His friends knowing his purpose to give up the bar determined, if possible, to secure his services in the Senate. He was solicited on all sides to go to the Senate, and the following letter appeared in the Lexington and Staunton papers: _To the Voters of the Senatorial District of Rockbridge and Augusta_: FELLOW-CITIZENS-- The next session of the Legislature will be the most important which has occurred for many years past. The criminal laws of the Commonwealth are all to be revised, the subject of education is to be thoroughly considered, and the great schemes of internal improvement are to be brought forward and vigorously pressed by their respective friends. Under these circumstances it is particularly important that this District should be ably represented in the Senate of Virginia, the body that must supervise and give the finishing touches to the Legislation on all three subjects. Rockbridge and Augusta, long famed for their morality and good order, have a deep interest in having the system of fixed laws brought to the highest state of perfection. They have their primary schools, the academies and colleges all requiring an _able champion_ and _enlightened patron_, and they have their respective schemes of improvement: the James River canal, the extension of the Louisa railroad and continuation of the macadamized turnpike from Staunton to Buchanan, demanding the support of a powerful intellect and matured experience. In looking around for a suitable representative of the District, the eyes of everyone seem attracted to _John H. Peyton, Esq._, of Augusta, as the man. He is a gentleman of distinguished ability and unblemished integrity. He has long been known to Virginia as the ablest criminal lawyer in her borders, and hence he is peculiarly qualified to discharge the duties incident to the revision of those laws. His general attainments and enlightened views of, and on all subjects qualify him in a high degree to aid in constructing a system of public education which shall diffuse the genial rays of knowledge through all classes of society, and he has evinced his deep interest in the success of the James river improvement by the most substantial of all proofs--the investment of large sums of money in its work.