Excerpt from Richard W. Thompson: Memorial Richard Wigginton Thompson was born in Vir ginia while the echoes of the Revolutionary War were distinctly audible. Reared among men Who participated in that great struggle and in the for mation of the Republic, governmental affairs were the chief subjects he heard discussed during his boyhood. Quite naturally this gave his mind a bent towards statecraft that continued to the end of his long life. Moreover, he was peculiarly gift ed for participation in public affairs. Graceful, fluent, forcible, eloquent speech came to him as song comes to a bird. He was a born orator. Added to this equipment were the clarion voice that ena bled him to reach the largest crowd, and a per sonal presence that attracted men to him. Natur ally, therefore, he became the spokesman for his fellows on all public occasions, and thus, without conscious effort on his part, he'entered public life. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.