from the October 4, 1877 Eutaw Whig
OBITUARY. DIED, at Thorn Hill, his residence, in Greene county, Alabama, on Thursday, the thirteenth of September, 1877, Col. JAMES A noble and true man has fallen! •* JAMES I. THORNTON was the third son of Frances'and Sarah Thornton, and was born at FAll Hill Spotsylvania: county, Virginia, in October -1800.
He.was educated at Washington College, now Washington and Lee University, emigrated to Alabama in :1821 and settled.in Huntsville, where, after due, preliminary preparation, he entered on the practice of the law, his chosen profession. His Ability, energy and admirable business habits and qualifications soon secured him a large and rapidly increasing practice, and he gave every promise of rising to early audimarked distinction in his profession. : At the request of many prominent. citizens of the State he became, in 1824, candidate before the Legislature for the office of Secretary of State and was' elected by handsome majority over several- able competitors: He retained the office, by successive re-elections, for. ten consecutive years, resigning itabefore the close of the last term which he had been chosen.•
Col.Thornton was of opposite politics from the controlling majority of the body by which he was so often and so triumphantly elected to what was then one of the most honorable and lucrative offices in the State, and as he neither concealed nor compromised, in any particular, his political convictions either to secure or retain the position, his tenure of the office for so long a period attests, in most emphatic manner, which the ability, fidelity its success with, he discharged duties. During his incumboncy of the office of Secretary of State, • Gen. Lafayette, the guest nation, visited Alabama' and the Governor. deputed Col. Thornton to meet, him at the boundary line- between Alabama and Georgia and to act as.
his escort of honor during his stay in the State. This grateful and honorable office he performed with so much courtesy and in such án admirable manner.as to elicit the general commendation of the people of ,the State and win for lift the cordial thanks and the lasting friendship of the distinguished visitor. Resigning the office of Secretary of State in.1834 and, abandoning, also, the profession of the law, Col Thornton retired to private life and devoted himself permanently to planting in Greene county, of which he became a citizen forty-Avo years ago. He was married three times and an accomplished family of sons and daughters grew up. to manhood arid womanhood and were all comfortably settled in life before his death.
He WAS confirmed in the membership of the Episcopal Church, by .Bishop Wilmer, in 1863, liyed in the practice of the precepts' and died sustained and cheered by the promises and hopes of religion. His illness was long and, for two . weeks before his death, extremely painful, but borne throughout with mild and cheerful fortitude, without the least mixture of anything irritable or querulous. For sometime before his death, he had a distinct view of his approaching dissolution, which he contemplated with composure and an unaffected submission to the will of Providence. put temporal affairs in complete order, took in affectionate leave of his family, all the members which, but one, were present, in his final hour, sent messages of love to his absent son in California and to friends and relatives, and, in this situation, at peace with the world, he closed his long and useful and honorable life and descended to the tomb one that draws the drapery of his couch About him and lies down to pleasant dreams.' Col.Thornton was, on very many accounts, a man whose life and character, deserve publicity and a more impressive commemoration in than the pen of friendship can bestow the obituary columns of a newspaper:: He was tall and Anely proportioned in countinence. person of commanding and noble presence His Splendid physique alone would have attracted attention to him in any crowd as a remarkable •man. This manly and form was the shrine of a powerful intellect and of as noble a heart as ever beat in a human breast. His mind, mature and disciplined by: academic culture and rally of a high order, had, been, polished was enriched with varied • stores of knowledge drawn wide range of reading and observation! His heart was generous in all and noble in alt' its aspirations. There was nothing of the little or the ignoble in any element of his being.
He was, in fact, one of nature's noblemen and lived And acted in all the relations and affairs of life in a manner worthy of the unborrowed nobility of his nature. A truer, a more high-toned or a more honorable man never lived: It was the ineyitable sequence his life and character that he lived above the reach of all reproach and died without the least staid upon his name. In him the much misapplied term gentleman : found 'a true and unfailing exponent. In word and in deed, alike in public and in he was, -and over acted what he was, the gentleman. His manners wore unaffected, courtly and impressive.
He was habitually respectful and polite to all. Toward ladies, in particular, he was 'knightly in his bearing. If, either in his over deferential his, deportment and most life of his character, there was, anything wanting to complete the character of the perfect gentleman, An acquaintance with him of nearly forty years. duration failed to: In his to the writer the lacking element social, Folations, Col. Thornton wAs modél- of He was 'eminently' in genial and communicative the a social circle.
A kind and just neighbor, true friend and a whole-souled man in all his relations and dealings with his fellow man, he discharged with unvarying fidelity all the relative duties of life. Hospitality found in him one of its brightest expand his elegant home, long the sent of refinement and wealth, became almost the for that virtue, far and noar,, A kind • husband, a fond father: just: and humans to adorned the.domestic circle with the sweet grace and the loving amenties which lend to it its sweetost charm: •As a pitizen be, was without A truer patriot never lived. The varie/duties of citizenship ho cheerfully met p their broadest requirements, and he gave to what he accepted as the lag of his county af any time, the unstinted fealty of his lip and, the. unflagging loyalty of Either heart. He was an uncompromising Old Whig before the late war between the Stales and was long the friend and associate of Clay, Crittenden, and other prominent of that * He possessed capabilities and accomplishments both of mind and person which fitted him to achieve success in public life. and to adorn the most exalted official station.
Had lie remained at the bar, he would doubtless have' won the brightest laurels of the forum or even graced the "bonch with bis learning and ability. 'The 'unprecedented popularity of his career as Secretary of State showed that he possessed the ability and the aptitude which win both distinction and preferment in the dusty 'arena of politics. But most wisely lie chose the cool and sheltered walks of private life and a model planter, securing at once wealth, ease and content in the tranquil pursuits of agriculture. In this noble and useful consecration of his fine abilities he set an example thy of both praise and imitation. In the doth of this distinguished and honored man, Greene county has lost a useful and universally esteemed citizen, society a noble ornament, his friends a valued.
And trusted associate and his family an honored and beloved head, whose spotless character and noble life constitute a" moral legacy of which they may be most justly proud. In the mellowing season of the year, as the leaves sire ripening -to" their fall in a green old age, made attractive in the contemplation by the memory of his numerous virtues, and his blameless and useful life, honored and: respected* by!' all, condoled :by a Arm religious hope 'and soothed by the kindness and tenderness of the loved ones of his own family circle, the venerable patriarch, crowned with honor as with years, has been gathered to his fathers in peace Honored land venerable friend, Hail and Farewell! J. W. T. Eutaw, Ala:; Oct. 1, 1877.
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