(Excerpt from Address Delivered at the General Military Ho...)
Excerpt from Address Delivered at the General Military Hospital, Wilson, N. C., On the Day Appointed by the President as a Day of Fasting, Humiliation and Prayer The complicated evils which attend war, and such a war as this, and especially with such a malignant foe, should awaken in every bosom humble and earnest prayer to God, that these evils may be averted, and these calamities may be speedily over past. These evils, both political and moral, it would require a volume fully to enumerate and display. But the time would fail me to unfold them here. I might call your attestion tor its pernicious influence on the population of the country, not only by increasing the difficulty of comfortable subsistence, but by the shocking waste it occasions of human life. I might remind you, (for you would not demand proof,) that it breaks up the happiest arrangements of society; that it arrests the progress of the arts; that it retards and ruins the improvements of science; that it weakens the efforts of agricultural pursuits and destroys commercial interests; that it creates perplexing revolutions in monetary transactions and in the state of pro perty; that it impedes, if it does not frustrate, the regular ad ministration of civil and criminal jurisprudence; that it fre quently subjects many of the citizens to the stern jurisdiction and summary proceedings of martial law; that, whilst it puts a. 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.
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Drury Lacy was the son of William Lacy, a farmer of Chesterfield County, Virginia, and his wife Elizabeth Rice. When ten years old he lost his left hand by the explosion of an overloaded gun which a soldier at a county muster asked him to fire.
Debarred from manual pursuits, he was placed by his father in the then celebrated school conducted by Rev. Christopher Macrae, of Littleton Parish in Cumberland County, Virginia, who had been educated in Edinburgh, Scotland. The boy's mother died when he was ten years old, his father when he was sixteen; and being without patrimony, he was soon compelled to leave school and to seek work. Later he continued his studies in Latin, Greek, the sciences, and mathematics, receiving the degree of B. A. in 1788.
At eighteen Lacy became a tutor in the family of Daniel Allen, a prominent planter and elder in the Presbyterian Church, Cumberland County, and there came under the influence of President John Blair Smith of Hampden-Sydney College, a graduate of the College of New Jersey, who was supplying the Cumberland Church at that time.
He next became a tutor in the family of Col. John Nash of Prince Edward County, the father-in-law of President Smith. He had studied theology under Smith and was licensed to preach in September 1787, and was ordained the following year.
His proficiency was such that in his twenty-sixth year he was employed as a tutor in the college, and while holding this office he preached in neighboring congregations-Hat Creek and Concord in Campbell County, and Cub Creek in Charlotte County.
To lighten the burdens of the President, who was also teacher and preacher, young Lacy was elected vice-president of the college, and on Smith's resignation to go to Philadelphia, he became for several years acting president (1789 - 97). At the end of this time, resigning his position in the college, he established an academy at his home, "Ararat, " a short distance from Hampden-Sydney, and there taught for the rest of his life. He had many students who afterward became eminent in their professions. He continued his active interest in the affairs of the college as a member of the board of trustees.
In 1809 he was moderator of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church and was often a delegate from his presbytery to the Assembly, which in those days usually met at Philadelphia. His death occurred in Philadelphia, following a surgical operation, and he was buried in the graveyard of the Third Presbyterian (Pine Street) Church of that city.
Lacy was known as a remarkable preacher and the teacher. He is said to have had a voice of extraordinary range and beauty, which enabled him to speak to vast crowds out-of-doors, where much of his preaching was done. He took an active part in the revival of 1787-88 in southern Virginia. Lacy graduated several notable alumni from Hampden–Sydney. In 1789 he graduated William H. Cabell, Governor of Virginia; in 1791, U. S. Congressman James Jones, Kentucky Governor and Secretary of Treasury George M. Bibb.
(Excerpt from Address Delivered at the General Military Ho...)
Quotes from others about the person
Hugh Blair Grigsby, historian, author, and publicist, said of him: "I bear my testimony to his thorough teaching. . Though 61 years have passed since I was under his care, I feel the influence of his teaching on my mind and character at this moment, and pointing the very thought which I am now pressing. "
Lacy had married, on December 25, 1789, Anne, daughter of William Smith of Powhatan County, Virginia.
