24

GENERAL LESLIE COMBS

any thing was to be done, he was looked, to, to take the lead.

He has ever been, emphatically, the poor man's friend; and never was an ap- peal made to him in vain in behalf of suf- fering humanity. During one of his tours in the Presidential campaign of 1844, he chanced to stop at a country church in Virginia, and heard the pastor deliver his farewell sermon, in the course of which some remarks were made in reference to the pecuniary embarrassment which forced the seperation of this old shepherd from his Book. Upon the return of General Combs home, he immediately enclosed a sum of money to this old minister, whom for the first and last time he saw but a few minutes on that Sabbath, and to wl1om he was an entire stranger. Accident made the writer of this acquainted with this circumstance, a knowledge of which has hitherto been confined to the parties to it and himself A favorite plan of benevo- lence with General Combs has been to as- sist in bringing forward poor young men of talent, assisting them in their studies, recommending them to public favor, and aiding them in getting a start in their pro-       

fession; and more than one has had reason to thank the good fortune that threw them in his way.

In 1833, while the cholera was raging with extreme violence in Lexington, one of its iirst victims was an bitter personal enemy; and yet, while tear drove other! from his bedside, General Combs nursed him with all the care and tenderness of a devoted friend. The annual election for members of the General Assembly came on a short time after the pestilence had subsided, and the citizens of Lexington and Fayette county testitied their gratitude for his humane exertions by bestowin upon him their unsolicited suffrages, and electing him a member of the Legislature.

The writer of this has had opportunities which few have enjoyed of studying tho- roughly the characater of the subject of this sketch, and it affords him the highest grab ification to bear testimony to his unbend- ing integrity, his firmness of purpose in maintaining the right at every hazard, his manly independence. his benevolence of disposition, und, in short, all those high qualities which mrdce up the true man— the noblest work of God.