He wrote a number of valuable text books; of one of them his son says: "Few books have ever been written which compacted so much law into the same space, with so much clearness, succinctness and fullness of illustra tion." John R. Thompson says: "Judge Tucker was, as a literary man, deservedly es teemed, though he never aspired to the honors of the craft and indulged a gift of easy versification only as a means of brightening intercourse in the society circle." The fol lowing he once wrote to a friend : "Hence, if you have a son, I would advise. Lest his fair prospects, you perchance may spoil; If you would have him in the state to rise. Instead of Grotius let him study Hoyle; And if his native genius, should betray A turn for petty tricks, indulge the bent, It may do service at some future day. A dexterous cut may rule a great event, And a stocked pack may make a president."
He died 28th August, 1848. The epitaph on his tomb was written by his brother, Judge Beverly Tucker, who was himself a splendid lawyer, judge, professor of law, and a celebrated wit. It reads : "In memory of Henry St. George Tucker, President of the Court of Appeals. Learned with out pedantry; grave without austerity; cheerful without frivolity; gentle without meekness; meek but unbending; rigid in morals, yet indulgent to all faults but his own. "The elements of goodness were in him com bined and harmonized in a certain majestic plain ness of sense and honor, which offended no man's self-love and commanded the respect, confidence and affection of all. He lived without reproach and died without an enemy." Judge Tucker had seven sons and when he went to Richmond to live a wag said to him : "Judge, I hope they are not like the seven plagues of Egypt." His third son, John Ran dolph, named for his father's half-brother, was born in 1823. John Randolph Tucker's splendid characteristics were indeed varied and presented many different phases. An admirer wrote me " He was a poem, an essay, an anecdote, everything delightful combined
in his own unique person, making it difficult to delineate him." His first law partner was Robert Y. Conrad, a fine lawyer and father of Hon. Holmes Conrad, solicitor-general of the United States. He was attorney-general of Virginia from 1857 to the war, and acted for the common wealth at the trial of John Brown, who on ac count of treasonable and murderous attack on the town of Harper's Ferry, Va., Oct. 16 1859, was indicted for treason against the State of Virginia, and the murder of her citi zens. Judge Richard E. Parker presided, and Mr. Tucker said : " On the trial, so unique in all its circumstances, Judge Parker displayed ability and an impartiality which silenced adverse criticism and commanded the respect of the public everywhere." Mr. William Green, a learned lawyer for the defense, in discussing the case afterward teasingly reminded Mr. Tucker of " one Reginald Tucker, who he had no doubt was a relative of the clever attorney-general of Virginia, who was hung, drawn and quartered for treason against one of the noble house of Stuart." Mr. Tucker was twelve years in Congress and was considered the leader of the dele gations from the South. For eight years he was a member of the Committee on Ways and Means and he was chairman of the ju diciary committee. His greatest speech is said to have been on the tariff, May 8, 1878. He retired from Congress in 1887 and prac tised law in Washington. Two of his most notable cases were before the supreme court, one as counsel for the Anarchists and the other for the State of Virginia in the Cou pon cases. It is said, " The venerable judges of the great court listened to him with in tense pleasure and interest and he was reregarded by them all as an authority on questions of constitutional law." In 1889 he became professor of Equity, Commercial, Constitutional and International law at Washington and Lee University. His work on constitutional law was about completed
