LETTER TO THE EDITORS,
				Raleigh, January, 1858
Messrs. E.J. Hale & Son:--Gentlemen:--I have strolled around Raleigh for the past few days, looking first 
at this and then at that; all in strange contrast with by-gone days, when what is now the Capital of the 
State was known as "Hunter's Plantation,"-now so justly distinguished as the "City of Oaks"

The principal streets in Raleigh bear the names of the prominent towns in the State-Fayetteville, Salisbury, 
Newbern, Wilmington, Halifax, Hillsborough, &c. Prominent among these is Fayetteville Street,-distinguished 
as the mart of trade, hence the Broadway of the city and the accustomed promenade of youth and beauty. At 
its Southern extremity stands the Governor's "Palace," embowered by lofty oaks, fronting and in full view 
of the noble Capitol.

To the stranger Raleigh might seem a city of Governors. In one afternoon, I met and conversed with our present
Governor, Thos. BRAGG, and on accompanying a friend to the depot I met with that genial hearted gentleman, 
Ex-Governor MANLY; and on the arrival of the Western train, out stepped Gov. SWAIN, Gov. MOREHEAD, and Gov. GRAHAM. 
Had Gov. BRANCH and Gov. REID accidentally come along, there might have been a meeting of all the Governors of the 
State who yet survive. In the same ramble I met Ex-Chief Justice RUFFIN, and Judges PEARSON and BATTLE, who alone 
are presiding in the Supreme Court-Chief Justice Nash being detained at home by sickness. On the same day, I had 
the pleasure of meeting Weldon N. EDWARDS, Judge SAUNDERS and B. F. MOORE, men who have made their mark on the 
history of the State.

The transition from the living to the dead is not only easy but natural; and I found myself wending my way to 
the Grave Yard, the sepulcher of the past-the resting place of the buried. The Grave Yard is surrounded by a 
substantial wooden fence and on entering it, "storied urn" and monumental inscriptions lead the wandering steps 
to where the loved ones slumber in their mother earth. At it eastern extremity rests a soldier of the Revolution--
Colonel William POLK,--who was wounded at the Battle of Germantown, in Pennsylvania, when the gallant Gen. NASH 
fell a martyr in his country's cause. Close by is the vault of Josiah WATSON, and that of Louis D. HENRY, long 
an eminent advocate of the Fayetteville Bar. On turning round you are informed that here lies Senator HAYWOOD, 
his father, the late Clerk of the U.S. Circuit Court, and his brother, the old Treasurer. Near by rests Joseph 
GALES, the co-editor of the Sheffield Mercury in England with the poet Montgomery, and the founder of the Raleigh 
Register, father of Weston R. GALES, who now sleeps beside him, and Joseph GALES, the veteran editor of the National 
Intelligencer. Within the same enclosure, slumbers Davie W. STONE, Wm. McPHEETERS, D.D., Peter BROWNE, William HILL, 
Secretary of State, Gov. James IREDELL, Jas. Fauntleroy TAYLOR, ex-Attorney General, together with other distinguished 
men, many of whom died while in attendance as members of the Legislature.

Having, like Hervey, wandered and meditated among the tombs, I left, dissatisfied, because I was unable to find where 
Chief Justice John Louis TAYLOR had been laid. Upon inquiring I learned that he was buried in the rear of Judge SAUNDERS' 
Mansion, north of Hillsborough Street. Thither I bent my steps, and after traversing hill and dale, I espied in the 
distance a grove of cedar, pine, cherry, mulberry, elm and lilac. Embowered within it is a neat paling fence, and within 
that a monument erected by Eliza, (his adopted daughter) to the memory of John Louis TAYLOR, late Chief Justice of the 
Supreme Court of North Carolina

In early life Judge TAYLOR was a citizen of Fayetteville, a member of Phoenix Lodge No. 8. He married a daughter of 
your townsman, John HAY, and after her death a sister of Judge GASTON.

Solitary and alone he sleeps: the cedars mournfully wave above him, and the shamrock, insignia of the Emeral Isle, his 
native land, grows around him. From his resting place the dome of the Capital is in full view, as well as the spires of 
the various churches, the Grand Lodge, and St. Mary's School.

Why his remains were not laid in the grave yard I know not. It is to be regretted that the lovers of his memory cannot 
visit his tomb without going within private enclosures, and, it may be, incommoding the occupants of a large mansion now 
being erected near where he sleeps. (Author Unknown)