had small weight in the selection for nonpolitical offices in which fitness alone is of importance.1 During the six years between Chief-Justice Ruffin's resignation in 1852 and his re election in 1858, and again after his second resignation in 1859, he accepted the office of justice of the peace in Alamance County, to which he had then removed, and held the county court with the lay justices as their presiding justice. Another most eminent lawyer, Thomas P. Devereux, the author of Devereux's Reports, having retired from the bar upon falling heir to a princely fortune, discharged the same duty for years as presid ing justice of the peace in the county court of Halifax; and George E. Badger, ex-U. S. Senator and ex-judge, presided in the same manner as a justice of the peace in Wake County. The law is well said to be a jealous mistress; but Judge Ruffin took an intelligent and practical part in agriculture and horti culture. During the recess of his courts, for thirty-five years, while at the bar and on the bench, as well as after his retirement from both, he found recreation in these pursuits, and in the rearing of live-stock and in the improvement of breeds. It was no mere compliment to a distinguished citizen when the Agriculture Society of North Carolina in 1854 elected him to its Presidency, but a tribute to his eminence in that calling to promote the interests of which the Society had been founded. He was also one of the soundest and ablest financiers in the State. We have already seen the demand for his services as President of the leading bank in the State, and his success in restoring its prestige and credit. By his industry, frugality, and capacity for 1 It may also be noted that in 1815 the Governor (Mil ler), both United States Senators (Macon and Turner), and Judge Hall were from the same county, — Warren. It is a singular coincidence that before serving together in the United States Senate, Macon and Turner had served together in the Revolutionary War as privates in the same company in Colonel Hogun's Seventh North Carolina Regiment. There is probably no parallel case in the history of the Senate.

the management of property, he accumulated a large estate. He owed little of it to his profession; for soon after he had achieved a lucrative practice he was called to the bench, on which, notwithstanding four successive resignations, he spent the greater part of his active life, receiving the moderate salary attached to the judicial office in North Carolina. Until superseded by the changes in 1868. he had been for many years the oldest Trustee of the State University, and took an active interest in promoting its welfare. After the failure of the " Peace Confer ence" of 186 1, as to which President Bu chanan adds his testimony to that of General Scott, that the voice of Judge Ruffin was for peace, he accepted a seat in the Conven tion of 186 1. When war began, his influence was for its earnest and zealous prosecution. When defeat at last came, he yielded an honest submission, and in good faith renewed his allegiance to the government of the United States. After the war he sold his farm and returned to Hillsboro, where he died, Jan. 15, 1870, after an illness of but four days, in the eighty-third year of his age. He raised a family of thirteen chil dren. One of his sons, Thomas Ruffin, Jr., became a judge of the Superior and Su preme Courts, and as such will have notice further on in this article. As an advocate Chief-Justice Ruffin was vehement but logical. He placed small reli ance on rhetoric, and appeals to the imagi nation. His mind was broad, analytic, and grasping. He was physically and mentally capable of vast application, and he did not spare himself any amount of labor. Indeed of him it was true, " Labor ipse est voluptas." He was in the habit of exercising his mental faculties by daily going over the demonstra tion of some theorem in mathematics. He reached greatness like most great men (especially lawyers), not by the sudden sweep of an eagle's wing, but "While others slept He toiled upward in the night."