Mr. Peyton discontinued the practice of his profession before I was capable of forming an independent and intelligent estimate of his ability as a lawyer. During my boyhood I frequently heard him speak in the Court-house; but I was then unable to appreciate forensic efforts. From the attention and the deference to his utterances shown by the citizens generally, I had no doubt that he was a legal oracle. According to my recollection of him, he never attempted flights of eloquence. There was nothing, I believe, flowing or ornate in his style. He used no "big words," but in the plainest language spoke directly to the question at issue, making himself understood by the most illiterate juryman; and whatever the verdict, he never failed to excite admiration for his ability and the dignity of his deportment. He was often eloquent, in the highest and best sense of that word. While I was a boy I heard an intelligent citizen endeavoring to repeat a part of one of Mr. Peyton's recent speeches, which he seemed to admire very much, commenting at the same time upon the simplicity of the phraseology and the absence of all mere rhetorical display. My impression of Mr. Peyton's talents is derived chiefly from my father's estimate of him. My father, although a physician, was fond of discussions at the bar, and during the sessions of the courts spent most of his leisure time at the court-house. He considered Mr. Peyton a great lawyer, and a man of great intellect. Although fastidious in his taste and a severe critic, I never heard him speak otherwise than in terms of respect and admiration of Mr. Peyton's efforts.