APPENDIX A
PORTRAIT OP JUDGE BATTLE, PRESENTED TO THE SUPREME
COURT ON TUESDAY, 15 MARCH, 18»2
' Mr. Joseph
В.
Batchelor said —
May it please your Honors:
The pleasant duty has been assigned to me of presenting to your Honors
this portrait of Hon. William H. Battle, so long a member of this Court,
to he placed among these memorials of the honored dead. It was painted
from life when he was in his fifty-ninth year, and represents him as he ap¬
peared during his service on the Superior Court bench, and for most of the
time when he was a member of this Court. It will be recognized at once as
a most accurate likeness by all who knew him. It is said “History is
philosophy teaching by example”; it is, therefore, meet and right that these
memorials of those who, by their lives, have illustrated history and earned
the gratitude of their country should be preserved.
On an occasion like this, may we not turn lor a moment from the beaten
road of professional and official labor to recall the life which he led, the work
which he accomplished, and to learn the lessons which they teach?
William Hornf, Battle was born in Edgecombe County on 17 October,
1802. Elisha Battle, his great-grandfather, removed to this State from Vir¬
ginia and settled on Tar River. Here he became a leading citizen, and was
a member of the Convention which met on 12 November, 1776, and adopted
our first Constitution and Bill of Rights. Joel Battle, the father of Judge
Battle, was also an Influential and enterprising citizen of the same county,
and was one of the first to engage in manufacturing, having established the
Rocky Mount Mills, which were, until very recently, owned by the Battle
family. His mother was a daughter of Amos Johnson, another large planter
and leading citizen of Edgecombe County. Descended thus from ancestors
who had lived in "the times that tried men’s souls,” and had taken part
in its events, he held, by descent, the great principles taught in that heroic
period.
His father having graduated at the University, and knowing and appreciat¬
ing the value of thorough education, gave to his six sons the same advan¬
tages which he had enjoyed. William, the eldest, after receiving his prepara¬
tory training at the schools which were then taught in his neighborhood,
entered the University in January, 1818, and, becoming a member of the
sopohomore class, graduated at the commencement in June, 1820, in the
eighteenth year of his age.
While at college he was distinguished by his cheerful and regular dis¬
charge of every duty, and the singular rectitude of his conduct; and, such
was his industry and success in the prosecution of his studies that, although
graduating at so early an age, he was awarded the honor of delivering the
valedictory oration, which was then conferred on the second scholar in the
class. The habits of industrious and patient study and investigation which
he thus acquired at this early period lasted him through life, and contrib¬
uted greatly to the success which he afterwards achieved.
Soon after leaving college he entered the law school of Judge Henderson.
Here he remained until January, 1824, applying himself with his usual dili-
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