and esteem of a host of friends. His career was remarka ble. As an advocate, his style was eloquent and persuasive, and on the bench of State and Federal courts, his manners were models of judicial dignity and courtesy. He was the idol of his party." . While minister to France he signed with Buchanan and Soule, the celebrated Ostend Manifesto. William Green, LL.D. was born in Fred ericksburg, Va., Nov. 10, 1806. He was the eldest son of Hon. John W. Green, a learned and distinguished judge of the Virginia Court of Appeals. Mr. Green was one of the most learned and accomplished
